🙂 Wellllllllllllllllllllllll, they say you illustrate with your own features……………..
I should have looked at the original paint-sketch for her legs!
Shall have to pick out that madder on the right side–that leg should be bigger because she’s standing with a hip cocked forward, but even *my* sturdy alabaster thighs are proportionate, and this sure as hell ain’t.
This fabric is also quite a bit “brighter” than the photo, but i do love that chiaroscuro effect of the poor lighting today!
Obviously a few years ago, i enjoyed sketching, painting, drawing–why did i stop? Maybe that’s why i feel stale, stagnant and like i’m repeating myself.
Not everything made it to cloth, but i have a stockpile to pick from.
I translated ideas in my head, on paper and then on the cloth:
We are usually our own worst critics. “I should have done this, done that, not done it, oh my gadz what was i thinking”: the whole shitshubola of insecurity rolls through our minds as we cringe inwards. BUT, i think sometimes too when you look back you can see freer expression and less inhibition about trying new media or subjects. I’ve started looking at previous work (done before the last 3 years) with older (semi) wiser eyes and see common threads that i have/had lost through preciousness and the search for acceptance. In that respect i mean being part of a current trend or on the bandwagon rather than acceptance of what i do because i do it, rather than “this is what is popular”. (This year has been one of going back to myself rather than worrying about what everyone else is doing, or what the current hoopla is about online, so i say “had lost”.) The origins of our own art can be a minefield or a mine of new motherlodes. Since the “word of the year” for me is “Origin”, i’m re-exploring some of that. June 1,2012
Looking at myself again, inside, that long path behind the subconscious.
I have a (self imposed) deadline for the winged figure piece, but am going to take some deliberate time with mark makers of various sorts again.
I have re-instated my Flickr account for photos. I was off there for a couple of years due to the amount of image theft that is now prevalent, but have decided while i can’t stop people, i can at least watermark enough that the work/images are clearly MINE.
Because i neither like nor allow pinning, tumblring or however else you feel you may take my photos, i ask that you respect my copyright and ask first if you wish to share to a reputable blog or website. I can’t stop you, but it would be nice if people were respectful of artist rights in this ever grabby world 🙂 Thanks, Blossoms!
I’ve decided to start with this orientation, another cloth created during my summer Contextural ACAD residency.
Of course, with wings, there must be feathers. I have *just* enough of these “filler” cloths for those, more fabric designed deliberately to be cut up:
Not sure if both will be used, or just the one on the right. Or the one on the left. Or both. !!!!!!!!!!!
Previous feather work:
Above, detail of work in progress “Strange Soul Take Flight” 2013.
Below, detail of “The Weight She Carries” 2014.
There will be hexes again, but done differently this time.
Today i will take a print out of the cloth to the Day Job for those pesky boring spare five minutes when there are no duties to attend to:
There are no machine made nodules, no “dimension” beyond the tactility of the stitching, but elements of my overly ambitious plans for something else have crept in and settled comfortably.
To hell with “Concept” as i said in an earlier post. I’m tired of trying to write statements that explain WHY i did something, especially when a well written tailoring can adapt almost any piece to any show. Concept can be in the eye of the beholder as well, right? As we develop our style, our voice, whatever you want to label it, certain truths and ideas, interpretations become self evident don’t they. (Not a question, a fact.)
When you make 8 pages of notes and sketches, and still can’t quite “git ‘er done”, it’s not the right time for that CONCEPT.
So, this then is the piece i will be exhibiting. Finally titled also as “Original Truths”, since i went back to what i love and love doing. No influence from anything else, any other artist, just me. This *is* me on the other side of the mirror. I’ve heard it said that when an artist draws faces, unless in a deliberate style, that elements of their own face, or their internal guise, are more evident, so though i’m not completely sure what this says about myself, other than the feeling that i have always felt alien, outsider, misfit, stranger in a strange land.
Though most of it is done, there’s something missing. I shall have to pin it up and stare at it for awhile.
I need to pull some of the starker white to the left top somehow, but how? Not more hexes, too heavy handed then.
It’s also been a bitch to photograph—-i need that perfect afternoon light, because otherwise there is too much yellow imparted to the golds and browns in this. I’m happy with the detail shots, but the whole, not so much. Since it *is* not quite done though, i’ll worry about that later. The detail shots are good enough to submit to the show organizer.
There are 12 days until the exhibit gets set up, so hopefully i can finalize a solution to what’s missing, execute it, and photograph the whole properly.
Oh dear gawdz, are my machine skills ever SO very SO SO very very rusty and bad right now.
Or i could blame Lalage………..
My nodules in FM are CRAP: changed the needle, changed the tension, changed the threads: LOUSY. Good thing i tested first rather than start on the real thing. I had pulled out my samples from Karin’s Extreme Stitch lessons and while i had taken copious notes, i couldn’t just couldn’t get the same results. I will spare you, but mostly myself, the embarrassment of showing the resulting snarls, twangles, danglish bits, squinched and borgled lumps sprinkled liberally with spit and tear stains.
I think i better hoop this time. And dedicate a COUPLE OF HOURS to practicing, something i OBVIOUSLY haven’t done in a good while…….
And now because i have to go to the Day Job at the fffFlower Mines, i will have 24 days left………………….
BAD WORD BAD WORD BAD WORD
Here’s a picture of a flower.
A simple shape, unadorned, plain, unassuming, no clear path, unstoried.
Just a start. Some desire the fade into the background, don’t want attention on a personal level, but imperfect circling, coiled spring, comforting ensphere goes round and round only, nowhere. Just an end. Ouroborous unbound, the ultimate allegory.
Some of the residency fabrics are now listed! They are cured, washed and pressed, have been sorted by living with them for a couple of weeks and i am ready to share the wealth 🙂
There are more in the shop than these samples indicate!
I’m venturing back into the world of printed products–with all the new sites and capabilities why not? I tried printed jewellry in the early 2000’s: DUD. Printed mugs 2013:DUD. Printed clothing 2014: DUD. So what the heck, one more try? Cards? Cheap for the budget minded, unless you’re already downloading someone else’s designs and printing them at home 😦 (Hey, i caught someone doing this with one of my fabric designs from ecoprinting!!!)
Right now, i have 2 designs at Zazzle, but in August, you will be able to order directly from Moi, through the shop, and locally in shops (and hopefully galleries too). The photo below shows 5 SEPARATE designs, with the sixth image being the back of the card. Inside will be blank, so you can customize your own message. You can buy singly, or in multiples, and they don’t have to be all the same design.
Suitable for framing as well!
albedo too 
My garden for the second year in a row is holding its breath–a kind of regrouping, a rest, making sure those roots are deep, the buds turning the right way, and then surely waiting for the sky to blue deeply. Even though i’m a flowergirl by day at work, flowers, plants, roots have been on my mind much more than normal this summer. Time to plant another garden, one in my thoughts and growing from my fingers, deeper soil.
Since the flood in 2013, roots have been prevalent in my work.
I think of how roots not only let things grow, but anchor, delve deep into layers and layers, pierce stone, search water, search earth, seeking nurture and permanency.
Every time we go to the mountains, my eyes find the seekers, the holders of place and time. Taken at Red Rock Canyon in Waterton Park last week, these visible reminders show me the dominion of tenacity, the innate desire and need of solid ground to moor so growth, flowering and seeding can happen.
Roots are veins as well, and tendons, supports, carriers of blood, droghers bearing impulse, explorers of new territory, guardians and defenders of old ground.
There are always cuttings on my windowsills with fine filaments waiting for soil.
I’ve been struggling, seriously doubting, second guessing, sabotaging and burying things the last month or two. Despite a good life, a decent job, and people and animals who love me, i’ve been fighting the Black Dog again. *That* root is unfortunately very strong, going to my bedrock. I’d like to bury that damn dog far below the surface, fossilize it, break it into small parts that will feed new growth, root new stock. Go back to origin. Go to ground. Till over and start again. Make it disappear but for a few fragments of coal.
Or diamonds, should i be so lucky.
I can’t not make, as presently hard as either approbation is.