Working in the Fog-obstacle or opening?
Do you ever feel as though you are working in a fog? Do you experience clouded vision whenever you sit down to write, or create meaningful content, or find that perfect, elusive color and texture for your current project? I call that feeling “being in the fog”. Now, I think fog is beautiful. I took this picture some years ago with my phone, couched inside layers of wool and down, snow and fog encroaching so fast that it filled each footstep behind me. What I loved about this day, cold as it was, was that everything was so transformed. I could have been on another planet or the field next door. Nothing was clearly visible until I was right next to it. Yet, still, there were moments like this, when the snow stopped just long enough, and the wind pushed the fog away just far enough for me to catch a glimpse of the edge of the next hill.
My creative life and my work life are like this today. Every day I begin a new day I have some fog before my chosen path. This is partly because some of the paths are so new and partly because there are so many. I am learning that I cannot do everything all at once. I often look at my mentors who do all of the things I am trying to do so well. People who are masters at their craft make things look so effortless. I find myself comparing to them, discounting the many hours they have spent honing their skills.
I am a “master” of my stitch and dye craft and I have the benefit of many years. My students often tell me the same thing. “How do you know what color to put there?” Well, truthfully I do not always know the answer to that question. And the other truth is that one of the main things that makes me a master is that I know I have only scratched the surface — that there is more to learn than I could ever forget in a lifetime.
I do know this, that I have the ability to help others who want to create beautiful textile work too. I am looking forward to it.
Carol LeBaron
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