Titling

I always have trouble naming my work. For some reason I feel like titles are often a bit precious, and yet when artists simply number their paintings I feel a little cheated. It seems to be a balance between wanting a hint about intention and a subtle nod to symbolism. I don’t want to clobber the viewer with my opinions, for I want there to be a dialogue between the viewer and the work where the viewer can supply her own connections. And yet telling you I have finished my tree… leaves something to be desired. So I’ve been reflecting .

When I started making my tree, I was using a photo as inspiration and I loved how the old splintered trunk was swirled around and resembled a woman’s body,enclosing dark and light and a few hints of green.but it was upright…not a nursery log. I called it grandmother cedar for a while but that seemed a mouthful and a bit heavy handed. I considered using the indigenous word for cedar, but that would be appropriating and might get some viewers to look it up but be ignored by others who didn’t want to take the time. And in that case why name it! All the time I’m thinking about this my poet brain is working away under the verbal noise. I think I’ve finally come up with a name I can say regularly instead of my tree… She will be called ‘heartwood’ and you can fill in the blanks however you wish.

And Now…

I’ve started a course to explore some new areas of embroidery with New Zealander Fleur Woods. It is offered through Fibre Arts Take Two. It has a Facebook community attached to it but since I don’t use Facebook, on,principle, I’m going to document my progress here. Perhaps that will increase my posts… 🤓

I have made a collage cover for a new sketch book to help me keep track . Thought you might enjoy seeing the cover…

Hopefully it will be full of ideas in no time!

Wow ,I guess I’ve been busy

Where has the time gone. My summer was lovely! A trip to Denmark and a visit with one of my grandsons, then later back at home another trip out to the West coast for some ocean time! Always an inspiration for me.

All the while I have been making. I’ve finished my tree that you saw started… hmmm back in May. I had to stitch more to make it wrap around but the old linen piece I used was not big enough to wrap the whole way so I fashioned a backing fabric by pleating a piece of tawny brown ultra suede. I thought it was done then but I was wrong… one day rummaging through my stash I found a long strip of brown and gold silk and it looked a lot like bark so I laid it over some of the ultra suede pleats and stitched it down. I think it creates the illusion of bark on an old stump. And likely saved me another Six months of embroidery but it is very similar in colour and design.

I stuffed this soft sculpture with poly fibre and weighted the bottom with a small parcel of stones so it would stand.

I hope you like it as much as I do!

So what’s new….

I am in the process… rediscovering that dense embroidery takes more time than I thought and progress will be sporadic simply because it takes along time to do what I want to do. Do realize though that I am still working.. and this work in progress is progressing… based on this photograph…

and here is how the stitching is developing…

It is hard for me to see where it is going but I am trusting that it will all work out in the end… and I still enjoy the stitching no matter how long it takes to create the finished project.

Stay with me and you’ll see what it turns into.. just don’t hold your breath! 🤓

Re think, remake

A couple of weeks ago I started thinking about a new piece, of embroidery I wanted to get going on and thought instead of stitching another flat piece what if … I made it 3D. Well that got me going, It was actually a hugely intimidating, thought. For WAY Back in childhood I tried my hand at sculpture and … well.. it is fair to say Failed miserably. But sculpture has always been something I love a seek out in galleries or I read about the famous works of Barbara Hepworth, Emily Young and of course Henry Moore.

So contrary to my past practice I thought perhaps I should take an old piece of work and see if I could make something 3D. I was not going to call it sampling… that would be too radical but I was going to try my hand first before I committed to something new.

And I love it! I loved the concentration and passage of time that happened as I reworked the piece… my pandemic heavily stitched linen made using an abstracted colourful photoshopped photo. I’m sure I’ve shown it to you in previous entries. It may also be in the fabric gallery, I think I called it stream… but now I think the vessel that has materialized in its stead will be called Water… All the time I was stitching I was singing in my head a song by Ava Parnass, Alex Forbes, & Eve Nelson, sung by Hayley Westenra.

“ you are water, on a hot summer day,For a thirsty daughter who is finding her way You are Water!”

A Year In review

As December progresses, I’m thinking about the work I completed this year and all the reading I’ve done, and I think I’ll show you all my year in review. It is amazing to me how the work just kept coming and if you’ve come here occasionally to read what I have to say you will have seen most of it but it is always fun to see it collected in one space.

I started out the year stitching a self portrait, based on a photograph, I used thread I had and as I got closer to finishing I decided I didn’t really like the brown all that much and it was clear that it was a fairly close resemblance so I decided I didn’t need to finish this one.

This was the first iteration of a crocus photo as spring began. But I wanted it to have some stitching around the paper so added some needle lace to create some texture and to practice my needle lace stitches.

Next up was a collage project that was some kind of still life.

This was the first in a series that is organized under the word Window.

The second piece I did with Window in mind was this collage paper and fabric weaving with photos and words added.

Then I worked on a self portrait that was more than just a face. It developed from this piece in style,windows that were about me. It was mostly magazine pictures and strips of one of my own colourful paintings. I thought long and hard about it for it felt a bit simple, rather like a student assignment but in the end I have enjoyed looking at it over and over again for it is all me but not all of me… it has things that I like and eat, and places I love and things that I do as well. My polar bear ,Earth element energy and the words describe some of my interior landscapes. I really like the way all these pieces came together.

There came a challenge to do a collage with a butterfly, I was traveling while I stitched this butterfly on a small previously slow stitched watercolour painted piece of silk, then I added the paper pieces.

All the time these small projects were being worked on I was also enjoying stitching my Arctic Fox, which is my animating spirit for the Fire elements of my life. There have been times as she watches me that I have felt perhaps there was too much Fire energy in my life this year, but I really loved stitching her.

There was one more small project that has a lot of textural stitching using a variety of different threads to create a section of tree trunk that is also a window where new growth begins. It was meant to represent the idea of home, thus the words embroidered down the side that say ‘Home is where we grow’

This piece may grow a companion piece based on another photo of a twisted tree trunk but it will not likely be started until next year

It’s been a long time since I wrote here, I have been working on a small art quilt, for a themed exhibition and letting it develop by itself. I think it is going well but piecing a quilt by hand takes time and I wanted to try that method. Then I did something to my wrist so haven’t been stitching anything now for about three weeks. Which is driving me crazy but I figure in the long run it is better to get the wrist healed,then go back .

I’ve also been doing millions of tiny seed stitches on photographs printed on organza, they may well combine with some brightly coloured silk but again they too wait, I try to do a little every couple of days and the wrist is showing improvement but it is a slow,process.

I have also got the red fox piece ready to start which I’m excited about and frustrated that I can’t just get going.

I’ll keep you posted as to when I start stitching madly again!

Another small piece

This one was again based on one of my photos. I was scrolling through my photos looking for inspiration and this one of a tree was so sculptural that I wanted to stitch it. I have been working with the word”window” as an underlying principle and this tiny nook where something decided to grow appealed. I wanted to try using different weights of thread to create texture. I am discovering that I have more thread varieties than I thought. I enjoy experimenting with them, nd some are pure joy to sew with!

A note about yesterdays post…

Sorry about the extra black box that looks like it should play you a movie… sigh.I hit the wrong button when I was adding an image… and thought I had trashed the mistake BUT… looks like I didn’t… and I don’t think there is a way to edit after you have published the post…. Sigh… I’ll try and read more on that… but today ….I did pop a photo into the abstract photos. So and have a look,and I’ll do better next time🙃

Animal guides

In the last couple of years I have been working to discover my archetypes and along the way I have discovered that I have an animal guide for each of the elements; air,water,earth and fire.

I have talked before about my polar bear, she is my animal guide for Earth. You will remember the photo I printed on silk is full of shadows and hints of snow. The bear’s stride showing nothing but confidence and she is a wise teacher for she shows us how to survive the harshest conditions. You can see the finished piece in making August 28/22.

My guide for Air is a hawk. She was discovered when I enlarged a tiny abstract painting sample I had done and which I altered the colours of in photoshop. I simply liked the colours so printed it out. The next day looking at it on my desk I flipped it and found the hawk gliding out of a rather stormy looking sky. I was particularly struck because at that time I was gearing up to travel to the UK to help my daughter with her new baby,during the first year of the COVID lock down.

My animal guide for water ,after much thought and research is an Octopus. She is secretive, independent , curious and able to glide smoothly enjoying going with the flow.

This one was a really fun photoshop alteration. I used a photo taken of me while snorkeling my one and only time in Costa Rica. I enhanced the colour and swirled my arm to create an octopus curl. Her body glows secretly just off the left hand side of the photo.

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My last animal guide is for Fire and she is the Arctic Fox.

This one I embroidered with silk thread on a painted cotton background and she has just been finished. I haven’t decided yet how or if to frame her but I love looking at her thoughtful face and those eyes won’t let me get away with any nonsense.

Still working but maybe finished…

Did this yesterday or the day before. I wanted to try to capture all the leaves and dead grasses that actually dominate my flower bed in the spring hence the coloured paper bits… but they didn’t do it by themselves, so because I have spent some time doing embroidered lace stitches, I thought I would try these. And they are a bit too regular… and perhaps the colour of the thread is a bit too dominant for the subtle shades of the paper, but I like it and we’ll see if I deem it finished.

Life has been very busy for the past few months, hence my silence here. Back last fall I was contacted by an art organization that was asking for submissions to a show that they wanted to mount in the Ukraine this coming June. They were concentrating on small works, mini ,those under 30 cm and micro those under 5 cm.

I thought for a long time then found some pieces that I got ready and sent in late January. I was lucky enough to have one accepted in both categories.

This is my accepted mini entry.

This was my accepted micro entry.

It feels really good to participate in this exhibition and I thank them for the opportunity.

Here is a link to the organizations website if you are interested.

http://www.scythiatextile.com/

A few things made in the past year.

This one was some collage play with shapes, line s and paper.

Here I took some of the shape pieces and did similar shapes with fabric, some fabric shapes on paper, and some fabric shapes on fabric backing.

This was a suggested exercise to spring board into abstract compositions. I found the duplication didn’t really interest me, so I ended up playing with other fabric scraps and making totally new pieces.

These were more fun to play with

I took this bottom left one and attached it to a bigger piece of linen into a hoop and began collaging around it to tie in the colours and mute the cream background to ground it more as a whole piece.

The first photo is how it begins and the second is finished but still just a piece … not framed. And not sure if it ever will be.

Goodness no posts here since Sept!

It probably appears to my occasional reader that I’m not making anything, but in fact I have made quite a lot over this year. Just last week I thought wouldn’t it be a good idea to creat a “A Year In Review” . So over the next 10 days in between all the family Christmas festivities I will try to photograph all of the work I accomplished and post it Dec 31. I love to peruse all the many photos of my young grandsons over the year, and marvel at how much they’ve grown and changed and perhaps I will feel this same marvel with my own work. Til New Year’s Eve!

How my polar bear came to be

It began as I usually do with playing with photos in photoshop. I took two photos one of the ice on Great Slave Lake as I flew into visit my daughter in Yellowknife a few years ago. I deleted the wing of the plane and desaturated it to grey scale.

I combined this grey scale photo with one I had taken on my kitchen floor of my soapstone polar bear sculpture which my husband brought back from Baffin Island a long time ago and I got this wonderful shadowy photo that looked like the polar bear was navigating through a snowy landscape.

Then I printed it onto silk organza. It came out a lot fainter so I hand stitched the bear outline and stitched some of the landscape lines then after much trial and error decided to place it on a pieced background of quilt batting intensively stitched. What with working so many fine stitches and waiting for decisions to be clear on what I actually wanted it to look like it took me about six months to make but I love it and it has become an image that I call up when I need to be calm.

And isn’t that what art is for?

One of my animal totems

I’ve been working for some time figuring out what animals seem to inspire me in conjunction with my archetypes. I thought originally that I might have an animating animal for each archetype but I have since come to the conclusion that my animal totems are easier to see when I connect them to the four elements,earth,air water and fire. That lead me to consider what animals have always resonated with me.

As a child camping , I was always a little afraid of bears, and as a family who camped a lot we had several encounters with black bears. My Dad was always thinking about being prepared in case of a chance encounter while on a trail, so we used to do drills where my dad would leap out of the forest and chase us. It was a little unnerving but we all understood the purpose and laughed a good deal afterwards. There was one day I was sitting by the creek playing in the water and a black bear came out of the woods just a little upstream of me. I think the wind direction must not have blown him any scent of me or it was because I sat very still, in any case he did not show any interest in me but splashed through the water to the other side and disappeared into the forest.

Later as a mom who took her daughters to the zoo regularly and the polar bears were one of our favorites to visit, a polar bear swam up to the glass and looked me straight in the eye.

While starting a hike one day with friends we were striding through a meadow and I noticed how suddenly all the ground squirrels went silent!. I was at the back of the line of hikers and saw my husband turn around and start to walk back towards me rather quickly. He said there was a grizzly on the trail headed our way and we should return to the car to wait and see where he ended up. I wanted to see him so went over the rise… and there he was ambling along the trail. I did turn right around and we all walked back to the car picking up the pace as we realized how his ambling was a lot faster than we thought. Once again he was uninterested in us and took off up the mountain on the other side of the meadow so we restarted our hike to enjoy the alpine flowers.

So I really felt a bear was likely one of my animal spirits. Reading about them I was still undecided about which kind of bear it might be, and I also wondered if that mattered. But one day I was playing around with photos and my polar bear found her way into my art and into my heart. I will leave you with the finished image here and explain how she was made next time.



Welcome to August! It is always the hottest month and one that I’ve always found full of emotions. As a little girl August was often boring, summer had been around for a month and I had enjoyed days full of nothing but play and lazing. But when August came it meant summer was nearly over. Some of what I felt was anxiety,what would I do, with another full month of freedom. Some of it was anticipation of the new school year with maybe new friends or the dreaded old ones who were often terrifying. Who would be my teacher? Would I like her and grow and learn things and more practically which would be the best supplies to buy and oh I loved shopping for new school clothes but…. It was Still August.

Today, many years later I find I still have the same feelings though usually about how quickly the time will go. I have so much yet I want to accomplish before the time outside disappears into crisp days and the inevitable winter cold. As I write here today the resident squirrel is already harvesting cones, chucking them down as fast as she can to ripen before she scurries around to stash them somewhere safe.

I have more projects to sew, some underway and some sifting through my mind, getting organized in my random fashion. But here are two small pieces that I have completed in the last couple of weeks.

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

And now it is suddenly JULY

You may have noticed I haven’t been posting…. Grin… but I can say I have been making, albeit small things. In working through my personal archetypes and examining my own art practices I have somehow fallen to the conclusion that I do really love small work . That is not to say the intent need be small, but the pieces I most enjoy working on are small and full of detail. Jane Dunnewold says in her book ,Creative Strength Training that with regards to art she thinks there are two major schools of thought: go BIG, or go obsessive. I think at the moment I am on the side of go obsessive.

Those of you who have been here before will know that I love doing paper collage. I have started using magazine pages in my collages as well as some of my own photo papers cut up. These past few months I have done some small paper collage then used them to inspire a small embroidery. The collages are about 3 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches. And this first embroidery was done in a square of cloth that measures 51/2 inches.

I decided to try this for the following reasons. A fellow embroidery enthusiast shared Trish Burrs work. Burr embroiders fine work in simple stitches while paying extra attention to blending colours to achieve an accurate rending. She, as do most instructors, suggests you do some samples to learn the technique. But you all know how that word sits with me, so I decided I could try to do this using my own “patterns”. Except I found that my collages were not actually colours that were blended so much as just numerous. I do blend in around the edges, but I was having so much fun using the numerous colours that I simply kept going. I hope you find them as interesting to look at as I did in making them. I’ll share the second pair next week.