Week 24 - in the Studio

I’ve been working hard for a great art show this past weekend, it was the first event to showcase two of my new series, Starting from Anywhere and Timeless Moments. It was exciting to plan the layout, make the show cards and get some great words together to talk about my work.

 

Then it happened, you know, the thing we’ve been living with for the last 2 1/2 years... not me, but in my household. Oh my, gosh darn, and several other expletives! There were a few tears shed, but I was offered Plan B. I was able to go early and hang my pieces, others volunteered to look after them...thank you dear friends! But it wasn’t the same....

 

So I’ve done a few other things this weekend, I worked in the garden, read a book and I started using a CMS or Content Management System to organize my ideas, plans and goals. It’s called Notion and the basic one (which I’m sure is enough) is free. And I’ve done a bit of research about dealing with disappointment... one source talked about 5 steps to work through it:

• Let It Out - don’t let it fester, feel it - ok I shed some tears

• Get Perspective - talk with your support network - ok, I dumped on my family

• Know Your Own Heart - My art and I were not being rejected

• Practise Self Acceptance - Like breath, disappointment comes and goes. So breathe into it and let it pass

• Don’t Let it Fester - Winston Churchill said it best: “success is the ability to go from one failure to another without loss of enthusiasm”

 

I appreciated these stages, disappointment will come and go, and there is always another opportunity and I will regain my enthusiasm. But I also remember to acknowledge all this and make it part of me.

 

So I spent time looking at different e-commerce sites to put up my work and I have some plans for videos. I was also totally thrilled with a piece I made for the Silent Auction at the show - I’ve been mulling over some small works for my Industrial Shoreline series and it I think I totally nailed what I had in mind.

Sailing into Hope

The piece is about 6" x 18" and is my response to the theme "Resilience in the Time of Climate Change". The board behind is a piece from my husbands family farm in Manitoba, I used a hand dyed vintage linen napkin, some indigo dyed fabric and paper collage. In the artist statement I wrote that "strength and focus will be two of the important components to making change for the future"

Here are a couple of closeup views:

This morning I pulled more barn board out from our shed to work on more pieces...any suggestions for a title for this sub-series?

Week 16, 17 & 18 - in the Studio

 Time got away from me, as it often does, some good weather prompted me outside and into the garden...

But studio time has been a bit weird...I am moving forward into unknown territory and that can be frightening - in an art-kind-of-way! My series, the Industrial Shoreline, is evolving and I am on my (possibly last) piece of textile wall art. I enjoy creating these but they have become an easy place to be...pick a photo, change it around a bit, make the work. Interesting and appealing but not mind blowing, exciting stuff. 

I have some ideas for new ways forward with 3D work, collage and some smaller mixed media but the next steps are experimenting, trialing and foundational work - stuff that seems if it fails - then I fail. Realistically I know thats not true, but it's hard to push on through into new work - what if it falls flat and is terrible? At least I know I'm not alone - and I've been in a safe place too long.

So here's a bit of a start on that last piece, the long strips will be cut up as sky:

Speaking of sky...I just posted a YouTube video "Paint the Sky" on how I create the sky pieces...dyeing and painting a variety of fabrics: https://youtu.be/eIK3_fniC7I

So I mentioned some more collage pieces that I'm working on, using elements that I created in my Scan n Cut. I painted soft greys and blues on water colour paper and am auditioning different ideas that I could incorporate into the work. Still very much exploration and play - something I need to remind myself over and over again...it doesn't have to be "finished" - it's about the journey, not the destination...yada, yada, yada!

On a totally unrelated note, some of our family gathered for Easter and we had a Lego contest. We made up bags of random Lego bits and had to create something using every piece! It was a fun activity!

Be Creative, everyone!

Week 14 - in the Studio

This past week has been about finishing some work, I'm not sure why the latest in my Industrial shoreline series took so long to put the facings on...I just procrastinated too much!

It is smaller than recent work at 27" x 43", but the size seemed to work for the topic. It was a photo I had taken when we travelled to the north end of Vancouver Island and spent time around Port McNeill and Cormorant and Malcolm islands - a beautiful area I'd love to visit again. I was loving the linear aspects of a log booming area and took a few photos. 

The challenges of logging, clear cuts, forestry management and sustainable practises are part of my series - there are no right answers. I don't support clear cuts and tearing down old growth but we do need long term employment, especially for first nations in these remote areas, and properly managed, forestry can be part of this approach.

No title yet but it's 27" x 43"

I finished several collages that incorporate mark making and collage on vintage pages. I ordered packs of paper from Etsy and used them with white paint, acrylic inks, asemic text and marks...I love these! I'll be framing them soon and have them for sale - stay tuned!

Speaking of Etsy - I ordered some ultra suede labels from a vendor on Alberta - super quick service and very well made: Spotted Zebra and used them on my Art to Carry Textile Totes:

And I have a few available now HERE

I framed a little piece that my grand daughter had made a couple weeks ago:

And I took a monoprinting workshop today via Zoom, a different approach from what I have been doing but I learned several useful techniques that I can incorporate into my work. I'm taking a two day workshop on gel printing in June and looking forward to learning even more!

If you are yearning for an inperson workshop, have a look at the Gathering the Threads Conference in Cowichan Valley: https://gatheringthethreads.ecwid.com

Week 12 - in the Studio

 I missed a week in there somewhere, but with good reason! We took a trip to Tofino with our granddaughter during an unusually gloriously sunny week. I hadn't been there for about 15 years and we had a marvellous time, walking beaches and trails, enjoying seafood and just exploring!

Our granddaughter had a surfing lesson!

But then last week it was back in the studio....I spent one morning with a dear friend doing monoprints on a gel plate and channeling my "inner Rothko"! The simplicity of the lines and experimenting with layering and blending colours was so appealing...as a textile artist its harder to get those same effects on fabric but I've pulled out some linens that I would like to try with the idea of using them in collage.

Many years ago I used to teach monoprinting and haven't touched the gel plates for quite some time. Back then it was all about using stencils and creating "pictures" but the ideas have developed and ideas of layering and using just small sections as well as for backgrounds and landscapes have been really pushed the boundaries! One artist I follow on YouTube has done some very interesting work that shows how subtle the ideas can be... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLevLGxPAwoAvcAzb-u9CbKOX9JkOz8CY

I've also signed up for a monoprinting online workshop with the Vancouver Island School of Art: https://www.vancouverislandschoolart.com/workshops_wi22det.html#MMEDw182-3

Here's the Rothko work: 

I find these oddly appealing - simple and yet there's more complexity than I expected....then I had the idea to cut slits into the back and add some weaving with narrow strips. That wasn't as simple as I had expected but I think this show some promise as I consider how I might show shapes on the front. I'm thinking of circles or crescents ...

I started the slits too low down on this one, they could be closer together.

This one is my favourite, I was trying for a circle but realized that it was more effort than I had time for that day.

I like that the shapes seem to float on the surface. I am wondering if I can use my Scan n Cut for cutting  the slits and I found its easier to work from the back for the cutting. And I need to work on the registration of the prints...I have some ideas about that!

And I got the lines stitched down for the boom on my new piece. The front is all finished and I have cut and pressed the facing strips ready for sewing down this week. I am happy with the size of this one, more manageable and still visually effective. I'll have a final, frontal image soon!

Two Roads Diverged....

 My last blog post was about "call and response" ....mostly about seeing an opportunity for exploring further in an unexpected way....

I was painting some vintage fabric squares for a new piece I'm working on - the sky needs to have a very subtle, monochromatic with little contrast, so I was using a sponge roller with white paint.

For some reason I had black paper underneath and when I lifted the fabric square I was totally entranced with the remaining images on the paper.

Tons of texture and beautiful marks left behind...

I thought if I used the white paint on white paper and then added a wash of India ink when it was dry, that might prove interesting....not so much!

The painted squares are waiting patiently and drying, I'm excited to get sewing with these for a new Industrial Shoreline piece. 

In the meantime I started playing with the painted papers....first I trimmed the papers into 6" squares (thinking like a quilter)... and placed them on a white background separated by a narrow 'border"...

It's okay but not exciting....

So then I look closely at one square and found the texture so entrancing....

And then, along with some other painted papers I experimented with some collage...much better and perhaps worth pursuing... it's put into my sketchbook and I think I'll come back to it at some point!

In the meantime, I have a stack of painted fabrics to work with...

...and how is your art coming along?

One Good Thing Leads to Another!

 Isn't it fascinating how one art piece or part of one can lead down an interesting path in an entirely different and unexpected direction?

I've been working on a series titled The Industrial Shoreline, depicting scenes where shipping and other commercial interests meet the waters of our coastlines where mammals and sealife exist. The challenges of our urban environment are crossed against the industry of international shipping and the very really possibility of catastrophic accidents against our environment....

Along the Fraser

One constant feature of my artwork has been using marked fabrics over laid with paint for the sky. Often I will ask others to use markers and black paint to add their unique marks on the surface and then tone down the contrast with my own marks, this makes for a unique and vibrant background for the rest of the surface.

I usually cut these pieces into squares and rectangles and then sew them together to create a collage with incredible depth and texture. While I was constructing one of the "skies" I noticed the interesting marks and contrast of the back and thought they resembled shoreline, water and sky in themselves. 

A couple months ago I had assembled enough that I could look at them and figured out how to paint some watercolour paper, mounted the small squares on the paper and added stitch to create small land and seascapes. These pieces were a perfect addition to the 10 x 10 Show at the Ptarmigan Arts Gallery at Hope Bay, on now until March 7th. Let me know if you are interested in purchasing any of them!

Now I will also check the back of my painted and marked fabrics!

Spring at Brooks Point

Morning at Hope Bay

Through the Fog

DayBreak

I love the stitching part, so here's a closeup!

Waiting to Load - new work

In the midst of working with my Cloth to Codex Book Making Series I am also working on a continuing series titled The Industrial Shoreline. This series examines the commercial parts of our harbours where ships and cargo come and go - an essential part of international trade.

I've just completed Waiting to Load - my latest work which was inspired by photos I had taken during a boat tour of St. Johns Harbour in Newfoundland just over a year ago.
Here's the completed piece and the photos below:

My process began by creating the sky with a collage of my mark making fabrics that had been overpainted with white to subdue the contrast. These were sewn together to create a solid piece.

The wharf and buildings were added with fabric that had fusible web on the back, these were appliqued to a backing fabric once I was happy with the composition. The large dark piece at the bottom became the diagonal part of the wharf, that was the trickiest part, keeping the print vertical while cutting at an odd angle - I should have paid more attention during geometry!

The remainder of the buildings, the shipping containers and the water were added next. I did enjoy creating the water fabrics using my Shibori Shiraz method - it involves drinking a nice red vintage!

Now it's done, here are some closeups of different parts.....

Its fascinating to look for the details of cables and supports in the cranes - its all so complex!

Here's the water using my Shibori technique - it was fun to quilt it too!

The red shipping containers - I see some threads to clip - ooops!