On a visit to Virginia Folkestad‘s studio, I was taken with the way she documented her career in a visual timeline.
Virginia Folkestad charts out her career work on her studio wall.
I encourage you to do something similar for your oeuvre.
- Tack color images of your art chronologically to the wall. Add dates if you need them as reminders.
- Use yarn or string to connect ideas and thought processes between earlier and later work.
- Record, in words, why you connected the images.
This will help you visualize your progress and understand how objects and ideas are connected over time.
You will discover common threads that you didn’t previously see, which will help you better tell the story of your work.
Have you tried something like this?
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Love this idea! As I keep morphing into new mediums I can still see the common thread among the many and usually remember what project inspired the new direction. This would be a great way to visually tie it all together.
fabulous idea
now to find a blank wall!
Great idea. Will definitely try this one out. It speaks on a very visual way about the developing of ideas. Thanks for sharing
What a wonderful daily reminder of your career….or your life! Companies could benefit by doing this with their staff and storying their vision and history. Looks like a good opportunity for visual artists to partner with corporations and bring a little more art into life.
I’d have a hard time finding a wall in the house or studio to do this, but electronically through a mind-map, I think it would be a great exercise.
With my new love, Pinterest, I’m thinking there might be a way to accomplish this, or at least look at different boards as “my blue period”….”my cubist period”…..etc. Lovely post and great idea. Thanks to Virginia and Alyson!
Wow, that sounds like fun. I’m going to have to try this.
For myself, I keep a “bible” binder of all things related to my life as a weaver, show cards I’ve been in, articles about my work, picts, newsletters. I have it filed by years progressively. It’s easy to leaf through (well, it’s gotten kinda big and might need to be broken up into decades or significant moments). I also have a portfolio of work cataloged in a similar manner. Both are easy to add to and available for showing others anytime!
This is a fabulous idea, to be able to see where you have come from will also enable you to see more clearly where you are going!
This does indeed sound like a great idea – fun too! I like the visual part of it as we artists are all quite visual learners aren’t we? Thank you Virginia and Alyson. Repeating Kelly, now to find a wall.
Huh, this looks like fun and I bet I’ll be very surprised by what I learn. I’ve noticed that the things I expect to see are often not the only things I do see when I do any kind of look-back.
This seems like a very good thing to do… especially while at a pivotal point in my art career.
Thanks!