::More Whiffs, Glimmers & Left Oeuvres::

further exploration

2009-12-15T10:01:00.002-05:00

The quickest way for me to be contrary is to put my intentions on paper. These haloed circular elements originated back in '07 during a particularly frenzied dye fest when I was discovering the magic of discharge using dishwasher gel . I had it all over my hands and picked up pieces of fabric only to find them covered with discharged finger prints after the washout.

I shuffled this piece around for about eight hours yesterday. I had it pinned to my cube wall at the office and moved things around while I talked with the clients. It felt like I was playing Chinese checkers with myself. As the evening wore on the game became chess and I'm now satisfied that I won the match.

One of the first pieces I used these elements in continues to please me. As I tell anyone who cares, it's a great life if you are easily amused.Below - "Hopped Up" from 2007

third and final

2009-12-13T14:42:00.000-05:00

I think I'm done with this one.Twice I've sat down with it and couldn't decide where else it needed to go. Time to let it go and move on. I also have to decide if I want to mount this one (and the other two) on canvas sealed under the plastic. Too soon to tell.

following the trail

2009-12-12T10:39:00.001-05:00

I never get lost, although I may lose a little time but I never count that loss because I almost always find something important along the way. Some have wondered why I don't post links to other places...the list would be too long. I kid you not, there are over a hundred regular linkages in my bloglines list. I love Bloglines because it lets me know when a new post is up. From there, it goes like this:

First stop - Lorraine Glessner's "oh, what a world, what a world" and I defy you to say it without the Wicked Witch voice. From there I found Rebecca Shapiro's site and her wonderful post "Best of 2009 - Moment of Peace" - a wonderfully personal and insightful post about how an artist feels about connecting with a medium. And that medium? Rebecca's link to Wagner Encaustics, Inc. took me down an incredible rabbit hole to the site of Elise Wagner (you think she gets a price break?) and her incredible art. Looking at her work has made me recognize some of the things visual things I have been trying to find using textiles.
Could it be a time for a change for me too?

PS - I remember that I used to touch crayons to the light bulb to watch the colors run. Of course the smell would always bring Mom running and hollering too.

Holiday Sale

2009-12-12T07:50:00.000-05:00

I've put everything in this shop on sale so I can make room for some of the latest things I've been working on. If you'd like to see more images, email me.

I'd be glad to gift wrap and send things direct to your recipient - I know a lot folks can't get out to shop this weekend because of the winter weather. The Post Office is still do-able here in Georgia but there is no time for any international shipping.

New circles and friends

2009-12-11T11:07:00.000-05:00

First, this is not Jinx. She is lost to us and the sore spot on my heart and the empty spot in our household will be fresh a long time.

The phone rang at nearly midnight. Colin said that a woman saw our poster about Jinx at the pizza place and was sure she had her locked up in her garage. A month later, and miles away? I was beyond exhausted and beyond hope. Still, I was up dressed and out the next morning in the cold rain.

It was not Jinx, but a teenaged stray who looked so much like her I had to do a double take. She was so anxious to please a total stranger I could not call her anything but Sweetie. She had the misfortune of finding herself lost, possibly pregnant and in a household of dogs that held no future for her. Caring people who took the trouble to follow up on a lost cat poster - I thank them. I had to think about it all of four hours while I discussed it with Jim and found a low cost spay/neuter clinic. How did they know exactly how much my monthly bonus was, I wonder. We brought her home from the clinic last night.
Here is Sweetie enjoying her post surgery drugs.

just waiting for the spell

2009-12-10T11:54:00.000-05:00

perspective

2009-12-08T12:52:00.000-05:00

I'm beginning to see these circles as windows or portholes into some where or some time other than the here and now. Always hazy. Just out of reach and focus.

new looks

2009-12-06T10:49:00.001-05:00

Colin and I both went for haircuts yesterday. There are no before pictures for a very good reason. I left more hair on the floor of the salon than I now have left and Colin was looking like the bear's butt.

Work continues on this piece. I don't have a stash of embroidery floss so I find myself literally building thread, one strand at a time, from sewing threads. Six and eight strands at a time will make you slow down and be precise or the nest-knot monster just waits to pounce.You can click on both these shots for a close look.

Innocent Bystanders

2009-12-03T12:33:00.001-05:00

"Innocent Bystanders" is back from the Skinny Envelope Show in Florida. According to statcounter, someone in Oklahoma has been lingering over this piece. It's one of my favorites but if you are interested, get in touch and we can negotiate a price that will work for both of us. Here is a link for a detailed look.

The damasks and metallic washed hand dyed fabrics are hard to photograph accurately but anyone who has seen this piece in person will tell you that this is close....

in Nelly's hoops

2009-12-02T12:45:00.000-05:00

It's cold and rainy and twilight dark at lunch here in Georgia, with tornado warnings for dessert. All I'd like to do today is hole up and stitch but it's off to the whine mine shortly. Hopefully all the middle management out there will see this full moon eve as a good day to slack off and leave me a few contemplative moments tween contacts to move some thread around some thoughts.

monday's work

2009-11-30T11:35:00.000-05:00

I just finished - well, it's only basted together - something to take to work with me. Monday's are funny. It could be slamming busy with one report after the next of human stupidity and greed, or it could be eerily slow. At least I'll have something new stitch on and fool with if the moments present themselves. New music on my Ipod too. So I put this one up on the design wall beside the other two recent things and find the ongoing theme keeping up a pace, a circular rhythm that I wont' fight against.

no heart for art

2009-11-29T17:42:00.001-05:00

Somedays the art the you start will not pick you up and carry you along if your heart is not in the making. Neither of these things went any further than this but elements of both have been rescued and repurposed into something else, something that may just sail away without me.

Too soon to tell. No photos as yet.

On the sunny side of my mental street, my neighbor (who is moving) asked if I knew anyone who could adopt her son's adult cat - he was also moving away and could not take the two year old Novi with him. It just so happens that I did know someone who lost all three of her long time family pets within the last two years.

Novi moves on and Jan, Christian and Ryan were ready

studio cleanup on hold

2009-11-25T11:27:00.000-05:00

This will all have to wait - I have a meal to prepare! But it's a good start I guess. Lots of fabric that I will probably never use here. Stand by for bundles of goodies for sale on the Cheap!

the Wheel finished

2009-11-22T12:46:00.000-05:00

Another piece that's maddening to photograph but it's done. Maybe overdone.

2009-11-21T20:10:00.000-05:00

Thanks so much Anna.
I saw her right away.

ongoing

2009-11-19T21:12:00.000-05:00

Focusing on the details can become a distraction but here each detail has a place and meaning. What they are remains a mystery, even to me. Besides, distraction is just another way to get there.

in writing

2009-11-18T12:20:00.000-05:00

Thanks for all the wonderful points of view regarding the use of written dialogue stitched into art. It's good to know what other people think both about doing it and seeing it. For now I have decided against any messages or even letter forms.

I find that when I begin using letter forms I can't help but want to convey something snarky or entertaining. In fact, I find that when I work literally or do something representational you can pretty much bet on something weird, shocking or downright wrong going on. You'll laugh too if you don't run out of the room.

the Wheel

2009-11-17T11:54:00.000-05:00

Just came from Gerdiary and it's fun to see someone who seems to be rolling along the same art rails with me at this point in time. Using whatever is at hand to make some kind of sense of things with needle, thread and a stretch of quiet time.

The ground for this one is a piece of what I think is linen but I could be wrong. Maybe I'll snatch a thread off it and set it on fire, see what happens.

Here's a closer look

I have been thinking about the pros and cons of stitching words into this piece - all that white space is nagging me to do something about it but I'm resisting the urge for the same reasons that I don't like to write artist statements about a specific piece. I don't want to tell people what to think and don't think my own thoughts should be relevant to the observer's experience. I'd love to hear from other artists who use the stitched words in their work. It seems to be a very sharp two-edged sword.

the Wheel turns

2009-11-15T11:47:00.000-05:00

I brought a new base to work with me only to discover that I forgot to bring any scraps to compose with so I started pulling raggedy chunks off my Go Bag. I've been dragging it around for a couple of years now and it's getting pretty seedy. There were fluttery little things hanging all off of it. Now they are being incorporated into a new hand stitched piece loosely based on the Wheel of Fortune tarot card

Thanks for all the lovely comments about the pieces in the previous post. This one was part of a short lived creature frenzy that I went through late in 2008
back when I had more free time. All of these were done on the machine in a very fast, improvisational manner. Right now, the studio is a kind of sad place for me - I don't spend all that much time there. Just digging through piles of things as I look for materials to take with me on the go. The Wheel will turn.

Morning Light

2009-11-13T10:20:00.000-05:00

I love the way stitched pieces look in the morning light that comes through my studio. Unfortunately, the tree shadows prevent any good photographs and at this time of the year the light is too...steep. I'll try again later out on the deck.

This one continues to entertain me while I am at work but probably not tonight. It's Friday, the 13th. You would be surprised to know how self-fulfilling superstitions can be. Years ago I was a telephone operator and felt certain that there should have been combat pay added to our checks for getting through a full moon Friday night or Friday on any 13th.

There has been no news about Jinx

2009-11-13T08:59:00.002-05:00

newest-biggest

2009-11-11T15:57:00.000-05:00

Maybe I should wait until it's completely dry but as I was applying the matte medium and working on it from all directions I decided I liked this orientation better than my first approach. I thought about calling it "Blessed Are the Cracked for they let in the Light" but no doubt Groucho Marx' family lawyers would be all over me in a heartbeat. A name will come in time as I live with it. The original textile construction has been permanently mounted to a 36"x36" canvas and sealed with matte acrylic medium

Make An Offer! UPDATED

2009-11-11T09:59:00.001-05:00

BOTH OF THESE GOODIES HAVE BEEN CLAIMED AND MY PLEDGE TO PFAN HAS BEEN MADE - THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT.

In support of Joanie San Chirico's efforts to get the pFAn website up and running

(it has outgrown it's blogspace!) I'm offering "Rainbow Box" OR this tall stack from my stash to the highest bidder by noon tomorrow with a $10.00 minimum bid. All proceeds will go to the pFAN kickstart

2009-11-09T09:55:00.000-05:00

It never ceases to amaze me how this can turn into this:

Somehow I have to keep these together. It will be hard. They are mostly table napkins, some monogrammed and embroided, ranging from a childish 12"x12" to a queenly 20"x20".

November change & suprises

2009-11-08T14:31:00.001-05:00

Jake convinced me it would be good for me to get out in the sunshine and stomp the woods for while. We went to Suwannee Park and walked and talked and suddenly he pointed out a mile marker to me and to my amazement we had gone a mile and I was not falling down. Bless him, he did go get the car and picked me up at the end of the trail. Not bad for my first outing in ages. My feet are singing. This time away from the usual Sunday routine gave those jars extra time to batch and Jim took them out into the warm sunshine for me. There was little dye in the rinse water but how these will finish out always remains to be seen. For now it's all eye candy. Enjoy.