2021 | The ART of IMPROV with Carolina Oneto

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Carolina Oneto

The ART of IMPROV

I am so happy to welcome Carolina Oneto to share with us all about her love and work with improvisation. Carolina is an artist currently living with her husband and three children in São Paulo, Brazil, where she is continuously creating and developing her art and teaching that WE ARE ALL CREATIVE. This belief is what initial drew me to Carolina, her open and generous spirit, her enthusiasm to share and teach others that their art matters.

Carolina was born in Chile and trained as an industrial civil engineer. She worked for in logistics until her daughter was born, she then focused her talents on teaching engineering, a job that let me spend more time with her family. After moving to Buenos Aires she had the incredible opportunity of learning patchwork with Teresita Leal and Cecilia Koppman, known Argentinian quilters. After discovering quilting she was hooked and began traveling to learn from others and to meet others with her passion. She has been pursuing her passion and sharing what she has learned and encouraging others to find and follow their creative dreams. Carolina’s quilts have been exhibited in many Quilt Festivals around the world,  such as Quilt Week (Paducah, Lancaster, Des Moines, Daytona Beach, Grand Rapids, Virginia Beach), Quiltcon, Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, European Carrefour do Patchwork, Fiberart International, Festival do Patchwork Gramado and Floripa Quilt Festival (both in Brazil). Additionally, her work has been featured at art centers and galleries in Europe, USA and Chile.

She has created a wonderful community thru teaching and her classes are available online as quilting and design classes, she has also created many on demand classes for those who need to learn at their own pace and time. The online classes allow her to connect with students from many different countries, which is a very enriching experience. I thank her for sharing with us here specifically about her work and love of improvisation!

Watercolor II Carolina Oneto

What does working improvisationally mean to you?  How would you define the ‘Art of Improv’?

To me working improvisationally means freedom, creativity, bravery and joy. I would define the art of improv as a place that everyone can found inside themselves, as humans we are all improvisers in every activity of our life. . .we just need to look for and explore it.

Have you always worked improvisationally?

At the very beginning when I was learning quilting I just followed patterns and tutorial. . .but soon I started improvising, in a very simple way, using my scraps and just sewing them with any rule,  and it was an amazing discovery. From that moment I never stop.

Do you work improvisationally, consciously, intentionally?  If so, how do you begin?  If not, how do you find yourself getting there?

I always start a quilt with an intention, that could be playing with colors, shapes, telling a story or to use a special technique. With every project I start in a different way. . .sometimes could be with a drawing, a feeling, or just picking some colors from my stash to start cutting and sewing. . .it depends on the project how I will begin.

How often do you work with improvisation?

The last 2 years I have almost done all my quilts with improvisation, I realize that is the way in which I most enjoy to create and I think that one of the reason is because the process is almost more important than the final result.

Value Line and Variations Carolina Oneto

Please share a bit about your process.  Do you have methods to getting started?  Do you have tricks for getting unstuck?  Do you have motivators to finishing up?

I like to start each new project with a tidy studio (a situation that won't last long) I love the process of selecting fabrics, colors and for this I take all the time in the world, it's like looking for the perfect ingredients of a magic potion! they must be exactly the right ones to design the quilt I want to do. . .

There are times that I select, and depending on the time of the day and the sunlight, I review these colors, to see how they look and how they change by the light and day. . . until I have the perfect mix for my future work.

I like to work with music a lot, I have a special playlist with my favorite songs that helps me to focus and brings me to a state of concentration and freedom that allows me to further advance into my creations.

Where do you find inspiration?  How do you use it?

I found inspiration in many places (outside and inside), I found inspiration in math, in other forms of art, in music, in nature, but also in my memories, my life and my feelings.

What advice would you give to someone interested in trying to work improvisationally.  Can you share some good advice that you received that helped you become more comfortable this way?

I would say that you just need to free yourself from the traditional, and also you need to let go of pressure, fears and prejudice. You have to let go of perfection, being a perfectionist is the best way to block yourself. Improvising is also play and experiment. Improvising is to work without a cutting list, where process and present moment are enjoyed, and where it isn’t a wright or wrong way.

Artificial Light Carolina Oneto

How would you finish the sentence, ‘What if, . . .?’

I make a quilt with many shades of white?

What is something you always say ‘Yes and. . .’ to?

To watch a movie with my husband and even better if it is with a glass of wine.

Who is someone you would love to hear from about their work with improvisation?

Yes, I would love to know about Emma Portner and her dance.

What are reading, listening to, watching, or any other inspirational obsessions you would like to share?

The book, Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art by Stephen Nachmanovitch, and many of the books by Thich Nhat Hanh , like “the Art of living”, “Silence”, “You are here”.

Thank Carolina! So wonderful to learn more about your process and what inspires you. Free Play is one of my favorite books and I will definitely look into these other recommendations! Reading is such an inspiration to me, it keeps me motivated and just as learning from artists here on the blog, I find reading about and being encouraged by others thru books invaluable! I totally get your idea and pull to work with improvisation, as it puts focus on the process of making which to me is the gift of being an artist, I really appreciated this and YOU for taking the time to share with us here and in the community that you have so generously created to encourage others, such an inspiration!

To learn more about Carolina and her work visit her at carolinaoneto.com and find her on Instagram @carolina_oneto

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2020 | The ART of IMPROV with B.A. Madley

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B.A. Madley

The ART of IMPROV

I am so excited to share with you the work of this weeks guest Barbara Madley. Barbara is a textile artist who inspires with her use of materials, she works with discarded clothes, household linens, unfinished quilt tops and abandoned handwork. She stitches by hand and by machine, serging, dying, bleaching, tearing, and mending in the most beautiful way bringing these forgotten textile back to life. She mounts her finished works on stretchers and allows the shapes to warp and become distorted, flaws exposed. As you will see, the results are moving, inspiring and flat out gorgeous.

Title B.A. Madley

What does working improvisationally mean to you?  How would you define the ‘Art of Improv’?

First off, thank you Jen for creating this forum.  I’ve greatly enjoyed reading about other creators’ processes and it has been a thought provoking exercise to reflect on my own process.  

At the most basic level, working improvisationally for me means working spontaneously within a defined set of rules.  It is working towards a general goal, but without a predetermined route.  Usually I know the materials I will use and have a theme, concept or action I want to explore, but I don’t know what the product will be.  I like to work freely within a set of constraints which for me typically start with the inherent properties of the materials and tools I choose to use followed by any additional constraints I choose to add. An analogy might be it is like making up rules for a game knowing that you could change them at anytime!

Have you always worked improvisationally?

Yes, I think I’ve always been inclined to work this way, but there are times when I take a more planned approach.  For example, I’ve made a series of ‘traditional’ quilts using discarded, unfinished quilt tops and orphaned blocks as my starting materials. I had a fairly clear idea of where I was headed before I began.

Do you work improvisationally, consciously, intentionally?  If so, how to you begin?  If not, how do you find yourself getting there?

At this point I think working improvisationally is less of a conscious choice than a habit.  Curiosity is a strong motivator for me.  I often find myself starting a new project when my curiosity is so peaked that I simply cannot abide NOT finding out what is going to happen.  Usually, if I know at the outset what a project will look like, my motivation to actually make it seems to disappear. A new project often coalesces around a ‘what if’ type of idea.  What if I use every striped textile I can find in the studio?  What if I run 8/2 cotton through a serger? When an idea starts to intrude on my thoughts and wake me up in the night, then I know I have to start.

Title B.A. Madley

How often do you work with improvisation?

Virtually every day I am in the studio.

Please share a bit about your process.  Do you have methods to get started?  Do you have tricks of getting unstuck?  Do you have motivators to finish?

As I mentioned I am very motivated by curiosity, so I tend to follow what has caught my imagination and see where it leads.  If there isn’t an idea that is burning a hole in my (metaphorical) pocket, and I’m not sure what to do, I start by doing some meditative studio chores.  These days I work almost exclusively with textile waste- discarded clothes and linens.  Washing, removing tags, elastics and bulky seams is a contemplative chore that often leads me into new work.  I like to be able to spread out and make huge mess.  Seeing materials in a different context, unexpected juxtapositions can jump out and spark ideas I might want to explore.  Or I might play with my tools and explore their boundaries.  Really interesting things can happen when using tools the ‘wrong’ way.  (Of course, using tools ‘incorrectly’ can also lead to learning more about machine repair than one anticipated.  Maybe that is part of the thrill?)

Where do you find inspiration?  How do you use it?

In my studio I am inspired by the materials themselves- their intrinsic properties like texture, color, translucence, and wear patterns.  Also, I am fascinated by what happens with repeated actions- the foundation of all textile work- like making a certain stitch over and over.  Of course the studio does not exist in a vacuum.  Out in the world at large I am a magpie collecting shiny things. I can’t predict what might be interesting.  So, I just try to pay attention!  (And I do try to carry a little notebook to scribble notes.)

Title B.A. Madley

What advice would you give someone interested in trying to work improvisationally?

Hmm.  I don’t really feel qualified to give advice.  It has been useful for me to follow my curiosity and try and let go of my preconceived notions of the end result.  This means working on pieces that end up not working at all, so there is an element of being willing to take risks as well.  Working with uncertainty might be the underlying challenge.

How would you finish the sentence ‘What if…?’

This is a question I ask myself all the time!  Today it is ‘What if felting replaces stitching in seams?’

What are you reading, listening to, watching, or any other inspirational obsessions you would like to share?

I just finished reading ‘Factfullness’ by Hans Rosling and Neil Gaiman’s ‘Norse Mythology’.  We are living in Sweden this year and both books are absolutely everywhere, so I thought it would be fun to give them a read.  I highly recommend Kory Stamper’s love letter to the messiness and vibrancy of the English language, ‘Word by Word.’  It is so joyfully compelling that I find myself rereading passages frequently.   

There are so many incredible podcasts out there now, I have to limit myself.  I regularly listen to ‘Make Me Smart’ with Kai and Molly for a quick catch up and analysis of the news. (Living out of the country this year, I definitely have not missed the relentless American news cycle!)  I am delighted that ‘Note to Self’ is back and I hope they continue their thought provoking discussions of tech and culture.

When I am working I vacillate between enjoying music and finding that it is too distracting.  It’s an ongoing experiment!

Thank you Barbara for taking the time to share your work and how improvisation is a part of your process. I think it is very helpful to hear how other artists make, what inspires them, and how they incorporate those things into their work. I also work with discarded and everyday textiles, but you have motivated me to work harder to make do by showing me how beautiful the results can be. It is a gift to be able to see what some would see as ‘trash’ as inspiration to create. It has been a gift to discover your work and to be able to share it here.

To learn more about Barbara and her work find her on Instagram @bemades and on her website here. There is also a lovely interview with her here.

Title B.A. Madley

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Welcome to The ART of IMPROV

It is no secret that I love working with the process of improvisation.  It is also no secret that I love to read AND that I love to share the amazing books that I have read.  Well, I just had to share this book with you and it got me thinking of how I could share my love of improvisation and the work of artists that use it, and discuss how they use it.  Perhaps it could help you, I know it will help me, I think it will help us all.  I hope to spark discussion, spark interest, spark art making, spark friendships.  I am so excited and am looking forward to sharing that excitement as well.

I stumbled across this book in my search for information on how artists have historically used improvisation in their art making.  Interestingly there really is not that much info out there with regard to improv and the visual arts.  This surprised me greatly for a number of reasons.  The first being that coming from the quilting world their is a whole movement of quilters who work in an improv style, who share and discuss openly their methods and their inspiration.  The second being that I know and have heard many many artists, not just quilt artists, talk about how they use improv as part of their practice, and how it helps them create and refine their work.  If you have a good resource on the topic of improvisation in visual art making please let me know!

SO, the book I stumbled across and that has so inspired me is 'Improv Wisdom' by Patricia Ryan Madson.  She is an acting professor, who has written this incredible book that I think artists of all kinds could benefit from.  'Improv Wisdom' is about taking the improvisational acting methods and techniques and using them to better your everyday life.  Well, I fell for it hook line and sinker and as I read, I related it to my own art making.  Much of which I was already doing, but, I found it so helpful and inspiring, and it really motivated me to keep working at it, in a way, it gave me confidence to realize that what I was doing was important, which is often easy to forget, no?

I read the book over a year ago, and just recently reread it.  And I still could not shake the idea that there really isn't a whole lot out there for visual artists interested in learning how to embrace this technique, and use the methods of improvisation in their art making.   I see improvisation as a wonderful way to aid visual artists in the creation of new ideas, in overcoming creative blocks, and most importantly a wonderful way to connect with art. other artists, and what inspires them.  So I've decided to start the discussion.  I've decided to share what I know.  I've decided to bring those interested in improv together to connect with how we use it, and I'd like to ask other artists to do the same. 

If you are interested in sharing your thoughts, feelings, knowledge, love and/or just ramble on about improvisation please e-mail me.  I am starting this blog, The ART of IMPROV, and would like to feature the work and ideas of other artists who use improv as part of their creative process or in the their daily life.  I can not wait to hear from you so we can begin to spread the creative impact that improv can bring not just to our art but to the world.  I dream big!  I hope you will join me.