The story of creation: My Winter Survival or The WORK of art.

I am so far behind on posting it is too overwhelming for me to try to catch up today. I will try to do it eventually since this blog is how I remember what I have done and when I have done it! I wanted to share my latest piece so I decided to write a post about how it was created with all the little details as it is a very detailed piece. And at the risk of giving away my secrets and giving the copiers out there a bit of help I will show the materials I used as well. (As an aside, I don't find copying a form of flattery unless I am somehow credited). I hope this will also show how much WORK goes into creating something like this. This post will also be part of my clean up from this project. I will photograph the things I used as I put them away! This is what PART of the mess looks like. When I am really into a piece and/or rushed I make a huge mess.

I created this piece specifically for the West Hartford Art League's Out of the Loop fiber art show. The deadline for delivery was 1/28/2014 and I began on 1/18/2014. I had another deadline to meet before I could start on this piece. I was thinking spring and getting through my usual (although a bit deeper this year) winter season depression. It was also inspired by many other things: the workshop with Silvia Watt at Wiawaka, Van Gogh's Almond Branches, classic Asian depictions of cherry trees in bloom, a trip to Delectable Mountain Cloth, and a closing Jo-Ann's store. I think it was also a way for me to justify all my recent purchases of fabric, beads, threads, etc... a way of saying "see I do use them"!  Here is my haul from Delectable Mountain....

 and a little bit of what I bought at Jo-Ann's.

I have been doing too much buying (not all of it shown here) and that is bad not only because I can not afford it but it can be a symptom of a mixed state of mania and depression;either way judgement and impulse control are out of whack. Even with all my stash I still NEEDED to go buy some more threads...
at JoAnn again...

 and the special thread store; Thistle Needleworks.

Some of those threads are a gift for my friend though so they don't count, right?

Now to the process: I began with a layer of cotton gauze and white prefelt and then added a bit of naturally dyed (Indigo, I think) roving.

I then covered the wool with a piece of silk chiffon naturally dyed with black beans. On top of that base I cut bits of silk that I had eco-dyed, naturally vat dyed, marbled, and one bit of nuno prefelt....

bits of commercial silks...

and bits of yarn and naturally dyed roving...

till the layout looked like this.

After it was wet felted I decided that I needed to add a bit of pop, an accent, and a bird seemed so fitting. That involved some research, although I had drawn over 30 birds for the dictionary I wanted to find a perfect pose though the bird would be figurative. Then I did some rough sketches on paper and fabric for a backing for the embroidery that was the next step.

After cutting out my fabric sketch and attaching it to the felt I started stitching...

a LOT of stitching...

 in the car, in waiting rooms, at home listening to audio books...on and on. Sometimes unstitching and restitching to make 'improvements' from 'ick' to 'good enough', as the deadline loomed.

 During all this toting of the piece t around I accidentally spilled some water on the piece. This would not have been a problem except that the water had a slice of lemon in it. Lemon (acid) + black bean dye = a change from blue to pink. ( I knew this from my experiments with post mordants). Happily the pink worked well with the piece.

Once I got to 'good enough' with the bird (although I pulled some stitches too tight and puckered the felt I hoped I could smooth them out)...

it was time to get to developing the flowers on the tree. Adding more embroidery, beads, bits of fabric and lace.  Using some of the threads and ribbons I had naturally dyed in months past.

This work went on right until the day of delivery...thankfully they had evening hours for that!
I had also planned on adding some Chinese characters as is often seen on the classic paintings and so I had to do more research...thank goodness for the internet! At first I thought I would just do my initials but during my research I discovered that would be difficult so I looked for something else that would be appropriate; maybe something that could be the title. I found a phrase on a website that I thought was appropriate to the piece, my emotional state, and the recent extremely cold weather that has gripped the nation. The problem was that the image was so small I was not sure that I could clearly see the characters. That meant trying to decode what each character meant and finding a clear picture of each stroke. Next I had to try out differnent fabric paints and markers to see what would work...

(Thankfully I didn't have time to shop for the 'perfect thing.)

 and I had to practice the strokes on different fabrics.

.

I had every intention of having all of the day before delivery day to mount the piece which can be a lot of work sometimes, and I did start but still wound up finishing in a rush. And that was with the help of my wonderful father and eldest son.  The process:

assemble and glue the stretcher frame

 (purchased along with the decorative frame on an earlier trip to Jerry's Artarama)

stretch and staple muslin (thanks to son for help with this)

stretch and staple linen after a search for the right color

Pin and stretch the felt to the linen

stitch around the tree trunk and branches and stuff them so they project off the surface of the felt

stitch and stuff the bird

embroider my initials

sign the back and attach my card

attach the decorative frame (Dad is getting to be a wiz at figuring this stuff out)

attach screw eyes and hanging wire

Now rush to finish filling out the forms, which involves two difficult things; coming up with a title and PRICE! and then drive half an hour to deliver the final product.

All this work is why it is a bit irritating to be asked "how long did that take you to make?. Do I include the hours of driving-shopping-learning-dyeing-sewing-practicing-felting-thinking-imagining-beading-painting-getting materials out-putting materials away-ad infinitum, that applies to this one project? Or do I include all the work, learning, and practicing from all the years and projects that came before since that too is part of this piece?  Somehow it seems to leave a lot to be said when all of this is reduced to Name of Artist, Title, Medium, Size, and Price.  How DO you put a price on all that work not to mention that this is not just an object but in a way a piece of me? I will say that most artists do not make minimum wage even if just actual working time is considered. And though we do it because we have a NEED to create, for some of us it is our only WORK and there is also a NEED to make money. 

If only to buy more craft supplies.

Bouncing all around

Things have been very un-normal around here since I last wrote. I feel like I have been in a time warp. I think that when I do so many different things I have a hard time feeling...stable. I had to pack up my studio to turn the room back into a dining room for Thanksgiving. We postponed our meal till Saturday so that we could have more family members able to attend. We wound up with a count of 22 people from 4 generations, and we were still missing many members. It was chaotic and stressful but also nice. It is especially nice to have little ones around on a holiday. Three days after that gathering my dad had elective surgery on his shoulder for a torn rotator cuff. Being a professional stress-monger I think those two events sucked up a lot of my energy emotionally and physically; that and the time of year have caused me to struggle a bit more than I have been, but I am still hanging in there and fighting the depression demon.
I was able to do some creative things, but even with that I was bouncing around. I finally tried the piece of sanded paper for pastels that my friend Debbie Wagner gave me back in August when she came east to attend the Felter's Fling. Debbie is a wonderful artist and her pastel paintings of sunrises are so beautiful and her spirit shines through each piece. Her story is amazing and can be read about at the above link. The piece of paper she gave me was one that she uses for her sunrise paintings; she brings her supplies with her when she leaves home. I asked her to show me how she does her pastel work and I learned a lot just watching how she manipulates the medium. I find this true of watching other people felt, just seeing how they hold the fibers and do a layout can be so informative. I was all excited to try the paper but other things were more pressing at the time. Since most of my felting supplies were packed away it was the perfect time to go down to the basement "studio" where I do my messy stuff like dyeing and get my pastels out and finally try that paper. What a difference it made! The pastels perform very differently depending on the ground. I don't have a lot of professional grade pastels so my color choices are limited but after trying a this better grade of paper I decided that I wanted to buy some more quality pastels. Yesterday, after making a bit of money at a craft show...and since I WAS so close to Dick Blick I invested in a set of Sennelier half sticks. Here is a photo of my new colors and of the image I did with Deb's paper. I can't wait to try the new pastels, I think the colors will be richer.

After the get together I got out some wool to felt some soaps for the craft show. (I am not going to get everything out because we need the dining room for Christmas dinner in a few weeks). I did some to look kind of like stones...soap stones! 

I also worked on making a 'Scape Scarf'; a scarf with a landscape or other image on the ends. I proposed teaching this as a one day class at the symposium so I need to make more to work out how to teach it. That takes a lot of noticing what I do and my thought processes instead of just 'doing'. It takes some of the fun out of creating when you have to be so mindful instead of just letting it flow. Here it is not quite finished but it will give you an idea of what it looks like.

 

Below is my first Scape Scarf made many years ago. 

While I was waiting at the hospital I worked a bit more on my piece from Wiawaka. It was good for distraction. I am starting to think that in a way this piece is a self portrait; the black and white symbolic of the extremes of emotion that comes with being bipolar, and the problems of having black and white thinking especially where decision making is involved. The antique laces showing my old fashioned sweet girly side but placed along with more modern, somewhat eerie or sinister elements ; the odd bits of often opposing textures and surfaces that combine to make a complex whole. The piece was begun in Sylvia Watts class and since Sylvia is a psychiatric nurse who specializes in art therapy I think I was reminded of some of the times that I was in the hospital. I would have loved having her for a nurse!

A busy week ending with one more felted landscape class taught.

It has been such a busy fall for me, and this past week was the windup. Last weekend I taught another landscape class at Robin's Luckystone Studio. But before that I had some other things to do, starting with a stop in at the New England Fiber Festival which is held only 5 or so miles from my house. How could I not go?  And I have a confession to make...I caved on my vow not to buy any more fleeces until I used the ones I already have. In my defense, I DID just earn some money from teaching, and I HAD shown great restraint at the other two fiber festivals I went to this fall, AND I just got a brand new drum carder to play with.  I am not having buyers remorse but I am starting to think that I have the same problem with buying fleece as I do with buying beads. I love them more than I use them...I may need a 12 step program to get it under control. Here are the 'three bags full'....

...a black Icelandic, mottled grey Lincoln, and a gorgeous and very clean, very soft Merino which was a first shearing (aka a hogget). One of the reasons I like buying fleeces is that I am buying local and supporting farmers in this country. The Merino is the only one that I have fondled since I bought it. Here is a photo of the washed fleece and a small felt sample.

Next I went to the opening of the Granby Land Trust Art show. I was VERY happy to have my sister Beth come with me and be there when I was presented the award. We had so much fun and she was really good at promoting me after that half a glass of wine she drank! I won the Helen & Al Wilke award, which was a new award this year, for my drawing of the grapes.

I was happy to have my pieces hung so that could be seen during the ceremony. I felt sorry for the artists whose work was hung in the vestibule.  And I am always proud to see my felt hanging with price winning oil paintings.

But the best part of the night was having Beth there with me.

The rest of the week was spent scrambling to get my pieces mounted to put in the Wesleyan Potter's Annual Show and Sale.  I am thankful that Dad has been helping me with making simple frames. I have shown all these pieces before but here they are finally mounted and ready to hang.

This next piece I took some sideways shots to try to show how the felt is sculpted to project off of the background.

I asked some of my friends for advice on how to mount some of these. This one I agreed looked better just unframed, but it still had to be stitched to a backing with a way to hang it on the wall. Sometimes this type of mounting is harder than just doing my usual framing.

I also had to do some touch up on the mounting for my Tiffany window piece since it has traveled a bit and got banged up. I am not good about taking care of my artwork. I put in six pieces in all. I found that the south facing wall of the barn makes a good place to photograph my pieces...and I can put as many nails in it as I want! I will be kind of sad if my Tiffany sells but I don't have room here to hang it inside and I don't think it would fair well out on the barn wall.

My class at Robin's Luckystone studio was a lot of fun, as usual. She has a great space that the atmosphere is always relaxed. Though I did have a bit of tension when we were way over time and things were not felting very well. One thing that caused the class to go long was the size of the pieces. I think I forgot to tell the students to keep the layout so that it is about 4" from each side of the plastic. And I was so busy making sure that the layout of white wool was in the right proportion for their image that I missed the fact that the pieces were so big. I also forgot one of the steps I do in the wet felting process. I should not be surprised that I could forget something like that when I forget so many things. In fact my forgetfulness is why I started this blog. It was not a total disaster and I kept my cool. It just made for a long day. Thank goodness that Robin was there to help with the felting and fulling! The second day went as usual, and everyone seemed very happy with what they learned. Because the pieces were large not many of them were nearly finished, but students left with a plan and the knowledge of how to further develop the piece. I think of my class as being geared toward learning principles and techniques and not a project class. Maybe more technical than some folks want. I am going to think about ways to tweak the class and or develop another more elementary class for people who don't care so much about landscape principals and just want to make nice images.

Here are photos of the pieces as they left the studio...though I missed one student's work.

This is by my friend Gail Trautz. I will see her again so I can hopefully see what she does to further develop the piece. I also know her well enough to tease her about it if she does not work on it more, as she said she would.  Do you hear that Gail?

Here is Lori's piece. She is another Guild member and has taken my class before.  She plans on beading this some more to give some shine and texture to the flowers.

Here is Bea's piece. It is interesting to me that in some classes there are several students who use a lot of the yarns, neps, burs, angelina, etc. that I bring for embellishing, while some classes use very little or none.

Here is Sarah's piece. It was so big that it did not fit on my pinning board. (Everyone starts off with the same size plastic to layout on)!

Here is Pat's piece. She used one of the new yarns I bought at Webs, another dangerous place that is just too close to my house. (My other pledge was that I will not buy anymore yarn)! I sometimes wonder if I just do this kind of work so I have an excuse to buy more crafty stuff.

And last but not least, here is Barbara's piece. Robin told me that she came to the studio later to buy some fiber and told Robin how much she enjoyed the class. I love hearing that!

Now that I am done with my scheduled classes maybe I can play with some of those new fleeces....

Teaching Landscape in Potomac, Maryland

I have been doing quite a few things that are outside my comfort zone lately; volunteering to help Susan in Rhinebeck , and agreeing to teach a landscape class down in Maryland were the big ones. My friend, Sharon Janda, invited me to come to her home studio to teach a felting group that she is part of. To me this was a BIG deal for a couple of reasons. For one thing it meant I would have to drive by myself for 7 hours in a very metropolitan area. Since I do not leave my house much and I live in a somewhat rural area the thought of driving down the coast through several major cities was rather frightening. Most of my trips are through New York state and New England, in more familiar and less populated areas. I also get a bit nervous teaching at a new venue. I know from experience that the facility does make a difference in how the class goes especially in the beginning. I need to remind myself that none of my classes has been a disaster because of the facilities and what matters most is for me to handle the challenges with patience and humor. But what was causing me the most anxiety was the fact that I would have Sharon and Renate Maile-Moskowitz as students. They are my friends but I am also intimidated by their talent, sophistication and mastery of felt making. I did not feel like I had anything to offer them, especially since my class is about traditional landscape painting and their work is contemporary. I am happy to say that I really had no reason to worry about any of these things. I am proud of myself that I took the leap and did not let my fears stop me. The entire time was a wonderful experience and I feel like I have gained a new confidence that I hope I can hold on to.
One of my goals when I am teaching is to help students achieve their own vision for their piece. I start the class with a lecture on the principles of landscape painting; the effects of atmosphere and light, techniques for seeing, value, color, etc.; all of which can apply to any medium or style. Then I try to guide students to use that knowledge to create a piece of art that reflects their own aesthetic. I did not discourage Sharon or Renate from using a reference work that I normally would try to steer a student away from, because I knew that a traditional landscape was not their style. For the class I want students to have a reference photograph that will give them a chance to explore the principles that I lecture about, the best is one that is a vista so that they can "create a sense of distance through color and perspective". 
Renate brought in a book of paintings by Samuel Bak and wanted to try to create a similar scene in felt. It was really interesting to me to collaborate with her on this and in the end I did feel that she found the class worthwhile. Here is one of Samuel Bak's pieces that I found on the internet that is similar to Renate's photo.

Here is her layout...

 And her unfinished piece at the end of class...

And here is Renate at the end of class...she was on her way to teach a class and I think she was feeling a bit harried (pun intended)....though come to think of it it WAS Halloween.

Sharon's piece was based on a photo that had been manipulated so that the detail was soft and the colors were adjusted to be rather vivid. Here is her layout.

Sharon has a FeltLOOM that she wanted to try using for this project. When she put it through the machine the layout got stretched a bit at the top into a kind of arch shape. We both liked the effect for her piece so when she wet felted it she stretched it a bit more. Here it is at that stage.

And here it is at the end of the day...and night, since we sat around drinking wine and talking while she continued to work on it.

Bev also had a photo that was dramatic in its lighting; not much detail showed since the contrast was so high. After she had been working on the piece for a while she said that it would have been better to have worked from a photo with a better exposure for the piece she did in class. She did a wonderful job but it was tough deciding what to do in the areas that were just black in the photo. Here is her layout.

After wet felting...

And at the end of class....

The other women worked from photos that were better suited to what I teach. The fact that several were my own photos might have something to do with that ;)

Here is Dalis's layout.

She had a lot of fun with the yarns and other embellishments that I bring. 

And here is the piece after wet felting.

And at the end of class.

This is Grace's layout...

After wet felting...

And after needle felting...

This piece was done by Paige...

After wet felting...

And after needle felting.

This piece was done by Joanne. She was having trouble with her leg and could not really walk but she was determined to take my class. We all helped her get the things she needed. It is so nice to work with a group of friends.

 

Here is the piece after wet felting.

 

And at the end of class....

I had a really wonderful time teaching these women, and spending time with Sharon. And things got even better when Joanne bought one of the 'paintings' that I brought as an example. I was so happy. This is the landscape that went home with her.

And one more blessing came my way while I was at Sharon's. I got a call from my Dad which made me panic at first, until he said that he was just calling me to let me know that someone from the Granby Land Trust had left a message and that I should return her call. The call was to tell me that I won an award for one of my pieces! Both of them got juried in so I won't know what piece won or what the award is. Either way I am thrilled and looking forward to the opening on Wednesday!