For now, takin care of self and organizing for the craft show. I'm two or three months late getting started, but the hard stuff, the purses, are done.
Pushed back the clock on everything and started in two days early. Thinking of 40 dollars or less amounts to fabricated word panels with a hint and dare of hand embroidery. Enough to gain interest and provide competition for the word wooden panels. I've got Love. Peace. Joy. Merry Christmas and Feliz Navidad. Opting possibly for Wisdom. Truth. Knowledge. Some years what I think will inspire sales does not. A suggestion was to keep it simple. I'm debating, but I loved a former suggestion of weaving in pine garland and ribbon. In the least I won't forget the red velvet ribbon, if I leave everything else aside but the words. Tabs for hanging by running a dowel rod through and the ribbon to anchor on a nail. Remembering college, I'd 'ave loved one of these darlins sincerely.
For now, takin care of self and organizing for the craft show. I'm two or three months late getting started, but the hard stuff, the purses, are done.
Alright. Let's nip this in the bud right now before I get further hassled by it some more. I am a visual artist foremost, a writer second and lastly I produced confounded contraptions out of fabric on a sometimes quota basis. God, Jesus, family come next, not in that order. Then there is me, little teeny me on the landscape of life who is right no intimidated by going to the Museums than I every was before. Seeing something perfect and profound just irks me right now. I might sit in the Mesoamerica section and draw except for the fact I am equally as irritated how the Incas and Aztecs did exquisite profiles. Bad me, bad me. I'm attracted to it for the sake of it foreign appearance. I use to know a thing or two about African American Art and what I garner from each is a world apart, literally and figuratively. Issues of the other and jealous attraction to the exotic. I don't want to possess, I just want to bring as much authenticity to my work as I can. Friends joke that I'm European, because I am no where near the American artistic ethic and notion. Namely which I think is Graphic Arts and Design and Conceptualism. I want a mark on paper that distinguishes me like Egon Schiele going no hold barred in sketches and the precision of delicate line taking shape on the page. I may have disagreed with Schiele's life choice,but you can't argue about his draftsmanship, solid and compelling. I gasp and want to bask, like him, in Klimt's approval and adoration. The difference is I have had my time taken with life drawing. If I come back to that and integrate the figure, into these mounds of materials neatly separated into unlabeled boxes, above and beneath the table, I will have made it past a distant block come forward. I was not ready for that challenge and I was not ready for this one that formed on this Tuesday past. Back to sketching as I spoke of and head first into paper. These "Paper, Cloth, Scissors" magazines I bought are a wealth of information. Problem: Buying the tools that the example suggest. It seems closer to scrap booking that I ever was and I'm getting hung up at JoAnn's in the paper aisle looking at all the notions, tools and materials that I don't have. I pride myself on finding things in the wild, ready mades if you will. All the hunting I've done over the years ending up neatly pre-packaged made out of plastic looking a distant cousin from the real. When I find it ,I tend to pay for the real what I argue about with in the aisle of the store. Intrinsic value and yes will I command a price for it that is commensurate with the market or does this now become a selling point and boost the bottom line. I'll learn, I'll learn, I swear to God I will learn. The sewn quilted piece is finished and in the corner above. The bottom space is close to finishing. That is below. Inspired by the magazine I mentioned, I'll be sewing them together and doing more stitch work. Not really thread painting, but possibly. This is an experiment that will edition on paper should the needle not tear the paper apart, between that and the fabric. Should that occur I am looking to grommets, which may post the call till next month. Yet, with a little funding a bought a new tool with supplies included. Hopefully they will work. No clue as to what to call the series, Latin my arise in the final argument and win. Also edging on putting doodads on, ready mades, shells and etcetera. Looking for a place for the paquettes to land. Friend keep telling me to sew and not stop. Experiment more and find my way into Contemporary Embroidery. I still want to tell a story without words and not binge on texture. It may be too late for that. Pardon the impatient camera shots. Teeny bit dark. Ok. I've devolved into editing and making a choice to let it flow as it can.
Name change from The Medicine Wars to the American Underground or the word an will preclude instead of the. I'm starting to see it form better. Working on a minor character since Friday. I'm getting more committed to finish than before. Fiddling in the dark. Digging for my stash and today is the day I am reminded that we (royal invocation) do not throw they away. They are collectable and have purposes in and out of the studio, in and out of papers and in and out of my mind. I lost many in this motif to the left to a farm in Collinsville, Texas. Upon moving here, I was glad when unearthing CDs of past research lives, I found at least one of these sketches in good shape. Since then I tried to revive the motif when I'm under the weather. Somehow I was invoking the sun to come out, even in my loneliness shuddering in the shadows. I found a few other sketches and am ambulating into fabric renditions to give the line pop and mind us all of the majesty in Islamic illuminated manuscripts. I'm thinking small and intimate; a coveted crown jewel if you will. I think too of a precious piece of knowledge handed down from an ancient era. Now I must ask for patience from my self and you as well. I confess I may be running from the current project. One more pass and I've finished quilting the motif. Lastly then, I begin on the border. I may be done by the end of August to begin the binding. Pushing myself has got me stayed to a three year deadline. Still though, now five years is the focus thanks to a far seeing friend. His comments too are to leave the prosaic dyptch for another day and focus on rendering the images. I have the material for the key points, but not the designs and cuts for the remaining seven, or was it twelve, I forget. Foremost I am a artist, so focus on imagery. Still now in hindsight I'm feeling like I've taken the long way around illustration. Maybe I'm trying to make a kids picture book full of color and motion. Fabric collage waiting for the joining text. I am a writer second to that and I wonder if the writing I choose could pair well with the image. Still the image should be able to stand on its own without explanation from the docent or an embroidered notation to the Parable of Sower, even if I'm going for more literal and visceral. I've also been minded to take my time to learning this tool of turning and tacking in. Practice will come with the sheep, hills and suns. If you haven't guessed I've been peeking at contemporary embroidery here and there. More so maybe tomorrow. New vistas, venues and of course integration of forms. I'm wondering were I am headed with this body of work accumulated. It dawns on me I'm running face forward into God. Reevaluating previous series and old beginnings. Where I was in graduate school seemed more an evaluation with the body and sex depictions in classic literature. Namely then and in undergraduate school Anais Nin and vintage erotica seemed to be the bench mark for self-discovery and communication with the opposite sex. I read and it came out of my pours. I read more feminist material afterwards and soon after my artist statement took shape ad here we are. I digest more slowly now and the output is more methodical and painstakingly attentive to minutiae. I believe I have found a home. Now the matter is how to slice with a blade the challenge to experiment more. One day at a time. I've just found some good art magazine for that. Chasing Native American paper tigers again is coming as well as ancient methods. It will not be the caves at Lasceaux, but grasping personal symbology again. Where else to start than the beginning of writing and prototypes. I miss my books that I collected. >sigh< More books to buy and cherish for a lifetime.
Seed stitches from the center out.
Started simple with the center a few days ago. Since then I've moved on in the round sectioning out like a Dahlia or a Daisy with invisible petals but oh so rough boundaries. I'm opting out of the Christmas Cactus pattern I tend to embroider and instead going for a rough stitch i the ditch. At least around the applique and sometime through to simulate veining in a leaf. As for the detailing in beading, it may be minimal. I've been revisited by the ghost of "Less is more". Truly a hard but disciplined lesson I have taken. I'm learning to let the in make the motion in the motif. No gimmicks and over done embellishments needed. This definitely not a crazy quilt. Meanwhile I've been taking care of myself and the sore hand. Two hours quilting a day seem to make the grade without causing damage. I'll buy another Ace bandage, as my green gloves may not be as helpful as I thought. Giving the quilting six months to a year to complete, maybe just in time for the Dallas Quilt Show. Patient and thinking positive. So it is like this. I've been working my little tukas off on this quilt. A friend told me to take a day off and that was about a week ago. My drive is low and maybe just maybe, I don't want to admit to it, that I am tired. When I eat just enough its sleep and a small desire to regain the needle and take up arms again kitsch and create no holds barred. But wait, get this. My package arrived yesterday. I've been tracking that little sucker with everything under the sun, including the emails from UPS. No debut needed, mom propped it at my bedroom door and there was snuggled in the corner. I almost cried and started hating my sense of drive. Grabbing it like a long lost lover, I panicked when I realized I have the quilt to manifest in totality. I can't touch Cell Line till the untitled gift to my hands was prepared for hand quilting.
ACK! I have lost perspective, order and health. But I remember a three year working time frame and I, I must learn to rest bones and muscles. Putzing around is allowed too, as is working till midnight. Noted, to get all my supplies and components together for Cell Line comes first. Apple Core and bone shapes from the Mexican Terracotta clay must be done and preparing the bees wax for encaustic. The wax is what I've been waiting for relentlessly. First the funds and time to be present to catch the initial deliver from UPS. I'm happy to say I am ready, but a friend is encouraging me to work diligently on the quilt and diptych. I understand his arguments and I sure as hell don't want to put it aside in the to do piles, only to be forgotten about in days and picked up in far gone months. Almost last, thought I'd tell you, I've gotten two inquiries to teach children and teens art. They will be a paying gigs. I did not pursue K-12 certification in Art, but I was always on hand to teach crafts to various ages where I used to work. If it doesn't work out, either way I am happy to have been asked. I'm looking forward to it and hyped about teaching them a little art history and world crafts. In hindsight, I am glad I have work on all fronts. I also hope for personal patience to completion. I've been worn down with issues of cutting corners and not doing so much detail work. Still, that has been my long term approach and nothing about that will change. I'm still learning my style and work method in context with contemporaries, scholars and art history. Sometimes I just have to dowse myself with a gallon of art brut and suffer and grow though till done. Pics will come up every now and then to sate your thirst. Thanks for coming this far on the journey, I hope you'll continue. Also, as ever, stay hungry and curious. If I took my time, I always come to the conclusion of less mistakes. Catching my foibles better this time around and finding solutions that don't hurt my brain too much. I am happy. Though I'm comfortable with waiting for the companion to this to be done before I find a blessed name. Sometime it just bubbles of my lips from my gut and it is a title full of shadow, light and fury. Not there yet, However way it comes it shall indeed be visceral and full of blood n order to have a life of its own. Full apologies though. Gardening has taken over my shooting studio on the backyard fence. 100 tall is the limit and it seems to get stuck in the space between the fence and the raised bed. I either go smaller, or find another venue to shoot. Ah yes the other side of the fence may work with a trusty ladder in tow. Enjoy the pics, I'll have another spread of this after it is quilted. That will take at least a year if I get grumbly about details and feigning overlays with thread and needle. Rmember, stay hungry and cu Since Saturday night, I've been itchin and breakin out in hives just to see this through. As of Sat night that is where I was, latent to add the piece to the central motif. Since then I've graduated into my big girl panties and am feelin good. So good, I might add, that mom usually hems and haws at the lack of balance, color choice or flatness of the top. What came out of her mouth was the words, " That is gorgeous" and no other comment but, that I remember. Sometimes I don't manage the wavy gravy very well and it takes its toll out on the long arm. And yes, I have learned you really can't quilt the problem spot out. I take that back, Joan at the quilt store show me a trick or two every time I walk in her studio. I owe her more than just a handshake and sincere thank you. She was answering my questions long before I had a hankering and respect for the long arm. Something tasty sounds like a appreciative feat. I'm a day away for another photograph, mindful that I have to get the left side done first. Then I'll have photos to share before the embroidery and beading start. I will be utility quilting the piece. Forecasted dimensions for the "Untitled" piece are 74" x 100". |
N.A. JonesVisual Artist; Independent Researcher; Librarian; Cook; Amateur Astronomer; Gardener - the hard way, Writer; Explorer Archives
November 2015
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