Author: arlee

I am a Canadian textile artist in Calgary, Alberta. As textile artists, we connect and are connected to communities larger than our Selves, or our immediate environs. We encapsulate culture, technique, history and innovation every time we touch cloth.
Posted in "Love is the Answer" collaborative project, in progress, Not so ordinaries, Shows/Publications, Work 2018

“Love is the Answer” project, part 2

Posted on by arlee

March 7/18:

(As i mentioned before, these entries will all be posted when my part of the project is done, but are dated at the time written. For reference to previous thoughts, see Part 1 and posts following this one by clicking on “Love is the Answer collaborative project” under the entry.)

Most of us have a personal symbol system, whether motif, shape, object, colour or even stitch, that marks our work, makes it ours and is ultimately satisfying. Mine are anatomical (hearts, brain, spine/bones) or nature inspired (bees/roots/branches/moons), and the hexagon shape, quite ubiquitous in a lot of my work. Hexagons, in my lexicon, are cells, microscopic flora and fauna, hives, memories, all symbolizing at a basic level, connectivity.

While most of my personal symbols would probably work within the context of this collaborative project, i feel the heart and hexagons would be the most appropriate. Heart and connectivity are most definitely parts of love, in all of its platonic, romantic, pantheistic and spiritual permutations. It’s these components that make it work, in my books. And that is where Respect starts, as Love is Respect.

For this, i wanted to use the really abstracted drawings of the way the heart’s “electrical” current flows. This was a pre-cursor to that (from 2006!).

I had started a new project/idea in January of this year (after correcting the placement of that left side hand!):

Went nowhere with it….

BUT. Those hands and what about with an abstracted heart?????

I liked this sketch,

 

and thought to make it a bit more story telling, a heart’s current over the entire world. (This is a somewhat artistic rendering of the actual heart current, abstracted and more ornamental, but it does represent the real thing. Because i have heart issues, i do a lot of research 🙂 )

Sept 29/18: A version of that sketch will go on this:

Oct:    And i finished the “back” for this pennant, though i suppose there is no front or back, no “right” or “wrong” side to this project, as Mo is suspending them from very evocative armature.

 

 

Posted in Jam Day, oak

gah, winter is here

Posted on by arlee

Really, we have had very little autumn this year!

Good thing i collected the last of the oak leaves yesterday! Hopefully we will have a melt because i still want leaves from the cottonwood/poplars.

Today, i’ve filled up the bird feeder, put out their suet blocks, and shaken some apples off the tree for the deer and squirrels. Part of the tracks in that snowy photo are the deer wandering through the patio area 🙂 I’ll shake the snow off those bowed down raspberries, because the deer love them too! I’ve already been out getting it off that crabapple so it doesn’t snap the power line to the garage. And the dog can’t make up her tiny little mind if she wants to come in, so she can have a towel rubdown, or go out so she can come in—- for a towel rubdown. 🙂 I think we’re up to a foot now…….

It’ll be a good day to stay in and play with post mordants and modifiers for the oak leaf experiments!

 

 

Posted in journal: lessons to learn, mordants and modifiers, natural dye research, oak

foraging, part 2

Posted on by arlee

Mysterious chemistry 🙂 These are the oak leaf results.

Quite chocolate coloured on its own!!! I’m sure the first extraction, the first thread in the photo below, proves that more WOF is needed, as i’d love to get that ON fabric or threads! Even though the pot was positively solid with the leaves, i’ll do extraction by soaking/simmering for two days, then remove and add new/more leaves and repeat the process.

Oddly the UNmordanted silk took the colour better, whereas the uptake on previously mordanted cotton was expected.

I have also discovered that my thread skeins from this batch were looped too tightly to either be scoured properly, or mordanted thoroughly, hence the “variegation”–even though i loop quite loosely, it still had an effect. (lesson learned there: DON’T loop)

The colours are softly pretty but not terribly exciting, however they are good base colours for overdyeing, and are obviously *all* mordanted now, as that’s what oak does 🙂 I still have to do post mods to see what colour changes i can get (nothing earth shattering expected), but it *is* good to see what colours one can forage locally.

I’ll still collect more of the oak leaves as they are plentiful and falling anyways. And no one else uses them, just bags them up and sends them to the city compost facility! Also on the list is Cottonwood (a poplar species), very prevalent in my neighbourhood.

Posted in Natural Dyes, Naturally dyed threads, oak

foraging

Posted on by arlee

As much as i love the “Grand Teint” dyes, the historically accurate tried and true, there *are* other geo-centric plants that are still considered dependable methods of colouring fibre. I’d like to use more of these in my studio, with the proper applications and methods used. (No beets, beans or berries in this Dye Dungeon!) You could call this one “loakal” 🙂

The only oak that is indigenous to, and survives the hard winters of Alberta, is the Bur Oak.  When i first started ecoprinting in 2010, i couldn’t find any, though i figured someone had ONE in their area somewhere, since i saw one of the leaves floating in the river 🙂  In the last three years however, they are aplenty, due to the city’s replanting along boulevards and green spaces. My neighbourhood now probably has at least 20 of them, but none on my street!

Recovering from ‘Snowtember’ 2014, Recovery and restoration of Calgary’s urban forest

In September 2014, a late-summer snow storm affected Calgary’s urban forest. Trees that had not yet lost their leaves were heavily weighed down by snow, causing trunks and branches to break. Of the 227 communities in Calgary, 148 with mature canopies were particularly impacted by the snow.

It is estimated that 50 per cent of the 500,000 public trees and 1.5 million private trees have been impacted. This means there are three times as many damaged trees on private property as there are on City land. Recovering from this storm will require us as a city and a community to look after our trees.

Out of this disaster, The City created the ReTree YYC program to work on the recovery and restoration of the urban forest. This recovery work started immediately after the storm and will continue over the next three years. This work will ensure we have a strong and resilient canopy for generations to come.

This is the snowstorm took half of our 90 year old apple tree!

I know that oaks give colours from beige, to yellows, to various greens and browns, depending on what part it is (leaf, bark or gall/”oak apple”), and what mordant or modifier is used, and that those can be base colours for overdyeing, or warm earthy shades to be used on their own. I don’t have a lot of these shades in my naturally dyed thread box bin yet, as i’ve been concentrating on brights, deep rich rainbows and exciting greens, all of which is kind of funny now, since when i started on the “natural” kick, i had to use commercially dyed browns….

Oak is also rich in tannins, from any part of the tree. I collected a few galls as well this fall, something i’ve never seen before here. At the very least, my fabrics will be pre-mordanted correctly!

Yesterday, the DogFaced Girl helped me stuff a large grocery bag with fallen oak leaves (faded to brown, not like the green above from several weeks ago). That girl is such a help on these walks 🙂 I didn’t weigh the amount, just stuffed a 16L pot, with about 12 litres of hard tap water, simmered them for 2 hours, threw in a skein of thread and left it overnight to stew and cool. (I just realized too the thread had already been premordanted, so will have to try one that hasn’t been…)

Because the pot is so full of leaves, the thread was somewhat constricted, so the dye job is a bit patchy in uptake, which is okay because i love variegated threads 🙂 This is still wet in the photo, but isn’t it a pretty gold?

Yeah, yeah, i know, the number of plants that give this range of colours is humungous. The point is though, that it IS an actual dye (and tannin), and as i noted, a good base. And i did it.

I threw the skein back in the pot, wanting to see if i could get an even deeper shade with longer soaking, and will add more premordanted and unmordanted threads, and a couple of hunks of fabric as well. Tests at the end of the week will be overdyes, post mordanting and post modifying.

And Nessie and will be going on another long walk with more bags, as the leaves can be dried and stored for later use, during out long cold hard Calgary winter.

 

 

Posted in "Love is the Answer" collaborative project, "OPINIONATION", Deliberation--do something you don't do--or haven't in awhile, in progress, Not so ordinaries, Shows/Publications, Work 2018

“Love is the Answer” project, part 1

Posted on by arlee

March 5/18: (I decided not to publish any of these until i had a certain amount of work done on my part of the project , hence the date at the beginning of the post. You might have seen some of the drawings/work though in previous to this project posts 🙂 )

I’ve been a long time follower/reader of Mo Orkizewski (Mo Crow) at her It’s Crow Time blog in Australia. I admire her spirit, her ethics, her art and her outlook on life. In June of 2017, she conceived a project, based on a line from her equally talented partner’s song “I Dream of a World”, that has become a hugely collaborative art installation, slated for display in 2019 at Artsite as part of a show entitled “Braille for the Soul”.

Now, long time readers will know that i “hold no truck” with arty proposed “solutions” to world evils, from folding paper cranes for Paris’s Charlie Hebdo tragedy, to prayer flags for whatever cause, or “craft for peace” days. It’s not that i think groundswell movements can’t change things (because alas, our sad world has so many problems), but that people use these as excuses to pay a moment of goodytwoshoes my piece about peace is more important than your considered opinion and actions about HOW to/that do actually make things better for SOMEONE.

*My* answer usually is go small, be small. Contra-indicative? Nope. Because i/you will never stop any of the depredations that man commits upon man, that man commits on the world, on Mother Nature, on women, on children (and by “man” that’s the generic human species, not specifically the male sex–though given the current climate in the US happening right now with the confirmation hearings, that’s a debate well in fury right now…..), by practicing origami, hanging rags on ropes in a breeze, or blessing fabric in the sea. Going and being small does not mean either that one is selfish–i mean go small, be small, as in sharing what you have with someone who truly needs, in your own part of the world. It is a small thing on a global or universal scale, but it helps someone/something immediately. Prayers don’t fill bellies, warm hands in -40 temps, or show any true kindness.  Be small when you volunteer, donate give ( i don’t like the word donate with all its connotations of old clothes that don’t fit, or that you had enough money to mis-spend and really don’t care, or a 20 dollar bill once a year in the Salvation Army kettles because you feel guilty and seasonally magnanimous at the same time…), help, compliment, show respect, share gloves and scarves, a sandwich and coffee, a five dollar bill to someone scraping for busfare or cans in the trash, hold a door, pick up someone who has fallen on the ice, because small is big for some. If you can make ONE day better for ONE person, doesn’t that say more for your humanity and soul AND theirs, than all the frickin’ paper cranes in the world???????? And maybe THAT person is the one who DOES change the WHOLE world.

Off the soapbox. So WHY then would i contribute gladly to a project like this? Because to me, this one does say something–it’s the joining of a lot of viewpoints from around the world, expressed eloquently, calmly, lovingly and full of hope and concern, with intent, expression and heart that goes beyond slapping some felt letters on a scrap or finding the prettiest paper at great expense to torture into a symbolic shape.

So within the context of the show, what does “Love is the answer” mean? Love, true love***, whether platonic, romantic, pantheistic, or spiritual is, on a broader truer scale, about respect. It does not use apologies as manipulation, is inclusive, does not contrive, never obligates, does not keep a ledger. Love guides and supports, connects and strengthens, complements, enhances and shares. Love is moral, thoughtful, questioning but not aggressive, does not judge, is constant and patient. Love is not guile or a weapon. I re-iterate: Love is Respect.

So, anyways, off the box again 🙂 Mo sent me one of the “pennants” to do with as i wish. (The fabric is from a very old wedding dress.) I took it apart first, as the layers can be re-assembled when the work is done.

I did an alum pre-mordant, assuming the cloth was silk, but there was no madder dye uptake, then realized it was a synthetic after a burn test spattered some on one of my fingers! Then i spent two weeks dithering about what i was going to do next, staring at it, shuffling bits on and off it, having multiple “Eureka” moments that withered very very very fast, and thinking i was going to completely ruin it —–and Mo was going to politely say “oh that’s interesting” while privately wondering why the hell she had sent the original to me at all…….

This will be a layered process, something i have done before, but not a lot lately. Building dimension and story this way means the elements won’t be fighting each other. This is the “first” layer, though in the end, it’ll be the background, and not all visible. I deliberately stitched some areas so that they looked as if they were fading, rubbed out. (Unfinished at time of photography.) Not only is negative space important, but it will be more effective once the next layers go on.

Greyman thought i was embroidering him a wide tie 🙂 , but *his* choice of words would have been quite different!

July: A mock up for part of the front, still being worked:

August: and good progress on the back, as of the middle of August:

Stay tuned for “part 2” and maybe one more: one post would be waaaaaay too long!!! And of course, an “Artist Statement” 🙂

“Love, true love”*** does momentarily give me a giggle as i remember a particular scene from “The Princess Bride”…..

 

Posted in a collusion of ideas, Moons, Natural Dyes

adding to the series

Posted on by arlee

There’s a very satisfying feeling to using your own dyed fabrics, and especially your own dyed threads 🙂 All natural again, i’m continuing with the moon series.

These little goddess figures make me so happy! I’ve used them before, but i never get tired of them.

All of the above are the natural dyes, and from the Summer of Madder Study project–still working on that though summer is long gone now!

Below, a section from a piece i did during a Jane Dunnewold creativity course in 2016.

EDIT: Just found these 2 “oldies” as well, from my mixed media throweverythingandseewhatsticks days (2005)

goddess 2005

goddess 2005b

Posted in Deliberation--do something you don't do--or haven't in awhile, Natural Dyes, Naturally dyed threads, Samara

trotting her out again

Posted on by arlee

Samara has been patiently waiting “in the wings” for 2+ years, created during my 2016 residency at ACAD. I’ve gone through so many revisioned ideas, that my head whirled, and i’d get lost, and hang her back up on the studio wall to stare at , then to ignore…….

Above, as she is to date, a bit of stitching with walnut and madder dyed threads.

Below, several of the ideas i had for her wings.

Nope. Sort of like both feather treatments and the scrappy look, but not enough to get on with them.

Now what if i

a. cut her wings out also, separate from body slightly, with colour underlay in gaps–but how do i treat the wings themselves?

b. covered the background with scraps, not quite boro, but the idea of rough edges and colour layering—not solid or what is the point *of* that background colouring/patterning?

c. vines, seeds, grasses, grains and leaves everywhere, solid? autumnal

d. wing treatment? the layered feathers?

e. introduce more colours–approach? “blocking”? blending?

f. treated the hexes dimensionally, motif wise and presentation/placement ?

 

Because rather than do all neutrals like i used to/usually do on these deliberately “designed” wholecloth rust and dye pieces, i want more colour now.  It’s part of why too, i’ve been dyeing so many threads with natural dyes. This was part of my original inspiration for the feel of autumn:

I’ve been working on small moons again, behind the scenes,  but i need to get back to the Big Serious Work as well. I have to stop second guessing myself: the summer has been one of low self esteem, exhaustion, depression and doubt, and it’s hard to get out of that rut. Dyeing suited the mood swings, creating colour where there was none, but a full bin of un-used beautiful threads would be a waste as well.

How does one boot oneself in the arse without hurting one’s back?