What inspires me?

I was invited to join this blog hop by Cheryl Rezendes. Her blog is here.
What inspires me? What is my process? Here goes!
What inspires me?!
Everything!
Over the years, one develops an 'eye'. You see what you know. Vista's grow larger and more sensitive as openings to the soul become more and more frequent. 

I take myself off into nature and the ideas come. They bubble out from my unconscious in bursts from the universe.

I am a mixed media fiber artist. I am a process person. I’m passionate about coming up with ideas and working out the kinks. This leads to more discoveries, an evolution.  

I make the art and then the art makes me.

Kittery Point original photo

            Part of my process is photography. I can see the most exquisite scenes or combinations of patterns and want to share that beauty. My art represents these moments.

            They are what lie beneath. I bring them back to share, to remind, to remember. These moments become my source, my well. I hope to bring that energy into my art making, to communicate the positive.

cropped and filtered

            Layers peeled back reveal the source, the inspiration, and my mad desire to capture thoughts, dreams and the beauty of nature.

manipulated 

Fiber art is on the cusp of a wave. Fiber artists are evolving our medium to a new level of perception. Using textiles to create art is breaking the boundaries of the art world. Fiber as an art form is highly collectable right now because it is so new.

color added

What does one do, who sees visions? Experiment. Break rules. Expose people to new ways of seeing. Art, to me, is about moving forward. Creation gives me ideas. My passion is to put them into art.

I use my medium, fiber!

finished triptych
Each work is individual and a communication between my inner imagination and later, the viewer.

remenbering by rainer maria rilke

Complete

"If we fail to nourish our souls, they wither, and with out soul, life ceases to have meaning. The creative process shrivels in the absence of continual dialogue with the should. And Creativity is what makes life worth living." Marion Woodman

Complete

new work in encaustic

the work behind you

I received the most delightful feedback viva email today. I would like to publish it- anonymously of course, with my answer.

"Dear Wen,

      I have become familiar with your work through the Mt. Sunapee League fair, and the open house held at the mills every year.  I have only recently discovered your website and blog, and realized that there is a whole world of work behind you that I have yet to see.  Your wonderful trees.  I love your blog website, with all of its interesting links, and information, forming the textural world that shapes, and defines your work, in addition to the quilting world which I have researched, and worked with a little in the past, but its nice to know that whatever i came to know as "the quilting arts" doesn't really ever end in one defined approach, however different each piece is.  I gave up on the quilting aspect because I found that I couldn't achieve the softness?,, or less bulky? feel that I wanted.  I wanted the piece to look more cohesive , rather than many separate pieces. 

See, this is what I really enjoy about your work, you have achieved that cohesiveness, even with seperate pieces within one art piece, that reminds one of fabric, and at the same time, painting. 

I don't know that I have found yet what your educational experience has been.  I would be interested in knowing how you finally arrived( if there is such a thing in art), upon your wonderful collages-artwork as it is today?" 

Alone in the Forest

Thank you for your wonderful email.

     My education continued after collage when I graduated with a BA in Home Economics, emphasis on Child Development and Interior Design. I am largely self taught and but have taken many workshops from my shero's such as Joan Schultz, Mary Taylor, Fran Skiles, Dorothy Caldwell, Susan Hammond West, and Nancy Crow among others. I find taking workshops from artists stimulating to my art, my inner sense of what is possible. 

     I try not to copy but let their teaching gestate and come though my art in my own voice. This, for me, defines a true artist. One who continues to grow within their field. Sure there will be side trips down medium roads, maybe parallel roads, but continuing to explore, to try new things, to turn things upside-down.

     I encourage the same from others, when I teach. That, to me, is the highest goal, to stimulate my student's own voice, their own courage in art making. to explore their inner reaches. 

I become a tool, a guide, hopefully, a muse.

Education is not all though. Take time to take time. To go outside. Breathe. Clear space to learn what excites you. To see inside. Then create!

Stillness in Winter’s Dream

 “Come away from the din.

Come away to the quiet fields

Over which the great sky stretches

and where, between us and the stars

there, in the stillness

let us listen to the voice

that is spreading within us.”

Jerome K. Jerome

         

         LOVE, PEACE AND LIGHT,

                                                    Wen

New Hampshire in DE-Light!

Clouds Kissing

U

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in Holiday 'FUN' and the 'pleasures' of my studio.

I take myself out into the back woods- just under 50 acres with ajoining properties.

I can tramp around to my heart’s delight, creating mind reflections.

Being the age of my body and concerned about slippage, I take a stick cast off by a tree to steady me. 

Instantly, I am transformed into a Druid YoDa-like woman of the forest. 

Woman of the Woods

I am traversing looking for omens and other odd events to throw light on the thoughts harboring inside my mind. Do you see her in above picture?

Dare I Wander and Ponder?

The snow still beneath my feet,

Except for the occasional leap-

from my heart.

I tread a slow path though the woods.

stopping to stare and wonder. 
Stopping to gaze and ponder. 
These moments spinning

into golden memories.

Art and Passion

In your light I learn how to love.

In your beauty, how to make poems.

You dance inside my chest,

where no one sees you,

but sometimes I do,

and that sight becomes this art.

Jelaludin Rumi (13th century

Whispers of the Positive  2010    Wen Redmond

Deconstructed Digital Imagery

OK, I'm washing out my thermal fax silkscreen after using it-

usually I squeegee out remaining paint onto a cloth whilst, ( don't cha love that word!),

spraying with water- a good start for another piece of art

cloth.

I was in a hurry and therefore was soaping it up to wash out in the sink.

AND it look goreous! The bubbles were so textural and the colors melted

together so beautifully that I ran to get my camera and shot some pix!!

I do take photo's of work in process, sometimes thats just the element I need and I can print it out or make a silkscreen- etc!!

AND to enjoy here with you all.

Geez, do I have a screw loose or have you all had similar moments that just

disappeared down

the

drain?

Breaking Free

Breaking Free

‘The Day is yours.” My husband quips.

I am unburdened at the moment from worrying thoughts, loved one’s dilemma’s, even my usual mad dog push, push, push.

“Relax, I say. “ How is it I feel like I’m sitting upon a rockin

g lid under which boils my tempestuous creative drive.

Sometimes I feel like a spinning top with an arm extending out every so often to tweak an art piece, paint fabric, create a digital collage, and come up with yet another way to display fiber art to a curious public.

Ideas whirl though my head.

“Focus.” Says one of my mentors, “Only this moooment”.

“This Moment- and this and this!” I respond!

This day, a bubble in the weeks of planned activities. This day, a day of my own, without focus, direction, or plans. A chasm to be filled at my discretion. What joy!

I walk though my studio gathering items intuitively. My art jour

nal, a pile of snipped out images of art and other stuff from magazines I buy to expose my yearning for beauty. My glue stick and pen.

These journals mirror to me what I like, what inspires me, provide a directional compass.

Outside into the glorious sun coolly lit in the first hints of Autumn. I sit and begin to turn pages. I see notes from years past, re-pasted in each new journal. Journals handmade, sewn with curses and love. I just turn the rich pages- absorbing, reminding, revisiting.

 And the magic happens. 

In Company of the Muses

I can get thrilled to bits on viewing arrangements of objects in an artful way. On a recent trip to Japan to visit one son, Patrick,  whilst (don't you love that word) with my eldest son, Jon-  I saw beauty everywhere. Japan, being a relatively small country, treasures the space it has. I will share a few images here and later on in the year as well. These will perhaps spark a new viewpoint. 

I hope you enjoy them as I have!

Best Thinking

Following a thought...

Where do you do your best thinking? Where do those ideas, inspirations and sudden flashes of creativity come from?

 I get some of my best ideas on walks. I can jog out of the house in a burst of frustration and churn up the tunes until I get to a very steady incline near a heavily wooded part of the road. Then, slowing down, I take in the scene- the birds, deer sign, trees, the way the sky looks, you know.  I just melt into the surroundings. It calms my mind and then the magic happens. A idea will pop up or a solution to a piece I am working on.  This peace and excitement are part of my art. Those feelings from that place becomes the energy I use to work. It propels me forward. It is an essential part of my art. 

Hello, Sun in My Face!

Hello, Sun in my face.

Hello, you who made the morning

and spread it over the fields and 

into the faces of tulips

and the nodding morning glories

and into the windows of, even, the

miserable and the crotchety-

best preacher that ever was,

dear star, that just happens

to be where you are in the universe

to keep us from ever darkness,

to ease us with warm touching,

to hold us in the great hands of light-

good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day

in happiness, in kindness.

Poem by Mary Oliver

 to help us celebrate the return of light, the new season, the hope we carry  in our hearts.