Rubicons

[daidoji_gisei]

Later this summer the store I work at will be sponsoring an art show, with all of the art being produced by staff members. Friday before I left I added my name to the "intends to participate" list.

I have mixed feelings about this. I don't do any real art--I don't paint or draw or sculpt or take pictures. And all my time hanging out in coffee houses while crocheting has allowed me to observe that Art--that is to say, Real Art--currently involves the production of things that no sane individual would want hanging in their living room. Me? I work with yarn, and sometimes fabric, and I think that life is better if you have some beautiful things in it. (Which is not to say that I think that art and beauty are completely overlapping categories. Guernica is not beautiful, and a SR-71 is not a work of art. But still, I don't consider ugliness a sign of quality either.) And so it is that I have committed myself to a project for which I have neither useful skills or an acceptable aesthetic sense.

So why am I doing this? I'm not totally sure, which is one of the reasons I'm writing about it. I know how the hunt for words makes ideas solidify in my head.

I don't use a lot of patterns when I crochet. I collect patterns, and I am a dedicated reader of Crochet Pattern Central. But most of my projects start with me looking at a skein of yarn and thinking "Hmm. I bet I could make a ___" out of that. Or me thinking, "I need a ____. What's in my stash?" And one of my purses started life as, "I think this an interesting stitch." In other words, I design things with crochet. And participating in this art show is a way to force me to extend my design abilities.

A rational person would extend their abilities and *then* sign up for a show, but doesn't work for me. I have zero confidence in myself (as I once observed to a friend, if I didn't have negative self-esteem I'd have no self-esteem at all), so the only way I ever get stuff done is to try it, regardless of what I think. That's how I ended up on the Story Team for L5R--I didn't think I was good enough, but I figured that the process would be a good experience. And in the remote chance I made it, I would get a lot of practice writing and maybe tell some good stories. (I was half-right, though I still struggle with omnicient POV.)

I spent my bus-stop time yesterday listing out some possible concepts, and today I made a first pass through my stash to see what I had on hand. There is some promising stuff and thus I plan on spending this week's bus-time experimenting with shapes. I have about a month to design and create; it will be interesting to see how far I go with this. Or if I end up somewhere.

Comments

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

I hope you will post photos of what you come up with. :-)

[rpriske.livejournal.com]

"and a SR-71 is not a work of art"

Why not?

[(Anonymous)]

Perhaps you should try needle point. You can find pre-made patterns at your local craft store to purchase and when done it can be framed like a picture. The yarn is finer, the needles smaller and you would need a set of hoops. These types of stitch work are more closely associated with art.

Story Team

[(Anonymous)]

And the L5R Story Team would be much poorer without you!