A fresh look

I'm trying out the new "Dynamic views" template for my blog. It looks a bit fresher. We'll see how it goes. Let me know if there are problems.

I've been back from the workshop with Kerr in Bay St. Louis for a week. It seems like longer. The workshop was very productive. I've got probably 10 pieces started and the time there helped me develop some ideas. It also gave me food for thought.

Workshops! Although I tell myself I'm going off to do this work with goals but no expectations, it seems that afterword  I always ask myself it the experience lived up to my expectations. They never do. That's not because the experience isn't good. It's because expectations are formed in a vacuum with little or no connection to the people, place, and "space" in which the actual experience will happen. Gosh, that sounds terribly abstract. I'm struggling to say that regardless of what I expected, I got what I got, and it was good.

Much to my surprise I was deeply affected by Bay St. Louis and the people that I met there. The town and surrounding region were devastated by the 30-foot tidal surge that accompanied hurricane Katrina in late August 2005. People died, the town was all by wiped from the map, and the suffering and loss were overshadowed by the disaster in New Orleans. It's more than I can imagine. What little we saw on TV and in print could never give a sense of scale of the thing.

The Bay is coming back, but even almost 7 years of work there is still plenty of physical evidence that something tremendously destructive happened there. It's was hard not to talk about the storm and what followed, but I felt guilty mentioning it. On one hand, it's like failing to acknowledge the 500 pound guerilla in the room; one the other it's felt like asking someone to relive their hurt and loss. That said, I heard amazing stories from strong, creative, and vital people about their survival, their love of the place and each other, and their hard work to restore their community. I'm reading Ellis Anderson's first person account of the storm and the events that followed. I highly recommend, "Under surge, Under siege: The Odyssey of Bay St. Louis and Katrina." I'm only 75% of the way through it, but it's outstanding.

I don't know if or when I will get back the Bay, but I hope I do, and I hope it will be sooner rather than later.

Continuing workshop efforts

It's the end of Thursday and I'm pooped. I'm the last one in the studio, enjoying a little peace and the luxury of a working Internet connection. It's been a good week. Although I have nothing finished to show for it, I've got some new direction and about 5-6 pieces that, while they will require substantial work to finish, can be finished at some point in the future.

One piece in particular has been presenting an interesting challenge. I've been working from a practice watercolor in my sketchbook, trying to come close to the same look and feel on cloth.

Here's the sketchbook page. Love it.

The cloth. The image is too strong. It's not nearly this high-contrast or saturated in person

Here's the same cloth with an overlay of painted organza (the dark circle). I'm really happy with where this is going and I think I know what it needs next, but that's a project that requires more time, space, and concentration than I have right now. At least I know what comes next.

OK. Off to bed.

Work in progress: new circles

Graphite and charcoal on cotton broadcloth; a mixture of texture rubbing and directing drawing.

Thickened liquid reactive dye; drawn and brushed.

Thickened liquid reactive dye; texture rubbing.

Getting intimate with MX colors

Over the last few weeks I've been doing some experiments and gathering supplies for a project that I've had kicking around in my head for the last 2 years: I'm going to dye every combination of MX primary colors. I should qualify that statement a bit and add a few "yes, I knows":

• I fully acknowledge that this might be a little crazy (in the OCD category).
• I'm only planning to dye the primaries, secondary, and tertiary colors, and I"m only dying a single value of each hue.
• Yes, there will be duplication from one color group to the next. For example, the same yellow will be crossed with multiple reds and blues.

When all's said and done (and dyed) the goals are these:

1. Produce a reference that shows how the primaries interact.
2. Identify primary triads that speak to me and merit further exploration (Soderlund color cube?).
3. Learn by doing.
4. Develop color palettes different from the one that have become habitual to me. 

So why am I doing that? Well, in part it's because I can't seem to resist doing it. Yes it's lots of work, but the discovery will be fun. And, the end result will be useful.

The dyeing plan is a little convoluted. After a couple of sessions where I dyed one or two color families at a time in small containers I realized that, while this was the easiest approach to organize, it was also the most wasteful. I would be spending most of my time mixing dye. Instead, I've developed a whopping big spreadsheet that allows me to identify every combination of the 4 yellows, 4 reds, and 5 blues--that makes 80 distinct color wheels--and shows how many 5"x 5" squares of each distinct YR, YB, and RB pair that I need to dye to assemble the wheels.

Once all of the dyeing is done I'm also going to do discharge samples to accompany each color wheel.

I'm looking at this as a 1-year project. I really want to do this, but I can't shutdown every other studio activity for this one obsession. More to come...

Untitled work in progress

Not sure where this piece is going, but it's up on the design wall in studio incubating. The black line is pieces in. I've been thinking about line quality and trying to create pieced work that has a gestural quality to the line work. More to come...perhaps.

Getting ready for Kerr

Sunday morning I'm off to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi for a 1-week workshop with Kerr Grabowski. It's a very small group, just 6 of us, and all former students of hers. It should be great. Friends ask me what these workshops are like. Well, there's just no one-size-fits-all answer. Some are incredibly hard work. Others are lot's of laughing (and really hard work). It depends on the mix of teacher, students, and the phase of the moon. In every case there is learning and growth.

Now, Kerr is a special person. She's given me some of the most helpful critique I've ever received. And we laugh. It's hard to put a value on that. This YouTube video might give you a little insight into what her workshops are like. It's lots of what-if and "Oh, now I like that." There's lots of discovery and a good bit of laughter.

I'm talking myself into a big smile and a real sense of anticipation.

Restructured Circles #3

I finished this piece about a month ago and submitted it for a local show. No luck. It would have been nice to show it, but for some reason I'm not terribly disappointed that I don't have delivery, pickup, and reception on my to do list. Go figure. This is the 3rd completed piece in my "Restructured Circles" art quilt series. The marks are made entirely by discharge and I very happy with the results. The piecing is minimal, by which I mean it's 2 pieces. It doesn't get much more minimal.

When I finished the piece I stood back and said, "OMG it's a cairn." I've been taking pictures of rocks for years, and in the last few years have really become fascinated with stacked rocks. I think this might be the beginning of something. A new direction or a course refinement? To be determined.

All set for the Greenbelt Art+Craft fair

Sherill and I are all setup for the Greenbelt Festival of Lights Art + Craft Fair. For a first attempt booth I'm very pleased. As it worked out it's pretty much exactly a 50/50 mix of her work and mine. The framed work on the wall is Sherill's cut paper--just fantastic stuff. She's also got books and other paper work. She also make small purses and other things out of some my hand dyed and printed cloth from my scrap pile. I'll have to post some more detailed pictures of them. I wasn't sure what to expect, but they are terrific and absolutely cool. For my part is just miles of scarves--miles. I've very happy with the result of my recent work and I'm hoping for a good show.

Now I just need a drink, a little snack, and someplace to park my rear for a little while before bed. It'll be an early start tomorrow.

My new Etsy store is live

My new online store on Etsy went live quietly last week and I've been adding to it ever sense. I just announced it for the first time yesterday and I'm happy to say I've made my first sale. Frankly, this is way more effort that I expected it to be, but it's worth it because I didn't have to do any of the programming work. That's a fair trade, even with the listing costs.

Stop by and take a look at etsy.com/shop/russlittlefiberart.

Getting ready

I feel like I'm getting ready for so many things. That might or might not be a good thing. I think sometimes I use "getting ready"-- the act of collecting, gathering, studying -- as an excuse for not starting. Lately, however, I find myself getting ready for things that are going to happen no matter what. I spent 2 full days this weekend printing, dyeing, and discharging cloth because I'm getting ready for my first craft show, which is coming up in December. I'm also getting ready for the Art Cloth Network meeting later this week in St. Petersburg, FL. That means packing, but also finishing the Treasurer's report, collecting cloth to bring, and finishing my presentation. None of these things is truly monumental, but collectively...well let's just say that I've been busy.

No pictures of new art tonight, but there's plenty on the way and I hope to share some pictures of work in progress over the next several weeks.

On Point added to the "What Remains" show

We had a wonderful artists reception this past Sunday for "What Remains." The turnout was good and everyone seemed very interested in the work. It was also nice to get to talk to some of my fellow artists in residence for a little while. Even though we all have studios in the same general space, our schedules are different and, to be honest, when we're there we're working. Many of us hardly see each other. Because Sunday was originally supposed to be the end of the run for the show (before it got extended), a couple people had work that was already promised to buyers or other shows. That left us with a couple of holes. Lucky me. I was able to add my quilt "On Point" to the show. It's never been shown before and I'm very happy for it to get a wider public viewing.

I think it's particularly appropriate for this show because, in addition to my own hand dyed cloth, it includes "remains" of commercial cloth that I used to make things that I wore around the house while recovering from surgery a couple years ago.

Finally finished: Part 4

OK. This is the last of the series of finally completed work, but I promise that there's more to come. These two pieces are called, "Sedona #1" and "Sedona #2". They're the first installments in a little mini-series inspired by a few days spent hiking in Sedona, Arizona earlier this summer. They each measure 30" w X 72" h. They're art cloth (cotton broadcloth) with a rod pocket at the top. They incorporate painting with thickened dye, low water immersion dyeing, soy wax resist, bound and stitched resist, and discharge with both chlorine and thiox.

 

Finally finished: Part 3

But wait, there's more. This one is called "Restructured Circles #2," which of course means it's another member of my "Restructured Circles" series. I have to say that I really love this piece. It's not heavily pieces, but it didn't need to be. It started out, as all of the pieces in this series will, as a whole cloth. It was then cut up and reassembled. In this case nothing happened to it after the reassembly other than quilting. The quilting is closely spaced echos following the general shape of the circular forms.

I'm pleased with the line quality and the feeling of the brush strokes, some of which I applied directly to the cloth and others indirectly through a silk screen. I also got where I wanted to be in terms of value and balance.

Finally finished: Part 2

This is the next installment in the series of recently finished work. It's called "Restructured Circles #1." I'm not sure that's the most evocative name, but it's part of a series by that name. I'm happy with both the concept and the result, and I'm looking forward to continuing this series for awhile.

The quilting is equally spaced parallel lines with a few lines intersecting at obtuse angles in the lower left. I used a mixture of variegated and light solid colored thread to create a visual variation in the quilting.

Finally finished: Part 1

This is the first of several posts showing newly finished work. This one is called "Line and Rhythm." I finished the quilt top probably two years ago, but have only recently completed the quilting. Like several recent pieces, the quilting here is very dense, about 1/4" spacing. I love the texture it creates.

I like this piece very much and have yet to make anything quite like it. I hope to get back to this sometime to use it as a starting point for a series. Actually, I can say that about several of pieces. Getting them photographed and getting some distance is allowing me to to see better what's working and what's not and to think about how individual pieces can inspire future work. Yes, of course, I know that I'm supposed to do that along the way--and I do take photos of work in progress. But, sometimes it seems that only at the very end--and sometimes only ofter considerable time has past--can I see the connection between one piece and something to follow.

UPDATED 9/21: In response to Judy's request, here's a detail shot of as well. Forgive the color balance and quality. It's an iPhone quickie.

By the time that I quilted this piece I'd switched to Aurifil 50 weight Mako cotton thread for quilting and I just love it. I was using Gutermann before. It's not bad thread per se, but the Aurifil is just so very superior. It's wonderfully fine. It feeds beautifully through the machine and there's virtually no lint (except of course from the batting). There's no local source around here that I know of so I've been mail ordering from Red Rock Threads in Nevada (redrockrockthreads.com).

Home By Another Way

The biennial  Greenbelt Community Center Artists-in-Residence show, "What Remains" opened in the first floor gallery on Aug 26 and runs through Oct 2. If you're local to the the DC Metro area do try to see this show. I think the work is particularly strong. I'm grateful to Greenbelt for the support they provide to me and my fellow artists.

"Home By Another Way," which I've worked on for more of this year than I'm going to admit (too many distractions), is my interpretation of the show's theme, "What Remains." This piece literally grew from the remains of a failed composition. It taught me a lot and I'm happy with the final work.

The three panels of the triptych measure about 6 feet across in total.

Dyeing to Discharge: Workshop samples

Here are some examples from the workshop. These are the cotton and rayon pieces. I've still got to wash and iron the silk pieces. I'll post photos of those another day.

Commercial black rayon discharged with bleach, overdyed, then discharged with thiox.

Commercial black rayon discharged with bleach, overdyed, then illumination printed with thiox and MX dye.

Another illumination print on commercial black rayon.

Commercial black cotton discharged with bleach and overdyed

Potato dextrin resist on commercial black rayon discharged with monagum thickened bleach.

Mixed cotton and 50/50 cotton/poly blend assembled, clamped, and dyed (LWI).

Clamped resist on white fabric dyed black.

Commercial black T shirt pole wrapped and bound with string, discharged in a bleach bath, then overdyed.

Dyeing to Discharge: Day 5

Well, actually this post is more like post-day 5. I'm home in College Park and exhausted. I can't figure out what I did to be so pooped except that I must have worked harder this week than I thought.

Yesterday was mostly finishing up any work in progress, washing out, cleaning up, and doing the end of class discussion. I'm still doing wash at home and will press, photograph, and share some samples over the next day or so. I'm pleased with several of the things I brought home.

My takeaways from this week include the following:

• First and foremost: I've been ignoring a really valuable design tool--discharge--because I was squeamish about the safety, mess, etc. After a week of working with this stuff and never feeling any ill effects I feel well prepared to do more discharge work, and to do it in a way that's safe.
• Tied for first: This stuff is great, but anyone using any form of bleach or reducing agent needs to wear a respirator when using it and work outside. [That goes for using Tilex in the bathroom too. Close the door, open the window, turn on the fan, wear an acid/gas respirator, leave the room when you're done, and don't come back until the smell is gone. Don't laugh. I'm totally serious. I've made myself sick in the past from chlorine and I will never do it again.]
• I'm going to try a few more experiments with MX primary combinations and work on developing a vocabulary of discharge colors, effects, and marks that speaks to me. In a lot of ways workshops like this one are like going to a wine tasting. You taste some things you like and some you don't, and after a while your palette needs a rest to recover from the over-stimulation.
• MX acid process for silk! I've got to do more of this. I've got all of the supplies; I just need to fine tune my technique. [Of course Carol teaches a 5-day action packed class just on silk, but I can't think about that now. Too tired.]
• I want to work on black and white textures through discharge. Is it really possible that there's a pleasing combination of MX primaries out there that discharges to white? It doesn't seem that way, but...
• I'm going to experiment with potato dextrin as a resist and see if I can use it in a way that works for me. I'm not really interested in slathering yardage and waiting for it to crackle, but the stuff washes out so much easier than some other resists that it's worth playing with.
• Finally, I bought some monagum [the giant PRO Chem order should arrive on Wed] and I'm going to make my own thickened bleach discharge paste from now on. No more dishwasher gel.

Bottom line: I learned some new things and a lot of good safety tips. I definitely recommend this workshop for anyone interested in working with discharge techniques. Yes, you can figure this stuff out on your own, but this is a great way to jumpstart the process and get a good and SAFE start.

Dyeing to Discharge: Day 4

Yesterday was the 4th day of class. Time is flying by--faster than usual. The sample books are all done and it will be a valuable reference. As I was replaying the day in my head last night I started thinking about the work hanging on my design wall at home. One of the things that I wanted to accomplish this week was to work on new ideas for how I would add complexity to that composition through discharge. I've got some ideas, so mission accomplished.

Yesterday we did more immersion discharge with both bleach and thiox. I also did some dye painting and printing so that I would have pieces to discharge today. One piece is a 22" x 80" piece of silk habotai that I stretched over the ground in the parking lot and rolled with thickened black dye. It's fantastic. I'm going to need to find a cracking asphalt surface at home to work on--discretely of course.

Well, I promised photos, so here's a shot of two severely bound pieces of silk before going into a thiox discharge bath.

And, this one shows two shibori poles wrapped with T shirts in a bleach bath. The brown one is mine. It has since been overdyed while still on the pole. Speaking of which, I've got to run to the studio now for the last day of class. There's lots of washing out to do this morning. Should be an exciting day with so many pieces coming to completion.

Dyeing to Discharge: Day 3

I've only got time for a quick post, then I need to get to sleep. Day 3 was good. Today we wrapped up the exploration of chlorine bleach with some work with thickened bleach using Monagum. I discharged a piece of rayon that I prepared yesterday with potato dextrin crackle. I don't think I need to do that again. It's just a big mess. Yes, it does create an interesting pattern, but one that is very distinctive--as in, "Oh look he used potato dextrin." Someone observed that while it might be obvious to other surface designers, there's a whole world of folks out there who find the crackle pattern very engaging. It just doesn't speak to me.

We also did a bit of work with thickened thiox. Now, I've done this before and always found the smell a bit overwhelming. Today we all were able to screen, print, paint, etc. indoors with no ill effects. Of course the ironing to activate the discharge was all done outside with respirators on.

After dinner this evening I spent a couple of hours stitching up a T-shirt and a piece of silk for a bit of stitched shibori tomorrow.

Learning lots and still having fun. Pictures tomorrow.