My Mover and Shaker Creativity Muse

Click photo to enlarge

I had a fun assignment for an online class I am taking on creativity

The task was to create a representation of your muse.

Here is what I wrote for to include with the assignment:

The inspiration for personifying my Creativity Muse did not come to me right away. I did immediately begin to think of different materials and doll making techniques that I could use. But something told me to stop and wait. Finally one day into week 3 of the program, the idea struck me. I could see in my mind a magazine article I had seen before with figurines made from salt shakers. And as luck would have it I had saved some old salt shakers from my grandparents things and had them in the garage.

The ideas began to flow. I thought it would be fun to put beads in the bottle and even write my intentions and questions on slips of paper and slip them in the bottle ~ adding more as I progressed through the program and beyond. Most exciting was when my Muse said to me, "I'm your "mover and shaker" muse! I laughed out loud.

As I made her, I loved that the head dress includes stars. The stars remind me to reach for the stars. The wire spirals remind me that inspiration comes when I put out my antennae and seek it from all around me. Inside the bottle are crystal beads to remind me of clarity, pearls for wisdom and a small jingle bell for playfulness. My "mover and shaker muse" reminds me that I am to sprinkle the star dust of inspiration upon everyone I serve and on everything that I create.

Her head is made from a miniature wooden spool. I wrapped beige thread on the spool and embroidered her face and features. I added a few seed beads for the eyes and lips. This also correlates to the fact that most of the art I am creating right now involves sewing and making art quilts. Did I really think of these things as I was making her? No, I just made her and then she "told" me what it all meant! And so here she is making her debut appearance!

5 x 7 Art Scholarship Benefit 2010

close up detail of stitchery

The Texas Tech University annual 5 x 7 show will be April 24th.

All contributed art is 5 x 7 inches and priced the same amount.

For more information on the event's details, contact the Texas Tech Art Dept. All donations go towards art scholarships.

All that Jazz

This is a detail of my Jazz themed quilt on display at the Texas Tech Museum thru March 21st with other artists from the Caprock Art Quilters. We were invited to have Jazz themed small quilts on display to compliment the current traveling Jazz art quilt exhibit. Be sure to see ours along the hallway between the gift shop and the planetarium. The main exhibit is wonderful! Be sure to see both!

Creative Spaces

I don't know why but I am creatively inspired by having all these little whimsical and colorful things around me. The middle photo is a space in the corner of my laundry room! I am somewhat neatly cluttered.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day Dear Friends. This is a little project made for my Art Quilt Group as a swap. It is an artist trading card the size of a playing card: 2.5 x 3.5 inches. I first made a sandwich of fabric with snippets of ribbons, threads and little pieces of fabric.

The photos above show the inside contents of the fabric before laying a piece of fine netting over the top to enclose it. Then it is free motion stitched all over to encase into a "woven" fabric. This is the substance of the heart shape in the trading card.

I have some special spools of thread from my mother and grandmother's stash. Included in this Valentine is red thread from the spool pictured above that was purchased at TG&Y for a mere 18 cents!! This Valentine landed in a great home by luck of the draw to my friend Valerie.

Deadline Aftermath ~ A Look at Where I Play

The First Friday Art Trail was a success and so much fun!! As with all show deadlines, I begin to get really messy in the last minute frenzy. I thought you might like to see the area where I bead. This is how it looks before I tidy things up to begin the next projects. It has a certain creative energy and artistic enthusiasm, but I will have to get things back in order before I begin again.

I use my grandmother's old sewing machine cabinet as the base of my table. On top I have layered many things. Layer 1 is a cork bulletin board that covers the hole for the sewing machine. Layer 2 is a white plastic tv snack tray with dividers. Layer 3 is a covering of a fuzzy material sold at bead stores to keep beads from rolling away. Layer 4 is a shelf made to go over the kitchen sink. And as always, when the deadline gets down to the wire, I end up with only one 4 x 5 inch space cleared enough to set anything down.

The bottom photo is of a holder I picked up at a craft consignment shop that is for the purpose of holding your dominoes during a game. I use it to hold inspirational items and thus, it serves as a small creative altar of things with personal meaning that inspire me. You can see a postcard of Native American art that I picked up in Santa Fe. It reminds me that beading is a sacred Native American tradition. The card with the blessing is from a special Blessing of the Hands ceremony offered at the hospital where I once worked. You were given this card after a special simple ceremony and prayer which the chaplains offered to bless you and your work. The chaplains traveled around the hospital with a cart carrying a pitcher and bowl. After rinsing your hands, they anointed the center of your palm with some oil and said a prayer for you. I have the same prayer for my own hands as I create art. And the matchbook with artist Frida Kahlo on its cover was something I found on the hospital lobby floor sticking out from the edge of a chair. It is from a restaurant in Juarez with all of the matches in tact. The timing of finding the matchbook was just days after I saw the movie Frida. It was like a little godwink and message to me saying...get busy on your art girl! And the colorful mexican tin heart ornament reminds me to create from the heart and share my passion. I hope you enjoyed this tour of my beading studio. Now it's time to clean it up a bit before beginning the next projects.

First Friday Art Trail ~ This Week~ Eeek!

Whew, I am behind the 8 ball to get enough made for Art Trail this week. Thank goodness for a nice rainy day today to make me stay put and inside. I don't know why, as my friend says...household chores can become so important and alluring when a deadline is at hand. We are creatures of distraction I suppose. Anyway, I am busy busy busy today and quickly writing this post to let you know that in addition to being at Alderson Mercedes, my work will also be featured at the Garden and Arts Center as their featured artist for February. Five of my art quilts will be displayed there along with their Fiber Arts exhibit. I hope you can make it by this month to see the wonderful weaving, tatting, knitting, quilts made by many Lubbock area women.... all month during their regular hours at The Municipal Garden and Arts Center in -----and also open 6 pm to 9 pm for this Friday's Art Trail. I will be at Alderson Mercedes - 1701 Texas Ave and hope you can stop by and chat with me!!

Ok, Now back to the beading table and sewing machine!