Paper Play

What got me out of said funk was Jade Herriman's blog. I met Jade at the mixed media workshops in Australia in 2014. Her posts have come in my feed regularly, but I wanted to read it all from the start. And I did. I don't play with paper/paint lately and I wanted Jade to fix that.

In the past few years I learned the joy of spontaneity through gesture drawing, collating and mixed media. I get a kick out of watching pictures change in front of my eyes, and have come to like not having plans/intentions, "discovering" what I'll be making as I make. The fact I use cheap material allows me to use anything without worry. And I like giving what I make greeting cards and the like.

As far as I can tell, (you knew I was going to itemize,) here are some issues blocking me:
1. I'm a great starter but not a finisher.
2. Although I'm not uncomfortable taking a long time, I feel compelled to finish pieces. But like writing, I never know when things are finished so too often I ruin things.
3. I'm horrible at working little but often. I love the idea of (insert_cute_idea)-a-day projects but they are so hard for me.
4. I love beautiful visual journals and artists' sketchbooks, and have seen many polished examples; you know where that leads.
5. I've always been a planner even before weaving and it works for weaving because I prefer to know where I'm headed. But the longer I stay away from paper play, the longer I spend planning projects, picking color schemes, themes, and goodness, you know where that leads. And by the time I have a reasonable plan, I know I should have just gotten started long ago.
6. I've been playing with paper for a while, and occasionally I feel I should be able to make more finished/polished/interesting things after all this time.
7. Occasionally I feel the benefits of paper play should seep into my weaving, but other than colors, I haven't seen discernible evidence.
8. My paper play does take up a little space so my environment will be better suited when I use up a little more of my yarns, but that's by the by.

Jade's blog couldn't convince me to get off the computer and play with paper just yet but her examples were delicious. As well, the emotional/unplanned benefits of journaling, I get a lot of the same from this blog even though the posting is less spontaneous.

So here we are. Maybe when I'm in Japan next month.