I tried to simplify but it didn't work

You know that saying, "Nature abhors a vacuum."? We'll apparently it applies to holiday plans. Dan and I tried to simplify things this year. For instance, over the last several years we've done a very traditional holiday dinner sometime during the Christmas/Hanukkah season. By traditional I mean like Dickens traditional--standing rib roast, steamed pudding, etc. This year we just were not able to schedule it, and quite frankly I was just too worn out. That should have equated to a little down time. Instead we decided to invite a couple of people over for dinner before church on Christmas Eve. It turned into a full production dinner for 6, which was very nice, but took most of the day to make. I wouldn't trade it for anything--except maybe rest. Sometimes I think I've got two settings: On and Off. When it comes to food, it's either going to be a MEAL or a snack.

Today my parents came for a late lunch/early dinner. It was wonderful. Conveniently last nights dinner made a delicious encore for lunch. This was the first Christmas Day that Dan and I have spent in my own home in almost 20 years. When you don't have kids...well, I'm not even going to start on that.

Here are pics of some recent work. Some of which went in to gift packages right after a took the picture.

Four silk scarves from an especially good dyeing session. The colors are really amazing in person.



The picture below is a sample of some of the constructed scarves I've been making They've been very popular. This particular one combines commercial wool, and my discharged black rayon. It's basically a tube with a pieced front. The whole thing is assembled with a serger. The tube ends are squared up, sewn shut, then finished with grosgrain ribbon. I'm doing a similar type of  scarf with polar fleece flatlocked together.

Finished commission work

I picked up a commission for some dyed and printed yardage a while back and was worried that I would never be able to fit it into my schedule. I'm happy to say that I did fit it in and am delighted with the results. Let's just hope the client shares my enthusiasm.

Both pieces are viscose rayon challis. I've sourced this cloth from Test Fabrics and Dharma and they are different. The Dharma cloth is the same that they use in their rayon garment blanks. It's got a nice hand and the sort of drape that you expect from rayon. The Test stuff seems a bit courser. Both are nice but the Dharma seems better suited to garments, which is the ultimate use for these commission pieces.

So, here's the first piece. I used a mixture of low water and full immersion, plus some direct dye application. The client requested deep purple with highlights of blue and other jewel tones. I think I hit the mark. I have to give credit here to the color mixing techniques that I learned from Carol Soderlund. I picked the purple I wanted and I got it. I have to admit that I'm going to be sorry to see this go away. I could make some cool stuff out of this.



The second piece is printed. The request was fantastic. It's what all artists dream of--something to the effect of, "I love your work and I love strong color...go for it." For this one I've got in-progress shots.

First, some energetic black lines and broad painterly marks to create a strong foundation and establish the beginning of a color palette.


This cloth is going to become a shirt, so I had to rein in my desire for large-scale pattern. In the next shot you can see the 3rd, 4th, and 5th dye applications. the brown squares (ProChem Kahki) were screened with screen that I "damaged" earlier this year by leaving water soluable glue resist in it for too long. Now whenever I print with it I get these ghost patterns. It's one of the most productive mistakes I made in a while. The circles came next to expand the palette and pull the counter balance out the angles of the squares with some curves. The 5th layer was a screening of blue dots over the entire surface (seen in the background).



I might have been able to stop with that, but I was concerned about the strong contrast of the white background. A blue background was the perfect solution. The only problem is that I couldn't do that as a dye bath without altering many or all of the other colors already layed down. So...I spent a day hand painting the whole thing. It was the right thing to do, but very time consuming.



The washed version of the cloth is pretty much the same. Of course I had some dye loss, but generally got very good strike--gotta love that rayon.

Because these two pieces will be made into shirts, and because the dyerslist e-mails this week have been full of good reminders about the need for high-temperature washout for reactive dyes, AND because I didn't want to dye my client and his partner shades of purple--I soaked both of these pieces in 180 degree water. I was surprised by how much residual dye came out, but even after a final long wash cycle they both look bright and strong. I don't generally do REALLY hot washouts, but might need to reconsider that in the future.

A stay of execution

I got excellent news from the cardiologist today. The nuclear stress test showed all healthy heart tissue and vessels, and normal ventricles. That's good news. While there's still no explanation for my recent "event", the next step is watchful waiting rather than surgery. More good news. He told me to go back to the gym (with a couple of restrictions) for some mild exercise and to schedule follow-up in 2 months.

On one hand this all sounds rather tentative, but on the other hand waiting is not all bad. The longer things work OK and remain intact the better off I'll be. All told, it's an excellent early Christmas present.

Open studio this Sunday, 1-4 PM

Colorful thoughts

I'm back from the cardiologist safe, sound, and radioactive. I'm not sure how long I'm going to be emitting gamma rays, but I was warned not to go near any airports without a note of explanation from my doctor. Apparently I will set off all sorts of alarms for the next 24 hours! Come to think of it, I'm glad I decided not to stop at the mall on the way home. I'm sure the store security systems would have loved me. The test seemed to go well. The treadmill part was comparable to previous tests (10 minutes, no instability, good recovery). I won't know the results of the nuclear imaging until next week, but the doctor seems confident that it will show good muscle and good vascular flow. What that adds up to is very little quantitative evidence that now is the time for surgery; just qualitative evidence. His last word were, "We'll talk next week." And so we will.

OK. As promised...pictures of recent work. I think I've mentioned that I'm working on cloth for two shows: "Quake" and "My Island". The island thing is really tripping me up. My responses have been very literal--I mean like drawing islands. I can meditate my way through all of the meanings of island: isolation, paradise, connection to other islands, even the shaky economy of many islands. I still end up with literal things coming out. Last week I gave in and printed a "pretty" sort of island-inspired piece of rayon and I really like it. It makes me think of trips to the Caribbean. Simple-minded, but nice. Its the piece in the middle with the orange flowers. Click the image to see more detail.



I liked the way that it looked. The basic sketch was done with black dye in a dental syringe. I could draw this way for hours. (I really need to do a monochromatic piece with just gesture drawing). The orange petals, brown centers, and leaves are all done as polychromatic screen prints. I do my polychromatic printing wet, not dried and deconstructed--paint it and pull it. In this case I was using a small scraper and pulling small areas at various angles. Anyway, it all seemed to come together with a nice sort of Matisse feel except for the violet color in the background. It was dead. Ergo, the title of this post, "Colorful thoughts".

The next time I went into the studio I painted a brighter blue into the background and it all came together. I think it's sort of a split complement thing. The violet was not a true complement to the orange. Adding the blue pushed the background and foreground a little further apart on the color wheel. What you see below on the floor had not been washed out yet. The color stood up very well and washing opened up the resist lines that are in the flower petals for a little more detail. I promise a "proper" photo of the finished piece soon.



OK. That has to be all for now. I've got scarves to sew.

Gentle guilt

My friend Rayna sent me an e-mail today notifying me and 4 other friends that she had nominated all of us for the Kreativ Blogger Award. It's a mutual encouragement sort of thing--I was hoping for a big cash prize. So, I go to Rayna site and I find these insightful descriptions of the 5 blogs she has nominated--including mine. Only thing is, here's what she wrote:

[I nominate Russ Little because he needs a kick in the butt so he'll post more often. I love reading his posts and looking at his art cloth in process, but cheesh, it's too long a wait between posts! So get with it, Russ! Your life is too interesting not to share it with us.

I'm laughing as I write this (and I need a laugh right now) because I can hear her voice and I know she means every word of it. OK. Fine. Consider my butt kicked.

I haven't been writing for a couple of reasons. First, I've been busy. Second, I've been trying to figure out how to write about what I ought to write about--if I'm going to be honest and all that. Before I tell an abridged version of my tale of woe, remember that I'm writing this, so I'm OK. Alright, that said, let me start by saying that I've now had my first ride in an ambulance. It was OK, but I could have done without the drama.

Let's start at the beginning--the very beginning. I was born with a bicuspid aortic valve in my heart. A normal aortic valve has 3 leaflets. In my case I have only 2 of those leaflets. The valve closes but not very well. The condition is called aortic insufficiency. My parents learned about this when I was 5. It's not the best thing to know growing up, but it's given me a good sense of "things could be worse." Over time I've also developed stenosis in this valve (a thickening of the leaflets), which makes it even leakier. For years I've heard, "Someday we'll need to replace that." Someday only stays someday for so long. The last few years my doctors have been saying "Someday" then launching into discussions of different surgical techniques. Personally, I think there should be a bar in the lobby of every medical building.

Is anyone grossed out yet? Feel free to bail. I promise that's about all of the anatomy lesson. Although if you want more I think that the Society of Thoracic Surgeons has some of the best illustrations and descriptions that I found. Some people want to know these things. Don't feel bad if you're not one of them.

So...back to the ambulance. In a nutshell, Friday before last I went to the gym at lunch, did a few weight machines and didn't feel great. I did a little time on the stairmaster and felt worse. I showered, dressed, and started to get worried because I could tell that my heart rate was elevated for no good reason. I walked back to work and thought a bite to eat my help. By the time I got to my desk I was short of breath, having mild pain in my chest and knew that my BP and heart rate were both climbing. I am so blessed to work for a company that has an onsite nursing facility. We send people all over the world and it makes sense to be able to deal with the prep (and aftermath) and I think it must help with our insurance rates. Anyway a co-worker walked me to Medical. The nurse agreed that this was not a good situation and called my primary who said essentially, "Hospital, and step on it!" Parametics, dramatic exit from my place of business on a gurney with people staring, ER, blah-blah-blah---2 nights in the Howard University Hospital. Bottom line. I did not have a heart attack. This "event" is unexplained, but everyone believes that it's related to the valve. The best idea so far is that the workout intensity (it was NOT intense) cause my heart rate and BP to go up, increasing the volume of regurgetation (leaking). More exercise before recovery made it worse. Somehow things got REALLY out of hand, and as one of the attending docs put it, "Perhaps you had a little bit of failure." Excuse me? Failure? Don't say that word in front of the P-A-T-I-E-N-T.

Oy. It's been a journey. I'm going to my cardiologist's office tomorrow morning at 7:15 for a nuclear stress test. I get to run on a treadmill while they pump me full of something that gives off gamma rays so they can image the heart. I'm told it's painless--running uphill with an IV in your arm. Sure, no problem.

Sorry y'all. Probably not the news you were expecting. I wasn't expecting it either. I don't know what happens after tomorrow. We'll see how the test goes.

The shining moment in all of this was Dan, who arrived in the ER calm and reassuring, helped me manage the communication with all of my docs, kept me company, and loved me. I'm so blessed.

I promise that the next post will concern art and will include at least one picture!