Dream Fruits

Does anyone else out there every spend the whole night dreaming through the details and possibilities of a new design or technique? The busy box corner of my brain was running on high test the other night to the point where I was still thinking things through when I woke up and wrote it all down in my poor mutilated Moleskine (I left it out in the rain the other day). Browsing through Melissa's blog on dyeing, I was intrigued with the way she used those polished black river rocks to weigh the fabric down into the dye. Combine this image with a rerun of Ken Burns "the Civil War" running on the TV all night and I decided (in my sleep of course) that polished river rocks would make a good dye resist if something soft was place under the fabric to be dyed. Jim stopped at Garden ridge on his way home from work and bought me a selection of stones so today I broke out the dyebox for a trial run of my technique. I folded a large piece of flannel and a large piece of cotton broadcloth (that are usually extra padding on my ironing board) to act as a soft mat but the fabric that I used with the rocks turned out to be a blend that didn't take the dye! It was a mess BUT the flannel & broadcloth soaked up dye like crazy....I discharged them with Cascade in the same crazed mola moves I used for Mopery and I am just thrilled with the results...sometimes dreams do pay off in a cockeyed way. The flannel is at the top of this post and here's the broadcloth which was actually two pieces seamed together.

What Music??

Here's a playlist. Mostly I listen to the streaming archives of Idiot's Delight hosted by someone who has been doing freeform radio since I was in high school. I'm still listening Vin. This was a show from Nov.12, 2005. It's on the air live every Saturday night from 8 to 11 at www.wfuv.org but more often than not I'm nipping away at the archives. Vin plays the old, the new, the mad and the magical. Sweet surprises at every turn and listening to a New York City radio station keeps the occasional homesickness at bay. Artie Shaw - Stardust - Greatest Hits - Fred Astaire - Change Partners - Starring Fred Astaire Mabel Mercer - So In Love Jimmy Scott - I'll Be Around Paul Desmond - Autumn Leaves Strays Don't Sleep - For Blue Skies Winterpills - Laughing - Strays Don't Sleep - Love Don't Owe You Anything Frank Sinatra - More Than You Know Dexter Gordon - Serenade In Blue Dave's True Story - Just Like A Woman Blossom Dearie - I Wish You Love - Kate Bush - How To Be Invisible John Coltrane Quartet - My Favorite Things John Lennon - Gimme Some Truth Neil Diamond - I'm On To You Gary Burton - Cool Nights Doveman - Cities - The Acrobat James Carter - Take The A Train The Fiery Furnaces - The Garfield El Duke Ellington And Johnny Hodges - Weary Blues - Hank Williams - Weary Blues From Waitin' - Paul Kelly & The Stormwater Boys - Ghost Town - Whiskeytown - Dancing With The Women At The Bar - The Mendoza Line - Settle Down, Zelda - Will Kimbrough - I Lie Because I Can - Howard McGhee Sextet - Up In Dodo's Room - Stan Getz - East Of The Sun (and West of The Moon) Ronnie Spector - She Talks To Rainbows - JC Hopkins Biggish Band - Underneath A Brooklyn Moon - Nat King Cole - Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup - 10 CC - Une Nuit A Paris - The Original Soundtrack 10 CC - I'm Not In Love - The Original Soundtrack Ben Folds Five - Fair - Whatever and Ever Amen Bob Dylan - Most Of The Time - Jud Newcomb - Damaged Goods -

"Gravity"

Don't you just love to see someone completely in love with their art? It makes me weak in the knees . Take ten to watch and listen to this

something hatching

These fabrics have been hanging on the wall for months now ( I had to give them a tumble in the dryer for the dust) . Now that the four new pieces are well and truly finished, I sat down with the scissors and started finding things of interest here. It gave my midwinter cranky heart a lift to be slashing away. Once cut up, more fun was had arranging all the parts. I spent most of the afternoon just moving things around like I was playing chess with an imaginary friend. It wasn't going well until I turned off the TV and put on some music. Then it became a dance. The gray ground is a piece of antique cotton damask from Narragansett, the blues are hand dyed and commercial discharged cottons, the orange one of my favorite commercial prints and the "eyes" are discharged and painted Kona cotton. I don't know how much stitching there will be here once the elements are nailed down but I'm leaning towards some hard contrasting colors with the thread. Early yesterday I also got an entry off to my first mixed media show, "Abstractions, Color & Texture" at the Aurora Colors Glass Art Gallery in CA. When I read the name of the upcoming exhibition I just had to enter as it perfectly describes what I have been up to for about a year now. I have to thank Michelle Verbeeck for expanding her online call for entry listings to include mixed media shows; it's the way I want to go rather than staying in the strictly quilt exhibit world. We'll see what happens. When I was filling out the entry form on the "media" line I simply put "textile" and then spent some time puzzling over the fact that they did not require detail shots. DOH! It's Not a Quilt Show! Oh happy day.

PROductivity

This was the first Gorgeous, four-star day we've had in the longest time and I took full advantage. Lookit that blue sky! As soon as the sun was over the yardarm, I dragged the four newest pieces outside for digital pics. All this after doing a mess of laundry and dirty dishes. Didn't want the board of health nailing a notice up on the front door so I had to get that stuff out of the way first. Got the Gallery all updated including "back" links for the navigationally challenged AND got the start of something new and quirky up on the design wall. Maybe some pictures of that tomorrow.

New & Finished

"Cellular Seizure" 43x49 We hung it on the design wall in the bedroom last night and it's been so long since I started it that I couldn't recognize the starting orientation until Colin spun it a few times and Jim stated his opinion. I had spent so much time with my nose six inches from the surface that I forgot where I started and when it was pointed out to me, it was like..."oh yeah, I remember that". Not a good way to work but the results are growing on me even though my feelings of "tightness and overworked" were on this like a bad smell even before it was stitched or painted. I just stayed with a uncomfortable path for some reason. Metallic paint is an absolute bitch to photograph so this shot may be wishful thinking. The sun is shining bright today for the first time in a week and just maybe I'll be able to muster enough energy to drag this outdoors for better pictures. In fact I have four major pieces to shoot and get ready for a show I want to enter.

She Hears Voices

I don't. I've been rooting around in the studio making preliminary guesses about what I'm going to be taking down to Focus On Fiber in March and came across this in the UFO bin. This piece came from my last trip to ACA almost two years ago. It still bothers me even though I painted over the grisly print background fabric I started with. I think I'll hang it on the outside of my studio door so people will know not to come in.

Yes, yes, bowing and scraping my hair in the mud, I sold two pieces last month and I am still pinching myself. That's a story for another day. My main interest in grabbing this screenshot was the hit counter. How much more possessed can I get without committing to some bad tattoos? And here's what this New Moon in Capricorn is good for according to Lisa Miller : "This is the best New Moon for setting goals, initiating projects, and making a serious commitment to achieve." But does it get any better than last month? I insist! I have qualms but now that I look at the word, I have decided that qualms are small mossy growths around the rim of over watered houseplants, nothing to fear. And like JM says, "fear is a friend who's misunderstood".

Painted Trouble

This 10"x 10" canvas is the first painting I have finished in more years than I can remember. At least 25 - I recall doing some murals in the nursery way back when. It was just a matter of time before I started moving off the cloth and onto the canvas. While rooting around in the stuff I found a sketchbook about three years old and the intent at the time was sketches for fiber work. Only a very few came into being and they were unsatisfying. I spent some time reviewing the pen and ink sketches and then started this small panel. It clearly related to the fiber work I'm doing at the moment and it could be a study for a larger fiber piece.

Fiber Outing

Jan Thompson and I went to an organizational meeting of the Georgia members of the Surface Design Association held by Sharon Ahmed at Fiber On A Whim over in Sandy Springs. It was an interesting gathering with the first admirable goal of finding a venue for a group exhibit. Any local surface designers interested in attending the next meeting should email Sharon Ahmed for details. Then, we all scampered upstairs to SHOP! I snatched up this little chunk of dark print which I promptly attacked with dishwasher gel while I was getting dinner ready. Before it was dry I painted it too. Tasty but now on the back burner. In case any of you are into the End Times you can interpret this anyway you like. It's either about to be Armageddon or Peace on Earth: Voodoo, Karma & Jinx