Veronica Challenge

We had another challenge from a photo.  This was done last year.  The picture was of ground cover, Veronica and succulents among rocks.

I mentioned in a previous post that I took it out of dog-sight.  Being displayed on the floor  made it a prime target for a teething pup.  You can see why in the picture below.

I worked on it and did not complete it because of the library show and the holidays.  I know----no excuses.  I almost gave up on the piece and put it aside as a learning experience not worthy of presentation,.  After working with Katie, I  changed the color of the flowers and made the feel and texture of the flowers more like the surrounding rocks.  There was a disconnect between the commercial flower fabric I had chosen and the hand created fabric I used for the rocks.  The dyed cheese cloth was much better, more natural.

I  worked on the transitions between elements in the piece and incorporated more hand- stitching .

After 3 months of staring and working, I thought Veronica was finished. The piece was a  vertical rectangle and I  put a small black binding on it.  I  added more French knots in the flower sections and reduced the puffiness of the purple flower, making them less exaggerated.

I worked with the SDA critique group and agreed the flowers were still not textured enough. They were still too puffy. More French knots.  And, I removed the binding, and trimmed the edges of the piece to create an organic shape. 

I have the piece displayed underneath a desk. I learned a lot on this journey.

Fabric vessels and Golden acrylic products

I constructed a trial vessel with a swirled pattern. I zig-zagged it together with the seams to the inside .  They were left raw.  I added some embellishment to the outside, just to see how it might look.  The construction was not precise - just together enough to get a feel for the form.

I am satisfied enough to attempt a finished product with this pattern and fabric.  I am using the sample to experiment with some Golden products as an exterior finish.

I brushed GAC- 700 on one section
I used matte medium on one section
I used heavy gel on one section
I used GAC- 400 on one section

I checked it out this morning.  I had marked each section with the product I applied. (organize and document).  The fabric had not darkened with any of the applications to a noticeable degree. 

The feel of the surface was definitely different.  So-      there is a decision to be made.  And I think that decision will be made on an individual basis.  To coat or not to coat.  On one hand a construction from fabric, feels like fabric whether it is interfaced for support or dyed or hand painted. The 'hand' and drape are  different but it still feels like fabric. Using a surface application such as these is like using product in your hair.  The hair feels different but is able to be styled in a certain way.

The GAC-700 is a clear sealing polymer.  I mixed it with paint. The result obscured the fabric print and was opaque, just as this acrylic paint would have been if used alone.  I would like to try it with a glaze.  For applying paint, I may want the fabric to be sealed as well.  This would be a good choice.

The matte medium dried leaving the section lumpy as if it slumped or shrunk while drying.  I don't think this a good choice for my purposes.

The heavy Gel (Gloss) has real potential for me.  In pieces that I want to imitate porcelain, this product creates a surface that shines, encapsulates surface applique, and looks solid and substantial. The surface feels smooth to the touch and has lost the sense of fabric while maintaining the detail and color of the print. It did leave brush strokes which may or may not be appropriate to a given piece.  The brush strokes may be eliminated with a different brush or a second application.  I will experiment more with this product.

The GAC-400 stiffens textile/fabric and is used in fabric sculpting. This section of the vase was not changed in color or print detail. It had no shine and did not create any reflection from light. It had a smother feel than untreated the fabric and was stronger.  I like this product.

I tried to crease each section and none cracked or held the crease.  Of course I didn't step on them. 
There are other product for me to look into.  Some I have in my studio.  New products will be made available.  This is an evolving experience.

Christmas Decorations

We are having a guest between Christmas and New Year's.  Now, just before Thanksgiving, I am considering getting the Christmas decorations put up inside the house.  Because of our guest, I am having second thoughts.

Our guest's name is Scout.  He is a 6 month old Black Lab puppy.  In a moment of weakness, my husband told our granddaughter he would watch him while they were out of town.

What can I put up?  Where can I decorate?  What will he eat?

The first thing I did was to take all the quilts that were casually, and really carefully, place on chairs in the living room and put them in the spare room.  It is not really a spare room, it is a needed and much used place to keep my art, some over sized and/or flat or rolled supplies and UFO's.  I took up my Veronica piece from its place on the floor under the desk and added it to the pile.  That was a no-brainer. Some doors will have to be closed!  I just can't put everything chewable  somewhere over 4' high.  Besides I'd never be able to reach the top of the piles.

I am a spreader and I do not have abundant room.  I don't always put things away.  Nothing is handy stuck away in a box on the shelf.  I know, excuses, excuses.

So - I have a few weeks to puppy proof the house and make it festive. Wish me luck.

Fabric Vessels

Mary McCauley - wow!  I took a class from Mary last year, designing vessel shapes and producing them in fabric.  It was a great workshop. I did a three sided vessel or 'form', since it did not have a bottom, it may not be a vessel.  It was amazing how the three sides lay flat as they were sewn together and the shape with a twist was made when the final side closed the vessel.
Torque! a standard vase or pot would not have had this result.

I am playing with vessel shapes, trying to produce forms, linings and original exteriors. I have read several natural history books lately and I think a vase, basket or vessel would be a good surface to use for small natural presentations, like bark or flowers or other details in nature.

During the last weeks I have had the time to rough out some ideas in my mind.  I have 'virtually' created.  Now I have to see if they can be physically created. It is a good feeling to have fabric in my hands again. 

Organize and Document

Oh my, have I wasted time! I gave away a pattern that I had created, thinking I would never use it again.  Famous last words.  I have the finished piece and I thought it would be a cinch to recreate the pattern without taking the piece apart.  Was I wrong!!!

Three tries later, I am still tweaking and have wasted time and materials.  You never know when you may need to revisit an idea.

I am not someone who can make beautiful, detailed books of stitches, colors, techniques, etc.  I enjoy looking through them and appreciate the effort put into them.  I just don't have the time to spend taking the extra care it requires to create one.  However, I should spend more  time  recording the processes used in producing  my pieces whether they are successful or a learning piece. I should record the attempts at dying, stitching, pattern making that I do use.   The techniques, etc., not pertinent to what I am working on, I don't feel the need to spend the time collecting or making a pretty example.  I will get to them when they are pertinent.

The ideas I want to convey, the pictures in my head, the kernel, whether it is shape, form, color, line, emotion or experience are very important to me.  If my attempt to create a piece is premature, if I need further practice with a technique or I have not found or learned the key to executing my vision, I need to record what I have accomplished, so I can revisit, re-experiment and possibly succeed in the  future.  I am not doing very well recording or filing or finishing the paperwork on my work.

My studio space is small, no excuse.  I rush on to the next challenge and leave parts of incomplete projects in my wake.  No excuse. Then--------------------parts get lost, I think that I will remember and I don't. Then I can't find or remember that one detail that I need when I need it.

Oh, boy!

A word to the wise, I will take note myself-- organize and document.

Nature's Colors

I have been staying with my mother for a while as she recovers from an illness.  I use the guest room on the west side of the house. Through the window I can see the ash tree in the front yard and a lot of sky.  I love looking out a window from bed.  The windows in the bedrooms of my house are not placed for easy viewing.  But whenever we camped in the trailer or the old truck topper, I always had the curtain or shade open so I could see outside if I woke during the night or could look out when I first woke in the morning.  There might have been things to see that I didn't want to miss;  mist, clouds, stars, lightning, grouse and rabbits in the meadow at first light, patterns of frost on the window pane, the colors of dawn.

During August, I watched Mom's Ash tree sway and twist in the dark night of a late summer storm.

During September, I watched the tree silhouetted in moonlight and viewed clouds and stars through its branches.

During October I watched the leaves fall, one by one or in flurries and waves.

On a morning in November I woke early, because of the time change, and saw the morning sun transform the trunk and leafless limbs from a grey-brown to an intense orange. A color no one would believe. A color created by the sun at that moment, that angle, through that atmosphere, by my eyes from my position in that bed.

We expect nature to be beautiful, colorful and normal.  We do not expect green sky or orange trees.  But nature does provide unexpected color and with such intensity, if an artist rendered an image replicating these unexpected colors, his audience  might not believe they were real. It seems an impossible task to translate this real, true  experience of intense unexpected color in a way that will be accepted and understood by the viewer.  Is the question- expression of emotion with unexpected color or using the unexpected color to create emotion? Where does believability come into the equation of experience between the artist and the viewer?

I want to be bold and to create with unexpected color that can be believable. Is an artist's unbelievable color dismissed because the viewer has never had that magic moment of orange bark? Or-- does the artist give a gift to the viewer allowing him to share the artist's awe?  I am rambling.  I had a wonderful morning in November.

Aluminum tree

What a pleasure to be in the right place at the right time to enjoy nature's beauty.

We  recently turned back our clocks to mountain standard time.  Daylight, nightfall, dawn, sunset are still mixed up. What we might have expected to see through the glass doors during breakfast, instead surprised us with different lighting, and on this morning, gave us a special treat.  While our cottonwoods are gone, across the ditch in the neighbor's backyard stands a huge tree still hanging onto its golden mantle. The morning sun, almost white against a clear blue sky, reflected off the quivering leaves.  What a magnificent sight!  The whole tree twinkled gold and tinsel as the breeze allowed the sun to bounce its rays off the backs of the fall leaves. The sunlight danced to the tempo of the wind and the spectacle, powered by the sun, lasted almost ten minutes.

The tree was a good 50 feet tall and the sun's angle was low. Without the wind, the scene would have been beautiful, enriching the golden fall color.  With the wind, the light shimmered as the leaves quivered and turned.  The reflected light was intense, a white-gold, making the tree more than it was by itself. Perhaps an experience like this prompted the creation of the aluminum Christmas tree.

As an artist, I want the capture the moment.  I want to share the awe we experienced.  The technique, the materials, the colors,  the size....???  I have an idea.. It will take time.

Cottonwoods

When my mother moved into a house across the street from us - site unseen- she was disturbed to see two huge cottonwood trees in the backyard.  While they provided ample shade for a ranch styled house without central air, they were not her tree of choice.  They dropped twigs twelve months a year, guzzled water, their thick roots made the lawn mower buck and their leaves, inches deep on the ground in the fall, were not suitable for mulch.

On the other hand, a close relative to the Aspen, their heart shaped leaves rustled in the breeze, provided nesting and cover for suburban birds and gave the squirrels trigs to chew off and throw to the ground.

The plains cottonwood, Populus sargentii, is a member of the willow family, which includes poplars and aspens. The cottonwood leaves, which can be 2 or 3 inches long by 3 to 4 inches wide, quiver in the wind as do those of the aspen, so favored in Colorado.  They are deciduous trees, losing their leaves in the fall. They also may be male or female trees.  Nurseries sometimes recommend male trees to city dwellers, to eliminate the drifts of brown seeds with white downy parachutes settling in gutters, lining the driveway edges and occasionally the picnic lunch.

Some trees live longer than others.  The fast growing Lombardy poplars planted by our neighbor were very short lived. Our children planted seeds from an apple snack in two plastic cups.  They still grace our back yard 40 years later. The pines and spruce trees next door are huge and show no signs of giving up the ghost any time soon.  Elms and birch and soon the ash have been killed by disease throughout the metro area in different waves, in different decades. But I have been talking about landscape trees.

Cottonwoods are native to the plains, growing near water sources, with trunks of 6 or 7 feet in diameter and leaves reaching 60 to 90 feet in height.   The Indians and settlers alike sought their shade and used their wood for fuel and tools. They are not pruned or pampered. They have been shaped by wind, fire, drought and used by man and animal. They have  character.

When my mother's cottonwoods had broken from the weight of early snows, become stressed and weakened by Colorado drought and water restrictions, become a hazard to her home and power lines, she chose to have them taken down.

We have had a love-hate relationship with these two big trees.  I am sad they are gone.  Their leaves have been pressed in many telephone books, saving their fall color, intricate scars and beautiful veins. Mom's grandchildren and great-grandchildren have raked piles of October leaves and burrowed and jumped into them, just as children of her own generation did.

The catkins, soft and dangling, elongate, developing seed pods and fall to the sidewalk leaving bluish, purple stain. Their thick bark is light brown and deeply grooved like heavy truck tires.  I want to remember and celebrate the enjoyment I have had from really looking at these trees in their entirety and their individual parts in detail, enjoying their wonder.  I took the time to 'smell the roses' while they were part of our daily experience.

I would like to recommend reading Robert Michael Pyle's The Thunder Tree. It is an exceptional natural history and person story about the Highline canal in Denver.  In his chapter on the thunder tree, Mr. Pyle tells the story of the five pointed heartwood star in the cottonwood twigs broken at the node.  The Arapahoe believed the night sky would be refilled with stars from the cottonwood twigs that were broken by the winds.  It is fun to try to find a star-stick after a storm.