Line Dependent

Have you been able to spend any productive time in the studio this week? I’m finding that, for the most part, either people are busier than ever (myself included) or are having a hard time drumming up the motivation to create. It’s really no wonder, being this is such a strange time, with our routines thrown not to mention being unable to make plans or feel certain about the future.

Being a home-based business owner, I’m always busy and I’m always home so the transition to the stay-at-home orders is not difficult but since everyone else’s life has been thrown, mine has as well. I’ve been hearing the same story from many of you as most artists work from home and, even if sales are waning, we have a lot to figure out to keep our businesses afloat or at least on a sustainable hiatus. Then there’s all these additional things we do now such as trying to keep in touch with friends and family and all the inventorying and planning of our situation at home to secure our necessities and well-being that really eats away at the day.

If that’s your situation, I’m with you! This drastic change in our lives really gets you thinking about what is necessary and what is not because we all are time strained, financially strained, or both. No wonder it’s hard to get the mojo going to create.

I think feeding our creative selves is still very important though. You create out of some internal necessity and although you may be distracted now, you are going to want to access that creative well of yours in the not too distant future, maybe to be distracted in a different way or as a means for processing what is happening or to add beauty and joy to your world when it is feeling in short supply. Just don’t feel bad or guilty if you aren’t creating finished work in the studio, even if you have the time. You can keep that creative well full in other ways such as reading blogs (you know, like this one maybe) or magazines or books, watch inspiring videos, shows, or movies on creativity, art ,or artists, visit museums virtually, or do more mindless but expressive creative work like doodling, dancing, or stream of consciousness writing.

Of course, I want to help you wherever I can while also attending to my creativity and my family’s needs. So, again this week, and possibly for the rest of our shut-in time, I am going to be sharing a pared down version of the Virtual Art Box’s Weekly Nudge content so I can still bring you creative food for thought while keeping my work load in check. I am also going to start working on the Artist’s Salon discussion idea (more on that at the end of this post) and I’ve added a section to the newsletter just called Grins and Giggles with fun and interesting tidbits I find during my weekly research sessions in the world of art. (You can sign up for the newsletter here if you don’t get it already.)

So, hang out with me when you have the time and we’ll keep our creative wells filled and take care of what we need to take care of. Now, onto ideas about this month’s theme – Line!

All in on Line

Have you been noticing line as a design element more readily this past week or two? It’s such a strong and expressive element of design that it’s bound to be a part of any thing that uses design at all. You can even make entire pieces were line is the overriding if not only prominent design element. Let’s me show you what I mean.

Take canes for instance. Lines, either in boundary form where clay is wrapped around components to better define them, or the edge where two colors meet, are immensely important in cane designs. Without dimensionality of any sort, line is the one thing that allows a cane to present pattern and imagery. An entire cane design, including the level of energy, can be solely dependent on the lines created.

Meg Newberg is a master at using line to create energetic patterns. Take a look at this cane she calls a flower doodle (doodles are becoming quite the thing this month!). It has tremendous energy as well as dimensionality. The optical illusion is accomplished through a combination of variation in color value and the use of lines to define and energize the layers that seem to be popping out of the design. But she only uses one color plus white and black, so line really carries this design.

A more dimensional example of a line dependent design would be quilling. Although more commonly done in paper, the formation of pattern and imagery with strips set on their sides after being curled and folded has also been mastered by a number of people working in polymer. Beth Petricon was the first person I was aware of that worked out a technique to do quilling with polymer. She even wrote a very detailed tutorial article on how to create your own quilling masterpiece in the Spring 2015 issue of The Polymer Arts. You can see how she uses the technique for both a necklace, below, and the book cover that opens this post, showing it’s (literal) flexibility in different applications.

There is no reason why, with all the ways that you can create line, that you shouldn’t mix up the many variations of line as well. In this brooch by Kathleen Dustin she has at least a half-dozen types of line creating the texture, movement, and focus of the brooch. The shapes and judicial use of color are integral to the design as well, but the lines dominate and create the energy and atmosphere.

Now that you have a few more ideas about how you might use line in your work, how about exploring some line only designs? In fact, if you have kids at home and you’re looking for ways to entertain them, why not teach them about line? I can tell you from my many years of experience teaching and training that the instructor can learn just as much as the student through the process of teaching.

Using the article from the Virtual Art Box, you can demonstrate to your kids – be they preschoolers or teenagers or just big kids at heart –the different types of lines and then ask them what they think each type of line feels like. Then ask them to draw lines (in clay or on paper) based on specific words and/or have them create patterns or drawings with just lines. I actually did this in an introduction to art class in the high school where did my student teaching eons ago and was surprised at how intensely they got into it. This type of project is really just a kind of advanced doodle in that it has concepts and parameters to jumpstart it but is otherwise free form. It can just be a lot more fun to do it in a group.

And if you don’t have kids at home to do this with, dial up your friends and just do this, or other projects, online together. The camaraderie might just be what you need to get your creative juices flowing if motivation has been in short supply, along with everything else.

The Results Are in

Thanks to all of you who took part in the survey for the Artist’s Virtual Salon idea. The overwhelming response was that people were up for listening to such a discussion but participating in a live event is not necessarily on the top of everyone’s list. Perhaps we are all a little worn out from our packed Zoom schedules—there has been an initial zealousness to stay connected with friends and family plus so many of us are virtually conferencing for work but after a month full of online chats, perhaps we need a break from the scheduled screen time.

However, readers sent fantastic such questions, so I do really want to get together with some of the artists that reached out to me about participating and answer some of those questions. Just recording it should also keep it simple on the technical end. Assuming I can wrangle up the artist for the discussion, I hope to get back going by the beginning of May and then I’ll get them posted, most likely on the blog, so be sure to check in and I will keep you apprised of the project.

Sharing the Love … and some deep Savings!

If you need further inspiration, get in on the 30% off Sale going on at the website to scoop up great magazine back issues, project books, and retrospective books. Just hope over to Tenth Muse Arts and browse. Discount is good on anything in the shop that isn’t already discounted (basically no discounted packages or VAB subscriptions) and the sale is on until April 30th.

Use the promo code: SHARE30

Now off to get some spring gardening done. My vegetable seedlings are anxious to get into the ground and the battle with the spring weeds is in full swing. It’s also a salve for the soul, to be outside in the sun with my hands in the dirt, creating a satisfying arrangement of newly planted seedlings in the raised beds we set up down near our little creek followed by a triumphal foray plucking weeds, root and all, from the rain soaked soil. Maybe that’s not everybody’s idea of a good time but I have to say, I’m looking forward to it.

I hope you have something wonderful to look forward to this weekend and in the coming week. I wish you a safe, healthy, and creative week.