12 x 12 x 12 January 2012

I'm considering ideas for using many of the 167 white zippers I purchased a few months ago, along with monoprints of construction fences.

My 12 x 12 x 12 January 2012 is the first piece using one zipper. This piece is very tight, and as I try using them some more, they will be less so.

This month I wanted to use a zippered piece of fabric over another piece of fabric so the bottom fabric can be seen through the top.

I'm considering using some of the left over fabric from January in my February piece as a starting place, but we'll see what happens when I start working on it next month.

This is my sixth year of working on my 12 x 12 x 12 monthly series, which are mixed media on 12" x 12" x 1" board. You can read past posts about the series here on my blog, and see all of the completed work on my website.

Snow Happy!

Yesterday, after what's been a really weird winter so far, we finally had our first decent snowstorm. In January! While skiers have been waiting impatiently for snow so they could ski, I've been waiting so I could get winter pictures of my installation, Fence Curtain 1.0

I was staying in Boston for the weekend because I was attending a conference, so I took the T (AKA the MBTA, Boston MA's subway system) to the ConstellationCenter in Kendall Square in Cambridge, to take pictures. It was a cold 18 degrees, with wind and snow, and well worth the visit.

I like this picture because of how gray it was during the storm, but I am looking forward to pictures of it in the snow on a clearer day, and I’m hoping that my photographer will be able to get there today. If not today, then hopefully after the next snowstorm, because it's supposed to go up to 50 degrees in the next few days and the snow will melt very quickly.

On the day we took pictures of this piece in the Fall, there were shadows on the ground behind the fence. Yesterday, there was the illusion of shadows, but it was really bare ground because of how the wind was blowing and how the piece was blocking the snow from the ground. I love that!

I live in Natick, MA, 20 miles or so west of Boston, where 6" of snow fell. When we got home this morning, I took some pictures of the installations in my yard, and they’re below.

Fence Holes Bandage 1.0

Weathered Fence Series #7

Weathered Fence Series #8

Update: I got a note from my photographer that said "I went to photograph the sculpture this morning, unfortunately the snow plows had pushed a large pile of snow up against the fence, so I was unable to take any pictures. Next time I will have to get there before the snow plows."

Bummer. I'm waiting to hear if they totally buried my piece or if the pile of snow was off to the side.

New Work - The Fence As Lace #13

After I finished working on my 35' outdoor art installation, Fence/Curtain 1.0, in my borrowed studio workspace (because I have a significantly smaller studio), I decided to take advantage of temporarily having a 4' x 8' work table (as well as one that was 4' x 16'), and make another large piece, which I've added to the Fence As Lace Series.

The Fence As Lace #13 , which is a diptych, is mixed media on stiffened fabric, and measures 8' x 8'.

While I created The Fence As Lace #13 in November 2011, I was finally able to get it photographed earlier this week, because it was hanging as two separate pieces in my Arlington, MA art window installation. I took the window down last week.

The inspiration behind this piece was The Fence As Lace #2 (below), which I really like, and felt needed a companion piece that's 8' wide vs. the 4' wide that #2 is.

Fence Holes Bandage 1.0 After First Snowfall

We got an unexpected 2" of snow overnight, so I took a few pictures of Fence Holes Bandage 1.0 while my barista made the morning lattes. This is the first snowfall in what's been a strangely unseasonal Massachusetts winter. Not that I'm itching to shovel, but I would really like to see this piece, and also my 35' installation, Fence/Curtain 1.0, in the snow.

It's too warm to drive into Cambridge, MA to take pictures of Fence/Curtain 1.0 before the snow melts today, so that will have to wait.

The reason Fence Holes Bandage 1.0 exists in the first place is because we got an unseasonal Nor'easter in October, when there were still leaves on the trees, and a very large limb broke off of the flowering pear tree in my backyard. Fence Holes Bandage 1.0 is covering the damage from the break, which breaks my heart to look at.

12 x 12 x 12 Zipper Ideas

After dinner last night, I finally grabbed some studio time. It's not that I haven't been working since the holidays. I have. A lot. I've been working on (in alphabetical order, not necessarily in this order) art marketing, web design and writing my how-to book.

At my studio, I worked on my monthly 12 x 12 x 12 series, which is my first time incorporating a zipper with monoprinted construction fences.

I picked out fabric to use with the zipper, got my sewing machine out, went to sew the zipper to the fabric, and I had a brain cramp. I couldn't remember how to sew a zipper. I was trying not to get frustrated, because I've been sewing since I was 12 years old, which is a long, long time, and then I realized the reason I couldn't remember how to sew a zipper was because I only had one piece of fabric with no seam and you need a seam to sew a zipper. (How was that for a run on sentence?!?)

I didn't want to lose any of the pattern of my fabric in a seam, so I decided that instead of sewing a zipper the traditional way with a seam, I'd cut the fabric down the middle (sort of) and sew each piece to the zipper instead of sewing the zipper to the fabric. It worked great.

I also mounted fabric on the 12" x 12" board so it could dry before the next step.

Because I can be impatient in the studio, like when waiting for things to dry, I gently laid the fabric with the zipper on the damp board, to start thinking about placement and how the fabric below it will show through, something I want to have happen. Sorry about the blurry picture above. I didn't realize it was as I was documenting it.

The next step is to mount the zipper fabric on the dry board, the next time I'm at my studio. I can't wait to do it!

After this start, I have a ton of ideas. I'll probably use the left over zipper fabric from January for my February piece, trying something totally different with the same piece of fabric, before I jump into working on much, much bigger boards for a new series.

When the January piece is finished, hopefully soon but definitely before the end of the month, I'll post a picture of it here and on my website.

Zippers

I purchased 167 white zippers a few months ago from a neighbor whose grandmother was a seamstress and is liquidating her sewing supplies.

There were many sizes to choose from, and I got 79 that are 24" and 88 that are 45". If there were 48" zippers in the inventory I would have bought them all since the construction fences I print are 48" wide or less and it would have offered me more options, but I settled for the 45" zippers.

When I next have access to a large space to monoprint yardage of construction fences, I hope to work on a new series about feminism called Fences For Girls, which will incorporate many zippers. I've had many ideas for this series since I was at my Art Residency at the Vermont Studio Center last May, but I spent the time working on The Fence As Lace Series and had no time for Fences For Girls.

Between now and when I can work on that series, I'm going to use one zipper in my 12 x 12 x 12 January 2012 piece (as I continue my 12 x 12 x 12 Series into 2012) and many on a new, yet unnamed series on boards.

I have another friend who bought even more zippers than I did. I can't wait to show her what do with mine, and see what she does with hers, and then I'm hoping we can organize an exhibit about zippers.

Great Find!

The best gifts are the ones totally unexpected, and found when going about your day and when not looking for gifts. That's the case when a friend was clothes shopping recently at Savers, our favorite used clothing store. She found a sleeveless blouse that so reminded her of my work, that she splurged and bought it for me for $3.99.

The two images above are details are of stamped and painted fabric of my Weathered Fences Series, and below is a detail from the blouse fabric. How perfect! Thank you my friend!