a collusion of ideas – Page 6

a collusion of ideas, Commission, in progress, Tabula Memoria

coding for Tabula Memoria

Posted on June 12, 2017 by arlee

01010111 01100101 01110011 01110101 01110010 01110110 01101001 01110110 01100101 (we survive) oh boy this will take some time and patience……..

I’ve had this brilliant idea all along that the work needs some text, but last night “saw” what it would be. Nobody but a programmer will be able to read this i suppose, but it’s fitting given my client’s profession.

The full phrase will translate as “We survive by remembering, but sometimes we survive by forgetting.” That’s a lot of 1’s and 0’s, so best get on with it! At least it’s simple stitches to do though: uncomplicated shapes, small and straightforward, no frills needed. This area will be around/by/below the figures.

a collusion of ideas, Contextural Fibre Arts Co-operative, in progress, Residency 2017

res exhibit ideas

Posted on June 6, 2017June 6, 2017 by arlee

At the end of every Contextural residency, we have an exhibit of work (hopefully) done through the summer. (Some people put whatever they like in, done wherever and whenever, which to me is pointless…….but we won’t go there.)

Being as this is the 10th anniversary for Contextural, and even though i’ve only been a member since 2009 (though i missed one year), i thought i’d look at my own work done 10 years ago.

Seriously? Very little i did then is show worthy really. Futzing about with mixed media, extraneous details, overloaded with technique and colour, the only value they have now is as samples and whatnottodo-whatthehellwasithinking’s! ICK. Fortunately (?), most of them are photos only, lost, tossed or given and flooded away (2013), so i don’t have to store them 🙂

But i did find this:

Above, the finished page, below, in progress shots:

A page i had done for an international fabric art journal exchange, i could work with this. I can incorporate the indigo, ecoprinting, rust and potassium permanganate and create something new. Looking back can take you ahead.

a collusion of ideas, Commission, in progress, Moons, Sketchwork, Tabula Memoria

moon decision made

Posted on April 25, 2017April 25, 2017 by arlee

So handy to live in a digital age 🙂 Hesitant to put needle and thread to the centre, i did this first, and am confident that the top right is the way to go. Some of the sketchies were dismissed immediately, some would work elsewhere on other work, but this gives me a clear idea of how to handle that centre strip.

It needs to be “filled” but VERY discretely, and more “openly” so it doesn’t fight with the rest of the moon, and the rest of the work. The moon needs to be emphasized, but not at the expense of the other elements: it can’t assume more importance than the figures or side work.

My order of threads had arrived last week, so i’ve chosen the Caron Wildflowers #171 Caramel to work that area. It “blends” enough with the colours of the fabric and natural dye processes, but is still alive enough to add a little interest, without being overly visible. There’s plenty, with 2 skeins, to do this and to add the discrete hexagons to other areas of the whole. I may also use it for the standing figure–which has to go on the frame sometime this week and be done!

a collusion of ideas, Dyeing, journal: lessons to learn

small things, and lessons to learn

Posted on April 3, 2017April 3, 2017 by arlee

I had a hankering to do a spring heralding something this week. Saturday was a blissful, sunny 17C day. Sunday it dropped to 0C and snowed. April in Calgary as usual.

The bulb to the left is from March 2 years ago, rust dyed cotton and embroidery, the right one is this week’s effort, my favourite Caron colourway of the day, on indigo dyed cotton. I mashed up Emily Dickinson “A light exists in Spring” with Alexander Pope: “When Hope springs Eternal” on the shoot, since either as a start to something makes sense. “When Hope springs Eternal, A light shines in Spring, When Hope springs Eternal, etc etc etc”

I’d still like to make a bowl of these as a Spring tonic!

I was going to prune the Stoodio Jungle also this weekend, but up near the ceiling where there’s a snarled mess of live and dead vining, i found this:

Since the passionflower blooms last barely a day, i’ll wait until tomorrow!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh fer…………………

The Callender “Shibori” book is FANTASTIC. Clear diagrams, lots of eye candy, concise instructions, plenty of inspiration, how to work with natural and chemical dyes. One should however think through what one is doing though, instead of just jumping in. Lessons learned:

A. Don’t make copious stitches on a substantively dyed fabric and then
B. put it in a previously untested dye substance and
C. suddenly discover that a leftover chunk from a previous project is actually a poly cotton blend and that’s why the *first” project turned out the way it did and
D. don’t further the insanity by using “saved” Procion that is past it’s due date and then expect any results…..

I got all Gung Ho on using Henna, thinking i would get a “rich brown” as some sources stated it would give, dumping in 1/2 cup of the powder to 2L of water. (Advice is that you must use 20-50% WOF.) The resultant slurry was a cross between mud and congealing chocolate pudding, fooling me into thinking i would get that said Rich Brown.

Uh, NO.

I’ll save the henna for the 123Vat.

About that poly/cotton blend that didn’t work initially: way back when i was first ecoprinting, i had a huge bucket of cottons and silks that i would use, but somehow this damn chunk snuck in and got used, predictably becoming a “FAIL”. I *did* make something beautiful from it after all, but why in hell did i never do a burn test to see what the fibre content was?????????????

I’ll get there yet…….

a collusion of ideas, in progress

a difference a day

Posted on February 22, 2017February 22, 2017 by arlee

“Our mind doesn’t even have the ability to actually create a memory exactly how it was; it can only recreate a representation of what it believes took place, and that is never completely accurate. No memory you have is a reliable source as to what actually transpired. It is humanly impossible to create such memories. Many details can be lost over time and may even be completely replaced by new ones.” attribution unknown

a collusion of ideas, Ecoprints and Natural Dyes, in progress, Indigo Dreams, journal: lessons to learn, potassium permanganate, Rust

hexes rising

Posted on January 25, 2017January 25, 2017 by arlee

A few years ago in a Yoshiko Wada workshop, i fortuitously dipped two previously ecoprinted hunks of silk in a henna based indigo pot. In the ensuing years i’ve often dug them out and admired the greeny blue that resulted, though often thought the mud colour induced by chemical reaction over the ecoprints was well, too muddy. Sometimes i’ve wondered about just tossing them or giving them away.

Whew, i didn’t. You never know what will be Useful and Beautiful and Perfect, if you throw it out. The earthiness now of those colours are what was called for in secret by this piece. I listened.

My biggest challenge with this though, is finding a UBP slab of true madder.

I’ve been tuning into certain words and phrases now as i stitch in the evenings, hearing from the strangest sources quotes about memory. A cheesy B movie yielded up “We survive by remembering, but sometimes we survive by forgetting,” and a Cicero quote from an episode of Criminal Minds ““The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.” Proves one never knows what might be relevant or inspiring, and from the oddest “sources”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a collusion of ideas, Collision: the work begins, embrilting, in progress, Sketchwork

stitching in semiotics

Posted on January 24, 2017January 25, 2017 by arlee

I wonder how meaning is created, not what it is. Symbolism, connotation, iconography, denotation, synecdoche: Memory.

(Sketch of normal neuron from 2011)

A long time ago, i worked a series i called the Artist’s Body. Bones, hearts and brains fascinated, still do fascinate me. How do all these things come together to make a living, breathing entity? Now i’m focusing on one of the more “ephemeral”, unquantifiable aspects of the brain, memory.

Not all of us will fall prey to Alzheimer’s, though most of us as we age, start having faulty memories, the connections becoming disparate, as time and self dissociate. And when you really think about it, all of life is memory, except for the moment of NOW, that changing moment of awareness as we live it, and instantly it becomes the past, another memory.

Memory is time as illustration also. (Even as i write this, i have to refer to my trusty Stitch Journal, for dates…) On the 22nd, i spent 5 hours laying this out and hand stitching.

Yesterday, another 5.25 hours:

I’m almost where i can start adding the indigo underneath certain pieces.

And can something so drifting and fleeting be so tangible to, and in, physical touch? Palpable, stirring, substantial, as i run my fingers over this.

a collusion of ideas, Collusion: sampling, journal: lessons to learn, Not so ordinaries

no smartypants title

Posted on January 16, 2017January 24, 2018 by arlee

Because i thought i’d make a joke about hexes again, but can’t get the brain on that, without doing evil apparently……

I was doing some research (falling down the Rabbinet Hole, that is, truthfully) this morning, thinking i could find something smart, funny, deep or pertinent to the subject, but Nay. Evidently hexes are bad, unless you’re a quilter in love with them. 🙂

I’m still in sampling mode as i work out what this large project needs. I want to introduce some stronger colours, and my eye espied the bag of indigo bits i have been hoarding.

OH DARLING! YES!!!

*Just* enough contrast/colour/depth!!!!!!!!!! I don’t want to overwhelm the rest of it, but being a natural dye, it does work with all the others.

Winnowed down to three thread choices from 17, i ended up using (so far) just the Caron “Smoke” #022

This one’s gonna be a pleasure to work, and though i will finish the sample, am 99.9% sure that it will work on the actal project as well.

I guess that’s why this one result from the search felt right:

a collusion of ideas, Collision: the work begins, in progress, journal: lessons to learn, potassium permanganate, Rust

are you experienced?

Posted on January 15, 2017January 15, 2017 by arlee

As i work with this large expanse, i’m better appreciating the nuances of colour created by chemical reactions between rust, potassium permanganate and brazilwood. Pinks, purples, teeny bits of blue and charcoal, russets and washed out reds. Amazing how that works, and really wondering how i managed to get such clean whites too!

These long lines of seeded backstitch, paths, divisions, separations, they appeal to the memory and sense, for otherness, unpredictable, centering, old consciousness. I’m struggling to express this in words, but words are an important part of this project as well. I’ve been writing a lot of free association exercises on my work blog, and will be condensing them down to make clear what it is i’m making, sharing, experiencing. I think of everything from Jimi Hendrix, to memories of childhood, passed friends and washed away river banks.

a collusion of ideas, Collusion: sampling, Deliberation--do something you don't do--or haven't in awhile

ghosting

Posted on January 10, 2017January 10, 2017 by arlee

Subject matter sometimes determines approach. My usual method of applying elements for this work just wouldn’t suit, as that method is “heavier” and more solid, even with holes added 🙂

Because of the scale of the projected piece, i didn’t want to just jump in this time, even though i have plenty of ideas and a reasonably firm vision of what’s going where and how. I spent yesterday doing more tests, and must say i really appreciate the virtue now of sampling first! The first run through always takes more time than you thought it would–and yet, less, which is always a good thing 🙂

A single layer of cotton harem-cloth is a beautiful thing. It’s a little shifty, and takes a firm grip to keep it in line, especially when you don’t like using a hoop, but oh i do love the effect.

Ain’t he the hunk?

I didn’t want him to be such a stark white however. First i tried coffee dyeing. Nope, too close to the white. Rinsed that out, dabbed on WEE WEE bits of Procion. Nope, too strong, and the colour was too red (that “rust brown” is definitely too red). Washed that out, or most of it, then got out the paint again. Good enough for sampling purposes, i’ll watch the dispersion and blending rate more consciously on the real deal, but am rather pleased.

I almost wish i hadn’t cut out centre portions, but only because the placement on the background didn’t take the dark areas underneath into consideration. Even so, i think it’s quite the look i want, but that fine fine grey thread i used was a pain in the Bazotski –i think i need new glasses again……………..

The size of this is a standard “A4” page, and it scares me a bit to think of the shifting on a larger scale. I may have to dig out my largest hoop after all: the grain and weave of this fabric is so malleable, that i don’t want stitches skewing the angles. Because the larger pieces will have more interior space as well, that means more stitching inside, whether on the harem cloth itself, or in any voids. Best to get a handle on it right from the start!

Working this little trial also has the advantage of adding more ideas for other work. I think it will show up on this somehow:

Poor girl has been sighing and pouting in the stoodio since the beginning of September!