Monday, January 9, 2017

"Take Your Broken Heart; Make it Into Art..."


It seems like sometimes we lose more than we gain. Recently, we lost 'Princess Leia' and her mother, Debbie Reynolds. Several generations of young girls grew up wanting to be Princess Leia, and I think she was a better role model 'princess' than the Disney ones. The sketch I did above is from a Sktchy photo of one such girl.

Last night Meryl Streep quoted Carrie Fisher in her wonderful Golden Globes speech, as telling her to, "take your broken heart, make it into art." That is what I have been trying to do. I am still working on a design for a tapestry that is to be my reaction to the election results; a broken heart in fiber form. Not an easy thing to design. It is much easier to design 'pretty' or 'happy.'


In the meantime, I am doing little quick sketches, mostly from photos people have shared on the Sktchy app. The one above is of a migraine, and, with the winter storms hanging over our valley this week, I am quite familiar with the feeling.


This one, which I call 'Banjo Love,' was this morning's sketch. It was done with ink and watercolor pencils. The others are done with a combination of water soluble markers, crayons, and pencils.


This little sketch of my sitting room was done in ink, then with several diluted ink washes, then a bit of watercolor for a final color wash. I'm not very fond of either that method, or the result. But I will give it another chance. It takes much longer than my normal quick 'inked line work, then color' method.


So.... I need to get back to work. The time has come.....  Now has arrived. (Ready or not.)


(psssst... If you follow me on Instagram, you will see my daily sketches on the day they are created. Link in the sidebar. Also, some sketches are for sale on Sktchy, there's a link to that, too.)



4 comments:

Donna Wynn (Yogiknitgirl) said...

This was such a delightful post! I love following what you are doing each day! Your sketches are amazing and your tapestries are even more amazing. You inspire me as a tapestry artist, cause I definitely need to practice the sketching a little more for those weaving cartoons!

Your Instagram photos are fun and I have loved following you. I wish you much creativity time for 2017, I know what you mean about the election and your heart, I think it affects the way we create at times too! Tapestry weaving is a gift for those of us who practice it!

Donna Wynn
aka Yogiknitgirl on Instagram

K Spoering said...

Donna, thanks so much for your visit and your comment! You are so right about tapestry being a gift. I get very grumpy when I'm unable to weave, and my spirits lift so quickly when I'm back at the loom again. In fact, I've been pretty grumpy today, so I think it's time to head to the loom!

Mary said...

I hope the sadness of the topic doesn't affect the weaving. I have found some textile work really hard to do because it has brought up difficult memories. Good luck.

K Spoering said...

Actually, Mary, what is on the loom now is so meaningless to me that I have a hard time going in to work on it. I seem to need passion to create.

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