Tag Archives: global warming

Having to see

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I think the stuckness with this piece is NOT because the cellar is cold (even though it is) or a function of not having enough time (though quilting time has been precious lately), but a function of visual overwhelm.  While this could be the fault of my fabric selections (going for chaotic, here), I’m starting to think it is a vision problem.

I can’t quite take the piece in.

For one thing, six inches of pieced sections at the bottom fold onto the floor and are not visible from where I stand (roughly eight feet away) to look.  And for another, I find even what IS visible is not quite digestible.  I’ve dispensed the idea of depicting polar bears anywhere in this piece, but the top horizon has baffled me, until today, when I broke it down.

Am I just going for what’s more comfortable, here — that is, my preferred scale of three feet by two feet?  Am I short changing a process just as it’s about to morph into something brand new?

This is partly put in mind by recently listening to CDs that talk about how systems change — which is to say that when sufficiently stressed with new information, complex systems either breakdown or reorganize.

I’m not sure I can tolerate this quilt being disorganized for long enough to discover whatever the “new system” might be.   I have done this before — started large and then created four or three smaller pieces instead of resolving the big.

I will keep at it.

Rearranging the pieces

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That incredible constellation fabric was the ’tissue paper’ for my Christmas gift from a friend in Maine (Lisa makes bowties).  I needn’t tell you that the silk patterned with stars was gift enough!

Nearly all of these sections were pieced into three long-ish strips and made it up onto the board.

The stars only show up in small rectangles, though, meaning that the nice night atmosphere created by having a horizon line, did not transition off of this work surface.

I have been thinking that all of these sections may need to divide into TWO QUILTS — one depicting night and one depicting day.

about six feet tall

Clip art polar bearing (top right) is going.  Entire top treatment, in fact, to be revised.

Here you can see where some of the fish batik and dusty-blue rayon-shirt-spirals ended up.  I may have to dunk that ‘tavern’ swatch into tea for a couple of hours — it pops a little too much.

Here’s what I rearranged on the floor with remnants:

Working for selling vs. working to work

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studio-floor

Here’s  “Global Warming IV” in progress.  I am ‘letting’ myself work on it, even though I am in the throes of show preparation, and more dedicated than usual to being prepared.

global-warming-side

Pricing work, delivering flyers, arranging press conferences, creating press packets, attending meetings, running to Staples, ETC! was making me very cranky…

angry-sushi-cheflike this guy, whom I call the
“Angry Sushi Chef”.

egos-and-wizard

Can’t remember when I spelled this out, but finding it with my camera yesterday seemed rather perfect.  I WISH I had a magic want to eliminate the baggage I carry around, and to make me immune to others’ baggage.  But, I don’t, so I “let” myself work on something that won’t be ready for any of my holiday shows, that will be too big for most of my market, and may NEVER sell.  But what a tonic!  The tasks of piecing and pressing, looking, rearranging, kneeling on the floor… so completely absorbing, I can forget some of the daily irritations that seem to abound of late.

global-warming-bottom-edge

global-tilted

Fabric:  $100
Thread:  $16.00
Machine:  $700
Total absorption:  Priceless.

Earthwatch plus Gloom = Earthgloom

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earthwatch

Another cheery set of images — but I am soooooo excited about what I’m learning, that it somewhat counters the content.

Making SoulCollage® cards (or anything, for that matter) depends to some degree on synchronicity.  I suppose this element of creativity is heightened with SoulCollage® because your palette is comprised of magazine images.  It stands to reason, in other words, that your collages will serendipitously depend on what images you can lay your hands on.

Well, that’s obvious, right?

THIS card started out as the sherpa from National Geographic, an EARTHWATCH magazine cover, with a few blooming baptisia from a gardening journal thrown in.  If I were a reader of Vogue, People, and Harpers, this would not have emerged.  (The red script on the right side is a snippet of another card — “Intuition”).

Lately, I have not been adhering the collages, necessarily, to a foundation.  So, when I flipped this collage over, I found the beginnings of another collage on the other side!! This clearly is less consciously designed, i.e. more synchronous, than the reverse (Sherpa) side.

It was almost spooky to see how the feelings evoked by the flip side very much correlated to the other side.  I call this one “Gloom”.

gloom

The oppressive issues of Global Warming as well as our seeming incapacity as a species to truly rally around them as challenges in need of direct, urgent attention induce a very deep gloom, indeed.

Standing at the color copier, I wondered what would happen if I integrated the images.

earthgloom

I may not be utterly pleased with the integrated version, but it certainly introduces a whole new element into this process that I find exciting.  What, for example, would happen (both visually, but more importantly, psychologically) if the front and back sides were totally dissonant with each other?

My collages are bigger than the 8×5 size of my cards and sometimes I want to frame different sections for separate cards.  I officially give myself permission to do so — even if I include the entire image in the deck as well!

PS  The EarthWatch card was an example of a time when the words were so much a part of what emerged that I felt that keeping them in the final product enhanced rather than limited its meaning.

To learn about this remarkable process, go to SoulCollage.com, where you can find out about Seena Frost, who developed SoulCollage®. Or, dive into the amazing work and teaching of Anne Marie Bennett on her website, KaleidoSoul.  Anne Marie’s passion for this work is evident on her site.

Sewing paper, swimming bears

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polar-bear-full

Journal Quilt Week 5 (18" x 24")

For the first time since starting these journal quilts, Sunday morning arrived without my having so much as having picked a background fabric.  I knew I wanted to depict a polar bear, but that was it.  Two weeks ago, sitting with two other artists in a fledgling crit group (yeah!!), a painter asked another quilter in the group, “Do you ever do studies before making a quilt?”  While I make variation upon variation, I’m not sure I’ve ever made a study.  I liked the idea.  So, given that the “hot” part of the large global warming piece that is all over my kitchen table is resisting attachment to the  “cold” part — study was definitely in order!

animal-picture-polar-bear-swimming2-ucumari-animalpicture

"Willy" by ucumari

On Saturday, I did a google image search, gathering a handful of pictures of bears swimming, and fell in love with the above photo by ucumari (check out her great animal pictures on flickr!)

Sunday, I started the day flipping through a book of Rick Bartow‘s artwork — incredible pastels, ink drawings, and sculptures of animals — mythic and full of gesture.  Absolutely gorgeous work.  I was also remembering the stunning, muscular animals of the artist Nancy Erickson, who works on fabric and paper.  (I looked at her website today and found that one of her polar bear quilts is titled the very title I was considering for my kitchen-table-piece — and that is,  “Where’s the Ice?”)  Anyway, their combined artistry inspired me to render my polar bear with pastels, rather than fabric.  Since I am out of sheets of fabric to feed through my inkjet printer and since the deadline was rapidly approaching, I stitched the paper right on the quilt.

bear-with-bubbles

Now, I have stitched a lot of paper — for cards, in particular — but never for the central image of a  mid-sized quilt.  It was exciting and freeing, and justified the whole discipline of doing these journal quilts, I think, but I wonder at the durability of it.  Even though these pieces are meant to be finished by Sunday, I plan to bind this one, and also to trim some of the pointy edges of the paper.bear-constellation

I stitched a bear constellation in the sky, using the leftover Heat n’ Bond paper from my earlier bear journal quilt as a guide on the wrong side of the quilt top, right against the batting.  It was a good idea, but I would like this quilt better without it.

I am encouraged by this piece.  It suggests a direction that might satisfy my need to work faster.

Speaking of stitching on paper, here is a flashcard I made awhile back.  It is too big to be an official ACEO (Art Cards, Editions and Originals – must be 3.5″ x 2.5″, the size of a trading card), but could be a collectible nevertheless.  I think I’ll offer it for sale in my etsy shop.

find-that-peacefind-that-back

The front is a photoshopped digital image of a small Buddha statue which might have become a holiday card if I was someone who got it together enough to send holiday cards.  I like the fact that there are two sides.  The very emphatic directive to “find that peace” seems like a pretty apt suggestion from the Buddha!