Have you ever heard of a group called “ARTNOIR”? Here is their origin story……

ARTNOIR started as a group of friends organizing “field trips” to museums, galleries and art fairs around the globe. In it, we discovered the power of numbers, and friendship, to make traditionally exclusive art world spaces feel colorful, inclusive and welcoming. 

We also discovered a passion for ensuring that the next generation of Black and Brown creators, curators, and collectors are connected in community, and contributing to each other’s success. Today, ARTNOIR is a female-majority and black + brown owned, NYC based global collective and 501(c)(3) with a mission to celebrate and highlight the work of creatives of color while catalyzing cultural equity across the arts and culture industries. 

We seek to empower artists, enthusiasts, curators, forward thinking organizations, storytellers, designers and patrons, to explore alternative perspectives to the traditional arts narrative, while leveraging the intersectionality of art and culture to develop new access points for discussion, exploration and collaboration.

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I recently ran across the promotional video for an exhibit that happened in 2023. It focuses on three artists who use everyday materials to create art.

Follow the link below and watch the short video…..

THE POETICS OF DIMENSION

I think that you will be encouraged and inspired!!

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One of my favorite things about quilting is motivating others and helping them in their quilting journey. As part of this endeavor, I LOVE to present programs and workshops to groups and guilds around the world. All of my programs work well with Zoom meetings, and I would love to speak to your group.

You can find out more at this link…..

One of my favorite PodCasts is called “Something You Should Know”.

Each episode has several sections with exciting tidbits of “things you should know”!!

I was listening to an episode on Saturday and heard from Juliet Funt about including “white space” in your days.

This is the blurb about her section….

During a busy day, you likely jump from one task to the next with hardly any room to breathe. If that is true, you could be missing out on a great opportunity according to Juliet Funt founder and CEO of The Juliet Funt Group (https://www.julietfunt.com/) who advises Fortune 500 companies. Listen as she explains the importance of creating “white space” in between all the things you do and the benefits of doing so. Juliet is author of the book A Minute to Think (https://amzn.to/3mmsXIv).

This idea of “white space” caught my attention, especially since I had just finished one quilt and already had another one lined up to work on next.

So, instead of heading to my studio immediately, I decided to try a different type of art!!

Several weeks ago I purchased an online course on using the “Procreate” program on my iPad, and it was time to do a little learning!!

After the initial introduction, we started with some gradations…..

….and at the end of the day, I had drawn three different shapes…..

The sphere is the best, but I learned new things with each design.

And it was a fun way to enjoy the “SPACE-IN-BETWEEN”!!!

Do you head from project to project or take a small wedge of time between them?

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In this blog, I post stories about creativity, techniques, tools of the trade, and lots more about the wonderful art of quilting. If you are enjoying these posts, please subscribe to be notified of each new blog as it becomes available.

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Now that the month is over, it is time to report about my August challenge of…..

First of all, I finished the month with 126.5 hours…..1.5 hours over my goal….

During the month I spent 15 hours finishing up “Sadie the Saddle Billed Stork”….

…20 hours making the Whale baby quilt…..

…..and 30 hours quilting on the color wheel quilt…..

42.25 hours were spent on “Frances Quilts” stuff, including making quilting videos, writing blogs, and other business-related things. You might think that this really wasn’t creative time, but actually, a lot of creativity goes into doing those things and it is time that I truly enjoy.

I spent 5 hours working thru a Procreate course with this apple being my best drawing……

I read a book about embroidery and got re-excited about a piece that my Mom started many years ago. At night, I spent 3.5 hours adding flowers to it……

…..AND, I spent 3.5 hours working on a VERY long-term Needlepoint project……

The rest of the time was spent shopping, visiting with friends, cleaning up my studio, enjoying my quilt guild meeting, and visiting a small art show.

But as important as the projects were, the biggest bonus was the things that I learned…

• If I want to be consistently creative, I have to PLAN IT. I can’t just hope that I will find time after I finish all of my other work.

• If I want to be consistently creative, I have to be mindful of my time and avoid all of the ways that I can waste it!!

• If I want to be consistently creative, I have to stay organized so that I know what I am working on next.

• If I want to be consistently creative, I have to be open to new ideas, techniques, and possibilities.

Have you ever challenged yourself in this way?

What was the result??

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