I shake. Most notably, my hands shake. Some days are worse than others. I have a condition called “Essential Tremor”. The diagnosis came back in the 90’s and after trying a couple of medications with side effects that were worse than the condition, I’ve resigned myself to live with it.
My photo of nephew Jake at his commissioning ceremony.
The condition has been both a curse and a blessing in my art. The tremor makes it difficult for me to take good photos. I have a new camera that has an anti-shake feature, but some days, it’s just not enough. I like to work from my own photos so that I don’t have to worry about copyright issues, but am finding that increasingly difficult. This is a contributing factor to my working from historical photos.
stitching oops!
Another reality is that I have difficulty sewing a straight line when stitching with my longarm machine. If you ever see my work on a traditional quilt design, you would not be impressed. The up side is that it led me to thread painting. My style of free-motion stitching doesn’t rely on the same kind of precision. When it is necessary to be precise with details, I must slow down. Sometimes, I make one stitch at a time: needle up, needle down, needle up, needle down. Sometimes, I despair, wondering what will happen to my art if and when the conditions becomes worse.
I just found an inspiring TED talk by an artist with a similar condition. It applies to anyone on a creative journey and I want to share it with you. Phil Hansen TED talk
