Blue Wren - Lesley Suzanne Davies

A little bit more...

I have had another play around with my butterfly... It seems to be the one that 'speaks' to me the most these days either that or I have really no expectation of its outcome - so I am more willingly to have a go - so to speak...

I finished the wings with a soft lilac. And I am unsure whether to 'paint' the inside of the wing stitching with waterclour pencils. I created those little flowers using some beads I found in the $2 shop but although I am happy what they look like per say I think they detract from the 'simple' stitching lines of the butterfly. The green stalky things were again a play around and are not finished either..

I am going to wash and iron it before I attempt anything else and remove all the 'guidelines'. Perhaps with a 'fresh' canvas I will decide comes next.

Again I have used my stitching book for ideas and I am so impressed (i) that I am actually using it rather than having just another 'picture book' to look at and (ii) that it has such clear instructions and I am finding it so helpful, to not only assist me with stitches, but to also generate other ideas...

My bag of fun challenge - remains just that - a challenge. Although playing around with my heart has helped consolidated more ideas. As the ticker ticks away at the top of my page I am starting to panic a little. But I always have been an 11th hour gal - I work well under pressure...

Late edition...

This afternoon I found out that I have to have an operation. My sinus condition has worsened and it has been discovered that I have nasal polyps in both nostrils. According to the specialist they large and have caused a blockage back into the maxillary and sphenoid sinuses. The only way I will have any relief is to have them surgically removed - not a pleasant thought. But I cannot continue with the medication which I have taken for some months now. This medication has enabled me, not only to get some relief, but to be able to breathe normally through my nose rather than mouth breath. But because it is a cortisone/steriod combination prolonged use can cause its own problems. I feel like I am caught between a rock and a hard place. Like all medical procedures it is not without its risks - which were explained to me - and that has left me feeling quite shaky. Plus, the chances that the polys will grow back are 99.9%. In another ten years I could be faced with having to do it all over again. Tonight I am feeling depressed about the whole thing... Not even going to the quilt exhibition today cheered me up - more about that another day. But I did buy a couple of little things :)

A reply...

I would like to share both a reply to my last entry and my reponse. The purple italics is the reply from Dawn and then my response... The piece without italics is a extention to that response...

I think your friend is indeed very wise Sharlee. The constant 'noise' syndrome happens to me too . . . . especially when I'm doing something physical like vacumning or driving. Getting it down quickly on paper before it leaves is the tricky part. A poem started to form in my head one day while driving. Fortunately Heather was with me and she got out a pen and pad to take my dictation while on the road. In less than ten minutes that poem was on paper and the 'noise' ceased. It was nice having a private secretary handy; otherwise I would have had to pull off to the side of the road for a while. :-)

Thanks Dawn for you sharing your experience... I do believe that especially creative people - what ever form that creativity might take - do have the danger of 'overload'. Again going back to visual journals I think that is why that process is so good - it allows the mind to empty and it also allows for the next creative bit to start. One of the tutors at my course (writing) used to encourage us to take a notepad with us where ever we went... The reasons being (i)it was good to record impressions of what was going on around us,snippets of overheard conversations, etc. She suggested that if we couldn't write it the next best thing was to sketch it no matter how simple or rough it was - it would be a record of that particular image or feeling, etc. This really worked wonders to get the creative juices flowing...

Writing the reply to Dawn made me think of the creative writing class I was taking a few years ago and a writing exercise we were asked to participate in. We were taken on a 'walking tour 'of some of the local landmarks around Melbourne. These were an array of different things - free standing sculptures, a mosaic mural, statues, and even a building or two.

At each point we were given a time limit to write what we saw - it could have been a physical description about the piece we were looking at, or perhaps the people around us who were curious to know what we were doing, thoughts and impressions we were having either about ourselves, the environment, or the piece we were viewing, and anything else that issued a response from us. At some of the pieces the tutor led us through the writing exercise by giving us words prompts such as nouns, verbs to trigger responses. By the time we returned to the class room we were all brimming with not only ideas but very full notebooks which in a way were our visual journeys of the exercise. We all compared what we had written and how we wrote it - some people had mind mapped, others had written long hand, one person had drawn images with small trigger words...

I particularily liked one piece of metal, free standing sculpture. It was a very large piece taking over several feet both length and width. It also had this wonderful curve to it and I just had to allow my hand to follow the 'journey' that it made until I couldn't reach any more. I had this amazing connection with the piece and it no longer was an metal sculpture in the gardens of Mellbourne, but a highly intelligent beast of the sea making a dive to the shadowy depths of the ocean floor. I have walked by this piece from time to time and it still reminds me of those responses I had to it - to me it will always be that beautiful whale...

The irony was not lost though on most of us - we were for the large part natives of Melbourne who had passed by these pieces time and time again without ever really seeing them. It demonstrated to us that in order to create a landscape or a backdrop to our writing all we needed to do was open our eyes, our imaginations and our notebooks. I will try and source some of the images and post them here at some point...

Creating words with pictures...

I finally unearthed this sketch I did of 'penelope's patchwork quilt'. It was my 'working sketch' to a story which I was writing for the course which I was doing in 2001... Some of you may remember me writing about it back in early August....

"A few years ago I wrote a draft for short story about a quilt and lately it has been on my mind that I would like to have another look at it and revise it. It was centred around a small girl as she watched family members constructing a quilt. Each of the family members tell a story about the patch that they are adding to the quilt. At the time I wrote it I knew very little about quilt constuction and because I was writing it for a child I wanted to keep it was simple as I could... LOL - not that I know very much more about quilt constuction now however I can see where I might be able to 'embellish' the story more fully... Stay tuned as I may need some technical advice..."

To help me 'construct' peneople's fairy quilt using words I drew a very quick sketch to assist with the proccess - I then used this sketch as my 'roadmap'. Looking at it now and listening/reading the comments on visual journals I can see - without even really knowing it - how the sketching process helped me.

An old friend who at times has the wisest thoughts, suggested to me if I got what was 'buzzing' around in my mind - like a bee buzzing against a window pane - out into the open and down onto paper it would then (i) stop the constant 'noise' (ii) give me a chance to look at it more clearly (iii) take some action. My friend went onto say that unless I could do that from time to time I would 'constipate' the flow thereby allowing nothing to pass and again, achieving nothing... At the time it was said I did laugh, but experience and time has seen me reflecting on the truth of those words...

A quote...

I found this quote my friend used in a book which she has written - the question is asked "when is the best time to plant a tree?" - the reply is "the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago - the second best time is NOW."

I thought that was a great quote and one that made me reflect. How many time over the last few months have I wished that I had started something earlier in my life - and I guess a lot of it has been since I started stitching - I have looked at other people's work and agonised why I can't do what they do. A small comfort was drawn from the fact that most of these people have been doing it for many, many years. Then I have questioned what is the point at starting at my age I 'll never reach the level of expertise that they have. Reflecting on why I started stitching many years a go I thought - probably selfishly -(i) that I wanted to leave something behind (ii) that I really enjoyed doing the little bit that I did and being a practical person (Virgo here) - I needed a reason for doing it...

Those two reasons were probably the foundation to why I begun stitching - that and the fact that everyone in the family did something, but no one stitched - or so I thought. I remember way back 30 odd years ago when I was just ready to be married, I had seen a little saying for the kitchen - "Bless this Mess". I liked it but I thought it would look better hand done... So really without thinking about it I bought a piece of tapestry canvas, some wools, a very old fashioned lettering book and made my own. Now while it never quite got to the finished and 'hung on the wall' stage the memory of it made me realise that all those years ago 'a tree was planted' and maybe because at the time it wasn't nutured it died off - but a seed had been harvested and now that the conditions are becoming more favorable -that tree has a chance to 'grow'...

3/4 stitched butterfly...

I have done a little more to my butterfly. It looks a little skew whiff - but I intend to plow onwards as I want to see it finished. I have learnt heaps by doing it thus far and I would go about it a little differently if I were to attempt it again. Even though it is a little rustic - it has a peacful feel about it and so I am happy with that. I guess that is the beauty of 'playing' and not getting to precious about the outcome.

I found out today that I have Sunday off - as much as I like this job - only having single days off - and not any weekends - is starting to wear a little thin. It takes me back a couple of years when I worked every weekend for about 18 months. There is something magical about a Friday night with those two unfilled days stretching ahead full of promise...

I was shocked at the images coming out from New Orleans - the human suffering and the devastation defies words. I cannot think of anything else to say that will be meaningful - only that my thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected...