Joyce Makes Art

06:21 pm: Traitor

I feel a little bit like a traitor doing this, but I'm seriously thinking about moving my blog to a different site. I am not much of a techno-geek, and the new site that I'm "test driving" makes it easier for me to do some of the customization I have been wanting to do for the last several months.

Take a look:

http://joycevance.typepad.com/

and let me know what you think.

09:08 am: The Hat

As I was on the way out the door for a week long business trip, I learned that the 15 year old needed a hat for camping. I took a quick look at the Ann Budd basic hat pattern (I confess -- this was so last minute that I had to scribble it onto a business card) and I grabbed some filatura di crosa 127 print I had been fortunate enough to score on sale the previous week. I knitted the hat everywhere. On the plane ride. At dinner the first night (which, given the amount of wine we drank, undoubtedly accounts for the extra 20 stitches that suddenly appeared that night), at dinner every night, even in a few meetings, although I was unusually circumspect in this regard. I managed to finish it on the last leg of my flight home, although the fact that I couldn't get my bag out from overhead meant I had to weave in all the lose ends using a size 1 dpn instead of my needle. Here it is, on the head of the predictably surly child, who claimed it was purple and he would have preferred something store bought. But, of course, I've been around long enough to know he HAD to say that.



I was also overjoyed to have an order of peace fleece yarn awaiting me upon arrival. Ollie was equally happy about it. He insisted that these skeins were his new floaties for the swimming pool.



Tags: knitting

09:16 pm: I have to write an artist's statement

i have foolishly convinced myself to submit some of my collage pieces for a very low-key local show, which is all well and good, but it seems that i have to have an artist's statement to send along with them. this is NOT fun, even though my sweet friend vicki emailed me hers and some great sites to look at. but, no matter what i write, it either sounds pompous or just plain silly. i essentially write for a living, but legal writing is most definitely not a skill that translates to writing like this. the worst problem is that the honest statement goes something like, vance is a self-taught collage artist who flits from interest to interest as new techniques catch her eye, while retaining her old favorites. she creates quirky, sometimes succesful work. she know her work is succesful because her daughter tells her when she likes it.

i don't think that one is going to work, though.

07:53 pm: What do you knit with your first precious handspun yarn?


This really has been a dilemna for me. Such beautiful yarn with colors that wind through the yarn like the breeze through the trees. I have been searching for the perfect pattern forever. I was inspired by the Yarn Harlot's newest book and decided to make a simple hat for my youngest son. And it may well end up as a hat, but it's so pretty just on it's own that I may keep it as lucky charm or a lovey for myself.



Tags: knitting

09:02 pm: A New Journal

This is sort of a new thing for me.



Tags: collage art

09:05 pm: More Knitting
My camera has been wonky, which has made it hard to upload new knitting photos, but hopefully, it's back to normal.

And just in time, because, after months of knitting on tiny needles, IT is done. It is the baby blanket for my niece who is due in early June. The blanket that survived a near disaster with a venti cup of hot coffee. The blanket that I knit at my oldest son's fall concert, my middle two children's Advent concert, through endless ballet classes, and finally, on the airplane (both directions) to Artiscape, only to learn I had done the edging wrong and had to frog, frog, frog, and redo it. I ended up with about 10 inches of yarn to spare.

I really hope that they will consider all the obvious mistakes and the faint odor of coffee that surrounds the blanket to be indicia of its heirloom qualities. It is far from perfect, but it is sort of sweet and nice and has the feeling of something a child might latch on to and carry around for years until its worn and gray and its mother is going to SCREAM IN HORROR IF SHE CAN'T MANAGE TO PRY IT OUT OF SOMEONE'S HANDS AND GIVE IT A GOOD WASHING. So I hope that they're going to like it.



Tags: knitting

02:44 pm: Weekend Art
More art from the weekend.



This is more "me time" art. I'm in that wonderful non-judgmenental place where I get to experiment and I don't have to worry too much about the details. Someone recently said to me, "I'm an artist. My job is to make art, not to critique it." Yea. That.

And knitting coming soon.

Tags: collage art

02:29 pm: Collage Work


This weekend I am playing around with some new things. Just playing. Nothing more. This one is called "Emerge."

10:19 pm: This is not a real entry
I'm only typing so I can see if my new userpic works. I've been inspired by all of my art sistahs work in photoshop and wanted to play a little bit with graphics tonight. This userpic is the result.

03:59 pm: The Knitting Is Taking Over

On Sunday my son, the fifteen year old one, told me, "Mom, the Knitting -- it's taking over." He said this after I casually handed the woman in the starbucks drive through the money for our drinks and then drove on through the line, without the drinks, but with my knitting in my hands, saying "honey, I think I'll just pull over her and knit a few more rows before we go home."

He's worried. Very, very worried. It's a good thing to know I still have a few tricks up my sleeves where he's concerned.