Stuff!

We, as in all of us generally speaking, have just too much of it! STUFF!  We, as in all of us generally speaking, are a disposable culture.  Capitalism depends on it.  But our saving, hoarding, collecting, keeping, whatever word makes you comfortable, of stuff is leftover from our days when individuals were inventive out of neccessity and some great grandfather made stuff by hand and made it to last through 10 generations and we inherited and utilized items of our dead relatives stuff.  But in this day an age, too much is too much...and how long do we keep hauling around our ancestor's stuff while accumulating our own stuff??  

All that to say this...tomorrow is moving day for my 80plus years young mother.  It has been long hard tedious road filled with stress, anger, relief, tears, and tempers...but tomorrow, August 1st is an what I hope will be true emancipation day for all of us.  Her new space is light and airy and I hope she will feel less burdened in it.  My brother managed to come and salvage his cassette tapes from the 80s and his primitive literary journals, my sister managed to salvage her graduation gown, drill team uniform with the go-go boots, and a beloved niece I hope will become firmly grounded as she matures into the new changes and using a 60 year old dresser drawers she is getting from my mother.  All the stuff that didn't get sold, salvaged, or reused, is going into storage.  and me?  well, all my sewing "stuff" is boxed, bagged, and rolled ready to go into storage tomorrow.   Although, I wish I could have come up with a better alternative, surprisingly, at the moment, I'm in a good head space.  

This morning I rose and got out of here before 8 and headed to the solitude of my wet studio.  I spent the time weeding out "stuff" to take to the next grab bag giveaway at the LAFTA meeting and throwing out "stuff".  I also, straightened and cleaned off my print table and just had to snap a pic, because it has never looked like this:

looks inviting, doesn't it?

But after leaving my mother's tonight I dropped off 2 boxes of "stuff" that came out of The Basement Workshop, so it doesn't look like this anymore.  But come Tuesday, I'm going to find places for the relocated "stuff" and get to doing something to some fabric heah!

Stop hitting the repeat button in my mind

I can't believe it is after 1am.  I was in the studio for  3 hours today.  Three hours of bliss.  I applied a second layer to the fabrics shown...the dye colour is brazilnut....looks black, so I'm eager to see what they will look like after the wash out.   My mind bounces between thinking about what comes next for the fabrics and imagining new quilt designs for them.  I try to lay down to sleep and end up wondering about any studio time tomorrow (today) and what will come next.  If I'm not thinking about this, then I'm being consumed with the upcoming garage sale and fielding phone calls and emails about items listed for it.  Its been this way all week so far...over and over and over my mind goes on like nothing else exists...I read/watch the news and it immediately gets pushed back.  The only thing I've given some thought to besides what I've mentioned is an agreement our public hospital has entered to honor the Catholic doctrine of being against tubaligations and will no longer perform them.  The article didn't mention vasectomies, but I'm assuming they will not do them as well.  This is OUR PUBLIC hospital...the one that cannot turn you away for not having insurance.  It is associated with University of Louisville and thus has a stellar reputation for being a public hospital.  I know there is a petition that has started and I will contact the person tomorrow, but this pisses me off, to put it mildly.  I mean couple this with the debate insurance companies are having about paying for birth control and there is nothing subtle about the erosion of human rights.  

I walked into the mother's garage today for the first time in over a year and thought I'm so in over my head because the place is a mess! It is not the mess I can see that bothers me as much as the messes I don't see...you know, the disorganized closets, attics, garages, etc.  But come what may, we're going to do this and get it done somehow, someway!  

overlapping writing in darker value

soy wax resist irregular scrapping stamped dye paint

Not sure how the day will go tomorrow but the one thing I'm really looking forward to is picking up my first crop of veggies and fruits from the organic food co-op I joined!  Woohoo! So I'll let you know what I score!

Okay, it is now almost 2 but writing this helped me to empty my mind...thanks you for stopping by...I believe I'll sleep now. :)

Memory vs. Imagination

My mother is giving up her home of 46 years.  I've been thinking about my attachment to the houses I've know in my 50 years.  There have been four with deep roots and the art of Kristin La Flamme kept creeping in my head today...specifically her Homes and Roots series.  I'm not certain how I will address the sense of rootlessness.  Its hard for me to know when I should push back against the weight of memory or when to relax into imaginings for tomorrows.  I've not been processing too heavily though, just trying to stay focused on what needs to be done.

Much of her household things will be going into the garage sale this weekend and next weekend, plus I've listed items on CL.  My mother's home was her pride and joy.  She appears to be okay and looking forward to her move into a contemporary 2 bedroom apartment for seniors.  

The heat and humidity have slowed my roll but I'm still making it into my studio.  Mo has been dropping me off and Peter picking me up.  Today, I was there about 2.5 hours and washed out my two lastest fabric crushes and painting soy wax on this fabric.  My inspiration is African Kuba cloth.  There are no meanings I've assigned to these symbols but I do keep wondering about how language and meanings transform and are fluid and not set cultural icons over time...again it is that weight of memory/history vs the imaginations into the future thing happening.

Last weekend Peter and I went to shoot pictures at the waterfront.  I just used my Nikon S630 point and shoot.   These are looking over the Ohio River.

 

 

 

I'm engaged...

Mad Crazy Love for this piece of cloth.

Textile Mecca?!

Mellwood is a very large facility with lots of nooks and crannies so I like to stroll through ever so often to see who has moved out, who is still there, and who is new.  My hallway is nearly full and I love the energy that creates, but I swooned when I saw these 3 new studios all clustered together and around the corner from me...

Is it possible a textile mecca is on the horizon?! 

Yesterday's first Demo Saturday was held at Mellwood.  Myself and 4 other artists sat out in the court yard and, well, demo'ed.  I found my silk roving and supplies at the 25th hour so I was able to demo that.  The strollers were on the lite side but it was fun to socialize and get to know more about the artist that participated.  And Robbie Moriarty, who has been there 6 years, is closing her doors due to having too much work and not enough manpower.  Her shop is 50% off retail and open on Saturdays until closing.

Deconstructing

Someone asked me today that I hadn't seen in a while if I was still writing and I took too long to answer until I remember yes! I've been writing a blog for seven years! I added a brief intro to my textile work into the conversation.  Do you have difficulty explaining what you do and how you do it?  Textile work is so process driven before one gets to the final creation and I still haven't found a way to describe it when in casual conversations.

I have a demo coming up this Saturday.  I was going to make silk paper but can't put my hands on my supplies which has thrown me for a loop.  Then I was thinking about doing freehand cutting and strip piecing, but now I'm thinking about bringing the slow cloth piece and showing hand quilting.  But for viewers that might be like watching molasses pouring.   How about making yo-yos?  But I'm not sure where my yo-yo makers are...I'm also deconstructing my sewing space, a.k.a. The Basement Workshop, and have slowly been breaking it down the last few weeks and fitting what can fit into the Chitlin' Circuit studio and the rest will go into storage.  Painting cloth and dyeing will be my main groove for a while longer.    Here is some of this week's results:

3 different deconstructed screens on 1 piece of cloth

the beginning of something...see below the sophisticated tool I used 

 

Slow Cloth for a Slow Body

I knew yesterday was going to be slow-going.  I was a mixture of doing with intent and off the cuff.  Off the cuff was throwing a bunch of fabric  off the clothes line into the bucket of soda ash for over-dyes because I got irritated by walking into them as I was messing around on the print table.  Intent was cutting more shapes from the contact paper to use as a resist and scrapping over the fabric with thickened dyes. Off the cuff was doing this screen of break down printing when I said I was going to wait until next week.  

Intent was stitching slow cloth.  Off the cuff was ordering pizza for dinner because I was too exhausted and in pain to come home and cook.

Today is a "Mama Day".  I'll be running errands with my Mother and then going to the wake for my great Aunt this evening.  This evening is going to be a big night at Mellwood with the Brewfest going on and the First Friday Trolley Hop in the NuLu district...I might attempt dropping by Mellwood for a short while to socialize but the evening is calling for chilling out as soon as I can get back home.