Wishcasting Wednesday

Every Wednesday, Jamie Ridler asks "what do you wish?" This week's theme is "What do you wish to embrace?"

This is only the second time I have answered her question on my blog, not because the questions are not intriguing, nor because I don't have any wishes, but primarily because I always feel like "What if I choose the wrong thing?"

This week, the answer came immediately. I wish to embrace uncertainty. I have been running from uncertainty for over three years, and it turned into a long range marathon in December of 2006. I am stopping now, and turning to face uncertainty, embrace her and welcome her into my life. Because, really, no matter how certain we think we are about our future plans, what we are going to do tomorrow, even today, that certainty can be swept away at a moment's notice. Life happens, jobs are lost, people get sick. Good things can happen unexpectedly as well. It's all part of the uncertainty.

So this week, my wish is to embrace uncertainty, and to enjoy the journey.

Painting, A Love Story

When I was a kid, my dad would draw the most goofy drawings on our bills before mailing them.  He painted larger versions of them on cars, making a “Dart Bird” on our neighbor’s black Dodge Dart, and decorating my uncle’s panel van when they drove down from Minnesota to visit one summer (when you have eight children in the family there weren’t a lot of choices of vehicle back then; mini-vans hadn’t been invented yet).

When I was five, he taught me how to draw a hot-dog horse (using the shape of a hot dog to draw a horse) and when I was eleven, he took me to the real art supply store (Lewis Art Supply on Woodward Avenue) and bought me a real sketchbook and a set of Buffalo markers.

I drew, and drew, and drew some more, filling that sketchbook and many more after that.  I loved the control that drawing gave me.  It was also neat and portable.  Painting seemed to be something scary and different, at least the kind done with the Grumbacher tube colors.  I also remember my grandfather asking when I was going to start painting, and giving me my first quart of linseed oil in a green and white checkerboard tin, even though I had absolutely no clue where to even begin to use it.

When I was seventeen, I received a set of acrylics for my birthday, and played with them some.  There wasn’t the control I had with my drawing, and my attempt to recreate a photograph of luminous purple grapes fell flat.  It was the time of budget cuts and jobs moving to Mexico and there weren’t art programs in my school, and my dad was lucky to still be working the afternoon shift as Shop Steward in his job as a metal patternmaker.  I had to learn it all on my own, and I gave up and returned to my beloved pencil.

Over the years, I kept dancing with the idea of painting.  I loved the idea of being able to sweep my arm and create a line of color that followed my motion.  I also loved the photo-realism of Audrey Flack and Ralph Goings .  I’d buy paints and canvases, and play a little, but then put them away, distracted by life and fear.

Recently I began painting again, inspired by the work of Lynda Barry.  I gave myself permission to play, permission to make mistakes, permission to take time to learn.  I have been having a blast.

I posted some of the paintings earlier this year, from my journal.  Some have gone on to my Etsy shop, and now I am also painting on canvas.

Just Dessert, 2009  6” x 8” 

Harvest, 2009, 6” x 8”

Mom Mom’s Kitchen, 2009, 12” x 9”

Each piece started with a blank pre-stretched canvas.  I made color photocopies of either images of my work, or of old family photos, and collaged them to the base using matte medium.  This gave a nice under painting, and adds to the content of the work when the image ghosts through the top layers.  I drew on the canvas using my trusty India ink, and once that was dry, I painted the image using acrylic paints (a mix of brands I’ve collected over the years, but I am trying to move to Golden brand as I need to replace paint).  Then I coat them with a layer of matte medium and two coats of varnish to seal. 

Having the foundation of images already in place made the blank canvas a little less intimidating.  It also helped the subsequent layers have a depth of color.  I like the way the lines of each individual copy can still be seen in the finished work, giving it a quilt-like texture that I miss in traditional painting.  Right now working this way is the perfect melding of the control of drawing and the looseness of painting, feeding both those needs in my soul.

Next up, paintings without foundation images!

Do You Know the Way To San Jose?

The San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles is hosting its “High Fiber Under Five” exhibit and sale, starting tomorrow and running through November 8th.  This is an excellent opportunity to acquire works of art from many well-known fiber artists for $500 or less per piece.  Whether you are just starting to collect art, or are looking to add to your collection, this show promises something for everyone.

I chose to send pieces based on my drawing experiments of this summer, as well as the piece which is based on my photo from the banner above.  Here is a sneak preview:

Garden Party II, approximately 16” x 20”, available starting tomorrow for $450 This piece includes my hand-dyed and hand-painted twill, fabrics from the Stonehenge collection by Northcott fabrics, as well as machine cording.

African Masks I, 9” x 6”, but sewn to a 10” x 8” canvas, as are the other three pieces in the African Masks series.  This one includes shibori from Debb and Michael Lunn, and commercial cottons.  I collaborated with my son on this piece, he created the original drawing on which the quilt is based.  This piece, and the other three pieces in the series, are available for $150 each.

African Masks II, commercial cottons, machine quilting.

African Masks III, silk suiting fabric and commercial cottons.

Unfortunately I was running right up to the deadline to finish African Masks IV, so do not have an image of it.  It is red cotton on a base of golden yellow silk dupioni, also machine quilted.

I really enjoyed making these pieces and can see making more small pieces as studies for larger works.  I am grateful to the SJMQ&T for inviting me to submit work for this show, it provided me an opportunity to try something new, and for a good cause.  (All proceeds above the artist’s commission goes to help fund the museum and its programs.)

If you are interested in acquiring one of these works of art, you may call the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles at 408.971.0323 x14 after the sale starts on November 3.

Taking the Leap

Like many artists, I keep a journal/sketchbook.  I started this practice in earnest nearly 15 years ago, when, tired of buying a new sketchbook only to end up giving it to my children to draw in, I decided to keep the sketchbook no matter what.  I gave myself permission to make the “worst junk in the world” as Natalie Goldberg said.  I didn’t judge what I put in the book, I didn’t tear pages out, and until recently I didn’t go back into old pages to rework them or cover up stuff I decided was too personal for possible public consumption. 

My journal has been idea generator, confidant, and catch-all over the years.  I put it aside three years ago after the tumultuous spring, summer, and fall of surgeries, job losses and meltdowns.  I missed it, a lot.  I kept trying to come back to it, because I knew that working in such a safe space would help me heal from all the trauma my family and I had been through.

Finally I found the wonderful book The Creative Entrepreneur, by Lisa Sonora Beam, and by chance she was offering a summer special on her online journal workshops.  I signed up for the PowerFULL Magical Visual Journal workshop, found a wonderful book at a local art supply, and I was off.  Over the course of the past three months I worked that book until it was full, and in the process I was creating more work than I have created in a very long time, having the time of my life, and making work that I wanted to share with the world.

Selling completed art journals is probably possible, but not something I want to do at the moment, and I loved some of the work so much that I wanted to take it “offline” as it were and make some free-standing work.  The watercolors I posted last month inspired some such paintings, and now I have also expanded the repertoire to work on canvas. 

Untitled, in process.  The background is a collage of color copies of a photo I took.  I then painted the image on using India ink, and after that dried, I went back in with acrylics.  The faces on the underlying photo aren’t as obvious in person, I was surprised and pleased when they popped out in the photo.  I think the canvas size is 10” x 20” but I am not positive.

Here I am auditioning the piece with a separate snail I made by sewing unryu paper and painted paper to a Pellon base and then trimming.  I wasn’t sure that I wanted to put him (her?) on, but after seeing the photos I think that I will attach this snail to the piece. 

This piece is made in the same manner, but I used copies of an old family photo as the base.  One thing I’m learning in this process is that it is easier to “read” the ink drawing if the base image is color instead of black and white.  The lines tend to get lost in the darker areas of the photo on a black and white image.  It is on a canvas that measures 6” x 8”.

Izzy also got into the act and has been painting also.  We are planning at Etsy update, first tomorrow for some watercolors, then around October 15 with sculptures.

Scary new territory, but fun, especially when you have such an enthusiastic studio mate working by your side.  I already have the next two pieces planned, and am looking forward to heading back to Blick for some larger canvases.

Excellent Opportunity

One of the members in my SAQA region called me last Thursday with a request.  Ellen Anne Eddy creates marvelous embroidered imagery and is teaching a workshop in Carmel, Indiana, November 2-5.  Spaces are still available if you are in the area.  I have admired Ellen’s work for years, and the techniques taught in her first book Thread Magic, helped me create my Picky Butterfly piece for The Artful Storybook.

You can view the brochure at the Embroiderers’ Guild website .  More information on the class will be up soon at Ellen’s site where you can also see images of her beautiful work.

Stu-Stu-Studio

It seems like September has only begun and here it is September 16th already.  I have been working on several deadlines, one of which is the upcoming High Fiber show at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles.  No work will be over $500, and I am planning on sending 6 pieces.  The piece above is one of them, based on the photo I took at the Franklin Park Conservatory.  You can see the actual photo in my blog banner.

I started the piece by cutting some Pellon to approximately 16” x 20” and freehand drawing the log, the spiral and the leaf onto it.  I then appliqued the parts onto a piece of hand-dyed fabric I made over the summer.  The tree is made from the Northcott stone collection, as is the spiral.  The leaf is composed of African brocade and twill that I painted with Setacolour paints.  The splotchy effect on that fabric was made by sprinkling kosher salt onto the piece while it was still wet.

I did freemotion zigzag over satin cording for the vines in the background, and made zigzag cording with strips of hand-dyed fabric for the vines in the foreground.  I also used freemotion zigzag to add details to the log and the leaves.  The background was just random freemotion quilting, I am not an old hand at the “stipple” look yet.

Here is a detail of the log, with a better view of the bark details and the machine quilting.  I am really pleased with how this piece turned out, and excited to begin the next to last piece, which will be three dimensional waterlilies on another piece of hand-dyed twill.  But first I have to finish Garden Party I (the green water towers from August) for the local Women in Appalachia show deadline.

When it rains, it pours.

Fabric Gardens

Usually when I do something like dye fabric, the product sits around for months or sometimes years before I actually use it.  Not because the fabric isn’t beautiful, but because I am afraid that once I use it all up, it will be gone, and where will I get more?  This is especially true of colors that I don’t know how to duplicate (like the inadvertent rust fabric of earlier this month), or just love so much that I can’t decide which *one* project it will go into.

This month has been somewhat different.  I realized that I can buy more dye when it is time.  I also was not able to run out and buy yardage at the quilt shop, and had to use what was on hand.  This is both scary and exhilarating at the same time.  There was a time when I would use the lack of being able to buy new stuff as an excuse to not make anything, and I am really amazed and grateful at how far I’ve been able to come from that old unhealthy pattern.

So far, with my new hand-dyed fabrics, I have made purses:

A sample for the private class I taught:

And an embroidery piece inspired by the ink paintings I’ve been doing in my journal:

I had, however, been putting off the most frightening project of all, an art quilt made using the fabrics.  I wasn’t sure I had enough commercial prints in my stash to make a larger piece, and I wasn’t sure the colors I’d made were right. 

I finally did get off my fence, and started to put together this:

Untitled as of yet, though it reminds me of  the early spring greens of the local cornfields, and of the verdant growth of the plants at the Franklin Park Conservatory.

Pinning the appliqued pieced to a base of the new hand-dyed fabric.  I also used some fabric I painted using Setacolour Paints on another fabric day this month. 

Three of the towers appliqued to the backing, one to go!

Sewing the fourth tower to the background.  I use a basic zigzag with a darning foot so I can make curves easily.  I love the needle down function on my Pfaff 2054 most of all, I don’t know how I made these pieces without it.

All of the fabric used either came from stash or was the new hand-dyed fabric I made earlier this month (which also was stash, I just needed to put the stashed dye onto the stashed fabric).  The finished piece will measure somewhere around 44” square, and I am in the process of quilting it.  I really love the richness of the browns and greens together, and I am so happy that I stood up to those fears and started the work.