It’s not a particularly large illness, as it were, but it’s your garden variety Cold That Doesn’t Allow You To Breathe, and I’ll be damned if I can schedule in a serious case of congested nasal passages. I have two paintings due by next Wednesday, a model to make for a public arts project proposal, a commission to start, a job application to fill out before my interview next week — which, of course, will involve sweet calls to my friends scattered across the nation, wherein I beg them to vouch for my charming countenance, ability to stay on-task, and go-get-’em attitude. (Naturally, no reader of this blog will be allowed to be listed as a Personal Reference. Ever.) And did I mention that it’s Labor Day weekend? You know, the last damned break I get before the trees go to skeletons and the wind is too bitter to consider any semblance of recreational joy? Why yes. Yes, I did.

And yet, here I am in Congestionville, USA. It’s a very sexy destination if you’re into dripping noses, uncomfortable pressure on your eardrums, and the siren song of a honking, circus-red nose. Before everybody starts lining up to take me to the Miss Mucous pageant, however, let me just mention that I’m attempting to change the course of my present physiology. “What? No!” you’re crying, “Say it ain’t so!” Oh, but it is, my dear, faceless and anonymous friend. Oh, it is. I just finished with a futile attempt to spicy out my sinuses with an ramped-up leftover curry+sriracha cure and a steam bath of thyme is presently beckoning to me with curly little tendrils of love, care, and perhaps comfort. Something I learned from the Sinus Infection From Hell last semester: never underestimate a good steam bath for your schnoz. Granted, I’m not breaking out the Afrin for this particular trip until the absolute last minute, but I do believe in the power of herbs that are not of the marijuana sort.

I’m trying to imagine myself a month ago in this state. It would have involved sulking in my sickness, feeling feeble and incapable of doing jack crap because oh my God, I’m sick. I wouldn’t have touched this but rather went back to sleep or to watch Create re-runs/entire seasons of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations whilst feebly sipping peppermint tea and sighing. Life is so hard when you’re congested, oh woe is me, &c. It’s funny what mild depression relapses will have you do, I think, such as believe that the only thing between you and creating greatness involves a pile of Kleenexes and a pounding headache. On the other side and you’re just like, “This is a bunch of bullshit, pure and unadulterated crap. Now let’s steam the fuck out of my head, take some Advil Cold and Sinus, nut up, and shut up — not necessarily in that order, either.”

I think I’m going to keep it this way. Maybe. Knock on wood.

I like how the hot pink totally wasn't picked up by the scanner. FAILURE.

CHECK OUT THIS LIST

• Embarked upon a landscape painting series! It’s… not as bad as the last one but could probably still use more work.
• Sprained my wrist while embarking upon the landscape painting series. This is really pathetic. It’s also why I have time to write this today, as I took a day off to ice my wrist. Notice my excellent icing technique as I write and strain my tendons for you!
• Fixed that nasty financial aid. Kerplow.
• Started sketching daily. I already have a full page of overlapping doodles coming along quite well indeed. Will scan soon. Scanned. See above, below.
• Am also competing in a public art project. Granted, it’s for class, but it’s good experience! Great experience, even.
• Knitting, slowly but surely.
• Have so much homework. But you knew this already.
• And more! … I just can’t remember jack squat about it.

… yeah, I feel like I need to scan in that picture of the sketchbook right now to make up for the doldrums. In fact, I just did because otherwise, this would be a miserably boring sort of blog. So congratulations: you’ve just won four days of layered pen drawings in a Moleskine. Awesome! Now I’m going to ice my wrist and wonder why I thought that a pointless bullet list was a good idea vs. a simple image post. I’m not sure that all of that effort is going to turn out successful so much as at least 34%.

• Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library to Open in Indianapolis: Holy locational bias, Batman! That being said, this is probably one of the cooler things we’ve done in the past year or so, and this is with the IMA’s opening of 100 Acres in mind. How pathetic that I had to hear about it from ArtDaily, though; I couldn’t have a notice from the news or anything? THANKS A MILLION, CHANNEL 13.
• Dusseldorf’s Quadriennale 2010 to Present Exhibition by Joseph Beuys: I’m equal parts excited and jealous for Dusseldorf; I mean, how cool is this exhibition going to be? Yeah, Beuys is one of those decisive guys in the history of contemporary art, but I find him decisive…ly awesome. Whatever, I’ll link to what I want.

The list of 33 questions is, naturally, going behind a Read More; it just seems kinder and gentler to your screens. Also, it will make you Read More.

Wow, that was… dramatic. (Not really.) Without further ado:

What is the first creative moment you remember?

Was anyone there to witness or appreciate it?

What is the best idea you’ve ever had?

What made it great in your mind?

What is the dumbest idea?

What made it stupid?

Can you connect the dots that led you to this idea?

What is your creative ambition?

What are the obstacles to this ambition?

What are the vital steps to achieving this ambition?

How do you begin your day?

What are your habits? What patterns do you repeat?

Describe your first successful creative act.

Describe your second successful creative act.

Compare them.

What are your attitudes towards: money, power, praise, rivals, work, play?

Which artists do you admire most?

Why are they your role models?

What do you and your role models have in common?

Does anyone in your life regularly inspire you?

Who is your muse?

Define muse.

When confronted with superior intelligence or talent, how do you respond?

When faced with stupidity, hostility, intransigence, laziness, or indifference in others, how do you respond?

When faced with impending success or the threat of failure, how do you respond?

When you work, do you love the process or the result?

At what moments do you feel your reach exceeds your grasp?

What is your ideal creative activity?

What is your greatest fear?

What is the likelihood of either of the answers to the previous two questions happening?

Which of your answers would you most like to change?

What is your idea of mastery?

What is your greatest dream?

Oofta! See you on Monday. (Hopefully.)

Transcript pending… ugh, you know the drill.

Transcript pending the time I have to sit down, listen to myself, and write it out!

Transcript pending the time I have to sit down, listen to myself, and write it out!

NOTE: Goddamn, these questions made me get all introspective and harsh on myself. For those possibly getting into answering these questions: tread carefully! Be honest, but also be kind.

EIGHT: What is your creative ambition?

Whoa, this question isn’t light in the loafers at all! That being said, it’s an Important Question, so I’ll go ahead and meditate on it… if by “meditate,” I mean “think about what the most creatively-oriented gut instinct was out of the flurry of initial thoughts you had.” And although I have a lot of really ambitious thoughts RE: what I want my art to do, my largest ambition with what I want to do with my art is simple, as it always is: tell stories. A lot of the time, they are historical stories (and in retrospect, this makes more sense than it should), but not exclusively. This is connected with the fact that I really and truly find painting to be just another way to talk, but rather than get all purple prose with my descriptive exposition, I’ll just offer some canvas instead. It’s true that I want these stories to be considered important, for the canvases to raise awareness with things, for people to start thinking when they see the theme of an exhibition. But in the end, it all goes back to storytelling. Same with my writing, too.

NINE: What are the obstacles to this ambition?

Painting-wise: skill and figuring out a good, well, creative habit. The skill part is where my schooling comes into play; the creative habit is, presumably, part of the reason why the hell I’m doing this. Regardless: not doing a lot of my own studio work when left to my devices is a bit of a block, truth be told, and that’s not building up my skills. Once I’m able to get exactly what I’m imagining onto a canvas, a lot of the other problems (marketing, coping with the idea of selling my work for profit, etc.) will come. To wit, aside from the flippant-yet-true “writing this answer is an obstacle,” not having a consistent studio schedule that gets my ass downstairs and painting, there’s also the really scary reality that I might not get my financial aid in time. I’ve done the paperwork aspect, but now I’m just waiting for news that I’m going to be allowed to gain access to my financial aid. Apparently it takes a while for the paperwork to be processed, but it’s making me mad nervous. And although there’s a lot of people who say that being a self-taught artist is just fine, I definitely do not fall into that category. My university provides an excellent body of feedback for what I do and my professors know my work and my process, which in turn will give me the opportunity to be able to grow more because they’ll be able to tell me what I need to know in order to push my work to where I need it to be.

Writing-wise: I’m in a mad funk. Mad, mad, mad funk. To be honest, this isn’t the place to talk about my writing funk; I have another outlet for that and, frankly, the readers over there are more affected by the fact that I can’t get the proverbial fiction up than this blossoming community. But I need to do some inspection and introspection on the subject, that much I know; I need to find out whether it’s just a case of my not being in the writing habit for a while due to a very bumpy and hiccup-y summer of stresses and fun and more stresses or if I’m really and truly not in love with writing right now. And really, you can probably tell that this paragraph right here is just a stepping stone to a worse place, so I’m going to stop. Again: this isn’t the place.

TEN: What are the vital steps to this ambition?

Since I’ve decided to put to bed the writing obstacles (and, inadvertently, answered the question already with “serious thinking”), let’s talk about overcoming those painting obstacles. There’s letting the financial aid do its work/nagging them incessantly if it turns out that things are a mite bit slow, which in turn will encourage my education. The good and bad thing about education is that a portion of it is out of your control. You have to depend on the state to give you funding if you’re a schmuck like yours truly; so too do you have to hope that the professors you’re assigned will help push you further and make you grow stronger. But there’s also owning your education, too. You may not be constructing the lesson plans, but you can make the most out of your assignments and tailor them to your interests if you’re clever and careful. Listen to what the professor’s saying and even if you may not agree, try to ensure that you’re using it to the best of your advantage. Chew the fucking fat out of your education, get that diploma, and spit it out for all to see. You bet your bottom dollar I’m going to put the Bad Ass back in the Bad-Fucking-Ass degree in Painting I’ll receive circa May 2012, thanks ever.

But there’s the studio part, too. Let’s be frank: if I had as much enthusiasm to self-motivate myself to go paint downstairs as I do writing about how much my education is going to give to me, I would have had a mountain of canvases in my studio as of now. So really, I need to start getting this invested in educating myself by just painting and doing (which, truth be told, I actually am itching to do right now) — and yes, I do realize that I also need a regular studio habit. I have a feeling the below questions are going to (partially) help me with that.

ELEVEN: How do you begin your day?

WARNING WARNING: there is a duality to my schedule. This is probably a big sign as to why I haven’t had a strong studio habit. That being said: let’s describe both.

SCHOOL SCHEDULE: Wake up c. 6am, slap snooze button. Weep when I realize that I have to get up. Drag ass out of bed, do initial bathroom pit stops, make tea, curl up in miserable ball on couch and bemoan that I am awake this early in the morning. Stare up with bleary eyes when mom walks in and says good morning in a tone that is actually good. Spoon with dog. Enjoy snuggles, belly rubs, pseudo-hugs, even face licks. Realize tea is ready and crawl to get it before going back on couch and waiting for the weather to come up. Realize everyone is out of the bathroom and I know the weather report, so I can get started with the usual: brush teeth, wash face, fire up straightener whilst I get dressed, do hair and (in case of wearing contacts) make-up. Hurry about getting breakfast and lunch ready for self, along with making mental inventory of what I need to bring to school today. Confer with mom RE: whether or not we’re ready and depart for school/work, blasting Morning Edition all the while.

WEEKEND/SUMMER SCHEDULE: Wake up c. 9am, slap alarm off. Wake up c. 10am with second alarm, slap it off too. Actually wake up at noon, wondering why I am alive. Crawl out, make food and tea, sit on the couch. Fire up computer, read e-mail and all my time-wasting websites, soon realize it’s 4pm and I’ve wasted the entire afternoon, start my cycle of hatred and self-loathing that only ends when I am tossing and turning like a disgusted insomniac in bed and have to listen to either Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! podcasts or David Attenborough to lull me to sleep and mental ease.

TWELVE: What are your habits? What patterns do you repeat?

If we’re just looking at the schedule’s up there: good lord, it’s tea. I only repeat tea. Lady Grey is my binky. It’s not like I didn’t know this, but oh my god. Actually, I forgot the part with my weekend/summer schedule that involves snuggling with the dog too. Basically, Lucille, tea, and having problems with getting out of bed are my big constants from schedule to schedule and that is it.

That being said, I’m pretty sure that Tharp meant what are my general habits and patterns. Again: taking care of my dog and drinking tea is a constant. So is taking my vitamins, as they are doing me a lot more good than evil. Sometimes, exercise makes an appearance; to be honest, my occasional unhappiness would be healed if I did this a great bit more. A while ago, checking my e-mail and Google Reader was also a constant, but in recent weeks I’ve been something of an e-recluse and I’ve been dropping off on that too. Watching series like MythBusters, Dirty Jobs, and Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations before going to bed is also a bit of a habit.

Point being: a lot of my habits are lazy habits. I’d recite more and more, but they’re really starting to gross me out. I think I need to make a new habit: SCHEDULE THE FUCK OUT OF THINGS. But tea, I’m never gonna give you up, let you down, run around, or hurt you. You’re constant. You too, puppycup.

THIRTEEN: Describe your first successful creative act.

It was a narrative that I wrote for a collaborative writing project. I couldn’t tell you what, exactly, but I was content with it and that’s what matters. In fact, you can herald them into one swoop after that, since I’m not going to be like “and then my second successful creative act was another narrative piece.” Lame.

FOURTEEN: Describe your second successful creative act.

A self-portrait I did at the very end of Drawing II, the likes of which I do not have on JPG. Now, it seems really dated to put that, but if you read up on the last question, it’ll make sense.

FIFTEEN: Compare them.

To describe why these were two acts are grouped together is to understand my definition of a successful creative act: something that I made that was true to itself from concept to finish. The vague “narrative” that I spoke of? A carbon copy of what I had imagined in my mind for the scene. Same with the self-portrait, as it dealt a lot with the idea of feeling invisible, transparency, identity, the concept of home, as well as words and how they make you a person. It was a lot to get into one image and although I look at it now and think that it’s stylistically dated, it’s definitely a great example of expressing myself conceptually from start to finish. Right now, that’s not as easy for me to do and that clouding is scary and a little disconcerting.

… but you know, rather than whine about it, I’m going to get down into the studio (finally, as it took me two hours to fill this out…?) and do less ruminating and more working. Maybe it’ll make things better. I hope so.

Will it make me realize stuff about myself? Maybe. Will it make for good blogging? That is also a great question. Are we about to find out? Hell yeah we are.

ONE: What is the first creative moment you remember?

I have a few, depending on your frame of reference. In terms of making things: my art classes at Children’s Park, which is best described in polite language* as the crucible of my formative years. No matter how miserable my memories of the place may be, I will concede that they offered a great deal of educational opportunities in the early days of my experiences there. But even then, I remember feeling as if art was that thing that people foisted upon me as the thing I did well. Part of the reason why I resisted a career in studio art? I thought people expected me to do that, and that sounded terrible. It was only when I was in a place where everyone else was good, if not better, than myself that I started to love it for the sake of doing it.

But even before that, there was playing make-believe in the realm of my rose-printed room, making castles out of scarves and forging treks from old homelands to new. I was always fascinated by journeys, now that I remember it, whether it be the Underground Railroad or Russian Jews running from pogroms into the welcoming arms of Ellis Island. You would think that I would be a child that was inherently interested in the land of fantasy and magic, but I was only charmed by the idea of others making new lives out of rags and hard work. Interesting, now that I come to think of it — and really, if I’m being honest, I hadn’t thought about it until today.

TWO: Was there anyone there to witness or appreciate it?

I think so, in the case of Paragraph One. My mother was (and is) one of those crazy types in the sense that she was mad encouraging — and critical. She’d tell me how fantastic whatever it was that I’d make but also tell me why such and such wasn’t working correctly, mostly because I asked her why my picture wouldn’t look like hers. I still have some of my elementary school pottery, for Pete’s sake — and all because my mother kept it.

Paragraph Two, though? No, and that was because I hoarded my pretend. My imagination would make worlds so elaborate that I would narrate everything out loud, dancing and exploring and the like because I believed I was there in the moment. But I knew, even at that tender moment, that this was something I could only understand. As such, I was embarrassed and kept it to myself. This is something that I’m thankful I shed in my older years. If there’s anything collaborative writing taught me, it’s this: sharing elaborate pretend worlds with others is okay with the right people. The wrong ones were all around me as a kid though, and so I hid them — or tried. After all, everyone has his or her embarrassing slip-up now and again, and I certainly had my fair share. Fortunately, they were mostly with family. Mostly.

THREE: What is the best idea you’ve ever had?

Accepting that my failure at Purdue was valuable for knowing what not to do with my entire life.

FOUR: What made it great in your mind?

The above may not be inventive or anything involving my aesthetic ability, but it put me on my present track: Allison Brown, junior painter. It made me realize that the safe track is not the right track, that risking the fact that I will be hungry and cold and never secure in my paychecks for the rest of my life is better than withering away in a profession that stifles my heart and my soul. It sounds idealistic, fanciful even, but I’ve seen what doing something you hate for a steady paycheck does for your emotional well-being. It makes you a miserable cuss towards everyone around you, a terrible person to be. I’m still a volatile person right now, I think, and someone whose depression is always risking to burst to the surface from my mismanagement of stress and bottling everything until I’m bound to explode, but I know that I finally am doing something I love. It doesn’t grow old — and thank God for that.

FIVE: What is the dumbest idea?

In direct relation with 3 and 4: trying to convince myself that graphic design was my major.

SIX: What made it stupid?

Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean that it’s something that, in the words of a very wise woman, nourishes your soul. I knew it was bad the very day that I sat in the Design 3 studio and knew, with sinking dread, that I would hate every moment of my existence in that room. The fear of doing something just because I was good at it dominated my indecision RE: studio arts, ironically enough; I thought that by engaging in a design path, I would be able to be artistic whilst still getting a day job. Ha! If I could actually sell something, maybe I could be a graphic designer; as is, I hardly was able to sell Girl Scout cookies. Fucking Girl Scout cookies, folks. If that’s not a sign that this is not the career path for me, I don’t know what is.

SEVEN: Can you connect the dots that led you to this idea?

You know how everyone professes that artists live in cardboard boxes? You also know how scary it is to sometimes have to return your groceries to the supermarket? Imagine those two ideas converging on each other when you’re trying to make your Big Decisions in college. I’ve had embarrassing moments wherein fiscal irresponsibility have bitten me on the ass and a few years ago, when I was emotionally secure and hadn’t discovered how terrible the feeling of being a robot going through the motions of God knows what just so you can have something a little cushier than the bare essentials to life itself was, those memories were my motivator. And then I went to Purdue for a year and discovered everything I hated, dissolved into a fugue of apathetic disgust, and knew what real ennui actually was. But hey, youth is made for mistakes.

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This week has already had me through the ringer and it’s only Wednesday. I won’t give too many boring, mopey details, but let’s just say that the 0:2 loss that the US suffered at the hands of Brazil at the friendly last night was probably the icing on the Anxiety and Hyperventilation Cake.

If we’re being honest here, the above is an understatement. After all, when one of your required hurdles in straightening out your financial aid is going to the state’s Federal Building, your stress levels are not at their healthiest lows. It’s definitely a great way to harsh your post-vacation mellow, which is why there is still a draft for my first Montana Tale lingering in the Drafts category instead of in front of your eyes. But fortunately, there’s a happy ending — mostly, the Fed Building and the IRS are not nearly as scary as I thought they would be and the gears are back in motion. There’s a wealth of other good things that have occurred within the past week that have kept me on the even keel, some of which were even featured in that famed draft that I keep making reference to in this post. Let me steal some of those Good Things* from there and add a few more of my own to the mix. It’ll be like giving you an actual entry!

• I joined 20 Something Bloggers, as the little badge to the side with the link to my profile professes. So far, everyone has been too kind RE: leaving comments on my blog and the like. It said that I should invite friends, but a lot of the people that I talk to on the internet don’t usually blog and those who do… well, I don’t know, they might like to? Bueller? Bueller? Anyway, I’ll let the handful of readers I think I have from the IRLs read this and check it out of their own volition. In turn, if there’s anybody here from 20sb: hi! Welcome! I hope that my blog doesn’t (under)whelm you. I’m trying best to blog more frequently, etc. etc.; the fact that I have 3 posts this month is a miracle that I am celebrating as I type. You will find that my apologies for not updating as much as I “should” constitute at least 25% of the content on this blog. Actually, make that 30-43%, if we’re all being honest here. The rest, however, covers most of what the sidebar/”ABOUT” page is talking about, so hurrah!
• Starting knitting again! I’m making a baby blanket for my hairdresser/magician and it’s going pretty well. A few more rows and I’ll be done with the border and starting on the ~inside~. It’s a superb apple green color! I’m also making my baby sister this cute little number and it’s coming along happily as it’s considerably speedier than a baby blanket. Also, thank god, it’s much more portable and kept me sane within the scary waits at the IRS. After that, I’m going to be making some socks with some leftover sock yarn that my mother bought ages ago and forgot she purchased and some new needles from KnitPicks. Basically, it’s one big fiber Renaissance.
• I found a new collection of Dirty Jobs on Netflix. This is big. You have no idea.
• I’ve also been reviving my reading practice, complete with getting through a book in a day again for the first time in… a long time! It was Big Fish. I enjoyed it. My big vacation book was The Innocents Abroad, which I enjoyed immensely despite my simplistic review to the contrary, and now I’m reading The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp. Go figure, but this my big transition into the actual content of my blog today — after all, it’s almost the beginning of school soon, so lord knows I need to get back on track RE: ruminating on ~creative process~. I hear it’s my non-apology schtick or something.

So, this book was recommended to me by a friend whose creative opinion I value very greatly. (Not that I don’t value her other opinions, but she’s a pretty keen illustrator/animator and therefore when she recommends something of a creative bent, especially when it applies to process, I sit up and listen. Ugh, this is probably going to just dig me a greater hole, but whatever.) It was big enough of a deal that I went to the library and held it on inter-library loan. That’s right, everybody: I went the distance for this book. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. It came into the library just yesterday and I’ve spent most of the morning perusing its advice on how to become a more productive creative being. I haven’t finished it, as my Goodreads account will attest, but I’ve chewed away a decent enough chunk to give an unsolicited verdict on the book at large.

So, Tharp sells this book as a universal approach for artists — that is to say, painters, writers, dancers, and musicians alike — that are struggling with making creation a regular part of their everyday lives. Mostly, this is true, but there are aspects of the book that read painfully as if she’s talking to dancers and dancers alone. The book is rife full of exercises that I find to be particularly important (and more on that later), but there are a few that make me balk — mostly, if not exclusively, because they read as if they’re for dancers only. I’m thinking of the Egg exercise especially, wherein Tharp instructs you to go into the fetal position and to take delight in whatever movement you create from that. Although I am belatedly realizing that I could apply this to my work as a figural painter (and yes, maybe some abstract work too), I’m failing to see how this could help a writer or musician. Furthermore, for someone who was an art history major, the way that Tharp talks about painting as a process makes me cringe sometimes. There’s also a self-satisfaction in her tone about talking that grates against my delicate sensibilities. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m a mere twenty-three to her sixty-nine, but between the name-dropping (Maurice Sendak is my bff!!!1) and the way she talks about her successes and how you too can get there, I groan sometimes. Granted, I get it: she’s an insanely popular and successful choreographer that has decades of experiences that I can only imagine at this juncture in my life, but I think what bothers me about her occasional narcissism is that she’s supposed to be appealing to the everyperson who is trying to become creative too. That and she advocates temper tantrums at one juncture. Temper tantrums. Really? Maybe it’s just me, but anger never gets me anywhere. But whatever.

That being said, there is a great deal of good in this book. Her chapter on “The Box” is invaluable, because it appeals to that OCD organizer in me, as well as the part of me that needs (and loves) to do more research in order to make good work. As many past articles will opine in this blog, I frequently ache for a way to use my sketchbook that makes sense to me — and said chapter made oodles of noodles of sense! She also makes excellent points about what are cornerstones for creative prowess, involving memories, metaphor, and — yes — hard work. There is one questionnaire in particular that I think would be very valuable to anyone who wonders where their art may be coming from or what have you and I think I’m going to make it a series next week, knock on wood! I’m thinking about posting it on one of the 20sb groups next week, so we’ll see how that goes.

But first: taking back my weekend by posting two of my largest Montana stories. Because real girls post on their blogs on the weekends, damnit.

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A note before we get started, though: I’m just using this article to talk about stretching canvases, not building a canvas from the ground up. There are a lot of options on how to build your own frames, from the dubiously flimsy stretchers you can get at the art supply to ripping your own boards and a lot of things in between. Building canvases is another story in of itself, not to mention one that would be kind of dangerous for me to photograph if I were to make a tutorial on it and post it on this blog — at least, the way I do it, which involves Serious Power Tools. I’d rather save that for the eventuality that I might have enough of a demand for such a tutorial and could draw illustrations on the subject. Also, that discussion would go over why not all stretcher frames are alike, etc. etc.

There’s also one more point I’m going to tack on here before we get down to business: not all salvaged frames are created equal! If you’re pretty sure you managed to inherit a painting that you want to paint over that’s on a store-bought frame, it’s just better altogether to re-gesso the piece and start from there. This may sound Greek to you, but it should make sense when you’re holding your frame in your hands. BUT I DIGRESS: let’s get on to actual Tutorialville, USA, which is behind the handy little “Read more!” link — oh, and in case you didn’t figure it out, this sucker is going to be mad image-heavy:

How To (Re)stretch A Canvas

Before we get started, you’re going to want a few tools:

Ooh, these guys are lettered! Here’s what they’re named as according to the labeling:

• A: Needle-nose pliers, in the case you staple somewhere accidentally!
• B: Flat-head screwdriver, also in the case that you staple somewhere accidentally!
• C: Canvas pliers, which are easily obtained at your local art supply store or at DickBlick.com.
• D: Hand-held industry stapler, which you can find at your local hardware store!
• E: Box knife, which you can either find at the hardware store or at your art supply store. Either way, they’re pretty cheap.

You’ll also need a frame, either built or salvaged

and a few yards of painter’s grade linen canvas, which you can also get at your local art supply store! With everything assembled, let’s get down to business.

Unfold your canvas and smooth it out flat on the floor (preferably, the larger the space the better). Place your frame on the canvas and try to square it up as much as possible to the fabric’s corners and along its warp and weft. (What’s warp and weft? Google it!)

While you’re measuring up, fold the edges of the fabric over the frame lips and make sure that there’s 2-3″ worth of excess hanging from the lip. In this image, I’ve exaggerated the weight of my thumb on the fabric so you can see where the frame lip is in comparison to the fabric. In reality, you don’t need to pull nearly as hard. Anyway, this will determine how much of a fabric margin you need from around the frame. When you figure this out on all four sides, take the box knife and score at the measurement of the outer-most edges. Rather than cut the fabric, all you have to do at this point is rip along the grain of the fabric at the score points. The author humbly apologizes for not having an image of this portion, but it’s a bit difficult to photograph this part! Either way, when you’re done, it should look like the image below:

Although it’s okay to stay on the ground for all of this (potential stray staples notwithstanding!), many prefer to do this next step on a table or other elevated work surface. And what is this next step? Stretching, of course! Fortunately, the first part is easy (and the images/directions will be found below):

Simply put: find a side you’d like to start on first and eyeball its midway point. Gently stretch the canvas taut over this center point and staple. Voila — your first staple! Isn’t it crazy?

… well, actually, this next part may get a little crazy for you, since it’s going to introduce the canvas pliers, which can be scary. After your first staple, you’re going to want to work on the opposing frame lip to your first staple. Since you already have your anchor staple in, you’re going to want those canvas pliers to stretch the canvas as tight as possible. (NOTE: You can do this with your hands, too, but the pliers make it much easier!) Once your pliers are secure and stretched as far as possible, staple at this point!

After that, you’ll want to staple the other ends in much the same manner until you have this four points thing going on. These are all anchor staples for each side of your frame!

After getting anchor staples in, things are (mostly) downhill from here. Pick a side and staple 2-3″ across the frame lip, stretching the canvas with the canvas pliers while you do so. Do this on all sides until you end up with a canvas like this:

You’ll notice that the above has more staples than the previous image! This is because you’ll need to make sure that there’s no sagging spots along the edges of the canvas. You’ll know these by feel: dips in an otherwise drum-taut canvas, wrinkles, etc. When you feel these, put a staple above the sag spot! When everything feels as tight as possible, you’ll know that you’re ready for the final step: folding your corners!

Folding corners should be easy for those in the audience that are familiar with the good old-fashioned hospital corner. There are stylistic interpretations* that one should keep in mind, but let’s just focus on technique for the moment. Anyway, so you saw one of those tuft-y corners from a few images above, right? It’s shaped kind of like so: _|. So, when you’re first going to tuck your corner, take the fabric from the | side and pull it flush against the frame lip on the _ side. (Apologies in advance if that is not as clear as it could be, but it can’t be helped.)

Once you have that fabric flush, try to make a crease as far as possible down — it may be hard, depending on how close you stapled towards the corners! If so, take the needle-nose pliers and the flat-head screwdriver and pick the staple out. No big! Anyway, crease the fabric until you have a tidy flap on the _ side of the corner; hopefully, the above image is doing a good job of illustrating a phenomenon that is otherwise quite difficult to put into words!

Take said flap (which, I bet, is pretty visible by this point!) and flatten it down onto the opposing frame lip. Keep it tight; your corners need to be just as tight as the rest of your canvas, so hold steady!

Staple the crap out of your corner; repeat for the other four.

And voila! You have one hand-stretched canvas ready for the gesso room. By the way: 4-6 coats of gesso are what I like to do, followed by a hardcore sanding session! Hopefully, this was helpful; if not, then mad apologize. I’ll try to put up links for better tutorials should there be a demand later.

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