Wordless Wednesday

To do list

On the last day of our artist retreat, Pam and I took time to reflect upon what had been accomplished during the week and ponder just what came next. We each came away with an art to do list.

Actually, "sand and repaint doors" should be added to the list. These doors were once the walls for my display booth. For some reason that now eludes me, I used a textured roller at some point when repainting them. While it was okay for displaying my weavings, it isn't the greatest for writing on with chalk. Still, it works for now.

Spring cleaning

Spring has settled in...finally...well, I think so. And about time. It's the middle of June after all. Spring's arrival has brought with it that age old urge to clean, to declutter, to rearrange, to simplify, etc.

On Tuesday, I carried two 18" wide hollow doors, freshly painted with blackboard paint, up to the studio. The dilemma was where the doors should be placed. In all honesty, it must be admitted that I left the studio a mess, disaster zone really, when I flew to Pam's for our art retreat. It was, and still is, in dire need of cleaning and organizing before any kind of serious art-type work could even be contemplated in there.

As I stood inside the doorway, holding the blackboards and perusing the studio, that fabled spring bug bit and bit hard. A drafting table that once was my work table in studio 344 at the Torpedo Factory Art Center, but these days was just one more surface to collect a pile of stuff on, was removed to make room for the blackboards. You see, they carry two important messages...my mantras...so they need to be seen from any angle.

The plan is that the blackboards will hold more than my mantras. There's an art to do list, calls for entry due dates, ideas that need to be remembered, etc. But first, the rest of the studio needs to organized, decluttered and cleaned.

By the way, would anyone like copies of Cloth, Paper, Scissors? Or American Style? Be happy to pass them along.

Wordless Wednesday

They're here

The boxes arrived safe and sound, if a bit worn out from being used numerous times. So far, everything inside has been just fine too. Yahoo!!!

It's finally Thursday!

What's so great about it being Thursday? Well...all that art cloth that I printed last week at Pam's house during our 2nd Annual Artist Retreat is scheduled to arrive today. Fingers and toes are crossed in hopes that the 3 boxes given over to UPS arrive safe and sound and filled with everything that was in them when trustingly, maybe naively, handed over for shipping. 

Last year, a few of the dearer pieces made the flight home with me. This year though, the dearer pieces are 6 lengths of cotton measuring 4.5 ft x 12 ft. That's a lot of fabric when folded and my carry on bag just wasn't big enough.

After printing like mad last Tuesday on the tables Mike, Pam's husband, had set up for us in the studio, 

 

the driveway was the only place we could think of that was big enough to display the massive amount of cotton.

Between Wednesday and Thursday, 2 more of these were printed - 1 gray, 1 black. The plans are to keep them simple. Keep them big. Edges need finishing and possibly the tiniest bit of hand stitching.

Never, in my wildest dreams, did I think I'd ever print 12 ft long pieces of art cloth. It's killing me that our house isn't large enough to hang them. Whose house is? Our driveway may become an art gallery as well to satisfy my need to see them all together.

My stash for the week:

 

 Five 12 ft pieces with 3 drop cloths on cotton

 organza

 more cotton

 black on black detail, cotton

 red on gray detail, cotton

 gray on gray detail, cotton

 red on gray detail, cotton

 gray organza over red cotton

I think you can understand why the excitement over it being Thursday.

Janet Echelman: Taking imagination seriously

I really do need to watch TED more often. What started with paints gone missing, ended with fishing nets as materials and inspiration. Oh! To see one of Janet Echelman's sculptures and watch it move in the wind.

Janet Echelman: Taking imagination seriously | Video on TED.com

Wordless Wednesday

2nd Annual Artist Retreat Update

Today is Friday which means that today is the last day of the retreat. Seems like I just arrived so it really can't be Friday already. Can it?

After a trying Monday, we each figured out what it was that we wanted to accomplish this time. For Pam, it was to finish some pieces, find display/hanging solutions and to play a bit with various printing techniques. Unfortunately, she didn't get to print much because I took over the printing area...with her permission, of course.

While it still is not possible to share photos yet due to the iPad snafu, I can tell you that so far I've printed

On cotton:
6 pieces measuring approx. 4.5 ft x 12 ft
8 pieces measuring approx. 2 ft x 12 ft
4 pieces measuring approx. 2 ft x 6 ft

On organza:
4 pieces measuring approx. 2 ft x 12 ft

Not too bad, huh? I purposely used a limited palette of black, gray and red against white fabric. Being that I'm not really a printmaker there are bound to loads of mistakes in what I did, but it's the mistakes that are the most fun.

Hmmm...wonder what to do today...

2nd Annual Artist Retreat - Days 1, 2, 3

The second artist retreat is off to a good start despite a rocky Monday. Decisions have been made. Large pieces have cut into smaller ones. Fabric has been sized. Gelatin has been pored for mono printing. Furniture has even been rearranged.

Midst all the commotion has been lots of laughter as well as exchanging of ideas and telling of stories. And yes, we really have been hard at work. While it's not yet possible to give you a glimpse of what we've been up to - because my iPad isn't recognizing my camera, which hopefully will be rectified tomorrow - I can share a few pictures taken on Sunday.


My discharged fabric - now destined to become a installation.


A few of Pam's printed and hand stitched fabrics.







Details of Pam's art.