They say that the best way to achieve a goal is to make it measurable, tie it to a firm date, and share it with others to hold you accountable. I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions per se, but I do start out each year wanting to get into the studio more and make things. So you, dear reader, get to help me achieve my goal of creating a new body of work over the next six weeks simply by running your eyes over this write-up.
When I look back at my past year as a professional artist I’m also trying to plan what to focus on in the coming year. This is no different than most people in their business and personal lives, of course, but when I specify the ‘professional artist’ part it’s to make the point that I approach it as a business rather than a hobby, and that the sales of my work, teaching income, and presenter fees are the things that fund my artmaking. So when I’m evaluating past and future decisions it’s with two distinct but intertwined goals in mind: to grow and challenge myself creatively and to succeed financially by covering my expenses and paying myself.
Those two goals all begin with making art in the studio, but throughout the year there are myriad other activities to carry them forward that fall under the umbrella term ‘administration’- documentation, marketing, writing, shipping, presenting, fundraising, and communication. The end of the year wrap-up is focused heavily on the business side of my practice, and while it’s satisfying to tidy things up within a calendar year’s measurement, it always leaves me eager to get back into the studio, resolved to defend more hours there against the unending demands of administrative tasks.
Going into this new year I am excited to have a few different bodies of work in development-- it feels like they lay coiled inside me, ready to spring out-- but I have to pace myself since I can’t do them all at once. If you’ve been following my work for any amount of time you’ll note that I dance around between a few different formats, yet they all have fiber in common: needle felting three-dimensional objects, stitching slabs of industrial felt, or ‘drawing’ with wool through paper. All of my processes take a good deal of specialized labor and a lot of time, as they are all one-of-a-kind and hand-made. I tend to work in series, creating a group of related artworks in a particular format before dancing back to another form of making. My approach keeps my excitement and curiosity stoked, and that’s something that I think comes through in my artmaking.
I love the problem-solving aspect of creating: figuring out how to make something in the real world that matches an idea, reaction, sensation in my brain, or answers a question about how things might look or work. My new favorite quote is “Happiness comes from solving problems”.*
So here’s a sneak peek at the first body of work I’m letting myself loose on: wool drawings of mysterious forms that I’m calling ‘Objects of Intrigue’. My sources for these images are drawings from my sketchbooks and reference photos that keep tugging at my imagination. In these works I borrow bits and pieces from existing biology and distill them into pleasing simplified forms: organic shapes that look interesting to touch and seem ready to move, change, grow, or expand and contract with breath.
Unfamiliar with my invented technique of ‘wool drawing’? I’ve made a very brief video showing the process as a 60-second YouTube Short.
The drawings will all be 15 x 15 inches in size, and will be created using only light-brown Shetland sheep’s wool and black Alpaca wool poked through thick white printmaking paper. Layering light and dark fiber to create a deep three-dimensional effect is intensely satisfying for me, both in the process and the results. I hope that for the viewer the intrigue of nearly-familiar, almost-recognizable objects rendered in wool will also spark curiosity and satisfaction.
I’ll share images and videos of the process and finished works as I go, but the drawings themselves won’t be available for purchase until Friday, March 3rd. I have made three so far, and my goal is to have twelve drawings completed by that time. Stay tuned for more updates, and thanks for being complicit in ensuring ample studio time through my publicly stated goal-setting!
* “Happiness comes from problem solving” is quoted from Mark Manson’s book “The Subtle Art of Not Giving A #%^!”