It took me a long time to feel comfortable enough to say the words "I am an artist." How can one be considered an artist when all they do is mess around with fabric and beads and paint? Certainly I can be described as a "crafter"..... someone in the same group as a kid playing with feathers and paper plates in kindergarten. But an artist?

Artists are the elite. Artists make magic with their ideas. Artists enlighten and inspire; their work advances civilizations. The Renaissance changed society culturally, partly because the artists and sculptors of that time dared to do something different, dared to take what they were doing just one step further. The techniques and artistic concepts of today could not have evolved without such bold ideas in the area of art.

Have I ever done any of that? Have I inspired minds and nations with the stroke of my brush? Have I even made an impact on those around me with what I've created? Am I ever worthy of the title Artist?

Art is a concept, an idea, a movement. A huge waste of time from the perspective of the hunters and gatherers of the world. But dreamers are just as important to the human tribe. Dreamers bring about change and new ideas. What the dreamers create will eventually encourage the hunters and gatherers to improvise, to experiment.

I am an artist because I dream. I inspire and am inspired. I see the beauty found in the tiny details of everything around me. I find joy in taking risks and experimenting with my work. I enjoy the process as much as the finished piece. I suck up inspiring books and pictures and works of art from the world around me and I translate that into my own voice. I take the raw ingredients and I mix them around. I add a touch of magic from my own ideas and I watch what I've made evolve into something new and filled with life.

I may not come to inspire nations. I may not have a sculpture or a painting hanging in the Louvre. But I am an artist none-the-less. When I am not dreaming and creating, a piece of my heart begins to throb, so I carry my inspiring voice with me wherever I go. When I'm at work, I always have a notebook nearby to sketch ideas that come to me like lost children. I house them within the pages of my journals and they wait to be translated into real life. How can I not be an artist when it is in my blood, my soul?

Macroverse

I'm feeling remarkably better. I treated myself to a facial today and it was ever so lovely...

Psychology test tomorrow (and yes, I know I really need to be in bed right now...) and I always feel better after tests because I always seem to ace them no matter how much I feel that I'm slacking, and then I can breathe a temporary sigh of relief.

I was slightly miffed over the weekend when I discovered that someone had sabotaged one of my Unknowns. The cover had been taken off my dish and it was contaminated by whatever random bacteria was floating in the air. I had to regrow a plate, but I checked things today and they're coming along fine. I already figured out one of the two organisms. The Gram negative has yet to reveal itself to me.

I also sold some stuff at a garage sale that Tanya's mom was holding, and I made $80, which I hadn't expected. I plan on using the extra money to finally buy some needle-felting materials. I also got a sunburn at that garage sale because my pesky translucent skin is very.... irritable.

Here is a lovely picture of a planet. Or is it... You tell me.

Do You Has An Owl Too?

A few little owls have followed me to school and made themselves known in the strangest places... I'm waiting for one to appear during a Sociology lecture.

I've been rather wrapped up with school stuff, which is really the way it's supposed to be. I'd love to spend all day creating things and cutting up fabric and just making a mess, but sadly, that doesn't get the bills paid in four years when Dane expects to be able to go for his Art and/or History degree. And it's hard to think of artsy things or just write in my art journal when I have to make cultures with my own lip bacteria or look at a slide of a gonococcus smear. (And yes, you guessed right. That is the bacteria responsible for gonorrhea. Isn't microbiology fun?)

But then, I feel fairly certain I'll see more little owls showing up to keep me company while I study. This guy flew in during micro lab tonight.

To visualize the beginning, you must visualize the end

I'm working on a top-secret project (that may or may not have all, partial, or nothing to do with the above image....). This will not be the highest priority project (i.e. I could be working on this a looooong time because I'm a horrible procrastinator) but I want it to be an ongoing 'thing that sits there in the corner and I have to keep moving it until I get fed up enough to work on it' type of thing. Did that make sense? I'll be starting this Oh So Mysterious project probably sometime really soon, depending on outside factors. Boy, I really am keeping this vague, aren't I.... Well, it's a present for a friend's birthday which is tomorrow, and once she knows about it, then I'll post about it here.

In the meantime... here are some New Year's Resolutions for 2008.

This year, I will greatly reduce the amount of extra project-less fabric purchases, as I should be acquiring a large amount of my dead grandmother's stash.

This year I will attempt to try and use my current fabric stash instead of just looking at it.

This year, I will be more diligent about working on projects daily and keeping progress going on such projects, so as to prevent my Ongoing Projects box from overflowing, and maybe even reducing the contents of said box.

This year, I will keep my work area more organized, or I will at the very least keep things off the floor. And I will vacuum cat hair off the rug more frequently, because three cats, two of which are longhaired, leave a lot of linty residue. (Never wanted to know that about me, did you?)

This year I will count my art, and the progression of, a major priority, topped only by friends and family, school, and my husband. This should make me feel more guilty about procrastinating (in an ideal world).

I have a lot of unrelated resolutions, but they're a bit more boring, things like "I will do the dishes instead of whining to Dane that he needs to do them", so I'll leave them out.

Now I have little foam bits all over my rug...

I finished my journal cover a few days ago and I must say I'm really quite happy with it. I did a simple whip stitch along the border in the same brown thread that was used for the handquilting.







So, the other thing I started working on is a seat cushion for my sister. She bought this chair that, I swear, looks like a medieval toilet. It even has a compartment in the seat where she stores photos. I'll try to get a photo of it soon, since I find this chair hilarious (and a ridiculously expensive impulse buy). I have the cushion mostly finished aside from a few extra details. But now I don't know what I'm going to do with the extra pieces. Anyone have any ideas?