What's next?

It seems we have all taken a break from blogging for a bit this summer. I am "recovering" from my exhibit in June. It takes a while to gear up again and start working in the studio after the huge effort that a show entails, at least for me. I feel a bit lost. But I do have several project waiting in the studio, so it's just about getting back in there and sitting down and start doing. Maybe tomorrow...

I'm posting a few images of some of the pieces that were in the show at Gallery A.

This one is called Lingonberries. It sold.

This may be my favorite. It's called Missing Winter. It sold too!

These are Three Water Jars. Full of the colors of the Caribbean.

This one is a bit different from what I have been making in the last few years. I made four figurative pieces for this show. It was fun. This is Reggae.

So what's next is starting work on the Fine theme of Mapping. I have a piece already, which I will take as my starting point. Here it is:

This piece is called Grid, which says it all...

I made the piece out of wire, like I always use for my armatures. I like the armatures so much that I decided not to cover one for a change, so I instead just wrapped it with cloth and then painted it with acrylic paint. Making it a wall piece is also a bit of a new path for me. It's a very different challenge making two dimensional pieces compared to making three dimensional ones. I guess I think more in 3-D. But I like 2-D. It's fun to give yourself a challenge. 

Going forward, I plan to make more pieces in this series, perhaps filling in some of the spaces with stitched pieces.

Julie Booth: In the Weeds

Our group is working on a new theme: "Mapping: From Here to There". I thought it would be interesting to create "maps" of things we don't normally think about as being interesting or beautiful; things I think of as chores or annoyances. On Easter Sunday, I decided to go out to the garden to photograph and draw the weeds I "should" be pulling. I decided that for my first "map" I would create a painted and printed cloth based on the forms, colors, and textures of the weeds in my garden. I really enjoyed taking the time to sit down and draw from life. I took some of the plants apart to see the tiny details. I drew leaves, roots, buds, pods--the weeds in all different stages of development. I also took lots of photos. Needless to say, the weeding never quite got done! Below is a sampling of photos and tracings and enlargements of some of my drawings. I plan to take some of these and create printing blocks and stencils.

april

As seems usual in Virginia this time of year, summer blasts in with thunderstorms and floods.  So much for the delicate colors and pleasant breezes of a spring day. The "street kids" have been oiling the wheels of their skateboards and trying out new moves for their break dances. There are many places they can be found all around the riverfront not far from my studio. Cement steps are the favorite challenge. They fling themselves down the stairs with impunity. Meanwhile, the gazebo on the dock offers them a stage. A portable boom box supplies an accompaniment.

         Here are a few kids strutting their stuff.

Maria Simonsson - new work

I am working diligently on pieces for my upcoming show in June in DC. I did get some work done while in the US Virgin Islands, but not as much as I maybe should have. Too many distractions. Too much sunshine...

Here are a couple of pictures of my new work:
This is "Sunspots" large piece, about three feet across. It is still in transit from the islands. I hope the postal service is taking good care of it, and that it and it's companions don't get lost somewhere!

Here are some detail shots of it:

And finally an image of a piece that I actually finished at the end of last year, but I really like it. It is made up of several elements, with lots of gold stitching, which I have never used before. There are real rocks inside of the lumps of gold...

Beth Latture - Map quest!

I've been out with my camera lately, looking for "maps" in the landscape.  I've found some interesting ones.  Can you tell what this one is?

Julie Booth: Working with Flour Paste Resist

 I’ve been busy in the kitchen and in the studio. In 2010, I won the Margaret Conant Grant from Potomac Fiber Arts Guild for my proposal, “Kitchen Resists: Surface Design Techniques Using Resists and Masks Made from Common Household Materials”. Recently, I’ve been having fun playing with a variety of flour paste resists. The photos here are before and after removing an uncooked wheat flour paste resist applied with carved linoleum and moldable foam blocks. I was very pleased that the resist held up so well, especially the details in the African face. I am finding out a lot about what each resist material can and cannot do. I hope to develop a vocabulary of techniques utilizing different resists that I can draw upon to use in creating future artwork.

Uncooked wheat flour paste resist applied with print blocks and painted with fabric paints

Fabric after wheat flour paste resist removed

Fabric detail

Ann Liddle

Three of my pieces are in the exhibit "Women Interpreting the Female Form" exhibit at the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, VA.  It's a juried exhibit in honor of Women's History Month.  The exhibit runs through Mar 27, 2011.  My piece "Body I" won an award - I am thrilled.  Here are the pieces.

Body I is 10 small panels, each with a simple stitched body part and acrylic paint.  Each panels is about 4" x4".  When hung in body format, it's about 36" high.

This is also a stitched piece  - black on plain canvas.  It's title is "Who Will Take Care of Me When I'm Old?"

For a previous exhibit, each member of FINE made a piece in a cigar box.  This piece is made up of body sections embroidered on canvas and glued to small blocks.  The paint in acrylic.  The blocks fit into the box which has assembly instructions on the lid which tell you how to stack the blocks on top of the box.  It's called "Some Assembly Required."  Here's a version with all the blocks inside the box.

(Note - Anne Buchal's "Curly Top" in the previous blog was also one of the FINE box pieces.)

Anne Buchal

South of the Mason-Dixon Line, Winter has us still firmly in its grip. It should be a time to stay indoors and get some work done.When warm sweaters and fuzzy socks come into fashion, I think of wool and needle felting. Somehow this craft activity seems very suited to the season.

Needle felted sculpture is fairly new to me. Some subjects really don’t lend themselves to a medium like wool fleece, but it is fun to see how far one can go and see what happens.

Adam and Eve

Curly Top

Maria Simonsson intro

I am the sixth member of this Fine group of fiber artists. Right now I am blogging from the Caribbean island of St. Croix, where I am escaping winter. It takes some getting used to, but all in all this is pretty much paradise.
I am trying to keep up with my artwork. I am preparing for a show in DC in June at Gallery A in the Dupont Circle area. Also thinking about mapping, as the theme for the next collaborative Fine exhibit. It is a very engaging topic and mostly I find it hard, right now, to limit myself to some area that I find especially rich in ideas. There are a lot of angles to Mapping.
A quick introduction of myself is perhaps appropriate:
I was born and raised in Sweden, but have now lived half my life in the US. In the same little house in Maryland. I have always been drawn to fabrics, so becoming a fiber artist, I feel, was my destiny, but it took a while. I traveled the windy road past studying business and languages, meeting my husband in Amsterdam and moving to the US, working for various companies doing numbers stuff for about ten years, until I finally had to admit to myself that it really was not fulfilling at all. Corner office and steady pay notwithstanding. So I was lucky enough to be able to quit my regular job, for the very irregular occupation of taking care of two children, family stuff and developing my artistic dreams at the same time. That was about 14 years ago.
It was thanks to taking a class in Fiber Sculpture at The Art League, taught by the wonderful Elsabe Dixon, that I first started doing three dimensional work. That is when I really felt that I could find my own voice and take off. And I am still on that path, discovering what I can do with fiber in three dimensions. I make figures (as well and birds) and vessels mainly.  Such as this:

I start with a wire armature, cover it with batting and fabric and then stitch it a lot. I love the stitching part. It is a very meditative activity. I ofter listen to audio books while I stitch, if there are no serious artistic decisions to be made. After a piece is finished, it is forever connected to that book, in my mind.

Recently, I have become interested in expanding my work to include dyeing and working more on wall pieces, 2-D as well as 3-D. Sculptures that require pedestals or table space seem to be harder for people to relate to, at least in the way of wanting to take them home. Not that I am making my art just to sell, but  it is nice when others also love your work and want to own it. Plus, storing things in my studio will eventually become a problem. I don't have much to show in the way of wall work, but stay tuned.

Beth Latture: What to do with an old globe

I bought a globe at the Salvation Army several years ago.  It had been sitting patiently in my closet waiting for its transformation when I once again ran across the story of Indra's Net.

The story of Indra's Net is a Buddhist sutra about the interconnectivity of life.  From Wikipedia: "Indra's net has a multifaceted jewel at each vertex, and each jewel is reflected in all of the other jewels."  

 Still a work in progress, this is an interpretation of the Jewel Net as it encompasses the world.  Unfortunately, it's difficult to represent the infinite reflection!

Julie Booth: "In Process"

It's been a month of being "in process" for me. I have been working with Lesley Riley ("Artist Success") since late December. I am trying to find my "way" artistically. I plan to focus more on surface design and see where it takes me. As part of this journey, I had to fill out an extensive questionnaire for Lesley that included figuring out what was keeping me from reaching my dreams. What stood out was my lack of a permanent "home" to do my artwork. For years, I have been printing on the only large flat surface in my home...the dining room table. Creating large works became a challenge a year ago when I agreed to design yardage for a D.C. gallery (see my first post). I ended up working on the floor of my family room...the only space where I could lay out 9 feet of fabric. I spent weeks on my hands and very sore knees!

I had requirements for my new space...I wanted it to be in my home (so I could work at any time); I wanted it to be large enough so I had the option to work in a larger format; but most important, I wanted it to be light enough. I have had other spots in my home that I have attempted to use as a studio...but I kept migrating back to the dining room table in part because of the amazing natural light. The family room fit all requirements, with the exception that there was not as much natural light and poor artificial light. My commitment to a new working space meant turning this potential space into a place where I felt comfortable working. The past month has included: clearing out the miscellaneous stuff, sorting, tossing and finding better storage options (a work still in progress); hiring contractors to replace the ceiling (which was old ceiling tiles, some removed because of plumbing problems) and put in new lighting; "creating" a table (4' x 8'); and putting together shelving for storage. There is still more work to be done, as you can see but it is coming along...

I decided to see how it felt to work in the new space. Some of my "small totems" needed to have beads sewn on them in preparation for the new show at Potomac Fiber Arts Gallery. Normally, I would have lugged bags of my beads upstairs placing them on the floor as I didn't have enough space for them on the dining room table. How wonderful to have 8 feet of space to lay out the assortment and still have plenty of space to work! My new studio is working out just "fine"!

Ann Liddle

I'm pleased to write that three of my pieces were accepted into the 4th Annual Tribute to Fiber Art at the BlackRock Arts Center in Germantown, MD.  The exhibit opens March 3 and the reception is Sat, March 5.

The pieces I entered are all hand-stitched, stuffed, and painted canvas - essentially bas-relief.  The first one is a triptych - "Arcs with Red Circles."

This is titled "Criss Cross or Fallen."

The third is "Purple Rain."

Ann Citron

My name is Ann Citron.  My usual art mediums are fiber, beads, wire, and cloth.  I have recently added enameling to the mix, something I try to combine with the other work I do.  In the Ezekiel series (see first or second blog), I made wire figures, wrapped them in cloth, then applied beads and used enameling on parts of the figure.  I enjoy having the freedom to use different techniques and materials in one piece, something that wasn't "permissible" or recognized when I started making art.  I enjoy craft, rather than art, and am still interested in the finished object, rather than a concept.

The face image below shows the type of beading I do.  It's a detail from a full figure piece which is wire wrapped with fabric in a frame.  The second piece below illustrates the use of wire covered with cloth; it's a large pod.