Fiber Arts Exhibit at Gallery Nord

This art cloth of mine received second place honors;

In the Midst, In Memory of Dr. Israel Cuellar

Fiber Artists of San Antonio opened its annual exhibition last night at Gallery Nord on N.W. Military Hwy. The space is really a wonderful venue and the work is up to the arena this year. I am amazed at the beauty and power of the show, and feel so blessed to be part of a group with so much creativity, skill and imagination. Linda Rael and Lisa Kerpoe were the co-chairs and worked with diligence to make the event run smoothly. Taking top honers: Mary Ann Johnson with a bearutiful surface designed and stitched wall piece. Sorry MA, I don't have a picture of it yet! Lisa Mittler, Laura Beehler, and Laurie Brainerd also won awards.

Janet and Linda Rael during the awards ceremony. Linda and Lisa, too.

Janet Lasher stepped in as juror after Kim Ritter had to bow out after suffering damage to her home and studio during Hurricane Ike. We were fortunate that Janet was in town and had all the credentials a group could desire in a judge. Her task was not an easy one, but the show she selected is quite a good representation of the breadth of work being done in the organization.

Rather than chatter on about the work, I'm just going to post some photos, and let you see for yourselves. I think I have all the names and some of the titles down, but even without that info, you'll see the breadth of work. Forgive me if I didn't get your work on the blog yet, I need to return to take some more photos when fewer people are in front of the work! 

Suzanne Cooke's The Girl in the Mirror

To the left, one of Linda Rael's art dolls and on the right, handbags by Diane Barney.

Two more of my pieces, Shaman/Crucifixion and She Steps.

Diane Sandlin's art quilt Sunset at Chaco Canyon

Sarah Burke's Jagged Edge Bowl (Sarah has been one of my students and this is the first show she entered!)

Dian Lamb's Heavenly Flashlight (sorry this one is a bit blurry --  I'll reshoot it)

Laurie Brainard's Dance, one of the award winners.

If you are anywhere near SA this month, take the time to see  the exhibition. You won't be sorry!

Up on the Majestic Mountain

 

 

Just a quick note until I get my long-promised e-newsletter together this week. The beautiful Majestic Ranch Arts Foundation will host a weekly fiber arts class this summer -- hopefully continuing throughout the year. I'll be there for the first six weeks, then Lisa Kerpoe , with her incredible eye for color and art cloth, will teach the second of two sessions.

The Majestic Ranch is located at the top of a spectacular hilltop about 5  miles from El Cielo (as the crow flies!), on State Highway 46 between Boerne and Hwy. 16 to Pipe Creek and Bandera. It's a pretty convenient location for those living in Boerne, Kerrville,  Bandera, Helotes -- and for those in the city who would like a little country respite each week. For more information, click through on the links above. I hope some of you will be able to take advantage of this wonderful setting and the studio fun with fiber.  

New Web Site -- in Progress

 

Help! I earnestly request that my  subscribers and readers click this link

NEW GALLERY WEB SITE 

and give me feedback, suggestions, corrections, ideas for what's missing, and any other critique you'd like to contribute to my new gallery site-in-progress. Since I am designing the site with iweb and publishing it on .mac, I particularly want to know how it works on PC platforms and on browsers other than Firefox. I won't switch my public domain, www.susiemonday.com until I've done a bit more work, but it's ready for some outside eyes.

There is still an enormous amount to do to get the site where I want it to be, but with this much done and published, I feel like I have met my Artist Breakthrough Program goal of developing the site by April 1. With your help, I can take the next steps to  fatten it out with more content, better edited photos, and additional pages during the next 3 weeks leading up to my sale at Fiesta Arts Fair, April 19-20.

A few specific questions:

Do the live hyperLINKS need to be a more distinct color?

Is it too weird to have the tense go from third to first person (home page to gallery pages)? And if so, which should it be ?

Should I have a more formal bio/resume page?

Should I have more or fewer pictures on each of the galleries? Should I subdivide more or combine them? Do I include prices? Size? Media? More description for each photo on the gallery page and then NOT include it on the slideshow?

What other pages do you think I should include?

Does the design and format look enough like my blog to have a consistent style? Any suggestions on visual "branding"?

Any other ideas? Really, I need them. If you don't want to leave a personal comment, email me by sending a message to susiemonday@gmail.com (you do have my new email, right?). 

More Soy, More Fun

 

Soy you want ta make some pretty cloth?

Sorry, I couldn't resist. I have been fighting technology all day, and making bad puns seems to be the only way I can get back on the sunny side.

Things were a lot more fun this weekend at the Soy Batik workshop at the Southwest School of Art and Craft. Eight participants attended, most of them from outside of San Antonio, and only one person was an APKTM (Artist Previously Known to Me). We were up to our eyeballs in dye and wax and the place reeked like a Chinese restaurant from all that soy wax. (One of the things I miss about beeswax is its luxurious scent. But I don't miss the hasstle of removing it from fabric, as opposed to the hot-water wash required by soy wax.) I think everyone did splendidly, but I always think that, because they do. This group of artists were particularly eager, experimental, able to take an idea and fly with it. Teaching is one of my true delights in life. I share with the "students" all over again the pleasure of the techniques, the sensory joy of the materials, when I see how others react to their "first time" at something new. That seems particularly true with hot wax and painted dye. The colors can't help but make your day.

Marta from Del Rio works on a watery swirl -- inspired perhaps by the creek that will be the focus of an art and science project this year in her home town. She and Linda (in back) are spearheading an exciting study at their art center, housed in the old Fire House.

Here's a sampling of work in progress. I left my camera at home on the second day, so I am waiting to receive promised photos from the participants. Unfortunately some of the emails I collected are impossible to decifer, others are just wrong, so I hope the magnificent 8 involved will see this post and send me the pics.

 

Roberto took a particularly adventurous hands-on course. He gave us all recipe calendars from his sales merchandising -- Nestle's Mexican product line -- La Lechera.  Take my word for it, the Dulce de Leche is fabulous.

 

 

One of Sharon's pieces in progress -- doesn't this look like a fabulous magic carpet? 

Hearts and Journals

 

Button, button, whose got the button? I've been making these little stuffed heart milagros, embellished with vintage buttons. The ones I'm using were gifts from my friend Zet, and a few others that I've picked up  and stashed away. But now I need more, since I want to sell these at the Love and IndepenDance sale coming up at Joan Grona gallery on February 21 and 22. I did have them (as well as some art cloth journal covers) for sale at the Federation conference -- a last-minute sales idea that recovered the cost of my room and meals on the road! ($22.00.)

Coincidentally, Linda's niece sent me a link today to this Austin artist Malka Dubrawski  and one of her posts (see January 3) showed the buttons she had bought at a nearby junk and treasure's shop. I am jealous, so I guess it might be time to look locally for some junky shops -- buttons are rarely available at my usual thrift store haunts. So, dear readers, if you know of some shops for me to check, please leave a comment. Or better yet, send me 20 buttons and I will send you a heart!

Here are a few of the journal covers:

  

StoneMetal Press Reception Tonight

 

Remember this soy-wax printed whole cloth little quilt?

The three pieces I featured recently on this blog will be on exhibit at StoneMetal Press in the San Antonio Blue Star Arts Complex for the next six weeks, through March 21. An artist's reception for "All in the FIbers" curated by Jane Bishop is tonight from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. and I'll be there with some of my artist friends who also have work in the show. Tomorrow, First Friday, will also feature an opening event as part of the usual First Friday phenomenon -- I'll miss that since I will be in Plano (near Dallas) for the annual Federation of Fiber Artists conference. Stonemetal Press is a gallery/printmaking center with an emphasis (as you might surmise from its name) on printing, and this exhibit features printmaking on fiber surfaces.

For  more information contact the gallery at

StoneMetal Press

Printmaking Center

First Floor, Bldg B

Blue Star Art Complex

1420 South Alamo
San Antonio, TX 78210
210-227-0312

The Art Cloth Network Wants You*

 

*If  you have a passion for making art cloth, like small group networking, and see a trip to New Jersey in your future!

With roots deeply imbedded in the fertile soil of fine craftsmanship, art cloth encourages the entwining of branches that include traditional women's work, high fashion and historical textile processes like batik, shibori and African mudcloth.

Art Cloth pays homage to all of these but synthesizes them in a specifically contemporary way. The cloth becomes an object with a rightful existence as itself. These one of a kind lengths tell stories, challenge perceptions and invite contemplation. Like all good works of art, they refresh, renew or challenge, every time they are encountered.                                                                     from an essay by Jane Dunnewold

The deadline is coming up for Art Cloth Network membership applications -- February 15 -- and I just realized that although I had sent the notice out on line and onto various lists, I had not actually put a dedicated post on the blog.  There's still time if you are interested in making and learning more about making art cloth to send in an application. You need not be an expert, but you do need a desire to make art cloth as a genre unto itself, and you will need a few shots of fabric to use in your applications. New members are being sought to fill few vacant spots in this group limited to 25 members, nation wide. We propose and produce exhibitions dedicated to art cloth, maintain a website and meet about every 9 months for wrangling, sharing, teaching, learning and having a stimulating and interesting meeting. Because of the size of the group, and our intention to serve as supportive peers to one another, the face-to-face gatherings have proved essential to really getting benefit from the organization. Applicants for this round of membership must commit to attending the next meeting, Sept. 4-7 in New Brunswick, N.J.

Second commercial message: If you are in the San Antonio area -- or need a midwinter vacation -- and want to add a technique to your surface design tool box, I will be teaching a soy wax workshop at the Southwest School of Art and Craft on February . The piece at the beginning of this post, and the one at the end  both use soy wax screenprinting and soy wax batik to create their fluid and richly layered imagery. Register by going to the school's link

Spend two days using the latest hot wax techniques to make beautiful multicolored fabrics. The use of soy wax eliminates many of the environmental concerns of using the traditional solvent-soluble wax, because it can be washed out with hot soapy water. Special techniques allow the application of several colors of dye at once. Bring 3 yards of natural fiber fabric (cotton, silk, rayon or linen), an assortment of brushes and stamping tools, and discover your own vocabulary of marks and patterns.

 

Workshops in 2008

 

I've finalized my El Cielo schedule through August -- now all I need is to get the word out. These workshop-retreats are filling faster and faster, and that's good news for the studio and my larder, but I love doing them and hate to cancel, and hope that having the schedule published a bit earlier will let more people participate. So, all you loyal readers, help me spread the word by passing along a link to my schedule -- I'll post this all on the WORKSHOP PAGE within the next couple of days. I can accommodate out-of-town (meaning outside of San Antonio) participants on Friday nights even for the workshops that aren't two-nighters, that's one of the benefits of flying or driving in. Let me know if you have any questions, either on the comments here or in an email to susiemonday@sbcglobal.net. Here's the body copy, the borchure looks better, but I haven't had much luck attaching it here as a pdf. More learning to do!

Susie Monday leads workshops and artists’ retreats throughout the year at her studio near Pipe Creek, Texas, about an hour from downtown San Antonio. Designed to nurture the creativity of beginning artists as well as professionals, each participant comes away from a weekend with renewed energy, new  materials and techniques in surface design applicable to fiber, ceramics, jewelry, painting and mixed media work. El Cielo Studio workshops are designed with the needs of the participants in mind;  free time is scheduled throughout the weekend for reading, reflection and personal work in the studio. You are welcome to bring projects in process for Susie’s critique and for peer feedback in an environment of trust and respect. You’ll share meals, poetry and stories, mu- sic and advice for living an artist’s life. Enjoy the 25-mile vistas from the deck and strolls down the country roads. A spa and pool, and large screen media room are also available to participants. The fee for each workshop retreat is $160 for each  2-day event with $10 discount for early enrollment. Comfortable accommodations are available from $15 -  $30 a night . Some workshops offer a Friday night potluck option. Limited enrollment - 7-8 participants.

 ARTIST’S JOURNEY/ARTIST’S JOURNAL

January 11-12-13, 2008
Friday evening, Saturday & SundayThe new year is time to reflect, to reevaluate, to set new actions and new rituals into motion, to make new habits. This retreat will enrich your creative path through the year’s start, and, with some persistence, into the next. Designed for the fiber artist, book artist and anyone interested in journaling as a tool for creative growth, reflection and inspiration. Whether or not you consider yourself an “Artist,”  these projects in mixed media collage, a personal card deck, and an altered book will intrigue. On the optional Friday evening, mixed media artist Suzanne Cooke will guide us through the process of making a Coptic bound handmade paper journal, just the tool to take you through the first month of notes and sketches. This binding was invented in early Christian Egypt and its particular advantage is that the book lies flat when opened,; perfect  for writing or decorating as a journal.

THE HEART OF ART

February 9-10, 2008
Saturday & Sunday
Romance your creative self with a focus on heart energy. Try your hand at mixed-media valentines to yourself, chocolate as edible art, and heart chakra mediations and movement to inspire an art cloth scapular  as heart armor/amor.

CALLING ALL ARCHETYPES

March 7-9, 2008
Friday evening to Sunday
Explore the inner team that keeps you going, makes a difference and sometimes holds you back from your best life. Create a unique fiber art quilt altar to one of the archetypes. learning fusing techniques. Suitable for all levels, great for those  beginning an art journey. Note: Friday night is an optional evening potluck and stayover for a small additional fee of $10.

SOMETHING SPECIAL: Workshop in Tuscany

March 16-22 in Lucca, Italy.
Susie and Carol Ikard (director of the Texas Fiber Arts Museum and writer/researcher) will lead a week of fiber art and creativity in the mountains of Tuscany. Explore the colors, textures, natural history and traditions -- including a cooking class, visits to Florence and more. Email susie at susiemonday@sbcglobal.net for brochure, price and info. OR you can go directly to the registration site at  http://www.abbondanzatoscana.com  

WORDS ON THE SURFACE

May 9-11, 2008
Friday evening to Sunday
Experiment with different ways to use written language, letters and text on surface of fabric for application in  the making of art cloth, art quilts and art-to-wear. By putting your ideas and your personal vision into your work, you will deepen your own expression of your individual voice, finding words that are important to you. Using your story in a quite literal way can be part of personal expression and powerful art. This is a repeat of one of Susie’s popular workshop with some a few new exercises.

ALSO IN 2008:

WORDS FOR THE WHOLE  CLOTH

April 11-12, 2008
Friday evening  & Saturday
(no overnight stay)
Bring to the Friday evening workshop at Gemini Ink four or five photos of people, places, and experiences that are important to your life: images from childhood, a memorable vacation, vintage photos of ancestors, your quinceañera or bat mitzvah, anything that moves you. Led by Susie Monday, you’ll translate the photos into powerful moodscapes, capturing even intangibles that don’t show up in the pictures. Next morning, pack a sack lunch and join Monday at her El Cielo Studio near Bandera. There you’ll combine your photos and your writing with textile dyes, paints, photo transfers and other surface design techniques to create your own unique fiber art piece ready for hanging. Fee to Gemini Ink: $65/member; $75/non-member. NOTE: Saturday, April 12 fiber art workshop at El Cielo Studio is a separate fee payable to Susie, 10 am – 4 pm, is $70 & $15 supply kit.

SUMMER DATES:

CREATIVE JUMPSTART

June 21-22

FOOL MOON/FULL MOON

July 18-20

BURNING WOMAN WORKSHOP

August 9-10

WHAT PARTICIPANTS SAY ABOUT SUSIE’S CLASSES & WORKSHOPS:

“There was a good balance between thinking, processing and working ... you are good at letting people work at their own pace.”  
“Excellent accommodations; exquisite food!”
“I like the spirituality aspect--it drew the group together as a family for two days.”
“Great class, it was just what I needed right now. I have been in a creative slump, questioning what I do and how I do it. The exercises we did this weekend were freeing on the one hand, but will also help me focus.”
“Your workshops are ALWAYS money well spent.  I learned techniques I have read about but never tried ... I also now feel confident that I can make art quilts!”

Susie Monday can teach at your studio, guild or art center. Any workshop listed here can be adapted to your audience. Other topics available as well. She also accepts commissions and can plan private retreats at her studio for you and your friends. For more information, call 210.643.2128 or email susiemonday@sbcglobal.net

iki (いき, often written 粋)

 

I've been trying to figure out how to better describe my approach to artcloth. Improvisational is OK, but taken. And all of my methodologies aren't precisely improvisational -- I intend to print an image at times -- I just like it to fuzz away under and over and beyond some of the other surface aspects. And I don't care a lot about how precise the placement or even the coverage is. Maybe its pure and simple laziness, but if so, I am trying to take the trait and push it into a positive attribute! And I am not so interested in making something elegant as I am in making it tell some kind of quirky story.

So I was taken by the discussion of a Japanese concept called "iki," on one of John Maeda's blogs (this a new photo blog on Technology Review).

"Nozomi and I chatted about the strange "fuzzy logic" fad in Japan of the early 1990s, when it was not uncommon to see a "fuzzy logic vacuum cleaner" or a "fuzzy logic rice cooker" on sale in the Akihabara electronics district of Tokyo. The premise is quite simple: instead of encoding values as numbers, ranges of numbers are tagged as having membership association with a word. Words are such great containers of knowledge.

Nozomi suggested that our conversation was essentially about iki (pronounced "ee-kee"). It's something to do with inexactness and openness but all in all "the right fit" to a complex issue. Although it's difficult to comprehend, I totally got it. I guess iki is iki too."

What do you think? I love the part about inexactness and yet, "the right fit." As the wikipedia link above shows, iki is related to wabi-sabi, but unlike that aesthetic term and concept, has more modern and current useage in Japan.

 

I love this part of the definition:

An iki thing/situation would be simple, improvised, straight, restrained, temporary, romantic, ephemeral, original, refined, inconspicuous, etc. An iki person/deed would be audacious, chic, pert, tacit, sassy, unselfconscious, calm, indifferent, unintentionally coquettish, open-minded, restrained, etc.

An iki thing/person/situation cannot be perfect, artistic, arty, complicated, gorgeous, curved, wordy, intentionally coquettish, or cute

I am not sure but that my life, not just my work, aims for iki. Course there is that unfortunate cross-meaning and slightly different pronunciation.

Looking and reading further reveals a whole host of information about iki, and it will be interesting to study further. Just a glance revealed that "I am iki" is an impossible statement, and the following in a Master's thesis by Yamamoto Yuji gives me pause -- I think my work is too complexly textured layered to adopt iki as a descriptor, even if I thought anyone would know what I meant.

Other examples of spontaneous manifestations of iki include the locution of casual conversation, a
certain posture, dressing in a gauzy cloth, a slim body, a slender face, light makeup, simple hairstyle,
going barefoot etc, suggesting how innocuous everyday phenomena emit iki. On the other hand, works
of art can be iki, but their “artfulness” makes them rather difficult to be iki.

At any rate it is an interesting idea to ponder. Tanslated concepts are a rich gift of living in such a connnected world. 

 

All three of the photos on this post are examples of some recent artcloth. Each of them is pretty small -- the largest is about 40" long and they were are created as demo samples during my recent workshops on scraps of cotton and old sheeting. Now the challenge will be to find the same feeling and get the same qualities on larger pieces of fabric, maybe even on silk.  The first two were monoprinted with dye and/or textile paint. Then soy wax batiked with both handpainted wax and with a soy wax silkscreen. The purple and yellow piece was first layered with brown and pale blue with a deconstructed silkscreen, then soy wax batiked with a soy wax silkscreen (the same screen used on the other two pieces). I really like the batik quality one gets with the soywax screen -- I think its an interesting faux batik look that goes well with a direct waxed process on top or under. One gets the repetition of the screening process, with the overall compositional quality and layering of color of the batik. Now, just finding time and emotional focus to do some bigger pieces! iki or not.

Another, less layers, but done with the soy wax screen and thickened dye:

 

Arizona Artcloth

Just a few pics -- general to show the set up more than the specific gorgeous art. I suggest you go to the Artcloth Network site to see good images of the art cloth from the members. The show did hang beautifully and the gallery looked splendid. From left to right, you'll see work by these artists ...

 

Carol Larson, Sue Jones (2), Lynn Harris, Darcy Love (2), Barbara Schneider, above. 

And also:

From another angle, adding Katherine Sylvan, and out front, my "Mended" piece.

 

"Mended" again, then one of Wrenn Slocum's pixilated pieces, and a corner of Susan Ettl's "The Devil's Highway"

Below, a better shot of Susan's piece. 

 

 

This is a shot of my installation of "Desert Fence."  Drat, trying to get the light right on these three pieces of cloth was a challenge unmet!

Lush Celebration

 

Celebration Circle is my spiritual home -- not a church, but church like, we are a group of seekers and path-finders who come from a diverse group of religious and spiritual backgrounds. This little piece is for the group's annual altar silent auction at the Bijou Theater at Crossroads shopping center in San Antonio. It's on a frame provided by Celebration that is the shared format for all the artists who participate. We donate our work, with the option of keeping a portion of the bid price received by Celebration Circle. I consider this gift part of my tithe to the community. Since moving to the country, we don't make the hour trek into the city often on Sunday mornings, but in my heart I know that all my friends there would be at my side if I needed them and I honor my connection to the group and to all my friends who are part of it.

This piece uses a little sample drawing/painting I made in one of the classes I taught last year -- it is mixed media, including craft dimensional paints, Shiva oil sticks, oil pastel, stitching and machine quilting. The outside strips are pieced from a scarf that didn't quite work out -- beautiful silk charmeuse with textile paint screen printed with my pomegranates. The title is "Lush," and it is an altar/offering and celebration of  the lush abundance of the universe, as juicy as a ripe pear, as full of jewels as a ripe pomegranate. Gratitude sounds like such a mushy topic, but I find it the key to equilibrium and preserverence. (Dispite my last whining post.)

 The auction and reception will run Tuesday, Oct. 4  through the month, and you can bid during any of those days. The closing reception, plus a special screening of a film will be Sunday, N0vember 4. You can see examples of last year's altars on the CC website and when the show opens, this year's altars will be featured. (I'll be sending a reminder  and details of the event out on this blog, but couldn't resist showing "Lush" in this little preview, since I worked on it yesterday after the FASA meeting.)

Rusted

 

Raining again. What in the world has happened to South Texas weather. Rather than wither, we are molding up and melting. Well, perhaps appropriately, here are some rusted cloth images from some of my work and some of the Burning Women's work.

My recipe, (such that it is):

Find rusty stuff or metal thingies.

Spread out a large thick sheet of polyethelene drop cloth on the  caliche driveway. Put down a damp layer of fabric (my favorites lately have been cotton gauze).

Arrange or randomly toss on the rusty and metal objects. Sprinkle with canning salt. Put down another layer of fabric, repeat as desired.

Once the sandwich is complete, spray with household vinegar  or if the sandwich is really thick, just pour a gallon of vinegar over the entire thing.

Top with another layer of dropcloth and weight the edges with rocks. Gingerly walk around on top of the whole thing on and off for a day or a couple of days (I wear my Crocks to insure nothing cuts through). Preferably with hot steamy weather. If really dry I may roll back the top plastic and spray it all again with water).

When I can't wait any longer, peel it apart, wash the fabrics in the washing machine and make sure none of the nails or screws got loose in the driveway. (Guess why I do this now. $120 tire emergency later.)

Overdye fabrics as desired. (PS. I have also been known to pour fairly dilute dye into the whole sandwich, especially when I am using silk, the vinegar works as the catalyst and the dyes mix with the rust for some interesting colors.) 

Detail from "Desert 2" a large installation piece that will be at the Tubac Art Center this fall. (The image at the top of this blog is also part of that piece.) Both these details also include some textile paint printing using a thermofax.

Sue Cooke's study from the Burning Woman Workshop in July. 

Continuous, Continual

How do you work in a series? Or do you? Why or why not? And what makes it a series?

I see some individual works of art -- in many different media -- that intrigue and interest me, make me want a continuing conversation with that artist. But then, I look further, and I can't get a hold of what is going on. I can't find the path and I want more than one stepping stone for the journey. I strongly believe that commiting to one (or a few) clear paths is an important decision toward having one's work taken seriously out there in the broader art world.

And yet I know the challenge of working and reworking a theme or image or technique with the fear that someone will say, "Hasn't she done that already?"  or even worse, being bored with it myself or doubting my loyalty to a theme or direction that is played out.

My solution recently (say the last couple of years) has been to work in several series simultaneously -- each of which has its own direction, but has some distinction, some major differing factor, from other work. So far it works for me, though I'm not sure how it works for "marketing."   Some of what I do is about the medium itself: I still want to do some art cloth for art cloth's sake -- yardage that isn't about being cut up and used for anything, fabric that exists as form enough. Right now I am continuing to make my wooden frame shaped altares, each house shaped, but I still dip back and forth on subject matter. I have one series of smaller pieces that include photographic images of the Hill Country (the Borderlands series) and I still continue to explore the image of feminine sacred icons. And now, my mermaids are really taking flight (and falls).

 But what about you? How do you work in a series?

All Natural - Not

OK. I can't do two things at once. Like take photos and teach a technique.  I forgot. Sort of. Anyway, here are three snaps taken during the rock-dyeing, with my examples, the rock and one teaching shot.

What we did:

Wrap and rubberband silk scarflets around different sizes and shapes of limestone rocks.

Paint each piece with low-water dye mixtures, using Procion MX dyes that are mixed colors -- rust brown, Chinese red,  bright green, rust brown were the choices I premixed with a soda ash solution.

Microwave for 2 minutes.

Unwrap and wash, revealing interesting shapes, textures and colors. 

 

All Natural

Living here makes it natural. This weekend I'll be sharing techniques that start with nature, both as literal material and content for making artcloth -- form and process. The occasion is two short workshops that are part of a fundraising event for the Hill Country Arts Foundation in Ingram, Texas, near Kerrville. The event: Art for Artists. I will be one of about 20 area artists who will lead demos and share work with supporters and community members. This workshop is primarily an opportunity for me to meet people in the area and to reach people who might want to attend one of my workshop retreats this next year.

 

Here's the rundown -- I'll post examples and photos thoughout the weekend,  creating, I hope, the first of a series of on-line demos and semi "live events." So check in when you can, and see if I have managed to pull it off.

 The demos and hand-on sampler sessions I plan for each of the two hour workshops are:

Using limestone rocks as resists for microwave dyeing

Printing fabric with pressed leaves using textile inks

Setacolor solar printing using natural objects and textures to develop imagery and layering of colors

So much for nature as content and medium-- but within this context, I want to remind the artists -- and myself  -- to look, listen and experience this thing we call nature, as if it were outside and objective, instead of the inner tide that is running the show.

 

This beautiful fall weather is time to connect, to own and be owned by wind and sun and earth. To be in and of the living beat of the world. All the techniques in the paint box, in the art store, in the schoolroom and studio don't turn us into artists. We become artists when we breathe.

HeArtCloth Quarterly

The fourth wonderful issue of HeArtCloth Quarterly has been posted at Art Cloth Studios. This subscription-based magazine/journal/communize from Jane Dunnewold is on my must-have list of studio resources. Jane's teaching style and generosity come through with grace; the articles by other contributors and gallery sections of guest artists always introduce me to someone new, something intriguing, some way to look at the work I do differently. I get to know a burgeoning international community of those who love to make beautiful fabrics  --- all on one or more of the 50-odd pages that make up each issue (by the way, advertising-free). 

Jane always also includes work or words or both by least one YOUNG artist  -- sometimes I feel a bit stranded in my own generation and these features from art schools provide refreshing voices and also help me to feel that while I may be aging, the work I love has connection and relevance to artists of all ages -- and that there are still people coming along who want to work with their hands, hearts and the one-of-a-kind tactile art that gets me going.

 So, if you buy  only one fiber related book a year, this would get my vote. Click here for a few sample pages, and subscription information -- and while you are at the site, don't forget to check out the other offerings, essays and information.

Art Cloth in Atlanta

To be more specific -- Decatur.  This once-upon-a-time small southern town is in the eastern part of the greater Atlanta sprawl, on the MARTA line, so still quite linked to the Peachtree heart of the city. Still, squint, and you might just be in one of Carson McCullers' stories. The old courthouse (now a history museum) governs the square with a sense of proper Southern decorum, and a passel of cafes and interesting shops gather round her skirts.

The ArtCloth Network met here this weekend with 15 women artists of the 27-member group on hand: Sharing work, eating, walking, lives, trading resources and sources -- a generous gathering. All of us are, in one way or another, dedicated to the idea that fabric yardage, created through various surface design techniques, should be considered art in and of itself. without having to be quilted (even as a whole cloth quilt), turned into a garment, pieced or stretched or displayed in an installation. Not that many of us don't do one or more of those things upon occasion, or even often. However, as espoused by this group and other artists in the field, cloth as art can be just that.

One would think that with so many anecdotal stories about cloth that is "just too..." to cut, stories one hears about almost any fabric junkie's stash, that such an art form has earned validity. But many exhibition venues, jurors, curators and even other fiber artists devoted to their particular art forms don't agree on this. The Art Cloth Network is just one such gathering of fellow travelers interested in promoting this idea, through education, exhibition and discussion. So, what do you think? Can artist dyed/screened/embellished/textured/painted/etc yardage be art or is it still unfinished until utilized in another art form? What makes it art?

Whatever the debate's outcome, here are a few snippets of images and ideas from the weekend sessions, in no particular order. (My photos were erratic at best, so pardon to those in attendance for quality and/or missing your piece/s.) ALL artwork is copyrighted by the artist and images should not be used without permission.

Lynn Harris's felted stitchwork and recycled tablelinens

 

Rayna Gillman's found-object soy batik

 

 Wrenn Slocum's pixilated woods, fashioned from one-inch squares of acid dyed silk, flowing like water


 

 

Katherine Sylvan's dashingly sensual silk art cloth and scarves, using vat dyes, and also imagery based on arial view landscapes

  

Linda Campbell's weaving experiments, and her plans for folded fabric art cloth

Susan Ettl's desert inspired dyeing and art quilts using art cloth 

Maggie Weiss's layered cloth with images that visually produce the sound of water over river stones

 

 Sue Copeland Jones' deconstructed screenprinting with oak leaves, and sewing rediscovered

 

Peggy Sexton's dangerous plants and dangerous women installation ideas

 

Darcy Love's natural histories on cloth 

 

Jan Giroud's color studies

 

Judy Langille's strong compositional studies, layers upon layers of torn paper shapes and dye printing

  

 We worked on future plans, tied up the ideas for a couple of exhibition proposals, and traded stories about our lives as artists, business owners, students and teachers, mothers and daughters, wives and lovers. Stories tie us together and keep us sane, with the knowledge that we are not lonestrangers, but community in the making -- even when it happens in fits and starts, with disappointments and discouraging news, with jurors who don't get it and exhibit proposals that don't get accepted, members who move on leaving gaps, new members who haven't quite checked in. Still, we humans seem to need and heed this kind of coming together, and isn't it nice that in this time and with these women, the comings and goings are so broadly defined, so geographically and culturally rich.

Dye Stuff

History comes alive for me through personal meaning, so even though the prose is rather dense and dry, I found the information in A History of the International Dyestuff Industry to be worth slogging through. I knew that Procion MX dyes, those most of us artful dyers use, were fairly new, more of the postwar explosion of chemical tinkering (and one of the more benevolent). Here's an excerpt that pinpoints the official birthday:

March 1956 was the centenary of the discovery of Perkin's mauve, and the event was celebrated, like the fiftieth anniversary, by international gatherings in London and New York. Appropriately, the ICI Dyestuffs Division marked the event with the announcement of the first successful fiber reactive dye, reacting chemically with the fiber to form covalent bonds. These exceptionally fast dyes became the first of the Procion range, ideal for cotton dyeing (Procion Yellow R, Procion Brilliant Red 2B, and Procion Blue 3G)....

Today, the fiber reactive dyes are available in a wide range of shades, are extremely brilliant, are wetfast, and can be applied economically. They were originally applied to wool, but the dyeing performance does not match that on cellulose. In Japan, for example, fiber reactive dyes account for over half of the colorants used for cellulosic fibers.

Actually, the earlier dye history is more interesting, with more details about the actual people involved, and the article includes some wonderful old engravings of dye machinery and technology. Thanks to the wonderful Layers of Meaning blog for this link. And thanks to the unknown chemists who have given us such wonderful colorants -- and all the chemical surprises possible on the cloth. (P.S. Another benefit from reading this article is the incentive  it provides for us to use proper safety procedures when handling dyes in studio -- all those nicely scary chemical formulas pointing to long-chain organic chemicals!)

The photo above shows Els van Baarle at a recent workshop, where she taught us methods of using layers of Procion MX dyes with hot wax batik to create richly nuanced color and texture.

Lambent Thoughts

More about Laura Beehler's art cloth "Lambent Thoughts."

This piece consists of layered silk organza created with deconstructed screen printing, stencil printing, paint stick and colored pencil. Here's what Laura has to say about the piece and her process:

"'Lambent Thoughts' evolved during a period where I was having problems concentrating on any one project or thought as there were so many to deal with. My thoughts were jumbled and on a rampage through my mind. 'Lambent Thoughts' became the fleeting glimmer of thought that streamed in and out of my mind. Just beyond my grasp to hold on to and solidify the thought.

"My work has evolved from very timid and shy to the reckless abandonment of preconceived ideas. It has become very intuitive and spontaneous with my next steps guided by what is taking place on the fabric. In my current body of work I use a deconstructed screen method which is applying dye to screens, letting it dry in the screen and then releasing it onto the fabrics. This gives me an unplanned array of colors, marks and textures that are very organic in nature. I let the cloth guide me as I lay down additional marks to accent and enhance the emerging story.

"I continue to work with lengths of fiber and the application of dyes through various screens to apply color and design to the fibers. There seems to be endless, unpredictable possiblilites with this technique and I have many areas that have not yet been explored."

Deconstructed screen printing is a open-ended and spontaneous technique for letting the cloth and imagery lead the way. This meeting of mind and technique is what makes Laura's work sing for me. Her willingness to follow the imagery as is develops on the page is like watching someone wander onto a path along a beautiful coastline or along a mountain ridge.