Mothers to Our Daughters and other exhibits

It's been a long time since I showed any artwork at Philadelphia City Hall, but this month I have 2 pieces in "Message to Our Daughters", an exhibit of female artists with messages of inspiration accompanying the work. I'm most excited about the fact that my daughter, Zillah Elcin is exhibiting her artwork next to mine in the show! Above is "Mother and Child", which includes fabrics created by some of my Fleisher students, and which I started as a sample piece for my Stitch and Surface class. Below is my daughter's watercolor "Hotel Wakeup", a still life representing the tale of a bride who was left at the altar but who goes on her honeymoon anyway.

In January and February I exhibited at the University City Arts League exhibit "High in Fiber", showing 2 of my largest embroideries ever.

Next week I'll drop off work from the summer program at UPENN for a show running through April at the Westtown school.

I've been fortunate to have a great season of exhibits all over the Philadelphia region, and I hope things continue to flow creatively throughout this year. 

New Skillshare class!

I am so excited to share that I have created a class on Skillshare, and it is now available!

Skillshare is a fabulous community of teachers and learners that works on a subscription basis just like Netflix. You can sign up through this referral link for a special deal on subscription and take my class!

I created a class called "Stitch Your Pics: Printing and Stitching your Photos on Fabric", and if you sign up you can view all my tips and tricks for getting your photos out of the cloud, stitched, and onto your wall. The videos include how to pick out good photos for embroidery, how to print them onto fabric, how to practice 5 handy embroidery stitches, how to match stitch textures to photo imagery, and how to frame your work.

I know some of you out there miss me teaching my Stitch and Surface class at Fleisher, but now you can get all my words of wisdom on Skillshare whenever you want!

I hope you'll join me--> Click here for Skillshare

Skirkanich 5

When I think about the brain and MRI imaging I always thing of Rorschach blot symmetry. We have bilateral symmetry in our bodies, but not every function in the brain occurs bilaterally. Activity may be localized to one region of the brain in charge of a particular specialty, but even then information passes all over to communicate to the body for movement or the mouth to speak, etc. During our lecture on force networks the idea of paper crumpling came up as something that creates a network of folds and tension points. I wanted to combine these to ideas visually but I didn't want an folds or crumples in my final paper. I started some inkblots on a piece of folded mylar, then transfer printed it to watercolor paper (I might want to try a different, smoother paper as I didn't like the resulting texture in this one) I made  bunch of those, adding some watercolor by reprinting over the india ink. I did try crumpling one of my watercolors, but guess what? Thick watercolor paper doesn't like to crumple!! I folded a piece of newsprint in half so my crumple would have bilateral symmetry, then overlaid it on my inkblot and used a seam ripper to poke holes through the papers to transfer the crumple nodes to my painting. Finally I stitched black thread to create edges between the poked nodes. I'm going to take all my experiments with me on Monday to share with the group. Depending on feedback I may continue doing these or maybe continue my polka dot nodes instead.
However, there is still something dissatisfying with these. I'm really only exploring the basics of what a network looks like in these pieces. There is no corresponding data resource that I am trying to visualize. I feel they would be more meaningful if they were connected to a data set in the real world.... But what should that be and how will I find it?

Skirkanich 4

Something about all our talk of networks and topology and brains made me think about hyperbolic structures and crochet. Crocheting mirrors some network structures. I think of a crochet stitch like a little pi symbol, with a loop at the top (a node) and two legs (edges). A hyperbolic surface curves to maximize surface area. In physical space it takes up 3 dimensions, but topologically it is flat. If you have an endlessly branching network (each node subsequently branches off to two new nodes ad infinitum) eventually you run out of physical space to place the next generation of nodes as they branch outward and the surface begins to curve. The brain appears to have folds and ripples like this- it's one way to pack a lot of surface area into a small space. I made this small hyperball in a rainbow variegated yarn, which when complete reminded of the fMRI colorations showing activity and connection. I might make another in white and then stain specific areas.

Just as I felt a need to explore the topology idea in my previous post, I also want to explore different network structures. I played with "inking" this polka dot stamp I had with gradations of watercolor. It's beautiful, subtle color. The polka dot stamp creates a consistent and reproducible field of nodes upon which to play. I first did a little pencil and watercolor work (below) inspired by some discussion of the "Plinko" game.

Then tried a branching network, stitching the edges and then painting in the resulting negative space- the holes. I didn't quite understand the lecture we had that discussed brain topology and "holes". Have to think about ti some more. I'm still playing.

Daily notes 21-22

Last week my studio time was usurped by an urgent project, so I had no time to make a Daily Notes strip last week. I finally finished #20 on Friday night. Today I put together #21 and #22 to represent the past 2 weeks. Hopefully I can catch up and get back on schedule. I'm nearly halfway through a year committed to this project, and cannot bear to let it lapse.
I've had a gorgeous 4-day weekend for Memorial Day, giving me a taste of summer freedom. Only 12 more days of school left! Every year passes more quickly than the last...

Daily Notes 14-20

Somehow 6 weeks have flown by. Spring stayed cool until yesterday it decided to become 90 degrees. I survived PSSA testing and drama club. I voted. I taught kids how to weave and photoshop and build clay containers. Mama cat had kittens. I rode a bike to and from work nearly every day. I completed a second piece for a children's book illustration. I dropped off work for an alumni show at Moore. School is almost over, and my summer adventure at UPENN will start soon.
I've been doing this project for 5 months now. Life is looking colorful.

Daily notes 8-9-10

Week 8 was very creative. My daughter won a regional Shakespeare Monologue contest, I got a bit carried away with teaching color theory, I turned 38, I helped my 7th graders make about 80 clay creatures (leaving my hands dry and cracked from clay all week), I showed my screenprinting students how to create Benday dots, and I had a lovely walk in the woods.

In preparation for week 9 I dumped out my scrap box and went digging. But it really is starting to feel a little stale now. If anyone wants to send me scraps of fabric I'd happily do a small exchange (just comment). My aunt sent me some, which will find their way into one of these strips sooner or later.

Week 9 brightened to match the warmer weather, perhaps. I was thinking about math and surface area, braiding, types of mark, different roles I have at work, a little Moroccan inspiration,and another walk in the woods. Someday I really need to find somewhere closer to the Wissahickon to live.

 The strip for Week 10 has begun. March has not started off very well- but every day is just a pixel in the bigger picture. I have to keep remembering that.

Two months worth of strips now hang in my studio. They are starting to really look like something substantial, and I have a glimmer of what this will all look like in the end. I am enjoying the daily ritual  of journaling and the weekend ritual of finding fabrics and stitching. It's becoming a positive habit.

Daily notes week 4

I've decided on a loose working title for this project, which will be "Daily Notes". i'm not thrilled by it, but the name is helping me organize pictures... I've kept this project going so far for 24 days. The assignment strategy is working to keep me focused and keep my fingers busy. Here is a bit of progress from week 4:

 All week long people were talking about the impending snowstorm to hit the east coast. or me this translated to lots of anticipation and waiting. It's been very cold. My magazine collages for the week seemed very dark, but then the fabrics I chose were rather light. So I overlaid a piece of itajime-dyed navy blue and white organza over the patchwork to tone things down a little.

Monday was filled with friends and family as I enjoyed a day off from school in honor of MLK. A visit with Anne Minich, one of my favorite artist friends helped me feel like this project is worthwhile. Her house reminds me o the descriptions I recently heard of Louise Bourgeois' home where the whole building exists in service of art. It's always inspiring to sit with her among her books and art and shells and driftwood.

Tuesday was long and tiring, but I had an amazing time with my basic design students at Fleisher exploring organic and geometric shapes in balance with each other.
The rest of the week was a rushed blur of end of the quarter grading at school and anticipation for the snowy weekend.
Again, Friday night found me rushing to my scrap pile. Before I emerged from my studio corner to think about dinner, 2 inches of snow had fallen from the sky. It snowed through all of Saturday, and I was in bliss, eating lovely food, stitching, and watching movies.
It's Sunday again, and icicles are dripping from the eaves. We shoveled out, but are in no hurry to go anywhere. This week's stitched strip now hangs with the others, and January is taking form and color on my wall. One more week and I'll have a month's worth complete.

New Year, New Project

I've always been exceptionally good at doing school assignments. I always found some way to fulfill the requirements but in a way that also satisfied my own sense of creativity. Having the prompt was what helped- some exterior stimulus to get the ideas flowing. But you only get assignments when you are in school. Although I'm "in school" every day, I'm always the one giving the assignments. I seem to be very good at coming up with assignments and interesting challenges for my students, but for some reason I seem to struggle with challenging myself in the same way.

I've been thinking about how to best arrange my life to allow for more personal creative practice. I don't want to reach the end of 2016 with so little to show for it as I did this past year. So, I've analyzed what works and what doesn't for me. Schedules and deadlines push me. Regular habits keep me consistent in work and exercise. 

I considered an "artwork-a-day" project but realized it would be too much pressure to complete something. Have to be realistic. But once a week might be doable. An every day habit of journaling is sustainable. I noticed I kept that up for 4 months last year. I can top that. Now, last year I made a piece that felt very personal and beautiful and expressive, which was prompted by an assignment in "The Artist's Rule", a book by Christine Paintner that the Cathedral used in a weekly book study last year. It was to make a book of days, marking your hours, finding moments for prayer and creativity. I made a long, narrow embroidered strip with color blocks representing each time period of my everyday schedule. As we are starting to go through the book again, I was reminded of the piece and the simplicity of it.

So assignment part 1: every day, jot down any significant events, feelings, colors, patterns, images, or experiences. Cut out a square of magazine paper colors, patterns, textures, etc. to collage into my sketchbook. By the end of the week I have a color sketch of a piece laid out along with a wealth of images, words, and sketches to draw from for inspiration.

Assignment Part 2: Sunday is art day. I know, I make art every day. But it's Monday-Friday middle school, Saturday community arts, and I'm exhausted helping other people be creative and annoyed to not be creative for myself. So on Sunday I'll use the results of Assignment 1 to gather fabrics that best match the color collage sketches. I iron and cut them into 3 inch squares to be sewn together as a strip.

Once the patches are sewn into a strip, I back it and topstitch it. The machine sewing is quick and gives the piece a finished look from the very start.

 Finally, I can spend most of Sunday afternoon or evening embroidering. But if it takes longer I can continue stitching through the week.

So far I have completed 2 strips. The first one only represents 3 days because January started on a Friday and I began the project on Sunday, January 3rd. For week 2, the longer strip was a challenge. I pieced it on Sunday, January 10th and got some stitching done. However, I stupidly chose seed stitch to fill a significant area, which took forever. I stitched a little through my substitute day, some more Wednesday night, and finally finished it on Thursday evening. Having the deadline of the weekend was good pressure.

I've so far managed to keep up the journaling for 15 days and finished 2 strips. I was so excited to get started this Friday evening, that when I came home from work I dumped out my whole scrap box to find the best pieces for the week so far, cut and sewed them up already. The strip awaits Saturday and  Sunday's colors now. 

This is the first time in months I've felt motivated to spend real consistent time in the studio. I hope I can keep this momentum, and that it won't be just another failed resolution. I think that sharing intentions helps build a sense of accountability. I am not going to stress about "having an idea",and I'm not going to worry too much about how it turns out. I am going to keep the format consistent and then see what happens over time. It will be an interesting experiment to see visually over time how I experience the world emotionally and visually. Happy New Year!!

Recent work

I've been working at home and at Fleisher mostly lately- trying to spend time with the family but still get some art-making time in. I took a 2-day silk aquatint workshop at Fleisher last week. It was completely different than I expected, but I'm happy with the results and the possibilities it has for working with kids. I can't imagine doing it in elementary- but older kids could really do well, as long as there's a press available. I don't think it will really become a regular thing for me because I seriously hate inking plates.

 Above are the cards I printed. I wanted something useful for my efforts, so I printed my plates as a bleed print on one end of a 6x10 inch sheet. Below is my plate after printing and cleaning it off again. It works a little like a collograph. The screening adhered to the plate gives a texture that holds the ink well. Then you paint over it with gloss medium/white acrylic to create the design. Thinner washes create gray tones, and building up layers or using thick application creates the lights. My image was from a sketch of overlapping patterns from my sketchbook.

 I'm very happy to have completed this piece:

 It started as 2 photos from 7th street in south Philly. The background was the side of a neighbor building from a very recently torn-down building, and the wallpaper was still hanging on the walls. The overlay was from an Isaiah Zagar mural that had a doily impression in clay. The title is "Domestic Disturbance". It might be a bit harsh of a title, but it seems a propos.

I've just ordered the above digital image and the Queen Wyeth mashup from my last post to be printed for me from Spoonflower. The one above combines the rough wall of a shed on Norris street near my home and a pattern from a grill at Haghia Sofia in my former home of Istanbul. It blends together two extremes of environment- one run-down and poverty stricken, old from neglect, the other opulent, old but preserved. Me in the middle of two places. I've dubbed it Norris Sultana for the time being.
I've got a few more weeks before school starts again. Hopefully I'll be able to keep stitching.

View from the hoop

I keep using the word "Monster" to describe my big embroideries. For so long I only made small pieces- less than 8x10. So anything bigger seems gigantic. The recently finished "Welcome" in my previous post and this one in the hoop are about 16x17. It took me about 5 months to finish the last one. This one was printed at the same time, and I started stitching it in April, but worked only briefly on it since I hadn't finished the other. Now that all those french knots are finished, I have time for this next digitally printed embroidery. There's a patch of torn wallpaper on the side of a recently demolished building. So far I've used backstitch, satin, and seeding. Hopefully this one won't take 5 months...

Welcome/Summer

 What have I been doing since February when last I posted? This monstrous big embroidery on digitally printed fabric. Entitled "Welcome", it is a blend of 2 photos taken from Fleisher Art Memorial: the sunset street scene superimposed with the Samuel Yellin gates to the sanctuary. I stitched the outlines of the gate pattern in backstitch and running stitch. The light shining through the trees are thousands of french knots in variegated perle cotton. I got the image digitally printed by Spoonflower.Believe it or not, it started off as a cell phone picture. It was a bit blurry, but that's where the stitching came in to make things crisper, leaving the background with an almost watercolor effect.

 The piece was stretched on stretcher bars and framed.It's now hanging in te gallery at Fleisher for the annual faculty show. The reception will be Friday, July 18th from 6-8.

 School is out. I have no summer plans. Just taking each day as it comes. Today was hammock-swinging, dappled light from treetops, and cloud-watching.

Oh.. and getting ready to move, preparing new exemplars for an upcoming Basic Design course, and other general busy-ness. I can't totally relax all day.
I'll try to post more often...

What do you know... another snow day!

I shoveled... and I stitched on this little guy. It's a mini version of the big blue monster- I wanted to try stitching the tile pattern. Small makes sense. Not sure yet how to scale it up. Should I just keep the one motif large scale or make it smaller and repeat it?
I found a nice quote by Rumi:
"You dance inside my chest,
 where no one sees you,
but sometimes I do,
and that sight becomes this art."

These are squares and loops but they are more to me. I need to write lesson plans and sleep, bu it's hard to put this down.

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.

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.

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.

Creativity in the woods

I've been home for a week (somehow this week flew by in comparison with the week before). I thought I'd look back on the artwork made by myself and the other participants at the residency in Montana. It seems far away now, but I'm still feeling the restfulness that grew while I was there.

Tobacco Road Studios was a great location with 2 studio spaces in the garage, and a wrap-around porch where I made my workspace. Our hostess was working on an elemental series and cut a huge spiral in the lawn for "earth". The elements and trees around the property were inspiration for many of us.

 I noticed how most of the trees grew in clusters,like families. their root systems are shallow because the bedrock is so close to the surface, and the interlocking of the roots help the trees support each other. A great deal of underbrush has been cleared out of the surrounding woods over the past few years. I noted numerous stumps dotting the landscape and thought it would be interesting to take prints from them.

Woodblock printing with ink and a brayer was a total failure as it picked up only the sawmarks instead of the beautiful rings. So I switched to oil pastel rubbings to capture the texture and age of about 8 stumps. After heat setting the pastel I experimented with walnut ink on a few, but didn't like the loss of contrast.

 The 2 small stumps with walnut ink were appliqued to some red sunprinted cloth I'd made in grad school. I stitched a few rings and used feather stitch for roots reaching out and entangling. It needed a little something extra, so I added  a ring of red seeded "fire". Wildfire is a major concern in the Rockies in midsummer. The firetruck came out at one point because someone noted smoke from our (well-tended) campfire! But fire is needed at times to control undergrowth and bring new life to the forest floor as well. I finished this 12-inch piece up in a day and then moved on to a larger piece.

 I waited for a full sunny day and painted out a yard and a half of cotton with blue, ochre, and emerald setacolor. I laid plant material I'd found on the forest floor on top and let the fabric dry in the sun for a lovely organic sunprint. Five more stump prints were appliqued onto this 4x5 foot background, and then I spent 3 straight days doing concentric circles in running stitch until my fingertips ached.

 On our last night we had an open house despite rainy weather. All our artwork was hung and displayed around the porch. The event was publicized in the local paper and we had a number of adventurous souls venture out in the rain to visit. Here are some of the other artists' work:

 Michelle Menard of San Francisco delighted us with a puppet show she developed over the week. She created all the characters and scenery from painted cardboard and papier mache. Above is wise Ladybird in a cage and below is the blue bird of happiness nesting.

 In the evenings we gathered on the porch for some basketweaving lessons from our host's mother, and they were displayed along with the rest of our art:

 I'm quite proud of my tight little reed basket. I've always enjoyed weaving....

 One of the major events of the week was a pit firing for the ceramic pieces that had been made. It was a little scary to do after all the fire warnings, but I helped out by keeping the surrounding area quite damp with a hose. A 4 foot deep pit was dug out, the ceramic vessels were loaded in the bottom and the fire was fed over the course of 3 hours. Finally we let it burn down, and by morning it was cool enough to unload.

 The woodfire makes an amazing and unpredictable smoky effect on the clay body. Our hostess, Christina Barbachano's pieces are above.

 One of the local artists who joined us in the evenings was Nikki Meyer (also a reporter for the town paper!). She worked on a series of somewhat surreal photos of animal life, playing with real and unreal, pumping up the contrast and color to distort perception. I loved the image of the turkeys and buffalo below. Not all of the animals in this image are actually alive though....

 We had a few of Christina's high school art students up as well. A pair of them collaborated on the "Dr.Seuss Tree" below, transforming a former porch post into a fantastical tree with a strange creature in the branches. It was wonderful to watch the perseverance of the pair, as they struggled with weather and materials to get it complete.

It was wonderful to have so much time to just make art and be surrounded by other creative folk. As artists and mothers and working people, so much of our time and mental power gets distracted by everyday life and responsibilities. It was a joy to let all those distractions fall away.

 I've returned to my fair share of worries (perhaps to balance out that free time!) but  I'm trying to hold on to that rest and rejuvenation that soaked into my spirit while I was in that other world.