8/11/05

Make stuff

Yesterday there was someone in the gallery and they asked me when was the first time in my life I knew that I wanted to be an artist. Well, first of all I'm still a little afraid of the word artist and I probably figured it out a few years ago but the question made me remember something that happened to me when I was 9 or 10 years old. I was bored one weekend. Like any other kid I could have just watch cartoons or play with Barbies or do whatever normal kids do. But I wanted to make something. It didn't matter what and I had no idea what I was thinking. But I remember going all over the house trying to find stuff to make something. I found some fabric some lace and some ribbon. I went in my room and started making pillows. I decided that I was going to give it to my Mom for Mother's Day. I was hand sewing them and I think it was the first time I ever did any sewing so it took me a long time. I remember every day coming from school and closing my bedroom door and working on my pillows. My mom wasn't allowed in my room because I was making her something. I think that was the start also of me being locked away in my room until I was eighteen, but back to the story. Mother's Day came and I gave her the pillows. They were very small because I didn't have a lot of fabric and who knows with what I filled them. I think I sacrificed one of my stuffed animals. She loved them, like she has loved everything I have made since then, no matter how ugly it is.

A few years ago I went to visit my sister when she was living in Merrimack, NH and my Mom wanted to show me my niece's room that they had just redecorated. My niece was in her pink princess fase and the room was decorated accordingly. The bed had a canopy of tulle that went from the ceiling to the bed and on the bed where those pillows I gave my Mom that Mother's Day. I couldn't believe she still had them almost twenty years later. I had completely forgotten this until I saw the pillows and it all came back to me. So I guess it is my Mom's fault that I have this creative thing in me and it all started with a little piece of fabric so it make sense that I am a quilter.

The other day I going thru some boxes at the gallery. My gallery partner is a pack rat and not very organized and she had two boxes. One was labeled "Stuff" and the other "Stuff to make stuff". She must have had a similar experience when she was little.

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