What to do? What to do? Each of my artworks goes through a predictable series of steps. The steps are known. What isn’t known is precisely how I will execute those steps. With 30 plus years of quilting behind me, I have a substantial collection of go to tools handy and I know how to use them. Even so, there are times, like this week, when I am stymied as to how to proceed.
What I have learned to do when faced with a stumbling block in my process is to quiet the booming voice of doubt and remind myself I have faced such challenges in the past and surmounted them. How do I do this? Well, not gracefully. I fret. I pace. I circle both physically and mentally. Then, I might start researching.
The stumbling block this week was how to quilt Turbulence. My plan was to use jagged lines, referencing the lightening bolts. When I doodled this motif I hated it. Next, I hit the internet. I found a few ideas there, but none that convinced me to give them go. For some reason, spirals kept coming to mind. Tried doodling them on paper and then actually stitching them on sample. OK, but not great. More fretting and pacing. Decided to take a break and flip through Quilting Arts magazine, justifying that as “studio time” and a potential source of inspiration. Nothing.
What did I do? Give up? Well, yes and no. Artists are often asked what is your inspiration? Where do my ideas come from? If I knew, I wouldn’t find myself in this quandary again. What I do know is I am blessed to have eureka moments that simply come to me. I can’t force them. I can only trust they will arrive, and I will be aware enough to embrace them. This is precisely what happened when the quilting motif solution came to me for Turbulence.
I was on the right track with spirals. However, spirals don’t suggest turbulence. The eureka moment? Van Gogh’s Starry Night came to mind. How did he create that movement in his sky? Using Starry Night as a reference, I worked out a turbulent spiral motif.
I am linking up with Nina Marie’s Off the Wall Fridays.
