April is Arts, Culture and Creativity Month in Fremont. In my work for Tri-City Voice, I can end up talking to artists about their technique, even if that’s not the main topic of the article.
For example, I wrote about the Piecemakers Quilt Guild back in December. Guild member Toni Mathues told me that quilters tend to have at least three quilts in process: One they’re cutting out, one they’re putting together, and one they’re sewing or doing handwork on.
There’s one more category. Mathues said, “Then there’s those quilts where you get started and go, Eh, I don’t like it. And you put it away and you come back to it five years later.” These are called UFOs, or “Un-Finished Objects.”
I don’t quilt, but I do like fiction writing. Even though it’s a completely different field, I related so much. I do tend to have one story that’s a first draft, one I’m editing, one I’m getting feedback on and proofing…and many UFOs. (I’m officially stealing that term.)
Mathues had some good advice for the UFOs. “You’re going, I can’t get past this. You set it aside and you do something else. Maybe you read a book that is inspirational. And you go, Ah! That’s exactly what I need.”
Sometimes you have to be patient when the “right” words just aren’t coming. It’s ok to get stuck. The important thing is to stay curious and open to inspiration.
Also in December, I talked to Paula Fischer, who teaches art classes at Ruggieri Senior Center. Her class shows that anyone can develop their artistic skill.
“A lot of these people have done really specific jobs,” said Fischer. “Lab tech or accountant, where everything has to be perfect. And they’re wound up so tight. My thing is to loosen them up. So I don’t allow erasures in my class.” She told a story about a woman who drew so small you needed a magnifying glass to see her drawings and so lightly the lines were barely visible.
Still, that woman was drawing. She got her art out of her head, and that’s the hardest part.
Fischer had one piece of advice: “Use your imagination. Everybody’s got one. You just have to exercise it…If somebody comes to me and says ‘Can you teach me how to draw?’ and I say, ‘Well, do you want to learn to draw?’ ‘Well, not really.’ I say, ‘I probably couldn’t teach you anything!’ If somebody wants to do it, they’ll do it. They’ll work at it.”
In April, let’s unwind a little and work on creativity.
