An Artful Life

Tales from a Truck Driver

 

On my recent return trip from Athens, Ohio, on the greyhound, I had the opportunity to eavesdrop on a very long conversation between a career truck driver and a soon-to-be truck driver.  It was really fascinating to hear all of the advice that the senior truck-driver had to offer.  Advice ranging from what kind of truck to get, how to pay for it, how many miles it should have on it, how to merge lanes, how to find out about truck restrictions on the highways, to what to order at the truck stops.  Apparently, hot dogs are ok, but stay far away from the breakfast burritos.

But the most powerful thing that I heard this man share was how you get to choose the life that you want.  He chooses to have one good meal a day and to exercise.  He gave the details of how and where he fits the exercise in.  He says you don't have to get fat just because you sit on your butt all day.  He gets to decide what kind of life he has, not anyone else. 

I'm really paraphrasing here, but he also chooses to be happy.  You don't have to be all negative and complaining like a lot of truck drivers out there.  He avoids talking about religion, politics and his personal finances.  His advice was endless for this young man who wanted to be a truck driver.  It was all given very patiently, without ego, and with endless generosity.

Clearly, this truck driver lives in an abundant world where there is plenty for everyone.  And his knowledge wasn't something to be saved up, but rather, shared with anyone wanting to listen. 

I went to the SAQA conference with two intentions.  One was to discover what my next step is professionally, and the other was to find a new role model.  Who knew that I would find him on the bus.

Asking For What You Want

Yesterday I had two wins.  I had set in motion two ideas for artist circles and both ideas were accepted.  It is a testament for not being afraid to ask for what you want.  It gets you a lot closer to actually getting what you want.

The first meeting resulted in a go-ahead in forming a local/regional SAQA circle.  I have hopes that it would fill a hole in the San Antonio and surrounding area that I am feeling.  I miss show-n-tell!  I used to belong to two great groups before I moved back to San Antonio--Front Range Contemporary Quilters in Denver and Minnesota Contemporary Quilters in Minneapolis.  Both of these groups featured show-n-tell and I'm a believer that is a great way to learn from each other.

The group will also feature member-run programs that will encourage and aid Active SAQA members to becoming Professional SAQA members.  We have so many resources on the Internet:  SAQA's University, artist blogs, and quiltart.com to name a few.  But it is still nice to get to know like-minded folks in person and see their artwork up close.

As the details for this group are worked out, they will be posted on the Texas regional sheet on the SAQA site, emailed to members in this area, and promoted at the International Quilt Festival in Houston.  We are hoping to have our first meeting before the end of the year.

The second yes came from the Southwest School of Art and Craft.  I was fortunate to have participated in a phenomenal 3D design class this summer.  But when we were finishing up, I realized that I had more learning to do and really wanted a structure to integrate the learning we had in class with the work that I do in my studio.

Our teacher, Diana Kersey, and my classmates supported the idea of meeting roughly once a month and working on one--design element, principal of arrangement, or purpose of art--at a time.   The color class that I had with Heather Thomas was set up like this.  She lectured.  We worked on that one color problem during the month.  Then we shared our piece with the class.  Through that process, I really learned about color. 

If all goes well, this offering will be in the Spring 2009 catalog at Southwest School of Art and Craft.

The American Dream

I began this quilt in 2005 not long after Chuck and I left San Antonio for Colorado with the expectation that our house would foreclose.

It was a piece for my first color class with Heather Thomas, which was about neutrals.  Even though the palette is beige and gray, there is nothing neutral about the emotion that this piece holds, even after 3 years.

The American Dream for Chuck and I had turned into a nightmare of corporate jobs that we hated, a house that seemed to own us, and debts that we could barely keep up with.

We escaped by quitting our jobs so I could be a life coach and Chuck could be a massage therapist.  Of course, this quickly led to divestiture of our house, most of our belongings, and credit rating.

With our lighter load, we have been able to re-sculpt our lives into something that makes sense for us.   Our palette includes a lot of very bright colors.

This quilt will be on display at Fiber Artspace, aka our living room, September 4 - 28.

Choosing Fun

I'm working on my alter for Celebration Circle that will be exhibited at the Bijou Theater in September...and I was stressed out because I thought I had 3 weeks to finish and I learn that I only have a week. It wasn't impossible for me to get it done in a week as I've already started.

But I found myself, yet again, in a place of working on an obligation and not the last creative inspiration that resides in my head. I asked myself why does this keep happening. And the answer is obvious that I keep involving myself in events that have deadlines.

I asked for this project. I thought it would be so cool to have my work up on the wall with all of the others. I saw the display last year and it was awesome.

I also realized that part of my not having fun with this project had to do with the time pressure. So, I decided to ignore it. I was hoping to get it done still by the due date, but I also realized that if I didn't, it wasn't going to be rejected for being 1 or 2 days late when the hanging was still 2 weeks away. And then I realized that they must have developed this system for people just like me!

So, having decided to have fun with the rest of the journey of the alter, I quilted on and on and on. I took my time but worked steadily away. I will finish tomorrow which is really only 1 day late. But more importantly, there was some joy put back into this project. Who would want an alter made from angst anyway?

And I've given myself permission to not supply a quilt for the November political art exhibit, Every Voice Counts, in my space, Fiber Artspace. If I do, I do; if I don't, I don't.

And I've un-obligated myself from supplying two digital quilts for the September exhibit, DIG-IT-AL Quilts, which only leaves two more projects between now and the one in my head. One is to finish the first digital quilt that is 90% completed and two is to remount an earlier quilt called Be for an upcoming exhibit. Both are things that I really want to do and are time sensitive.

What will be interesting to see is if I still want to do the quilt in my head when I finally have space to work on it. I'll keep you posted.