Seamless Skin

Remembering where I left off...

This is what I was doing last (the same fabric, 3 layers) in the studio before Thanksgiving, followed by pneumonia and a short stay in the hospital.  My lungs are not quite clear but I'm feeling well, but going just a little bit stir crazy.  The grandkids have been here and the Beloved is on vacay and with the touch of a click, holiday shopping is over.  Hey! just writing this out and I'm getting perked up! This week the only major endeavor I'm facing is grocery shopping for Christmas dinner.  Grocery shopping around the holidays is my coal mine.  I've got a list, I'm on a mission, I'm going in...thats the mental fortitude needed to get this task accomplished.  And you know its bad when drivers with disabilities are fighting over parking spaces!

Peace,

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,

 

Generally Speaking, nothing is happening...

I had a sweet tooth craving over the weekend and both attempts I made to satisfy it by baking just fell flat...first on Saturday I attempted an apple cobbler I found on allrecipes.com...was too dry and I just wasted some really good apples we picked over at Huber's in Indiana.  Then come Sunday I made an applesauce spice cake and just as I was getting ready to frost it I took a pinch and discovered I had left out the SUGAR!!!!!!!!!!!  I was pissed very upset but attempted quickly to readjust my attitude by playing  Scrabble against Maven, the built-in artificial intelligence for the game...between endless losses and cups of ginger tea with a little honey (doesn't count on the sweet-tooth craving scale) I resolved that it was just as well since I'm not suppose to have concentrated sweets in my diet anyways. I'm really more of a salty snack woman than sweets but every now and then I hanker for some really good and worth the effort of indulging something-sweet.  I did eat half a Snickers (cheap but delicious substitute) today and now I'm good for about a month or two.

After running an errand with Mama today, I did make it to the studio...chatted with Janet and Elmer Lucille and mixed up 3 different consistencies of print paste and 3 dye concentrates.  I kept waiting for a definitive goal to strike.  I'm in a fuzzy head space which is typical after focusing on meeting a deadline (really does take a lot of mental focus for me to follow through).  I was informed today that the one coming up requires images to be in a format I'm not familiar with...EPS or PDF.  Of course I've heard of PDF, just have never created a file in pdf.  I had to google EPS format.  If I'm understanding correctly it is a format which can be created in Illustrator and newer versions of Photoshop.  Anyway there is a learning curve (joy ;/) but I also got a name of a local art photographer that is extremely reasonably...so I'll see what I can do first or either Ade, but I am only talking less than 2 weeks. 

Peter dropped in to visit me today while at Mellwood.  He helped me set up when we first moved in and dropped by one other time for short pop in...but today he was off from work and came and sat for 2 hours.  The mixing of dyes and print paste appealed to the scientist in him even if my answers were not that scientific sounding ;)  We are extremely supportive of one another even though art(ists) are a weird lot to him and test tubes and math is too concrete for me.  Politics, music and cultural histories have always been our common grounds.  Maybe when he is on vacation I could get him back to assist me with some dyeing and printing...just will not hold my breath.

*****If you're not doing anything Saturday morning, come over to the Carnegie in New Albany...I'll be having an hour long conversation about art-making with disabilities and grant-writing.  Its part of a 9 month long series that is a project by the Indiana State Art Council.

Its All Good!

I'm going to stamp this in the blogosphere and then get a good night sleep and trust the process that I'll know what to do by Monday.  There are 3 choices:  stay in my current studio location in Mellwood; move across the hallway; or move into a larger space and share with a wonderfully energizing artist.

Option 1 Pros and Cons:

I've 5 steps from the big sinks!!! 2 doors down from a great neighbor!!!!!  The space has been blessed and I'm rooted!!!  2 doors provide a wonderful flow to entering and exiting during special events.  Closest to the bathrooms.  The heating and cooling pocket is stable and adequate.  The negative is the burden of covering the rent. 

Option 2 Pros and Cons:

Better lighting and exposure to oustide windows.  10 steps from the sink.  space size is almost the same as current and rent is 75 less a month.  Get to keep my neighbors Janet and Michael. Negative is it is off a secondary hallway that dead ends and visitors during special events rarely walk down that hallway.  Unsure of the heat and cooling as some spots in Mellwood are get too warm/too cold.

Option 3 Pros and Cons:

Space is larger than current space and very adequate for sharing and I vibed really well with the other artist.  There is better lighting and exposure to outside windows.  Shared rent is cheaper than the other options 1 and 2 and would save 140 each month.  If for some reason I end up in the studio alone later, it still would be less than my current cost.  Negatives are further, much further from the sinks and would tax me more physically and thus could lead to even less time in the studio and working even slower than I already do.  (I could pull a little red wagon to and fro or learn to balance a 5 gallon bucket on my head like my African sisters do)  This space is further from the bathroom and I'd loose my neighbors and the neighbors in that hallway do not seem to be in much during the day and when they are I hear power tools buzzing and banging on that end.  The foot traffic is better than option 2 and prolly the same as what I have now because it is closer to the entrance but it also deadends.  Lastly, I'm unsure of the heating/cooling flow.

Now, since living involves facing challenges and dilemnas, I'm thrilled to have this problem when I look back over my life and see how far I've come...oh, excuse me, I thought this was the part of the program where I testify.  Eitherway, all the options are good.  It is just a matter of coming to a conclusion about where to place priority and the compromises.

Peace,

 

Do you or someone you know have Schizophonia?

 Thanks to Gwendolyn Kelly for sharing the link!  In light of my views on iPod listening, I'm digging the message!

Unity in Schisms (what the what am I talking about now?!)

 The Beauty of Holiness Studio, my art making sanctuary

Odd, ... I cannot recall ever being this excited about Mondays when I was employed.  Sundays now are a signal to re-engage fully as possible with my creative mind.  Sundays are filled with thinking about the different pieces of cloth and quilts in their variuos stage of development and what needs to be stitched and the hows and wheres of it all. 

Last week I dye painted over previously painted cloth.  The cloth was not treated with soda ash and I used Afterfix on it which is used to set dye.  I've used this before and was fairly pleased with it...the colours appear to me more muted and toned down then with soda soaked fabric.  I keep returning to this method because I do anticipate, possibly, at some point I may not be able to physically handle low-water immersion dyeing.  This is the piece I'll rinse out tomorrow if all goes as planned:

 
Over the weekend I attended a state meeting of SDA members that Jennifer Reiss and Mary Nehring coordinate.  This was the 2nd meeting but my first.  My membership in SDA has lapsed but renewing it is on my goal list for the coming year.  Being around other artists and diverse minds gets me spinning like a whirling dervish and I left there thinking that its not so much the lack of opportunity that seems to describe this city/state (although the description can be dead on) it is the fact that I cannot attend to all the possibilities. 

In my own art I can say that I now have a focus, sense of purpose, and a vision...a "Karoda" way of working...but I'm also fertil that when I see the art of others my mind automatically begins to push, combine, play, stretch, mix, mingle, and so on, ideas and what ifs and I'm flying or whirling and it feels fun in the moment.  I've learned to reel myself back down...took me a couple of years but I'm good to go and can now say to myself "okay, Karen, settle yourself down".  I think many artists experience this and in turn are faced with juggling the solitude activities with communal activities and how both impact creativity. 

I also attended the tenants' meeting at Mellwood last week and Planet Janet and I will be coordinating demos and activities by the tenants who want to participate in November's Trolley Hop.  Studio spaces are getting new tenants and I hope this is some indication that economically people are feeling more daring and confident.  Many of the new tenants seem to be more retail/service oriented.  A fitness center, photographers, martial arts, florists, etc.  I hope this will not eventually increase the dirt cheap rents for the artists like myself who are solely using the space to create in, but overall, it is good to see fresh eager faces and more activity.

Speaking of solitude and communal, I figured out why I'm not partial to listening to music on an iPod.  I like my music to fill not just me but the space I inhabit.  I want the essence of the sound to rock the cobweb in the corner of the ceiling...I want the vocals to ooze down the walls...I want the rhythms to cover the floor.  This just doesn't happen using an iPod.  I can listen to podcasts on my iPod, no problem...but the music is too big to fully enjoy it that way...and I'm not talking about the volume of the music but the experience of it...listening on an iPod diminshes the experience of the music, the artistry that went into it.  Playing a cd is much more inviting for a shared experience and much more open experience.  I mean would you rather go to a museum or look at the art on a toy view finder?

Peace,

 

 

 

New Look

I like the appearance of this design but the template is set for someone who knows how to tweak html I guess.  I can't figure out how to put all my sidebar stuff on it as it's not a copy and paste format but a "write it in type template" 

I'll keep it up for a day or two to see if I can bear not having my side bar links. 

 
painted fabric with soy wax resist.

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I didn't think I was going to like that design so here I am back to my former one...I use my blog as a central "go to" spot and prefer accessing my links from my side bar versus scrolling or making folders in my favorites. 

Drum roll please...

The winner is Joyce!!!!  I'll email you shortly.

Thanks to Joyce, Karen S, Cathy, Deborah, and Lody for stopping by and participating.  And of course I appreciate all who read and leave comments here at Seamless Skin.

I'll post the next  give away about mid-week.

*****

The humidity is unbearable!!!!!!!!!  Not much if anything will be happening in the workshop or studio.  This coming Friday is F.A.T. Friday Trolley Hop.  Its my plan to be there then (still need to wash out the dyed fabrics).  Mo said she will bake me some cookies to have for the few stragglers who make their way back into the stuido space from the courtyard. 

In the workshop with Debbie (see 2 posts below) I covered a chewing gum box with paste paper and am using the box to hold my Moo cards.  I taped the box to the door jamb at The Beauty of Holiness Studio.

 

Kicking off the great purge with a give-a-way!!!!! Come out and play!

The great purge is on!!!!!!!!  This will be my first purge of quilting books which I've been buying as regular as groceries for 6-7 years.  I've reached a point where I know what I will and will not pursue.  As much as I love pictorial quilts, the likelihood that I will ever feel compelled to create them is slim.  When I began this journey I wanted to know how to do it all and I wanted to do it all quite well!  I invested in books in a variety of artistic styles.  Since then, specifically the last 3 years, I moved toward defining my style as an art quilter.  I know that what I do with cloth when I'm at my best as an artist is a direct emotional response/release to living.  Abstract marks/stitches/shapes feels more freeing to me than trying to convey in pictorials.  Doing Crowbonics: The Scroll was the deciding piece that said to me...let what doesn't fit me, go. 

In celebration, I'm hosting a give-a-way!!! This is a great book for starters to dyeing...uncomplicated and a fun approach. And a oh so cute pair of rubber gloves (size M) that have never been used (didn't fit my hands).  Release your inner gigabytes and leave me a comment telling me how quilting helps define or impacts your identity or life.  Everyone who comments on this post will be entered for the book and gloves and a name will be drawn on Sunday. 

Look for a new tab at the top of my blog for the books that I'll be selling sometime soon.  I'll also list on Amazon.  Thanks for hanging out here at Seamless Skin ;)

 

Just remembering what I was doing in pictures before what I'm doing now...

My lungs are clearer than they've been in a very long time! My doctor released me yesterday from being house bound and I thought I'd return to The Basement Workshop today but the temps have dropped below freezing and after yesterday's running around I found myself good for nothing but sleep when I returned home. 

 I'm in dire need of a hair cut but as always when it begins to grow out I entertain the thought of doing something different with my hair other than my signature cropped close to the scalp afro.  But I've turned into such a really LOW maintenance chick that the thought of keeping any sort of regular appointments with a braider or beautician makes me go NO WAY! But I really could do a little better.  Wish barbers made housecalls.

Remember the art journal I had lost?  Well I found it buried under some things at the Studio. This is a page from it for materials to be used in the above piece.  Looking at it now, it feels like it will be a "safe" piece...no risk taking here. 

Today will be filled with reading.  Yesterday I picked up the latest SDA journal, Studio, and Legacy magazines. I've started another book by Zades Mda, Ways of Dying with the same protagonist, Toloki, the professional mourner, but this one takes place in his home country of South Africa.  Also I'm continuing to scribble and work with colour in the design writing that I began while in the hospital...all this should keep me out of any trouble for a day or two...

Hurry up Spring!

As I typed this Martha Stewart demo'ed how to make felted soaps.

One of my favorite tunes that Cheryl Lynne Skinner use to sing when she performed locally had a line that said "i'm sitting in the house with everything on my mind, looking at the clock and can't even, can't even, tell the time". 

dig the gold by Liquitex!  

Amazingly, I'm calm and cool and relaxed even though I've not left my domain since coming home from the hospital.  I'm even letting the fingernails grow...(a little idiosyncracy about me, I clip them short because I do not like the whites of my nails to show and have never been a fan of long nails even when I had regular manicures done at salons...nail techs found me odd that way.  But this obsession with clipping them short as I do started about 3 years ago when I was going through some BS with my daugther and I just never stopped.  I also found short nails to be better for handling paints and dyes so it just made sense to continue.)

 beginning a new "design writing"

If I'm honest with myself, it will be March before I return to either The Basement Workshop or The Beauty of Holyness Studio.  The comments in the previous post boosted my spirits.  The idea to start "design writing" came intuitively without any preconceived ideas of where the lines and values would go.  I just kept changing up pens and writing anything from what I heard on tv, what the doctor said to me, something I recalled, or a slew of emotions.  The idea Mai-Britt offered to make copies and experiment with colouring them was like "a duh, why didn't I think of that" moment.  Thanks Mai-Britt for the idea.  I haven't been in Photoshop in so long that I didn't feel up to taking in sharp turns in my brain by trying to recall how to do layers, but when I do feel up to I think I'll try working them with colour that way. 

  

i got carried away

Deborah's idea to start a study made me go "wow! i'm going to do an entire journal, page after page design writing"  I dig this!  Then Acey suggested seeing them stitched and I thought "ummm, did she mean stitched paper quilts...thats cool, I've never done one...or did she mean print them on fabric, ummmm saw a quick layout in my head...then I thought a paper and cloth quilt!"  I dig this also.  The art of holiness and the holiness of art is that it is regenerative on soooo many levels, one being that it draws community, and out of community, one finds their tribe.  So thank you to all who commented, one love!

doodling faces to mimick Ethiopia artists.

I really hate to loose something...

its not a doll, toy, watch, or even my lover man...but my current art journal with my assignments.  yeah, i can replace it, but thats not the point.

You mean "lose" right?

  signed...an old proofreaders  persnicketyness persnickety proofreader. 

Now if the persnickety proofreader was just as good at channeling lost items...umm????

Happy Kuumba Birthday New Year's Ramblings

Last night I was feeling a tad bit sad at the prospects of growing a year older...really came on as a result of thinking about grief I've experienced over decisions made by my children and wondering what we could have done differently.  Two years ago I tried to pour all that grief into a quilt which I named Prayers of The Mother.  I found myself marking time by my hopes and prayers for them.  I appliqued ankhs on it to represent life giving and sustaining faith, hash marks to measure time, the eyes of my 3 children to convey vision and 3 Ethiopian crosses to mark an ancient faith and prayers by millions of mothers from the beginning of civilization. 

This morning, yeah, this morning hope and fun arrived to greet me and life is what it is and I'm thrilled to be here and apart of it!  Can I get an amen?!  It has always tickled me that my birthday falls on the day of Kuumba, the day to reflect on Creativity:

Kuumba (Creativity)
To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

The first half of '09 saw me exercising this principle in my small way in The Basement Workshop. My process of making art was alive and even through the detours I could see myself moving closer to the expression of my head and heart and becoming more soulful.  The flood did refocus my energies away from actually making quilts but out of it I gained a 2nd studio space and have fallen in love with machine needle felting.  All good, all good...but its time.  In spite of this season showing up my physical limitatons, I'm not willing to just sit and wait it out til spring. 

This is my plan. starting Monday...I'm going to re-introduce discipline to my approach.  A return to treating some of my time as if I'm taking college courses.  I've selected 5 books, each representing a class, and I'm going to work through them by assigning them a day or days of the week.  I've selected:

1. Finding Your Own Visual Language (Dunnewold, Benn, Morgan) M,W

2. Freetyle Machine Embroidery (Shinn) Tu

3. Image Transfer Workhop (McElroy, Wilson) W

4. Mindful Meandering (Fritz) Th

5. I'd Rather Be in the Studio (Stansfield) (gonna give it another go) W, F

I will create a new journal to track samples and studies and will also write accountability into Seamless Skin as I go.  My semester, of sorts, begins this coming Monday.  Not all my time on the assigned days will be devoted to the books, but approximately 1-2 hours and then another 1-2 hours of on at least 3 of the days while its cold to whatever I'm drawn to do.

The other topic I've found myself thinking about is John James Audubon, yes, that Audubon.  I've been invited to create a quilt commemorating him/his work.  Two trains of thought...the first one after reading about him, I became intrigued about his mother...Audubon was born in what is now Haiti to a properous plantation owner.  His birth mother gave birth to 2 children fathered by the plantation owner...John James  was the oldest and a girl who is also not given much mention. 

His birth mother died or was killed (depending on which article you read) after an African slave revolt.  His mother's name was Jeanne Rabine. (Jean was also John James' first name prior to being baptised and taken in by the wife of his father).  She is referred to as a French servant, Creole servant, French Creole servant...racially mixed. mulatto, etc.  One article I read speculated that she more than likely came from Louisiana (prior to the territory becoming part of the U.S.A) and was a French-African Creole.  Very few of the articles even mention her by name but give a respectable documentation of his father.  Audubon ended up in the U.S. and a land owner by way of his father's direction in keeping him out of Napolean's military even in spite of his status as an officer. 

Wondering more about his mother, Jeanne Rabine, I thought this would make a beautiful piece of fiction...not beautiful as in sanguine, okay?!  But in a way to give a voice to the voiceless, beautiful in a way to write this particular woman back in history, into the dialogue. 

A few months ago when I was at Penny Sisto's playing with the way she creates images, a headless female figure came to me (you can see it a few post down...its the one I lost and never found...is that a riff on invisibility?!)  I wondered if it was Audubon's mother coming through.

The other train of thought I had for the upcoming exhibit was to do something with Crows.  I hope to neve forget the NPR story some months ago about Crow research finding out that Crows can recognize human faces and can communicate to other Crows about their pissivity with a person who affronts them, and will continue to harrass that person, and are not easily fooled if that said person tries to disguise themselves.  LOVE IT!!!! 

This is my Happy Kuumba Birthday New Year's Ramblings...as always Peace,

 

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Ironing Party and Margueritas

at my place!  I really wish it so!  Humour gets me through a lot of stuff beyond my control and just for the fun I wish I could make pitchers of Margeritas for everyone as a gesture of kindness for your offers and kinder words.  As I glance over  at the pile of fabrics that need ironing...its as least 4 Marguerita pitchers high and I couldn't very well drink 4 pitchers all by myself!

In all seriousness though, my love and appreciation to each of you.  And since I'm not alone I just wanted to update the progress...the adjustor came this morning and it went smoothly...she estimated the damage at 15,000 but the alloted limit is 1/3 of that...since we are using the DIY plan, after my parents finish with the home essentials if there is enough to cover the books I lost, I'll get them from that, if not, I will definitely let Gerrie know...it isn't that many but they are core books to my processes.

The HVAC person was there today and cleaned out the furnace and replaced a small piece and said that my parents where lucky that the motor didn't sit low.  My sons and friends will start on removal of the paneling and the bathroom tomorrow while my mother and I pick up supplies.  Ya know, some people take atrip of a lifetime, climb mountains, go scuba-diving, or get a personal makeover...instead of sporadic posting like I had thought, I'll just treat this as one big long adventure :) 

In the comments of the previous post, Dee mentioned the UofL library flooding, not only did the UofL library flood as much of the campus did, but the Main branch of our City's library loosing all their books stored for the annual sale, their new books that come in for all the branches, and their bookmobile trucks, and the mainframe for the computer system...to the tune of 5 million in property damage.  Libraries are such vital focal points and common ground for each and every citizen it serves...I lean heavily toward the belief that without museums (art) and libraries everyone would succumb to the uglier sides of humanity.

Again, I appreciate the kind words and offers incredibly!  Peace!

this is what I'm talking about

Our weather has been really nice the last week...humidity not as high and temps in the 80s with dipping into the 70s at night.  Some spots of rain but nothing troublesome...even the gray overclouding we had I found relaxing. 

I can actually say now that going to the gym is habit.  I don't feel right when my routine breaks as it did on Saturday.  For those who know how I feel felt about exercise CAN I GET A WITNESS?!  Last week I went up to 30 minutes on the reclining bike with the programmed hills.  The exercise aggrevates the fibromyalgia but not to the point that I can't move or don't eventually feel better on the days I don't go.  And it really all boils down to my philosophy of "if I'm going to be uncomfortable or in pain, I might as well be so while doing something I want to do or have fun anyways".  That waiting for the perfect time or when things are just right or all the lights are green just doesn't happen...

Congratulations are in order to MudMan, my brother.  But I can't say why because there is the need to keep it hushed for reasons personal to him.  I've been bursting at the seams wanting to share it here since it relates to his life as an artist.  pssst, family and friends, email me for the news on the downlow ;)

As for me, I'm working into a groove but not quite there yet.  I've made this cover for my iPod and was proud of myself for figuring out how to put the snap on.  Its a project from Alissa Burke's book, Canvas Remix.  It (the case, not the book) is coated with polyurethane which makes it feel coarse.  I'm going to make another one without the coating.

I'm still playing with the graffitti look on canvas and the combining of techniques from the online class, Graffitti Chic, taught by Alissa.  I love the Ning format for taking online classes compared to the other formats I've taken.

Taking this class has got my eyes tuned to graffitti as I drive around town.  Yesterday I found myself wanting to make a sudden spontaneous stop to get out of my car and walk across a large gravel parking lot of a industrial business, cross train tracks to get a closer look of some very ornate lettering on parked train.  I didn't.  But I experience that urge daily whenever I come across graffitti now.  I like to think of graffitti artists as calligraphers who think really big.

I cut this stencil out from a photo of Peter when he was a young fierce teen-age warrior for the revolution. ;)  (incoming divergent thought:  we already know that the revolution will not be televised...but, will it be blogged?)  I might do another stencil of him as the now aged fierce tomato grower.  I get a daily tomato plant report with such detail and passion.  He is so cute with his serious passion for his tomato plants.  Reminds me of the days when we spent hours sitting in the Afro-American Reading Room solving all the social and political ills of the world when I decided he wasn't as square as I thought he was.  Oh my words, I'm cracking myself up here.

This piece has gone through some changes.  The base is silk paper.  Its been beaded 3 different times.  Yesterday I removed the beads and painted inside the squares with pearl-ex powders mixed into a textile medium.  In spite of really liking it just as you see it here, I'm leaning toward making it a cover for a journal.  It is 3 layers, but the edges of the silk paper which I didn't want to tame extend beyond the bottom 2 layers which end at the sewn line.

Right before leaving my workshop yesterday I sat and took in the space that I've been in now for a little over a year.  I sat reflecting on the on-going challenges of health, finances, deferred dreams, family conflicts, etc. and felt thankful for the Grace which is allowing me to have a space and abundance of materials to explore my imagination and artistic heartbeats.

To top it off, I came home to Kyra E. Hicks' new book!!!! I waited patiently to open the package while I listened to Peter's tomato report but just as soon as he finished I ripped it open and was like "look, look, look"!  I had to explain who Harriet Powers was to him and why the book was signficant and then I saw the pink sticky notes...couldn't contain my excitement...Kyra is kind enough and gracious to have blessed me by mentioning Seamless Skin.  Seeing myself and my blog referenced gives me an ethereal feeling.  Do you ever ponder humanity from a soul-physics point of view?  My mind is too small to grasp it but I do ponder it often...even tring to conceive how each individual small inhale and exhale we take effects change across the globe and if one breath has impact then what can be said of our breaths compounded.  Have you ever seen the African cylinder sculptures of humans interlocking to form a tower?  Maybe this is the way that particular culture or artist(s) understand what I ponder...how our small individual lives connect to form spiral cylinders that increases our humanity for the greater.  Lord know that scholarship on Harriet Powers is not exhausted and I never could have imagined or envsioned that my small breath would ever be of assistance.  But we can only see what we can see and living life larger means keep trusting the process and stepping out on belief (i.e. what I cannot see but know to hold truth).

I'm going to commune with some trees today with a grand-sistah-poet and tomorrow will be hanging out with Juanita, my quilt guru, who is here teaching some classes! All praises to the Most High!

Peace, 

 

Breath in, Breath out, Breath...

Ohhhhhhhmmmmmm, I once again ooohhhhhmmmmm, can't ooooohhhhhhmmmmmmm upload oooohhhmmmmmmmmm pictures ooooohhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Good vibrations are contagious!

Yesterday I attended the summer social for Louisville Area Fiber and Textile Artists (LAFTA).  This is my 3rd year having a membership.  Joining 3 years ago was a part of my plan to re-socialize and get out more after coming to grips with how my life had changed due to pulmonary hypertension.  Now slinging my portable o2 tank and breathing treatments are old hat and I think very little about it and my life is once again centered around my aspirations first and my limitations second. 

Anyways, I had a great time yesterday at the social and received fantastic feedback on the 3 6x12s and woke up this morning itching to return to my workshop today.  Good vibes are contagious! I'll go this evening for a few hours after some appointments that I hope will not take too much energy from me...there is a heat advisory warning today.  Louisville is situated in a regional valley and pollutions travel from afar and just settles...couple this with high heat and high humidity and it is nasty...no matter how blue the sky looks and bright and beautiful from inside, it is not healthy. 

Looking into my basement workshop from outside:

I keep promising myself to order a portable door screen to go over the doorway...I love to keep it open on cooler days for the light but then I find myself swatting at flies.  Its a great working space and I'm still trying to make it more efficient and supplies accessible.  After flipping through the art studio magazines, I feel this pressure to make it pretty...but I know that would last all of a hot minute.  When I walk into this space it says to me "are you ready to get down to work", it asks "do you have what it takes today? if not, you better go play somewhere else".  The space feels very purposeful.  Pretty would relax me and make me feel whimsical and detached from the reason I have the space in the first place.

Part of LAFTA membership is the availability of monthly workshops offered free and lead by other members.  Two months ago Joanne Weis, who just finished Jane Dunnewold's 2 year master program (YOU GO GIRL!), did a basic soy wax workshop.  Here are my samples using ink, paint, and dye and no, I didn't bother to mark which was which like I was instructed, so i can't tell you which piece received what.

I do believe the one on the left was ink since it is black...the other two where black dye/dye paint.  I added a second layer of colour when I was testing out the old dye stock and here it is now:

Issac, my 6 yr old nephew is here for the summer from North Carolina and he and my great-niece Zaria took interests in watching me sew.  Issac wants to paint.  When I set up my workshop space I seriously considered having an area set-up for children.  From time to time on Craiglist, the old school children's desks and chairs can be found very cheap. (I do not want the bright coloured contemporary plastic ones, yuck!) I think I'm going to keep an eye out for 1 or 2 of them just for moments like this.  I'm just a hair short of being cramped but I don't want to regret not making space when a child in my life requests to share it.

If you've read this post, or stopped by to browse my blog, I hope your day is everything you need it to be! Peace,

 

Hurricanes, Swamps, and Magnolias.

 

Yesterday I started with what I thought would be a few circles around the moon but I was really caught up in the building up of colour with the stitches that I did not stop and loved the ending result.  Peter saw a hurricane...I see a swamp at dusk.  The edging is hand stitched with thick linen thread.  See how flat it lays?  I wasn't expecting this either but if must be the acryllic felt as batting that is responsible for the flatness.  Behind the moon are 3 layers of felt which makes it rise up...its not visible in the photo but you can see it a little bit on the back-

 

 

A Huge Thank You to Dr. Paul Cappiello from Yew Dell Gardens!

He must flag the name of the gardens and I'm so happy he did!  He answered the question about the pods I picked up from the ground in the comments of the previous post.  Here is his reply:

The little "pod-like cones" are actually the fruiting structures from a magnolia. The specimens you picked up from the ground did not set any seed and that is why they were shed by the plant. The structure is actually an aggregate of follicles - if anyone cares.

Yew Dell

I care I care!  I've started drawing these pods and I'm watching them decay still.  They have turned to a blackish brown colour and have shrivelled in size.  Reminds me that 'one needs substance because beauty doesn't last and is often fleeting'.

If I'm understanding his answer correctly, they would have tunred into the flower if they had seeded? 

Its all good.

This morning it was a song by Kool Moe Dee on the radio that perked me up...nothing like old school rap...I was just "this close" to break dancing and annoying my 17 year old.  'He ain't up on it like that', nor could he appreciate it from an historical perspective...his loss.

I am still rolling (slowly, but still, ya know) at the gym 3 times a week.  This week I added an additional 5 minutes on the treadmill.  Since I've been doing this, its a must for me to take an additional nap during the day and I sleep very deep...a few hours of sleep feels like the next day when I wake up.  My sleep through the night is still broken up, never more than 4 hours straight.  Sometimes I can get back to sleep, but on the nights that I can't I so wish I had my workshop accessible.  When ideas flow in the middle of the night and at the time they seem so fantastic that I just know I'm going to remember them, right!?  Well sometimes I'll write them down. :)

The colour is slightly off, but here is the piece from the previous posts.  You will see I haven't attached the copper wire ring.  Thank you to all the commentors who left suggestions on how to attach it.  I'm still pondering them. I'm leaning toward putting in two holes and using a flat washer painted copper instead.  I mixed the charcoal paint with gel medium and painted the four sides.  I've yet to decide how to hang it, either frame or mounted to a stretched painted canvas...but for the moment I'm considering it complete.

The learning lesson here: painted canvas is unforgiving when stitches have to be removed...so stitches are the language of committment! 

Here is an in-process close-up of the next 6"x12".  This is raw and rough.  My current book and the one before present information/perspectives about The Slave Trade during The Middle Passage.  The raw and rough feel to this could possibly be a manifestation of what I'm carrying around as a result of reading Lose Your Mother by S. Hartman and The Slave Ship by M. Reidiker.

From Piddlin' to Productive.

You got to use your imagination...clean edges...black vertical lines in the gray area, close together in size 12wt cotton...a singular vertical line of black tube beads about an inch in from the right....the black lines near the circle will maintain the circular edge under the round...no stitches in the copper section but the tiniest of seed beads (not sure of the colour) sprinkled in.  I thought of placing a little bit of shimmer under the circle but didn't want the metallic reflection to go into overkill.  I'm going to bead around the circle.  These pieces are for design and familiarity with canvas.  I don't have a jean needle which is what I'd prefer to sew through this...I'm going to try it with a universal needle, size 14.  I'm trying to decide on just how to finish the edges...I know I want it clean but not bulky...there will be black batting but I'm thinking the back will be either heavy water colour paper or sewn to black foamcore.  Any suggestions??????

Here is the piece I'm beading on in the previous post:

 

There will be more beading but this is what I did to wind down the last 20 minutes in the workshop.  Its about 12inch-ess by 14 inch-ess, meaning I'm just guessing at measurement.  Deborah, my sister, wants this one but wants me to make another one with a mirror image.  When she told me, I was like "really????"; this is the type of exploratory busy playing around that I would only share here on my blog and then hang at home or store for reference, so I was kinda shocked when she said she wanted it.  When I started this piece I just wanted to work with the zig-zag free motion stitching, thread painting, and straight stitch free motion.  The beading was added because it relaxes me and I want to use my statsh...I discovered today that I don't really have a good assortment of purple or orange beads.  There was something else I discovered today while painting.....ummm....oh, I like Golden's Zinc White in fluid acryllic.  It is such a very bright clean white that plays well with other colours.  The bottle I have is a 1 oz bottle and its almost gone.  I also love Setacolour's Raw Sienna.  Need to remember this in order to save for larger bottles.

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When I go to the gym (all of week 2) it is early morning and most of the people there are clearly senior citizens...now I'm almost 50, but the folks I encounter are people, without hesitation, I say are my elders.  They see me with the oxygen tank and come over to give me encouragement and advice to take it slow and build up gradually...and some joke with me about returning...I get so tickled inside because these 70+ year old individuals are the ones hogging the treadmills and bikes going at rapid speed.  So with that surrounding me, I couldn't quit if I wanted to!  Seriously, I feel very much at ease and not at all intimidated.  On Mondays, 2 women play raquetball and I can see them when I'm on the weight machines and I do wish I had that type of stamina.  One of my senior buddies caught me watching them and I guess she could tell I was a little saddened...she came up to me and said "don't worry, that will be me and you next year"...we fell out laughing.  I told her I was going to hold her to that. 

I left there and picked up my oldest and his 3 y.o. son and went to breakfast...I left the camera in the car otherwise I would have thrown up a cute-grandchild photo. 

Peace,