Is it time for a glass of whine yet?

"Taste" vs "Creativity"?????????????????? So now the QA list is boiling an argument about the "difference"---------cook up a piece and embellish the shit out of it---oh no, now you are not an Artist! I like to decorate--the only thing that stops me from going really overboard is the amount of time it takes. Does that mean i have a only a modicum of taste?  Embellishment as "gratuitous bling"????? Yeah, it's very easy to take every technique and put it in the same piece, and lord knows, i've done it myself. You learn by doing though, and at some point, hopefully, you realize it's like dressing up for a night out---you look great, but if you took off just one accessory, you'll look fabulous. For arguments sake, just TRY now to do a piece without ANY embellishing-----does that count the fancy threads, the special fabric, the quilting pattern itself????? If we didn't "embellish" we wouldn't be making art in the first place! Isn't that the very nature of what we do???????????????

And as for "personal symbols"---well often, they *do* get co-opted by mass marketing and trends----that doesn't mean it's any less important to the person who holds it dear for most of their life. I happen to *like* dragonflies; i always have. There was a swamp next to our house when i was a child and i spent hours chasing them and watching them. Just because they are now a popular motif doesn't lessen their "value" to me----i suppose if i wanted to get pissy about this, i would simply look beyond the basic shape and check out how many  flavours there really are in the dragonfly world. And yeah, i put them on my more commercial stuff----because the person who buys that *is* buying something that has *their* personal symbol on it and they don't give a rat's ass that it's been turned into a popular icon. I have other symbols i use as well--do i stop doing faces??????---When does a motif change from an element of design to a symbol? Is a style a symbol? Do certain elements of the actual "hardware" become symbols? A recognizable style then is a symbol isn't it? What the hell is a symbol anyways?

1.    something used for or regarded as representing something else; a material object representing something, often something immaterial; emblem, token, or sign.
2.    a letter, figure, or other character or mark or a combination of letters or the like used to designate something: the algebraic symbol x; the chemical symbol Au.
3.    a word, phrase, image, or the like having a complex of associated meanings and perceived as having inherent value separable from that which is symbolized, as being part of that which is symbolized, and as performing its normal function of standing for or representing that which is symbolized: usually conceived as deriving its meaning chiefly from the structure in which it appears, and generally distinguished from a sign.

Then it's ALL symbols, isn't it?

^{I sent this whole thing to the QA list too---am i brave or stoopid?}

Comments

[Kay Susan]

Arlee, I joined the Quilt Art list for only a couple of days. I sent just one message and I got such a snotty reply that, in spite of some supportive messages from other members, I unsunscribed. Some of the people on that list are so 'up themselves' they must breathe through their bums. I shouldn't take any notice, and certainly shouldn't take anything they say to heart. There are a few people on that list who are just not nice.

[Nicky Perryman]

Where is this dreaded list? I am dying to see it!Anyway, in answer to your post Arlee. I like the idea of "cooking something up and embellishing the hell out it". The world is so full of dreary navy blue, grey and beige. We need all the colour and decoration we can get our hands on. So more is more in my opinion. I adore embellishment it makes me feel alive, it brings me joy, it gives me a pure shot of energy. Why not use it? Having said that there is some merit in restricting yourself but only to see what you can invent as a result of artificial self-imposed boundaries i.e. doing it for a fun reason. Regarding symbols - I agree trends of what is a fashionable symbol come and go and they get done to death. I always stick to the same things that give me pleasure. I love birds, someone once told me that people don't buy things with birds on because they are seen as bringing bad luck. Did that change my idea of what I want to make? Not one iota. Stick to your own symbology and develop it. Forget what other people are doing. They are not you. What you are doing is special. That is my idea of how to approach your own work. What other people do is interesting but it's not MINE however beautiful it might be. I have to have ownership of what I am doing whether it's fashionable or not. Just keep on truckin' our kid!
Nicky x

[DejaBlu503]

You ARE a VERY brave woman, and perhaps my hero. I have been sitting on my hands since yesterday. Gawd, if that list offered nothing at all but the bickering, dropping it would be so much easier...... maybe we should have a contest and see which of us can set them off the most in a week? That might be fun....

[Jeri]

Yep, the QA list does get all worked up about things... it cracks me up to think that a wealth of embellishment would transform a piece of work into "not" art. Don't tell Frances Holliday Alford, Kathy York, or Melody Crust, for god's sakes. :)

I love embellishments, so I guess I'm a magpie. If there is a very strong graphic line in the art piece, it can stand on its own without decoration, but most of the art pieces I like are beautiful (to me) because of the embellishment. I appreciate the work and beauty of almost every kind of fiber art though, just having beads and trinkets on it doesn't make it "art" or "not art". I wonder if the ones who dislike embellishment are basing that on a certain artist's style - not everyone gets into Therese May or Lucky Shie, for instance. Anyhoo, I think you're a brave one for posting that opinion to QA - LOL!!

[Acey]

Oh man. I came over here to see what was up witcha after I read your comment about 'feeling a little vulnerable' on my blog. Just in case I wasn't already clear about the whys and wherefores, I have recollected exactly why I dropped off that list without a single second's worth of subsequent regret. The seemingly unedited NOOOOOO impulse control nastiness might not be the only aspect of community that's freely shared there but for me it was such an *overwhelming* (not to mention unrepetant) aspect that I just didn't see the value. It's even colored the way I look at the magazine since then, not to mention my perspective/opinion of a few particular quilt artists I formerly admired a great deal.

That said, I think it would be a lot more difficult (and probably not ultimately useful) for you to walk away from that list because you take your art and the artistic community at large so seriously that you do authentically need to keep a mental thumb on the pulse, so to speak. I have been clear for a number of years that even on my best days I'm an artisan rather than an artist BUT ... I authentically believe there ought to be room at the creative table for both rather than an endless either/or debate. I'm not sure WHY it automatically gets a lot of peoples' snobbery factor going strong but I've learned not to mind. For every sneer there seem to be another three or four smiles, out in the larger world - *beyond* the 'gated community' of Movers & Shakers.

I actually laughed at the phrase "gratuitous bling", just *as* a phrase, taken out of its original context. I think it's marvelous, actually, that you gave yourself time to work this out and expressed your personal points of concern and interest. What IS art if it isn't an encompassing expression of those very things ????!!!! Can't help but wonder at the smallness of minds & lives that form such vociferous pack mentality but I hope you really have stopped "feeling" it so as to create any further vulnerability. Joke 'em. For real.

[Debra]

Ya know.. I am still a subscriber to the list, but I don't get the emails. When someone mentions something interesting happening on the list, I go to the archives and try to read it there. Usually there is so much bullshit still being exhibited that I don't actually find what the fuss is.

After your post I went. Could find way too many people who wrote: disable the digest and I'm simply gone. Most of them? The list would be better if they did go. Still way too much "me too"-isms. I don't miss it.

Might I suggest that you try it my way? You can normally find the really important stuff with a whole lot less toxic communication.

[Nicky]

I wish someone would tell me where this damn list is so I can go and see what all the fuss is about. A URL anyone?

[arlee]

Nicky, i sent you the URL-----there *is* good stuff there--you just have to sift through the crap-----and we all know i just take things too personally. I'm temporarily unsubscribed, but can check the archives if i want/need to.