Consumed Time

Wow, this is the first day that I've had off in a while when I could actually find some time to blog. I was seriously considering deleting the blog altogether because I've been feeling word-empty and I haven't been making anything to speak of. Only working for money, not soul and I feel sad. Although, as I wrote a few months ago, it has given me time to read...on the bus, some free moments at work or when I'm exhausted at night and dropping off to sleep. You know how it is sometimes. Anyway, I brought my laptop with me to the laundromat today and thought I would blog about my minor art gains as I waited for the spin cycle. The dryer works at home, just not the washer.

Over the past couple of weeks I decided that I needed to build up a stock of backing fabric for my work. I chose colors that I have but don't use so much and just painted to cover the fabric instead of for a purposeful piece. This way, I will have fabric for the back, instead of my usual situation of having to decide which of my beloved yardage should be relegated to the wall side. Some people have asked me why I paint my backing fabric instead of just buying some blah stuff to fuse on the hind side. Answer: integrity of the piece. I like for my imagery to be as much about my vision as possible, so color or pattern generated by someone/something else feels wrong to me. My quirk. I have been ruminating over this backing fabric issue for years and when I took the time to build a couple more large stretcher frames it became easier to tack the fabric (in a rather unpainterly fashion) and get it done. I had to convince myself to do only one layer, to randomly choose colors and to simply brush it on methodically in order to cover the fabric. Backing fabric only. Say it again Sonji...BACKING FABRIC ONLY. Don't think for a second that I didn't have to restrain myself from diving back into the surfaces. I am simply trying to revel in the paint and the coverage. No image. No plan, except for that it is backing fabric. I will have to make it a mantra. In the end I will be more productive. I am simply slow to alter my habits. It is an advancement in technique. Say it again, Sonji.
The smaller frame was one left over from years ago and I've been using it to paint my gray canvas for the newer pieces, but the surface area is so small in comparison to my new 5 x 6 foot frames (the blue one). Like my purple walls?

I randomly chose these colors (beige, blue, cranberryish red) and just went at it as though I was starting a painting. The action felt good, but the colors were killing me. I think that will help me get over wanting to make something out of it all...aside from backing fabric. Say it again, Sonji. This time with feeling. BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACKING FABRIC!!!!

This is other MEDALLION STRUCTURE piece that I'm working on. It is about 4 x 5 feet presently and will grow. Need to paint more fabric. That seems to be my bane, doesn't it? More needed for the front. More needed for the back. I suppose my issues could be so much greater.

Can you see the marker line above the red satin stitched line? I have to stitch an elegant arch across the entire piece and that is my indicator.

And these are ovals in the making...

...meant to end up in the first MEDALLION STRUCTURE (click here to view the previous stage of this piece). I am glad the weather is warming up because the paint will dry faster. And yes, the vegetation is pretty. The birds are glorious. The grass will need cutting.

I forgot to mention that I started my school residencies, hence the business beyond the museum job (which will be over in June). One workshop is all day Tuesdays with K-4 and K-5 making cement garden sculptures for their school garden, as well as a bench and a magic "literacy carpet". I have a great assistant, Anna Stone and the culture of that school is as close to perfect as I've ever experience. So friendly and flexible.

The other school is a wider age range, grades 1 through 6, I think. There are so many children that I haven't kept track really. This project is also with a movement and dance professional. My part isn't as much fun to be honest. We are making props and such for a performance. The kids are so interesting though and it is a lesson in letting go (for me). After all, I'm a facilitator. It isn't MY project or vision. Say it again, Sonji...and go back to painting that backing fabric.

Thanks to all of my readers for sticking with me during my lapse. Don't forget to check my work out in the shows listed in the sidebar. Textural Rhythms is now in Detroit, MI. The Hampton University Museum show is up until the end of July. Sisters in Cloth will be opening this week at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, CO. And there's more, but I can't think of it all off hand. I have been good at updating my events page on my website, though.

Stay tuned! Take care.

A Bit of Fun

I was checking my email on this much coveted day off and found that a friend sent me a link to a very interesting test (we all love our on line quizzes and tests) called the Tibetan Personality Test. She prefaced the link by stating something like "it really is revealing about your true personality." Surely, my tea-saturated brain thought, this will unveil something to move me forward (like our Wisconsin state motto). Gotta take it since I am so self-aware (snicker snicker...being self aware is very scary because altering where I AM is HARD).

I won't share my results with you, simply because I don't want to tamper with the authenticity of your test taking adventure, but I will tell you that I wasn't too surprised. I think I am, in a good way, a very simple person. Not a simpleton, but a simple person, which is why I wasn't too surprised by the results of my test. The one thing I will give away, is that according to my test, I believe that the love of my life, my goddaughter (all of 4 years old now) is my twin soul. What could be better? If you want to feel uplifted, then take a few minutes and participate in it. There are only four questions and I feel very happy and will now make another pot of tea (I've been using my Mom's old ceramic tea pot and now understand the need for chicken shaped cosies to keep it warm) and work on some art. Lovely.

Still in progress...

I have advanced a bit on this piece. It's difficult to truly see art on the Internet...there's no scale or surface texture or dimension, the colors vary from reality. This piece has a nice wave to it, the way fabric tends to slack when we force structure upon it. It is over five feet high. I'm having a grand old time manipulating it. I need to build extention leaves for my sewing table. At least I've constructed it so that I am sewing from the inside out and I don't have to cram it all under the arm of the machine. I am tacking together a couple of other pieces that will be part of this series I will entitle "Medallion Structure" . Initially, this one began as a "Medallion" but it embodies many of the elements that I use for my Stilt Houses and Architectural Studies, so I won't fight the progression of the ideas merging.

I love this particular detail.

This shot illustrates the subtle coloration in my painted gray canvas, as well as the stitching. As the outer ellipses cascade down to the ground, the stitching changes from black to brown. The stitching on the small interior ellipses in the central medallion-ish area is gray and light blue.Here is some yardage I painted for the liturgical banner I'm working on. It's a bit Van Gogh Starry Night, although not by intention. I want all the banner elements to relate cyclically to nature in their symbolism and patterning on the fabric.

This is what the banner looks like so far. It is pictured against a black background and it is a bit over 5 feet long so far and three feet wide. When finished it needs to be 17 feet long...but still only 3 feet wide. Yikes. I just painted a few yards of reddish/orange in order to add some big spirals on the top and the bottom. Big fun.

Also, if you happen to be in or around Philadelphia and/or Wayne, PA, check out "Art Quilt Elements 2008" at the Wayne Art Center. My "Stilt House II" is in the exhibition.

Imperfection

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
~Robert F. Kennedy

The more you know the less you understand.
~Tao Te Ching

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
~Pablo Picasso


There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
~William Shakespeare


Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.
~Leonard Cohen

These are some of my favorite sayings. I re-discovered them in a shabby little notebook along with some interesting soup recipes. I am big on starting a little notebook with concepts that hit me, although the notebooks seem to consistently end up being sources for tearing out paper in order to write a website, directions or a grocery list. I hung on to this notebook undoubtedly because the words all deal with imperfection. I am a confessed imperfectionist. I will leave it at that.
Because I haven't been creating work at the same rate as I was this time last year for various reasons, I have indulged myself in a lot of textile based essays from Uncoverings, as well as other coffeetable-ish quilt history books. My favorite reads however, have been The Freedom Quilting Bee by Nancy Callahan (not a coffeetable-ish book) and a book of essays by the reknown painter Howardena Pindell entitled The Heart of the Question. I read them concurrently which reinforced the patriarchal societal issues that blanket all issues but ripened the debate for me about elevating items made for utilitarian purposes to the coveted high art status. It really is all based a motive for money and granduer, as is so much of our American lifestyle. Deep sigh.

Today is my day off work (I actually did a lot of running around yesterday, my other day off this week) and I've been lollygagging about. I enjoy lollygagging. I did laundry only out of necessity very early this morning and then promptly sat down and thought about things I should be cramming into the rest of my day and then decided to do very little of it. I have gotten a bit further on Stilt House III by adding the big blue innertube at the bottom. I do so love my circles and donuts and such. This piece is going to get a bit of embroidery and I have to be in the right mood for all that. Other elements are waiting to be added for completion, but I know the embroidery needs to be done first otherwise it will be too difficult for me to manipulate. If I've learned anything about my own methodology, it's to plan ahead despite my disliking it.

This is a detail shot of a liturgical banner I'm working on for a lovely woman I met in Eugene, Oregon last year. I don't want to reveal too much of it...and it will take me quite a while to complete...but it is going to be very swirly and lively and about growth.

Painted Fabric Flashback

I apologize for not blogging these past couple of months. There hasn't been much going on to write about...just to and from work and my beloved snow (with some heavy rain and ice thrown in for good measure). I did receive notice that one of my pieces won a first prize award in the Pen and Brush show in New York. A big deal for me. I'm quite pleased. And in the next couple of weeks, I have to pack up work for the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum's "Sisters in Cloth" and the Wayne Art Center's "Art Quilt Elements 2008".

For now, though...enjoy this painted fabric flashback comprised of yardage from a couple of summers ago. I like remembering where I used some of the fabric.