Archive for Philosophy of my Art

My 200th Blog – It’s All About the Creative Process

Drawing with crayons Nancy Smeltzer, MFA

Well. here it is, the 200th blog on this site! I’m rather proud of myself after quite a year of adverse situations with my mother dying and me getting chronic Lyme disease and tick malaria. Some days it’s all I can do to lift my head up off the pillow from the die-off of the toxins, yet I wanted to make this 200th posting special. However, what to write about?

I went round and round for quite awhile until on my Facebook page last week in response to attitudes regarding making your art perfect, Ellen M. Cosgrove wrote “I approach them (her art work) with the attitude that I’m just fooling around, just playing, just experimenting. I think that gives me flexibility, and I’m more invested in the process than I am in the outcome.” What a great concept… just playing and having fun!!!

Remember how much fun it was when you were little just to fool around with art materials? I spent hours and hours just scribbling away on mountains of paper (and a few walls, I must admit). It wasn’t until I got further in school that I found out there was a “right” way to do art, but I was fortunate in that I got a lot of support and found out in Junior High that people actually liked what I made. That gave me a way, as a fat little girl, to stand out from the crowd because I was “the artist”. Even today, at class reunions, people still say that I was always doing art work.

So, I encourage you to do as Ellen said and go forth and PLAY (Big capital letters for emphasizing!) I found that when I give myself permission to do just that, and not create some SERIOUS WORK OF ART (that one had lots of sound effects with it), but just play with the materials and enjoy the creative process. I’d love to see some of your results!

If you have some well-lit photos of any of your “playing” with art materials, then send them to me at info@fiberfantasies.com . Perhaps, I can use them in a future blog or on a Facebook page. 

Why not leave a comment as to your thoughts on this posting. Please take a minute, fill out the form below or by clicking on the “comments/no comments link” at the top of the posting, and then share your ideas with the rest of us. We all grow when we share our thoughts and impressions, so why not join our growing community of those who appreciate art quilts and textile arts. We’d love to hear from you!… and PLEASE tell like minded souls about this blog! The more readers and contributors, the more I write because encouragement helps the words flow!

You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com (be patient as it loads; it’s worth it), my spiritual healing work at www.transitionportals.com and can find me on Google + , Facebook (for Transition Portals) Facebook (for Fiber Fantasies),  and Twitter.

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.

Women’s Art Work – Hemming Up Life’s Unravelings

Photo of Nancy SmeltzerNancy Smeltzer, MFA

As a neighbor’s daughter was getting ready to go out to a party, she asked me if I would some time show her how to hem up the pants she was wearing. It brought back memories of Home Economics classes that all of the girls took back when those grades in school were called Junior High. (The boys took Shop class, and it never would have occurred to us to even consider to learn any of the information the other group was learning.) I’ve hemmed up many pairs of pants and skirts over the years, as until I began taking Egoscue exercise classes, my left leg was 1 1 /2″ ( 3.75cm) shorter than the other. (That’s no longer the case, now that my back is straighter). I then began to look at how woman’s sewing, while having the practical use of taking care of her family’s needs, was a metaphor of traditional women’s work of mending up what life often unraveled.

I know for myself, there have been many hours where I have poured myself into my intensively beaded art quilts when my life seemed as if it was falling apart. Through men leaving me, betrayals, family crises, and the other upheavals that come along with living, I’ve found that hours of beading and sewing, sewing and beading have gotten me through a number of life’s downfalls. It appears as if other women have turned to sewing, too, when faced with turmoil. Mourning quilts were often a way a community came together to help comfort a family where there was a loss. The previous link tells of a poignant recounting of where a baby had died along the trail as a wagon train moved westward. Having no wood to make a coffin, the baby was buried in a quilt that the other women quickly made out of precious fabric they had been taking to their new homes, wherever that might be.

During Victorian times, the craft of hair art developed. Originally it developed to preserve a locket of hair from a deceased loved one, usually from a child or someone who died young. The art form developed into quite elaborate weavings, some times as a pin, sometimes as a locket or bracelet. On the link above, there were calls for artists, as people were wanting to have memorial art made, so I imagine that there are still some people that would like to have their loved one remembered with a visual reminder of the delicate life that had passed.

When I first began art quilting professionally back in the early 80s, the genre was still looked on as “women’s work”, and as such, it was very hard to get into “serious” art exhibits. Now the medium is recognized, collected, and has international exhibits of their own. As elaborate as my pieces have become, they still had their humble beginnings in learning how to make hem and aprons back in Home Ec class so very many years ago.

How did you begin your artistic medium? Did you learn it in art school, or did it have more humble beginnings? 

Why not leave a comment as to your thoughts on this posting. Please take a minute, fill out the form below or by clicking on the “comments/no comments link” at the top of the posting, and then share your ideas with the rest of us. We all grow when we share our thoughts and impressions, so why not join our growing community of those who appreciate art quilts and textile arts. We’d love to hear from you!… and PLEASE tell like minded souls about this blog! The more readers and contributors, the more I write because encouragement helps the words flow!

You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com (be patient as it loads; it’s worth it), my spiritual healing work at www.transitionportals.com and can find me on Google + , Facebook (for Transition Portals) Facebook (for Fiber Fantasies),  and Twitter.

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.

Helping Others to FInd Their Artistic Voice and Share Their Souls – Part Two

Nancy Smeltzer,art quilterNancy Smeltzer, MFA

I’ve become Net friends with a woman named Sian Lindemann on Facebook and a creativity site we’re both on, The Purpose Project. Awhile back, in one of her postings, Sian gave me the idea for this blog when she wrote about how she got more clear about her own path by helping others. I realized that was true for me also. I have been encouraged and inspired by many people over the years and now am trying to do some of the same thing for others.

In a previous posting about my Artist’s Voice, I wrote about how I feel that rather than having so much of a voice, I have a distinctive style. Well, after being a professional art quilter for over 30 years, I do have certain ways of creating and stylistic approaches that I fall back on, because for me, they work. So now, I hope that in this blog, and the comments that I make on-line, that I am offering some of the insights that I’ve gained and am trying to help others. Not that I feel that I have the one true way to create art quilts, or any other medium, nor would I suggest that others become as obsessed with buttons and beads as I am. (You should see how raggedy the tips of my fingers are from all of that sewing, as I can’t stand to have thimbles on my hands.)

So what do I get out of helping others? I know that for me, there’s an honoring to those who helped me and of passing on techniques that have been around for generations. I don’t have children, but I’d like to think that those I’ve taught over the years have some pieces of me from insights that I’ve either said or written about that are getting passed on into them. Hopefully, they will pass on their own insights, sort of as in “each one teach one”. Some might find it egotistical that an artist would even take the time to express herself in her art when they are so many pressing issues in the world. My take is that we each grow when someone else is inspired to show a piece of their soul, which to me is what each piece of art is. Think of how precious a child’s piece of art is lovingly given to someone else, and was created “just because”. I want to be the kind of person that would see the heart in each piece I come across, even though the technical skills aren’t there yet.

I taught 7th grade science for 27 years, but there were times when I asked my students to make a drawing of what they were seeing. I wasn’t asking for a piece of “art”, I was just asking them to make an outline of the experiment they were constructing or what they were seeing under the microscope. How sad I was when so many of these 12 and 13 year olds forlornly proclaimed that they couldn’t draw. Where did they learn that, except from some uncaring soul when they we’re younger who squashed their natural desire to draw and paint.

I love this quote by Howard Ikemoto, a contemporary artist and teacher. “When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college – that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared at me, incredulous, and said, “You mean they forget?” Now here is a child that had not had the ability to create art socialized out of her!

So, my suggestion to all of us is to be kind to those who have the courage to produce and to put their work out there for others to see. I especially ask you to consider what you say to children. My take is that as each of us finds our own way of being creative in the world, our energy begins to resonate with those around us, and we all begin to find our artist’s voice.

How have you been encouraged in your artistic pursuits? What have you done to encourage others? 

Why not leave a comment as to your thoughts on this posting. Please take a minute, fill out the form below or by clicking on the “comments/no comments link” at the top of the posting, and then share your ideas with the rest of us. We all grow when we share our thoughts and impressions, so why not join our growing community of those who appreciate art quilts and textile arts. We’d love to hear from you!… and PLEASE tell like minded souls about this blog! The more readers and contributors, the more I write because encouragement helps the words flow!

You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com (be patient as it loads; it’s worth it), my healing work at www.transitionportals.com and can find me on Google + , Facebook (for Transition Portals) Facebook (for Fiber Fantasies),  and Twitter.

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.

May you Reach for the Stars!

As you plan your upcoming year, may you reach for the stars!Looking back on 2012, it has been an amazing year for me, as I shared with you what I’ve been doing with my own art medium. I often push myself, as I look for higher and higher ways to present my visions. My new series, Meditation Gardens, has allowed me to combine my artistic and spiritual endeavors as I tap into a person’s energy field and “see” where they would optimally like to play and meditate. I wish for you in the upcoming year that you’ll find your own true artistic voice and will truly “reach for the stars” in whatever way that might look for you. Please know that I am here to support you and share in your own exploits as you read about mine.

Thank you so much for being part of my creativity community, Nancy Smeltzer

What is Your Legacy? Why do you Create?

Box of craft supplies my friend saved for meI often pour months of work into making my art quilts. Added on to the usual time that any hand work takes, I’m obsessive about covering most of the surface with buttons and beads, so even more time gets added on. As much as I love what I do, if I’m thinking of leaving a legacy, I couldn’t have picked a much more fragile art form. (Sand paintings immediately came to mind, so OK, there are some media that don’t last as long as fabric does.) I’ve always said that since I didn’t have any children, except for the several thousand that I taught over 27 years, that my art quilts are what I’m leaving behind and that’s why I lavish so much attention on them.

The topic for this blog came about when I was visiting a friend recently who very graciously saved a box of craft supplies from an estate sale when they bought a house in West Virginia, in the mountains here on the East Coast of the USA. The couple had died and everything went. The former owner had made various small items and sold them at local craft shows. In the story that I’ve made up about her, as I actually know nothing about her except gleanings that I have from looking at the contents of the box, she probably made these items in hopes of making extra money, as I do know that that area does not have a lot of job opportunities. especially for older women. I also know the prices of the materials that were in the box, which were inexpensive items from a local craft store, so I’m guessing that she didn’t have a lot of money.

Baked clay and sand dollar ornamentsThese are some of the items that were in the box that had taken more time to make. The lower, brown ones are baked polymer clay that was pressed into a mold, fired in a low temp oven, painted, and then a hanging string was added. Most of the circles were pretty crudely crafted, so I don’t know if the intent was to make a child-like object or that was her skill level. The upper yellow piece is a painted sand dollar. A lot more time was spent creating the blue flowers in three tones. West Virginia is a long way from any beach, so I don’t know if she went there sometimes, had a friend who do, or found a source for these shells at a craft store.

Baked polymer clay flowers and google eyesIn the box of supplies, there was also a bag of polymer clay flowers. While you can buy them in a craft store, by looking at the quality of the edges of some of these, I imagine that she made many of them. Some of the ones that were probably commercially made have wires in the back, such as the yellow one on this pic. Without an attachment wire, the others would have to have been glued in place. I’ve experimented some myself with polymer clay, but found the pieces that I made to be easily breakable, so I didn’t practice very much. I do know that they don’t hold up well to being in water, so adding them on to anything that might need washing wouldn’t be very practical. At the top of this photo, you can see some green frog, or “goggly” eyes that get used oftentimes in making stuffed animals. There was also a small bag of large, flat eyes about 2″ or 5 cm in diameter, so again, I’m guessing that she might have made stuffed animals, perhaps for a local church bazaar.

Paper beads, bead angels, and sheer ribbonsDigging deeper into the contents of the box, I found a number of beaded angels, like the one in the bottom center of this photo. These items lead me to believe that these were also made for a church bazaar or perhaps a Christmas craft sale. In the upper part of the photo are some long oval painted paper beads and scattered around them are some inexpensive purple plastic faceted beads. I crossed the scene with two of the many spools of sheer ribbons that were in the box. The original owner seemed to have a love for shiny things, which is something that we both share. Perhaps that’s why I feel drawn to her.

My friend who bought the house and its contents said that the sale was done outside in the rain, so that’s why the cardboard box in the first photo is all droopy. I can imagine the spirit of the woman who used to live there looking down, perhaps with some sadness, at the plight of her craft supplies, that she probably had to save up for, being out in the rain. Once we’re gone, things don’t matter, but I fee compelled to honor the creative spirit of this woman that I never met and the drive she had to make and create with the materials that she had. I hope that she knows that I see the sacrifices that she had to make to do what she loved, and that perhaps this story will inspire others to think more consciously about what they’re leaving behind.

What sacrifices have you had to make to create in your medium? Do you see youself as leaving a legacy with your art work, and if so, how do you see it  as being important? 

Why not leave a comment as to your thoughts on this posting. Please take a minute, fill out the form below or by clicking on the “comments/no comments link” at the top of the posting, and then share your ideas with the rest of us. We all grow when we share our thoughts and impressions, so why not join our growing community of those who appreciate art quilts and textile arts. We’d love to hear from you!

You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com (be patient as it loads; it’s worth it), my healing work at www.hearthealing.net and can find me on Google + , Facebook (for Transition Portals) Facebook (for Fiber Fantasies),  and Twitter.

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.