Where it begins… with the sketch. (This is not the very very beginning of a work. The ideas have taken shape in times of thinking, rememberingand – I believe – in dreams.) But getting images on paper, roughly composed, is the beginning of the actual making. Once I have this much on paper, I can begin to feel what palette I want, what papers and fabrics to gather or create. This is the scaffolding.
Note to Self - Not shallow...
“Dear Self. Time for a change. It’s time to be out of task-completion mode for a while...."
Read MoreHAIKU FRIDAY...
HAIKU FRIDAY…. Take flight from fear. Happy weekend.
Imagining... Without A Net
“Without a Net” I had a plan to climb out my bedroom window, down the rose trellis, onto the roof of the playhouse, and then a jump down to the ground. Silently, of course. Sometimes I would dream these outings alone. I might plan to take a stuffed animal who possessed a brave heart. Sometimes the plans were concocted with friends. These required throwing pebbles onto a bedroom window, or making a secret whistling sound. Then off we’d go. My childhood imaginings of adventure or escape were always set in nighttime. What if I climbed out my window at midnight? And then...
Hand-printed monotype images on rice paper and fabric • painted fabric • acrylic paints • muslin, canvas, polyester felt • machine stitching • collage construction with acrylic medium.
For more information visit the girls journey gallery: HERE
FLYING INTO THE UNKNOWN
What would this feel like? This must be a dream. Or an imagining. Something is amiss. What does it mean when a young girl is flying through an unknown space—untethered, askew—a wingwalker? It could be an adventure. They sky is an inviting aqua. The clouds are liquid. But she seems very small and innocent up there. When I created this work, I was thinking about escape, and the dangers entailed in the process. Created in three panels, it reads like a story board. In the first panel, far below the girl and the plane, there lurks a giant sea creature. (It’s designed from images I researched of a prehistoric sea dweller.) The suggestion of windows creates a sense of looking inside a space. This is about inner experience. When works are story-telling images, it’s my hope that there’s an interaction between the experience of the viewer and what I’ve created in the work itself. I invite you to bring your own memories, fears and experiences and respond to this dream.
See the whole work in the Girl's Journey Gallery - HERE
NOTE TO SELF... RISK-TAKING
NOTE TO SELF – Thinking this evening about the projects I want to work on in the studio this week. What do I need to risk? I need to risk the chance that working in a new way may create a finished project that goes in the “Nope!” pile. Risk the chance that I will spend hours – when every minute is so priceless – going down an unproductive path. But those are really the easy risks. I have begun to think more deeply about the story I want to tell in a series of pieces. I have taken at-bats at the concept of a girl’s inner journey. But there's much more to say. Many more emotions and memories for grappling. Artist-as-storyteller-archaeologist is a daunting role. May this little taped reminder be a way to keep focused.
Haiku Friday... Dreams Rearranged
Haiku Friday – A dream-like portal from my textile collage “Now Let the Night Be.” Do some exploring. Happy weekend.
Waking from a dream, remembering...
Have you ever awoken from a dream and felt that you could not quite shake the feeling of still being in it? I have found myself at times thinking back into the dream, trying to name the places and events it contained. My attempts at descriptive words never do justice. “Well, it was a forest, but not a forest really. It just felt like a forest.” Dreams are like that. In “Now Let the Night be” I have created a landscape that has that dream-like quality. It suggests a specific place, but it’s not really a specific place. The arch is a portal we can choose to enter. It is my hope that it beckons in a welcoming way.
(You can find out more about this work in the Layered Nature Gallery HERE)
Haiku Friday... Bird Wisdom
The bird as a symbol has appeared in other works in this series. Like a young girl, birds are fragile. Their footing can seem tenuous. And, as in folk tales and stories, the bird can be a messenger and guide. I placed this bird in the branches with the girl and then partially hid her through subtle coloring. . Like messages themselves: sometimes hidden. But present if you are quiet. And patient. And open.
TBT – Fledgling: It’s Time to…
I remember sitting on the porch on a vacation in Maine, watching birds on a wire across the street. Their simple shape, so easily identifiable. And I envisioned this art quilt all at once at that moment. What if someone other than a bird was on the wire? What kind of story would that tell? Since beginning my artmaking with printing techniques and fabric collage in 2010, I have incorporated an image of a little girl in various pieces. I am emotionally travelling her journey. And I have also printed birds. Here, they come together. I transferred the photographic image of the nest onto fabric and did a lot of detailed stitching to enhance its texture. But, in the space around the girl there is little detail. She is out there on her own. Are the birds observers? Messengers?
It’s time to fly, little girl.
: A Look Inside the Studio… “Neither Here Nor There”
This piece is about experience and emotion, not the technical aspects of creating it. But I worked out some new technical issues that I liked, using monoprinted background sheer fabrics as a basis for freehand drawing. I like the addition of this element to the texture of fabric collage.
What interests me about this subject matter is layers of experience. We see the girl, and also see some suggestions of inside of her. Working with fabric in layers, I physically create and then manipulate layers of color and texture. Layers of meaning are what interest me. Layers of fabric are my method of artmaking. The way of making is a perfect fit for the work’s meaning.
The completed work is HERE
Imagining the In-Between Stages
On every journey, there are in-between-stages…
Two books I just finished reading dealt with young people who are in-between, drifting, looking for meaning and the next step. I am drawn to the feeling of being unsettled. Something is changing. Circumstances are new. There are myriad possible answers to the question, “What happens next?” Have you felt this way? I have. As a child I did not like for things to be unsettled. The experience is the source of a recent work “Neither Here nor There.”
I like this girl. I find myself wondering about her—where she has been, what she is feeling. I want the loose drawing style to let her speak to many possible stages. She is not one particular girl. She is the heart of all girls’ journeys. Including the stages in-between.
(See this work on my web site HERE )
The Gift of Rain
Just as I was working on a rain-inspired piece in my studio this morning, the wind picked up in a way that said a storm was about to blow through. I was at a stopping point and went out on the front porch. What a gift! The rain transformed the scent of the air. It created magical patterns on the screens. It became a gentle percussion in the space. I was reminded of a hurricane day years ago when, locked up in the house with plywood-covered windows, grandma went to a window to peek out through a small crack. A brief ray of sun just hit the drops that covered our fence and its covering vines. A magical transformation! And grandma said, “Why look at that. Somebody has come and put diamonds all over our fence! How can that be?” The gift of rain. It was like that today.
Journeying in Dreams
Aren’t dreams astonishing? As we sleep and darkness envelopes us, inside our heads unexplainable combinations of images and events create stories and suggestions. Remembering them, they don’t always make sense, Trying to remember them is not always possible, and yet there will be a nagging sense of having been someplace or having experienced something. In “Wingwalker,” I have drawn from dream and imaginary imagery. The parts tell a story: there is a journey, a sense of danger, the suggestion of possibilities, and juxtaposition of unlike elements. Awaking from this vision… what will have been experienced?
(My 3-panel work “Wingwalker” is included in the Nocturnes exhibit at Arts on Douglas in New Smyrna Beach, exhibiting till July 29. Such an interesting variety of works inspired by the concept of nocturnes. Nocturnes in music have a romantic or dreamy character suggestive of the night. In the visual arts, nocturnes deal more with the elements of nighttime.)
LONGING FOR WATER
This studio addition feels just right. I am drawn to water. On hot summer days I long for a cool body of water where I can dive in and feel the liquid blue. As a kid I spent most of each summer at our community pool. Water and its reflections appear in my artwork. So, this little birdbath right outside my studio window is an invitation to my neighborhood winged friends. I hope you will find this a place of refreshment. I’ll be watching for you while I work.
Five Good things: Resistance through Art to Global Warming
Through two years, ten venues and a quarter million visitors... Florida textile artists have worked with the National Parks Service to change hearts and open minds on global warming.
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