The Art of Blogging

or should that be the blogging of art?

This was inspired by a couple of things. A conversation with Carol, Sue B and Suzanne at the Cubby Hole, and an email exchange with Sue Allan about why people create and why they blog.

I sometimes have to check that it is me making things. I was useless at art at school (or maybe just the wrong encouragement) and most of my life has been fairly structured; maths & science, engineering, everything fairly black & white. Now I find I look at things differently, it’s in colour and there’s ideas everywhere (too many at times). I think I’ve gone outside the box lol. I can still do the other stuff like drawing two straight lines by eye, that form a perfect right angle, but now I’m liable to add a cobweb, or shade in the corner :D I guess I’ve grown up and gone back to being young at heart at the same time.

I’m lucky to have the Cubby Hole and the regulars that attend. It’s becoming quite a little arty community, which is good because Crewe isn’t known for its culture. Between Sarah’s workshops (and Sue’s before her) and the playdays and exhibitions, it’s a gold mine of inspiration and support. We’ve grown together and gradually moved on from fairly straight-forward card making, to experimenting with all sorts of mixed media. It never ceases to amaze me how much variety there is in our work, and yet we can still pick out each other’s pieces, maybe because we can see the personality in it.

Somewhere along the way I finished up with a blog, and I'm still not sure how that happened. I also finished up with a list of other people's blogs down one side of it. Over time it grows and every so often I go through and cull it; weeding out the one's that seem to have fallen by the wayside, or which no longer grab my eye. The ones which survive are the ones which speak to me.

I looked at a blog a few days ago, and the profile basically said "I'll tell you what I've done and how, but not why, and I'll tell you nothing of myself because I don't know who you are". Yet, if you go to the effort of creating art and blogging it, why wouldn't you want to tell us what inspired you, or to give a little of yourself? Surely that's the main thing? What moved you to put ink to paper, or needle to fabric? I'm not asking for your bank details, or where you leave the house keys; I want interesting things like the fact that your cat's name is Kropek, or you worry about spoiling a page by writing on it, or you can't remember the words to Singing in the Rain. In other words, the things that make you, you.

I think I'll stop now as I'm starting to ramble. I guess the Dried Frog Pills must be wearing off ;)