Pom-pow

Jan 24 2015

New Habit

By melissasasichambers Everything Else

I’m still getting used to being my own boss. I’ve mostly managed to stay out of my own way, which is important since I’m not fond of being told what to do. I do have certain expectations about how much attention I pay to the whole “making art” thang but I purposely don’t have specific “numbers” associated with my production — no number of pieces by a particular date, or amount of money I need to earn. It’s still numbers that come to mind though when I evaluate how I’m doing. That’s something I want to change. Sometimes old habits can really kick your ass, and new habits take longer than you think to instill.

Since the New Year I’ve been very productive. I’ve not felt pressured so my process has been relaxed, and even though I have put in lots of hours it hasn’t felt like work. It’s been FUN. More than fun, it’s been that satisfying “all is right with my world” feeling at the end of the day. THAT feeling is how I want to “evaluate how I’m doing.” If I can continue to feel that way then I must be a damn fine boss, right? I’ll keep you posted.

So far I’ve finished a big new Pom Pow blanket, “Clown Daddy”…

Also my second Treefort tarp, formerly known as “Winter Trees’ Dreams of Spring”…

now has a Second Life as “The Unconscious Arsonist” (details)….

TVAA has a juried exhibtion, “Menagerie,” coming up and I did a brand new tarp for it titled “Sss(mmm)sss…”….

It’s big, 10 feet by 3 1/2 feet, so here it is in sections:

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about looking at life from new angles — choosing different perspectives from our usual choices in a way that gets us out of our ruts. I don’t think we should waste our time feeling pressured to do things just so we can say we did. I do think we should DO the things we can’t stop thinking about (the life enhancing, won’t hurt anybody including you, things) in spite of the naysayers. And I think sometimes it helps to actively choose your new perspective.

Well, I’ve put making art that only stresses me out on my Fuck-it List, I’m Just Doing the kind of art that I can’t wait to get out of my head and into the world, and I make sure I get at least a couple of hours of play done every day in my studio.

I’m making a choice: instead of letting my old habits kick me in the ass, I’m going to make it my new habit to kick ass.

Care to join me?

Nov 29 2014

Just Did It, Yo!

By melissasasichambers Domestic Arts 2.0

In the spirit of “just doing it” I have been a busy girl. Making pom poms. Hundreds of pom poms. And watching Netflix. Hundreds of hours of Netflix. It’s been serious business around here. Seriously. I can make 12 medium pom poms, and 20 small pom poms in one episode of Breaking Bad. That’s 1,080 small pom poms during the series. Yo Bitch!

I attached all those pom poms to my collection of second helping crocheted blankets and violá “POM POW An Exhibition” was born.

We have recently turned our living room into a gallery space in which we plan to have infrequent, exclusive, random exhibitions and events, and “POM POW An Exhibition” was our soft opening.

If you made it to the opening — Thank you for coming, it meant a lot to me!

If you couldn’t make it, I missed you, and here are the mug shots (plus titles and prices) of the bad boys you missed…

Pandora’s Ice Box – 165

“You’re Crazy. No, You’re Crazy.” – SOLD

“Sanguine” – SOLD

“Rothko Baby” – 75

“Smells Like Snow” – 65

“Vitamin C” – 200

“Straight-laced Ladybug” SOLD

“No Yellow” – 40

“Wonderland Checkers” – 100

“Lemon Meringue” – SOLD

“Johnny Jump-up” SOLD

“Chinese Checkers” – 250

“Make Love Not War” – 125

“Zonky” – 150

“Ice Cream Social” – 200

“Raspberry Jammin'” – 125

“Spumoni” SOLD

“Clown Baby” – 85

“M’hija” SOLD

“Pepe Le Pew” – 150

“Pom Pom Harvest” – 150

“Complementary Sorbet” – SOLD

Contact me if you see anything you like. Do it soon and I may even have some “round snacks” left to share…

I told you I take this very seriously. Pom Pow bitch! Yo!

May 10 2014

Perfectly Imperfect

By melissasasichambers Lula, Ordinary Days

Keeping busy takes real discipline. When I don’t have a deadline, I don’t have a focus for all my energy and I’m a little like Lula with my feet heading in one direction and my hands heading in another.

Assigning myself projects to fill the time between my “real” deadlines helps, and so this week I worked on a new Kantha stitched quilt I hope to share next week, and a new Pom pow blanket….

Before:

After:

I’m really working hard at being disciplined about staying busy, not falling into the gaping maw of inertia, and as a result I stepped for a moment into a different sort of rut. A rut I mentioned in my last post — the “pattern of perfect repetition” rut.

Fortunately, Lula knew just how to show me the error of my ways…

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(Click on the text above to see a video of Lula in action!)

Obviously Lula did not think this blanket had nearly enough POW in its Pom pow! So I changed that…

And then because it wasn’t too late, I even made a quick fix on last week’s pompowsity…

She may be a bit challenged in the perambulation department, but Lula knows how to keep me on my toes! Thank you Lula, for the reminder that around here we prefer the perfectly imperfect.

Much better!

May 03 2014

Keeping Busy

By melissasasichambers Ordinary Days

I’ve been good about always having a project in the works — never being entirely without some art endeavor which requires my attention so that I avoid the dreaded enervating inertia — and it seems to be working.

This week our collaborative team produced 9 unique prints for the upcoming TVAA exhibition “Four Eyes: An Optical Collusion.” Here are 3 of the more varied versions:

Perfect repetition was never our goal, in part because we wanted to see how varying the ink would change the final result — and we really do love the variety — but also because we knew we would never be able to achieve perfect repetition and had no desire to take all the joy out of the process by having an unrealistic expectation.

As you know I also had plenty of time to make pom poms this week and this is the end result of my “Hit & Miss” marathon. Pom pow!:

I’ve also been working on my new Inspiration Book. This one will have things I want, or that inspire me, sprouting out of heads. Here are a couple of pages. Some done. Some not done.

I’m just keeping busy. Perfect repetition is not my goal, but repeating the pattern with room for variation seems to leave lots of room for joy in the process.

Feb 14 2014