Honey, I Love*

okay, So in my crazy mad crocheting, I thought I was ready for a sophisticated Interweave or Vogue pattern...(never underestimate my delusions)  I'm not quite there yet, but I could create a yarn bomb explosion...on you if you stand still long enough.

Also, I told myself a lie...because I'm going to have a small yarn stash, nothing massive or anything like collecting fabric (although I've noticed this could become competitive between yarn vs. fabric). 

I started another scarf tonight.  This is my 6th project in less than a month.  I'm going to block these made with this fine microfiber yarn just to see what that will do.  What I can gleam so far, there is a debate among the yarn heads, to block or not to block.

wave pattern



window pane pattern

 



Also, at the moment, as in the last few weeks of moments, I'm leaning toward blowing all the creative goal setting.  I'm going to walk into the ethereal realm creatively speaking and see what I leave behind on the trail of time. 

What I want to do hasn't changed...it is the pace in which I will do it that will.  In the slow re-read of Beloved I have been so struck by how LOVE is a force, energy, power, action that it has reminded me and shifted me...in the midst of this is the almost daily care and life with 2 small children (I thought this was all behind me) and the experience with my mother (early dementia) is showing me that at any age, all ages, change is truly inevitable, change that you can sometimes control and change you have no control over at all and at the end of the day none of it matters but that which is in LOVE, that force, energy, power, and action of existence.  This is what I'm choosing.  (remind me down the road lest I forget). 

So I think from here on out on my blog, among the artistic pursuits, I'm going to wax off my tongue and just talk about whatever I'm led to say.

*title is a reference to a poem and book by Eloise Greenfield.

Craftual Healing, Wake up, wake up, wake up*

Winter hasn't driven me mad, but nearly a month away from the studio has turned me into the mad crocheter.   I've been home resting and recuperating from a bit of bronchitis.   I am taking a steroid and it mucks with my sleep, meaning I'm up most of the night and take cat naps during the day.  Sooooo, I had a notion once again to learn to crochet.  I purchased 2 how-to books on the Kindle,  ordered hooks, picked up some yarns and away  down the rabbit hole I went.

This is the start of my 5th project in a week, week and a half.

a spring scarf with light weight cotton yarn on a 4mm hook.

 

I am a bit compulsive with this...I find with the attention and constant hands in motion, that my thoughts are at rest and listening with intent is improved.  Mostly I'm here at the desk, in front of the computer, listening to a podcast, or the news on TV, or music. (Moth Radio Hour and Democracy Now are the podcast and Valerie June is the songstress).  And it dawned on me while listening to MSNBC why I've decreased following the Mon-Friday evening shows...The shows spend too damn much time keeping me informed of the so-called conservative that they are indeed giving them way much more air time and coverage then they really need.  Don't get me wrong, I believe in knowing what the enemy is up to, but the coverage  doesn't go in depth of what so-called liberals or progressive movements or thoughts actually stand for.  The weekend shows do most of this with round table discussions with various povs by people who are self-respecting, intelligent on subject matter by way of study and/or activism...the weekend news and information is more civil in tone and engages me as if I'm in conversation. 

 

 

Before this need to rest began, I did bring the projector home for the purpose of enlarging the Sula inspired quilt on a white vintage table cloth.  But where I put it down, it still sits.  To paraphrase artist Kevin Cole "making good art is about making a series of intelligent decisions".  To enlarge the quilt would require intelligent decisions and a "flow" that I can't muster.  The crochet patterns and the counting, the either it is right or wrong that goes along with it, is a strong branch to make my cocoon right about now.

 

Peace, *title is reference to what song by which artist?

 



Day 5

Gallery sitting.  Steady stream of visitors.  In between visitors, this is what I am doing.

We, Together Keep Watch

Michael is making a wood panel frame that this will be permanently attached.  This piece was inspired by Sula by Toni Morrison and is a study for a larger piece that I will start on next week (if the creek don't rise and the winds don't blow). 

I named this small piece (16"x10") We, Together Keep Watch.  It speaks to the friendships and connections of women and knowing ways of some women. 

 

 



a scarf for my Beloved.

This will be a scarf for Peter when its complete.

 

 

I'm reading Beloved...Sixo is holding my intrigue.  At some point he decides there is no future in speaking English.  And I'm trying to SEE Sixo, a man the color of Indigo with a red tongue, muscular in my mind, moving against the horizon of a September sunset.

 

Last week I began quilting the Sula study.  I used a variety of thread weights and types.  King Tut looked the best. At some point I considered the overall look with some finer threads sinking into the fabric, coarser threads sitting above the fabric and some laying close to the surface...the visual diversity could perhaps serve as metaphor for the community of inhabitants within the novel.

 



Woman proposes, God disposes....

This describes Monday and Tuesday of this week.  This week resembles nothing! Nothing! NOTHING!! like I had planned.  Crochet is the prayer I offer through my hands. Teaching Anaya Lift Every Voice and Sing is faith I'm practicing.

No Honeymoon for Uneena, She Has More Jewelry to Create!

The other event that added to the dynamics of my weekend was the Meet the Artist Reception at Kore for member Uneena Jackson.  It was Uneena's first exhibit showcasing jewelry she designed with "love" in mind for wedding parties.  She went all out with a wedding cake and her niece wore a wedding gown and modeled some of the necklaces during the evening and music teacher and student Chris Mudd played the keyboards setting a melodious backdrop. 

 

 

Spikes and Pearls Necklace by Uneena Jackson

I was kept pretty busy writing sales receipts and running the square which doesn't like me very much.  I had to keep asking Don or Uneena to run it as it seems to go the first or second time when they do it. 

Her exhibit will last through the end of February.  For the next week I'm certain she will be busy creating new pieces to replace what was sold, so if any Mellwoodians see her around gabbing...send her back to her studio...but I must admit, the woman does create well under pressure! Congrats Uneena!

Ohhhh What a Night (hearing The Dells sing that line in my head)

For me it was an intense and busy weekend.  Friday was the day I had been anticipating since December and although I had to push it in the back of my mind in order to handle the day to day with my grandchildren and my mother, it indeed did come and I was ready.

It was the reception for the 20th Annual African American Art Exhibit (with a free catalog) held at Actors Theatre of Louisville each year.  The art/artists is a good mix of Louisville artists and artists across the country with about 4,000 in award monies. 

The receptions at the theatre are always held on First Friday Trolley Hops and right before a play opens its doors, so the attendance is always good.  The art is hung in ground floor and mezzanine lobbies with a jazz band and open bar.  The awards are presented in the atrium of the first floor (which isn't built for sound and hearing in a crowd is difficult).  BUT I did manage to hear my name called for one of the merit awards given.  I didn't know my piece had received that until I got there and saw the ribbon hanging.  The show went up the first week in January and will come down at the end of this week.  I'll return to view the exhibit when there is no foot traffic to hinder really looking.

Here are some of the photos from the night:

 Crowbonics: The Prayer, Jeffery and Susan Callen Merit Award

mezzanine lobby

love and I standing in front of XX, my other quilt in the exhibit.

 

The advice I received from Kevin Cole, the juror, was to work larger. Advice Juanita gave me years ago.

'

Mo and Anaya

(Anaya had interpretive dance moves going on with the jazz at the reception)



Keep Swinging

Here it is the first week into February and I've not committed to goals for 2014 for the Chitlin' Circuit Studio. I've ruled out taking any major workshops this year even though Dorothy Caldwell and Jane Dunnewold will be giving workshops here locally.  I know, I know.  How fabulous...but it is not showing up cowrie shells, or tea leaves.

My focus is getting through winter and I must recognize that I'm doing better than previous winters.  My granddaughter is back in the hospital and has been there this time since Monday of last week.  She is 3 and quite spirited and mature for what she is experiencing.  The medical team is quite encouraged by her energy for the pulmonary diagnosis she has.  I'm encouraged and can't wait til she is well.  In March we're, well she, will start ballet.

Back to this goal-setting.  The first quilt study inspired by the novel Sula is prepared for quilting -

the heads have since been painted in.

I'm not sure I will do a study for each one...the next one up is The Bluest Eye.  What I'm hoping for this series is to teach myself to narrow the focus of the techniques I use.  But to recognize my own growth to this point, the idea to do these quilts came to me way back, like in '06 or '07, but didn't feel at that time I had the skill and confidence to go beyond just thinking about it.  I'm now at the point where my confidence is not intimidated by attempting it and I hope to learn something about myself at the end of this year.  My goal is to have 3 or 4 finished.

I will continue with this series as my main focus for "making" but will have other works going on between these quilts.

For my learning curve, my focus is doing Zentangles.  I've been looking at the zentangles and quilt lines of Nysha Nelson for awhile now and thought I've finally get down to trying them myself for the purpose of broadening my free-motion quilting ideas.

this is Day 1, working through the book One Zentangle A Day (6 weeks total)

My reading material will be continuing to read and re-read books on art and marketing to assist with the co-op gallery (current book is New Market for Artists which focuses on online markets) and do 1 day a week for gallery coverage.  I'm also, re-reading the novels of Morrison (Beloved is the current book) and will begin reading through the books that I have from the David Driskell Series (started the one on Keith Morrison last week).

And lastly, in light of missing a recent deadline for a juried exhibit, I want to submit to 4 shows (yet to be identified) this year.

In the words of Hank Aaron, I'm going to "just keep swinging".

Peace,

Artist's Statement

3:00am.  I’m reading a book on writing about one’s art and now I’m propelled to write about the series of quilts based on Toni Morrison’s novels.  It hit me some weeks ago while I was sketching the design for Song of Solomon that I had been wrestling with narration of the books (Narrative Quilts is not something I associate with my own work) versus my emotional and cognitive responses to them.  It is the latter that I’m trying to capture; it is the latter that keeps me re-reading her novels. 

By focusing on my emotional and cognitive responses, I will in turn, create more authentic pieces and maintain artistic integrity.  It was a wa-la! moment for me and I could breath.  Why on earth would I attempt a narrative in visual form behind Morrison, the Divine Queen Narrator? 

I have 3 sketches, 1 for The Bluest Eye, 1 for Sula, and 1 for Song of Solomon.  I’ve started on the study for Sula because it is the one that is most rooted in my own emotional imagery.  I’m digging what I’ve done with the other 2, but I’m believing they require something more before I transfer them in cloth.

The book I’m reading is Art-Write: The Writing Guide for Visual Artists. It was the prompt question “How did you make this?” that started my wheels to churning to the point that I rose up and came to the computer to write this post.  The detailed answer to this question would vary depending on each quilt. I love the freedom in creating art quilts; the freedom in the variety of processes to explore. The finished piece is quilt as metaphor and symbol. The quilt as documentation of my living: breathe, thought, soul. 

It took me 45 minutes to write this.  I'm heading back to bead to sleep.  Peace.

Sketching to stay warm

Just wanted to pop into my blog to wish everyone that stops by a happiest of new years.  I coasted through December and the year is behind me.  I've been mulling over directions and steps to take in this 2014 but haven't decided on anything. 

My blog break reflects my desire not to keep repeating how much strong STRONG dislike I have of cold weather but since the temps are predicted to drop to 1 degree F with a wind chill of minus 20 degrees F, I need to say it! I hate cold-ass weather!  There, I'm good for the moment.

I don't know when I'll be brave enough to return to the studio.  In the meantime I'm just sketching around.

Peace,