Some memories are fixed, unrelenting. Others morph, bend and change inside to outside, nightmare to dream, dream to delusion. There are memories of memories, given, borrowed, stolen from others.
Sometimes we compartmentalize our memories, or lock them away. Sometimes they fade, are forgotten, deliberately or not.
Who doesn’t want to remember, forget, remember and forget? Free but still bound.
Still just peering over the edge of the rabbit hole, but on the way up now. It was a long fall.
Paint on paper above, painted cotton below.
FM on painted cotton above, hand embroidery below.
As i’m writing, i realize this exercise made me think of this:
(Hoodoo Sky, 2009, in progress)
Tests for possible work, i still have 2 other techniques to try with the remaining painted fabric.
There’s nothing more satisfying than bringing a cloth to life. I could easily stretch and frame these beginnings on their own, but that needle and thread thing is so addicting, and really, the translation from flat image to textured story is what turns my crank.
While i “designed” the base cloth for the one above, because it is an abstract, i had no idea when i made it what i would do with it, story wise. Sometimes narratives just happen. Stockpiling cloth like this is like prepping a bunch of canvases, or journal pages, no dreading that blank space!
Admittedly, the deliberate shape and design of a face means the face is the story, but things still can become what they are as they want.
The story will continue.
I thought i had been working on this for months, but as it turns out since “res” was done at the end of June, it hasn’t been that long after all. All the little details are what makes it seem longer ago than July 11th that i started it! I have only a few tiny areas left to stitch, then to back it, ready for delivery on the 28th.
As i said in a previous post, i’ve always felt alien, outsider, misfit, so this then i guess is a self portrait of sorts, another side to the mirror, that long path behind the subconscious.
I added bees, of course i added bees.
Donna Noble: You’re saying bees are aliens?
The Doctor: Don’t be so daft – not all of them.
And there’s a secret hidden under one of the larger hexes, a treatment i liked, but not for this piece!
The hex beside the lace rose is where it’s hidden now.
And now there will be a shuffling of papers, folding of fabrics, and paint and ink splashed about as i research and develop new work. Here’s a “mood board” for something i’d like to do:
with this as the primary image:
Not sure which orientation to begin with, not that it really matters as there are 2 separate cloths here. Maybe i’ll do both to give myself a break from the same thing over and over —HA, joke. I had originally thought of doing another “abstract”, rather than pictorial, but nothing is set in stone.
The National Gallery of Contemporary Fibre Art is a chance for all of us to produce small works and set up a display, complete with postcards, bio and statement, samples etc. Unfortunately, it’s not very visible to the public, buy hey, it’s a heck of a good way to “practice” and show is show ! It sounds so fantastic! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 In real life, it’s a showcase on the 4th floor of the Studio Arts , and is only visible to residents, techs and anyone who has a valid visitor pass! I’ll take photos the next time i’m at the school so you can see it in all its glory 😉
Since i had been planning on some red/black/white work and scored all that fabric from the student cast off bins, it was a perfect opportunity to showcase some new ideas. The original photo was this, from 2011 (mine, original Original lost in a hard drive crash, so i have to work from a small version):
I “warmed up the temperature” in my photo editing program (Irfanview):
Cropped it,as i have time for only a small portion of this, due to time constraints and sampling efforts:
Turned it to black and white for pattern purposes:
And started chopping fabric, discharging, over dyeing–from 3 fabrics then (bottom fabric in each pile), i have 10 colours (though in the photo, the top reds look similar, they *are* different). The left red and the bottom black were a poly/cotton blend after all, but i like the effect the discharge and then overdye had on the black!
They do not “match” the reds and red blacks in the photo, but that isn’t the point. And interestingly, some fly by brainlet on the QA mailing list pontificated that you were “copying” even if you used your own photograph!
Seriously, you think you are “copying” even if you used your own photograph??????? Why would that be any different than using your own sketch, your own notes???????????? I HARDLY consider it “copying” myself if i use my own source material, no matter WHAT medium i have “sketched out” the idea in.
A rather narrow viewpoint then, if no one can take inspiration from what is around themselves, be they photographer, sculptor, painter or textile artist…….Contrary to this belief, things do not spring “full blown from our sweated brows”! She also made the comment that the old Masters just DID the painting, no models, no “copying” from nature, no studies, BULLSHIT. Why else do we have all the preliminary sketches we are able to see now of pre-work done?????
Now to select some threads.
It’s time to start worrying 😉 thinking about other work, time to move away from blue.
Funny how an artist’s sketches become a form of shorthand–no one else understands the signals, signs and runes. I can see in my head how these little thumbnails would look, i can imagine the effect certain stitches and specific techniques would have. I can even feel the texture. Over on my work blog, there’s a long post with notes and random thoughts, observations and what if’s abounding. Since June will be residency at ACAD again, i have been planning what i will do there, or rather, planning as much as natural marks and processes will allow the maker to assume! And as much as i love my hand stitch, i want to incorporate some machine back in, either as a base, or as accent, making the two meld together. FrankenStitch can and originally, way back in 2009 when i started it, DID combine both processes.
With what i have learned specifically in the past two (?) years from my dear friend Karin Millson, it’s time to rev up “Lalage”, my temperamental sewing machine.
Last step will be to sign, then mount on a small canvas, 7×7″.
albedo too 
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