Creating with Intent

Last night I cleaned up this image and tweeked it a bit.  This is not the cleaned up copy.

I'm going to attempt to blog the development of this piece and my thought processes around how it will come to fruition.  The notes I made in the margins are as follows:

• skin tones: raw umber/burnt sienna or paynes grey.
• consider the decayed urban church screened in the background or as the background
• bottom 1/3 in diamonds or hexagons-pieced-consider blue/white commercial fabrics, all different
• consider yellow-orange heart behind them, engulfing them which could give the opportunity to play with highlights, but I liked the flat appearance of the study.
• heart would have some metallic in it and/or reflective bead embellishment
• blackbirds/sparrows present one season in the town Sula and Nel lived in
• figure/male with bell, rope tied around waist connected to bell, if used, subdue image as not to compete.
• ear smaller, heads larger.
• could attempt a more complicated background in collage Romare Bearden style to suggest a village of people, if used, images fused in cubism....people combined with birds and masks and houses
• take a look at the sketch for Milkman's Journey and consider the layout for the background or merge the 2 images into one quilt....really want a quilt for each novel but the 2 sketches work well together, but could be too busy for my personal aesthetics as would the collaged background.

These are thoughts I contemplated as I looked at the outline and asked myself "where do I go next with this?". 

I was going to use a projector but I remembered the glass got broken last Spring.  So, my next step is to take the image to Kinko's and enlarge it.  I know I could do it on my printer but I do not want to tape the pages together.  

The Fruits of My Labor

Yesterday I woke energized which made it easy to get down to the studio.  I spent 4 hours, 3 of which I was dedicated to practicing drawing using the book Mixed Media Portraits by Pam Carricker.  My goal was to work on proportions and shading.  Today I spent 2 more hours.  Here are the process images I snapped.

I reworked the nose/mouth alignment at least five times.  I started out trying to give her a double chin, but couldn't render it.  (note: examine more closely my own chin for help)  The last image I warmed up in Picasa. The ear on the left needs to be darker and the highlights in the eyes do not satisfy me but I am mostly content with the shading.  

I posted this study on my blog before, I think.  It is loosely inspired by the novel Sula by Toni Morrison and the title is We Were Girls Together.  It was painted, quilted and mounted on a wood frame.  The finished size was around 18"x12".  I did another outline for what will be a larger quilt which is what you see above the quilt.  Not sure if I will drawn the image again directly on cloth or clean this outline up and use a projector to get the image on cloth.  I will paint it but the background will be partially pieced like a traditional quilt.

This morning while I was gulping, (sip, me, really??) my coffee and eating an orange I recalled me telling my granddaughter when she was a year younger, (she is 5 now) that an apple tree was going to grow in her stomach because she had swallowed a seed.  She immediately teared up and was building up to hysterics and I had to convince her that I was kiddling....she was uncertain and looked at me like "why would my Nana play about a thing like that".  When I was young and was told the same about swallowing orange seeds I thought it would be fun to have a tree growing in my stomach and kept eating them.  That is the kind of family I come from where Grandparents and Uncles convince a child that it is really possible to grow trees in your stomach by eating the seeds of fruit.

Easing into

The studio by finishing up a piece.  I don't know what the working title was but i am naming it Spilling Out.  And I have plans to return tomorrow.

Warming up

This is a practice study for free motion quilting for the lungs and heart. 

Human anatomy

In stitch, a heart and lungs.  I am reconsidering hand stitching the outline of these innards and then sketching arteries and such with machine thread.

Gone quilting

It took me a few hours of piddlin' and conversatin' with friends and a lunch break, but this is how quilting gets done.

Twerking in the studio

You know, twerking was a word I had never heard until it made the news with Billy Ray Cyrus' daughter doing the dance on tv some weeks ago. The topic was coming up on so many news feeds that I you-tubed it. I was traumatized. On soooo many levels it was horrid. I hope the child gets help.

 

But enough, I am doing an emotional twerk in the studio. I was here yesterday and did NOTHING. Today, I am quilting.

 

This is Double-minded.

Sometimes I just have to leave it alone

for awhile and come back to it when I can see something new.  A lot went into this quilt...dyeing, breakdown screen printing, stamping, building up colour with watercolour crayons, going back over with medium, then quilting.  My first challenge after all of that was not having a table large enough to square it up...I did my best with what I had and then zig-zagged the edges for a finish...this is where it went wrong. 

Wanting not to be defeated by my own creation...I comtemplated cutting it down in size and sacrificing the flowers on the end...but my inner 2 year old kept whining and asking why?  I left it alone for months and last Sunday while gallery sitting I used Don's large table to recut the edges.  This week's time in the studio has been dedicated to sewing a binding on it. 

While looking for a fabric long enough to cover the 160 inches of edge, I begin to rummage and everything I liked I didn't have enough fabric...didn't want to dye or paint any, so it hit me to piece together the binding from all the fabrics I had selected...I've never tried this before but it is really working for this quilt...

Let's Barter...I have this...you have _________

The temperature dropped to 12F 2 nights ago and the high was in the low 20s.  I'm taking it in stride but today, right after I pick up my grandson from school, I'm going to the studio...it is currently 34 degrees.  After the studio, I'm heading to the gym for a mile walk on the treadmill.  Mo, has renewed our membership so I've been going 3 times a week. I lay my portable oxygen on the floor and do a quick start on the treadmill at 0 incline but going from 1.5 to 2.2 on speed...I'm able to get a mile in at 40 minutes or less.  I'm thinking about adding water aerobics in the spring or even yoga. But first I want to keep up this routine of going regularly. 

The Mid-wife didn't get stretched.  I damp stretch my quilts on the carpet in the living room and my grand kids are with us at night and sleep on the pull out couch which prevents me from stretching the quilt and allowing it to dry.  

The other night I was thinking that I never shared how The Mid-Wife quilt came to be.  I will in a few weeks, after I finish it, but I can't right now.  I've put a note to myself to remember to do this mid-February.  

I am finished with Secrets of Digital Quilting by Lura Schwarz Smith and Kerby C. Smith.  Doing the projects in the book didn't interest me.  What I found the most valuable was the digital filing system for working with images and the argument  for shooting photos in RAW format.  The 3 files, original, master, and target are organization tools I'm going to work with from this point forward.  It is too daunting a task to do this to the photo files I already have.  Shooting in RAW captures and retains more of the image in without compressing the image...it takes up more storage but if I have an image I want to continue to work with...because each time an image is opened and saved in jpeg (a compressed file) there is some digital loss in the image...probably not readily apparent to the naked eye but over the long haul it with repeated use, it could make it harder to get a rich image on cloth.  

The images I printed out, I'm wanting to make pillows with them so I've talked to Stephanie who has made pillows with her woven cloth and have of course did the google search.  I haven't ordered any pillow forms yet...and am thinking I just need to do the first few with polyester filled pillows to see how it goes before ordering down/feather forms.  

I printed the bottom on cotton and the top on organza and over laid them.  This will be my first pillow.

Now, let's barter...this year I'm about checking my spending and using the tools I've already invested in and not keeping things I know I'm done with.  Keep in mind, I'm fairly easy,...I'd like to trade Secrets of Digital Quilting along with the Fall issue 2012 of Fiber Art Now.  email me at seamless_skin at yahoo dot com and let me know what you have to exchange.  If you want an idea of things I might like...here ya go...fancy napkins, foam for making stamps, paints, mediums, painting knives, bead storage boxes, other books, silk scraps, adhesives, scrapbooking paper, tissue paper, paint, dye, crayons, a flat griddle, videos...just name it.

Having a party...

I lack the discipline to not share my quilts in progress.  I get so excited that I want to have a party and just hang out and drink wine...sharing here is the closest thing to doing just that in a way that provides immediate gratification among community.  Thus, my chances of creating something to submit to exhibits that prevent any form of public photo sharing seem low unless I change my ways. Something I'll ponder in the distant future...but for now...lets get down and party...

I had no intent of going in today, but my son called and needed a ride home from work after pulling a double shift, so to make the most of bathing and dressing and going out, I headed to the studio after dropping him off here at home.  The day went lovely, after an hour or so spent socializing, I finally mosied back to my sanctuary.  The front windows and glass doors needed washing, so I piddled with that until I was as close to streak free to make it worth my time...turned on public radio, rearranged some boxes that really didn't need rearranging, picked up scraps from the floor, put some fabric away, and then finally I was ready to pick up The Mid-Wife and resume quilting.  Her body is quilted and I think her face is finished or very close to being finished and then I was ready for the background...fruit, hanging fruit came to mind since she delivers babies...so I doodled a bit, see above.

Still not ready to commit to stitch, I recalled a method to audition quilt lines that Juanita had shared with me...cover up the piece with clear acetate and use a dry erase marker to sketch the thread lines.

It is generic fruit, buds that haven't come to fruition yet.  I also have to decide how and where I want to sew on the 40+ teeny tiny baby dolls that will embellish this quilt.  If I go with this hanging fruit, I'm thinking the babies will fill the empty spaces from top to bottom.  She will also get a necklace of pinkish/purplish pearls.  Oh, and I also came up with a full title, She Who Sees and Touches the Future.  By the time I got this far, the synapses was firing off and that led me to pulling out the praying crows and thinking about a background and story for them, (see them in the botton right corner on the photo on the left side?).

All this will stew for a few days and hopefully I can return over the weekend.  Now pass the wine and turn up the music!

Hanging out

Being at the studio on Black Friday was a very odd thing...it didn't feel any different from any other Trolley Hop except it was an all day affair...the amount of people on Frankfort Ave and at Mellwood appeared even lighter than a regular Trolley Hop...just don't know that small businesses and art galleries can compete with the big box stores on that day.  That aside, I really don't retail anything from my studio and use days on Open Studio to field questions from wondering visitors about what I do and hang out and connect with friends with a little art making in between.

Brittany came yesterday to hang out with me.  She saves shells from mussels and was interested in dyeing or painting them.  We experimented with acid dyeing with procion mx on a few and gesso and paint on others.  Brittany also makes purses from re-purposing fabric and hand embroidering women on the front.  Here is the start of one of them...

I've known Brittany's Mom, Deborah, since elementary school and we reconnected in the late nineties after we ended up working for the same organization.  

I completed most of the quilt lines on Oliver Lewis, The Jockey and tried to work on the Mid-wife but the day was wearing on me by then.  Tried to pick it back up today but couldn't concentrate well enough to do without making mistakes.  Something occurred yesterday at the art complex that greatly bothered me...another occurrence in a long line of crass and crude behaviors by leasing staff.  There is only so much Ass-holism I can let slide off without it effecting me while there.  This particular thing even found itself into my dreams last night and was on my mind the first thing when I awoke...not good...my head space is too precious and time too short.  If I'm still bothered, and even if I'm not, by Wednesday, I will at least voice my view to the appropriate person.

On another vibe, I was accepted into the SBA's Access to Market program for artists, designed to help artists market their work to a wider audience.  It is a pilot program that is funded via a federal grant and only took 50 artists across the state.  

Feeling the pinch in the shoe

The weather has been wonderful for the last 2 days...in the 80s, low humidity, partially cloudy blue sky.  It was just a bit challenging to stay the course...was wishing for an outside studio today.

Today in the studio was more and the same...hand quilting, stabilizing a quilt that was attached to rag paper, layering another top.  Me sustaining this kind of focus for months at a time has become like squeezing a size 9 foot into a size 8 shoe.

Material Remains(c) 2012

This is the quilt mounted on rag paper and foamcore.  I know this was started about 18 months ago.  I placed it in my front window.  I still need to figure out how to attach wire for hanging.

This is the hand quilting followed by the next quilt to go under the needle.

 Only 1 side edge remains to be quilted.  It will need some serious blocking before I square it up.

3 sunflowers.

When Nysha was here in June he showed me his pocket size journal that he carries with him at all times for the purpose of doodling.  My journals are larger and I haven't made it even a monthly practice of late.  I thought the small size would be more forgiving when it was neglected and easy to do a small page without a lot of preparation and forethought.  I took the last 30 minutes in the studio to add color to some previous line drawings.  My attempt at taking my size 9 foot out of the size 8 shoe.

The journal is 5.5"x3.5"....a photo-collage of the small pages.

Moving right along...

If left to my own inclinations I really believe I could become a studio hermit.  Having a chronic disability has made me hyper aware of what is going on with my body and making art is an on-going conversation between my mind, body, and spirit along the lines of what I can and can't do.  Pushing myself releases endorphin (or some other feel good body chemical) and I'm on a natural high.  I hate to pull myself away from my studio when this is occurring but sometimes I must.  I did complete the quilting on the above piece pinned to the design board and before I left I chose the threads for it's companion shown below.  More of my hieroglyphs... 

I can't wait to get back there! but other fun does call :)

BEAST IT!!!!

First of all, I'm not a movie goer...movies in the theater aren't that compelling to me and I prefer watching them in the comfort of my own place.  So when I go to the movies, I'm looking for more than just a "good" movie.  I'm wanting gripping, intense, take my breath away...total suspension and immersion into a story and characters that put me inside the movie.  Sorta like a Toni Morrison novel but in film.  Beasts of the Southern Wild did it for me!  I'm living with this movie inside my head since seeing it on Saturday.  The story, the characters and the actors who portrayed them are fresh and vibrant, but the story! It is difficult for me to come out and just say "it is a movie about such and such"...the story is not simple and their lives are not simple and the cinematography is similar to an IMAX movie...it is pulls you inside the scene and is right there in your face.  There is a community of people living off a coast in an area called The Bathtub...its about how they survive and the choices they make and the love they have for one another and the land...the lessons of life are not about judging but taking life head on and winning no matter what comes.  It revolves around a family of a father and his young daughter and the tenacious spirit of love they have for one another.

There are only 3 other movies that I can think of at the moment that got inside of me like this one...Crash, Daughters of the Dust, and Bamboozled.  Oh Brother Where Art Thou and The Color Purple I can re-watch (I seldom re-watch) over and over because of the story line that and genius script.  So I'm telling you to go to the Beasts of the Southern Wild website and check the calendar to see when it will open in your area.  It is worth a 2 hour drive to see!

Now, what have I been up to in the studio?  Still plugging right along.  I took yesterday off to stay in and rest but today I completed the quilting on one piece and made progress on this one...

This is one is set in a custom built wood frame. It is on a wood frame canvas and is permanently set in the custom frame...this is the 2nd small piece finished this way and I think it sets them off well.

the side view...

the back view...I need to attach eye-screws and hanging wire and it will be ready for the wall.

I'll get back into the studio tomorrow because I got to "BEAST IT!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Profane or Holy? It depends....

For those of you who do solo shows more than every other year, I toast you with a glass of champagne! Yes, I do!  I'm not even preparing for a solo show but one shared with Ronald Upfromsumdirt Davis, my brother, and preparing work is serious SERIOUS bid-ness (business).  After about 4 hours I begin to get cross-eyed and tonight I was only able to work 2.5 hours before eyestrain set in.  I got a feeling I'll be schizoid between counting my blessings and cussing up a storm during the month of August...hopefully if you run into me it will be while counting blessings and if not, remind me to.

Tonight I went back in on the washed out piece I showed in the post below.  What you see is the before, the after, and the do-over on the bottom half.  Looking at it here I think the shadowing on the left is too stark but it is a lesson for next time.  I didn't re-apply the no flow, just went back in using brushes and Dye-na-flow.  After it dried, or somewhat damp dry, I ironed the phuck out of it! using dry heat and kept the iron moving.

I prepared a sample for rinsing tomorrow or Saturday to see what will happen...of course the sample might be fine but the actual piece might loose color again.  That will be another cussing moment.

This piece is also under the needle...

Karoda's hieroglyphs inspired by various African writing systems.

Well it is late, I'm tired, and tomorrow I'm going to go see Beast of the Southern Wild and it is also Frankfort Ave. Trolley Hop so I'll be hanging out at Mellwood in my studio or someone else's.  Peace.

Hard lesson learned #7450

Just look at the wash out here! I used Jacquard's No-Flow and Dye-Na-Flow.

The instructions call for rinsing the No-Flow out after the paint as been set. I rinsed under cold running water and the paints air dried and were heat set first.  So what the hell is up?

I'm thinking of re-doing the No-Flow/Dye-Na-Flow over this...maybe I applied the No-Flow too heavy.  Maybe I'll give Jacquard a call on Monday.  I really really loved it...still do, but I am pissed over the amount of color loss.

And finally, I'm quilting the first Oliver Lewis piece.  I decided to start with the spires to warm me up.  I'll be back at it tomorrow. 

And another FINALLY....I received my last box of colored pencils giving me a grand total of 500 PENCILS!  (How you like me now Beverly?  That would be Ms Karoda to you!)

A Crystal Ball isn't needed...

to tell me there will be some un-sewing in my future.  My sewing table is now out of storage and in the studio, so this evening I gave my chops a work-out by quilting "docked".  It was small enough to not intimidate me, yet large enough to warm me up.  The circles are my favorite to quilt so I started with those, but then attempted a free-form cruciform shape that did nothing for the boats...I left them in for tonight and will take another look at it tomorrow but I'm almost certain I'm going to take them out and do the circles all over between the boats.

the full size is the middle of the bottom row

When I sat back and did the critique...this is what I works for me:  The colours, the suggested movement, yet stalled as if in a traffic jam.  I like the choice of blue thread around the boats.  The orange thread works and the circles make the boats stand out (maybe any background motif would do the same).  I was uncertain about doing the circles all over between the boats which is why I did the loose cruciform.  

Previously, I was excited about the hand embroidered knots...3 styles of knots in 3 sections, but today, I felt neutral about them.  I considered seed beads  to meander from the bottom to the top, but if I go with the quilted circles all over, the seeds might be unnecessary.   I quilted "boats of" "humanity" and "docked" in 3 different sections.  I will not be so literal with the other 2 quilts.  

For finishing the edges I'd like to trim in cord or a yarn.  If I go this route, having wavy edges is my concern.  I know there is a way to do it...if I recall correctly, Juanita showed me how to do this with tear-a-way stabilizer.  I have enough practice pieces in my scrap can to see if it works.  

I also spent some time sketching and laminating, but I'm too tired to scan what I did.  I arrived at the studio today around 2pm and didn't leave until 9pm...time flew by.

Talk to the Hand

back side

The working size is about 4'x3' and for someone who hasn't hand quilted a piece of any substantial size in a long while, I'm not doing too bad.  I'm using a size 11 quilting needle and can only rock 2 stitches at a time but it seems to be going faster than I recall me being able to do before.  This piece will not be densely quilted so I'm not freaking out over the time it will take.  I did go with the subdued thread colours but I can also see some machine stitches in a metallic in some spots being a highlight and compliment to the hand work.  

Auditioning Threads

When I left the studio today I resolved to use the subdued threads to allow the image to get all the attention but looking at the photo now, I'm having second thoughts.  Trying to be true to what I think this quilt needs, I'm going to hand quilt it.

I layered another piece today that is ready for some couching and machine quilting.  It is a landscape piece that has paper lamination.

As I've been pulling unfinished pieces together I'm thinking how unrelated my work appears one from the other.  Yet they all feel like my work...like pieces of me.  Even though I always intend to work straight through on a series, it hasn't happened like that.  I tend to work in circular rhythms, moving from one unrelated piece to another, eventually moving back around to a series.  What patterns of creativity have you noticed about yourself?

...And Still I Rise

Update

How good it feels to write a new blog post!!!!  How good it feels that Spring is here!!!!  

Louisville is #3 in the nation for the worse pollen count.  It wrecked a little bit of havoc on my lungs in spite of the emotional uplift the warmer temps gave me.  I just kept yo-yoing with chest crud until I had a brief 4 day stay in the hospital.  In between feeling good/feeling bad I kept plugging along on the boats...

Happy to report the hand embroidery is done and it is ready for quilting...but here is my plan...to continue on to the next quilt(s) and then sometime in mid summer go hog wild, (bat crazy, mad cow) with quilting all the tops.  This year's goal is all about production (don't get too excited...I work slow even when I'm fast).  My goal was to have the "boats" completed by the end of Feb. and it didn't happen until mid-March.  

You may recall me mentioning that my sewing construction studio is in storage due to my mother moving into senior housing.  For months I considered renting a 2nd Mellwood studio to set it up once the storage contract ends.  I turned over the idea of sharing a 2nd space, subleasing, etc.  It was my anxiety talking over not having my design board, fabrics, sewing desk that holds my main machine, etc. accessible.  I spent the first part of this week clearing the studio to make room for at least my sewing desk and to begin the next quilt with the attitude of "making do equals can do". Peter and Ade will haul through the storage unit and pull it out and deliver it this weekend.

Yesterday I actually sat down to begin the preliminary studies for the next piece.  Two of the three studies I finished...one is a thread sketch, this one using tsukineko inks.

The next one will be raw edge applique.  While doing them, the question in the back of my mind is "how can I make the imagery more abstract and still capture the event?".  It  will be a Kentucky Derby quilt.

Blog Love

I don't remember how I stumbled into Karen Walrond's blog and website, Chookooloonks.  I think maybe her book, The Beauty of Different, kept coming up on Amazon's recommendations.  She offers an on-line magazine workshop that offers gratitude prompts with photography prompts called Gratitude 2012.  Karen is an award winning, jet setting photography whose blog exudes kindness, humor, and beauty.  I enrolled in the workshop yesterday.  It is 5 dollars a month and 40% of the fee she donates to Kiva.  

Also, yesterday I discovered the website (thanks to Pinterest) and blog of fiber artist Diane Melms.  I've always wanted to improve my photo-documentation by showing the process involved in completing a piece from start to finish.  I think I'm too wordy to be as succinct as Diane or as succinct and poignant as blogger Judy Martin, another blogger I enjoy reading.  

Wrap-up

Time for a change.  I've been with Typepad now since I first began blogging back in '04.  This is a fee based blog and I'm at the lowest level.  In order for me to customize I would have to jump up to the next fee level and that ain't happening.  Blogspot offers customization and it is free.  My hold-up is anticipating the learning curve (the headache) of moving content.  This will be a goal for April.

Tonight is F.A.T. Trolley Hop.  I will not be having Open Studios but will be around with Carter, my 3 y.o. grandson and Anaya my 2 y.o. granddaughter for a few hours (at least this is the plan) visiting the other studios and galleries at Mellwood.