Big week

When it rains it pours, and this time it's pouring good news. This week I found out that my art quilt, "Seeds of Change" (below) was accepted into the 40th Annual Laural Art Guild Open Juried Exhibition (March 6-29 at the Montpelier Art Center in Laurel, MD). I'm very excited to have a piece accepted into a show that covers a full range of media, not just fiber. That's a first for me.

And...my art cloth piece titled "Spiral 2: Tremor" was accepted into the Art Cloth Network "Quake" show (October 2009, Archway Gallery, Houston, TX). I'm in some really outstanding company for this show and...I don't know what to say. I'm humbled and proud at the same time.

Something old, something new

Pictures, finally. Sorry about the recent run of under-illustrated posts. Sometimes it's more about the words.

Let's start with the "new". I've really been in the mood to print lately and been having fantasies about buying a relief press. An intaglio press would be even better, but considerably more expensive. What you see here is a pieced composition that started as a single sheet of white muslin onto which I fused torn strips of cloth (commercial and hand-dye). That got hacked into 5 strips and printed in brown and purple using a variety of blocks, stamps, and plates that I've created over the last few years. Each strip then got dyed in a different value of a color gradation of green. Then came topsitiching on the fused pieces, some more chopping, resewing of the strips in to a whole cloth, and finally chopping and resewing that. I like the way it turned out. At each step I gave myself specific design limitations (color palette, type of stitching, geometric form, etc.) and forced myself to resolve the design issues within those limits. For example, when I was cutting I said that cuts could be off of orthogonal, but no strong diagonals. I think that the composition is well along, but I'm letting it rest on the studio wall for a while as I contemplate the quilting layer and what that might bring.

Now onto the "old". I should really string this out to more than one post, but what the heck. I dyed, and pieced this quilt top over a year ago and it's been languishing at home waiting for whatever comes next. This week I took it into the studio and hung it on the design wall to get a better view of it. I really can't do that at home.

The piece started with a length of discharged and over-dyed black rayon. It was great before the over-dye, and I should have left it alone--story of my life. I went into the piece with the intention of creating a triptich form (three panels). The give in the rayon allowed me to add subtle curves to some of the straight lines and throughout the composition I intentionally played with angles. (I truely CAN sew two seams at a right angle--I swear.) The working title was "Common Ground", but I'm no longer sure that applies. It is somehow more about space. The two side panels, with their strong grid pattern seem like gates to me, which was an intentional play on the idea of a triptich, but the way the red lines are angled toward convergence points on the outer edge of the composition almost creates an illusion that the panels are bent backward, rather than out toward the viewer (particularly on the left). The tabs of black border fabric that extend from the top and bottom are just leftovers from piecing that didn't get trimmed away. Left as they are they give the piece the feel of a japanese screen. I now think they are an important part of the overally feel and plan to leave then on. I had a long informal crit session with my studio-mate, Tom, which was very helpful. I'm now considering ways that I might extend some of the design into the black border, perhaps using stitching.

What think you I take my pen in hand to record?

A truly great literary question if every there was one. I wish I could take credit for a line like that, but it's Whitman, from "Leaves of Grass" (http://www.whitmanarchive.org/published/LG/1867/poems/50). It's one of my favorite poems. Everybody should have one if you can pull it off without sounding pretentious. I don't know if I'm succeeding there.

WHAT think you I take my pen in hand to record?

The battle-ship, perfect-model'd, majestic, that I saw
pass the offing to-day under full sail?

The splendors of the past day? Or the splendor of the
night that envelops me?

Or the vaunted glory and growth of the great city
spread around me?—No;

But I record of two simple men I saw to-day, on the pier,
in the midst of the crowd, parting the parting of dear friends;

The one to remain hung on the other's neck, and passionately kiss'd him,

While the one to depart, tightly prest the one to remain in his arms.

I can't think of why this line popped into my head. Perhaps because I sat down to write and I didn't know about what. Lately I feel as though I'm stuck in a loop (once a programmer; always a programmer). I finish something (or almost) , and then it's off to the next big thing; repeat. I suppose life is meant to be like that, but I also think there needs to be some just plain "being" every once in a while.

My big batch of show submissions are all out but no word yet. I confess that I blew off at least one show opportunity because I just couldn't fit it in. The next 3 weeks are focused mostly on church work. The Rector search has moved from high gear into something akin to warp speed. We (the committee) are conducting 4 2-day visits/interviews over the next 3 weeks. The candidates come to visit us, we show them around the area, wine & dine, and interview them. With luck (I suppose that should be faith & prayer) we will be having a committee retreat in early March to select the final 3. They will advance to the lightening round--I mean they will meet with the Vestry for another round of interviews. I'm hoping for white smoke before the daffodils fade. It's all very exciting, but it's overwhelming at times. Right now we have four great candidates and somehow we have to discern a mutual call between one individual and our community.

So, that's all rattling around in my head along with this community art workshop that I'm teaching on March 1. BIG LESSON: less is more. My grand plan is way to grand to pull off and I'm trying to scale back. For 1 thing, I was planning on having people combine paint and fusible fabric to do surface design on clothing. Here's what I've learned from making samples:

• Fusible adheres very well to cloth that has fabric paint on it...until it goes trough the washer. Fusible is out. Let's not talk about the bolt of Wonder Under that I now own. Let's just say that I'm going to be doing a lot of applique.
• Finished garments are a pain to work with. And, the pleat in the back of a man's dress shirt is in the way. Shirts are too big to start with. Do we really need that much more fabric?
• You can make low-cost stamps out of self adhesive craft foam, a pair of cheap scissors, and a scrap of foam core.

My repertoire now consists of freezer paper mask/stencil, stamping, and free hand painting. Folks are supposed to bring their own shirt to work on. I'll probably bring some muslin squares and poster board for the kids just in case. Send a prayer my way on the first of March. Gasp.

I swear I meant for this to be an upbeat post. I'm not sure it reads that way. Not to worry. Spring is on the way and that always seems to change everything.

What's new?

Lately I've been missing blogging. I'm not certain that this "missing it" feeling will make me a more consistent poster, but you never know.

So, what IS new? As recently reported, I finished my Quake entries for the ArtCloth Network show and got them shipped off for review just before the deadline. A week after my dash to the post office I was delighted to receive a nice note from the curator saying my submissions were good and would I like have an additional piece considered. I confess, that really felt good. That set off another scramble to photograph and submit another piece. Done.

Last week was another mad dash. This time it was a submission for the Laurel Art Guild annual open exhibition. I submitted my art quilt, "Seeds of Change". It's probably the most painterly piece that I've got at the moment and seemed the most appropriate for a show that's open to all media. This is my first "art show" submission (by which I mean--tongue in cheek--it's not fiber-focused). I'm not sure how much experience the group has with fiber artists. We shall see. I think getting into this show would be a good thing all around.

There's more.

I'm gearing up for a workshop I'm teaching on March 1: "Reinvent your old Clothing". It's a drop-in workshop at the community center, which means all ages and all skill levels. I've got plenty of experience teaching in both technical and academic environments. Teaching art is something new to me. It's certainly something I'm interested in doing. That doesn't mean that I'm not more than a little intimidated. We're going to be painting and fusing on shirts that folks dig out of the back of their closets. Cool idea, but can I pull it off? With help I think so. Stay tuned. Better still, grab and old dress shirt you never wear and come to the workshop (3/1, 1-3pm, Greenbelt Community Center).

And finally, yesterday I gave a presentation for the Sunday morning Adult Forum at my church as part of a series on the intersection of art and faith. I had a great time preparing for it and doing the presentation. It's a topic close to my heart and one of great interest. I'm thinking about reworking and expanding the presentation into something more about the experience of discernment and call from an artist's perspective--how to ask the questions and what might happen as a result. I have to give that one some more thought. Who's the audience? How would I market a presentation like this? Do I even have the credibility to say anything on this topic beyond my own experience? All questions for later.

Sorry no pictures today. Next time. I promise.