Picking things up again

I was trying to figure out what work I should put into the annual Fleisher faculty show this year, and decided I REALLY wanted to try to finish my wall piece. This was started over a year ago for a final project in a surface design class I took at Tyler. It never got finished, because... well it's humongous for an embroidery. It's probably more of an art quilt than an embroidery. I hate having "U.F.O's" hanging around, so it will be a huge load off of my artistic subconscious to have this piece completed.

 Above is part of the front and below is the back side. It's mostly silk, and it feels so wonderful between my fingers and draped over my lap as I work.

 Below is  little sample sketch piece I did when I started the project.

The final one is nearly complete now. The red and cream areas are finished. The blue has begun. I'm doing a large scale whipped lattice work over the blue section, but I think I'm going to crop the piece a bit to narrow the blue. Then I'll bind it and have a velcro strip attached on the back side for mounting.

Working with the dyed silk is making my fingers very itchy to start m shibori dyeing class this summer. It's running but still has some room. It will be a 6 week course incorporating various shibori dyeing techniques, an embroidery stitch sampler, and a final embroidery or quilt piece to incorporate the dyed fabrics. Monday nights through July and August! I'm also offering a soft sculpture course on Wednesday nights, but need more students for it to run. Sign up at Fleisher's website! Classes start July 11th!

RIP FiberArts Magazine

I am so so sad. I received my VERY LAST issue of FiberArts magazine in the mail today with a notice that they will no longer be publishing the most wonderful magazine ever. I've subscribed to FiberArts for over a decade and it has been highly influential to me as an emerging fiber artist. I even had a letter to the editor published in it once. I never got around to submitting my own work to them for publication and I seriously regret not being brave enough to do so before now.

Goodbye FiberArts. This is a blow to my genre of Craft.

Graphic Tee collaboration

This past semester at Fleisher, I teamed up with Liz Latham who teaches the teen Digital Photography course on Saturdays upstairs from where the screenprinting studio is. We arranged for our students to collaborate as designers and production team to create 2 layer graphic Tshirts. Her students took photos and manipulated their images in photoshop to make them bolder and more contrasted for print. My students designed background symbol layers to print in color. It was an interesting process of brainstorming, voting, and working together. I burned the screens with the teens' designs on Thursday and we were able to finish all the printing on Saturday.

 The images were mixed and matched, and the images turned out quite interesting depending on which symbol they were printed on.

 The meerkats and graffiti over the happy face is my favorite. In fact, I went and bought a Tshirt for myself today so I can print the graffiti one. (The great benefit to photo screens over paper stencils- the image can be reprinted easily!)

Of course the one drawback to photo screens is the extra prep time I spend coating, exposing, and then after printing having to reclaim them. Ah well- definitely worth it this time! These are the best T-Shirts I've seen my young screenprinters make yet!  Collaboration is key. Talking them through symbolic imagery was extremely helpful. Democracy in action in my classroom studio! Can't wait for our next session. I have 2 morning screenprinting camps being offered in July at Fleisher. One is for 11-13 year olds and the other for 14-18 year olds.  Go sign your kids up!

My pint-sized screenprinters

After 2 weeks of no class due to Memorial day and an art streetfair, we finally got back into the screenprinting studio with my 11-13 year olds this afternoon. I'll post what we worked on today in a separate post. Today I wanted to show the final results of their multi-layer collaborative prints, which were turned into individual collages.

 Students were encouraged to "Break the Rectangle". They were allowed to choose  whatever size base paper they wanted, so some are only about 10 inches across, and one is at least 2 ft across.

 They were reminded about geometric vs. organic shapes and encouraged to use arrangement of color as a way to organize composition and to consider the connection and movement of lines to direct the eyes around their image.

 We discussed abstraction and the difference between representational and non-representational imagery.

 The kids were a little unhappy with edges popping up due to insufficient gluing, so we coated their final images with gloss medium. It makes them very object-like I believe.

 We had fun naming what we "saw" in their abstract images. The one above reminds me of a mother and child, and the one below is boat-like with its red prow and stern and black sails.

 Through this project students learned all about the screenprinting process and various ways to block screens to create an image. We learned a LOT about the Elements and Principles of Design. Most importantly, students learned to collaborate in the process.

 But after all that collaboration I was very glad to give them a chance to make something all their own. We did not use printmaking so much for making multiples in this case, but for generating a wide range of source material for our collages by layering over different prints each time.

I love how varied their shapes are as a result of this printing and collage process. I think kids this age tend to rely on symbolic shapes like hearts and peace signs, but they really pushed themselves to make something new and all their own.

This semester concludes one whole year of teaching screenprinting to kids at Fleisher. I've evolved in the process, and it keeps getting better and better. It's truly been a great semester in the studio with my teenybopper screenprinters!

New work

 While chained to my sewing machine last week making the pillows for the 5th graders I took some time out and stitched together a new background piece. I've still got lots of pieces from my gran's old stash and now have two more compositions stitched up. This one is a 9 patch arrangement of her 16 patch assemblies. There's a shift from greens into blacks/tans/blues. Staring at it on my inspiration board I decided the colors were representing city girl (me) and farm girl (her). It's basted to sandwich it to a piece of soft white recycled sheet cotton on the back. I've started some sashiko stitching over the "city" portion in a grid pattern. I'm thinking interlocking circles over the greens.

Here's a blurry pic of my gran from a snapshot that fell out of a book my mother gave my daughter yesterday. It was taken in 1949. I wonder what she would think of my quilt appropriations...

Arts Educators and Blogging Survey

Hello! I'm trying to find out more about how arts educators (including art teachers in schools, art instructors in community centers, and teaching artists) use blogs as either readers or writers. So if you span the arts and educator spectrum in any shape or form and you have ever read a blog, I'd appreciate your taking the time to complete this 10-question survey. Your answers will help me out as I work on writing my thesis for my Masters of Art Education from Tyler School of Art. My paper deadline is August 1st! So please click on the link below ASAP. Thanks!

Click here to take survey

Stellaaaaaaaaa!

For the past month my teenybopper screenprinters at Fleisher have been layering and layering prints in a round robin abstract exchange inspired by the prints of Frank Stella. Students learned about positive and negative space, geometric and organic shapes, lines, and color as well as representational and non-representational abstraction. Students worked in different pairs for each layer to learn how to work cooperatively. They also learned how to block screens, register, and clean up properly sharing responsibilities. 

 Their first layer was a full page rainbow print using only mylar strips and tape to block the frame. Not all the prints were clean and smooth rectangles, but the resulting textures were interesting and didn't interfere with any intentional imagery. It helped them get the hang of printing and working together.

 Their next layer used designs cut out of contact paper to block the screen. Most of these shapes were geometric, and they had to decide whether to make their image a positive or negative print by choosing what part of the contact paper to place on the screen. They also had to work together to plan their design and how their own shapes would complement their partner's. Before printing, students picked out 4 different backgrounds to print upon, making all of these original monoprints- no editions.

 The third layer was based off of organic shapes primarily. Students again planned designs with their partner, decided on positive or negative space, but this time cut designs out of freezer paper to use as a block. These were intended to be much simpler than the previous designs. Again before printing, students selected 4 different prints to layer over.

 The fourth and final layer was more individual. Prints were exchanged yet again. This time students drew on the screen with caran d'ache water soluble pastels and pulled transparent base over the drawing to monoprint over their images to introduce the element of line.

 So these images show a selection of final prints that resulted through this process. Students selected one print to keep as is. However, the other 3 prints they owned were carried over into one more process....

The prints were cut and glued into abstract collages, breaking the rectangular format. And for those images you'll have to wait, as they haven't been photographed yet. On Saturday the kids had a critique about the final works. They especially liked the opportunity to cut up their prints to turn into something else. We also had fun seeing images in abstraction.

Emerging

The semester is over and I'm slowly emerging. This past Thursday I had my final portfolio review with my graduate advisor, two art ed professors, and a fibers professor. I had an opportunity to share the art I've made in grad school over the past 2 years and discuss how the studios I took have impacted my work and process. After a half an hour review, they conferred privately, and then brought me back in to announce that I passed my portfolio with distinction!

There's still a thesis to write and one more studio intensive this summer. Slowly, slowly, and yet all too fast, graduate school is nearing completion.

I'm toying with the idea of considering blogging as a reflective practice and tool for art educators(especially teaching artists) as a topic for my thesis. The more I repeat that statement , the more sense it is making to me. Poor colored-thread has been neglected lately- I'm not reflecting enough perhaps! 

The viewers speak!

Yesterday was the Big Reveal of voting results for the Battle of the Sexes at the Delaware Art Museum. My Brick House piece was on display with only my last name on the label to obscure gender identification. According to the viewers my work is pretty feminine:

Votes in the 60% range were pretty ambiguous, though, so I'm kind of pleased to have tricked some viewers despite the work having some fiber included. Fiber was definitely considered "female" by voters, whereas tech-based and print-based work was deemed more "male". Here's a list of all the artists who participated. I'm in great company:



Finis!

As you may have noticed from my lack of blog posts, I've been rather busy this past week or two! That's because it was the final run to the finish line of my student teaching experience. We installed an had the "Art of Student Teaching" Exhibit at Tyler with a reception last Sunday of nearly 500 attendees! 2 of my students showed up, thankfully. Here's the layout of my wall:

 My kids' sculpture projects were a big hit. Sculpture doesn't get much play in schools because it takes up so much space, but the kids really love it and need it.

 Here I am with my wonderfully supportive co-op teacher:

After a last week filled with paper writing, binder completing, presentation giving, and very little sleep, I'm exhausted. Today was my very last day, and I'm so touched to hear how disappointed my students were to learn I was going. I'm really going to miss them, and it's nice to know they'll miss me too. As I drove away from school I said to myself, "I'm done!", but instead of relief  it was bittersweet. 

Next up: adventures in residency artistry and a printmaking studio class. Oh yeah, and my thesis. It never ends. And when it does I'll be sad.