Singing Cloth

10,000 Hours

Recently, excerpts from two books have had a great deal of impact on I think about the process of creating art. 

The first excerpt is from Stitching to Dye in Quilt Art by C. June Barnes. 

Before beginning a new learning experience we are unconsciously incompetent - unaware of not knowing.  We become consciously incompetent once we start learning something new - we know that we don't know as we embark on our apprenticeship.  As we progress and complete our learning we become practitioners - consciously competent.  We know that we know.  If we persevere and explore what we have learned to its conclusion we become unconsciously competent - we no longer have to think about what we are doing.  We become a master of the process. 

Barnes goes on to explain

Not everyone perseveres until they reach the level of master.  Many are content to be practitioners, attaining this level of competence and staying there, happy to be comfortably, consciously competent.  Some never leave the apprentice state, content to add numerous areas of basic expertise to their repertoire, but never taking any particular subject to its conclusion.  Others keep building their level of competence to that of a master in new aspects of their work, exploring new skills and areas of proficiency by repeatedly working though the learning cycle.  The result is that they are always progressive, fresh and stimulated and never allow themselves to stagnate.

Barnes explanation spoke to my heart and my frustration.  I have not allowed myself to work my way up through the steps.  I have more often than not expected myself to be an expert right off the mark. 

I heard once that the year Babe Ruth broke the record for home runs he also was the top in strikes. (Oh, I just checked it out and sure enough, Babe Ruth was top in being Struck Out almost every year that he was also top in Home Runs.  Baseball-Reference.com shows it very clearly; especially if you scroll down a ways.) 

Now think about that!  He was top in Home Runs because he swung!  He was also tops in Strike Outs because he swung too.  He was willing to take the risks. 

As artists I think we are often not willing to strike out.  We are not willing to take the risk of having something go in the trash instead of on the wall.  In part I think that is because of the time that the artwork takes and the cost of the materials.  I only have time to do so much art so I want what I do to be stellar. 

Then there was the second excerpt.  This one comes from my new most favorite book: Outliers by Malcom Gladwell.

"The emerging picture from such studies is that ten thousand of hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert - in anything" writes the neurologist, Daniel Levitin.  "In study after study, of  composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again.  Of course, this doesn't address why some people get more out of their practice sessions than others do.  But no one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time.  It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery. "

Gladwell goes on to discuss "prodigies" such as Mozart, Bobby Fisher (chess), Bill Joy (Java, etc.), Bill Gates, and others - all 10,000 hours!  And usually the minimum time to accrue the 10,000 hours is 10 years.  Bobby Fisher is the exception.  It took him only 9 years.

These two excerpts freed me up!  Now I can think of the beading and sewing hours as working to accrue my 10,000!  I can see the wisdom in that.  I am currently beading my second piece which is a shawl that is being donated to an art auction.

The first one I beaded is this one:  Think of Me as an Ocean

 

I am fairly happy with how it turned out.  Beading it was a learning experience as I had never done anything like this. 

At first I beading a number of areas heavily using multiple types of beads.  Then somewhere along the way I scattered some beads on the fabric just to see how they would look and then suddenly I found myself beading more in waves.  The beads found their own method of expression and let me know how they wanted to travel around the piece.  I actually ended up tearing out almost all of the first bunch of beading I did. 

Now I am starting to bead the shawl I mentioned above.  The title of the Art Auction is All That Jazz.  I am making a shawl of light blue polartec.  Right now, I am stitching on the Jazz part. 

I have not come up with the final title yet though I have all the words I want to play with.  Since this is a warm shawl/scarf I want to play against the tern Cool Jazz.  Plus the material and some of the "jazz" is blue.  Therefore the words I have to play with are Warm or Soft, Jazz and Blues.  The working title at the moment is "Warm Jazz & Soft Blues" or maybe it should be "Soft Jazz and Warm Blues".  Hmmm.  To be decided!

I will try to post pictures of the shawl soon.

Creativity Frozen by Analytical Overdrive!

Abstract: 

The BFO (Blinding Flash of the Obvious) for me was realizing that if my strong analytical side gets hooked into thinking about a subject my artistic creativity freezes up.  A parallel BFO was also realizing that this response may be part of the reason I do not have a political activism streak in me.  For activists I think learning about political and environmental issues may actually fire up their creativity and spur them to action.

The Story:
I accepted an invitation to participate in the "The Bee Show" at the Silverwood Gallery on Vashon Island.  The show opens on Friday, February 1, 2008 with our work being due by the 3rd week in January.  The invitation says 

"Our goal this year in choosing the theme was to put a spotlight on the disconcerting problem of worldwide dwindling bee populations and their connection to the larger issue of our environment."

I chose to participate because the biennual group show hosted by Silverwood is a wonderful event which I would like to be part of and I also deeply care about bees.   (I used to keep bees and plan to again someday.  I have kept my equipment.) 

So I set to work the way I usually do for my artwork - researching the topic.   I had known about the mite epidemic but the Colony Collapse Disorder was new information to me and is very concerning.  What was fascinating from the artistic side is that the more I learned the less I was able to "think" creatively!  I became more and more frozen.   I could simply not come up with even one idea of what to do for a piece.

In desperation I gave up!  I emailed the gallery owner Eric Hefflefinger and said

"I think I am going to have to pass on partaking in the bee show.  It has been fascinating research but I have just not been able to come up with anything that is lighting my fire to work on in a fabric art piece.  Sorry.  Usually I love theme challenges but this one has just not clicked for me. " 

Eric replied

"I am sorry to hear that. Unfortunately all advertising and invitations have been done so your name will appear on all printed matter pertaining to the show. You still have over a month until the work is due at the gallery, so perhaps you can come up with something that you are proud of." 

Upon receiving Eric's email, I reread the initial invitation letter.  I realized that I was getting way too serious and therefore making the whole thing far more complicated than it needed to be.  The letter goes on to state

"This show, which will celebrate the bee as a symbol in art and craft, promises to be a great opportunity for participating artists to explore and test their creativity."

Taking that to heart I have gotten beezzy and started experimenting and creating.  I ended up creating "Bee Bowl" which came out okay.  I do not have any photos of it to post here.  (I am in bad need of a digital camera!)