Ponder Post: An Artist's Journey through Wonderland

One way to get out of a reading slump is to read short books! This ~100 page large font 6"x6"x½" book, An Artist's Journey through Wonderland, is a tiny treat. I decided to read this book after watching its author Katie Fowler give an inspiring demonstration of fearless creativity on an episode of www.The QuiltShow.com.

Katie Fowler had – notice the past tense, had  – a stunning quilt titled The Color of Infinity displayed and featured on the show. This is the 60" x 60" whole cloth quilt, an artistic creation of paint, ink and dye on white cotton with her signature black and white checks, pictured in the following photo. Other works of Katie Fowler can be seen at http://katiefowlerartquilts.com/galleries.html.

Katie Fowler started this quilt one month before her youngest child left for college and she recognized she would need to deal with that empty nest. It was a hard time for her and she noted making this quilt – and creativity in general, was about the process, not the product. During a live taping of the show she took this quilt, with all its fine stitching, and cut it into little squares to reassemble into something new. The gasps from the audience and show hosts as she slashed strips off the quilt were irrepressible. The message here was all about "letting go". She had adjusted to her empty nest and no longer felt the need to hang on to this quilt, so she used it as an example exhibiting fearlessness in creativity.

I breezed through her book in one sitting. It was written with an overarching theme and comparisons with Alice in Wonderland. Phrases like "The Cheshire Cat: Grinning at Fear" and, "Creative Chaos and a Mad Tea Party" are a bit corny but memorable. Sprinkled with simplistic illustrations, the doodles, swirls, and squiggles of the line drawings evoked a happy feeling. Admittedly, it was a bit cutesy at times, but overall the book was motivational without a lot of heavy dogma. The author counsels that creativity crushers are procrastination, perfectionism, and resistance. She is also a certified Kaizen-Muse creativity coach. I never knew such a thing existed. Aren't people innately creative to a certain degree? But, I suppose you can coax out certain tendencies and expand them.

I will skim through and browse this book again when I am in a slump – quilting, knitting, cooking, decorating, and even effective de-junking. I love the joyful painting Katie Fowler features prominently on her coaching calling card (tucked inside the book I bought from Amazon). That checkered Gumby-like figure appears to be jumping for joy and I smile just looking at those polka dot dogs. He and they are definitely hanging out in the creative zone! Don't we all feel great when we can lose ourselves in some creative endeavor and the time just whizzes by? And when finished, isn't it satisfying to stand back, arms outspread, and declare, "TA-DA"? A valuable phrase I took away from the reading experience and want to remember is...

No To-Do lists, only TA-DA lists!