oldies

One of the fun things about visiting with distant families is getting into their hoard of old photos. Now that I've scanned these, I promise to get them on their way back to you Rob. They are my Dad's parents, Charles Useted Sr. and Nellie Farrington Useted. If I have any art genes, they come from Gramma. She's the one who put the embroidery hoop in my hands and set me to bordering her entire closet full of pillowcases with cross stitching just to keep me out of her hair (and her sewing basket). Here's my Mom and Dad back in the Swinging Sixties I think. I was in high school when my Dad came to me and asked me for a recommendation on a "cool" place to go to in "THE VILLAGE". He meant Greenwich Village in Manhattan of course. I used to get on the train and be a tourist in the city so he thought I knew what was happening. I did not. So I innocently picked up a copy of the East Village Other and found an ad for a joint featuring someone named Tiny Tim. The add looked innocuous enough so I made my recommendation. I can still see my Dad all decked out in his Fair Isle sweater and loafers. Boy, did I hear about that adventure the next day! I'm fairly sure I know this fat little unhappy camper. They told me I could swim before I could walk because I was so chubby. Cousins, help me out here...do you recognize this baby? Ten bucks its Rosie behind the camera and me reaching for her with complaint, as usual. Mom was a dish. Kitty looks just like her.

the red Moon brings revelations

Sometimes vacations allow time for contemplation. This time out, there was little time but lots of good feedback from new sources on all manner of subjects. Did I mention that I don't get out much? For now, I will be concentrating on surface design. There's just too much blank raw materials in the world. The art will come back when it's good and ready. This is a scrap of silk about a foot long that's been worked with inks and alcohol. Kara and I found a 100% silk skirt at a thrift shop in Chappaqua. Off white, mid calf length and deeply pleated - I calculate close to three yards of exquisite fabric. Several embroidered antique pillow cases, sheets and some gauze-like woven silk dresser scarves bought for a song and a smile are coming parcel post. Also concluded - I have to take charge of my health before another moment passes. I canceled a trip to MOMA because I knew that by noon I would be needing an ambulance to get home. or a hearse. To friends and family who voiced concern over this last remark. Sorry to alarm you all.It's nothing new or exciting but it is the first (and last) time that my weight + my age has gotten in the way of my will. Can't have this crap happen again!

home

It was a great visit but I'm very glad to be back home. This was waiting for me out on the deck. And this guy was on the doorstep the night before I left New York giving me a sendoff. Some toughguy. I found a wiping rag stuck to the bottom of the studio sink and organized it a bit with markers and alcohol.

new friends & family

It's been great to meet and get to know new family members. This is Kara and Dallas.Can you tell Dallas and I are related? Here's my sister Kitty and her buddy Joe. When we got to the Stormville flea market I gave them a quick tutorial on what kind of vintage fabrics I was looking for and they scored big! Better yet, they are going to keep eyes out for my raw materials as they shop till they drop (a regular thing I'm told) in the future.

Finally, a break in the grisly weather if not some sunshine! There's been some stitching going on. Here's the start of another summer fling. This time I chose a hard road - for the first time all the applique work will be all hand dyed damasks. As pesky as it is to needleturn, the weight and drape of the results will be worth the trouble. My brother is preparing the traditional Useted family birthday cake for my sister Pat. It's an icebox cake made from chocolate wafer cookies stuck together with whipped cream. The Katonah Thrift shop is having a big sale (all you can cram into a bag for 1$!) and then it's off to Somers Manor to visit with Mom for while.

vacation post

túrána hott kurdís by hasta la otra méxico! from Till Credner on Vimeo.

packing post

I'm supposed to be packing but I have been watching reruns of Buehrle's ninth inning. Just wonderful! Stumbled across this total gem titled

"Historic, Vintage & Reproduction Home Decorating Fabrics: A Musically & Otherwise Punctuated Glossary of Textile Terms"

Do not pass on some of the vintage rock & roll music videos scattered along the way!

gasp! some art for a change.

I've put the last of the hand stitching into Gates of Grace and I'm happy, for once, at how the machine stitching and hand work came together this time. Usually, it's an all or nothing proposition for me. Now I have to give some thought about backing and finishing the edge. I was going to mount this one on a canvas but handling it all this time has given me second thoughts. I don't even want to iron it because I don't want to lose the dimensional quality it's come by from layering six or more separate pieces of fabric. There is a discussion going on the SAQA list at the moment about quilts that suffer from the wavies looking unprofessional. I disagree. No one asked me but when I've seen pieces like that on exhibition I'm reminded in a nice way that a.these are quilts and, b. these are pieces of art made from cloth and, c.beating cloth into two dimensional submission is not part of what I'm looking for in fiber art, mine or anyone Else's. You can block a piece until the cows take up the bagpipes but temperature, humidity and handling are going to have their way with textile to some degree unless you mummify it with plastic or nail it down to canvas and wood. It's just cloth being true to it's reason for being. It was originally designed to live, breath, flex and conform to a three dimensional purpose. I like to let it be once I'm done fooling with it. addendum - see the side bar for two auspicious and delicious cards I pulled to contemplate this day.

Reaching back and reaching out

Stumbled across yet another online marketing opportunity this morning and spent a little time rummaging through old files to post these images where someone else might see them. At least I know for sure where this one is physically. See more online here at ArtBreak "Giraffe Crossing Against the Light" (145 x 87 cm)

SAQA Benefit Auction

I donated "Food Chain #3" to the SAQA Benefit Auction 2009 One Foot Squares. The Auction will begin Thursday, September 10th, 2009

dippin'

I took the cure for (everything) a few hours this morning and then spent several more hours picking out a load of injudicious machine stitching from this piece which was buried in the slush pile of unfinished business. I've decided that Glyphs needs hand stitching. What kind and how much I have no clue as yet. There will probably be a lot of stitching, picking out and stitching again as I feel my way.

Step One

A good friend sent me this artistic lifeline in response to my sulking. "The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts." Marcus Aurelius Go on, repeat it three or four times. Have you ever been riding a good horse who suddenly shifted up into a canter without your inept urging as if to say "This is how it's done." Even the rhythm is thrilling.

blog vacation

Continuing the break here until my Eyes, My Hands and my Art Heart remember how to get along together again. No point in throwing good raw materials in the crapper. For the moment picture three willful children standing in the corner pouting, unrepentant and perfectly willing to eat worms until they all get their way.

Moon Chasing.

When I left the office last night I realized that I have been spending too much time looking down. Putting one foot in front of the other and just barely getting there.

I need to go someplace (else) and stare into a brook or up into some trees for a while and see what else is putting one foot in front of the other trying to get by.

There was a great big leopard frog sitting on the doorstep of the office the other evening. He was working the bugs that were flocking to the lamp post. He gave me a disgusted look and scooted away when I stepped outside. Smart and handsome fellow he was. Of course my camera was at home. These are pictures taken in traffic. I really was watching the road.

Market Day

I've spent the morning photographing and posting another half dozen of my recent hand dyes to Random Acts of Dyeness. Now all I have to do is keep my hands off them for a while, you know, give other folks a chance.

old paths, new stones

My moods revolve, never swoop, between swashbuckling exuberance and a 1000-yard stare at the state of all things. For the moment, I'm staring and savoring. Jim has gone back to work full time so no more of that coddling the artist nonsense - I will be shopping, cooking and cleaning with the rest of the working world and doing it with a joyful heart but spooked that I won't ever do it as well as he did. And now I've stumbled on yet another way of making a statement with fabric and color. In this instance, that statement is more of a hissed intimation or mumbled prayer. These are stains that fell out as a byproduct of my Sharpie & alcohol experiments. Fey and fierce at the same time, I'm giving them a new context on a new summer fling. I'll be traveling soon and want to have a heady hand project to take along. This will more than fit the bill.

Happy 4th of July

My 4th of July needed more than just red, white and blue. I'm particularly pleased with the results because I already have a plan for these pieces. No surprises, no new techniques, no serendipity. Just exactly what I needed, when I needed it. Who could ask for more? All this and family, a pool, roasted corn, fresh strawberries over pound cake and fireworks over the neighborhood (like it or not) as night falls.

"VERITAS"

...I saw that tattooed on a guy's forearm in the grocery store this morning. He caught me looking and I didn't hang around to see what was on the other arm. Has anyone actually read the entire Declaration of Independence lately? Ever? I confess, no, but this morning on NPR it was read aloud in what has become an annual tradition. I was captivated by the dense but precise language and after a long list of grievances, (there was a lot to kick about) it was the wrap up that really grabbed my attention back : "...And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor." Stunning. We have got to get back to that garden

new thinking about worth

A new approach to marketing and pricing.

little bits and barter (image updated)

File under "things you will find when shoveling out the studio". This little (10x10) grid play started with a piece of that strange, dense cotton batting that was too heavy and dense to go inside even a small piece. It took dye wonderfully and I have another half dozen in various colors. I was whining to the QA Choir yesterday (lesson learned, btw) about the time and energy that marketing ones art takes these days and wondering about the state of Barter in the fiber art world. Tell me about your experiences if you've had any, good or bad.

While the cicada are chewing the air

strange skies

When I got out of work last night the sky had just passed over into indigo and the crescent moon was a fuzzy pink color. Passing strange. While no one was looking, a flock of cusspots got color out on the deck.

the trouble in new techniques...

...is not getting carried away with the doing of the thing and not thinking about ways to integrate it into the real work of art, the intent and the design of a piece. There's some debate about whether this stuff is light fast enough to bother with, much less incorporate in any kind of art so I'm going to put some of these pieces out in the sun to bake with tape on them just to see what gets lost over a set period of time. Anyone recognize my failed batik attempt? The fade and glow reminds me a lot of the doodles I used to do in art school using Dr.Ph. Martins superdooper intense watercolor concentrates. The stuff cost like blood but I had a mess of them and used them too excess at every opportunity. Hey, it was the 60's!

doodling dots

Karma Approved Work. I know I missed doodle wednesday - I was waiting on 20 minutes to work with a new technique. The results make me think of encaustic - something that's always drawn my eye. Here we have encaustic in cloth. sort of. Actually, it's Sharpies treated with rubbing alcohol. ...a whole new alphabet of color and ways to fling it about.

dotz

Just waiting on the moon, I guess. Before the dotz these cloths were sad. Now they are humming with life. Stone Roses too.

hand dyes for sale

Many of the pieces I made this weekend were big enough for me to take a chunk for myself and put the rest up for sale here: I'll be posting more pieces as soon as I can. There's enough good stuff to share. If you are only interested in 1/2 of a piece we can work it out.

Summer Solstice Dye Fest & Father's Day Feast

I am in the home stretch of a two day dyeing extravaganza only slightly relieved by a short stint at the local ER. The last of almost about 40 individual pieces averaging 3/4 yards and up are rolling around in the dryer right now. The color mood was generally restrained - I think the age of the dye powder is beginning to show especially because I have not been able to keep them in a cool place. Things ranges from midnight moodiness to the sublime and quite a few ridiculous. All and all I'm quite satisfied. It really was too hot to be working midday on Saturday but I pressed on brain baked and a good portion of those pieces went back in the vats or under the Softscrub on Sunday. Oh yeah, Saturday evening I took my son Jake to the emergency room to have an abscessed insect bite on his forearm lanced before it got a moments worse. He'll be fine. There are at least a full dozen new Sugar Dyes in colorways ranging from emerald forest to desert sands. You can see the pattern woven into the damask in this picture. I was actually ironing this stuff in the heat. If I seem a little possessed it's because I will have very little time for this kind of fun in the future - my Beloved, father of my finest creations, my chef, my personal shopper and all the kitchen cleaning elves are leaving - Jim has been called back to his real job!! The boys came by today to spend some time with their Dad, eat some food and do some laundry. It was a wonderful day.

Measures of Pleasure

I did some more machine stitching on this with a dark, metallic thread to help define the layers a bit. The handwork I have planned may or may not work - it will be easy enough to pick out if I change my mind. I'm thinking this could be a small study for bigger things hinged on the same techniques. Don't you find that things that are a pleasure to work on turn out well more often than the things that fight and struggle and balk you along the way? And sometimes, no matter what you do, a wishpot will just go bad to the bone.