Art Content- Fabric postcards and a book review

I found this list of tutorials and how-to's all on fabric postcards courtesy of Sharon over at In A Minute Ago. I have just recently discovered Sharon's blog, and am loving it. There is always some good conversation going on there, or good art or a new blog to look at. I love that it is a mixed bag of stuff- lots of art content, which I love, but lots of other good stuff, too.

Anyhoo, I keep saying I am going to do art daily, but then I make excuses that my busy life (ie: these gol-durned kids, specifically) gets in my way, and I let that story stop me. I need to be creating, and can really tell this is missing in my life. I am so less cranky when I am making art! So, this summer, I am challenging myself to spend a couple of hours and make a small piece of art (fabric postcards and ATC's are nice and small and easy to do) daily, starting June 25th.

Books:
It had been my intention to read through and do the exercises in The Artist's Way, but even with AmyJo as my integrity buddy, I didn't do it. I think I will just finish reading it and not worry about the exercises.

Robin over Quilt Antics blogged a couple of quotes from the book, Marry Your Muse (see the Hana post a few posts down) . When I read the description of the book, it kinda sounds woo-woo, even for me, but I would like to check it out. I haven't been buying any books (or anything else for that matter!) as every spare penny has been going to the Piano Girl project, but if money were no object, I think my cart at Amazon would be filled with art books. There are a ton of fun artsy quilty books out right now.

What I *have* been doing is working through the exercises in The Art Quilt Workbook by Jane Davila and Elin Waterston. Once I have photo -posting capabilities again, I will post some of the things I have been working on. I absolutely love this book, and the exercises are simple and not overwhelming. Many of the assignments are small 9 x 11 sized quilts- small enough to actually finish! At the end of each chapter is a list of links to modern as well as classic artists whose works utilize the concept focused on in that chapter. I love this feature and find it inspiring to see how differently artists interpret these concepts.

So, once we have Piano Girl safely delivered to Interlochen the end of next week, I plan on spending a good portion of of my days devoting myself to my own art and education. Yay for me!
TTFN,
LB