Deanne Fitzpatrick Rug Hooking Studio

Deaar Diary, I have some big creative dreams. Mostly I live my life, doing everything I want to do, mostly all the time. I am lucky. I live my art. The troubling dreams are the ones you are not quite sure you want to carry out but they keep reappearring and you cannot quite put them to bed either. The  creative dreams that you are sure of, you are in charge of in a way. You just take it one step at a time. The other ones, the niggly, mind chewing ones, keep nipping at you. A few weeks ago I wrote down a bunch of things I’d like to play with. But they remind me of a teenagers Christmas list, everything  on it is big, expensive and cumbersome. I don’t mean expensive money wise, just costly otherwise. They are hard things to get a handle on. I can’t get a handle on some of them, but they remain in my mind. I talk them over at the studio, where as Katherine mocks…she is paid to listen, but ideas cannot always be carried because you have them. They take time, thought and consideration. It is one thing to hook a rug, it is another thing to carpet a church. Does it need to be done? Is it the right thing? Should you just kneel at the back pew and say a little prayer instead?

Ideas challenge you and carry you into your own future. They are the marrow of your mind.  A necessary grace, connecting whatever you have done, with what you will do next.

Maps of the World, $2400, 37 by 52"

 Dear Diary,I finished, Maps of the World, tiny landscapes with in an abstract. Tonight I’ll go listen to Sheree Fitch , speak, with my friend Catherine, who works in the studio with me(she is the mocker). Today I called her three times while she was out. I hate it that these new phones track neurotics like me. When she got in she called me, thinking it was about work. I said, this is personal, we are still friends aren’t we, She retorted…”You mean I’m not getting paid to listen to you?” I said , “No, lets go hear Sherree Fitch tonight.” She said,” Yes, we should, when you get authors like that coming to town you should go hear what they have to say.” We are both the type to complain that there is nothing going on in town, then stay home and eat bakery cake when there is something happening, so we have to watch ourselves. So tonight I am off for a little inspiration.

You need many shades of one colour for mixing. Gather shades of a colour that are close together for mixing wools in landscapes so that you can use your wool in a painterly way.

Dear Diary, Advice is a funny thing. Sometimes you give it away, sometimes you need it. I seek it from people who are frank and honest, and know I can take the truth if they give it to me. When I ask for it, I want it. I accept it , often I act upon it. Yet when I don’t want it, and someone gives it, it is no good at all, even if it is good advice, like “go easy on the salt”, touted by your good man drinking tea at the table as you get supper on the go. Who needs it unless you ask for it.

Sometimes I dispense it freely and liberally. When I unleash it around the house, it’s no good. Yet you never learn. You see a moment then you speak as if someone might listen, only to see that, advice not requested is like blue arsed fly at the table. Nobody wants it.

Personally I like to ask for advice, but I am careful who I ask for what advice. Today a friend gave me some good advice about a project I am working on and I took it. I listen to editors when I am working on a book, they ussually know the ropes. I’ll often go ask someone I know fairly well about something they know about. Some people are just rocks of sense, and good at weighing things out, so even if they do not know the subject , they get the idea and can help you along. Finding the right person, the one who gets you faster to the how, and the why, is a skill. There are so many people around each of us, who know so much. As our circle expands , in a way, our knowledge base expands. We can google anything, but a computer, unlike another soul, won’t consider, and weigh out thoughts and ideas. A computer is never going to tell you that you need more exercise, that you are not getting enough rest, or that you should watch your drinking. It takes a friend who is willing to risk things a bit to take you around the block, and bring you home again. The time needs to be right. The surroundings have to be comfortable.

Advice is an old fashioned word, but it remains an important one. Sometimes we need to take it. Sometimes we should give it. Knowing when either of those times is right is the art of it. When you don’t get the art of it down right, there is just no use to it at all.

Dear Diary, The ground is back underneath my house. Inside the house it does not feel any different but in my head I know there is a foundation under my feet, a new roof over my head. These are the things a house is made of. Personally, I’d rather paint the kitchen, but it does not give you the same feeling of security. I am working on a geometric right now of traiangles in squares. New for me, and pleasant to do, though I do find pattern challenging sometimes. Keeping all those corners nice and tight. I also am keeping to a certain pallette so I have taken the other wools out of the studio so that I do not get distracted and start working with other colours. If I left them there, it would be like having peacan tarts on the sideboard and I would be into them. Tuck away temptation, keep your focus.

Dear Diary, The air is fresh today, and you can feel everyone walking around happily. I have been barrrred from the house as they are building a frost wall underneath my little home studio to keep the creatures out. I came to town to do the studio errands, pick up the tea and stenopads. The important things. I wanted to stay home and hook but they kept banging at the boards beneath me so I put on a dress, and skipped out. Now for the next important thing, off to buy the studio chocolate.

Dear Diary, It is important to remember that art is about process, not the product. As we create, it is the time I spend making something that matters. I know this to be true but when I get a great rug on the go, I cannot lie, I love the product. I love seeing it completed. Today I walked into my studio and the abstract was hanging on the wall, one of the women who works with me had clipped, pressed and bound it, and I was stopped in my tracks. Happy. Satisfied. The process matters, but when they come together, it all matters a little bit more. Art matters, the making of it, the looking at it. It matters in our personal lives and in oour communities because it makes us feel better about ourselves.

Dear Diary, The world flies by your face when you are lost sometimes. This morning as I was driving to the studio, there was alot of action on my corner. A woman was pulling a cart and there were five kids, some of them crying. My husband was crossing the road with a box of kleenex in his hand. The corner was busy, with cars and people. I was being extra careful not to run over my husband, or a child, but I was confused as to what was happening. I  parked and got out of the car, carrying lunches and laptops, and mail. With my hands full, I went over to see what was happening. One little boy had accidentally banged into another, and, one of them had a nose bleed. There was blood all over the sidewalk, and one little one, was crying away , while the others, played. The mother was trying to clean, pacify, and treat five children, and she was doing a pretty good job of it. She had four kids under four, and she was baby sitting another. My husband was dispensing kleenex. The world was flyiong opast them. As I left, they were still unhappy so I spelled out “s u c k e rs” to the mom. I spelled it for fear I’d make things worse. She said yes, so I came back with the jar I keep in the studio. As soon as I came back, her three year old son, with his hands in the air and his fist around a bunch of dandelions, said, “Do you want a flower?” I said, “Yes, thank you.” He gave me one. I gave him and his gang a sucker. He understood giving and taking, and he was only three, and generous already. What a guy.

Dear Diary, Lorna, my neighbor started working with me at the studio today. Her job is to keep me organized, better organized. She has set up a spot in the back and is going to be looking after papers that should be filed and cared for. I only care about them when I need them, and they need someone to care about them all the time. I hoped she is happy in our little spot in the world and keeps me on the straight and narrow. I am not terrible with all the bits and pieces, but nor am I good, so she will be welcome.

The abstract is  almost finished, and I can see that, the tiny landscapes are effected by the background. The coloiyrs are all naturals, very subtle. We will post in the gallery quite soon I think. I just got the cover  mock up for me new book. It will be out next fall, and will be full of story, and how to. I’ll tell you more about that later. The cover got me all happy and excited because it is just so pretty, the prettiest cover of all my books. You’ll be able to judge a book by this cover, that’s what I think.