Kimmel

I'm thankful for continued opportunities to show my work. This past week we gathered for an artist talk at the Kimmel Center for an exhibition of collaborative works by Moore alumna.

 Michelle Wilson and I are showing our collaborative book, "Infinite Thread".It as displayed nicely in  a case, however the lighting there is rather poor and I wish our piece had been placed on the other side of the building with the piece below. Our book was installed next to two loud abstract paintings, which were just too brash in comparison. Our subtly crafted book would have fared better next to the wood and metal spears.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Collaborations at Fleisher

 These wonderful, goofy kids made this fabulous wheatpasted arrangement of prints on the free wall outside Fleisher Art Memorial today to culminate our semester together.

They started off as 3 inch square zentangle doodles which were scanned into photoshop and repeated to create rotational symmetry. They were printed out as photo positives and exposed onto screens. Most of the ones on the wall are just 1 color prints of their key images. In the studio, though, they printed another set of 2-3 color prints with shapes behind their key image like in the ones that have green triangles. I like to have some reason for the multiplicity of prints we generate in the silkscreen studio, so they often end up as collaborative installations of some sort or another.
This wall was recently tagged up by a local graffiti-ist. It's a "free wall" for our kids classes to experiment with public art, but this is the first time in a long while anyone outside our school has tagged it. The tag was not very aesthetic to say the least, and covered up a previous stencil project I did with my screen-printers. The wall wasn't looking great since a previous wheatpasting by the digital photo class had disintegrated and been tagged. So at least we covered up the eyesore of old wheatpaste with our tile-like prints. The front desk printed out a letter addressing the recent tagger and asked that we wheatpaste that too! It suggested that the tagger come take art classes with us to improve their aesthetics!!

I'm hoping the weather doesn't get too rainy so that our wheatpaste survives for a while. Now for a short hiatus from community art. Registration for Winter session opens on Monday the 18th. In Winter session I'm offering Color theory (free class!) on Tuesdays from 7-9:30, Stitch and surface on Thursdays from 6:30-9:30, Printing on fabric on Saturdays from 9-12, and my teen silkscreen class on Saturday from 1:30-3:30. Bring some life into the winter doldrums with an art class!

Changing seasons

 My prayer cloth is once again on the walls of the Philadelphia Cathedral. On the Feast of All Saints and all souls we unraveled it and wrapped it around the congregation during the Prayers of the People. I cried through the whole thing. It is a precious gift for an artist to make something that brings people together and that is used ceremoniously. Despite it's length it is still not really long enough- so all are invited to bring donations of fabric from those you've loved and lost to extend the piece. I lie that it is an organic thing with the potential to grow.

 I'd like to find more opportunities to make work lie this. Maybe other congregations or communities would like to collaborate like this. (And it would be nice to make some money from this too....).

 In the studio I'm bouncing between the big quilt piece and this small digitally printed cloth. I'm scheduled to teach a class on digital printing on fabric up at Peter's Valley next Summer (YAY!) and wanted to work up some pieces using the techniques. This is a photo on silk I did a few years ago and it's been hanging on my design wall for ages. Finally I decided to embellish the blue painted asphalt with some satin stitch and then bead the ice and snow with clear seed beads. I love the texture and sparkle. It's dancing between being very literally a piece of sidewalk and looking quite abstract.

It's heralding the winter. The studio is a cool 60 degrees. A studio mate has offered to design a "roof" for my studio to help keep it warmer over the winter. It was truly frigid last year, so I may have to go for it if I want to keep working in comfort.

I don't like the sudden dark of November. But all around me I keep hearing how the seeds lay in the dark earth so that they can grow and be fruitful in the spring. It's a time to incubate some ideas.

sunsets

 This week has had some beautiful sunsets. The trees are starting to show bare limbs, making lacy silhouettes against the sky. October skies are brilliant blue. The air is crisp and it makes me feel alive and nostalgic. Everything is changing so quickly. My daughter celebrates her 14th birthday this week, and I don't know how all that time has passed.

We went to Linvilla Orchards in Media this afternoon and picked apples. I wish I could freeze those moments as the three of us walked through the rows of trees, reaching in between branches for ripe Granny Smith with the sun sparkling gold in our hair and the edges of the leaves. Don't grow old! Don't change! Stay here forever with your warm hand in mine with the crisp snap of apple on our tongues....

But the windfalls are already fermenting
and the earth keeps turning
and the sun keeps setting

Precious

So satisfying to make something small after all this giant stuff. This is all variegated threads on shibori-dyed silk, and it just shimmers. It's a special little piece. I will always keep this one.

Sewing in the dark

 After a long day of high school open house visits for the teenager of the house, and teaching printmaking at Fleisher to some more teenagers, I was ready to escape to the studio. I got there around 5 but the Fall light is fading fast. By 6:30 I looked around and found myself in the shadows. I've been slowly quilting panels of grids following the patchwork on Big Blue. I've also been indulging myself with a small doodle in silk and linen inspired by a friend.

Happy Philly Photo Day!

This is my day in pictures in honor of Philly Photo Day sponsored by the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center. They host an annual project where anyone can submit one photo taken on October 18th within Philadelphia city limits, and it will be printed out and displayed in an exhibition at the Crane Arts building. Additionally, about 40 of the photos will be blown up on murals and billboards around the city. Of course, I took a whole lot more than one photo and it was hard to make the cut. These are all the ones I did NOT submit. If you want to see the one I did, you'll just have to come to the opening in a few weeks! Voila, le salon des refuses:

Drive in on I95, saw Leger's "The CITY", in front of my city.

my favorite stretch of I-95 is going under all the ramps and Ben Franklin bridge

No parking anywhere

trash day in South Philly

accidental photo outside Sabrina's cafe

the view through the music teacher's window. we are serenaded by chimes all day

the view through my classroom window

here come the kids!

Frankford Ave and Columbus Blvd. Loved the Bull sculpture and graffiti contrast

empty chairs at Rocket Cat cafe

The rest of these pictures were all taken at Rocket Cat by my daughter- I let her submit one too. She has a great eye for composition- ever since she was a 4 year old and I'd let her use my point and shoot digital camera to keep her busy at events. She's taken a few digital photo classes in the past year and is able to talk about her compositions quite eloquently.

If you want to learn more about Philly Photo Day visit here.

In my happy place

 Today I finally finished the endless sea of green straight stitch in the wall piece. Now it simply awaits trimming and binding. But that can wait. The blue monster awaits. I've decided to start it off by quilting  grids over the patchworked areas before I impose the tile pattern. I thought the tension and integrity of the fabric would be better if it was more securely stitched to the backing cloth. I have spools and spools of light blue Perle, perfect for this project. Grids are frequent motifs in my work. I see them as basic maps, centering me in space, helping me find my bearings.

 On this huge piece I need to lay down my cardinal directions.

We sort of had an open studio weekend, so I hung some more artwork around the studio and in the hall. People who come visit are always so pleasantly surprised at how homey and cozy it looks. This afternoon was stormy outside, but my lights were warm, the monster quilt in my standing hoop was warm, and a studio mate came by for a long chat while I stitched. It's my happy place.

Just a bit ambitious

This quilt-top has been hanging on my wall since I moved into the studio last December. It finally told me what it wanted to become. Into the dyepot with a little clamping to preserve a small section of the original color and to create some contrast. Believe it or not I DID iron this and the backing cloth before trying to baste it! I was able to pin the layers together on my floor, but put it up on the wall to baste it.

 I've been thinking about culture a bit. The quilt seems so ubiquitously American. I thought it might be interesting to contrast the quilt with another pattern superimposed. This is much bigger than the pattern blend neighborhood pieces I've been cogitating. I found an Iznik tile pattern while trolling Pinterest, and decided it would be perfect for my quilt-top. Here's a sketch:

Get used to it-- this is going to take a LONG TIME. I don't know what I'm thinking.....

Texting

I've been busy the past few weeks getting ready for the new school year- but things have been simmering in the studio too. Seems like text is making a comeback in my latest work. The stump piece I started out in Montana is getting text embroidered in from a poem one of the other participants wrote during our residency:

My latest postcards are all bound up and have graffiti inspired text:

The photo transfer above resulted in a flipped image and backwards text. Since it was pretty indecipherable in the first place I decided to find my own letters and stitch over them. The piece below started off as a scrap sketch for the larger one I've been working on, so I finished it off with some bubbly text stating "BE".

Today I finished up a submission for an exhibit in Brooklyn at Wayfarer's gallery. They came up with a text and gave each artist a word to translate into a work of art. My word was "LIFER".

 It's ambiguous devoid of context. I used some leftover dye monoprinted cotton and started backstitching around the brick colored shapes to pick out the letters. I like how that made the "font" a little unpredictable. I continued the outlining around the edge to make a border, but the piece lacked color and energy. So I added some clusters of red french knots in the negative spaces. It helped define the letters a bit more, added texture, and created some movement across the text.

 The word "Lifer" could refer to a life sentence in prison, or a career military person, or just to anyone who remains committed to someone or something for life. Till death do us part and all that. I hope my image is ambiguous enough to allow multiple interpretations. Are they cells and blood, an aerial view of city blocks, graffiti on brick? Are the red knots blood or a growth?
I'm curious what other kinds of interpretations and media people used. There will be around 250 artists!! I'm not sure if I'll be able to go up for the opening or not, but that will be November 9th if you're in the Brooklyn area. It's all bound and ready to ship!