It's a new year and a perfect time to try something new! For years I have never really shared my art except for a few photos on Instagram, but now I'm ready to put some real effort into it. Since I've been in school working toward my degree in art, I have learned so many things about art and the creative process, but also about myself and my creative process.
I jump from subject to subject like a toddler exploring the world, everywhere I turn there is something shiny and new that I must investigate, and sometimes it's something I have seen before, but now in a new way. When something new comes across my Pinterest page, I immediately have the urge to try it myself, and it can be something obscure: a few years ago a Pin about something called Nålbinding came across my feed. It's a form of creating fabric from yarn, such as knitting and crochet, but predated them by centuries, to Viking times. It is done with a needle and lengths of yarn woven in knots around the thumb. I was fascinated! So I scoured the internet for as much information as I could find, from what needles were made of, to tutorials (there are many), to finding accounts on Instagram of Viking reenactors who make their own pieces of clothing with this method, it was amazing. I had to try it. So I went outside and found a stick, grabbed my x-acto knife, and carved out my own needle. It would have been perfectly fine to use a yarn needle, which I have plenty of, but no, I carved it. Not just one, but I think I have at least three wooden Nålbinding needles that I made from sticks in my backyard.
Maybe I'll write a more in-depth post with pictures and such some other time. But my point is, I never know what will catch my interest until I see it.
For now, welcome! It's a new year! I have an Instagram account, a Facebook page, a website, and even a Redbubble shop! I'm excited and nervous and don't know what I'm doing, but I'm going to have fun while I'm doing it. I don't make resolutions because I think it puts too much pressure on ourselves if we fail. Instead, I'm thinking of the new year as a kind of reset, a fresh beginning, the no-time-like-the-present gumption that I need to push myself to try and be the kind of artist I dream of being.