Archive for September, 2011

mood indigo…

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

I often pile fabrics to audition for future work. While I design spontaneously I like to let the cloth ‘ferment’ for awhile before I dig in. Sometimes I will have 3-4 different combinations stacked on any flat surface in my studio.

A trip to Japan in 2002 yielded a giant suitcase full of vintage kimono and contemporary Shibori dyed fabrics. I have sewn & shared and still there was lots. Old friends went to Japan & brought me even more. Eventually I decided I really wanted to clear my stash of the majority of these small pieces and so the indigo pile began.

Months ago Japanese fabrics began to accumulate on a corner of my design table. As I have worked through other potentials I just kept ignoring this one stack of indigo. I moved it around the table to accommodate other works in progress as my interest it waned.

Until…last week when I started putting the pieces up on the wall at random and voila! it was time for mood indigo…Upheaval #11 I love the contrast between the orderly Japanese culture and the random edges of this series

Previously I thought all my work must be done before surgery as I am unsure when I will be able to stand at my design wall again. Today I realized I need my vacation mentality… to have work waiting for me to get the juices flowing again. I need stacks of inspiration encouraging me to move forward. For me a blank wall is disaster and one of the reasons I always leave a piece of fabric hanging on my design wall.

 

 

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on a roll…

Saturday, September 17th, 2011

Once I got past the terror of the MRI I seem to be on a roll. I am actually looking forward to surgery mid-October, getting it past me and on to the next trip, art quilt, surgery, GF cinnamon roll, commission or whatever life holds for me.

I just put Upheaval #10 up on my website. This includes more of the wonderful soy wax batik that I designed last year. And it is a tad bigger than other work which is made possible by working in sections. I could get a long arm for stitching but since I already have long arms I am sticking with what mother nature gave me!

And I keep thinking of more things I can do in my now ‘free time’. I am entrenched in what was to be the post-op time of my previously scheduled surgery. It is quite delightful to have days and days wide open for studio time.

That includes painting a boring ‘brand name’ raincoat I bought for France in the spring. I didn’t paint it then because I didn’t want to risk ruining it. Now I don’t care. If I ruin it I will just add more paint! Another task is to design a pattern from a well-loved shirt and then cut/design a new shirt from same pattern from two old shirts. (lost yet?) And of course there are more linens to dye and paint.

And so…off I go…

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keeping up appearances #3

Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

I just added Keeping Up Appearances #3 to my website. This one contains more vintage linens: an embroidered linen tea towel, linen tablecloth and linen dishtowel all of which are dye-painted and screen-printed with text. I found a number of well-worn (and no doubt loved) linen dishtowels in my father’s laundry room last year when cleaning out his house.

All bore names of exotic places visited….British Virgin Islands, Lighthouses of New England, Provence. I even have a few of these myself. They always start out so pristine and soon are gray from being chosen (by others!) for household tasks beyond dishwashing. Soon they are in tatters. Some of these from my Dad’s house were in the rag bin, so worn and transparent; yet I chose them to embellish with paint. I must admit that the ferreting out of vintage textiles has become as much fun as the embellishing! I truly am the daughter of a war bride!!!

A month or so ago I posted a new Upheaval piece (#8) that had not yet settled with me. It has a vintage feedsack batiked as a focal point and discharged-hand-dyed cottons. It just felt off. Last night I cut off 7″ one direction and 3″ another and like it better. Since I had pillowcased the backing I just added facings along those edges. It is weird how sometimes I love the fabrics but not the end result. It just has to grow on me I guess!

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no mri… on rewind

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

I did something today that I thought I would never in my lifetime have to do. I had a MRI so the perfect knee joint can be created for me. It is all a bit sci-fi and I was told I am only the second person to have this done at that facility. Always was a bit of a trendsetter…

Over twenty years ago my late boss, a dermatologist told me I would suffer 3rd degree burns if I ever had a MRI due to steel plates and screws in my legs. That was probably true then and was enough to convince me. Fast forward 15 years when I’d completed the Tall Girl Series: A Body of Work about the shortening procedures which bestowed steel girders in my legs. One of the most difficult pieces to design was “No MRI” in which I contemplated having a tattoo inked on my neck, or my legs, maybe both legs so if ever I was unable to speak for myself in an emergency no one would subject me to this torment of 3rd degree burns.

Earlier this year I met an orthopedic doc on vacation. He told me the 3rd degree burns story is an old wives tale. My surgeon told me the same. The MRI technician told me again. I asked everyone I could find hoping someone somewhere would say I definitely should not do it. No one did! So where I should have felt relief I felt only fear. What if they were wrong?

My anticipatory fear accompanying the MRI today was horrendous. Fortunately I thought to stick my ipod in my purse and listened to it while waiting the 20 mins or so that they were running late, after I arrived early as per instructions. That helped me considerably. Once I was on the table and weighted down I simply chose not to think about it, the MRI, the groans, the fear, the terror, none of it. I am not sure what I thought about other than how if scientists can build these wondrous machines that can look into our bodies why can’t they muffle the sounds it makes? That and I counted the jack-hammer sounds which closely matched the seconds when I was in the tube as they shot my hips for a complete full-length image.

And the universe… so incredibly humorous. Here I was, supine and still when the sole of my left foot began to itch terribly. It is a nerve thing that happens usually at inappropriate times but this was the most inappropriate of all. I willed it to stop and it did after several minutes of pure torment. Such a great study in discipline this one.

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