hanging a show

And again, struggling with “Artist statement”……….blah blah, blahdy blah….One line this time, a little artsyfartsy but not too much….”Evolving, devolving, in response to the self, learning the essence of thread, needle and cloth.”

I thought i had the original artworks that inspired the piece, but somewhere along the way with moves and purgings, they have disappeared. I think i may have donated them to the Salvation Army! Fortunately, i have photos, though #1 is truncated.

And for full circle, i may redo them in new flavours

“Not A Hive Mind” 27×20″ ecoprinted and rusted cotton, machine and hand embroidery, dimensional applique

Carmela’s sculptural felt pieces:

And i apologize to Carmela, her last name does not have an “a” on the end!!!

Siri’s ecoprint, aerial maps:

Karen’s graphic floor cloths:

Natalie’s screen printed linen yardage:

Bobbie’s screen printed “Lost Girls” series:

Karen’s painted silks:

This is only half of the show and is in the 371 Gallery at ACAD, as the other part is in the Marion Nicol gallery–and the students were still hanging it when i left. Photos of that when i get them at opening or on Critique night.

 

layering colour and patterning

Fabrics from the residency were overdyed and over printed this past week, with mixed results. Peony, lady’s mantle and ferns from my garden and a gathering of various leaves, solidago and tansy from surrounding pathways and empty lots heroically threw themselves in pots and gave up their colours. Pics later when things have ripened.

To celebrate, i feel a 2nd Anniversary sale coming up in the shop! I’ve culled my stockpile, found some oldies but goodies, a few pieces that have never seen the light of day and will be adding a few new pieces as well, all at a good discount. Please, take advantage of me I plan to start listing tomorrow afternoon (Monday, July 30).

I’m also experimenting again, trying to create some fabrics in dark dark dark colour and patternings. I have in mind a few pieces that are more “dramatic”, though i’m not sure yet what i want to do with them!

The 3d form is harder than i thought–i don’t have a clear picture in my head for it, though it’s clearer than it was a week ago. Working deliberately in 3 dimensions means things either have to flow around it, or have a definite reason for being chopped and added to. At the very least, i suppose i will have some interesting samples! Not sure it will be enough to show for the res exhibit at this point, but who knows: surprised myself by finishing “Not A Hive Mind” way ahead of schedule, so this one might leap into itself in time too…

I’m also feeling a bit violated today–i stoopidly turned my back on my shopping bags on Saturday and all it took was a split second for someone to take 2 large pieces of mail that i had not left in the car as i should have. I’m kicking myself for my OWN stoopidity, but thankful that my wallet and keys were not also appropriated.

 

the bees are launched

So, the theme for Contextural 2012 residency exhibition being “Material Resonance”, a riff on what we were doing five years ago when Contextural was “born”, i had dug through my archives and found a photo of this face/work and decided to “respond” to it.

“Not A Hive Mind” 27×20″ ecoprinted and rusted cotton, machine and hand embroidery, dimensional applique

(The borders by the way, are straight and have 90degree corners–i need to learn how to adjust or use my camera so it doesn’t barrel edges.)

Quite a different feeling, and quite a different time frame to make! I think the one in ’07 probably took 2-3 hours, not that that makes it any better or worse: it’s just interesting to feel the effect time has on work. I know though that i thought less during that period of where to go next, what influence the current piece would have on future work or even what i’d use it for when it was done! Of course, i was also not that into hand work: “Slow Cloth”, or doing things by hand period were not on my radar. I don’t dislike now that original face but it doesn’t really have any personal meaning to it either. I joined Contextural in 2009, so it’s only my 4th year, but this was an interesting jump point. To go back to old work and change, augment, refine, build on, (whatever the appropriate word/phrase is), was a valuable exercise.

I’m surprised too to see that while it seemed a long time to make this one, it was really only July 12th that i first put needle to it! Amazing what happens when you turn the computer off.

Some of the mysteriously dyeable lace has made an appearance again, though only as a slim border. I don’t know what i’ll do when i run out of it

As i worked those gold radials, i was thinking ahead to the 3d piece i want to do, again not sure it will be done (enough) to show in the exhibition, but something i definitely want to finish regardless. And lest anyone have the image of tires on this piece, a radial pattern is one that appears to radiate from a point, like the spokes from the hub of a wheel!

A good sign for me that the form/figure is where i want to be next, is that i couldn’t sleep last night, thinking about it. (When i stop resolving problems at night is when i know it’s time to turn to something else.) I’m not getting all mystical or artsy here, it’s just a fact, part of my process and practice. (Dear gawdz, i used those words in a serious sense….someone slap me….)

Though i need/want to get to the next piece, the form, i am taking the weekend off, starting

NOW.

 

couching hair

Maybe i am a masochist after all……

The last stage of stitching has commenced on the bee work. I’m accenting some of the radials with a gold thread, which is beautifully soft and surprisingly subtle added this way—–glad i didn’t go with the first choice which was the copper i used on the bees. HOWEVER, it is nerve wracking  and exhausting working these lines: the thread (Coats and Clark) is as fine as a hair, which means the first stage of getting it through rusted, painted and already heavily embroidered areas is a tongue biting exercise in patience and careful thread manipulation. Then i have to couch it which means more tongue biting, myopic thread spacing counting and a few choice words.

It also doesn’t help that i am bothered, yes bothered severely, by groupings of 4 or 6. That means when this happens i have to add another line to bring those areas to 5 or 7 radials. Wacko, i know, but i just can’t help it. It’s taken me 3 hours this morning to get all but 2 sections done. Thank the gawdz i didn’t choose to do every radial, thinking that would have been overkill, or i would be truly stomping my pretty little big hoofies in exasperation. As it is, these hoofies are ready for a wander with DogFaced Girl and the hoofies at the other end will resume when we come back.

 

and continuing on, going full out 3d

It’s rare that i have a period after a finished piece that i have the next one lined up, and raring to go. Usually i drag around wondering if i’ll ever be happy again creating, and leaky angsting all over the place about what i want to do. Oh, i always have plans, and notes, but no gumption, no fire in my belly and certainly no excitement.

Not so after completing “Not A Hive Mind”. (As i write this i mean SO NEAR completion. One more full day i figure.) I’ve pulled fabrics out of hiding and am asking the form what it wants, consulting the notes to see they are in agreement with the choice and doing that back and forth dance you do before you jump 50 metres out into the cold air right off that sharp cliff edge into cruelly frigid water that has a lot of hidden rocks and a dangerous undertow………..whew………..

This one has fabrics from this summer’s residency. I thought it only right that some showed up for the exhibition, not that it’s prerequisite.

love the colour, love the shape, but don’t like the idea of a target on my back!

two circles would be too obvious for breasts, one is okay

lace might be too “feminine” for what i intend this to be

maybe a backbone created accidentally on purpose during the Pollen workshop??

or a feather(-ish) backbone?

None of these are set in stone, none will be whole or as “straight” as in this photos. I intend (and have to do) lots of seaming to fit the shape correctly, especially the breast area and belly, perhaps a hint of buttocks as well. All the basic seaming will be by machine, because as much as i love the hand work, i’m constrained by time–and i’m not a masochist. A little tweaking by digit of course, and the embellishing for the most part will be manually done.

This will also fit into The Artist’s Body series which has rather been languishing over the last year and a half. Time enough to return to that after the exhibition…..

Whether or not i get it done for the exhibition is entirely a different bowl of snakes.

 

breathing hot and heavy :)

While the bees rest, i have only a third of the background left to embrilt in honeycomb patterns, add a few more gold rays, then attach the backing and said bees, and “Not A Hive Mind” will be DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE. Another not so slow Slow Cloth to add to my gallery wanderings and seekings

EDIT 2:11PM All embrilting done!

 

at that annoying stage

You know the one where you work 15 minutes on this area, 11 on that one, start this one over here, wander off, come back, put 23 stitches in somewhere else entirely, exult that it’s almost done, wander off again——- and wonder if it’s ever going to be done???????

I’m at that stage with the bees piece. And of course, at midpoint on the neurons above her face, i ran out of the DMC 4000 (espresso, a variegated dramatic colourway)…….bugger. I’m going to fudge it with a variegated black and grey, cutting the lightest part of the grey off, and interspersing with a deep dark brown. I doubt anyone will notice, even if i point it out!

 

2 (large) bee, or not 2 (large) bee

I crack myself up……..

Ahem. Five more bees were made–well, 6 actually, but 1 screwed up, as always happens, even when you’re on a roll. And all 7 then, big and small, will be on the finished Thing.

top corner right

bottom left corner

A good day.

I’m thinking i MIGHT after all be able to do the 3d form as well—-on “breaks” from the machine, i started scribbling more notes, completely different from the original plan. It’s do-able IF i stick to the timeline i have marked out for the Thing above.

I ain’t holding my breath, but………stranger things have happened, as my Momma always says.

 

go big bees or go home? buzzing along

I made the bees too big!!!!!! Now the dilemma (! ? ! ?) is: do i use them interspersed with the remaining 3 of the proper size, or do i make 5 the right size and use these two on the bottom left??? Or do i just make 5 bees of the correct size and save these for something else?

Deb’s fabric is PERFECT for these!

When i cut them out, i was careful to leave no cuts except around the bees, so now i also have a “negative” for possible use in something else.

Placement ideas:

top?

bottom left on the blank spot?

 

on the bottom of the “hive” ?

 

Not a LOT larger, but are they too big?

size difference comparison

And the dimension achieved with this method:

 

I have 36 days to finish this piece for the exhibition. I also have to admit to myself there is no way i am going to get the 3d piece done for this…….poop.

 

I Bee embrilting

I auditioned about a dozen fabrics before this one pleaded from my hoard “Use me, Use me!” A Deb Lacativa dyed dream of a subtle damask pattern, it is PERFECTION for the bees: not too hard in colour or markings, no brashness, no talking back. I’ve done the basic outline only so far ( i need a break again!) and will finish the embroidery later with a judicious touch of black accents and copper metallic.

three more to do also–love this fabric also because with my stitching and these patterns each  bee will Bee Unique

Relearning using fusible was ridiculous–it’s been so long that i drew out the entire design on the release part, started to cut it out and had to slap myself. Fusible between the fabrics, do the design on the back, then stitch, ya idjit…..

I also spent part of the morning figuring out the background, mostly because i got so bogged down yesterday with embroidering areas, and didn’t want to do more of that today, but had to do something to keep the pace.(Deadline is last week of August!). Again, i want subtlety, so came up with this delicate hexagon patterning.

The bees will be dimensionally added to the stamped paint bee areas.

My reward lately for stitching outside has been spectator status in the back 40, catching things i would normally miss ensconced in the Stoodio. Mo and Nessie usually just barely tolerate each other, with Mo having the upper paw. All he has to do is give DogFaced Girl the Hairy Eyeball, and she runs for Mommy. Yesterday though, they joined forces for bug hunting.

Sunshine Harmony Bug Hunters Inc.

Nessie had the first dip in the pool after, then Mo claimed his reward poolside.