It was a lovely, sunny day to spend at the gallery with the door wide open and the light streaming in- a far cry from my gallery-sitting the first time (brr). Today (meaning Sunday- just noticed this shows up as Monday! since it's so late at night!) I had 3 former students take up my offer of a Kantha embroidery workshop. I packed up a tote full of fabric scraps, thread, needles, and scissors, brought some snacky goodies. I didn't feel like I had to teach them much, as they've all been with me before, but I did a short demo on building a composition, layering the fabrics, and selecting stitches/patterning to use, and encouraged them to to look around the gallery and the outdoors for inspiration.
It's fun to see bits and pieces of fabrics I've made fall under another's hand. Fran Schatz took some arashi shibori yellow, some screen-printed green, and one of my digitally printed sparrows to create this bird on a limb scene. Hopefully she'll send me a picture when it's finished
Denise Fox found some leftover yellow arashi from my altarcloth and layered a transparent green chiffon and strips of pink and brown curled into rosettes for a more dimensional approach.
Donna Bridy was inspired by a mural within sight out the front door of the gallery, and found this great combination of colors and textures. Lovely!My wall interpretation is up top. I love how just simple running stitch creates a mark and texture. I spent the rest of the evening finishing it up as a sample piece for my final project in surface design. Thanks to the ladies for a wonderful afternoon well-spent!
Another little snippet below to share.. we did some sunprinting last week in class using setacolor painted on the background and then layered with objects and set out in the bright sun for an hour to create interesting photograms. I got two layers in, then used dye pastel sticks rubbed over the whole thing to pick up a basketry texture. Very satisfyingly complex fabric!
Can't stay for a workshop? Come visit the Spontaneous Repetition exhibition featuring myself, Colleen McCubbin Stepanic, and Erin Castellan, three artists who incorporate stitching in their vastly different mediums. Gallery hours are Saturday and Sunday 1-5.
The linen cloth was arashi dyed (pole-wrapped) in yellow and then stitch-resisted for the purple linear effect. The linen was somewhat water-resistant, so my first application of purple was very crisp- the dye stayed exactly where I put it! The second line is softer, more diffused because I wet the fabric first to create a little bit of "bleed".
Although the circular spiral on the tabletop seemed simplistic at first, seeing the cloth in use with the elements placed upon it- it was perfect! At the Philadelphia Cathedral, we all circle around the altar for communion, the bread is distributed around the circle, and then anyone who wishes is welcome to come up to the table to drink from one of four cups of wine placed one at each corner. So the empty spaces in my design were perfectly filled by the ritual elements.
First Friday found us down at the 
This one was constructed of business cards with a layer of viny drawing over the facade. It reminds me of trying to find the right contractor to fix a crumbling house- almost impossible. It also reminds me a lot of my last piece of the Norris Street wall- crumbling paint and brick with vines crawling all over it. Great texture in this piece, with some of the cards bent up. 
This one was made up of old paintings, some cut/fringed to create a look of grass. This one reminded me of that "American Dream" of a house and a yard and a white picket fence. 
This one has a tent and a tree superimposed. I love the raw edges and painted layering.
The largest piece was more topographical than the others and reminded me of one of the artificial mountains (AKA metal junk heaps) that exist along the American Street business corridor near Colleen's studio. 
In the Painted Bride's main gallery was an installation/performance created by J.J. McCracken entitled "Hunger". The downstairs gallery walls were coated in clay, slowly cracking and crumbling, and the floor was laid in sod, which was slowly crushed and dying as we walked over it. Thunderous sounds emanated from beneath our feet, reverberating, muffled through the sod. A feast table was set with unfired slip-cast fruits and vegetables, a stack of plates in the same material were set at the end of the table.
A cast of performers were soaked head to toe in clay slip, making them anonymous and sad. Throughout the evening, the performers moved dejectedly through the space, picking up the clay fruits and vegetables, breaking them into pieces, eating clay shards, crumbling clay and sifting it into rows of anthills, holding plates with arms shaking, sitting, staring off into space, oblivious of the audience, moving as if we weren't there.
The colors and the smells and sounds were poignant and painful. It reminds me of the book "City of Ember" by Jeanne DuPrau . (I haven't seen the movie, so this matches my imagination's image of the book). The upstairs loft in contrast was screened like a greenhouse. Wooden, tablelike planters were set up, each with growing plants and a plate of freshly cut strawberries, carrots, and peppers. 
On the wall several plexi-glass containers were filled with decomposing compost. Signs on the wall explained the upstairs and downstairs connection. The clay used downstairs will be recycled into bricks for an oven and bowls to be used at Stenton Family Manor, a family homeless shelter in East Mt. Airy. 
