Back to school

It’s been a while since I posted. Life has been plodding along …. I’ve spent some time working on quilts, I’ve spent some time working on my next book, I’ve spent some time working on jigsaws and I’ve probably more time than is healthy binge watching stuff (Stranger Things was totally amazballs as the young people in my life say!). But mostly I’ve been hanging about waiting for our house move to, well, actually move. Fingers crossed for January.

Next week however I’m doing something really positive and I’m rather excited. I am going to be a student in a workshop for the first time in 12 years. My last workshop was Working with Intent with Claire Benn and it proved to be a major turning point in my life. Next weeks workshop is TEXTure with Claire Benn at the InStitches studio near Workingham.

So why a 12 year delay? Back in 2013 I was becoming more and more emotionally involved in making art but didn’t feel like anything I made was uniquely me and I certainly wasn’t feeling confident enough to call myself an Artist with a capital A. The combination of Claires mentoring with time away from the demands of home and work enabled me to make a decision. A decision to get serious. A decision to start putting in the hours. A decision to give my art an equal standing in my life to home and work (henceforth known as the day job). A decision to cut out all distractions including workshops. A decision to focus, really focus. And I did.

Trial and error, lots of badly printed fabric, a fair few quilts discarded along the way, but in later 2014 everything just seemed to click and out popped Ruins 1. And the rest as they say is history. Because I have always had other demands on my time I have had to stay focused, even when I stopped working in industry and started working full time in my studio. When it comes to all things art I only spend time / money on stuff that directly contributes to my art.

So why a workshop now? The big house move will give me much more time to make art moving forward so its time for me to tackle something that has eluded me so far …. making smaller, more affordable art that is something more than a miniature version of one of my big quilts. I also want to include text in my work but in a way that the words are hidden. Hence a workshop on using text as texture that will, hopefully, allow me to create marks on a smaller scale and in a more controlled way than can be achieved through breakdown printing.

I’ll admit to being a little anxious at the idea of being a student after years of being the teacher. And concerned that performance anxiety, mild dyslexia and arthritic fingers will stop me achieving what I hope to achieve. But there is only one way to find out ….. wish me luck!