Plain and Fancy

Aside from being requirements for young women's needle skills at an earlier stage in US history, it's also the title of an excellent book on the history of American needlework by Susan Swan, of Wintherthur, well worth reading.

I thought of it yesterday, as I did a bit of "plain" sewing -- reducing an unused bath towel to four hand towels, much more useful.  I buttonhole stitched around the raw edges I created by cutting.

And noticed that my latest adventure in teaching myself new stuff, hardanger,  "fancy" to be exact, had employed buttonhole, at least my version of it did. 

I couldn't get hardanger cloth, so tried out an even weave linen, which was very tricky, because linen's alive and moving as you work, making counting a challenge.  But I managed to get around the diamond pretty well considering, and figured out how to do the cutting, then decided I would do what I wanted from then,with the resulting network in the middle.  I just whipped some of the lines, buttonholed others, and for a first try, it's not too bad.  Stands to improve, and when my hardanger comes, I plan on taking another run at it.

The little piece of scrap fabric was my initial test of how to do the squares, and how to cut, before I ventured in cutting the linen.  Since my usual approach to art is very loose and spontaneous, it's good now and then to go to the other end, and do a geometric piece of work which needs care and slowness and counting and all the things that I normally whip by.  It also helped me cope with the events of the last couple of weeks.

Vita brevis, ars longa

Roughly this means that no matter what this short and hard life throws at you, there's always art.

Very difficult week here,  serious illness of close relative in the UK, got the news a few days back.  Then this morning the news that he died during the night.

And amid this, someone collided with my car, nobody injured, car not so good, dealings with insurance and police, so nerves are not so good either. 

Please do whatever you do when there's a death.  Vibes, prayers, good thoughts, especially for his widow.  I walk the labyrinth and have done this week, will do it again.

Meanwhile, taking my mind off for a few minutes, my son came over to give me some company today, and seized the moment to take pix of me in the studio working on a big paper piece which may be exhibited in September if I like it enough

Hard to see ahead that far at the moment.

Deer noses and summer workshop fun

EveryDay Matters July 7, axons and dendrites

One of my perennial interests is the functioning and research into the workings of the human brain, for various reasons too long to go into here, and my latest reading, Connectome by Sebastian Seung, is a great journey into new findings on the connectivity within the brain, and its plasticity.  He has a great background in the history of brain research, too, as well as other sciences.

So, since I love images of bacteria, viruses, microscopic elements of the brain, I just had to make an ink drawing of this, pilot pen on Arches hotpress,

reproduced in his book: Cross Sections of Axons and Dendrites imaged by an electron microscope.  To know what these actually are, you need to read his book, unless you're already a biologist all versed in them.

Over the years, I've done a number of drawings, and carvings for stamps, from biological phenomena.  One of my favorite is a stamp I carved, all sinuous and interlocking lines and curves, which people are hugely amused to find is in fact a representation of the internal architecture of a deer's nose!  some of them are from textbooks where the electron microscope was the only way to get the image, some are the opposite, such as the stamps I made, drawing directly onto the block, from photos taken from space of the Mississippi Delta.

What they all have in common is that amazing complexity and balance at the same time.

EverydayMatters July 2, drawing to stitching

I've been working in parallel in a couple of artforms, one the line and wash drawings I've been showing you, the other in the stitching world, also shown here.

So this is where I combine the two. 

This is a possible entry in a September invitational exhibit, and I thought it would be fun to combine drawing with my new interest in blackwork.

Blackwork, traditionally speaking, uses black thread (some modern stitches have introduced color) on a counted thread background.  I like the black on white very much, but have little interest in counted thread at this point, nor in the filler stitches you see in trad. blackwork.  So I decided that one of my line drawings would be a great idea for a blackwork stitching.

Here I'm under way, using a heavyweight sewing cotton in black mercerized thread, size 8 crewel needle, and a lawn handkerchief.  Same materials as I used to make the bird in the tree recently.
I think both these works will be presented together, as a kind of partnership of stitching and line drawing. At least that's the current thinking.  The drawing is pilot pen, black, on mulberry paper.

Joy! art pickup!

Today the first of the pieces sold at my recent exhibit left home for a new owner.  Since it's a local friend, we had an official settling day, and I provided tea and lime squares to seal the deal.  Lovely chat, and the Dollivers oversaw the whole thing, curating the piece ahead of time,

then arranging catering,

and having the guard dogs from next door on high alert so that nothing should go wrong in the transfer.

Great fun all around!  I love it when my work goes to a good new home.  The thing with selling art is that it always goes to people who really need to have it in their lives, and will love it.

Elton played musical accompaniment to the ceremony, with help from dolls, ranging from We're in the Money, which the Dollivers immediately shushed telling him, no, that's crass! This is ART, not BUSINESS! so he growled and went on with Summertime, and a  neat rendition of Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend, which baffled the Ds., who love diamonds with the best of them but couldn't see how they came into the picture.  Then in honor of our Canadian doll, he belted out O Canada for Canada Day, and segued into Star Spangled Banner before swerving into America the Beautiful, at Boud's request, she thinking this is a better anthem.

All in all, a Good Time Had By All!  thanks Carol Q.

New stitches and showdown, or show down!

Today we took down the fiberarts show, and I find that I have yet another sale from it, this is most unusual, I mean, wonderful! There's always that sense of postcoital tristesse after a show's down. All the self imposed pressure of working toward it, the creating of a body of work, the anxiety about its reception, the fun of getting it shown and getting responses, always very instructive, all the energy of the reception, and then suddenly it's over!

There is a possibility that what's not sold from this show, plus other pieces I have either at home or in progress, might be offered another solo show locally. Waiting to hear about that at the moment.

Meanwhile, heatwave again, over 100 F. expected today and a couple more days, so stitching quietly, among various other things, is the order of the day. I finished my little bird in the tree, even remembered to sign it with my initials.




This is my version of blackwork, and I love how the stripes on the flowers give, in rl, that is, an optical illusion of gray, caused by their shadows. This was great fun. Just a lawn handkerchief, from the thrift store, and regular black sewing thread, number 8 needle.

The design I both adapted and did freestyle, together. The bird I adapted from a lovely Dover book on blackwork, because it was just what I was going to draw anyway, and I freehanded the flowersand twigs and tendrils and all that. Then I chose stitches that with any luck, have shown the different textures of the bird and the twigs and the petals.

I have to stretch and tack this, as a framed piece.

Papermaking, next stage, and exciting news

Experiment with some of the very transparent paper you saw here recently -- molding onto stencil shapes. I figured a very easy way to do this: just lay the completely dry paper on top of the shape you want to mold-- this is how I did those molded faces in my fiberarts exhibit works -- then spritz with clear water until the paper has gently settled down into the shapes you put under it.

Then the hard part comes -- leave it totally alone, no disturbance for however long it takes to dry. Can be up to a week at room temp in the winter, but since today we have a heat index of 105 F. and the studio is at the top of the house, right under the roof, it may be done faster.

I'll show you the results if I get any! with any luck, this will be part of the entry I'm making for a group artist show in September.

Back at the fiberarts show, we are getting national coverage on it! next week a professional photographer and a rep. of our Embroiderers' Guild of America local chapter, one of my broidery buds, will take pictures for a feature written by the bud, upcoming in Needlearts, the national mag of the EGA, yay us!

This came about with no effort on my part, just enthusiasm from embroiderers who came by to see and enjoy and it went from there. You will remember my nervousness about having "real" embroiderers looking at my work. I think I misjudged the whole thing, what a concept! and given that the bud is a professional writer, in addition to being a stitcher, I think the whole thing is in good hands.

Clouds of lovely paper!

Here's the lacy result of yesterday's papermaking adventures. I deliberately made the pulp very watery to as to get the most fragile snowflaky, cloudy results, which are a lot tougher than they look. This is part of a work I hope to show at a group artists' exhibit in September. At least that's the plan.

Click to see better.

Bloomsday Papergeddon

Today being Bloomsday, the day all good lit'ry folks hie on down to their local watering hole to get into their 24 hour marathon continuous reading of "Ulysses" this artist decided to honor the day by doing something completely irrelevant, and I think Joyce would have seen the joke, too.

Being a wonderful day, slight wind, bright sun, low humidity, this was a great day for outdoor artwork. So I made a batch of cotton linters paper, usual procedure, from raw cotton linters sheets (which are processed by the paper art people to be easy for those of us who don't have a room size Hollander beater on the premises), to blender which I use to process much water and raw paper into buckets of pulp, to making the sheets, by dipping my mold into the pulp transferred to a dishpan,to slapping them off first onto pieces of interfacing, to enable you to move them, then onto handy glass surfaces such as windows and the top of the patio table.

They'll dry nicely there, and peel off obligingly when ready. They tend not to blow away in the wind, too, a added attraction. Also they will have two sides, a glassy one which was in contact with the glass, and a rough one, exposed to air. And if you like the idea, you can spray water over the pulp while still wet, to make lacy designs. If it rains, same idea, don't panic, it will improve the paper.



Factory setup



This is a post of paper, that means a batch, interleaved with interfacing, and that's the last mold still resting on the top sheet. I'll remove it before going any further. Each piece of paper has its own interfacing, and you stack and then walk about on the heap to force gallons of water out before you pick up the post to remove the individual pieces.



Paper drying on patio door, note the cunning reflection of the rest of the batch on the table.



The shadows of leaves were just Nature getting in on the act, as the paper dries on the table.



Interfacing now out to dry, likewise various molds I used, mostly handmade by me from screening materials and plastic canvas.

I have longterm plans for the paper, but as yet too unformed to talk about in actual words, usual art situation. But I thought you'd enjoy the amazingly formal and factory like precision of my process. Yeah, that'll happen. The blender part took place indoors, safer than mixing electricity and water all over the patio.

Nice presser

Nice feature on the current fiberarts exhibit in the local newspaper here

EDM, artist's book today

I used a paper I'd done block printing on, my own carved printblocks, and made it into the cover of a new artist book, which will be a gift. I did the figure eight stitching on the inner pages,to create the signature, but attached it to the cover with the ribbon you see, so that the recipient can easily replace the inner pages when she uses them up. Book size is about 10 x 8 closed.

You'll notice that the back cover is heavily decorated, but I left the front largely open, so that the recipient can put whatever she wants on there! she's a great crafter, so she'll have all kinds of great ideas. The entire inside is blank, for her ideas, plans, designs, thoughts, whatever she likes.

I love my corner punch which I use to round off all the pages and the cover. Round corners look better for much longer than angled ones, and it's fun to do the punching. In fact I go around looking for things to punch. My cats vanish when they see me coming with this thing in my hand...they don't want rounded ears.

EveryDayMatters June 5 Hanging Basket

Hanging basket, seen from below, in pen on mulberry paper.   Accidentally patriotic: red white and blue flowers.  The white and blue were chosen, and the red petunias were a gift I added in.

Fiberarts Exhibit, June 2012

If you are in or near the Public Library of Plainsboro NJ between June 2 and June 28, you're warmly invited to come visit my solo fiberarts exhibit in the gallery there. Reception on Monday June 4 at 6 p.m., please consider yourself invited if it's possible for you to get there. There's a sign in book at the entrance, where you can also pick up your copy of the catalog and the artist statement.



view of the outside wall at the gallery entrance



side view of front wall of gallery



Same wall, other direction



Back wall of gallery

Curator Donna Senopoulos and I spent several hours unpacking, deciding and hanging the show. I took a few pix to show you the general layout and some individual pieces. I'm happy with how full the show turned out to be, after working on the pieces as individuals for so long and not seeing the whole collection together until the show was hung.

This is very normal for me, in fact, since I never have enough room to collect an entire show at home in one place. This one was stored on various walls on three floors until I managed to round them all up and transport them.




Three part handmade paper and embroidery, narrative of decision, dissolution then resolution!



Three Part Meditation, hand dyed silk with freeform embroidery



Traditional Japanese silk fabric, altered with freeform embroidery, circled fish, knitted wire



Tango, saori weaving with artist-spun yarns




Charleston with Butterflies, altered batik-style fabric and Netted Fish, knitted twine with knitted wire fish inclusions



Running Chain, hand dyed silk with freeform embroidery




Labyrinth and Heads, metallic thread and trapunto on satin, Green Fire, hand dyed cotton fabric, with freeform embroidery, and drawing, and Modern Column, knitted sisal twine with artist made paper molded head




French Curves, three part handmade paper and embroidery




Modern Japanese linen, altered fabric with freeform embroidery and drawing in silver pen



Ceres, Goddess of Grain, knitted and crocheted




Carnival, hand dyed and freeform embroidery on polyester fabric



Ancient Column, crochet thread knitted in Feather and Fan and adapted stitches, artist-made molded paper head




Fashion Victim, knitted cotton with knitted wire and pitfired clay jewelry additions.

It's always a strange feeling to hang a show, partly relief at having managed to get everything done on time, and being pleased with how it looks, and the extra space it leaves. Extra space at home and in my mind, that is.

Click to see better! and thank you, all the blogistas who have encouraged and cheered me on in this long journey, from HP's last year to my own new life. All these pieces are for sale, just contact me via email if you're interested.

EDM May 31, two views of the same lake

Out in the company of friends today, perfect day for the outdoors, at a nearby park with a lake, old trees, shade, all you need for outdoor work.

I made a painting



and a drawing



of the same scene, two opinions on what was in front of me. My plein air adventures continue. click to enlarge and see better.

The Art of Desperation

Today's EDM offering is the result of several hopelessly awful attempts. I tried a wash and ink drawing of the hanging basket I just put up, and the houses opposite in the background, and it was so stiff and unyielding that I figured hm, wrong day to try this.

You can't make better art by simply trying harder. Practice does improve skills, and you need skills to make art. But practice doesn't make art. You do need to allow for what you're up for today, and sometimes it means you picked a wrong approach and need to go back.

So I painted a coat of white monotype ink over the drawing, which made it very faint, went back in and picked up sparks of blue -- a lot of lobelia in the basket -- and voila! an even worse thing. So I damped another sheet, and took a try at a monotype off the original, since that often gives you a surprisingly improved view. But it didn't. Oh.

Finally I realized what I was doing wrong was taking too observatory an approach. So I tore off the paper jackets of a few Caran d'ache crayons, and went to another sheet of paper, drew a field of flowers using the sides of the crayons, curving and moving them, like using charcoal in a way.

And I found that this was probably what I shoulda bin doin all along. But there are days when it's not clear, and you just have to try various things until you either get fed up and go away and knit, or get a result you feel better about. This drawing was done on slightly damp Arches hotpress, to get a slightly gentler outline here and there.

I've often thought that when you switch around artforms as much as I do, that the approach needed by one can be a bit hostile to the next. I've been doing some very small knitting (a hoodie for a Dolliver, in alpaca yarn, on number 2 dpns, fyi) and since knitting is so linear and constructed, my mind probably got over a little too much into the prescriptive mode, hence the difficulty in loosening up to draw and paint. I remember that playing Atari many years ago when my son was young, had a terrific effect on my accuracy in doing the miniature needlepoint I did in those days, for custom works, probably because both called on the same kind of eye hand, limited decision horizon, type of thinking.

You'll notice that, though the handling of this piece is very loose, it is composed with left leaning areas and right leaning areas, to draw your eye in, and triangular areas to rest the eye on, and a foreground, middle ground and far distance. This isn't something I planned as I went, but I expect it's a hangover from the linear knitting time.

Asparagus is in at the farm

I picked up my first week's share at the farm, and as a celebration of the opening of the season, they made the shares strawberries and asparagus, spring and summer together. I wonder if there's anything better than a newly picked bunch of asparagus, tender and when steamed then dressed with lemon butter sauce, food good enough for artists!

The drawing doesn't do much justice, but since this is not about perfecting but about sharing, I'll put it up anyway!

EveryDay Matters May 17 plein air

I've decided that it would be good to do more plein air work, mainly to overcome my sense of being overwhelmed by stimuli out of doors, and learn to focus better. So I took my own advice this morning, wonderful weather, warm enough to be out, cool enough to work.

Just as cats are the best studio companions indoors, birds are the best companions in art out of doors. Nesting time means they're too busy to be worried about humans, and they zoomed about around me, two pairs of catbirds busy making a nest, swallows tearing about overhead and under the bridge I cross to get to this location, all kinds of birdsong all around.

I took pictures of the two paintings in the context in which I'd painted them,





so you can see what I was looking at in the course of painting each one, then a pic of each so you can see it a bit better.





EveryDay Matters, the concept and the group, have become such a part of the fabric of my art life. I fervently wish I could remember who introduced me to the group so as to send thanks. If you're reading here, please speak up!

Bananascape with pears, paintbox and impedimenta

I broke up another Arches hotpress sheet, which gave me eight new supports for drawing and painting, so the bananas and pears seemed like good candidates. I drew them before adding the color, hence the paintbox and brushes and other stuff in the drawing.

It's hard to slow down my eye to draw bananas, because the instinct is to rush from stem to stern, that perfect curve, but I did my best anyway.

I love my Asian store. I bought the pears there this morning,and the Chinese clerk, no English available to her, using gestures, insisted I not buy two of them on which she'd seen tiny bruises. No, she would dump them, I should go back and try again! I did,and this time she allowed me to buy my choices.

EDM May 13, a new art game

It being Mother's Day in the US and other countries, I figured that it was my day, I could just play and mess about, make here goes nothing type of drawings and paintings, and made a series of four narrows.

This was fun, in that I just did them in any old order, messing about with colors and shapes and whatever occurred to itself to do next. Then, when I set them up to take a picture, I realized that this is a new game: make the narrows, then arrange them in whatever order seems to give a narrative. I didn't make them in the order I photographed them. Who knows how this came about? it may simply indicate that I have a predictability that I'd rather not have, but it may also be a game that's fun to do, so you might want to take a shot at it. No need to be an "arteest" to do this,just do it for fun!

Today's series ended up being: sharp foreground, flowers, and things, then middle ground, then house roofs, then far distance. Not planned. Just sort of happened. Not in that order.

I was taking the picture on the deck when my next door neighbor came by to wish me the day, and he, a non-artist who often says he wants to learn, said, oh, I get it, art is about just enjoying stuff, and you do, you always do! that's what I need to do.

Now, artists know there's a lot more to it, including the need to make art no matter what, and the work of developing a few skills, but overall, yes, you need to do what you want to anyway! So there you are -- unplanned learning, on both our parts!

The neighbor from the other side came and joined us for a discussion of herbs, and left with a fistful of spearmint, very happy.

Handsome Son visited this morning, so all in all, great Mother's Day!

An Ill Wind

Yesterday's high winds brought me um, a windfall, in a way. My neighbor's bearded iris were whipped all over the place,being tall and top heavy, and after she'd used all her available stakes to save as many as she could, she cut the rest of the casualties and put them in a vase to give to me.

This gave me a wonderful group of models for a modified contour and wash drawing today, which I'm posting here. Iris rules! Contour is my favorite of all drawing styles, and adding wash is a nice addition of depth.

The whole thing



And a detail