Week 23 - in the Studio

There is a lot happening right now - spring into summer and hit the accelerator! I did spend a couple days at the Gathering the Threads Conference and Exhibition in the Cowichan Valley - I had fun as a student taking an Advanced Gel Printing workshop with west coast artist, Jennifer Love. It was lots of learning with several new techniques and methods of working, including how to clean my brayer with Murphy's Oil Soap. It seems like there's YouTube video for everything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J5fO3wj5w8

I had a shift in the local gallery and took a selfie with my art work in the background, I didn't realize that I actually matched the pieces with my glasses and a new top!

While working on my book covers I grabbed some scraps of canvas and painted circles with spare paint...I like the heaviness of this canvas (12 oz) and the combination of simplicity and interesting colours...I wonder why we are so attracted to circles as a universal symbol?

I found this quote: "The circle is an omnipresent, universal symbol with extensive meaning. Without beginning or end, without sides or corners this geometric shape tells about perfection, unity,spirituality and life like no other form." The author went even further - considering a variety of cultures and faith groups and quoting Pythagorus that "the circle is the most perfect shape - no beginning, no end, it is infinite and stands for both non-existence and eternity". The website is fascinating and worth a read: https://thoth-adan.com/blog/symbols-based-on-circles In fact, spend time exploring the website, you'll be glad you did!
Two treasures I've found this week: a pile of old sheet music ready for collage and other ideas and a walk on the beach produced a small collection of sea glass, do you see the little bit of blue pottery at the top?

My family came for a visit this past weekend and we spent a bit of time at the beach - I love the variety of textures that nature provides:

This coming week, I'll be prepping for an art show, stop by if you can!

More Mark Making....

Yesterday I spent at the Bowker Creek Brush Up as one of the artists. We were encouraged to demonstrate some art making and while I was all ready to do some sun printing, I was in a shady spot. So decided to spend my spare time on Mark Making onto my favourite Essex cloth, a blend of cotton and linen. While I worked with white fabric, several of the pieces will be overdyed. Maybe I should have come with some coloured pieces, oh well!
So here is what I accomplished, some will need more work.....

New Work - Circle Play

I've just finished the binding and sleeve on this quilt and I think the process was a first for me. Its the first time I've ever worked on one piece from the very start to the finish without picking up another project in between! I usually have several projects on the "go" and will work a bit on one and then a bit on another, perhaps its a bit of ADD that I cant focus on any one thing for too long!
Circle Play uses soy wax resist and Dye Na Flow paints and I loved the entire process. The design takes me back to elementary school with paper and crayons where I'd draw countless interlocking circles and then colour in between them.......50 years later and I'm still doing the same!

Sketchbook Idea-Circles

A lecture by Jane Dunnewold at the Washington SDA Symposium reminded me of some designs I had done in my sketchbook.
Jane discussed using imagery as a tool and how one can used limitless versions of an element or image to explore design.
I went back to my sketchbook and looked at some images I had used to make Thermofax screens. What I liked about these images is that while they are pretty much just textural, the shape, in this case, a circle, is what defines them, not by a line around to enclose but rather the empty space around to frame them. The negative or open space surrounding them takes on more importance than one might suppose.
This is a great exercise to try-find a simple shape to work with and draw it as a faint line in pencil. Fill the shape with marks such as dots, wiggles, straight or crosed lines. Erase the pencil lines and see the images emerge. What can you develop?