Katherine Hall

Thank you for all your suggestions of creative ideas / words / topics to work on. Some are surprising, some are simple, some are from another planet! It’s very helpful to get them and I’m very grateful.

Well, I was grateful, until I tried to actually produce something based on one of them. Sheesh. Actually, it hasn’t been like that. One idea jumped out at me. It was ’stereo and mono (not Bono)’ (so Fourstar will like that).

As I said in the last post, the process of knitting or crocheting something doesn’t feel that creative, not at my skill level anyway. Perhaps it’s because when the yarn and pattern are selected, and the instructions followed, the end result is pretty much known. Whereas with other types or art / craft – drawing, printing, textiles, collage, paper, whatever – are more about the process.  They aren’t constrained by a need to produce a useful object, so they’re not as functional. It more about decoration, design, feeling. Projects like this are all about the process, the iterations, the materials, the emotions, the music, the time.

So I got the Pritt-Stick out.

I have a large box filled with images I’ve pulled out of magazines and paper from all sorts of things. I took a handful and pulled a few out of that. ‘Stereo and mono (not Bono)’ suggested to me something in black and white (mono) with a bit of colour and a bit of three-dimensional-ness to suggest stereo. As Bono was verboten, I didn’t need to consider how to fit U2 in there.

So I got some paper, sorted through my images, did some tearing and arranging, and stuck that down. (Ah, the joy of Pritt-Stick. It always feels like I’m back at Primary School, making messes with glitter. Sorry, making lovely Mother’s Day cards with glitter.) This is the result:

I then stuck other things on. An Emily Dickinson poem and some tracing paper, and I started stitching into it, like this:

And like this:

And it’s not finished yet. I have no idea at this stage what finished will look like. I think I’ll know it when I feel it, but until then, on with the Pritt-Stick and thread.

I’d like to know what you think, particularly Mr C who made the suggestion. What were you expecting? What do you make of this? I don’t know what my answer is yet…

Tags: collage, creativity, My work, paper, project