Pamela Price Klebaum

a new member of my fused glass family, for now

2012-01-24T15:13:00.000-08:00

Oohlala, I love this one! I gave glass blower Ryan Staub two pieces to magically transform into vessels, and as usual, he did a stellar job. This one has layer upon layer upon layer of transparent color, interspersed with black lines and some special multicolored glass. This is a view looking straight down on the inside of the vessel.

Here is another view:

...and here it is as it sat on the counter at Pacific Art Glass, awaiting its trip home:

I have decided to (sniff sniff) donate this one to the Ventura County Medical Foundation silent auction, which is next month. The vase that I made for that auction is also wonderful (I'll post photos later), but this one really knocks one's socks off, if I do say so myself. The proceeds of the auction go to help support the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the County Hospital, and other worthy recipients.

I find myself spending oodles of time just studying the layers of color and line in these newest pieces, smiling and ooh-ing and ah-ing all the time. It's a magical process, this art glass.

fused glass, designs and desires

2012-01-21T07:28:00.000-08:00

My second firing of a new fused glass piece is now ready to be transformed into a 3d work. The photo above is a detail showing the results of my experiment in creating a Japanese calligraphic character with glass paint. The translation is "peaceful." I am full of anticipation about how the piece will look after glass blower Ryan Staub transforms it.

I did two firings of the fused glass, as I was not content with the results of the first version, pictured here (I apologize for having cut off the top of the piece!):

The center section did not seem connected to the rest of the design. I added some elements that I hoped would unify the piece, as well as the calligraphy. Here it is after it came out of the kiln after the second firing:

Glass is difficult to photograph, and the piece has more light than this photo shows. I placed the calligraphic mark at the lower right, as I was not sure if it would be successful. That part of the glass will most likely be rolled under to form the bottom of the vessel, and will not be visible.

There should be a nice interplay of transparent and opaque areas.

I gave Ryan an image of how I would like the piece to be shaped, and he is able to fulfill my wishes, the piece will have a lip, which will show the glass on the reverse side of my piece:

As ever, stay tuned...

"Rituals," a sneak peek

2012-01-14T11:22:00.000-08:00

As I wait for my latest fused glass adventure to cool down in the kiln, I return to my adventures in textiles. Currently I am working on the triptych I have posted before, as well as another piece for a juried invitational. The theme of the exhibit is Rituals.

My brain has been processing this theme while I am both awake and asleep. A little battle evolved over whether I wanted to go the literal route, or whether I wanted to step out into the abstract. While processing all options, my thoughts about ritual inevitably centered on terms I retrieved from the thesaurus: custom, habit, practice, routine.

Those terms, in turn, inevitably centered on my customs, habits, practices, routines that are involved whenever I conceptualize a new piece of art, either textile or fused glass. The initial mind/brain dance occurs regularly in two venues (I have written about this before): the bathtub, and the running trails I share with Sanjagirl. Many an art quilt has been conceived in this fashion, as have many glass works.

The literal side of me thought it would be cool (though possibly a bit risque) to feature someone bathing. But, here's the kicker. The piece has to have a vertical orientation, two feet wide and five feet high. Nix the bath, unless it's a view from the light fixture. TMI.

Though I detest showers, this method of self-cleaning would provide that vertical orientation I needed for the exhibit. Now, cut to many hours of consternation later, and here is a rough version of what emerged, me, with water splashing off my shoulder, ostensibly standing in the shower:

OMG!! I was going to draw this, scan the drawing, paint it digitally, and then and print it on cotton (this is my "ritual" way of creating art quilts, for the most part).

That meant that about two and a half feet of this piece would be my face!!! I imagined seeing this at an exhibit, and my stomach turned. No, no, no. That was just not something I wanted to see, do, or even contemplate. Nix the literal interpretation of "ritual," an approach that arose from the ritual first step/cogitation, and move on to the next step, an image produced by my custom and practice.

I had decided that my "ritual" was my custom, habit, practice and routine of turning to technology in at least one step of my process. I then spent many many hours thinking about and working on images. I revisited old work, old ways, and settled upon again photographing one of the fused glass vases I had made, and digitally transforming that photograph into an abstract image. Here is what I settled on:

As per my tried and true custom, I hightailed the digital file to my favorite printer, Jim, of Museum Quality Framing in Camarillo. Soon I had the image large as life. The colors dazzled me, beautiful plums and shades of green I have not worked with before. Another trip then to the thread store, and then began, and continues, the ritual meditative process of hand stitching this piece. It will take me the full two months till the entry is due, methinks.

I am loving this ritual, from creation through execution. When stitching, I am changing the thread color often to give a lot of depth to the stitches. To be continued, for sure...

i can't get no satis......

2012-01-13T13:46:00.000-08:00

This wonky photo shows my new fused glass piece, albeit only a part of it (photographer error). I was disappointed in how the middle band turned out -- the beautiful swirly opaque glass looks rather inconsequential, and somehow there is no unity with the rest of the glass. In a word, I was dissatisfied...but not stricken.

While glass is a demanding medium, it can also be quite forgiving. I decided to add another layer and fuse the whole shebang again. My goal was to use this new layer to unify the design.

I am a big fan of using line to create movement, and line can also be a unifying element. I toyed with the idea of doing some freeform line work with glass paint, but opted instead of adding another layer of a glass that has helter skelter black lines on a transparent base. This will "read" as lines on top of my entire piece, which I hope will draw all these elements together.

On top of that I placed three pieces:

When this is formed into a curved vase, these lines will take on an expanded shape. The horizontal lines will be much more subtle than they appear now. There is a touch of green in these pieces, which I hope will be a nice pop of color.

In the lower right corner, I placed the Japanese kanji character for "peaceful." I used glass paint to paint the character on a small piece of clear. I am experimenting here, so I put it in an inconspicuous place that may end up at the bottom of the vase. I have oodles of ideas of how I want to explore Japanese calligraphy in future projects.

This should be read for viewing on Sunday. Till then...

I'm baaaaack!

2012-01-11T13:49:00.000-08:00

I have had oodles of activity in my art-brain, but I have not posted about it yet. More to follow on those goings-on.

Meanwhile, I have started on what will be a new fused glass vase, this one to be auctioned off at a Ventura County Medical Resource Foundation fest next month. Ignore the white grid lines in the photograph (though they are sorta nice), as they are just my glass cutting surface showing through the sections of transparent glass.

The piece has many layers, each of which provides more eye-candy (and depth, I hope) -- one layer is clear, with black lines, another layer is blue, white and clear clouds. The glass in the middle row is a heavenly combination of light light blue, cocoa, black and cloudy white, and it does not show well in the photo.

This little lovely should emerge from the kiln on Thursday. Let's hope everything goes well with it!

in stitches

2011-12-28T11:40:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine complained plaintively at a Christmas party that I had not been blogging enough. Well, all I am working on right now is stitching, stitching, stitching.

So here, friend, is a photo of some of my latest meditations...

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T08:08:00.000-08:00

more glass, en route

2011-12-20T08:32:00.000-08:00

I used some of the same glass in this vase as I used in that last one I posted, but included more clear and less black. These photos are abysmal, but the vase is a very quiet piece, simple, with impromptu light black lines moving about.

I asked Ryan to make it almost a complete sphere, with merely an opening at the top, no neck.

This is the season of giving, and this little vase joined in the celebration. Yesterday it served as a loving housewarming gift.

a new vase, and virtuosity

2011-12-17T00:17:00.000-08:00

Here is one of the vases from my November class with Patty Gray. I was playing with more transparency than I have used in earlier vases.

I used cool colors of transparent glass, a lot of clear, and freeform pieces of opaque black to experiment with different thicknesses and shapes of line. After I fused these, I handed the half-inch slab off to master glass blower Ryan Staub, with a drawing of the shape I wanted.

I can't express sufficient accolades for his mastery. Few glass blowers know how to create shapes from fused glass panels, and it is a very challenging process. Ryan's virtuosity is awe-inspiring.

a good holiday gift

2011-12-15T11:53:00.000-08:00

Artists' visions and techniques are a constant fascination, and are the focus of Martha Sielman's Masters: Art Quilts, Volume 2.

Most compilations of this genre frustrate the reader by offering two or three major works. Not so here. One can linger over page after page of each of the 40 artists' work, including detail photos.

Curator Martha Sielman, Executive Director of Studio Art Quilt Associates, said in an interview that Lark Publication Masters Series sets the parameters for these books. Sielman was limited to 40 artists, only half of whom could be from America, due to the international nature of the field and marketing considerations.

This was a challenge for Volume 1 in the series, as Sielman felt she was not sufficiently familiar with international art quilters' work, but she elicited recommendations from leaders in the art quilt world, and then had to whittle down her list from an initial 200 she considered. Invited artists were asked to submit around 20 pieces for consideration, and were encouraged to include an iconic piece, a piece important to the artist, and pieces that had received awards or special recognition.

Sielman ranked these works, looking for art that "stuck with her," that grabbed her each time she revisited it. She submitted her lists to Lark Publications, and final decisions were made by the art department, focusing in part on whether the works would look good in print.

An exhibit based on the book debuted at the Houston International Quilt Festival, and this will travel to the major quilt festivals, including the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England. Additionally, each artist was asked to send in a sample piece, all of which were assembled into a scrapbook which can be touched and studied by exhibit visitors.

Sielman's introductions to each artist's work are a good read. They are not the predictable dry recounting of expected topics, but instead offer the reader a superior review of bio and technique, and more important, why each artist's work is worth a good look.

Buying the book through the SAQA website benefits that organization and offers a swell opportunity to give any art lover a terrific holiday gift.

[Lark Publications provided me a courtesy copy of this book for review.]

a first place photo finish and James

2011-12-06T06:24:00.000-08:00

"Homeless"

I have recounted the saga of meeting James, the homeless fellow in this photograph, about a year and a half ago, and how, after photographing him, we have become friends-of-sorts. That is, he is homeless and is hard, at times, to locate, and he has accepted my attention/compadreship on his limited, if not wary, terms.

Several of the photographs I took of him have morphed into some of my art and have been in exhibits and shows, one of which James attended.

He was pleased.

Last night this photo was awarded overall first place in the first annual Community Memorial Hospital Open Art Competition. The announcement literally took my breath away, and fortunately the presenter did all the talking.

I have written (some might say ad nauseum) about my fascination with the quality of line in art, and in my work, and it is this quality the juror singled out. Together with the interplay of light and dark, both the lines and light in the weathered tabletop and James' weathered skin caught her attention.

I was pleased.

Last week, I found James again after searching for about six months. He had moved away from the park where he had stayed for years, and now has told me how to find him in his new locale, a variety of spots spanning several blocks.

He had a good Thanksgiving, and his birthday was the next day. He jokingly says he is 38. I reminded him that last year he said he was turning 30. Caught in this little inconsistency, he smiled when I told him I knew his actual age was 58, based on some papers he had filled out to sign up for health care. He knows I know. Nevertheless, he likes the little age-altering joke we share.

We both are pleased with that.

a Christmas donation

2011-12-02T08:16:00.000-08:00

The stitched version of this imaginary album cover will be sold as part of a fundraiser for a youth art program. The opening reception is tonight at the Vita Art Center, Bell Arts Factory, 432 Ventura Avenue, Ventura. If you're a local, come on down!

inflammatory language

2011-12-01T12:26:00.000-08:00

My story is that 25 years of playing hardcore soccer (age 39 to present), a contact sport if there ever was one, have resulted in a tear or two in the rotator cuff of my non-dominant (that would be my right) shoulder. [My advanced age doesn't help.] What I've learned is that even that distant part of the body is involved in the hand stitching that I am doing on my triptych. Darn.

So, I have been advised by those that gave me a most unwelcome cortisone shot and now have me in physical therapy that I must monitor my stitch time, lest I irritate my unhappy side.

The good news is that one of the triptych sections is virtually finished. That's all the good news for now.

a cyber Monday adventure...Etsy

2011-11-28T09:15:00.000-08:00

Stimulated by the cyber Monday frenzy, I have opened an Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/listing/87318124/fused-glass-vase with one item (so far!), my newest fused glass vase!

a little Sunday fun

2011-11-27T10:12:00.000-08:00

The stitching on my textile triptych-from-glass pieces continues (thanks to a cortisone shot in my shoulder, ouch). As I take breaks, I have been playing (digitally) with the design on my new fused glass vase.

glass art redux

2011-11-22T07:03:00.000-08:00

I am happy to report that I am in love again, the object of my desire a new glass piece that really tickles my fancy.

This piece was fashioned by fusing two designs together, one I made at home and one I made in Patty Gray's fused glass class (the photo on the right shows the latter piece before fusing). The outside of the vase is the design on the left, and the interior is the design on the right:

I asked Eric the glass blower to make a stout round vase. Voila, his work was masterful, and to my surprise, a rich layering of line and color emerged as the interior of the vase shows through, ever so demurely, behind the exterior design.

This photo shows the muted vertical stripes from the inside of the vase, as well as the swirls of the black thin glass:

The outside has some texture, while the inside is glossy:

Due to the power outage at Pacific Art Glass, three of my five pieces did not get rolled up into vases, so they will wait until the glass blower returns in December. One other piece did make it, and I will post it later this week.

I like it, I like it not -- more glass stories, and Etsy in my future!

2011-11-19T07:21:00.000-08:00

crop of glass designed to coordinate with piece below
This summer, I made a glass piece that I wasn't too jazzed about. I was surprised when others liked it, so I gave it a second look. Here it is:

I like it, I like it not, I like it

I decided to go ahead and take it down to Patty Gray's class and see what I could do with it. Brilliant! I could make a vase with my not-so-fav-o-rite piece on the inside, and another design on the outside!

As the muses would have it, when I got the newer designed-for-the-outside piece out of the kiln, I didn't like that one, either (a closely cropped peek, top photo).

So, I fused the two together and asked the glass blower to make a rounded vase-bowl with...the newer (top) design on the inside!

I will be driving down to Pacific Art Glass Monday to retrieve all the pieces I made in the class, so stay tuned. One caveat: the store had a power outage during the annealing (cooling) phase, when the pieces are taken down from their top temperature at a very slow rate. For two hours, they tried to maintain the temperature by covering the kilns with fiber blankets. Who knows whether the pieces survived.

I have decided to enter the commercial world and will be selling my work on Etsy! Stay tuned for that, too!

another Patty Gray piece o' glass

2011-11-16T08:04:00.000-08:00

...'tis the season, after all. Here is a piece I made in Patty Gray's class. It just came out of the kiln.

fused glass, interim state

2011-11-14T13:40:00.000-08:00

This is a photo from my swell new iPhone. You can get an idea of the colors and layers of this new piece -- it will be a vase soon. I am in the middle of a glass fusing class with the extraordinary Patty Gray...lucky me.

the morning paper, Veteran's Day

2011-11-11T08:33:00.000-08:00

Oh, my. Our local paper runs an article on a featured artist every Friday, and today's featured artist is....

http://www.thelighthousenews.com/news/2011/nov/10/artistic-touch-artist-combines-quilting-and/

There's a wonderful reference in the article to my military upbringing in Coronado, a nice Veteran's Day remembrance. Was this synchronicity or ???

homelessnes redux

2011-11-07T07:48:00.000-08:00

I entered my photograph of my homeless friend James' hand in the first annual Community Memorial Hospital competition and just learned this morning that it was accepted!

I'll go look for him to tell him -- he has told me that he is no longer in the park where I initially met him, but he is within a mile radius of a Ventura street. So far, I have looked for him to no avail, but I will step up my search.

synergy

2011-11-04T13:19:00.000-07:00

Alstroemeria, color and line.

more stitching, more observations

2011-11-03T12:22:00.000-07:00

The threads I am using seem to be very opinionated, telling me where they should and should not go...to the extent that I have had to clip out some areas and stitch anew in another hue. Dissonance has a voice.

I am also having a continuing conversation with myself about some of the the negative spaces in this design, and whether they should be left unadorned -- and if not, what kind of any stitching would enhance the artistic appeal of the work in general.

With all this intra-thread and space-design chatter going on, it's a wonder I can follow the choices as I stitch and listen to my DVRd House Hunters International episodes. Continually engaging the brain in older people is supposed to promote cerebral health, so I must be one fine cognitive specimen.

sunday stitches

2011-10-30T15:40:00.000-07:00

stitching, meditation, and House Hunters International

2011-10-29T12:13:00.000-07:00

Today presents a fine opportunity to do a lot of hand stitching on the first part of the triptych. As I stitch, I listen to the TV in the background, today featuring a young midwestern couple on HGTV's House Hunters International deciding on which of three Fiji estates to buy for their vacation home. Really?

Their conundrum does not distract me from my own, one that becomes more apparent as I stitch.

I am a little flummoxed at the effect these various thread colors are having on the background. It may be too varied and end up interfering with the "read" of overall background design. I will fill in this space and reassess.

The alternative it to take out all the stitching, which really isn't feasible given the needle holes that would remain. I would have to make another print, and start anew, not a happy thought.

I am sure I will be able to rationalize my way to a happy resolution. At any rate, the dilemma is not interfering with the delightful meditative state that comes with intense stitching. By the way, I think the young midwestern couple will choose the Fiji estate I like best. I always like it when that happens.

at last, a portfolio!

2011-10-27T09:40:00.000-07:00

A light bulb went off recently when people I didn't know actually started buying my work! I should have a portfolio on my blog. So, here it is.

The links are both at the top of the first page, and in the right hand column. It was fun for me to go back and visit some old friends.

Should you, perchance, want me to make something, either a fused glass vase, fused glass and textile, or textile, just drop me a cyber-line at klebaumpp@gmail.com.

triptych, meditative stitch

2011-10-25T07:01:00.000-07:00

I am in the zen-like process of hand stitching the triptych. Very very exciting, yet blood-pressure-lowering.

art in movement -- grass

2011-10-23T07:52:00.000-07:00

I love the quiet playfulness of the many waves of green in our new grass, a drought tolerant fescue that never needs mowing. Even better, the stepping stones were designed by a UCLA Bruin (rah).

Here's the nascent planting, together with a dead Mexican sage in the pot on the right (shame on me):

I got smart and replaced that poor soul with a succulent ---much better odds of survival.

Visions Art Museum member challenge

2011-10-20T12:11:00.000-07:00

Visions Art Museum in San Diego has periodic challenges for members. The next one is "Crazy Quilts" and will be on display from November 4 to January 22. Mine was made by taking scissors to an older piece and doing a little surgery on some of the accoutrements.

The current challenge, "Urban Landscapes" is being exhibited at Visions now. Click here to see my entry, third row down, far left.

Art Quilts XVI

2011-10-18T09:08:00.000-07:00

good things

2011-10-13T10:57:00.000-07:00

A morning stroll in Boston with our best friends a few years back offered this magical scene, multilayered reflections in a pond, lichen, autumn hues.

My dear photograph of Noel's farm was juried into a Ventura Arts Council exhibit, "Motive Art: What Moves Us, Autos to Bicycles." The show opens at the Ventura County Government Center tomorrow and runs through the end of November.

In studying the photo and gussying it up for printing, I found more lettering on the outhouse. In addition to the English (outhouse) and German (die toilette)versions, there is something written in Spanish. The paint has faded too much for me to retrieve it well, but the Spanish translation el excusado looks like it would be a perfect fit.

sold!

2011-10-11T08:23:00.000-07:00

We had a stupendous turnout at the opening reception for our Art to Cloth Extreme Quilters show at the Thousand Oaks Municipal Art Gallery. The gift shop almost ran out of receipt books, and I sold two pieces! I hope I can have visitation rights.

album cover exhibit opens tonight!

2011-10-07T11:45:00.000-07:00

This promises to be a pretty cool show -- and my Carly Simon faux album cover made the poster (bottom right)! Fellow Digital to Textile member Carolyn Ryan's entry is top left.

fused glass designs for textiles redux

2011-10-04T16:24:00.000-07:00

I have been ruminating about hand stitching designs for my first textile triptych based on a fused glass piece I made. While I am doing that, I am puttering with a second series, based on a second fused glass piece. These are my early images. The last five are different versions of one design.

They are based on this fused glass piece (pictured on the left is the flat piece before it was rolled up into a vase):

"Art from Cloth" -- another fine art quilt show!

2011-10-03T05:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I helped hang "Art from Cloth," the second annual exhibit of work by the Conejo Valley's Extreme Quilters. The show promises to be spectacular!

The exhibit starts tomorrow at the Thousand Oaks Community Art Gallery, 2231 Borchard Road, Newbury Park. Our opening reception is this coming Sunday afternoon, October 9, from 3 to 5.

sold!

2011-09-30T17:54:00.000-07:00

I am happy to report that my SAQA auction piece sold today for $150.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, I am beginning to hand stitch my triptych...photos soon. I had some digital fun (above) with a photo of another vase in my new collection.

I'll mount my SAQA piece on Plexiglas for you! For free!

2011-09-29T06:51:00.000-07:00

Today the SAQA auction price for my donation is $250; tomorrow $150, and Saturday $75 (at 2:00 Eastern time).

I would like to mount the piece on Plexiglas for you - the piece sits on top, with a 1 1/2" border on each side, and a wire hanger on back that is not visible from the front. It's a very tidy way to present a piece this size.

So, if you are the nice person who purchases "Convergence," send it to me and I will frame it and ship it back to you with my gratitude and no charge!

This piece is from a series I am working on featuring my photos of Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall, combined with my drawings.

Click here to go straight to the auction page. My piece is in the third row from the bottom.

Santa Barbara show -- Fibervision

2011-09-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

I am in a Santa Barbara based art quilt group, Fibervision, and we are having our third exhibit at the Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center, located right on the beach.

The reception is this Thursday night, September 29, between 5:30 and 7:30. Free food and wine, so come on down!

the SAQA Auction

2011-09-25T16:04:00.000-07:00

My lovely lady will be up for sale in the SAQA Auction starting tomorrow. The price goes down every day, so click on the title of this blog to get the particulars.

lessons in fused glass, oops

2011-09-23T10:40:00.000-07:00

Well, after two days of designing and assembling, and a two day firing, at 5:00 yesterday morning I eagerly opened the kiln to find my piece had oodles of cracks and fractures. Zounds! Not good!

Not to sound saccharine, but that's okay. I am pretty sure I know what went wrong, so this was an instructive failure. And I can salvage some of the glass for future pieces. As well, I can see that some of my design ideas didn't work out as I had hoped, and I think I can execute more successfully next time. And I get to buy more glass!

Here's a picture of the largest cracks...double oops!

album cover art show

2011-09-22T10:01:00.000-07:00

Our Ventura Bell Arts Factory is sponsoring a juried show featuring music album cover art. Artists were asked to create a 12" x 12" design for a real or imagined album cover.

I will have two pieces in the show. For the Paul Simon song "Homeless," I used one of the photos I took of James when I was working on my art quilt on homelessness for the SAQA exhibit on that topic. James jokingly refers to his shopping cart as his "luggage," and this photo shows some of the contents -- pieces of foam rubber James sometimes uses for sleeping, and other belongings James keeps in plastic bags.

I printed this image on cotton, layered it with batting and backing, and hand stitched it with cotton thread.

My second album cover pays homage to the classic 1979 Heinz ketchup commercial that featured Carly Simon's "Anticipation." The song was played as two boys covered their hamburgers with the thick tasty red stuff slowly oozing out of the Heinz ketchup bottle-- you can watch that commercial here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoLoyg3JKRQ

For the Carly Simon faux album cover, one of my earlier drawings seemed to convey "Anticipation," so I printed that image on cotton, and after layering it with batting and batting, I machine stitched it with both cotton and clear monofilament thread.

The show runs from October 7 through 29 at the Tool Room Gallery at the Bell Arts Factory, 432 North Ventura Avenue, Ventura.

fused glass experiments

2011-09-19T16:56:00.000-07:00

I'm delighting myself right now by playing -- melding fused glass design with surface design techniques I have learned for use with textiles. In the spring, I took a class from Dorothy Caldwell on mark-making and fell head over heels in love with that enterprise.

That class and a lot of cogitating produced these three pieces, each made from a 8" x 10" x 1/2" flat piece of fused glass that was rolled up into vase shapes by master glass blower Ryan Staub:

The first photo above shows one version of my current undertaking. Only the bottom piece of glass is opaque; those layered on top are transparent. On that white glass, I painted a mark that I hope references Japanese calligraphy. I found that it was almost impossible to get any texture or brush marks on the slick surface of glass. This mark was okay, so I decided to go forward and start layering transparent glass on top.

The design hearkens to patchwork quilt construction. Several pieces of glass have black paint "marks" I made, and those appear hither and yon. My goal was to have the "calligraphic" mark on white unify the piece, as it should be visible through the layers above.

I haven't finished yet. Here's another incarnation/possibility:

I have started a file on ideas of how to achieve the texture I want in the calligraphy marks, and even ordered some glass that might help me get that texture.

So far, I am leaning towards door number one. Your comments/critiques are appreciated!

fused glass fun

2011-09-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

Photos of a fused glass piece were digitally cut-and-pasted to create this piece -- I can now print this 15" x 36" funfest on fabric.

Meanwhile, I have my triptych based on this fused glass piece now, so let the hand stitching begin!

SAQA Auction starts today!

2011-09-12T00:55:00.000-07:00

The annual Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) auction starts today. One-foot-square art quilts are auctioned off to raise funds for the group.

Check out all the cool art!

Here's the way the auction works:

The Auction is run in three sections (Section 1 - Pages 1a and 1b; Section 2 - Pages 2a and 2b; Section 3 - Pages 3a and 3b).

On the first day of each section's auction, the price for each piece in that section is $750. The next day (at 2:00 Eastern), the price drops to $550. The third day, it drops to $350, then $250, then $150, and finally $75.

My piece is in section 3. Click here to see that group.

Section 3 - September 26 at 2:00 Eastern - $750
Section 3 - September 27 at 2:00 Eastern - $550
Section 3 - September 28 at 2:00 Eastern - $350
Section 3 - September 29 at 2:00 Eastern - $250
Section 3 - September 30 at 2:00 Eastern - $150
Section 3 - October 1 at 2:00 Eastern - $75

glass and textiles, done?

2011-09-01T10:59:00.000-07:00

Here are the abstracts I have settled on for my glass-to-textiles triptych -- three images of a glass piece I made,which I translated into little scenarios some time ago.

I have been reflecting on these for a while now, deciding whether each works, whether they are unified, and how I might stitch them. Each will be about 24" high. Since my printer can't handle that, once I have really reflected on these enough to commit to having them printed, I will be on my way to an adventure.

My plan is to hand stitch these. They feel delicate to me, and call out for some tender handling, time in my lap with Sanjagirl and the kitties close by.

new girl in town

2011-08-27T06:29:00.000-07:00

...just finished my newest endeavor, a piece for a Fibervison exhibit at the upcoming Pacific International Quilt Festival. Here's a picture of it full size (14" x 36"):

The stitching shows well in this piece. In the original image (printed on cotton sateen), my sketched lines were in a pale blue. In some instances, I stitched over those. In others, I wanted the blue to remain visible, so I stitched adjacent to those lines. I like the result.

Here's the original image that I printed on cotton: my drawing, scanned digitally and then painted in Photoshop. The stitching really brought the sketched lines forward:

glass ache

2011-08-24T07:45:00.000-07:00

You know how your face aches when you smile and smile and smile? Picture me driving the 80 miles home after picking up my latest glass piece from Pacific Art Glass -- smiling all the way.

Ryan Staub, the master glass blower from Seattle, was down for the weekend doing rollups -- making shapes out of flat fused glass pieces.

Here's the piece I gave him:

I was experimenting with line here, using both the straight-lined black and white glass (which looks like a bar code to me), and the curved gesture lines in glass paint. The small black straight-and not-so-straight black lines echo the curved gesture lines. (Okay, right now I am obsessed with the element of line!).

I drew a picture of what shape I wanted Ryan to make, and with his mastery, he produced this piece...

Seeing the piece for the first time was magical -- glass has a very enchanting presence -- quiet, reflective, fragile. The discomfort of the smile-induced face-ache was so well worth it.

...out our front window, bird-bath

2011-08-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

size matters

2011-08-18T16:51:00.000-07:00

I have a new toy, a swell tile saw that I can use to cut through my 1/2 inch glass pieces lickety split. Fused glass is a fiscally demanding endeavor.

So, I made this new piece. As is always the case, I learned a bunch from it.

The piece has four+ layers. I started with a vanilla-colored opalescent base, as I wanted a neutral background for the layers to follow. Next came two layers of clear transparent. Then the large wavy shapes came, each glued down to the transparent glass so they would stay put during the firing stage.

The small black lines came next, and then a problem popped up. I didn't know whether I could leave the open spaces between the glued-down wavy pieces of glass. It was possible that the shapes would be lost in the fusing process, melting into each other into one hot mess.

A solution would be to cover the area with frit, a type of crushed glass. This would fill in the spaces and, I hoped, preserve my design.

Frit comes in many sizes. I used the wrong one. The result is...yes, my shapes are preserved, but there are bubbles, which some might opine take away from the overall effect. (Frit) size matters.

I have not decided yet what to do with this piece, whether it's worthy of further working. I do know that next time I go to the glass store, I will buy some large-sized frit.

cross-fertilization redux

2011-08-16T10:25:00.000-07:00

Here's another design I have captured from photos of my glass works. I have another piece in the nascent design stages right now, so I have to get back to my swell workshop space...lucky me, I know.

more fun with glass and textiles

2011-08-13T11:17:00.000-07:00

...another image derived from photos of my fused glass...

textile - glass: a dialogue

2011-08-12T14:32:00.000-07:00

Here's an image I created using a cropped section of a photo of a fused glass piece I made a bit ago (lower right corner)...

My plan is to print this image (and others yet unborn) on textile and then...???

er uh, finito again

2011-08-10T07:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, yesterday's finito status for my image was a bit premature. The fingers at the top were distracting (and too long!), so I started anew, settling on the image on the left...

finito

2011-08-09T10:20:00.000-07:00

"Respite" 14" x 36"

I completed the piece I posted yesterday, and just finished printing the image on paper-backed cotton sateen. She has to dry for a day and then I will commence stitching her.

It's for an upcoming show (theme = journey)...she's taking a break, ergo the title "Respite."

new new

2011-08-08T12:03:00.000-07:00

Two new textile pieces are tickling my fancy right now. The girl above is a cropped image of the next in a series of figure drawings I am working on. As is my way, she was drawn with pencil and paper, scanned, and then painted digitally. She's in process.

The second piece is in the fermentation stage, and involves photos I have taken of a recent fused glass piece. I am trying to create separate compositions based on crops of the photos of glass. I'll print those on textile and ...well, that's when things get to the "what if I do this? and what if I do that?" stage (that's always thrilling, though leads to sleep deprivation).

So, here is the finished product (a cylindrical vase)...

that was made from this flat piece of glass:

Here's a cropped image of that glass. These images can be printed on textile.

Lots of possibilities here. Gotta go get the painter's drop cloth out of the dryer (did I say I might use that, too?).

spoilt I am

2011-08-04T12:22:00.000-07:00

I am feeling quite spoilt these days.

My husband just built out a workbench for my fused glass pursuits. Self-closing drawers will go in the slots indicated, and I have great storage cubbies for my glass.

I have the prime view in the new workshop, and Sanjagirl loves the cool painted concrete floor.

This bench is a pretty swell piece o'craftsmanship, especially for my husband's first-of-its-kind effort.

last call ... a swell show in Long Beach!

2011-07-31T06:17:00.000-07:00

"Figure and Ground," The Space Between exhibit

On Friday I got to work at the SAQA booth at the Long Beach International Quilt Festival, giving me an eagle-eye view of all the giddy attendees and many swell conversations with them. The whole show is fab, and today is the final day!

The show is indeed the best ever, and our "Space Between" exhibit is...well, spectacular! I'm just sayin'...

...what happens tomorrow?

2011-07-26T14:40:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I will join Dinner At Eight Exhibit curators Jamie Fingal, Leslie Tucker Jenison, and my fellow minigroup mates Loris Bogue and Jayne Larson at the Long Beach International Quilt Festival. Why?

We are going to hang "The Space Between" exhibit! The show runs this Friday through Sunday at the Long Beach Convention Center. Come on down!

opening reception tonight!

2011-07-23T13:04:00.000-07:00

"Transparency" hand dyed silks, fused glass
mounted on Plexiglass 15" x 15"

This piece was juried into the Buenaventura Art Association member show, and the opening reception is tonight starting at 4:00. If you are moseying about Ventura, the gallery is at 700 East Santa Clara Street.

The opening is part of the Westside Art Walk, hosted by the City of Ventura. Galleries all over the city will be hosting, and there will be free food and maybe a beverage or two...

conundrum begone

2011-07-20T16:30:00.000-07:00

A giant conundrum had me in its tentacles when I last posted to this blog: what bas relief effect did I want around my new girl's face?

In deciding how to stitch a piece, the effect of the stitches is of keen concern. In this piece, I had used a black thread to stitch down the solid black lines in my drawing. My goal was to highlight the loose sketchy nature of the line. The fabric adjacent to those solid lines comes forward, offering a nice bas relief effect that seems to honor the lines.

The question was whether to stitch down, in a continuous line, the broken lines that circle the head, lines that I had drawn early in the process to generally mark where the head would be. I decided not to erase any of these these foundational lines, as I thought they gave the piece energy and movement. The lines also seem a bit mysterious. Why'd she put those lines there?

To continue the idea of movement around the piece, I used an invisible (monofilament) thread to stitch parallel arcs in the background areas. These arcs help to bring the image forward.

I just delivered the piece to my favorite framer so he can mount it for me. I wrote about a new mounting method in an earlier post (click here to read about it). I'll post pix of the result later.

Anyhew, my conundrum is no more and I am much the happier Pam with the resolution!

design conundrum

2011-07-18T09:25:00.000-07:00

I am adding texture to my piece with free motion machine stitching, depressing the solid lines in the figure with thread to make the adjacent areas pop up a tad.

Conundrum -- I intentionally left the registration marks for my sketch in the piece (the primary marks for setting out the relationship of all the figure's moving parts), and the oval I sketched for the head is in the background red-orange. Stitch it or not?

I was planning on stitching the background in parallel arcs with invisible thread. Hmm, conundrum indeed.

exhibit catalog for "The Space Between" available for purchase!(click here to see the whole book!)

2011-07-16T09:50:00.000-07:00

"The Space Between" exhibit debuts in a few weeks at the Long Beach International Quilt Festival. This collection of art quilts was juried and curated by Dinner at Eight artists Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison as their third annual invitational exhibit. Previous exhibits have traveled the country.

The catalog, made by artist and participant Loris Bogue, features the art quilts, together with the artists' explanation of how the work reflects the "Space Between" theme. As well, the artists reveal the techniques they used to create these captivating works.

I am lucky enough to have a piece in this exhibit, and have already ordered the book. I hope you at least take a peek at the preview of the tome by clicking here.

the process

2011-07-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

So how does one get a textile through a printer? The fabric comes on a paper sheet, which feeds through my Epson 17" wide printer. The image must dry for 24 hours, so this morning it was time for me to remove the image from the paper backing.

In the image above, my new piece is partially removed -- and to avoid distorting the fabric, I would flip the piece so the fabric is on the bottom. I stabilize the fabric with my arm and tear away the paper with my other hand.

Here's the new piece, now liberated from its backing and ready for basting on a light batting and a backing fabric -- and then, texture from stitching, tra la.

experiments

2011-07-14T17:47:00.000-07:00

15 x 37" digital image, printed on cotton

A third pass at using watercolor paints on my new piece was equally b l a h.

When I first scanned my drawing and enlarged it digitally, I had played around with coloring the piece digitally as well. Luckily, I saved that file.

I did some more digital painting and came up with the image above -- it's about 37" high and 15" wide. I used my trusty printer to produce the image on cotton sateen (paper backed), so now she is printed with archival inks, drying and ready for stitch work.

home sweet design

2011-07-13T10:34:00.000-07:00

A recent bathroom remodel offered oodles of design opportunities, the most challenging of which was what glass to put in the new linen tower.

The gray-blue walls look swell with the color of the glass tile in the shower/bathtub (reflected in the mirror, above). The silver and smoke colored porcelain liner tile looks like a woodcut (and is about the most astounding tile I ever did see). Here's a closeup of the tile, and a better look at it in situ [as we say in the law]:

I wanted to make fused glass inserts for the linen tower, and somehow use the woodcut design as my inspiration. At first I made a piece that was quite literal, using shapes from the woodcut design. Goldilocks definitely did not like this one:

It was static, flat, b o r i n g.

Back to the design boards. The cabinets are made of bamboo (element 1). The woodcut is a strong linear design (element 2) with subtle angles (element 3) and a bas relief texture (element 4). The room feels contemporary (element 5) and somewhat Asian (hardware design) (element 6). The predominant color is steel blue (element 7).

My final design:

The base glass is clear, with irregular black lines. On the base, five transparent raised vertical steel blue lines echo the woodcut's bas relief, and in my mind, also resemble bamboo poles. The depth and angles of the vertical lines vary in each piece of glass.

Each insert required two firings: one to fuse the steel blue glass bars with the base, and one to achieve the bas relief effect. The whole process was delightful and lesson-teaching at the same time. I was "stuck" for several months, as the design would just not reveal itself.

This process is the same when I work in textiles. It seems a variation on the "Field of Dreams" mantra: If you build it, they will come. The idea suggests both patience and inevitability. Good lesson for me.

an undeniably sweeeeet opportunity!

2011-07-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

click here to go to the SAQA Auction site!

Here's my contribution to the fundraising auction of the Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA). Members create one-foot square pieces which are auctioned off.

The SAQA 2011 Benefit Auction will begin on Monday, September 12th at 2:00 PM Eastern Time and conclude on Sunday, October 2 at 2:00 PM Eastern.

I'll post the particulars once the magic date approaches.

I will mount this on Plexiglass for you (for free!) if you are the highest bidder!

meandering with watercolor

2011-07-11T10:31:00.000-07:00

The image on the left shows my first stab at painting with watercolors -- this is my sketch that I printed on cotton sateen. She was getting a bit ditzy for me, so I decided to print another piece of fabric and have another go at it.

This time, I watched several You Tube videos on how to watercolor -- proving again what a great resource the web is! (And since I am a fanatic soccer player and fan, even at my advanced age, I urge you to watch the thrilling recap of yesterday's Women's World Cup U.S. victory over favored Brazil here:

http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/6754797/women-world-cup-uscaptured-lightning-bottle-brazil-soccer

I studied figure painting using oils and acrylics, and find that watercolors are a whole other ball-o'wax. My Girl is decidedly orange at this point, and I may or may not temper that down. I might try to do some highlights in turquoise!

I am catching up on old House Hunters episodes, which play in the background as I experiment. I am glad we are never moving.

come to the party! (San Diego area!!!)

2011-07-07T09:12:00.000-07:00

What: Regional Exhibit, Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) Southern California/Southern Nevada,

opening reception

Where: Front Porch Gallery, 2903 Carlsbad Blvd, Carlsbad, California (park in the lot across the street)

When: This Saturday, July 9, from noon to 2 p.m. Free food!!!

it's a bird, it's a plane, it's...hollyhocks!!!

2011-07-06T07:44:00.000-07:00

We have tried unsuccessfully to grow hollyhocks for four years now. At last, the stately beauties are in full bloom in the front yard!

That is not to say that they are not laden with wily insects that seek to interrupt our viewing party. But the flowers survive, right next to the bird feeders and in this photo, one beautiful yellow visitor...

back to the textiles

2011-07-05T12:30:00.000-07:00

After my magic tour of the mysteries of glass, I am back in the textile world, working on a piece I have posted before. I had taken my sketch below, scanned it into Photoshop, and printed it on cotton. As I want to do a lot of threadwork on it, I printed the piece with the sketch lines a light gray instead of their original black. I hope that the threads will show up better this way.

sketch before printing on cotton

I am using watercolor paint, and that is a huge experiment for me. The colors will change somewhat -- for sure, the dark background under her arm stands out too strongly.

I am not sure I like it, so this could turn out to be a practice piece. It's hard to tell what it will look like with stitching, which should emphasize the figure. All's fun, anyway.

bar code glass

2011-07-03T08:39:00.000-07:00

Here's another piece I made in my recent fused glass class. I was playing with transparency and line here -- you can see how the black lines sit on top of the piece, with the depth of glass below them. Sweeeeet!

I love the stripey class -- kinda looks like bar code, eh?

Here's a pic that shows the dimension -- it's about 3/8" thick.

more fun with glass

2011-07-02T12:06:00.000-07:00

Okay, this vase was hard to photograph! This is another product of my fused glass class with Patty Gray a few weeks ago. What was difficult to capture were the clear glass areas on the left, and some bits of transparent blue within the patterned area. Here's another angle:

looking at glass

2011-07-01T08:25:00.000-07:00

Oh, my fave colors, red and anything! This is one of the results from my glass fusing class with Patty Gray -- the glass made by moi and then blown by master glassblower Ryan Staub. Here's another view:

I love looking at this piece and studying how the clear and opalescent glass play with each other. It feels playful and serene at the same time.

SAQA Auction donation

2011-06-29T11:13:00.000-07:00

"Convergence" 12 x 12"

I just send in my 2011 donation to the SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) Auction. These are one-foot-square little pieces of art that go to the highest bidder. Check out the link for some swell pieces. If you are the most generous bidder on mine, I will frame it on Plexiglas for you!

cross-fertilization: glass and fiber

2011-06-26T08:25:00.000-07:00

In the last month, I have been fortunate enough to study with two leaders in their fields -- Dorothy Caldwell: textiles, and Patty Gray: art glass.

In Dorothy's class, we focused on the design element of line as expressed in stitch-- thick, thin, straight, curved, jagged. In Patty's class, we focused on the qualities of glass itself and how various types of glass produce a variety of effects, depending on transparency, opacity, width, depth, and firing methods.

I wanted to explore what I had learned from Dorothy and apply it to what Patty was teaching us. In the piece pictured below, I was experimenting with the thickness of line, as well as how movement could be achieved through the placement of various pieces of glass.

Here is the piece once it was fired:

I learned a lot from this piece. The large chunks of black line were a surprise -- and too heavy, in my mind's eye. I felt there were too many guests at the party -- its was too busy.

Enter the glass blowers! We were given the opportunity to have a "roll up" done -- glass blowers would take our piece and make it into any shape we wanted. I felt that if the design were stretched out, I might actually like it.

Well, I am over-the-moon about the result. The design is much more open, and consequently the formerly-ugly thick lines have now taken on a size more compatible with the rest of the design. Here are some more pix of the vase from different angles:

I am happy with the result of this cross-fertilization between my two classes.

the colors of family

2011-06-25T09:44:00.000-07:00

This piece pays homage to family colleges -- the colors of both UCLA (my sister, me) and the Naval Academy (our dad). It has a diameter of 8" and is way cool from all angles:

This evening we are going to an open house at Pacific Art Glass where my husband will get to meet Patty Gray and see the guys blowing glass. On top of that, I get to pick up my three vases! What could be better?

Patty Gray, glass instructor extraordinaire

2011-06-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

I just finished a five day glass fusing class with instructor extraordinaire Patty Gray. I think it is the received wisdom in the fused glass community that she is the best best best in all categories -- technical knowledge, design, and above all, approachability. Wow.

The class was held at Pacific Art Glass in Gardena (about 20 minutes inland from the L.A. Airport). Patty lives in Seattle, but spends a good part of the year traveling around the world to share her wisdom.

I will be posting lots of eye protein in the next few days. The piece above was heated to a very high temperature and then combed -- you get to wear stunning protective gear and then swirl things around with a stainless steel prong -- it's way cool too see the glass at 1700 degrees do its magic. More on this piece later.

One of the many intriguing aspects of this class was the opportunity to work with glass blowers who flew down from Seattle to make vases, decanters, or pitchers out of our finished pieces. The piece pictured above is being made into a vase today, and I get to pick it up on Saturday. Pictured below is master glass blower Ryan Staub as he works on another vase from a piece I made. I get that Saturday, too!

So fer sure fer sure, stay tuned.

strolling

2011-06-17T12:58:00.000-07:00

They say not to take photographs in the mid-day sun, but then, the poppies would be closed for business, and the garden would have a different sensibility...

Sanjagirl and the workshop

2011-06-15T10:49:00.000-07:00

...and here is the finished workshop! Sanjagirl is a good guard dog, protecting it from all sorts of lizards and other varmints that cavort about in the as-yet-unlandscaped adjacent space...

natural fiber

2011-06-14T08:09:00.000-07:00

Somebody was busy last night next to the pond, weaving this astonishing natural fiber.

more from Dorothy Caldwell

2011-06-13T10:32:00.000-07:00

These pictures show some stitching I did in the Dorothy Caldwell class earlier this month in Ohio. As time passes, that experience bubbles forth. You could call what I learned approaches, attitudes, ways-of-seeing --- much more than method.=s.

Here is a shot of the interior of the Nancy Crow Barn:

...lots of light and , an expansive table for each student...and a plethora of textures all about...

more fun with return address labels (and sanjagirl)

2011-06-11T12:34:00.000-07:00

..early images of Sannygirl are perfect for return-address-label-making. I just created a new one (above), and magically transformed it into a sheet of 10 labels, ready to cut up and affix to envelopes...

I print these on full-sheet labels that have a removable paper backing. I then use a rotary cutter (dedicated to paper only) to cut them into individual labels, and store those in a baggie with our stamps and other return address labels.

The label is 2" x 3.8" ---

the color of wednesday

2011-06-09T10:24:00.000-07:00

Gestalt and all that

2011-06-08T09:02:00.000-07:00

"for Eileen"

We all remember looking at the following image, and alternatively seeing a vase, and two faces:

When I went back to school to study art, I learned that this was a principle of Gestalt perception -- our brains automatically superimpose images on to otherwise-amorphous forms.

So when Eileen Alber, owner of Quilters' Studio, gave the Extreme Quilters minigroup a challenge to use this [bizarre] piece of plastic in an art quilt, I photographed it, gave it some color, and immediately spied a nose and some hair in the mix:

When printed on cotton sateen, the color backed off a bit. Next decision: how do I bring forth my Gestalt-inspired image? To suggest the the face, I used black stitching. Clear monofilament thread marks the flow of the hair (see the entire piece at the beginning of this post):

All the challenge pieces will be on view at the Quilters' Studio in Newbury Park (California!) beginning June 16 as part of the Quilters' Run.

do not fold, spindle, or mutilate

2011-06-04T13:13:00.000-07:00

(click to enlarge/read!)

I have an article in the current issue of the SAQA Journal, published by the Studio Art Quilt Association. The piece is about mounting art quilts on Plexiglas, a swell way to make the art have a finished look.

As you can see, my copy has already been used extensively ("used," as opposed to "read," as it has been serving as a cushion in my front passenger seat for various and sundry grocery bags, pony-packs of marigolds, those sorts of things).

I guess I kept it in my car in the hopes that some poor soul in a parking lot might want to read it. Well, that didn't happen. But, the piece pictured in the lower right did get accepted into the SAQA Regional Southern California/Southern Nevada exhibit. That exhibit will be at the Front Porch Gallery in Carlsbad this summer. Details later.

curiosity

2011-06-03T05:47:00.000-07:00

possibilities

2011-06-02T13:03:00.000-07:00

I am working on a challenge put out by Quilters' Studio in Newbury Park. The pieces will be on display in the store for the upcoming Quilters' Run.

We were given a piece of....krinkly plastic! It has to be used in some way to make a piece that hangs horizontally, no larger than 24 x 18". What to do?

First, I photographed it and turned it into a ... moonscape? This is now printed on cotton sateen.

Actually, I see a woman's profile in there...

For another version, I fused the plastic to MistyFuse, and cut it up...and then fused a design on to a wool gauze:

The wool gauze is spray-basted on to wool felt.

Both pieces beckon stitching now, but which one???

Memories Day

2011-05-30T09:03:00.000-07:00

Hearkening, Memorial Day.

Commander George Marvin Price, USN, and family (yours truly on his lap), circa 1948.

line-seeing

2011-05-28T07:54:00.000-07:00

It's been a week since I returned from Dorothy Caldwell's class in Human Marks at the Nancy Crow Barn in central Ohio. I now have another compass point that changes the way I can navigate through any venue. Lines. Thick lines, thin lines, wavy lines, every-which-way lines. Lucky me.

The first photo is of a piece I did for an exercise in Kantha stitching - a type of art developed in India, using a simple running stitch. Here's a detail of a piece Dorothy showed us, an example of pure excellence in this art form:

My little sketch reinterprets my "Figure and Ground" woman, body taken down to rudimentary lines, hair taking off just-so, horizontal lines flowing across the plane, ending in little knots and frayed threads. I loved the looseness I felt creating this piece.

a week

2011-05-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

Oh, my. I've just returned from a Dorothy Caldwell class at the Crow Barn in Ohio.

HUMAN MARKS
The marks we make record time and human energy. Working with paper and cloth this workshop will examine different kinds of marks including stitching, resist and batik, discharge, drawn and painted marks and more unconventional marks such as burning, piercing, and mending. Each of these will address a different aspect of physical movement and gesture that through time and repetition evolve into richly activated surfaces.

I am at a loss to describe the experience, but I will try over the next few postings. It has been a gift to be able to be steeped and saturated in the learning environment Dorothy creates -- mind-tickling, mind-opening and mind-altering.

a really good book

2011-05-08T14:27:00.000-07:00

[Note: a review copy of this book was provided to me by Lark Books. I do have a bias, though, as good friend Karen Rips is one of the authors. That said, this review is absent taint or partiality.]

I keep Twelve by Twelve: The International Art Quilt Challenge on my nightstand. Why? Because it's the perfect book to pick up and peruse for a bit, put down, and pick up anew, each the time discovering some keen bit of illumination about how and why someone created a small art quilt.

The book recounts the work of 12 artists who made 12" x 12" works every other month, each based on a shared theme (water, shelter, illumination, for example). Though it is pleasant to ponder the art quilts, what is fascinating is each artist's exposition on how the work was created -- from thought to deed. It is this creative chronicling that is the heart of the book, and its strength.

What could have been a pedestrian we've-seen-this-before collection of images is instead an engaging narrative of starts and stops and all the permutations in between. It's a must-have for anyone interested in art quilts, or the creative process itself.

Twelve by Twelve: The International Quilt Challenge, Debra Boschert et al., Lark Crafts/Sterling Publishing, North Carolina, 2011. ISBN # 13:978-1-60059-666-7

2011-05-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

Stepping away from the design wall helps. When last seen, this lass seemed to recede into space, so I covered her with a transparent paint. She's a good experiment, as I learned what not to do.

Actually, the back is pretty fetching:

interim

2011-05-01T08:31:00.000-07:00

"Drawing Class" detail

Here's a piece that emerged from a sketch. As per my mode, the scanner captured the image so I could combine the pencil work with a smattering of digital details. Here's the image:

I sketched the image with threadwork, and stitched the lines of the surrounding planes in clear monofilament.

The photo does not capture the dimensionality of the piece. I am considering adding a transparent paint (e.g. color) to the grayscale area, but I kinda like the way she emerges from her resting spot.

artist profiles - "The Space Between" -- guess who?

2011-04-25T06:11:00.000-07:00

"Figure and Ground" 36" x 48"

A profile of each artist in the upcoming Dinner at Eight exhibit "The Space Between" is featured on the Dinner at Eight website. Today it's my turn.

The exhibit will debut at the International Quilt Festival at Long Beach, California from July 29 to 31 and then go on to the IQF at Houston in the fall.

A book showcasing the works and artists will be available (tune in for details!). The exhibit is sponsored by Orange County's Moore's Sewing Center and manufacturer Brother International.

happy Easter from Sanjagirl

2011-04-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

What a good doggie Sanjagirl is, to pose for the camera on Easter, even though she has a sore paw. She is limping about, having removed her bandage (bad girl), but she's taking her antibiotics like a good patient (good girl). I'm down with some upper respiratory yuck, so my husband is on double duty. Lucky for us, he's good at that.

a most excellent adventure

2011-04-22T09:01:00.000-07:00

a piece by artist Bob Adams
I have been immersed in a five day class on how to use chemicals to create designs on textiles -- otherwise known as discharging -- taught by artist Bob Adams at my favorite store, The Quilters' Studio, in Newbury Park.

The idea is to create multiple layers of design, using thiox, monagum, formusol, bleach, and anti-chlor as agents to selectively remove color from fabric. In Bob's piece, pictured above, the grids, freeform lines, and white squares were created by separate processes.

I tried several different chemicals on one design (a seated female), testing to see how the black cotton discharged:

Here's a closeup of one:

Another image had a distinctly urban feel, a new style for me, and I ended up liking this the best.

Here is another image, printed on gray canvas:

We all had to wear respirators when we worked with the chemicals, a necessary precaution. As the days passed, we became expert at decoding the muffled sounds of each others' respirator-speak. Just that aspect worked our brains a-plenty (a good thing as we age, eh), and that was an extra added benefit of Bob Adams' most excellent class.

strawberry fields forever

2011-04-21T07:49:00.000-07:00

Ventura County is in the midst of strawberry season, and the fields offer vast vistas and sweet opportunities.

While driving to a five day class on surface design, taught by the most excellent Bob Adams , I spied these wonderful metal forms-in-waiting that seemed to be framing the adjacent landscape...

I hope that they can lead me to some wild and crazy future creation, either drawn or digitally manipulated. Here's more.

Tomorrow I will start posting photos from the workshop, which was truly superb.

new (image) on the block

2011-04-14T11:03:00.000-07:00

I'm in love again.

Visions of new work have been dancing in my brain, and I am captivated anew by the human form. As I mark with circle and line the landmarks of the figure, and then try to disengage my linear self, I come up with a sketch.

And at this point, an artist would go on, articulate her fully-formed, nuanced muscle, flesh and bone, a highlight here, a shadow there. Two things -- one, I am not very good at that articulation stuff. In fact, I'm not a very good draw-er.

But two, I find the sketches somehow fulfilling in and of themselves, spontaneous, a place where I can follow the evolution of lines. They also look a bit chaotic to me, which for some reason, I like. So, I guess I'm in love with sketching.

My ultimate goal is to stitch this image on fabric and then paint the fabric. I photographed my sketch, and as shown in the image above, I digitally added the beginnings of color. I changed this image to grayscale:

I'll print this on cotton, and use dark threads to stitch these lines, so the image will "read" as thread and not printed line. I'd like to be able to achieve with the sewing machine the freedom of line that comes with a #6B pencil -- and sketch with the machine itself. Maybe some day.

windows and siding, oh yes!

2011-04-13T06:29:00.000-07:00

Clerestory windows, check!

Siding, check!

Roofing, check!

Next, painting and concrete surround, yes!

wowie zowie mounting method!

2011-04-06T10:32:00.000-07:00

While all the excitement continues with the workshop-raising, we are putting the final touches on our bathroom remodel -- including hanging stuff on the steel-blue-hued walls.

When testing out stitching styles for my last textile enterprise, I had made a practice piece -- three layers, unfinished. It was just lollygagging on my design wall. Then -- "Zounds!" I thought! It can go in the new bathroom! But there was a problem -- if I put on a facing or a binding, I would cut off a crucial part of the piece.

What to do? Since it was just a practice piece, I decided to try to mount it a new way, which would allow me to leave the edges raw. It would, however, require gluing it the backing down permanently. No loss, right? It was just a practice piece.

I wanted to glue the piece down to a piece of foam core, cut smaller than the piece by 1/2 " on each side. The foam core would then be mounted on stretcher bars. I took it to my brilliant framing friend Jim, owner of Museum Quality Framing in Camarillo (I have no financial interest there), who came up with a better solution.

He glued the piece down to masonite, and then mounted that on a metal frame. A hanging wire attaches to the frame. Here's a close look:

The piece floats on the wall:

So here it is -- as you can see, I placed the figure so she was going "off the page" -- and if I had added a facing or a binding, her eyes would have been lopped off...not an option! So now my practice piece floats on our new bathroom wall -- and I have a new mounting method!