White Walls

For those who do want to know: I did finish that UFO I wrote about in my latest post. However, it did not get included in the exhibit after all, because it just did not fit in well with all the other quilts, which are mostly from my series „Metamorphoses“ and „Play of Lines“. So some may think I might have taken it more easy beforehand, after all I should have known that it didn’t fit in with the others, being of a different style. But although I had been told in advance how many meters of hanging rails I would have available in total I had not really been sure how they were spread out throughout the house. So I wanted to have as many quilts available for hanging as possible. And now I am glad it is finished and I can move on to other things.

Which made me think about „white (design) walls“.

In German there is a saying that nothing is more frightening to a writer than a white sheet of paper on which the next story or text is supposed to be written. Supposedly a white sheet of paper can cause the worst of conditions in writers, a writer's block. Would that apply to a blank new document on a computer screen as well? The software for word processing is most likely going to give some color around that "white sheet of paper".

And in my case, as I work on a design wall in my studio, would that apply to the white or empty design wall, too?

Here is a picture of my design wall, empty as it was Monday morning:

my design wall - turned on the side
because I don't know why the computer keeps turning it
although the real picture is in the correct orientation... 

Though, to be honest, that wall is never totally empty as I pin stuff onto it on the sides – reminders, scraps, sketches, whatever. However, it was empty regarding ‚a piece of work in progress’. When you look at it, you can see that it isn’t really an empty white wall. First of all there is the line in the middle, caused by the fact that we put two pieces of material up and they had to meet somewhere. Secondly, the two pieces of fabric I used to cover the material differ slightly in make and shade. Thirdly, there are the screws that attach it to the wall. And the pins, waiting for new pieces of fabric. So it isn’t really an empty wall.

And as I have lots of ideas just waiting in my head for me to have enough time to set to work at them, it isn’t frightening either. In fact, I often wish it were a bigger white wall, with more space, perhaps even enough space to work on several pieces parallel.

I am eager to set to work again after all these busy weeks which did not give me much time at the sewing machin, working on art.

However, I started having a lookout for white walls outside. And found out that they, too, are hardly ever only white.

Here’s one that has a few little marks, although it is still pretty smooth.

The following two have slightly larger and larger marks on them.

Then there is one that looks almost pock-marked.

This one is dirty, obviously it has already met with quite a few things.

And this one has been mended.

And then, of course, there are white walls which are more than just a white wall, as this one, which is the wall of a stable in a nearby village.

So, come to think of it, there is really no need to even start getting scared of an empty or white wall, because there is almost always something there already. As there probably is in one’s store of ideas. There is bound to be one particular idea waiting to be pulled out and brought to life.