Inspired to Design class

My Academy of Quilting classes generally start on the first Friday of the month...and this month the class starting is Inspired to Design.  It's the first class I wrote and probably the most popular - I was asked to write a book based on it after a few years.

My other design classes are  Working in Series, and Abstract Art for Quiltmakers and More Abstract art for quiltmakers.  I have enough "exercises" stored away that I could actually write and "Even More abstract art for quilt makers"!  But probably won't.

 I do have several other ideas for classes tucked up my sleeve - or rather tucked into a folder on the computer (!)  - the equivalent of a sleeve these days.  I'd also love to hear from you if there's a class you've always wanted to find ,but never have (email me at elizabethyork100 AT yahoo.com, if you have an idea you'd like me to consider).

I often wonder why I2D is so popular though...and I think it's because it's how to design quilts based on your own photographs..photographs you bring to the class because they have special meaning for you.
 I notice that when people buy a piece of my art, whether a quilt or a painting, they do it because they discover a connection with that art work and their own lives.  Maybe they visited that place (e.g. paintings and quilts of Iona all went to people who had been inspired by the magic of that little island).
 (I would have put a picture here but, alas, I'm at the beach on too slow of a connection......)

 Recently, my agent sold a quilt I'd made of Iceland - to someone who'd always wanted to go there.

And somebody bought a very minimal winter beach quilt...because his wife loved winter beaches!

I did once have somebody buy a small quilt because his friend had the same name as me!!  But I can't rely on too many of those sales!

I think that in order to make a good piece of art you've  got to be really invested in its meaning in some way (even abstract quilts have meaning..of course it's...well...abstract!)
If the piece is more of a technical exercise, how can it be strong?    John Singer Sargent painted oil portraits of well off people for a living, but his heart was in his glorious little watercolors - which are the  paintings we prize now.

So if you have some images of landscapes, or cityscapes or still lifes or anything (!) that  hold a lot of impact for you......and you'vw been thinking about making a quilt based on them - but not TOO literally - then consider taking the Inspired to Design class!

And now, I'm going for a stroll on the beach!  If you have been, thanks for reading!.
Elizabeth