State of the art

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?)

Drawing days 16 of 24. (including 3 missed days). Abstract Advent 2024. ink and pencil crayon collaged on craft paper.
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!

The Lojan Buddy wide treadle. I chose this model because at the time, it was the least expensive model offered and allowed me to spin with two feet or one – which has been perfect. All Photos: iPhone 13. B. Wanhill. November and December 2024.

My first full bobbin from part of a braid I started at the beginning of 2024. The Lojan wheel uses Dutch tension which has been a very smooth and intuitive transition for me from the Ashford Scotch tension.

I had plans to draw botanicals on the wheel, but with testing, wasn’t confident with media on top of the Tried and True wood finish. Even adding oil paint to the rim of the wheel was a lesson.

Perhaps one day, I will add to this secret pinecone.

Skeins of learning. This is the full braid of merino, bamboo and silk from left to right: Last spring’s 3 ply spindle spin, this summer’s chain plied spindle spin and my first Lojan Buddy skein using the Andean ply technique.

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.

Using the shape of the Lojan orifice hook, I first added a wet felted base and began adding more details to that. Hours and hours of poking and I’m now happy with the results. This activity also gives me a greater appreciation for the work that goes into a needle felted sculpture. Photo: iPhone 13. B. Wanhill. December 2024.

Strange adorableness now added to my life.

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. ↩︎

Abstract Advent 2023

In December, I took a break from all things botanical and spent some of my spare time participating in #abstractadvent, an annual art challenge developed and hosted by art pedagogy. This was my third year participating and I found it more difficult than previous years. I began to create visual narratives each day and my format was larger than previous (each day was approximately 11.5 cm/4.5″ square). I also developed my theme using characters I cut out of a shipping bag from the art pedagogy shop. I paired all of this with watercolour details illustrating each day’s chosen shape. Finally, Letraset was used to loosely refer to the story line which was often informed by daily events or the characters themselves. For someone who is comfortable with drawing, all this different media was tricky to put together in a cohesive way!

Near the end, it became a daily work-in-progress effort, with catching up on weekends. I did succeed in finishing and I’m pleased with these tiny collages – considering work was hectic, celebrations were being prepared and I was coming up with ideas fairly quickly.

In order to fully participate in this and have my work seen by others on Instagram, I needed to use a hashtag – something I had given up with my personal account.

So, I scrambled to develop a new public account. You can find my daily challenge work here: @an_uncertain_satellite (story about the name for another time or not at all). I am also participating in #100daysofspindlespinning developed by @dreareneeknits and I’ve found this return to small amounts of fibre spinning each day very rewarding. In the new year, I hope to share some of my progress with this.

Best wishes, whoever is reading, for a peaceful, hopeful and creative New Year.

Images above: Mixed media collage. B. Wanhill, December 1-24, 2023.

The orange pen is waning

In half an hour I will have gained an hour. This is a blessing. Because I have wasted so many hours in the hours that were September, October and now November. Between the faltering, there have been hours of extreme busyness. With work mostly, but also getting the garden ready for winter.

The sketchbook has been mostly constant – a place to quickly record the extra long season of blooming Papaver somniferum and sweet peas (the former: unexpected, the latter: reliably expected.) The seemingly discontinued Staedtler 432 M orange ballpoint stick pen is running out of ink – I never intended to have so many orange flowers. Nevertheless, a welcome volunteer marigold bloomed just in time to gift me some seeds for next growing season and after a few years hiatus, I again had success with nasturtiums. Lastly, the ‘Bright Lights’ Cosmos creates a lovely orange stain on paper. I collected seeds from that too and look forward to adding more of this to the garden to brighten hard to grow spots.

Below, my sketchbook entries for September to November 4:

_{Sketchbook entries, September-November 2023. Pen and Ink. B. Wanhill}