The Winds of Ike...a bad mutha-shut-your-mouth

I'm on-line, the microwave is going, the tv is on, I can use my land line telephone, I have less dropped calls on my cell...do you know what that means?  We have electricity and lines are getting back up.  Sunday the winds of Ike came soaring through here at 80 miles per hour.  Not a drop of rain, just the winds...created the largest black out on record for this area...300,000 homes without power and about half of them still out...another 175,000 homes across southern Indiana...street lights out, lines down, gas stations packed with irritable drivers, trees down, roads blocked, businesses closed, schools are out until next week.  Its been surreal.  A forced sabbatical of sorts.   

Our lights returned yesterday evening.  My parents are still without power but they at least have hot water due to it being on a gas line.  We didn't even have hot water and yesterday afternoon I drew the line and headed there for a shower.  I was beginning to ferment.

Handwork, hand sewing (Hi Jude, Hi Acey)...people who primarily do work by hand would adjust to not having electricity...they're not as co-dependent on the infrastructure (btw, speaking of infrastructure, i'm wondering if budgets for research to advance our infrastructure and maintain it have declined to the point that we all will continue to be at greater risk during natural disasters for a long while in the future ...my way of finding emotional relief by blaming the practices of Bushit), anyways, back to the freedom found in handwork and hand sewing...I didn't do any but instead called 2-3 times a day to see if you parents' electricity had returned so I could finish the quilting of this beast of a quilt...the next one is even larger and I think I'm going to hand quilt the circles.  It would be just too much to squeeze in and out of the bed of the machine.

I'm going to check out some of my favorite blogs and then stop procrastinating from cleaning out the fridge from all the spoiled foods.

It really is about Peace (just waiting for all to catch on but I'm not holding my breath)

We can bomb the world to pieces but we can't bomb it into peace..

Power to the Peaceful!

lyrics by Michael Franti.

I forgot the fun of making these gems

Postcards!  This one came together rather quickly and was a joy to make. 

 

I'm thinking I'll go back into production mode if I can manage them not being a distraction from my central focus.  I really want to complete 4 Poetry quilts by the end of the year.  I'm working on the second one which is a bulldog to quilt.  I can see the lure of a long arm.  This wrestling is making me reconsider working large.  I'm using clips to hold the rolls on both sides of the section under the needle but since I'm quilting in circles using the circular attachment the rolls have to move through the bed and around the needle.  I went online to look at the George quilting machine and became all dreamy eyed just thinking how less difficult it would be to quilt on it.  I printed off a picture and will consider financing one in a year when my car is paid off.  Its a dream, a wish, and a goal...

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And the winner of yesterday's music question is none other than Gerrie!  And I have to admit I have no idea who Orlando Brown is...I'm stuck somewhere around 1999 or before.  I'm just not with it on current singers, actors, actresses, movies...if it wasn't for a few friends and family I wouldn't be able to even buy a clue!

Gerrie, your award will be going out in the mail over the weekend!

 

Will it Go 'Round in Circles

Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky...I got a song ain't got no melody, gonna sing it to my friends...(be the first to guess who sings this song and receive a quilted postcard from me...leave answer in the comments).  This song has been stuck in my head since I started quilting (in circles) the new piece.  (I'm not showing these because I plan to enter them in places...so until I can build up enough quilts, just snippets or studies or prep work).  I'm using a matte thread choice that blends excellently into the background adding jut a hint of shading.  The panels have a lot of depth to them and I love looking at the entire surface.  So, this time, I didn't want the quilting line to stand out.

I started in my workshop at 2:00 and quilted until 5:30 when the circles where beginning to get to me and realizing that I only quilted about 1/6th of it (dense and overlapping circles) I started repeating "slow and steady wins the race" and took a break to do some hand stitching (i.e. piddling) with what I hope to be a postcard (commissioned at that) for a friend.

And I had a lovely, lovely, lovely mail day...when my camera and card find themselves in the same place, I'll show ya what came today.  Now, I'm kinda hungry...gonna go say my goodbyes to my parents and great-niece and head home.

Peace,

 

Productive Piddling

   

It took me two days to put the dye supplies away and I just could not get started on the quilting of the piece I have ready and waiting once I finished.  So I piddled around this week.  Carved the stamp above based on some doodling I found flipping through the pages of one of my journals.

 

And these tiny squares of ink pads are perfect for repetition.  I selected these colours to duplicate the colours of contemporary kente cloth.

 

And this cloth I made has been up for weeks now.  I decided this week that it isn't going to work as one of 3 panels in the up coming quilt...too garrish and muddy on the left and upper right corner.  It felt good to come to that conclusion.  It was something about it that disturbed me after I put the blue/green/metallic circles on it...so I thought the red circles would "brighten" it up...that didn't work so I added foil and left it to stew and stew and stew and it looks like a cheap knock-off of what I had in mind...so I'm moving on and its outta here! 

 

I also covered a makeshift printing pad.  Its foamcore with 2 layers of batting and a denim like material on top.

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The weather is turning cooler and the Farmer's Markets will be closing soon for the season.  Although the cold weather is not my friend I am looking forward to more hearty meals.  I've got a taste for cabbage with onions and green peppers and black-eyed peas in a tomato sauce over rice and some hot water cornbread.  Thats what I hope to prepare tomorrow for dinner. I cook my black-eyed peas in a chicken broth, saute onion, mushrooms, garlic, basil, oregano, salt and pepper then add to the peas along with a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste and finish cooking.  Sometimes I add spinach to it but since I'm cooking the cabbage I'll skp the spinach.  I use to make a spinach quiche that I lost the recipe for years ago and attempts to make it from memory have not worked to my satisfaction.  The crust was made of whole wheat flour, butter, and cream cheese.  The filling was spinach, stewed tomaotes, colby and jack cheeses, mushrooms, eggs, and the Italian seasonings.  I have food on the brain...gonna go see whats in the fridge because today is a "catch is as catch can" kinda day...meaning I'm not cooking so eat whatever you can find.

In Studio 3 Once Again

Well I made it!  This is Studio 3 once again.  I had 3 days of dyeing. 

Thursday I just unloaded and mixed my dye stocks and that was enough.  That was five hours of my time.  I did do something different this time.  I used blenders to mix my dye stock which I didn't mind at all.  I can't shake and stir like I use to (and that goes for more than mixing dye stock although I just listened to Celia Cruz singing and I almost hurt maself ;) ).  All 3 blenders came off of Craigslist for little or nothing.  If you've got the patience it is a great place to find odds and ends for art and studio supplies.

 

Two other artists where in the house...their names have lost me at the moment but one from Arizona has a month to work on her printing and painting; the other from Indianapolis works in mixed media and was working on etching in metal and some painting.  The artists tend to visit with one another but in a very unintrusive way. 

On Friday Petra joined me.  She isn't an artist but appreciates what artists do.  She accepted my invite to come and play but declined to use the Reduran to remove the dye from her arm.  She said it made her feel like an artist so she wore it home.  I believe she had a very full day.  But the crazy woman plopped one of these

unidentified berries in her mouth until I admonished her to remove it immediately for fear she would fall over dead under my watch.  Geez, can't take her anywhere!

 

Here are some of the fabrics batching in the heat.  Some of which I left in the containers outside at my workshop when I returned all my supplies today with the help of youngest son who is standing next to his grandmother, aka, my Mama!

 

He was a huge help loading to go and loading and unloading upon return.

 

These are the fabrics I left outside just at the top of the stairs leading into the basement, aka, my workshop.  I will get to them sometime toward the end of the week after I put everything back in its place.

Here is the door leading down into my workshop.  Whenever it is open like this it means it is an invitation for every fly in the neighborhood to come party.  Ummm, I just thought about placing a fly repellant by the door to see if that helps.  That way I will be able to leave the door open sometime. 

 

These, I love a lot!

 

This is a small isolated section on a small piece.  Reminds me of the tips of spears or arrowheads.

This is a part of the window covering in Studio 1.  I isolated this section with the leaf.  The background is paper.  I find this very calming.

 

 

Ya know, I haven't dyed fabric all year!

I'm excluding the playing I did to see what the iDyes where all about and I'm excluding the painting on fabric.  I mean the get down and dirty, pull out the equipment, and just let go with yards of fabric kinda dyeing.  Well all that is about to change starting tomorrow.   I have a free day over at MACA and I'm going to anty up for an additional day and I'm going!!!!!!!!!!!  Ade went with me this evening to finish loading my auto.  I was going to "FOCUS" this time and not try to squeeze in every single surface design technique known to humankind.  I was almost there until the last hour of packing when I went through that "I'll take this just in case.  I might need that!  Well I can work this in too" and I've over packed...a real clear clue was when I opened the door and my 2 glass jars of thickener (sodium alginate) fell and broke.  If I remember to take a picture of my vehicle before I unload it, I'll make sure to post it here. 

I decided not to dye at my workshop.  The water source and the rinse out methods that I have to use makes it too too labor intensive and uncomfortable.  Plus too much other things are going on in the space and going outside leads back to being too laborous for me to enjoy it. 

Monday and Tuesday I spent time decluttering and replacing items and taking inventory.  Partly in preparation for the Benn/Morgan workshop coming up.  I vascilate between excitement to jitters.  Excitement due to the preparation of having to put a design board together prior to the class and bringing my intent while remaining open to new ideas; jitters due to hoping I can keep up and meet the demands of being in a group setting versus working solo at my own pace.

Yesterday I worked on cutting stencils from file folders as is demonstrated in the book Complex Cloth by Dunnewold.  I used copy-free designs just to practice and will do some more later on tonight if I don't get too tired.  I'm thinking I better try to turn in early though...yeah, better turn in early and not fool around with sharp tools this late at night.

Peace,

 

Congratulations to Ron Davis

aka Bruh Dirt, my one and only brother!  He has been juried into the state's art council marketing program!!!!  Read about it here.  He was one of 7 artists accepted!

And preview some of his work and personal style and words here.   An excerpt:  Commercial fame is an elusive thing for black artists to achieve... so shouldn’t we at least create work that identifies our positions on life/love/society? In actuality, I’m really asking for a lot... this is no small task. Knowing yourself well enough to express who you truly are can be a daunting thing... to make art challenging again, either thru its message or its ambition.

Getting on with life

Am I one of the rare few who hasn't been glued to the Olympics?  Sure, I've caught some of it each day so far and have enjoyed watching, but its like I've caught an onset of adult ADD, not being able to sit and watch tv beyond 30 minutes.  Although, my reading has increased again and I'm loving Natasha Trethewey's Native Guard (for which she won the Pulitzer).  I have the gift edition which includes a cd of the poet reading the poems.  The enjoyment stems for poetry which has geography, history (both personal and collective) as propelling devices central to the work.  I'm a sucker for it, just takes me to the moutain top.  I listened to the cd for the first time on Friday with Ron and Crystal and it has since been a staple in my car, playing it loud with the windows rolled down (incoming throw back song lyrics:  diamond in the back, with a sunroof top, digging the scene with a ganster lean, woohoooooo) Crystal also informed me that Trethewey will be headlined at the Kentucky Women Writers' Conference which is where I was left floored by Jessica Care Moore last year.

The other book that has me mesmerized is John T. Campbell's Middle Passages.  The most effective and fun history class I had was at UofL, taught by a visiting Nigerian professor.  He had us to assume historical personalities and study their writings during a selective time frame for a staged debate with an opposing contemporary of the period.  We had to stay in role for a week or more, never being allowed to answer questions in our own voices but how we understood the assumed character would answer...well Campbell's book is written in a similar vein, making broad sweeps of historical data much more intimate, interesting and meaningful.  He discusses the back drop in which personalities lived, formed and implemented their ideas, contradicted themselves in the face of changing current affairs and how their lives may have or did rub up on their contemporaries.  I'm even thinking about writing the author a personal note to thank him for such a book.  It was one that I had checked from the library and noted it for adding to my own shelf and low and behold I found it at the HalfPrice bookstore along with the book on quilter Mary Bendolph's work...destiny, fate, I tell ya!

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Okay, when I'm stressed the one trait that irritates me, hugely shows up in my life: indecisiveness!  I hemmed and hawed over going to the bookmaking workshop this past Friday and talked myself out of it with the decision to put the money toward a large (for me) PFD fabric order.  I did make it to the Carnegie Art Quilt Network bi-monthly meeting on Saturday and showed the progression of the Poetry quilts and received some suggestions for forthcoming quilts in the series which I might or might not consider, but I appreciated very much the different perspectives.  I enjoy hearing perspectives of other artists and particularly non-artists which is why I like having my mother look over my work when I'm in the workshop or having my daughter ask why write on the fabric when I am only going to obscure the writing.  It falls under the heading "tell them so I'll know".

The indecisiveness showed up on Sunday as well...over visiting another quilt meeting.  In addition to the stress over a personal situation, I'm also home a lot less with my workshop being across town and trying to spend at least 4 days there for 20 hours worth of activity which translates into being there longer to get in 15-20 hours of activity that I deem significant and progressive.  I have two other things on the agenda for this week...attending Louisville Area Fiber&Textile Artists meeting and stopping by the headquarters of Embroidery Guild of America. 

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The scraps left over from the Poetry quilts will be turned into trading card, post card sizes up to journal size quilts.  I couldn't stand the thought of these scraps which I've bestowed special importance on, languishing in the basket with all the other peasant scraps.  Maybe this mini-series will be called New Lease on Life...or Born Again...or Second Chance Art or Reacquainted or Deja Vue or You Remind Me Of or (enough, we get it already!)

 

Big wheels keep on turning...

Today is the first day of school for my youngest child, so we've been busy getting prepared.  I'm still in a funk which will be a long time riding itself out and knowing this is the best resolve to a heart breaking situation. 

I've sewn on a binding to the small work called Willie Pearl and am thinking about doing similiar pieces the same size as a collective genealogical piece.  There is a piece waiting on the line so to speak if I can ever get back into my workshop...again, I'm aiming for Thursday. 

I'm thinking about taking a bookmaking workshop on Friday.  Beginning with the weekend and the following week, there are several textile art related meetings in my calendar...keeps my spirit rolling on the river ;)

Indigo Monday

Sometimes we can damn a thing by day only to find its our light come darkness.  I try not to label so quickly but Monday has rolled up into some bad energy that threatens to take the week.  The way its looking, I will not be back in my workshop until Thursday.  My blues are a deep shade of indigo in the throat of Nina Simone. 

Thanks to all who commented on The Story in the Work, the previous post.  Its good for me to express what goes into the work and why.  The conversations in my head get hashed out so repeatedly that to write about them seems like I'm repeating myself 84,000 times and when I come to blog I too often think about presenting a process or outcome because I can sound more coherent and readers don't have to trudge through my chaos.  Maybe thats what I'm doing with my art quilts, turning chaos (energy, words, images inside of me) into order(control, linear, square, contained). 

I'll be back after Thursday...just gonna ride this deep indigo on out and see where it goes.

Peace,