I have been at the computer all day today so far.... about 5 hours. I am putting together the images for the seminar I will be teaching at Convergence. In doing this, I have basically replayed all the tapestries I have woven in the past 30 years, and I am finding myself overcome by the thought of all those hours of work. Not weaving hours; I will be teaching a design seminar, so my mind has been on the design process.
I, and most of the other weaver/teacher/bloggers I know, often remark about how many hours we spend at the loom to complete a tapestry. But before we ever get to the loom, the tapestry must be designed. And that process is taking place in almost all of our waking and sleeping hours. I have been designing the tapestry I'm working on now, in some ways, for the past 30 years... perhaps even longer for this one, as a lot of what is in it comes from things I learned as a child.
Perhaps it is the 5 hours at this computer that have overwhelmed me today. Maybe. But I don't think so. I believe the presence of all those tapestries, the amazing reality that I somehow worked them out of my waking and sleeping dreams onto the loom, then onto walls, has just sat down on my lap and overwhelmed me.
So I will put this all away for now. I'll shut down the computer and I will go to a coffee shop and flip through a magazine and let my mind rest.
But will it really rest? Does an artist's mind ever shut down and quiet, or will I, even then, be perking some new design to find it's way to my loom?
1 comment:
Don't be overwhelmed, be proud.
The Australian Tapestry Workshop has recently sent out information (for fundraising) saying that it costs about $20 per square inch to produce. It includes design and other things, presumably rent, etc, but it is still very expensive.
http://www.austapestry.com.au/index.php?nodeId=84
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