a collusion of ideas – Page 9

a collusion of ideas, Creative Strength Training with Jane Dunnewold, Deliberation--do something you don't do--or haven't in awhile, Home Cookin' the Cloth, Jam Day

colour prompts

Posted on February 13, 2016February 13, 2016 by arlee

We can all agree that usually FB is a colossal waste of time, gets our blood boiling with some postings, or makes us want to puke with the schmaltzy canigetanamendreaminspirethislittlegirlwillamazeyouhavethepowerchangetheuniverseyouarethequeenoftheuniverse memes, but i do find it handy as a prompt also! I think of the old history programs, when FB kindly reminds me that “on this day, you posted this” and shows you what happened each year on that date–assuming anything did happen 😉

On Feb 8 of 2009 i posted this:

WOWZERS, look at that colour saturation and look at that texture! Now WHY am i not still doing this? I have the tulle, i have the metal (remember those stacks of things in the stoodio that rarely get used???)–what am i saving them for? (I’m NOT getting rid of stuff like this i admit, in the interests of honesty and Purge.) And you know what else? I COULD, CAN, WILL do this with the naturals and neutrals too.

The recent lessons with Jane Dunnewold’s Creative Strength Training class are paying dividends: colour, new designs, deep thinking, writing exercises, i’m getting it all.

A playful piece, the colour of this is rich and saturated. There are ideas here that will go into more “serious” work. I still can’t merge fun and “serious work” from those labels, these colours and techniques……Working on it! I DO believe you can do serious concepty work and still have fun—pleasure is subjective (metaphorically maybe!)

And there is still scissor work slated for this one.

a collusion of ideas, Creative Strength Training with Jane Dunnewold, journal: lessons to learn

resistance to the machine

Posted on January 25, 2016January 25, 2016 by arlee

I talked about Stubborn in a previous post. She’s the stoodio visitor that puts the blocks to the flow. Whether it’s the thought that you’re not going to try anything new or daring, or the one that says i’m already good at what i do, so why try anything else, Stubborn refuses to admit that the tools can be used in concert. Stubborn is sister also to Complacency–and the rest of the siblings: Boredom, Stagnation, and Predictability.

Look at that piece above–what joy, colour, expression!!! It’s got hand AND machine embroidery, done at a time when i was realizing that they could be used together, and that there was a strange pleasure in doing more hand work. I had decried that in previous years–too used to silly little florals and heavy ecclesiastical work samples, it bored me.

Serendipitously this morning my computer was acting very very strange. Even after changing the battery in the keyboard, i was having problems, so decided to let it have a rest 🙂 (Still acting weird, but at least it’s working now.) Instead i fired up the sewing machine and pulled out threads and memories of just noodling around. No purpose, no grand idea, no use for it, but hey, i had FUN.

I might add a bit of hand stitching to it, but it’s not an under pressure piece, so i might not too!

a collusion of ideas, journal: lessons to learn

mining, trying to go beyond the status quo

Posted on January 17, 2016January 17, 2016 by arlee

“Mining” =digging through one’s own life and art for inspiration. (Or is it an avoidance tactic or procrastination?) I also think of my last “word for the year, (Origin), something i don’t do anymore, because seriously, like the magical flip of a calendar page from one year to the next is making your life better (NOT), neither will one word define my practice.

Origin(al paths)
08 Dec 2011

noun
1.something from which anything arises or is derived; source; fountainhead: to follow a stream to its origin.
2.rise or derivation from a particular source: the origin of a word.
3.the first stage of existence; beginning
4.ancestry; parentage; extraction
5.Anatomy a.the point of derivation. b.the more fixed portion of a muscle.

So i’ll acknowledge–or not–the source, the origin, whether in words or in the art as i see fit. Look at all those definitions, how can things ever be original?????????? Sounds SO pointless and frustrating to try–but i/we continue, because i/we Must, i/we Have to, i/we Need to. I might “reference” someone, i might “be informed by” something else (ArtSpeak hooray……..), but in the end, it’s me me me all the way ’cause no one forced my hand to move the way it did.

I’ve been looking at really old work, old in the sense that when i started playing with textiles and techniques, all i had done to that point was sew clothing, do machine applique and embroider with only satin stitch, french knots and chain stitch! When the internet finally exploded (2005-2009) with art and tutorials, i tried everything! From melting and burning paper and plastics, beading, inchies and atc’s and postcards, making boxes of various shapes and sizes, from stuffed figures to sewn art journals, i was so excited by all the potential that i often posted blog entries 4 times a day, loaded dozens of photos a week to Flickr, and enthusiastically collected junk and ephemera every where i went. If there was an exchange, i was in, a round robin, i was in; i even initiated a few projects myself with a textile journal going/coming from around the world, a CSI inspired inchies exchange and two (three?) versions of an exquisite corpse game in fibre.

There’s little from that time period i am actually still proud of. A few bits and pieces from that period still hold my heart, but more for the recognition that i could do with textiles something i couldn’t with pen and ink, than with anything truly thoughtfully done.

“Emergency Self Esteem Kit” 2008:

More photos and the story, here.

“Alchemy” shrinebook 2009 :

Cover of “Sea of Electricity” sewn art journal 2007

Below, Copper pod hand stitched, left unadorned, right with free motion on soluble inserted in openings, 2007

Below, “Artefacts” 2006 (4 separate pieces), small dimensional beaded pieces. (Over embellished i see now, and combining two different ideas really, but there are mind jogs of possibility there.)

Noticing a lot of red, and rich deep colours, lots of texture, machine work, layering, can i work this love of visual and tactile excitement back into current work? Way back in the 90’s at Capilano College doing the Textile Arts program, it was being exposed to the idea of texture, depth, THE FEEL of fabric and fabric manipulation techniques that got my gears going. While my current work IS very sensory to the hand and eye, i’m still feeling the lack of something, undefined, ineffable. Colour? Placement of elements? Concept? (Shudder) Technique?

I think that the next few months (at least) is going to be a lot of searching, sampling and studying. I’m watching a few others in the blogosphere going through various degrees of this themselves right now, so it’s not just me. I won’t be satisfied until i’m satisfied. With only one deadline (currently), i do have the time and inclination. The Dunnewold course starts in 3 days, and i’m looking forward to that, trying to let go of misconceptions and stubborn-ness: “This is the way i’ve always done it, why should i change? Ain’t no-one gonna tell me what to do.” There’s a little part of me however stuffed down in the subconscious, that is trying to get stronger–after all, if you learn something new everyday, you know you’re not dead.

EDIT: I realize this sounds all dry and possibly off putting–i want the joy back too.

a collusion of ideas, journal: lessons to learn, Leighton work

well, that bored me to tears

Posted on January 9, 2016July 4, 2016 by arlee

Couldn’t cut, couldn’t pick up a needle. Crap. I was forcing myself to do something that isn’t me anymore.

But i’m looking at this again:

THIS is where i need to start.

So i did this from the photo of the Leighton Fabric:

I’m also thinking now, that while i will not (would NEVER) “copy” Barbara Leighton’s work, there is a way to jam off the shapes. I could change the orientation, the scale, the colours, and certainly the medium treatment, as i am not replicating a batik process. Even this sketch from the main shapes is subject to interpretation, morphing and distortion. I could cut it up, duplicate areas, cut out sections, move them around, ignore some pieces, soften lines even more. (Thanks Karin, for all your “L frame” tips over the years that apparently sank in after all 😉 I miss our coffee times, Scamp!!!!!!!!! )

After all, what is it that draws me in the original piece? The shapes are organic, the colours are softer, more muted as natural dyes would be. (The original is Procion.) I don’t necessarily mean to use all natural dyes either–which means searching the current fabric stash is rather frustrating, as i am finally at the end evidently of all the pieces created in residency, neither do i have many solid colour fabrics. I’m eyeballing that black Pima (previous post) for some more discharge and overdye tests.

Because this is what i really want to do:

I miss my Frankenstitch. I’ve done bits of it over the last year or so, but it kind of went by the wayside as i started adding dimension by using separate pieces. Time to add it back, and to that love of dimension.

So, it’s time to pull out the black pens, graphite pencils, crayons and paint —- and start colouring.

a collusion of ideas

a collusion of ideas, part two

Posted on January 7, 2016January 7, 2016 by arlee

Above, photo by Karin Millson, aerial view of Saskatchewan fields.

Below, my “in flight” sketches. (My seat row mate was quite befuddled by my enthusiasm……)

Pulling elements together, approach, thread choices, indigo insert, discharged cotton:

This is (so far) going the wrong way…… At 7″ size though, they could be ether future reference samples, or depending on how they turn out, the small “saleable items” we are to have for this exhibit also.

Either that, or i’m bluffing in the wind, and need to rethink, re-work, re-do. Reacting to someone else’s work is hard–you don’t want to imitate, directly interpret, or trivialize. I don’t/can’t/won’t want to replicate the Leighton piece, (that is not the point of the exhibit) but i don’t think i’ve delved deep enough yet, to express what the initial impression and affect it had on me. It wasn’t an Epiphany or Religious Experience, but there was a connection. Since photos of something aren’t due until April for the “officials”, this could be an intense period of research and development. I’ll choose to see it that way, instead of being frustrated and travelling the wrong path.

a collusion of ideas, Contextural Fibre Arts Co-operative

a collusion of ideas, part 1

Posted on January 6, 2016January 12, 2016 by arlee

Dec 30/10 … I started thinking about all a spine means. Form, balance, courage, suppleness (or not), pain or strength, self-determination, mobility, an armature, a seam/boundary/border/a clasping that keeps the pages together or the body and bones in line. Spineless=not only limp, but weak—– but very supple, think of invertebrates like the gorgeous Spanish Dancer sea slug or the waving of wheat and grasses in the wind. Is a spine a chain, linking and never separating? Is it a string of beads that twists and swings, letting you dance, almost letting you fly?

Collision and collusion.

I’m working, supposed to be working that is, on pieces for a summer exhibit at the Leighton Centre. The above (abbreviated) is from a thought i expressed a long time ago–it’s more the “collusion” than the spine analogy that has me going, though that is rather a turn on as well. Disparate elements that fit together, that is what gets me fired up. It’s time to dump some contents beside each other and see what gets jiggy.

We’re riffing off work done by Barbara Leighton, with this being the one that grabbed me:

leighton batik 1 back — Barbara Leighton, batik

There’s something about this piece that is simmering under my skin. Part of it i suppose, is the more “natural” colours, though it was done with Procion in the days it first was available to artists. The shapes are evocative as well, suggesting trees, branches, a rising moon (setting sun?), but it could be an aerial view also of field, road and pond. (Hmm, but trees and roads are spines also, one holding the land, the other joining the flesh of city and country.)

This is where my thoughts really go a-wandering. I’m not particularly enamoured of ponds, though i do like swamps: bio-diverse, hiding secrets just past the last hummock you can stand on safely, slightly scarey in mist and twilight, eerie in winter with hoarfrost and frozen web, sparkling with hidden life in sunshine….story book stuff. Rivers however, that’s where my heart is. And the mountains we are blessed to live close to and visit often, and trees that hold the edges of rivers and mountains. Rivers are definitely spines. We build along them, they nourish us on farm and in heart, they transport us in thought and reality. (I had photos from my teaching trip to Saskatchewan that illustrated this perfectly, but dumped them! Hopefully Karin will allow use of one of hers. To be updated!)

I digress. I have started “compiling” physical manifestations of the research and development. (If you saw that pile, it would make no sense.) Some paint and stitch samples were done last year:

The sample on the right is my favourite. A lot rougher than my normal approach, this is one of the main things in the burgeoning pile of reference materials. The discharged black cotton has to go through a few more tests as well.

I have hazily decided on colours–either the black with shots of red and brown, and maybe some indigo-ey blue, or rust with blacks and deep blue, red, gold and brown–but i haven’t decided whether to go chemical or partly chemical, partly natural. The reality is some of these colours are not my forte to produce naturally. And that’s okay, because i loathe those “recipe” “medium” descriptions you have to add to the paperwork for exhibits–“all natural, all organic, all NatureGirl hugs a tree and grounds her feet in the Great Womb”. Ick. Ha. It will be what it will be, needs to be, and that is that. (Don’t get me wrong here–I LOVE the all natural some can do, and wish i could, but realistically? It is what it is.)

Now off to collude, collide, coalesce, compound and conspire!