Studio Shots by Anne Buchal

They say “variety is the spice of life”, but sometimes, in practical terms, it gets in the way of being a good thing. A friend gifted me with a large, L shaped table top when she moved out of her studio. What luxury! I had never had a workspace that could accommodate a framing job or room to spread out. Each project which had its own tools and materials had to be cleaned up each time I want to change media. Since a long project had its “boring” period, when I reach these times, I’m able to switch over and leave one job and pick up another. Recently, I took a long look at the workspace, which takes up a corner of the studio, and realized it was one great mess. Some things needed to be finished and out away.

The table top is now populated by 2 fiber sculptures, a CD player, boxes of pencils and clay tools, old magazines, paint brushes, impressions from a zinc plate next to them, tools used to work on the plate and next to all that is an easel with an unfinished painting of a model who posed for a “life” class.

Of all of the aforementioned, maybe it should be the plate that should have a final printing. I will probably give up on the painting and I need more fabric to finish the figures. It’s a mess, but it does keep me occupied.

Julie B Booth: Class Sampler

Sample from Beyond Potato Prints.

 I've been spending lots of time in the studio creating samples and typing on the laptop...two new workshops and my monthly online newsletter have kept me quite busy!

Here is a sampling of samples:

Samples from Beyond Potato Prints:

Carrots and turnips.

Lentils and grapefruit.

Samples from A Story in the Making: Creating Story Cloth with Print and Stitch:

The Rooster and the Sunflower

Detail: Two Roosters

Sample from Issue #11 of Julie B Booth Surface Design News:

Matzoh Paste Resist.

 I had great fun teaching both workshops and was impressed by the students' work. If you'd like to see what they created, here are a couple of links.

Student work from Beyond Potato Prints.
Student work from A Story in the Making: Creating Story Cloth with Print and Stitch.

Off to Savannah tomorrow. Hoping to visit the SCAD Museum of the Jepson..both of these art museums usually have fascinating shows.

Ramblings by Ann Liddle

My new series is called Ramblings.  I'm using painters tape on fabric and then spray painting (or just spray painting on one piece so far).  I then hand and machine stitch and add pieces of fabric.  I'm hoping to make many of these and to become freer and more expressive as I go.  I'm looking for a fast, fun way to create art.  Maybe these could even be called sketches.  If I can, I'd like to add some found objects.  But don't want them to become cluttered or precious.  Plus I haven't found any objects yet.  Here is my work so far.

                                       

Like Beth, I also have  two pieces from another member that I'm supposed to work with.  My pieces are from Julie Booth and are shown below.  They are wonderful and inspiring and I wonder what I will do with them.  

Beth Latture - A Clean Slate

A wonderful thing happened last week:

I cleared off my work table.

When I saw the clean surface of the studio table I felt lighter.  I went from the dread and paralysis that a cluttered studio had been causing me and had a new urge to create something.  A space for new possibilities now exists.

Coinciding with this new lightness of being was the meeting with the other FINE artists and our curator Trudy.  Our new challenge is an unusual one - bring in work (2 or more pieces) that you never finished, abandoned or just wanted out of your space and mind.  Trudy then reassigned these "orphans" to another artist in the group to have her way with.

Here are my new inspiring materials:

I will be using two of Anne Buchal's soft sculptures.  I'm excited by this project and also a little sad to dismember her work.  I love the playfulness and mythological stories that she combines in these pieces.  The female figure is Lachesis - one of the 3 Fates - the one who measures the thread of life.  I have no idea what this hybrid animal is, but that snake tail is speaking to me....

Stay tuned as the artworks freed by our fellow members go on to live new and different lives!