Thanks for the Encouraging words and small art rant

Thank you all...you took some of the stress off this decision.....your encouragement will give me the strength to carry through with the new step. Will probably not use fall market as the only yard stick but will try spring market as well....then if I am falling flat on my face will go back to plan B.
What would we do without such a great community of support.....I treasure your faith in this project.

Now for a small art rant. There has been much discussion on the list about whether you should completely design a piece or just let the fabric speak to you and start putting it up on the design wall. Folks, there is no right or wrong way to work. You have to find what gives you the results you want. For those of you lucky enough to just cut fabric and get a great a design from it...kudos. When I do that I end up with the worst composition and design imaginable. Maybe this is old school from drawing classes or maybe I am just feeble minded but I have to work with intention. Knowing where I want to go helps me get there faster. The analogy I use in my classes is that if you got in your car and started to my house, you could probably make it to Texas if you took the right interstate....but once you got here, you would be totally lost without a map to my house. Dallas/ Fort Worth has 4 million folks living in the city and suburbs. So somewhere along the line you will need a map. For me that is what designing is all about.

Commercial/graphic artist don't just start slapping stuff on paper hoping to please the client. They listen to the needs of the client and then develop a plan from that.....maybe that is more the way I work.....of course, the client is always me.....and I am not easy to please.

For the sake of all methods, let us not suggest one way of working is more boring or less spontaneous than any other. There are just lots of ways to work....as many ways to work as there are artist. Embrace the discovery process of all your fellow artist. I realized when I had matured as an artist was when I appreciated all styles and techniques of work...a real eye opener for the constant critic in me....end of rant.

Second rant...promise to be short on this one. QuiltArt is awash with rejections from Houston. Now this is not easy to get these letters.....but they have come to the best of us. I have enough to wall paper several walls...that would be if I kept them. They go into file 13 immediately....and the quilts go off to another show. Who knows what lurks in the hearts and minds of jurors...maybe your entry would have done better in a different category....maybe it will get in next year. My own personal story on this front is a quilt entered into the AQS show in Paducah got rejected...being stubborn, the same quilt was entered the next year and won Best Handworkmanship in the Wall Quilt Division....go figure.

Rejection is not about you....although it does sting for a moment. It isn't even that the work isn't good. It only means that it didn't get in to this particular show during this particular year in this particular category. However, the better work we do, the more likely we are to find shows that will accept our work....so keep on keeping on.

On a final note, while it is great to get into shows....is that what you are doing the work for? Or are you doing the work because the call to creativity is an immutable part of your being?

Congrats to all the folks who got in....my Earth Strata I will be there.....and condolences to those who didn't.....but don't stop. Get those other entry forms for the fall out and send the stuff their way.