Jackson Pollock now

The first time I saw a Jackson Pollock painting, I was in my 20's. I was also pretty cynical at that age, and wondered why anyone would ever think that piece of crap was art.

How things have changed? When I saw this image on Google this morning, I knew it was Jackson Pollock and I actually like his paintings now. I really loved our visit to Mass MOCA in November, when we saw stuff closer to Jackson Pollock than the classics.

Some of the reason I have changed is that I have done more art since then and realize that we are all artists in a way, just different media and techniques. Some of my quilt projects are a la Jackson Pollock, throw a bunch of different colors onto some muslin and see how they come out in the end.

On another note, I own a website the-smart-chicks.com. A friend and I have been talking about what to do with the site and over dinner last night we decided that we are going to find "Smart Chicks" to write chapters in a book. We want our mothers and daughters to write some chapters as well. Obviously all authors should be women and smart chicks. So, I think my chapter is going to be on creativity and innovation. Of course, that could change but on this date 1/28/09, that is my plan.

I am sure that Jackson Pollock would have said that we are all creative. In a past life I did a lot of work with Creativity and Creative Problem Solving. One of the main premises, is that we are all creative.

I reinforced this when we were teaching the quilted jacket classes. Some of the participants did not feel creative, and doubted whether they could actually finish their jackets. One woman, Margaret was just about done. She had one seam left to do. I asked her "Do you want me to finish that seam?" She threw the jacket at me and said "Yes, please!" I must have seen her struggling and wanted her to have a completed jacket. She put her sewing machine out on the curb the next trash day. HOWEVER, she did finish her jacket and has a creative effort that she wears around.

I digress, but my chapter now might be on jacket making and creativity.

Stay tuned for updates on the book and the website which I need to make active.

Surprised again, for the second time

I have been totally surprised twice in my life. The first one was on my 39th birthday. I had threatened close family and friends with death if they did anything on my 40th birthday so they surprised me on my 39th. I thought I was going to a play with Rachel and instead it was a surprise birthday party.

The weekend after my last post, at the jacket reunion, there was the second surprise. When I can get a picture of it I will post it here but briefly, many of the women that we have taught to make the jacket, secretly for the last few years have been making a quilt out of blocks that contain the fabrics from their jackets. They made 2 quilts, one for Amy and one for me. The quilts are absolutely amazing. The potluck was an opportunity to get together, and they presented the quilts part way through the evening.

Part of my baggage is that if I have something so special like this, I don't want to use it. Not this time. The quilt is on our couch and on these cold winter evenings, I have been crawling underneath it, feeling the warmth that our jacket community has given to me and everyone else involved.

Alert the Media - Jacket Reunion

I must say that I am getting very excited about our upcoming jacket reunion. This was Liz's idea and Jane implemented the idea.

A bit of background, for those who are unaware, a few years ago Amy and I discovered a wonderful woman in Acton, who designed a quilted jacket. One December, Amy and I went to her yearly sale and I bought a kit of fabric and pattern, and one snowy day a few weeks later the first jacket was hatched. I wore the jacket into church one evening and Nancy admired it. I mentioned that we could have an adult ed class making the jacket and we did. 10 of us were involved in the first class and we gave a summer worship service that next summer. Since then we had 2 more formal classes at church. We have also auctioned a jacket at the last 5 service auctions.

SO this Saturday, thanks to Jane and Liz, we are having a reunion potluck with as many of the jacketeers as we can get together with their families. My friend Cindy is coming from Mansfield and spending the night. She is in the middle of her 8 or 9th jacket.

My crazy idea is to post a slide show of jackets that have been made, so being last minute, I started last night collecting any digital images that I have taken. It is too last minute to have this ready for Saturday, so I'll bring what I have, take a "few" more pictures and find a place to post them to the web.

My long term dream is to have each person write a little blurb about what the jacket means to them and collect these where we post the pictures.

Here are a few pictures, AND there will be many more later.

Above is Sister-in-law Judy with her "New Year's Eve" jacket, and the original . . .