Making Choices

When choosing fabrics for the new series, Traces, I kept the colorway limited. I want these pieces to read as individual elements but also work together as a whole.

I began my selection process by bringing a bunch of fabrics to the studio from home where I store them. I keep them sorted by technique but this time I sorted them by color. I decided to work with greens and browns (big surprise) and laid all the fabrics that I like out on my work table. From there I played with the colors, using the negative shape frames from my patterns as a way to isolate the fabrics and look at them together.

Here are some photos of the selection process.

final fabric choices

Traces

“A trace is, simply, a line etched across a plane. A feature like the famous Natchez Trace (featured in Eudora Welty novels) is, then, a line in the dirt etched across the land. . . . Traces are old game trails that have evolved into human footpaths. They are ancient thoroughfares first cut by hooves and claws, and followed by indigenous walkers.”

Luis Alberto Urrea
Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape
Edited by Barry Lopez

I often find myself poring through this book when looking for a title for a new series. It’s an alphabetical list of vocabulary used to characterize the landscape. The short essays are written by forty-five writers, from journalists to novelists. It’s enjoyable to flip through and read about the landscape, its unique forms and its history. Goat prairie, hassock, infant stream, pahoehoe, racetrack valley all are described by writers including Jon Krakauer, Barbara Kingsolver, and William Kittridge.

This series was hard to title. It feels like both a zeroing in on the details and widening out to the panoramas of geography. It’s funny how these little pieces can come to be imbued with so much meaning. In the photo above, you can see their beginnings, edges painted and waiting for the next step. They look like the outlines of states to me, with their combinations of straight-edges and meandering lines; some edges cut by rivers and some superimposed by the straight lines of map makers who want to create order out of chaos.

The title Trace plays on all these meanings. It is both a verb and a noun. It is a path of desire. It is a hint of something left behind. It is the act of going over a line with a pencil. All of these and more. It works.

New Work, finally

drawing lots of thumbnails

I’ve begun working on a series of small works. After completing the Stone Mothers I was kind of burned out with working big. I’ve wanted to do some small “sketches” and have been really interested in working with multiples. So, I’ve been working up these small squares. The squares are three-dimensional but not very deep. I’m mounting them on panels give them more visual heft.

I’m thinking of them as details, like the detail photos of my work. The square format emphasizes that for me, cropping in on the work. I also like the way it plays off the format of quilt squares. I’d like to see them hung in compositions, much like a modular quilt.

It took me a few days to figure out the patterns. There’s not been much square about my work up until now. The first couple of patterns were quite frustrating. But there’s nothing like multiples to help you figure things out.

There’s been a lot of learning in the this new, as yet unnamed, series. The work is about the details, the up close look at what I’m doing. And it’s also about a sense of discovery, about finding pleasure in the work itself. I don’t ever want to get to the place where the work isn’t feeding me. It’s important for me to take some time to play, to not take everything so seriously. Otherwise, Cameron is not going to be much fun to hang out with.

picks to be turned into full size drawings

editing down the full size drawings

Making patterns in paper

glueing up the first piece to a panel

the finished first piece

Textures of the Yucatan: Chichen Itza

The ruins at Tulum

While we were in the Yucatan we visited three ancient sites: Tulum, Coba, and Chichen Itza. Although they are all Mayan ruins from approximately the same time period, they each had their own feel.

Tulum has the most dramatic location. It’s on a cliff overlooking the incredible blue of the Caribbean Sea. We got our fill of seeing iguanas, the equivalent of squirrels in the parks here. Although it is incredibly beautiful, the site is highly touristed and you’re not allowed to climb any of the ruins.

Coba is still being recovered from the jungle. We really enjoyed walking along the roads and seeing butterflies, army ants, and some beautiful trees. It’s the only ruin we visited where you can still climb. I’m afraid of heights but I still climbed the 120 steps to the top of Nohoch Mul. It was amazing to be so high above the top of the jungle. That experience really brought home the amazing technological feat of the building of these ruins. The society that built those was rich indeed.

Chichen Itza is the largest and best preserved ruin. It’s sheer size and the restoration of the site is mind-blowing. Unfortunately, the effects of tourism take away from the experience of being there. I can deal with crowds but the press of vendors at the site was off-putting. Still, it’s amazing to be in these places. They are impressive because of their age, their size, and their preservation.

Here are a few photos from each site.

we saw a lot of these guys at Tulum

Nohoch Mul pyramid at Coba

the view from the top of Nohoch Mul

the jungle is still a part of Coba

El Castillo at Chichen Itza

Columns in the Temple of a Thousand Warriors

detail of a column

the Tzompantli or Skull Platform

mysterious ruins

Textures of the Yucatan: Trees

the precise architexture of the fan palm

Here’s a continuation of my travelogue in photos from the Yucatan Peninsula. I don’t know what many of these tropical trees are but that doesn’t keep me from appreciating their beauty. You don’t see many other tourists taking closeup photos of tree bark. I have a very patient family.

coconut palm trunk and exposed roots

textured trunk at Chichen Itza

they have shelf fungus in Central America, too

beautiful lichen at Coba

the trunks are like an abstract painting

strange knobs on this one

here the live outer layer of bark is growing around a dead area

a massive root snaking its way between two smaller trees

Textures of the Yucatan: Coral

I just returned from a week on the Yucatan Peninsula, on the Eastern Coast of Mexico. We stayed in Akumal, a quiet and uncrowded town north of Tulum. The beach right outside our condo was was sandy with beautiful coral “stones” washed ashore. We snorkeled right off shore and saw brain corals, branching coral, sea fans and lovely tropical fish. Beautiful. There was a rocky point just down the beach with crashing waves and fossils of corals in the porous limestone. The textures were amazing. Definitely inspirational.

In the Winter Garden with Jim

Hammamaelis mollis, or Chinese Witch Hazel, in full bloom

Hammamelis mollis, or Chinese Witch Hazel, in full bloom

I’ve spent pretty much the last two weeks chained to my computer writing proposals but I did get out to the Witt Winter Garden at the Arboretum for a walk with Jim Demetre last week. Along with writing about art, Jim is very knowledgeable about plants and the history of this area. We were at the garden between rain showers but the perfumes, although dampened by the weather, were still quite fragrant. The winter garden is such a respite of color and fragrance in these dark days. Jim is a charming and personable tour guide and we had a good time talking about gardening. I’ve killed many of the plants we talked about but, as he pointed out, you can’t garden without a few dead bodies.

our native vine maple

the luminscent bark of the chinese birch

I've forgotten the name of these trees but we talked about them as street trees. can anybody help?

I've forgotten the name of these trees. Any help out there?

Paper Birch--it really is all about sex for the trees, too

Patti’s Studio

Patti's studio

Patti Shaw and I are good friends. We go way back to when my husband and I bought the house across the alley from she and her husband, Benson, in 1993. At that time, neither of us were artists working in fibers. Alan and I sold that house when I was pregnant with our second daughter and I lost touch with Patti for a while. When we reconnected, Patti was making art quilts and I was just beginning to explore surface design. Patti encouraged me to join Contemporary Quilt Arts Association. CQA really helped me to develop my skills and methods, so I’ve got her to thank for helping me get started on what would become my career path.

Patti has an amazing studio. It’s actually the entire house that she and Benson lived in when I first met them. They bought another place and have kept the house as a studio. It’s hard not to be jealous of the amount of space she has to work in and she is able to keep it as both studio and gallery of her work.

Neither Patti nor I are really making art quilts these days (well, my pieces are actually quilts but that’s another matter). Patti has been creating textiles with the candle wick tabs left after people light votive candles. She uses waxed linen to tie together these metal remnants into blankets. The work is slow and meditative. Much of her work dealt with religious themes, not I think as worship, but as a way to honor the intention that spirit holds for those who pray.

Patti and I have coffee and a studio visit every couple of months. Along with catching about our kids and spouses, we talk about our work. We bounce ideas off each other and share information about upcoming calls for entry. Sometimes we give each other feedback on work in progress. I really value having a friend and fellow artist with whom I share such a long history.

a tableaux in Patti's studio/gallery

On the Water with Scott

Cottonwood tree felled by beaver with the 520 bridge in the background

Yesterday I explored the urban waterways and beaver trails of Portage Bay and the back roads of Capitol Hill by canoe with Scott Schuldt. He’s an artist I met briefly through Northwest Designer Craftsman and then, more recently, through Facebook. He writes a blog, The View from the Canoe, about his days on the water and his observations there of the changing seasons. I was lucky enough to be invited to come along with him on a trip.

We started our canoe trip in Scott’s driveway. I was kind of nervous when his message on Facebook said that we’d be portaging about a mile and half to the water. I imagined carrying a canoe over my head all that way down the hill and then back up the hill after our paddle. I was quite relieved to see the ingenious portage cart he’s built for his boat, his background as an engineer showing in its elegant efficiency. It was really fun to walk the back streets of Capitol Hill, past beautiful homes with lovely old trees, striding along with a canoe. We got many interested looks and I saw parts of the hill I’d never explored before. Scott did all the work, only accepting a short push up the steepest hill on the way back. It’s obvious he’s well used to doing it himself.

portaging

Scott in an expert on beaver. I knew we had beaver here in Seattle, I’d seen their work at the Meadowbrook retention ponds, but didn’t realize how many and how active they are. It’s quite amazing to see a large tree felled right at the edge of an urban park and to see tall conical lodges next to the freeway on ramp. That juxtaposition of wild life in the city is what made it so fascinating. Scott showed me not only the lodges, but where the beaver had been gnawing and felling limbs, sticks that had been stripped of bark like ears of corn, and scent mounds. I took a whiff of the mud on one those mounds and took in their funky scent. Not bad. As Scott said, no worse than patchouli oil!

characteristic teeth marks of the beaver on the tree's inner bark

the stump sculpted by beaver teeth

One of the nice things about canoeing rather than kayaking is that it’s easy to get in and out of the boat to look at things on land. We stopped and looked at tracks in the soft mud and took a side trip to see an eagle’s nest. I got quite turned around seeing the land from the water rather than the other way around. But Scott was an excellent tour guide. He even brought a thermos of coffee and some homemade chocolate chip cookies to tide us over.

an inlet in the cattails created by the beaver

fine mist on the pussy willows

a pattern created by the dripping rain

And, of course, over the hours of our adventure we talked. About ducks, about beaver, about the plans the Department of Transportation has for these marshlands, about his Artist’s Fellowship at Smoke Farm, about canoe trips, about our families and lives, and about art. We are both self-taught artists and, although we are both working with inspiration from nature, we come to our work from very different places. Scott starts with the written word, observing and documenting extensively before he picks up a single bead.

under the 520 bridge

Scott has a solo show up right now at the Anchor Art Space in Anacortes. He has national recognition in the craft world with his beaded pieces but also makes collections, hand drawn maps, photographs, and videos of his observations. I’ve looked around at his website but think I’ll need to take a trip up there to really get a sense of his work. Sounds like another field trip.

a huge beaver lodge right next to the freeway!

New Toys

I found these placemats on clearance at a kitchen store before the holidays and snapped them up for their surface design possibilities. They are flexible, durable, and vinyl so can be washed and reused. Normally I don’t like to use premade designs, like commercial stamps for example, but in this case it seems like the patterns would be pretty removed from their original purpose. Plus they were just really cool.

I finally got a chance to play with them in the dye studio. I was very interested to use them for the work I’ve been developing, using them for both positive and negative marks. I started by setting up breakdown screens using both mats as resists. I got some very nice prints with the screens although I wished, in retrospect, that I had used some different dye colors.

placemat and print from breakdown screen

prints from breakdown screen

I had an aha! moment when I was looking at a breakdown screen that still had dye on it after I had taken all the prints I wanted to make. Sometimes the screens break down quickly but, depending on the thickness of the print paste, others can make dozens of prints. It always seems like such a shame to just wash those potential prints down the drain. The brainstorm came when I realized I could lay soda soaked fabric on top of the screen, brayer it down, and get a positive image from the screen to complement the prints from the silk screen. The prints turned out a little fuzzy, most likely because the fabric was wet, but I think there’s some interesting potential there worth more exploration.

breakdown screen with dye left on it

fabric printed with dye left on the screen

I also used the placemats as stencils and applied thickened dye through them. I’ve started printing onto some less than successful fabrics that I pulled out when I organized my storage. I might as well experiment on them because I’m not going to use them as they are. Maybe they’ll turn into something fantastic and maybe they won’t, but I’ve got nothing to lose with them as they are.

green dye printed using placemat as a stencil