Saturday, June 19, 2010

What do you personally want from FFFC?

With year 4 coming to a close in a few months, it's time to consider what year 5 will look like. Let's gather our ideas and talk about it here!

What are your creativity goals and how can you use the FFFC group to pursue them?


Cynthia

14 comments:

  1. My specific creative goals change regularly...but my larger goals of spending time creating art quilts, exhibiting, sharing/teaching, and exploring new subjects and directions remains the same. I do want to work on more than just challenges...and I want my challenge pieces to be studies or practice pieces for larger works. So I may want to pick and choose the challenges I participate in so I have time to pursue the next piece prompted by the practice piece/study. I want the challenge to make me try something than my usual, but then I want time to pursue that direction if it appeals to me.
    Cynthia

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  2. Time seems to be the essence in all of our lives. What would happen if the 'challenges' were to be just that... a study, or practice piece...we each will have our own reason, and then when we post what we did to the blog, we would explain what we were exploring, or even fine-tuning for that matter...perhaps even stating where we MIGHT use the technique/process/study, etc in the future.
    I personally feel I have learned as much here as I have through QA and I really don't want it to stop. Having said all that.. and I have said it before, if we cannot commit to the Challenge on a given month, or the theme doesn't interest us, lets at LEAST comment.

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  3. I like the challenges as a jumping off point to direct my creativity. But from there, I want to be able to either take it further or stash it away if it didn't work. I find I can easily get bogged down with challenges and not have time to develope a piece further...so I will have to pick and choose. Possible a graduate blog could be for only posting FFFC pieces that have been further developed.

    I think the challenges this year got to be pretty intense and detailed with the theme and then principles. I could see someone who is a beginner becoming discouraged creating something and commenting. How can you comment past 'this is pretty' if you don't understand the challenge.

    Possibly a size limitation would help participants get something done quickly.

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  4. Me again... I do not want to take up all the space, but I was thinking... as a suggestion for year 5 that we do the random again.. to an art principle but letting our cognitive awareness be the guiding factor. What do I mean?
    I am really trying to pay more attention to my surroundings and today on my blog I posted a Tulip Tree flower. First one I have ever seen. I am thinking of the 'color' in this case, a delicate cream, a splash of orange and a very leafy green. What could I do with that in a Challenge of the month according to the predetermined design principles.... just a thought... or even the shape is intriguing....
    Hope more are coming.

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  5. I have been absent a good part of this year due to hand surgery that didn't go well and other silly things in life that throw one into depression. And I apologize for not commenting...I usually do. I definitely love this group and have learned so much about myself and others styles.
    I agree with Carole, let's get back to the design principles of art with some other element thrown in. I personally loved year 3, with a series and the design principles / working in a color group. I'd also like to do more with the 'old masters' using their color pallette from a certain painting,looking at how they use light, shadows etc.
    I'm rambling now

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  6. Rhoda, I love that idea of studying a painting of an old (or new) master and using the color palette or effects or style for a challenge. That way we could all work using our own subjects or fit those ideas into our own series. Just think what we could do with the Chiaroscuro - dark and light - effects of the Renaisance painters like Rembrandt! Or the fun results we could get from using the cultural references and irony of Pop artists like Andy Warhol.

    I could see much exploration and learning in something like this as well as the ability to fit it into my own work, using the challenge pieces as practice/study pieces.
    Thanks Rhoda and everyone for the thoughts!
    Cynthia

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  7. Rhoda and Cynthia, I like the idea of revisiting the masters too. Another theme we had for a while was focusing on a word, like the "fire and ice" challenge. It is so interesting how each person interprets the words differently.
    Just a few thoughts, Joni

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  8. Cynthia and Rhoda.. great idea.. yes please, visiting the 'old masters'.. or new.. that is my personal goal for the upcoming year. It would be fantastic if it was a year 5 challenge.
    Another one I would like to have considered would be the use of photographs.. abstraction perhaps. I must go check the archives, I think we may have had that proposal once.

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  9. These are all excellent suggestions in my opinion. Actually, we have touched on a great many subjects that I would love to explore again, perhaps choosing a design principle, artist, color palette etc. and expanding on it for say 3 challenges in a row. Could this work to allow us to try a little more or a bit different approach with each one?
    Cherie

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  10. Oooh, I like that idea Cherie.. that would give time for some real 'percolation'...adding real value to the study. And viewing the aggregate body of works would truly be beneficial for growth.

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  11. Great idea, Cherie. I think expanding a subject and/or principle over several months would be beneficial to the group. Working in a series would allow concepts to develop over time.

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  12. I find the idea of a series interesting. I had a though when reading, that if we work in the pallet of an old master but use a style from a different period, such as colors of Renoir but using a cubist art style, or perhaps starting with the impressionist style that Renoir worked in and then in the next quilt in the series using a different style i.e. surrealism with the same color pallet. I have to admit that I found the challenges that had us using different color groupings with a principle of design very rewarding to work on. Course it probably helped that I was taking art classes studying the same principles at the time. I agree that too many restrictions are limiting, but I don't want the challenges to be totally up to the members. I think some guidelines are helpful.

    Kathy

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  13. I seem to be coming late to this discussion. But, I have really enjoyed the challenges. Like many others, I have found it difficult to get a challenge done every month and still work on my other pieces....
    I think a size limit would help. and using them as studies would help...I like the idea of exploring the elements of Art or the principles of design. Donna of Sea Ranch

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