When we pursue being an artist, there is a fire in our belly that is longing to be expressed. Where does it come from? Is it always there, just waiting to be ignited? Is it a discovery, like finding one’s purpose in life? Sometimes one’s purpose in life can be ….to express what we see and feel through our art.
As a kid I devoured artist biographies. I read Irving Stone’s bios about Michelangelo and Van Gogh so many times that the book covers fell off. Their lives, their pursuit of color and form, was a blindingly brilliant inspiration. I could relate to the intensity that burned inside of them, that came out in their art.
As a young adult, as my childhood dreams of travel began to unfold, I always included art museums and galleries in every city I visited. I had visited most of the great museums of the world at a relatively young age. I was obsessed. In particular I loved to find the work of one of my painter idols, and stand in front of their work for long periods of meditative study. That study of color and form was absorbed on a deep level, and provided a foundation for my adult careers.
Do you remember discovering a source of creative fire at a young age? Do you still have a connection to that feeling? Do you consciously source those smoldering fires when tapping into your own creative genius? Do you give yourself permission to break rules and pursue expression beyond normal boundaries?
In the center of the collage above is a Van Gogh painting that I adore. I visited it in the Met in NYC last year. As we received these digital printed reproductions of Impressionist paintings this year, (the borders of this collage) I kept thinking about this lush sunflower painting. My love of sunflowers, my love of blue and yellow, my love of the Impressionists’ sweet raw outpourings has undoubtedly influenced my professional life…and I bet you have such a creative source to tap into also.
You can find my photos from Quilt Canada on my photo pages now.
Our next Charity Sewing Day on June 23 will be for the Guatemala Volcano victims.
We have an immediate opening for an assistant buyer with quilt pattern design experience:
https://www.equilter.com/news/jobs
sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul
Enjoy artist interviews, tutorials, and quilt festival tours, on our eQuilter Video Page.
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eQuilter Classroom & Event Calendar:
June 23 – eQuilter Charity Sewing Day & Sophie’s Sweet 16 Party! (Please RSVP)
July 16 – 20 – Lea McComas Workshops @ eQuilter
Sept 14-19 – Betty Busby FRCQ workshops @ eQuilter
Oct 6-7 – M.J. Kinman Gemstone Quilt workshop @ eQuilter
Dec 2 – CQC workshop Victoria Findlay Wolfe @ eQuilter
Luana’s Travel Calendar:
June 27 – July 11 – Sweden
Aug 5-12 – London & Birmingham UK Festival of Quilts
Sept 8 – Color Marketing Group – Wash DC
Nov 13-19, 2018 – POLAR BEAR Tour
Dec 23 – Jan 4 – China
