With Your Own Two Hands: Working in a Series

I"ve recently been reading a fascinating book (With Your Own Two Hands: Self-discovery Through Music) by Seymour Bernstein - who was a renowned piano (not quilt!) teacher last century.
 In order to develop as an artist - no matter what the medium - it is important to know yourself well, your likes, your dislikes, your strengths vs your weaknesses.  For how can you make progress without this? And, as I get older, I discover that the drive to improve to make progress, in whatever one loves to do, doesn't go away.  We are all striving to be just that little bit better! I really think it's part of our genetic make-up ....of course for some it goes awry into a search for more wealth or more power - but that's a whole other issue!!

Most of Bernstein's book isn't relevant to textile artists, but I think his core message is:

"Productive practicing is a process that promotes self-integration".

Well, yes...he does like alliteration too!!  That's fine!  I love bad puns and split metaphors and all those naughties of the writing world!

So what is practicing in quilt terms?  ...yes! the answer is in the title to this blog: Working in a Series.

                                                                            Remembered Lines (69”w, 41”h)

the above quilt was the 12th in a series of black and white pieces.

As a teacher, I am frequently asked about how one can develop one's own style.  We can clearly see that the Big Names all have it.  but how is it done?  does it just happen over time?  Or can you jump start it?

I wrote a class* (and subsequently a book) about how to do just this.....having your own style isn't some result of an unusual talent (if such things exist at all) or the eventual build up of patina (as it were) over time....no...you can work on developing it.

How?  by Practicing.  and how to practice as an art quiltmaker?  Working in A Series!

It is , however, important to figure out the right series, the right way, the right paths to take.

Yes, it is something of a road to self knowledge too, and it can be really absorbing and invigorating.

  I would define a series  as a  group or succession of related things – objects that go together.  They can go together in a number of different ways, some more meaningful than others.   In my series featured here (and yes I must admit to having more than one series!)  used the same  palette, the quilts were inspired by (but not copies of) timbered houses I had seen in England.  I found the drooping lines of the roofs fascinating in that as age and time prevail, the “man made” aspect of the building begins to echo more and more the natural curves of the timbers used.  I also got a little carried away by the abstract patterns created by the timbers, and in the 12th piece, repeated some of those elements several times – just taking the bits I liked and repeating them like a doodle!!

  A series of objects is related by a central idea –  My father always used to jumble up the slides when he gave us kids a picture show and while it was hilarious as successive images were shown: “here we are  on the beach, oh no now we’re in the marketplace, oh and the next one is little brother’s birthday and then the garden, and back to the beach and then another flower..”…hilarious – but confusing, jumbling, and frustrating because  you can’t get into the feel of the place or the idea.

I find that as I explore a theme gradually  I get  better at extracting the essence of the theme that is compelling to me.     Instead of skittering over the surface sampling a little here and there (yes! I love mixed metaphors!), it’s a richer experience to stay in one place for a while.  There are many reasons to do that: enhancing the experience, really getting to see the ideas, not trying to cram in everything at once, improving skills. 

While, working in a series  might seem hard to do if it’s hard to pay attention to one thing for a concentrated period of time, there are ways around !!!  In the same way that our eyes continually flick about so we don’t habituate and see nothing, I think attention can focus on a number of things, but one should limit the number….and keep the things related.

A series doesn’t have to be planned out all ahead of time, but I think certain parameters  either have to be set or will emerge.  If there’s no central idea, or nothing that relates one piece to another then it’s not a series. 

If you keep making pieces where you didn’t quite get the idea across that you wanted, but you then abandon that idea and try something completely different, I don’t think you’ll progress.  It’s practice (i.e. repetition) that “makes perfect”, not dabbling.  Research shows us that it is both practice and coaching or critiquing that leads to improvement in performance. Hence the benefit of working in a series (or practicing piano!) with some guidance from a teacher.

Some  feel  limited by only working on one series.  I totally agree!!  There are many examples of great painters, e.g. Gerhardt Richter, who work in different series simultaneously.  I definitely don’t want to “close” a series and in fact I’ve stopped dating my quilts because I don’t want to be chronologically constipated! 
   If you have been, thanks for reading! and do please keep the comments coming!! thank you.   Elizabeth

*This class is now available "on demand"  at the academyofquilting.com