Fiber/Textile
Found Objects
Needlework
Photography
Sewing
| Aug. 9, 2011 |
3 Comments
I'm digitally compulsive - digits being defined as fingers. I need to use my hands all the time. Making things centers me in the same way that training for a marathon, practicing the piano, or cultivating a garden does for others. In home economics class in junior high, we learned to make gathered skirts and crop tops. I made a dozen. When I was young and my kids were little, my expression was still craft. Seeing an item I had sewn or knitted proved I'd lived the day before-that I had accomplished something that hadn't been eaten, dirtied, or thrown away. For years I continued to knit size two toddler sweaters (using the same two patterns in different colors) while watching TV, riding in the car, and sitting through meetings. I gave them as baby presents or sold them to friends for the cost of the materials. I have 60-plus sweaters and several dozen skeins of yarn stored in boxes.
As my kids and I got older, I wanted more from my making. I was drawn into the artier side of creativity. I wanted to communicate-not just affirm-my existence. Making needed to be more than just about me and yet I wanted a private challenge. So I went back and earned a BA in art and, 10 years later, an MFA. It has just been in the last few years that I've been using what's primarily a craft technique in creating my artwork.
I've asked myself why I have this deep down need (compulsion?) to make things. My mother died when I was 13 and my father had a career-devastating stroke in his late 50s. So, I have always known that I should utilize every minute in today. Stuff made reifies time in a tangible form. The irony of making something to capture time is that time is what flies by when I'm in that zone, totally absorbed in what I'm doing.
The art part of making pushes me to think critically; the craft part encourages me to hone skills and develop techniques; together they force me out of the studio and away from the TV to interact with others and their work, to offer me and what I've made to an audience.
What I'm making these days? Osteoarthritis in my hands has made compulsive knitting painful - so fortunately I found embroidery. I fell in love with snapshots in grad school while doing a project about 9.11.01. Early on I manipulated them in various ways in Photoshop. Ordering big lots of vernacular photos on eBay, I'd often get uninteresting studio portraits. At a residency in 2007, I tried embroidering a quote into one of them. Everything just fell together - I could use my hands, comment on living and politics in a way my aging self wanted to, make art, and still watch television.
Jane Waggoner Deschner makes her embroidered photograph work in Billings, Montana. View more of her pieces at janedeschner.com.
Why I Make is a guest series exploring the human impulse to create. Read more posts in the Why I Make archives or submit your own story.
Comments
August 9th, 2011
"Digital Compulsion" very cheeky.
Posted By Anthony Tammaro
August 11th, 2011
You must be proud about you're "Digital Compulsion". The old studio picture are so old school and reminiscing to look at even I know no one there. Make more of like this it gives a peaceful feeling!
Posted By Collectibles
November 6th, 2011
I really enjoyed reading your reason for 'digital expression'. I too love to stitch and really appreciate your concept of capturing time in a piece of creative stitchwork. I love to work so much in my workshop that I tend to feel a little guilty when I stay there too long..what a lovely way to live....
Posted By Duilloega Designs
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