01 July

Where Do Ideas Come From?

Derek took this picture of me this week while I temporarily set up my office at the dining room table. I pop in and out of the shop while welding to take care of business, answer e-mails etc. One prospective market vendor said "thanks, for getting back to me so quickly, you must work at your computer all the time!" Now they know my secret!


Listening to Talk of the Nation this week, host Neil Conan was at the Aspen Ideas Festival.Each year, leaders and innovators converge on the Aspen Ideas Festival to "think big." But just where do great ideas come from? Sandy Speicher, Director of Design for Learning at IDEO, Amit Chatterjee, CEO of Hara, and artist Eric Fischl explain where they find inspiration.” This show inspired me to consider how and where my ideas come from. One thing is clear, I have not had enough “quiet time.” Most of my ideas used to come to me while taking a shower or driving and now they tend to happen while we are at our cabin in Girdwood. We haven’t had much down time this summer and I was actually thinking about winter yesterday… That thought alone probably jinxed our summer weather yet to come! I was thinking about the slow

er pace of winter, the calmness and having more TIME to think, create and be still. While I love the daylight and heat of the summer months, it seems like Alaskans cram a year’s worth of living into 90 days of summer! My goal for the rest of the summer is to try and slow down my pace of this so far, busy, busy summer. Right after I crank out this STACK of special orders, Gallery pieces, keep up on my daily Vendor Coordinator duties for the Spenard Farmer’s Market, dedicate some family time to the guys while getting in a little exercise for this tired old body THEN be inspired with some new ideas for art making…

It doesn't seem fair to celebrate my NEW SEWING MACHINE while my sweet Kristen is out at sea for the next month and a half with NASA'S ICESCAPE 2011. She would be giddy for a chance to sew samples for me on my NEW Janome instead of our vintage Singer Athena 2000! I'm working on a couple of new pattern designs and the old Athena finally told me she was ready to retire. Of course Kristen told me that a couple of years ago!

4 comments:

Ann said...

A NEW SEWING MACHINE!!!!!! Oh, Cindy, life just doesn't get any better! Of course, that says a lot about how the I have set the bar for my life. :) Congratulations!! I am so ready to see The Spenard Totem.

cindy shake said...

thanks Ann :o) I have a new Husky Dog pattern too that needs to get sewn up... I wasn't able to get the Big Sister of the Janome I wanted but for now this will be just perfect. AND as the sales person pointed out, this model is much more portable to classes etc. than the 6500. The best part is I'm sure the TENSION actually works on the new machine!!

cookingwithgas said...

hey Cindy- you know that picture of you is super sexy to the art crowd- poster girl!
Summer is hot and fast!
New machine- you are lucky! o have a sorta new machine but since i had it packed away they some how made the eye for the needle IMPOSSIBLE to see! I am wondering how they made it invisible.

ang design said...

great ideas all come from the hat!! :P looking good cindy.....