Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Time Management, Forward Momentum, and a Revelation

Since I started working on several pieces at once, I've found my productivity has greatly increased.  This shouldn't come as any great surprise, of course, because it's really just common sense, but I was always afraid that if I had more than two pieces in progress at any one time, I might become scattered and unable to focus my energy on anything long enough to finish any of them. In the last year or two, though, ideas have been coming at me so fast and furiously that I feared I'd lose them altogether if I didn't at least get the pieces started.

Happily, this shift in my working habits has really worked out well, allowing me to work on a piece until I got stuck, then let it rest, ideas percolating quietly while I forged ahead with something else. I don't get bogged down or frustrated with one piece.  I don't obssess. To put it succinctly, I am wasting lots less time than I did previously.

I thought it might be nice to share some of this process by showing you what I was also working on while finishing The Spell is Broken.



Here are three pieces I've been working on.  The tall one standing up behind the book is one that went oddly astray.  It might be due to the fact that I had no real clear plan, but only a nebulous idea of "an old map", which came to me while looking at a foxed and stained vintage book page.  The parts around the perimeter of the piece came together pretty quickly and easily, but the main focus - the map part in the center - did not. I knew I wanted the rivers to be done in embroidery, but had little else in mind.  I fugured something would occur, as it usually does.



Nope.  I tried a figure, a dragonfly, maybe 8 or 10 other ideas, but - nope. Anything I could come up with was only overshadowed by the now too detailed (I thought) perimeter.  Everything I tried had to be ripped off, if I had gotten hopeful enough to even glue it down.  So there it sat.




I started working on an idea I'd had for a long time, called Book of Secrets.  Finally I'd been able to find a black book large enough for the project, which had been my major roadblock up to this point.  I cut out the part of the front cover where I inteneded to insert the smaller book cover, and bent some copper sheeting around the edges. Meanwhile, I also did some alteration on the design on the small cover, and found a keyhole escutcheon to put in the center, as well as some locks and things that will go on later.

The hardest part thus far has been attaching the snakeskin; despite copious amounts of acrylic gel medium, I'm not sure how well-secured it is, or how well preserved.  The stitches around the bottom edge are there as much to hold it in place as for decoration. I'm not sure I would reccommend sewing a snakeskin onto a book, but if you do, it would probably be best to split the snakeskin so it's flat instead of tubular.  I'm just sayin'.




One Saturday morning when I got tired of fighting with the snakeskin, I started the piece in the back of the photos.  This one came together pretty smoothly; the thing that slowed it down was just the huge amount of stitching.




Here is the finished piece, entitled Revelation. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I'll be showing you further progress on the other two soon, along with another new one!



What processes, methods, or approaches work best for you in the studio?  I'd love to hear your ideas!



15 comments:

  1. love seeing the wrks in progress, thank you for sharing Sharmon! My friend Glenda Jones always has at least 7 paintings going at once, she's the mistress of the edge
    http://www.glendafelljones.com/

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    1. Thanks, Mo, I also love to see other artists' work in progress. 7 paintings is certainly impressive; I don't know how I'd fit them all into my studio! Working on more than 1 or 2 has really paid off, though.

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  2. love this look inside your process. Thanks for sharing partly done work.

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    1. Hi Deb! I'm always so curious about how other artists work. I appreciate that you always share your WIP, too. I wish more people would; I guess I'm kind of an artistic voyeur!!

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  3. magnifique travail, assez différent et pourtant dans une ligne continue...

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    1. Merci, Elfi! I'm glad you enjoy seeing them this way.

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  4. yup it is the only way I work... it is so nice to have several things to chew on at once... great work, you always inspire me!

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    1. I guess lots of people work this way; I can see why, now that I've tried it! Thanks for the good words, Cat!

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  5. I want to work on 3 or 4 pieces at a time but I always slide back and find I feel more comfortable doing one at a time.... I think. Funnily enough I have been carving a Book of Secrets too .... over the last few months but it hasn't quite taken off yet . Perhaps I need to work on some thing else for a while :-) Lorrena McKennitt inspired me to create the Book of Secrets. Have you listened to the CD?
    Love what you are doing. Looking forward to seeing more of your Book of Secrets.

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    1. I think everyone is different, and eventually will find figure out what works best for themselves. Interesting that we're both working on a Book of Secrets - I'm not sure mine has quite taken off yet, either, just going by fits and starts. I've been a Loreena McKennitt fan for years, and have listened to all her CD's; there's a lot of inspiration in them, for sure. Looking forward to seeing your Book of Secrets, too. Will it be an acual book with wooden covers?

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  6. I work one piece at a time but working several seems like a good idea. Great when one piece slows down and you can put your attention on another. This Revelation is stunning! I love the idea of a Book of Secrets so I don't see how you could go wrong and with a snake skin too!!!

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    1. I don't know if this method works for everyone, Mary Ann, but it has been working well for me so far. Thanks for the kind comment about Revelation; we will see how the Book of Secrets goes, but I'm not getting too much momentum going on it right now.

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  7. HI Sharmon,

    loving the book of secrets, think there is one in my family..beautiful snakeskin, and I get what you mean about attaching it.. must have been so delicate.

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    1. Hi Denise, I think we all have some secrets hidden somewhere. This is proving to be an interesting subject for an art piece, and has really made me consider some deeper questions. Good therapy, maybe? The snake was very hard to work with, as it was delicate, but also uncooperative and didn't want to stick to the book's surface. Thanks for visiting!

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  8. Hats off to the work that you have done and achieved success in it. I earned a good learning from your post. Eventually the time is 24 hours for every one. Giving excuses has become a trend but practically it is not going to work. With the experience that I have gained I can surely say that there is no better time tracking software than Replicon (http://www.replicon.com/time-tracking-softwares.aspx). The hassle free tool with featured calendar based interface makes the time tracking more specific.

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