Creations Shared

I love it when folks send me photos of work they have done after taking a workshop with me or buying my fabric. I recently received an email with a photo of a book covered using my hand created cloth. The hand made book resembles ancient leather. 

I met him at my booth during the recent Paradise City show in Northampton MA. He graciously agreed to let me share his book with my blog readers. I invite more such creations to be published here. Thank You John!

Trees to Poles

Taking photos has been an interest since I first laid my hands on a camera. I have shared some from time to time. Many influence my art viva composition, pattern and design. While others become the subject of work. They can be the entire piece or added with silkscreen or collage. And now one can take photos into Photoshop and do amazing things. A new way to create in the 21st century! For this work, called Trees To Poles, I used almost all these techniques. I layered these two photos, below, in Photoshop and used them as my Holographic Image insert. I collaged additional photo elements with painted and pieced fabric.  String was embedded in the layers, which was highlighted with paint sticks afterwards. The piece was finished with stitching.

Begin Again

There is vitality, a life-force, a quickening that is translated through you into action. And because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. If you block it, it will never exist through another medium. It will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is…It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.

Martha Graham

Time alone is needed to allow thoughts to flow. Time spend making art is good. It is not wasted.

Art feeds soul. Soul feeds art.

Can't Resist?- Freezer Paper

An eazy peazy resist technique using freezer paper. Cut your freezer paper into any shape or design you want. A design hint-  Use both the positive and the negative cut out to create an easy but interesting motif.  Iron the freezer paper onto the surface of your item. 

Tape or pin your fabric, t-shirt or whatever to a printing surface. I use a table covered in a firm batting, and cloth. Then I cover that with plastic. Using a natural sponge, dab paint around the freezer paper as desired. (You could use a form brush too.) Do not saturate or it will steep under the freezer paper. Use acrylic paint or textile paint 0r they both work fine. (Another hint- if your t-shirt is light colored, slip another cloth in between front and back to catch any excess paper that might leak though. The cloth can be the start of your next project.)
Allow the paint to dry, and peel the freezer paper off.  Done! 
The paper is reusable for several more processes. You can rotate the pattern and do it again. Outline in another color using a fine tipped bottle. What ever you can think of.  Enjoy!

I usually passive set mine, allowing it to dry a couple days before washing. Textile paints will need an additional heat setting with a hot iron.
Photographs courtesy of Theresa Redmond

Reaching

This piece evolved from a old piece of canvas I painted on a lark. The acrylic already present on the canvas  worked as a resist. ( 0r was it gel medium ?) I printed a image of a swamp tree, at an upward angle, onto silk organza. This was adhered with medium. I added highlights of oil stick to the raised textured area and finished it with stretcher bar mounting. 

This is a simpler piece yet one gets a sense of composition.

Let me know what you think.

September 2009 News

It was a busy summer. Preparing and showing at the League of New Hampshire’s Sunapee Fair, Newberry NH in August, can be a lot of work. The Fair was up in attendance and sales this year. Always a good thing for an artist. Winter Tree and Rooted in Matter will be in New Bridge on the Charles Hebrew Senior Life Center, Dedham, MA as part of their permanent collection.

Ripples Triptych, a commission by Dana Farber Institute, Boston MA was finally completed for their new building. I’m waiting to hear when the opening will be!

A October Event coming up fairly soon is the Paradise City Exhibit 10/10-12 Northampton MA  http://www.paradisecityarts.com/october/homeoct.html

I am working hard to finish several new pieces for this popular show. A couple pieces are the result of experimentation. Coming from the inspirations of summer.

Upcoming is a new workshop concept called Studio Pops. It is an open studio workshop where students spontaneously decide the topic. Please contact me if you are interested and we can coordinate a time. Cost $30.00- 10-1 and 2-5

As always I am available for regular workshops, which you can find on my website, or email me -wenreddy@yahoo.com

I just joined a professional artists online network and they featured my work! Take a peek-   http://professionalfineartnetwork.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html

 I spent some time painting fabric and reviewing my artist journal. I have some great ideas for new work. Continuing to post inspirations and work progress on my blog.

Nest exhibited at 2009 National Small ART Works, Groton, NY, received Honorable Mention and sold!

Studio Art Quilt Association’s exhibits

Blurred Boundaries Closer, 3 Weird Sisters, Ocean Roar

Trees Seen, Forest Remembered, SAQA’s 2009 exhibit SAQA@20: Art and Excellence. Multiple Venues until 2010

Bubble of Time, ARTQUILTS transitions, Semans Galleries at the Durham Arts Council, Durham, NC

Angels Do Listen, SAQA Auction/ sold

Surface Design Association’s news

A Thousand Wishes, Surface Design Association’s Members Show

Perception Published, Surface Design Association’s Journal, Exposure

 All the Best 

 

Breaking Free

Breaking Free

‘The Day is yours.” My husband quips.

I am unburdened at the moment from worrying thoughts, loved one’s dilemma’s, even my usual mad dog push, push, push.

“Relax, I say. “ How is it I feel like I’m sitting upon a rockin

g lid under which boils my tempestuous creative drive.

Sometimes I feel like a spinning top with an arm extending out every so often to tweak an art piece, paint fabric, create a digital collage, and come up with yet another way to display fiber art to a curious public.

Ideas whirl though my head.

“Focus.” Says one of my mentors, “Only this moooment”.

“This Moment- and this and this!” I respond!

This day, a bubble in the weeks of planned activities. This day, a day of my own, without focus, direction, or plans. A chasm to be filled at my discretion. What joy!

I walk though my studio gathering items intuitively. My art jour

nal, a pile of snipped out images of art and other stuff from magazines I buy to expose my yearning for beauty. My glue stick and pen.

These journals mirror to me what I like, what inspires me, provide a directional compass.

Outside into the glorious sun coolly lit in the first hints of Autumn. I sit and begin to turn pages. I see notes from years past, re-pasted in each new journal. Journals handmade, sewn with curses and love. I just turn the rich pages- absorbing, reminding, revisiting.

 And the magic happens. 

In Company of the Muses

I can get thrilled to bits on viewing arrangements of objects in an artful way. On a recent trip to Japan to visit one son, Patrick,  whilst (don't you love that word) with my eldest son, Jon-  I saw beauty everywhere. Japan, being a relatively small country, treasures the space it has. I will share a few images here and later on in the year as well. These will perhaps spark a new viewpoint. 

I hope you enjoy them as I have!

Time for SAQA's Auction

SAQA 2009 Benefit Auction 
This year's Benefit Auction will start Thursday, September 10th at 2:00 Eastern.  SAQA has already received 214 donated artworks and more are on the way.  All the artwork is 12" x 12".  You can see them on the SAQA website.

http://www.saqa.com/newsebulletins/Squares09_1.aspx  
Mine is on the first page. It's called Angels will Listen.

Fall Workshop and Events in NH, ME & MA areas

Would love to meet you at 

September

As part of Wen’s Fabric Transformations Workshop Series, she will offer the ever-popular Fabric Painting and Innovative Stamping Workshops at Exeter Fine Crafts on September 18 and 19.

AND

Thermal Facts Workshop

Thermal Fax screens are detailed silk screens made form B&W photographs, or drawings. Any image you can think of! Your own photographs can be converted into silk screens!

An artistic compliment to your photographic fiber art.

Suggestions of Communication

In Boats They Fled 2007 full & detailI enjoy adding text to my work. I have quilted an entire poem on the front of a piece. It's not meant to be read. It becomes texture, something to be felt. Sometimes I use photo transfers, or thermal fax silkscreens of interesting writing or symbols to add metallic letters. I developed an automatic writing I dubbed 'wenscript' for lack of a better name. It involves writing with acrylic ink, paint or just stitching. I simply just start to write and keep going, without making any effort to make 'words', making a suggestion of communication.

Conception 2007

for examples, also see posts on March 30, April 21, October 1. 2008, March 5,7 2009

My Window

 

I love using my photographs in my fiber work.  I print them on a variety of surfaces and fabric, make them into Thermal fax silkscreens ( see posts Jan 12 09, Dec 10 08 for details ) or work them into new images in photoshop. Inspiration can be generated by walks at the beach or in my woods, travels, driving in the car, just about anywhere.

My bedroom window faces east, waking me with wonderful surprises. I have used images taken there in a number of pieces and will continue. I thought I would share, from time to time, some of the photographs that inspire me, whether or not they end up in work. 

My Window, a silk organza piece. Sunrise and Raindrops.

Piecing in the Flow

For many years I taught an intuitive piecing workshop. The focus of the workshop was to teach direct cutting into fabric without prior thought, ruler or pattern. Piecing was taught using a really simple curved piecing method. Assembling fabrics that worked together with a few for contast was a key design clue.  Once you got into the act of cutting and piecing, you begin to loose your 'decider' self and proceed from your basic instincts of color and design, thus creating flow. When I first started this, curved piecing was a relatively new idea. 

Postings showing more of this work from 2/15/09, Blast from the Past, 4/20/09, Batting Average- a short history of batting, 12/4/08 Colors on the Brain  and Piecing in the Flow Workshop At Portsmouth Fabric Co. 3/9/08 which describes the workshop.                                 

Poem below from the early 80's.                                                                   

Tree (2003)

IN THE FLOW                   

I go to my table
Filled with my thoughts and my cloth palette.

Cutting through the fabric,
layers in my mind. 

Opening me,

possibilities,

Spirit finds me! Flow!
Standing back,
I see a new thing.
Collaboration!                                                                  

               

Moon Fog

I just finished mounting a piece, an off spring of my Pages collage series. I really enjoy using my photography in my work viva printing, transfers or silkscreens. This is a really old photo from the 70's that I scanned and printed onto silk organza. It was fused with more dyed organza, painted stabilizer and scrim. I stitched into it and highlighted sections with copper paint stick. I decided black stitching would be too distracting to the dreamy mood. Any comments?

Pages, a new Collage Series

I just finished a new series of surface designed fabric collages. They are fused and stitched, then mounted to 6x6 artist canvas. The backs are covered and fitted with wire- ready for hanging. The stitching motif is a variation on a circle, so when purchased as a group or for display, they present as unified.

I am really seriously happy with the results and will probably continue.

I will place them on my Etsy shop very soon. 

I hope you like them too!

Defining Style

Before I Knew You 2008

I think artists find their style by following their heart or muse. Trying different medias may lead to a style or a style could be a combination of different medias with subject or color schemes as the unifying factor. I use lots of fabric painting and surface design in my pieces, including intuitive stitching.

I Came Singing   2008

 I also enjoy working with imagery in photoshop and printing on fabrics. I think when viewing my work that they come from one vision.

Its not the style that matters, it's the tapping into flow that takes you to your style.

Art from the heart.

Driving Force

"Passion will make it happen."  Those of us old enough will perhaps recognize the words from FlashDance- one of my favorite movies. An untraditional dancer braves a traditional audition, with encouragement from an attractive admirer. Ah. Kinda of like the Modern Art Quilt/Textile Movement in the world today. We have struggled and gotten all kinds of things accepted that were forbidden just 25 years ago, machine quilting ( a biggie), free or unbound collage, painting on fabric, surface design of all varieties and my favorite, digital fabric printing. We are a moving and shaking force and expanding. "May the force be with you!" (another movie quote- guess?)

                 A new piece called A Thousand Wishes, recently exhibited at SDA Conference. Painted cotton duck and printed manipulated photo. The photo was reprinted on silk organza and sliced after sewing on top of piece. Not sure I'll repeat this, but it was fun to experiment!

Can't Resist? Leaves, feathers and String, Oh My!

Recently I held a Resists Workshop that is part of my Fabric Transformations  Series. 

We had a blast. We started with resists you apply and wash out, then moved on to removable masks and finished with discharge.   Pictured here, from top, is a fleather resist with discharge, leaf resist with spray paint and string and glue.

Sketching with Thread

Last month,  my daughter and I went to view the Fairey Exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. She bought along a artist's pad and sketched some fairly fast drawings. I have always admired people who can render likeness in this manner. This morning, I realized I sketch with my sewing machine. Years ago I would painstakingly draw designs on work with a 'removable' pen and sew along these lines. Then spend a good deal of time erasing them. Gradually I stopped, not even sure when. Now I just place my piece at needles point and start to quilt. This process is very intuitive. Sometimes I'm not crazy about what happens but more often then not, I have a sewn drawing that totally fits the piece. It is about trusting my experience and allowing that 'flow' to happen. Try it, sit down at your machine with a small piece and quilt. Watch out for wide smiles!

Collages on the Go

More! more! MORE! Eh-ha-ha-ha! Here's a few more tiny tid-bits. Collages on the go. Enjoy!