Seamless Skin

Low Technique Yields High Results

One of the suggestions Claire Benn gave us in May was to push the limits of one single tool...just commit to using one mark making tool everyday for a week in your studio.  A couple of weeks ago I did just this using a plastic card and did these...

But my new awesome favorite tool is this!

 click to enlarge.

The insert from toilet paper is a fantastic stamping tool.  I shape it into a pod, square, rectangle or odd shape  and just stamp with my medium of choice.  I must give a shout out to the fabulous Joanne Weis (toward the bottom on the post) for suggesting this in a LAFTA workshop she gave last year.

Let the Work I've Done Speak for Me.

I've been rolling along since coming back from The Crow Barn.  I've joined the Y with Mo, my daughter, and am exercising 3 times a week.  Remember last summer it was me and Adrian, my oldest son going to the gym at the Family Life Center (affiliated with the church where my name is on the roll but my seat is vacant).  We did that for 4 or 5 months...well I'm back at it again and trying my semi-best (working up to my very best) to deal with diabetes as well.  

Dye painting has been my focus with the exception of a week spent to make traditional quilt blocks in felt to be used at the Speed Museum in their children's area to coincide with an exhibit of traditional quilts.  That was sweet to be able to do for them on commission.  

Now I'm back to the fabric.  The next piece in the Crowbonics will be The Sperichil (The Spiritual).  I'm listening to an interview with Joe Carter as part of my research for the piece.  The 2nd piece that I had going morphed into a study instead and where I'm at now is working with the image of the crow, a trumpet, an adinkra symbol and marks from African alphabets/syllabaries and my own writing and symbols to go into the sheer lamination and on the background fabric.  I'm still on search for a local source of very very sheer silk or polyester organza.  Claire and Leslie bring some from the UK that is amazingly sheer and now that we only have the chain fabric stores, I've been disappointed in what is available.  But I have one source to check in Shelbyville, up the road from Louisville.

I'm going to make a transition in the train of thought here due to my mother just calling me to tell me a beloved Great Aunt passed away yesterday.  Aunt Doll was married to my Grandmother's brother.  She was a well spoken, well coordinated, soft toned voice, strong opinionated woman with proper leanings (somewhat of an exception in my rather loud leaning, shut your mouth, sarcastic bent family).  The last time I saw her was last summer when she sang at my father's funeral.  

Directly related is that Crowbonics is about my ancestors and how we communicate.  I'm really trying to express the nuances of communication between and across generations.  It really isn't tangible and sometimes isn't valued and sometimes is suppressed to the point of invisibility.  Aunt Doll is apart of my cultural transmissions as a woman and artist struggling to abstract, cultivate, and manifest, (like some archaeologist digging in dirt 1000s of years old), these phenomenon.  I just want the work I've doing to speak for me.

Anything is possible

with dye and fabric!  

 The joy of having the "best me" back can't not be expressed fully in words...words are just failing me, but I can tell you it occurs at the cellular level.  I had been holding in a lot of stress and what the week of being surrounded by creative people and being focused on my own thoughts around my art practice with guidance by Claire and Leslie coupled with being pampered by wonderful meals prepared by Margaret Wolff did for me was to allow that stress to dissipate right out of my body!

The goals I settled on were to obtain a specific palette that I want to work in for awhile.  I came close with this piece ...

 

I will go back into it but I don't want to lose the colors so I've selected an ecru dye that I think is unifying to the cools and warms.

My current short term goal is to completely saturate cloth with dye.  It seems the dyeing and repeated over-dyeing is the answer versus a heavy measure of dye powder with one use.  

 

These represent my other goal for the workshop which was to work with the same motifs.  Below are two more.

The intent for the cloth is to end up in quilts, but I must admit the confusion comes about when I just want to sit and hold the cloth or stare at it from across the room.  I haven't really constructed a quilt this year, so I question if I'm going for whole cloth, art cloth, or what???  If its whole cloth, I'm great at creating backgrounds but need to get better at focal points.  Art Cloth?  Maybe on occassion, but I really love stitch and layers.  The only stitching I'm doing is slow, slow hand work...if I charged by the hour on the piece it would be out of range for the ordinary art textile buyer. (is there such a thing?)

Primordial Womb in progress.

 

WOW! will have to be sufficient.

This is the part where I'm suppose to write something coherent about my week with Claire and Leslie at The Crow Barn.  A very rare occasion that words seem insufficient.  

I have to acknowledge that all my fears and anxieties proved unnecessary!  I stayed well and am still well!  My stamina held until about Thursday when I began to slow down but still it was a full and amazing week for me! And every personal snafu that presented itself worked out smoothly for me which added to the joy and productivity.

I really don't even have adequate photos to convey the week I had because stopping to take photos was an inconvenience and using the camera rarely entered my mine but here are a few:

This is the beginning of a new cloth and a picture of my print table. The bottom photo on the right is me presenting my review to the rest of the group on closing day.  My 2 goals where to create a palette inspired by a painting of Barbara Earl Thomas and end the week with paper lamination.  I came very close to the palette and will continue to work with it here at home.  One of the paper laminations didn't turn out. I used too much medium and I think my print table was too soft...at least it was softer then my own.  The other is destined for greatness!  

I have to give a shout out to my girl Bev, who came to my rescue.  Over an hour from home and close to Cincy, Mo calls to tell me I left my silk screens.  Bev lives just east of Cincy so I called her to ask where I could pick up some screens...and Bev, being Bev, had a friend, etc.  She met me off the highway with 3 screens that she cleaned up for me!  Thank you for the blessing Bev!

Later in the week Bev, and Kel who lives 15 minutes from the Barn, came up Thursday after dinner and I gave them a quick tour of the Barn and then on Saturday Bev (an artist but not textiles (YET)) went to Athens to view Quilt National!  The treats within the treat was seeing Olga Norris' and Judy Martin's work in person.  I think Olga captures bodily gestures like nobody's business and Judy meshes hand work and philosophy so gracefully. I identify with it somewhat but moreso, am mesmerized by it.  However the one quilt that I would have taken home with me if I could was Vera Loves Her Gun by B. Michele Maynard.  The sole factor was it's ability to make me laugh out loud and the strong narrative it held.  I stood there in front of this quilt trying to concoct a story and laughing in between.

I've almost got everything put back in place in the studio but I'm also not waiting.  I've made up 8 quarts  of print paste,different recipes and varying thicknesses.  Soda soaked fabric was left on the line to dry yesterday and I'm going in later today to over-paint with thickened dyes.  My aha moment was being able to see where already dyed and over-dyed cloth still has room to take more dye.  It was most apparent to me while ironing the cloth.

In addition to painting, I'm hand stitching Primordial. The base is silk paper to felt.

 

Love a good storm...

Its storming here.  Pot of coffee.  Ice Cream.  House work.  Books and mags.  Sketchbook.  Sweetie snoring.  Computer.  Scrabble...describes my day.  

Mo left to take Carter to the barber and if I had had myself together I would have been dropped off at Mellwood while its storming.  I don't feel up to driving in this and then having to walk across the parking lot with my rolling pink book bag while juggling an umbrella overhead.  

The end of May I have a workshop with Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan at The Crow Barn.  I had already decided that this would be my last major workshop to travel to for a long while.  Since last summer I have had the overriding feeling that I really have everything and more to create the art work I want and that my focus should be concentrating on staying in the studio as much as I possible to even begin to make a dent on my ideas.  

The first of April, however, I decided to try and sell my spot.  So, if you're reading this and have an interest in taking an advanced workshop with 2 hard working instructors with incredible insight into the creative process, or know of someone who might be, email me at seamless_skin at yahoo dot com.  Go the www.nancycrow.com and check out the workshop, Working With Intent before emailing me.

Shortly after I made this decison I learned that Jane Dunnewold will be running a year long workshop based out of Louisville.  If I sell the spot at The Crow Barn, then I'll enroll.  If not then I plan to enroll with Jane the 2nd year.

If I haven't sold the spot by the end of April, then I'm going to forge ahead and plan to attend.  I have to set time frames for holding on and letting go of issues in order to move on.  

and in the vein of counting my blessings...I'm a recipient of a textile collage from Marion Coleman! I finally hung it a few days ago and when I turn my head left from my desk, this is what I see:

 

And this lovely inspirational card from Carol sits above my desk at The Chitlin' Circuit:

 

Here is what I left on Thursday:

 

Listening and Learning...

The sheer lamination was not wide enough to become the 2nd panel in the Crowbonics series.  The three panels will be the same size; 40 inches in length and 18 inches in width.  Being that it was not wide enough, I cut this sheer in 3 sections and decided to use these pieces to further experiment with what lamination can/cannot do.  Hand stitching is a natural compliment but lamination is not forgiving at all with un-stitching!  The pinholes left behind can become a design element...I'm considering  placing copper brads, eyelets, chicago screws, or gold leaf lamination (or some combination) in the area where the pinholes remain...but machine stitching is next...ummm, but maybe not...maybe I'll insert the metal pieces and then machine stitch (carefully of course).  I'll put them up on the wall and talk with them for a day or two before I decide...similiar to George Washington Carver, I'll listen for divine instruction ;)

exhibit a

exhibit b 

exhibit c

The backgrounds remind me of the building where my studio is located.  It was a former meat processing and packing plant and the integrity of the building has been maintained...lots of exposed metal shafts, pipes, and bricks. 

 

Crowbonics: The Scroll

detailed view (c) 

 

 

by Karen R. Davis (Karoda)

[email protected]

Louisville, Kentucky

2010

40.5 inches x18 inches

whole cloth with laminated sheer.

hand-dyed cotton; medium weight stabilizer; wool batting; Jacquard cotton; rayon , cotton, and metallic threads; polyester sheer; paper, textile medium; fusible web.

After hearing a 2008 NPR segment on the intelligence of Crows, I became captivated by the rich black birds and wanted to rescue them from their oftentimes less than favored status.  My intent to represent the American Crow for this exhibit was further shored up by the sadness of the absence of information on James Audubon’s mother which I surmised was due to her race, class, and gender.  I even went so far as to project Audubon’s love for birds and being in the wilderness as a spiritual restlessness caused by not knowing her.

Crowbonics: The Scroll is the first of what will be 3 pieces depicting the culture of Crows.  The Crows are the marginalized birds with their own values and ways in the world.  Those not privy to them, often see but do not understand. To the Crow, it doesn’t matter; they carry on, surviving and making their presence known through their distinguished song.

$2800

 

**********

 

There were 5 starts to the Crow piece before this became the one that felt completely right.  It would not have been possible without attending the Paper Lamination workshop at the Crow Barn last month.

 

I will not have time to photograph the full size until its return, but the detailed image is a good representation of the entire piece.

Crowbonics

 

Building #2, Mellwood Arts & Entertainment Complex

Even though Claire and Leslie were not present for the workshop, I find working with the processes highly transformative.  The week at the Crow Barn made me come to a decisive decision to turn The Beauty of Holiness Studio at Mellwood into a wet work studio.  I was leaning that way by way of wanting to try wet and nuno felting.  It didn't take long for me to move my dye supplies and accessories there. 

Yesterday I had a stretch of time that I spent at the studio and my goal was to work on the "crow" piece but I couldn't find the laminated pieces I did and was  for certain they were there.  After tracing my steps they turned up at Valerie's house where I had taken them to show her what I worked on.  I could have sworn that I had put them back in the car and my fear was that I had lost them out of the car in the moving of supplies.  I was close to heartbroken and panic when Val returned my call and said they were there!!!  My aim is to pick them up today.

Here are 2 of the fabrics I did while at the Crow Barn:

This is a side view of the piece.  Corrected view is 90 degrees left.  I'm calling the series Crowbonics.  I was going to call it The Secret Language of Crows but I challenged myself to find another word, a created word, that expressed my intentions.  I selected the Crow not only because I'm enamored with their intelligence, but also Crows represent cultures of people who are not centered in the mainstream.  The people can function on their own terms and/or seek/struggle to lessen disenfranchisement by the mainstream and/or people who attempt to balance the dualities of their own defined culture with co-existence in a mainstream/pop culture.   This way I include Audubon's mother, an African French woman of mixed race.  The piece has to be completed and in Henderson, Kentucky by the 28th of this month. 

Here is another partial view of a laminated piece:

Dark clouds, thunder, wind, and rain are going on.  Fine, if I'm not compelled to be out...but I must do what I must do. On second thought, I'm going to wait it out!  May the angels cover us all.

Sanctuaries, Volcanoes, Crows, and Friends

Is your studio or creative space also your sanctuary?  Mine is to the degree that its a place to be with my one thoughts and feelings without judgements and comparisons.  Even when there are others in the space with me, most of the time, I am the most I ever am comfortable.  In a similar vein, I feel this way at the Crow Barn for all of the two times I've been there. 

On the 18th of last month I arose from bed to pack my clothes for a week at the Crow Barn to take a long-awaited workshop with Leslie Morgan and Claire Benn.  A quick check of my email that morning made the distant monstrous cloud of an erupting volcano I didn't even know existed personal.  Leslie and Claire couldn't get out of the UK!  Short of throwing myself off my balcony, I managed to pull myself together, holster up the tatas, and drive to Columbus for the week. 

Mezzie, who was there with me in '08, was appointed as point-woman and organizer in lieu.  She did a excellent job that kept us readily supplied and moving forward.  Claire sent instructions via email and called in twice a day to the group to check our progress and offer feedback for any questions we had.  A husband of another participant took photos of our progress on that Wednesday with his super duper camera and emailed the images to Claire in order for us to have a productive 1:1 telephone conference with Claire that Thursday. 

Overall, it was a situation beyond anyone's control and everyone that came in for the workshop had the best attitude to make the week flow as best as best could be.  I'm so glad I forged ahead and didn't go over the balcony.  I left there with with a new beginnings for the American Crow piece for the Audubon exhibit.  Its a piece that I feel is reflective of the idea I wanted to express.

Here are some photos taken on the last day.  I was packed up by then so photos of my own work are forthcoming.  Know that the pieces you see aren't anything close to finished pieces but all are in-process at one stage or another.

  The last image is of Super Cordial Courteous Carol.  She was there in '08 also and we ended up as roommates this time.  It was a little scary to room with someone who didn't know me and love me as a friend prior to sharing a hotel room but we had a great balance going on and it turned out well.

What almost became my undoing while in Columbus was all the technical problems I experienced with my oxygen.  It was one thing after another which was the primary reason I left on Friday.  Claire managed to get a flight out of the UK that scheduled her to arrive Friday evening.  For those that were able to stay from week #1 she was holding a Saturday class at the Barn.  Leslie made it in on Sunday I think and week #2 went well from what my friend Valerie phoned to tell me.  I did get to say hello to them individually via Val's phone.  Leslie and Claire are two of the most dynamic women I have ever met in ANY arena!  If you love processes as much as you love the outcome and if you love learning HOW to self-evaluate your work by developing and sharpening your eyes, and if you love creative energy-giving banter, then I suggest you seriously consider enrolling in a workshop with the two of them!

Peace,

Counting Crows

I haven't had much time to be at either place, The Workshop or the Studio.  For a second (a short second) I held the thought to sale my spot in the Benn/Morgan workshop next month at the Crow Barn. I will follow my own advice and not let single moments define my whole reality and future.  I've heard Nikki Giovanni speak several times and she tells a story of a visit somewhere in Central Africa and going to a village and a group of men identify themselves as "warriors" for the village...she asks "what wars have you fought?" and the reply was there hasn't been a war in over 100 years.  Giovanni's point was how can you call yourself warriors if you haven't fought in any wars.  I haven't been feeling like much of an artist of late and began to question the "what" as in what do I call myself doing?  These supplies are just wasted on me, yak, yak, yak...  The upcoming week with Leslie and Claire at the Crow Barn will be an opportunity for my mind to settle back into the processes of making art, (God willing and if the Creek don't rise)

I have a new granddaughter who was born last weekend.  Her name is Anaya which means God Answered.  She has been in ICU since Tuesday morning but the meaning of her name is not lost on her...everything has corrected itself and the last miracle we are waiting on is for her respirations to slow down and the water to clear off her lungs. 

Also, my father had a hospital stay and has transitioned into a nursing home for rehabilitation.  My mother and I have been trading off days to care for my 18 month on grandson, Carter, (named after Carter G. Woodson) big brother to Anaya. 

I'm settling into the head space where I can allow Grace to enter.  Patience is following and I have forgiven myself for not burying myself in art making and accepting this is the season to be and do for my family and accept this as the blessing it is.

With Carter in and out of my lap, I painted this Crow on a 6"x8" scrap of fabric.

Scraps of Splendor...

sunshine, and warmer temps (it hit the low 60's today!!!!) makes keeping the faith a whole lot easier!

These dyed silk scraps came from wearable artist Laverne Zielbelski from Lexington, Kentucky.  Laverne had a booth set up this weekend at the Kentucky Crafted Market which I attended for a few hours on Saturday.  I met Laverne over 20 years ago when she lead writing circles and reconnected after discovering last year that she is also doing textile work for creating her poetic line of clothing.  Laverne is also doing Nuno felting and using the FeltLOOM created by the owner of Lan Mark Farms near Lexington.  It is a machine that takes the rolling out of Nuno felting.  The University of Kentucky Art dept. is looking into purchasing one of the machines...I wonder if UofL's Fiber Art dept. would get one????  Slim chance I think due to budget cuts in the last few years but one never knows, right?!

I worked about 2 hours today at The Basement.  I spent about 30 minutes cutting shapes as an exercise from Finding Your Own Visual Language and will work some tonight with mark making on paper using a variety of inks and pens and brushes.  I spent about an hour working on the quilt in honor of Crows and thinking about James Audubon.  Many times an idea will hit me and I can see it and I think "how brilliant that will be if I can pull it off!" and then weeks later I think the design has morphed into something "too simple" to reflect my ideas and I'm heading for the path of least resistance.  The conflict comes in when I create a focal point...when I create an image, in this case Crows, I loose the emotion for a piece.  I really like my backgrounds so much better which I describe as emotional abstractions.  The questions I posed today are:  Should I go for narrative?  Should I make the Crows larger? Should I make the background smaller?  Should I make the Crows out of felt and sculptural?  What if I wanted to return to a total abstraction about Crows...what would it look like?  What are Crows attracted to?  Should I make the background reflect an urban setting?  A practice I took from the Benn and Morgan Workshop back in '08 is to write the answsers to the questions down when I'm stuck...this is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. 

Peace,

Meditating Over It...

Yesterday I sat in silent meditation with the quilt pictured in the post below and together we decided that the size cannot change.  To address the puckering concern, round donut-shaped stones in a variety of sizes will be added on.  The solution felt BRILLIANT!  The stones echo the motif of life being circular as well as a line from the poem.  I applied the evaluation techniques I learned in the Benn/Morgan Workshop.  I saw that the cloth was not as complex in layers as I previously viewed it and wanted more, so the additional embellishments will help some with this.  One of the comments that Claire Benn had made was that American surface designers tend to lean toward less layering than their European counterparts when making complex cloth.  (Not a judgement but an observation)  I want this series to be vibrant or intense AND sophisticated in appearance.  I spent about 3 hours yesterday evaluating this quilt...not continuously...I would write my observations and thoughts down between staring at the quilt.  I took brief breaks to start on another work in progress that I've named my Prayers series...the fabric is one dyed by Helene Davis that I picked up at AQS-Paducah years ago...I stamped it with a symbol for Sankofa and quilted it a long while ago.  I started the beadwork yesterday:

the beads are amber-coloured but the fabric is not this warm and is even a cool brown...the lights in the dining room gives off a yellow cast plus I couldn't remember how to turn off the flash.

The inspiration for Prayers came from the beaded prayers project by Sonya Clark.  In my last year of employment I came across her work and contacted her about doing a workshop with with the clients that utilized services where I worked.  We coudn't afford her fees and the interest in fundraising specifically for this project was not present in the Development staff.  I was deflated by it because I soooo believe in the art and health connection.  I have one completed in this series (story of my life) called The Faith of the Mother.  I've shown pieces of it on the blog but not the completed quilt...will try to get it photographed soon. 

Let the blessings rain on us all! Peace,

 

Kinetic Energy continued

I wish I had taken a photo of my packed to the roof and from side to side with all the supplies of Valerie White and mine...of course heading from Louisville the kudos for packing it all in belong to our men but hey, we didn't do a too shabby of a job packing to return home. 

The fact that I shared this time with Valerie and Juanita, in its own unique and delightful way, was a socially creative phenomenon!  I mean what are the chances that we all would take the same workshop and all 3 of us, uniquely different in style, would come away feeling the workshop was incredibly worth every single moment!

This past week I've had what I would call one productive day in my workshop.  I adjusted the height of one of my folding table to waist level and will use it as a work bench.  I switched the position of this table and the cutting/ironing table and am looking for a cheap-to-free rectangle wood kitchen table to place the top of the cutting/ironing top onto...the folding legs that came with it are too wobbly.  And I'm leaning toward ordering this for my sewing machine.  On the same day I made the adjustments I took the dye stocks that where in the fridge during the 7 day power outage and tried them out...so far the one I tried showed no signs of diminished colour.  So I'm going to try to use them up dyeing painting shades of greens, yellows, and reds.  Instead of selecting a panel of each colour for creating complex cloth for the remaining quilts in the Poetry Series, I'm going to create multiples of 5 of each colour and then work on them and then select 1 of each colour to make up the panels in each quilt. 

The weekend has been spent resting so I hope to have at least 3 productive days this coming week.

Phoning for Obama/Biden

Friday morning Petra and I headed to one of our favorite spots for breakfast:

  I tried something new:

 

(I prepared my own version of this for brunch today...two fried eggs with sauteed seasoned steak and tomato-pepper relish on top, hash brown casserole and sourdough toast.)

We called those on the registered Democratic list for the city of Indianapolis...there were a lot of disconnected phone lines and unanswered calls due to the time of day we imagined.  The few I spoke with of the 150 calls were mostly enthusiastic for Obama.  I spoke with one undecided who was leaning toward McCain but after he saw the debate he was questioning if it was the right thing to do with him being a teamster and all. I did my best to affirm him redirecting his vote :)  I came across a few crabs who firmly stated they where strong for McCain and not to call any more (to restate it pleasantly). And one woman yelled that it was none of my business (again restating it pleasantly) who she was voting for.  Alrighty then, moving right along....

 

Here I am with Kenya who works in the office:

The next time I go back I'm taking my 16 year old son. 

 

KE=(1/2)mv to the second power

Beginning with the ride home last Saturday I've been trying to put into words the description and impact  of spending one week at the Crow Timber Barn with Leslie Morgan's and Claire Benn's Working with Intent has had on me and I can't find the words.  To discuss it in terms of techniques learned seems to trivialize the whole of it; to talk about it in terms of their enthusiasm and energy my words don't measure up; to discuss it in terms of how my mind and vision were stretched and latched on seems to elevate it to a spiritual experience.  Taking the workshop was like somehow being a part of their formula for kinetic energy.  So with that said I'll just share photos taken because at this point its a good beginning.  Over the course of time and my work, the experience will grow and hopefully become one I can give justice towards when speaking/writing about it.

Pinning fabric to the bench

 

Breakdown Printing

 

Debbie, Juanita, and Karen R. in consult

Leslie giving critic to Karen R.

 

Claire surveying the room

 

With much respect I will state that Claire and Leslie are truly among the few hardest working women I have ever encountered in any arena.  To read the perspective of other bloggers who attended check out  Juanita  and Debbie.

But no one's energy during that week would have sustained without the extraordinary healthy, nutritious, and delicious meals prepared by the heart and hands of Margaret Wolf!

The next post will be a brief documentation of my day yesterday as a phone surveyor for the Obama campaign.