Another One.....

No words except for the ones he left and a thanks for the soundtrack of my formative years.

                          Bruce Springsteen, 'Chicago Tribute to Glen Frey-Take It Easy':

Threads

May your bobbin always be full.

-Unknown

Just a peek into one of of two areas where I am working on my embroidery portraits on vintage embroidered linen. I stumbled onto some luster ware pin cushions and I have adopted them to hold needles. Whimsical and fun. Since I am have been working on 'Dropcloth Samplers' from Rebecca Ringquist, I find myself inspired to work with all sorts of threads and yarns, beyond normal floss as she does and find myself drawn to all this lovely texture. It's funny. I am going to be teaching some basic embroidery to patients at my clinic as a sort of therapeutic modality to help them relax. I brought in a completed sampler of stitches and I found people were touching 

and caressing the lines. We love texture and I think we are instinctually drawn to it.  It is one of the reasons I decided to deepen my artistic efforts in this chosen medium.

Banks, 'Beggin For Thread':

I am....

I think I am, therefore I am. I think....

George Carlin

I had a philosophical discussion with a friend about at what point can you say that are you an artist. To make the proclamation that "I am a artist". Is it after you attend a series of classes and get a diploma or a degree? When you produce a series of pieces? Take part in an exhibition or your own gallery show? Or even ultimately have the crown and mantle of artist placed on you by those that make up the 'art world'? All considered possibilities, but not for me.

There is another quote that I found by Lana Del Rey that sums it up:

If you are born an artist, you have no choice but to fight to stay an artist.

And that is the essential truth. It is a calm inner knowing that you have to follow a certain path of creating. It may be painting, photography, embroidery, writing. It may be bringing children into the world and raising them. It may be developing a policy for your company, but if the spirit of creation illuminates what you do then we all can shout to the universe, I am an artist! Most of all I am the artist of my own life.

I have to acknowledge that this discussion came about because of David Bowie's passing and his last artistic creation 'Blackstar'. The last months of his life he continued on the path of being artist, both of the life he wanted to create while he had it, and the artistic works he wanted to share with the world. He inspired me to look and to continue to look at the life I am creating and what I am sharing.  I found something that he said in an interview (lots of quotes today)  that follows the theme of being and sharing that I have alluded to:

I suppose for me as an artist it wasn't just about expressing my work; I really wanted more than anything else, to contribute to the culture I was living in.

Thanks David for helping us to see that we all can be artists.

Chris Hadfield, 'Space Oddity':

Tribute

Words burning molten inside

Released 

Dance bright caught in earths reflective light

Now burnt

Stardust

Falls

All is silent tonight

David Bowie, 'Starman':