Monthly Archives: September 2014

Dreaming and Scheming

IMG_2453

seeds of ideas

I’m putting together a series of workshops that I’ll be teaching in my studio starting this Fall. It’s a surprising amount of work: planning the classes, writing descriptions and supply lists, scheduling dates, and updating the website for on-line registration. Then there’s getting the word out to potential students. It seems the teaching is going to be the easy part!

I’m really excited about the program, though, and the idea of teaching and forming a community of dyers and other surface designers. I’m looking at it right now as a two- to three-year plan. In the next six months I’ll offer a series of workshops covering surface design fundamentals. Next year I’ll offer more advanced techniques. Ultimately, I’d like to work with a group of committed students on building their practice as artists, to whom I’d also offer mentoring through one-on-one meetings.

In the next six months I’m planning on teaching (drum roll, please):

Dyeing for Quilters (and Other People Who Love Fabric)

Telling Your Story with Silk: Making Silk Batik Banners

Surface Tension: Complex Results Using Low-Tech Resists

The Printed Surface: Mark Making Using Thickened Dyes

That’s my dream, anyway. First things first, plans and website.

Look for the registration to go live in a few weeks. Also, let me know if you’re interested in getting more information, or know others who would be interested.

 

 

There and Back Again

photo 1Wow. I am proud. I am humbled. I am filled with gratitude.

Peter Weston and me, the proud parents, with the central banner of Playastan.

Peter Weston and me, the proud parents, with the central banner of Playastan.

It’s hard to put into words the experiences of the last few weeks. Playastan Crossroads was a huge success, not only for how it looked, but for how it created a sense of place, an intimate space within the huge spectacle that is Burning Man.

Sunrise at Playastan Crossroads

Sunrise at Playastan Crossroads

visitors watching the sun rise

visitors watching the sun rise

Many things happened at Playastan Crossroads: art tours, weddings, deep conversations, weary sleep, shelter during whiteouts, and at least one late night dance party. Books were read and added to, love was proclaimed, and apparently there was a blow job, or least one was recorded in the Journal. The stories and images are still filtering in through a haze of dust.

A dusty day in Playastan

A dusty day in Playastan

the Journal, made by Anna McKee

the Journal, made by Anna McKee

young yoginis

young yoginis

a father and daughter take shelter

a father and daughter take shelter

For now we are cleaning, washing, and putting away. The future of the project is unclear. Peter is making repairs, touching up paint, and making ready to put the structure away until it is used again. The banners are clean, though faded, now. The corners areĀ  tattered after the beating they got from the wind and sun. The colors are not as brilliant, there is residual dust beaten into the seams, but they are beautiful still.

IMG_3070Today I’m going back to the studio for the first time since the long hours I was putting in before I left. I’ll be ironing the banners, and all the ties and socks that covered the attachments. Ironing is therapeutic for me, there’s something about pressing out the creases, reexaming the marks, the colors, and the imperfections that is calming. It is a kind of meditation to put things right, to carefully put them away.

And it’s a good thing I enjoy it, because there’s a whole lot of it to do.

There are more photos of the build and the event on the Playastan Crossroads page on Facebook. I also have a Cameron Anne Mason art page on Facebook that I update more often than the blog. And I love to hear from you, my audience, either here on the blog or on Facebook.