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.

Limestone

As a dyer I  depend on sodium carbonate to activate the Procion dyes I use. And as I looked through my photo collection today it was easy to see how dependent I am on the inspiration of limestone -- calcium carbonate. My chemist father would be proud of me for noticing the familial similarity.

"Sodium carbonate (also known as washing soda or soda ash), Na₂CO₃, is a sodium salt of carbonic acid. It most commonly occurs as a crystaline heptahydrate which readily effloresces to form a white powder, the monohydrate. It has a cooling alkaline taste, and can be extracted from the ashes of many plants. It is produced artificially in large quantities from common salt." (from Wikipedia)

"Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound, with chemical formula CaCO₃. It is commonly used medicinally as a calcium supplement or as an antacid. Calcium carbonate is the active ingredient in agricultural lime. It is a common substance found as rock in all parts of the world and is the main component of seashells and the shell of snails. It is usually the principle cause of hard water." (from Wikipedia)

 Here are some examples of the latter:

 

 

If you have a great photo of limestone in nature or limestone in architecture, send it to me at susiemonday@sbcglobal.net and I will include it and a credit for your photo in a followup post.

Changes

The seasons are blurring. Summer into something not quite summer. Fall is illusive elusive in South Texas, but a little cold front, and finally a little blessed rain, have signed their names on the calendar. This is our most poignant season, with all the beauty of spring, but the edges are ragged after heat, and, this year especially, the dry, dry, dry days of summer.