Blog

Nurture Your Creative Spirit, by Vikki Pignatelli

Do you ever find yourself needing a swift kick in the get-your-creative-mojo-going pants?  If so, pour yourself a nice cuppa tea and curl up with Vikki Pignatelli’s latest book, Nurture Your Creative Spirit, Wisdom and Insight Learned Through the Art of Quilting, a book she wrote with the encouragement of her students. Although, fair warning, it will take more than one cup of tea to get through this book!

Vikki starts the book with how her artistic style developed from fingerpainting to art quilt making, including why she calls herself an “improbable quilter.” The bulk of the book, however, is the intertwining of the personal stories and symbolism behind her beautiful quilts with the traits that nurture creativity — such as determination, persistence, humor, flexibility, patience, courage, curiosity, etc. — and with creativity itself. In her stories, nothing is off-limits, including how her personal storms, such as her husband Denny’s diagnosis of kidney cancer, affected her quilt making.

In a section entitled “Have Faith In Yourself,” Vikki talks about a question she was asked during a lecture about why she uses fabrics other than cotton in her work. It never occurred to Vikki not to use other fabrics, which made her realize the person asking the question simply hadn’t been exposed to the idea of using other materials.  She reminds us that we have no restraints, either as artists or as the spiritual beings we are, other than those we place on ourselves.  She encourages us to be fearless and embrace creative opportunities.

I returned to this book again and again, with a post-it note pad, pen, and highlighter in hand, unable to take it all in during one sitting.  Vikki includes pages throughout the 152-page text-heavy book for your personal notes and encourages you to answer questions such as why do you make art? Are you feeling satisfied and enjoying your creative journey? Are you growing both artistically and as a creative human being? Do you put passion in your artwork?  What stops you from being productive?

Vikki Pignatelli is a woman of many talents: an award-winning art quilter, a teacher, an author, a designer, the founder of the national Sacred Threads Quilt Exhbitions.  Her warm writing style is like listening to a good friend who is open and honest and unafraid to share her personal journey. Her introspection and insights are humbling and inspiring, and her hope is that you see yourself in her struggles and triumphs and recognize and nurture your own artistic journey.  She states her purpose “is to motivate, encourage and strengthen the creativity and self-confidence within each individual,” and this book, written from the heart of an artist, does just that, regardless what your artistic medium.

$29.95 available from VikkiPignatelli.com.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 27th, 2012 at 2:44 pm and is filed under Book Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.