What I Wish I'd Just Experienced

I wish I could say I've just visited this exhibit, but I haven't. However, they have a pretty good online trailer:

I love the internet--I can visit galleries even when I can't and get inspired at any hour of the day or night.

Valley Fiber Life

 

Two or three years ago the talented and lovely Marcia Young started a bit of a blog, Valley Fiber Life, about fiber art and artists in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, and I was lucky enough as a just barely expat of the Valley, to be one of her first interviews. Today Valley Fiber Life has several regular contributors and a broad umbrella for articles about great artists near and far, cool fiber-related videos, fantastic book recommendations, and a whole slew of other resources, including a wonderful free guide for offering critiques by art fabric legend Jane Dunnewold, which started me off on this post.

So the next time you need a hit of fiber fabulousness or a little inspiration to shake of your creative block, drop by Valley Fiber Life.

No animals were harmed and no fiber artists (including me) were paid for the production of this post.

Getting Ready

I haven't accomplished a lot of stitching or felting recently but I have done a load of desktop publishing to get ready for my exhibit at the Downtown Kingsport Association's gallery.

I'm really looking forward to interacting with visitors as well as with my inspiration and materials. So please spread the word and I hope to see you there!

Speaking of Trees . . .

Yesterday we went to the Eastman Recreation Area at the bottom of Bays Mountain in Kingsport, TN (where we live). There's a great little stream there--lots of rocks to walk across--as well as scads of gorgeous trees. There are so many varieties.

My youngest whittled herself a wand, my oldest played frisbee with her dad and grandad, the grands took a short walk, the kids and I popped balloons with the sun and a magnifying glass, I whooped them at tether ball.

Every once in a while we'd hear an enormous CRACK and realized eventually that it was walnut fruits hitting the metal roofs of picnic shelters. Grandpa also found a beautiful hulled chestnut. Life was quiet (except for the ocassional CRACK or POP) and wonderful.

And on our way to the car I saw these leaves. Aren't they cool?

I love the symetry and the asymetry of them. I am intrigued by the almost-but-not-quite right angles, and by how the veins are prominent on the outside edges of the bottom two points and almost nonexistent on the side near the center vein. And I think it's pretty cool how they fit into the rectangular field of my camera so tidily.

I see a work in here. Hmmmmm.

Duh! Can't see the forest for the trees!

I've been working on a second wool painting. Because I'm a glutton for punishment, I decided that since the first hard and shiny subject worked so well, I should do another hard and shiny subject. And I chose hard and shiny . . . and iridescent . . . and transparent carnival glass. What was I thinking?

The hard and shiny and iridescent and transparent parts are not the biggest problems, though. Carnival glass is also cut glass with lots of facets. And wool roving doesn't really want to do fine detail. But that still isn't the biggest problem. That took someone else to pinpoint, someone who was not invested in the piece. An objective observer. Tony Henson

After I explained my process and griped and winged a little, he said, "So it's sort of like me trying to make a realistic drawing of you on a regular sheet of paper with an inch-wide hunk of charcoal."

Well, yes, it is very much like that. The problem is not any of the difficult things I am tackling, but rather the scale at which I'm tackling them.

Thank you, Tony!

So yesterday I pulled the carnival glass off my foam and set up a still life to work on at a large scale.

I'll be doing this on a lovely dark green and blue wool backing I dyed. And once I've been successful in this medium again perhaps I'll retackle the carnival glass. On a much larger scale. Duh!

Englandsickness

So I was going through some photos to make prints for the ArtCrawl a couple of days ago when my youngest walked in. She looked eagerly through the photos then declared glumly that she had Englandsickness--like homesickness but more complicated and expensive to cure.

I'm right there with her. We miss our friends and their little town and the grand, glorious, mysterious Dart Moor.

Anyhow, I'm getting these up on my website soon, and on my Facebook page sooner, so if you find these give you Englandsickness, you can buy your own little window onto the moor (or Cornwall, or Ireland, or industrial Kingsport).

A lighthearted reminder . . .

. . . that the unexpected can be fabulously fun.

So do something unexpected today! I know I'm inspired!

Wazzup?

Well, it's summer and there is no such thing as routine for the next two months (and the one month behind us). That means there is no such thing as regularly getting work done, so I'm fitting in what I can when I can and joyfully enjoying my children, too.

When I'm waiting during dance or instrument lessons I'm usually sketching or stitching samplers for Sharon's commission. It took me a while, but I finally figured out that if I do my "draft" on muslin I don't have to rip it out if I don't like the color--I can just change the color and then stitch on the actual piece. So, for instance, here's a little piece I did last week.


I like the shape, but refined how to make the intersections less awkward as I went and tried out some other color combos along the edge.


Now I'm adding this motif to the final product--and I'll have a little mini "study" quilt to sell at some point as well. Muuuuuch better than ripping out stitches!

Had the blocks done for this.


My oldest, who likes things just so and symetrical, finds its asymetry annoying, but my youngest thinks it's swell.

It was to be a king-sized quilt for my bed, but hubby wants another "Almost Amish" quilt, so figured I'd had enough fun with these blocks and put them together.

I am very pleased with the result, particularly as I managed a horizontal rather than a vertical orientation for the first time in, I think, ever. I kept meaning to do a horizontal piece yet it would morph partway through and come out as an exaggeratedly tall and slender piece.

I am using the last two chapters of C.S. Lewis's The Last Battle to inspire the quilting and provide the title: "Further Up and Further In."

I have a couple of other thing in the queue, but Sharon's commission is my top priority this summer, so everything else is more of a back-burner project. She gets to be the first to see that piece, though, so no sneak previews here except the sort that you see above.

Edward Tufte, aka ET

I heard a story on NPR this morning that both resonated with me and made me aspire to do and be more than I am. That doesn't happen all that often when I listen to the news, particularly both in the same story, so I thought I'd share.

The article you can read online is abridged from the audio version, which is certainly worth taking 9 min, 8 sec to listen to. NPR has images of some of his work, but you can see it all at his site. Enjoy!
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Edward Tufte is a professor emeritus of poli. sci. and statistics at Yale who is well-known for his work in presenting data clearly and graphically. He was recently recruited to the Obama administration's Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, to advise and devise ways to track and present in an easily digestible but meaningful form how the $787 billion stimulus package is being spent.

Yawn. That's all well and good and I applaud him, but neither resonates with me nor inspires me to aspire to more.

But ET is also an artist. A large-scale sculptor to be more specific, who does, IMO, some very fine work. He has just opened a gallery, ET Modern, in NYC. But he doesn't necessarily want to sell his work.

So here's the resonating part. In the article he says:

"I have a very big problem selling pieces, because I don't want them to leave," he says. "For a long time, I believed that any successful piece was a tremendous luck-out, and that I'd never be able to do it again ... My fellow artist friends, who are serious with me, told me to grow up."

I tell myself to grow up all the time. He went on to say that it's not necessarily the entire piece that he clings to, but rather elements that he's not sure will come again. I so get that, and suspect many artists feel the same, even if they don't say it out loud.

He also talks about giving back, which I love. He's smart, positive, creative, particularly in fields (poli. sci. and statistics) that are not generally known for creativity in a positive way, and not stuck on how wonderful he is. That combination is appealing and certainly worth aspiring to.

Grandma's Shawl

I'm supposed to be sketching one of the two remaining quilts I have to design for a Quilting Arts magazine article that is due in a week, but procrastination is an important part of my creative process, so I'm feeding my creative side by posting. Really! Just ask my mom!

Anyhow, my Grandma made knitted and crocheted and beaded and plastic canvas stuff for us when we were young. She and Grandpa whipped up wonderful meals of pot roast or turkey and lefse (like potato tortillas) and komla (potato balls) and butterhorn rolls and grape salad. We had homemade buttermilk pancakes or oatmeal for breakfast, and there was always plenty of kringla (soft cookies) and krumkake (crumb bombs) to keep 9 people happy for several days.

Grandma always smells good and her skin is like silk. She has always listened when I shared the little trivial things that were important to me. And I could feel her quiet, low voice and Grandpa's rich, deep one way down in my heart.

Being at their house was like visiting a wonderful other world of special food, music, familiar old toys, tea parties, and all-day playtime, and I always cried when it was time to leave.

Grandpa is gone now, and Grandma, now in her 90s, lives in a retirement home 14 hour away, so it's hard to make sure she knows, every day, how much we love her and how often we think about her. I made her this shawl and some neck warmers--and some krumkake--for Christmas in the hopes that they will speak for us when we can't be there. 'Bout time I made her something comforting and wonderful!

And another thing . . .

We have some great friends in Vermont who are not afraid of paint. In fact, I think they've elevated house painting to an art and looking at their house just makes me smile--hope it will you, too.

The Fly People

While working today I was listening to the BBC and there was a delightful story about the traditions of naming genes. It's a fun look into the creative and quirky lives of geneticists, and the reporter did a nice job of going with the fun. And for you artist folks, check out the image that goes with the article on the BBC. It's beautiful!

Monotype Class

Monday I took a five-hour gelatin Monotype class with artist Kathy Gibian (offered through the Kingsport Art Guild). I had a great time and learned as much from seeing what other folks experimented with as from what I worked with. Monday we worked predominantly with silk screen inks, but yesterday I did some tube watercolor work with the plate as well. (Kathy was kind enough to allow me to take my plate home.) Interesting the different effects one can get--will have to experminet with combining them next time.

Anyhow, here are some of my favorite experiments. Definitely will take a lot of time and practice to perfect (just as with any artform) but am looking forward both to making monotypes for their own sake and incorporating them into my fiber work.

This is why I took the class. I've been wanting to do some work inspired by local industrial sites, most notably Domtar Paper and Eastman Chemical. The first image (silk screen ink) shows the first pull on silk gauze and the second pull on heavy paper. The silk takes the image very well but leaves a lot of ink and some texture for the second pull.

These three are done in watercolor. Used a wash followed by painted pipes for the first pull. Added three strips of paper for a resist, more watercolor, lifted the strips and printed the second pull. Really nice ghost image from the first pull. Added more painted pipes for the third pull, still have a ghost of the first, shadow from the second.

This is the local farmer's market site after a rain when there was still a lot of (very still) water on the pavement. My reflections aren't long enough, but for a workshop setting I think it's still pretty cool. (This is silk screen ink.)

And here are a couple details of doors and panels on the old industrial buildings at the farmer's market. I especially like the horizontal ghost lines in the top one, left from cleaning my plate, that evoke grain lines. Top monotype is printed with silk screen inks, bottom with watercolors.

Print on 3mm silk habotai mounted on freezer paper (silk screen ink):

Last, but best, are my two favorites from the two days.Tthe first is silk screen ink worked with brush and sponge and is a landscape of Dart Moor in Devon, England.

The second is a three-part watercolor print. Created the background and lifted a print from it. Added the foreground details except the wires and insulators and lifted this print. Once it was dry I went in with a Pigma pen and added the wires and insulators.

I think what I've learned about the two inking media is that watercolor leaves a really nice, even ghost image while silk screen ink is more workable for foreground detail since it's stiffer.

Down to the Wire

After the Storm II

Working like a maniac to all hours to finish this in time to have it framed to hang next Thursday. Not time for a long post, but thought I'd keep documenting the process.

Have created "speed nuno" for the trees (on silk) and bushes (on kona cotton). There'll be more dark bushes in front of the trees on the right as well, but haven't cut the felt yet. Also, field'll be a little less tilted (but only a little).

Had originally planned a straight edge for the field (my traditional roots are showing) but found the curved edge evoked the sense of motion I needed. I passed several fields like this in the Midwest last summer and snapped one photo from the window of the car to remind me I wanted to make this.


This work isn't based on the photo per se, but rather is a melange of memorable images.

The whole thing will be constructed on canvas wrapped stretcher bars and framed.

___________________

Later . . .
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Final composition more or less, but the angle of the field is just a tad too flat. Pay no attention to the white bit--it's the paper placeholder for the field, not actually part of the quilt.

One of these days . . .

. . . I might do a quilt that doesn't require me to tackle a construction conundrum (sure would save a lot of time)
. . . but I don't think so.

I need to make trees. Abstracted trees that have the texture and general shape of trees without being either too literal or too cartoonish.

So I started fooling around with scrap batting and remnant wool fleece. Needle felting always is near the top of my mind but wouldn't work at all in the materials (a variety of fabrics, including dyed cotton batting) and at the scale I wanted. And while batting is cake to needle felt, layers of batting are not. So nix that idea.

Got out the SetaSkribs to see about shading with them, but realized quickly that wasn't the solution because they pick up fibers from the batting like mad AND I've finally faced the fact that I'm a purist and would far prefer to create shading with my fiber materials rather than paint or a marker.

That's not a judgment, 'cause loads of folks use paint and ink to tremendous effect, and now that I've said it out loud (-ish), just watch--I'll have to eat my words on my next work. Anyhow, nix on this approach, too.

Well, looked back at my study and began playing with layered batting again, this time without needle felting, and realized I might finally have stumbled on to something good. Really?! I know you're looking at this thinking, "O.K., if you say so, but I don't really see it," but my mind was racing several steps forward and I thought I was on the right track. So . . .

Kept on playing around with batting and muslin and think I'm still heading in the right direction. Will have to fine-tune my method AND figure out the best way to contruct them, but that's the fun part!

I'll be using this variety of fabrics I dyed, including aida cloth, cotton batting, muslin, Kona, and silk gauze. That should be the final ingredient in creating the texture, shading, subtlety and abstraction I'm aiming for.

If I'm really honest with myself, I must admit that these puzzles, though sometimes frustrating in the moment, invigorate me. They stimulate me to push the boundaries of what I think quilting can accomplish. DH had it right when he said that if I ever make a quilt I'm completely happy with it will be one of the saddest days of my life 'cause I'll have to give up quilting for something with more challenge. I'm happy to report that I still finding quilting plenty challenging--and rewarding!

Oh, and by the way, finishing this quilt quickly is now very important because I'll be having a solo exhibit at City Hall in Kingsport, TN, from Aug. 3 to Oct. 1, 2009, and need it to anchor one of the main walls. If you're local or passing through then, stop by! Woot! (It's been a pretty good couple of weeks!)

Tree Down

One of the things I find awesome (in the old-fashioned sense of the word) around here is the weather. Last week we had a doozy of a storm. The rain came sideways in sheets, or maybe blankets. We were at a lesson in a third (and top) floor office and decided to go down a couple of flights for a while because the storm was that violent. Didn't last for long, though, went back up the stairs, finished our lessons, and went home.

To find this:For scale, the girl standing near the tree is approximately 50 inches tall, so say about four feet. And this enormous Southern White Pine just tipped over in the storm, roots rent from the ground. So now we're waiting for the ground to dry enough that the tree guys can bring their trucks to the bottom of the hill (where the tree is) without tearing up our yard.

The most ironic part of all is that we have two enormous pines--and this is the one we were going to keep! Can't argue with Mother Nature, though.

And the best part? Well, there's just so much interesting stuff to see--in the roots, among the branches, along the trunk. I've been taking loads of photos for inspiration!

This is all you get

Howdy folks. Well, this is all you get of this work in progress because I don't want to give away the cow. Had to post, though, to prove I'm actually getting work done in addition to making cheese and hosting guests and volunteering to proctor standardized tests and meeting deadlines that don't have a lot to do with making art.


The small painting laying atop it is the study for the larger work. This is probably the last you'll see of it until I post it on my website (I'll post the finished work here as well) because I need some "virgin" work for some upcoming submissions.

Hope you all are being productive and creative as well--'tis the season!

Time out with Mom

Hey. I'm fitting in a little work here and there (like getting my taxes ready), but my Mom is visiting and the kids are home for Spring Break, so not doing a lot of creating (except in my head). Soon I'll be working on a landscape, though, so stay tuned. Also, will be visiting Glorious Asheville again soon, so should have some lovely pics to share then.

Hope your March is behaving like a lamb. We're enjoying our first Tennessee Spring immensely!

Earth from Space

The Kingsport Public Library currently is showing the Smithsonian's Earth from Space exhibit. The exhibit is divided into several sections and several satellites provided the source imagery. I was a chaperone on my daughter's class trip to see the exhibit last week and my good deed was rewarded 10-fold by the oh-so-inspiring images. I was at a loss re: what to create for my 18" x 18" Surface Matters exhibit piece (opening in conjunction with the Surface Design Association's biennial conference). Now, not so much.

Anyhow, the on-line exhibit is great, but if you have a chance to see the exhibit in person please do. The images are quite large and vivid, the information provided about what you're seeing is interesting, and, unlike with the on-line exhibit, you can get right up close and personal. In addition, some of the images were dual images but you can see only one of them on-line. You can zoom in the on-line exhibit, but you can't see the entire enlarged image at once. So cool!

Anyhow, I promise pictures in my next post--all these text posts are a little dull, no?

I love what I do!

It's alchemy.

Magically some barbed needles and inspiration turn this:


Into this:

A painting in fiber.

But then the fun really begins--the quilting brings the whole thing to life:


Until a two dimensional picture becomes a sculpture for the wall:

Labyrinth II (c) 2009 Cindi Huss.

This is the 8" square (approx.) of the quilt that will show through
the matte. It will travel with Meet SAQA's Artists
for a year, then the International Quilt Study Center
will acquire selected work from the exhibit
for its permanent collection.

Life is good!