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Discussion #11
Here we are, the second to last discussion question. This week we have flowers by Susan. 
They have amazing little felted and beaded centers.
And these flowers are from Pam... 
...yep, that is a fly! Gross, yet still charming.
Thanks so much ladies! Now I have been at work all weekend trying to create a way to display these little artworks. I'll be honest, I am a little overwhelmed at the response - there are so many! A direct result of how amazing all of you are. I organized them by color and felt a little better about the situation. 
I have decided to exhibit them on birch panels supported on poplar stretchers. I haven't made panels since art school about five years ago.
The learning curve was steep.
But I got there. There are eight - one 3' x 3' panel and seven 1' by 1' panels.
I am using a combination of wood stain, gesso (a canvas primer), and acrylic paint to create the base color scheme. 
The flowers and quotes from your comments will be on the panels and the panels will be on the wall!
My hope is that the finished product will feel organic. We shall see. One of the goals of this project is to interweave your stories and words with my "formal" historical research. I put formal in quotes because I feel that your blog quotes and the flowers you have knit are just as formal and valid as the theory and history books and articles I read for the other chapters of my thesis. All of it consists of the stories and narratives of people - both the academic writing and this blog.
Traditionally, research has not looked like this - anecdotal, personal, narrative, or in artwork form. Narrative research and arts-based research attempts to challenge the idea that research must take place in a laboratory or a library. Instead, research can involve individual stories, the process of artmaking, and can happen in an online forum. It can be a hard sell.
How do you feel about personal stories as forms of research? What about the use of a blog or artmaking?
Finally, I want to remind everyone about the March 31st deadline for posts and flowers. The artwork goes up on April 4th at Wonderknits! Looking forward to your posts.
They have amazing little felted and beaded centers.
And these flowers are from Pam... 
I am using a combination of wood stain, gesso (a canvas primer), and acrylic paint to create the base color scheme. 
The flowers and quotes from your comments will be on the panels and the panels will be on the wall!
My hope is that the finished product will feel organic. We shall see. 
I think its wonderful, we all learn in different ways, and diversity as to the ways of learning about something make the willingness to learn that much more viable.
ReplyDeletePersonal stories have a role in research. Many historical researchers rely on diaries, captains logs,etc. for information. These accounts provide a glimpse into the lives of everyday people who lived in the culture being studied rather than the official information and interpretation provided by governmental sources. Artists words about their work provide insight that you might miss otherwise. I always found that the interpretation by scholars of what a "poet or playwright" meant is colored by their own experiences. As a quilter, I love to know what the quilters choices were informed by. How they chose their fabrics and shapes. Knitting is usually more restrained since garments have to fit, scarves need to be functional etc., but the knitters choice of yarn or pattern can be significant.
ReplyDeleteWell, even though you said my fly was gross ( I do find the oddest things among my craft stuff), I see you also said it was still cute! LOL
ReplyDeleteI think personal stories are a great form of research. Additionally, especially in this digital age, a blog is a great way to reach your target audience, in this case, knitters. And if you are an artist, then it is only natural that you would use art as a part of your project. Part of learning, and growing up, is figuring out who you are and embracing that in your choices of hobby, friends and even carreer. If you are doing what you were made to do, you will find greater joy and fulfilment, even if life takes you down bumpy roads.
I love it! I think you learn a lot about people and their backgrounds from stories. I like how you are using the blog to bring us all together to tell our stories. I think that is art right there! It all ties into each other.
ReplyDeleteHistory is more than just the actions of people written about in the history books, it is also the result of those actions on the rest of people who were not famous or "important" enough to be considered worthy of documenting. Personal stories are how the rest of history is fleshed out. I'm sure many women my age remember reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, and those stories made that time period much more alive for many of us than anything we learned in our history classes. Same thing with asking my grandfather about his experiences during WW II or my uncle about his time in Vietnam. Blogs provide another way of showing what we as a culture are thinking about and doing, yesterday I noticed three separate people who had named their newborns Tallulah, which I'm sure anyone researching for those "most popular baby names" lists would find interesting. :)
ReplyDelete