This work-in-progress garnered the comment, “I love it when you let your freak flag fly!” on Instagram yesterday. After pressing back to make sure it was a compliment (it was), I’ve decided that the phrase makes a pretty good working anthem.
Maybe articulation will follow, but for now I’ll rely on that old Supreme Court ‘definition’ of pornography: ‘I know it when I see it’. Probably something about voice and style.
Is this square with woven strips and indigo moon ‘letting my freak flag fly’? No. Or, not yet. It is too derivative – persistently, dismayingly derivative. On the other hand, the newly assembled cloth collage below lets me announce: “I’m letting my freak flag fly!”
The early stages of composition nearly always more closely capture my ‘style’, such as it is. I have to figure out how to bring more of the free and pleasing (to me) beginnings forward. This is a question of technique, but not exclusively. To be continued…
I’ll be watching you discover…
well, we’ll see… I’ve been trying to do this very thing for a looooooooong time. But I feel newly determined, somehow.
Maybe this is that time when this thing finally arrives 🙂
Oh yes. I’m in love with this.
Yeah? Why thanks. Incentive to keep going!
Beholder’s eye an’ all that …”this woven strip square with indigo moon … so derivative…” I thought the circle was a window, a skylight maybe to the blue & white spring skies we’re seeing nowadays, even if the temperature has guttered.
Fly that thing, Dee!
‘fly that thing’ — nice ring to that, maybe a little naughty? thank you for the encouragement. wonder if thinking of my moon as a window might give me a new direction with that one?
“moon as window”: words conjured by the image will the image be further conjured by the ?
🙂
beginnings hold many answers. Fly it!
feeling curious and determined and experimental about next steps is a stance very much learned from you!
Also some beginnings are more like returns.
“Almost Cut My Hair” Crosby Stills Nash & Young Déja Vu album 1970
I almost cut my hair
It happened just the other day
It was gettin’ kinda long
I could-a said, it was in my way
But I didn’t and I wonder why
I feel like letting my freak flag fly
And I feel like I owe it to someone
Must be because I had the flu for Christmas
And I’m not feelin’ up to par
It increases my paranoia
Like lookin’ at my mirror and seein’ a police car
But I’m not givin’ in an inch to fear
Cause I promised myself this year
I feel like I owe it to someone
When I finally get myself together
I’m gonna get down in that sunny southern weather
And I find a place inside to laugh
Separate the wheat from the chaff
I feel like I owe it to someone
your cloth always has the mark of your hand
Well that’s nice to hear. I would say some more than others, tho.
“let your freak flag fly” – grand words…and the moon is such a wonderful window poking through the grid..watching to stories emerge with your stitch is delight
Kristin
Thanks Kristin. I hadn’t forgotten the CSN&Y song til Mo quoted it. Now I hear it in my head. Good words, indeed!
Oh, that’s a great anthem, and I’m caught up in the details of your work. Especially noticing the dots in the top piece- rooftop, constellation, around the sun, and the little star marks in the sky…all kinds of connection going on here.
I like this very much. To me, it vibrates with energy and imagination.
Dee – “Let your freak flag fly” is a perfect call to action, with thanks to Mo for the CSNY lyrics … my deaf self has missed much over the years for want of the ability to discern words in songs. And I likewise agree with her that your cloths bear your unwritten signature in their forms.
Here’s hoping your wish comes true and you are as happy with this latest cloth at the end as you are at its beginning.