I've treated my art making very very seriously for decades. I've continually attempted to have it all - a big family, community involvment, closeness to nature every day and ALSO make art. The art making has not allowed me to have a garden, be a good cook, travel, read for pleasure or live in a clean house.I'm bothered that my chosen art medium of cloth and stitch combines now with my own maturity to trivialize what I do. When I go into a (northern)art gallery to speak I'm no longer the mom artist with a babe on her hip - I'm an older, grayer, gentle voiced, spectacle wearing quilter lady. I speak to quilt guilds consisting of other older women, I teach other older women, I study with other older women. It's a ghetto.
7 comments:
When you speak on your blog, I--a 30-something, recovering artist without garden or cooking ability or clean home--drink in your words and wisdom with much gratitude. So perhaps not as ghetto as you might think.
What specifically would make you feel less trivialized? I'm genuinely curious.
Paula
This post made me so sad!
Perhaps Jane Mattera's post here
http://joannemattera.blogspot.com/2009/10/marketing-mondays-adjective-artist-how.html
Will give you some perspective on where you are and how you've spent your life; Elaine at Red Thread Studio has something to say in her "maker" post as well - what it means to be a "maker" rather than a "crafter" or an "artist" but rather puts you on a present day continuum with other who are also creaters/makers, and who provide something valuable to the world, yes, I would say life changing.
Quilting and what has come out of it has certainly been life changing for me. I can't even begin to think that in ten or twenty years I'll feel that I have spent my life wastefully pursuing something that has given me such joy.
If this is a moment of discouragement, perhaps those links will help lift you up. If the pursuit of your art has become joyless for you, then perhaps it is time to take a break, or find another path.
And though I only found your blog a few posts ago, if this is where it all ends, thank you for sharing what you have. It has made a difference.
i am not exactly sure what you mean. can you expand on this?
All of your comments are appreciated. I admit I was in a dark mood this morning. I long to be an artist. I love making my work.
Jude asks what do I mean ?
As I get older, I fear that my work will be taken less seriously by the 'art world' because I am older. The idea of "my grand mother made quilt" is so ingrained.
I am 66 and I think I understand how you are feeling. My experience of aging is sometimes wonderful and rewarding and sometimes downright painful and ugly. The words of a song come to mind and I will share them with you: "I support your sister song, I support the path you're on. Like wild geese up in the sky, we sing our song, that's how we fly." I appreciate your courage to express this painful part of your journey, after all it's your blog. From what I have seen of your art you have posted, you have known much joy too, and I hope you will find more, when you are ready to.
I don't mind being in the ghetto with you. There are a lot of us out here.
I belong to a church sit and sew group in a country town. It is a casual social group. I am the youngest at 53. Most of them knit or crochet, beautifully, with great skill. The work they produce if far better although a little dated, than most of the crappy tat I see on the internet blogs, where the young blow their bags about how good they are. I don't know of any young people in our comunity who values these womens skills or talents. Even their families pat them on their heads and chuckle at them.
When I was young and had small children, the last thing I had time for was creative pasttimes with older women. So I can understand the lack of recognition of the work of these women. I think it is a privilege to have the time and space to enjoy them now, they don't dispare about their work not being recognised, they just get on with 'making'.
I know they are not making art as such, but their lives including what they make is art.
I really enjoy your blog and your work. I think two D art is so boring. Textile art is so three D and engages more of the senses, especially if you can touch and drape and wear or use a textile piece. For this reason i also like architecture where you can use the space, change it, enter it, decorate it. These things leave two D art for dead.
Cheers from an interesting ghetto, Jan
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