From a Florida (but, not) artist

“I want my feet to be in the water.”

I love this picture of me in the Atlantic Ocean holding a piece of my collaged textile artwork. (This came about as part of a photo shoot of quilters in Florida that will be in Quiltfolk magazine this summer.)

I can still remember the feel of the cold water swirling around my legs, and that wonderful pull of the ocean as it receded readying for the next wave

Water is the best thing about Florida. The beaches are wonderful.  The inland springs are clean and cold and clear.

 Yet, these pictures, to me, shows my experience of living in this place but not being from this place.

The piece I was holding in the water is “Setting a Course.” It is a beach-inspired abstract collage. The piece I held during most of the shoot is “Where it is Only a Memory After All,” a collage built from images that come from my memories and inner experiences.

in the ocean with “Setting A Course”

On the beach with “Where it is Only a Memory After All”

“Where it is only a Memory After All”

I have walked in Florida inland forests – lots of scrub palm, and tall straight pines. I absorb and appreciate the colors and the patterns of light and dark.  I’ve used these observations in some of my work.

“Found There in the Quiet” monotype with acrylics - paper collage

I enjoy these images. But, this is not the landscape that speaks to my soul. When I think inwardly of trees, I think of the geography where I grew up.

Detail “Growing Unseen” - tree, leaves and house detail from memories

“Hearing Wind Voices” - Monotype with acrylics, paper collage. Memory images.

One of the first thing I noticed about Florida when I moved here as a teenager is the way the architecture of homes differ form what I had known. When my artwork pulls on memories of home, I draw from those of my childhood.

“Every One Has a Different Story,” art quilt inspired by Rodgers Forge, the neighborhood where I grew up

All of us carry within us responses to and memories of what we know.  We add to them to images of new experiences. We process them and recreate them in our dreams, in our understanding of the world, and – for many of us who are artmakers – in the images we create.

If you would like more information about the works I’ve depicted in this blog, please visit the galleries of my website. (You can click the title below to go directly to the work.)

SETTING A COURSE

WHERE IT IS ONLY A MEMORY AFTER ALL

FOUND THERE IN THE QUIET

EVERY ONE HAS A DIFFERENT STORY

HEARING WIND VOICES

GROWING UNSEEN

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

How I keep in touch:

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

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: 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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It began with the two girls

I first wrote some posts about this work just about one year ago. It was near the beginning of staying at home a lot during the early days of Covid and I decided to tackle a bigger-than-normal project.

“What Were We Supposed to Be” is a journey quilt, placing two little girls in an environment rich with images and symbols.

Since then, two nice things have occurred. First, this work will be included in a book written by Sandra Sider, “Quarantine Quilts; Creativity in a Time of Chaos.” It will be published by Shiffer Publishing this summer. I’m pleased because this piece is very wide, and Sandra told me it printed as a two-page spread and looks great. I can’t wait to see it.

Even nicer, a patron has purchased this work. It is on a UPS truck someplace between here and California right now. All of this has caused me to take a look at it again, and remember some of what went into creating it.

I created What Were We Supposed to Be in four panels

It began with the two girls. It’s their story. They are in an environment that’s rich with symbols and possibilities. Yet it is not well organized. There are a lot of parts. And they must figure out the parts and their meaning.

Windows and doors fill the environment. These invite the viewer to look through. But what’s inside is not clearly defined. The windows and doors are also skewed, providing a feeling that one has fallen through the looking glass. Tangles of vines are visible in the background. This is a confusing place.

There are strong architectural elements suggesting history and tradition. Perhaps this is part of a large church structure. Perhaps it is a school. Or a fort. It is big and makes its presence felt. It casts shadows. Yet, it is also appealing and inviting.

Around and through these elements are trees and leaves – signs of growth and nourishment. Parts of the environment are lush and verdant. There are also bees and pieces of a beehive. Lots of activity and work going on.

The two girls sit like dolls. They are posed on a stoop in front of a door, as in a family photo. Mimicking the shapes of the arches in the historical structure, they are beneath an arch, as figures in a shrine.

Some of the emotions in this work are drawn from my own particular childhood. I often felt unreal. My sister and I were in an environment that was frequently overwhelming. Our best strategy was to be good, or to be invisible.

Beyond our particular circumstances, I believe this emotional state was true of many girls growing up in the 1950’s and early 1960’s. We absorbed traditional expectations for girls from teen magazines and sitcom TV shows. Nobody gave us high expectations or talked about the large issues of life, morality, or meaning. Our parents worked very hard and, each weighed down by their own unspoken emotional baggage, tried to forge what they understood to be the ideal little family. They did what they knew how to do and intended for it to define a good life.

I included some text about expectations for women in the 1950’s in the collage

Now I have a heart for girls and their journeys. I want them to be encouraged. I want them to like themselves. I want them to see their own possibilities as limitless. I volunteer in a first grade class. Working one-on-one or in small reading groups I love the opportunity to offer encouragements to growing kids. I never know when the one word I speak is the one word a child needs to hear to figure out her own place and her own possibilities in the reality in which she is growing.

A lot of my quilts are storytelling quilts that focus on the journey of a young girl. If you’d like to see more, please visit bobbibaughstudio.com and browse through the “Journeys and Stories” Gallery: HERE

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

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

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: 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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From Bobbi’s Blog 4-25-21… Inspiration from changing pace

Today feels a little like the day we take down the Christmas tree and put the decorations away.

I used to watch my Mom do this as a kid. I always thought it would be a sad day. Now I find it pleasing – a way to reorder and to move on the next thing.

This weekend I exhibited at a local art event sponsored by the Guild of DeLand Museum of Art. (It was a GREAT day. Perfect weather. Wonderful to talk to patrons face-to=face after a year. And especially nice that several blog readers made a special point to stop by for a visit. THANK-YOU!)

Spending the day talking with people interested in art is very inspiring. When I explain what I create to others, I understand it better myself.

Here’s my set-up at the Garden Art Event. It was a beautiful setting in a nursery. I thought looking through the palm fronds was a perfect shot!

Even a one-day event like this takes a lot of prep energy beforehand. I made some new work. I got existing work ready to be hung. I did some marketing. I packed the car. I went through the checklists. All the stuff you do.

After the event we packed it all up again, drove home and took most of the things out of the car. I spent some time in the studio this morning getting it all put away. AAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhh.

Now my studio is re-ordered and I am focusing on the next projects that interest me.

I generally keep focused on my main body of work. But, now and then, a short-term distraction is OK. I can switch mental gears. I may find some new ideas or perspectives during the project.

The experience is like what I’ve found in creating smaller, matted paper collaged works alongside larger quilts. Each informs the other some. It’s hard to maintain the energy and focus to make just large works that I consider my main body of art. But I would not be pleased with making only small works either.

So, going back and forth is artistically stimulating.

This morning I have just put a photo transfer in the soak bin to remove the paper. Here’s the image:

It’s part of a new work with a secret interior space motif. I now feel ready to dive into this one deeper.

In the process of prepping for last weekend’s event, I created some new smaller paper collages. If you’d like to take a look at all the current ones, they are on my website HERE

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

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

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: 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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Art – Poetry – Art

Tonight I’m starting with some poetry thoughts. But it gets to visual art soon.

I enjoyed a new adventure recently, taping a Lightning Talk presentation for the SAQA Global Conference. It’s about the lessons of poetry for visual artists.

 Lightning talks are short presentations with a very specific format: 20 slides x 20 seconds each = 6 minutes and forty seconds. My PowerPoint is done, the taping is completed, and now I get to sit back with my feet up and listen along with the rest of the audience.

This is one of the slides from my Lightning Talk

I took a wonderful poetry class while I was an undergraduate student and many of the professor’s little bits of wisdom and insights come back to me from time to time. I think my favorite insight deals with meter and structure.

Here’s a short well-known, well-loved poem by Robert Frost to help explain:

 “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”

Whose woods these are I think I know.  

His house is in the village though;  

He will not see me stopping here  

To watch his woods fill up with snow.  

My little horse must think it queer  

To stop without a farmhouse near  

Between the woods and frozen lake  

The darkest evening of the year.  

He gives his harness bells a shake  

To ask if there is some mistake.  

The only other sound’s the sweep  

Of easy wind and downy flake.  

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,  

But I have promises to keep,  

And miles to go before I sleep,  

And miles to go before I sleep.

Frost has such a well-developed voice as a writer that you can just imagine him saying these words: a crinkled, wise old man leaning on a fence post, speaking slowly and sharing this memory. His speech would be very natural.

It’s also easy to imagine a school child or the world’s worst poetry reader reading this work aloud getting caught in the sing-song of Frost’s strong meter and obvious rhymes: “Whose Woods these are I think I know, his house is in the village though…” La DA dee da la DA dee da, la DA dee da dee da.

What the professor explained is that both voices are actually in there, in the poem, and they are in tension with one another. When you read aloud with a natural voice, not falling into sing-song, you still can’t help but notice the cadence and the rhymes.

I find that when I read poetry for pleasure, I read inside my head as much as possible in a natural, spoken voice. But where there is interesting meter or the existence of rhyme, it adds a dimension, a little bit of extra of richness and interest.

Skilled poets are ones who handle this tension well and use it to enhance their meaning.

Now to visual art.

This is a work-in-progress image of my quilt, Becoming One with the Night. It’s easy to see the structure: squares stitched together in columns and rows.

I wanted that structure under there, but I wanted another layer of experience in the work too.

Becoming One With the Night

My hope is that the underlying structure of squares creates an element to be discovered and appreciated, and that the layers on top made the squares more interesting than they would be alone.

Good structure – compositional devices, elements of design – are important to hold a work together. But, all alone, they are not sufficient to make a work good.

But, without them, the work will not be as strong as it could be.

. . . . .

Don’t forget: If you are near DeLand, Florida this weekend, please stop by the art in the Garden Event sponsored by the Guild of the Museum of Art – DeLand. I’ll be there showing a few large quilts and some new paper collages. I hope to see you there.

My quilt “Becoming One With the Night” is currently in the SAQA Global Exhibit “Beyond the Mirror.’ If you’d like more information about it, it’s on my website HERE.

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

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

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: 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

A Secret Garden (Re)Discovered

I have discovered – again – a wonderful secret garden, a walled space full of shadows and overgrown with vines, hidden just steps off an alley in downtown Natchez,  Mississippi.

When my daughter graduated from college we drove from her school in South Carolina to Natchez where she was to begin an art residency. The housing provided was a very quirky apartment buried behind an out-of-way garden accessible through a locked gate in an alley downtown. As it turned out, the apartment had both quirky charm and a lot of mold and mildew. It was not to be where she stayed for long.

But, while I was there, I took many photos of the fabulous untended garden behind the brick walls. Even now, seeing them again, I remember how swept away I was by the experience of being in that place.

I loved the evocative gates. I loved the sense of things partially hidden, partially revealed. I loved the warmth of the sun on the bricks. And against all this age and mystery, vibrant green spring leaves.

Through a series of hard drive clean-ups, I lost the original photos. Then, just this week I discovered I have good quality color paper copies. I can capture them digitally and use them in artwork.

What inspiration!

Other photos I might find or purchase of old walls and gardens would not be the same. This was a real place that I’d really been in and photographed myself; and it was part of a journey in the lives of my daughter and me. 

Before this discovery, I’d been sketching a new series that will incorporate silkscreened trees and limbs and stenciled rocks and leaves. But I wasn’t happy with the way they were coming together. The idea of incorporating photos of the Natchez garden has breathed new life into my concept-development.

Around 2010, I began experimenting with fabric and paper collages. At that time I created Portals, using one of the Natchez photos incorporated into an imaginary journey composition.

I looked again at this work this morning, and remembered creating it. I also began to think about my work and how it’s changed, and my life and how it’s changed.  All of this – plus the rediscovery of the garden photos – will be a part of what comes next.

That’s how the journey works.

If you would like more information about Portals, it’s on my website HERE

If you’d like to see more work in the series I call Journeys and Stories, that gallery is on my website HERE.

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

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

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: 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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Some unexpected monotypes

I received my second covid shot on Friday. (Or “Jab #2” as they say on the BBC.)

Yayyy! (As we say here in the states.)

It meant most of the weekend I felt a little like I was walking underwater. A price I am happy to pay. I took many naps and just puttered in the studio. No big projects brewing.

But I did have a little serendipitous printing on paper to share.

I had spread out a large vinyl drop cloth to protect my worktable from some wet fabric painting. When I lifted the wet fabric off there were wonderful puddles.

I recently cleaned out and rearranged the storage under my table to make room for a stack of packing boxes. It was a refreshing exercise. I threw out all kinds of old scraps I’ll never use and put the pieces that really interest me in a big plastic bin with a good lid that I can get to easily.

It’s a little thing, but I’m very proud of cleaning out underneath my worktable. Amazingly I added a lot but made more room!

So, when the puddles appeared. I popped open the plastic bin and pulled out a few sheets of tissue paper. For paper collages, tissue paper is magic. It picks up the most delicate images with just the slightest pressure. Little cracks and textures that other papers would miss are well defined.

I thought these puddle snippets suggest water nicely.

I can envision them in an abstract landscape with some sky and water. Maybe a wading bird.

Pressing the paper into the puddles took less than three minutes. But, now those delightful, random shapes are in the bin waiting for me.

(Warning – while I sing the praises of tissue paper, I must also admit it rips and falls apart just by looking at it. Learning to incorporate it into work is challenging.)

……………..

A few things coming up that I look forward to…

Art Event April 24. I’ll be showing work at this event sponsored by the Guild of the Museum of Art DeLand. It’s a small pop-up show (approx 20 artists) in a beautiful setting under a pavilion at Select Growers, on US 11 just north of DeLand. If you are in driving distance of DeLand I hope you’ll stop by.

Lightning Talk at the SAQA Global Conference. This year the Global conference is all virtual. I submitted a proposal for a Lightning Talk. (20 slides x 20 seconds each = 6 minutes and 40 seconds.) I’ll be speaking about What Poetry Can Teach Visual Artists. I’ll have my practice recording session later this week. For readers who are SAQA members and will be at the conference, I hope you’ll mark your schedule for Friday April 23  8:15 pm.

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

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

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: 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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What to do When You're Stuck

Well, I’m just stumped.

That’s how I’ve been feeling this week, trying to get the wheels churning for a  new series I’ve been thinking about.

Everybody’s creative cycles are different, and we all get stumped at different stages. I never seem to get stumped at the initial idea stage—I have all kinds of ideas I’d like to implement. I do sometimes get stuck when I’ve got the idea, but what I’m trying so far to make it work just isn’t going anywhere.

Detail of a recently completed quilt. I want to do more with this idea.

I put up the recent work I created featuring trees and stared at it for a long time. I just let it live there as I went on to other projects. I like this work, and I love the tree patterns, but to build it into a series I feel like it needs to have some place to go. I’m looking for more creative ways to use the trees with other patterns.

Nothing was coming.

So I went back to my sketchbook and tried working out different arrangements of the elements I have in mind.

For me, sketchbook work is like a shorthand. I draw enough detail so I know what each section  means. These are records of ideas. I don’t intend at all for them to be finished.  (I might do some of that later.) This allows me to draw a lot of different variations without being invested in any one. I just keep mixing things up to try out new compositions.

This convinced that I want a few new patterns in addition to the regulars in my toolbox.

I cut three new patterns from Tyvek envelopes that I can use for various kinds of printmaking. For me, it’s helpful to limit my printmaking methods enough that I know each one well. I use stencils a lot. So, even as I cut these, I can envision them either painted directly light image on dark background, or painted directly dark image on light background, or monotype printed on sheer for a more translucent look, or used with wheat paste resist or glue resist to get an altogether different effect.

Sometimes, at this stage, it helps to photograph the shapes and play with them in Photoshop.

I haven’t determined a palette I want to work with yet, so I tried out just a few different color ideas.

As I look at these, the “what’s next” wheels are beginning to turn.

When you reach an impasse, don’t despair or expend any energy kicking yourself. It is, I believe, a normal part of artmaking and creating generally. For me, relying on a few things I already know and working with those will help me to get into the stage that I don’t know yet.

Happy creating.

The finished work “Listening to the Language of Trees” is on my website if you’d like to see more.  Click here; TREES

DeLand-area Art Event coming in April… I’ll be there

For those who are near Central Florida I hope you will mark your calendar for Saturday, April 24 for a small outdoor art event sponsored by the Guild of the Museum of Art – DeLand. (A GREAT organization.) It will feature about 20 artists and be held at the nursery of Select Growers, on US 11 just North of DeLand. Enjoy outdoor art strolling in a beautiful setting. You can look at art and look at beautiful plants—and shop for both!  This will be my first face-to-face art event in over a year. Can’t wait! See you there.

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

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

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: 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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From thought to Underwater Sunlight

Today is chilly and drizzly. It’s a good time to be thinking about warm tropical waters. And I am.

Actually, this thought began in a completely different place. I have been working on artwork created by patterns of tree limbs. I find them very interesting. I like the way individual static images, overlapped and repeated, build a sense of movement.

So my next step was to ask: Can the pattern of static images – overlapped in patterns – create a sense of movement in things that are actually moving. Like wildlife. That question inspired my current project.

Have you ever been to the beach and held up a piece of bread, only to find yourself in the middle of a flock of very hungry seagulls? Being immersed in that frenetic energy can be fascinating, but a little overwhelming. It’s a whir and blur of activity. That’s the kind of energy I want to create.

And this work will have birds – above. But, I am beginning with the area below the sea. I want to have that sense of immersion I imagine there would swimming right in the middle of a school of small fish moving through the water.

This is new subject mater for me, so it’s all an experiment. I began with the fish because it’s the smaller section, and I want some of the things I work out there to dictate how I handle the area with the birds. The only thing I felt sure about was that I wanted to use sheer fabric and create a watery-luscious environment.

First – creating the patterns for the fish.

I printed a few yards of yellow and gold and orange fabric to be the fish patterns. I worked fast and randomly to get an overall pattern. It is mostly monotype printed with some relief printing and a little stenciling.

Next – creating the shapes of the fish

Working from several reference photos of swimming fish, I drew a large stencil of a school in movement. I cut out each fish. This way, I can place the whole stencil over the yellow fabric and look through the holes to fins an interesting place for the patterns to fall inside the fish. Then I rolled a wheat paste resist into the fish shapes.

(“How-To” detail: Wheat paste is flour + water. Just pour flour in a bowl and add water till it’s the consistency of pancake batter. You can spread it all over a fabric or use stencils or block outs to apply it in patterns. Once it’s dried, you can crack it a bit. It will block out whatever the second color layer is, but allow some interesting crackle patterns to show where the second color seeps through. After the second paint layer is dry, you wash out the wheat paste with warm water. It does not hurt or stain the fabric.)

Next – overpainting the water.

I mixed a nice teal color and made a portion of it tinged with yellow for a greener hue. I sponged this over loosely so the green and blue merged. The magical part, I think, is the way the underneath colors of the yellow and oranges appear faintly through the blue water. That feels like sun and light penetrating the water.

When this paint dried, it was time to wash out the wheat paste resist and reveal the fish in their watery world.

So far, I am happy with the answer to my question, “Can static patterns create a sense of movement in wildlife?” I think yes. I’m interested in seeing how this works out with the birds and the sky. Stay tuned.

If you would like to see more of the tree-limb piece that started my thinking, it’s on my website HERE

An invitation for my central Florida friends:

I  hope you will mark your calendar for Saturday, April 24 for a small outdoor art show sponsored by the Guild of the Museum of Art – DeLand. (A GREAT organization.) It will feature about 20 artists and be held at the nursery of Select Growers, on US 11 just North of DeLand. Enjoy outdoor art stolling in a beautiful setting. You can look at art and look at beautiful plants—and shop for both! See you there.

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

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

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: 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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Between Make-Believe and Memory

Today I am doing some looking back. Back into make-believe. Back into memory.

As I recall being a young girl, I remember how powerful the world of make-believe was for me. I frequently played alone, with paper dolls, Barbies and drawing pads to create new universes and new stories.

“Between Make-Believe and Memory” is a quilt I completed this year that walks into this memory world. I am so pleased that it was recently accepted into the SAQA traveling exhibit, “Connections,” which will premiere at the International Quilt Festival, Houston 2021 and travel for about two years.

The beginning of this work was my discovery of the photo of the rowhouses. (© 2014 Alana Semuels, as originally published in The Atlantic, used with permission.) It’s very powerful. These row houses are in downtown Baltimore, the city where I grew up. My family also lived in a row house neighborhood. It was not the same as this one; this neighborhood is older and has clearly fallen on hard times. Still, the image evoked a pang of recognition. Bricks. Concrete sidewalks. Cracks. It spoke to me at once as a way into the exploration of traveling back to childhood stories.

I was interested in using the sidewalk cracks as a way to bridge the divide between the two realities. I monotype printed cotton muslin with a very drab grey-brown color to match the sidewalks in the photo. There is a clear vertical line of delineation through the piece, but it is crossed over by the sidewalk texture and cracks.

I was pleased with the way the sidewalk texture interacts with the little girl’s shadow. Lightly painting the shadow shape allowed the texture I had created with machine stitching to show through. They are now actually a part of the little girl.

What is the meaning of the section with gold and green and tree forms?

It is intentionally undefined. The lines suggest trees, but they are not a literal forest. This is the world of make-believe.

Beneath the row houses, the roots were printed with a screen of linear tree-like lines that mirrors the make-believe section. The underground life of the houses. The inhabitants of the houses. What’s remaining now that they are gone.

The surface of this work is very much like a painting, although it is constructed as a layered and stitched quilt. The house photograph was transferred to muslin manually with acrylic medium. It is stiff and created a good surface for the acrylic paint touch-ups I did on the surface.

I am so grateful for the opportunities provided by SAQA to its artists to stretch by creating works for call-to-entries. I like thinking of this girl traveling to a number of venues, hoping she will speak to those who see the exhibit.

When you enter a juried exhibit, you have to submit an artist statement. Here’s what I said about this quilt:

“I can imagine the insistent pull within a migrating animal to return to its place of origin. I have felt similar longings. Having lived my early childhood in a row house section of Baltimore, I experienced a visceral response to this image of abandoned row houses in a downtown Baltimore neighborhood. Make-believe (my imaginings as a child) and Memory (the real events) live side-by-side, overlap, rearrange and conflate, creating a powerful emotional connection.”

I have explored the journey of a young girl in many ways in my artmaking. If you are interested in seeing more, please visit the Journeys and Stories gallery on my website, HERE.

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

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

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: 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

Doing the Work

Here I am in the studio this morning. Sewing. Standing up.

It’s not that standing while sewing is all that unusual or a bad idea. If you get tired and shoulder-achey while sewing it can provide relief.

But I’m sewing standing up because this piece is big, and heavy, and hard to handle, and the tree I added is toward the middle of the piece where it’s a stretch to reach. This is hard work both for me and my little sewing machine, and quite a slog.

I am not complaining. I choose my materials and my working methods and I could have chosen to work some other way. But, well, you’ve got to make work in a way that interests you and that’s pleasing. It’s not about being logical.

I have great admiration for textile artists who create beautiful and sensitive small works, often including hand sewing. They can be just lovely. But it’s not who I am. I like to work big. And I like to collage.

So, sometimes, at least part of the creation process is just – work. It’s stuff I have to do to get to the end, or to get to other creative parts I enjoy more.

Artmaking is a wonderful mix of experiences. There’s the emotional longing to create. There’s the inspiration of putting an idea onto paper in a sketch book. There’s the challenge of decision-making along the way. There are the hours of solitude int the studio – just you and some music. There are tasks that are just work. And there’s the pleasure of seeing work develop before your eyes.

This afternoon I got to sit and sew for a while. This is a small portion of the same quilt. I have collaged its fabric layers and now I am using the machine stitching as a form of drawing, a loose outlining and defining of this young girl. Aaaah! Just artmaking pleasure. The piece is easy to handle. My sewing machine is not stressed out. And I can see the shape take place as I sew.

These are the moments artmakers live for.

The most not-logical project I have created was just about a year ago, at the beginning of pandemic seclusion, when I wanted to tackle a large, 4-panel quilt. I had a vision for using raw-edge panels and an intricate mix of photo transfers and other kinds of imagery.

It’s What Were We Supposed To Be. Here’s a detail.

If you’d like to see more, the whole 4-panel composition is on my website, HERE

I have a few new ideas for projects in the studio this week. I look forward to all parts of the process.

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

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

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: 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

We Keep Our Homes Inside Us

In my studio now is a work-in-progress that’s emotionally autobiographical. It does not depict an actual event. It does depict remembered states of being. (A few weeks ago I posted about the drawing I had made of a young girl’s face. That drawing is part of the work in progress.)

When I work on storytelling pieces, it helps sometimes to go back over previous works I’ve created that explore similar territory. I see connecting threads. I remember how I worked out ideas.

So, this weekend I have been looking again at “We Keep Our Homes Inside Us,” a quilt I created several years ago.

A few things that that I am seeing.

Family memories are complex. To deal with them in a visual storytelling work, there needs to be some visual complexity.

This quilt had a large photo transfer of a bird’s nest. It is about as complicated an image as I can imagine; Parts physical intertwine with one another.

MOVEMENT I felt that this work succeeded in having a sense of movement.

The nest stayed in house number one. The branch connects to house number two. The houses are slightly askew: movement, as opposed to stability. The diagonal horizon line also suggests direction.

Subtle connections are important

The background yellow sky is filled with very faint leaf shapes. Being printed on sheer fabric adds to the watercolor-like effect. Leaf shapes are also evident inside the windows of house number one. Even if not consciously, I believe the viewer sees the pattern in both places and connects the parts to each other.

Color counts

This work is built on a basic primary palette: red-yellow-blue. But none of the colors are pure. I mixed all the colors for this work (as I do for all my textile works) and used a raw umber as a constant in each hue. The blue background in the lower half is an out-of-the-jar blue hue mixed with some raw umber. The yellow background in the top half is a yellow-from-the-jar mixed with raw umber. And all of the read and orange tones have some raw umber mixed in. This is a very strong palette, but – to me – it also feels unified.

Seeing things over time

It is especially interesting to me to look at this one several years after I created it. The work itself is like a memory to me, in addition to having subject matter built on memory. I see things I did not see before. It’s my hope that when someone invites one of my artworks into their home they find new things in it to discover over time.

If you would like more information about this work, it’s on my website HERE.

I have another large work that is also built around a bird’s nest that you might enjoy seeing: “Because That’s Where It All Begins.” The two pieces have some things in common, but are also quite different. It’s on my website HERE.

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

How I keep in touch:

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

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: 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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Variations on a (Printmaking) theme

For the past few months I’ve been collaging up a storm. I really like the process of combining paper and fabric iinto medium-sized compositions.

And, in this batch, I’ve introduced a few new printing elements. I ordered some small screens for silkscreen printing with images I had photographed and simplified in PhotoShop.

So, my challenge to myself… How can I incorporate these new images, but not make all the works the same? I’ve been answering that question with some variations on a theme.

Here’s are my basic tree shapes, next to the printing screens

.And here are a few of the works I’ve created so far.

As Day Becomes a Presence

AS DAY BECOMES A PRESENCE
In this collage, the tree appears in two places. On the right, it’s upright, and printed against a piece of brown muslin. As I’ve been experimenting with the screen printing, I am learning that every pull won’t look the same. The amount of paint in the screen and how hard you pull the squeegee are just two of the variables that affect the appearance. In this section, the black forming the tree is a bit faded out. In some applications, this would be a reject. In this piece, I think it adds a sense of depth. In the lower left, same screen – same paint – same brown background. But the pull was thick and dense. Now these two sections in the work speak to each other and add unity.

Imprinted in the Earth

IMPRINTED IN THE EARTH
This one shows some of the serendiipitous events that occur in hand printmaking, I pulled out both blank fabric and previously monotype-printed fabric to print these trees onto. This green rock-filled piece of sheer fabric has haunted me from the scrap bin for awhile. I love it but hadn’t found  a place to use it. So, I printed the reverse-image (Black background, underneath color showing through) thinking I would use it and cut it off of the green rocks. It turns out I really like how they go together. So I incorporated the whole piece as the center image in the collage.

Knowing We Are Made of This

KNOWING WE ARE MADE OF THIS
Back to the whole-tree image. It’s printed on a piece of scrap muslin I had with a wash-looking section of olive green in one part and blank nothing-printed on the rest. I was pleased with the look of the tree crossing those sections. And the no-print area of the muslin became the perfect place to collage the positive shapes from the honeycomb pattern. (I had printed those as monotypes earlier on very thin tissue paper.) I also Like the repeat of the honeycomb shape with a different feel at the bottom where it was printed olive green on muslin.

When the Song Broke Through

Just a bit of happiness. The sky-with-clouds was monotype printed on sheer fabric. I like the pale green dome on top that allows the sky to show through. It looked like a good background for some tree shapes. I printed the green trees with a hand-cut stencil. Those limbs are not nearly as detailed as the photographic images on my screen. But they are a good backdrop. This idea evolved as I worked. I had not intended to add the red-orange trees. But, the green ones just weren’t enough. Once the orange-red colors were there, the complementary color pattern made everything “pop” and become quite cheerful. I added the dark fabric to anchor it, and the red bird to bring it all together.

I was absolutely thrilled to have some good sales on these works after I uploaded them to my website. So, here’s one of my really-and-truly happiest accomplishment of this week:

Tadaaaa! All the orders are boxed and ready to ship. Off to UPS I go tomorrow.

If you’d like to learn more about the works in this blog or see more collages, please visit the gallery on my website, HERE

https://www.bobbibaughstudio.com/wednesday-collage/

For the rest of my day, I’ve blocked off some hours to start on my taxes. UGH. (I guess since I’ve written that down here in public  now I’ll really have to do it.) Have a good week.

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

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

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: 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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Some Surface Design Basics

This week I presented (via Zoom) a program to the Florida group of Studio Art Quilt Associates on the subject of acrylics – mixing up the variables.

(Just a note about zoom. Who knew I would ever look so forward to these online meetings! With “real” contacts down to almost nothing – except for an occasional outing to the  grocery store – I’ve discovered that friendship and camaraderie are alive and well on the internet. I’m grateful.)

Because I use acrylic paints for all my fabric surface design, I’ve accumulated a lot of images of the fabrics. And I hope I’ve discovered a few insights and working methods worth sharing. As always happens when I teach or make a presentation, I learn again some important things when I go through my notes to put things together.

So, here are a few basics.

First; I create all my own fabrics.

I only purchase blank fabric by the yard. This is not all that unusual; many textile artists enjoy the process of doing original surface design. And they may choose completely different methods: dyeing and digital printing, for example. It’s an important part of the process to me. I generally create yardage specifically for a particular work. This happens early in the thinking about the meaning of a new work. I print just about what I think I’ll need. It becomes a way of thinking through palette and values. And – delightfully – there are almost always some leftover scraps. So, those will appear in other works. It’s a way for all my work to have some things in common and to be recognizable as mine.

Second: Low tech and simplified. I am intentionally limited and simple in my methods. I use a limited palette.

Some of the tools for getting acrylics on fabric: brushes. Sponge. Roller. Brayer.

I use hand-cut stencils and simple mark-making tools. I’ve just introduced a few silkscreeed images into my works. I limit my materials to just acrylic paints and mediums plus fabric, and challenge myself to create a variety of interesting textures and patterns with those tools.

Third: Color.

 Learning to mix colors was probably the most important skill I ever developed in artmaking. I took an oil painting class from a very good teacher who stresses the fundamentals. I did not like oils at all. But I ended up creating a very thorough color wheel in acrylics. I refer to it all the time. I use it as a guide when I need to experiment with colors interacting with one another.

Fourth – playfulness and the unexpected.  It’s in the creation of fabric that the most serendipitous things happen in my studio. Unexpected results add interest to the works I eventually create.

Right now I have two large quilts-in-progress in the studio. I’ve printed some of the fabric for each. I’m looking forward to seeing how they come together.

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

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

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: 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

The face on my easel

For several days now, this drawing of a girl has lived on my easel.

She will be the main character –  the storyteller in my next large quilt. I created her as a loose sketch with pencil and marker on salvaged packing paper from a package I received.

When I’m working on pieces in the series about journey and memory, it helps to give things time. These works are not autobiographical in a literal sense, but I certainly draw from my own emotion and experiences. I want to remember how it felt to be a young girl. I need to remember feeling things going on around me that were beyond my control. That way, I can universalize the character and give her a voice.

When depicting a child, every little line and shape is important. I like the very slight angle of this girl’s head, and the way one shoulder is just slightly above the other. It gives her just a hint of expression, in an otherwise rigid pose.

“Hint” is also what I’m going for in facial expression. I hope to depict as little of the actual facial features as possible. Just enough to establish the face structure. I don’t want to depict a particular little girl. I want it to communicate about girls more broadly.

I’ve worked over time to find a way to depict skin tones and human forms in a way that pleases me, working in layers of fabric. I generally use gessoed muslin as a base layer, and trace my drawing onto the muslin. I will do some pencil and oil pastel drawing on the muslin to create the form. Most of the values will be created loosely as monotypes on sheer fabric, layered over the muslin and collaged. There is a lot of serendipity in this part of the process. The patterns and colors appear randomly on the fabric and I move the pieces around till they end up in the right place.

This is one of the first works I created using this method: Neither Here Nor There

Detail Neither here Nor There

I worked in a similar way in these works: Look Through to the Memory, From the Place Where We Landed and Saying the Magic Words

Detail Look Through to the Memory

Detail From the Place Where We Landed

Detail Saying the Magic Words

I will stay in conversation with this character in the weeks ahead as the work progresses. (I am also intrigued with the environment I am planning to create around her and I’m sure to be writing more about it in future posts. Stay tuned)

If you’d like to see whole images of the work I’ve detailed in this post and learn more about them, you can find them on my website Here:

NEITHER HERE NOR THERE

LOOK THROUGH TO THE MEMORY

FROM THE PLACE WHERE WE LANDED

SAYING THE MAGIC WORDS

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I stay in touch:

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

NEWSLETTER – about once a month:
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  
NEWSLETTER

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Float Away in Dreams

This week I’ve enjoyed walking back through a quilt I made several years ago. Sometimes it helps to re-visit. I like to see again what I was thinking about at the time.

Have my ideas evolved or changed? Am I going about exploring them in any new ways? Was I trying things out then that I like but that maybe I’ve set aside?

This is Float Away in Dreams.

At the heart of the quilt is the little house.

I am very drawn to simplified, childlike images of houses. They begin to stir imaginings and memories. And I want to look through the windows and wonder about the people inside.

(I remember seeing pictures in a childhood book of the cut-away view of a city apartment building. There was Mrs. Gonzales on the third floor in her living room. Downstairs was Grumpy Mr. North sitting in his kitchen.  I looked into all the little rooms to see the actions of their lives.)

I created this house in a way that is representational, but not realistic.

Its walls are made of water-filled images. The roof is filled with prints from grassy, organic forms. The windows are cockeyed.

The environment around the house is also all mixed up. There are trees and water and non-specific shapes and shadows. It is, to me, the way reality is in dreams. There are real things. They are not associated in real or predictable ways.

It’s mostly blue, with splashes. My hope is that the mustard yellow in the lower left provides a way into the picture. The eye then goes up the tree to the yellow rectangle and bright red birds. The path continues in motion up and to the right. The suggestions of movement in the water bring you back down around into the picture

I remember that I loved creating this work. It was very involving in a hands-on tactile way, building the layers into the pieces before I sewed it together and then again doing more surface painting on the completed work.

It’s big enough to be interesting

I see things I could have done differently. But, those lessons are now for what work I may create next.

(This quilt is on my website HERE if you’d like to see or learn more.)

———

LIKE TO SHOP? HEADS UP. When I write this blog each week, I am grateful to be connecting with readers who find the art-making process interesting. And I appreciate the chance to introduce what I do. But I want to be respectful of your reading and not do much that’s actually selling my work.

BUT… I do sell my work and I love to do so. I am having an introduction of all-new collaged pieces in mid-February. (Affordable matted works – each $149) I will introduce them with a “heads-up” email and then have them available for FIRST LOOKS all at once on my website at a specified time. (I did this twice in 2020 and created some fun, fast-and-furious events.) If you are interested in being a part of that, the way to receive the information is to sign up for my NEWSLETTER below. (I only send these out about once a month.) If you already subscribe to the monthly newsletter – THANK YOU. You don’t need to do anything. Information about the new works will be coming.

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

If you want to receive the notices

about the FIRST LOOKS art release in Feb:

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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Reaching for Stars

This feels like a week to be reaching for the stars. I have returned to this work-in-progress in the studio with enthusiasm and hope.

When it’s done, this work will be an homage to the suffragists of the early 20th century, whose work helped to get us here. For now, I’m in the fabric-creation stage and I’m dealing with the stars.

There will be a field of blue and a field of red. I want stars, but not white stars. My vision is for a hue- on-hue effect; royal blue stars on a dark navy blue background, and red-red stars on a deeper red background.

I decided to create these as resist prints using wheat paste. I’ll roll the wheat paste onto the stencils with a paint roller, creating the shapes I want to see on the final product. Then overpaint with the darker background color so the lighter shows through, after the wheat paste is washed off.

Here’s how it looked in progress:

First I painted about a yard and a half of each fabric: just solid color. A yard and a half of royal blue, and a yard and a half of red-red. (Cadmium red.)

Then, I cut stencils of stars and rolled in the wheat paste. At this stage, it looks like white stars on red or blue background. I let his  yardage dry overnight till the resist is fully dry and crunchy.

Now it’s time to overpaint.

Here’s the red fabric: solid cadmium underneath, with wheat paste stars in between, and a deeper red sponge painted over the hole surface, hanging on the fence to dry

Here’s a closeup of both the blue and red fabrics at the same stage. On the blue piece, you can see the royal blue under-layer, and you can see the outline of the printed stars, and you can see the darker navy blue paint over all of that.

Once the over layer of dark paint was dry, I dunked the yardage in a bucket of warm water to dissolve the wheat paste. To remove the paste, I spread the fabric out on my worktable and scrape it off with a spoon, then dunk it some more, then finally take it outdoors to wash off with the jet setting on my garden hose.

The result: blue on blue and red on red.

And now those fabrics are ready to collage into the finished piece.

Learning experience: Wheat paste is wet and goopy. It will destroy a card stock stencil pretty quickly. (I had not remembered this before I started, and I cut new stencils, not preserving them with medium before printing.) By the end of printing the blue, my stencil was mush. So, I quickly cut new stars to print the red. That turned out to be a happy accident. On the stencil I cut for the red I just drew freehand stars, a lot looser and less symmetrical than the blue. This worked out well, since the red fabric goes on the flowing flag and actually should be rendered with a bit of skew. I lucked out!

Another learning experience; Why didn’t I just print light colors on top of a darker fabric and avoid the whole resist process? Because the acrylic paint is not completely opaque. The darker underneath color would have distorted the over color. Only the addition of white creates opacity, and I didn’t want white in the final product.

More to come with this work in weeks ahead.

And now - oh boy! - one last chance to promote the FRESH FISH book

 The special promo ends February 1. It’s been such a pleasure to be part of this project and to design the book. SAQA is promoting it through the SAQA store for a SPECIAL PRICE of $15.95 each with FREE shipping. (With regrets, the free shipping special can only be for residents of the contiguous United States.) The book sales benefit SAQA Florida exhibits and programs. And (well, I’m biased) I think it’s a book you’ll really enjoy reading. The textile artwork and poetry complement each other wonderfully. To order the promo, order here www.saqa.com/freshfish

Your book should arrive about mid-February. If you want a book sooner, or if you live outside the contiguous United States, you can order on Amazon 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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Starting the day. Capturing a moment.

I began this morning with a little poetry.

There’s a ritual involved. A cup of coffee. (Of course.) A comfy place on the couch. Feet up on the footstool. A little blanket over my feet. A pen to mark the words and phrases I especially like.

A poem about snipping yellow flowers caused me to pause. Put my book down. Close my eyes for a few moments. Savor and think.

It wasn’t just flowers. It was very specific flowers: yellow irises. And not just scissors. Specific scissors. Some five-and-ten-cent store scissors from the junk drawer, inherited from the previous resident of her place.

And the flowers went in a simple carafe on a white tabletop in the sun.

I could see it. And I could feel and relate to the emotions and ideas the poet related from the forbidden cutting. (The irises were in an abandoned garden not actually the property of the poet to cut. That was part of the story.)

So much in a short less-than-a-page group of words. They captured a moment.

Capturing a moment.

Then preserving or redefining it, presenting it to the reader. I will have my impressions of those flowers in my head most of the day.

It seems a good test to apply to visual artmaking.

Have I created something that captures or expresses a single thought?

Have I eliminated everything that would distract from that thought?

Will the viewer have something to take away and savor?

Could the viewer return to my work again and rediscover the initial feeling, or see something new? (I know I have marked this iris poem as one to visit again.)

I have a head full of artmaking ideas I want to address this week and several projects in the works.

I’m productive in my studio.

But. This simple experience of poetry is important. I want it to be a part of what I am working one. A way to look meaningfully at what I create.

Is it about something?

Am I using my art tools and practices to convey that?

Will it show up in the work?

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

Sharing Some Studio Trade Secrets

What a week this has been!

In between being glued to the news reports, and also to find some solace from the news reports, I’ve spent a lot of time in the studio working. This morning I cleaned! Sweeping up my studio floor and rearranging my work surface is very therapeutic.

As I was doing this today I noticed some of the little habits and ways of working that are part of my  studio practice. Little things make a big difference, especially when you produce a lot of work in a small space.

So, I thought this week I’d share some things I’ve learned and some little things I find helpful.

ANGLE IS CRITICAL TO COMPOSITION! When you are drawing or composing, the relationship of the drawing surface and your head and body makes a big difference in how you see. The picture below might look a fine way to work on this small collage.

But, look again. Look at the plane of the surface. Look at the plane of my face. They are not aligned. If I draw or compose at this angle, the work will be skewed, slightly keystoned. I won’t see it till I finally hold the work up perpendicular.

Tape cores to the rescue! I go through a lot of masking tape and packing tape, so I keep the used cores handy for all all kinds of little applications. These will be used to prop up the collage in progress. (I also keep some of these next t my sewing machine to set my scissors on.)

Now the working surface of my collage is on a slight angle. It’s parallel to my face when I am above it with my head titled down. Now I will see the composition accurately.

(Another studio quirk I have is keeping the masking tape on my arm. It keeps me from going crazy looking for a roll. )

MOVEABLE EASELS  To work on more than one project at a time, I use ¼” plywood as an easily moveable easel.

I bought a full 48” x 96” plywood sheet at my local Lowes and had them cut it in thirds. The 48” x 32” pieces are a good working size for me for works in progress.. The piece shown has had a photo transfer of type, and so I taped it down flat to the plywood during the transfer process. This work will have a good deal of collage and painting, so I’ll leave it on the plywood during those processes. I won’t have to take it off till it’s time to back it and stitch.

STYROFOAM INSULATION BOARD  This is a great material for fabric projects.

Above, my easel is set up with two sheets of Styrofoam side by side to accommodate large quilts in progress. I can fit up to about 50” wide here. This is my design wall. I can pin the fabric in place, try things out and walk away.

The sheets of Styrofoam can also be used as moveable design walls, the same way I use my moveable plywood. (Also from Lowes, in 4’ x 8” sheets. Easy to cut to useable size)

A MIX OF CRUMMY BRUSHES AND GOOD BRUSHES I absolutely have an ample supply of really well-used, crummy paint brushes.

I use these for wet washes, painting on wheat paste or other gummy resists, and for painting acrylic medium and acrylic gel on surfaces to glue them in place. I buy cheap disposable brushes so I don’t feel guilty when it’s time to discard them.

I think that sometimes we become so attached to our supplies they become precious and we are afraid to use them. Being used it what they are for! There are plenty of things that can limit artistic courage. Nobody needs one more.

But…

It also a great joy to have beautiful, well cared-for artist brushes. I was kindly given a gift card from SAQA Florida recently and I used it to splurge on a Dick Blick order. New oil pastels. New brushes. Aaaahhhh!

One last thing to share this week. A project I’ve helped with for several weeks has finally come to fruition. I’ve been the book designer for SAQA Florida’s Fresh Fish project. It’s a creative collaboration of textile artwork and poetry. I got to meet a number of interesting poets, and I enjoyed putting the poetry and artwork together. I have to admit that I’m really pleased with the end product.

Because it’s a fundraiser for SAQA Florida exhibitions and programs, I won’t feel guilty about promoting it here. If you think you might enjoy a copy, please support the introductory offer to order through the SAQA store. Just $15.95 with free shipping (in the contiguous United States.) Special price till February 1.  You can find out more and order HERE:  www.saqa.com/freshfish

The true “trade secret” for artmakers is to make art.
Make time. Create a space. Be persistent. Make some art.

I am looking forward with hope and enthusiasm to better days ahead.  Stay well.

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

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Letting Each Color Do Its Work

I’m so grateful that it is a new year, filled with possibilities. I feel a great burst of creative energy

This week I have been working to complete the blue-trees artwork that has developed into an art quilt. It is making me think about color and how it works.

I try hard to use my colors intentionally.

Colors have purpose; I find my work is most effective when I let each color do its job.

Generally, I compose works with one dominant color. I work almost monochromatically through a lot of the creation. Then, I add accents and splashes of (usually) the complement or near-complement.

The dominant color in this work is blue. A blue palette with tree images evokes dreams and memories to me. Although I have added a lot more complexity in monoprinting multiple layers and values in the individual sections, the overall palette reads as blue.

This section is monoprinted with blue acrylic on rice paper, then collaged to muslin

This section is mooprinted with multiple colors on sheer polyester, then collaged to muslin

Using MOSTLY one color throughout a work provides unity. Using ONLY one color throughout would just be boring.

In this work, I love the splashes of orange and mustard yellow. Their job is to wake up the blue and make it more lively. (Complementary colors next to each other create a visual “pop.”) Here are the two sections from above next to an orange hue.

I created the tree with the complements of orange and blue. Orange was the underneath color. The tree was formed with a hand-cut stencil on a gelatin printing plate, with some organic grass pieces providing the texture.

Even where the blue overprints the orange, that bit of orange shows through and gives it some depth.

Here is the reverse. I have overprinted orange shapes through a stencil onto a blue background. But the magic ingredient here is not the complement, it’s a little bit of white.

If you put blue and orange (complements) NEXT to each other they each “pop.” If you put orange on TOP of blue, you get mud. The orange is not opaque unless there’s a bit of white mixed in. The white is what has transformed this pure orange into a cantaloupe—like color. White adds opacity.

I also used the opaque quality of white to create the window shape around the tree.

I am enjoying this quilt, but I am also anxious to complete it. My new year energy has stirred up all kinds of ideas of what to work on next.

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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It’s good for you. (Like Spinach!)

This past month I’ve had two opportunities to talk about my artwork as part of a panel of artists. What great experiences!

First things first… I’ve got to give deep thanks to the organizations sponsoring the talks. Visions Art Museum created their panel discussion as part of “Visions 2020”, in which I have a work exhibiting. SAQA created their video of selected artists from the “Beyond the Mirror” exhibit as one of their works in the series, “Textile Talks.”

To Museum and organizations an galleries who are going all out to promote artwork and artists virtually and every other way they can think of… T H A N K Y O U !

(Screen shot from the zoom video created by Visions Art Museum)

Next big thing… I know well that in the heart of many artists there dwells a dark and ominous dread of having to talk about their work. Your first thought may be OH NO!  (It’s like being afraid of being called on in class! When you haven’t really read the assignment. Not that I’ve ever done that.)

If this fear speaks to you, I encourage you to get over it. I don’t mean that as a flip retort. I mean that as sincere advice. Learning to get over the fear of talking about your work is one of the most helpful things you can do as an artist.

Talking about your own work helps you to understand it better.

Talking about your own work will reveal to you where you’ve missed some things or haven’t gone deep enough. (You’ll know because you get that “Oh no, I’m just tap-dancing now” feeling.)

And talking about your work is the best way to connect with art-appreciators and patrons.

The way to do it is just like the way to get to Carnegie Hall: practice, practice, practice. I am a big fan of talking aloud to yourself alone in a room, or talking to yourself in the mjirror. You can also talk about your art out loud to your dog or cat. The process of forming words and making sound come out is actually a cognitive process. You will be creating and refining thoughts in the “out loud” mode that are more developed than just thinking them inside your head.

If you are interested in taking a look, the links are below. In each video, I am the first artist speaking. (The advantage of being a “B” in alphabetical order.) But, I encourage you to listen to all the artists. They represent a fascinating array of styles and artmaking perspectives. Put your feet up and enjoy!

This is from Visions Art Museum. I am talking about the work, Look Through to the Memory.”

https://youtu.be/-1vLeR_f1As

Detail - Look Through to the Memory

This is from “Textile Talks.” I am talking about “Becoming One With the Night.”

https://www.saqa.com/textile-talks-beyond-mirror

Finally, as we end 2020 (at last!!!) I want to thank those who are faithful readers and those who send me notes and comments. I just read an essay in which the author reminds us that the word “encourage” means to “give courage.”

Your encouragement and interest do that for me.

Please accept my heartfelt thanks.
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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