Summer Splendor

Today it is raining in Maine here, but people in western Maine are getting snow.   I think we need a good visual to remember what is coming up!  This is not an edited picture.  This is pure Maine in the summer!  ~ Dixie Redmond

Where and When Does the Art Begin?

I saw this silhouette last night when the band director was setting up for R & B Project to play at the All That Jazz Concert. The image resonated with me. I liked how the form of the band director was one with the music stands.  He was setting out music.  So I used my iPhone to take a picture. I wish it had been sharper, but you catch the moment. 

Where and when does art begin?  Not when you start playing the song on the stage at the concert.  Not when you unveil the painting. The potential for art begins when you learn where the key note is on your instrument.  The potential for art begins when we set out to learn.  The final product begins with humble beginnings - learning to put your instrument together, learning to prepare a canvas.  The art begins taking shape when you slog through the beginner's blues.

These young people becoming musicians - are part of the art of the band directors.  It's a powerful thing to help launch and shape an artist.

  

Here is one song that the R & B Project did last night:

~ Dixie Redmond

Hat by Lora Soling

Lora's Little Hat Shop is helping me to thumb my nose at this hang-around winter!  You should check her shop out. There are some luscious designs there!  Click my picture to go there.  By the way, I do not do sponsored posts on this blog, I just talk about what I like, and I like Lora's artsy hats.  

And because I am kind of geeky, I decided to edit this picture at picmonkey to see if I could use it as a sidebar image.  Can't have myself looking away from the content!  ;-)

~ Dixie Redmond

Hello Sewing Table!Hello Ironing Board!

It's not perfect but it's workable again.  Hooray!!!

I have a Bernina machine which I have owned for 22 years, 

and a Pfaff machine which I bought used.  Love the IDT on the Pfaff!

Today I sewed some arms and legs for a mini Izannah doll. 

~ Dixie Redmond

Pay Attention to Your Thinking

Some people are naturally pessimists, while others are optimists. But all people will have a time in their life where they need to examine their self-talk.  You know those thoughts that you don't say? They can drag you down.

The practice of re-framing thoughts benefits most people.  And here are some things I think it helps everyone to hear:

~ Dixie Redmond

An Antique Inspired Doll

This doll was made by me, Dixie Redmond, using the Just a Babyland Rag Doll Body pattern which I drafted from an antique Babyland Rag doll.  This doll was painted, then I glued stockinette on top, then I applied Elmer's glue over the stockinette, then I painted several coats of dark brown paint.  I wanted the creation to have a sense of being worn away by time. 

A number of wonderful doll makers tested this pattern.

http://www.maidatoday.com/2014/03/a-babyland-rag-spring-fling.html

Please visit MAIDA Today to see their creations. 

If you're interested in the pattern, click the image below:

~ Dixie Redmond

The Surprising Art I Didn't Know I Was Making

Sometimes we make art without knowing it.  Back when I did more traditional painting with acrylics, I used a glass palette.  It was 9 X 12 piece of glass that was stacked on top of a piece of white foam core and taped around the edges.  It fit perfectly inside a Masterson Sta-wet pallete box.    I never liked the sta-wet thingies...they moved when I mixed paint and reminded me of diapers.  I found if I spritzed water on the acrylic paint on the glass palette, it would sometimes stay workable until the next painting session.  The advantages of this glass palette is I could scrape it down with a straight edge razor and start fresh. Sometimes in the cleaning of the palette I would see beautiful artworks.  

This morning, in a discussion in the Marketing group in the MAIDA Dolls Group, I realized that the sites that I write and organize ARE part of the art I make.  I have spent a lot of time feeling frustrated that I am not making "real art" in the form of actual objects.  And all the while I have been nurturing these other artworks - an informational site on Izannah Walker Dolls, a more general site on Making Antique Inspired Dolls & Accessories, and a place where doll artists can connect and encourage one another. 

I want to take the time to acknowledge the art I didn't know I was making. I would like to be able to make big gestural works like this.  

But for now, I'll enjoy the surprising art I didn't know I was making. 

I may get some of these printed up in poster form.

AND

~ Dixie Redmond

Laugh!

Yesterday was the semi-formal dance for the local high school and friends got together before the dance. While the moms were all fussing over trying to get a good picture of this crew, they were making wise-cracks, as teen boys will do.  And laughing.  I love it.      

The watercolor effect comes from the Waterlogue app.    ~ Dixie Redmond

I Bought the Possibilities Chair

Remember that chair that I saw all the possibilities in?  That no one else can see?   Well, I bought it. And I bought it because Peanut at Countryfolk Keepsakes told me to.

"Creative people see possibilities everywhere..."  You can read more about it in "18 Things Highly Creative People Do Differently.

The chair is waiting in my garage until I can clean it and then toss a quilt over it for now.  It was peanuts for a rock solid Ethan Allen chair.  And now I have a canvas to dream about. 

~ Dixie Redmond

What Went Well

We are somewhat programmed to analyze things for "what went wrong". The phrase, "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst" is a truism lived out by pioneers living in harsh lands.  But this need to be prepared can set us up for anxiety, and also set us up to not see what is going well. 

Martin Seligman, the founder of Postiive Psychology, suggests that we become intentional about noticing what is going right. He says, 

"We think too much about what goes wrong and not enough about what goes right in our lives. Of course, sometimes it makes sense to analyze bad events so that we can learn from them and avoid them in the future. However, people tend to spend more time thinking about what is bad in life than is helpful. Worse, this focus on negative events sets us up for anxiety and depression. One way to keep this from happening is to get better at thinking about and savoring what went well."

Seligman suggests that we take 10 minutes each day to notice 3 things that went well, and why they went well.  This has been proven to help with depression and promote changes in life satisfaction.

Read the entire article at Brain Pickings.

Using the Puzzle Piece Approach: Thank you, Robert Genn!

REPOSTED because it's applicable to today.

Creating is an interesting process.  In each stage of a creation you get an entirely different feel.  And sometimes our own moods can show up in the creation.  I liked the tentative pencil drawing of the firs picture at left.  But when I painted color in she looked hard and impatient in the second picture.  I felt she needed a lower hairline to soften her look in the third pictures but the eyes weren't right then.   So I painted out the eyes. 

Something I have learned over time is to use one base coat color while I get the features right.   It makes repainting areas much easier.  I used to just repaint the whole face every time, but sometimes now I approach it more like a puzzle.  See Robert Genn's post about the puzzle technique in making paintings. I wasted a lot of time feeling like I had to repaint the whole face every time I wanted to fix a passage. When I get one piece that feels okay I leave it.  Using and keeping the base color really helps with that.  

I'm not sure this head is exactly where I want it.  Each time you change a creation, you gain and lose some aspects.   Each time you change one thing, you have a whole new creation in a way, because the 'puzzle pieces" interact differently with just one change.  And that is a good metaphor for life in general.  Change one thing, and everything else feels different, too.  That can have both negative and positive implications.  

I am learning to accept the way I create.  I am never satisfied with my first attempt.  When I change one thing it makes me notice another, and I change that, and then I notice another.  It's a chain reaction.    ;-)  And I sometimes still do a whole repaint.  Because sometimes you really do need a clean slate.  

Happy Creating!

~ Dixie Redmond