In the Show!

There they are! I have five pieces in the World of Imagination Showopening March 6 at the APW Gallery in Long Island City, NY. It feels good to have something out there where folks beside my cats can look at it. It may look like a cattle call but..MooOOO!...I'm fine with a great, brawling art event.

sea change

The B&W versions were all composed and assembled (if not finished) at the office but last night, as I poked through the scrap bag, the Crayon People took me over and color just had to have it's way. I've been hand stitching on the color one this morning. The sun streams into my studio right over my shoulder, Jinx and I share the sewing chair, enjoy CBS Sunday Morning and a second cup of coffee and lots gets accomplished. I've decided that I'm going to finish these four pieces by mounting them on canvas and then mummifying the fabric with a thick soaking of clear acrylic medium. I've done this before with smaller pieces and I like the outcome. Of course, the hand of the fabric is lost but that's not an issue with this sort of piece anyway.

steeping

For the first time in ages I am dwelling on my work. It's a total luxury to be able to have it with me at all while I'm at the office. I pin the piece up on the wall of my cube and just look at while I'm taking calls and think about what's going on with it. Then, between calls, I can cut, adjust and stitch, slowly. thoughtfully. only this time I'm not thinking all that much about process or technique. With this kind of time on my hands what could be simpler than honoring the grid and attending to good design elements, each one a wayward and willful sheep? I'm thinking about the cloth and the spirits in it as if possessed. The ground, of course, these antique damask tablecloths that I have rescued from rag bags and dyed, are each full of mystery and history. They came to me mostly white but I feel as if the colors that I have given them reflect something of the character of their lives and service. Some are worn through in places, evidence of what? Years of happy Sunday family gatherings? Years of straight laced enslavement to social requirements? Was this tablecloth washed, ironed, folded and fussed over by a young, Irish immigrant girl brought to New England as an indentured servant before the turn of the century? Did this tablecloth cost more than her family could earn in a year? Did her heart ache as she stood back and watched dinner guests spill wine and gravy on it without a thought? The grid elements are refugees too, all snips and bits taken from here and there. The black here is a messy-when-cut expensive linen taken from a pair of designer label slacks that were incredibly a size 2. Not much fabric here. Each piece of cloth I'm handling is speaking to me of it's origin, it's use, it's history. I hope the finished pieces will convey the fabric's wishes as much as my own.

juicy days

Yesterday was a fine day in the mines! They's choking at Chucky's, puking at PF's and boffing in the bathrooms at El Toadies. (The names are all changed to protect the guilty, of course) . I may never eat out again! All this goes on and on and I get to be the electronic priestess listening, nodding, murmuring agreements and keying it all into the void and all the while struggling to keep a straight face and not bust out howling with laughter. I'm sorry but tales of guests stabbing one another with forks for dibs on the waitress is right up there with Craig Ferguson's best stuff. If you can stay up that late, you deserve giggle fits. I kept my self-promise to wallow more in the music and wore my Ipod headphones on the drive over to the office (arrest me) and got a great dose of Box Scaggs and John Mayer, both live. Add a dash of Joni Mitchell and for dessert, some Sting. Music like that makes me miss a longer commute. Things were slow when I got there - the river of Whining was running slow as sludge so I was able to get a new small piece of hand work underway and it's developing in a very satisfying way. If you've ever worked in a cube farm you know how it can be very self-contained and isolating but I've chosen a seat in a corner lot that no one else seems to want, the southern light filters through pines and a wall of glass over my right shoulder. It's not like working in a dungeon when I can sit there. It's interesting working on a piece when you are sitting on the corner of Main and Exit. Folks pass by, watch for a moment. Not the place or time for discussion but I can tell they are wondering what I am up to. With a tip of my pointy hat, I'll call it "jude scratchin'#1". Until I can work arms thrown wide again, I'll have this personal investigation into the nature of cloth, the grid, of course, and the spaces left where the warp and weft do their dance. So's not to rush a good thing, I set it aside at the stall point and started a new book."The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy that appears to have been written with the artist's eye in mind. Just wonderful visuals at every turn and I've hardly gotten to know the players. This day has been a feast for the senses. Not bad for a cube rat.

camera woes

There was a lovely box of inspiration on the doorstep this morning including some lightweight cottons bound for the dyepots as soon as it gets warm enough. I was inspired to root around in the studio and start rounding up everything and anything that will take color and found quite a pile! Now all I have to do is grind my teeth and wait a month or two. I mounted "Alligator Dream #1" on a 9"x12" canvas and finally got this one trued up and stitched down tight but spent two wasted sessions trying to get it and few others photographed. I'm going to take my CanonA95 someplace and have it cleaned or whatever can be done for an aging and well-used digital camera that is just not doing what it used to do. I wasted another hour online looking at what's new and reasonably price in the way of digital cameras but looks like I'll have to go back to school to catch up on all the latest jargon since '05 when I bought the one I've got now. All suggestions, reviews and wisdom are welcome.

brewing

With the clock ticking I was able to cobble together this little flag yesterday. Must be the anticipation of the weekend spurring me on. There were lulls between calls last night and some notions actually made it into the sketchbook. I'll have to force myself to drag them out of it this time. Good ideas have been few and far between for me lately. Winter blahs without any snow or ice are insidious. One thing I'm sure of...I have to bring music back into the studio. TV is beginning to sicken me. In the break room at my job there is a set that seems locked onto CNN with the volume set at impending disaster level. There seems to be no relief from the perfect idiocy of most of the human race. I am absolutely sure that good, purposeful people everywhere who are working to help or make a difference come home from work, kick off their shoes and yell "you STUPID @!*&$!!" at the ceiling. Then, I hope they can have a dish of ice cream, smile and get a good night's rest before starting all over again the next day. ADDENDUM ((beeep)) " Thank you for calling the Common Sense Hotline. I am not a doctor or a lawyer but I wasn't born yesteday and I have been paying attention...what is your issue?"

new cards

I finally took the time and money to order some new business cards. Graphic design is not like riding a bicycle. If the analogy was true, I'd be dead in the street about now. I decided I wanted more art and less information and this snip from "Up on Wheels" and all of "Hopped Up" remind me what I like best about what I do with fabric dye and paint.

Yes! Spring!

Can't you just hear him complaining about my dirty, empty birdbath? ( A word of warning about the sound link above - two of my cats rushed the monitor and speakers!) This charming fellow is one of Nellie Durand's fabulous creations. And for a little more delight for your day, try here: http://www.adobecards.com/ Thank you, Tristan!

Spring?

What a great combination - the Ace of Cups and a nearly full moon. After what seems like weeks in the deep freeze, the house is open to a blazing sunny day that may see 65 degrees. Eastern Bluebirds are everywhere here, on their way to someplace else but chowing down on whatever they can find while they are here. I stitched on this through the first four new episodes of LOST yesterday. Finally I've starting to cast about for a new direction for some large work. Makes you wonder if being able to stand up straight without shivering figures into creative output. Supplies are low and I'll have to scrounge for stuff but what else is new in the life of an artist? I'll bet batting is 50% off in JoAnns any minute now. And Jinx know what to do with a scrap of batting in a sunny patch on the sewing table.

handwork

A little hand music maybe but I doubt there will be time tonight. We suddenly busy and I'm in the middle of two good books. Reviews when I get a minute. Hail Friday! Last night I found out that I can sign up for Weeks off from work (without pay of course) but still... how civilized!

Scootch closer and hunker down to

"Tales From the Cube-a-torium" ...."Your race please?..... ...What?..... 5K, 10K?....What ? training? ...No, no. I mean, who are your people? I mean.... ...The Dinwiddies of East Toadholler?? No, no I mean your ETHNICITY. ...No, no, I don't need to know about your bedroom doings, I need your ETHNICITY... you know, what COLOR you are. " ....No Ma'am, Summer is not an option here. Are you white? ....Ma'am I'm sorry about the tanning salon incident but can we... ....No ma'am "drowned China man" is not on the list. Are you Caucasian? ....No, not your religious persuasion, I don't need to know about pagan rites and such, I just need to know if you are African American, Hispanic, white, brown ...you know, RACE? ....thank you Ma'am. I'll include your suggestion to the people who write the questions. No, Ma'am. I don't think it's unreasonable to offer Extraterrestrial as an option but for right now...." OK....so it was funnier in person and late at night. Try this