The Art of Organization

It's funny, how you can be really organized in one area, yet swimming (or sinking) in disorganization in another.  Like many creative types, I struggle with organization.  At our local Surface Design Association meeting a few months ago, we had the topic of Time and Studio Management.  We all brought photos of our studio in its current condition.  We even had a $20 prize for the local Quiltworks store where we meet for the artist with the messiest studio, to encourage people to really not clean up before our session.  Well, since I offered the prize, I didn't have to shell out any money when it was unanimously decided that my studio was the worst!  No, I'm not going to share those photos online at this time... maybe when I get to know you better.

On the other hand, I'm extremely organized in some areas... in setting and attaining goals; in developing organizational systems; in project management.  For instance, today I put together 3 different proposals for exhibition venues for the Contemporary QuiltArt Association (CQA.)  Two were for well-known musuems and the third for a city hall gallery.  Putting together proposals such as these requires a lot of organizational skill.  You need to find their requirements and do your best to follow them explicitly.  You need a personalized cover letter, artist statement, biography, artist resume, and images of your work.  The images needed to be picked and formatted to each venue's specifications. I've been very successful with my exhibition proposals in the past and hope that I will be here again in the near future. (I'll let you know where the museums/galleries are if we secure them.)

This year I've made slow incremental progress in gaining control over some areas of my life.  First and foremost, I lost 30 lbs that had been slowly creeping on over the last few years.  Next, I've been keeping up with putting all my clothes away (anyone else have oodles of laundry?) and making sure to keep my closet cleaned up.  Then, I moved towards keeping the corner of my bedroom clean, where my books, quilt magazines, art projects and miscellaneous junk pile up from whatever I'm working on or reading before bedtime.  And now, I'm working on the studio. 

Part of my problem is that I'm blessed with a large home.  So, whenever I run out of space, I just move on and work in another area. I also love to work in the evening in front of the t.v.  However, theis requires bringing a bunch of things from my studio into our "adventure" room (family/tv room.) I also am one of those people who just love to learn new things.  So I have supplies for all of them.  I'm working now at developing a place for each type of supply... a drawer of thermofaxes, a bin for stabilizers, all my scissors put away in the same place, so I always know where to find things. 

The outside of the old fruit processing plant

But, again, you can only do so much cleaning and organizing until you are cutting into your art time.  Today, I did some dyeing-the wool Viking tunic my son made.  Too much time has been spent in front of a computer screen.  I never did claim that I was great on the time management side, now did I?

I promised a few days ago that I'd post some photos from the Mighty Tieton gallery.  Enjoy!


You walk through part of the old warehouse...

... and open the huge Cold Storage door

To a beautiful gallery space

Scope Creep

Large Unfinished Feltwork at Tieton

Have you ever heard of scope creep?  Sounds like some kind of peeping tom that uses a periscope, doesn't it?  Well, it's actually where the intent and expectations of a project keeps increasing.  Perhaps I just have big ideas... but I'm finding myself being really excited about the prospects of the Tieton exhibition.  For instance, the large felted piece that I mentioned yesterday?  I started thinking about a documentary on Mongolia I'd seen and how they would felt large pieces by pulling the roll behind horses.  Here's a link that has some info on the Mongolian felting tradition, as well as a YouTube video of the steps of the process.  Well, I'm a horsewoman... I recently sold my horse but still ride and know lots of people in the equestrian community.  One of my contacts has a Friesian farm in the Yakima area, not terribly far from Tieton, where they have big beautiful black horses that draw carriages.  Shouldn't be too hard to drag a roll of felt, then, should it?


Will and Teresa Bron with two of their lovely Friesians

I also got to thinking about a fiber group whom I read about in Quilting Arts Magazine (June/July 2012).  They are from the Netherlands and create all sorts of outdoor installations.  You can see some of their work on their Windkracht 10 Blog.  We also have had a wonderfully colorful addition to many of our outdoor spaces here in the Seattle area... yarn bombing.  Just google yarn bomb Seattle images.  Here again, Tieton would be a perfect place to do all sorts of wonderful outdoor fiber art displays.  So, the scope of this exhibition may just be creeping up a bit more.

I'm thinking that it might be too much to ask of our CQA artists to also do the outdoors pieces, so perhaps I'll just write an open call for artists in Washington... that shouldn't be too much extra work, right? 

Tieton would also like to have lecturers and classes available from fiber artists during the show run.  So, I've opened this up to CQA artists as an opportunity, but I may need to open it further, if I don't get enough response.  Well, I suppose I could pull a class together before next May....

Oh, and I'm thrilled that Mighty Tieton, having their own print studio, has offered to make a catalog of the exhibit!  All I need to do is provide high resolution images of all the artwork, artist statements, information on each piece, and write a curators statement.  No problem!

As you can see, it's easy to commit and commit, and then not take time to do your art.  I'm committed to make a piece (or more) for this show.  But as artists we need to weigh out our commitments and look at our overall goals.  I do believe that putting this show on in style will be a positive experience for my artistic career.  But the major sticking point that I struggle with is in making enough art.  Making enough to be good.  Making enough to develop my artistic voice.  Making enough to feel fulfilled.  As I work through my goals for the coming year, I'm looking at committing to making a small art piece (5x7?) each week.  However, I struggle with whether that will stop me from making my larger pieces.  I have a partially-completed quilt (OK, who doesn't) on my design wall that is about double-bed sized... I don't want to stop making something just for the sake of some promise to do a small piece every week.  And I'm not sure I have time for both.  Well, I guess I will think it through some more before I write out my goals and plans for 2013!

Eastern Washington Seed Pods

Here's my favorite inspiration from my day!  The sunshine and shadows on these seedpods was lovely with crisp air filled with the smells of all the dried grasses and grains. 

Planning an Exhibition

Entry to the old cold storage room now refurbished as a gallery

Mighty Tieton is an unique artist community 15 miles outside the city of Yakima, Washington. As the co-chair of Exhibitions for the Contemporary QuiltArt Association, I've scheduled an exhibition in their unique gallery space. Today I visited the space-a remarkable gallery created out of an old fruit processing warehouse. The space where our exhibit will hang was a large cold storage locker complete with huge refrigerator-like doors through which they probably drove forklifts filled with pallets of fresh Yakima valley produce.  Once you get through the door, however, the space is transformed into a wonderful gallery space with soaring ceilings, high-tech lighting and a wire hanging system which will allow us to hang quilts or art-cloth throughout the interior of the gallery, rather than just from the walls.

Currently, in a second "cold storage" space, they have set up an exhibit of Trimpin's sound studio art. Originally from Bavaria, Trimpin's now lives in Seattle. His artwork combines music and sculpture, often using computers to play the instruments. He has exhibited in numerous prestigious galleries and museums, including Seattle Art Museum, the Experience Music Project, Frye Art Museum and many more.

In yet another space in the warehouse, there was the start of a large (approximately 20' x30') felted piece, started when Janice Arnold had one of her incredible felted tents on display (still up in yet another gallery space!). We may even get the opportunity to work on felting this unfinished piece.

I took high-res photos of the space which I'll post after I return home and am able to process them.

As one of my artist goals, I want to get to the place where I can have a solo exhibition of my art. I'm not there yet... but as one step towards this goal, I decided that volunteering as Exhibitions co-chair would help me gain valuable experience which I can use in my future solo shows. Since the time I started working on CQA's exhibitions, I've learned a great deal. How to find potential venues; what to include in an information packet to the prospective gallery; talking with gallery representatives; working out exhibition details; how to publicize the show; hanging an exhibit; putting on an opening event; working with the gallery on sales; and finally, taking the show down.

More to come on the process of putting on exhibitions. Any secrets you have to share would be greatly appreciated!