Easelstan Studio and my relationships with the other artists there has had a huge impact on the development of my artwork. The space is like a blank canvas, ready to reflect back what I put into it. My studio-mates sustain me, providing honest feedback and encouragement to take risks.

My work is informed by surface design on fabric. I begin with white natural fiber cloth which is dyed, overdyed, discharged, resisted, printed. Form and stitch are equally essential elements in the final artwork. Each piece in Easelstan 5 @ 10 represents a transition in my work over the last decade.

The earliest work here, postCARDS: 52 weeks, 52 cards, was created in 2006. The postcard quilts are sketches on a theme, each composition an amalgam of materials, techniques, and experiences. The playing cards provide rich inspiration for design and color as well as the structure for the series, a full deck in 52 weeks. The small format encourages experimentation with surface design and quilting techniques, and is also a yearlong journal in images and words traveling through the mail both away from and back to me.

Epithelium, Coral Vessel, and Discharge Vessel, 2008, show my deepening explorations into surface design: Binding, stripping away, and rebuilding. The pieces, pushing into three dimensions, are some of the first I constructed using  sculptural techniques I developed. Organic shapes suggest the natural world and become forms with a cultural meaning.

Earth Forms, 2009, and Artifacts, 2010 are from a body of work inspired by the landscape that surrounds us and the touch of human hands upon it. Each form is a document of the passage of time. The Earth Forms are a direct response to my experience of nature. The Artifacts interpret natural forms and textures through the lens of culture.

Can I Help You? is part of a larger installation, The Act of Becoming, from 2009. The figure is used to explore that which is seen and that which is kept close to the skin. The Waitress, the Mother, the Lover: all of these roles play a part in a woman’s life, fragmentary and coexisting.

The newest work, Grasses, extrapolates on the idea of the quilt. It is a beginning, featuring the print on fabric as a stand alone element and emphasizing it with stitch. Grasses shows my continuing interest in natural forms and textures contextualized through our agrarian past. We can focus on a single blade of grass in the expanse of a field for just a moment before it is lost among the many. The cycles of sowing and reaping sustain us as we work in balance with the Earth.

Each work in this show is a snapshot of my development as an artist, from the refining of my craft to the leap from two dimensions into three. So much of our work as artists is mundane, putting in the hours at the studio so that we are there, ready, when inspiration strikes. Easelstan has provided a place where Anna, Paul, Pam, Anne, and I can do that work. We come together in our daily meditations and experimentations, learn from each other, and share our trials and successes. When Anne moved to Los Angeles this Fall it was a loss to our small community. We miss her greatly, but working together on this anniversary show has brought the four of us closer. Looking into the past gives us a chance to reflect and reassess our work, ready for the next ten years.

artwork all boxed up and ready to go

I delivered the art for Easelstan 5 @ 10 today to the Phinney Neighborhood Center Gallery. The show is celebrating our studio’s tenth anniversary. Anna and Paul converted an empty and unloved house into artist’s studios in 2001. I’ve been at the studio about eight years, more or less. Pam and Anne moved in about three years ago.

Pam, Paul, and I met with the art coordinator at Phinney this morning to come up with a layout for the show. After some art tetris we found spots for everything and I think it will be an interesting show. I’m looking forward to seeing it all hung and seeing how our art works together and the connections between pieces. Anne sent her pieces through the mail from her new home in Los Angeles much like I sent my postcards through the mail to the studio. The postcards also echo the grids that Paul uses in his work.

I realized that although Anna, Paul, and I have all been in many group shows, we’ve never been in one together. Working on this show has brought us all closer and I think cemented us as a group. Anna helped me with framing. Anna, Paul, and I helped Pam with pricing. Pam and I helped Anna pick out the art to show. Paul took the group photo which Pam made into the fabulous postcard. I still miss Anne, but am excited for her as she has recently found a new and dynamic studio space in LA.

It’s been an interesting process to look back at my work over time and see the progression. All the pieces in the show mark transitions in my work. I chose them to work together visually, but also tell a story of my art journey as I have deepened my practice and found my voice. And now on to the next 10 years.

setting up the show

Talia sewing the postcards to the organza

Our Easelstan group show at the Phinney Neighborhood Center is fast approaching. I’m going to be showing a mixture of old and new pieces. One piece I knew I wanted to show was the postcard series I did in 2006. Each week of the year I made a mixed media 4 x 6 inch postcard including a playing card and mailed it to the studio. At the end of the year, 52 weeks, I had made a full deck of 52 cards. One reason I love this series are that it gave me a chance to try a lot of different techniques and media in a small size. It also became a journal of a very intense and busy year during which we remodeled our house. A lot of those weeks when we were out of our house and trying to keep up with remodel decision making, it was all I could do to make a small piece of art and get it in the mail. It was good to have a commitment to myself during those busy times. And I know that Anna and Paul enjoyed getting the cards each week in the mail. All the cards arrived, some a little tattered and with missing postage, and I’ve often wondered what the mailman thought about my project.

I’ve shown them a couple times and it’s a challenge to figure out how to show 52 small pieces. For the Phinney show the studio mates and I decided to hang them in a way that people could see the back of the cards as well as the front. I stitched them (with help from my new intern, Talia) to a piece of silk organza that I’m hanging from a bamboo pole. It works great! Come on by the Phinney Neighborhood Center between February 2-25th, 2011 and see them for yourself. Better yet, come on February 11th for the Artist’s Reception and say “Hello.”

all 52 cards, front

and back

Talked to Phen at Foster/White Gallery this week and we scheduled a show in the gallery for April. Pretty exciting! It’s really good for me to have a target date, I work best to a deadline. It helps me to focus and make work plans.

On Halloween I brought out Bad Hairy and some banners for the Capitol Hill kids’ Halloween parade, the Creepy Crawl Parade. It’s their first annual parade and they asked me to come and bring some festive elements to make a splash. It was great fun, they had a good turn out, and the weather was beautiful (always a concern around here). It was a lovely family event, lots of cute babies and other youngsters along with their parents. Bad Hairy was a big hit with the kids, it’s so interactive. They can shake one of his three hands, high five him, squeeze his nose, even poke him in the eye. And the inflatable is so easy, just take it out of storage and charge the batteries. I hope they ask me back next year!