To be honest, 2024 has been a year of mostly suppressed disappointment and envy. However; with enough holiday downtime, sugar consumption and serendipitously spontaneous creative opportunities; the last few days have helped me realize that my personal state of art can be thriving if I look at it with an open mind and open heart.
Why do people create? On point with the energy intensive but culturally fascinating phenomenon of AI generated answers, people create to develop: “self-expression, problem-solving, cultural reflection, connection, exploration and discovery, personal fulfillment and legacy.”1
Nowhere in that list does one create to develop disappointment or envy!
So on that note, a few of the things I have completed in December that would fit under the categories of self-expression, problem-solving, cultural reflection, connection and exploration and discovery.
Abstract Advent 2024
The need for something more objective was the driver between unintentionally ignoring this years’ daily shapes and committing to daily scene drawings on 1.5×1.5 inch squares of packing paper. I missed 3 days but it was a manageable challenge and made me realize: 1. it’s been a long time since I’ve considered background, middle ground and foreground and 2. scene drawing can help imprint memory and personal attachment to drawing that object drawing has not. (Perhaps more effort = more admiration for the outcome?)
Abstract Advent 2024. Ink and pencil crayon on packing paper. Photo: iPhone 13. B. Wanhill. December 2024.
Most of these drawings took about 10 minutes each. Photo: iPhone 13. B. Wanhill. December 2024.
Welcome Lojan Buddy
A spinning wheel is again back in my life! The Lojan Buddy wide treadle has been with me since the middle of October, but it was not until the last week of December that I have been able to spin on it fully. Already it has taught me to trust the good intentions of people more, find ways to make things work when it doesn’t feel like that is possible, and allow time for learning and creative play. Almost sounds like three solid New Year’s resolutions!
Welcome Hook Worm
One of the main reasons I settled on Lojan was their value for low waste production and environmental considerations. My wheel came with a very simple orifice hook and it worked, but in the continued spirit of customizing this wheel and inspiration from a colleague who has recently taken up needle felting, I used some of the leftover bits of green fibre to needle felt a little caterpillar-like creature on the end of my hook. Needle felting is a process! About 10 hours later, my customized hook was complete and it will be a fun addition to this wheel that is quickly becoming a dear, other than human friend.
I’ve been thinking about this year end post for a while. I originally meant to talk about the state of art education in Alberta (still using a 1985 curriculum), the state of my work as an art educator, with increasing complexity and decreasing salary, the state of promoting art in the age of social media (becoming mind boggling with the amount of platform options) or the state of my own non-existent art practice.
Instead, it took reflecting on some creative making to realize that it is an art to stay positive and hopeful in these increasingly troubled times. And making art(ful things) may help with that.
- Response to “Why do people create?” Poe.com, Originality.ai, December 31, 2024. Edited. ā©ļø
quietly creating 