Ken Smith
The ART of IMPROV
I am excited to introduce to you this week Vermont based textile artist Ken Smith. Ken is a self taught artist who began his art practice to spend more time with his wife Kelley McCrory who is a lifelong clothing designer and textile artist. Ken has found his artwork to be a great stress reliever to his day career in the Information Technology field. As you will see Ken has a wonderful freedom to his art. I am inspired by the way he puts color and shape together to create a completely new and unique pattern. I sense the fun that he has as he brings it all together, I totally get it and find it very inspiring. I am sure you will too! Let us learn more about Ken, his work and his process.
Love and Loss Ken Smith
What does working improvisationally mean to you? How would you define the ‘Art of Improv’?
I define working improvisationally as working without a defined plan and just letting the work flow. I define the Art of Improv as the Art of not giving a F… about what other people say or think. Marching to your own beat. Being unique and different. Exploring outside of the box and your comfort zone. Pushing away from the "Norms." Exploring Ideas and going where no person has gone before. Breaking the "Rules", creating your own "Rules." Not being afraid of "Failing." Taking a chance that you might make something "Ugly"
Have you always worked improvisationally?
Yes, I've always worked improvisationally because I don't follow instructions very well. I do my art practice as a stress relief from my day job as IT Manager. The last thing I need after a stressful day at my day job is to then try to follow some rigid and/or complex instructions. I need to let my mind be free to wander.
Do you work improvisationally, consciously, intentionally? If so, how do you begin? If not, how do you find yourself getting there?
D - all of the above. Sometimes, I just sit down with a pile scraps and just start sewing them together to see what happens. I might start with a prompt from my BeeSewical IG group or be influenced by what’s happening in the news. I might start with a rough sketch that I created with ProCreate on the iPad or with pen and paper.
The first step to beginning, which can be the hardest, is just showing up. I still struggle with mental barriers on why I shouldn't go into the studio. The best advice is to create a nightly or bi-nightly habit of getting into your studio/sewing space, turn on the machine, sit down in front of the machine, and see what happens. Then just do it!
All Seeing Eye Ken Smith
How often do you work with improvisation?
Everyday, if possible for at least 1 hour. During the work week my art time is between clean-up from dinner and bed time, roughly 2 hours. If I don't make into the sewing studio, I’ll just do some "Couch Doodles."
I originally started doing my couch doodles with Pen and Paper then switched to doing Photo manipulation with Snapseed on my iPhone. Then eventually I switched to using ProCreate on my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil.
Please share a bit about your process. Do you have methods to getting started? Do you have tricks to getting unstuck? Do you have motivators to finishing up?
Getting started a lot of time is just grabbing a couple handfuls of fabric from the scrap bin and seeing what happens. Sometimes I'll make a game of it with some basic rules at the start and then make up other rules as I go. . .
For Example. . .
o First Round - chain stitch a bunch of random light colored fabrics to a darker colored fabrics
o Second Round - Add a straight line feature color to the first round pieces, but the feature color has to touch both colors in the pieces from the first round.
o Third Round - sew the second round pieces together but the feature color in each piece must be touching each other.
o Forth Round - Add a second feature color that must be a curved piece sewn to the third round pieces..
o ETC. . .
If I get stuck, I just walk away. I may never return to it, it might be incorporated into another piece, or might actually be finished. Sometimes, I think what is the unexpected thing to do with it and then do it. Maybe it's slicing up a piece that already has 2 or 3 hours it.
I shouldn't be giving any advise on "Motivations to Finish." Generally, there are no motivating for me to finish a pieces. I do my art practice as a stress relief from my day job. I have at least 10 times more "unfinished" works than "finished" works. It really depends on a person's definition of "finished." I have a lot of finished pieces that other people will say are just a top because it's not a quilt sandwich. But who said that I was making a quilt?
Where do you find inspiration? How do you use it?
I find inspirations through my eyes and imagination. You just really look at your surrounding and details. Sometimes is just looking up at the clouds or details in my surrounding that are not at typical eye level. I occasionally find inspiration in the national and global news.
For example, I have a piece called "Well Insulated." The piece represents the layers of protection we put into place to shield ourselves from the negative news. The Center of the piece has the shape of a home with the words "You + Me" stitched in, this represents that no matter what happens in the world outside I'm still safe with my wife in my home.
Orange Divide Ken Smith
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?
Start Small and use Scraps. If you spend 2 hours making something from scraps that you end up hating it, you're just out 2 hours, some thread and a little bit of fabric.
Forget the "Quilt Rules." When people say you can't or you shouldn't, it usually pushes me to try it anyway. I always place Artistic aspects of a piece over the craftsmanship aspects of it. So far I haven't put a piece into a Quilt Show because I really don't want to hear from a Judge says "it's beautiful but you didn't..<insert "Quilt Rule">."
Post your work to Social Media Because it could help you gain confidence to push further into Improv. I still remember early on when I posted an improv piece to Instagram that I created where 10 people that I didn't know liked it and I was over the moon.
Don't over think it.
How would you finish the sentence, ‘What if, . . .?’
What if,. . . I started my art practice in my 20s instead of my late 4Os? Would it have amounted to anything or would I have just burned out.
What if,. . . I cut this piece in to wedges and rotate them.
What are reading, listening to, watching, or any other inspirational obsessions you would like to share?
Most of my inspiration comes from my own mind and from my wife Kelley McCrory (KelleyInVermont)
I really don't have any other inspirational obsessions. I have a hard time reading books as generally they can't keep my attention long enough for me to stay awake. I would rather be doing it than reading about it.
The only Quilt book that I've really read cover to cover is Sherri Lynn Wood's book "The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters: A Guide to Creating, Quilting, and Living Courageously." I generally recommend her book when someone asks me how to get started with improv.
Ken, thank you so much for sharing with us about your process and how your work comes together. Your freedom and sense of play is so evident in the pieces that I have seen and I like you have stacks and stacks of fabric that I just played with and that may or may not ever become anything, but I enjoyed exploring with them and that is part of my practice, it helps my other work get to where it needs to go. I appreciate your what if and want you to know that it is never too late, I know you know this as I am confident your wife and I are on the same page with that! (Please tell her hello!) Sherri Lynn Wood’s book is one of my favorites too and I am so happy to have discovered it early on my artistic journey as it gave me the courage to play and to break some of the quilt rules that you bring up. I find myself rebelling against them more and more all the time, your attitude and work reminds me that it will likely lead me to a really good place!
To see more of Ken’s work visit the website he shares with his wife here (be sure to check our her work too!) and his day to day process on Instagram here. Kelley is here.
Breakout Ken Smith