I’m finally getting around to blogging my 2019 art resolutions. Hey, it’s still January, right? That’s not so bad.
First, I’m going to make 2019 my the year of Instagram. I’ve learned just enough from listening to the blog Artists Helping Artists by Leslie Saeta to get me psyched.
I plan to post every day: morning and/or evening. Search out more hashtags I want to follow, and through them, find other artists I like to follow. So far #fabriccollage, #slowstitching, #artquilt, #foundobjectart and several similar are ones I’m paying attention to.
I try to stay on Instagram after I’ve posted to “like,” comment etc. for at least 15 minutes. I understand that there is an algorithm that helps you if you do that. I don’t have a definite goal in mind for the number of followers I would like to have, but I do want to grow my presence there.
Do you have suggestions for me? And — do please follow instagram.com/martharessler.
I want to continue making art quilts using found objects, but only when/ if it makes sense to do so. I think I got off track a couple of years ago, incorporating them when it didn’t quite make artistic sense.
I’m pleased with the “Incorporating Found Objects in Art Quilts” class I gave, as well as my current, ongoing Beginning Art Quilters class here in my studio. So I want to plan at least 2 more of those during the year.
I’m intrigued by a stitching art called boro. It’s a Japanese form of embroidery related to Sashiko. If I understand correctly, Sashiko uses orderly white thread stitches on indigo, and boro comes from mending process. I am more interested in adapting these, as part of the slow stitching movement, making small fabric compositions. They may or may not turn out to be completed art quilts. But first I need to learn what they are and are not.
I want to try to create some sculptural forms using art quilts. I have some ideas . . . stay tuned on that score.
Travel this year will be focused on Cuba and the Caribbean, so I aim to create a body of work coming out of those experiences. I aim to dig below the surface in our Caribbean travel. Beyond the sunshine and sandy beaches is a history forged in blood from sugar and slavery.
I’ll continue my active work with local art organizations, including Art Plus Gallery, the cooperative gallery in West Reading of which I am part.
And – the garden will call to me come spring. There will be weeds to pull, natives to plant, and birds to watch.