I work in a series by natural inclination. After I’ve finished a piece, it makes sense to me to keep going with an idea as long as it still interests me. I see if there is a variation that I want to try, a different technique, or just push an idea a little further.
But after listening to a lecture by Kathleen Loomis at the recent SAQA Conference (Studio Art Quilt Associates) on this topic, I picked up on something new to me.
She posed the question: how many series to do you work on at once?
And — oops — I had thought I had to finish (exhaust) a series before starting something new. It felt, well, disloyal to an idea to leave it hanging to pursue a new one.
Now, since I understand that it’s “OK” to work on more than one series, I’m doing just that.
Here are three pieces I just finished.
The first one, “The Right to Arm Bears” is the upteenth in a series I started in January of combining photos of objects in my environment to create imaginary landscapes — often humorous ones.
The second one is maybe the third in a series of “old wood,” inspired by our humble wood pile here on the farm. There are more to come of these for sure.
And the third one is the first of a series of using bits of plastic toys. There are so many at the flea market I visit every week. Perhaps they were once loved, but are now discarded. I’m thinking of the series as “throw away nation.” And my thoughts also drift to the waste of human lives, not just tons of plastic, due to racism or wars. Hey — I do have a serious side, but don’t tell anyone!