Category Archives: Inspiration

Seward Park Madrones

Madrones are one of my favorite trees. I love the way they twist out of rocky soil, their sinuous branches covered with a combination of smooth inner bark and a cracked and peeling outer layer.

This morning I went for a walk around Seward Park with Jim Demetre. He writes about art (among other capers) and has set aside time to walk and talk with artists. He laughed when I asked him if he had an agenda for our discussion. We had an interesting conversation about trees and food, art and family, remodeling and the pleasures of a good down jacket. He’s a charming tour guide and very knowledgeable about native plants.

We stopped along the way in a small grove of Madrones. Some of them are quite damaged by age or the weather but still growing around their scars. Now there’s another topic for conversation.

October Sunset

We’ve been having the most luminous sunsets lately. I can’t resist putting up this photo. Wouldn’t you love to get that color range and intensity in a piece of fabric?

SDA Seattle

SDA Seattle is a group of members of the Surface Design Association who live in the Seattle area. We’ve been getting together monthly for about a year and a half. Overall there are probably 15 or so of us that come regularly and we discuss topics ranging from “what inspires you” to felting. This past month’s meeting was on Wearables. It was a lively meeting and we rediscovered what we need to make our meetings successful; we need to look and touch stuff! We’re all working with fiber and textiles and the sensuality of those media are what draws us. With that in mind, I think we’ll be focusing more on experiential meetings rather than “talky” meetings.

Through Lines

I feel like I’m finally getting somewhere with new work. I’ve been struggling away since the kids went back to school mostly because I’ve had too many ideas. But now I’ve got a deadline coming up at the end of October (I’m planning on entering Fiber Philadelphia 2012) and so it’s time to focus one idea and let the others percolate for now.

I spent a lot of time looking at my photos from our trip to the Southwest last Spring. While I was there I was drawn to images of cracks and splits in the Earth. I have many photos of these. Some are views of the sky from a slot canyon, some are fissures where boulders cracked and split, and some are of the trail curving away and disappearing around a bend. My favorite is a photo of a boulder split by a tree root. I imagine a small rootlet finding purchase in the stone and, over eons, growing until it splits the stone asunder.

So I’m working with the image of forms that are split. Whether they are boulders split by a root, a canyon, a shift in geography, or a path curving around the bend will be up to the viewer.

It took me a while to draw something that felt different, yet still related, to the work I’ve been doing with my recent series, the Seedpods, Blades and Cotyledons. My process is also a little different with this body of work. I spent more time sketching at a small size requiring much less time reworking at full size. The paper patterns have come together quickly because of this prep work.

I’m also starting with the patterns before I move to fabric. I have some new fabrics that I dyed (see the last few blog posts) but I’m going to try to keep the value light in these pieces. My plan is to emphasize the form and the stitching with these pieces and not get seduced by the color and texture of the cloth. Make a body of work where the pieces relate to each other but don’t compete. Simplify.

Yeah, we’ll see how that goes!

A Walk in the Park

Last week our family spent the afternoon at Discovery Park, a beautiful Seattle park with varied ecosystems. Our walk went through the meadow, along the bluff, through the woods, and down to the beach. It’s a big park and, although it’s very well maintained and accessible, you feel like you’re getting away from the city.

I’ve been so drawn to trees lately, photographing their strong trunks, their branching patterns, and the texture of their bark and grain. I’m feeling these will coming into my work soon. Still figuring out what that is but getting closer.

It always helps me to get out of the studio, breathe the fresh air coming off the Sound, and be surrounded by nature. It’s what inspires and informs my work. But sometimes I get so caught up in “doing,” or worrying that I’m “not doing,” that I forget how important it is to just “be.” And “being” with family is definitely an added benefit.

mysterious and evocative shapes

wood grain texture

a little tree climbing

a new friend we made along the trail

My Complements to the Chef

Don’t you just love color theory in action? Check out this beautiful pepper from the Farmer’s Market. And it was delicious, too.

Fire Bird at Burning Man

Alan attaching the first wish to the Fire Bird

2011 was my fifth year of attending Burning Man, a temporary city of over 50,000 in the middle of the harsh environment of the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. Burning Man means many things to many people. Some see it as an opportunity to cut loose from the norms of society and party their naked asses off. That’s not why I go.

For me Burning Man is a place for art and community. It is an amazing blank canvas surrounded by sky. People work so very hard in tremendously difficult conditions to give their art to the community for just one week. Much of it is burned at the end of that time. The effort and beauty are awe inspiring, even if a piece doesn’t completely work.

This year’s Fire Bird was my third attempt at bringing art to Black Rock City. The first two didn’t really work. Stone, metal, wood, and fire are all mediums that translate well to the playa, fabric not so much. Strong winds and the ever present fine alkaline dust create challenges. Every time I think I have it figured out I am reminded not so gently that, no, I don’t have it figured out quite yet.

getting ready for installation

Lesson one: nothing ever happens at Burning Man quite the way you planned it. Installation was relatively easy given that upon arrival I was told that my space wouldn’t be ready until 8pm and that we had to be out of Center Camp by 8pm because there was a private party there. A head scratcher for sure. It all worked out with my trusty assistants, Alan and Corey, there to help. Some quick edits, some additional structure, and some flexibility and we got it done. It really looked great.

Lesson two: everything instantly gets covered with playa dust. This actually didn’t bother me at all. It felt as if the piece became a part of the playa although I could have skipped the step of dyeing the reed.

covered in dust

Lesson three: Burning Man is really distracting. Duh. Although some people got the idea and added to the effigy on their own, it was much more active when there was someone there to tell them about it. I found this difficult to do but Cat, my wonderful campmate, spent time there encouraging people to interact with it. It was lovely to see people get the idea and witness their interactions.

Lesson four: carrying a really long piece of unlit fabric in the dark with people zooming around (high) on bikes isn’t a good idea. Duh again. Luckily Alan and Corey thought this one through before I did and we kept the fabric short while carrying the effigy and fabric to the fire.

Lesson five: trying to get people who are tripping at the remains of the Man fire to move and/or hold a long piece of fabric is very difficult.

Lesson six: as an artist I am merely creating a space or structure where an audience can choose to participate by attaching their own meaning. In this case, I was honored to get to witness this.

Lesson seven and the most important: I can’t do this alone. Although the concept was mine, many hands, hearts, and minds touched the Fire Bird to make it what it was.

In some ways the installation fell short of my expectations. I wished for higher participation. And I really wanted to see that 150 foot long piece of fabric carried out the fire in a solemn procession. If I choose to make art for Burning Man again I want to site it on the playa itself. I think that I’ve learned enough now that I could do that. Successfully? I don’t know.

I can’t thank Rumor Camp enough for their embrace of this project. It still would have been pretty and we still would have burned it, but without the pre-ritual that Rabbit led in our camp and the intention that we seven camp mates put into it, it wouldn’t have had the depth of meaning that it came to have for me. I was touched beyond measure. The eight necklaces that Alan made, one for each camp mate and one that hung in the Fire Bird, gave us each a token to hold on to that is imbued with the meaning of the project. I’m wearing mine now.

The installation far exceeded my expectations in the meaning it had for me. Seeing people interact with it genuinely and hearing what it meant to my camp mates made it truly represent a Rite of Passage. It was personal.

And the Burn itself? It was powerful. Asking people nicely, yet firmly, to please clear a path and hold the fabric. Standing at the edge of that powerful heat and making the decision to walk into it with Rabbit and put the Fire Bird into the embers. Watching the Fire Bird catch and then be consumed by the flames. Feeling that intense heat be absorbed into my core self. Collecting the fabric back from those holding it and being thanked and hugged by those who had witnessed the Transformation. I can still feel all that.

Yeah, it was powerful.

into the embers

transformed into heat and ash

Lorraine Torrence Talk at CQA

Nemo's Ecstasy by Lorraine Torrence, 1997

One of the great benefits of being a member of the Contemporary Quilt Art Association (CQA) is that at each month’s meeting there is a program. The speakers range from people directly involved in making art quilts to artists in other mediums and experts in the business side of art. The August speaker was Lorraine Torrence who has made art quilts, art to wear, designed patterns, written books, and taught for over 30 years.

I have never taken a class from Lorraine but many CQA members have. I’ve looked at her books and I can really appreciate her teaching and writing. Her talk was about Finding Your Personal Voice as an Artist. It was a pleasure to listen to someone who has been teaching for so many years. I really admired her organization of material and her ease and assurance as a speaker. As a teacher myself, I find that I learn as much about teaching and presenting from good teachers as I do about the material they are presenting.

Here are notes (taken by Deborah Rychert) on Lorraine’s six steps toward finding your voice.

1. Do what interests you and what feels right.
2. You have to do something more than once to find your voice, do it many times.
3. Look at your quilts critically from a distance or with a reducing glass, viewfinder from a camera or a photograph. Don’t get hung up on the details. It’s the design that’s important.
4. Practice, practice, practice! Keep a journal, a visual record. A line library, shape library, stitch library.
5. Don’t be discouraged by failure. In baseball .300 is a good average. That means a batter misses 7 out of 10. Don’t be discouraged by a 70% failure. Embrace your failure and use it as an opportunity to learn.
6. Experiment with different styles. Sketch, keep recording ideas. When you have a dry spell go back to your visual record.

I really appreciated her identifying the importance of “failing well.” It’s so important to recognize when something just doesn’t work and the lessons we can learn from our failures. Looking critically, but with compassion, is our most essential tool.

I think those are pretty good rules to follow. Thanks Lorraine!

Breakfast

This lovely Sharlynn melon was breakfast this morning. We all admired it for a day before I cut into it. It unfortunately wasn’t as tasty as it was beautiful. Kind of a cross between honey dew and cantaloupe and not very sweet. But what a thing of beauty!

Off to Rio!

I can’t believe the day is finally here that I’m heading off to Rio. I leave in just a few hours to take the red eye to New York and then continue down to South America. I’m not looking forward to the flight, about 16 hours in the air over three flights, but I am excited to be going. I’ll be playing the part of the international artist and presenting my talk, Surface, Form and Stitch at the Rio Patchwork Design Show. I’m travelling with Barb Fox, also a winner and presenter and Bonnie Brewer, Barb’s sister and fellow art quilter. After a few extra days in Rio we’ll be heading off to Iguazu Falls on the border between Brazil and Argentina. I’m not traveling with a laptop so there will be a break in the action here on the blog until I get back.

Adventure here I come!