Needle Doodling and Subconscious Incubation

Doodling...to Scribble Absentmindedly!

I've been a 'Doodler' my entire life and never really thought about it being a 'Thing'.  It is such a 'Thing' that Google, Wikipedia, Pinterest, UTube and scores of internet sites are as absentminded as I am. 

 Like most lifetime doodlers, I started with crayons, graduated to pencils, pens, paint and other two dimensional Art mediums.  I even passed on my 'Absentmindedness' to my Junior High Art Students with a lesson on Doodling around common objects.  I wonder if they have become lifetime doodlers, too!

There are benefits of being a doodler...according to HuffPost who say, "If you spend half an hour doing something creative, when someone gives you a problem you will think about it in fresh ways."  Doodling as conscious absentmindedness acts as a distraction and allows for "subconscious incubation of a solution".  Hmmmm, now I'm looking back on my Doodle Art examples and realizing I must have always wanted a Mickey Mouse watch and was ahead of the times with 'Arty' nail polish.

 

Doodling has certainly gained the attention of a number of scientific and mental health studies with topics like etymology and memory.  It seems doodling has been an absentminded practice among some of the worlds notable people...like...the poet/physician Keats, literary genius Beckett and US President Reagan.  Of all the notables I would like to associate my absentmindedness with is Leonardo da Vinci.  Really, his notebook margin doodles give new meaning to Absentminded Scribbling.

I guess it was a natural transition from the two dimensional doodling to three dimensional doodling with needle, thread, fabric, buttons, beads, and whatever else I could find to allow for 'subconscious incubation'.  Just look at what it hatched!  

January Calendar and Book Collection of an American Art Legend

"Texas is a wonderful place...I wonder why everyone doesn't live here." Georgia O'Keeffe 1918

 

Georgia O'Keeffe first learned about Texas as a child while listening to her mother read stories of life in the Wild West.  She experienced Texas for the first time when she accepted the position of Art Teacher at Amarillo Public Schools from 1912 to 1914.

 

She continued life on the Panhandle Plains of Texas at Canyon, Texas' West Texas State Normal College from 1916 to 1918. 

 

"There is something wonderful about the bigness and the loneliness and the wind...Texas is my spiritual home."

 

Georgia O'Keeffe had a major impact in my pursuit of a Masters of Art Education in the late 1980's.  Her influence both in painting and three dimensional mediums inspired my O'Keeffe Collections of books, thesis, posters and calendars.  For many New Years, an O'Keeffe Calendar hung in my School Art Room and in my Home Studio. 

 

I have been fortunate to see many of her paintings in person at the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

The Santa Fe Museum opened in July, 1997, eleven years after her death.  I visited  the museum during the first week it was open.  The O'Keeffe Museum houses the largest permanent collection of her work in the world.

Besides the calendars, my collection includes:
O'Keeffe and Texas
The Art and Life of Georgia O'Keeffe
O'Keeffe The Life of an American Legend
A Painter's Kitchen
and
The Bust of Georgia O'Keeffe...by yours truly.

Georgia Totto O'Keeffe was born November 15, 1887, in Wisconsin.  She died March 6, 1986 at the age of 99 years in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  She is recognized as the "Mother of American Modernism".

Straightening 'This'...Contemplating 'That'

I am a few days past my Mayday Malady.  I hope that means a recovery is in progress.  Stitching for a few days helped to settle my 'Antsy Angst'. 

Still I have wandered around the Studio straightening 'This' and contemplating working on 'That'...then putting 'That' back in the box or basket or drawer.  Just not in the mood for 'That'!

I really should be getting back to 'Tracks of My Georgia Ancestors'.  I am almost to my Great Great Grandfather Rene Marion and a batch of very interesting ancestors on his mother's side of the family. 

I hinted at what is to come in the AtoZ Challenge Letter Q's post...Traces of A Queens Genes.  As far as I can tell with the research I've done, I may be the 17th Great Granddaughter of the Queen of Scotland.  How about 'That'?   You would think 'That' would be motivation enough to start reading, writing and doing the arithmetic, but it's not.

Instead, I'm digging in an old Drawing Portfolio and sorting through my Mixed Media Tackle Box.  Really...both have been literally in the 'Skeleton Closet' for years.  As you can see by the date on my signature...1987.

You are probably wondering what prompted me to go back to 1987 instead of Great Great Grandfather's time of 1887.

I have to blame it on my BLOG ROLL from the AtoZ Challenge.   Like I mentioned in the Mayday Mayday post..."They have inspired me to Read, Write, Bead, Travel, Draw Research, Publish and Think Outside The Blog Box!"   Here are three blogs that inspired me to get re-acquainted with my Derwent Colored Pencils, Kneaded Eraser, Seed Beads, and Bead Loom.

Bead Contagion, Writer's Storm: Brandon Ax, and Alphabet Salad 

The Derwents are sharpened.  I have a new Sketchbook. 

I need a new Kneaded Eraser....the 1987 one crumbled!

The 'Antsy Angst' is abating, and I've only gotten so far as photographing this pencil drawing done twenty-seven years ago.  Just think how settled I am going to be when I get out the Bead Loom and start weaving 'This' pattern from 'That' drawing. 

Now where did I put 'That' Loom?

Wordless Wednesday...Getting Back In The Art Groove

Back In The Day when I was a StarGazer, FeatherFinder and GraphicGuru.

I'm Feelin' the Return of the Art Groove.

Now what did I do with my Groovy Art Stuff???

A to Z Collecting...Art To Zippers

A Good Place to Start....Art.

Not all ArtInTexas is about Texas, Heavens No!

There's Flower Art...like Tyler Roses, the Hill Country BlueBonnets and West Texas Flowering Prickly Pear.

There's Landscape and Seascape Art...like the Corpus Christi Coast Line, the Piney Woods Trees and Rolling Hills, and the Stunning SunSets of West Texas.

That's pretty much all about Texas..Isn't It?

Let me Re-Phrase.

When in Texas...What you See is What You Paint, Sculpt, Throw (as in Pottery) and Collect.

Not All Art in Texas is About Cowboys and Indians.

Some is About the Abstraction of Cowboys and Indians...Acrylic on Canvas 

by This Girl Raised In Texas.

  Collection of GRIT.

Indian Pottery and Mexican Chilies Oil on Canvas..by GRIT...Collection of GRIT
WildFlower Web Watercolor...by GRIT...Collection of GRIT

As An Artist In Texas, I can tell you that 'What You See In Texas' to Paint, Sculpt, Throw and collect is a 

Wide Open Range.

Collecting Texas Art, for GRIT, has been a Here and There process.

While I was Here....I Painted and Potted and collected other Texas Artists work.

While I was There....I collected Photographs,Paintings, Pottery, Business Cards and Whatever just because I was Interested.

Through 'CollectIn Texas Gal', I'll be sharing experiences in The ABC's of Collecting and Creating/Re-Creating everything from Art to Zippers.

A Good Place to End...Zippers.

Zippers...GRIT collection...Looking for Some???