Lisa Thorpe

New Year – A New Spin

In 2019 I started playing with the time stamp idea of combining technology, textiles and mindfulness. I know this doesn’t seem like a natural fit but I want to embrace the convenience of marking a moment, catching beautiful colors, or an capturing an interesting pattern in the moment with the amazing art tool in my pocket – my phone. When I’m hiking or in the case of this glowing ginkgo tree, while I’m driving (don’t worry I stopped and parked), I can snap a few picture drop a pin on a map to mark my location and hold the experience in my phone. Later I edit and decide what needs to be moved forward into art. But the practice of stopping and marking the moment with a photo is valuable to me.

In the past I created what I called “Time stamp” fabric collage pieces experimenting with this idea of capturing a moment with tech then translating to textile. See Time Stamp #1, Time Stamp#2 and Time Stamp #3 & #4  . Those pieces where my first dip into the idea. This year I want to draw out my practice of observing more and put my inspiration in a sketch book, to better define and document the creative process from inspiration to art for myself and perhaps for others as well. This is my first in depth into this process – embracing both the accessibility of technology to capture inspiration and the more introspective process of breaking that inspiration into it’s communal parts of color, form, pattern and composition.

I hope you enjoy the process and perhaps find a way to mark the things in your daily life that take your breath away or draw you in to look close or even the transient moments of delight – what ever tools or practices help you be in those places more often are worth embracing.