It just wasn’t right the first time.

I have spent a good portion of this week ripping apart and recreating a quilt I crated in 2020 that I liked.

Well, I liked two thirds of it. One third of it just didn’t work at all.

It’s a quilt depicting contrasts. The main character is the little girl.

I am very happy with her depiction. The rendering is child-like. The subtle shading on the face suggests features without actually creating features. She feels like the depictions of me and my sister in our old family scrapbooks. Just what I hoped for.

The second character is more complex. The idealized woman.

She is the opposite of the little girl. Sophisticated. Worldly. And there is some personal family history here too. The photos of spoons show our family flatware. It was my grandmother’s, then my mother’s, then mine, and now my daughter’s. But, more than being a bit of family history, it speaks to me of the idealized wishes of many women in the 1950’s when I was in elementary school. Silver flatware and good china are not actually life necessities. But they were very important to my Mom. So, I have placed the silver in an abstract background with other symbols of houses.

The part of the quilt that I didn’t like was the foreground. I had created a green area intended to suggest a green lawn. But, well, it fell flat. In fact, the whole piece looked flat to me. So I was disappointed.

Then this summer, visiting a farm in North Georgia, I photographed this picket fence. I let the idea percolate a while.

I created a large photo transfer of the fence, sized to fill the quilt, and cut it out to remove the background. I was not sure this would work. Then this week was my chance to experiment with the new plan

Here is the quilt in progress. The picket fence – a realistic photo – will be in the bottom third. The picket fence is an image I associate with an idealized home. The little house with a picket fence. So, it fit perfectly with the concepts of this quilt.

I have gotten as far as ripping off the backing on the bottom third, cutting away all the part I don’t want, collaging the fence into place, and beginning the stitching. I feel like I am breathing new life into this work.

Here are a few lessons I am discovering.

First. This is a terrible idea. What I mean is that this is definitely not the smartest way to construct a finished quilt. Planning it out and putting the pieces together correctly makes a lot more sense. As I get to the final stitching on this, it will actually be hard to do. I’ll have to stitch in the middle of the quilt where it’s very hard for my sewing machine to reach. I’m just going to have to make it work.

Second. This is a great idea. I’m glad I did not feel married to the first version, even though it was complete. I just knew it wasn’t right.

Third. The reality of a photograph can be unusual and interesting when combined with other non-photographic methods of surface design. Just as the little girl’s rendering contrasts with the rendering of the idealized woman, the photos are visually different from the other fabrics. I think this does something in the viewer’s brain to spark curiosity. The brain says, “Oh, look, a photo. That’s real. I know what that is.” At the same time the brain is perceiving non-photographic patterns and textures. It’s a little jarring, and invites the viewer into the story to make sense of it.

I’m looking forward to having this quilt recreated and put back together. I’ll post it here when it’s done so you can see how the story turns out.

This quilts i part of a series I have been working on for several years on the journeys of a young girl. If you would like to see more of them, please visit the journeys and Stories Gallery on my website:
https://www.bobbibaughstudio.com/journeys-and-stories/

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

BLOG POSTS  - once a week:  Mostly about what I am creating in the studio. 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: Mostly news of exhibits and my way of introducing new work. You’ll get FIRST LOOKS at new artwork and members-only discounts. You’ll hear from me about once a month.  NEWSLETTER

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Learning from the details

When I started a few years ago to create paper collages as a regular part of my studio practice I thought it would be interesting and a break from larger works. Both things proved true.

 But I had no idea at the time how much I would learn from these works. I see already a renewed sensitivity to the surface, and an interest in putting things together organically becoming more of what interests me in quiltmaking.

 And I have tackled a few large projects that are more printerly — with fewer pieces in the quilt and more emphasis on the surface design.

 All this means I like printing and I like collaging. I produced a lot of pieces over the summer. (And I just had a big sale through my website with a number of very nice people becoming patrons. Yayyy!)

 Looking at the recent works, here are some little details that I think have something to teach me.

This is a section about 8” x 8” from a recent collage. I think the layers built up nicely. The screen printed silver grey trees recede into the background. The opaque dark blue screen printed trees on the right come to the foreground.  And, in the closest foreground, I like the mustard gold shape interacting with its color complement, the purple shape, to give some life to that section.

The lesson from this one, to me, is how positives and negatives work well together. I used a single stencil to print the honeycomb shapes. On the left, the ink went through the holes to print as solids. On the right I printed from the ghost on the plate, printing the linear outline of those shapes. I like them side by side.

I remember pulling the paper off the plate with this section of liquid aqua and blue. It was something I could not have predicted – just a great spontaneous hint of wash that occurred from spending a couple of hours doing monotypes and experimenting. That’s the lesson. Getting a variety of effects, and ones that you like, comes from spending time with your materials and methods.

This pattern is from a hand-cut stencil I recently created. I like the vitality of the print. Repeating patterns can join sections in a work and provided some energy.

The appeal of recognizable shapes. I like trees. Most people like trees. In the midst of an abstract composition that’s really about color and texture, this recognizable friend is like an anchor, a safe place to land.  But the whole work does not have to be realistic or representational for that pleasure of recognition to occur.

Stop! That was the lesson to me on this one. I had printed the whole collage almost monochromatic, all brown tones. I though it needed just a LITTLE splash of a different color. I put in the bit of blue with a brush after the work was composed, wet-into-wet. This is the kind of thing where I frequently kick myself for going overboard. I held back so the blue would be just a hint.

The little details can make or break an artwork  — whether it’s a large work or small. And the details can teach a lot too. If you are creating work in your studio now, take a look at some little things and see what lessons are there. If you are a lover of art but not a maker of art, take a look at some of the work you have collected and look close at little details. My hope is it will help you to find something that makes you love your art even more.

If you would like to see more of my collaged works, there are a number to see on my website, in the Wednesday Collage Gallery: HERE

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

BLOG POSTS  - once a week:  Mostly about what I am creating in the studio. 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: Mostly news of exhibits and my way of introducing new work. You’ll get FIRST LOOKS at new artwork and members-only discounts. You’ll hear from me about once a month.  NEWSLETTER

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Getting’ out with other artists

At an event on Monday I got to be the talker. At an event on Saturday I just got to jump in and create with the gang.

Both good.
(And there’s a puzzle-to-solve at the end.)

I was happy this week to present a program to a group of textile artmakers in the Villages, Florida

We were informal, and I just set up some examples of my work and I talked about them. What I like best when I talk with other artmakers is to dig into the meaning of things. Why do you make what you make? What does it mean to you? What does the artwork I create mean to me?

That’s the heart of artmaking. If we can all leave a time together thinking a bit more about what we long for our art to be, and what might help us get closer to that, it’s a good day.

As always, when I talk about my work to other artists, I learn a lot. The process of forming words to describe my work helps me to deepen my own thoughts. So, I recommend this to any artist. If you don’t have a chance to stand up and talk to a group of humans, you can stand up in a room all by yourself (or talk to your dog!) and describe your art. Each time you do so it should get better.

Then on Saturday I painted fabric with Arts Etc., a Surface Design group in New Smyrna. This group of friends has been together for about twenty five years, and I have been a part of the group for about ten years.

Our goal was to paint yardage starting from the back to the front. Working outside, we allowed ourselves to get messy, work wet-into-wet, and create pigment puddles on the fabric. While those dried, we worked on stencils to create imagery in the layers that would come forward.

Less intense color and less intense imagery in the back. A little deeper and more defined in the middle layer. Then the most detailed – and maybe throw in black or white or color complements – in the front.

I love watching a group of artmakers take a single idea and create in completely unique ways.

Here are a ew of my fellow artmakers: Peggy, Mara, Calandra and Janet

Here’s a work-in progress from my fabric painting from this day.

We all brought home things that will need more work, and now the independent studio time will kick in.

I have two more presentations scheduled for this month. I’ll be presenting in-person in St. Augustine this week, and then via zoom in Minneapolis at the end of the month.

Alone in the studio is good. I learn there.

Out in the world is also good. More – and different - learning happens there.

Puzzle – Did you notice the common elements in both sets of pictures? It’s my moveable easels, which are just sheets of lightweight plywood cut to about 36” x 48” I used them to display at the Villages. I use them as a working surface in the fabric painting in New Smyrna. And they are one of my favorite workhorse tools every day in the studio. They are a great way to create working space for more than one project at a time, and to set that project aside in between stages.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

Just a reminder: SHOPPING! I will release a new batch of paper collages Thursday of this week. If you enjoy shopping I invite you to sign up as a NEWSLETTER subscriber below. That list is the one that will receive the shopping links.

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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Watercolor Sky

I am sure I have written before about what a sucker I am for a beautiful watercolor sky.

I love the freshness of watercolor. I love the way the artist (generally) is not compelled to slave over detailed rendering of cloud and light as an oil painter might. With a few simple strokes, working wet-into-wet, a skilled watercolor painter creates the feel of sky without actually depicting realistic elements. It’s just yummy.

As I’ve learned to work in collaged textiles and paper, I am the most pleased when I can capture that same feel, created in my chosen medium.

This week I am looking again at The Magic Socks

The Magic Socks art Quilt 42” x 42”

This is one of the pieces I recently submitted for exhibition in Quilts Unlimited. It was accepted and will be part of the show. (Exhibiting at The View, Old Forge, NY, October 2 – December 4.)

In this work, the contrast between the sky and the town is very important. The sky represents an imaginative journey. The town is boring reality. So, they have to look different.

Here’s a look in the studio at the creation of an ethereal sky. (This is actually a different quilt, but created in the same way.)

I create the image as monotype on a gelatin plate. I try to keep the feel wet and organic, as opposed to depicting actual things. I print one section on the plate then move it down to print more. On a sheer fabric, with practice, the elements of one section blend beautifully into the next.

Blending in the sky of Magic Socks is also part of the storytelling. The transition of color from blue at the top to brown at the bottom is another way of depicting contrast between the imagined flight and the boring reality. Once the sky is close to the boring brown town, the sky is brown too.

I was also pleased with the hint of green I added to the sky in Magic Socks. I painted this directly in the quilt after it was composed, using very transparent acrylic paints. It’s just a hint, but it adds to the feel of an imaginative journey.

Monotype plus collage can create watercolor-like effects on paper too. Here are a few landscape images from my website where I experimented with different ways to depict sky.

“Bubbling Up” Monotype Collage on Paper Matted Size 24”H x 20”W

“What Will Be” Monotype Collage on Paper Matted Size 24”H x 20”W

“As I Have Trusted Morning” Monotype Collage on Paper Matted Size 24”H x 20”W

To create any effect that interests you, the secret – alas – is time spent in the studio. Nothing replaces the hours spent learning your medium and materials.

How fortunate for me there is nothing I enjoy doing more!

If you would like more information about The Magic Socks (and more storytelling quilts) please visit bobbibaughstudio.com + galleries + Stories and Journeys gallery.  If you would like more information about the three collages shown (and more) please visit bobbibaughstudio.com + galleries + Wednesday Collage gallery.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating 

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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CIRCLES

I like circles.

Today I looked at the details on a large quilt-in-progress in the studio and noticed how much it incorporated circles. (I don’t always realize what I have designed till I step back to take a look.)

Circles are simple. Everybody responds to circles. They are good unifying shapes.

 But boy-oh-boy can they get you in trouble!

If you have two circles side by side, or even anywhere close to one another in a line, and if there is anything like a line anywhere below these two circles, watch out. Somebody will look at your composition and see a face. Two eyes and a line for mouth = face.

And, once somebody has seen that, they cannot help but tell you about it. And then they tell other people at the exhibit. (“Look, Dave, over here at this work. Doesn’t that look like a face?”) Before long nobody is interested in anything else.

And if the two circles are even remotely aligned side by side and there is anything remotely like a triangle somewhere below, somebody will look at your composition and see a naked female torso. And, before you know it, that’s all anybody sees or wants to talk to you about.

And, if your circle is not completely closed, and if the opening is at the side, somebody will see a Pac-Man character. Guess what. Then that’s all they see and want to talk about.

If you incorporate birds or other creatures in your composition, be very careful in placing them near a circle. Or suddenly the people at the exhibit will be talking about the bird that laid an egg or is pooping.

So… warning! Elements in your composition are always relating to other elements and can create suggestions of shapes that you never intend.

(Who knew the lowly circle could cause so much trouble?)

Even so, circles can do some very nice things in a composition.

They fit nicely together to create a rhythmic pattern.

They can suggest movement, looking like some kind of life form or bubble

The varied ways to create circles (drawing, painting, stencils, resists and relief prints) mean that they don’t have to be boring. You can mix colors and distort the shape a little.

And, shapes that aren’t exactly circular can function like a circle. Shapes that are close-to-circles have an interesting organic feel.

In this work-in progress, my mix of circles is relating to some photo transfers and some linear elements. I’m looking forward to pulling it all together.

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ART SHOPPING NEWS!! Several times a year, I promote a new release of my small, one-of-a-kind paper collages. The next release date will be September 16. I hope to have about 40 new works. I try to keep my blog posts separate from actually selling artwork, so I won’t be sending reminders or the “Shop-Open” link to blog readers. I do send that information to NEWSLETTER subscribers. So, if you enjoy purchasing artwork and would like to receive information on the September release, please subscribe to my newsletter below.  Thank you.  OK. Advertisement over.

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For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating 

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

Landscapes 3 Ways

Looking at the landscape — appreciating it and learning from it — is not different from the sensitivities of storytelling. I enjoy depicting natural scenes because they contain stories: characters, plots and changes over time.

The more I read good poetry, and learn to write better poetry,  the more I see how the details of natural landscapes and stories go together.

I received notification this week that I have work accepted into a landscape-themed exhibit in Pennsylvania. (Regular readers may remember that last week I wrote about the process of applying to exhibits and the discipline of artist statements. So, here’s the first reply I received and I got a YES! Yaaaaayyy! Details at the end of blog post.)

Artmakers who are inspired by nature can go about responding to that inspiration in a number of ways. Here are some examples from the works I submitted to this exhibit.

CLOSE-UPS

This is Listening to the Language of Trees.

I created this work from squares of individually printed tree patterns. What interested me in the project is the repetition: same but different. I layered colors and shapes in different orders on each square, with the screen-printed tree form being the dominant pattern. To me, it captures the feel of being right close-up in tree branches or a thicket, realizing the complexity of tree shapes.

Detail Listening to the Language of Trees

NATURE + CHARACTERS                          

This is Florida Undercurrents.

This was one of my earliest art quilts, and I did a lot that I still like very much. I enjoyed the process of creating water patterns with shaped sections of fabric. I enjoyed printing the grass-like shapes for the border from actual grasses from my garden.

And, as with Listening to the Language of Trees, I have done some rearranging of the scene one would actually see.

Below the person floating in the springs we see prehistoric fish, based on images of fish that actually inhabited what is now Florida long before there were folks tubing on the river. The composition shows different time periods, side by side. The simple idyllic scene of floating in a tube now serves as part of a larger story. Where did the prehistoric fish go? How do such changes occur? What will become of the person now floating serenely?

Detail Florida Undercurrents

 ABSTRACTING

This is Just Below the Surface.

I was inspired by a photo I took of fascinating rock and root patterns that I discovered when digging out a garden right next to my driveway. Only inches below the surface; they look wild, untamed and strong. I wanted to create an abstracted environment to represent the rich interplay of life forms down in the dirt. Dirt is more than just brown. It is alive with complexity. I enjoyed putting the photographic images next to the patterned colored fabric as a way to speak to this indescribably complex existence.

Detail Just Below the Surface

Three ways to view landscape. Three submissions to an exhibit. This is the one that was accepted:

If you live near this part of Pennsylvania, I hope you will visit the show. It incudes works in a variety of mediums, and it will be interesting to see how other artists responded to the concept of Nature – Serene and Savage. And — if you visit — please let me know!

If you would like more information about the works shown in this post, you can find them on my website at these links: (They are all in the gallery called Layered Nature.)
LISTENING TO THE ANGUAGE OF TREES
FLORIDA UNDERCURRENTS
JUST BELOW THE SURFACE

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating 

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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Words about words about art

This has been a week for working with words.

I have been going through the exercise of applying to exhibit in various shows that have issued calls-for-artists. I might get accepted. I might not.

Gathering the details is not so hard: an appropriately sized digital image, size, materials, date of completion. Got it

SECRET GARDEN is one of the works I submitted for exhibit jurying.

Now for the artist statement.

Something descriptive to explain the work to somebody who has never seen it and needs to get what it’s all about from one picture. And something about why I created it. And how it’s made. And perhaps a glimpse into the meaning of life. In 300 characters.

(I remembered being in an undergraduate English class in which the professor talked about self-identification. If someone were to ask, “Who are you?” how would you answer? You might state your name. You might state your relationships: “I am the daughter of Elizabeth and Joe.” You might state your place of origin. Or your core belief. Or the two together: “I am a Buddhist from New Jersey.” Or you might self-describe by what you do. “I am a writer. I am a student. I am an artist.” Each method makes sense, and each reveals something different about the one answering the question.)

In 300 characters, you have to get right to the point. No prospective juror is really interested in the fact that I was always a child who loved to draw and paint. I generally write a statement I like and then use the word count in Word to discover it’s about 650 characters. Time for the red pen.

IS LIKE A DAY WITHOUT is one of the works I submitted for exhibit jurying. It depicts an abandoned orange packing warehouse near my home.

BUT… some shows are about a very specific thing. If there will be no other opportunity to do so, then the artist statement has to show that you are aware of the theme and that your work does, in fact, relate to that theme. I applied to shows this week that will be about the different faces of nature, bygone eras and how they are remembered, creative methods used by textile artists, and expressive design. Each of those required a slightly different wording.

I won’t know for a month or so if my work has been accepted for exhibit. But I know at least I’ve made myself go through the application exercise!

THE MAGIC SOCKS is one of the works I submitted for exhibit jurying.

If you are an artist and you don’t like your own writing, or you stay away from applying to exhibit because of your discomfort with the writing process, I’d like to recommend talking out loud about your art first. (For most of us, talking is easier than writing because we do it more frequently.)

You can be alone in a room and talk out loud to yourself. Or you can talk to a trusted friend. Just go through the exercise of using words to describe what you do and what it means. Then write down what you said.

Then edit and edit. The statement is almost never its best in the first draft. But at least you will have words on paper and can begin to chop, delete, rearrange, substitute and re-do.

Which is amazingly like making art!

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

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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Clean Lines, Angles, and Fuzzy Edges.

A few lessons from my Saturday printmaking…

I enjoy working on paper collages as a Saturday project. These are both relaxing and interesting to me. If I do some monotype printing that appeals to me in a batch, then I can work on creating collaged compositions over the next week.

This was on my worktable Saturday morning.

This is still a work-in progress. But, already, I can see a strong beginning.

I say this not to pat myself on the back. Sometimes, I will just struggle and struggle over a simple small collage. It’s like I’m fighting the content. Ones like that may end up in the “nope” pile. Or, if they finally come together, it will feel like I’ve run a marathon.

But, sometimes, when they begin to come together nicely, it’s helpful to me to stop and ask why, to see what’s going on. Then I might even be able to do it again on another project!

So, what seems to be working?

First, the monotype printing on this very thin paper achieved some very nice organic textures. This piece has a wildlife component, so a sense of water or natural forms pleased me.

Contrast! This may be the artmaker’s most important mantra: “Put some contrast in it! Put some contrast in it!” In this work, the clean straight line where I trimmed the printed monotype paper is a strong contrast to the organic, fuzzy edge.

Angles! The importance of a few well-placed angles, and their power to pull compositions together, is a reminder I have to give myself regularly. Grids come so much easier to me. In this piece, the angle of the overlapping papers at the bottom serve as a base for the bird, and also provide a sense of movement.

Some angles within the composition, as well as in a border element can add a lot. Here’s a work I created in my girl’s journey series of larger art quilts. This is “Overlooked.”

While it’s a completely different subject matter and content from this weekend’s small project, there are similarities too.

Fuzzy edges – Those leaves that have over grown the windows and are spreading into the background form an organic-shaped edge that’s interesting, and connecting.

Clean lines – the edge of the windows have strong linear edges and help to direct your eye within the composition.

Angles – I created the border design as an angle, and I was very glad I did that. The whole piece has a more dynamic quality, and I also think these angles help to pull you eye into the composition.

(If you’d like to learn more about this quilt, you can find it on my website HERE.)

If you are a maker of art, take time to look at the things you make that you like and that you think work well. What is going in in that piece that you can learn from?

If you are appreciator of art, you can also deepen your appreciation of works you like by looking for elements that seem to strengthen the effect of an artist’s work. Maybe you will glimpse a bit of what the artist was thinking about while creating.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

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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Welcome to my Working Space

I spent most of today in my studio. It’s my favorite place. It’s where I create.

I have already decided that this room will never grace the cover of House Beautiful. It’s definitely a Linus-Van-Pelt-humble-pumpkin-patch kind of space. It’s not so fancy, but hard-working. Pretty much like me.

Here’s what I see as I walk into the studio in the morning. It’s a few steps from the living room through the laundry room to here. This space is the size of a single-car garage. Plenty of light. Easy-to-sweep concrete floor.  The big worktable is the center of my daily routine. I complete a task, clear it off, and use it for a new task.

This is my sewing table. I have three small portable machines – two Pfaff Hobbymatics and a newly acquired 1970’s Kenmore which runs like a Harley Motorcycle. Each machine is a standard small-throat machine like one would use for mending or garment making. This constraint is an interesting challenge to my quilt construction, and has inspired me to learn to create and quilt in sections.

My worktable is covered with a cutting mat for fabric cutting. I put a drop cloth over it to paint and collage. I move things on and off the table as needed, using portable half-sheets of ¼” plywood as moveable easels.

Here are three collages I glued up this morning. (This is the first layer. Each has more work coming.) I enjoy creating small collaged works in between large quilt projects. I collage onto 140# watercolor paper. These are the watercolor paper blocks, allowing the paper to stay taut and shrink back to a nice flat surface as the collage glue dries.

These are some of my most frequently-used stencils. I like keeping them out and accessible, and seeing these inspires me to think in patterns. All my stencils are hand-cut, mostly from thin card stock. I have smaller ones that I store in manila file folders in a plastic file box. I have some that are larger that are kept flat on the shelf protected by cardboard.

This is the easel right in front of my worktable. The work on the left is a quilt I just completed today. I was doing the hand sewing of the binding on the back. While I worked, I could look at and think about the work on the easel – the one of the little girl beside the house falling into the sinkhole. That quilt has gone through several unexpected evolutions. It’s about ready to enter what I hope will be its final stage.

Sometimes works that are larger or more complex (this one is complex visually and emotionally) take time to work themselves out.

A dedicated space to work. Being in a stage in my life where I can do this all the time. What wonderful gifts! I am very grateful.

I hope you enjoyed the tour.  For those near (or driving through!) central Florida – I always enjoy studio visits. I’m friendly and I’ll make us some coffee.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating 

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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Printmaking and Collaging

During the past few weeks I’ve done some printmaking to create collage parts. Now, this week, I am putting them together. One of my favorite studio things!

I did some monotype backgrounds on sheer fabric first. I liked what I got, but it wasn’t enough to compose.

Then I created some monotypes on rice paper. I liked those too, but I wasn’t quite there.

Then this week I screen printed some pieces on fabric and rice paper.

Ready to rock n roll!

Here’s one collage I put together this weekend using each of the parts I’d created.

SCREEN-PRINTED TREES. These images are created on a sheer polyester fabric. That means there will be some see-through quality, and watercolor-like effects.

MONOTYPE-PRINTED RICE PAPER This piece has some interesting patterns and textures. I like the way it looked next to the trees on sheer.

SCREEN PRINTING ON MUSLIN – Nice and opaque. I printed a lighter color on a darker background. I think the tree branches show up well.

COMPOSING – Once I had selected these three pieces as the anchors, I just moved them around in my available space to get a composition that pleased me. There were lots of earlier versions. I check the composition in its mat as I go. It makes a big difference to see the work framed, especially if there will be pieces that go off the edge.

COLOR – I find it helpful to work with an almost monochromatic palette during the main composition, adding splashes of color after I’ve got the main parts down. Trying to intuitively connect different sizes, patterns and textures is plenty for me to think about at one time. Adding in color variation at that stage is one too many things for my brain. So, I began to add the yellow ochre colors after the main sections were glued.

The final product. “As I Have Trusted Morning.”

If you are an artmaker who generally creates large works (as I do,) changing size and method of working an be a good way to refresh and get a new perspective. If you are an artmaker just beginning to explore your ways of working, starting small-to-mid size can be very helpful.

And, for those who love art but are not artmakers, a mix of large and small pieces in your home adds interest and variety. Whatever the size, as I create my hope is to create work that continues to provide new things to see over time.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating 

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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The Mystery of Water

I spent a number of hours this weekend staring closely into this image of water.

Water is filled with mystery. Stand by moving water and look down; what lives beneath? What invisible life forms fill it?

It seems to have almost magical powers to refresh and soother the soul. Imagine a walk on the beach. Or sitting on a warm rock next to flowing water.

I felt some of that power and mystery in the simple act of stitching the surface of this photo, which I had transferred to fabric. Instead of imposing a quilting pattern onto the photo, I wanted to loosely trace the shapes of the lights and the darks that are there in the water. That led me to sweeping back and forth runs of the sewing machine, and also concentric shapes in the eddies. It felt like tracing water itself.

As an artmaker, the power of the image of water is important and powerful. It is not a symbol I need to create or ascribe characteristics to. It brings its own wealth of meaning and experiences to any surface in which it is included.

Water will connote different thing to different people. Each person who looks at the images of water in my works will bring their own emotional reactions to water to their experience of the artwork.

(Challenge to artmakers: think of other images and symbols that will bring meaning in a similar way to your work.)

I found a few other works of mine that incorporate different images of water. You might enjoy taking a look at these on my website:

Sometimes You Can’ See In. (I placed the water inside the panes of windows) HERE

Float Away in Dreams (A house in a dream-like setting of water) HERE

Adrift  (The quilt surface is filled with an abstract, patterned body of water)   HERE

How She Got There  (A little girl is silhouetted by a stormy beach and ocean)  HERE

Finally, I am thinking of the way water in movement can also connote the passage of time and events. A single body of water may be witness to generaions of people and events. I was thinking of that in the following poem.

The River

The strip of sand
not wide enough to call a beach
beside the river
takes onto itself lapping water
that moves as the tide moves
as the moon and sun
go about their celestial tasks
or as a boat creates a wake
so that standing there
with feet in the water
looking down through the green
through the light-filled darting creatures
I see my own naked feet in sand
half-covered and know
my mother  my sister
the women I see in shops
have also stood in water
looked down
felt that same water
washing over them
as we stood
and were cooled
and did not sink

And did not drown.

Detail from my art quilt “Entering Untold Stories.” I shot this photo standing on the edge of a lake looking down into shallow water. The quilt is on my website HERE

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating 

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 bit of Watercolor. Hello Old Friend

This week I worked on a simple, watercolor-like rendering of a vase with some dried flowers. It was pleasing work, and felt like old home week.

I love watercolor. As an undergraduate art student I did a lot of watercolor. I love the freshness of it. I love the quickness of it. I love the way watercolor can portray light on objects like glass.

For this project (it will be an art quilt), I’m working on prepared muslin, taped down to a board just like you would a stretched sheet of watercolor paper. After the painting is done I’ll remove it to collage and stitch into the quilt.

I’m using acrylic paints so that they will be permanent on the fabric. I’m just dipping the brush in water to thin and mix the colors before I apply.

This subject matter is familiar territory for me too. Between 2010 and 2011 I focused on a project of painting the same subject matter – a  few simple blooms in a small glass vase – fifty times. It was a way to explore mixed media and teach myself new things.

The project helped to lead me to working with fabric and collage. I’ve always been grateful for the experience.

If you are an artmaker, and interested in exploring new techniques, or improving your abilities in the techniques you currently use, there is real value in limiting your subject matter. Do the same image over and over. At the end of your time with that subject, you may well have created an interesting series. And, because you don’t have to keep thinking up new subjects to depict, you can focus all your attention on techniques, composition and design elements.

I’m looking forward to stitching on this image and attaching it to the rest of the quilt. Maybe tomorrow!

Meanwhile, I completed one of the quilts I wrote about in last week’s post. Here’s “Secret Garden”

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

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

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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Soaking in and Listening

This has been a soaking in and listening kind of week.

I am alone in the household for this week. And there has been a lot of rain—a few hard rains to listen to at night. Mostly gentle, steady rains in the afternoons. All the leaves are water-filled green. The air is grey and rich.

And, as the perfect accompaniment to rainy weather, I have plowed through two long meaty novels that stir up memories, families, hurts, healings, places characters leave and then return to, and dreams that sort through history.

It is good.

In my studio, the mood of the week has unlocked some doors in unfinished projects.

This is a detail of one on my easel now.

I was drawn to a photo of a sink hole with a house perched precariously, or stop-action depicted in the act of falling in. It’s a powerful metaphor for the experience of a family feeling the earth cave out from under them.

But this piece has been through several stages. I had created a different house, then decided it was wrong. Ripped it off. This new house emerged.

The left half of the quilt is unfinished. I know I need to redo what I put there initially. (More ripping!) I’ve been far too literal. Even though I see this image as a metaphor, I’m depicting it in a straight-on photographic way.

Thinking of memories and families this week, I been inspired to complete the work with images of other houses. More houses. Perhaps from other times. Perhaps from dreams. And somehow I’ll connect them to the main house and the sinkhole too.

Now, I’m re-energized to explore the story of the work.

A second work-in progress explores some familiar territory.

I’ve placed the ladder-backed chair (a favorite image for me, indicating memory and places gone) in a surface of patterns and colors, plus some photos of a secret garden I discovered in Natchez, MS, and images of water.

The process of this one has been much easier, though it also lurched in unexpected ways. I had a plan and a sketch, and I executed exactly what I planned. But when I looked at what I thought would be the finished product, it wasn’t finished at all. I had created the theater set, but there was no story or memory in it.

I have enjoyed discovering ways to go deeper into the images. I’ve pushed some things deeper into the picture and pulled some things forward, physically creating more visual layers, and also trying to listen to the images for stories and memories that are stirred in me.

For me, creating works that are pleasing and meaningful to me goes back and forth between the technical (printing fabrics, stitching, etc) and spending enough time with quiet listening.

I’ve been grateful for this week. For the rain. For the quiet. For the good books. For what they have given to me.

. . . . . . .  . . . . . .

If you are interested in seeing some of my completed works that explore family memories and stories, they are in two galleries n my website. I invite you to do some exploring.

GALLERY – HOME IS WHAT YOU REMEMBER
GALLERY – STORIES AND JOURNEYS

If you are looking for some good reads, I recommend the works I just finished:

I Know This Much is True – by Wally Lamb
We Were the Mulvaneys – by Joyce Carol Oates.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

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 came next: Wheat Paste Resist

In last week’s post I was exploring surface design with painted patterns, enjoying an unusual palette. I ended by writing that I thought I’d add a wheat paste resist.  So I did.

At the end of this post, I’ll get to the issue of WHY?

Just a bit about resists: there are lots of kinds of resists. I am not the inventor of any of them. Beeswax, soy wax, glue, tempera paint, wheat paste and paste from other kitchen supplies can all be used as ways to block out paint or dye. Some will also create a batik-like crackle effect.

I like the crackle. So, I am using wheat paste. (Secret recipe to make wheat paste at end of post) Like this:

POUR

SPREAD

NOW DO SOMETHING ELSE Now you have find something else to do for at least 24 hours. The paste has to dry till it’s stiff and crunchy. We had a few good hours of sun this afternoon so I set mine outdoors to let the sun do its work.

CRACK. I don’t actually scrunch up the fabric. That makes the dried paste just fall off in chunks. I try to work from the back – using my fingers or a big wooden spoon, and push the fabric till it makes a lot of all-over hairline cracks.

PAINT: PUT IT ON  Your goal is to get paint down into all the little cracks to make an image on your fabric.

Today I used my favorite big natural sponge. Sometimes I use a large paintbrush, and I have used a paint-covered brayer.

You will only be able to see the results of some of what you are doing at this stage. It’s a walk-by-faith part of the process.

DO SOMETHING ELSE AGAIN Maybe a few hours, till paint is completely dry.

Then you dunk the fabric in water to let the wheat paste soften up so you can get it off. I left it soaking for a few hours.

PAINT: TAKE IT OFF Now the fabric can come out of the water. That nice dry crackly wheat paste has turned into mushy sludge, and the acrylic paint is attached to the pasty mush.  It’s gross. It’s got to go.

I generally scrape the bulk of it off with the side of a spoon. Then I slosh the fabric up and down in the water some more to get rid of most of the sludge. I like to do the final clean-off outdoors with the garden hose.

DRY I let it air dry OUTDOORS.

SO, WHAT’S THE PURPOSE?
Here that question is at the end of the procedure, and it’s really the most important issue.

On this particular bit of yardage, the purpose of adding the crackle has been to unify all the disparate colors and patterns, to create some unity. I like the way the deep color of the crackle adds depth to the piece.

But, beyond this particular piece, why create original fabric? It’s so tempting to fall in love with the process and then to fall in love with a particular piece that you’ve created.

But that’s not the reason for doing it.

When I create fabric it’s so that it can be used in a piece of artwork. I’ve discovered that using original fabric is artistically pleasing to me, and connects me to the work in a way I would not be if I used commercial fabrics.

And, as a quilter who frequently digs into storytelling in my work, every bit of detail and layered pattern can be a part of the story.

I’ve created two works recently this summer that use my own fabrics, and that incorporate the fabric into the narrative of the artwork. Below; Breathe In and Know, Entering Untold Stories

If you’d like to learn more about these works, please visit them on my website at these links:

BREATHE IN AND KNOW

ENTERING UNTOLD STORIES

How to make wheat paste: Secret Recipe!
It’s flour + water. Mix it in a bowl, till about the thickness of pancake batter.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating 

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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Fabric Printing - Elton John adventure

I’ve been wanting to tackle the next stage of this project, but it’s a bit daunting. I have started four different muslin pieces with very subtle background splatter colors on them. Each will become printed/painted fabric in a different palette.

This one is pinks-reds-yellows-yellow/greens. (Not a normal palette for me.) I have an incomplete vision of how I might use this, but I’m waiting to see  how it evolves.

So today’s the day. I put on some Classic Elton John for energy and courage.

“Burn Down the Mission” is filling the studio.

Here’s where I was prior to today’s print/paint session.

I’d done enough to define a direction for the colors. Now I wanted to add more layers and deepen the palette,

Earlier this week I created a few new stencils to add to my regular vocabulary.

Circles, mixed-size-squares, rows of alternating bean-like shapes with sticks, and a cut and sliced box from cream cheese packaging. The first three will function as openings: Paint will go in and those shapes will be printed. The cream cheese box will function as a block-out: I’ll put paint around its perimeter. (I also ended up pulling a large circle shape from my stencil stash and using it similarly.)

But first I wanted to stencil some donut shapes (an existing stencil from my stash) in a deeper green, because I already had bits of that on the fabric in goldish tones.

I printed over these oval donut shapes with a large natural sponge for a loose image.

“Madman across the Water” playing.

Next I blocked out some areas with the cream cheese package. I’m trying to think in positive-negative applications of color. This simple shape is a way to define areas.

Now trying out the new bean-with-sticks pattern with some deeper red.

“Tiny Dancer.” I’m singing along.

I kept working over the surface. I added some areas with the new squares pattern and the new circles pattern.

Here’s where I ended up after a few hours.

I think I want to add a wheat paste crackle to the whole surface to unify all the parts. That will take time to dry and apply. Stay tuned next week for the results!

“Crocodile Rock.” Goodnight Elton.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

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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How to Show What’s Behind

Working as a textile artist provides lots of opportunities to create layers. I enjoy physical layers – collaging one thing on top of another – as well as story and content layers.

I completed “Entering Unknown Stories’ about a week ago. I was reviewing it in my “done” pile today. I was pleased that I incorporated several different ways of showing-what’s-behind into this work.

Transparent Fabric – There are two birds in this quilt, and each was created by painting transparent acrylic on sheer fabric, then collaging the cut-out bird onto the quilt surface. They are opaque enough to be prominent, but they are also transparent to allow some of the background to be visible through their bodies.

Transparent Paint glaze – In this section of the house, I painted a glaze (acrylic paint diluted with medium) of blue to define the interior of the structure. At the top, by the red roof, you can see the effect.

To the left of the roof, the trees are shades of gold. They cross over the wall to inside the house. Those same trees show through the blue glaze that begins just under the red roof. The complementary colors – the blue over gold – allows the trees beneath to almost create a glow.

Overlapping – In the trees, I worked to create the effect of close-up and far away

I used the same silkscreen stencil to print all these trees. But the ones in the foreground are showing with full-intensity paint. The ones further away have been positioned to peek through the foreground and are less intense.

Physical cut-outs I am drawn to architectural elements – especially doors and windows.

A compelling photo – The beginning inspiration for this work was the photo of looking through the iron gate.

I was intrigued with the way the photo draws you in, to see what’s in there behind the iron gate. (And I remember feeling that way when I shot the photo, in a city garden in downtown Natchez, Mississippi.) Framing photos with interesting foreground and something behind provides thought-provoking imagery.

This process of looking at a photo for meaning – I don’t mean to stick this on at the end as an afterthought. In every work that involves some layers of meaning, there has to be a starting place. The layered images I seek to create have to mean something. Or they have to stir up some kind of emotion or memory for me. This provides purpose for all of the technical layer-creation that will come.

This was a quilt that evolved as I developed it in my studio. Much of it I planned: the photo looking through the iron gate, the printed trees, the printed water photos, the leaves, and the inclusion of colorful quilt blocks within the body of the image. But, after I had created that much, it just wasn’t done. Working to add more depth and layers of meaning seemed to take the work where it was intended to go.

If you would like to see the completed work or find out more information about this piece, please visit 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

Breathe In and Know...

It all came together!

Two weeks ago I posted about the beginning of this quilt. (5-23-21… Wading into Serenity.) The two weeks since then have had a lot of art things pulling me off course: sewing machine breakdowns plus two other works-in-progress that are just busting my chops with frustration. GGrrrrmph.

BUT… this one came together. Sometimes it works out that way.  Aaaah!

I was interested in using this honey-comb stencil printed piece as an anchor between several sections. I remember printing this section: it was at the end of a printing session and I had some leftover paint. I grabbed a long stretch of muslin and pressed some images. I like the way the pattern has differences in intensity from one end to the other.

I added other printed fabrics and photo transfers to this strip, working in a grid and quilting in sections.

Here’s the quilt when it was mostly constructed – on my easel, waiting to discover what would happen next.

This was actually as far as I’d planned. And I liked all the components. But, at this point it looked to me more like a background and not a finished work. There was more to come.

Some of the layering I added included transparent paint over the photo transfers. The transfers are smooth and not absorptive. They create a nice surface for painting.

Right at the end, I decided to add a few characters to this setting. The bees appear in three spots.

I have photos of this completed work, and a mock-up showing how it would look in an interior, on my website. Please take a look if you’d like to see more: BREATHE IN AND KNOW

This week I hope to get back to the works that are frustrating me and hope to find some solutions.  Wish me luck!

To the artmakers….. Happy creating.

To the art-lovers……… Happy appreciating!

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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Backdoor Memories

I was pretty excited this week to receive the digital catalog for the Fine Arts Exhibition of the Decatur Arts Festival. I had two works juried into this exhibit

Both of these are memory pieces, but the memories work in different ways.

Here’s a detail of “The Lord Giveth and the Interstate Taketh Away.” It was inspired by a drive through rural South Carolina and photos I took of abandoned houses in small towns.

This back porch was especially poignant to me. I remember walking around the corner of the house with my camera. It was so easy to imagine the Mom of the family standing there calling the kids home to supper. So, I added her figure to the photo. I like the mix of a realistic presentation – the photo of the back porch – with a less fully realized figure. Mom is a memory. We see just the silhouette. And it is slightly transparent. (Overpainted with transparent acrylics over the photo transfer.)

The photos I took looking into the open windows were quite haunting to me. I placed the windows into the story of the quilt, but I did not add to them. You see them as I saw them that day.

What makes this memory story different from many of my other quilts is that this is not my own story. I was there as an observer. I discovered the small towns. They were filled with the stories of other people’s lives. Still, the feeling of a gracious life that had disappeared was very compelling. I want to try to capture the warmth and charm of what that town might have been like when it was thriving, to honor it, and to place it side by side with the images of abandonment.

The second quilt, “Look Through the Memories,” was created for a solo show I presented in 2018 called “Home is What You Remember.” In it I examined memories of home from different angles.

For this particular quilt, the inspiration was the tree.

This tree was in the backyard of a small house I own here in my hometown, DeLand, and the sun illuminated one side like a bright spotlight. The details of the vines were intriguing. In the actual place, I looked through these to a shed at the far side of the yard. That made me think of the process of looking beyond things that get in the way of our perceptions of our own homes, especially a home from one’s childhood. So I created a fictitious house to be viewed through the complexity of the trees.

Memories are powerful. For me, they are the basis of storytelling and a lot of what interests me as an artmaker. It is my hope to create works with both physical layers and emotional layers. I hope that, like a favorite book, they provide things to discover and rediscover over time.

For readers who are near Decatur and would like to visit the exhibit the exhibit at Agnes Scott College, here’s where you can get more information. http://decaturartsfestival.com/. It will be exhibiting till June 13.

If you’d like to see more about these two quilts on my website, please take a look. Find them here:

THE LORD GIVETH
LOOK THROUGH MEMORIES

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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Wading into Serenity

This week I am drawn to gentle grey-blues.

My last several works have had much more intense colors. I want to experience calmer colors for a bit.

These photos are my inspiration

I shot these photos several years ago and had thought they were gone forever.. Rediscovering them has been very exciting to me.

I have also been inspired by the knowledge that I have some already-printed pieces that will work well together in a grey-blue palette. So, I began with transferring my tree photos to muslin, going into my bin for coordinating pieces, and trying out some composition.

I am in the beginning stages of this piece. Still, I have had some helpful discoveries.

ORGANIZING - This is a little thing – I know. No big deal. But, sometimes the little things help one’s studio work practices. These are paper folders I made to sort the fabrics.

 These are the liner sheets from 18” x 24” watercolor blocks – a nice Bristol weight, just heavy enough to act as a file folder, and nice and big. Because I will be working the piece in sections, quilting as I go, after I had it all assembled on my worktable I had to take it all apart to do the assembly. I photographed the composition I had created, then separated the fabrics into folders, one for each section I’ll be creating. So organized!

REPURPOSING

I will be using some strips of muslin I had created a while ago that I did not consider successful printing. The final product was overworked and uninteresting.

BUT.. I took a section of it and overprinted with a different pattern, and I love the result.

I also flipped the piece over to reveal the random, parchment-like markings on side 2. I like those a lot. Now this fabric will get used!

RESTING
This little section of muslin is about 8” square. It is monoprinted muslin – just some subtle color.

At one point I tended to think of these pieces as serving no purpose, just needing more added. And that can work. But I also now try to plan for places of rest in a work. I am likely to fill up much of the space with pattern and images – lots of things to see. So, it is helpful to have places for the eye to rest.

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While I was focusing on trees this week, I also created two new paper works using tree motifs, in very different ways. Here are details of the trees.

Detail “Joined In Its Own Music”" Fabric Collage on watercolor paper

Detail “There Before me and Beyond” Fabric Collage on watercolor paper

If you’d like to see more about these, they are on my website Here:

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

To the artmakers….. Happy creating.

To the art-lovers……… Happy appreciating!

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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No Sewing today. Guess I’ll print

My plan was to spend the day sewing. Alas. The accumulated lint and gunk in my sewing machine was telling me to change plans – take the machine in for its annual-or-so maintenance and cleaning – and then do something else.

A bit of screen printing turned out to be the plan.

I have a specific project in mind. A quilt that’s a work-in-progress requires a section of trees. I have already printed it, but I’m not sure the colors are working right. I’d like to have another option.

I began with background. Blue-blue-blue.

This yardage was painted wet with acrylics on natural muslin. (Partially wet fabric and pretty wet paint.) I worked it fast with a natural sponge. I love the way hand painted fabrics are not flat but have wonderful, random variations.

Next I mixed up some teal for the background trees. There won’t be a lot of contrast between this teal and the blue background.

This might be a problem if there were only going to be two colors. But, the teal is only the first color I’ll print and it will stay in the background. Even so, I mixed in just a tad of white in my teal color so that it would show up against the blue background.

Time to print

The screen placed in the first position for printing

The screen in the next printing position.

Now that it’s printed I think these colors are beautiful together. I hope to remember this when I’m planning a palette for another project.

A note about my screens: There are all kinds of ways to get an image into a printing screen. This one is a photographic image: best for fine detail.  I simplified the photo I took, saved it as a digital file and ordered a thermo-fax screen. I get them from Lyric Kinard in North Carolina. https://lyrickinard.com

An important hint for artmakers: When you screen print with acrylic paints, be sure to have your soaking tray for the used screen very close by so you can get the screen in there right away. Acrylics dry FAST! This little tray keeps things wet till I can take things outside to the garden hose for thorough wash-up.

Here are the screens floating in the wash tray.

For the second color I mixed up a pale cream (Lots of white plus a tad of yellow and raw sienna. I chose this to go with the other sections of the project-in-progress.)

The pale cream is so much stronger in contrast than the teal. The teal tree now almost disappears. For this application, that will be fine. It will function as a subtle additional layer.

Sometimes it is frustrating to find that something that you printed and you like gets overtaken by a next step. But, the time spent on that intermediate step is just about always worth it. The final project will benefit form the additional texture and subtle parts.

Now that I’m done, I’m not sure this piece will work in my project-in-progress. But I am sure it will work in some other project. I’ll just have to give the ideas time to cook for a while.

My wonderful sewing repair shop will have my machine back to me tomorrow, and I’ll be back in action for the original sewing plan.

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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