What I've Been Doing (And Reading, And Thinking)

So what have I been doing over the last couple of months? Making gifts for people, mostly. Beaded bracelets (still in process),  card sets of quilt designs, and lots and lots of felt bird ornaments in different color combinations. And I still owe my husband a cover for his amp. (And photos, here, just waiting for time and good light to coincide.)

I do most of my sewing on the train, and the movement of my hand combined with the movement of the train and of the cityscape going by lends itself nicely to thinking...

about the question of "modern" quilting (this post is what really got me started on this), and how the word "modern" applied to painting has a pretty precise meaning which, despite my art history major, I don't know all that much about, which then sent me to the library...

and then my reading about the lives of artists has given me a better sense of the movements they were part of than any of my textbooks ever did, which makes me want to learn more...

but reading those lives shows me how little work I've actually done in my life and how ill-prepared I've been at any time to even contemplate trying to make a go of it professionally, either as an artist or off the arts.

Disheartening, yes. But at least now I've finally started, and while I don't have five hours a day to devote to becoming the next Gabrielle Münter, for example, I can spend five hours a week becoming the next me. (Oh, cheesy, I know, but still true.)

Recently read:

• Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of Georgia O'Keefe, by Laurie Lisle
• Tom and Jack: The Intertwined Lives of Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollack, by Henry Adams
• Printing Fabric by Hand: Beginning Techniques, by Gisela Hein (this is so rudimentary that it's barely worth mentioning, I like the physical artifact more than anything else, some kind of odd 70's German nostalgia) 
• The American Quilt: A History of Cloth and Comfort 1750-1950, by Roderick Kiracofe & Mary Elizabeth Johnson 
• Handmade Living: A Fresh Take on Scandinavian Style, by Lotta Jansdotter

Leavened with memoirs and urban fantasy.

And currently on my reading table:

• The Revenge of Thomas Eakins, by Sidney Kirkpatrick
• How to Read a Modern Painting: Lessons from the Modern Masters, by Jon Thompson
• Basic Stitches of Embroidery: A Modern Approach, by Gisela Hein

And then many more goodies on my to-read shelf, thanks to Christmas presents and my own year-end book buying.