Wading into the River's Edge... Printmaking Pleasure

Yesterday morning… I just got lost in some monotype printing. Not much to say. I had gathered my materials the night before: some blank rice paper to print, some blank fabric to print, and some previously printed fabric to print over. I knew I wanted some grass-like images for a few new wetlands collages. And I let it roll…

Ink the plate. Press. Pull. Maybe press again. Re-Ink.

The original image. The ghost image. Press. Pull. Repeat.

Allow the images to appear.

This morning… Beginning the collages.

Yup. This is just how I hoped it would turn out.

I create new collaged works regularly. and post them to the Wednesday Collage Gallery on my website. This batch will be on m website later this week. You can see more HERE.

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

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I wonder what that cow is looking at?

An outing!
(An unusual life event in this era of mostly staying at home.)

This week we left home for a few hours to venture out into the world for a visit downtown to the Museum of Art-DeLand. Their current exhibit features printmaking in a number of techniques by a wide variety of artists.  (On exhibit through Sept 13. Well worth the trip.) I looked closely at great artwork and just gobbled it up!

Artists are drawn to printmaking. As the Museum signage pointed out, most of the artists shown are better known for other mediums, including painting and sculpture. But the unique experiences of printmaking draw artists to a print studio for at least some part of their career.

I love printmaking. I am always intrigued by the technical aspects. How did the artist get that image on the plate? In what order did the colors go down onto the paper? I stood up close and analyzed the marks on serigraphs, etchings and lithography.

I want to share two small etchings by Edward Hopper that caught my eye. (Hopper is one of my favorite painters. I always learn when I study his work.) These two little works are not so much about technique; the images were manually scribed in the etching plate, the artist’s hand working much like pen and ink drawing.  What I love is Hopper’s elegant composition.

I shot two photos with my phone, and now I have them up on my desktop to see what I can learn.

An etching by Edward Hopper A Woman at a Railing

An etching by Edward Hopper “A Cow in a Pasture”

MY FIRST LESSON – Foreground drawing you into the scene
Hopper’s paintings often use interior framing devices – looking through a doorway or window, for example. In these two works it’s much simpler.  A character close to the foreground is looking off to the distance. We are invited to follow their gaze and see what they are seeing.

This woman is leaning on the railing and looking off toward the sky. What drew her to this scene? If we look with her, what will we see?

I wonder what the cow is looking at?

MY SECOND LESSON – Intentional detail choices
In both works, the artist’s drawing hand is visible with a beautiful light touch. But every part of the work is not drawn with the same amount of detail. . It keeps things lively. The large architectural form behind the girl at the railing could have been rendered in a lot more detail. But the artist chose to be selective.

MY THIRD LESSON – Look at that beautiful empty space!
In the etching of the woman, nearly half of the composition is empty sky. In the etching of the cow it’s about a third of the space.  Because it’s an etching, even those “empty”spaces have the very slight tone of the ink on the plate.  I find this emptiness beautiful.

In my own textile work, printing pattern on fabric is part of the process. I need to regularly remind myself that “empty” areas are important in a good composition. Here’s one where I thought I got it right. The big, empty yellow sky is an important part of the storytelling.

“ADRIFT” Art Quilt 42” X 42” 2019 More information on this quilt HERE

My wish for anyone reading is that you are able to find things around you to appreciate and to inspire you. My little Museum outing will be staying with me for weeks ahead.

An opportunity and a request…
Do you write? Do you know writers?  I am a volunteer in a project by Studio Art Quit Associates – Florida Region, to create a book in the spring that combines visual art (textiles works created by SAQA members) with POETRY. All poets are welcomed to submit. The project is titled “Fresh Fish” and features works about Florida underwater life: fish, shrimp, seaweed, mermaids, coral, lobsters and more. If you enjoy writing poetry, I invite you to create a poem and send it in. Or help spread the word to poets you know. We are reviewing works now and through October 30. You can request a prospectus with all details and timeline here:

SaqaFlaPoetryProject@gmail.com

Thanks for your help. Have fun creating!
(I am enjoying creating a few fish for the project. I’ll be submitting poetry too.)

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

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One Thing Leads to Another

In the studio this morning… enjoying a printmaking session with acrylics and rice paper – I discovered one thing leading to another.

What led to the printmaking was a household project, some new planters for the garden. We cut a rain barrel in half, (to be used as a planter) then spray painted it so it would blend into the foliage and be more interesting. I created the stencils I used for printmaking for spraying the barrels. (If you look closely you can also see some interesting two-tone green patterns behind the white palms. I placed leaves and branches on the barrel and sprayed around them. The effect looks great close-up, but just didn’t have enough “pop” from a distance.)

So… now I had a nice new stencil pattern tempting me to do some printing.

1 I mixed up some green with my brayer, using phthalo blue and cadmium yellow. Nice bright green resulted, and using the brayer to blend kept the blending loose.  2. Then I brayered the color on the plate.

3. The first pulls I made off the plate were just for background color. No stencil yet. I made several sheets like this, each with a little different appearance of the green.

Stencil time.

4. I had cut this stencil out of a manila file folder. That’s thick enough to hold up for multiple uses and thin enough to lay down flat. With some darker green already on the plate, I pressed down the stencil.  5. One of  the sheets I had already printed with some background light-bright green is ready to press into the stencil. 6 Here I’ve printed from the stencil . I have a green palm on a lighter green background.

Look at the wonderful image that remained on the plate. That’s the ghost. In any kind of printmaking that uses a plate – either manual hand-printed as I’m doing, or when working with a press – after the image is printed, a ghost image remains on the plate. This is where one thing leads to another. The prints from these ghosts create some of the most interesting layers.

7 This is one of the sheets that already had two plate passes: one for the background, and another for the palm pattern. Now I’m going to print the ghost that was left on the plate onto this sheet.

Working with multiple plate passes for most of the sheets, I created a stack of paper that I think will create some interesting collage elements. (See how the theme keeps going. The printing isn’t the end. Collage next. One thing leads to another.)

This is a close-up of one of the sheets that I thought resulted in some great layers and textures.

As I was working through this printing session, I was reminded of a collaged work I created several years ago printing from actual palm fronds. It’s one of my favorites. I love the incredible detail of the palms that’s picked up by the hand printmaking methods.

This is a detail of one panel. The whole work is a triptych: three framed pieces each 24” x 24”. If you’d like to see more, it’s on my website HERE.

Thank you for reading.

I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

BLOG POSTS: If you would enjoy receiving blog posts by e-mail,  please subscribe here:  I post blogs once a week. BLOGS-BY-EMAIL

NEWSLETTER: If you enjoy more detailed behind-the-scenes stories, as well as FIRST LOOKS at new works and members-only discounts, I hope you’ll become a Studio Insider.  You’ll hear from me about once a month.  NEWSLETTER

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Beginning (Seeing) a New Thing

This week I was ready to begin something new.

I’ve had a new series in mind for a while. I want to continue to develop the imagery of windows, but use it in some new ways. (My most recent body of work has been deeply in the world of storytelling. Now I want to explore windows and shapes differently.)

This is my first inspiration. It’s an interesting window I photographed on an old house in central Florida.

I have made photo transfers of this window, three in a row. Right away, something interesting happens. By repeating the image, it becomes both a window and a pattern. I can begin to think of the new work as composition.

Photo-transfers in progress, hanging out to dry after scrubbing off the paper

From the get-go, I  just want to confess that I really struggle with value and hue. When I get the values right, I can tell. A composition will just “pop.” When I don’t get the values right, it’s just hard to make the piece come alive.

I understand value easily in black and white. Easy. White is lightest. Grey is middle value. Black is darkest. Got it.

But, if I cam going to work in colors, it’s harder. Blue can be dark or light. When blue is next to yellow, which is stronger? Darker? Lighter? There are lots of variables.

So, for this new work I’m trying to spend some time in the value-thinking stage.

Here’s a little mock-up I did of the work in PhotoShop. I’ve imported the actual windows, and they are in the right size proportion to the finished work. (This piece will be about 36”H x 47”W)

The window is the only thing, so far, that’s real. All the other parts will not be solids, and may not be the colors shown. At this point, I just want a composition that will bring attention to the windows and provide strong contrasts.

One way to see values is to convert colors to black and white. My Photoshop mock-up does not have much vibrant color in it anyway. But, when I convert it to black and white I can tell if I still have a good pattern and strong contrasts

So far, I think I’m headed in a good direction.

I have kept this paper mock-up pinned to my easel this week as I’ve begun to print fabrics. It serves as a size pattern, so I know how much I need to create  of each fabric I have in mind. And, as I mix up the colors and decide on the imagery for each section, I can compare it to the other sections, trying to keep true to my value pattern.

Here are some parts hanging on my easel  this afternoon.

More to come! I will be working on this piece for a while.

Meanwhile, I’ve created a few paper collages, just to keep things fresh. (And because it helps me to have some “Done!” projects in the midst of longer term projects.) Here is a close-up of “Dignifying the Moment.”

This is an abstract landscape with a large heron centered in the scene. I enjoyed creating a feel of water alongside other pattern in this work. I mixed up rice paper, sheer fabric and muslin.

If you’d like to see the whole work – as well as other recent collages – please visit the Wednesday Collage Gallery on my website, HERE.

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

BLOG POSTS: If you would enjoy receiving blog posts by e-mail,  please subscribe here:  I post blogs once a week. BLOGS-BY-EMAIL

NEWSLETTER: If you enjoy more detailed behind-the-scenes stories, as well as FIRST LOOKS at new works and members-only discounts, I hope you’ll become a Studio Insider.  You’ll hear from me about once a month.  NEWSLETTER

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Want to Fly Away?

I have begun a writing project: a body of poetry to go with a number of my art quilts. (OK. This is more a case of pulling an idea off the storage shelf and breathing new life into it. I have started and stopped the project a few times over the last year and a half. Letting it simmer.)

Looking back through my works, I rediscovered the concept of flying. It has appeared in various forms since I’ve been working in textiles. As I go through my writing notes, I can see why. It was such a powerful dream when I was a little girl. I dreamed of flying out of my bedroom window at night. I dreamed of standing up on the footstool and raising my arms, letting the air lift me as I saw it lift the birds.

I believe this is a universal longing. Flying looks so effortless and freeing when you look at birds!

One of my earliest art quilts was inspired by the idea of flying away. I took a small family snapshot of my sister and me stuffed into a little lawn chair and transformed it into a dream. (I’m the one on the left with my little feet sticking straight out).

One of the great things about depicting flying is that it’s an opportunity to depict the sky and what’s seen below. Here’s the whole quilt.

FLIGHT OF THE MAGICAL LAWNCHAIR. This quilt won First place in the Evolutions 2014 Exhibit at the Rocky mountain Quilt Museum, Golden, CO.

Here’s  the current draft of a poem I wrote inspired by this childhood dream. (I post this as an act of bravery and accountability for the project. I have not posted or shared any of my poetry before).

It was there I believed

I could fly

standing on the footstool

the one with cut-outs in the legs.

I played pat-the-paw game with the dog

through the openings. It creaked.

With outstretched arms

Tippy-toe fingers

and seeing it so clearly

the rise and dip as I flew

my own brick house below.

Seeing into my bedroom window

small and dark

with one bright stripe of light

across the floor from

my friend the moon.

Flying can be scary. I used the metaphor of flight in this 3-panel work, “Wingwalker.” I like the way this image can stir more than one emotion. In one sense, being up on the wing is a great adventure. It would also be dangerous and terrifying.

WINGWALKER. Awarded the Mixed Media Award, October 2019 “64 Arts Exhibit,” Buchanan Art Center, Monmouth, IL

The process of flying away might sometimes be a little more timid. This is “Fledgling.” The little girls has made it as far as the telephone wire. Thinking about what’s next? Listening to advice from the birds?

If you’d like to see more about the art in this post, please visit my website.

FLIGHT OF THE MAGICAL LAWNCHAIR
WINGWALKER
FLEDGLING

The bird image in this blog post header is from a new paper work I created this week.  On my website here.  TAKING FLIGHT

Another poetry project.. Want to write?
Can you help spread the word?

I am a volunteer participant in a project to create an Art+Poetry book for the Florida Region of SAQA. It’s going to be a wonderful, artful collaboration. Please participate, or share this information with writers or writer groups you may know. Thanks!

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

BLOG POSTS: If you would enjoy receiving blog posts by e-mail,  please subscribe here:  I post blogs once a week. BLOGS-BY-EMAIL

NEWSLETTER: If you enjoy more detailed behind-the-scenes stories, as well as FIRST LOOKS at new works and members-only discounts, I hope you’ll become a Studio Insider.  You’ll hear from me about once a month.  NEWSLETTER

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Listening. Hearing.

For some time now I have adhered to the discipline of writing and posting a blog on Sunday evenings.

It has become a rhythm of my week. It’s a time to look at what I’ve been working on and to reflect. The process of showing and explaining enhances my own understanding of my work.

This week I’ve got nothing to show.

It’s not because I haven’t been in the studio. I have. And I believe in future weeks my new work will take shape and I’ll be ready to talk about it.

This week, though, I need to be about the business of listening.

This has been a grueling week for our country. I cannot remember being as stirred and as stirred up since I was a teenager and we protested both civil rights issues and the war in Vietnam. This week as America has reacted to the murder of George Floyd it has revealed so much still unchanged, so much that needs to be done, and so much that needs to be heard.

In the midst of issues and policies that are unresolved, I have been grateful to be part of the arts community. Art  — the process of making it, the insight derived from absorbing it, the voice-giving that it entails — is more important than ever.

Our local Art Museum, Museum of Art – DeLand, stated this is an e-mail:

MUSEUMS ARE NOT NEUTRAL
We stand against crimes of intolerance, hate, and injustice

And Studio Art Quilt Associates shared these words with its members:

“ SAQA’s core values of integrity, inclusion, excellence, and innovation compel us to stand with those fighting against racism and injustice.

We condemn the violence against Black Americans and strongly oppose discrimination of any kind.  We mourn the countless lives that have been lost at the hands of racism and police brutality. We support the right of all Americans to protest and seek justice for those affected by the continued inequality that plagues the US.

Art is the expression of an individual’s heart and soul. SAQA’s goal of supporting diversity includes welcoming art and artists from marginalized communities including Black artists and all artists of color. We believe they are integral to our mission of promoting the art quilt.

As an international organization, SAQA explores ways to exhibit, educate, and bring more voices to the forefront, in an effort to promote discussion and understanding in our communities.  

All humans have a voice. It is time that they all be heard.”

I agree.

For now, this evening, that’s about all I can say.

I will continue listening.

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

BLOG POSTS: If you would enjoy receiving blog posts by e-mail,  please subscribe here:  I post blogs once a week. BLOGS-BY-EMAIL

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Problem-solving and details

The beach-memory quilt I’ve been working on is almost done. To provide just  a bit of “pop” in the finishing, I’ve decided to create some border strips in teal and orange.

Colors – same as what is in the quilt, but more intense. Opacity – deeper than most of the quilt because I’ll use muslin instead of the watercolor-like sheers in the rest of the quilt. I want a playful graphic, not something representational. The informal quality of glue resist seems like a the right solution.

(Just a digression for a moment: Artists are problem-solvers. That’s what the whole artmaking process is about. How can I make this work? What can I try next if it doesn’t work? So, pursuing artmaking is not frivolous at all. There’s a lot of cognitive stuff going on in a studio practice!)

OK. Back to the story. All the supplies are gathered: Paint, water, the strips of muslin, my little painting sponge.

First I created a pale base color: one in pale orange, on in pale teal. I let those dry.

Then I free-form stamped some circle shapes with washable glue.

Every resist medium has its own character. Using glue as a resist creates loosely defined shapes. And the occasional drip and blop add interest. After the stamping, the glue has to dry.

Step three is an over-print in a different color. For these pieces I kept it in the same hue. Deeper orange over lighter orange and deeper teal over lighter teal. Let that dry.

Then I dunk the strips in water for while to let the glue soften up so I can scrape it off.

I wanted a little more depth on these pieces. So I added a layer of spatter to each and then some additional small shapes stamped in the same color family.

Here’s a corner of the quilt. I am only going to have the strips visible on two sides to create a corner and an anchor for the whole piece. The teal bottom strip is a little wider than the side strip in orange.

I enjoy using corner accents on large quilts. I did something similar in these two quilts.

“Magic Socks”

“Overlooked”

If you are interested in seeing details, or more information on these two quilts, they are on my website. Click the link:

Art Quilt - MAGIC SOCKS

Art Quilt - OVERLOOKED

And – since I began on the subject of beach memories – I created a new small collage this week depicting scurrying shorebirds. These are among my favorite beach memories.

This is “Evening Outing for Three.” It’s on my website here: EVENING OUT

I hope that you are staying well and that creativity is in some way soothing during this strange pandemic time.

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

BLOG POSTS: If you would enjoy receiving blog posts by e-mail,  please subscribe here:  I post blogs once a week. BLOGS-BY-EMAIL

NEWSLETTER: If you enjoy more detailed behind-the-scenes stories, as well as FIRST LOOKS at new works and members-only discounts, I hope you’ll become a Studio Insider.  You’ll hear from me about once a month.  NEWSLETTER

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Just a Bit of Watercolor Sky

Today I worked on collaging some sky for a new art quilt. It’s a beach scene and I’ve created the sky in hot oranges.

I have always loved watercolor. I am sure this is the influence of my undergraduate art studies at Stetson University from 1972-1976. The department chair, Fred Messersmith, was an accomplished watercolor painter. His class demos were of fresh, quickly-produced scenes of water and sky.  Here’s a sample of his work.

Watercolor painting by Fred Messersmith. His students were inspired by the rich colors and fresh painting strokes.

As I have developed my own monotype and collage methods in the studio, the results I like best are ones that have a bit of watercolor-like transparency. This will come from a combination of transparency in the application of the acrylic paints and printing onto a semi-transparent fabric.

Here’s a section of the orange sky fabric ready to collage.

It goes down quickly. I paint the medium on freely and let the excess Squoosh out as I rub the fabric down onto the background. Here I’m collaging the orange sky onto cotton muslin I’ve prepared with a wash of white acrylic.

Here are some of the effects that will be in the final work.

The orange sky beachscape quilt is still in the early stages of work. But this is a stage I enjoy a lot.

And now for one that’s DONE!

For several weeks I have been posting abut the large 4-panel quilt that has occupied my attention. It’s a journey quilt, exploring the emotional reality of being a young girl in the 1950’s, sorting out the expectations of the times. Here’s a detail.

It’s titled “What Were We Supposed to Be?” I have posted the completed piece on my website and there’s a lot more information there. It’s in the journeys and stories gallery. I hope you’ll take a look. HERE

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

BLOG POSTS: If you would enjoy receiving blog posts by e-mail,  please subscribe here:  I post blogs once a week. BLOGS-BY-EMAIL

NEWSLETTER: If you enjoy more detailed behind-the-scenes stories, as well as FIRST LOOKS at new works and members-only discounts, I hope you’ll become a Studio Insider.  You’ll hear from me about once a month.  NEWSLETTER

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Printing Life Beneath the Waves

This week I spent time doing some light-hearted monotype printing. Fish!

Sometimes simple projects can be a good recharge. I’ve been physically and emotionally immersed in the details of the large quilt I’ve been working on, and I needed a break. And, as I begin to think of what projects I want to work on next. Playing with some organic forms in pleasing colors is a good transition.

I cut a fish stencil that I liked. (Actually, I cut two stencils. The first one was just awful. A few prints convinced me that I needed a plan B.) I like the simplicity of this one, and the contrast between the large solid fish body and the delicate appendages.

I did all of my printing in a single color – a dark black blue. I mixed up phthalo blue with black about 50-50. I pulled a few scraps from my previously printed stash. They provided nice contrast.

The yellow-brown pattern is a sheer polyester. That brown pattern was printed as a linoleum block print.

The bright lime green is a piece of shiny sateen. The blue-green piece is cotton muslin. Each of these had been previously painted.

A few nice rediscoveries from this printing session:

Transparency: I love the way a thin coat of acrylic allows just a hint of what’s printed underneath to show. Here’s a sample of that on the piece printed blue/black over the yellow patterned fabric.

Contrast: Creating effective monotype shapes really depends on good contrast. On the yellow prints, the overprint is a good contrast both in hue and value. On the blue-green fish, the hues are all in the same family, but the value of the blue/black is different enough that the shape shows well.

I decided to make the yellow printed fish into a paper collage.

I added some other fabric scraps, mixing up sheers and muslin. Everything is collaged with matte medium onto a sheet of 140# watercolor paper

Then I added a few hand-drawn elements.

Here’s a detail

The finished, matted collage is on my website, HERE. I hope you’ll take a look.

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

BLOG POSTS: If you would enjoy receiving blog posts by e-mail,  please subscribe here:  I post blogs once a week. BLOGS-BY-EMAIL

NEWSLETTER: If you enjoy more detailed behind-the-scenes stories, as well as FIRST LOOKS at new works and members-only discounts, I hope you’ll become a Studio Insider.  You’ll hear from me about once a month.  NEWSLETTER

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Turns out the next step was honeycomb

During stay-at-home life this past month, I’ve been working on a large four-panel quilt. (The posts I’ve done about the little girls figuring things out and the stenciled leaves are all part of this same work.)

This has turned out to be a challenging project. (Meaning some days I just feel like it’s kicking my butt!) Yet, I can see it evolving, and I have faith that it is going where I hope. I just need to keep working through the various stages.

On my work table.. a pile of fabric printed as monotypes using honeycomb stencil

This week, I became inspired to add a pattern of honeycomb to the environment I’ve created so far, which is a mix of printed fabric and photo transfers. The honeycomb will become a way to connect the different components — both visually and conceptually.  

In progress… how the honeycomb will relate visually to the little girl.

Bees are busy. They all have assigned tasks. But they do not vary from those expectations. So, by incorporating them into this scene, I hope to clarify the question the girls have to figure out. It’s not just “What is life about?” It’s “What is life about and what is my role supposed to be?”

This is the heart of the artwork. It’s what has inspired me to create this piece. I have depicted two girls, sitting in their “here we are being good” poses, surrounded by an environment that is recognizable but does not make sense. They are in it. And they have to make sense of it. It is my hope that the size and complexity of the work — its layers of patterns and photos — will draw the viewer into this process too.

So, to get to the concept, I’ve now been immersed for a few days in the technical image-making part of creating the honeycomb pattern.

First, I hand cut two stencils: same pattern, but in two sizes.

Then I did some printing.

Working with hand-printed monotypes, I have four variables per pattern size: 1. Positive image on opaque fabric (muslin). This is where the ink is printed in the “holes” of the cut stencil. 2. Negative image (printing from the ghost outline on the plate – what’s left after printing 1.) on opaque muslin. 3. Positive image on sheer fabric. 4. Negative image on sheer fabric.

Then, those four variables repeat on the second stencil size.

Using the small stencil I cut. Positive shape prints.

Using the same small stencil. This is the ghost print, showing the linear outline of the pattern.

The result is that, with very little color variation I have some patterns with a lot of variety but which are also unified.

Then, as I collaged (that’s what I started this morning) I took a few of the individual cells and cut out the printed portion, replacing it with a different fabric, some of the pieces I initially created for the background of this work.

Collaging different fabric patterns into the printed honeycomb.

Today, all of the pieces I want to collage in place are held in place by masking tape so I get an overall view of placement and pattern across the panels. Next… I glue!

In case you’d like to see other works… I have been interested in the concept of a girl’s journey for several years and have addressed it in different ways. Here are two of my personal favorites on my website. I hope you will enjoy looking at them.

Neither Here Nor There

Small Expectations.

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

BLOG POSTS: If you would enjoy receiving blog posts by e-mail,  please subscribe here:  I post blogs once a week. BLOGS-BY-EMAIL

NEWSLETTER: If you enjoy more detailed behind-the-scenes stories, as well as FIRST LOOKS at new works and members-only discounts, I hope you’ll become a Studio Insider.  You’ll hear from me about once a month.  NEWSLETTER

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Looking through the leaves

I am still working on the large piece I blogged about last week which explores the emotional life of two little girls.

This week, I’m concentrating on leaves.

On a large work like this one, I need to go back and forth between the big picture (what it’s about) and the details that will develop that story. The girls are in an environment that places real, observable objects in unusual juxtapositions. It’s a little bit like falling down the rabbit hole or being lost in the fairy tale forest. Just as the little girls are figuring out their place in the world, the viewer will explore the environment and figure out its images.

The leaves are a design element that will help me to tie together the parts.

First, earlier this week I did some printing. These leaves were hand-printed with a few hand-cut stencils, using acrylic paint on sheer polyester fabric.

After I printed, I manually cut them out.

Now, I am working from one panel to the next to place the leaves.

TO BLEND SOME HARD EDGES

This section shows an intersection between the corner of a photo-transfer window, a panel of painted muslin and a section of text on muslin. The organic, curving shapes of the leaves soften these transitions and make the pieces relate to one another. (Note: so far, I’m just getting all the leaves in place. A little more acrylic wash on and around the leaves will probably happen.)

TO CREATE LAYERS

In my storytelling works, I like the sense of looking through one layer of reality to the next. It creates a dream-like quality. This whole group of leaves is a foreground against the images of the main background environment. But, even here I want some more depth. The deepest tone purple leaves are behind the green sheer fabric leaves which are behind a lighter acrylic layer of purple. This is a very simplified depiction of what it feels like to look through real leaves: layers on layers, light and dark and splashes of color.

TO EXTEND THE PHOTOS

Most of this is a photo (transferred to muslin) of an actual window with overgrown leaves. I’ve added more bright green collaged leaves – the ones printed on sheer fabric, to blend into the photo and provide another way for the photo to relate to the rest of the work.

If you are interested in some artwork browsing, I invite you to look at the gallery of “Home is What You Remember” on my website. You’ll find other variations of girls’ journeys and dream-like environments formed by trees and leaves. HERE

Finally:… a studio tip. My studio is the size of a single-car carport, so I need to move things around when I have several large projects at once. Plain sheets of thin plywood make wonderful movable easels.

I can lift the whole board up onto my worktable (or my regular easel) for some painting or collaging, and then set it aside. These are one quarter inch birch plywood. When not in use, they stack against a wall and take up almost no space

Thank you for reading.

I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

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The job of little girls. Figuring things out.

This week my mind has been filled with images and thoughts of little girls.

In my studio, I am slowly working my way through a large work that places two little girls in an environment that’s like a dream or memory: windows, doors, archways  and buildings connect with one another in ways that that could not actually occur. The girls are in a place where they must figure things out.

At the same time, since I’m enjoying more reading than normal as part of my stay-at-home-experience, I have read two thought-provoking and stirring accounts of real little girls.

“Becoming,” Michele Obama’s memoir, is warm and rich in details and experience. A lot of the story focuses on her pre-famous days as a girl growing up in Chicago. Clearly, she was smarter than the average kid. Not crazy-genius smart, but smart. And competitive, and motivated, and – increasingly as she grew – capable. She grew in an environment where love and support and nurturing were poured into her with abundance, and she gratefully accepted all of it. A strong and devoted chorus of voices told her: You are important. You can do it.

As an adult, she was able to look back and see how that formed who she is and formed in her the desire for the same opportunities for all little girls.

“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” Maya Angelou’s memoir of her life up to aged sixteen, is a book I had read many years ago. It leapt off the bookshelf in a recent trip to our local used bookstore, an invitation to discover it again. What a wonder! Her story has so much to absorb.

Maya’s childhood was one of being thrown out into the world to make the best of it if she could. The chorus of voices she heard most loudly was telling her that she was not important and not anybody special. Somehow she discovered a love for books. That opened up worlds for her. She began the process of figuring things out and discovering her voice.

So, I’ve been thinking about little girls.

The two girls who inhabit my new (work-in-progress) art quilt are based on a family photo of myself and my sister when I was three and she was four. As the work progresses, I’ve been looking at them a lot. They have evolved.

(Just this week, when I thought that portion of the work was done, I collaged over the girls and changed them around). I repositioned their bodies and redid the drawing and shading.

Most of what’s left in this work will involve adding layers and depth in the environment that surrounds them. I’m working slower than usual and giving it time. I want to hear what the chorus of voices behind these two is saying. I’m still figuring it out.

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

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WHAT’S UNDER THERE? MYSTERIES AWAIT

It is such a pleasure in artmaking when there’s a good fit between what is interesting to you and the methods you use to create.

I rediscovered some of that today.

I was doing some digital housecleaning, going through my files of artwork and organizing. (The nerdy half of my brain sometimes enjoys this almost as much as the original creating.)

I spent some time looking at a collage I had created about a year ago, “Beneath the Ice.” 

My small matted collages are the most intuitive pieces I create. That’s why they are such good in-between projects from my work on larger quilts. When I create a large quilt, I am always following a plan. I’ve done some sketching and some thinking, and I have in mind a specific effect or mood I want to create. Yes, serendipitous things happen along the way and I remain open to surprises. But it’s never just an intuitive evolution.

The process for the collages is exactly opposite. I get in the groove of printmaking monotypes and let them go where they go. I mix up fabric and rice paper. I discover a mix of deep colors and light textures. The method suits this loose way of printing. Acrylics dry very fast and can also create very intense, lush colors.

Then, when I’ve created a bunch, going through the stack to discover pieces to collage together is like a treasure hunt. It’s at this point I think the process most matches my interests.

I enjoy wondering about hidden worlds and inner realities. As a kid, I was drawn to stories about little people or little animals who built their homes under a log. Now, when I listen to NPR in the studio as I work, I am drawn to science stories about going deep in the ocean to previously unexplored depths and discovering new life forms.

I resonate to questions. What’s under there? I wonder what’s inside of this? How does it feel in this place?

Picking through the hand-printed pieces is, then, an act of discovery.  As I pull together paper pieces to collage, I almost always rip (as opposed to scissor-cutting.) It’s one more way to have tactile involvement with the pieces. For me the process is more challenging, because I am creating compositions that are mostly abstract, not representational. But I find myself thinking of deep hues as shadows. Light and textured pieces are outcroppings. Pieces placed on a diagonal connote change.

This one gave me a lot to look at and experience today. It’s always my hope, in the small works and also in my larger quilts, to create layers and textures that will continue to pose questions, to give the viewer something new to see even after frequent visits.

(If you’d like to see more about this collage or others in the series, please visit my website HERE)

My wish to you today… Stay safe and well. And, while you are at home find joy in creativity.

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

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The good life. That didn’t make any sense.

The good life. Except that it didn’t make any sense. And we’d go to Lord and Taylor for our new spring coats.

I finished this quilt about a week ago. It’s been an archaeological dig into childhood memories for me. There in the memory are two characters. The doll-like little girl. The elegant fashion lady. I have placed them side-by-side in a setting of symbols and contrasts.

The doll-like little girl is a variation on the young girl whose journey is at the heart of my recent work. I rendered her in a way that’s representational, but not real. She’s flat, much like a punch-out paper doll. But – boy oh boy – does she feel real to me. I remember standing in front of the forsythia bush each year to pose for the Easter-outfit-photo for our family scrapbook. I had a little purse, Mary Jane shoes and white socks just like this. When I searched online for some reference pictures of girls in their new spring outfits, I discovered row after row of family pictures just like ours. The brothers and sisters stand formally in their new clothes. Parents wanted to record the ideal image of their children.

The fashion lady image was also ubiquitous when I was a girl. Paper doll sets of grown up women had them shaped like an hourglass. Dress patterns and magazine clothing ads depicted women in this ideal shape. Women forced themselves into constrictive girdles and oddly shaped bras to conform to this ideal. (I remember thinking that someday I would have to do that too.)

Against this setting of ideals, I’ve inserted symbols related to searching for the good life in financial terms. The repousse spoons are my grandmother’s flatware, inherited by my mother and then by me. For my Mom, having beautiful silverware and a complete set of good china to complement a neat house with a picket fence was considered the definition of the good things in life.

But, in our family, something was seriously “off.” As a little girl, I tried to sort it out and make sense of it. An annual pilgrimage to Lord and Taylor (the fanciest store I had ever heard of) did not match our financial realities as a family; such extravagance was way beyond what we could afford.  I felt unreal and disconnected by the experience. So, in this artwork, there are things that are “off.” There is beautiful green spring foliage, but prehistoric fish with big, mean teeth are lurking nearby. Among the repousse silver fly large insects

I have a strong tug-of-heart for children. They are doing the hard work of figuring out the world and their place in it. Children are so perceptive. They know what’s good and right. They know when things don’t make sense. As an artist I work to tap into these experiences and do my own hard work of understanding and expressing what I uncover.

“We’d Go To Lord ad Taylor for our new Spring Coats” 2020 42” x 42”

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

BLOG POSTS: If you would enjoy receiving blog posts by e-mail,  please subscribe here:  I post blogs once a week. BLOGS-BY-EMAIL

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From my blog 3-29-2020… A big deal in the big city

It’s good to remember big “YES” events.

I received genuine pleasure this week remembering SAQA’s exhibition “Stories of Migration: Contemporary Artists Interpret Diaspora,” in Washington, DC in 2016. (This exhibit was featured in SAQA’s weekly e-mail to members, part of a promotion of past exhibits). I was so honored to be in the exhibit. In my artist journey, this one is definitely a really big deal!

(Bonus! There’s a little video to watch at the end of this blog post.)

While I’m at work in my studio, I admit I spend my share of time kicking myself when work does not turn out the way I’d envisioned it and wondering what in the world I am doing anyway!

But being a part of “Stories of Migration” was a completely “yes” experience for me.

The work I created, “How Can We Sing in a Strange Land,” was the largest I had created. (It’s 53”H x 72”W)

And it was the biggest work conceptually as well. I had not focused on a particular theme or body of work at that time. So, the process of thinking through how to address this deep and poignant subject matter was a big step in my artmaking. I worked through wondering if I had the right to submit work at all. I wondered if my method of working was sufficiently sophisticated for a museum show.

Once I was accepted and I began to see the scope of the show and the facility at George Washington Univ Textile Museum, I realized that this would be a world-class exhibit. A juried and invitational exhibit, it included work by forty-four artists. The partnership between SAQA artists and this beautiful museum space in every way elevated and enhanced the subject matter.

The GWU Textile Museum exterior, and the interior exhibit space

From SAQA’s promotion:

“All works reflect upon the theme of “Diaspora.” Diaspora is the dispersion of a people from an established ancestral homeland. These communities remain simultaneously active in social, economic, cultural, or political processes in their country of origin and with compatriots worldwide.

A migration of peoples from their ancestral homeland impacts every aspect of their life.  The sudden displacement of large populations and the ensuing establishment of resettlement centers to provide basic human needs — food, clothing, shelter, health services, and safety (particularly that of women and children) -- often requires a worldwide response.”

I traveled to DC for the opening. Because I live in a fairly small city, I can forget the excitement of the big city experience, especially Washington, DC. I took the Metro from the airport to Foggy Bottom-GWU and walked the several blocks to the Textile Museum. Everywhere in the city were amazing plantings of tulips in dynamic color patterns.

SAQA and the Museum had planned to video-document this exhibit and the artists. We had been assigned time slots for our individual videos. I remember that I arrived at the museum only a few minutes before my assigned time, after walking from the Metro station. I caught my breath, went to the restroom and splashed a little water on my face, then I went to stand by my artwork for the taping. My video is below.

For my video click HERE

All the artists’ videos are well worth watching. See them HERE

Another nice part of this memory: a writer for the Washington Post reviewed the show. As a result of that, a very nice art collector in DC purchased my work (before even seeing it in person!) That was also a first-time experience for me. YES!

“How Can We Sing in a Strange Land?”

I’ll be back in the studio this week, tackling a few new, large works that are challenging me. When I get the who-am-I-kidding-what-am-I-doing refrain in my head, I’ll try to remember this great experience.

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

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Life Beneath the Garden

My studio is filled with “stuff.” It’s a mix of stuff I use and works I have completed. Having things out and visible is inspiring to me. Sometimes I see a stencil hanging on my board and think of a new way to use it. Sometimes  I look at a finished work and see something I like and want to remember.

Again this week I am inspired to write by a finished work that’s hanging on the wall behind my sewing table. A number of times this past week I’ve looked up and remembered parts of it I find interesting. This is “Life Beneath the Garden.”

This is an all-paper collage, (I often mix paper with fabric). I printed the various parts by hand as monotype prints using acrylic paint on a soft gelatin plate. Then I cut them apart and collaged them to 140# watercolor paper.

A few things I’ve rediscovered from looking at this again:

Wonderful olive green. This range of colors is created by mixing yellow + black.

It inspired me this morning in a fabric printing session to create backgrounds for a large quilt I am just beginning. I’m using a different lino cut image, but I was drawn to mix up that wonderful green.

Positive and Negative These two rows of leaves were printed from the same hand-cut cardstock stencil.

But in one section the stencil was used as a negative (the stencil blocked the paint and the paint colored the negative spaces) and the other was printed from the ghost image remaining on the plate (now a positive) of that stencil after the first hit. I’ve also mixed up the application of foreground and background colors. These sections speak to each other well, I think.

Complementary Colors The green-orange palette is a slight variation of a pure green-red complement. Putting the compeiments next to each other makes the colors “pop.”

Finally, I was happy with the Invitation to Wonder that I believe is sparked by this work. What, exactly, does go on beneath the ground in the garden? I’ve created shapes that are suggestive of cells or microscopic life, but they are not realistic. We are left to imagine.

Anyone who has planted a bean or a sunflower seed in a dixie cup has experienced the amazing process of a plant’s growth. In a whole garden, or beneath a whole lawn, there are interactions and systems of great complexity. There is biology to explain the process and yet it still amazes.

(This collage is available. If you’d like more information, it’s on my website HERE)

To all of us – stay well and stay hopeful. Humanity will endure beyond our current fears and constraints to daily life. It is my hope that once through we will be wiser and stronger. In the meantime, focus on compassion, doing what you can do to help, and enjoy creating.

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

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OLD NEWS - The Inside Story

As I was sewing in my studio this weekend, I looked up behind my head and saw again this framed collage. It’s called “Old News,” and I had pulled it off my storage shelf several weeks ago when I participated in DeLand’s art studio tour.

This was one of the first completed monotype collage works I created, around 2014. I had photographed this man on a bench in downtown Deland. I loved the silhouette of his body on the bench and it inspired some imaginative storytelling.

I created the man and the bench with a hand-cut stencil from card stock. Behind the man, I have collaged strips of newspaper stories as the background for the washed tree forms.  Like a discarded newspaper, the man seems to me to be easily overlooked, or discarded.

But I wanted to show that he had an inner life and past experiences. That’s the purpose of the colored blocks below him in the composition. These varied shapes and colors are a suggestion of his inner life.

This version of “Old New” is mostly rice paper, monotype printed with acrylic paints and collaged to 140# watercolor paper. I love the natural deckle edge of a beautiful sheet of watercolor paper. I’ve float mounted the collage in a nice, simple oak frame so that deckle is part of the artwork.

I was discovering art quilts at that time and decided to use this same man-on-the-bench as the basis for a larger work. Again, the background behind him depicts strips of newspaper stories. I also added a moon behind the trees.

My interest changed from a focus just on the man to a focus on his inner life. I dedicated more space to the “below” section, and used a mix of fabrics and rice paper in putting together the section. A lot of the monotype printing techniques and relief prints in this work were experimental processes to me at the time.

The story changed a bit, too, with the addition of the little bird as a second character. I’ve kept my interest in little birds as storytelling elements. The bird offers a contrast to the man. People love little birds on city streets, stopping to look at them or to feed them crumbs. Is an old man on a bench as easily noticed? Have the old man and the bird noticed one another? Have they shared a conversation?

Seeing the smaller, framed version of this composition, and remembering the larger quilted version, has been a good experience for me this week. I enjoy seeing works that are a few years old, remembering the experience of creating them. I can see images and symbols I still enjoy using, and steps in the process that I now do differently.

Both versions of this work are available. If you’d like more information and pricing, please visit the Journeys and Stories Gallery on my website. “Old News” as a quilt is HERE. “OLD NEWS” as a framed collage is on my website HERE.

As we are all facing quieter days with less social interaction for awhile,
I hope you find it an opportunity for creativity.

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

BLOG POSTS: If you would enjoy receiving blog posts by e-mail,  please subscribe here:  I post blogs once a week. BLOGS-BY-EMAIL

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Up to my elbows in photo transfers. Why?

Right now on my studio worktable I have a stack of photo transfers in progress and another pile of photos printed to paper ready to transfer.

Why?

Actually, that’s a two-part question. Why do I have a lot? Why incorporate photos into art quilts at all?

The first part is easier. I am beginning a large work that will be created in four panels with much of the imagery created by photo transfers. So far I have planned out the composition, prepped my photos for reproduction, and had the laser copies printed. Now, one by one, I’ll transfer the photos onto muslin. There will be abut 50 transfers 12” x 18” size in this work.

Second, why use photos in art quilts at all?

For readers who are art-lovers but not necessarily art-makers, I think it deepens the appreciation of a work to explore why artists create in the way they do. Quilt artists use photos in a number of ways. Sometimes, the whole composition of the quilt is about reproducing the image from a photo. I am more interested in juxtaposing a photographic reality with a non-photo reality. It’s a way to add depth of meaning (as well as visual depth) to a narrative work.

This is a work from 2018 I created using photo transfers: “Something Else will Grow There.”

The patterns of leaves-light-and vines within the house are transferred onto muslin from a photo I took of an abandoned house. I think it’s a wonderful image. (I’ll be using it again in the large 4-panel work I’m creating now.) But, rather than just make a whole work of this photo, I have incorporated the image into a child-like house in a setting that is story-like. Now, when encountering this work, this viewer’s brain starts to sort things out. “Look, that’s a photo. It must be a REAL thing. But, look, there’s a child-like image. It must be a NOT-REAL thing.”  I believe the viewer is drawn deeper into the picture surface and the story through this process.

Here's a detail of another new work that’s in progress now

This work uses image elements in a more graphic and symbolic way. The spoons are photos of actual flatware with an intricate repousse pattern. (My grandmother’s silver pattern.) Layered in with the spoons is monotype-printed sheer fabric, monotype-printed muslin fabric, and semi-transoarent images of flying insects. There’s a lot going on. Sorting out what all of this might mean is an entry into the artwork.

For readers who are artmakers, you might be interested in my process of creating transfers. There are many, many ways to get a photo on fabric. But, in the hope that one more way might be helpful to your studio practice, at the end of this blog I’ve described my process. Happy creating!

For more information on “Something Else Will Grow There” and to see more storytelling works incorporating photo transfers, I invite you to visit these galleries on my website:

HOME IS WHAT YOU REMEMBER GALLERY.
JOURNEYS and STORIES GALLERY

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

BLOG POSTS: If you would enjoy receiving blog posts by e-mail,  please subscribe here:  I post blogs once a week. BLOGS-BY-EMAIL

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How I transfer photos to fabric

Most people who transfer onto fabric use inkjet presses and print directly onto the fabric. There are various grounds and treatments you can put on the fabric to make it receive the image and all kinds of ink jet printers. I mention this upfront because there is a lot written about how to do this, and many people like the process and the results a lot.

I don’t use ink jet. I begin by purchasing color laser copies from my local print shop. All commercial shops who make color copies are using laser copies- not ink jet. (You can tell because the copy is warm when it comes out of the machine.) Be sure to create your images to print in mirror image so they will be right-reading when transferred.

I transfer onto plain old cotton muslin.

I generally rinse the piece in hot water to get the sizing out, then lay the wet fabric on a flat surface (covered with a plastic sheet) and press it out with my hands to get rid of bubbles and wrinkles.

Slather on gel medium (Matte. Thick) with a brush.

Turn your copy upside down onto the gel medium and press it – copy facing the medium – into the gel.

Rub with your hands, Brayer, Burnish it with a wooden spoon.

Go away and let it dry at least 24 hours.

Now gently rub off the paper. Use soft cloth or a toothbrush or your fingers. Use water. Just keep working it. It’s quite tedious. It takes time to get the paper scum to go away. If there are any places where the gel medium did not contact  well with the toner you’ll get  a gap of no image. It is a fussy process.

But, I enjoy this kind of transfer and I like the results.

The only way to know if this works for you is to do some practicing. Best wishes.

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Fearless!

Looking at a big empty canvas, paper or fabric area can be pretty daunting.

I am grateful for the great stories and questions about artmaking blog-readers share with me. Fear of messing up is at the heart of many questions, and a desire to get over it is at the heart of many stories. (There’s a nice success story from a reader at the end of this blog.)

So, this morning I was also encountering fear of a big piece to fill, looking at a wide empty piece of muslin. I have a vision for a new quilt, and I know how I want this section to function. Now’s the time to begin.

First things first. I experience the beginning of artmaking rhythm during set-up. (I love the simple act of putting on my painting apron!) I pulled the paint colors I wanted to use onto my worktable and arranged them around my palette. I spooned out a few blops of color and began to mix. (Color note. I almost never use a paint color straight from the jar. Mixing colors is the key to a palette where the parts speak to each other.)

Sponge painting acrylics onto fabric goes fast. Once I begin, a few minutes later I have a few yards with the basic color down. I wet my sponge just a bit and picked up some color from the palette. Big strokes, big arm movements. The color is not solid, but shows some of the component parts as blends.

I want some subtle image elements in this section so I’ve selected some of my favorite stencils. I’ve sponged in some geometric shapes. Now for the prehistoric fish.

This hand-cut fish skeleton is one of the first stencils I cut and preserved for re-use. It’s based on an illustration I discovered of a Portheus, an extinct species from over 90 million years ago. I have images of this fish in several sizes, both positive and negative images. It’s strongly connotative to me: the passage of time, the fear of the unknown beneath the surface.

For a first layer, I’m pleased with the results. The section is still a bit flat, and will need some more subtle layers of transparent color to get the depth I want. This may stay as a whole-cloth section, or I may cut it into sections to stitch together. All decisions for the next work session

For now, the blankness has been filled. A good first step.

Here’s the successful experiment sent to me from a blog-reader. Janet Pugh from Arizona has been intrigued with wheat-paste resist and the wonderful crackle effects it creates She used the resist to make the texture in the background of this quilt section behind the crocus. Her email to me described a lot of experimentation, with a mix of successes and failures. Yup. That’s how it works! I think it looks great and I‘m so glad Janet shared it.

And I also like her creative composition: squares, but not.

Fear – bad.

Experimenting and creating – good!
Happy creating.

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

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New projects brewing

This past weekend, during the few lulls that there were during the Studio Tour, I started the process of looking ahead to my next projects.

(Actually, I’ve had at last two projects brewing for a few weeks now. But, I couldn’t focus on them till the tour was over. That was a big undertaking! And it was so much fun, with lots of visitors and lots of new connections and patrons.)

My first project will include some relief printing with newly-carved blocks. I worked on these during the tour.

My local artmaking group is working on a several months-long project exploring block printing. They met this past Saturday while I was busy with the Studio Tour.

These are easy-cut blocks made of rubber, like a large eraser. They are designed to be super easy to carve, and they are. Like buttah! Unlike original linoleum blocks, these would not work well in a printing press. The pressure of the press would squish them. But, I have used relief print blocks before to print by hand and gotten interesting results.

I am interested in a project that will include leaf patterns. I started by roughing them out in my sketchbook.

Then, I imported them into Photoshop to experiment with overlaps and variations in positioning. I did enough to answer my questions about how the patterns might develop. So, then I proceeded to carving.

When I get to the printing portion, I’ll share more.

My second new project brewing is actually sort of an obsession. I’ve been thinking about this one for a while now. I’m not sure if it will work, or how to solve the technical issues involved in making it work. This involves fabric panels, collage-constructed, with overall quilting stitching but no binding or finishing on the edges:  showing the raw-edge ripped muslin edges.

I started this morning with prepping the muslin. I ripped it to size, about 30” x 40”. I’ll be creating this experiment 100% final size. I’m using white house paint primer applied with a wet natural sponge. After that all-over prep, I went back and put a little more on the edges with a foam brush.

Next I glued on a felt backing going to within about ¾” inch from the edge. This will be the finished backing and I will quilt through it.

Next I plan to use up old ugly scraps to collage and stitch the whole piece just as I will when I make the real work. What I’m interested in is seeing how it will hang, and how the natural-edge muslin looks. I love the natural deckle-edge finish of watercolor paper, especially when the art on the paper has non-square edges. My hope is to create a similar feel with fabrics.

As it progresses, I’ll share more.

This morning I put my studio back in order. It felt great!

Just in case you’d like to do some browsing… To prepare for the studio tour I created a number of new matted paper collages. I was so happy to have many of them go home with patrons. But I have some nice pieces left on my website. Here’s one I especially like, “Bubbling Up”

Detail, “Bubbling Up”

This one and more are available in the Wednesday Collage Gallery, HERE.

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

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