Well, no *actual* burning yet…but who knows?
I like the lace but am not sure yet where it will go, as i have other “cracks” planned as well. Perhaps it will leak out somewhere else.
Category: Milkweed Studies
riding off in all directions at once, total recall
Too many possibilities! But not enough thought, texture, design in the start……………….
I’ve stuck myself in a rut, as much fun as it was to design “whole cloth” fabrics to work with. I need to go back to piecing in, layering and shaping. I also want to go back to myself in a sense, maybe with the GIRL series from 2012.
I can “see” this better now:
Maybe i’m just rambling, but i knew last night when i started stitching on the whole cloth piece, it didn’t feel right, didn’t satisfy, so much so that i burst into blubbering howls at a stupid, manipulative Sad Overly Dramatic Moment on the tubage because head and heart was so unhappy with what my hands were doing. Triggers are funny/strange/unrelated things.
Seriously? Yup, on “Containment” believe it or not……..
I still have some of that beautiful lace i used in that 2012 piece, i have bits of soft silk in the lavender and pink colours, i need more dimension and tactile whoopteedo’s–because it’s that texture that gets my heart racing, therwise it’ll languish in that damned pile of Maybe Someday I’ll Finish It. I post sometimes maybe too fast, too enthusiastically, and then Reality sets in, and the race is ended before it even began. Start at the beginning again. At least there isn’t any ripping out to do, and the start can still be incorporated.
you have to start somewhere
Tiny stitches in hesitation.
And stitching seeds.
Mining the stashlode for green velvet also, it’s in here somewhere……………….
after the blues have gone away
With a very healthy stack of new fabrics to work with, i turned my attention to sketchbooks from the past few years, and pulled some ideas that leaped out at me. Some date back to 2011, and gave a recurring theme. Browns, soft vintage violets and lavenders, machine work (!!!!yes) and “stacked” techniques, these are jump off points, and may or may not be incorporated in some form.
I’m calling this period/amalgamation the “Milkweed Studies”, though some of the resulting work won’t be recognizable as milkweeds! I started thinking about milkweeds back in 2013 when i was in FAN but never completed the piece and had to drop out of the exhibit, something that embarrassed and horrified me, as it was a collaborative effort with someone else. Being a gardener and protector of bees, butterflies and other pollinators, also means these plants are vital in my world view, despite the invasive label they have in some areas.
A few pieces get dropped right away, though filed for other work in the “series” maybe, and i am left with these:
The small black and purple page is a line study of sorts; though it’s a pattern in a sense, it will be merely a guideline with the fabric above it. The small milkweed paint sketches are my real focus, but they won’t be translated as purely in the final work.
As excited as i am by the face and figure pieces of fabric that i did during the residency, and though i have started on one face already, this is where my focus will be for the next while. I have a deadline again with the residency show, and will work this into the theme of “SelfEdge”, as the interpretation is rather loose. (It’s all in the artist statement when and how you write it 🙂 )
I’m going to incorporate hand and machine work again, something i haven’t done in awhile. My purist, obsessive side disagrees, but my pragmatic, it’s-just-a-tool side is thrilled. Let the fight games begin!
albedo too 
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