Seamless Skin

Positive, Negative, Bitter and Sweet (or Why I love Winton Marsalis)

I've been trying to decide what my "intent" will be for the Benn/Morgan workshop.  (regular readers might recall an attempt at selling this space last month...a few inquiries is all I received.  I gave it close to a month after which I decided to dig into my emotional resources and forge ahead

Here is what I'm considering:

1. working with layering transparent colour
2. working with a variety of transfer technique on paper and cloth
3. breakdown printing and using thermofax screens with line/shape designs that represent fluidity and stagnation
4. hand painting on cloth practicing negative and positive space.

The one intent I'm sure about is making the most of my time with them.  Because of on-going pulmonary challenges and trying to control diabetes,  I forsee this as my last major workshop in a long while.  (not to be grim and nothing fatal and I hope I don't sound melancholy, because I'm not.  Just trying to stay clear in my head...as a friend says "tell them so you'll know" ).  In addition to using my personal finances, much of my ability to attend the workshops in the past have been awards from two local art agencies.  I've shown my appreciation by being a good steward.  To paraphrase a quote my Winton Marsalis: Life is a two-edged knife that can cut you bitter or sweet.  And I'll add, "at the same time".

And because there has to be pictures in a blog post, here are 2 of my images I burned into screens:

 fluidity

 stagnation

Peace,

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:

 

Collage, a Retake; Sketch, a Debut

This is for the Strathmore Workshop by Pam Carriker.  After I did this one I thought it would be enhanced with stitching.  I'm working both sides of the paper in this journal.  If I decide to explore it with stitch embellishment, I'll make a copy and collage it down onto water colour paper and go for it.  You can see the way it looked prior to this stage by clicking here.

and from the other sketch book, here is another highly prized coffee cup...the ones up 'til this point were my tea cups.  

 

Guts, A Workhorse, and Color

You can infuse your art practices with all three:

Gut Art

Studio Journal: A Designer's Workhorse

Color Theory

 

I've gutted it with Mystele, but the other 2 remain on my bucket list.

 

Living and learning som'more

This is paper artist Debbie Shannon demo'ing for a small group made up of LAFTA (Louisville Area Fiber and Textile Association) members on how to cover book board with paste papers.  I met Debbie a few years ago at Mary Anderson Center for the Arts while renting out studio space.  She was upstairs in the larger loft making marbled paper...just beautiful stuff!!!!  In talking, we discovered that we were both members of LAFTA.  I was still a newbie at the time.

Being a member affords the opportunity to take monthly workshops from other members for free.  They are held in the fiber studio at the University of Louisville.  Yesterday, Debbie taught Paste Paper.  I loved it! But oh, am I saying to myself "no, you cannot take on another interest!!! you'll be inundated with more stuff!!!".  I already have a hard time discarding my garbage...onion skins-I can use these for dyeing; cereal boxes-painting surface, book cover, box making; thick colourful plastic packaging-these can go into an altered quilt...and yall know what I'm talking about...repurposing and recycling can be a massive undertaking and in this heavily consumer society it is endless!!!!!!!!!!

With that said, I do have some extra supplies that I plan to play with this morning once I get to the studio...the paste must be used before it goes bad and four hours was just not enough time to explore this fun release of art making energy...thats the story that I'm running with today!

 
3 samples of paste paper I made.  

Crowbonics 2

Lucky for me, my washing machine went out and yesterday I went to my parent's house to do a couple of loads of laundry and thus had an extended time period at The Basement Workshop!!  I auditioned fabrics for what will become Crowbonics 1.  It will include one of the laminated fabrics created at the Crow Barn.  I found the perfect medium gray fabric and I'm thinking about doing a little bit of discharge on it to get some subtle colour change and movement behind the laminated sheer.  Discharging is a technique I personally do not want to use much to avoid health risk.  Jacquard's discharge paste is my tool of choice whenever I do.  And up to this point I've only used it to experiement with and then used it to create a design on a 1/4 yard of fabric.  I've seen a colour remover by Ritz but have not experimented with it to know anything about it.  I'm needing to remove just a little colour without any hard edges in order for the gray fabric to work for me.

I also spent some time quilting the piece shown at the top of this previous post.  There is still 2/3 of it left to quilt but as B.B. King sings "better not look down...just keep it moving".  One day I'll look up and have a plethora of quilts I love and will not know what to do with!

Here are 3 more laminated pieces that I did while on retreat...pieces that I hope will become focal pieces in the Crowbonics series.  (I have at least 3 series that are on going and just flow in and out of them depending on where my mind and heart are and what my body can handle.  If you create series work, how do you go about it?)

 Please keep in mind that these are all in process or experiments and not viewed at completed.

Yesterday I started burning into the piece below which is where the white shows through.  The white is from the lid of the scanner.

 

Lesson Learned...

I started out using an embroidery needle to make these seed stitches and after a very short time my palm started to hurt and stitching was painful. I switched to a sharp and the pain subsided to the point of being gone.  The fabric is cotton painted with acrylic and the backing is a heavier canvas which is also painted.  I thought the embroidery needle would be better because it was stronger than the sharp...the sharp is thinner but goes through the layers with more ease.

Hello out thereeeeeee (echoing from the frozen tundra)

okay, a bit of an exagerration but its been in the teens and 20s here until today...a rise in the thermostat showing in the upper 40s.  I'm thawing out here!

I've been machine felting and enjoying myself with it!  Do you think this can be my way of reconciling with the season that shall not be mentioned?  Afterall, I am working with wool.  I haven't tried wet felting but folks are informing me that it is physically taxing.  I'm sure I'm gonna give it a try at least once though since I'm having so much fun with machine felting. 

To keep a focus I'm only making scarves and shawls (thats the plan) and some small framable pieces.  This is the first scarf and I've started another one with a wool batt and curly wool locks embedded into it. another one.  Below the scarf is the start of a small framable piece that will receive some embroidery stitches.

I haven't been able to do much since its turned bitter cold...physically I'm just not able to push myself...I do a little and am down for the next 3-4 days.  I've been spending the time thinking about my goals for next year and what I could do to get into the "submission" habit and looking at a major workshop for next year.

Clair Benn and Leslie Morgan will be returning to the Crow Barn for 2 weeks in April and another 2 weeks in 2011.  I know for sure that I will do 1 week with them this year, (possibly 2).  If I do not do  2 weeks this year then I'm going to do 1 this year and the other next year.  I just couldn't stand knowing they are that close to me and me not take advantage of their collective minds! 

Peace