Jun 16, 2014

Still Fighting the Civil War

Still Fighting the Civil War: The American South and Southern HistoryStill Fighting the Civil War: The American South and Southern History by David R. Goldfield
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The South is not all magnolias and sweet tea in this troubling explanation of how and why (white) Southerners are still trying to preserve the pre-Civil War South that lives in their psyche but never actually existed. White men had their pride demolished as their slavery-based economy abruptly crumbled. Blacks were/are stymied for exhibiting business savvy or any other power. Women, black and white, are shown to be the realists and the persistent change agents who are inching the South away from a dangerous illusion. It hurt to read this disheartening description of the place I love. (Tallahassee is 30 or so miles from South Georgia.)


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Jun 12, 2014

A month of tiny projects

Vacation cottage

It's been a few years since I made this little quilt of our cottage at Jensen's in Captiva, FL. The piece was part of a month-long project I'd forgotten about. But this morning, as I was searching my files for an old poem, I stumbled on a how-to piece I'd saved. I liked what it said. Then it dawned on me that of course I liked it -- I wrote it! It's about my month of tiny projects. Finding it has inspired me to do the same thing this summer.  Here it is:

I was drowning in a sea of ideas, techniques and materials to explore.  Then I tried a month of tiny projects. At the beginning I was a wanderer; at the end, people were calling me an artist. Working hard every day for a month without thinking too much about perfection gave me speed, discipline, and freedom to integrate my creative self. If you too feel fractured, try this.

It began one morning as I looked out my studio window while it was still dark. The full moon floating behind the pecan tree was so beautiful that I gasped. Right then I decided to make art every day for a month, starting with the pecan tree and moon.

Pecan tree and moon


Here’s the process:
Pick a schedule. Mine was a piece a day, but it could be weekly or even monthly.
Pick a theme. Mine was gratitude. I expected something amazing every day for my subject. Other themes might be: a dream a day, or a world event, or a visit to a new neighborhood or fresh piece of your city. Alternatively, you could be inspired by the same place (or person) over and over, noting subtle daily changes. Or make art based on the day’s recipe, or prayer, or confusion, or memory, or your first thought of the day. I want to make art about my evolving definition of God. Choose anything you want to explore. Don’t worry too much at this point.
Limit your size and/or materials. I decided to make 6 ½-inch squares that would be quilted – three layers that would have a muslin base and batting, with the top varied. For many I used the sewing machine. You could just as easily make a larger piece each day – say, every day’s work would involve some material you found in nature, like a branch or feather; or it could be based on a daily foot-square rubbing of some part of your neighborhood’s surface.
List techniques you want to explore. I was forever jamming the printer when I tried to copy a photograph onto fabric, so I wanted to master that machine! I also wanted to try out different ways of writing on fabric, and to work in three dimensions, and to alter fabric with stamps and markers and paint, and to make new surfaces from old materials, making faces, and to freely collage with fabric. And practice free-motion quilting.  You could explore color all month, or line, or another element.
List your inspiration. My inspiration was the poet A.R. Ammons, who said,

"Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful."

List references as you find them. I bookmarked web sites and put pertinent books and magazines in a special spot on the shelf. I saved only the most helpful web sites. As I learned to print on fabric, I explored many, but one was most helpful.
Be easy. I let a few days go blank. I needed some space to write about the pieces and write a poem. But I didn’t stop, not even while we took a week’s vacation at the beach. I packed small pieces of fabric and a tiny sewing kit that included glue, scissors, and muslin squares. Every day I worked on a picnic table outside our cottage.
Pretend you are not in charge. Let the day tell you what your subject is. The day we drove to Captiva Island had plenty of inspiration: the long trip, meeting old friends, and seeing the lovely Gulf of Mexico. But at 10 p.m., as a group of us were finishing a late dinner at a restaurant, we were shocked by a frightening flash, and then the island went dark. Naturally, this blackout was my subject, trumping all the other highlights of the day.
After it’s all finished, look for trends. What are your colors, lines, subjects? Much to my surprise, I didn’t use yellow! I seem to love layers and texture. I write messy. I want to explore printing. 
I want to do this again.

Jun 9, 2014

Summer shows at FSU Museum

Study in B. and W. Number 1
Stephanie Rubanowice
fabric
13 1/8" x 13 1/8"
I loved seeing the fabric work of Stephanie Rubanowice in the Artists' League Summer Annual Salon, a juried exhibit at the FSU Museum of Fine Arts. Her pieces have life! Show ends July 11.

The exhibit is in the lower gallery. On the ground floor is the Tallahassee Tri-State Watercolor Society show, featuring work by artists from Florida, Alabama and Georgia. My favorite there is by Dean Mitchell. Even though it is large, it is subtle. This show ends July 3.

The museum is relatively quiet this summer, and admission is free.

Fall Carpet
Stephanie Rubanowice
fabric
16 1/4" x 15 "

Jun 7, 2014

Mixed media at LeMoyne

Betsy Markowski using a jeweler's saw to demonstrate how she makes a silver chain

I just came from Betsy Markowski's talk at LeMoyne Center for the Visual Arts. Her work reminds me of Joseph Cornell's collages: she takes detritus -- incidental pieces of wood and metal of no immediate consequence -- mixes it meticulously with more, and breathes life into it. Her work is small scale, refined, and maybe even obsessive. Markowski grew up in Tallahassee, and now lives in North Carolina. 

Markowski is sharing LeMoyne with stunning pieces in many media by members of Affiliated Artists of LeMoyne. The show runs through July 26. Admission is free.

And then there's LeMoyne's Live Oak room, a community-wide invitation to be on the walls of LeMoyne now through July.  It invites you -- yes, you! -- "to take a photograph or create artwork of trees and bring them to LeMoyne. We will pin them to the wall and create a room filled with trees." For inspiration, there's a young live oak in the center of the room. I just told C about this, and he grabbed his second-favorite photograph, drove straight to LeMoyne, got accepted, and saw his photo on the wall. Does this inspire you?


Detail of LeMusée 
Mixed Media
Betsy Markowski
$10,000

Jun 1, 2014

Florida in Fabric II

"I can't believe how powerful it is to actually be here and experience the texture and fabric," a visitor told me at the Florida in Fabric II exhibit at the Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne. She's right.  Photos don't properly convey fiber art. But, until you get to the show itself, here are photos from the opening and also the gallery talk by juror Martha Sielman. When the artist was present, Martha turned the mike over to her to explain her own work. The show runs through August 23. 

Carla Funk, left, Director of University Museums at FIT,  with Martha Sielman, juror of the exhibit
and Executive Director of Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc. (SAQA)

La Via a la Florida: Las Flores Bellisimas by Marsha Walper of Tallahassee

Regina Dunn of DeLand, with Beach Walk


Susan Rienzo of Vero Beach, with Sunshine State of Mind

Ellen Lindner of Melbourne discusses The Last Few Dates

Martha Sielman with Sometimes This Place Bugs Me by Marlyn Foell of Satellite Beach

Linda Geiger of Cocoa Beach with Homage to Cutoffs and Hawaiian Print Shirts

Martha Sielman with Star Over Tallahassee by Vonda Frenes of Palm Bay

Album of Florida Lights by Mary Jo Kuhn of Jacksonville

Martha Sielman describing the postcard charm of Golden Apples of the Sun  by  Sandra Donabed of Jupiter

Ellen Haines of Jacksonville with Fire

Martha Sielman with Sweet Florida Blue by Lisa-Marie Sanders of Cocoa Beach

Martha Sielman with Orange Topiary by Margo Huckabay Hicks of Palm Bay

Martha Sielman with a piece from Oil Stains,
an accompanying show that is quilter Eleanor McCain 's response
to the BP Gulf oil spill


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