The Results are in...

My piece was not selected :( which is disappointing BUT...

1) Having my art on display in Union Station for a week is big exposure, and I had a lot of people tell me they really liked my piece. A lot said that they didn't think that it was well understood what the process of making the piece was- which was what happened last year. I made a needle felted lion art doll, and he wasn't chosen. (I thought I had a picture but I can't find it- I will take some and either update this or post about him alone.)

2) It's a great push to do something else, and step up my game. Fiber Art is a hard category in this competition. I will break the barrier I know I can- I just have to find the right piece, and blow the audience and judges away. I think I might do that with one of the art dolls I am working on, but I really want to break the barrier in fiber. I think it's become a challenge now. Despite the disappointment, I like the push- we all need that push I think- otherwise we as artists can become stale and compliant.

The comments of misunderstanding what went into and the subject matter of my piece actually led to a somewhat interesting conversation between Mr. W, my mother, and myself about "mass appeal" and that I what I do tends to not have subject matter that has "mass appeal". There was a brief discussion of whether or not I should change this. Mr. W said to me- "Yeah, but would you enjoy creating something like that-is it really coming from YOU if you "sell out" (my term when discussing this)." I sat there and stared at him a second (it really was the first thing he said in the conversation) and I said "absolutely not". He seemed frustrated that I would suggest changing my subject matters. He told me to be myself, to continue to make things that I like, develop original ideas and execute them in unexpected ways. He's right and so supportive and so many other things that I could get all gushy about but you're not here to read about all that.

So what's next? I dunno... I have other things on my plate right now- and I have a little bit of time. I currently am working on a large art doll for a woman's retreat in September, so she's taking all my art time. I will cover her in a future post (not too much in the future). I have plans for a 4-harness weaving and I got a magazine last night (Fiberarts ) that may provide more of a push and inspiration. I am thinking a weaving, or continue with needle felting- maybe I need to keep putting it in front of them so they can really see that needle-felting is an art form- and a time consuming one, to say nothing of dangerous- those barbs burn when you impale your fingers! If you didn't bleed during creation, then it's not done (a joke- not serious). I just tried to find a good definition of needle felting for this post and came up empty- looks like the world wide brain (wikipedia.org) no longer has the information about dry felting in it's entry on Felt so maybe it is a little known technique outside of my world. I am self taught, and I use different techniques than I've read about, but I started by reading Sharon Costello's instructions for figures on Black Sheep Designs. So if you are interested, that might get you started too.

Anyway to make this long story as short as it should have been- I once again have missed the elusive phase 3 opportunity- but it has not stopped me, a minor bump to my confidence but a good push to move forward. Onto the next I say!

Next time- Post on the dolls I've made both needle felted and others- some pictures of my weaving and of course I will share about autocross, we have an event Sunday, so I will have some info fresh in my mind.

Thanks for listening/reading! More sooner rather than later -
Jenn*