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While doing the “big clean” — my delusion of some order in my life — I found myself looking at some encaustic pieces I did a couple years ago.  These pieces incorporate a mixture of waxes (beeswax, parafix, and soy wax, which tends to give me a headache) with acrylic paints and various other bits like netting and string and digital prints.  I had taken a workshop and, a result of it, loaded up on various supplies so that I could experiment.  Working with encaustics is a great way to blend various media into lots of layers and textures — something I’m very drawn to and yet feel I don’t have enough of in my work.

Here’s a close-up showing more of the texture.

And a bit closer still.

I’ve also been in the sketchbook mood lately.  While flipping through the pages of what I’ve done these past couple months, I stopped at this page when seeing the relationship between the strong vertical lines in this watercolor/gouache sketch with the earlier painting.   If it were allowed, I’d post an image of the quilt I’m frantically working to finish for entry into the upcoming Visions show.  It, too, is right up this alley — verticals, layers, mood.

Here’s a different piece.

And another. This one includes a digital print.  I really like playing with wax on digital prints; fun stuff.

My journals have various notes — try this, try that; add more texture; work in ghost imagery, incorporate obvious line.  It’s good going through older journals, comparing the ideas then with what I am doing now.  It seems there is something to writing these things down.  It’s possible the ideas do seep in and eventually flow into new work.  I’ve notes on putting wax onto digital prints on fabric, rather than only on various types of papers.  One of these days!

If you’re interested in encaustic work. here are two books that will get you started:
Encaustic Workshop: Artistic Techniques for Working with Wax, by Patricia B. Seggebrush; and
The Art of Encaustic Painting: Contemporary Expression in the Ancient Medium of Pigmented Wax, by Joanne Mattera.

London Dreaming

Cay Denise wrote me regarding a poem she wrote inspired by my “London Dreaming” piece, a digital collage and small textile wallhanging I created a few years back.  She gave me permission to post it here.  Please keep in mind that it’s her work, and please don’t use her work without her permission.  If you need to contact her, please do so here.

EMBOLDENED

Momentum
sweeps us
towards the fractals of our future…
…clouded
by an inability
to time travel the distance.

Propelled forward…
…we write our history by
the last footstep
on the path taken
of the paths not taken
where our actions and inactions
our words and
our works
make meaning of us.

A step is a mighty bridge,
from the land of what we were
to that of what we will become.
With each one
a version of us,
blooming with memory,
time and place,
creates a sculpted depiction
of that moment…forever.

Buried in future’s tombs
statues of our choices.
Some gilded… others,
ghosts of guilt,
unlived pleasures
unforgiven pains…
…haunting the histories we live with
and the origin of our next journey.

So, with every beginning
consider each step anew.
For the bridge
can take you anywhere
and be the becoming
you wish to step in to.

By CDMacKenzie 3/26/2006 (in collaboration and based on ‘London Dreaming’ digital collage by Gloria Hansen)

"Petite Woman 2" by Susan Schrott

Susan Schrott made me this gorgeous quilt as a birthday gift!  It came as a total surprise, and I am overwhelmed by her generosity.  Wow!  The photo doesn’t do it justice.

Susan tells me that she made it using a photo transfer of a drawing she did, putting it onto fabric she painted and bordered with Swarovski crystals.  She also made the yellow fabric about a year ago by leaving painted cotton fabric to dry in the sun after she scattered it with leaves.  It’s free motion machine quilted with cotton and metallic threads.   Susan has more information on how she made the quilt on her blog.  You can read more about it here.  :)

"the little book" by Laura Cater-Woods

Laura Cater-Woods makes these fantastic “little books” that she sells on her website here, and she surprised me with one!  It’s a soothing book that has an original cover and includes quotes, photos, and other stuff to inspire you.  There are index tabs within the book so you can rearrange the items or add to them.  Peaking out from under the book is the face of the hand-painted card Laura included with the book.

The very first quote I read was: “Self indulgence in the service of art: highly recommended.  Feed your Muse!”  Sounds like a plan to me!

I thank you both for your generosity.

Transformations 2009: Reflections - exhibit catalog cover

I am one of the 34 artists with work juried into the Transformations 2009: Reflections show.  It premiered at the Festival of Quilts show in Birmingham, UK.  I am very honored to have my quilt, Witley Decay 1, on the cover of the  exhibit catalog.

The exhibit will next travel to:

• Guilford Art Center in Guilford, Connecticut: November 13 – January 3, 2010;
• Alaska Fiber Festival: March 5-14, 2010;
• Grants Pass Museum, Grants Pass, Oregon: June-July 2010;
• Visions Gallery, San Diego, California: August 6 – October 10, 2010

You can see the full quilt above.

"On the Edge"

While I want to post more pictures from the Festival of Quilts show, I thought I’d instead post my journal quilt from the Journal Quilt Project II: Elements—Earth, Water, Air, and Fire exhibit, which just arrived home.  The quilt is 17×22 inches and was seen in the Fall 2008 International Quilt Festival show in Houston, the 2009 show in Chicago, Illinois, and the 2009 show in Long Beach, California.  The 2008 show was different than the journal quilt project shows  in the past. It was one 17×22 inch piece to represent a theme, rather than a series of 8.5×11 inch pieces without a theme.  Additionally, the quilts were juried.

My piece is called “On the Edge.”  The inspiration for this quilt came from a photograph I took at St. James Park in London, England.

You can see my quilts from past exhibits here.  Give it a moment to load.  It’s a Flash-based gallery which at the time seemed a good idea, but which now tends to bug me as it takes a while to load (so much for that idea!).

close-up

Each year the Festival of Quilts show held in Birmingham, UK features a “virtual studio” – a large wet studio where various types of complex cloth are created.  This year Claire Benn, Leslie Morgan, Linda Maynard, Claudia Helmer, and Elaine Griffiths worked using four main processes.  The only thing better would have been the addition of Jane Dunnewold.  Her presence was there, in spirit,  as co-author of some of the books being sold.

Demonstrations included breakdown printing, which is a way of using a silkscreen (or silkscreens)  and Procion MX dyes to create patterned cloth.  Paper lamination, which uses photographic imagery and/or newsprint with matte medium to create design on sheer polyester fabric.  Screen printing and tray & bucket dyeing.

The above images show a long piece of sheer polyester over several photocopied black/white images — a “paper lamination” in process.  We were told that the cheaper the paper used to copy onto, the better.  The screens have a design on it – this can be a temporary design or a permanent screen, whatever your preference.  Matte medium (she was using Liquitex) is then squeegeed through the screen.  After the entire cloth is thoroughly dried, the paper is washed out.  More information about this process is in the book, “Paper & Metal Leaf Lamination,” which you can get in the US through Jane Dunnewold or in the UK through Committed to Cloth.

Various improvisational screens for printing.

I love looking at art journals, especially when they are crammed with clippings, samples, notes, ideas, and the like. The above journal  filled to the brim with various discharging samples and notes.

The point of the Virtual Studio is to expose people to different methods of creating patterened cloth.  It’s part of the Festival of Quilts show, meaning once you pay admission to the show, you can hang out at the wet studio for as long as you want.  It’s fun watching the artists work, listening to the questions and to the answers.  And photos are allowed.  And of course there are also books and a DVD or two available to purchase.  I bought the latest book from Committed to Cloth, “Screen Printing: Layering Textiles with Colour, Texture & Imagery.” It’s pricey, but good.  If creating art cloth is up your alley, be sure to check out what Jane Dunnewold offers.

Here is another piece that I made as a result of the “painting, printmaking, and collage” 5-day workshop that I took with Fran Skiles (another image is a few posts farther down).  I’m calling the piece “Bridges.”  It’s about 31″ square (and, like my quilts, isn’t exact).

This is the full piece.  I photographed it prior to the final varnish (which is drying and then needs another coat).  It has some shiny areas that will be dulled out with the satin varnish.

On a base of white cotton duck that has mock French seams, reverse applique, and hand embroidery, the design was created of from some digital images of the Brooklyn Bridge printed on paper, acrylic paint, black and white gesso, black and white water soluble crayons, a variety of painted papers, silkscreen, color pencils, painted silk, painted cheesecloth, and probably a strand or two of my hair that got hung up in the medium and who knows what else. :)

I took some close-ups as the textures are hard to see in the full version.  Some bridge structures are painted to loosely reflect the digital images that are also incorporated into the piece.

There are many, many layers on this piece, and it went in different directions.  I had taken photos of the piece during the various stages.  This allowed me to compare new layers of work with older versions.  This was very helpful as I could see where the work was and where the it was heading.  Once home, I printed out some of these versions to help me determine where I wanted to make additional changes.  One talented artist in the class, Jayne, took along a travel printer.  Each morning she had the work from the day prior in her journal with notes along side of it.  Very smart!  I was simply reviewing the images on the LCD of my camera.

I’m surprised how much I find myself looking at this piece.  I actually kind of like it.

As noted in the post farther down, the first day of the class we created several “constructions” made by putting various textures into cotton duck.  The construction above is the base for the “Bridges” piece above.  In addition to the reverse applique in this construction are a series of french knots.   As you can see from the finished “Bridges” piece above, everything on this base was  covered.  It almost seems like a why bother, but it ends up giving more texture/interest to the piece.

Here the two smaller constructions, both with reverse applique, mock French seams, and stitching. The image a few posts down is made on one of the above bases.

The second day onward would start with a discussion of what would be covered that day and then a series of demonstrations.  That’s Fran above demonstrating some gloss medium techniques with various water soluble crayons.

And here Fran is demonstrating working with acrylic inks.

Each day the work on everyone’s wall grew.  While I took many pictures  throughout the week, I don’t have specific permission to post close-up images here.  These, however, gives an overall feel of the “wet” room (the other room through the doorway was our “dry” studio – where we used the sewing machine (and eventually used for drying work).

More discussion.

QBL was held at a new location this year, Onadaga College in Syracuse, NY.  I’ve not stayed in any of the older locations (although I did sell fabric many years ago when QBL was held in Cazenovia), but I heard many stories of how hot it was without air conditioning.  There was no such problem here.  Air conditioning was available full blast in the apartments and in the class rooms. I stayed in the above building.  I was on the bottom floor in an apartment with four other women.  Two ladies shared a room, and the rest of us each had a private bedroom.  The doors of each bedroom locked, although my lock didn’t work (I left it, but told the administrators when I left).

This is the student building where meals were served in the student cafeteria.  Our lunch and dinner were included in the housing fee.  I give a two thumbs up to the food.  A huge variety, and good.

Fran’s class was held in the Ferrante building (also where Jane Dunnewold’s class and independent study).

Lots of interesting architecture.

Another shot of the campus.

I hope in the future to post more images from the class as I finish them.  Again, the class was a good one.

I’m home from Fran Skiles’ five day class at Quilting by the Lake held in upstate NY.  I have the start of several pieces, five large, two of which are close to being finished; and four small, three of which are close to being finished.

It was an interesting experience.  First, I drove the 5.5 hours by myself, and I totally enjoyed the ride.  Next, I roomed with four other people who were complete strangers.  By the end of the week, however, we were all fast friends.  It was also my first five day class, ever.  While I’ve taken various weekend classes at QSDS in the early 1990s, and I’ve done some three day classes, I’ve never done a five day class.  I kept wondering if I’d make it.  I did.  In fact, I wished it were longer because I so much wanted uninterrupted time to continue on with the pieces.

In all, I created five large pieces (in the 36″ wide range) and four smaller pieces (about 14″ or so in height).  Two of the five larger and three of the four smaller are an afternoon or so away from completion (oh, who am I kidding? Probably several afternoons).

I met several very talented artists with whom I either had lunch or dinner, exchanged cards and so on.  I also was humbled and flattered by the many people who came up to me throughout the week commenting on how they like the book or my work.  Who knew? Very cool.  I got to spend some time with Jan Krentz and Jane Dunnewold, both of whom were teaching, and chatted a bit with Laura Wasilowski, who was also teaching.  I had lunch with Marilyn Belford, whom I think is one of the coolest ladies.  And then there was Fran.  I so much enjoyed her!  After a few meals and our classes, I felt a kindred spirit.

Here’s one of the small pieces I created that’s close to being finished; it’s about 13-14 inches tall.  It’s dark. Much of what I did was dark.  And brooding.  Despite me feeling very upbeat and enjoying the week.  I do believe that after listening to Viva La Vida (Death and all his Friends) by Coldplay so many times on the drive up, the mood of the lyrics made their way into my work.  This piece puts me in mind of the words from 42 — the lyrics of which I am very drawn to.   The work awaits some final touches and a varnish finish.

Death’s Door seems a good title.  It  is on a base of cotton duck that includes machine stitching and hand embroidery.  The work includes acrylic paints,  two types of painted Chinese and other papers, painted silk fabric, painted cheesecloth, water soluble crayons,  white and black gesso, and India ink.

I am currently at Quilting By the Lake being held at Onondaga Community College in Onondaga NY.  I’m studying with Fran Skiles, a warm, sharing person with a relaxed, approachable style who made a point of stressing that she is not teaching a quiltmaking class, nor will we be making any quilts.  Instead, it is a painting, printing, and collage class.

Today was about creating six cotton duck fabric bases containing texture and line created with mock French seams, reverse applique, and crude embroidery — meaning large, quick stitches using heavy threads.  Thus far the palette is white and black.   Color will be introduced later.  We also seamed together paper photographs (black and white)  to create a collage that later in the week will be incorporated into the work.  I love using photographs in collage, do digital collage practically daily,  and have been wanting to incorporate more of such work into my textiles.  My latest work, Witley Decay 1 and 2, uses my photo imagery.  One of my hope is that the class experience pushes me further in that direction – if even by creating a new body of work entirely separate from “quilted” textiles.

Each day will have a new objective, with each building on the prior.  It’s a very intuitive, spontaneous work approach and, again, I’ve no idea what I’ll end up with.  My hope is to enjoy the process and artistically grow from the experience.

On the Apollo front, I found these two links which are fun: Apollo 11 Live TV Coverage – you can watch it as it aired 40 years ago.  This begs the question: Do you remember viewing it the first time around?  I have a recollection of a black/white TV and “spacemen.” The problem is that I no longer remember if it’s my memory from the first time around or seeing it replayed over the years.  The Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal by Eric M. Jones.  The site contains a wealth of links, a one-stop site for nearly all things Apollo 11-related.

Colleen, Melitta, and I ventured to NYC on Tuesday to see “Kaleidoscope Quilts: The Art of Paula Nadelstern,” showing until September 13, 2009 at the American Folk Art Museum located on 53rd Street.

What a milestone for quiltmakers everywhere!  Paula is the first contemporary quilt artist ever to have her work featured at the American Folk Art Museum! I practically had tears in my eyes the moment I walked through the hallway and saw her name painted in huge letters on the walls!

Stacy C. Hollander, curator, writes:

Every artist must find a voice that feels true and strong. Paula Nadelstern (b. 1951) found hers early in her career as a quilt artist, inspired by a bolt of sensuous and beautiful Liberty of London fabric. The bilateral symmetry of the design was an epiphany that stirred Nadelstern’s imagination and that has yielded a seemingly infinite vein of creative expression for more than twenty years. Focusing first on the kaleidoscopic quality in the symmetry, Nadelstern innovated new techniques and developed a highly refined, intricate, and distinctive personal aesthetic. …

Paula and I go way back, sharing a room when we both had books with C&T to promote.  Paula, however, has clearly gone on to the big time. And lucky me had a blast taking pictures of her and her work (which I cannot share here until approval is granted by the Museum’s Board).

If you live in the NYC area, be sure to watch for Paula on the CBS Sunday Morning show.  It was taped today.  Also, be sure to visit the show – as nothing is better than seeing her beautiful quilts in the “flesh.” If you cannot, please visit her website (and notice who maintains it <g>) to see her work and/or order her books.  Information about the show at the Museum is here.  And enjoy the video tour of the exhibition from YouTube, produced by eQuilt.com, below.

Last month ago I attended  a small  critique group with four other women artists from NJ.  Attending it  is only something I started doing recently  — that is, accepting the invitation to get out from behind my computers and meet  with other quilt makers to show and discuss our quilts.  I find each person in the group inspiring and true to the making of their own unique work.

During the discussion, several of us began talking about various frustrations we have with our work.  For example, one spoke of often not feeling connected.  I spoke of my  inability to control certain technical aspects, like keeping my work perfectly flat.  Another agreed, adding that no matter what she did the darn thing was never square.  Back and forth we went, except for one member who was quiet.  That member, Colleen, is a critical care nurse practitioner with a lot of hospice experience.  At one point Colleen spoke up saying “I don’t care if my quilt is flat or if the edges are straight. None of that bothers me.  For me, quilt making is a joy.  It’s a complete and total  joy, and I treasure every minute I can devote to it.”   As she went on, I joked saying she should bottle that attitude so that I can take a big drink from it.   She smiled, but she was also absolutely serious, and her expression towards me had a hint of “you silly girl” with a huge heap of “one day you’ll get it,” and she said her words with the confidence and conviction of one who already got it.

I found her words bouncing around in my thoughts. What happened to my joy?  Why was I so quick to immediately know what frustrated me with quilt making (and really, give me a topic and I can tell you associated frustrations) rather than what was enjoyable about it?   Why can I so easily point out a perceived error rather than talk about what I do like?  I’ve been pondering it since.

Then, about 12 days ago I learned that the deadline for the Houston show is the 19th.  That realization put me into an explosion of focused drive to complete my entry.  From 8:30 a.m. I alternated two hours on design work for clients with one hour of quilting.  After dinner and a TV show (watched with dinner), I continued working on my quilt until the wee hours of the morning, 2-4 a.m., depending on how involved I was.

I kept seeing errors in my quilting.   I then began ripping out areas that I quilted because this wasn’t right or that wasn’t right or – oh my gosh – I did that section backwards!  I seemed to have spent more time taking out stitches than putting them in.   Day after day this went on.  Not much sleep, quilting, taking out quilting, working, and so on.  At one point I found Colleen’s words, more so that expression she had, creeping into my thoughts.

Could I simply calm down and remember how I love quilt making?  Remember the joy?  Enjoy the process?  Can I stop with the removing the quilting and just let it be?  Yes.  Yes, I could. I realized I could.  I decided that I would not rip out.  Instead I would just quilt.  I’d quilt and quilt and not worry if something was a bit off.  I’d continue on, letting nothing stop me.  I was so close to finishing.   As I hit the needle down position button to continue on, I simultaneously grabbed the bobbin thread.  That needle obeyed, went down, and went right through my finger nail and straight out the other side of my finger.

In a nano-second I suddenly realized that the needle had broken from the machine and was through my finger, and it stopped me in my track.   I stared at what looked like a magician’s trick, an illusion.  I thought I about photographing it (put an image in my journal, add some interest to this post, use it as proof that I wasn’t exaggerating – although  I’m sure I’d be accused of Photoshop trickery).

In  those seconds of contemplating the moment saved as a digital memory, I realized that I should pull the needle out.  I felt a bit of throbbing.  Throbbing?  Polite throbbing?  Why wasn’t there wasn’t out and out pain?  Not only the ouch pain, but oh-my-gosh grab the ice pain.  Or a quick blast of the torture kind of pain.  A hint of “if you don’t start talking, we’ll put needles through your fingers” kind of pain.  Instead, I felt kind of dumbfounded as I looked at that needle.  I then reached for tweezers to pull the thing out.  I grabbed the tweezers, which I happen to keep near my machine to grab the bobbin thread so I don’t sew through a finger, and pulled the thing out.  It snapped.  One piece came out.  I then grabbed the remaining piece which was still sticking out from the other side.  I had the two pieces.  And with what was left in the machine, I had it all.  But there was still the Monopoly thread going through my finger.  Now that felt strange when I pulled it out.

I  poured peroxide on my finger, put on some antiseptic gel, and wrapped my finger with some gauze.   And because I was determined to finish that quilt, I returned to it which, thank goodness, had no blood on it.  I thought of Colleen. Her expression. I suspect Colleen doesn’t have a needle through her finger story.  I’ll have to ask the next time I see her.  And, by the way, this isn’t the first time for me.  I did it once when I was 11.  It was more theatrical then.

I slipped on a glove and continued working, and I finally finished the thing.  I set up the camera, took pictures, completed the entry forms, completed my FedEx forms, and drove off to a nearby FedEx box to deposit my envelope.   The sun was shining, the air was still.  I came home, sat in the backyard for a bit, and relaxed.  I listened to the birds.  I rocked in my chair.  My dog was next to me.  Then I was hit with it.  The pride and the joy.  The pride because I did it.  I finished and got my entry off.  The joy because tomorrow I’m sleeping late!

May 21 update. I did get that late sleep in.  However, another teeny piece of needle came out late tonight .  It seems it was right under my nail.  It eventually worked it way through my nail which now has a bit of a crack through the length of it.  Oddly, and luckily, I still don’t feel it.

I received an email today about the 2009 American Quilters Society Catalog of Show Quilts for the upcoming 2009 show, which is also their 25th Anniversary show.  I was pleasantly surprised and thrilled to see a portion of my quilt, Blushing Triangles 4, on the cover (I take my quilt-related thrills however I can <g>).  It’s on the lower right.  More information about the book is here.