Answering The Questions

As part of preparing for the Design Outside The Lines workshop in Taos, New Mexico, Shams of Communing with Fabric interviewed both Marcy Tilton and Diane Ericson. Their answers are well worth reading and the questions are - IMHO - great for all of us to answer.  So I did. My answers are below. I'd love to read yours. If you post them, please put a link in the comments so we can follow up. Thanks. 

Marcy & Diane at Five Pines Lodge in Sisters, Oregon

How do you define creativity?

Creativity isn't a segment; it's a thread that weaves through every aspect of my experience. It involves making things and is most fully realized as a process of evolution that turns some thing into something else. I think that's why I've always enjoyed make-over type careers like hairstyling, interior design, or renovating old houses and projects like the handbags just finished. I am the most fully immersed when moving something forward to its best especially if I am learning new skills at the same time. There's always an element of risk and of not knowing.

 Creativity is in everything - even flower arranging - when
you're not a flower arranger!

Describe an early experience, when you connected to your creative self or realized that you were creative? Do you have an early creative memory that is noteworthy?

When I started highschool, part of the grade eight curriculum was sewing. In that first short term - that was shared with cooking - which was something I did not fall in love with - we made a stuffed frog and an apron. Up until that point, I'd enjoyed textile crafts like crochet, knitting, and rug hooking and I knew I liked to make things but I didn't know anything about the sewing machine other than that it was a practical tool for mending that seemed to frustrate the women in my family and couldn't be used for fear of breaking. Apparently, my frog was amazing, even my hand stitches - LOL. It was love at first sight and I've breathed in fabric ever since. After that first term, I took four more years of sewing and was awarded a sewing machine as the most promising home-ec student at the end of my grade twelve year. I've always been thankful for that machine and especially for the woman who donated it. She started me on an amazing path.

 Learning to paint on fabric.

Creativity is fed by play. What is your favorite form of play these days (Or: "How do you play?")

Playing is something I learned later in life, most specifically in the past decade. Before that, everything was highly work oriented and product driven. Play for me now doesn't have expectations. It's a journey of discovery and - like creativity - it's a process of evolution where I am learning a new skill or technique or attempting to birth something. I was playing when I cut up old t-shirts and spritzed them with bleach. I was playing when I turned garbage into purses. Play was very hard at first. There's not a lot of control in play and it's taken a long time to get past the belief that there is only one right answer. I'm (mostly) there. Failure is no longer devastating. Rather it gives me either an opportunity to learn something new or an opportunity to evolve that project into something else - to play. When I start to have expectations of the project, I've stopped playing.

 Trying clothes on at Crazy River Clothing in Salmon Arm, BC

When the mojo is wilting, how do you jump start it?

• I will most often read a book, usually a romance which is my version of a sitcom since I don't watch TV. In the background, my mind might be resolving the issue but in the foreground, I'm amused by the familiar format.
• Often, I'll write about what's bothering me in my journal and that will evolve the problem into a solution. When I'm stalling, there's usually a fear of something involved.
• If I'm procrastinating because the project is going in weird directions, I'll make a decision to either be finished or to push through and then I'll force myself to do the work because once I've started again things tend to turn around. I've learned that not every project needs to be finished.
• Quite often, what I need is interaction outside the studio so I'll either go out for breakfast by myself or for coffee with a friend or travel out of town for a play day. Looking at details in dress shops makes me want to go home and try them. I love to design.
• Taking a workshop is one of my favourite mojo jumpers. I try to do that at least once a year on a topic that I want to know more about like sewing jeans or bras or at a level of higher creative learning. The energy from a workshop can last quite a while.
• I'm hugely goal oriented so any kind of goal that gives direction, provides learning, and stretches what I know will typically work well... if I know what the point is.

So much muslin testing that I forgot what changes
I'd made in what order and the results became invalid!

What is a mojo killer for you? Is there anything you avoid because it negatively affects your creativity?

• Wondering what the point is.
• Mass production, repetition, and anything that feels like paint-by-numbers.
• Not attaining the goal.
• People who only want to know what you know - usually for free - but don't really want to know you. I'm careful about who is invited into the studio.
• When I change too many variables or go too deep into a topic that the project becomes overwhelming to the point that there is no learning, no fun, and no end product. I do need clothes to wear! When that happens, I remind myself to move one step at a time and then I sew something simple to cleanse my palette.

Before

After

Do you ever have wadders? As in projects that are irredeemable? How do you handle this?

Yes. All the time. At one time, an irredeemable project would have been incredibly depressing. Not so much anymore. Now I welcome the opportunities for refashioning that they represent which may be why I have so many - LOL. In the past, I would have been upset about the waste of time, the waste of fabric, and the waste of money. Now the time was learning, the fabric is ready to evolve into something else, and the money spent is still wisely invested in my creativity. Nothing was wasted. It's a wonderful change of perspective.

Millicent's little black dress.

What is your current favorite thing in your studio?

My dressform - Millicent. With my developing love of refashioning and draping, she's invaluable and the closest I'll come to seeing myself objectively. Recently, I've realized that she needs a new cover, one that's not black because so many of the clothes I sew are darker and the details don't show up against Millicent's little black dress. Since I love writing almost as much as I love sewing, I want the details to show up in pictures for the blog.

My previous closet in November 2009. Not much has changed
except that my current closet is bigger.

If I were to walk into your clothing closet, what would I notice?

Minimalism. I'm constantly purging my closet. I'd like more clothing but I never seem to accumulate a lot so it's virtually empty and what's there is mostly black or shades of grey. You'd see a love of tone on tone texture. A lot of skirts. Very few dresses. Mostly t-shirts and cardigans. Mostly solids. Very few prints or bright colors. Not a lot of contrast in the prints that are there. With so few clothes, it's surprising how many don't get worn. My "uniform" is a black t-shirt and jeans. I have more black t-shirts than anything else. Most of the clothing is multi-seasonal and can be worn in layers rather than being put away. You'd also see a lot of colorful, abstract, contemporary styled jewelry. I prefer understated clothing and overstated accessories.

The path outside my friend Barb's previous studio - leading somewhere.

I believe that personal growth happens when you step outside your comfort zone. Has this been relevant to you? If so, how?

With personal growth and creative growth being different or intertwined?

I believe that creative growth requires care, nurturing, and balance. There's leaping and then there's jumping out of an airplane without a parachute. When I take on too much - most commonly by trying to be someone other than myself - then creativity fails. It's similar to trying to read a book that someone gave me as opposed to one I chose. It never works. My goals are set just beyond the edge not way over the edge. A current example is stamping and silk screening. It's an idea that's tickling. When I get to it, I'll stamp yardage and sew something from it and then stamp parts and sew them together. In both cases, since stamping and silk screening are the new skills, I'll work with T & T patterns to avoid changing too many variables and overwhelming myself.

I approach personal growth from a similar perspective. I would rather be in the studio than any other place but I need more physical activity and more personal interaction. In the past, with wider pendulum swings, I'd have signed up to run a marathon. I don't do that anymore. Instead, my goal is to walk around the complex once a day. It takes twenty minutes unless you stop to chat - and that's good for me too. I enjoy people and can talk to just about anyone although I'm not good in groups. I prefer one-on-one. Workshops are group activities. That's a step outside.

Transference - 3' x 4' - one of the last textile art pieces I sold

Growth is changing directions away from the thing that you're really good at and embracing what you're not so good at yet.

Talk soon - Myrna  

Grateful - to Shams for developing these questions. It's been fun thinking about the answers and sharing them.