Category Archives: Arts and Crafts

Editing: Not Just For Words

When I finish a story that doesn’t quite feel perfect, it bothers me. I may put it aside but I can’t submit it to a market until I’ve figured out what’s off about it, and corrected it. As time passes, I may even go back and small corrections to stories I’d previously sold, since experience or an evolution in my writing style has given me new perspective.

I do the same thing with my art.

Often a piece is done when I think it’s done, and I don’t have to go back to it. In the case of my Tree Bearing Fruit painting from last year, I knew it wasn’t quite right. I’ve got it hanging on my bedroom wall, where I can see it every day, and there was something about the shape of the tree or the moon or both that wasn’t working for me. So, over the weekend, I fixed it.

Compare:

Tree Bearing Fruit, 2011

vs.

Tree Bearing Fruit, 2011-2012

The photos aren’t the best, but you can click on them to see a larger version. I brought the curve of the tree more to the right, making it rounder and matching it with the size/shape of the moon. I made the moon whiter, though I kept the tricolor (they’re just lighter) pattern. I also added faint lines around the moon that reminded me of viewing the moon just before a rainstorm, when it has that whispy corona.

Detail of the “fruit”:

Detail of “Tree”, 2011

Tree Bearing Fruit, 2011-2012 (detail)

I’m not saying that you always need to go back and tinker with your creations, but at the same time, you shouldn’t be afraid to. If it’s not quite right, then fix it. One of the great things about making Art (or writing) is that you have the power to keep working on it until you’re happy with the results.

I’m glad I took the time to make this painting into what I wanted it to be.

(Re)Finishing What I Started

Winter’s creeping in around the edges here on the East Coast, and along with shorter days and cold weather comes an increase in how much time I spend indoors. Winter is the time of year where I cook more, knit more, make more – anything to feel productive and active even when I’m stuck inside*. I actually look forward to these kinds of projects because unlike a piece of writing, which I can fiddle with and edit and maybe never feel like I got it quite right, when I cook dinner or paint or sew something, I know when it’s done. I’ve said it before but it’s still true: being able to check something off a list, to say with finality, “This is FINISHED,” is a beautiful thing.

I made a decision recently that I don’t want to move with unfinished projects. I have a few things, here and there, around the house, that I’ve been meaning to get to. They’re not as important as writing or editing or chasing the child around, so they don’t get my attention as often. Mostly they’re artistic things, crafty things, like a few knitting projects for winter and making new origami cranes to replace some that got given away last year. Some of it’s organizational, like sorting my art and sewing supplies to make sure I know what I have and that I’m not moving with things I don’t need. I want to start my new life with only the best parts of my old life packed into boxes and brought with me.

Enter: the dresser.

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