Threads

Holding pen…

I find myself in limbo again… on the cusp… playing a waiting game…

I don’t know if I’ve got a studio yet… interview pending

I’m not sure if I can raise the rest of the money for NY… but need to book my tickets soon… making a leap of faith…

Got a new boss… like having a new job… very unsure still…

Wish I knew…

There’s another project I’m sort of clinging on to. I started it a while back, thinking it could be really good. But actually, now I’m not so sure. Do I stick with it or say goodbye and move on? It could be good for me, look good on my cv, or could be a millstone around my neck. I think I am very nearly at the point where I have to commit properly, and I’m wavering.

I don’t know if it feels like this because everything else is a bit wobbly, or if my instincts are correct. It could be one of those things that takes up all my time, stresses me, leaves me no energy for my own work…

I suspect 2014 will shape up nicely, I have loads of things in the pipeline that I’m really looking forward to… but this other thing is a bit of a cloud…

Do I ditch it now, or cling on a bit longer?

I wish I could have a glimpse into the future…

Wishing…

Isn’t really helpful in some ways, as it is rich in fantasy, separate from the real world, can lead to unrealistic expectations or desires. I stopped buying glossy life/home style magazines years ago as I realised they were stopping me enjoying what I already had. I know that I live a blessed and fortunate life compared to probably 95% of the people on this planet. I am probably already living someone else’s fantasy life. So I need to be thankful and get on with it! Even the bits I don’t like very much at the moment.

But Wishing…

In other ways is what keeps me pushing forward. If I think I can never have what I wish for, I would just grind to a halt. What would be the point? Also, a rich fantasy life cheers me up! It is the ultimate in internal personal imaginative creativity! The three things I am wishing for at the moment are not actually totally beyond the bounds of possibility… One of them is nearly happening, and the other two might need a bit of time or a bit of a nudge. There is one more, totally rooted in the fantasy, that I know will never happen, but it keeps me warm.

While it keeps me warm, I will plod on with the waiting game, the job, and the hunt for a studio. I will sit in limbo, on this comfy bit of cusp, until something pushes me off… one way or the other…

The real stitching is well underway now. I have plotted and planned the sweep of them, marked them with pins, adjusted a few, then stitched their stalks… one long simple stitch, to mark place and direction. Now the thinking has been done, my stitches from now on are repetitive and mindless… I can let my thoughts wander while I do them…definitely the best sort of stitching.

They are taking quite some time… the first eight stitches took me a couple of hours, as there was a bit of unpicking and colour changing. But now I’m speeding up.

I was asked “Why 200 seeds?”

Unable to think of anything meaningful very quickly, I told the truth:

“It seemed about the right number to create a sweep of them as if blown across the coat” and my air fare is about £600 so I thought £3 per seed would be a manageable amount for people to sponsor me for”

Not a particularly art-based answer, I know, but it was the truth. The decision for 200 seeds had been made in a fairly arbitrary fashion, based on a vague idea of the aesthetics, coupled with a need for the numbers to make sense to fund the flight.

Strangely, a fellow blogger here, Sharon Hall Shipp looked up “facts 200” on google and up popped this article on QI:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/qi/8622367/QI-Quite-interesting-facts-about-the-number-200.html

And there it is in black and white:

“Each dandelion flower head produces 200 seeds.”

Sharon called it a retro-fit. Thanks Sharon!

I love this idea that I can work at something seemingly randomly picking numbers or words or images, then something pops up out of nowhere, a mad coincidence… and adds another layer of something to the work.

Coincidence is a marvellous and curious thing.

Oh yes.

A high level of stupidity has got me where I am today.

It has only just occurred to me, as I vacuum clean and brush the WW2 greatcoat, inspecting it for live moth infestation (thankfully none), that it isn’t the best choice for the textile artist with a wool allergy is it?

So… swollen eyes, itchy skin, and closing throat mean I have taken double dose of anti-histamine, and used a therapeutic amount of words with explosive consonants in. Mostly Fs and Bs. I look like I’ve been through some dark and terrible torture.

There has been sneezing in industrial quantities.

The cleaning process has now been completed, so the loose fibres and dust that caused the problem have now been removed. As long as I stitch it carefully, raising no ruckus (sp?) I should be ok from now on.

The greatcoat looks great though now.

I vacuumed it inside and out. I found a small scrap of paper that looks like a tear strip with arrows on from a juicy fruit chewing gum wrapper. Along with sparkly dust that I have presumed to be the remains of the foil. The inside of the sleeves are dirty and greasy, black stuff delineating the creases. The buttonholes have been repaired with black coarse on the spot stitching. The coat is already small, but the wearer has used the same sort of stitching to take it in at the back, under the belt. Did he lose weight during the battles fought?

The pockets are also greasy and dirty, but the tough fabric is mostly intact and will enable me to stitch the initials of the sponsors who will make this project fly. I love the fact that Belinda wanted me to stitch her Granddad’s initials rather than her own. Others have followed her lead, with the initials of members of their families who are ex- or serving soldiers… This lends my work a poignancy I had never imagined. I am humbled by their contribution to the life I lead in the free world, in a country where I am free to express myself.

Thank you.

In April 2014 I will be going to Jamestown, New York as part of a group of artists from the UK, Sweden and the USA. We will be doing group exhibitions, residencies, talks and lectures and community projects under the title

COLONIZE

The group have raised an initial sum of money, and hope to apply for more funding to enable more artists from the group to travel to Jamestown with the work.

I will be stitching 200 of the dandelion seeds, as in the photo, onto a genuine World War 2 British Army greatcoat, as my contribution to the exhibition. I would really like it if each of these stitches were sponsored for £3 each in order to fund or part fund my flight to (and from, haha!) the US.

If you feel able to fund a seed or two, or more, please click on the paypal donate button on my website:

www.elenathomas.co.uk

Each sponsor will have their initials stitched into the pocket of the coat, and so will become part of the work!

THANK YOU!

Elena

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