He trusted me

Written last night:

Dear Friends,

Plans are made to be broken, right? What I was going to do this week won’t happen. Meaning I'm now free to attend Craft Napa next weekend, which is tempting, whether for a daylong workshop in fabric painting, or two days.  I’ll think about it tomorrow. 

The farmers market under the freeway is smaller now, with the growing season in hiatus for a couple of months (See — I’m learning about this place!) I went anyway, to pay the man at Bariani olive oil booth. Before Christmas I ordered some to be sent as gifts, and he (I think it might be Mr. Bariani) wouldn’t take my money. He said the oil was being pressed in the coming week, and that he’d send it on to the addresses I gave him.  I could pay later. When I told him I’d be out of town for a couple of weeks he shrugged. Today he smiled when I arrived, said he’d sent the oil to the addresses I’d given him, and I paid him. He trusted me. I made two more orders today. He said I can pay next week. 

Here’s the Sacramento River and the Tower Bridge, two days ago. Today was gloomy and gray. 

Love,

k

Embroidered dresses, hand-woven dish towels

Written last night:

Dear Friends,

It’s the beginning of Christmas art fairs, and today I went to the Art to Wear market at a lovely nearby park. They sold everything from embroidered dresses to hand-woven dish towels. I bought some dangly green earrings and two small black bowls with golden-orange designs. The artist told me Matisse inspires her. Maybe tomorrow I’ll draw the bowls, so I can be inspired by Matisse too. Later, I tricked myself into cleaning up my studio space; the piled-up papers have been taunting me for more than a week. 

Weather here is beautiful, and the trees are turning colors.

Love,

k

Sunday: spiky vegetables and bright woven rug

Written last night:

Dear Family,

Sunday is free — I do what I please — mostly.

I heard there was an Asian farmers market near the big one under the freeway, and late this morning I found it, a cluster of white tents near 4th Street off Broadway. Since it was almost noon, prices were going down. I asked about some pointy green fish-shaped vegetables. The farmer told me their name, which I forget, and he said I could either boil them with meat or slice and fry them. “Here, take these to try!” he said, and he gave me a big handful. “They’re bitter!” he warned. 

What are these vegetables?

Later this afternoon Zing and I went to an art fair at nearby Curtis Park. It’s a bare, grassy space surrounded by comfortable homes. Today it was almost too hot. Some vendors were packing up an hour early, and the crowd was thin. We made a quick tour, seeing little of interest until I spied a loom and bright carpets made by Sergio Martinez. He told me he’s been in Sacramento 12 years, and I forget the Mexican area he calls home. Oaxaca, I think. Many of the designs are indigenous, he said, and some are his interpretations. He said sometimes he makes his own dyes, like grinding red bugs for color. (Just yesterday I read that artists did the same thing in Turkey in the 1500s; it surprised me they did it then, and it surprises me even more that this man does it today. I hadn’t told him about my reading.) I bought this small wool rug, and I’m looking at it now, on the floor beside my bed.

Love,

k

San Jose beauty

Written last night:
Dear Friends,

San Jose was 2 hours from Sacramento by bus on the way over, and almost 3 on the way back today. 

I took the Crocker Museum trip as much to learn the way as to see the art — and I loved both aspects. The scene was gorgeous, mostly grays and greens. (I’m sure I-80 wouldn’t have been nearly as interesting had I been driving.) I love the first time you see mountains in the distance, not far outside of Sacramento, and then to feel them get closer and change shape from round to sometimes sharp, and they seem to get taller too. I love the fog, which wafted in ribbons around the heights. From the freeway I couldn’t see much interesting housing; it all gave a rather bland and tidy impression. I suspect things get interesting on the surface roads. No doubt the afternoon traffic could be even worse in bad weather, or if there’s an accident.

San Jose has a million people and the surrounding suburbs make that almost 2 million, but downtown near the museum was free of bustle, although there’s a lot of new construction. I had a great talk over coffee at the museum cafe with my high school friend Susan, who has lived in San Jose a long time (but her heart is in Ireland). We discussed poetry, politics and why a person like me should wear a warning whistle when she walks. Susan gave me a marine whistle, and OK, I will wear it! Faithfully! It is warming to be cared for by friends.

You know I’ve been thinking about beauty, and coincidentally the San Jose Museum of Art’s main exhibit is called Beauty.  The pieces are bold and inspiring.*

A few blocks away, at the intimate San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, is a challenging show of contemporary weaving.*

In between, I browsed the shops, especially Muji, featuring simple, functional Japanese wares. I bought brown paper and envelopes, and could have bought lots more. Next time I’ll drive and have room for shopping bags. 

Love,

k

*I am sorry I don't have measurements for the art below. The weavings are not small -- at least 36" wide, conservatively.

San Jose street near downtown

Beaded creature in the Beauty exhibit

Wax print cotton, pieced clothing in Beauty exhibit

Jenny Sabin’s structure is knitted of photoluminescent yarn.

It can soak up the sun’s energy by day and give it off as light at night.

In the Beauty exhibit

Detail: Textured weaving by Lia Cook

Detail, pieced and glued to make crazy quilt-inspired weaving by Lia Cook, below

Lia Cook used camera, computer and loom to create this weaving

Construction outside San Jose Museum of Art

Series: Gluing down paint the way my hero Beatriz Milhazes does it

Forgive me, friends, for friending Facebook and forgetting to blog.
Forgive me also for returning, in a faltering way.
You see, I am a child of traditional media, and I don't know where I belong.

I know there are many of us! Even children love the rough touch of paper and that inky smell.  Some of us remember being paid a living wage to write words on paper. Now we feel unloved. But I still want to do it: write on paper. So I've returned to an actual notebook for the pleasure it gives as it helps clarify my thoughts. I have begun writing notes and some of them will appear here. Don't worry -- I'll interpret that small writing!

Trying Beatriz Milhazes' technique: steps 1-6

With this experiment I am ending my series inspired by Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes. I realize I love her colors most of all; they remind me of South Florida's brilliance.  I also love her layering of colors and designs, and her lack of focal point -- her pieces jump and dance, with no resting spot. But Friday I threw my final (16" x 20" Kona cotton on duck) experiment into the trash. I used her basic technique: cut shapes from plastic, paint that with acrylic, let it dry, then glue it down. At first I couldn't get the paint to stick to the surface, but I discovered a video that shows Milhazes actually holding the plastic. It looks like dropcloth, so I bought one at Home Depot. With the help of Elmer's Glue-All, it worked! (I can't show you; it's in the trash.) I hated the results! It looked like plastic tape, so shiny and fake! Milhazes doesn't like the mark of the brush or hand, but I do.

Thank you, Beatriz, for your guidance! I may return to our technique some day.
(I'll gladly go into more detail about the steps. Just ask me!)

I was working with these colors.

Series: I'm ready to have fun

Around here there are red dirt roads that wind into the countryside off the main highway. They seem lonely, but they lead somewhere. Maybe they are even more purposeful than the paved ways. I love them..

Lately I've been on a dusty, lonesome path of my own -- setting myself a clear goal, then following instead another way. I think I've arrived at my destination -- a series more compelling than the one I'd originally proposed. 

Surprise! I don't like to follow rules. If I have them, I tend to be slavish, which in art is self-defeating. Of necessity, a series imposes rules. That's why I've decided not to make a formal quilt series, even though several months back I convinced myself it would propel my artistic development. (You must have once promised yourself to do something "good" for you.) 

As you know, instead of quilting I've been painting in our shed

 and falling in love with Artists as I read their biographies: Agnes Martin, Picasso, Cy Twombly. They make me feel impossibly uncertain. You might call that an accidental series of flower paintings and another series of inspirational readings. But it's not what I intended. It's what I love. 

On the way to making a series of art quilts I've discovered I like to work intuitively. I want to make a mess.  I want layers, and I love moody. Words too.

So I'm promising to take myself lightly. To make drawings with thread and then paint them. To see where this goes.

Flower series 5: Happy heart

Happy heart
32" x 36"
paint and stitch

I love Happy Heart!

Of course, there was a moment when I wanted to throw her away (her??) That happens.

I like how my original small flowered heart transforms dramatically when enlarged. I copied the original onto a transparency and enlarged it. using the overhead projector that Maureen so kindly insisted I keep. (Sure does come in handy, Maureen! Thank you!)

I drew the lines in pencil on white Kona cotton, lightly so the pencil wouldn't show on the finished piece.

Then I sewed over the lines with black thread, using free-motion stitching. It was miserable! Even if I blasted light on the piece, I could barely see the lines. Then I used Mark-B-Gone, with trepidation. It's as blue as this quilt! It's hard to believe the color will wash out with cold water. I tested it first. Still I worried my piece would be ruined by blue. Probably everyone who uses the stuff feels the same way at first.
Before quilt-drawing I layered the Kona with felt and white duck. (Yes, purists, I confess I used spray adhesive. I love it!) The thing is, that felt is wool. I love wool felt.

After  the design was all stitched in black -- my machine was like a drawing tool -- I held my breath and ran cold water over the piece. I held it over the bathtub, and in a flash the blue ran down the drain. I sighed big time! 

Alas, too soon! 

Did you know that wool felt shrinks in a second?? 

My quilt was all scrunched up. Lots of people do this on purpose, but I did it by accident. Suddenly my quilt was very QUILTY. The design was bumpy, thanks to shrinkage. I was sad. 

Then I was happy. I love it the texture!

After that, painting.

This, too, was a delight. I expected to be bored to death, coloring within the lines of my flowers. But it was peaceful and fun.

It helped that I had made a dozen preliminary drawings, mixing paint and then trying out this and that combination. 

It still needs at least stitching around the edges. Maybe a simple facing. 

But I have a happy heart.

** Series note: You are right, Ellen! veering from guidelines is the definition of art. My series is far from what I'd envisioned. It turns out I'm exploring paint-related quilting techniques, doing what's fun rather than following the rules I'd set for myself. It's still about flowers, quilting, and color, with Beatriz Milhazes as my distant teacher. A series, it turns out, can be exploration. Boundaries are for leaping.

detail
Happy Heart

Art with fiber references at FSU Tallahassee International

Summer
Marie Bergstedt of San Francisco
2 pieces (52" x 16"  -- right --  and 40" x 12 1/2")
mixed media relief
(lots of buttons)

If you want a look at what's happening in art now, see the 29th Annual Tallahassee International juried competition at the FSU Museum of Fine Arts. There's work of artists from around the country and a couple from Canada, including video, amorphous sculpture, photography, painting, and more. A few works used fiber. Hurry, because it closes Oct. 5.

Summer, details
above and below

Adhesive Bandages
Elizabeth Mesa-Gaido of Morehead, Kentucky
10" x 20"
hand-dyed and folded organza hand-stitched to linen, digital photography and manipulated Cuban government document and heat-transfer printing

More Meow

Meow
11" x 14" mounted

I know you've seen this before, but I wanted to show you Meow at her best. I painted and stamped an 11" x 14" gallery-wrapped canvas in colors and shine that I think the kitty adores. I sewed the little quilt to thick strips of felt, and glued the felt to the canvas. That way the quilt itself can be removed easily, should anyone want to do that. I'll show you pictures of that process soon, because it's so obvious, yet I never thought of it. At that time I'll give credit to the person who gave me the idea. Because now I forget. (It's been a long day -- our air conditioner has been broken for three days, and we said it was fine but it wasn't really. The wonderful man with the coolant just left, so now the world is fine again.)

And below is the back -- rather messy but a triumph for me. You would not believe how much practice it takes to drill those hooks. With hanging wire attached and the sharp ends wrapped in masking tape, I think I've finally found a good way to make little works shine.

If you like my Meow, you can bid on her in the Quilters Unlimited silent auction at the Museum quilt show early this fall.

When it's in a frame it's art ... Do you agree?

The people at Sacred Threads led me to this video hinting at the healing power of quilts. I love the beautiful art, yes, but ... OK, I am warped ... what really catches my eye is the way they are displayed. In frames. And I've got to watch it again, but I think I saw a glint: they're glassed in!

I love the tactile quality of quilts. I think it is part of their power. You do not se El Anatsui's massive textural pieces under glass, and quilts shouldn't be trapped by glass either.

I like to consider ways to display quilts. I suppose it's a phase and will pass; I will settle on one or two ideal for me. Frames are great. It's the glass I hate.

New collages with Mistyfuse

This week I tried a collage technique from an Interweave blog. The method uses the lightweight, double-sided adhesive Mistyfuse instead of glue or gel medium. It leaves a slightly cloudy film on the finished piece, which is not necessarily bad. I like the way it faintly obscures type and gives a dreamy effect.

First, I cut up 140 lb. watercolor paper to sizes that fit my two bases of wood. That left some other smallish papers. Then you do this:

1. Cover the papers with watercolor paint and let it dry (above).

2. Arrange bits of fabric and paper on the watercolors (below).

3. Put a piece of Mistyfuse on top of that, covering the whole collage.

4. Top this with larger, more recognizable dominant forms. You can see that one of mine was houses.

5. Another was a kind of valentine (below). A third featured three gold spirals. 

6. Cover with another piece of Mistyfuse.

7. Top with parchment and iron gently. Flip over and iron on the other side. The Mistyfuse disappears, leaving a slightly cloudy film (below).

8. Finish with a frame.

Or use PVA glue to attach it to a wooden block base.

Or attach it to a card. 

Spiral detail

To bind, to face, perchance to Zigzag

How to finish this?

Once, at a craft fair in Asheville, NC, I visited a booth with vibrant abstract quilts. They were framed and under glass -- negating the sensual "touch me" quality I love about fiber art. "Why do you DO this to your gorgeous work?" I asked the artist. "I'd never sell them if they weren't framed," she told me. "That convinces people they are art."

I don't want to put my fiber art under glass, but I do want it to appear professional -- or, better -- beautiful. There are many ways to do this, and I'm looking for finishing techniques that work for me. As I develop my personal style, it becomes easier.

For now, I'll be finishing my art quilts like this:
1 with zigzag or straight stitch
2. mounted on a simple base quilt after edge-stitching
3. faced
4. unobtrusive binding

Here is a how-to using fused fabric binding from Cynthia St. Charles' blog, "Living and Dyeing Under the Big Sky." I like how she prints the binding to extend the quilt print. That way the binding doesn't stand out.

Laura Wasilowski has a slightly different method for fused binding.

New collages

I have made 3 collages in the past couple of weeks, and love the process. The results please me too. 

This is the beginning of one. Working quickly, I cut magazine pages, glued them randomly to 12" x 12" card stock, and stamped at random with a seashell design in black ink. I think I see a newspaper clipping in there too. I covered the entire square with more random clippings and shell stamps. Unfortunately, I do not yet have a photo of this one completed.

Another collage made with magazine cuttings and stamps -- this time stars stamped with acrylic paint.
By chance, the word Wishes is visible.
I mounted it on watercolor paper covered with black gesso.

Detail of Wishes

Detail of Wishes

This is the fabric collage that I showed earlier in its beginning stages.
It seemed just disconnected words and stamps and fabrics.
When I added in layers of tulle across the top third, it seemed finished. The line echoes
the William Powell Bridge leading to the Rickenbacker Causeway in Miami.
The words are from the first stanza of a poem I wrote about that bridge.
It begins "Arc in air."
Bridge, 16" x 20"

Detail of Bridge

Detail of Bridge

Collage on Wood Panel

What do you think about framing and displaying your work?
I am convinced that mounting work makes it look respectable, to the artist as well as prospective owners. And I do make my work to share and sell.

For a couple of years I've been taking notes on how I see art displayed.  I take photos of mounting methods whenever I see something new, and I've filled files and folders. Maybe now I can select a couple of ways that work for me, most of the time. Maybe my research will save you time. Here are two useful sites.

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer shows step-by-step How to mount a collage.

In this YouTube Jane Davies demonstrates a similar method. She does not decorate the sides of the wood panel, while Julie does. 

Fabric collage/ paper collage

I am loving collage, and I want to see how the paper techniques stretch to fabric. Here are the first steps of two separate collages -- a paper and paint piece with a Christmas theme, and a work that is mostly fabric continuing my interest in salt water.

Base

I have a base and cotton fabrics to cover it with.

Here are swaths of fabric, instead of paint. 

Words

For the paper collage I used black ink and a calligraphy pen. I wrote random Christmas words, including Peace, Cheer, Holiday...

For the fabric collage I wrote with black thread.  I've written the first stanza of a poem about the Rickenbacker Causeway Bridge. It begins, "Arc in air…"

Below, I've masked some of the paper in preparation for painting. In the next post I'll show the final, fun steps of the pair.