Goodly morning peeps.
I trust that this finds you well and refreshed and ready for the new week. This is a slightly different post from me this morning. It's Q&A time. A little while ago I was contacted by Sandie Cottee whose blog, Itchifingers, can be found
HERE, and asked to participate in this. Having looked in my diary and having a small window of opportunity (By which I mean that all my children have been returned safely to UNI and my sister is still gadding around the country with our cousin before returning here), I said yes and promptly "forgot" about it until this morning...... this is where I must apologise to Sandie; you see, in all the reading, the messages going back and forth, my brain did not register the "pass it on to 3 others" ! Well, yep, you guessed it; I haven't asked anyone and it's a bit late now isn't it.
So, I'll answer the questions and though I can't promise, I'll try to line up at least one person to keep the hop going.......
1. What am I working on ?
Currently I am working on a few different things; I generally have a few things on the go at a time as I seem to be incapable of just sticking with one thing. Today on my desk I have a box of flowers that I am making for my mother.
I've also been working in one of my smaller journals..... I love books and art journaling so most days can find me doing something with a book.
2. How does my work differ from others in my genre ?
That's kind of difficult to answer. I try not to compare my work with others too much. If I did I think I would freeze as I think there are awesome mixed media artists out there. We are surrounded by inspiration and I always try to create work that touches my heart and hope that someone somewhere will be inspired by it too. I would like to think that I create in a style that is unique to me while still drawing inspiration from work that I see that touches something in me.
3. Why do I create what I do ?
To put it simply, because I "need" to. For as long as I can remember I have felt the need to express myself in a visual way. I believe that creativity is a gift from God and it is there to be shared. I have had a lifelong love affair with boxes and books; I love the feel of a book in my hands, the textures, the crackle of pages and even the smell of a book so in many ways I think it was inevitable that I would end up making books and filling them too. With boxes, I love the excitement and curiosity they give; a beautifully crafted box just calls out to be opened. Though I do a variety of projects I always seem to come back to these two things. They are my creative "Happy Place"
4. How does your creative process work ?
It's all over the place LOL...... I honestly don't have a routine process, it is as creative and fluid as my life (IE chaotic....)
Some days I will have everything mapped out in my head; it's almost like a personal step by step which I then just follow in reality. Those are the good days when everything flows.
Most of the time though I sit in my studio "shuffling" stuff waiting for something to happen. I have this "need" to create but no starting place. It can be intensely frustrating but I have a couple of things I use as kickstarters :
I make flowers, I find it restful to do, I will make a batch of flowers and usually by the end of that I have a head full of ideas as to how I can use them.
I will batch cut assorted dies. It bugs me sometimes to take the machine out just to cut one piece so I will stockpile them. I have a tendency to "forget" how many dies I have so by cutting them it reminds me and at the same time I find it inspires me too and I then have a pile ready to use, especially when I am looking to add textural elements to books and boxes...
I will pick up one of my journals, there are always unfinished pages in them so I will just pick one and start to doodle in it.
As I am fortunate enough to have my own range of book cover kits I take one of those and just begin to paint it white and hope that by the time I have finished that I will have the next stage in my mind....
Well, I hope you have found this little Q&A session remotely interesting.
Thank you Sandie for asking me, and once again, I'm sorry I didn't realise I needed to pass it on!
Take care folks.