Naked Pixels

Creatively stuck? Try a change in media!

A few days ago, I started to idly wonder if cross-stitch patterns could effectively be turned into quilting patterns. It was a stray thought, no plans for cross-stitiching or quilting, and I didn't give it enough attention to really come up with an answer. It seems to me that it could easily be done, but just what adjustments might need to happen for a workable end result... I don't know. It did get me thinking further, though, about borrowing from one medium when you work with another.

Back to the cross-stitich patterns... My grandmother used to crochet beautiful pieces that could be framed and hung in someone's house that showed their family name. She did this with filet crochet. As I recall (and I charted a few of these myself for her), the charts that she used as her patterns were cross-stitch patterns for letters that were charted out by hand onto graph paper.

Illustrators for children's books (just one example) borrow from a different medium all the time. That's really their job. Ernest Shepard's drawings are as much a part of the Winnie-the-Pooh books as Milne's writing. I think a large part of that is because Shepard did add little details not present in the story and descriptions, while also staying faithful to what Milne had written. It feels less like, "Here's a picture of what the words say," and more like, "Come see what I see when I read these words."

Two of my favorite movies are Fantasia and Fantasia 2000. The former is how I learned to appreciate purely instrumental pieces. I could let my mind wander and create a whole world with the music as a soundtrack, without having that world influenced by the ideas communicated through someone else's lyrics. (Not that I don't like that, too. Most music I listen to does have lyrics. I usually expect them to be meaningful, not just sound good, though.) Sure, the music itself is someone else's influence on what you imagine that way, but an influence that can leave more wiggle room for the listener's imagination. Music can be a gentle nudge when the imagination isn't sure where to go.

If you get stuck in creative quicksand, try reaching for another medium as a lifeline. Don't feel like music can't help because you aren't a musician, or sewing isn't what you do so there's no reason to look at the patterns. Take it in, and find a way to make it your own. Then get back to creating!

My entry for the deviantART/"Paper Heart" poster contest

I managed to get my entry in! I really wasn't sure that I would... it was very much looking like I wouldn't. I wanted to finish the piece, though, and I did manage to make it in on the last day of submissions. I want to show it to all of you, but I can't really figure out a better way than just giving you the link to it. Posting it here would involve resizing things, or putting up a smaller view and full view...That's built into deviantART. Just click the link, and when the page loads click on the piece to bring up the full view.

I'll wait here while you look at it.

I hope you didn't close that. It'll probably make more sense if you look at it again after I tell you about it.

The contest is part of a promotional for the movie Paper Heart, which is supposed to be a sort of "mockumentary" (though I don't think it's supposed to be comedy like This is Spinal Tap) about a girl who doesn't believe love really exists setting out to find out what other people think love is. So the contest asked us to express the theme "What Does Love Mean to Me?" and required that the words "Paper Heart" and "In select theaters August 7" appear in the piece.

My notes on the page where the piece is cover technique. I want to talk more here about the inspiration. This was a theme that immediately grabbed me, and each of the white hearts in that picture represents a type of love that's been present in my own life. I didn't have to struggle at all to come up with those, and I'm just sorry I had to limit myself to four.

Mom and kids

The first heart is inspired by my sister and my neice and nephew. Due to circumstances surrounding how my neice and nephew came to be in the family, I've seen that the maternal bond does not always result from having given birth to the children. My sister and her husband adopted their kids, but there is absolutely no doubt that those are her babies and that she is truly their mommy. It's beautiful just to watch her with the kids.

Couple with a wheelchair

The second heart is inspired my my husband. He's a gentle, loving man who saw me through a rather uncommon nuerological illness that was robbing me of much of what it is to simply be "me". He carried me through the pain, the frustration, and the doubts and fears that were still present through the hardest parts of recovery. He did this while adjusting to his own limitations and disability resulting from injury while he served in the Marine Corps. No matter how much pain he's in, or how hard things have been for him recently, he manages to keep being my shelter in the storm. His hugs are my "happy place". He's the strongest person I know, even while being one of the gentlest people I've ever known.

Ask him, though, and he'll say I'm the strong one. He points to how I still managed to take care of so much while I was so sick. He says that I always take him and his needs into account, no matter how much I'm dealing with at the time. He tells me I'm as strong as some Marines... even stronger than some! He holds me and kisses me even when I'm covered in sweat and dirt from mowing the yard, and he thinks I'm beautiful even when I'm ill. And he says that wrapping me up in a hug is being in his "happy place".

It's some really heavy stuff to deal with, especially in the first two years of being married. But the love makes it possible. Nothing can defeat us because of that!

Walking the dog

I have been lucky enough to share part of my life with some really wonderful dogs. Dogs respond very well to being treated like they are truly part of the family... after all, they are pack animals. It is their very nature to find their niche in the group, take care of other members of the group when they need it, share work, share play... sounds a lot like a family, huh?

I'd really like to be able to talk more about the great dogs I've known, but it's hard for me right now. I finished this piece for the contest on Wednesday of last week. On Thursday, my ex-husband got in touch with me to let me know a dog I loved very, very much... a Sheltie named Emmett, who is really responsible for my great love of dogs... was dying. Emmett was 16 years old, and it was simply time. He might have died on his own in another week or two, but the life he would have had to live for that time wouldn't have been "life" so much as "biological processes still functioning". On Friday, we took Emmett to the vet and made it easier for him.

And maybe that really is all that needs to be said about that heart.

Elderly Couple

My grandparents were the inspiration for this heart. Note that the little old people have bigger hearts over their heads than anyone else. Their love of has grown over the years shared. My grandparents were married for over fifty years. When my grandfather died, we all believed my grandmother could still live several more years. He died Memorial Day weekend. Over that summer, she only mentioned him to me once. I sat down in the recliner at her house one day, and she told me my grandfather had said that was the most comfortable chair he'd ever had. She died the week of Thanksgiving. After fifty years together, she only made it six months without him.

My grandfather could leave the house for just fifteen minutes to go down the street to pick up milk, and my grandmother would meet him at the back door and kiss him when he got home. She did that all my life, and I'm betting she did it when my mom was a kid, too. Over fifty years of kisses... whether they were apart for hours or just for fifteen minutes.

So which one is "love"?

All the hearts represent "real love". The concept for the piece changed a bit over the course of the project... even when it was far enough along that having to tweak things was a bit of a setback... but it is, at it's core, the idea that immediately hit me when I read about the contest. There was no way I could represent only one kind of love. Limiting how we think of it is why we so often don't notice it.

Spotlight On: He Who Controls The Spice Apron

He Who Controls The Spice Apron by rosaamarilla
Create men's cooking aprons at www.Zazzle.com

Also available on a mug, and on aprons and mugs for women.

Fans of Frank Herbert's Dune may not be able to control The Spice (and, by extension, the universe), but when it comes to cooking many of us would agree that, "The spice must flow!" Whether it's oregano and basil, cumin and paprika, or a healthy dose of Adobo, spices add wonderful flavors. He who controls those spices controls, at the very least, the kitchen.

This was one of the earliest designs I did. My husband is a big fan of Dune - both the books and movies - and talked me into watching Dune and Children of Dune with him one week. I'd seen the first one (the Sci-Fi Channel version and the original with Sting's scary hair) several years before, but it had been difficult for me to get into. I am a science fiction fan, so I wasn't sure why I couldn't get into the story. It sounded interesting enough, and I couldn't believe I'd made it that far in life without knowing about the books!

The problem seemed to be that I'd watched it in a house full of hardcore Dune addicts. They knew the story inside and out, and could discuss characters as if these were people they'd once lived down the street from. The back and forth discussion of plot elements, character traits, and how changes between the books and the movie affected these things was just an overload for someone who was new to the whole thing.

It really is a great story, and like many great science fiction stories, is very applicable to our own lives. No matter how alien the planets or futuristic the technology, the people are still... well... people. The litany against fear really can calm a person.

"I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain."
--- Frank Herbert

And, as I said before, it is true that, "The spice must flow!"

Inspiration strikes at the strangest times.