the big dye

While driving to and from the Faire, I developed a plan for a new series of work. Somewhere I saw a suggestion that a good group of work to present to a gallery consists of 2-3 large pieces and 7-10 small pieces, all part of a series. So my plan is this:

1. Chose a theme--done (goldenrod galls, bear with me on this as it will become more clear as the group develops)
2. Dye a long length of silk to use as the main fabric in the pieces (in progress)
3. Construct the big pieces first, then the small, maybe including some really small ones that could be matted to 4x6"

So I started the dyeing yesterday:



When I washed out this batch, there was a lot of white space left--apparently one of the colors I used didn't work well with silk. So I tried again with this sneak peek at the result:



I'm not sure if this is what I was going for. I may 'gray' this out some as I had been thinking of duller colors.

But ever since I did the snow dyeing, I've been trying to figure out why that fabric looks different. One of my hypotheses is that it is the result of the dye being still in powder form. So I sprinkled some powder on it. And this happened:



Very cool. And I also like this part:



So over the holiday, I will contemplate whether to go with the colors I have, or dye some more. The thing is, it's not like there's a wrong choice here.

That is all.

getting ready for the Faire...

My big art event for the summer is this coming weekend--having a booth at the Midsummer Arts Faire in Quincy, Illinois. It's the only one I'm doing this year, mainly because I missed the deadline for some others.

But I've been spending a good deal of time getting things ready for the booth:


These are cotton shirts I dyed. I also dyed silk scarves to sell. And spent time mounting pieces and cutting mats and framing things. Lots of little, non-creative stuff. The results are ready to go:




I don't mind so much the matting and framing. But I find that I sometimes resent the time spent dyeing scarves and shirts--and yet I need to have them to assure that I get my investment in the art fair back. For some reason, people seem to be able to rationalize or justify spending money on something to wear. But not so much something that just hangs on the wall.

Never mind that art nourishes the soul, evokes emotion, soothes the savage beast. This frustrates me, enough that every year I question why I do art fairs. This particular one has an easy side benefit, in that I will see a lot of old friends. But if I have to make stuff I don't want to make in order to be able to display the stuff I do in the off chance that someone will buy my ART-- not my craft--why am I doing it? Sometimes the answer isn't real clear.

That is all.

Process: drudgery and inspiration

First, the drdugery--getting ready for the Midsummer Arts Faire in a couple of weeks. This involves figuring out how to present a lot of my smaller pieces--in other words, making them look 'like art.' I know, I know, they are 'art', but there's still some resistance to fiber pieces being seen as 'fine art'. I'm doing my part to change that.

So I have these small (4" square) pieces that I want to present. I had been thinking of matting them:



(The shot is more than a little keystoned, but I was in a hurry.) But now I'm leaning towards mounting them on gallery wrapped canvas:



I decided I liked them best on the canvas that was just slightly bigger, painted black. So I went to Dick Blick, bought some and a bottle of artist grade acrylic liquid paint--big improvement over craft paint, only needs one coat--and the result is this currently drying:



The bigger ones are for other, larger pieces. I'm going to put hangers on the back, and am attaching the fiber piece to the canvas with double sided carpet tape. I first tried this a couple of years ago with some pieces that are not for sale, and it's still holding on good. So especially for the small ones, where it would be very hard to sew the piece on, I think this is an acceptable solution.

Now for the inspiration part. I walked today through Sculpture in the Park in nearby St. Charles, Illinois. I think they have this every year. Very cool. Here are a couple of my favorites:



This is C.B. Spine by Todd Willing (I think this is him.) Here's a closeup, love the rust:



And this piece, Nice Pear, by Ray Kobald:



The pear is the classic object for artists to try--but somehow this bronze seems to be a fresh take on the subject.

St. Charles seems to have a real appreciation for sculpture. There are several in their downtown area, and permanent ones installed in many of their parks--including this snapper turtle in Mount St. Mary's park:



The show is free and open until the end of summer. If you can, stop by and see it. Oh,and come see me at the Faire in a couple of weeks.

That is all.

Field Trip

My husband and I took the day off today and went on a field trip to the nearby Morton Arboretum. Arboreta have always been favorites of ours, besides the trees there are usually garden ideas, paths to walk, new flowers to meet. And it's only about 15 miles away from our home. So we became members and can go back for free any time we want.

Along the walks, I found some interesting textures:





Of course, the challenge is how to achieve that in textiles. And here's a landscape shot, showing a nice composition of foreground, midground, background, and of light and dark:



Finding new sources of inspiration is a good thing.

That is all.

vacation over...

Well, I'm back in the saddle again after a few days away. This picture of Lake Barkley, Kentucky, at around 5:15am one morning last week illustrates the whole vacation--calm, laid back, peaceful. A good break.

But now it's back to making art, getting ready for the Midsummer Arts Faire in Quincy, Illinois, June 26-28. And I have three pieces at the Quad State Art Show, also in Quincy, opening Friday, June 5. And then there's that list of other things I've been meaning to try....

I did carve some rubber stamps and do some sketching and planning while I was sitting on the porch admiring the view. But now to follow through....

That is all.

Fiber Art Alliance Goes Public

I am pleased, honored, humbled, all of the above to announce my selection as a member of the Fiber Art Alliance. This group of fiber and mixed media artists was recently formed and is now going public with our website.

We are spending this year each making three small pieces using the theme Natural Lines. The first set of these are now posted on the website.

And here is a detail shot of my piece, Trail:Lake Agnes:



This piece has several fabrics I started dyeing in my Jane Dunnewold class. The hint at birch trees seen in this section was the result of a happy accident, and some of this piece can also be seen in my previous post. The appearance of trees inspired my theme for the three pieces, playing on an idea that had been bouncing around in my head for a while.

One of my favorite pasttimes is hiking in new places. This piece is a memory of hiking along the Lake Superior Trail in late September 2002. The colors of turning leaves, the quiet fall of footsteps along a leaf littered forest floor, foggy days--all of these sensual memories remain.

I think the second piece I make will be about walking in national parks in the southwest--the idea isn't yet developed enough to pick a trail. But soon it will be.

In other news, my hammock is now hung in my new yard, so let the moments of Zen begin.

That is all.

printing results

Ask, and sometimes you shall receive. Here are a couple of prints off of the same screen:






The screen was designed using water soluble Elmer's glue. The glue broke down some as I continued to print with it. I switched colors during the printing without washing out the old ones--I like the serendipity of what results from doing that. The long lines (some white, some dark) are from wrinkles in the padding underneath. Now that I know this setup will work, I'm going to get some cheap white acrylic felt and stretch and staple it to the piece of countertop. And I didn't really care this time as I was mainly testing the process.

And in the top one, you can see where I overlapped one print on top of another. The result of a sudden hard line amongst the softer blends of color is something I like.

So I got some decent pieces out of the test. And I see where I want to go next, which is always a good thing.

That is all.