Now someone is upset!

This comment, from my old pal Anonymous, appeared today on the blog post about sketchbooks and drawing from a couple days ago:

"Am I the only one who is more than a little upset at the comment of "slapping a few pieces of fabric together, handstitiching and adding a few beads and calling it fabric art"

Exactly which kind of fabric art would Picasso or De Kooning be making? Mine or yours?"

Oh dear—"more than a little upset"! That would be a lot, I guess. She (I am assuming female. I could be wrong.) is referring to my friend, Diane's earlier comment. You can go back and read it if you don't remember it. She didn't say exactly what was upsetting about it, so I'm going to assume she must be someone who enjoys slapping a few pieces of fabric together, hand-stitching and adding a few beads and feels like calling it fabric art. Then she asks what is actually kind of an intriguing question. What kind of fabric art would Picasso or de Kooning be doing? Not sure how that follows the upset part exactly. I am having to read quite a lot between the lines, so bear with me.

I am guessing that Anonymous is making a comparison between art that relies on a background in drawing (since that was what I was blogging about), art study, design principles, etc, and art that relies on none of those, but is instead simply a joyful, spontaneous outpouring of native creativity, ie slapping a few pieces of fabric together, etc. etc. etc. Then asking, which approach would Picasso and de Kooning go for? I'm betting Anonymous believes it would be the latter. I disagree.

As we know,  de Kooning was a Dutch-born Abstract Expressionist. He studied at the Rotterdam Academy of Fine Art and began his career as a commercial artist. Like Picasso, his classical training consisted of years of drawing classes and he was very grounded in the basics of design and composition. There are several books of his drawings available.

An early painting.

His later work builds on similar themes—mostly portraits of women, but he has developed his distinctive style further abstracting the colors and forms. Still, his grasp of composition and yes, drawing, is the basis of his work. He was so obviously in love with paint and gesture that I don't think he would have considered working with fabric, so it is hard to imagine what kind of fabric art he would have created.

Picasso was also a wonderful draftsman. I saw some of his drawings in the exhibit in Seattle last month and felt so inspired by the confidence and strength of his drawing. I have been thinking about his drawings a lot.

Some are very funny!

You see a lot of drawing in his paintings as well, from the classical pieces to the cubist to the abstracts. He was far too macho and far too impatient to have been a fabric artist, but much of his work has a kind of sensibility that it seems to me would translate to fabric fabulously!

 If I could make a quilt that looked anything like this, only out of my own head, I would be a happy woman! It reminds me a little of Pamela Allen's work.

So, here's what I'm trying to say. There are a lot of ways to become an artist. You can go to Art School, or you can go to Community College or you can just take a lot of classes or even hole up in your room and read a lot of books. Or you can just jump in and learn it all along the way, but it is SO much harder that way. But however you get your training, you take what you've learned and you make art and make more art. And every little thing you've learned helps you make better art. If you learn to draw, in my opinion, you've learned a lot more than how to make marks that look, on paper, like something in the real world. You've  trained your eyes to really see the world around you. You have sensitized yourself to details that are usually missed. You've studied shapes and volume and the way light affects what you see. You've had a little love affair with line and swooned over its thicknesses and thinness-es and swoopy curves and elegant endings. You've played with balance and movement and you've taught your hand and your eye and your brain to work together. You bring all those skills to your fabric. Then it doesn't matter whether you are recreating reality in painful detail or creating a unique abstract vision. You have mental and physical tools to use and ways to make decisions and you would never slap a few pieces of fabric together and call it art.

You know, of course, dear Anonymous, that I'm not your boss? I can't tell anyone how to feel or what to do. I'm out here in Oregon, in my p.j.s, typing my thoughts and opinions into my computer. Just like Diane, who left the comment you responded to. There's no need to be even a little upset. Maybe I've interpreted your upset all wrong. Let me know...