I’ve been having a conversation in my head lately. When Andrea asked me to guest-blog, I immediately knew what I would share… I would use this opportunity to sort out an artistic issue or two.

I was a painter-exclusively- for over 25 years. I miss it too. Lately, I’ve even been dreaming of returning to painting, but I never quite make it up the stairs to what I think of as my painting studio.

Why is that? What stands between my easel and me and what does that have to do with fiber arts? Well…. everything, as it happens. Anytime I think I have cleared time to paint, I find myself spinning instead. Or knitting. Or crocheting. Weaving… You get the idea.

I miss the smells and the sensuousness of paint. Paint doesn’t stick to the end of my nose, get in my food or *gasp* my underwear like fiber does.  So…again… What’s my hang up? Why not paint?

In a nutshell, paint is not fiber. There is something magic about constructing “paintings” in mid air, one stitch at a time, watching movies and visiting with my husband. There is a friendliness and sociability about fiber work that I cannot resist. The kind of motions we use as knitters and crocheters are said to stimulate the speech function in our brain. There’s a reason they’re called “Stitch n’ Bitches”, not stitch and meditate! For me, painting requires hours of quiet time at a stretch and can be very lonely. By contrast, freeform knitting and crochet is magic and painting is very logical, cerebral. I suspect this means that one is more integral to my nature than the other. Freeform is fun and painting is work.

As a freeform fiber artist, I use hooks, needles and yarn to sculpt, draw and paint.  Freeform has been described as “taking your yarn for a walk” and “painting with yarn”. These are apt descriptions, but it can sometimes be tough for fiber artists to get recognition for their work as “art”. I got my undergrad degree in painting because it was a recognized art medium and I want to be a recognizable artist.  Not so much famous, but “legitimate.”

Historically, fiber work was often considered women’s work, confined to the realm of domesticity-as though that was somehow a lesser endeavor. Fortunately, making “yarn art”, that term so once scorned, disdained, is alive with new meaning.

Much changed in the three years I rested in between degrees, both in my psyche and that of local academia. I got my MA in Open Media with an emphasis in Fibers and Ceramics.  I learned to knit when I was 6 years old (I’m 44 now) and despite my insistence that I would “never go back to anything yarn related. Yarn takes over your life!” …  Here I am. Obsessed with yarn. Again.

I am puzzled by my call to the paint because, interestingly, I am easily able to achieve all of the effects in fiber work that I found so confounding in paint. I love pattern, line, repetition, color and texture. In paint, I found it easy to manipulate line and color, but the other three always seemed so… contrived.  It may be that I may never paint again. It’s tough to choose between media—and, certainly, as problems go, it is a gift. It’s more likely that, if I allow myself the opportunity, I will discover what it is that the fiber artist in me has taught the painter—about painting.

Like…

• Don’t think about it so much.
• You already know what to do, stop second- guessing.
• Loosen up, have fun.
• Take your easel to the park and visit with people.
• Work faster.
• Work spontaneously.
• Don’t worry about “What You’re Making.”  Fiber has a way becoming.

Perhaps paint knows too if you’ll (meaning me, of course) just quit talking over it.

I hope Andrea will invite me back to share the results. You know… if I ever make it past the loom.

Laura Murphy ( http://wildethyme.net ) is a mixed media artist living in Southern Colorado with a husband, two cats and three dogs. She specializes in fiber and ceramics media and teaches Art Appreciation and Women in Art History at Adams State College.  She is also President of the Monte Arts Council (http://www. montearts.com) and co-coordinator of the San Luis Valley Folk Arts and Fiber Festival ( http://slvfest.com).  She’ll teach a Freeform knitting and crochet workshop (http://www.slvfest.com/freeformknittingandcrochet ) at said festival and … aspires to paint again. Someday.