Cleveland 2019

Teaching commitments, exhibition deadlines, school and sports schedules as well as my husband's business travel all recently aligned and enabled me to spend a week visiting the absolutely amazing Christine Mauersberger in her home town of Cleveland, Ohio.

The last time I was in Cleveland was in 2014 to take a workshop given by Aimee Lee and Velma Bolyard at Morgan Conservatory (click here to see posts from previous visits to Cleveland). Actually, if you scroll back through that link far enough, you'll arrive at my posts about taking a class with India Flint in 2012. Oh! And getting to experience Martin Creed's Work No. 965: Half the air in a given space. Now that was the experience of a lifetime...especially for someone who is somewhat claustrophobic.

Back to present day! Well, a few weeks ago...

Christine has been spending time at Zygote Press printing tessellations and hand marks that echo hand stitches on paper. If you haven't seen them yet, stroll on over to Christine's Instagram page. Her artistry and creativity are exquisite.

As I've been printing on gel plates, we thought it would be fun to get together and spend a week working the presses. Thankfully, the good people at Zygote were kind and allowed me to rent work space/press time for the week.

Zygote Press 2019, photo by Jennifer Coyne Qudeen

The sentiment of the very top sign was cause for a big belly laugh at my own expense

printing plate, work in progress, Jennifer Coyne Qudeen, 2019

after I not only prepped, but printed this plate asking What does home mean to you?

In my excitement to see how my cursive writing would print, I totally forgot that all text must be laid out in reverse so that it prints correctly. The posted reminder had gone unnoticed until I, shaking my head at myself in disbelief after running the plate through the press, turned around and leaned against the work table. And there it was...right in front of me. I wanted to crawl under the table.

work in progress, monoprint on newsprint, Jennifer Coyne Qudeen, 2019

Instead, I decided to switch to asemic writing.

stencils cut on drafting velum, Jennifer Coyne Qudeen, 2019

After cutting a few new stencils,

it was time to get to work, bring out the Golden Opens and

work in progress, monoprint on recycled tea bags, Jennifer Coyne Qudeen, 2019

the tea bags to see how they would play with a printing press.

work in progress, monoprint on recycled tea bags, Jennifer Coyne Qudeen, 2019

Quite nicely, as it turns out.

printing plate, work in progress, Jennifer Coyne Qudeen, 2019

Toward the end of the week, I found my stride and simplified the images,

 work in progress, monoprint on recycled tea bags, Jennifer Coyne Qudeen, 2019

allowing the houses and asemic writing to be the focus.

Zygote Press 2019, photo by Jennifer Coyne Qudeen

printing plate, work in progress, Jennifer Coyne Qudeen, 2019

There were times when I wished it were possible to let the inks dry on the plate and have it be the finished piece. Has anyone done that? Anyone know how long it would take for the inks to dry thoroughly? If they will at all? Hmmm...sounds like a good experiment for another day.

work in progress, Jennifer Coyne Qudeen, 2019

At some point, I started getting monoprints of the stencils on other printmaking papers in order to clean the inks off. This was cause for another round of shaking my head at myself for not having done it sooner. This idea is getting filed under things to remember to do in the studio. Or perhaps I should print a sign to hang as a reminder...

Zygote Press 2019, photo by Jennifer Coyne Qudeen

The week at Zygote ended as all wonderful times do - way too soon. Many thanks go to Christine for not only being such a dear friend, but for wearing the hats of travel guide, chauffeur and dining companion during my visit. Thanks are due as well to all at Zygote who gave tutorials, accepted my intrusion and treated me as one of their own.

Buried Treasure - 5 days

Welcome! Seth Apter of The Altered Page is hosting a hunt for buried treasure - favorite older posts from our blogs that strike a cord. It was fun culling through my entries from several years ago. Instances or processes or pieces long forgotten were revisited and remembered.

logo from The Altered Page

In the end, I chose a post from May 2012, entitled 5 Days. I was getting ready to head out to Pam's for our 3rd annual artist retreat. Seems fitting as we've just finished the 5th retreat and are planning a mid-year get together. Enjoy!

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5 Days, originally posted May 22, 2012

The countdown is on. The clock is ticking. 5 more days until I board the first of two airplanes that will take me to Kansas. Can I tell you just how much I'm looking forward to this? To our 3rd annual artist retreat...to a week with a very dear friend...to a week of being able to think and speak coherently [little urchins are staying home with Dad]...to a week of art...to a week of breathing.

Yes. The countdown is on. I'm sitting here in the studio listening to rain falling, to birds chattering, to cars driving by and for the sound of little urchins' stumbling footsteps as they come down the hall to the studio where they know mommy will be.

I should be writing the proposal for Silvermine. It's due on Friday, after all. Yikes! Then again, there's velcro to be pinned to the 5 large rust beauties. There's green tea #3 to be peaked at to see if the time is right for unbundling. There's....well, there's a lot.

Yet here I sit, remembering last year's artist retreat. How we'd planned to do one thing, tried it and failed miserably. Regrouped the next day and ended up giving ourselves over to the studio muses, Esmerelda and Cecil are their names, but that's a story for another day.

I ended up taking over Pam's printing tables [that's her in the doorway]

 and printing yards

 and yards [there are 6 of these 4 ft x 12 ft pieces behind me in the closet...patiently wait]

 of cotton 

and organza.

I even got the most delicious lines of from monoprinting all of the paint off of the holey fabric that produced the multitude of circles.

That was last year's artist retreat. While most of those pieces are resting comfortably, biding their time, knowing that one day their bin will be opened and I'll reach in, a few have been rusted.

 So now there are layers

 

 and layers

 of circles.

Hmmm...wonder what would happen if I printed over the already rusted prints to add a 3rd layer of circles? Just a thought...

Philadelphia - Philagrafika: Doing Time/Depth of Surface

Before wending my way to the Crane Arts Building yesterday, I strolled over to Moore College of Art and Design to view the 4 featured fiber exhibits. All were good, but it was Philagrafika: Doing Time/Depth of Surface that interested me most.

screen capture from Philagrafika web site

As a fiber artist and sometimes printmaker, the "skin of architecture" print achieved in this process held me mesmerized with it's textures, layers, colors and most of all, it's history. The pictures below are mine...and my attempt to capture and convey all that I felt while viewing this magnificent piece.

Maybe this week...

.

...I'll get to play with some of the printed fabric from my artist retreat at Pam's.

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.

2nd Annual Artist Retreat

Whew! I just finished packing my supplies for the 2nd Annual Artist Retreat. To see photos from the 1st Annual Artist Retreat click here, here and here. Or just access the blog archive for the 3 posts from June 2010.

The retreat took place at the home of my dear friend and fellow fiber artist, Pam Sullivan.  Once again, she has kindly agreed to play hostess. Pam doesn't have two little darlings/urchins/mini-she-monsters/4 year-olds at her house to contend with as I do. Somehow, if I hosted the retreat, it just wouldn't be the same.

While the supplies begin their journey to Pam's tomorrow, my flight doesn't leave until the 28th. There's lots to do until then...especially with my daughters. Still...my mind is racing, wondering what will come out of this year's retreat. Stay tuned.

Indigo #6

#6 is in progress. While it's a bit busier than the preceding pieces, there's something about the lines of hand-stitching in red over the white stitched circles that I am finding very appealing.

Indigo #3 and 4

Have you ever had one of those days where you so badly wanted to be in the studio and to create yet once there it ended up being on those days where the studio was the last place you should be? You know what I mean...either the ideas are playing hide and seek and it is their turn to hide or, for some reason, nothing quite clicks.

Well, that is what my morning has been like. I am in a funk today and have no good reason for being in it. The sun is shining, the snow is melting, the girls are at preschool and I have had two hours in the studio to work with the indigo. All of which should add up to a creatively productive and satisfying time. Instead, after an hour or so, I realized that it was time to call it quits for the day as far as doing anything remotely creative.

Unwilling to leave the studio just yet, I turned to what are really the first two completed indigo pieces. Back when the indigo was whispering that it should be made into spreads from a book, these two were sewn together along with a piece of organza. The indigo has since changed its mind and wants to be individual pages or letters. So, in that spirit, the spread was separated.

Indigo #2

Just finished sewing the last bead on the second indigo piece. There's something about this one that reminds me of a sewing pattern. What do you think? Pocket, maybe?

Indigo: One down, 40+ more to go

The first of the indigo pages has been completed...well, almost. I still need to decide how these pieces will be displayed. Need to play with that part of the equation for a bit.

Indigo

Last Friday Pam and I had an all day Skype studio session and it was amazing. When we began, I'd planned to continue working on the sketchbooks, but soon found myself putting them aside and getting out screen printing materials to print in indigo on white cotton, then monoprint off the excess paint to create layers. The photo above is just a sampling of what was created. 

Oddly enough, while I love indigo fabric, especially Japanese working kimonos like these

which were exhibited at the Surface Design Association conference in 2005 in Kansas City, it never occurred to me to work with the color. However, I'm addicted now. 

Last Friday night found me dreaming in shades of indigo as well as dreaming of indigo. I woke the next morning filled with ideas for screen printing, hand-stitching, painting, text, etc. All things that could be added to the indigo prints. 

As I sat at Starbucks Saturday morning, the notebook came out so the ideas could be listed. And it didn't stop at Starbucks...the ideas continue to flow while I sat for a pedicure (an indulgent delight discovered only last year...the foot massages rate right up there with dark chocolate in my opinion) and then while I waited for the chemicals the colorist put in my hair to do their bit in hiding my grey. See what I mean about being addicted?

The week since has been busy and more ideas have been written down. Still, I've managed to grab a few moments of studio time to screen print on organza and even got in a stitch or two. There's a series in mind which will take time.

Visions of sections/details of pieces keep flitting in and out of my creative consciousness. As much as I'd like to actually create the visions, I know that an open mind is needed because the art has it's own ideas of what should be done. If I'm quiet enough and receptive enough, hopefully I'll hear the art and together we'll create something worthy of high indigo or indigo high. Hmmm...which should it be?