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Artistic Nudges

Artwork / February 18, 2023 February 18, 2023 / By admin

With the completion of the felted flock I find myself once again facing new beginnings. And with that there is little to be done except the all important work of heeding the artistic nudge and carrying on.

That fact my artistic world mirrors my real one is a marvel and an inspirational road map of sorts. While I am often challenged by the worry that my day to day, and the subjects therein, will be of no interest to anyone, I feel as excited to draw sheep and dogs now as I did to begin raising them nearly twenty years ago. There is no difficulty in rising early or staying up late to draw (or write about it). A part of that excitement stems from trying something new again and being challenged with it, and failing at a few attempts, and then finally figuring out the how that eluded you before. And yes, I will return to felting, but upon the conclusion of the Felted Flock I needed to dive into something entirely different for awhile.

Livestock guardian dogs charcoal drawing

The three dogs in this charcoal drawing are all deceased now. That isn’t intended as a sad statement though, but as a notice of time passed and experience gained. The flock, the dogs, and the prairie have all shaped and carved their way into my being, they have all lead me to believe I belong somewhere. To be drawing them, to attempt to capture the experiences and share them over again, is no trivial plan.

Beyond The Felted Flock

Artwork / January 22, 2023 January 22, 2023 / By admin

It is 4:30 AM. It is usual for me to rise early but I am up this early due to an old, crotchety Kelpie. I’ve just made a morning cup of tea, grabbed my laptop and sat down at the large wooden table in my studio space in the dinging room. There is a long, low book shelf to the left and a bright red tool chest containing a plethora of paper and art supplies behind me. A floor easel holding a half finished sheep drawing, with a utility cart full of drawing supplies sitting next to it, is over my shoulder on the right side. An entire book shelf filled with bags of wool stands in the top corner.

The studio scene has long been the work space of a needle felter. The studio table covered in an assortment of wool, felting tools, needle holder, baskets, armature wire and necessary tools, felting pad, and an array of felted animals in various at stages of completion. All of this was tidied while prepping and packing to set up the Felted Flock at a local art gallery. This morning I sit down at a nearly empty work space with a nearly empty creative mind. There are two baskets of wool and three unfinished felted dogs next to the felting pad.

What comes next? In the immediate term I have a couple of felting commissions to complete. Otherwise, I am feeling a pull to just draw and draw and draw; or to draw while I attempt to go further with writing - that feels okay right now too. But, I’m also familiar with how quickly my creative plans change direction, particularly when it comes to writing - the creative endeavour that scares me the most.

And the real sheep flock? Much has changed in the last two years including a steep increase in cost of supplies and fuel, on top of being in drought riddled prairie. Lamb prices meanwhile took a downward turn, meaning keeping a smallish flock for the purpose of lamb production is barely viable. My usual get and up go for raising sheep has dried up along with the prairie. There are just three guardian dogs afoot now and yet I have no desire to add a pup, which I will surely need to do if I keep even the same number of sheep in the future.

My creative world and my working world are tightly aligned in subject and purpose, and have shaped my life into being all about sheep, dogs, prairie, and the profundity of nature. I realize there is a reason here; that this melding of real life with creative is a gift of sorts. I’m just unsure of how best to use the gift now - or scared to perhaps. But, whatever occurs going forward, I want the gift to remain.

It will be daylight in a few hours, the weather is mild for January so the morning walk will be a long one. While I know I should be jumping into commission work, I am content to just sit at this big old table and jot a few more words down on the page.

The Felted Flock Farm to Gallery

Artwork / January 11, 2023 January 22, 2023 / By admin

With the opportunity to display the felted flock in a small, local gallery space so soon after its conclusion there was a good deal of reflecting on how to best capture the nuances that unfolded as the project grew in number. It began as a way to share the story of growing wool but what emerged is a mix of tangible effort and intangible reason for doing whatever it is we feel driven to do.

The tangible effort is the work of keeping livestock and growing wool - winter feeding, shearing, sorting, lambing, grazing. We can do the work in a manner that suits us, and our actions will be generally understood as the necessary work. We expect the work and plan for it thus it is fair to say we are the ones driving the work.

The intangible reasons are the occurrences that link us to nature - the prairie, coexistence, shepherding, death of an animal. These occurrences also remind us that the nature within us is one and the same as the nature we’re dealing with daily. These reasons are less easy to define and make understood. More often than not they happen when nature says they need to, thus it is fair to say Nature is driving them.

To have sustainable agriculture, to live a life based on personal truth, to pursue artistic callings, both tangible effort and intangible reason must bear weight and be present in our process. When we focus only on work and production without honouring any intangible reason life is an intensive, heavy beast. And when we focus only on the intangible reason without emphasis on tangible actions life is only a light weight pipe dream. Creating the felted flock took a huge dollop of both tangible effort and intangible reason. Many times throughout the project I wondered about the amount of time, effort and the reasons, and now at the conclusion of it, I wonder even more.

p.s. The show is open to the public each Saturday in January, 2023 from 1 - 4 pm. The location is the Gallery on Third in the town of Watrous, SK.