Nemo's Ecstasy by Lorraine Torrence, 1997

One of the great benefits of being a member of the Contemporary Quilt Art Association (CQA) is that at each month’s meeting there is a program. The speakers range from people directly involved in making art quilts to artists in other mediums and experts in the business side of art. The August speaker was Lorraine Torrence who has made art quilts, art to wear, designed patterns, written books, and taught for over 30 years.

I have never taken a class from Lorraine but many CQA members have. I’ve looked at her books and I can really appreciate her teaching and writing. Her talk was about Finding Your Personal Voice as an Artist. It was a pleasure to listen to someone who has been teaching for so many years. I really admired her organization of material and her ease and assurance as a speaker. As a teacher myself, I find that I learn as much about teaching and presenting from good teachers as I do about the material they are presenting.

Here are notes (taken by Deborah Rychert) on Lorraine’s six steps toward finding your voice.

1. Do what interests you and what feels right.
2. You have to do something more than once to find your voice, do it many times.
3. Look at your quilts critically from a distance or with a reducing glass, viewfinder from a camera or a photograph.  Don’t get hung up on the details.  It’s the design that’s important.
4. Practice, practice, practice! Keep a journal, a visual record.  A line library, shape library, stitch library.
5. Don’t be discouraged by failure.  In baseball .300 is a good average.  That means a batter misses 7 out of 10.  Don’t be discouraged by a 70% failure.  Embrace your failure and use it as an opportunity to learn.
6. Experiment with different styles.  Sketch, keep recording ideas.  When you have a dry spell go back to your visual record.

I really appreciated her identifying the importance of “failing well.” It’s so important to recognize when something just doesn’t work and the lessons we can learn from our failures. Looking  critically, but with compassion, is our most essential tool.

I think those are pretty good rules to follow. Thanks Lorraine!