I’ve been dipping into the Fiber Reassemble Festival talks whenever I have had the chance. I’ve not always been able to attend as my working schedule and the schedule for the talks don’t always coincide, but I’ve been able to attend a few and the ones I’ve attended have given me lots of food for thought even as I think about the way I approach my own work.

Yesterday, Liam Young was one of the speakers and he shared with us this magnificent and inspiring project called Planet City. My mind was really and truly blown and I found myself chasing down the anthology/book that bears name of the Planet City project. I am looking forward to reading it.

The Planet City film is magnificent. I’m linking to an article about the project as the article includes a lot of the things Liam Young shared with the Fiber audience last night.

I thought of the approach to a project with this scope and how it requires collaboration between artists, makers, thinkers, scientists, all kind of people from different disciplines and how all of that collaboration manifests in a project that is visually enchanting as well as challenging and compelling in its narrative.

There’s a line from Liam’s talk that stays with me as it’s something I have been thinking about a lot lately. Liam talked about ‘Dismantling what we once knew to recast it in a new vision’. I’m thinking of this as I continue to work through the details of my next project.

Jeremy Kamal was the second speaker last night. I was lucky enough to attend his first talk during the FIBER festival when he shared MOJO with us. I was quite blown away by that work and so when the invite came for this talk, I was happy that I could attend once more.

One of the things Jeremy shared with us was the process he goes through when he works on a new project. I think of how we often forget about process and the journey an artist takes in order to present the recipient with a particular work.

I think process is important because many times we don’t know what we are moving towards, but we feel this compelling force pushing us towards something. What we discover as move towards that something becomes part of our vision or opens up our vision so we realise and recognise what we are moving toward.

I am learning all of these things and reminding myself to be patient even as I continue working on my strange novel. It’s evolved quite a bit, but I find myself returning to the work that still needs to be done with this feeling of anticipation. How will all these new learnings affect my own work? How is the process of creating new work changing me and the way I look at the world? What can I bring to the work that will make it richer and more rewarding not just for me but for the recipient? Most importantly, I want to bring that sense of wonder and anticipation into the work. These are the things I think about as I prepare to write.

To you who are engaged in the act of creation, may you be accompanied by joy as you continue on your journey.