Sunday, November 08, 2009
November change & suprises
Saturday, November 07, 2009
new WIPS big & little
Add to that a whole flock of vintage damask napkins and table scarves found their way into the dyepots today. For now, there's a dozen or more mason jars flocked around the little heater in my living room sort of poaching. I promise not to get up in the night and start hatching them out. Dawn maybe.
Friday, November 06, 2009
Sesame Street
We didn't go overboard in the consumerizing department but Jake had the large talking Big Bird that came with a cassette player in it's belly and books that went along with the taped stories. His mouth and eyes would move as the story was told in his voice.Jake tired of those book tapes pretty quickly and we discovered that you could feed Big Bird any cassette tape. Strauss waltzes were a favorite and one Frank Sinatra tape would cause Big Bird to open his mouth wide and roll his eyes up in his head gruesomely. One day when Jake was about three I came upon him in the living room feeding Big Bird a bottle of Robitussin cough syrup. Jake had enough on his own face and clothes to make me call poison control. Big Bird was never quite the same.
Thursday, November 05, 2009
passing time (on the left)
In the studio, two new avenues of idea and action. Above, a large piece developing with the intent of mounting it to a canvas. On the left, a new piece of hand music giving thought to an empty space in my life right now.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
distracted
Without heart for much else, I have been cleaning and putting other things to work. I found some unused canvases and have started mounting smaller hand stitched pieces with acrylic medium, basically mummifying the fabric in plastic. Once dry, the textures are still there but the hand is gone. Hand? Given that we discourage people from touching the art was hand ever a consideration for this kind of piece? This is one of the Gray Grid series now up for sale at the Hand Music store
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
bereft
She started Firefly with me just after my birthday and she finished it with me curled in my lap on Sunday morning. I am sad beyond words.
To all the kind hearts who have offered encouragement, hope and prayers, I thank you. My thoughts wander back and forth between imagined horrors and the hope that she is doing what animals do - find seclusion, curl up and wait for whatever may be.
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Catch and Release
Thursday, October 29, 2009
October
The pomegranate was perfect.
Fall sneaks up you here in Georgia.
Here are my pet mosses growing in a crack out in the parking lot. I stopped and petted them the other day. I was going to up root the family and make an indoor desk garden but they seem to be thriving right where they are now so who am I to open up a Moss Guantanamo?
Sunday, October 25, 2009
re-purposing dead sweaters
Remember this poor wool sweater that I accidentally felted? (Note the bare, cold toes who are wondering how people can wear wool socks?) It was lying on the floor in the studio by my stitching chair and I just scooted my feet inside it just to see what all the fuss about wool footwear is. Amazing!
The sleeves from the sweater (which fell into a dyepot too) have been made into the toastiest, softest slippers and gotten a job as the photographers assistant. I couldn't wait to sew on the other eyes to show them off.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Lightning Bugs
This piece continues to amuse and entertain me. I hope I'll know when it's time to quit. There's a basket full of little things like this that I have worked to death.
Off to JoAnn's before my coupons expire!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Nurse Karma sez
...if you are feeling unwell, you must lie still and mend. No discussions. If you are in good health, Karma will not give you the time of day. She's too busy.
Jim if feeling symptoms of the same bug that's plagued me for a week or so. Nothing that rest and ginger ale won't fix. And cat attention.
a new scrap of time
Work continues on this scrap of time. It still pleases me. The base is one of a set of linen placemats scrounged from somewhere. I wish the other three had fallen into the same dyepot. Pale sisters, they await overdyeing. Maybe later today, my first day off since last monday but I still have PT in a few minutes. All that stuff may have come to nothing vis a vis the underlying problem. An MRI awaits.
I finally took a few minutes to go through the box Eleanor's sewing things that the SILs sent me (thank you girls). In it I found a set of hand drawn and cut templates about leaves. What kind of coincidence is it that I have making and drawing these shapes for some time. A few of you may have received fabric leaves in the mail. More will come, I'm sure. I have idle fantasies about a blanket made completely from leaves.
Monday, October 19, 2009
getting back to normal
Friday, October 16, 2009
a scrap of time
Sometimes all you have are scraps of time to gather your thoughts and get your bearings. To have a bit of cloth and thread to work with in those moments is very satisfying. I'm beginning to think that artists who prefer working with fabric are heeding the call of their lizard brain - the one that made us crazy when we couldn't find the blankie when we were two. Tactile input takes precedence over all the other senses when one is overwhelmed.
I've spent the week taking the hurdles necessary to take a chance on getting more of my work out into the public eye. It's getting deep around here. Now I sit with fingers crossed, prayers up to minor deities (who might not be busy with more pressing matters) and maybe a little roots work thrown into the mix.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
THAY SAY ITS YER BIRFDAY!!!
True to his perfect form, my GoodMan did the Vulcan mind meld on me and came up with the perfect gift - the thing I didn't know I wanted and that I would love. The initial packaging stymied me momentarily and I wound up exploding all the discs out onto the bed so I closed my eyes, groped the pile and came up with "Abbey Road" to accompany me over to the doctors office and back. What a great time! The terrific thing about this set is that the songs are presented in the original ALBUM order, so crucial to time travel, which is just what these disks will be doing for me. Abbey Road was released about two weeks before my 20th birthday. Hearing this today felt just like it did 40 years ago. Spectacular! Strange and wonderful. Something completely new and transformative. You could count on the Beatles for that.
I was thinking that music is one of those things that gets hooked into your past usually in association with people, or places and events. But for me, not the Beatles. From the time I first heard them, their music was mine personally . Not to be draped around some boy or drama. In fact, looking at the big picture of the impact this music had on my culture - the amazing things that could come from acting on creative genius the way these fellows lucked into - kept me at arms length from the kinds of societal traps that a lot of young women fell into back then. I just knew that amazing things were possible if you kept that notion in mind. I did and they were.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
strange days
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Shipping Frenzy
Instead of muttering about my lack of studio time I've decided to follow this cloth cartoon path and dig up an old sketchbook full of ideas that fit the slow and portable mode of stitching - stuff I can work on at stop lights -no texting while driving for me! I have sketches ready that went along with this post about a childhood prayer that most of us were taught, like it or not.
Here is one of the pieces that went to a new home this past weekend. I hope she enjoys it as much as we did.
Monday, October 05, 2009
Norcoss Art Fest 2009 - day 2
Good News! - Given the right venue and weather, the public is coming out to the shows and buying Art! I had a booth at The Historic Norcross Art Festival (Norcross Georgia) on sat & sun and it
was a very successful weekend. I won't put a toe into the debate between the imagined controversy between the Art and Crafts camp - this was a juried show and there was no controversy this weekend just great camaraderie between the vendors, amazing support by the organizers of the show lead by Frances Schube who could teach a master class on the proper organization and running of this kind of venue. Imagine volunteers there to help you set up and break down you booth. Volunteers wheeling around wagons of cold free bottles water. A hospitality center conveniently located for the artists with clean rest rooms, free breakfast on the first day and fruit snacks the rest of the show. Heaven!
I brought everything that was wasn't nailed down in my studio (this venue is only 15 minutes from my home) and I sold pieces that had become a part of my life. I had everything from fiber art postcards to my gallery pieces that lined the walls of my pop-up tent. I brought a few utility pieces and had great fun explaining that the smaller unframed pieces (the majority of my show) were not potholders or place mat but if you wanted a $25.00 pot holder, I was happy for you! Better than 50% of the crowd already knew unframed art when they saw it and were captivated by some of my older pieces in ways that made me look again at my own work with fresh eyes.
The booth was paid for by noon of the first day largely due to the amazing response to the affordably price fiber art postcards, hand dyed rayon scarves and the dyed, crocheted cusspots which I put out where the kids could fondle them first and lay off the rest of the stuff. People were drawn into my space by the sheer explosion of color I laid out for them. I let people know that A. I was a local and this was the only show I do each year and B. Everything that I brought with me would be available for sale at http://randomactsofdyeness.blogspot.com/ in the coming weeks. I have my work cut out for me making good on that promise.
All and all it was a very successful and satisfying weekend and I encourage everyone to take a shot at selling in person to a public who seems weary of being wary about buying anything. Retail therapy seems to be the order of the day for the American Economy but folks are looking for a new shopping horizon. Could it be your booth or website? Only if you get out there and wave your brave flag.
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Norcoss Art Fest 2009
One of my customers (who knew that the fabric postcards were art before they were postcards) bought a frame from another vender and came back to show me how great it looked. Thanks so much!
aI was flanked on both sides by glass artists so my booth was easily identified as family friendly - absolutely everyone who ducked in felt everything within reach, those who didn't wanted to and I encouraged them. I loved watching peoples faces as their gazes went from the postcards (my biggest sellers) to the crocheted cusspots (kids loved these) to the scarves, small art pieces and then to the pieces lining the walls. I saw a lot of looks of amazement. Seems like what I brought to this show was unique to most of the visitors experience.
I got to talk a lot about techniques. There is no tyedying or batik going on here.. This piece and Cellular Seizure drew people to them almost hypnotized.
Time to get ready for day 2!