Another new adventure

I seem to keep having lots of new experiences since I took on the biggest new experience and moved to Massachusetts. My latest adventure was participating in the Amesbury Open Studio Tour weekend. I didn't actually open my non-handicapped accessible studio but set up, with six other artists, in the public space part of the tour at the Town Hall.

My expectations were low, since I was warned that this was not the place to make big sales, but I decided to add some of my snow-dyed cottons and then made a few ornaments, both lower priced items than my artwork. 

Saturday dawned cold and blustery and, as I walked into town, I saw the first snowflakes of the season. It was not going to be the kind of day people wander from place to place. But at the end of the day even without the crowds of people passing through I considered it a success--I had met a number of interesting people, had taken another step in settling into this community, and had had several substantive conversations about art and about my particular kind of art. By the end of Sunday I had simply added more of the above and had sold enough ornaments and snow-dyes to more than recoup my entry fee. It was a worthwhile way to spend a November weekend!

Golden

Yesterday morning I walked into my studio and found myself inside a golden cube. A unique combination of morning sun and yellow maple leaves from the trees that filled the windows had lit up the room with a glow that even warmed the deepest recesses of my spirit.

What an amazing quilt this would make! But as I began to envision designs, that inner critic began to whisper that "yellow is not a popular color," and then took an even mercenary tone--"It wouldn't sell."

Where did that come from? I have been preparing for the town Open Studio Tour (another story) and have had to focus on pricing my artwork. I hadn't realized how that shift from making to selling could leave a residual shadow when I returned to making. But now I am aware of another aspect of this complicated undertaking called the creative process, and let's hope the Buddhists are right that awareness changes things.

And I will make that yellow, glowing quilt.