Deadlines -- the Bane and Ecstasy of my Life!

What is it about DEADLINES that make them so despised and yet so valuable--to me? 

A bit of pine casts a long shadow on a quiet December morning.

 It's a funny thing about DEADLINES.  Without them, I am a world-class procrastinator.  With them, I surprise myself with what I'm able to accomplish with serious focus and hard work.

The dining room table doubles as a work table!

This story begins Dec. 7 when a friend sent me an email to remind me to submit to an exhibit focusing on REPURPOSING.

(Repurposed:  A second look, a second life - January 11-February 11, Windsor Art & Heritage Center.)

Oh, yes, I thought.  This exhibit looked so interesting and I had (at the time) given it great thought--and then got interrupted and off I went into a different direction.

When was that deadline to submit?  Dec. 21?  Hey, that gives me LOTS of time!  (Who am I kidding???  YIKES!!!)

But, as a creative person I always seem to have art/writing projects jumbled in my head just waiting for a good ol' fashioned DEADLINE.

It seems I never have enough space to really spread out!!

One of the pieces just waiting to be created involved weaving scrap paper, like tissue boxes and advertising card stock I often get in the mail, to create a series of woven squares to help me fashion a "dance floor" (of sorts) on recycled cardboard.  

I wanted to also use two pairs of the cardboard shoe inserts one often finds in new shoes.  

Slowly, the pieces begin to take shape and I test placement of the "dancing feet."

My goal was to create a piece that focused on the cycle of recycling--the circle of use, almost like a dance step.

As I cut cardboard and scrap paper I realized I needed to expand my collection of adhesives, which was a fun trip to the art supply store.  

Finally, it was completed and ready to hang to take a photo to use to submit.

"A Paper Waltz," 37" w x 27" l x 3" d, recycled cardboard and scrap paper.

Now it was time to begin the REALLY INVOLVED piece that had been rattling in my head since I had finally taken the time to empty my Grandmother's sewing cabinet that I have every intention to refinish someday.  

My beloved Grandma lived into her 90s and this small cabinet contained YEARS and YEARS of salvaged zippers, fabric scraps, buttons, thread and all the flotsam that seems to need a container in which to reside.

The table changes in content and new work begins.

Oddly, though, it wasn't the sewing odds and ends that I SAVED that enticed me.  

Oh, no, it was the STUFF I THREW AWAY that wanted to be reconsidered as ART.

(I might have avoided this nagging by all the "sewing garbage" if I had dumped the wastebaskets after I finished emptying the sewing cabinet, but I did not take the time that day and so all that "stuff" began to call me--quietly at first and then quite insistently once I decided to enter "Repurposed.")

Not sewing "discards" but treasured art supplies!

Despite my serious objections, I began to sift through all the stuff I had so righteously thrown away, retrieving the broken and orphan buttons, the zippers cut out of clothes to be discarded, scraps of fabric, old worn-out buckles, and odd stuff like bent pins and little papers wrapped with thread.

With this new art work taking shape in my head I began to admire the strange items harvested from the trash, seeing all the new potential and considering new ways to combine and present them to help me tell the story of the magic I experienced with my Grandma's sewing cabinet.

Using a canvas I began to create my mixed media whimsical story.

Once I gathered all the treasures from the trash I selected a canvas and began to broadly paint my Grandparent's house in acrylic paint using a wadded rag to keep my strokes very broad and not too precise.

I wanted to create the image from my childhood memory and not get derailed with too much detail.  

I just needed the basics to begin to "paint" the details with my harvested sewing treasures.  The old zippers became my Grandad's garden, the rusty scissors and pencil stub became the clothesline out back with salvaged garters holding a scrap of lace like clothespins on the line.  

Buttons became my stones so beloved around the front door and in the sidewalk.  The worn-out buckles made a perfect country fence and fabric scraps suddenly gave the sky and hills drama.  I braided three scraps of fabric into a "tree trunk" and was amazed to see how many shades of green fabric were waiting to become leaves.  

"Grandma's Sewing Cabinet," 30" w x 24" l x 3" d, acrylic on canvas, sewing remnants and fabric scraps.

I am delighted to report that I MADE the 12/21/16 deadline to submit and just learned this week that BOTH WERE ACCEPTED!   

Without the DEADLINE this work would still be rattling in my head, waking me up in the middle of the night, begging to be created.

WITH THE DEADLINE I turned our kitchen into one giant scary mess, woke in the middle of the night with a new insight, was so focused I lost track of time--and am proud to have two new works to exhibit.

My relationship with DEADLINES?  Well, it's complicated.