More about The Whole Story

I got the list of contemporary artists who are exhibiting in "The Whole Story: Wholecloth Quilts by Hand and Machine", at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell Massachusetts. Besides me (Jeanne Williamson), they are Jane Dunnewold, Gayle Fraas & Duncan Slade (couldn't find a website for them, sorry), and also Diane Gaudynski. I am looking forward to seeing the exhibit because we have very different ways of working.

Read more about The Whole Story from my post yesterday.

The Whole Story: Whole Cloth Quilts by Hand and Machine

Orange Construction Fence Series #43, #44, and #45, will be on exhibit in "The Whole Story: Wholecloth Quilts by Hand and Machine" at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell Massachusetts, from April 3 - June 15, 2008. Read the press release.


On Saturday, May 3rd, at 1 pm, I will be giving a lecture "Stitched Mono-prints", detailing my approach to creating contemporary wholecloth quilts. Afterward, I will be signing copies of my book The Uncommon Quilter.

Rubberband Ball

The latest pictures of my family's rubberband ball. Above is the front view and below the back.


Pieces of rubberbands are breaking off, though not any of the main outside bands yet. The detail below shows how they are falling apart.

Distinctive Directions

Four of my pieces, Orange Construction Fence Series #58, #55, #51, and #47, will be on exhibit at The Lux Center for the Arts 2008 Fiber Invitational show called "Distinctive Directions". The show, curated by Lisa Call, and brings together four artists, Deidre Adams, Pam RuBert, Joanie San Chirico, and me (JeanneWilliamson), who use stitching, painting, printmaking, collage and other techniques to create their unique textile and mixedmedia works.

Also on exhibit at The Lux Center for the Arts, is "Fencing in or Keeping Out", an exhibit of Textile Paintings by Lisa Call.

The five of us are also participating in the Distinctive Directions Blog.


The Lux Center for the Arts is located in Lincoln, Nebraska, and both shows are on exhibit from April 4-26, 2008. The Opening is on April 4th frrom 5-7 pm. I will (unfortunately) not be able to attend because I'll be in Philadelphia attending the Opening for Art Quilt Elements.

2008 Weekly Mixed Media Project

Above is my thirteenth Weekly Mixed Media piece this year, and below is the back.




On February 15th, I posted my seventh piece, about a building on Memorial Drive in Cambridge MA that was covered in white plastic, that had a yellow tube running down the side. I don't really like the piece I made then, because it didn't turn out the way I imagined. Last week, I was driving in Cambridge again, and saw the same building uncovered, I was grateful I was stopped at a red light, so I could quickly took this picture of it. I decided to use it this week for inspiration.


I cut a piece of brown pre-felted fleece, and placed it on top of a piece of brick-red wool felt fabric. On top of that, I placed a tan pice of pre-felted wool fleece vertically in the middle, with a thinner strip of yellow pre-felted wool and yellow organza-like ribbon, placed off-center and on top of the tan piece, and I needle punched them down from the top side.


Next, I needle punched a piece of red with a white border cotton fabric, from the top and then bottom sides.


I then cut three pieces of barely spun black wool and laid them horizontally under the already punched red/white cotton fabric, and then I needle punched them in place from the top side,


and cut away two rectangular pieces of brown fleece away, lining them up as best as I could under the red/white fabric piece.


I turned the whole thing over, and needle punched the back side everywhere EXCEPT where the tan and yellow sections were. By doing that, the front side turned a nice brownish-red because the felt and fleece were combined.


I placed my 6" square template on top of the piece, to help place two sets of black barely spun wool strips vertically on the right side.


Then I needle punched them in place from both the top and bottom sides.


I cut the whole thing down to 6" square, and proceeded to sew white and blue thread as highlights around different sections.

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

More Art and Math

Since posting about Art and Math on March 8th, and since a certain family mathematician is home for his spring break from college, we had a really nice family field trip to a show called "ART AND MATH" at the Axiom Gallery in Boston MA, yesterday. Quoting from the gallery's website, "Art and Math explores the artists use of mathematical concepts in sculpture, photography, and new media", and is on exhibit through April 27, 2008. If you're in the Boston area while the show is up, do visit it.

If you can't visit the show, you can view photos of the exhibit on flickr, +/or check out the artists websites: Bathsheba Grossman, J. Michael James (sorry, I couldn't find a link to him), Keith Peters, Nathan Selikoff, and Kevin Van Aelst.

I am an art person, not a math person, and I really enjoyed the show. The work is very good art-wise and math-wise, and can be enjoyed by viewers young and old, math inclined or not.

Manufactured Landscapes

I was looking over my Netflix queue, trying to decide what movie to move to the top of my rental list so I could see it next, when I realized that Manufactured Landscapes is about the photography of Edward Burtynsky who I mentioned in my February 19th entry about work I liked at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MassMoCA).

The documentary itself about Burtynsky's photographing quarries and mines in different places in the world, factories, e-waste, and construction/boat building in China, a little about ship deconstruction in Bangladesh, and includes many of his photographs from all of these locations.

Watch the preview of Manufactured Landscapes, to get a taste about what the film is about.

If you rent the movie, be sure to watch the "Gallery of Stills" extra. The photographs are beautiful, and Burtynsky's commentary about his work, research, and info he learned about his subjects is very interesting.

2008 Weekly Mixed Media Project

This is my twelfth Weekly Mixed Media piece this year. The front is above, and the back is below.



Here are the steps I took to create it:


I found some netting (which I think a neighbor gave me from her Christmas tree) in a bag when I was taught an The Uncommon Quilting workshop at the Danforth Museum in Framingham Mass last Saturday. Someone in the class made a crayon rubbing of this netting and I really liked the way it turned out so I decided to use it as my inspiration for this week's mixed media piece.


First, I made a crayon rubbing of the netting, and then quilted it with batting and a backing. I wasn't sure how to stitch it, so I just stitched straight lines, horizontally and vertically, about 3/8" apart.


Then I placed many pieces of different kinds of white yarn I have on a piece of black wool felt/material, and I needle punched it (felted it) in to the black wool.


After that, I placed a piece of black pre-felted wool fleece on top of the yarn/wool, and I needle punched/felted the wool to it.


I spent a far amount of time needle punching it, so the white yarn pieces started to show through the black fleece.


I trimmed one side of the felt, attached it to the quilted fabric, and trimmed it down to 6" square. The final step was that I zigzagged the edges of the quilted fabric so it wouldn't unravel.

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

Quote

I read this quote in the New York Times Design Spring 2008 magazine, in a short blurb titled "Patch, Patch, Patch | Quilting Gets Its Due" on Sunday March 16, 2008:

‘Quilt culture is much richer and deeper than many in the art world have given it credit for.’’ - Jane Livingston, independent curator.

Very well said.

Inspiration / Printing and Painting on Fabric

I like to paint/print when I listen to the town of Natick (Massachusetts) Board of Selectmen (our town governing board) meetings on local cable TV. I have too much to do so I don't sit and watch the meetings, and if I do any work that needs a lot of concentration I can't follow the meeting. But, if I'm painting or printing or hand sewing (machine sewing is too loud), I can follow along just fine. Since there was a meeting last night night, I was able to work on Orange Construction Fence Series #60, and listen to the meeting.


I hand stamped grey fabric paint with rubber erasers, to create the idea of siding or brickwork on the abstract building I'm creating. The picture above was taken on January 10th, and was my inspiration.

New Work

This is Orange Construction Fence Series #59. It's 33.5" wide x 48" high, and is inspired by a condo construction project that is finishing up in downtown Natick, Massachusetts. I have been posting about my process and progress about #59 from start to finish, and you can read my last blog post about it on February 20th and follow the trail backwards .

I recently started a companion piece to #59, Orange Construction Fence Series #60. I'll talk about it periodically, as I have time to work on it.

Rubberband Ball

These are the most recent pictures of my family's rubberband ball. The front view is above and the is back below.


There are not any obvious changes in the front, though I did find some pieces of broken rubberbands on the table in front of the tray it's sitting on. They must have broken somewhere, but I'm not sure from where. On the back side, the main band broke since last time (as noted below), adding many new pieces on the tray, and a lot of curly broken pieces at the top, that are being held on by the thick black band.

2008 Weekly Mixed Media Project

Above is my eleventh Weekly Mixed Media piece this year, and below is the back side of it.


Here are the steps I took to get to my finished product:


I had two strips of stitched fabric left over from my March 12x12x12 piece that I wanted to use this week.


I started with a black base of pre-felted wool as the base. I placed the two stitched strips on it for placement, and filled in sections around it with one grey square of pre-felted wool in the center, and four pieces of white wool felted fabric as shown.


I removed the stitched strips, and then I needle punched the wool pieces in to place, from the front side.


On the back side, I needle punched two pieces of light grey pre-felted wool in place on both sides of the center pieces already in place from the front side.


Also on the back side, I needle punched the top and bottom white strips from the back (black) side, so it looked a bit like scribbling on the front side.


Then I placed the two stitched strips back on the front side of the felt and machine sewed them in place. I added thin lines of stitching on the top and bottom white-ish strips, using grey thread, and cut it down to the 6" square size.

While this might not be the strongest piece visually, I think this is step in the right direction for trying to find a way to merge wool needle punching (felting) and painted/stitched cotton fabric. I'd like to try to work in this direction when possible.

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

The Uncommon Quilter Wins Design Award

The Uncommon Quilter has won a Merit Award in the Editorial category from the HOW 2008 International Design Competition! The work of all of the winners is in HOW magazine's April 2008 International Design Annual.

I am very happy about this, and I want to thank everyone I worked with at Potter Craft, especially La Tricia Watford, who designed my book. Thank you very, very much!

12 x 12 x 12 March 2008

This is my March 12 x 12 x 12 piece. It's based on a condo construction project in my town, just like my January 2008 piece is. I think my January work is too dark, though if you see it in person, it has a lot of texture from the paint, which makes it more interesting. My March piece has better contrast, and I like the texture of the stitching.


I did the March 12 x 12 x 12 as a study for Orange Construction Fence #60, which I started last week. Here it is in progress, in its very raw form. I'll post more about it as I get to work on it. #60 is part of a series in a series (using construction fences, but about a condo construction project in my town), as is #59 which I'll post in a few days. My photographer shot #59 last week, and the slides should arrive at home any day now.

If you want to know more about my 12 x 12 x 12 series, you can read about it here on my blog, or see all of the completed work on my website.


I have been invited to participate in a show of small works (12" x 12" or smaller) later this year, so I decided to work on this piece at the same time as my March piece. It's a variation of March, and based on the same idea.

Snow Sculpture/Pyramid

This past weekend I was in Northfield Minnesota, so I could attend the Carleton Singing Knights a cappella concert at Carleton College. While waiting for the concert to start, we took a nice walk around campus and saw this snow sculpture/pyramid, that had the added benefit of also being an igloo. Nicely done!