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Colors in the Round

One of my most favorite fabrics is silk organza. I dye, rinse and hang to dry. This helps to retain the crispness of the organza. Drying in the dryer creates lots of loose threads and softens the texture. I'm using up the last bit of my LIQUID fiber reactive dyes by Createx.

 They stopped making them a few years ago. I love not working with powers and will miss them. I use the silk for my fiber constructions and collage. I often add thermal fax silkscreens using my own photography.

Thermal Facts

   I use my photographs to create Photographic silkscreens using the Thermal Fax method. In Photoshop create a black and white image, cropping to suit. This can be done several ways. For this  picture, I increased magnification and used the eraser tool to get rid of the grayer areas. You can also just cut away any black areas you don't want in the final silkscreen after your print it. When you have your final image, use a toner copy machine and copy.

Follow the directions with Thermal Fax machine and tape the edges. Golden!

Colors on the Brain

As artists, color is SUPER  important! I once had a discussion with a musician comparing the 7 notes and 7 colors- each vibrating at a different frequency. I believe we actually resonate with certain colors. As I go through my life, I have color constant favorites and others pop up as time goes on. I suspect we are attracted to the color we need at the moment we need it.  There are even color tests and books about the subject. For instance, we can be green with envy, environmentally green, green as in a newbie, it can be hard to be green (Kermit), we all want green backs, etc. Color can also affect us adversely. Red walls in restaurants are designed to help us chow our food faster. 

The colors you use when you make art could be seen as a journalistic color map of your life. Go back and review your work and let me know what you think!

Detail from 1995 era 'Perception is Reality'

Painted Photographs

I often paint my printed fabric photographs. In order to do this, you must have ink jet ink that is water resistant and prepared ink jet fabrics. I have an Epson 2400, which has Ultra chrome inks. They are water resistant, fade resistant (200 years) and are archival.  I have placed my printed fabric in a glass of water to test, allowed them to dry and ironed. They were fine. 

I used to use Bubble Jet. I found it time consuming, frustrating to prepare and not water proof. For the work I sell, it has to be the best.

Google 'fabric to print', ink jet fabrics' or something similar, to

 find prepared fabrics that can be printed. You'll find lots of price points and fabrics. Always test before a major project!

Print much like paper. Go for it!!

Responses and Connections

Returning from exhibiting at the Paradise City arts show, I wondered how other artists do this for a living. Is it only about the money? Connections?
Basically, I’m happy meeting expenses. The objective of course is to earn some money for your art. But it’s also sharing inspirations and enthusiasms with people who are motivated to stop and view my work. This is a large leap from when I first started to show my work. Nervous and anxious for approval, I worried the work wouldn’t please anyone. As I began to exhibit, I realized my innovative approaches were exciting to people. They asked me how I thought of it, where did I take my photographs, what was I thinking about when I created it. Answering those questions became my story. They were natural and honest answers. I realized showing my work to folks, helped me to understand just what I did put into the work, the stories behind the work, for example; how the fabrics I painted responded to the photographs I used. What I discovered was, telling people about my art was how I ‘sell’ it. It’s not a salesperson’s approach of how to sell, but a visceral response to sharing my work. The motivation to exhibit becomes more than appealing to the current trends or a mere marketing effort. The emphasis is relevant to sharing my work and seeing the connections it makes with people. A window into how and what they see in my work.
The art becomes interactive, a communication.

Dreams and Effort plus Perseverance

I have been sending images to a couple of my favorite magazines for awhile. Don't even know exacting how long. One of my absolute favorites is the lovely slightly weightier pages of Surface Design Journal. This is where I go to see how other artists push fiber arts into ART.
This is where I go to feel justified at my efforts to do ART. This is one of the magazines that create the juice of inspiration. And I have just been published in their Exposure section. A Great BIG juicy surprise, a pure delight!
(see picture of collaged article and piece in row on right)

How Do YOU Work?

I've been asked that allot lately, and now it's the posed question on one of my yahoo groups. I have several different ways of approaching a project, depending on the end result. Meaning, I have several different ways of getting my work finished.
Holographic images are created from inspiring photographs I take. I guess I have become 'known' for these. The finished pieces are hard to photograph as they depend highly on the viewer's movement for the full effect. I published the technique in Quilting Arts summer 07 and they have a DVD on this process also.
Silk Organza is my fabric of choice. I love to dye, paint, silkscreen- you name it. It works best in my transparent works and in my new 'layered' collages. They are a brand spankin' new idea and am very excited about them. Very nontraditional though.
I also layer the organza in applied collages and sewn works. I use their transparent quality to create layers, free and fixed. I continue to explore what I can do with this amazing stuff.
I paint fabric, usually in the summer, for use during the year. I get into a fabric creation mode and just play. Wonderful and fun. This is used for all my works as well as art quilting etc. During the rest of the year, I will yank out the paints to refresh my sense of play, much like sorbet during extended formal meals. ahem. The fabric is used in all of my work, focus, borders, whole pieces, anything! ( I do have a workshop series based on my techniques)
In sum, I get inspired by an idea and then figure out the best way to approach it. What technique will best portray my vision. When I don't have the time, I jot the idea down, with drawings and construction ideas, in my artist's journal. That happens more frequently than I wish. However, I have a wonderful artist journal! ( someone actually wanted to buy it!!!) I highly recommend it's use. Even better than buying one, create your own. Take a book making course- it's really not that hard. It gives it heart.

Email and Removal Requests

shepard-fairey-barack-obama
I get tons of email a day. I check'um out first, delete what I don't want or don't have time for, then read the rest. My spam folder fills faster than crumbs in a toaster, but I pursue that as well because sometimes good stuff leaks in there. Then DELETE. What mighty power I hold in the tip of a finger. Kinda like when you turn the channel on TV. The power of choice in the moment. So Zen.
Often, when I have a tid bit of news, good video etc to share, I can compose my zesty little note and insert lots of categories in the address bar. With one button press, I can send to lots of people, who then have the choice to delete or read as the spirit moves them. Again Choice. That's democratic.
Sometimes, I get a request to 'remove them from my list'. Not often, but sometimes. I feel bad I've inconvenienced them but remove them and let them know its done. Sorry to take up your time, no hard feelings. That's it. But once in awhile a not so nice note appears too. These people have a problem with my sending to them and let me know. Well, I'm sorry- they have the opportunity to delete before reading and I have the freedom to send. Lets leave it at that.

Buisness Cards- a must

Gotta have'um. Give them to everyone. Like small little magic carpets, they fly away to far off corners of peoples homes. You can get the cutest little ones from Moo.com. They make great hang tags- but then, I just made hangs tags on my computer- personalized for each piece of art I've done and the scarves and other smaller works. Soooo- I just ordered some 'real' business cards from Overnightprints.com. I've done this before. I don't want to order too may 'cause my art changes as fast as I can change my mind. Inspiration strikes and wham-o, I'm off. I do have a product that seems to be the one folks like- so perhaps I'll get the cards with photos of these. That is to say one of these, for unlike moo cards, you must settle on one image. Darn! Hmmm. Done. Files uploaded. You can change files to pdf in pdfonline.com- you'll need to do this unless you're really handy in Photo shop. Fairly simple and they give you instructions. I LOVE the Internet! Then get yourself a pay pal account. Easy too. You can pay for just about anything this way and you don't need to enter your credit card as often. Now to await their arrival- hopefully in time for the Holiday shows!!

New York City 05

I grew up 15 minutes outside the city, the BIG apple that is. I left to 'return to the garden' and have been there ever since. Recently I've taken day trips back in to see NOHO Gallery and Alex Grey's Chapel of the Sacred Mirrors (wonderful!) I'm kinda sorta related viva marriage (my husband's brother's wife's sister's husband) Would LOVE to find a gallery there, any suggestions??

Fall Shows

Brookvale Park- Monclair NJ- October 18&19 www.rosesquared.com

NH Open Doors- Studio #336 -Salmon Fall Mill November 8&9- Rollinsford, NH www.millartists.com

(note will be unable to do Open Studios this year so this is the only time my studio will be open)

Paradise City Fine Craft Shows- Marlborough MA November 21-23 www.paradisecityarts.com

Button Factory Open Studios Portsmouth, NH
December 6&7 www.buttonfactorystudios.com

Quilt National

I have been entering this show for more than 20 years- I need to 

look up the exact count. I make 'virgin' work for this show. I have enterd my holographic work, but I think it is hard for a juror to understand what they are seeing as there is just 

nothing 

out there like it. So this year I went back to flat work. First, I did a couple painted works, but digital is my passion at the moment, so the painted pieces didn't seem jazzed enough. Here are some pic's of the entered pieces.

Quilting Arts DVD

Yikes I'm on You Tube- click on the Quilting Art DVD picture (scroll part way down, on the right) to bring it up.

art, meaning and families

What do female artists do? Does anyone ever question thier sense of purpose. As Women, are we supposed to put everyone before our creative urges and wants. We are told we must fit these wild and crazy inspirations between family gatherings and the needs of our partners. If we don't turn a huge profit, we are told we are playing, that what we do doesn't count. How do we fit our real selves into these pictures without feeling guilty and selfish= because someone told we were?

What makes us real?

"I was his mother and his wife and now I want the luxury of my own life"

Ani DiFranco

best response ( Thank YOU)

Expressing yourself thorough your art is who you are. You really have no choice but to keep doing it. The Alternative is to crawl into a fetal position and die; Period. End of Discussion. As one who has been married FOREVER, I have found that the agreements we made to share our lives together need re-negotiation. The old paradigms we lived by because the kids were small or money was needed to educate them etc no longer exist. Men have trouble with that, especially those who are successful. At this stage of the game our relationships need to be mutually nuturing.. whether it be a marriage, friendship or parent/grown child. I don't know where your fulcrum rests but you need to feel you are in a good place to sustain both yourself (your art) and a joyful relationship.

2 quotes

"Nobody deserves your tears, but whoever deserves them will not make you cry." Gabiel Marques

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." Dr Seuss

Graditude

Belonging to the League of New Hampshire Crafts since 1993 has been an exciting growing experience. I am challenged to keep my work top notch while I strive to grow my edges. The past two years I have done a 10x10 booth at the Sunappe fair grounds for 10 days. While it is a long time, I get to meet people and talk about my work. Beautiful! I continue to expand by applying to more shows. I have just applied to one in NJ and  will be at the Paradise City show in Marlborough MA. I do continue to send my work to galleries and enter exhibits. It is so wonderful to have these opportunities to share my creations. Thank you all!

What goes in...

My piece in the previous blog received Viewer's Choice Award at the Whistler Museum, Lowell MA at a recent exhibit. What a wonderful honor! It has been a very full summer with many learning experiences. In the face of trying circumstances, one can either give up or fortify oneself. This is what this honor has helped me do. I am sharing a few photographs of the construction process of Winter   Tree. Starting with one of my  photographs,  printed on especially 

treated cloth

 and sewn.

Summer Revelations

Creative people learn they need to take the time for thoughts to peculate from their unconscious. Observing the world with an artist eye brings intense aliveness. Patterns and textures leap into focus.  Shining spots of excruciating Beauty.

Allowing space for gathered reflections to come forward is part of the process of making art. 

Then, to give expression is required for sanity. 

Winter Tree, one of my Holographic Images, can be seen at the Whistler Museum, Lowell Ma. until August 15th.

Photograph Manipulations

Traveling gives me many designs points as well as inspiration fuel. I use my images in my work in several ways. This is a somewhat mundane image that

 has a interesting tree. I cropped the image to include just the tree, then played with the image using photo shop filters. I can use this now as is to print or make a thermal fax of it. Using my photography in my fiber work gives my work an individual and personal edge.

Haystack Mountain School of Crafts

Haystack Mountain School of Crafts is located on Deer, Isle Me. This Isle really resonates with my senses. The sight, sound and smell of the ocean, the vertical pines, and large granite boulders highlighted by lichen and seaweed, create an topography  I am sad to leave. Part of me wants to stay there, making art, living art.

The Crafts school is a lively community of artists working in a non-competitive environment which encourages and inspires artistic growth in the individual, to create brave new work.

   This was my 4th session there and every one of them differ. I want to say that the artistic community of kindred spirits touched my soul as it has before, albeit in a totally different way than I expected. I learned how important bonding in a workshop is, that respect and kindness are paramount. That organization and a little planning can go a long way in fostering creative responses to the work. Working together in an intense atmosphere for 2 weeks is difficult but educational. 

Definitely Go- you never know what will happen. Learning always takes place. No matter what.

 

Inspiration and New Ideas

Inspiration can come from many sources, inner and outer. New ideas about how you are doing current work can pop up anywhere, so I try to carry paper and pen, even on walks or at work. I love to look at art of all kinds, anywhere, in magazines to museums. 

Fiber art is on the cusp of a wave. Some fiber artists are trying to evolve our medium to a new level of perception. That is not to dishonor those who enjoy it on any other level, I have been there. I have done those tiny hand stitches and matched countless points. We learn the rules and then we can break them, and should, to move forward. What does one do who sees visions? Experiment. Break traditions. Expose people to new ways of seeing. It takes time for venues to catch up. Should traditional venues hold new work to old standards? Isn't that like putting new wine in old wine skins. Art, to me, is about moving forward. Creation gives me ideas. My passion is to put them into art. I use my medium, fiber. 

Interplay: Inward Outward Transference

I will have 5 digital fiber works and 5 Holographic images in this show, which includes a variety of media.

Featuring the works of ten contemporary artists, this exhibit highlights the interrelationships between internal and external form and space, clarity and ambiguity, surface and introspection,

translucent and reflective light, and simple and complex texture.

Jaffrey Civic Center, Cunningham Galleries

40 Main St. Jaffrey, NH 

Show June 6 to July 5, 2008 reception June 6th, 5-7 pm

Exhibition hours Tuesday 10-6

Wednesday- Friday 1-5

Saturday 10-2

Artist Forum

Artist Forum May 28

 Transfer Processes

I will discuss some of the ways I apply photographs to substrates and do a couple demo's.

The Forum is held at the Lincoln Levy Gallery,136 State St. Portsmouth, NH. It's free and open to the general public. time 7-8 pm.

Solo Show Images

Images of Bringing the Outside In 

Wonderful Fiber Mixed Media Show

Bringing the Outside In

It is a thrill and an honor to see my work installed at the LIncoln Levy Gallery in Portsmouth.

I was surprised and delighted at how professional and beautiful it is, to see it all hanging in one place. I had some placement help from Bee and Bill, volunteers at the Gallery and they knew how to hang! Thank you!!
I hope you can get to see it! It comes down on the 25th of May.

present paradigm and directions

Read Marija Gimbutas - the fact that there was actually a culture that choose their home sites based on beauty rather than defense was clearly indicates an enlightened culture- no weapons of any kind were found. They honored the woman's body and it was an honor to make love to her. The color red was sacRED, as it was the color of our life giving monthly cycle. It is a fascinating read, as well as introducing us to an aspect of our herstory that most women do not know about.
Of course, than the eastern steppe raiders came with their patriarchal structures and mowed down those poor defenseless peaceful people. This followed women throughout the next thousands of years, slowing replacing and rewriting the Greek myths to making it illegal for wise women to help the sick, etc. The more your read... There is an EXCELLENT 3 part vidio called Woman and Spirituality by the Wellspring Media from The National Film Board of Canada, based now in NYC. You can try to google it. They are titled Goddess Remembered, The Burning Tomes, and Full Circle.
The present paradigm is non- supporting for our men and sons too. So any work done on this level is good for our society. In a way, we are reformers.

Art Quilt Elements

Back from Art Quilt Elements- What a whirlwind trip! Lots of wonderful art pieces and quilts. It was really nice meeting people and putting names to faces, esp. from the yahoo list. Kathy Angel Lee and Linda Wickey and I faced the highways in NY, NJ, Conn, MA and NH to arrive at Wayne PA!! The show was beautifully hung. My piece was in the main gallery. I was really surprised and pleased!
I took the Digital Approaches Workshop with Leslie Noble Farber. She is a assisant professor at Paterson State, near where my father lives in NJ! What a jam-packed eventful workshop! Lots of things were happening right from the beginning and continued to stimulate us the entire 3 days. We immediately started out preparing a variety of substrates, surfaces to print on, these included collage techniques with gel mediums and ink aid to fine papers. We learned how to set up the image in Photoshop and send it to the printer driver and print out our prepared surfaces. We printed on all kinds of fabric, a variety of pellon interfacing, and even plastic! Once everything was ready you inserted your substrate into the printer, talked nicely to it, coaxed it along and prayed!
We experimented with a variety of other techniques of photographic transfer each day such as ink jet transfers, decal sheets, T-shirt transfers, and sticky paper transfers to paper lithography. We touched on resists and methods of spray fixatives- that definitely need to be dried in a well-ventilated area.
This workshop was a great introduction to basic digital printing using your computer, Photoshop and substrates.
Glad to be home!!
Now to get back to work an finish a bunch of pieces for my solo show in May at the Lincoln Levy gallery in Portsmouth. I am so inspired and itching to get at it!
I did, however, get a phone call from a writer from New England Home Magazine, a regional version of Architectural Digest and he also writes for Readers Digest. He is coming to interview me and view my work at my studio in Rollinsford on Tuesday! Yikes! I am so excited!! Of course the place is a mess as I am getting ready for the show and classes at Exeter Fine Crafts. He'll get the real deal!

Currier Museum Opening

I went to the new wing of the Currier Museum in Manchester, NH with some friends. I saw for the first time, that I recall, Jules Olitski. Beautiful name, loved his work. Sky alight! I goggled him and here is a quote- just wonderful!

“I decided to be a painter when my grandmother died. And there was something about that that made a number of things clear to me. I was a kid... and I loved her very much and feel that in some way she was one of the few people who supported me. That is she loved me. I got, nonetheless, the sense of an absolutely wasted, thrown away life. Like a dead cat on a garbage pail heap. And it made me get a very clear look on a all the people around me... My family, their friends... And the one thing that got through to me was the notion of... If there’s one thing you want to do, that’s meaningful, in my case it was painting, do it. Do it.”

“If I could just get a spray of color in the air, and somehow it could stay there– _that would be it.”