Above the water. Into the Water.

For several weeks a large quilt-in-progress has been in various stages on my easel. Now, close to its completion is among the most interesting stages to me.

I have filled the space with images of water.

Photo transfers of water.

Painted and printed fabric to suggest water.

Stitching to create motion and ripples.

And, up to this stage, it is mostly as I had planned the work to be. Along with the water I have incorporated some window images to draw the viewer into the experience of looking into water.

Without doing more, I found this work to be pleasing. There’s a lot to look at and I like the palette. But it wasn’t “there” yet. I love to sit next to a body of water, or with my feet in the water, and just look down. The experience of looking through the surface to what’s below is mesmerizing. It stirs memories and emotions.

If I want my finished artwork to recreate an experience something like that (and I do!) I will need to create some layers to look through, and have some things in the background to discover

Here is a detail of one corner to show some of how that’s working.

Depths below: The tree shape In the background was created by stenciling over the background fabric squares, allowing the shape of a tree to show through. I stitched its edges with a heavy thread so it would show up. Still, this is a very subtle shape, and one you might not even notice at first.

Images in front: The brown-toned tree has been physically collaged to the front of the quilt. It has a bit of thickness, so it actually appears in the front. (I may go in and do a bit more shadowing on its edges. This section is close to done, but not completely done.)

Messing with what’s possible; The tree and the roof of the house are interacting. In real life, a tree could not simultaneously be in font of and within and behind a house as it is here. This begins to create emotional layers. We know now that this is not real in the same way as a photograph is real. There are recognizable elements, but they move forward and back as in a dream.

This tree-window-water detail shows more of that layering.

I enjoy creating works with a storytelling component. I want the visual elements to stir up thoughts and memories, and provide a way for a viewer to insert her own stories. Different people will look at images of water and see different things, and feel different memories.

That’s the final layer, and the one I can’t predict. Interacting with the work is the purpose of creating it, and it’s the layer the viewer will provide.

………………………

One more poetry reminder: I am a volunteer with SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) Florida Region, coordinating the poetry portion of a book project. We’ll be publishing in early spring 2021. The book is  an artistic collaboration between SAQA textile artists and poets. We are encouraging ALL poets (no need to be a textile artist or a SAQA member) to submit short works about Florida underwater life, especially FISH.  DEADLINE TO SUBMIT IS OCTOBER 31. NO FEES. You can request information and timeline Here. 

SAQAFlaPoetryProject@gmail.com

That email will be answered by me, and I’ll get the information right out to you. THANK YOU!

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

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1 - 2 - 3 - 4 Collage-in-progress

Time for a little collage!

This is a festival-prep week for me. I will be in DeLand’s Fall Festival of the Arts this weekend. At my last Festival I was very happy to have a good response to the small, matted collaged pieces I was showing. So, I need more. (What a wonderful problem to have!) Since I will be showing a few large storytelling quilts in DeLand, I want the smaller works I show to be compatible, to look like part of a unified body of work. I have already created some photo transfers that I like. Now it’s time to put them together.

Starting with two elements

The window will be the dominant element in this work. It takes up a good deal of the space. So, the image will actually be about the window. Everything else is to accent the window and tie things together. Here, I’m collaging the window onto watercolor paper with matte medium. The blue transparent fabric on the left softens the image and implies water.

I use a brayer to get a good bond. The background piece is 140# watercolor paper.

I am weighting the composition with some heavier fabrics at the bottom. These two pieces are muslin that I created with acrylic paints, using stencils and resist.

I especially like this piece. Even though it’s a very simple pattern, when I painted the stencil I was working wet-into-wet, creating nice fluid edges on the shapes. I like the way this pattern can connote either rock-like forms or bubbles.

Now I want to add some transparent texture over the window to soften the edges and tie it in to the rest of the composition.

That’s as far as I got today. I will be adding some painted textures over parts of the surface, and possibly another recognizable object or two. I need to let thing s dry and look at it fresh tomorrow.

Stay tuned.  Next week I’ll post a picture of the finished work.

If you would like to see some of the larger quilts
I have created that use similar imagery,
I invite you to look through the gallery
 “Home is What You Remember”
On my website HERE

If you are near central Florida, please visit the DeLand Fall Festival of the Art this weekend. (Nov 23-24, 2019) It’s my hometown and I am very proud to be in this event. Downtown DeLand is a great place to visit, and there is an impressive group of artists exhibiting. See you there!

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
bobbibaughart@gmail.com

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My Little Slice of America

This morning our street is littered with the remains of last night’s firecrackers. (Our neighbor takes his annual festive explosions very seriously!)  There is still a slight scent of burnt gunpowder. A summer scent, mixed with the scent of charcoal grills.

I am remembering riding my bike in the alleyway behind the row house where my family lived until I was in second grade.

We had a basement. It was was divided; the front area was used for playroom and my Dad’s office desk. The back area had a washing machine and the furnace and it was terrifying..

Like every person, my story contains individual images and life snapshots. And, like every person, my individual slice is part of the bigger pie, events and trends that I was part of but that were beyond me. My parents were married after WWII and our row house home in Rodgers Forge, Baltimore was the first they could afford to own. I was a baby boomer. Our family trajectory followed the path that could be charted, in retrospect, as part of bigger patterns studied by economists and sociologists.

So much material to work with!

I am so pleased to be a part of the exhibit, “America Is…” at the Touchstone Gallery in Washington DC. Looking at the list of artists and artworks, I can tell that this show will reflect stories of all kinds and images of all kinds. My work was inspired by my childhood row house home. It may hang next to the work of someone whose story completely different from mine. How exciting! How very like America, at our best.

When I created the art quilt that will be in the exhibit, I was interested in the difference between the outside and the (invisible) inside. In row house neighborhoods, outwardly all the homes are the same. On the inside, of course, all the families are not at all the same.

I used mismatched windows, some unexpected color combinations, lively patterns in hand-printed fabrics, and unifying patterns of stitch, which both defined areas and built bridges between areas.

This neighborhood – very much like our country – is defined by the title: “Every One Has a Different Story.”

For more information about this quilt, you can find it on my website, HERE

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

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This is a test. Only a test. (But it’s a good one!)

Yup. This is about constructive criticism.

I recently received an e-mail written to all exhibitors in the 62nd Annual National Juried Show at the Maria V. Howard Arts Center in Rocky Mount, NC. I’m pleased to be in this show. (It has 276 submissions from 82 artists, with 58 pieces from 45 artists selected for exhibit.) And I like the work I created that was juried for inclusion.

The e-mail was an announcement of the award-winners. (I did not receive an award.) But I especially appreciated reading the criteria used by the judge.

For readers who are art-makers: I think these thoughts from the judge are good words for self-evaluation. For readers who are art appreciators, I think it helps to know how art professionals evaluate work. (Especially if you’ve ever had the “What! I completely don’t understand this one!” reaction, as most everybody has.)

Judge Amiri Farris, a professor at Savannah College of Art and Design, wrote about selecting works for the show and deciding on the award winners.

Does the artist push boundaries and try something different?

Does the artwork resonate with me or an audience?

Does an artist’s work or piece invite me to explore its deeper meaning?

Is the style unique to the artist?

Would I like to see more work by this artist?

These are helpful words of critique. And good critiques make us better artists.

Here’s a look at the work I am exhibiting in the Rocky Mount show.

I was interested in the ethereal quality of these windows when I created the work, and I still find them intriguing. (It’s a photo transfer -- altered a bit -- from an original photo of a window in my sister’s home.) I have a work-in-progress now that will feature this photo enlarged and used as a focal point of the work. I hope to learn from what I liked about the first piece that used this image, and dig into how it can be even more interesting and communicative in the new work.

Recently I was in my studio with two close artist friends whom I trust for advice and critique. I showed two other pieces I have in the works. And I was truly bummed  by their reaction.  (I was not bummed at my friends. I was disappointed in the work I was producing.) What I thought was working successfully did not speak to them at all. I do trust my own gut. I do listen to my own instincts. But, I admit that sometimes I can get too close to my own process and my own way of seeing a work, and I miss some obvious things that would be better if changed. This is what makes it so valuable to receive good critique.

The work-in-progress that I showed my friends has undergone significant changes. And it’s better.

We create. We learn. We create more.

If you’d like to know more abut “Sometimes You Can’t See In,” it’s on my website HERE.

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

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Three Projects Brewing in my Studio

Studio inspiration sometimes comes in spurts and sometimes In waves. I must be in a wave now. I have lots of ideas that interest me and lots of projects brewing. Here are three that are coming along in my studio this week.

PROJECT #1… The brown and black village: This will be the base of a quilt I am designing for a SAQA call for entries, “Aloft.” This is a 2020 traveling show, with entries due June 30.

The concept is two girls in a flying armchair in the sky over their village. Everything in the village will be dull, and the sky will be built of deep layers of brown. But there will be a magical element to the story – and that will be the splash of color. (I’m not ready to reveal yet.) I created a good batch of monotyped sky today, and I like the way it interacts with the opaque muslin of the village.

PROJECT #2…  “Overlooked.” Here’s the next stage of the girl in the garden with windows.  (I posted some about this piece on April 25 with more detailed photos of the sun-filled windows.)

 Now I have created the character of the girl. I was pleased with how her layers went together. There is an under-drawing on muslin, with some collage applique of sateen for her dress and sheer for the skin tone, and a little more top layer drawing with oil pastels and some acrylic washes. And I got her to blend in with the garden photos in a way that pleases me.

PROJECT #3… For “Perspectives.” This piece is what I’ve been working on for the Florida SAQA summer show. (Deadline June 1 for this one.)

 And, though I started it with plenty of time to get it completed, it has taken unexpected turns. I had a composition for this one and I followed the plan. But, when I got it all put together… well, it just wasn’t done. What I thought would be a completed work ended up feeling more like a background. The stage set, but no characters. So I’ve been living with it for a few days, and I just got the inspiration for the way to pull it all together.

 I’ll show more when it’s further along.

 (Re-reading this blog post, I realize that I have mentioned SAQA several times. For readers who are not familiar with this organization, it’s Studio Art Quilt Associates. From their website:

“SAQA is an international non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the art quilt and the artists who create them. We are an information resource on all things artquilt related for our members as well as the public. Founded in 1989 by an initial group of 50 artists, SAQA members now number more than 3,400 artists, teachers, collectors, gallery owners, museum curators and corporate sponsors.”

This is a wonderful organization and I am happy to be one of its juried artist members. You can learn more about SAQA at SAQA.com.)

THANK YOU for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

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Overlooked. A Story Waiting to be Told

When I saw this picture, I could feel my creative wheels begin to turn. And now it’s a work-in-progress.

 (It was sent to me by my sister, who wondered if I was interested in having the windows for my home. I was not interested in the windows. But I was intrigued by the image!)

So much is going on here.

They are discarded. Overlooked. The windows seem to have been out in the garden for some time, because the weeds and vines are growing all around and through them.

The frames contain intriguing reflections.

It is a naturally defined composition – areas of dark and light.

It made me think of The Secret Garden – an untended garden, long forgotten but full of potential. (And filled with a sense of both magic and mystery.) The Secret Garden made me think of a little girl. So, now, I am creating a work that puts those things together: The abandoned windows. The abundant growth. The little girl. The sense of being overlooked. A bit of mystery.

It’s in-progress in my studio now.

So far, I have been working on the background. The quilt will be 42” x 42”. I tiled the photos to enlarge them as laser copies, then transferred onto muslin. I’ve assembled them in a random, haphazard pattern. filled with oblique angles.. Yesterday I had a wonderful morning of fabric printing. I layered greens, using stencils and wheat paste resist, to create fabric with the sense of lush growth I want the final work to have.

I set up my fabric painting station outdoors. Beautiful day. Lots of room.

Two fabric patterns I created during the paint session.

The little girl, so far, is just a pencil sketch on muslin. I love the challenge of blending more than one kind of reality in one work. The windows are a photo-based reality. The greens of the fabric are a surface design reality. The girl will  be a combination – some drawing, some layering of fabrics. I will probably need to do some watercolor-like painting (I work with acrylics) to unify the girl and the background.

As these images go together, I am “listening” to them. What story will they reveal?

Generally, when I create storytelling works I begin with the concept or idea that interests me, then create a composition to convey it. In this one, I know that the combination of the girl and the garden is emotionally compelling to me, but it it not all resolved. This one will evolve and grow.

Like weeds in a garden.

If you would like to see more storytelling works, please visit
the galleries on this website. Here are places to start:

HOME IS WHAT YOU REMEMBER GALLERY
JOURNEYS AND STORIES GALLERY

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I always enjoy questions and comments.

Thanks for reading! — Bobbi

A window into art (and the heart of the artmaker)

Again I am thinking about windows.

This is not new for me. I have been incorporating windows into my compositions for awhile now. They are connected to my thoughts about home and my thoughts about one’s journey. (Which starts at home. And ends up wherever it ends up. Probably a new home.)

A discarded door by the side of the road a few doors down in my neighborhood caught my eye. It has inspired me to think how to incorporate it into a new work. I shot a few reference photos. I like the way the light is reflected in the panes and I like the way the light and shadows make patterns on the door portion. This is very emotionally compelling to me. A door should be an entry. But it’s been discarded. Is the portal closed? Is there still a way into meaning?

Two works in progress in my studio have windows too.

The work in progress show above (photographed on my worktable) is a dream and memory piece. I have inserted water and abstract pattern into the window panes. The strong windowpane pattern invites one to look through. But what’s there is unexpected.

This one is not as far along. I am thinking about developing it into an entry for a Florida SAQA juried show in June, “Perspectives.” It’s more compelling visually than emotionally to me – so far. The strong sense of light on the windows conveys warmth. These windows were also discarded. An invitation to look inside, but set aside from that purpose.

I just completed a large art quilt with a window at its center. “Look Through to the Memory.” (2019 – 42” x 42”) I worked to make the window a source of the invitation to enter the story. The character (the little girl) is connected to the window, and the dream-like contents of the panes connect visually to the dream-like environment beyond the window..

(Above: detail, girl sitting on the window frame. You can see the whole work – “Look Through to the Memory” and get more information about the completed piece on my website, HERE.) 

The work below, “Sometimes You Can’t See In” includes multiple windows. It was inspired by photos I took of an abandoned house on Hwy 301 in Central Florida. The boarded shut windows, obviously, prevent one from looking inside. That made me think about windows in homes generally. Can we see through them to the lives inside? Might the life within be obscured by the façade? How can you enter and find out what’s really there?

I’m so pleased that “Sometimes You Can’t See In” has been accepted into the 62nd National Multi-Media Juried Art Exhibit at the Maria C. Howard Arts Center in Rocky Mount, NC. It will exhibit there May 3 – August.

(You can see the whole work and get more information about the completed piece on my website, HERE.)

My purpose in working with window images is
to offer an invitation to the viewer.
Look inside. Try to see through.
My thoughts and my heart as an artist
are in these works. Look. Look again.

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I always enjoy questions and comments. Thanks for reading!

Bobbi
bobbibaughart@gmail.com

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Original. Or not.

An exhibit of works by Robert Indiana has left me thinking about originality. What’s original? What’s not?

Indiana is best-known for his iconic LOVE sculpture and graphic design, which was featured on a US postage stamp. The exhibit I visited in the Tampa Museum of Art featured his 3-D assemblages, largely wood plus found metal and machine parts. It’s part of his body of work I had not experienced before.

Throughout the exhibit, there were “identical”sculptures side-by-side. (Like the steer skulls shown above, which were full size and mounted atop a large wooden tree-like column.) The teaching materials explained that he created cast bronze duplicates of some of his sculptural assemblages then painted them to match the original. Seeing the two side-by-side was fascinating.  Technically fascinating. Artistically intriguing.

The whole idea of a cast bronze is the opportunity to have more than one of a work created. But, I generally think of sculpture of that type as something created for the purpose of being replicated, created originally as clay or stone and then molded and cast in hot metal. Indiana’s replicated assemblages were far more complex.

Artists who create two-dimensional work for sale, I believe, struggle with decisions about creating reproductions. Of course, it’s just flat-out unethical to pass off a reproduction (generally a digital print) as an original work. But, if the artist clearly marks the reproduction as such, and the collector knows what he is purchasing, all OK?

I surely can’t fault any artist who creates reproductions as a way to mix price points and to create a sellable range of artwork. Artists have to make a living. But, I do think every artist has to think the issue through. Cranking out too many reproductions can diminish the value of the original image.

One of the things I enjoy about creating my textile collaged works and art quilts is that I do not feel tempted to reproduce them as giclees. A flat canvas, even one reproduced well, would be clearly completely different from the original. Seeing the layers, textures and stitches is part of the experience. So, I only create and only sell one-of-a-kind-works.

My struggles and decisions about originality are more internal. Am I creating a work that is authentic? Am I expressing thought or emotional content that is born from my own unique life experience?

Those are the things that reproduction technology can’t duplicate. It’s what makes art: art.

Here’s a detail of “Sometimes You Can’t See In,” a collaged art quilt from 2018. It incorporates my own photos hand-transferred to fabric: a kind of reproduction. My hope is that I have incorporated them into a work that is unique and personally expressive.

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LIGHT. PATTERN. KEEP LOOKING

I love this photograph.

In the midst of creating a body of work involving windows, homes, and the complex relationship between inside and outside, this simple image has captured my imagination.

I can envision this composition re-created in a simply painted style, pale color blocks  suggesting the subtle light through the window.

This is a photo of my own home. I have moved within the last year and I snapped this shot as part of cleaning and moving out. It was a happy departure, a part of moving into a welcomed next chapter. Still, I loved this home while I was there.

This image lets the light in, but we do not see the window.

Sometimes windows reveal. Sometimes they obscure.

Windows are invitations to look in, to see what there is inside.

Windows are made for looking through and, therefore, are a good metaphor for time and memory: we look through our past, we look through our memories, to see what was there.

A window in an unexpected place is jarring. We have been culturalizd to know what windows are for, and immediately look at them or through them. But, in an undefined or ambiguous setting, they raise questions.

Finally, the window itself is a pattern. Here, the simple blocks create a geometric pattern on the floor. The neat lines capture the light.

Looking through the windows of remembrance may leave an imprint on our understanding in much the same way.

Keep looking.

Detail of windows: digital image on fabric, collaged with other fabrics using surface design techniques. From "So It Will Not Break in Two," art quilt. This work is on my web site in the "Home is What You Remember" Gallery, HERE.

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THE UNEXPECTED WINDOW

This happens all the time in TV detective shows. Frustrated with the case, the detective throws some photos on the desk and then – amazingly! – says “Wait a minute. We’ve missed something.” Some little detail in the photo, previously overlooked, solves the mystery.

My e-mailed photo was almost like that. My sister had sent me a photo of a new painting in her home. I opened it, took a look, realized that the glare in the photo kept me from seeing much of the painting, then closed the photo.  Wait a minute. I missed something. I opened the photo back up and found something else in the photo that was much more interesting. The window.

The window in the room she had photographed has wonderful character. Wood trim and frame create interesting depth and shadows. The light through the panes turned the glass panes into abstract compositions. It’s just the kind of window image I was looking for to incorporate into a planned art quilt.

I have already asked her to shoot a few more images of the window and have enlarged and cropped them – ready for transfer onto fabric.

I am strongly drawn to window images. Incorporating a window into a picture plane automatically creates depth: theirs is something on the other side. And looking through a window invites participation of the viewer in the image. Windows often reflect; we see back an unexpected image. When I collage into a window pane a scene or pattern different from what was in the original photo, a new kind of reality is created.

My e-mail brought me both an unexpected image and an unexpected inspiration.

The photo above is a detail from a work in progress, “Look through the Windows,” part of my current series: Home is What You Remember. I have combined photo transfer windows with painted window shapes.