hoity-toity tendencies
Yeah, I got 'em. It's those sneaky little tendencies to plug in words and phrases that I think will sound all profound and eloquent and inspired. And I'm really making a concerted effort to cease and desist. My recent website revamping is all about ditching those last vestiges of pretense ... to ensure what I'm putting out in the world is 100% down to earth, genuine, little ol' me.
I'm finally seeing that for all those years when I felt like a poser, there was a small part of me that was in fact - posing. It wasn't blatant or overt or horribly in-your-face, but as I've been rewriting my Maker's Mark and Nuts & Bolts and my Etsy profile pages, I can see it in the way I'd written about my work and myself. Little phrases meant to impress or mask or appear more accomplished or sophisticated or just a bit more something. When I re-design anything, jewelry or websites or graphics, I don't call it done until I've gone back multiple times over several hours or a couple of days and look for those little niggling things that might have escaped my initial changes. Last night, I did a quick perusal of those updated pages and saw that I still had a bit more work ahead. I've spent this morning on further rewrites and I'm thinking I might be done.
And for an extra kick in the pants and a supercharged dose of clarity, I took some time to revisit the Gee's Bend Quilts.
There is nothing on this earth that moves me more than those quilts and the extraordinary women who made them. I first heard about the Quilters of Gee's Bend in 2003 on the CBS Sunday Morning Show. The Whitney had the quilts on display and the art magazines were writing about them and Martha Teichner did an inspired profile on that never to be forgotten morning show. I was floored, blown away, in tears and have yet to recover. Martha traveled with the quilters on their bus ride to NY, singing all the way and filmed them walking through the museum, voices raised in song and praise. I was overcome and I bet the Whitney has yet to recover as well.
To this day, I cannot speak of that video or the quilts without a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. I didn't get to see that original exhibition, but I did get to see the second one in Tacoma ... one of the best birthday presents ever. Thankfully, when I walked in the gallery, there was a bench so I could sit down and compose myself before going in to finally see some of the quilts in person.
You see, the thing that gets me about those early quilts ... they are the truest, most genuine expressions of creativity I've ever encountered. For me, nothing compares. No pretense, no airs, light years away from hoity-toity. And that's the underlying goal for my work ... for whatever I do, whatever I write or create and put out into the universe, it must come from the deepest part of my heart and soul, free of pretense, to just be me and radiate.
From here on out, I need to keep them in mind. No more hoity-toity ... I'm over it, done, finished, kaput, fineto.
onward.
l i g a - kvk
I'm finally seeing that for all those years when I felt like a poser, there was a small part of me that was in fact - posing. It wasn't blatant or overt or horribly in-your-face, but as I've been rewriting my Maker's Mark and Nuts & Bolts and my Etsy profile pages, I can see it in the way I'd written about my work and myself. Little phrases meant to impress or mask or appear more accomplished or sophisticated or just a bit more something. When I re-design anything, jewelry or websites or graphics, I don't call it done until I've gone back multiple times over several hours or a couple of days and look for those little niggling things that might have escaped my initial changes. Last night, I did a quick perusal of those updated pages and saw that I still had a bit more work ahead. I've spent this morning on further rewrites and I'm thinking I might be done.
And for an extra kick in the pants and a supercharged dose of clarity, I took some time to revisit the Gee's Bend Quilts.
There is nothing on this earth that moves me more than those quilts and the extraordinary women who made them. I first heard about the Quilters of Gee's Bend in 2003 on the CBS Sunday Morning Show. The Whitney had the quilts on display and the art magazines were writing about them and Martha Teichner did an inspired profile on that never to be forgotten morning show. I was floored, blown away, in tears and have yet to recover. Martha traveled with the quilters on their bus ride to NY, singing all the way and filmed them walking through the museum, voices raised in song and praise. I was overcome and I bet the Whitney has yet to recover as well.
To this day, I cannot speak of that video or the quilts without a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. I didn't get to see that original exhibition, but I did get to see the second one in Tacoma ... one of the best birthday presents ever. Thankfully, when I walked in the gallery, there was a bench so I could sit down and compose myself before going in to finally see some of the quilts in person.
You see, the thing that gets me about those early quilts ... they are the truest, most genuine expressions of creativity I've ever encountered. For me, nothing compares. No pretense, no airs, light years away from hoity-toity. And that's the underlying goal for my work ... for whatever I do, whatever I write or create and put out into the universe, it must come from the deepest part of my heart and soul, free of pretense, to just be me and radiate.
From here on out, I need to keep them in mind. No more hoity-toity ... I'm over it, done, finished, kaput, fineto.
onward.
l i g a - kvk