Fabric of the Week

Celebrating life

Today was a celebration of life! After 5 days away from the studio due upper respiratory infection...(I quickly got a z-pac) I felt good to go today and was back...didn't do anything taxing...just socialized, had visitors that came with great vibes, and did a little dabbling on fabric...see...

A daughter of a friend I've know since elementary came to hang out with me today in the studio.  She is reviving her craft and art habits after graduating from college and facing a chronic health challenge.  She is a beautiful young woman and I felt honored that she shared her embroidery and jewelry that she makes and was interested in seeing who I make my cloth.  Art can heal and connect people, in turn creating a vibrant community, yes it can!

I should be in bed now, but I'm hyped...I could have just stayed at the studio all night and messed around.  Tomorrow I'm scheduled to be interviewed by a professor from UofL...she is doing a project of African American women artists in the state.  I don't know what to expect but I'm going to have fun!

Fabric of the Week

Just do what you do...

The days are reminding me to pull out the sweaters.  I've yet to rearrange my drawers and closet for the season.  The nights are dipping down into the low 40s/upper 30s...which serves to remind me winter is coming.  I'll be loosing days in the studio when it gets colder and that is a bummer.  I'm wrapping up the last of the fabric marbling and dyeing this week in order to gain focus for the Good Folk Festival I'm doing the first weekend in November.  I'm sharing a booth with Beverly and Mary Jo.  I was fretting for a hot second over what to display but yesterday I let that go and said to myself, "just do what you do".  Why make something special/different but display what I want to be known for, if it doesn't sale, there will be other days and ways.

beaded leaf on canvas, small art

There are a lot of interesting happenings continuing for me (its been an year of challenges met).  In addition to the festival, I'm participating in a small art exhibit and also joining a co-op gallery, both starting the first of November.  I've also made an application to a pilot program for artists through the local SBA.  There is a staff person who is designated to work with artists and she wrote a proposal for this special program that will work with 50 artists. A few years ago I went looking for something similar at the Dept. of Vocational Rehabilitation and just got strange looks.  Happily to say this SBA program is supported through federal funds and is just one small way that federal dollars help to create jobs.  Off the top of my head, I can't recall the deadline for notification.

A few weeks ago I went to a Tai Chi class with my mother and thought it would become a regular weekly thing.  She had a couple of doctors appts. the week after we started and we've not returned.  I can't seem to wake up  and stay up in order to get there for a 9:30 class now.  I hope to start back next week.

Fabric of the week

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Rainy day ponderings

On the drive back home I was rolling over whether the eye trains the hands or the hands train the eye for visual artists.  My approaches vary on how I create and I think the hand and eye are interdependent in informing the image.  September time in the studio has been given to freedom and exploration and play.  As I've experimented with marbling and returned to mark making with thickened dye with no expectations of outcome, images for future quilts begin to form...so in that case, it is the hand that informs the eye.  Other times as with the Oliver Lewis quilts, I see (or hear) something and think, 'how can I form that in a visual', which is the eye informing the hand.  Like a dance, the eye and the hand.

I set-up a new "size" for marbling tomorrow.  And have a cotton scarf under plastic that I stamped with dye on the print table.  The Boku-Undo inks came today that Carolyn Abbott suggested I try.  They float on plain water without the need to mix in the carageenan. There are periods of waiting between steps for the marbling...the fabric has to air dry after soaking in the alum, the size has to sit for 12 hours before it can be used, the marbled fabric has to completely air dry after it has been marbled.   I mixed up some thickened dyes as something I know I do well...sort of a resting spot between in the learning curve of marbling.

marbled fabric

Fabric of the week

Tai Chi, Marbling, and a Red Dot

In light of my morning plans for tai chi not happening I thought I'd let you know what is going on in the studio and art wise with me.

I've settled on marbling on fabric as my seasonal exploration.  It is my long-range hope that it will pair nicely with paper lamination.  I downloaded the Interweave video with Jo Fitsell and got busy last week.  First results/first layers were disappointing with lots of sinking colour in the "size" made with careengenan.  The video below shows the first attempt which I've since gone back over with a 2nd layer.

So far I've tried floating golden fluid acrylics (as per Jo Fitsell's suggestion), pebeo textile paint, tsukineko ink, FW acrylic ink, and airbrush paint.  The tsukineko ink gave me the best float with quite a bit of sinking with the others.  It seems to be a crap shoot to get the right mix of "size" and the thinning of the colour in order for it to float across the top of the size.  This week I'm going to try walnut ink and india ink.  It is the results that are propelling me on.  I love the stone patterns and that is what I want a stash of.  The one thing for sure I've learned thus far is that it is better to start with fabric that has color than all white.

(said in Ed Sullivan's voice), Now for my really big news ...(switch back to my voice) I SOLD THE BOATS PIECE!  YES! YES! YES!  I wanted to include the picture of the red dot with this post, but I just couldn't wait any longer.  And to add to the significance of this, it was approximately a year ago that I started it the day after Troy Davis' execution by the state of Georgia and the anniversary of his death has just passed.  The exhibit is still up until Oct. 2 and open daily M-F from 11:30-1:00 or by appt.  

Now for this tai chi you ask...my mother and I started last Thursday at a senior's center.  I've wanted to do this forever but the classes are always costly.  At the center, it is FREE and held twice a week.  So off we went and had the best time!  The instructors are kind, patient, and funny, and one of them was an instructor I took karate from when I was 14! Mama and I were both so uncoordinated.  For a few days afterwards I noticed that the knots in my upper back and shoulders were gone.  

Marvelsome!

Whew, what a summer is has been!  So singly focused on preparations for the exhibit that forming complete sentences over something other than any topic unrelated, ceased.  I was getting a bit concerned.  The moment of "okay, I think I'm back to me again" came as soon as I got in my car after hanging the exhibit with Elmer Lucille Allen and Randy Weber the Thursday before the opening.  And every morning since then I wake feeling rejuvenated and that is even before a cup of java!

Often I sit back and marvel at the people in and around my life and thank God for what is a beautiful coat of friendships and blessings.  I meditate on this frequently. Doing so reconnects me to hope and a feeling to not "panic" in the face of Crazy and Chaos that wants to insert as Normal in the affairs of humanity. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, who came to the opening Friday reflected this in my life.  There was a steady stream of visitors for the 4 hours...as a few would leave, a few would arrive, which allowed me to spend time with everyone talking about the art work.  I face my limitations and awkwardness when trying to work through a room of a group of people so in my mind, the evening went as it was intended to show the best me possible.  This also allowed Elmer Lucille to take photos of me with everyone who came and in turn I have a great photo documentation of my very first exhibit opening.

To illustrate and share what I mean...Penny Sisto, her husband Dick Sisto, and Beth Schnellenberger were the first to arrive and for me it signaled that all was in order for a great evening.  Penny and Dick are cultural ambassadors and Beth and I are members of LAFTA.

The next day I received this email from Penny---

Dear Karoda, I loved seeing your new pieces..especially ones seen in progress on your Blog..it was unusual for Richard to come with me but when he heard that it was you and that Elmer ran the gallery he wanted to come..

Your work is amazingly complex and mysterious, it draws you in and is deeply satisfying..that is not easy to accomplish in fabrics..your stitching floors me..looks as though small fairy fingers had stitched it! the hieroglyphics are brilliant..

Elmer, thank you for the gallery, it was so inspiring to see it ..It was hung with space for each piece..Elmer, I admire you so much, there seems to be nothing that you cannot do..you are such a beacon in a world that seems at times to have gone mad..

Both of you..I am so lucky to know you..

Congratulations on the show...

A few days before the opening I, as Fate would have it, I met Ramona Lindsey.  She was wondering around Mellwood and I acting in an unofficial capacity as a Mellwood ambassador asked her if she was looking for something specific or just browsing around (Mellwood is a maze of a building so its always a great question to ask to strike up conversation). 

The back story is that Ramona has been away from Louisville for 15 years and only relocated back here 2 weeks ago and IS A FIBER ARTIST!  Now as large as Mellwood is, I could have very well missed meeting this kindred spirit, but at the right moment it all came together.  Ramona was juried into THE Saint James Art Fair, which is always in the top 5 of art and craft festivals in the nation and is known for the buying crowd and collectors in attendance.  (Congrats to you!) Check out more of Ramona's work at her website.

As for the rest of September, I'm taking it easy outside of the studio and my main goal is to start volunteering for the reelection of President Obama.    Also, I've committed to setting up and sharing a booth with 2 other artists at the Good Folk Festival the first weekend in November.  

I have more to share but as porky pig would say "thats all folks".

Artists Statements for our joint exhbit (click on page tab above for details)

Ronald “Upfromsumdirt” Davis

Digital Collage is my primary medium but I also do illustrations and paintings.  I start with hand drawings using a digital tablet and found images that are further manipulated in digital software.  My work has appeared in galleries, museums, coffee houses and juke joints in Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee. In 2009 I was a Kentucky Al Smith grant award winner.  As a creative person, I am inspired to create a visual fantasy that expresses an African American narrative and mythology.  I call what I do Abstrack Africana, a fluid aesthetic where technology, science, history, mythology and art merge and co-mingle. 

I gain inspiration from everywhere. However, music and the written word have the greatest influences on me.  Sun Ra, Chinua Achebe and George Clinton have inspired my artistic work just as much as Pedro Bell, Romare Bearden and Emory Douglas.  I hear a riff by Charles Mingus and I ask myself, “How can I make that into art?  How can I reshape the images generated by it into poetic verse?”  This is my obsession.

Additionally, I am the art and poetry editor for Mythium Literary Journal (http://mythiumlitmag.com/) and co-owner of Wild Fig Bookstore in Lexington, Kentucky.

 Karen “Karoda” Davis

With the soul of a poet, I create mixed media art quilts that are heavily process oriented.  Starting with white cloth that receives color via dyes/paints and according to the visual idea, the cloth will undergo various surface design treatments, such as, screen printing, wax resist, stamping, over-dyeing and/or hand writing. The designed cloth then in turn becomes raw material for whole cloth or pieced quilts that receive stitching, embroidery and/or hand beading.  The finished pieces are for hanging or framing.  I am just as comfortable in a hardware store and grocery store and waste can, as I am in a fabric store when scouring for studio materials.

I am mostly interested in the processes of creating as a way to explore my sense of freedom and limitations and as a way to connect to a larger sense of community. Chitlin’ Circuit is the name of my studio.  It is located in the Mellwood Art and Entertainment Center.  My blog, http://chiltincircuitstudio.blogspot.com, is one of the earliest known blogs documenting processes and ideas by an African American art quilter as referenced in This I Accomplish: Harriet Powers Bible Quilts and Other Pieces by Kyra Hicks.

Showing work alongside Upfromsumdirt, my brother, has been a dream of mind since I began my visual art journey in 2004.  We are both products of Louisville’s public schools and the West End of Louisville.

We hope you enjoy the mix of art produced by both our hands.

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.