Friday Designs: Art and People

This week included an “art support” experience for me.

I participate in a lot of “group” events for my various art forms: “Open Torch” at a glass studio (definition: up to 10 people sitting around a art studio, each using their own torch for beads/marbles/other small scale hot glass work), Open sewing days and other quilt classes, Polymer clay guild meetings, etc. The commonality of these things is that it is other hobbyists/artists who also practice that craft/art; people of like minds who understand it all.

Those other people are there for the art/craft; they are not there for me. When I was a child, my parents and relatives came to recitals, shows, etc., to see my things and support me. My art/craft friends come with me to things and they critique the work there, including my own things. We are all like-minded individuals attending and/or participating in an event due to shared interests.

However, I am human, female, emotional, needy…. And it is always nice to have someone with me for ME… to support me, listen to me, and just be with me. I do not do girlfriends in the same way that many women do. Some of it is the Aspie behaviors; I just do not travel in groups and attend things like a lot of women – especially hobbyists – do. I frequently see groups of women at things like quilt shows and bead shows who attend together, drive together, do a full day, lunch out, etc. I do not do that. Never have. I have some girlfriends, and while we have shopped together at quilt shops on occasion but that is a rarity; that is just not the way I do things. I either am generally alone or have a partner there with me – for me.

My husband (Chris) supports me in my art, but he really is not all that involved/interested. This doesn’t bother me; I don’t go to car shows, races, etc. I KNOW that if I ever said to him “I need you to: <art related>” he would jump. It’s very healthy that we have our own events. He supports me where it’s truly needed:

Doesn’t complain about the stacks of art supplies around the house
Doesn’t complain about the projects scattered here and there
Has stepped on pins and doesn’t chastise me (too badly)
Will stop at quilt shops and the like on trips
Went to Madison for the Art Glass and Bead Show for our anniversary (but did duck out to the car show next door at the venue

However, local events (at least those not requiring an overnight stay), well, let’s just say that I’m on my own….

Until this week….

I have a close male friend – Perry - who is very important to me in many ways. His opinions matter. His support matters and I enjoy his company.

He has a greater interest in the art/craft world than Chris. He worked directly in an art field business for many years and is an artist in his own right. While Chris has color sense and appreciates my work, Perry sees the details behind it all.

Quilting

This week was the MQ Quilt Show. Attending is pretty much a yearly event for me. While I enjoy looking at the displays, and visiting all the booths, It’s always been a lonely experience for me. As mentioned previously, I go alone, and I feel self conscious. As a result, I look at the things I want to see – quickly – and make it a short day.

All changed!

Perry went with me.

It was SOOO different than other times.

First, I felt comfortable. I had someone there for me, who followed me around, did what I wanted to, let me lead. That took care of the whole set of issues I have with a group interacting.

Second, I felt smart and informative. I love teaching art and craft classes (and sometimes other things). When I teach, I am in control and people are looking towards me for information. I also think I teach well (have been told that I do).

Perry appreciated all the displays, asked me questions, listened to what I said, and generally showed me a familiar show through new eyes. I feel I got more out of the whole experience than I have in the past.

I also spent less than I usually do! I think that was a lot about having someone with me and thus felt comfortable looking at things in vendor booths without feeling conspicuous and thus “needing” to buy something.

The Pink Hair

Also on the comfort / feeling conspicuous streak – I currently have fuchsia hair.

I’m not talking a streak in my hair, or a light undertone…

Nope,

It’s full on, bleached and dyed, anime, candy colored, etc.!

I get a lot of compliments. Some of them come from unexpected sources – women in business suits for example – and others from expected sources. I haven’t done the full on arty color for attention or rebellion; I think the lack of that shows in attitude and bearing. I’ve done it because I like the colors and I’m having fun with it.

I have nothing to prove, am not trying to shock, but it’s is still not typical

(I won’t use the word “normal” in any context here). What is “normal” anyway?

But, alas, the hair also generates negativity.

Amazingly enough, people are generally willing to verbally call out the difference from social norms in a positive manner, but not in a negative manner. Only one person has ever said anything negative about my hair directly to me, and even then, it wasn’t out right negative (he said: “I just can’t get used to the blue (the color at the time) hair”. However, people are more than willing to stare, gape, sneer, etc.

Both Chris and Perry like my hair and like that I have fun with it. Their attitudes are different from each other in how they address it. There are two pieces to Chris’s attitude. He outright compliments me about it, says it makes me look younger and makes him feel younger in turn and gives me a lot of feedback on a daily basis. The second piece is that Chris is more aware of the ways in which people can negatively judge me for the “not normal” hair. Perhaps that is because he works in a conservative office/industry in which pink or red nails, no open toed shoes, and socks or nylons required are dress code rules for women. Perry on the other hand accepts the hair color as me and doesn’t separate it from “normal” hair color; he seems to not see brunette/redhead/blonde as distinctly separate from the unnatural colors. Chris sees how people would judge me for it; I don’t think Perry even thought along those lines.

The quilt show demographic was far more along the lines of Chris’s world of people – median and averages ages probably at 55/60, conservative, “dowdy”, etc. Also – and this is my sense of bias – I find groups of women to be more openly judgmental about appearance than men/mixed groups. Perry commented after the show that he noticed the “sneer” a few times aimed at my hair color.

Which just makes me think something along the lines of: “Seriously people! Isn’t color a big part of quilting?, why judge when it’s somewhere else than in fabric!”

Quilt shop experiences

So, while I’m talking about the negative and judgments on my personal appearance at a quilt show, I’m also going to talk about it in context of quilt shops.

I get mixed customer services experiences in quilt shops due to my looks.

Chris and I together also get mixed (usually worse) customer service experiences.

Here’s the rub… without sounding too arrogant, my looks usually get me better service. I look younger than my age, I have a well proportioned figure (important in clothing shops especially; well made/sized clothes fit me nice and sales people use that to their advantage to up sell, etc). My youthfulness and brightly colored hair get me more respect in art and music related business in general and my height gets me noticed above other customers in some other businesses.

That all reverses in many quilt shops. I’m not sure exactly what it is: Do they think I’m too young to quilt? Are only plain looking women supposed to be able to operate a sewing machine? Do I look like I’m not able to afford quilting fabric? Do I look to young to appreciate a quilt? (read previous posts about people not appreciating the time/expense that goes into a quilt).

Whatever it is, it’s their loss. I spend a fair amount of money on my art/craft supplies and fabric is my first love. I appreciate quality and have been known to drop a pretty penny in a fabric store! I also caution quilt stores about the familiarity they breed and how regulars become a part of it. If someone feels like they are walking into a “Club” of which they aren’t a member, they may just turn around and leave without spending anything. I’ve had that experience at several quilt shops; where I was being ignored as I looked around or even while trying to get helped, only to have a regular walk in and get immediate service.

Additionally, just as I’ve had some negative gender based experiences in hardware/automotive business, Chris and I together have been judged based on his gender in quilt shops.

“Oh, a man, they can’t be serious about buying”.

And then at that point, we aren’t!

What is a Quilt?

Now, I’m going to be judgmental.

Sorry…..

I like quilts. I make a lot of “different” quilts. My own patterns, unique designs, odd uses of color, etc.

However, I don’t like “pictorial” quilts.

I saw a lot of these at the quilt show; quilts where the artist recreated a scene, photograph, portrait, etc. in fabric.

I like blocks, and sashing, and geometrics. “Traditional” types of pictorial quilting is ok too; things like floral, Baltimore Album, appliqué things, etc.

I think some things should be done in paint/pastels/pencils/etc., and put to paper instead of doing in a fabric world.

Just my opinion for whatever it’s worth.

Challenge

Last bit on quilting and the show…. Challenge project for next year’s show. The center fabric is the focus fabric.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Glass

Moving on….

I’ve waxed poetic, ranted, and raved…. All words… the common thread of quilting and art runs through my previous passages, but, there isn’t any “show and tell” contained therein…

So, time for show and tell, and then I’m ending this discourse.

Last week at Open Torch, I seem to have made it “Big Bead Day”

I always think the beads look like a bouquet of flowers before I take them off the mandrals

A pair of cream with orange beads. These are large (about ¾ inch) round beads

A collection of beads made with mixed up colors. The roundish one of the left is a glob. It wasn’t forming right so I left it. The one of the right is about 2 inches long! Also, you can see silver (fine silver) accents on it.

Blue beads. The big one is again about 2 inches. The cream one has LARGE bits of silver on it.

The white bead is a particularly good example of bi-cone shape. The dots on the bi-cone blue one are pretty cool.

A couple beads with a dark red glass in them. The long one is slightly over 2 inches. I’m proud of it – it’s pretty even.

A couple larger, squatter beads. The purple and silver one is a new favorite. I need to start making things with these!

Current Project

For a variety of reasons, I don’t want to show anything on a project I’m working on right now. Let’s just say that I’m trying something totally new to me, am very nervous about it, and want to get to a point before I show the world.

However, I want to show you the chaos that has erupted in my work space!

The Art of Toe Pictures

Just a weird and random thing…. I apparently like taking feet/toe pictures. I take a lot of pictures of my art by laying the piece on the floor and then snapping a picture from above. I catch my feet in them a lot. That also seems to have morphed into purposely taking pictures of my feet to illustrate another point….

My toes appear – with and without socks - in a lot of quilt pictures