Category: The Journey

As Nature Speaks

All the fussing is over. I finally realized this milestone in my career: a solo show in an art gallery!

There were times over the summer when I didn’t think I would be able to create enough art to fill this big gallery space. I knew I couldn’t give up, so I just kept working. When I pulled everything together, I had 27 pieces of art to hang.

What a relief, especially considering that this past month we had to deal with 2 hurricanes in as many months. Its all good. I’m please with how everything looks.

If you happen to be near Raleigh, I hope you get a chance to visit my exhibit at Page-Walker in Cary, NC.  My artwork will be on display through November 24.

 

 

 

 

 

“As Nature Speaks, a dialog with an art quilter”
Featuring the artwork of Nanette S. Zeller
Oct 11- Nov 24, 2018
Page-Walker Arts & History Center
119 Ambassador Loop, Cary, NC 27513

 

 

What’s Next?

In a heartbeat more than a week, my exhibit “As Nature Speaks: a dialog with an art quilter” will be open to the public (details below). This 2-year journey has been a challenge, life altering, and most definitely a learning process. In my career I have produced a good number of art exhibits, but usually as the manager guiding other’s to the final reward. This is the first time I am wearing all the hats (manager, publicist, creative director, artist, etc.).  This is both good and bad.

The good is I have license to prepare every detail of this exhibit in a way that reflects me. This also leaves the bad, because there is no one to help (or blame) when things don’t go as planned. I’m in a good place with preparation. When life did get crazy, I am so very grateful to have an experienced friend to confide in. We had many conversations where solutions were easily found. Everyone should have such a good friend.

It’s been a long summer and I’m looking forward to its end. There will be a day soon, when I’ll look back and feel the triumph of successfully completing one more milestone.  I am always thankful to learn something with each new challenge I take in life. But, I’m also always looking forward to what’s next?

“As Nature Speaks, a dialog with an art quilter”
Featuring the artwork of Nanette S. Zeller
Oct 11- Nov 24, 2018
Page-Walker Arts & History Center
119 Ambassador Loop, Cary, NC 27513

Artist Gallery Talk: Saturday, Oct 13, 2018 from 10:30-11:30a
Artist Reception: Friday, Oct 26, 2018 from 6-8p

Get to show you

I’m in the last two weeks of prep for my show. I feel confident about it, but there’s still a lot of work to do. My birds still need to get framed, signange and other print media need to be created, and I’m still working on publicity.

This is called being a one woman show, no team effort on this production.

I’m a little bit behind my self-imposed schedule, but I planned the schedule so there would be flexibility. You can’t predict things like dealing with a hurricane 5 weeks before show time, so I always allow fluff time in my plans. I think that’s why I feel calm about everything right now. (Well I think I feel calm anyway…lol!)

Some of this comes from experience from producing a lot of other exhibits.  I know what has to get done and how much time its going to take. What I didn’t know was that everything I’ve ever done in my life is being put to use to create this exhibit.  Hindsight is the only way to describe it.

My exhibit is aptly titled “As Nature Speaks: a dialog with an art quilter.” Its a story about me, reflecting on the journey. Throughout the process, I’ve remembered that little kid who loved to pick dandelions and play with earthworms, who also loved to experiment with art. Because of that little kid and the journey she took, I’m now an adult who can express my life-long concerns about the natural world through my art. Natural science and art have always equally been my passions, next month I’ll get to show you.

“As Nature Speaks, a dialog with an art quilter”
Featuring the artwork of Nanette S. Zeller
Oct 11- Nov 24, 2018
Page-Walker Arts & History Center, Cary, NC

Artist Gallery Talk: Saturday, Oct 13, 2018 from 10:30-11:30a
Artist Reception: Friday, Oct 26, 2018 from 6-8p

Cut up your failures

Sometimes its nice to take a break from what you’re focusing on and play around with an idea. I belong to an art exchange group where I use the opportunity to do just that … play. I usually have some very specific ideas about what I’m doing. In this exchange group I’m much less inhibited about what I do. Each month we are tasked with making a 10″ x 10″ artwork in whatever medium we choose. This year we have a theme: Construct/Deconstruct. Yep, its a pretty broad theme.

Because I’m focusing on my solo show later this fall (see below), my brain has really struggled coming up with ideas for this group exchange. I had focus early this year, but that creative energy left me. This month, I remembered a cloth bag (pillowcase) that I had stashed away. In the bag are quilts that I have outgrown. They either need to find new life as a donation to a charity fundraiser or be re-purposed into something else.

Looking in the bag, I found two pieces that inspired me for the group exchange (image upper right). I thought, what if I cut them up and reassembled them into something new? (Deconstruct/Reconstruct).

I remember when I made the bamboo quilt, it was early in my journey as an art quilter. I really liked the idea, but I hated that the bamboo looked so flat (2-dimensional). This quilt set me on a journey that improved my quilting style and eventually got me published in Quilting Arts Magazine twice for 2 of the techniques I used in this piece.

Anyway, I no longer loved the bamboo quilt and had to do something with it. So, I cut it up into 10″ x 10″ blocks and added cut-up portions of the other little quilt into the arrangement. I remember it was fun to make the original pieces, but it was equally as fun to re-purpose them into something else. To me, the end result of this creative play produced something much more interesting than its original incarnation. I don’t know if I’ll every continue with this multi layer collage technique, but it was fun to play. It got my head out of a rut and luckily produced something that I could re-purpose. So remember to play, because its OK to cut up your failures.

“As Nature Speaks, a dialog with an art quilter”
Featuring the artwork of Nanette S. Zeller
Oct 11- Nov 24, 2018
Page-Walker Arts & History Center, Cary, NC

 

 

 

 

Be more mindful

Are you breathing? How do you know? Did you just check to see if you were breathing?

This is called being mindful. When you check in with your breathe, you are becoming aware of the current moment in time. Sometimes, I forget to check in. Usually when that happens, I realize the stress is also piling on.

The last few days, I have been busy stitching on this sunflower quilt (pictured). Did you know that’s a form of mindfulness too? When I do repetitive stitchwork (e.g, thread painting/quilting), I put my focus on making the stitches … well at least until I run out of thread. Drats!

I’m doing a lot of stitching on this sunflower, but its turning out to be a quick project and enjoyable. After the last two, this is a very nice change of pace. How I’m creating it is not a new process for me (“Soar” was created the same way). Its definitely not layer and layer of steps to create it (like the last 2). Mostly, I’m just stitching, so there’s less thinking about what I need to do next.

And so, what is next? For this quilt, I need to choose the color of thread to quilt the blue background fabric. Choices … choices. Which reminds me … just like life, I get to choose. I think I’ll choose to be more mindful.

“As Nature Speaks, a dialog with an art quilter”
Featuring the artwork of Nanette S. Zeller
Oct 11- Nov 24, 2018
Page-Walker Arts & History Center, Cary, NC

 

 

 

Improvise or plan

I’m into the last couple months of prepping for my exhibit (details below). I’m trying to make some smaller pieces to hang along with my large art quilts. I’m currently working on a pitcher plant (work in progress pictured). When I started it, I thought it would be small and quick. In reality, its neither.

Making art can give your brain respite to think deeply about things. During all of this creating, I’ve been thinking about what and who I am, to include why and how I make art. I’ve also been listening to podcasts, my favorite is “Creative Pep Talk” with Andy Pizza. In one of his recent podcasts, he discussed how artists can fall into two categories; planners or improvisors.

I frequently say I’m a recovering perfectionist. People comment all they time how  organized I am (note: they haven’t seen my desk/studio). While I listened to Andy, I immediately thought … “I’m a planner … right?” Then I thought … “wait a minute!”

A planner charts things out and follows the plan. An improvisor just wings it. I realized I’m a little of both, but definitely use more improvise than planning. I never thought about it before. Sure you can look at my post from last week and see the line drawing I used to create this piece. I followed the layout pretty well, but I had no idea what my background would be until much later. I’m also adding more groundcover elements and will just improvise those when I got to that stage of the process.

This quilt is a bit more “planned” than most. Usually I start with just an idea (vision) stuck in head. Then stumble through the process, re-evaluating myself at each new layer of design.

Andy suggests, whether you a plan or improvise your art, you should try to occasionally stretch yourself and do the opposite. That’s scary for me to think about, I’m comfortable at what I’m doing. But, that’s his whole point though, in order to grow/improve you have to challenge yourself… hmmm, can I do it?

This revelation makes me happy to note that I’m not such a control freak anymore. I don’t criticize myself (as much) if I go off plan, because I know how to improv my way out of a predicament. This is good news.

What about you? Do you improvise or plan?

 

“As Nature Speaks, a dialog with an art quilter”
Featuring the artwork of Nanette S. Zeller
Oct 11- Nov 24, 2018
Page-Walker Arts & History Center, Cary, NC

 

Live a little longer

I dabble in genealogy and really find connection with a Mexican tradition called the “three deaths.” Our first death is when our bodies cease to function. The second death is when our body is lowered into the ground. And the 3rd death is when our name is spoken for the last time.

Last week I wrote about my curiosity regarding the longevity of my art quilts. In that post, I was basically contemplating the three deaths , not some unrealistic concern about becoming famous. As I do genealogy, I love discovering a relative who’s been dead a very long time. I sense that when I find them, that they’ve been resurrected.

For me after I’m forgotten, I hope every so often there’s a quilt or 2 hiding somewhere which resurrects itself (me). Realistically, textiles are a very fragile medium to work with. There are so many factors which can destroy them into piles of thread and dust. As I prepare for my solo exhibit later this year, I’m thinking about what this all means … to be making things.

I’m near completion of a piece I’ve been working on for awhile and it struck me that there are things getting buried during the construction. I’ve added a lot of thread painting to this piece. This week, when it was time to quilt it, I had to cover up the back-side of the stitching. It amazed me to see how my stitching created its own art piece.

It makes me think that maybe, this process of creating can also experience it’s own stages of life and three deaths. My thread painting was once an active part of the process, but that is over now and buried behind layers of fibers. When you see the finished piece, the thread work does not take center stage as is does on the back. It becomes blended into the layers of fabric, color and quilting. This secondary art piece I unintentionally created is likely never to be seen again. So, I thought maybe if I leave it’s picture here, it might live a little longer.

 

Never too late to learn

I have always enjoyed learning.  Learning doesn’t always have to mean learning a physical or intellectual skill. Sometimes you can learn about yourself and what works for you.

For example, the past several months I’ve been working on and blogging about a new art quilt inspired by a visit to Muir Wood National Monument. This piece is huge and, at times, a little unruly. Two weeks ago, I found that I was getting very frustrated with the progress of this piece. Because I really wanted to get it finished, I kept trying to plug along with it.

Every piece I make is unique and requires different techniques to accomplish my vision, therefore I’m not very systematic about what I do. As I progressed on this piece, I realized I was super tense working on it. Little obstacles kept appearing that made me re-think my path forward. During my most intense frustration, I posed a question to an online group asking them what they do when they feel this way: “Do you keep going and fight through the frustration?”  or, “do you call a time out, put it away and start working on something else?” I got mixed responses, but most seemed to agree walking away was a good choice.

I’ve always tried to drive on, but this time I had other small projects I could work on to allow a temporary break from the large quilt. This week I put the Muir quilt under the needle again. Its amazing how my attitude has changed. I’m once again excited about stitching on this quilt top. I learned something new about my creative self – stepping away is a good thing. Sometimes deadlines keep me from having this luxury but, I also don’t think I do my best work when I’m stressed. With this experiment I learned something new about myself: I can and should take a break when I need it.

Knowing how you work and what you need to succeed is owning a very valuable tool for your productivity.  Do you pay attention to your feelings when you work? You know, it’s never too late to learn.

That’s OK

These human-created ideas of time elude me. Sometimes I feel like I’m just whirling through the galaxy. Occasionally, I’ll stop and think, “What happened to April?” or “Is today really Wednesday … already?” or “Did I really just spend 3 hours doing bookkeeping?”

In my life, I’ve experienced days that feel like they just would not end. Occasionally, that’s because the situation is horrible and I just want to move on. Other times, its because I realize I did a ton of things and notice there’s still plenty more time to continue enjoying the day. Ahhhh, … time … sometimes I love you and sometimes I hate you.

What challenges my acceptance is when I know I’m working non-stop, yet, have little to show for it. I guess we all want to see quick results, but I know that’s not reality. Today, I look at the scraps on my cutting board and see the energy laying there. The bits remind me to accept that time moves slow. I know eventually I’ll be on to something new. For now, it just is and that’s OK.

 

Being true to my creative self

Frequently, I’m asked “How long did it take to make that?” I really wish I knew. Sorry, but I don’t time myself, it could be very depressing to know. When people ask, I usually answer them with the amount of time its taken from inspiration to completed quilt. This literally could be years. I think what they really want to know is how many hours it took me from cutting the first piece of fabric until I stick the label on the back and hang it. That’s much more difficult to quantify without timing myself along the way.

However, the other day, I was working on a new piece (I blogged about weeks ago) and I happened to notice that I spent nearly 3 hours cutting and positioning little bits of black fabric. I took a picture of my progress. Great! I’m half-way through this step! … right? ….uhm?

I left it alone overnight and when I looked at it the next day I knew I couldn’t live with it. Something wasn’t right, so I referred to my reference photos. Sure enough, I couldn’t live with what I had done (you may not even see the difference in the 2 photos).

My saving grace was that the black bits where only pinned to my design wall. Sometimes, I’m not so cautious and fuse (glue) the pieces in place without giving the design some space to percolate in my brain. Once something is fused I’m usually stuck. I either a) live with it, b) come up with plan B to fix the issue, or c) scrap it and start over.

I’ve blogged about the “point of no return” that I frequently face when I create my art quilts. There are layers and layers of process in my pieces. Literally, each step could lead to fatality. This is one reason I may step away until I feel emboldened to tackle the next step.

With this new piece, I re-grouped and fixed the problem. I’m much happier with where its going, but many hours later I’m not much farther along than I was a few days ago. There’s still plenty of work to do. I’m really OK with this, its how I do things. The finished piece has to fit what’s in my head, otherwise what’s the point of making it?

I do, however, have a problem with the fixation on time. I really don’t care how long it took me. That’s not why I’m doing this. I try to work faster/smarter, but I also work very hard at not beating myself up about it. I’ve accepted, this is how I create. Anything else is not being true to my creative self.