Nancy Crow Exhibit

One of the places we stopped as we cruised upper NY was the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in Auburn NY to see the Nancy Crow exhibit.  It was well worth the visit!  I have to say, I am not all that thrilled with the very linear pieces she is currently doing (but who am I to say they aren't fabulous?) such as the one pictured above.  I am deeply in love with some of her work from a few years back and with the few silkscreen and monoprint quilts that were shown.  They gave me some great ideas to try in my own work. 

Speaking of my own work, I came across a quote from Picasso.  He said (something like) a good artist copies others' work but a great artist steals.  I thought about that for a while.  To me that means it is okay to be inspired by others work but the goal is not to copy it exactly but to make it your own.  To add so much of yourself in the work, that the finished product may have much in common with the original but is clearly unique.  To be done so well that when someone thinks of the subject, they think first of yours and then say "oh, and someone else did it too."

Sun Dyeing with the grandkids

 Visiting the grand kids in Ohio and, of course, wanted to do some craft project with them.  So I ordered Setacolor paints to be shipped to their house and bought some shirting material to make pillowcases for each of the kids.

First we wet the material and painted it with diluted paint and water.  Frankly, the instructions tell you to wash, iron, then paint with water to wet the material.  Iron then wet?  Are you kidding??  We washed the material to remove the finish then used it fresh from the washer.  We did wet it with paint brush just to get it to adhere to the plastic and smooth the surface.  The paint was supposed to be diluted 1 part paint to 2 parts of water.  I just poured paint in the container of water.  After painting the fabric with water, then diluted paint, I poured some paint directly on the wet fabric to add some intensity in spots.  We did all that in the garage to be out of the direct sun.

Next step was putting stuff on the fabric to make the shadows. Kids used alot of their silly bands. Those left great images.  My daughter printed off some shapes on their ink jet printer.  That was doubly cool because the red bled from the red hearts onto the fabric.  The shapes that were done just in black, like the police car and butterfly, left the black and white image from the details on the paper.  KEWL!

Once all the stuff was on the painted fabric, we moved the fabric into the direct sun.  It was supposed to take 15 minutes to an hour.  We checked after 1/2 hour and they were dry and done.  Then I ironed to set the paint and turned them into pillow cases.

Wood Carvings

While we were in Vermont we found the Wilmington Antique and Flea Market!  What a wonderful find!  I bought some beads and some buttons but my bestest find was some salvaged wood carvings.  My granddaughter, Abby, is showing them off for you.

They are magnificent pieces of art in themselves but I plan to use them for printing on fabric.  Don't you think they will look fantastic printed on silk or velvet and them richly embellished?

I hesitated telling the seller my plans for the woodcarvings but when he started telling me that they were art, I agreed and told him that I was going to make more art with them.  He definitely had a reaction.  I thought he was excited about the idea that his salvaged art was going to be reproduced.  My husband thought he was horrified.  I prefer to believe my interpretation.  LOL

Vermont

I have spent the last few days in Vermont attending a conference then checking out the countryside.  Can you believe that view?

While wandering we ran across this metal sculpture in a cow pasture.  And then there was another small one by the farm house. 

While I was photographing it from the car (the BIG dog that lived there was barking and loose), the lady of the house came out and told me the artist is Johnny Swing!  How cool!  Johnny is most famous for his chairs and couches welded from coins.

But talk about inspiration everywhere!  Can't you see this picture with hand dyed fabric in the back and then black trees silkscreened and some green leaves silkscreened plus thread play over that?  I can't wait to get back to my studio!

Shibori experiment

Do you like it?  It is my latest experiment with shibori.  The material was a white on white design of little white dots.  I folded and stitched rows of half circles then pulled the thread tight before dyeing.  Between the stitching and the dots, there are two types of resist going into the dye.   This is actually the back. The front has stark white dots and the circles get lost. But I think the back is yummy!