Exploring digital change

In a very small way I have been encouraged by Maggie Grey's work to explore manipulating my photographs in Photoshop Elements. The textures revealed by quite simple changes open up all kinds of possibilities for interpretation in fabric or mixed media.

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Funnily enough, when I started writing this post I didn't think I had done that much this year but in looking at all the collages and thinking back I can see that I have achieved a reasonable quantity of work and have been learning as I have gone along. I have to confess, however, to feeling a certain sense of dissatisfaction with the quality of what I have produced. I still feel so much of a novice in the sphere of textile art. I think maybe because I have not yet decided whether I am making art (as I used to feel I was doing when I was painting) or whether I am making "things". Having said that, I can see that some of the things I have been exploring and learning are beginning to come together and maybe the "making" has been part of consolidating the skills I have been learning.

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For 2009 I am telling myself that I will follow a more structured course of study while still experimenting and exploring. My intention is to work with one of the design-orientated books I have bought over the past year. I am already trying to work with Maggie Grey's "catalogue killers" but my added aim is to work through the "Finding Your Own Visual Language" book by Jane Dunnewold, Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan. It's going to be a busy year! Watch this space to see if I falter!

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If I haven't said it already, I wish everyone a peaceful, happy, healthy and wonderfully creative New Year. Religious or otherwise I hope that you are all blessed in 2009 and, if life challenges you, I hope that you will find strength and love to sustain you.