Carol Larson - textile artist

This is Decay V, the latest work out of the studio. It was totally spontaneous in design and I absolutely love it!

I tried rusting some fabric a couple of months ago. I had never felt compelled to rust before but for some reason this year I thought I would give it a go. I got some amazing results! This piece of cotton was jammed inside a very rusted steel tube, not much larger than a can of dog food. I left it outside for about a month and when I unwrapped it several spots of the fabric had rotted out. Always one to make lemonade from lemons, I saw great potential, so I painted several layers, stitched, & highlighted the rotten parts by cutting out the batting/backing there. Basically in the photo, any part that is black is the rotted part. It is off to the photographer next week for a better shot.

Rumor has it that our delightful early spring weather is bringing water rationing sooner than we thought. Anyone with awareness knows this summer is going to be a thirsty one, but those in the know are now declaring water rationing will start in spring. It is all so bizarre when another third of the country is buried in snow. Maybe they could ship us some?

So now I am thinking if I want to do any surface design work the rest of 2009, I best get to it, before we have to cut back 50% water usage. Yet somehow, this reminds me of the last cookie binge before a diet. Who am I foolin’ here?!

Today my husband and I trekked into San Francisco to hang my first solo exhibit. It did not even occur to me that this was a solo exhibit until last night, as I lay awake, prepared but nervous.

We hung 12 pieces of work at a beautiful day spa, Earth & Sky Oasis off Union Square. This urban retreat seven stories above the hustle and bustle is a maze of rooms for one-stop self care and indulgence. Kate, the owner has painted the spa in spectacular shades of chocolate, wheat and robin’s egg blue so my work looks fabulous in this venue.

In order to protect her walls, she hangs art with ribbon and hooks inserted into the crown moulding. Good thing I suggested we stop this morning and buy some monofilament fishing line just in case as we rolled out of town. Yikes…we had to string up all the work, but once we got a system down, it went fairly quickly. Lloyd strung, Kate hung and I was the visual checker!

If you want to see beautiful photos of these pieces check out my website. The works on exhibit are Archipelago, Arctic Glow, At Sea, Birch, Early Winter, Embers, Flower Power, Harborview: Hong Kong and Mazatlan, Navarro Ridge, Palace Ave (not on website) and Wakame. I also left my mini fabric art collages, aka postcards! The work is up for two months and will get lots of exposure. I am blessed for this opportunity to showcase my work. If anyone is inclined to go to the spa to see it, please call first. This is an appointment only spa. The number is on her website above.

It was such a crystal clear, cool day in the city we played tourist a bit on the way home, stopping off at the marina and taking a short stroll. This fabulous window shot was taken from inside the loo looking out towards Alcatraz. Love it! As organized as I am, I still learned two new lessons from today’s adventure. Always carry monofilament when going to hang a show and always take pre-printed price cards to hang with the work. I had a nifty loan agreement, bio, business cards, portfolio etc, but no price cards. Fortunately, they are now in place and I am ready for a spa day myself! Woo-hoo!

I am over the moon about the impending inauguration! Never to be much of a political junkie; actually one who basically hated the subject and felt that things probably would never change in my lifetime. But I’ve always been a believer in the human spirit and the capacity to do what’s right for humankind, so our time has come.

Simultaneously, my body is experiencing newfound freedom. While I am optimistic by nature, I never thought I would regain mobility. My hope has always been that I would maintain mobility. So imagine my joy when yesterday as I was suffering through deep pain that I connected the dots, and recognized this was good pain, and not bad pain. There is a BIG difference.

Nearly four years ago, I ignored signs from my body that I had overdone. I had spent literally weeks at the computer building my website. And my back ached. But I ignored it, because I was not as wise as I am now. I was thinking I was still 30 and could rebound. Alas, the body gained the upper hand when a nerve jammed and sent excruciating pain down my right leg, landing me in the hospital on morphine. Despite paralysis and apparent nerve damage, medical personnel could not be convinced that it wasn’t the sciatic nerve. So I spent nearly a year in physical therapy being treated for the sciatic nerve, which it wasn’t! I knew that, I told them that, but they have their protocol. Anyway, I was left with a paralyzed shin, a crampy achey foot and a foot drop when I walked. And the belief that I had irreversible nerve damage.

Last month I started with a new chiropractor when my neck locked up. This guy who talks non-stop seems to really know what he is doing. Friday on a routine visit, I mentioned the foot drop/paralysis/crampy foot syndrome and he said it was the blah-blah-blah nerve out of L3-4 not L5. He worked his magic and Saturday, I woke in excruciating pain. About halfway through the day I recognized that other than my knee hurting, the parts that really hurt were those which formerly did not work properly. My God, he unjammed the nerve! And though I am still hobbling a bit, as it is slowly recovering I am, in my heart, doing a major happy dance.

The incredible synchronicity to me is this. Shortly after I was hospitalized on 05-05-05 (cinco de mayo…ay yi yi yi yi!) I began to formulate doing a body of work called the Tall Girl Series. My motivation was to come to terms with the ongoing debilitation I was experiencing as a result of being surgically altered at 17 with the ideal of a “normal life.” (whatever that is!)

Since then I have done enormous physical, psychological and emotional work, as well as write and create symbolic art in acceptance of all that I had stuffed for 40+ years. Late last year when goal setting for 2009, at the top of my list is to complete the Tall Girl Series. I have healed emotionally and spiritually, so now I need to close this project, and move on to make the art that fulfills my life’s purpose. And as I close the project, my body has released a very painful hold.

So not only am I over the moon about Obama, but I am also over the moon that I have made such progress with my body, in acceptance of it, its limitations, resiliency and ongoing surprises.

And yes, when I am truly ready, I will go public with this Body of Work.

Shortly after I sold five pieces of my art to the James Irvine Foundation in 2007, I was asked by Virginia Spiegel to be one of the artists for her successful fundraiser FiberArts for a Cause for 2009. Virginia has raised over $165,000 benefiting the American Cancer Society through her online textile auctions, with 100% of the money raised going to the charity. I am both honored and pleased to be able to donate my artwork to this great cause. Well, here it is 2009 already and now time to start blabbling it around. My work is in excellent company this year with that of several colleagues and friends. The online reverse auction runs March 24-26. The idea is the work is priced high and each day the price drops. Buyers who want a particular work need to bid before it is gone to someone else’s art collection. I have donated Red Door Feng Shui II to the 2009 FFAC.

I have donated my work to this outstanding fundraiser in honor of my father, a three time cancer survivor and in memory of Rose and David, two friends who fought valiantly.

On another note, here is the fullview of the Quake! art cloth. Really one needs to go into PhotoShop and zoom in like nobody’s business to see the intricacies of it. It is just over two yards long, and looks nothing like your grandmother’s shower curtain! Shower curtain is the consummate dirty word relative to artcloth. Actually I would be thrilled to have a shower curtain this gorgeous! If only I had a shower than needed a curtain…hmmm shall we renovate the bathroom to accomodate the cloth? I think not.

I have officially finished the art cloth for the Quake! exhibit of the Art Cloth Network. I began with two pieces in mind and one succumbed halfway through to yeck-dom! It still has potential but not for this exhibit. You see here the detail image of my cloth which I titled Aftermath. I need to re-shoot the fullview but have to wait until my trick knee heals so I can make it down the stairs.

This cloth has a flour paste resist, three dye layers and four paint layers. I was thinking decay and chaos while designing but alas it came out so bright and cheerful that I titled it to suggest fires and chaos. Whatever works! What really came through is how very much I still love designing cloth. I just don’t like the requisite lengths or deadlines…all somewhat ironic as I co-wrote the proposal. But as is often the case, we had no input on the length requirements. And since I am the collection person for the entries, I started up a new database, and chose my favorite number for my entry! Other than that, I have been tying up loose ends of various projects, paperwork and ideas.

In the weird science dept are the trees around town, which in January are still resplendent in fall colors. We have had weeks of below freezing nights. It is the strangest thing I have ever seen. Many, many trees still have their leaves. On Saturday, while out on our walk, I spotted the tiniest of white blossoms popping open on a tree that still has drying orange leaves from last fall. It is just odd, as if spring is pushing fall away. In some strange way it makes sense as we have close to 70 degree weather here this week while my husband is skiing at Tahoe.

In addition to working on the two large pieces of cloth for an upcoming Art Cloth Network exhibit, I have been busy in the studio doing small things. What was originally to be holiday cards went by the wayside when I discovered the cheap cards at Costco! So all those collages on timtex are now being sewn into fabric art postcards.

And I made this little ditty for the SAQA@20 trunk show which showcases members’ progress as art quilters. I combined my own designed fabric with African batik and incorporated my love of the squiggly line.

Then I dug out the pile of collaged papers from a workshop last spring in PA. I thought I would never do anything with them, but alas the Collage Mania 2009 call was out and I heeded the opportunity to cut and stitch a bit more on those and came up with these three for the fundraiser.
This is Twilight.

Nightfall and Dusk.

Sometimes the title is the toughest part.

Then while I was at it, I designed my 12″ square for the 2009 SAQA Auction. This year they are taking only one per artist, so how grand to be done with it. This is Decay which was a totally spontaneous piece.

A couple of months ago I decided to give rusting a go! Frankly, it had never appealed to me, but I thought I would try it anyway. Hubby scrounged up some rusted metals from his toybox and I crammed fabric into and around them. This little remnant was one such, and as you can see hardly did anything. So I screened in pewter and gold and loved it so much I hate to see it depart!

Another of the rusted pieces is on the print table undergoing a spontaneous design process. The rust rotted several areas of the fabric, leaving exciting design possibilities. Meanwhile just 2 layers of paint more and the Quake! fabrics are done.

Then I jumped in the car and trekked down to Dharma (15 miles) and bought more paints and other treasure. I usually order from Dharma online because I am so close that the postage offsets the gas money. But it is Saturday and I did not want to wait, plus it is a new tax year so I was ready to spend! In addition to the paints I went for, I bought a heat gun, more organza for the printer, new gloves, a digital scale to replace the food scale which has found its way into the garden (thank you very much!), a packet of Jacquard’s iDye which my daughter recommended. It works like RIT in the washer, but you drop the whole package in (sans box) and don’t have to get the powder on everything. I managed to fondle a lot of yarn without buying any.

Then I drove less than a mile (this is California after all!) to a favorite restaurant called Cafe Gratitude. It is vegan gourmet, aka expensive raw food! But I love it. They have this whole airy fairy ambiance with all the dishes named things like I am Amazing, I am Grateful and I am Generous. So I ordered a half order of I am Graceful (not!) and a piece of I am Creative to go. The cashier said, so I have a question for you… What Do you Give?

I thought about 2 seconds and said flowers! She said I was the third flowers for the day. On the way home, I contemplated the question and wished I had said something more esoteric, like compassion or goodwill. But flowers is probably much better than saying a gift card from Target!