Seamless Skin

When keepin' it real goes right!

Its been a busy exciting and overwhelming week so far.  I'm still riding on cloud nine from hearing one of the best journalist of our time...Amy Goodman!

 She was here for the annual ACLU fund-raising dinner and my daughter said Al Sharpton spoke at St. Stephen Church on Sunday...and Julia Butterfly Hill was here yesterday at Bellarmine University.  When I first heard a radio story on Hill when she was still up in Luna, the tree, I was on my way to work and had to pull over to the side of the road because the story, the dedication and the sacrifice, moved me to ball like a baby.  The other time a radio story had this effect on me was listening to Regina Carter cuts from her cd Paganini: After the Dream.  I didn't hear Sharpton or Hill but the fact all 3 dynamos where in the city so close together, puts some jazzy joy in my heart.

I'm going to hang 3 pieces (Cilium 2, Crowbonics: The Scroll, Crowbonics: The Prayer) in a pop-up group exhibit on Friday for trolley hop and then for the month of November I'll have about 8-10 pieces at the Iroquois branch library.  This coincides with the release of poet Makalani Bandele's debut publication, Hellfightin' (Mud Man, my brother, did the cover).  Bandele will be doing a reading at the branch and myself and one other artist will be present to talk about our art forms afterwards.  I don't know the details really, so I'm rolling with the flow for the most part.  

Wishing you peace and joy, beloved...

Meeting deadlines

okay, I have at least 3 coming up...one in October, one in November, and one in January.  I'm infamous for missing them because I can't work as fast as my head finishes a piece and secondly, because I don't hold to a strong dictate of what I'm going to do when in the studio.  Like last week, I had every intent of picking something back up when I arrived.  The world was feeling different for me the day after Davis' execution.   Also, I was in the middle of reading a enthralling travel book on a woman's journey to West Africa in search of Indigo and it's meaning, Indigo: In Search of the Color that Seduced the World by Catherine E. McKinley.   It was both of these I believe that came to bear on a change of plans.

Now what I had observed about myself that day was I was moving slower and quietly both physically and mentally. Shortly after I arrived at the studio a certain phrase came to me and held me spell bound and I chose to follow it in cloth and ended up starting a whole new piece, and thus far, I'm very pleased with it.  The size is large, for me, and I'm wondering if I can have it ready for one of the looming deadlines...maybe I should change deadline to lifeline...meeting it could mean a whole new life for a piece of art.  

This week I played around with video taping in the studio...I think I need one of those twisty style tripods.  So far my camera man (youngest son) hasn't been convinced of all the exciting things that I do while at Mellwood and hasn't jumped at the chance to film me.   I mean what 20 year man wouldn't want to party like this!?

 

 dye painted cloth wrapped in newspaper waiting to be steamed

I believe

that the key to nuturing faith is finding joy and having fun and gratitude...but the flip side of that nuturing is also to recognize pain and wrong when it shows up and shows out and today at 11:08pm the state of Georgia in the U.S. of A. was wrong.

I am Troy Davis.

The Rent!!!!...is too damn high...

This piece was dye painted last week.  This is the fourth layer of over-dyeing.  In this picture it is still wet so I know it will be a tad lighter once it dries.  The effect is full of intrigue and mystery and I can see it paired with a smoky gray and a deep red for speaking to the root of turbulence that life sometimes holds.

 I've been wanting to get that rich, saturated depth of colour that I see in some quilts.  I purchased a red piece of fabric from Nancy Crow and she said she dyed it 4 times with 4 different reds to get it. My piece batched over the weekend and I steamed it today and will wash it out tomorrow.

Last week I batched AND steamed to see if it makes a difference and I think slightly it does but since I was not doing a controlled test, its hard to say for sure.  I also was a little heavy handed with the dye powder too, again, not really controlled testing here.  I also think I need to get a tighter woven pfd to get the depth I'm seeking. 

Elmer Lucille reminded me that Ed Hamilton and Sam Gilliam along with Mr. Gilliam's older sister, Lizzie Miller, were in conversation last Thursday at the Speed.  It was 6 when she told me on her way out and I was still dyeing, so hurriedly cleaned up and made it over 15 minutes into the program.

I wanted to introduce myself after the presentation...I know Mrs. Miller from my days of working as she stays active in her church and wider community organizations involving human services.  I really would have loved to have a photo with Gilliam and Hamilton but folks swarmed the stage afterwards and I was physically beginning to drag.

These pieces are huge by Gilliam. He said this came about from a question he was asked by a bar mate where he hung out at the time who asked him "why bother to stretch your canvas before you know the painting is good".  I recall reading that he kept wanting to get away from the limitations of the "frame" during his retrospective show here.

The other statement I took away from the presentation was the need for the artist to be larger than their art by getting about in the world in order for the art itself to have substance, the ability to speak to the human state.  He felt that installation work has gone on too long and most of it lacks substance.

Hamilton still resides here in Louisville and one question he says he gets asked frequently is "why he never left?".  His opinion is, "if the work is good enough, it will be found". 

I never want to be guilty of over-romanticising the past, but one of the things they spoke of and Mrs. Miller validated about the early years here in the 50's was the comraderie and accessiblitity of artist in the community.  I wasn't born until '60 but I grew up being able to identify, even if I didn't know them, artists, poets (who I would come to know) in the community.  Is it the same today?  Not really sure, but it doesn't seem so.  

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I've been trying to upload this post since Friday...the problem was the browser...Peter switched over to IE9 which is still in beta and Typepad doesn't support it yet...I'm using Google Chrome and the problem is solved.  I'm so very much an end user...I just want the computer to work the way I anticipate is should, ya know?!  

Every day for the last 2-3 weeks I've woken up to a different resolve about moving from my current space in Mellwood...take the other space, stay where i am, take the other space, stay, other space, stay, yada yada and on and on.  IF I do decide to take the space behind me, it will not be until the end of November.  The Tenant's Council is promoting the Friday after TG and I wanted to stay in my current space for it.  

Today someone cleaning out there space gave me a great desk that was on its way to the dumpster.  I had to move stuff around to accommodate it and today I was like, moving around the corner isn't worth it.  I was whooped when I finished and I really didn't do that much!  I relaxed enough to clear my head and think about "whats next?" creatively which lead me to writing on fabric.  There is a November 1 deadline I want to meet but I'm not sure I'm going to meet this one.  I hate to blow it but my focus is split this week over items that require my attention outside of art-making.  

The title of this post has nothing to do with what I've written...I just like saying it :).  I'm really tired tonight...sleeping in tomorrow is on the agenda.  Peace,

 

And for something a little different

Due to a sudden down pour that made the track too dangerous, the race was cancelled mid-way to the finish line.  Sorry, all bets placed with the bookie are not refundable.

C'mon Artists, make a Fundred Dollar Bill

http://www.fundred.org/

This is a national project but the below is taken from the local press release.

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Come make a Fundred Dollar Bill at Mellwood A&E Ctr: support a nationwide art project

Presented by 21c Museum and Louisville Visual Art Association's Open Doors Program

The soil in New Orleans is contaminated with lead.  It affects 86,000 properties in the urban area, and is especially harmful to the inner city youth who live in this region.  There is a plan to de-toxify it and remove any health risks to the community.  It will cost $300,000,000.00.

Contemporary artist Mel Chin has a plan to raise this money and it involves everyone across the country.  The Fundred Dollar Bill Project invites you to make your own hand-drawn $100 Fundred Dollar Bill.  3,000,000 of these will be collected by the project in a veggie-oil powered armored truck and taken to the steps of Congress and asked for an equal exchange of money to clean the New Orleans soil.

You can make an $100 Fundred Dollar Bill and be part of a nation-wide public art project that will bring awareness to an environmental/health catastrophe in New Orleans.  Drop your Fundred off at the table or bring directly to 21c Museum Hotel, an official Collection Center on the armored truck's US route.  Tell your friends to participate!

Spirit of the People

It took me two days before I could sit and watch the coverage of Haiti.  I took it in by listening to the tv while my hands were either stitching, cooking, typing, ironing. For the first 2 days of the tragedy I had to read the news online.  Sometimes the visual viewing is too much too soon and confuses my spirit...its like I have to seperate the words from the images in order for my mind to begin to merge the reality of the moment.  Digesting collective tragedies opens up the door for all tragedies that have preceded and that will come and time seems ever more circular and convoluted. 

Even though I was in both the studio and the workshop and kept myself occupied, my spirit was detached. Has this been your experience also?  I was helped by spending some time with my Mama yesterday at a NCNW (National Council of Negro Women) Breakfast in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.  There is some type of healing balm when folk gather together in good spirit. 

Painting Quilts and Politics

I painted two other quilts, one here, before I left the workshop on Monday to return home.  I believe its finished but I did bring a blue bead stew home with me, just in case its not. 

Shortly after the notion popped to paint the quilt, I thought of the Kemshall's title, The Painted Quilt.  This morning as I was having coffee with this quilt, I remembered Denise Furnish, a local artist, who paints on found quilts.  And then there is the High Priestess of painted quilts, Faith Ringgold!  If you happen to know Ms. Ringgold personally, tell her I'm waiting for the serious autobiography of her life!  As I've searched in my library and at Amazon, I've concluded that there is a serious void in autobiographies of women visual artists...where are the Arnold Rampersad's for women visual artists?!

Previous

Current

One of the exercises Laurie Doctor had the class do was writing black on black.  So I applying that to stitching I'm playing with hand-stitching black on black.  The back is acryllc felt.  The center square is a double layer of silk and silk organza that I'm scanned the writing exercise from the calligraphy class onto.  I'm going to try wrapping this around stretcher bars...the size is 14"x14"

My next entry, sometime before Sunday, will be share my impressions of the Form Not Function...so much great work year after year, sure would be nice if a catalog was for sale for this annual show!

Peace,

Impeachment off the table and now single payer healthcare...Sen. Baucus' reasoning made no damn sense!  This is where President Obama needs us to make him accountable as he, himself, requested!"  Healthcare Lobbyist sure know how to spread the "love" in Washington, don't they?  This will have to be a grassroots efforts yall!

And I ponder what should the New York Post suffer for its gross and cruel offense? (plus I'm still on the journey)

This morning I had a very distinct consuming Black moment...even more discriptive, Black American moment because my reaction (REACTion) was weighted by the peculiar history of the past and the not-so-past that is rooted and steeped in the formation of this country and its rise as a world power and the injustice of it all.  Check out the cartoon in the New York Post today and tailor your response (or not) to your own leanings as I most certainly will.  Beyond this I will not elaborate further as I will again hyperventilate.  For awhile now I've considered creating a cultural blog as an outlet for my essays on a wide range of topics but keep deciding no, since my RL is filled with a multitude of love and personal and intimate connections that I bounce with daily and as often as I need to.  There are joys and pains associated with living consciously and as encompassing as possible in the way I've chosen as an African American Woman...I'm sharing this much as a way to recognize that which is deep and the backdrop to everything I do today while also updating this journey I'm on as an art quilter which is the purpose for Seamless Skin (of which I could re-examine what I now intend by "seamless", but I will spare you and myself at the moment).

Monday I took myself on an artist date and went second hand browsing.  One place is kinda upscale antique mall...4 floors and is located in the building where I had my first job at 14 in a summer youth program.  I worked the same place for 2 summers as a typist and all around office grunt which included running a mimeograph machine which I thought was cool at the time.  I purchased this embroidered round, very sheer, placemat that feels like papyrus of all things.  It was a handmade thing that cost me a buck so I was thrilled.  I want to tranfer an image onto it but for now its pinned up high on the design wall.  I also went to another 2nd hand furniture dive that has great stuff but isn't located in a high rent district and found lots of old creative looking stuff but I only came out of there with a red linen table cloth.  I have this idea percolating around roughness representing hard times...for now it seems connected to the quilts on prayers.

Yesterday morning I reconnected with a dear friend over breakfast at Toast.  Hi Cari!  Its been close to three years since we've spoken, maybe longer, but it energized my spirit and after we parted I made an impromptu stop at Actor's Theatre to see Upfromsumdirt's piece in the exhibit in the lobby.  As prolific as he is I was underwhelmed with the piece he submitted.  He cultivates an "outsider" as in outsider art philosophy toward creating his digital images that he describes as Mythmatics(c) so he isn't all that open to input but if he ever wanted to know what I thought, Hi Ron, I"ve only viewed his strongest work at his solo shows and online and not in his group shows.

Now to my own artistic issues------I completed the quilting on the current quilt and its stretched out on the design wall drying for blocking...BUT! this puckering grates my last nerve and the solution I thought so brilliant a few weeks ago (embellishing with stones) just seemed a notch above stupid yesterday.  So my new BRILLIANT idea is to go whole cloth with 2 sections (the ones without any puckering) and create 2 smaller quilts.  The red section and the yellow one will be a go!  Peter didn't think the green section was as dynamic as the other two...he thought the green needed to be more intense to hang with the vibrancy of the green and yellow and the green is a shaded green and doesn't have as much going on in it as the other 2 panels.  Parts of the green section will be salvaged into postcards like I did with these from another quilt.

I also made my first fiber ATC's. 

One is destined to Emmy in the Netherlands.  If you'd like to trade with me, buzz me an email.

I have postcards like the ATCs for sale, 3 of which are listed on my new Etsy set-up.  Check here  or click on the page at the top of this blog.

Finally

Talk about getting "mean and surly"?!!!  In my head my workshop is a laboratory and I'm an unwaivering crazy scientist going at it non-stop trying to keep up with the ideas popping off in my brain.  So even in spite of the physical need to rest, I get "mean and surly" (remember that movie with Whoopi, LL Cool J, Jada Pinkett Smith where Whoopi was going to have those words on her husband's tombstone?)  when I'm unable to be there. 

Finally, I returned on Thursday but piddled to reacclimate myself back to a flow.  Friday, my intent was to arrive afternoon and work late, pulling close to an all-nighter.  I couldn't go past the 5 hours I typically put in and decided to come home.  I hit the bed and slept hard but this morning woke with this piece on my mind:  (you can always click on the picture to enlarge)  The black colour didn't wash out to the paleness I expected.  What I did differently was to use Afterfix instead of soda ash...the dye paint mixture was mostly thickener with what I thought was a low percentage of dye.  I don't like this...I have 4 ideas to improve it (more cohesive in appearance) as I so much love the piece overall. 

1. discharge the black letters (which are outlined in a black resist used in silk painting)

2. randomly place more letters, (and/or) smaller in size.

3. flip it over and dye paint the back side in an orange, green, or gray.  the section I love the most is the warmer hues versus the cooler ones at the top but I do want to keep some constrast between warm and cool.

4.  cut it up into 2 or 3 sections with 1 cut going down the middle of the bold letters and put them in one piece.  my original intent was to keep this panel as a whole cloth.  cutting it up could make for much more visual interest.

I don't think I'm going to touch it until after I finish with the calligraphy workshop which will generate new ideas. 

Oh, and for those who might be interested.  Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez did an exlusive interview with William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.  This is a transcript or you can listen to the audio or video as well:  Democracy Now .  Part 2 will air Monday and can be heard/read online later in the afternoon.  Ayers book on his Weathermen Underground experience is being re-issued this week.  I guest he can thank Sarah Palin for that because prior to her repeating his name over and over in an attempt to disgrace our President Elect, Ayers wasn't even remotely near my radar.

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!)

 

Rolling Over Myself with Joy!

Ever get those days when you think your heart is just going to explode from all the joy squeezed into one day!!!!????????????  I couldn't get out of bed quick enough this morning...not just because I was looking forward to voting in our state's primary but on top of that, my daughter voted for the first time!!!! And what a memorable election to mark such a monumental threshold!  I told her that she voted today on the shoulders of ancestors and in the not so long distant past, our people where loosing their lives, being bombed out of their homes, being beaten to death (HELLO FANNIE LOU HAMMER!) just to do what she did today...Mo in turn needled me for always turning everything into a history lesson and quickly thanked me for reminding her...which in turn caused me to stir some more...history is living and not a dead, the ancestors are looking at us right this moment and discussing amongst themselves what we do in their name.  Now don't get me wrong, you don't have to disturb those "no-count" ancestors that need to stay rested but those who personally inspire you, be it in your blood line or not, can be evoked and called up.  Those that are about love and justice, ya know what I mean? 

I'm on a roll today...right after voting with Mo and Ade hanging out with me, we picked up Petra and went for breakfast at Toast where we met Valerie and Juanita who had her son and 7 year-old grand-daughter with her...Obama and Quilting are the words for the day!!!!  Mo said we where speaking another language when we spoke of deadlines, hanging shows, workshops, techniques...all I know is that I was even more eager to get to my workshop today to start on my second quilt in the Poetry Series.  This series was inspired by these (click and click again) pieces no bigger than 10 inches square.  All the quilts in this series will use an original poem written on it in my own handwriting, have a circle motif, use fabric that I dyed, and greens, yellows, and reds will be the focal colours.  Each one will become larger than the previous one.  Here is a peek:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The discovery I made yesterday about how I prefer to work is this...instead of making the top then getting it quilted, I want to make all the tops first, then quilt them all, them square them, bind them all, etc.  I like having the single focus.  This seems to intensify my concentration, my skill development, and my creativity.  But this is only when I'm working on something that speaks my name.  Sometimes I work on pieces just to keep my hands moving and my discipline going.  But today! Ha! I thought I needed a dance floor in my workshop just for times when I'm working it like Katherine Dunham. Here I am considering my next move:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If I keep to my schedule I will not get back into the workshop until next week.  On Thursday I'm going to take the Meaningful Marks and Images workshop with Juanita Yeager which I know will be another day filled with joy! 

I respect her brilliance.

Toni Morrison, my most loved novelist, endorses Obama:

News Article

I've been looking online for the letter she wrote in its entirety, but no luck.

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Thanks to an online bud of a few years I now have the link to the letter in full which will go into my files! 

Ms. Morrison's letter to Barack Obaman

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For the last week and a half I've had the insurance provider blues with hound dogs on my heels (inflection of blues patois) and have been buried in anger, frustration, and good ole' pissivity.  Next week I'm leaving town for a week, going to Huntsville, Alabama.  (Any art/textile related sites I need to see while in Huntsville?)  I'll post my Take It Further Challenge tomorrow or Thursday.  I'll return in 2 weeks with entries. 

Hope for Change!

Slowly but surely I'm getting my bearings after five days in the hospital with pnuemonia.  Its been almost 3 years (I think) or at least long enough for me to stop counting the months from the last time I was that sick.  Five days of bad tv for the most part.  The Iowa caucus lead-ins kept me entertained the best in spite of the glitz and glam of CNN style reporting that I find over done and extreme.  It was Michelle Obama's presentation that I enjoyed the most! That sistah is fierce!  Not in an in-your-face type way but she exuded strength and clarity and love in her spirit and persona that gave me confidence to support her husband for Presidency.  Plus while listening to her I started communing with Sojourner Truth and Ida B. Wells and they approved so that was good enough for me. 

Early this morning I listened to the victory speech and thought "my lord, what am I witnessing here?!!!"  I'm wondering if the power in this man has less to do with addressing the horrid world political affairs (how can we NOT live with the current consequences beyond just another President?) and more to do with mental and emotional restoration.  I mean, I know I've experienced some post-trauma, especially behind the 2004 elections that I've never been able to recover completely from.