Inspiration / Printing and Painting on Fabric - continued

More progress since my last post on January 30th about the new piece I have been working on that's based on a condo construction project in downtown Natick, MA.


In my last post I mentioned that I was going to fill the stamped rectangle and squares with grey paint. Well, after I did my "sketch" in Photoshop, I decided to I wanted to paint it then, even though it was pretty late at night and I was getting ready to call it a night. So, in my pajamas, I put my painting apron on got to work. At the last moment, I decided to fill the shapes in with various shades of grey, instead of one shade. I've done fills with various colors in many other pieces, and have been really happy with the result, so I filled all 70+ shapes with six different greys.


Now my thought it that I don't want so much emphasis on those shapes, so I might paint a layer of white over them to lighten them up. (My book, The Uncommon Quilter, has a project on page 98, that shows how to do this step.) Above is a swatch of fabric that I had painted various greys of fabric paint and acrylic paints on it, with a layer of white paint on it, to see how it would look if I did that.


This is a Photoshop sketch of what the piece might look like when I do the next step.

Inspiration / Printing and Painting on Fabric - continued

I was able to do some more work on the new piece I talked about on January 27th, that's based on a condo construction project in downtown Natick, MA.


On Monday night, I painted the silver horizontal lines, and hand stamped square and rectangular shapes on the stitched fabric.


In Photoshop, I tried filling in the shapes with a medium grey, to see how that would look.


I wanted to see how the filled in shapes look lightened up, so I experimented with it, again in Photoshop.

I am definitely going to fill the shapes in with grey paint on the actual piece. All black is way too dark and flat. I am not sure if I'll lighten them up afterward, but I wanted to see what it could look like on my computer, before I do such a drastic step. Once paint is applied, there's no going back.

More to come on my progress as soon as I have time to do the painting discussed above.

2008 Weekly Mixed Media Project

This is my fifth Weekly Mixed Media piece for 2008.

Here is how I got to my final result:






You can see my 2008 weekly mixed media work (so far) on my website, and read about my process/progress here on my blog.

Inspiration / Printing and Painting on Fabric

More inspiration from the condo construction in downtown Natick Massachusetts. This is one of many pictures I took a few weeks ago, that I am using for some new work.


Last weekend I printed four pieces of fabric. They were all similar to the detail above.


During the past week, I grabbed a few minutes to sketch an idea out in Photoshop. This is a detail of some printing and painting may decide to do.


Yesterday I did some stitching on the first piece, and I will paint and print more on it, hopefully today or tomorrow night. I have a second piece I'm going to paint, before I stitch. I'll take a picture of it when there's something to show. I'll wait to start on the last two pieces of fabric until I make some progress on the these. I know I'll do something on the first two, that will lead me to want to try something on the last two.

Creativity at a Basketball game

Last night I went to the Boston Celtics/Minnesota Timberwolves basketball game. I always look for good art or design where ever I go. No offense to (my home team) the Boston Celtics but, the best design at the game was the Minnesota Timberwolves' uniforms. I loved the green triangles on the tops around the neck, around the waist and one leg. Because it was an away game for the Timberwolves, they wore black uniforms. Great contrast with the green triangles on the black. I also loved the typeface they used for the numbers of the players. Very creative!

Materials Hard & Soft

My piece, "Orange Construction Fence Series #41" is hanging in the show "Materials Hard & Soft" at the Center for the Visual Arts, in Denton, Texas, from January 26 - March 20, 2008. If you're nearby, go see the show!

Rubberband Ball

I took pictures of my family's rubberband ball on January 18th, but didn't post it because I didn't notice any changes from my last post. Above is the front side and below is the back.


Yesterday I had to move the tray holding it so I had more room on my sewing table, when I noticed one major outside band that's about to let go. I checked the pictures I took on the 18th, and it was in the photo then, but I didn't notice it. How exciting! Below is a detail shot of the front top section, that shows the band that's about to break.


Past posts and photos.

2008 Weekly Mixed Media Project

I finished my fourth mixed media piece. The image above is the front side, and the image below it is the finished back. I'm documenting both sides.


I wanted to see what would happen if I started with a piece of purple wool felt sandwiched with different colors of wool fleece on the front and back sides. I needle punched the wool fibers from one side of the piece to the other, changing sides for each step to see what the result would be. I documented the eight steps it took to make it. One thing I learned was that the side facing up became the flatter side, and the bottom became the fuzzy, more felt-like, side.

I decided I liked the flatter side of this piece better (because of the color and design, not because it was flat) when I chose to stop. It had a lot of tiny needle marks on it, so I washed it with dish soap and hot water to further felt the fibers and to shrink the tiny holes. The purple dye from the wool felt was not rinsed out very well from the manufacturer, and I had to rinse it a lot until the water rinsed clear. I didn't expect that to happen. Luckily the dye didn't run on the other colors, probably because of the lanolin still left on the wool fleece. (The smell of lanolin brings back memories of working with wool in Art School.)

You can see my finished 2008 weekly mixed media work (so far) on my website, and read about my process/progress here on my blog.

2008 Weekly Mixed Media Project

Week 4 of my weekly mixed media project, step by step. Looking at both sides in process, at the same time.









I'll post the piece after it's completed.

Printing on Fabric

Busy Sunday! I read the Sunday newspapers, caught up on email, made a beef and vegetable stew, washed and folded two loads of laundry, started on my fourth 2008 weekly mixed media piece, and printed 5.5 yards of fabric that I'm planning on using for four new pieces based on the condo construction in downtown Natick (Mass) where I live, all while my husband was at the Patriots game (it was 20 degrees outside!!!).

I will be stitching and painting on the new fabric as time permits. I think I'm going to do a lot of stitching first, and then painting. Usually I print and paint, then stitch, and do a little last minute painting.

How to Draw a Bunny

"How to Draw a Bunny" is a documentary movie about the artist Ray Johnson, who died in 1995. Johnson was mainly a collage artist, and he knew many important artists of our time, but none of them really "knew" him until after his death. After his death, there was the opportunity to see inside his studio, and to see all of this work and how he lived. The movie has interviews with many artists, including Roy Lichtenstein, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Chuck Close, and also has footage of Johnson himself.

I found a few things mentioned about Johnson in the movie quite interesting and/or amusing. Johnson was a master of sorts in working in series. He repeated many of his ideas over and over, and it was easy to see his dedication as an artist. Johnson was probably one of the first mail-artists. He frequently mailed art to his friends and acquaintances. One story I really enjoyed was when Johnson wanted to sell a piece of his art to someone for $2000. The buyer could only afford $1500, so Johnson cut a quarter of the piece off, and he actually sold 3/4 of it.

"How to Draw a Bunny" offers a glimpse inside a truly creative person.

Distinctive Directions

I've been invited to be in a show that's being curated by Lisa Call. She chose four of us to participate, (Deidre Adams, Pam Rubert, Joanie San Chirico and me, because we call work in a series. The show will be at the Lux Center for the Arts, in Lincoln Nebraska, from April 4-26, 2008. Also in the gallery space, Lisa will have a solo show called "Fencing In or Keeping Out."

Lisa has set up a website about our show, which is called Distinctive Directions, and a Distinctive Directions blog.

On her own blog, Lisa explains how she picked the work for our show by making a model of the gallery and laying the work out ahead of time so she knows it works as a group. I love how she did it! I'm a visual thinker, so I'll remember how she did it, if (when) I am able to curate a show.

2008 Weekly Mixed Media Project

Week three - part two


The next day, with natural light..... what I did the day before was OK, but a bit dull. I decided that it would look better if the black fish net-like fabric was more visible, so I felted from the top down, over the construction fence shape. What happened was all of the green fleece is now punched to the back side, revealing the black fish net-like fabric on the front, and some of the pale piece of tie-dyed wool felt (though the tie-dye is not recognizable).

Much better. Now there's more pattern and texture, and more contrast. I have a lot more to learn about how to use my felting machine to its full potential, but it will come with time.

The image at the top is the finished front side, and the image below it is the finished back. I'm documenting both sides.


You can see my finished 2008 weekly mixed media work on my website, and read about my process/progress here on my blog.

2008 Weekly Mixed Media Project

Week three - part one


I had an idea about what I wanted to do when I started this piece, but it quickly became apparent that it wasn't going to turn out like I thought. I thought I was going to have a very pale piece of tie-dyed wool felt as the main element and then I'd add two grey and one tan wool stripe and felt them down before I added some white/grey/black tie-dyed ribbon that's about 3/8" wide. Well. I did the first steps, with some black fish net-like fabric on it and that's went my heart began to sink. The netting was really a strong presence, and the grey and tan stripes were not showing up because they were too light. Then I added some light green wool on the back and felted it to the front, thinking it would help with the stripes. That didn't help at all. OK. Now what?! I added a 4" wide layer of monoprinted silk organza, of a orange construction fence, and felted that in. Boring!

I have to note that I was doing all of this Sunday night, in my badly lit sewing area at night. Really bad idea. I had to run in to my bathroom to see how it looked every few minutes, because they light is much better in there. I kept telling myself to wait until the next day to save it. I was feeling really uncomfortable because I have this rule not to throw anything away, but I was too impatient to wait until I had daylight.

I remembered that with other mixed media pieces, I've had success with doing a lot of stitching back and forth to create a new texture, so I decided to do that. Much better!

After all of that, I cut it down to the 6" x 6" size, and it looked OK but still needed something. That's when I decided to add four lines of a really cool black and white cotton "yarn" I got in New York City a number of years ago at Habu (a really really nice yarn store). I think that was a good addition, but the jury was still out until I had natural light the next day.

Please note that the image up top is the front side in progress, and the image below is the back side in progress. I'm documenting both sides.


I forgot from my seven year experience of making a quilt a week, that when you're making quantities of objects on a regular basis, until you have a dozen or so completed, it feels really important that they are all somewhat successful. The fact that I have no idea what I'm doing with my felting machine has adding some stress to this project. (Another cause of stress is breaking needles on the felting machine. They're expensive to replace, if you have to do it often.) I know that this is a perfect learning situation, but I can't wait until the first dozen or so are made. Maybe then I can relax.

I will post part two of this entry tomorrow.

You can read about my process/progress so far this year here on my blog.

Look at this fence!

I saw a picture of President Bush in Manama, Bahrain on January 12th, greeting our troops. The fence behind him caught my eye. Wow! Looks like tan squiggly version of the orange construction fences I work with. I would LOVE to get a few feet of that fence to print from in my artwork!!!!!

My most favorite orange construction fence is from Italy. A friend of mine passed by a construction site while on vacation, and asked for a piece of fence, using handle signals since she didn't speak a word of Italian. It's very thin, and has a wonderful oval pattern.


In 2006, I fell in love with the Winter Olympics logo because it had a fence-like pattern, and I remember the blue snow fencing was pretty incredible during skiing events. That would have been a cool piece of Olympics memorabilia to have. I searched the web for hours hoping to be able to find a piece I could buy, but no luck.

Dear Massachusetts Artists,

If you live in Massachusetts, and are a visual artist, musician, composer, writer, poet, playwright, new media artist, film maker, crafts person, actor, singer, performance artist, graphic designer, lighting designer, dancer, choreographer, or an artist not mentioned here, and have not done so, please complete the Artists Foundation Artist Survey. The Artists Foundation is collecting data, to better advocate for Massachusetts Artists. Thanks!

Construction Fence Series #58 in progress

I'm finishing up on my first two pieces in 2008 (which I actually started in July 2007), Construction Fence Series #57 and Construction Fence Series #58. Because it didn't look quite right. I wanted to look at the top part of #58 in a different format, to see if I wanted to add any more of the tiny blue squares. I took a picture of the area in question (above), and loaded it in Photoshop. Then I copied and pasted a few more sections of the squares to the top right of center, to see how I might want to proceed.



Above I added one more section of the squares, and below two sections. I decided to do the one above, though I am having an art friend critique my work today, and depending on her suggestions, things could change.


It's really nice to be able to try an idea out in Photoshop like that. It helps reduce the chances of ruining it, especially when I'm almost finished.

Depending on the critique comments, I'm just about finished with #57 and #58. After I get them photographed, I'll post them here on my blog, and on my website.

The People Speak

A few days ago I went to the taping, in Boston, of a TV miniseries called "The People Speak." It's about Howard Zinn's book "A People's History of the United States." The taping consisted of very moving historical readings of “documents of resistance” by some known and unknown historical figures. They were performed (read) by Marisa Tomei, Viggo Mortensen, Danny Glover, Josh Brolin, David Strathairn, Kerry Washington and Q'Orianka Kilcher, and there was also a musical performance by John Legend.

There were four tapings in Boston, with a different theme each time. The themes were of war, class, race and the struggle of women. The night I went, it focused on war, and the readings ranged from Christopher Columbus in 1492, to the present day. I found the September 11th readings were especially powerful.

The mini series is expected to be available to the public in September, I think.

While listening to the readings, I couldn't help but also focus on the backdrop. There were seven folding screens, with black cutouts on a white background, of people throughout history. There was no mention in the program,, but it looked to me that they may have been created by Kara Walker, or it may have been Kara Walker influenced.

ArtsVote 2008

There was a political email in my In Box today, but this one was a little different. Instead of being about a specific candidate, it was from the Americans for the Arts Action Fund’s ArtsVote 2008. I love that the Arts community is working publicize the 2008 Presidential candidates statements about arts policy. I hope that if you live in the US, and your presidential primary is coming up, that you'll consider the arts statements as you choose your candidate.

There's a link on ArtsVote 2008 that allows you to send an email to all of the Presidential candidates about your opinion about the Arts. I sent a short comment to all of the candidates. You can too. Here was my message:

January 10, 2008

Dear [recipient name was inserted here*],

I'm pleased to join ArtsVote in contacting you about supporting the arts through your presidential campaign.

As an Artist, I ask you to support Arts funding and policies at the federal level that would recognize the growth potential and direct benefits of encouraging cities and states to strategically invest in the arts in order to drive economic development.

Sincerely,

Jeanne Williamson

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* Message sent to the following recipients:
Rudy Giuliani Campaign
John McCain Campaign
Duncan Hunter Campaign
Mitt Romney Campaign
Mike Gravel Campaign
John Edwards Campaign
Ron Paul Campaign
Chris Dodd Campaign
Mike Huckabee Campaign
Fred Thompson Campaign
Hillary Clinton Campaign, Policy Office
Barack Obama Campaign
Dennis Kucinich Campaign
Bill Richardson Campaign
Biden Campaign (National)