Adventures of My Mind

This week I am starting my post with a quote:
A work of art is above all an adventure of the mind.

Eugene Ionesco

This week my mind was full of adventure, which meant my body went with it.  The week started as a typical work week, daily routine from Monday to Thursday.  Friday was the start of the 4th of July holiday weekend in the United States allowing my weekend to start on Thursday night, and it did.  Starting Thursday I filled my mind and my life in the arts of many kinds.  My weekend included creative stimulation both visually and auditory.

Sculpture by Day

Sculpture by night

 Right after work on Thursday, I hopped on the train and went to Boston.  I had been excited to see a Fiber Sculpture suspended between 6 city building, floating over the Rose Kennedy Greenway.  I had seen it already from a distance but this time I knew I would be much closer.  By day, this sculpture is amazing.  It is a billowy net just floating in the air above you. It is awesome in size and grandeur.  I knew when looking at it I wanted to stop by before going home at night to see it lit up.  The photos do not do it justice.  Before getting back on the train at the end of the day we stopped in the small park directly below the piece and sat in chairs just staring up at the sky.  The lights faded off an on causing the structure to fade in and out.  It looked like a colorful mist to a bright woven spaceship of sorts.

To learn more about this, you can visit the website of the artist, Janet Echelman
As If You Were Already Here




The trip into Boston also included a trip to the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA).  It is so wonderful living near a city with so much culture and history at the same time.  The ICA opens their doors to the public on Thurdays nights from 5 - 9pm for Free.  I try to go a few times during the year to check out the new exhibits.  This visit was also about sculpture, but not of the fiber kind.  Exhibiting was an artist, Arlene Shechet   Her pieces were not some of my favorite works but reading about her thought process made me think.  She likes to work with medium, not to create something she has thought out and mold to her liking but more to mold her materials to what they choose to be.  This resonated with me as I think about my own creative process.  I hear a lot from spinners, "I'm just going to let the fiber do what it wants."  I am like that as well, but not because of experience, more towards the lack of it.  I still do not have the knowledge to spin a fiber for a specific quality of yarn, so I just spin to what it wants to be.  My knitting is not like that at all.  To knit I need a pattern to follow, or an idea of a finished object to lean towards.  I do see this more in my Zentagle art.  There are times I have opened my journal to Zentangle and just starting doodling away without a "string" to work from.  I just start with a pattern and fill in with other patterns until I am happy with the results.

***Do you art and what is your process?  Leave a comment, as I would love to know how others approach their crafts.

So I did finish a Cowl I was knitting this week.
Project Stats:
Project Name:  Conjunction Cowl
Designer:  Susie White
Yarn:  Berroco Folio - Alpaca / Rayon blend

Yes...this is me modeling this beautiful cowl.  Not one of my best photos!

I also completed a couple more Zentangles this week.  The first one was for the Tackle it Tuesday Challenge over at Artful Creations  This challenge was to create a Tangle using the Letter A as your string.  Well, I did that but I missed the second part of using at least 1 pattern starting with the letter A.  I am posting it here because I really love the way it came out, even without following the directions.  Can you find the Letter A?

I am really please with the way this one came out.  Zentagling is truly becoming a passion of mine.  It is both creative and relaxing and a great way to end the day. It totally frees my mind from anything that happened during the day and releases all the energy.  The outcome...I get to look at something beautiful that I made.

Here is the next Tangle I finished that was from the J-W-O challenge on Diane and Caroliens Weekly Challenge




In closing I just want to wish all my USA readers a Happy 4th of July.  I am proud to live in a country where I have the freedom to live the way I choose.  I am thankful to all those who have fought to protect these freedoms.

My 4th of July was spent at India Point Park in Providence RI.  Not only am I lucky to live outside one of the biggest cities with culture and history, but I am sandwiched between a Boston and Providence, the capitol of Rhode Island.  A city filled with Arts and Culture.  Last night we were entertained by a concert by the RI Philharmonic followed by Fireworks.