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.”

Solo Show in Dover NH

Digital, Holographic, Surface Design Fiber Art
I just hung my 4th solo show this afternoon with Jim Livermore. It was fun to see my work in a new gallery setting and with brick rusty red walls! When you work with another person, an unusual event for me, it allows insight into how other people work. He is relaxed yet on the ball. Such a pleasure. I hope you can get to his gallery. Lots of art and his jewerly is out of this world!

Solo Show March 29- April 26
April 18 opening 430-630
Village Goldsmith
Dover, NH

Remember wen
I need to remember –when I’m tired, discouraged and wondering why. I need to recharge, to take myself outside. We had a wonderful Christmas- like snowstorm today.
The leaves and trees are covered in a deep blanket of fluffy white snow, just waiting to pose for my camera. They just want to be appreciated- like all of us.


ORIGINAL PHOTO

Art Quilt Elements

detail

Art Quilt Elements 2008
April 4 - May 10
Wayne Art Center
Wayne, PA

One of 68 works chosen from
708 entries by jurors
Robert Shaw, BJ Adams,
and Mi Kyoung Le

I
just
realized!
Why I like to blog.

It's like keeping a journal but you can add pictures! Images excited me! Going to get them is a challenging fun. Thoughts excite me! I can get so excited some times! Then,
I go to my studio and that makes me happy!

Friends in fiber

Photograph taken in Lowell, MA
Today I met with a group of fiber friends. The group is called SAFA, Seacoast Association of Fiber Artists. Each of us is an artist in our own right- respecting, exploring, consoling and encouraging one another. Every artist benefits from some kind of feedback and honest critique. We expand and contract, like breathing.

Piecing in the Flow Workshop At Portsmouth Fabric Co.

I was reviewing for my March workshop, Piecing in the Flow. A intutitive piecing techinique I have done for the past 20 years or so. I am a shy teacher but I know my stuff. Check it out on
ttp://www.portsmouthfabric.com/classes.html
It is a technique exploration class of direct cutting and piecing. We attempt to work without conscious planning or stress. We allow the intuitive part of ourselves to influence the process. There are NO MISTAKES. Mistakes are opportunities to change directions! Mistakes are directions from your intuitive self.


Which reminded me of this- a paraphrase from one of my online lists.

Beleve it or not, creativity is HARD WORK! It involves
Risk and Sacrifice!
It involves moving beyond our fears, excuses, road blocks, people, (the naysayers) etc..
It involves going deep
inside –
which by the way- scares most of people,
to see what is
really
there.
And to remember to do that!

It involves the ability to put it out there and say "I don't care what others think this is (insert whatever topic, emotion, etc...)
It’s about following your vision.
It’s about all the effort it takes to get it out there, because you must.
It’s about passion.

Haystack Memories

I just completed my application to Haystack Mountain School of Crafts on Deer isle, ME. It is a fantasy island filled with kindred spirits. Everyone on the same page, with art sparkling out from their smiling eyes. I found this poem I wrote after one wonder-filled but rainy week.


In My Mind’s Eye

I return to Haystack,
that day of surprised joy
when Paulus recited “Hello Sun”,
his arms outstretched
to gather it in,
to release our minds,
to capture and motivate our attention.
Wetness collects in my smiling eyes
as I remember that morning,
when the sun first came out to greet us
after hiding for so long.
Came out like a field of flowers in bloom,
heads up,
wanting us to take them home.

poem by Wen

What drives me.

The thought has occurred to me that my love of textiles and fabrics give expression to my fascination with other things. Things like nature and hugging trees, being outdoors and smelling the cleansing wafts of air lifting my spirits. I love photography, since the beginning, when I had a 35mm and took shots that I thought were no good because I didn't have the technical skills. But I learned I have an eye. I like patterns and textures, of course, but shots of nature- views into a softer world, stills of interiors and arrangements of objects. People that take time and interest in their choices of things they bring to their space. It's like looking into a prism of their world.

Good conversation- those glimpses into another's soul. The invitation to do so. A gift. That appreciation comes out in the way I put my colors together, influences my painting and stitiching. I feel privileged to be able to do my art.


I hope my art is a gift in return.

Surface Design Workshops

I will be teaching fiber workshops at Exeter Fine Crafts in Exeter NH. This is a lovely fine craft gallery, if you are ever in the area stop in. The town of Exeter is a visual pleasure as well. Ask me where to eat!

The classes will be April 19th, Painting Fabrics, April 25th- Fabric Stamping, May 3rd-Monoprinting, and May 10th- Basic Silkscreen. All levels are welcome. Take one or all!


http://www.exeterfinecrafts.com/courses.html

Reveal

I am easily influenced by the world around me. I make an effort to take myself outside.

Taking the time to take the time, to go outside. Reflection brings new insights and perceptions. Clarity resumes. Creative ideas are given the opportunity to percolate up from the unconscious.

This returns to my art in both representational and abstract forms.
Reveal!

Musings

Today a group of good friends and fellow fiber artists, went to the Boston Museum of Fine Art. We went to view Ed Rossbach's fiber art. Fantastic! He uses bark, and plastic, photo transfers and gourds; combinations of found materials in unexpected and oddly soothing ways. We wondered into various other sections of the museum like a short time travel experience, revisiting old masters and simulating contemporary work, enjoying the serendipitous experience of cultures joining and coming full circle. We ended our visit, touched by art and each other's good humor.

Studios

I have 2 studios, one at my home and the other in a reborn mill, Rollinsford, NH- all artists- divine!! I use my mill studio for meetings, gallery displays, workshops, and as a wet studio.

This is my very first studio. My home is an old cape from 1779 and my first studio was in it's 'borning' room, where women had their children. This page is from Ellwyn Hayslips's book Your Career in Crafts.

My at home studio is used for business, work completion and digital processes.

Fiber Heaven

I took a lovely workshop at the 2007 SDA conference in Kansas City, MO. Now that is fiber heaven! If you ever can go, I highly recommend it. I took Art as Quiet. Here's a quote from our instructor, Susan Hammond West.

Be there for yourself.
Be there for your art.
Be there before your art.

One of my pieces from the workshop.


SAQA and SDA will have a joint conference in Philadelphia in April. Needless to say, I will be there.

Niche Awards and back again

The Niche Awards by the Rosen Craft Show are truly the Academy awards of Arts and Crafts! It was so exciting to see the show and be there for the ceremony. The piece I entered was a manipulated photograph of the floor in my studio. I use the filters in Photoshop until I like the result. Then I divide it and print the sections. The amount depends on the image or my energy level. Here is a detail of Bird in Arms and the image of the studio floor that I used to create the fabric from.

I love playing with images and printing. Quilting or adding stitching is like drawing on top of them. It adds accents and textures. Sew FUN!

Philadelphia or Bust

Off to the Niche Awards at the Rosen Philadelphia Craft Show. Can this former NJ girl navigate the traffic?? We shall see. The piece up for the award is a manipulated digital photograph I printed onto cotton broadcloth with my Epson 2400. The quilting lines are an integral part of the final design. Can you guess what is was a photograph of?? I'll tell you next time!

QA TV appearance

A brand new show, Quilting Arts, named after it’s
predecessor, Quilting Arts Magazine is featuring
creative fiber artists on their new show. Wen Redmond
demonstrated her innovative fiber technique,
Holographic Images. Her technique uses the computer to
print her fiber photographs into unique 3-D images.
The show will also host a virtual Quilting Arts
Festival in the future, where you can take Wen’s
class.

The new show began airing on Public Television
nationwide this past December. Contact your local PTV
networks to pick up the show.
Wen’s work can be seen on WenRedmond.com