A day to remember

Saturday was one of those rare days that involved a trip into New York. This time to visit the Museum of Art and Design, but, most importantly, to meet Fiona and Barry...in person, that is! I've been fairly dancing in place all week trying to contain my excitement...Australia being a fair distance from Connecticut and all.

We've had kind of...well...yucky weather this past week, but Mother Nature cooperated yesterday with a sunny warm winter day. I took the train in as usual and enjoyed a brisk walk to the museum. While waiting for the light at one point, I was perusing the skyline when something in an office window caught my eye.

 Can you see it?

 The bat signal?

Needless to say, a Holy smoke Batman! It's the bat signal escaped my lips only seconds before a chuckle did which was followed by a big smile at childhood memories of watching Adam West, Burt Ward, Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt and others. The light soon turned and it was off to MAD to meet up with Fiona and Barry.

Fiona and me. Photo taken by Barry.

Currently at MAD is the exhibit Hanging Around, Necklaces from the MAD Collection. Two of my favorite pieces are Giorgio Vigna's glass bubbles necklace, Gorgoglio and

Choonsoon Moon's necklace of cardboard, plastic and elastic. The graphic simplicity coupled with the materials and textural aspect of this piece were fascinating. My fingers were itching to touch and try it on. Alas, the glass enclosure and ever watchful guard ensured otherwise.

staircase looking down

The other piece that held me entranced was Shihoko Fukumoto's Tea Ceremony Room.

Woven with indigo dyed linen, it was ethereal and my photos are poor representations of this magnificent work. As I studied and admired it from outside, I imagined the experience of sitting inside its quietness, watching the breeze play on the linen panels while the scent of jasmine tea teased the air. Serenity.

Junco Sato Pollack's Cascade II of folded and stitched silver, silk organza and gold leaf was another that teased the senses. 

While photographing the stitching and the finished edges, the shadows caught my eye.

All too soon, it was time to exit MAD, but not before I chanced another upward glance...this time from the bottom of the staircase.

Over lunch, Fiona, Barry and I chatted and laughed, exchanging stories like old friends who haven't seen each other in a while, catching up on our lives and discussing future plans. It was...well... quite simply, wonderful. A treasured time. A day to remember.

Thank you Fiona and Barry for including me in your vacation. I hope the rest of it is as enjoyable as yesterday.

Stacks

Winter has become my rusting season. 

 I've become a rusting fool.  

Too true. Too true.

Still...

...going in circles.

In the studio

My rusty drop cloth.

The possibilities it offers.

Interviews

Check out these interviews of Elizabeth Bunsen of be...dream...play over at Finally Me and Leslie Avon Miller of textures shapes and colors at to live poetry. Then go for a tumble to see Anca Gray's amazing work.

What if?

what if?
they filled a large gallery space
us - circling your magnificent circle series

That's part of a response left by Elizabeth of Be...Dream...Play... in answer to my query of her thoughts on my idea of making a series of the large rusty circles...with pieces measuring 30" wide x 72" long...and maybe even a few 58-60" squares.

Since reading Elizabeth's lovely answer, I've been seeing it...the gallery space filled with my circles. The funny part...to me...is that normally I can't do this with my own work. Can't see the exhibition. Not really. Not with any clarity. With others' work, yes. My own, no.

Ask Pam. One glance at her work and full blown stories spew forth. She's seen and heard me in action. I look at one of her visually and texturally exquisite works and can see the light playing on a section, can see the movement caused by the stirring of the air as people stroll by or stop to look or simply breathe nearby...can see exactly how it would hang. Can see...

I can do this with a few others' work as well. But never with my own. Not in the same way. Until Elizabeth's comment. By the time Pam and Fiona concurred, my creative mind was on overdrive and the muses were whispering furiously. Nearly everything was sorted out - except the actual location of the exhibit. Two local galleries come to mind and one has distinct possibilities.

Of course, I'm getting way ahead of myself. First, enough work has to be completed and photographed to even be able to apply for a solo show. I'm working on that part. As for the rest, I can see it. Can you?

Just maybe...

...I found the solution to yesterday's question. Maybe. Then again, it could be a fluke.

 circles #9 wet, just unwrapped

drying board yesterday

dry

Yesterday's quandary was how to keep the saturation of color and hard (-ish) lines that a newly unbundled and still wet piece has once dry. 

Given that winter has set in with morning temps in the 20's - and not wanting to freeze another length of rusted fabric - I've been hanging everything in the studio to fan dry. I'd also been rusting very wet fabric until recently so the fan was necessary to keep from making a mess. 

It was almost as if with the forced drying, the "wind" forced the colors to bleed. Once sharpish lines when wet became...well...no where near sharp when dry. Saturated colors lightened tremendously when dry also...possibly from the amount of bleeding?

Yesterday's piece was pleasantly damp rather than dripping wet so I decided to let it air dry. No fan. The black still dried to gray, but a more defined gray. The edges stayed instead bleeding into unidentifiable blobs. Hmmm...lesson learned or just a fluke? I'll find out in a bit when circles #10 is unbundled and left to air dry.

Is it possible?

 Today's question of the day is

is it possible to keep the saturation of color the fabric has when wet

once it has dried?

Of course, this is the question that I ask pretty much every time a piece of rusted fabric is drying. Most of the photos on this blog are taken while the fabric is still wet, having just been unwrapped, unfolded and spread on my work table. I do edit the photos in Photoshop so that they look nice via cyberspace, but still... 

How to keep the lovely strength of the colors once dry? Not that the dried version of circles #8 is horrible, but the wet version was scrumptious. Such is my dilemma.

If you'd care to a few more artsy type shots of circles #8, come tumble with me.

Another Saturday night

The girls are asleep.

The husband is downstairs watching football.

Me?

I'm in the studio

 stitching

 

on discharged cotton

while watching the last Harry Potter.

Just hanging around

Thought I'd give you a peak at what's hanging on the drying wall this morning.

2 rusted for a day. 2 longer. I know my favorite. Which is yours?

PS  After unwrapping a rusty bundle containing a large, heavy gear, it's best to make note of where you set the gear on the floor. Be careful not to walk into it and, possibly, break a toe. Ouch! Expletive deleted!!!!!!

Breathless

This terrifyingly magnificent video was posted over at Colossal. After watching it - not daring to breathe, full body goosebumps, in total awe of the surfers and, ultimately, the water - well...it needed to be shared. Best viewed full screen if possible.



More Surfing Videos

Sometimes...

...soaking the whole piece of cotton turns out just fine. 

In the studio

xxxxxxxx

patch 3 hand stitched to the rust boro piece

keeping it simple

Grace

Listen to your life...See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moment and life itself is grace. Frederick Beuchner

I found this most exquisite quote on Bridgette Guerzon Mill's blog, Contemplating the Moon, this morning and just had to share it.

Not so much

From circles

to squares 

to rectangles

and now lines.

All to be used in good time. And, as usual, rusting one piece sparked an idea. When the line above was unfolded, it looked like this.

Folded in thirds and wrapped so the cotton circled the gear once, this piece rusted over 5 days. In places, I managed to match the lines perfectly. In places, not so much. It's the not so much areas that had me seeing a finished piece made of numerous sections of lines sewn together boro style. Can you see it? I can.

2 years

Sunday, January 10, 2010, found me just where I am right now - at my favorite Starbucks, enjoying the early morning quiet, sipping my chai and pondering how to start. My laptop had accompanied me, as usual, and after blog surfing for a bit, I sat with my hands poised over the keyboard for what felt like hours, but in truth was more like 10 or 15 minutes. My mind was blank and overflowing at the same time.

How to start? What to say? Will anyone read it? Why am I doing this? Do I really want to do this? How long will I do this? What am I doing? How to start? How to start?!? Just write something! Anything! But what? Just write!!!

And so I did.

It's funny. That first post was an introduction. The second a confession...of my love affair with rust. The third was about experimentation, storytelling and my friendship with Pam Sullivan. Two years later finds me writing about the same topics, but on a whole different level...I think...I hope.

Curiosity got the better me this morning and I checked the stats for a few things that you might find interesting:

According to Blogger stats, the 2 posts with the most all time pageviews are Sketchbook Project - Liz Davidson and Washington, DC, both from April 2011.

While my home country tops the audience list, there seems to be a following in Australia. No doubt this is due to Fiona Dempster of Paper Ponderings as she was kind enough to include my blog in her inspirational people and places list. Actually, Paper Ponderings tops the all time lists for referring URL as well as site.  Judy's Journal and Facebook, respectively, are close seconds.

It's the aspects of the blogging world that Blogger stats doesn't and can't track that really count. It's the connections made with kindred spirits, the friendships forged, the exchange of ideas, the comraderie, the sharing and caring of the creative community.

From me to you, a most heart felt thank you for visiting my blog, for sharing your thoughts and insights, for expanding my world.

Guerilla rusting

 

I've been eyeing this sign on my street for a month or so now, wondering just how it would rust. Today was the day - with temps in the low 60's - to wrap it in vinegar-soaked cotton wrapped with waxed linen thread and, finally, wrapped in plastic wrap (a whole of wrapping going on here...) for protection from the elements. 

Just do it

Since finally arriving at the correct arrangement of the story squares, I've been wondering how they'd look once sewn together. What changes would connecting them bring? Would they still flow as well with just a bit missing...tucked behind in the seam? Would I sew them together and immediately regret it?

This morning I decided that there was only one way to find out and that was to just do it. So I did.

 #1

 #2

 #3

#4

4 stories

It's been quiet in my studio lately. No whispering. No barely stifled giggles. Just a bunch of rusty squares hanging around, being lazy, watching me experiment with other rusty stuff.

Since December 15, all has been well. I thought the arrangement was right...until this morning. Still no whispers or giggles at my expense. Instead, it was a glance that did it. Mine. Not their's.

I was sitting at my desk doing a bit of computer type work, but my eye kept being drawn to the story squares. Something just wasn't quite right so I set about rearranging the bottom two rows. Much better, don't you think?

Sneak peak

Seems I've been going in circles lately.

newly unbundled and still damp

detail

dry and in dire need of ironing