Does any of this make sense?

All set for the Greenbelt Art+Craft fair

2011-12-02T18:47:00.001-05:00

Sherill and I are all setup for the Greenbelt Festival of Lights Art + Craft Fair. For a first attempt booth I'm very pleased. As it worked out it's pretty much exactly a 50/50 mix of her work and mine. The framed work on the wall is Sherill's cut paper--just fantastic stuff. She's also got books and other paper work. She also make small purses and other things out of some my hand dyed and printed cloth from my scrap pile. I'll have to post some more detailed pictures of them. I wasn't sure what to expect, but they are terrific and absolutely cool.

For my part is just miles of scarves--miles. I've very happy with the result of my recent work and I'm hoping for a good show.

Now I just need a drink, a little snack, and someplace to park my rear for a little while before bed. It'll be an early start tomorrow.

My new Etsy store is live

2011-11-24T12:52:00.001-05:00

My new online store on Etsy went live quietly last week and I've been adding to it ever sense. I just announced it for the first time yesterday and I'm happy to say I've made my first sale. Frankly, this is way more effort that I expected it to be, but it's worth it because I didn't have to do any of the programming work. That's a fair trade, even with the listing costs.

Stop by and take a look at etsy.com/shop/russlittlefiberart.

Getting ready

2011-10-10T20:08:00.000-04:00

I feel like I'm getting ready for so many things. That might or might not be a good thing. I think sometimes I use "getting ready"-- the act of collecting, gathering, studying -- as an excuse for not starting. Lately, however, I find myself getting ready for things that are going to happen no matter what. I spent 2 full days this weekend printing, dyeing, and discharging cloth because I'm getting ready for my first craft show, which is coming up in December. I'm also getting ready for the Art Cloth Network meeting later this week in St. Petersburg, FL. That means packing, but also finishing the Treasurer's report, collecting cloth to bring, and finishing my presentation. None of these things is truly monumental, but collectively...well let's just say that I've been busy.

No pictures of new art tonight, but there's plenty on the way and I hope to share some pictures of work in progress over the next several weeks.

On Point added to the "What Remains" show

2011-10-04T20:58:00.004-04:00

We had a wonderful artists reception this past Sunday for "What Remains." The turnout was good and everyone seemed very interested in the work. It was also nice to get to talk to some of my fellow artists in residence for a little while. Even though we all have studios in the same general space, our schedules are different and, to be honest, when we're there we're working. Many of us hardly see each other.

Because Sunday was originally supposed to be the end of the run for the show (before it got extended), a couple people had work that was already promised to buyers or other shows. That left us with a couple of holes. Lucky me. I was able to add my quilt "On Point" to the show. It's never been shown before and I'm very happy for it to get a wider public viewing.

I think it's particularly appropriate for this show because, in addition to my own hand dyed cloth, it includes "remains" of commercial cloth that I used to make things that I wore around the house while recovering from surgery a couple years ago.

Finally finished: Part 4

2011-09-26T21:26:00.001-04:00

OK. This is the last of the series of finally completed work, but I promise that there's more to come. These two pieces are called, "Sedona #1" and "Sedona #2". They're the first installments in a little mini-series inspired by a few days spent hiking in Sedona, Arizona earlier this summer. They each measure 30" w X 72" h. They're art cloth (cotton broadcloth) with a rod pocket at the top. They incorporate painting with thickened dye, low water immersion dyeing, soy wax resist, bound and stitched resist, and discharge with both chlorine and thiox.

Finally finished: Part 3

2011-09-23T21:24:00.003-04:00

But wait, there's more.

This one is called "Restructured Circles #2," which of course means it's another member of my "Restructured Circles" series. I have to say that I really love this piece. It's not heavily pieces, but it didn't need to be. It started out, as all of the pieces in this series will, as a whole cloth. It was then cut up and reassembled. In this case nothing happened to it after the reassembly other than quilting. The quilting is closely spaced echos following the general shape of the circular forms.

I'm pleased with the line quality and the feeling of the brush strokes, some of which I applied directly to the cloth and others indirectly through a silk screen. I also got where I wanted to be in terms of value and balance.

Finally finished: Part 2

2011-09-21T21:40:00.004-04:00

This is the next installment in the series of recently finished work. It's called "Restructured Circles #1." I'm not sure that's the most evocative name, but it's part of a series by that name. I'm happy with both the concept and the result, and I'm looking forward to continuing this series for awhile.

The quilting is equally spaced parallel lines with a few lines intersecting at obtuse angles in the lower left. I used a mixture of variegated and light solid colored thread to create a visual variation in the quilting.

Finally finished: Part 1

2011-09-18T08:42:00.000-04:00

This is the first of several posts showing newly finished work. This one is called "Line and Rhythm." I finished the quilt top probably two years ago, but have only recently completed the quilting. Like several recent pieces, the quilting here is very dense, about 1/4" spacing. I love the texture it creates.

I like this piece very much and have yet to make anything quite like it. I hope to get back to this sometime to use it as a starting point for a series. Actually, I can say that about several of pieces. Getting them photographed and getting some distance is allowing me to to see better what's working and what's not and to think about how individual pieces can inspire future work. Yes, of course, I know that I'm supposed to do that along the way--and I do take photos of work in progress. But, sometimes it seems that only at the very end--and sometimes only ofter considerable time has past--can I see the connection between one piece and something to follow.

UPDATED 9/21: In response to Judy's request, here's a detail shot of as well. Forgive the color balance and quality. It's an iPhone quickie.

By the time that I quilted this piece I'd switched to Aurifil 50 weight Mako cotton thread for quilting and I just love it. I was using Gutermann before. It's not bad thread per se, but the Aurifil is just so very superior. It's wonderfully fine. It feeds beautifully through the machine and there's virtually no lint (except of course from the batting). There's no local source around here that I know of so I've been mail ordering from Red Rock Threads in Nevada (redrockrockthreads.com).

Home By Another Way

2011-09-05T21:10:00.002-04:00

The biennial Greenbelt Community Center Artists-in-Residence show, "What Remains" opened in the first floor gallery on Aug 26 and runs through Oct 2. If you're local to the the DC Metro area do try to see this show. I think the work is particularly strong. I'm grateful to Greenbelt for the support they provide to me and my fellow artists.

"Home By Another Way," which I've worked on for more of this year than I'm going to admit (too many distractions), is my interpretation of the show's theme, "What Remains." This piece literally grew from the remains of a failed composition. It taught me a lot and I'm happy with the final work.

The three panels of the triptych measure about 6 feet across in total.

Dyeing to Discharge: Workshop samples

2011-07-03T22:43:00.007-04:00

Here are some examples from the workshop. These are the cotton and rayon pieces. I've still got to wash and iron the silk pieces. I'll post photos of those another day.

Commercial black rayon discharged with bleach, overdyed, then discharged with thiox.

Commercial black rayon discharged with bleach, overdyed, then illumination printed with thiox and MX dye.

Another illumination print on commercial black rayon.

Commercial black cotton discharged with bleach and overdyed

Potato dextrin resist on commercial black rayon discharged with monagum thickened bleach.

Mixed cotton and 50/50 cotton/poly blend assembled, clamped, and dyed (LWI).

Clamped resist on white fabric dyed black.

Commercial black T shirt pole wrapped and bound with string, discharged in a bleach bath, then overdyed.

Dyeing to Discharge: Day 5

2011-07-02T13:23:00.003-04:00

Well, actually this post is more like post-day 5. I'm home in College Park and exhausted. I can't figure out what I did to be so pooped except that I must have worked harder this week than I thought.

Yesterday was mostly finishing up any work in progress, washing out, cleaning up, and doing the end of class discussion. I'm still doing wash at home and will press, photograph, and share some samples over the next day or so. I'm pleased with several of the things I brought home.

My takeaways from this week include the following:

First and foremost: I've been ignoring a really valuable design tool--discharge--because I was squeamish about the safety, mess, etc. After a week of working with this stuff and never feeling any ill effects I feel well prepared to do more discharge work, and to do it in a way that's safe.
Tied for first: This stuff is great, but anyone using any form of bleach or reducing agent needs to wear a respirator when using it and work outside. [That goes for using Tilex in the bathroom too. Close the door, open the window, turn on the fan, wear an acid/gas respirator, leave the room when you're done, and don't come back until the smell is gone. Don't laugh. I'm totally serious. I've made myself sick in the past from chlorine and I will never do it again.]
I'm going to try a few more experiments with MX primary combinations and work on developing a vocabulary of discharge colors, effects, and marks that speaks to me. In a lot of ways workshops like this one are like going to a wine tasting. You taste some things you like and some you don't, and after a while your palette needs a rest to recover from the over-stimulation.
MX acid process for silk! I've got to do more of this. I've got all of the supplies; I just need to fine tune my technique. [Of course Carol teaches a 5-day action packed class just on silk, but I can't think about that now. Too tired.]
I want to work on black and white textures through discharge. Is it really possible that there's a pleasing combination of MX primaries out there that discharges to white? It doesn't seem that way, but...
I'm going to experiment with potato dextrin as a resist and see if I can use it in a way that works for me. I'm not really interested in slathering yardage and waiting for it to crackle, but the stuff washes out so much easier than some other resists that it's worth playing with.
Finally, I bought some monagum [the giant PRO Chem order should arrive on Wed] and I'm going to make my own thickened bleach discharge paste from now on. No more dishwasher gel.

Bottom line: I learned some new things and a lot of good safety tips. I definitely recommend this workshop for anyone interested in working with discharge techniques. Yes, you can figure this stuff out on your own, but this is a great way to jumpstart the process and get a good and SAFE start.

Dyeing to Discharge: Day 4

2011-07-01T07:39:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was the 4th day of class. Time is flying by--faster than usual. The sample books are all done and it will be a valuable reference. As I was replaying the day in my head last night I started thinking about the work hanging on my design wall at home. One of the things that I wanted to accomplish this week was to work on new ideas for how I would add complexity to that composition through discharge. I've got some ideas, so mission accomplished.

Yesterday we did more immersion discharge with both bleach and thiox. I also did some dye painting and printing so that I would have pieces to discharge today. One piece is a 22" x 80" piece of silk habotai that I stretched over the ground in the parking lot and rolled with thickened black dye. It's fantastic. I'm going to need to find a cracking asphalt surface at home to work on--discretely of course.

Well, I promised photos, so here's a shot of two severely bound pieces of silk before going into a thiox discharge bath.

And, this one shows two shibori poles wrapped with T shirts in a bleach bath. The brown one is mine. It has since been overdyed while still on the pole. Speaking of which, I've got to run to the studio now for the last day of class. There's lots of washing out to do this morning. Should be an exciting day with so many pieces coming to completion.

Dyeing to Discharge: Day 3

2011-06-29T22:45:00.004-04:00

I've only got time for a quick post, then I need to get to sleep. Day 3 was good. Today we wrapped up the exploration of chlorine bleach with some work with thickened bleach using Monagum. I discharged a piece of rayon that I prepared yesterday with potato dextrin crackle. I don't think I need to do that again. It's just a big mess. Yes, it does create an interesting pattern, but one that is very distinctive--as in, "Oh look he used potato dextrin." Someone observed that while it might be obvious to other surface designers, there's a whole world of folks out there who find the crackle pattern very engaging. It just doesn't speak to me.

We also did a bit of work with thickened thiox. Now, I've done this before and always found the smell a bit overwhelming. Today we all were able to screen, print, paint, etc. indoors with no ill effects. Of course the ironing to activate the discharge was all done outside with respirators on.

After dinner this evening I spent a couple of hours stitching up a T-shirt and a piece of silk for a bit of stitched shibori tomorrow.

Learning lots and still having fun. Pictures tomorrow.

Dyeing to Discharge: Day 2

2011-06-28T21:25:00.008-04:00

Another good day, but that's not really a surprise. I think I could actually take this class at a faster pace, but the group is a mixture of folks who have previously studied with Carol and some who haven't. Everyone has had some MX experience, so that's helping move things along.

Today we focused entirely on bleach discharge on cellulosic fiber using clamped and bound resist. All of my samples were Pimatex and Rayon. Here they are clamped and ready to be discharged.

...and then after the discharge bath and neutralizing.

The rectangular bundles are both cotton, which discharged to a rust color. The others are rayon: some from Dharma and some from Testfabrics. They discharge to totally different colors. I love that pretty much everything will discharge somewhat in bleach, but I'm really looking forward to working with thiox tomorrow because my commercial black samples discharge closer to white, leaving many more options for overdyeing. After taking the photo above all of these pieces were overdyed while still in their clamps/bundles. I'm looking forward to seeing them tomorrow morning.

And finally, no discharge workshop is complete without the view of the class hard at work with respirators on. Here we are on the loading dock at PRO Chem, which is being affectionately referred this week as the "lanai.".

Dyeing to Discharge: Day 1

2011-06-27T21:20:00.004-04:00

It was a good day. We spent a while talking about some general concepts concerning discharge, but the real thrust of the day was making the first round of samples. We dyed samples of all of the pure MX dyes and all of the PRO Chem blacks on both silk and cotton, then discharged those along with some commercial black samples with thiox, chlorox, and deColourant (that new stuff that everyone's so excited about). I've done little tests before--a dab of bleach on the edge of a piece of cloth to predict what I might get before embarking on a broader application. But, I've never done so many samples at a time or with such a broad range of colors. It's amazing to see all of the possibilities. Tomorrow everything gets assembled into a sample book, which we'll use to make design decisions for the rest of the week.

One little technical observation from today was that bleach has an expiration date after which it really doesn't work--REALLY. We ended up with a bottle of Chlorox that expired in April. I saw hand-dyed samples dropped into a very strong bleach solution that lost almost no color. Mixing a new solution with fresh bleach make a big difference. I'll be checking my bleach when I get home.

Sorry, no pictures today. I'll try to do a better job with that tomorrow.

A week in Fall River

2011-06-26T20:13:00.002-04:00

I'm in Fall River at PRO Chemical for a 1-week workshop with Carol Soderlund called "Dyeing to Discharge." It's hard to believe, but this will be my 5th class with Carol. I'm going to have to ask for a degree soon.

Discharge is a dyer's term for removing dye from cloth. Think of it as the dyer's equivalent of an eraser. It's among the most basic techniques, but not something that I've ever really felt that I could control to the level that I want. That's what the next 5 days will be about: really learning to control the process with different types of chemistry--reductive (thiox) and oxidative (hypochlorite)--to get predictable, reproducible results.

If you're not a dyer, a chemist, or a nerd (or a little bit of each) this might sound tedious, but I'm really looking forward to it.

Stay tuned this week to hear how about what I'm learning.

"Unexpected Patterns" opens today

2011-04-07T13:50:00.004-04:00

"Unexpected Patterns" (aka "Unexpected Patterns: Quake!") opens today at the Worcester Center for Crafts in Worcester, MA. If you're in the area check out my piece in this show along with the other outstanding work by members of the Art Cloth Network.

Saving the hopeless quilt: Part 4

2011-03-17T21:22:00.006-04:00

Now for the final panel in this triptych.

The center panel was always different from the other two and in the end I felt that I needed to accentuate that difference rather than trying to suppress it. The answer I came up with was to go dark on the background rather than light, but keep the same pieced construction.

As I began to assemble it I realized that the little piece of the curved middle strip that was extending below the rest of the design was something to which I'd become attached. From the purely practical perspective of construction, this was not the best time to come to this realization because it meant even more seam ripping than I was already doing, not to mention scavenging through the scrap pile in search of bits of fabric that I was out of.

In this shot you can see how I managed to preserve that little bit at the bottom.

And finally, this is what the completed quilt top looks like cropped.

Now I just have to commit to doing the quilting to finish the three panels that make up the entire composition. I've already got an idea of where I want to show the finished work and the deadline is in early summer. I guess that's far enough away, but just close enough for me to feel a little sense of urgency.

Although this project isn't done yet, I think that I can say that I did learn from it. Don't through out those difficult pieces that you just can't seem to make work. Put them away, get some distance from whatever it was that was blocking or frustrating you, then pull them out and reconsider. Cut, paint, print, overdye--transform them into something that speaks. In this case I chose to transform the piece through restructuring alone. I was sorely tempted (especially in the beginning) to go the surface design route, but I think resisting paid off in greater learning and a better final product.

Saving the hopeless quilt: Part 3

2011-03-06T07:45:00.005-05:00

I can only sustain suspense for so long so here they are: 2 of what will be 3 panels.

I think they stand alone well and I think they are going to work well together when they are joined by the 3rd panel. I intend to keep them as separate quilted pieces of roughly the same size. They aren't a series in and of themselves, but they are part of a growing series of triptychs. Having created another piece that's close to 70 inches wide and struggled with the size and hanging issues, I thought it might be time to explore the idea of a single work in parts.

The middle panel is a variation on these two. I finished piecing it today, but you'll have to wait for another day to see the pictures.

Saving the hopeless quilt: Part 2

2011-02-19T22:05:00.005-05:00

Picking up where I left off with the last post...

I was able to piece together 2 curving lines in the same color combinations then spent some time looking at them on the design wall in a horizontal orientation. I felt good about where it was going, but I figured out early on that I wanted to rotate it to vertical. I also knew that I didn't have enough pieces to work with to create any sort of real composition. At the very least I needed another element--a 3rd line.

It also needed some variation. The center line below is built from the same original strip sets as the other two, with another one worked in. Here I aslo introduced other printed fabrics that related to colors in other parts of the composition.

There's a sort of rhythm, undulation to this that I like.

Checking the values with a grayscale photo (below) helped me workout some figure-ground problems. But, looking at this photo I realized that needed something else. I struggled to figure out how the join these 3 pieces into a whole. I considered several options for filling in the spaces between the irregularly shaped columns. In this photo you can see a trial strip between the 2nd and 3rd columns. It seemed like the start of something, but there were value and scale issues.

The question that I struggled with was how to unite these three columns in a way that maintained the three distinct entities in the final composition--not just the curved lines but the background of each line.

Over time I began to feel like that I needed to treat these three lines as distinct objects and not try to unite then, but rather to transition between them. I needed to interrupt the vertical flow with some horizontal lines. After a lot of rearranging and discussion with friends I started to assemble the first column.

The more I fiddled, the further the three lines move apart and asserted themselves as individuals. So I changed my approach. I would "unify" the whole quilt with a common light background.

It's a little hard to see here, but the background that's starting to come together is pieced from strip sets that were all white, or slightly red or yellow. There are also occasional bits of brown. The plan was to build the quilt from left to right.

Maybe you can figure out what comes next...and maybe you can't. More to come.

Saving the hopeless quilt: Part 1

2011-02-19T09:17:00.010-05:00

Back in October I returned from two weeks of workshops in a sort of mixed up mood. One week produced some good samples and good ideas, the majority of which I've yet to explore. The other week produced bits and scraps of a failed design that quite frankly were just a nagging reminder of something that didn't quite turn out as expected. They can't all be home runs, right? Sometimes teacher, student, and the planets just don't align the right way at the right time. Learn what you can, remember the love, try to forget the angst, and move on.

So, moving on...

I've dug in my heels and I'm determined to make a difficult experience into something positive. The next few posts will show where I started with that failed design and where it's going.

The original composition started with strip sets, like the ones shown below.

We were given an assignment to create a strip quilt by restructuring these strip sets--really a very basic task. I got thoroughly bogged down in a the linear design and the "strips" and just couldn't seem to resolve any of the obvious design problems; like the fact that it's a BAD design. (You can read more about the experience in earlier posts).

I liked some of the restructuring that I'd done with the strip sets, but knew that the only way for me to get a fresh start with this quilt was to start breaking up some of those straight lines. Knowing that I had nothing to lose, I cut the long restructured sets into smaller pieces and started combining them with curved piecing.

That was interesting, but not enough on it's own to create much of an engaging design. The next step was to cut up and recombine these sets. Now things started getting interesting.

I hope that's enough of a teaser to get you to come back and see what happened next. I should have another post in a few days.

Recently finished

2010-12-31T11:15:00.004-05:00

Just in time for Christmas, I finally finished a commission quilt that I started *months* ago. Thanks for being so patient Jennifer. Aaron, I hope you like it. By the time I was done I almost didn't want to let it go. That's a good sign.

Here's the full quilt...

and two detail shots.

Oh, I'm forgetting the title: "The Winding Path is Often the More Interesting Choice." A little something for him to reflect on later in life. :) His older brother's quilt is titled, "Don't be Afraid to Color Outside the Lines". It all seems very appropriate to me.

The business of the holidays

2010-12-19T09:59:00.004-05:00

...and the busyness of course. Every year I say to myself, "Let's keep it simple." In many ways our holiday traditions have gotten simpler over the last 20 years. I've stopped printing the Christmas cards and I'm no longer wrapping the packages in brown paper then painting them (that was charming but a bit insane). Likewise I've reduced the holiday baking to a reasonable level--for weight control if nothing else.

So what has moved in to occupy all of this free space in my schedule? Quiet Advent contemplation? No, it's business that is now making the holidays bright with frenzy. I love my studio work and I have to say I'm finally in a place where I like selling what I make. It does however take up a bit of time. Just when the holiday selling should have been over and done with I decided that this was the perfect time to launch an online sales page on my website. (heavy sarcasm) I've been meaning to do it for a while. When a friend from NY asked for pictures of things he might buy for his wife I thought, "Can I use this as the motivator to get this done." Well, it's done. I'm pleased with the results. It was a nice little design and writing assignment with some programming on the back end to make the experience look a bit more professional. Three transactions, 6 items sold, and one more lead in the first week. I couldn't be more pleased. Maybe that's not entirely true. I'd be more pleased if I'd done this well in advance of the holidays. So now I'm set for next year. Right?!

Check out the new sales page at russlittlefiberartist.net.

Getting ready for a weekend of open studio

2010-12-02T20:48:00.006-05:00

So much sewing and so much ironing, but it's worth it because I'm doing good work and that feels good. There's still a lot of cleaning to do in the studio before tomorrow night, but here are a few pieces hanging up. I'm really happy with my recent batik pieces. The 3 pieces hanging on the right are all silk habotai. They're beautiful in person. I priced them at the top end of my range, but that's probably still underpriced. The work is easy compared to trying to figure out how to price the end result.

More scarves.

And finally, here's my new rack (for scarves or yardage--currently scarves) made from $25 worth of PVC pipe. All of the arms are moveable. Thanks to Brian Murphy for the design. That man can make anything if you give him 20 minutes in Home Depot.

Open studio all weekend starting Friday night.

2010-11-30T20:11:00.004-05:00

Lots of new work. I think it's some of my best ever.

Layers upon Layers: Day 5 and beyond

2010-10-16T10:11:00.010-04:00

I've been home from Ohio for a week. I drove home last Saturday and I'm please to say that all went well with the trip. I've been having trouble with my eyes for the last year (since the surgery) and I was really concerned about managing a 6.5 hour car trip without any double vision or ocular migraines, both of which are triggered by stress, fatigue, and eye strain. It was smooth sailing.

So anyway, the last day at the Barn was good. I did some tests with fabric paint using materials and methods that I hadn't used before. I've always screened, painted, or printed with fabric paint and other acrylics, but rollering/rubbing (which I've done successfully with dye) was new to me. I'm happy with the results and I think I've got some ideas for some new layering.

The first shot below shows a transparent paint (mixed from ProFab Extender and pigment). All 4 images were created from a simple collograph:

Upper left: rollering paint with a dense foam roller over fabric placed on top of the plate
Lower left: rollering paint onto the printing plate then hand rubbing a print with dry fabric
Lower right: same as #2 but with fabric lightly dampened with a spray bottle
Upper right: a sort of modified monotype print created by rollering paint onto plastic sheeting then stacking the printing plate, fabric and plastic sheeting (paint side down) and rubbing.

This second image is a set of similar prints made with opaque black ProFab paint.

Upper left: rollering paint with a dense foam roller over fabric placed on top of the plate
Upper right: rollering paint onto the printing plate then hand rubbing a print with slightly damp fabric
Lower left: a print taken by rollering over some yarn couched to a piece of fabric (instead of the collograph.
Lower right: the collograph plate after all was said and done.

Lessons

There's layering potential here.
The couched yarn is the most exciting image.
The roller imparts a certain amount of texture on its own.
A small roller creates marks that contribute to the overall story/feeling of the print. perhaps more than a wider roller would.
I'm going to start mixing all of my paint from primary pigments instead of primary paints. There's more control and it makes more sense than holding an inventory of aging paint in colors that I might use infrequently.

Bottom line for the week

Carol's new class was great and I recommend it for anyone who is interested in exploring the concepts of layering line, shape, technique, texture, color, and meaning; all while playing with sequence of those things. I've taken both of Carol's color mixing classes and definitely benefited from that experience in this class because I had no anxiety about handing the dye primaries. That said, there were quite a few people in the class who did not have that experience and got along just fine with the hand outs and some direction from Carol. Basically it's a good class for any surface designer looking for a time and space to try new things and have their familiar ways of working shaken up a bit.

Layers Upon Layers: Day 4

2010-10-07T22:40:00.005-04:00

It was a busy day. I spent some time documenting the work I've done this week and thought about some of the opportunities for moving forward. Tomorrow I might do a bit of piecing with what I've created. Most of my effort today went into discharging some solids that I have with me in preparation for further work--possible restructuring comes next--not sure.

Here are some pretty things drying on the clothes line.

This evening a bunch of us piled into 2 cars for a quick trip into Columbus for the gallery opening of Michelle Stitzlein's (http://www.artgrange.com/michellesculpture.html) new solo show--very cool assemblage art. The it was back to the Barn for another hour and a half of work.

Suddenly tomorrow's the last day.

Layers Upon Layers: Days 1-3

2010-10-07T07:43:00.004-04:00

I think I'm getting some good work done this week. I'm still at the Barn, but this week taking Carol Soderlund's new class, "Layers Upon Layers." I'm glad that I've already taken Color Mixing I & II because I can focus the sequence of process and on color and zone out a little bit on the during some of the "How does this work?" question. Now, having said that I can also say that I've learned some new things about starch resists and fabric paint.

I decided before the class started that I would focus on a single motif for the entire week--circles and ovals. I'm seeing some interesting results from piecing before and/or after dyeing/overdyeing and from the interaction between soy wax and dye. For example, I'm getting a strong ghost image from activated strong black dye applied over soy wax, batched, dried, IRONED, and washed out. The expectation was that I'd get a strong resist. Instead I'm getting a fairly strong ghost image, which I like. The dye on top of the wax is being pushed down to the cloth when I'm ironing out the wax. And, it doesn't appear to be simply back staining, because I can't get it out. The dye paste should have been exhausted after 8 hours, but it was made with a mixed alkali so...keep experimenting.

OK, pictures.

Circles that were "drawn" by stitching strips of cloth to white fabric squares. These appliqued squares were subsequently cut in half and dropped into different low water dye pots. Here they are loosely reassembled on the design wall.

Greatly improved by overdyeing, but other colors are needed to be ready to make any sort of composition. And maybe some discharge?

An example of deconstructed printing on pieced fabric (a combination of muslin and pimatex.

If you click on this one and zoom in you might be able to see some of the soy wax/dye ghosting that I was talking about.

OK, out the door or I'll be late for class.

Back to the Barn

2010-10-03T12:04:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I got a massage (truly wonderful and cheap compared to DC prices), had a little nosh, bought supplies for Carol's class (including dye studio clothes, which I didn't bring with me), watched a movie, napped, ate chinese takeout, and when to bed. After last week I was exhausted and a day of nothing was just what I needed.

Today I'm going to grab some lunch and head back to the Barn to clean up my work space and attack my design wall. No rules and no assignment. I'm going to make something out of that mess and exercise the last remnants of whatever black cloud seemed to be hovering over me last week. At some point I might even share pictures of all of this. Maybe.

The words of the day are "Fresh start".

It was the best of strip piecing; it was the worst of strip piecing

2010-10-02T08:09:00.007-04:00

Now I AM trying to be coy with that title, but it has been a most unusual and unexpected week. In fact it's been one of the more disturbing weeks in recent memory; not quite in the same class as my surgery week, but up there with some of the recovery weeks. I'm physically fine, though still trying to shake the last vestiges of the creeping crud that seems to be pandemic at this point. Mentally--I've got a little healing to do in the next 2 days.

So, let me start by saying that Nancy Crow is wonderful, committed, nurturing, and keenly observant of each of her students' needs, capabilities, and struggles; and she pushes each person to do his or her best in her classes. Given a chance, I will likely take another class from her. But...I won't be taking the class that I was signed up to take starting on Monday, "Strip piecing and restructuring."

Something bad happened this week and I'm having trouble putting my finger on just what it was or exactly what caused it. The best description that I can give is that while I'm certainly at a point in my development as an artist where work on composition is needed, strip piecing does not seem to be a good vehicle for doing so. The first day and the first composition went well. I even enjoyed working in black and white; I might even do more of that on my own. We began the second composition (4 x 6 feet) Thursday afternoon with a deadline of 4 PM Friday. The assignment was to create a strip quilt composition using the strip-pieced fabrics that we had created Tues-Thurs AM. We were to make substantial use of restructuring in the composition, not just string together strips of strip-pieced fabric. I was totally and utterly blocked. I HAVE DONE THIS MANY TIMES BEFORE. Why was it so hard in this class? Anyone who knows me will be horrified and just as mystified as I am to hear that I did not finish my composition and that, while it had interesting elements, it was in my opinion worthy of being ripped off the wall.

This happens to everyone involved in any creative pursuit. There are times when you need to rip the page out of the typewriter, paint over the canvas, or rip the quilt off the design wall. That said, a workshop is a free and open time to be wild and take risk. Somehow I just shut down. In a nutshell I was the seed that failed to germinate. WTF!

Nancy saw this and felt the--what were her words, "radiating anxiety"? So now I feel like a bit of a failure, but I'm processing it. Here are my takeaways so far:

I learned some valuable things about figure/ground relationships, value, and proportion this week.
I learned that I can sew a lot in 65 hours and that if I focus and avoid procrastination I can produce more work that I am currently producing.
I'm going to rework my studio space to have a larger design wall, a different work/cutting table, and less display space.
I'm not going to be throwing out my ruler any time soon, but I'm going to do much more freehand cutting and change some of my other construction techniques.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway (and I'm trying not to use this as an excuse) is that I think part of the problem this week was that I am (a) rather more willful than I care to admit, and (b) more committed than I realized to the layered manner in which I'm currently working and the motifs on which I've been focused. Stitching strips and dealing with lines and rectilinear shapes is the antithesis of the circles and curves to which I'm currently drawn.

Yesterday I had alternating conversations with Nancy and Carol Soderlund, who's been teaching a dye class in the wet studio this week and with whom I've taken two classes. Next week Carol is teaching a new class called "Layers upon layers," which is pretty much exactly the way that I work. That's where I belong right now. I wrestled for quite a while with the concern that I might be running toward what is familiar and easy. I don't think that's the case and I've asked Carol to offer hard criticism and challenge me. I'm sure I'll add a few new techniques to my bag of tricks, but my goal is to focus on this circular motif and ways that I can use and restructure it in more sophisticated compositions. Nancy graciously offered me the option of doing a independent study with her upstairs, but as much as I intend to do stitched composition next week, I also need access to the wet studio printing/painting/dying resources.

I still feel a bit like a Nancy Crow drop out, but perhaps it's more that I changed majors. I hope to get the train back on the tracks next week. Wish me luck.

Best of Strip Piecing: Days 3 & 4

2010-09-30T23:00:00.004-04:00

Tues 15.5 hours.

Today 14 hours.

This ain't no party.

All in pursuit of, of...learning; I guess that's the bottom line. I'm not feeling the strip piecing, but there are lessons to be learned from building the fabric (very intentional assemblages of cloth strips). Today we began working on our second and final composition using the fabric that we've created this week. The problems is I really dislike a lot of the fabric that I created under the constant pressure of time this week. Had I not finished the number of fabrics that I have I wouldn't have enough to work with. Unfortunately I don't feel like I really made the color and other design decisions that I would like to have made given a slower pace and time to think. That said, one of Nancy's things is don't procrastinate and don't over-think, so time and working under time constraints is a part of the process.

Sorry, no in progress shots of the composition tonight, but here's a shot of the wall of fabrics before I started chopping them up.

Best of Strip Piecing: Day 2

2010-09-28T23:15:00.004-04:00

Up a 630 and at the Barn by 8 to tidy up and get organized. Critique started at 9 with me first! It went well and I'm pleased with the Monday composition (see yesterday's updated post). I learned some things from it and I learned as well from hearing Nancy's critique of the other student's excellent work. It's a strong group.

Today was all about building various sorts of gradations in solid colors. We'll use these in compositions later in the week. We were given the assignment to construct 16 "fabrics" according to specific descriptions by 9 AM tomorrow. When I left at 10 PM tonight I'd done the cutting for 11 and sewn 6. The Barn opens at 730 tomorrow morning. It seems impossible that I'll finish even what of started, let alone all of it. However, my mantra from tomorrow must be some combination of "shut up and sew" and "no whining".

Here are a few shots of color progressions laid out on my design wall. They're far from perfect, but it's all learning. What you see is all freehand cutting, which is a new thing from me. Very liberating once you get the hang of it. Off to bed with a prayer that sleep comes quickly; morning certainly will.

Best of Strip Piecing I and II with Nancy Crow

2010-09-27T22:54:00.004-04:00

I'm in Ohio for two back-to-back workshops with Nancy Crow. Today was day one. As advertised, she runs her classroom like a graduate seminar. In fact, graduate school is the last time I worked this hard. I was there at 9 AM and left at 10 PM but I did manage to finish the assignment that will be critiqued tomorrow at 9. It's now almost 11 and I've got to get to bed so I can be there bright and early to tidy up today's project, clean up my work space and get ready for the next wave of work. I hope to have pictures, but not tonight. I'll update this post later with a photo of today's work.

UPDATE:

Here's a picture of Monday's composition.

Still working

2010-09-11T08:55:00.005-04:00

Three months ago I figured that I would finish all of my dying [UPDATE: That should read "dyeing". I'm perfectly healthy and I do hate that I can't spell.] by the end of August and spend September working on product for the holiday season and resting up for my trip to Ohio. After years of project management you would think that I would know to add 50% to that time estimate and not be surprised to find myself in September still looking at 24 yards of white cloth that isn't supposed to be white. I'm starting to feel like Pope Julius II in that scene from "The Agony and the Ecstasy" when he says to Michelangelo, "When will you make an end!" The only problem is that I'm playing both parts.

I think that I would be further along were it not for some changes at work that have crept into my personal life. I got a promotion (nice), but it means more responsibility, which means coming home at night without much energy for dyeing and spending part of the weekend catching up on what doesn't get done at work during the week. It will get better in a few month--I think. Bottom line, it's nice to have that "Director" title, but it doesn't come for free. So...off to dye. I need to do at least 6 yards today--preferably more.

Lab notes

2010-08-21T09:18:00.003-04:00

During my recent sweatshopesque adventure in cloth production I've made a commitment to keeping better lab notes. Well, perhaps it would be more accurate to say I've made a commitment to keeping them, period. Up until now I've just done my calculations and planning in a composition book so that I might be able to find this information in the future if I need it. Heavy emphasis on that word "might." Here's a sample of what I'm doing now. It's extra work, but I'm learning from it and I think in the long run I'll be able to see patterns/trends in the work that I'm doing and also have a better record of what works and doesn't work.

Of course this could just be a little fit of OCD.

I've got a nasty cold so I'm using today to catch up on my record keeping. I can only lay on the couch for so long before I get stir crazy. Say a prayer for poor coughing, sneezing, dripping me. I really need to feel better and get back to work. I've got two unfinished art cloth pieces at the studio that are due by a rapidly approaching deadline.

Stripes

2010-08-14T09:20:00.003-04:00

The printing continues

2010-08-11T21:54:00.004-04:00

I've been doing a bit more batik lately. Soy wax applied with a foam sponge works amazingly well. Gets the fingers a little warm, but the result is well worth.

Happy rebirth day to me

2010-07-27T21:02:00.005-04:00

Where were you one year ago today?

I was the center of attention (at least as far as I could tell) in the cardiac ICU at Fairfax Hospital, putting behind me the heart disease that had landed me there and on the road to recovering from the surgery that had somewhat reset the clock on my life expectancy. The conventional wisdom concerning recovery from open heart surgery seems to be that it takes between 6 months and a year to feel like yourself again. So, I'm now myself? The truth is I will never be the old pre-op me again again, in much same way that I can never be a teenager again. There's just been too much change and too close of a brush with death. But the post-op me is still me and life is pretty sweet. I'm looking forward to seeing just how much sweeter it can get. And best of all I'm going to be around long enough to find out!

65+ yards and counting

2010-07-26T20:53:00.011-04:00

I'm into my 3rd bolt of cloth and I'm building up a nice stash of solid color yardage for my class in Sept (Nancy Crow). I'm learning a lot from the exercise. If nothing else, I've gotten better about keeping lab records. I'm dyeing all of the solids with a full immersion processe. That means mixing and preparing dye and auxiliaries for about30 minutes then standing in front of a bucket for about an hour and a half. I've come up with a setup that lets me do 3 yards at a time. I manually agitate 2 buckets and let my Wonder Washer tend a 3rd yard (with a few quick checks along the way). What is a Wonder Washer you might ask? Well, basically it's like something straight out of an infomercial. It's a table top washing machine that looks just like an old school diaper pail crossbred with an ice cream maker. If you want to see one in action you might check out this slightly odd video of some straight guy doing his laundry http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ4Nix460h4. Of course I bought the thing so who am I to talk about odd.

Anyway, I'm using the Soderlund method. My first family of colors (bright) was all dyed by overdyeing yellow, red, and blue to match samples from my (her) color book. This was really time consuming and I didn't realize that I should be using a different approach until I'd dyed about 30 yards of cloth various values of yellow. I had no choice but to continue with the overdye method to the bitter end. It was worth the work. I'm really pleased with the result.

Next I moved on to a more subdued color family (Earth) and switched to a value gradation method. Carol has a nice formula for creating a 10-step value gradation of a single hue from very light to almost black. I wanted a 6-step and didn't want really light or really dark, so I used the basic method, but came up with my own scale (a log10 progression) that's producing very nice results. It's 4 steps of pure color and 2 steps toned with complement.

This Earth family also produces some really excellent browns and blacks. I'd love to dye nothing but this for a while.

I've still got more solids to dye, but I'm also starting to move on to some prints. It's been a long time since I did any printing with the intent to create yardage (i.e., not art cloth). It's a bit confining not to be able to work big and do whatever I want. The repeating pattern, stripe, grid thing doesn't feel right. I want to discharge and go back into all of the pieces below, but I need to resist for now. I might still do something. I need to let these stew for now. I will probably supplement the stash with some commercial stripes and plaids (Nancy's request--I'm afraid to know what we're going to do with plaid).

Multiple printings with two values of two different colors.

Mono printing combined with batik. This piece and the one above were both overdyed with the same blue as the last step to help unify them.

Well, that's all for now. I'll certainly post more before the class (or at least I "plan" to).

Dyeing myself crazy

2010-06-05T13:01:00.004-04:00

In mid-May I went to The Crow Barn in Ohio to take the 2nd part of Carol Soderlund's class "Color Mixing for Dyers". What an amazing experience. I learned even more than I hoped and figured out the causes and cures for some of the technical problems that I've been having with both liquid and thickened dye.

While I was there I thought (and talked) a lot about what comes next. Aside from general artistic development, is there an area in which I could benefit from some focussed study? I kept coming back to design. I thought about whether I wanted to study on my own, in a university setting, with a surface design teacher, or with a quilt design teacher. Although each of these options has it's own appeal, and I might end of doing all of them at some time, the thing that seems to make the most sense right now is quilt design. After I returned home I finally made the decision to return to Ohio in September for two back-to-back classes with Nancy Crow. It borders on insanity given the amount of prep work that I have to do and the intensity with which Nancy runs her classes. I seen them during other trips to the Barn, but this will be my first excursion into the big upstair quilting studio as a student. What I think back on my physical condition at this time last year I am nothing less than shocked that I feel so good and am able to even consider doing this. I could barely have managed the packing for such a trip last year, let alone the prep and the class itself. Amazing.

Now, when I say "prep work" what I'm referring to is the rather substantial collection of fabric that I need to amass between now and September--about 100 yard of solid colors, with some patterned stuff thrown in. I'm almost 30 yards into the dyeing using what I learned in Carol's classes. I've almost completed one color palette and will soon move onto a second (pics soon I promise). I've also got to do value gradations of neutrals, a hue series of off-whites, as well as stripes, batiks, and such. I'm not quite through my first bolt of Pimatex and realizing that, while I've got two more on hand, I might need to order a 3rd. (Don't ask about my Visa bill). I'm also making my way through 80 lbs of salt. While I was at the Southern States (farm supply) I impulsively picked up 50 lbs of urea. It was so cheep that I couldn't resist, but honestly--this is a lifetime supply since I'm using it 10 grams at a time.

Stay tuned for more stories from the dye studio--AKA laundry/furnace room in the basement.

New website

2010-05-01T21:18:00.004-04:00

It's the same old web address (www.russlittlefiberartist.net) but a new platform and a new look for the site. I just finished moving everything to Google Apps Premier Edition and I couldn't be happier. It's fully hosted and template based. I now have absolutely no site design software on my computer--just my web browser. The site does everything that I want and it's really easy to update and maintain. I had to rebuild rather than move it from the old location, but is was mostly copying and pasting text and uploading images. Perhaps best of all, I didn't have to write a single line of code--a refreshing change.

I confess that I've had some recent experience with a Google Apps implementation, so this wasn't too intimidating. If you're looking for a different way to handle, email, calendar, documents, and your website all in one location you might want to check it out. There are lots of 3rd party service providers who will set everything up for you for a relatively small fee. It's a great small business tool, IMHO.

The one that got away (sort of)

2010-05-01T18:45:00.005-04:00

I'm disappointed to say that I did NOT get into the SAQA Creative Force show. A national art quilt show is still eluding me. I feel really good about the piece that I entered, and I guess that's supposed to be all that matters. Still, it would have been nice. Someday.

Here's the piece that didn't make it. It's titled "On Point" I think it's among my best work to date, if not the best. I've held off on posting it until now. It large--close to 80" tall. I've got another show in mind--so try, try again.

A detail shot.

Some pretty cool PR

2010-04-29T21:41:00.004-04:00

Last Friday I met with a reporter from the Prince George's Gazette for an interview about my studio work. She's done nice pieces about several of the other artists in residence over the last year. We had a very nice chat and the hour just flew by. I suppose those are the kind of interviews that one should be worried about. If the conversation was that easy, who knows what I said?

Well you've got to click the link below to see what I found in the paper at the end of the driveway this evening after work.

http://www.gazette.net/stories/04292010/hyatnew185958_32574.php

It's a nice article and a good picture (It takes a lot for me to say that!). It's also really good PR for the arts program at the community center. I admit to smiling and blushing when I read the nice quotes from other people. I needed a little ego boost.

Website outage

2010-04-24T10:46:00.003-04:00

Not that you're all beating a path to my website, but just in case you try to reach it in the next few days, I just want to let you know what I'm changing my DNS registrar as part of an overall simplification and rearrangement of my web "stuff". The site (www.russlittlefiberartist.net) might not be reachable at times over the next several days.

As I write this, I'm on hold with GoDaddy tech support listening to big band music. Considering some of the really terrible stuff that you sometimes hear on hold, this isn't too bad.

Want to hear some great news?

2010-04-21T21:34:00.003-04:00

Last week I had my first post-op echocardiogram. Today I went to see my cardiologist for a follow up. It's so much better than I even dared to hope. He said that the echo looked so good that if you didn't look closely and didn't know that I'd just had valve replacement (not to mention most of my ascending aorta) you would think I had a TOTALLY NORMAL HEART. It was all I could do not to say, "You're F$#@ing kidding, right?" The blood flow is perfect. Best of all, my heart has shrunk to within normal range. That means that the surgery is now completely and officially a success. The new valve and proper hemodynamic action have allowed the dilation of my heart to reduce, meaning that there's no longterm damage to the muscle.

I know that this adventure will continue for the rest of my life, but for now I don't have to see the cardiologist for another year. I've been on a 3-6 month schedule for a long time. It's hard to get used to being healthy enough to be on my own for a whole year.

I've been smiling so much today that my face is tired.

Truly amazing. Thank you God. Thank you indeed.

Not so recent work

2010-04-18T07:07:00.006-04:00

The blog seems technically back on its feet and I'm working on a portfolio page. (I'm still thinking that my blog page might replace my website--much easier to maintain).

So, now that things are back in working order perhaps it would be good to talk about art a little bit. Here's a piece called "Vessel" that I finished a while back. It was accepted into the 41st Annual Laurel Art Guild Open Exhibition, which was hung for the month of March.

I'm very happy with the result from a color perspective. It seems to get good reactions from people who see it in person. My concern is that is yet another piece in a series of one-offs. How does this relate to anything else that I've done? Although...now that I look at it, it seems to have a stained glass quality (not necessarily a good thing), which relates to some liturgical work that I did a few years back.

In other, completely unrelated news, I've signed up for Carol Soderlund's workshop "Color Mixing for Dyers: Part II" at the Crow Barn in early May. This will be my 2nd class with Carol, my 3rd visit to the Barn, and a week of very hard work. I'm looking forward to both. One of the big focuses of this workshop is controlling value (light/dark) in thickened dye. I've got a good handle on hue from Part I, and I've been working successfully with thickened dye, but I don't have the predictive control over value that I would like to have. If Part II is anything like Part I, I'll be back in my studio by the end of May doing some really great stuff.

Digital simplicity: is it possible?

2010-04-11T07:37:00.003-04:00

The blog is on the mend. In the process of repairing the damage that I did yesterday with the click of a button I discovered some nice new Blogger features. For example, you can create up to 10 standalone pages and link them to a menu. Nice. I'm starting to wonder if I could give up my hosted website and move my domain here. I'm just starting to feel like I've got too much technical stuff to maintain. Let's see, there's a blog, a website, and a Facebook page. Add to that all of the back end tasks of personal and studio accounting as well as studio promotion and it becomes a whole lot of computer time.

Don't get me wrong. I'm no Luddite. I think technology is great. I just seem to have too much lately. When I get overloaded I back away from all of it, ignoring the good and useful (my website) along with the questionably useful (Facebook).

Well Cr@p!

2010-04-10T09:24:00.004-04:00

I just "broke" my blog. Ironically, while considering a redesign (I know, I should consider actually writing instead of redecorating), I thought to myself, "I should really backup this site design before I mess it up." Instead of creating a backup I changed the template, thus irrevocably deleting all color, font, etc. changes that I had made. I'm not happy. Where's the undo button?

So, the blog is going to go through a bit more renovation than anticipated. Maybe I'll write about it. Your never know. Stranger things have happened. :)

Distraction

2010-01-17T08:20:00.003-05:00

It's starting to feel like a great time to be alive (war, suffering, and natural disasters, aside). I've got more energy than I've had in months. I think I'm finally getting to that point where I'm starting to feel so good that I'm realizing just how bad things had gotten before the surgery (not to mention immediately thereafter).

Now I feel as though I've got a year's worth of pent-up creating that's trying to get out and I finally have the energy to do something about it. And yet, there are the distractions. Work is busy--very busy. But, that makes the days go quickly. Home is busy. I'm still amazed by how much laundry there is to do for two adults. I don't even want to imagine a household with kids' clothes to clean. Shopping, cooking, blah, blah, blah. It's the same litany that every one lives with. I expect I should be grateful that I have clothes to clean and food to eat.

So, despite all of the distractions, I'm working on finishing a piece to submit for a local art show. As soon as that's finished, photographed, and submitted I need to start quilting a piece that I'm submitting next month for a national SAQA show. I've gotten to local and regional shows, but never a national show. It would be nice to reach that goal with this particular piece. Sorry, no photos today, but soon. Promise.

No more anonymous posts and hopefully less spam

2010-01-17T08:01:00.004-05:00

I've switched the setting on my blog (largely inactive though it might be) to not allow anonymous commenting. I regret having to do this, but recently I've been getting a number of off-topic anonymous comments that are phishing or just plain weird. For example, I posted a while back about going through a "dry spell." I was referring to a lull in my blogging. Apparently someone (more likely some bot) interpreted that as a bedroom reference and I ended up with several postings related to--how shall I put this--men's pharmaceuticals. I suppose it's funny, but I'm not laughing.

I hope this doesn't exclude anyone who wants to post because I enjoy and value your feedback. You can still post if you have a Google/Blogger account or via an OpenID user name (i.e., Yahoo, etc.) and you can reach me directly through email.

A new year

2010-01-02T11:25:00.003-05:00

In "The Artist's Way," Julia Cameron recommends (requires) that you write one page every day. It's intended to be a way to unblock the stifled creative voice. The daily discipline is even more important than what you write. According to Cameron it's OK to write something like, "I don't know what to write" over and over again.

I sort of feel that way.

I'm sinking into the winter blahs. Too much snow, wind, rain, clouds, and cold. I need sun, warmth, and the smell of green things coming back to life. And that's months away. Pooh.

Dan and I have been off work since Christmas Eve. We visited family in NJ, stopped in Wilmington on the way home for an overnight at the Hotel DuPont and dinner in the Green Room for his birthday. Since then it's been puttering around the house, catching up on chores, and a couple of movies. Yesterday I was moping around so much that he sent me to the studio. Good thing. It was just what I needed. Too much vacation.

I had a fantastic December in the studio from a retail perspective. I sold oodles of scarves and grossed enough to cover more than 6 months of rent! It was a great feeling. I got to work hard and make pretty things and lots of my work when out into the world--I hope to the surprise and delight of the recipients.

Today we're off to have dinner with my parents, with a quick shopping expedition along the way. Tomorrow it's open studio (Greenbelt Community Center, 1-4pm if you're in the area). Monday it's back to work. Returning to the "routine" won't be such a bad thing.

Venturing out for the sake of art

2009-08-30T13:52:00.007-04:00

I haven't had too many excursions out into the real world since surgery. It's been mostly trips to see doctors. Yesterday was a milestone. I drove (white knuckle) to the studio with Dan to see the "My Island" exhibit that's up in the gallery. It's the annual exhibit by the resident artists. I've got 2 pieces in the show and I was delighted to see how well the show has been hung. It really looks great. If you happen to be close by or find yourself in Greenbelt between now and mid-September stop by.

So, here are my pieces. "Island Meditation" is a journal quilt. The text has a lot to do with fear and its sources, about letting go of fear, and about connecting with others rather than being isolated (i.e., islands). I was delighted to find it hanging on a column by itself, with nothing close by. It really shows the piece quite well.

Here's Dan standing in front of "Island of Misfit Stitches," which began with me fiddling with some torn fabric strips and turned into a wild crocheted "thing" stitched down to a piece of canvas onto which I painted and stitched and appliqued bits of cloth. I don't know that I'll be doing another one of these soon, but you never know. Idle hands...

Here's a detailed view of the piece shot in the gallery.

What I did on my summer vacation

2009-08-27T10:20:00.005-04:00

Rather than a big lead-up I'll just cut to the chase. On July 27th I had open heart surgery, and the rest is history--in the making. June and July proved to be a whirlwind.

In mid-June it was the cardiac catheterization. It was very manageable and not something to fear if you're ever faced with the prospect, but the recovery took a little longer than I was lead to believe. They gave me all kinds of drugs and I barely remember most of it. Bliss.

In early July it was time for the surgical consultation. Dan and I knew in very short order that we had found the right guy for us. There was virtually no discussion about whether I needed the surgery. We left the office having signed many papers, had a few tests, been scheduled for more, and finally been given a surgery date just a little more than 3 weeks away. The rest of July was spent packing the freezer with food to live on after surgery and trying to get my work affairs in order. There was also a lovely lunch break spent getting a thoracic contrast CT. Very weird. There was no pain, but the tech did connect me to a machine that injected something that looked like a liter of contrast solution during the scan. I'm not kidding. This wasn't a drip it was a push.

So, what did we learn from all of these high-tech and expensive tests?

Bad: Yes, I did have a bicuspid aortic valve that was very stenotic and severely regurgitating.
Good: I have lovely clear arteries, so no bypass was necessary.
Bad: The enlargement of my aorta had reached the point of being considered an aneurysm. (4.8 cm in diameter instead of the normal 2.5 - 3 cm).

That changed the game plan a little. Now I was having valve replacement and aortic resection, which meant a longer procedure, more time on the heart bypass machine, and a bigger incision (i.e., a traditional median sternotomy instead of a "mini").

Again, let's cut to the chase. It all went very well. Dan and I arrived at the INOVA Heart and Vascular Institute at Fairfax Hospital at 530 am on Monday where we were met by my parents. The prep was easy. I was unconscious before they took me to the OR. Surgery started at 7 am and the surgeon was briefing my family by about 1030 am. I woke up in ICU in the late afternoon. I remember parts of the ICU experience that I would prefer not to, but that's life. Bottom line: Dilaudid is a good thing. The next morning I moved to stepdown care and started walking and trying to get the other bodily functions going (easier said than done). I was discharged on Thursday--total stay 3 nights. It was amazing.

Today marks four weeks since my discharge. The first 2 weeks were difficult, but the recovery was fairly linear. Each day I felt a little better than the previous. I must have been running on adrenaline or maybe it was just my body fighting to get over the trauma of the bypass machine and the anesthesia, both of which cause of number of strange side effects. The last 2 weeks have been a cycle of good and bad days. On good days I'm up and around the house doing things and taking my exercise walks. On "bad" days it's all I can do to get off the sofa and I nap almost as much as the cats. Lately I've started to realize that these "bad" days are probably the times when my body is doing the most healing, sending all of the energy into repairing damaged tissue and bone. Now I'm trying to celebrate both the good days and the bad days for what they are.

I'll probably be off work for another 2 weeks. I need to be able to get though an entire day sitting up and not napping before considering a day at the office. Between now and then I need to start driving again, get back to the studio, and still not overdo it. No small task.

Sorry, no pictures of artwork in process for now. But, I can offer this. It's a link to a site showing the artful work of others. Follow this link to read about my fancy new aortic valve, the St. Jude Epic Supra bioprothesis (ESP-100-27-00). Truly miraculous.

Dry spell for the blog

2009-06-07T07:16:00.004-04:00

I'm still here, but judging from this blog you'd never know it. It seems that I'm going through another writing dry spell. Work is busy, the studio is busy, and Dan and I are recently returned from a trip to Cape Cod. It was lovely; so very quiet this time of year. I've been back into the studio for about a week getting ready for an open studio today. I should find out this week if my studio residency has been renewed for next year.

I'm still anticipating surgery in August. I say anticipating because I won't know for sure until I meet the surgeon in July. If I'm being honest though, it's far more sure than not. I'm starting to feel as though I'm running up against a deadline; as if there are things that must get done before the end of July, most of which really don't need to done. It'll all be there when I'm back on my feet. Right?

So, that's just the quickest of updates. I've got pics of what's happening in the studio. Perhaps I'll post them in the next day or so. For now, here's this month's open studio announcement. I've just finished a batch of about a dozen scarves in silk habotai and crepe de chine. It's amazing to see how the two fabrics take the dye differently. I'm really starting to love the crepe.

Open studio this weekend (Sun, 5/3, 1-4PM)

2009-05-01T22:22:00.003-04:00

Home again

2009-04-26T09:06:00.003-04:00

I'm back from Ohio after an uneventful flight. I really do love Southwest. Nobody's perfect, but they're way better than average.

After a week of hard work at the Barn I've been thinking a lot about just that--hard work. Yes, I have my lazy, slack-jawed moments in front of the TV, but generally I think I'm pretty hardworking. Or, perhaps it's just that I'm in constant motion--mental and/or physical. The last week has reminded me of the importance of spending time on an idea or design and going deeper; approaching it from different angles and resolving issues. Looking back at my work for the last year it has been, to a large extent, a series of one-offs. Now I'm feeling the need to focus on design work and to do more series work. In doing so I think that I will improve my critical eye and ultimately improve as an artist. I've also got to develop a mentoring relationship of some sort, either here or somewhere reachable by mail. I need some consistent critical feedback.

For the last couple of years I've tried to set a developmental goal. The goal for the last 12 months was to improve my knowledge of color theory and my use of color. I believe I've achieved that, though clearly a lifetime of applying and refining lies ahead. I think that the goal for the coming year is going to be to create a body of work that:

Covers a limited number of themes
Explores each design through several media (e.g., art cloth, art quilt, painting, drawing, photography)
Includes design and color iterations (i.e., the same piece executed in multiple design variations)
Applies what I have learned about color
Requires a deeper study of design principles

If I can do that in 12 months (along with everything else that's on the calendar) then it will be a banner year. Someone blow the starting whistle.

Color: Days 4-5

2009-04-24T18:13:00.008-04:00

I got home so late last night that there was no way that I was going to post. That means that you get a condensed version of the last two days. Heavy on the pictures and light on the words.

This is the crit wall from late yesterday morning showing all of the free studies created from the proportional color inventory exercise that I finished Wednesday night. The caliber of the work was really amazing. You can find mine in the 2nd picture. I did a very geometric design from the color inventory and a much more abstract design in reverse proportion . Can you tell that it rained for 4 days this week?

There was more crit, more discussion, and more work in between, but cutting to the chase, here are shots from the final crit. We were to pick 2 of our best free studies.

Everyone's work just kept getting better. I think we all agreed that if we could have a day of rest and resume work next week with a focus on design we could do even more. Perhaps that's a class for another year.

For now, I'm off to meet some folks for dinner, then back to pack, and fly home tomorrow morning. It's been great, but I'm ready to go home. Dan and I have been off on separate adventures this week: me to Ohio and him to NJ to visit family and play golf with his brothers, then on to Hyde Park for a couple of days of quiet and Holy Cross, then home just long enough to eat and sleep before heading to car show in PA. We've both got Saturday and Sunday to be home together and get our feet back on the ground before it's back to work on Monday.

Color: Day 3

2009-04-22T21:34:00.005-04:00

How did it get to be day 3? Another 12-hour day, but today it flew by--well at least the afternoon did. We spend the morning discussing progressions (hue, value, design, etc) and color interaction. From about 1 until 830 we did Albers-style color interaction studies and started working on proportional color inventory exercises from the color research chapter of the book. This is all helping me so much.

The photo below is part of a wall full of color interaction studies. They are designed to show how different surrounding color change the way we perceive the value and hue of a single enclosed color. It has tremendous design implications. Mine is the one in the middle. The colors don't really read true in the photo, but I offer it as proof that I'm working hard.

This one study is designed to show how all of the principles--shifting hue, shifting value, and shifting both by carefully selecting various surrounding colors.

The last thing I did before going home was to glue up this proportional color inventory taken from a photo of a mosaic. Each square at the bottom represents the proportion of the color that appears in the image. I think I'm close, but not perfect. We had to mix all of the colors ourselves and I'm pleased with how close I came (It really does look better in person). Tomorrow we'll build a design using these colors and proportions. I hope we're doing an inverse study as well.

Rain and paper collage

2009-04-21T21:42:00.005-04:00

Those were the themes for the day; very much a continuation of yesterday.

Here's the approach of the rain as seen from the driveway leading to the barn. It cut my walk short but it was wonderful to see such an expanse of beautiful, rich, cloudy sky. At home there are so few places to see wide open sky.

And here's the growing wall of collage color exercises. I took this shot just as we were about to begin our first group crit. right before dinner.

When I arrived I was a little leery about painting for a whole week, but I must say that I'm really learning a great deal and I know that this will help me when I get home. In fact, I'm wishing that I could get back into my studio to put some of what I've learned into practice on cloth. That's a good sign. I can also see the collage have an impact on my future work. I've been wanting to do some mixed fiber/paper sewn pieces and this week plays right into that.

I'm also starting to think about taking a class with Nancy. It's an intimidating thought. Most people show up with about 200 yards of fabric. I'm not exaggerating! If I dyed it all myself it could take me a year and a small fortune to prepare. Then again I would have quite a collection of fabric. We're putting in 12-hour days. Most of her students are working 15's. That about a 70-hour week. Maybe next year...

So, one last thing. After two days with David I can say that the following photo is a relatively high key composition of mostly chromatic grays with one anomalous element; and that the green leaf acts as a bridge color between the blue overtone of gray gravel and the yellow flower. I knew all of that before. Now I have a better vocabulary for describing it. This week is time well spent.

Greetings from Ohio

2009-04-20T21:49:00.003-04:00

I'm in Ohio this week at the Nancy Crow Timber Frame Barn taking a class with David Hornung called "Color: A Workshop for Artists & Designers" It's based on his book by the same name, which he developed after teaching color theory for years at places like the Rhode Island School of Design. By his own description we're cramming a 16-week class into 5 days. Today was the first 12 hours of it.

I'm so glad I flew here this time instead of driving. I'm pooped as it is. Driving all day yesterday would not have made it any easier.

Today was a morning of lecture and the rest of the day painting 4x4" color swatches and critiquing them. Lots of swatches.

It sounds tedious, but between mixing, painting and sorting all of these chromatic grays and muted colors I finally understand the part of color that has confused me for the longest time, saturation. Hue and value--no problem. That's just what one might typically call color (red, blue, etc.) and light or dark. Saturation is about the concentration of hue. It's still hard to explain, which might be why I've had trouble understanding other people's written descriptions, but today as I was mixing paint it finally clicked.

Tomorrow we cut up the painted squares and collage them together into color studies. Wednesday, who knows. I'm just taking this one day at a time.

OK, off to bed, then up early to read two chapters over breakfast, and off to the barn.

Open Studio this Sunday (4/5), 1-4 PM

2009-04-02T08:09:00.002-04:00

Flour paste resist - after pictures

2009-03-29T18:03:00.004-04:00

As promised, here are the "after" pictures from one of my flour paste resist experiments. I soda-soaked the yard of rayon before applying a thin-ish flour paste using a squeeze bottle.

In the detail shot below you can see that there's a halo around the lines. I think that the water in the paste migrated into the fiber and pushed some of the soda ash away from the flour paste. I let the paste dry on the cloth overnight and I think that helped produce good contrast. Cleanup was a lot easier than I thought. After a bit of soaking, most of the paste flaked off. The rest dissolved. After a trip through the washer there's no trace of the flour.

Must post

2009-03-26T19:53:00.006-04:00

My last post was on March 2. What a scandal. I still consider this blog to be active. It's just lethargic, that's all.

OK, really quick, I've got three photos to share. First, I was so proud to see "Seeds of Change" at the Laurel Art Guild show. It's been up most of the month of March and closes this weekend. The show was hung very nicely. There were a couple of other fiber pieces--all of us very different from each other. This is the first time I've seen my work in a show that included other media. It is interesting to see how very different fiber feels from everything else.

Second, I've been experimenting with flour paste resist. I love my soy wax but the wash out is kind of a mess (I know, I should be on my knees thanking God for soy wax instead of paraffin). So here's a piece in process. At this point it hasn't been washed out, but you can see where the flour resist is. It worked very well. I'll post an "after" pic soon.

And finally--brace yourself--I got it into my head that I needed to save torn scraps of cloth (selvages, etc.) and turn them into something. I decided to do some completely unstructured, uninhibited, and unorthodox crochet.

I started out just goofing around, but I think this might turn into something. Who knows? This might be turning into a piece that I could submit for the studio "Island" show.

And, ugh, speaking of the studio. It's almost time to reapply for my residency. My original award was for a little shy of one year. We need to reapply every year in an open competitive process. I went back and forth about whether to apply again. Now I'm committed. I really do want to stay. I feel like I've got more work to do in that space. Fingers crossed.

"Controlled" chaos

2009-03-02T08:05:00.003-05:00

Notice the title. That was my workshop yesterday. I can't say that there was that much control, hence the quotes. But, that was a good thing. Yesterday I led a workshop at the community center (notice I did not use the word taught). Lots of kids and a few adults brought in shirts or other garments and painted, stamped, and stenciled all over them. I made plans, and samples; I set up workstations and did demos for my assistants. We were ready when the first person came through the door at 1pm. Over the course of 2 hours we must have had 50 people. The workstations dissolved into all sorts of work happening everywhere. And, it was fearless work. I expected there would be a couple of very tentative folks who would be cautions about making the first mark. Kids just are not like that.

The stuff they did was great. They were using freezer paper to make iron-on stencils. They cut out adhesive-baked foam and stuck it to foam core to make stamps and printing blocks. They painted freehand. We were working in a really well stocked art room. Lots of the kids had been to other activities there before. Let me tell you, if they wanted something that I didn't supply they asked for it politely and in come cases showed me where to find it on the shelves. After two hours I was worn out. I don't interact with a lot of kids on a regular basis. They generate a level of mental stimulation that I'm not used to. It was great, but whew. I have a renewed admiration and appreciation for all of you out there who are teachers and parents. How do you do it?

Here's a picture of some of the folks at work. Barbara and Ann, the organizers, are standing in the back. They were great helpers and cheerleaders.

Here's a small sample of some of the work. I saw some pretty uninhibited stuff.

And finally, here's a picture of my most valuable helpers. They are the reigning Miss Greenbelts in various age groups. Along with their titles comes a commitment to a year of community service. They help out at all of the Artful Afternoons and they are dynamos: setting up, cleaning up, helping the other kids, everything. This photo was taken at the end of the workshop. Notice the benches are all on top of the tables. They washed everything in sight, cleaned the tables, then put the bench on top so they could SWEEP THE FLOOR. Amazing.

You also have to notice the tiaras and sashes. Each young lady arrived carrying what appeared to be a jewel-encrusted Lucite purse. I'm thinking to myself, "Is this some new teen fashion to which I am oblivious?" No, it's what they use the transport their tiaras, which they wore with pride all day. They were polite, articulate, friendly and have my deepest gratitude.

Big week

2009-02-28T09:13:00.004-05:00

When it rains it pours, and this time it's pouring good news. This week I found out that my art quilt, "Seeds of Change" (below) was accepted into the 40th Annual Laural Art Guild Open Juried Exhibition (March 6-29 at the Montpelier Art Center in Laurel, MD). I'm very excited to have a piece accepted into a show that covers a full range of media, not just fiber. That's a first for me.

And...my art cloth piece titled "Spiral 2: Tremor" was accepted into the Art Cloth Network "Quake" show (October 2009, Archway Gallery, Houston, TX). I'm in some really outstanding company for this show and...I don't know what to say. I'm humbled and proud at the same time.

Something old, something new

2009-02-21T11:17:00.004-05:00

Pictures, finally. Sorry about the recent run of under-illustrated posts. Sometimes it's more about the words.

Let's start with the "new". I've really been in the mood to print lately and been having fantasies about buying a relief press. An intaglio press would be even better, but considerably more expensive. What you see here is a pieced composition that started as a single sheet of white muslin onto which I fused torn strips of cloth (commercial and hand-dye). That got hacked into 5 strips and printed in brown and purple using a variety of blocks, stamps, and plates that I've created over the last few years. Each strip then got dyed in a different value of a color gradation of green. Then came topsitiching on the fused pieces, some more chopping, resewing of the strips in to a whole cloth, and finally chopping and resewing that. I like the way it turned out. At each step I gave myself specific design limitations (color palette, type of stitching, geometric form, etc.) and forced myself to resolve the design issues within those limits. For example, when I was cutting I said that cuts could be off of orthogonal, but no strong diagonals. I think that the composition is well along, but I'm letting it rest on the studio wall for a while as I contemplate the quilting layer and what that might bring.

Now onto the "old". I should really string this out to more than one post, but what the heck. I dyed, and pieced this quilt top over a year ago and it's been languishing at home waiting for whatever comes next. This week I took it into the studio and hung it on the design wall to get a better view of it. I really can't do that at home.

The piece started with a length of discharged and over-dyed black rayon. It was great before the over-dye, and I should have left it alone--story of my life. I went into the piece with the intention of creating a triptich form (three panels). The give in the rayon allowed me to add subtle curves to some of the straight lines and throughout the composition I intentionally played with angles. (I truely CAN sew two seams at a right angle--I swear.) The working title was "Common Ground", but I'm no longer sure that applies. It is somehow more about space. The two side panels, with their strong grid pattern seem like gates to me, which was an intentional play on the idea of a triptich, but the way the red lines are angled toward convergence points on the outer edge of the composition almost creates an illusion that the panels are bent backward, rather than out toward the viewer (particularly on the left). The tabs of black border fabric that extend from the top and bottom are just leftovers from piecing that didn't get trimmed away. Left as they are they give the piece the feel of a japanese screen. I now think they are an important part of the overally feel and plan to leave then on. I had a long informal crit session with my studio-mate, Tom, which was very helpful. I'm now considering ways that I might extend some of the design into the black border, perhaps using stitching.

What think you I take my pen in hand to record?

2009-02-17T20:32:00.004-05:00

A truly great literary question if every there was one. I wish I could take credit for a line like that, but it's Whitman, from "Leaves of Grass" (http://www.whitmanarchive.org/published/LG/1867/poems/50). It's one of my favorite poems. Everybody should have one if you can pull it off without sounding pretentious. I don't know if I'm succeeding there.

WHAT think you I take my pen in hand to record?

The battle-ship, perfect-model'd, majestic, that I saw
pass the offing to-day under full sail?

The splendors of the past day? Or the splendor of the
night that envelops me?

Or the vaunted glory and growth of the great city
spread around me?—No;

But I record of two simple men I saw to-day, on the pier,
in the midst of the crowd, parting the parting of dear friends;

The one to remain hung on the other's neck, and passionately kiss'd him,

While the one to depart, tightly prest the one to remain in his arms.

I can't think of why this line popped into my head. Perhaps because I sat down to write and I didn't know about what. Lately I feel as though I'm stuck in a loop (once a programmer; always a programmer). I finish something (or almost) , and then it's off to the next big thing; repeat. I suppose life is meant to be like that, but I also think there needs to be some just plain "being" every once in a while.

My big batch of show submissions are all out but no word yet. I confess that I blew off at least one show opportunity because I just couldn't fit it in. The next 3 weeks are focused mostly on church work. The Rector search has moved from high gear into something akin to warp speed. We (the committee) are conducting 4 2-day visits/interviews over the next 3 weeks. The candidates come to visit us, we show them around the area, wine & dine, and interview them. With luck (I suppose that should be faith & prayer) we will be having a committee retreat in early March to select the final 3. They will advance to the lightening round--I mean they will meet with the Vestry for another round of interviews. I'm hoping for white smoke before the daffodils fade. It's all very exciting, but it's overwhelming at times. Right now we have four great candidates and somehow we have to discern a mutual call between one individual and our community.

So, that's all rattling around in my head along with this community art workshop that I'm teaching on March 1. BIG LESSON: less is more. My grand plan is way to grand to pull off and I'm trying to scale back. For 1 thing, I was planning on having people combine paint and fusible fabric to do surface design on clothing. Here's what I've learned from making samples:

Fusible adheres very well to cloth that has fabric paint on it...until it goes trough the washer. Fusible is out. Let's not talk about the bolt of Wonder Under that I now own. Let's just say that I'm going to be doing a lot of applique.
Finished garments are a pain to work with. And, the pleat in the back of a man's dress shirt is in the way. Shirts are too big to start with. Do we really need that much more fabric?
You can make low-cost stamps out of self adhesive craft foam, a pair of cheap scissors, and a scrap of foam core.

My repertoire now consists of freezer paper mask/stencil, stamping, and free hand painting. Folks are supposed to bring their own shirt to work on. I'll probably bring some muslin squares and poster board for the kids just in case. Send a prayer my way on the first of March. Gasp.

I swear I meant for this to be an upbeat post. I'm not sure it reads that way. Not to worry. Spring is on the way and that always seems to change everything.

What's new?

2009-02-09T08:59:00.003-05:00

Lately I've been missing blogging. I'm not certain that this "missing it" feeling will make me a more consistent poster, but you never know.

So, what IS new? As recently reported, I finished my Quake entries for the ArtCloth Network show and got them shipped off for review just before the deadline. A week after my dash to the post office I was delighted to receive a nice note from the curator saying my submissions were good and would I like have an additional piece considered. I confess, that really felt good. That set off another scramble to photograph and submit another piece. Done.

Last week was another mad dash. This time it was a submission for the Laurel Art Guild annual open exhibition. I submitted my art quilt, "Seeds of Change". It's probably the most painterly piece that I've got at the moment and seemed the most appropriate for a show that's open to all media. This is my first "art show" submission (by which I mean--tongue in cheek--it's not fiber-focused). I'm not sure how much experience the group has with fiber artists. We shall see. I think getting into this show would be a good thing all around.

There's more.

I'm gearing up for a workshop I'm teaching on March 1: "Reinvent your old Clothing". It's a drop-in workshop at the community center, which means all ages and all skill levels. I've got plenty of experience teaching in both technical and academic environments. Teaching art is something new to me. It's certainly something I'm interested in doing. That doesn't mean that I'm not more than a little intimidated. We're going to be painting and fusing on shirts that folks dig out of the back of their closets. Cool idea, but can I pull it off? With help I think so. Stay tuned. Better still, grab and old dress shirt you never wear and come to the workshop (3/1, 1-3pm, Greenbelt Community Center).

And finally, yesterday I gave a presentation for the Sunday morning Adult Forum at my church as part of a series on the intersection of art and faith. I had a great time preparing for it and doing the presentation. It's a topic close to my heart and one of great interest. I'm thinking about reworking and expanding the presentation into something more about the experience of discernment and call from an artist's perspective--how to ask the questions and what might happen as a result. I have to give that one some more thought. Who's the audience? How would I market a presentation like this? Do I even have the credibility to say anything on this topic beyond my own experience? All questions for later.

Sorry no pictures today. Next time. I promise.

Is this art?

2009-01-25T08:26:00.006-05:00

Don't answer that. January has proven to be just as busy as expected; perhaps even more so. Let's see, after spending much of the first 2 weeks out of the studio with my cold-from-hell (which is still lingering) I have:

Quilted and finished a new quilt that I've been picking away at for a while (pics below).
Did edge finishing on 2 2-yard pieces of art cloth, photos, and submission package for the Art Cloth Network Quake show.
Sewed rod pockets on a couple of other quilts.
Beaded a portion of another quilt top that is now sandwiched up and ready to quilt (again, no pics yet...soon I promise).
Assembled a 20 x 34 quilt top (no pics 'till it's further along).

That brings me back to my title question: Is this art? It feels like frenzy. Most of it is directed at trying to get in my required 30 studio hours in two weeks. I just keep reminding myself that I asked for this--dreamed of it--and worked hard to get here.

Again, back to the title question. Consider the following pictures and ask yourself: Is this art?

A detail shot...

I call it "Emerge". It's about things emerging from some sort of enclosure--especially thinking of seeds. The background is whole cloth. The tan/gold squares are gelatin prints that have been fused, and clipped. There's a lot of hand stitching in the background--rows of running stitch that are meant to evoke rows of planted seeds. The overall strong geometry is supposed to be about the geometry of planted fields. Blah, blah, blah. This is starting to sound very pretentious.

Anyway, the issue that I have with this piece is related to the strength of the images. Up close, the texture and the play of light contribute significantly to the visual interest. Much of this texture is lost when the piece is viewed from a distance. It looks a bit like squares stuck on a piece of cloth (yes, I know that's what it is...). It isn't until you get close that you're might be able to say, "Oh, there's something going on here".

Is it art? I don't know. I like it, but I have a gut feeling that it needs to work on multiple levels and needs to read well from across the room as well as 3 feet away. I think perhaps it's a matter of composition and size. For a piece this size I have an expectation that it will be work from 10-15 feet away. To do that the color and contrast need to be different. If the piece were smaller or much larger I might not feel that way. Interesting.

Out of the fog

2009-01-07T19:56:00.000-05:00

I've been fighting a terrible cold. I've eaten zinc lozenges until my taste buds gave out and swilled various syrups to no avail. Yes, I've even done the vitamin C, chicken soup, and water. Every day for the last week I've been saying, "This is the worst of it and I will feel better tomorrow." Yesterday I collapsed (not literally) and had to stay home. Today, I'm happy to say, I believe I am substantially better. What an amazing feeling that is.

I've been catching up on friends' blogs (mostly Rayna's) and thought that it might be nice to at least drop a few words on my own as well.

The year is off to a brisk start, with lots to do at work, and lots to do at church, and lots to do at the studio. Don't worry, I'm not going to launch into an endless To Do list. Who needs to see that?

My big focus in the studio right now is getting my submission for "Quake" ready. Two pieces of art cloth (2-3 yds each) can be submitted for consideration. I'd love to see either or both selected. More importantly, I'd like to create something WORTHY of being selected.

Here's the first.
I think it's done except for preparing it for hanging. I like the complexity, but I feel as though I've been looking at it for so long that I've lost my ability to give it a real evaluation. Feel free to provide feedback if you wish.

...and a detail shot

And here's the second.
I like this piece. Again I have the same concern about how "done" it is. In this case I set my self the challenge to create the highest degree of complexity and layering that I could without washing the cloth. What I mean is that I printed and painted this cloth in about 8-10 sessions, but only washed it out at the very end. By contrast, the piece above was washed 3 times over the course of building up the surface design.

Open studio this Sunday, 11 - 2 PM

2009-01-01T12:31:00.001-05:00

I tried to simplify but it didn't work

2008-12-25T22:05:00.001-05:00

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

2008-12-13T11:16:00.000-05:00

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

2008-12-10T19:57:00.000-05:00

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

2008-12-06T07:42:00.000-05:00

Colorful thoughts

2008-12-05T14:10:00.000-05:00

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

2008-12-04T20:28:00.000-05:00

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!

Catching up and getting ready

2008-11-18T20:55:00.001-05:00

Doesn't it feel like the holiday onslaught is just around the corner. I guess that's because it is. November has been really busy. That's part of the reason for the light activity on the blog. That, and I just don't force myself to write. Sometimes I need to write and sometimes I don't.

So, let's see. The second open studio was great. I had lots of visitors and got good feedback on my recent silk scarves and on my experimental wool scarves. A couple of them have come home for re-engineering. I like them now, but I 'm going to keep fiddling with them until I'm absolutely in love or they're destroyed, whichever comes first.

I gave my first art lecture last Friday. It was part of the Explorations Unlimited speakers series at the Community Center where I have my studio. It's primarily a seniors event. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I got a nice turnout of very supportive folks who asked insightful questions. My follow-up surveys were also very positive, so I think it was a general success. Now that I've got this 1-hour presentation in the bag I wondering about looking for additional venues. Perhaps I can do a little art cloth evangelism.

What else...Oh, yes the little dinner for 80. That was fun. Dan volunteered us to coordinate and prepare a parish dinner for about 100 people at our church. It was great fun but it took days for us to recover. We expected 100; I planned for 120 (I couldn't stand the thought of running short; 80 showed up; lots of left overs in the freezer. Of course we had help. In the kitchen someone else baked the bread, saw to the appetizer course, and baked apple crisp for dessert. I and 2 others did the main dish and salad. I decided I'd like to try my over-the-top lasagna recipe for a large crowd. I figured that I could feed a dozen people from one tray so I just needed 10 times everything. I spend all day Friday (with help) making sauces and doing prep. In case you're interested. It took 10 lbs of grilled sausage, 3 gallons of bechamel, about 5 gallons of red sauce, 15 boxes of frozen chopped spinach, 10 lbs grated carrots...you get the idea. It was all done by hand, from scratch, in huge quantities. It was a big hit and lots of fun, but I won't be signing up for another one of these events in the near future and I'm sure not cut out to be caterer.

I've got lots of stuff brewing in the studio. I'm working on possible submissions for two shows: "My Island" and "Quake". Here's a photo of something that might be a Quake candidate. I've posted photos of earlier states of this piece. I think it might be done. My only concern is that it's a little big smaller than the required 2 yard length for the Quake show, which is for art cloth. I didn't count on the amount of shrinkage I'd get in the cloth...and I think that I eyeballed the measurement. So is that a new rule: measure twice dye once?

Let the congregation say...

2008-11-05T10:54:00.000-05:00

AMEN!

Open studio this weekend

2008-10-28T20:58:00.000-04:00

...and that means there's lots to do. I just did the e-mail blast. Now I've got a small mountain of stuff that needs to be ironed and labeled.

Surely I must have said this before--but just in case--I share these words of wisdom. Given a choice between pursuing and a call to an art form that involves laundry & ironing and one that does not, think long and hard before you say yes to the laundry & ironing option. Just a little reflection.

Busy in the studio

2008-10-24T21:58:00.000-04:00

I've been busy at the studio, busy at my "real" job, busy at home--just plain busy. Everybody's got the same story. It's good to be busy. It takes my mind off of the fact that I lost more money in my 401K this year than I made in my entire first year out of school.

I've been pushing myself to work on some larger pieces of art cloth--around 2 yards. There are lots of advantages to working big: large composition space, room to move, etc. The downside is that if you make a technical mistake the you make it in a big way. I'm working to finish a piece that I started out loving but has since become a bit of a problem child. This is what it looked like in it's first state, still wet (I posted this picture a couple weeks ago). I wish I could have just frozen it that way.

Several layers of dye resulted in some really subtle colors that don't show up here, but are (or were) nice. So the problem is that I had a little discharging mishap. I used Sunlight Dishwasher Gel, which is really great stuff. It takes color out very well. The new version (sorry no pic yet) has a better value range (light to dark). Unfortunately, I now realize that I only hand washed the cloth between dying sessions and did not neutralize the bleach. That probably left residual bleach in the cloth. When I steamed and washed today I lost lots of red and blue.

So you see, big cloth means big success or big failure. Right now I'm doing a little pouting.

My first Open Studio

2008-10-08T21:59:00.000-04:00

Last Sunday was my first open studio. What fun, but what a lot of work. All of the Artists in Residence at the Community Center participate in an open studio on the first Sunday of every month. I missed last month because I was away. I hung up a few things and sold one scarf (my very first sale!!!).

This month, because I was actually going to be there, I decided to put in a bit more effort. I sent out e-mail announcements as shown below.

I went in on Saturday and spruce things up a little. In this shot you can see the series of scarves that I've been working on for fun.

I was really delighted by how well they were received. I ended up with a steady stream of visitors, many of whom got a jump on their holiday gift purchasing How very nice for them and for me! It was a real pleasure to watch people enjoy looking, trying, and selecting. Making these scarves was great fun for me. On some level I thought that was it. I wasn't entirely prepared for the added pleasure of sending them out into the world to be a part of other people's lives.

And finally, here are a few shots of individual scarves just to give you and idea of what I'm up to.

If I remember correctly, this was soy wax on white cloth, low water immersion, overdye, discharge, and black extruded dye.

One of my first rust prints. The photo does not do justice to the golden glow this produced on the 8mm habotai fabric. My old wrenches are almost re-rusted and ready for another batch!

One of a number of really great results from the "scrunch and pour" method that I learned from Carol Soderlund. To the left you can see part of another batik piece.

SAQA show + recent work

2008-09-24T20:40:00.000-04:00

Busy weekend--no, busy month.

Dan and I did an overnight trip to Staunton, VA last weekend to see the SAQA Amazing Art Quilts show. It was rather unreal seeing a piece of mine hanging in a gallery. It's strange even to write those words. I hope that the photo below shows how wonderfully well the show is presented (mine is 2nd from the left). Staunton's a lovely little town and the R.R. Smith Center was a great venue to host the show.

While we were there I also had a chance to reconnect with some very good friends from college. We weren't exactly disconnected, but we handn't spoken in a while and hadn't seen eachother in too many years. Meeting my friend Stacey's 12-year old daughter Zoe sort of underscored the fact that we need to get together more often.

With all of the travel (and more to come), I've been struggling to get in my studio hours. I've definitely made some progress though. The quilt below (draped over the work table in the studio) is finished. In the photo the binding hasn't been completely turned, but it is really done and it's on the bed. I started this two years ago as the back of our wedding quilt. It got too good to be a back and turned into a quilt top in its own right. Who says work doesn't take on a life of its own?

Here's the latest evolutionary stage in the "Seeds of Change" quilt. I overdyed the whole thing with sun yellow before I heat set the stenciled paint. So, the colors pop a little more, the purple is mostly subdued to brown, the paint softened in both texture and intensity and bits of color have emerged where the brighter dye colors were covered with fabric medium and resisted the yellow dye. Much improved, I think. In the photo it's on the studio table getting pinned for quilting.

I need to try using fusible batting. It would certainly make the quilting prep easier. The safety pins are just such a hassle. Anybody have any good advice in that department? (this is also a test to see who's listening--ha ha).

I've also got about a dozen silk scarves in various stages of completion. I'm trying to build up a little inventory for open studio days. I'll try to remember to take some pictures the next time I get the studio all "dressed up". The next Artrul Afternoon at the Greenbelt Community Center is Sunday October 7, 1-5 pm. Stop by if you're in the area.

Recent Internet appearances

2008-09-16T21:22:00.000-04:00

I'm surprised (and I suppose sufficiently immodest) to report that I've received some delightful recent Internet "coverage". Thanks all around.

Kerr Grabowski used a picture of me from a workshop as part of her course description for the workshop that she's teaching in Spring 2009 at the Nancy Crow Timber Frame Barn. Kerr's a great teacher, Nancy is a gracious and generous host, and the Barn is a wonderful place to study. You should go to this place and take this class. I can't say that enough.

Susan Brubaker Knapp did an excellent post on her blog about the "Amazing Art Quilts" show in Staunton. She even included a photo of my piece. I was so thrilled to receive her e-mail letting me know. Check out the post on her very cool blog, Blue Moon River.

And finally, Rayna Gillman recently redesigned her website, Studio 78, and included a photo of me from her soy wax batik workshop at Peters Valley last summer. Rayna's another great teacher well worth seeking out. Check out the new book on her website as well. If you ever wanted to try creating your own cloth, but didn't know where or how to start, then buy this book. If you're already making your own cloth and want a creative boost, then buy this book. You get the idea.

High-fiber turned out to be a good description

2008-09-07T21:31:00.000-04:00

My first Art Cloth Network meeting was great. Like most self-governing groups, there's a certain amount of time that needs to be devoted to governance, management, planning--all of my regular 9-5 activities. But, there was also time to see a lot of really good art and time to play. These are some talented folks and I feel not just like the new kid on the block, but the younger brother trying to keep up with the big kids. I guess everyone feels that way from time to time. It's in the nature of making and sharing our art that we sometimes compare what we do to the work of others. It can't be helped. In this case though, I felt very welcomed and came away with a strong sense of both acceptance and validation as an artist.

On Saturday we ventured into Manhattan en masse then split up into smaller groups. Some went shopping, some to museums, and some exploring. I would like to have done it all, but chose instead to go the the garment district for a bit of shopping. This is not really Dan's favorite thing to do, so I figured that since I was surrounded by folks who almost can get enough of fabric stores it made sense to indulge. What fun. For my little group of 6 it ended up being a 12 hour day door-to-door. I came home with a few bargains, including several yards of assorted wool that I'm going to "transform" into scarves. Stay tuned for that one.

I wish that I could post pictures of all of the great work that I saw from fellow members, but we agreed for very good reasons not to post pictures without permission. I'm going to err on the side of caution and share just these two that seem to capture the mood for the Manhattan field trip: Great fun and good company.

Here's Rayna as we're about to leave the famous (but rather pricey) Mood. I think that we all concluded that Metro Textile is a far better bet if your looking for a great bargain. Go to Mood if you need something specific and nothing else will do--and expect to pay for being that picky.

The shop below shows Joy, Wrenn, and Janet looking very happy and chic. It was a beautiful day on the street but the subway was like a steam bath. The ladies wore it gracefully. I wish I could say the same.

Perhaps in another post I tell the story of the restaurant that we went to on Saturday night for our group dinner. I use the term "restaurant" lightly. It was one of the stranger customer service experience of my life. More later...perhaps.

It promises to be a high-fiber weekend

2008-09-04T16:16:00.001-04:00

This weekend--actually starting today (Thursday)--I'm in New Jersey on the campus of Rutgers University for the fall meeting of the Art Cloth Network. This is my first meeting. The folks I've met so far all seem very friendly. It sounds like the schedule's already been rearranged a bit. Saturday was supposed to be a play day in Manhattan. I think that's moving it to tomorrow to avoid the bad weather forecast for Saturday. I can't even remember which hurricane is headed our way. I think it's the "H" one--maybe the "I".

So, anyway, I'm looking forward to a bit of exploration in the garment district. I brought an empty backpack, just in case! I hope that I have the presence of mind to remember the 4 meters of fabric that Dan & I bought in Paris many years ago then schlepped all over the city. It weighted a ton. Dan probably did most of the carrying--and he's not with me this time.

No apologies

2008-08-29T11:40:00.000-04:00

No apologies for the lack of postings. I've been busy. (That's an excuse, not an apology).

I've been spending some good time in the studio, but trying not to be too frenzied about cranking out fabric. I've got a couple of pretty pieces and one that I can't figure out. It's either dead ugly or it's going to turn into something. I just don't know. Let's start with the good looking stuff.

This is nice.

Overprinting with a mask made it better, and I think that some embellishment and quilting might finish it.

This is from early this week. It's 2 yards long! I never print this size at home because it's hard to move around the table. At the studio I'm using the same print board, but there's so much room! It washed out very well and, with luck, will get another layer today.

So now for the problem child. It started out pretty good. It was done with a polychromatic screen released wet (i.e., not deconstructed).

Did it get better? Perhaps.

The red was a bit if an F#$% up if you ask me.After steaming and washing out the orange lost some of its strength. We're not going in the right direction.

Scissor are the answer, right? And how about some charcoal drawing? The color palette is wrong to my eye. It's weak. It looks like somebody had a terrible accident with a sorbet dessert tray.

Green circles, darkening from top to bottom Humm.

I just don't know. The working title that came out during the process of making this monster is "Seeds of Change". I think it has something to do with too many political speeches about "Change". I wanted Hillary. I got Obama. After the speech last night I feel better about that than I did before.

Well this cloth is like a mosquito bite right now: every time I scratch it, it seems to get worse. I think it needs to rest for a while.

Now I'm going to go stretch a couple of new silk screens then off to the studio. I made 6 new frames last night. One of the advantages of getting the print table out of the basement is that I now have no reservations about making a mess with the table saw. My woodworking shop has come back to life!

Studio pictures as promised

2008-08-15T22:04:00.000-04:00

Here's a panoramic view of my new studio. It's huge--really huge! I moved in today with help from Dan and our friend Mary Frances. It was a long tiring day but with three people we really seemed to make quick work of it. I went back this evening for a couple of hours and got dye concentrate mixed so I should be in business tomorrow.

I continue to be surprised that this day actually came.

Moving day

2008-08-15T07:21:00.000-04:00

The lease for the studio is signed and today's the day I pick up the keys and move in. Wow. I'm very excited but still have a little bit of that going-over-a-waterfall kind of feeling. I hope I'll have pictures to post later today. For now I suppose I should start packing up. This seems less intimidating that packing for a workshop. There should be fewer weighty decisions about what to pack.

But, the most pressing immediate need is coffee...

More later.

Getting organized

2008-08-10T11:56:00.000-04:00

I know I'm not alone in this. My life seems to be an ongoing cycle of organization and disarray. I clean up and them I mess up. The railing at the top of our stairs at home is a collecting point for work in progress that's too big to leave anywhere else (and other stuff).

Here's the sad state of affairs today.

There's a queen-size quilt for our bed that's waiting to be bound. The purple thing is something that I'm just starting. And the bits of silk are part of a series of 10 scarves that I'm doing so that I have something to sell in the new studio (Move in day is this coming Friday!). Bottom line is this: I have got to get this stuff done so that it can go where ever it is that it's supposed to go. It just can't spend it's entire life in the hallway.

As I said, the studio is about to take off. I've got the contract in hand, the insurance is paid for, and I pick up the keys this Friday. I'm very excited, but I still have occasional hyperventilating moments. Am I making a commitment that's bigger than I can live up too? Those moments seem to pass quickly and I keep moving (or floating) forward.

There's so much to do. I've got to do some packing and figure out how much is going to the studio and how much is staying home. I think it's going to take awhile to work out the balance. One of my big questions is what to do about dye. I've switched over to working exclusively with dye concentrates. I mix known concentrates of primary colors then mix everything else from those. I've found that the shelf life of the concentrates is greatly extended by refrigerating them. The same holds true for sodium alginate pint paste (NB: adding 1 tsp of denatured alcohol per quart to the alginate mixture helps too). So, do I buy a little dorm fridge for the studio? Do I just let the stuff go bad faster at room temperature? Or do I schlep it back and forth (not likely!)? This is the stuff I can't figure out. Since my studio time is going to be a little spotty, I'm leaning toward the fridge. Opening up a container of spoiled alginate and getting a face full of the disgusting ammonia smell is just about enough to ruin my day!

A final note on color. I snapped this photo last week in the Bishop's Garden on a visit to the National Cathedral. What amazing colors. I need to do something with this.

Not sure what to make of Pittsburgh

2008-07-27T12:17:00.000-04:00

The important news first. My dad is continuing his remarkable recovery from his stroke earlier this month. He's going to PT 3 times each week and it sounds like they're really putting him through his paces. His speech is also improving. We spoke on the phone earlier this week for quite a while and I understood everything that he said. Two weeks ago I was scared that might not be possible.

Last weekend's trip to Pittsburgh was interesting, but I don't think I need to go back. I was there briefly about 20 years ago. It's clear that the city has invested considerable effort in trying to move beyond they're history and reputation as a steel mill town. The mills are mostly gone, replaced by deluxe pedestrian shopping/entertainment malls. It seems like these are in turn sucking the life out of neighborhood retail just has they've done for the last 40 years all over the country. It seems like there might have been a lesson to learn there, but I'm not going to mount the urban planning soapbox today.

So, we covered a good deal of ground, saw lots of neighborhoods (good and bad), and did a lot of sweating in the 95+ degree heat. The Nancy Crow exhibit at CMU was great. Although the gallery was a bit dim in places, the work still showed very well. We also spent Saturday morning at the Warhol museum--quite nice. We left early on Sunday morning so that we could stop at Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob. Both were wonderful. Of course Fallingwater is such an icon. The tour was very well done, but it's hard to get a sense of the place when you're just zipping through it.

This is one of those classic views of the house. In many ways it give you better sense of the place than does the tour, with the hustle and bustle of all the people.

Dan and I were both surprised by Kentuck Knob. It's one of Wright's "unonian" houses, but on the high end of the scale (compared to the Pope-Leighey house for example). The house is lovely and very livable. The grounds are also a wonderful natural landscape and include a meadow full of tremendous modern sculpture. I was thrilled to learn from the tour guide that the collection includes not one but two Andy Goldsworthy's.

I love the earthy, organic feel of these sculptures. There's no reason that I should come upon a stone circle or a cairn in the middle of the woods, but what a delight when I do!

Things continue to improve

2008-07-18T08:18:00.001-04:00

More good news from Dad. He continues to improve. His speech and hand mobility are both much better. He had his first physical therapy appointment yesterday and saw his primary care physician. Both were very optimistic about his continued recovery. There's just so much here for which to be thankful.

This is a quick post because Dan and I are off for Pittsburgh in a few minutes. This afternoon we're going to see the big Nancy Crow exhibit at the Miller Gallery on the CMU campus. The rest of the plans are kind of loose. The Warhol museum is a must, and there are a couple of other nice museums (depending on how hot it is outside). There are also neighborhoods to explore, food to eat--all of the usual "vacation" things. Sunday on the way home we're stopping to see Frank Lloyd Wright's houses, Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob. We're both be Wright fans, have never seen either of these homes. The Crow exhibit and the Wright visits are the anchors for the trip.

Monday night I get to meet my fellow Artists in Residence from the community center. We're having a pot luck dinner and planning the group show for later in the year. Progress on the studio renovation continues. I'm still hoping that we hit the Aug 1 move-in date, but it's out of my hands at this point. This week I bought by business insurance (never thought I'd be doing that) and started thinking about studio furniture. Life continues to surprise me!

A belated happy B-day to my blog

2008-07-09T21:05:00.000-04:00

July 6th marked the one-year anniversary of my blog. It's hard to believe. I surprised myself. The posts have been a bit sporadic lately, but that's more a symptom of a busy life than lack of interest.

More posts to come. No real end in sight...

I have a story to tell

2008-07-09T20:11:00.000-04:00

Actually, I probably have more than one, but I'll start with the big story (in a condensed form) and see where we end up. Regardless of the details that follow, this story has a happy ending. Keep that in mind.

Last weekend Dan and I were in Rehoboth Beach, Deleware staying with our friends Howard and Patrick, hanging out with 2 houses full of friends. It was a great weekend. The weekend started out on an exceptionally good note. Last week I found out that I've been accepted as an Artist in Residence at the Greenbelt Community Center, and I'm just thrilled. So, on the first day of our holiday I finally got answers to all of my questions about liability insurance and I was able to officially accept the invitation. I'm hoping to be able to move into the studio at the beginning of August.

The rest of the weekend was great. We ate and drank well, did lots of visiting, and got lots of sleep. It seems that "wild" weekends at the beach take on a new flavor after 40. This weekend was also the first time that Dan and I had been able to see Patrick since he got his new hip 6 weeks ago. He looks fantastic. I told him that I think the doctor put in a battery to go with the hip. He now seems to be in almost constant motion. It's a joy to see.

Can you feel the suspense building? I wouldn't have assured you of the happy ending if there wasn't going to be a big bump in the road. It's time to buckle-up.

We arrived home on Sunday to find all as usual. The cat's were giving us the silent treatment because they were mad about being abandoned. We sifted through the minimal stack of mail. I checked the voice mail. Now--you know--that's when the other shoe dropped. What I found was a message from earlier in the day from my sister saying that Dad had suffered a stroke and was in the ER at Fairfax Hospital. I was surprisingly calm, but I think that it was more numb and calm. We were out the door in about 2 minutes. Dan drove. I have a pretty fuzzy memory of the trip except that I was fascinated, in a detached sort of way, by my almost complete silence. I will spare you the details, except to say that we found my normally gregarious, smiling father lying in the Neuroscience ICU with a half droopy face, a slightly curled up right hand, and nearly unintelligible speech. Despite all of this he was doing his best to laugh at his family's so-so attempts at bedside humor.

So, here's all of the good news. Mom noticed the attack very soon after it happened and called 911. He was in the ER, CAT scanned, and full of tPA (the so called "clot buster") all within the magic 3-hour window. When Dan and I saw him around 3 (about 7 hours after the attack) he was already starting to improve. That was Sunday. Tonight (Wednesday) he came home from the hospital! When I talked to Mom tonight she said that he was upstairs checking his e-mail. I had to bite my tongue to keep from crying.

The stroke affected the left hemisphere of his brain, but the MRI showed no vascular damage. The lasting affects appear to be impaired (but improving) speech, impaired mobility in his right hand, and some facial numbness. There is great hope for continued recovery and much cause for celebration in the midst of this tragedy.

Throughout this ordeal our friends have been a tremendous support. If I ever questioned why community matters, then I surely won't again. I can't explain why or exactly how, but in the last several days I have felt the almost palpable presence of my friends' thoughts and prayers for me, for Dad, and our whole family. I don't know how to say thank you except to stand at the ready to share the same gift of caring.

Well, that's a long story, and one that's not over. Recovery isn't quick or easy. But, it's a story with a happy ending and a message: Don't hesitate to reach out to your friends and family in time of need. That's part of why community matters.

Whatever happened to "Summer Vacation"?

2008-06-26T20:09:00.001-04:00

Whatever happened to "Summer Vacation"? I guess I know the answer to that question: I grew up and became an adult with too many interesting things to do. Still, I could use a little down time. I don't seem to get that without leaving home. Blah, blah, blah...same old complaints.

This is going to be a quick post because I've got stuff to do.

I've been busy lately. I got some discharging done since my last post. No photos yet, but I'm pleased with the results. I also took time to photograph my recent workshop pieces. One that I'm particularly interested in is the one below. I printed the first image at a workshop with Kerr last summer. The second image is what it looks like after a second dye session during my workshop with her last month. This piece says something to me about my development. It feels good.

I've also been busy with paperwork. I applied for an Artist in Residence position at the Greenbelt Community Center. It's a one-year studio space rental in a small community of artists. The residency includes facilitating a community art project, participating in open studio days, and spending 30 hours per month in the studio. It would be a big step for me, but productive on so many levels--connecting with other artists, sharing my work with a larger group of people, getting some teaching experience. Most of all it would provide dedicated space and time for my work.

I did the portfolio presentation last week. I haven't heard anything yet. I guess I won't be devastated if this doesn't happen. But it could be very interesting if it does.

And finally, I had a lovely visit last week from a new friend Peggy, who is a fellow member of the Art Cloth Network. She was in Baltimore visiting her son and stopped by to meet me. We had a very nice show-and-tell then and dinner at the local brew-pub.

Busy, busy (with pictures)

2008-06-08T09:14:00.000-04:00

Oh, there's just too much going on. I'm going to spare us all the details right now and just hit the high points.

It was a bad week on the creative equipment front: the printer died and was followed very soon by the serger. Given the low cost of a new printer and the age/quality of my 15 year old serger, I opted to replace both. So now we have a lovely new Canon printer that was delivered in under 48 hours by the nice folks at Adorama (www.adorama.com -- an excellent source of photo and printing equipment).

After a bit of Internet research, I scooted over to the sort-of local Baby Lock dealer. I am now the happy owner of a Baby Lock Imagine. So far it's done a great job with a rolled hem on two silk habotai scarves and a couple of napkins.

Here are the scarves. I'm very happy with both. I've never been able to make up my mind about whether or not there's a place for me in art-to-wear. I think I might be finding it. The scarf is a basic form that I think stays as true to the cloth as possible while still being wearable. The first one is finished.

I've already finished the edges on this second one, but I'm considering working back into it with some discharge--maybe more. It's lovely in person, but the more I look at it here, the more it looks half-baked.

I got some other good printing done last weekend, still riding the wave of inspiration from Kerr's workshop. I'm pleased with what I've been doing lately because I feel like the color thing is working a bit better for me. I'm spending a lot more time considering and mixing colors, and what I learned in Carol Soderlund's class is proving very helpful. The green and purple piece below is a good example. I have problems with mixing the whole violet range. In this case I knew what I wanted and I came close enough to be delighted with the result. I think this yardage might find its way into a piece that's starting to germinate in my head.

Finally, I had a "cute" piece of batik from last December that looked rich on the print table, but lost a lot of the dye in the washout. Here's the link for my December 29 posting that shows it in process. I don't have a picture of the faded version, but just image all those strong colors going pastel. The image below shows what happened with some deconstructed printing over top. I like where this is going, but I'm not sure what comes next.

June is full of potential and I'll try to be a bit more regular in my blogging. Stay tuned. -R

After 4 years and more than 600 hours...

2008-05-29T16:13:00.001-04:00

EfM (Education for Ministry) is done. It took 4 years and well more than 600 hours of classroom and prep time, but last night was my final class. Take me out of the oven; I am officially done.

If you detect an element of relief in my voice it's because I just got back two evenings every week (one for class and one for reading) for 9 months out of the year. That really adds up. There's also a bit of sadness, which will only really set in late in August when the group reassembles, welcomes new members, and begins the next year of study. I'll also miss the people. We've talked about a lot of sensitive issues and taken risks to speak from the heart about our personal struggles, beliefs, joys, fears, the whole range (or at least most of it). I miss spending this intense time with those who've graduated before me. I'll miss the folks I'm studying with now, and I'm sure that my absence will be noted as well. That's just part of the process.

Four years of studying scripture, church history, and theology then attempting to apply it all to reflections on the reality of day-to-day life has been wonderful. I feel that I've grown spiritually and intellectually as a result. The program isn't perfect, but the overall experience has certainly been a positive one and a good use of my time. I'm not sure that I have many more "answers" to the big questions of faith than when I started, but that wasn't the real goal. What I have is more ways of asking the questions and, hopefully, a set of more developed and thoughtful ways of exploring the possible answers.

If you have a similar chance to explore your own faith in a trusted community with a good mentor (and our mentor, Nancy, is excellent), then I encourage you to do so. It only makes the journey that much more interesting.

"Thank you" to all of you who shared the EfM experience with me. I've learned from each and every one of you and I'm grateful for your generosity, insight, courage, and compassion. You have helped me grow.

Pattern & Content: Day 5

2008-05-23T21:50:00.000-04:00

Well, today was a great end to the week. Here's a picture of my final collection of cloth on the wall (all except for the 3 that are still batching). I wish that you could see the rest of the room. It was amazing.

I'm surprised by the volume of work that I did this week, but also by the amount that I feel that I've grown since last summer. The work that I did here is very different from what I did at Peters Valley: more complex, more complete. I feel good about that.

I had a really good critique session with Kerr. She gave me some very helpful feedback and somethings to think about as a way forward.

The picture below is of the last piece before cleanup. As expected, I was getting a lot looser. With this piece I was using polychromatic screen printing to explore complementary colors and designs that don't incorporate my ubiquitous black lines. I like it. It's big, rough, and basic.

My final observation about this is week is this: what a great group of people. As I said in an earlier post, all of my classmates are accomplished artists, some very much so. More importantly though, they were all open, enthusiastic, and supportive. That contributed tremendously to the success of the class. I feel like we all pushed and supported each other. And, if I'm going to give all due credit, then I must say that this second workshop with Kerr did not disappoint. She's a great teacher and guide. If you're a fiber artist and have not studied with her then you owe it to yourself to seek her out. I also have to say that Nancy and her family are excellent hosts, and chef Margaret did her part by making sure we were wonderfully fed all week. If you've never been to the Barn then it's time to visit the web site (www.nancycrow.com) and start shopping for a workshop. It's a great experience.

So tomorrow morning it's off for home for a couple of days of decompression before work starts on Tuesday. I've also got to get back on my diet and try to drop the pound or two that I picked up this week. I wasn't kidding when I said that Margaret's cooking is top notch!

Pattern & Content: Day 4

2008-05-22T21:47:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures from today. There are a couple of today's pieces that are still batching. One of them is radically different from anything I've done. Those will have to wait until tomorrow.

I'm tired. I've been having a lot of fun, but I've also been pushing kind of hard. Cleanup starts at 3:30 tomorrow. Even though we don't have a full day (i.e., 9 PM), I think I need to slow down a bit. I'm hoping I wake up with a clear head and a good idea for how to end the week. To be honest, I think I could just walk in the woods and hang out in the studio and get a lot out of just being here.

Pattern & Content: Day 3

2008-05-21T21:40:00.000-04:00

Today's topics were printing with fabric paint base extender + charcoal and/or water soluble crayons, and discharge. It wasn't a good day for discharge--too much wind to work outside and not enough sun to activate the thiox under black plastic. Personally, I'm not fond of using an iron to discharge. I prefer to steam, and that's not an option here. So, tomorrow will be my discharging day.

Here are pics of some of today's work and the washed out versions of pieces from yesterday. Other stuff is still batching, so more pics tomorrow.

Yesterday's work.

A couple of works in progress from today.

And finally, the lady herself, demonstrating proper use of safely equipment. In this picture Kerr is laughing as she struggles to wiggle into her respirator before the discharge demo.