Category Archives: Food for thought

My Imagination is suspicious

08 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by in About, Food for thought, Philosophy

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , ,

My Imagination is SUSPICIOUS of FORMULAS.

I think of my Imagination as a co-conspirator. It’s been with me for a very long time. It’s great company—talkative, funny (sometimes absurd) and a terrific collaborator.

I realised at a fairly young age that my Imagination was also a bit opinionated and not very patient. I was given a spirograph set for Christmas and was really excited, until I played with it. I sat at the dining table after lunch with my new toy and had a go. After a while my Imagination became disgruntled, wanting to do more with it than it could, or that my 9-year-old brain had the capacity to make it do.

When I look back there are lots of other similar occurrences. My mother forked out money (though we had scant to spare) to buy me the full set of Marshall and Cavendish Golden Hands Encyclopedia of Crafts. I loved all the pictures and ideas, but following a procedure to make something the same as in the picture was way too tedious for good old Imagination.

When I was a teacher, Imagination only rarely let me teach the same content twice. I would have to create new and different programs and lessons every year, or at least clothe content in a new skin, an updated skin, or a skin that better matched the students before me. [Thanks, Imagination, even though it was time-consuming it was probably good teaching practice!]

Having an active imagination in my life is very good for making art. However, it can be troublesome when you are trying to develop techniques and need to follow certain rules, such as those that bring you success in using media (paints, mediums, glues, dyes, for example).

My Imagination should be commended though, for admirable effort in relation to my aspiration to build some skills in knitting. Not only is my Imagination suspicious of knitting patterns, it absolutely digs in it’s heels and forces me to work tangents until the work is uniquely ours.

Thanks, Imagination, love your work!

[A second] Food for thought

17 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by in Food for thought, Food pie

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

The week has sped away.

FOOD, CREATIVITY AND COMPASSION (feeding goodwill)

My obsession with good food turned to ideas of food that is cheap and nutritious and sustainable. I’d like to develop some recipes that are really healthy and low cost. I’m also trying to be more creative in the kitchen, but failure doesn’t sit well with me or my stomach—pearl barley, bean and chorizo salad was a bit of a flop but we ate it anyway. I haven’t eaten pearl barley since I can’t remember when—so chewy and a bit pop-corn-ish—worth trying again!

summertomato_broccoli

Image by Darya Pino (Summer Tomato)

I listened to a segment on radio about Foodbank, a not-for-profit organisation providing food for those who can’t afford it in Australia. They are a conduit between food suppliers and charity organisations. Unfortunately, 2.2 million Australians live in poverty and 60,000 people who seek food assistance from charities each month are turned away. And yet our government is trying to take more money from those who can least afford it. I’m looking forward to further supporting this organisation and writing to relevant politicians.

THE CONCEPT OF ONE-OFF (feeding philosophical thinking)

I’m opening a second ETSY store soon. It will be called TooManyPies. The branding and philosophy are not fully forged yet; basically I need an outlet for all the ‘pie’ experiments.

There will be charity knits (I will donate all proceeds to charities), cheap and cheerful knits (proceeds support the pie addiction to new), greeting cards and other sundry items—maybe some jewellery, maybe some household items, maybe some original pdf patterns.

I think the TooManyPies brand relates most strongly to the concept of ONE-OFF items. Unique things that serve the purpose of facilitating me to learn, experiment, explore and resolve; and then I can move on to the next thing. I’m not interested in repeating or mass-producing, not interested in creating anything the same twice.

STORM CHASING (feeding cloud fixation, feeding soul)

stormcloud

Storms over Sydney this week have been fairly devastating for some. We were spared any damage, thankfully.

We didn’t quite manage to get the best pics this time—it came so quickly. But there were enough interesting images to spur me on to paint some large-scale clouds. I’m also going to have a go at creating some charts for original knitting patterns based on cloud and water motifs.

Apart from some projects nearing completion (may be able to share next week), and a plan to de-clutter and reorganise studio and study spaces, that’s the round-up for this week!

kikyoblue

[1st] Food for thought

10 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by in About, Food for thought, NEO

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

kikyoblue  kikyowarm  kikyored  kikyoviolet  kikyodark

Here’s a brief round-up of stimulus this week—who and what has given me more stimulus, more inspiration, more pies (!) to add to the legion:

CHEVRONS AND COLOURLOVERS (feeding stripe addiction, feeding colour addiction)

chevron1 chevron2

Stripes and chevrons are everywhere at the moment. Even Missoni is pandering to the fad through their own knock-offs in Target. I have a nice pattern for a knitted chevron cushion using Rowan yarn, so have been testing colour ways in COLOURlovers.

YARN FIX (feeding knit addiction, feeding colour addiction)

Rico1Rico2Rico3

In the last couple of weeks I’ve been experimenting with chunky and super chunky knits. I’m motivated to design a big chunky cowl and this Rico yarn is supposed to be super light, perfect for a big cowl. Expensive, though, so I’m saving up.

BEAUTY IN VIDEO (feeding stripe addiction, feeding earth texture addiction, feeding colour addiction)

These clips caught my eye in my weekly peruse of Vimeo. I’m still hankering to do some animation, but again it’s something you have to get immersed in so when that happens it will be only one finger in one pie for a while.

 

http://vimeo.com/107469289

 

 

SIMS 3 (feeding SIMS world dominance addiction)

In Sims 3 posts in my blog artist practice, I talk about playing with Sims that are tailor-made to be artists. I’ve spent some time recently trying to edit various worlds to suit an artist community. It’s harder than I thought and very time-consuming.

This week I downloaded the Prism art studio which has inspired a new attempt to create a bespoke Hidden Springs for artists. A long-term project for sure.

artisthouses

Artist residences

hiddenartistretreat

Artist precinct

prismartstudio

Painting studio

That’s the round-up for this week!

kikyoblue