Thoughts & news
A stay of execution
I got excellent news from the cardiologist today. The nuclear stress test showed all healthy heart tissue and vessels, and normal ventricles. That's good news. While there's still no explanation for my recent "event", the next step is watchful waiting rather than surgery. More good news. He told me to go back to the gym (with a couple of restrictions) for some mild exercise and to schedule follow-up in 2 months.
On one hand this all sounds rather tentative, but on the other hand waiting is not all bad. The longer things work OK and remain intact the better off I'll be. All told, it's an excellent early Christmas present.
Colorful thoughts
I'm back from the cardiologist safe, sound, and radioactive. I'm not sure how long I'm going to be emitting gamma rays, but I was warned not to go near any airports without a note of explanation from my doctor. Apparently I will set off all sorts of alarms for the next 24 hours! Come to think of it, I'm glad I decided not to stop at the mall on the way home. I'm sure the store security systems would have loved me. The test seemed to go well. The treadmill part was comparable to previous tests (10 minutes, no instability, good recovery). I won't know the results of the nuclear imaging until next week, but the doctor seems confident that it will show good muscle and good vascular flow. What that adds up to is very little quantitative evidence that now is the time for surgery; just qualitative evidence. His last word were, "We'll talk next week." And so we will.
OK. As promised...pictures of recent work. I think I've mentioned that I'm working on cloth for two shows: "Quake" and "My Island". The island thing is really tripping me up. My responses have been very literal--I mean like drawing islands. I can meditate my way through all of the meanings of island: isolation, paradise, connection to other islands, even the shaky economy of many islands. I still end up with literal things coming out. Last week I gave in and printed a "pretty" sort of island-inspired piece of rayon and I really like it. It makes me think of trips to the Caribbean. Simple-minded, but nice. Its the piece in the middle with the orange flowers. Click the image to see more detail.
I liked the way that it looked. The basic sketch was done with black dye in a dental syringe. I could draw this way for hours. (I really need to do a monochromatic piece with just gesture drawing). The orange petals, brown centers, and leaves are all done as polychromatic screen prints. I do my polychromatic printing wet, not dried and deconstructed--paint it and pull it. In this case I was using a small scraper and pulling small areas at various angles. Anyway, it all seemed to come together with a nice sort of Matisse feel except for the violet color in the background. It was dead. Ergo, the title of this post, "Colorful thoughts".
The next time I went into the studio I painted a brighter blue into the background and it all came together. I think it's sort of a split complement thing. The violet was not a true complement to the orange. Adding the blue pushed the background and foreground a little further apart on the color wheel. What you see below on the floor had not been washed out yet. The color stood up very well and washing opened up the resist lines that are in the flower petals for a little more detail. I promise a "proper" photo of the finished piece soon.
OK. That has to be all for now. I've got scarves to sew.
Gentle guilt
My friend Rayna sent me an e-mail today notifying me and 4 other friends that she had nominated all of us for the Kreativ Blogger Award. It's a mutual encouragement sort of thing--I was hoping for a big cash prize. So, I go to Rayna site and I find these insightful descriptions of the 5 blogs she has nominated--including mine. Only thing is, here's what she wrote:
[I nominate Russ Little because he needs a kick in the butt so he'll post more often. I love reading his posts and looking at his art cloth in process, but cheesh, it's too long a wait between posts! So get with it, Russ! Your life is too interesting not to share it with us.
I'm laughing as I write this (and I need a laugh right now) because I can hear her voice and I know she means every word of it. OK. Fine. Consider my butt kicked.
I haven't been writing for a couple of reasons. First, I've been busy. Second, I've been trying to figure out how to write about what I ought to write about--if I'm going to be honest and all that. Before I tell an abridged version of my tale of woe, remember that I'm writing this, so I'm OK. Alright, that said, let me start by saying that I've now had my first ride in an ambulance. It was OK, but I could have done without the drama.
Let's start at the beginning--the very beginning. I was born with a bicuspid aortic valve in my heart. A normal aortic valve has 3 leaflets. In my case I have only 2 of those leaflets. The valve closes but not very well. The condition is called aortic insufficiency. My parents learned about this when I was 5. It's not the best thing to know growing up, but it's given me a good sense of "things could be worse." Over time I've also developed stenosis in this valve (a thickening of the leaflets), which makes it even leakier. For years I've heard, "Someday we'll need to replace that." Someday only stays someday for so long. The last few years my doctors have been saying "Someday" then launching into discussions of different surgical techniques. Personally, I think there should be a bar in the lobby of every medical building.
Is anyone grossed out yet? Feel free to bail. I promise that's about all of the anatomy lesson. Although if you want more I think that the Society of Thoracic Surgeons has some of the best illustrations and descriptions that I found. Some people want to know these things. Don't feel bad if you're not one of them.
So...back to the ambulance. In a nutshell, Friday before last I went to the gym at lunch, did a few weight machines and didn't feel great. I did a little time on the stairmaster and felt worse. I showered, dressed, and started to get worried because I could tell that my heart rate was elevated for no good reason. I walked back to work and thought a bite to eat my help. By the time I got to my desk I was short of breath, having mild pain in my chest and knew that my BP and heart rate were both climbing. I am so blessed to work for a company that has an onsite nursing facility. We send people all over the world and it makes sense to be able to deal with the prep (and aftermath) and I think it must help with our insurance rates. Anyway a co-worker walked me to Medical. The nurse agreed that this was not a good situation and called my primary who said essentially, "Hospital, and step on it!" Parametics, dramatic exit from my place of business on a gurney with people staring, ER, blah-blah-blah---2 nights in the Howard University Hospital. Bottom line. I did not have a heart attack. This "event" is unexplained, but everyone believes that it's related to the valve. The best idea so far is that the workout intensity (it was NOT intense) cause my heart rate and BP to go up, increasing the volume of regurgetation (leaking). More exercise before recovery made it worse. Somehow things got REALLY out of hand, and as one of the attending docs put it, "Perhaps you had a little bit of failure." Excuse me? Failure? Don't say that word in front of the P-A-T-I-E-N-T.
Oy. It's been a journey. I'm going to my cardiologist's office tomorrow morning at 7:15 for a nuclear stress test. I get to run on a treadmill while they pump me full of something that gives off gamma rays so they can image the heart. I'm told it's painless--running uphill with an IV in your arm. Sure, no problem.
Sorry y'all. Probably not the news you were expecting. I wasn't expecting it either. I don't know what happens after tomorrow. We'll see how the test goes.
The shining moment in all of this was Dan, who arrived in the ER calm and reassuring, helped me manage the communication with all of my docs, kept me company, and loved me. I'm so blessed.
I promise that the next post will concern art and will include at least one picture!
Catching up and getting ready
So, let's see. The second open studio was great. I had lots of visitors and got good feedback on my recent silk scarves and on my experimental wool scarves. A couple of them have come home for re-engineering. I like them now, but I 'm going to keep fiddling with them until I'm absolutely in love or they're destroyed, whichever comes first.
I gave my first art lecture last Friday. It was part of the Explorations Unlimited speakers series at the Community Center where I have my studio. It's primarily a seniors event. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I got a nice turnout of very supportive folks who asked insightful questions. My follow-up surveys were also very positive, so I think it was a general success. Now that I've got this 1-hour presentation in the bag I wondering about looking for additional venues. Perhaps I can do a little art cloth evangelism.
What else...Oh, yes the little dinner for 80. That was fun. Dan volunteered us to coordinate and prepare a parish dinner for about 100 people at our church. It was great fun but it took days for us to recover. We expected 100; I planned for 120 (I couldn't stand the thought of running short; 80 showed up; lots of left overs in the freezer. Of course we had help. In the kitchen someone else baked the bread, saw to the appetizer course, and baked apple crisp for dessert. I and 2 others did the main dish and salad. I decided I'd like to try my over-the-top lasagna recipe for a large crowd. I figured that I could feed a dozen people from one tray so I just needed 10 times everything. I spend all day Friday (with help) making sauces and doing prep. In case you're interested. It took 10 lbs of grilled sausage, 3 gallons of bechamel, about 5 gallons of red sauce, 15 boxes of frozen chopped spinach, 10 lbs grated carrots...you get the idea. It was all done by hand, from scratch, in huge quantities. It was a big hit and lots of fun, but I won't be signing up for another one of these events in the near future and I'm sure not cut out to be caterer.
I've got lots of stuff brewing in the studio. I'm working on possible submissions for two shows: "My Island" and "Quake". Here's a photo of something that might be a Quake candidate. I've posted photos of earlier states of this piece. I think it might be done. My only concern is that it's a little big smaller than the required 2 yard length for the Quake show, which is for art cloth. I didn't count on the amount of shrinkage I'd get in the cloth...and I think that I eyeballed the measurement. So is that a new rule: measure twice dye once?
Open studio this weekend
...and that means there's lots to do. I just did the e-mail blast. Now I've got a small mountain of stuff that needs to be ironed and labeled.
Surely I must have said this before--but just in case--I share these words of wisdom. Given a choice between pursuing and a call to an art form that involves laundry & ironing and one that does not, think long and hard before you say yes to the laundry & ironing option. Just a little reflection.
Busy in the studio
I've been busy at the studio, busy at my "real" job, busy at home--just plain busy. Everybody's got the same story. It's good to be busy. It takes my mind off of the fact that I lost more money in my 401K this year than I made in my entire first year out of school.
I've been pushing myself to work on some larger pieces of art cloth--around 2 yards. There are lots of advantages to working big: large composition space, room to move, etc. The downside is that if you make a technical mistake the you make it in a big way. I'm working to finish a piece that I started out loving but has since become a bit of a problem child. This is what it looked like in it's first state, still wet (I posted this picture a couple weeks ago). I wish I could have just frozen it that way.
Several layers of dye resulted in some really subtle colors that don't show up here, but are (or were) nice. So the problem is that I had a little discharging mishap. I used Sunlight Dishwasher Gel, which is really great stuff. It takes color out very well. The new version (sorry no pic yet) has a better value range (light to dark). Unfortunately, I now realize that I only hand washed the cloth between dying sessions and did not neutralize the bleach. That probably left residual bleach in the cloth. When I steamed and washed today I lost lots of red and blue.
So you see, big cloth means big success or big failure. Right now I'm doing a little pouting.
My first Open Studio
Last Sunday was my first open studio. What fun, but what a lot of work. All of the Artists in Residence at the Community Center participate in an open studio on the first Sunday of every month. I missed last month because I was away. I hung up a few things and sold one scarf (my very first sale!!!).
This month, because I was actually going to be there, I decided to put in a bit more effort. I sent out e-mail announcements as shown below.
I went in on Saturday and spruce things up a little. In this shot you can see the series of scarves that I've been working on for fun.
I was really delighted by how well they were received. I ended up with a steady stream of visitors, many of whom got a jump on their holiday gift purchasing How very nice for them and for me! It was a real pleasure to watch people enjoy looking, trying, and selecting. Making these scarves was great fun for me. On some level I thought that was it. I wasn't entirely prepared for the added pleasure of sending them out into the world to be a part of other people's lives.
And finally, here are a few shots of individual scarves just to give you and idea of what I'm up to.
If I remember correctly, this was soy wax on white cloth, low water immersion, overdye, discharge, and black extruded dye.
One of my first rust prints. The photo does not do justice to the golden glow this produced on the 8mm habotai fabric. My old wrenches are almost re-rusted and ready for another batch!
One of a number of really great results from the "scrunch and pour" method that I learned from Carol Soderlund. To the left you can see part of another batik piece.
SAQA show + recent work
Busy weekend--no, busy month.
Dan and I did an overnight trip to Staunton, VA last weekend to see the SAQA Amazing Art Quilts show. It was rather unreal seeing a piece of mine hanging in a gallery. It's strange even to write those words. I hope that the photo below shows how wonderfully well the show is presented (mine is 2nd from the left). Staunton's a lovely little town and the R.R. Smith Center was a great venue to host the show.
While we were there I also had a chance to reconnect with some very good friends from college. We weren't exactly disconnected, but we handn't spoken in a while and hadn't seen eachother in too many years. Meeting my friend Stacey's 12-year old daughter Zoe sort of underscored the fact that we need to get together more often.
With all of the travel (and more to come), I've been struggling to get in my studio hours. I've definitely made some progress though. The quilt below (draped over the work table in the studio) is finished. In the photo the binding hasn't been completely turned, but it is really done and it's on the bed. I started this two years ago as the back of our wedding quilt. It got too good to be a back and turned into a quilt top in its own right. Who says work doesn't take on a life of its own?
Here's the latest evolutionary stage in the "Seeds of Change" quilt. I overdyed the whole thing with sun yellow before I heat set the stenciled paint. So, the colors pop a little more, the purple is mostly subdued to brown, the paint softened in both texture and intensity and bits of color have emerged where the brighter dye colors were covered with fabric medium and resisted the yellow dye. Much improved, I think. In the photo it's on the studio table getting pinned for quilting.
I need to try using fusible batting. It would certainly make the quilting prep easier. The safety pins are just such a hassle. Anybody have any good advice in that department? (this is also a test to see who's listening--ha ha).
I've also got about a dozen silk scarves in various stages of completion. I'm trying to build up a little inventory for open studio days. I'll try to remember to take some pictures the next time I get the studio all "dressed up". The next Artrul Afternoon at the Greenbelt Community Center is Sunday October 7, 1-5 pm. Stop by if you're in the area.
Recent Internet appearances
I'm surprised (and I suppose sufficiently immodest) to report that I've received some delightful recent Internet "coverage". Thanks all around.
Kerr Grabowski used a picture of me from a workshop as part of her course description for the workshop that she's teaching in Spring 2009 at the Nancy Crow Timber Frame Barn. Kerr's a great teacher, Nancy is a gracious and generous host, and the Barn is a wonderful place to study. You should go to this place and take this class. I can't say that enough.
Susan Brubaker Knapp did an excellent post on her blog about the "Amazing Art Quilts" show in Staunton. She even included a photo of my piece. I was so thrilled to receive her e-mail letting me know. Check out the post on her very cool blog, Blue Moon River.
And finally, Rayna Gillman recently redesigned her website, Studio 78, and included a photo of me from her soy wax batik workshop at Peters Valley last summer. Rayna's another great teacher well worth seeking out. Check out the new book on her website as well. If you ever wanted to try creating your own cloth, but didn't know where or how to start, then buy this book. If you're already making your own cloth and want a creative boost, then buy this book. You get the idea.
High-fiber turned out to be a good description
My first Art Cloth Network meeting was great. Like most self-governing groups, there's a certain amount of time that needs to be devoted to governance, management, planning--all of my regular 9-5 activities. But, there was also time to see a lot of really good art and time to play. These are some talented folks and I feel not just like the new kid on the block, but the younger brother trying to keep up with the big kids. I guess everyone feels that way from time to time. It's in the nature of making and sharing our art that we sometimes compare what we do to the work of others. It can't be helped. In this case though, I felt very welcomed and came away with a strong sense of both acceptance and validation as an artist.
On Saturday we ventured into Manhattan en masse then split up into smaller groups. Some went shopping, some to museums, and some exploring. I would like to have done it all, but chose instead to go the the garment district for a bit of shopping. This is not really Dan's favorite thing to do, so I figured that since I was surrounded by folks who almost can get enough of fabric stores it made sense to indulge. What fun. For my little group of 6 it ended up being a 12 hour day door-to-door. I came home with a few bargains, including several yards of assorted wool that I'm going to "transform" into scarves. Stay tuned for that one.
I wish that I could post pictures of all of the great work that I saw from fellow members, but we agreed for very good reasons not to post pictures without permission. I'm going to err on the side of caution and share just these two that seem to capture the mood for the Manhattan field trip: Great fun and good company.
Here's Rayna as we're about to leave the famous (but rather pricey) Mood. I think that we all concluded that Metro Textile is a far better bet if your looking for a great bargain. Go to Mood if you need something specific and nothing else will do--and expect to pay for being that picky.
The shop below shows Joy, Wrenn, and Janet looking very happy and chic. It was a beautiful day on the street but the subway was like a steam bath. The ladies wore it gracefully. I wish I could say the same.
Perhaps in another post I tell the story of the restaurant that we went to on Saturday night for our group dinner. I use the term "restaurant" lightly. It was one of the stranger customer service experience of my life. More later...perhaps.
It promises to be a high-fiber weekend
This weekend--actually starting today (Thursday)--I'm in New Jersey on the campus of Rutgers University for the fall meeting of the Art Cloth Network. This is my first meeting. The folks I've met so far all seem very friendly. It sounds like the schedule's already been rearranged a bit. Saturday was supposed to be a play day in Manhattan. I think that's moving it to tomorrow to avoid the bad weather forecast for Saturday. I can't even remember which hurricane is headed our way. I think it's the "H" one--maybe the "I".
So, anyway, I'm looking forward to a bit of exploration in the garment district. I brought an empty backpack, just in case! I hope that I have the presence of mind to remember the 4 meters of fabric that Dan & I bought in Paris many years ago then schlepped all over the city. It weighted a ton. Dan probably did most of the carrying--and he's not with me this time.
No apologies
No apologies for the lack of postings. I've been busy. (That's an excuse, not an apology).
I've been spending some good time in the studio, but trying not to be too frenzied about cranking out fabric. I've got a couple of pretty pieces and one that I can't figure out. It's either dead ugly or it's going to turn into something. I just don't know. Let's start with the good looking stuff.
This is nice.
Overprinting with a mask made it better, and I think that some embellishment and quilting might finish it.
This is from early this week. It's 2 yards long! I never print this size at home because it's hard to move around the table. At the studio I'm using the same print board, but there's so much room! It washed out very well and, with luck, will get another layer today.
So now for the problem child. It started out pretty good. It was done with a polychromatic screen released wet (i.e., not deconstructed).
Did it get better? Perhaps.
The red was a bit if an F#$% up if you ask me.After steaming and washing out the orange lost some of its strength. We're not going in the right direction.
Scissor are the answer, right? And how about some charcoal drawing? The color palette is wrong to my eye. It's weak. It looks like somebody had a terrible accident with a sorbet dessert tray.
Green circles, darkening from top to bottom Humm.
I just don't know. The working title that came out during the process of making this monster is "Seeds of Change". I think it has something to do with too many political speeches about "Change". I wanted Hillary. I got Obama. After the speech last night I feel better about that than I did before.
Well this cloth is like a mosquito bite right now: every time I scratch it, it seems to get worse. I think it needs to rest for a while.
Now I'm going to go stretch a couple of new silk screens then off to the studio. I made 6 new frames last night. One of the advantages of getting the print table out of the basement is that I now have no reservations about making a mess with the table saw. My woodworking shop has come back to life!
Studio pictures as promised
Here's a panoramic view of my new studio. It's huge--really huge! I moved in today with help from Dan and our friend Mary Frances. It was a long tiring day but with three people we really seemed to make quick work of it. I went back this evening for a couple of hours and got dye concentrate mixed so I should be in business tomorrow.
I continue to be surprised that this day actually came.
Moving day
The lease for the studio is signed and today's the day I pick up the keys and move in. Wow. I'm very excited but still have a little bit of that going-over-a-waterfall kind of feeling. I hope I'll have pictures to post later today. For now I suppose I should start packing up. This seems less intimidating that packing for a workshop. There should be fewer weighty decisions about what to pack.
But, the most pressing immediate need is coffee...
More later.
Getting organized
I know I'm not alone in this. My life seems to be an ongoing cycle of organization and disarray. I clean up and them I mess up. The railing at the top of our stairs at home is a collecting point for work in progress that's too big to leave anywhere else (and other stuff).
Here's the sad state of affairs today.
There's a queen-size quilt for our bed that's waiting to be bound. The purple thing is something that I'm just starting. And the bits of silk are part of a series of 10 scarves that I'm doing so that I have something to sell in the new studio (Move in day is this coming Friday!). Bottom line is this: I have got to get this stuff done so that it can go where ever it is that it's supposed to go. It just can't spend it's entire life in the hallway.
As I said, the studio is about to take off. I've got the contract in hand, the insurance is paid for, and I pick up the keys this Friday. I'm very excited, but I still have occasional hyperventilating moments. Am I making a commitment that's bigger than I can live up too? Those moments seem to pass quickly and I keep moving (or floating) forward.
There's so much to do. I've got to do some packing and figure out how much is going to the studio and how much is staying home. I think it's going to take awhile to work out the balance. One of my big questions is what to do about dye. I've switched over to working exclusively with dye concentrates. I mix known concentrates of primary colors then mix everything else from those. I've found that the shelf life of the concentrates is greatly extended by refrigerating them. The same holds true for sodium alginate pint paste (NB: adding 1 tsp of denatured alcohol per quart to the alginate mixture helps too). So, do I buy a little dorm fridge for the studio? Do I just let the stuff go bad faster at room temperature? Or do I schlep it back and forth (not likely!)? This is the stuff I can't figure out. Since my studio time is going to be a little spotty, I'm leaning toward the fridge. Opening up a container of spoiled alginate and getting a face full of the disgusting ammonia smell is just about enough to ruin my day!
A final note on color. I snapped this photo last week in the Bishop's Garden on a visit to the National Cathedral. What amazing colors. I need to do something with this.
Not sure what to make of Pittsburgh
The important news first. My dad is continuing his remarkable recovery from his stroke earlier this month. He's going to PT 3 times each week and it sounds like they're really putting him through his paces. His speech is also improving. We spoke on the phone earlier this week for quite a while and I understood everything that he said. Two weeks ago I was scared that might not be possible.
Last weekend's trip to Pittsburgh was interesting, but I don't think I need to go back. I was there briefly about 20 years ago. It's clear that the city has invested considerable effort in trying to move beyond they're history and reputation as a steel mill town. The mills are mostly gone, replaced by deluxe pedestrian shopping/entertainment malls. It seems like these are in turn sucking the life out of neighborhood retail just has they've done for the last 40 years all over the country. It seems like there might have been a lesson to learn there, but I'm not going to mount the urban planning soapbox today.
So, we covered a good deal of ground, saw lots of neighborhoods (good and bad), and did a lot of sweating in the 95+ degree heat. The Nancy Crow exhibit at CMU was great. Although the gallery was a bit dim in places, the work still showed very well. We also spent Saturday morning at the Warhol museum--quite nice. We left early on Sunday morning so that we could stop at Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob. Both were wonderful. Of course Fallingwater is such an icon. The tour was very well done, but it's hard to get a sense of the place when you're just zipping through it.
This is one of those classic views of the house. In many ways it give you better sense of the place than does the tour, with the hustle and bustle of all the people.
Dan and I were both surprised by Kentuck Knob. It's one of Wright's "unonian" houses, but on the high end of the scale (compared to the Pope-Leighey house for example). The house is lovely and very livable. The grounds are also a wonderful natural landscape and include a meadow full of tremendous modern sculpture. I was thrilled to learn from the tour guide that the collection includes not one but two Andy Goldsworthy's.
I love the earthy, organic feel of these sculptures. There's no reason that I should come upon a stone circle or a cairn in the middle of the woods, but what a delight when I do!
Things continue to improve
More good news from Dad. He continues to improve. His speech and hand mobility are both much better. He had his first physical therapy appointment yesterday and saw his primary care physician. Both were very optimistic about his continued recovery. There's just so much here for which to be thankful.
This is a quick post because Dan and I are off for Pittsburgh in a few minutes. This afternoon we're going to see the big Nancy Crow exhibit at the Miller Gallery on the CMU campus. The rest of the plans are kind of loose. The Warhol museum is a must, and there are a couple of other nice museums (depending on how hot it is outside). There are also neighborhoods to explore, food to eat--all of the usual "vacation" things. Sunday on the way home we're stopping to see Frank Lloyd Wright's houses, Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob. We're both be Wright fans, have never seen either of these homes. The Crow exhibit and the Wright visits are the anchors for the trip.
Monday night I get to meet my fellow Artists in Residence from the community center. We're having a pot luck dinner and planning the group show for later in the year. Progress on the studio renovation continues. I'm still hoping that we hit the Aug 1 move-in date, but it's out of my hands at this point. This week I bought by business insurance (never thought I'd be doing that) and started thinking about studio furniture. Life continues to surprise me!
A belated happy B-day to my blog
July 6th marked the one-year anniversary of my blog. It's hard to believe. I surprised myself. The posts have been a bit sporadic lately, but that's more a symptom of a busy life than lack of interest.
More posts to come. No real end in sight...