pamelart

Mark making

2011-09-20T09:17:00.000-04:00

Terry Grant has introduced some good ideas about mark making on the quiltart list. Marks that are not necessarily surface design types like screening, or painting, or airbrushing. I love how she categorizes the history of mark making, from cave painting to the universal methods children use.

Petroglyphs from the desert southwest.

Child's drawing...wow what a lot of different marks!

Van Gogh, I've always admired how he directs the eye simply with the direction and weight of his line.

Cy Twombly can make a cacophony with the various thicknesses and agitation in his line.

All good stuff. But how to translate it to fabric. Yes I could quilt in these types of lines ...even vary the thickness.But it occurs to me looking at these, that there are a multitude of fabrics with similar linear patterns. I'm going to try an image by combining linear patterns and see what happens.

Texas Quilt Museum

2011-09-18T17:45:00.000-04:00

Jamie Fingal has shown us her funky donations to Karey's new project, the Texas Quilt Museum. I also wanted to be part of this so have sent these two for the Museum. It's sure a better place than under a pile of other quilts that have been retired from the show circuit and relegated to "maybe -they- will- sell sometime- when- the- economy- gets- better" ! I was reminded of an artist whose solution to older work was to walk around town and just leave them in a park or bus shelter with a little sign saying "take me home". Here they are:

CHILD`S PLAY REDUX

THREE VASES ALIGNED LIKE SOLDIERS

Making LINES in art quilts

2011-09-18T15:37:00.002-04:00

Sandy Snowden on quiltart list has asked for any suggestions about making marks that are not stitched or quilted. Since nobody wants to publish my book, I can share the exercises I wrote whenever the occasion arises. Here is my linear exercise which can create a line type mark in various configurations....either jagged or organic- thick or thin. I could see the kind of spooky swirky lines in Eduard Munch's THE SCREAM being done this way.

Linear exercise

Line is an artistic element that can be used to describe the edges and contours of an object. Line can also define a direction for the eye to travel. Line of various thickness and weight can also generate a mood; calm for lyrical curved lines, tense for jagged irregular ones. In art quilts, lines can be created by adding narrow strips of fabric or cutting a thin channel through which the underlying fabric reveals itself (as in reverse appliqué) or by stitching. Let’s make a sample to explore some of these techniques. We will start with a small piece of fabric with a large linear pattern. Your one rule is that you cannot cover or cut this original piece. It’ll be a challenge to make a unified composition from this almost arbitrary start, but it can be done!

This fragment is from a rayon sarong measuring about 7 inches. You can see the lines are in a yellow color, so I am placing it on a yellow background in anticipation I might be cutting some other fabrics to reveal the underlying colour. The object of this exercise is to create a fully realized linear composition by extending the already existing lines in the starter fabric.

The first thing we must do is to fill the rest of the space with fabrics that relate to those already there. These do NOT have to match in color, but rather need to be sympathetic to the tone and color family you are starting with. Notice the entire surface is now covered.

I have added more blue and black shapes to begin to connect the composition to the edges of the rectangle. Notice that some connecting lines are also appearing by cutting through the top layer and aligning the underlying line with the original fabric pattern. In the lower right, where the black fabric completes a shape, I have cut a space that reveals a red line instead of the yellow. I LIKE it for its variety!

The top part of the composition seemed neglected so I begin to introduce lines to connect the bottom to the top of the rectangle. Remember that ALL of the composition is important, so be mindful of the rectangle as you develop the image.

I felt I needed another black shape on the left edge to draw the eye across from the others. Again I was able to cut out a red line around it. The composition is becoming more unified and balanced.

This shows the final addition of line by means of long running stitch with embroidery floss. The finished piece below it offers the viewer a unified integration of the original fragment that concentrates on line as an element of art.

A WORD ABOUT UNITY

You may have noticed my advice in these first two exercises, to quickly establish a background for the whole work. One of the joys of creating comes from the “dialogue” that begins to occur between you and your art. Without some initial shapes, colors and arrangement, however temporary such a dialogue cannot take place. We need something visual and complete upon which to bounce our next idea. Strive to maintain integrity in your work at all stages. By that I mean you should be able to appreciate a unified image at all stages of development. The process of creating a successful composition involves a kind of stream of consciousness thinking that is stimulated by what is already present in the work in progress. You can analyze the fragment for instance, and notice the direction of the lines. This will give you a clue to where they will go and how they will engage the rectangle. “ What if I make this diagonal into a more lyrical wavy line? What if I change the colour of the line where it meets the first one?”. And so on. Then of course, you must actually try your idea and see if it will work! So LISTEN to your work and act on what it is telling you.

VISIONS INTERPRETATIONS 2011

2011-09-03T08:38:00.009-04:00

FISHING DERBY MESOPOTANIA 2000 B.C.

The Standard of Ur circa 2400 B.C.

Yay! My quilt FISHING DERBY MESOPOTAMIA 2000 B.C. will be on it's way to the Visions Art Museum in San Diego for their INTERPRETATIONS 2011 show. I'm so glad I became a member of Visions years ago, as it is such a good opportunity to get your work over to the left coast once in a while. Here's my quilt. It's one of several "historical" quilts based on a particular style in History. In this case the Standard of Ur with it's quirky little people. I figure people at all times in history must do essentially what we do now. Thus the fishing derby fun.

Multi Paneled Piece

2011-08-26T16:11:00.002-04:00

Brenda my friend has asked how people have attached segments of multi panels to the main part of the quilt. I have one called OUT OF TOUCH about my alienation from my family. I did a portrait of myself and a bigger one of family into which I cut a window. Because I wanted to illustrate the tenuous nature of my association, I decided to safety pin it into the window. It took ages to get all the pins lined up too!

2011-08-26T16:06:00.000-04:00

This is a test to make sure I still have control of my blog!

Lowell Invite

2009-07-22T22:58:00.004-04:00

I was just tickled to open an envelope from The Brush Gallery in Lowell containing 25 postcard/invitations with MY quilt on it! Here is a pic although it didn't scan all that well.

I bin everywhere.....

2009-05-05T20:19:00.017-04:00

Since April 16th I have been to Santa Clara , and Asilomar in California and Mahone Bay in Nova Scotia on teaching tours. What a whirlwind ! ALL the students created wonderful work, and I wanted to showthem off to everyone. In Santa Clara, I hooked up with some cyber friends ( QuiltMavericks to be pricise) that I had taught and visited with before, and as always, there were many giglgles at high decibal levels! At Asilomar, we had a whole week to really get to know each other, and during the THINK LIKE AN ARTIST workshop, everyone produced SO much work and seemed to be SO enthusiastic and hard working, that you just won't believe the results! Finally my trip to the East coast of Canada was so beautiful, as well as productive. I think Mahone Bay is about the prettiest part of Canada I have ever seen. I had a cottage by the ocean, and spent each morning sipping my coffee and watching the day begin over a tranquil bay ! Such a good time with the students too! Below see their exercises.....I think some are worthy of national show entries myself!

Santa Clara had a mini THINK LIKE AN ARTIST lasting 2 days.

Julie (a Maverick) rearranging printed fabrics and below, her linear exercise.

Dolores' linear study. Carolyn's manipulated stripes below.

Mary Ellen's composition with stripes. Yikes I can't remember whose the lower one is, but a wonderful two colour study!

Next came a whole week at Asilomar with the full version of THINK LIKE AN ARTIST. Each day brought two exercises concentrating on a particular element or principle of art.

Janice was a newbie to art quilting! A very talented and determined artist.

Here am I critiquing Josephine's portraits.

Del's black and white study...a delightful bathroom!

Another quilt maverick, Cindy made her triptych from her beautiful portrait of the previous day.

Transitions quilt

2009-02-17T17:32:00.002-05:00

I too have been accepted into the PAQA 2009 show "Transitions" I have been so preoccupied with hubby's health, that I had forgotten I even entered! Here is my quilt called WOMAN WAITING I. It is entirely hand stitched ( not quilted all the way through tho') and was a good project to have while sitting bedside at the hospital.

"DULL" colours

2008-12-14T13:54:00.005-05:00

There has been some talk on the quiltart list about colour....how to learn about it, how to experiment with it. Colour has always been problematic to me too, as every now and then, I get antsy about the palette I use over and over again....sort of the queen of blue/violet/red syndrome. Recently, I have been trying to explore other less appealing colour palettes and I must say, I am beginning to like more grayed down hues , especially when spiced up with a small amount of more saturated colour.
Two years ago at my first FOCUS ON FIBER at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, I spent time making a number of odd shaped colour sets. I THOUGHT I was trying to use duller colours with a touch of higher saturation. I look at them now, and see it was more DARK but fairly intense colours combined with lighter and higher value hues.

Two years later, once again I became impatient with my colours. This time I really did order some greyed down fabrics and started seeing what I could do with them. At the very least the colours certainly changed the mood of the work. This one is rather anxious and even gloomy:

This one is getting closer to the kind of more subtle colour range I was hoping for. I am going to continue this duller palette for a while, I think.

NON academic colour studies

2008-12-11T19:24:00.000-05:00

There was talk on the quiltart list today about learning about colour. Some people do well with colour theory and the making of colour wheel, tonal charts and tint charts, and doing Itten inspired contrast studies. Others, like me, are less than inspired with these formal exercises and do better with a hands on approach to learning about colour; how it can sing when next to another colour, how tints and tonal variations can enrich the pallette, how unusual colour contrasts can express emotion. When I used to teach painting, I found that hands on exercises with a tangible finished product was very satisfying to the young student as well as an intuitive way of understanding colour.

One favourite exercise was to select a painting by a modern master and reproduce the image in complementary colours to the original. The tones and tints must remain the same however. This made the student really analyze the original and really SEE the colour...not as a simple red for instance. But a medium toned reddish green perhaps. The opposite would be a medium toned greenish red. The results were quite wonderful and taught the student more than colour theory in that they became aware that amazing colour contrasts can be achieved with more subtle forms of a given hue. As a corollary, they also discovered that the colour palette of the original was carefully selected to achieve the artists' intent. Here are some examples from a highschool class:

You may recognize some of these ...the top left a Matisse interior, left middle top Picasso portrait and the far right Van Goghs chair. The contemporary yellow blue face is an artist whose name escapes me.

I offer similar exercises in fabric where a limited palette of only two colours in all their permutations plus black and white, results in a rich exploration of ALL the possibilities within the parameters.

So for people like me whose eyes glaze over at the mention of theory, this kind of alternate method of hands on discovery may be just the ticket!

The ART of Gees Bend

2008-05-20T23:30:00.000-04:00

Pettway/ Mark Rothco

Pettway/Frank Stella

Bendolf/Mondrian

Pettway/ Barnett Newman

There seems to be less than universal accolades for the phenomenon of the Gees Bend quilt/art. Well at least amongst art quilters I hear on various e-lists I am on. The most recent was to question whether the popularity and critical acclaim these artists have received may be just clever spin doctors and self serving curators trying to drum up business. I confess, I am puzzled that some fail to see the remarkable beauty and ART these works display. A lot of the nay sayers mention "poor workmanship and materials" as a reason to dismiss them. Others don't see how outsider ladies could be possibly be making art when all that they were doing was making warm bedding out of reclaimed garments. I was struck by the originality of the works when they first appeared at the Whitney in New York, and that was only from looking at the online pictures. When I actually saw the show in Orlando I felt MOVED by them...not just from the history of their makers but for the amazing instinctive beauty of the designs and use of the faded pentimento in the fabrics. I wish I had that seemingly ingrained intuitiveness as I design MY work. One of the artists when asked HOW she developed the design replied that she cut up the various colored shapes, moved them around on her bed until they "looked right".

Well isn't that what all artists do? At least those that pursue excellence and personal input in there work? I googled some well known modern artists such as Paul Klee, Mondrian and Rothco and was struck by the similarities of composition and expression to the Gees Bend work. I am convinced....these are ART!

IKEA design wall

2008-03-14T09:23:00.000-04:00

Just a few pics to show the portable design set up I use. It's a wheeled coat rack from Ikea with an 4x8" insulation foam covered with felt. Very cheap, works a treat!

Matisse getting it right

2007-11-18T13:11:00.000-05:00

For those Interested...this phenomenon of revealing the earlier attempts in a composition is called PENTIMENTO in artspeak.

Runaway Tooth Fairy

2007-11-12T23:14:00.000-05:00

I thought I would throw this one out there forthe quiltart list. This is a second tooth fairy as a memento of the saga of my broken front teeth. It's been a year since the damage was done, and at that time a made a rather "pretty" tooth fairy, similar to a medieval illustration. At least that's where my starting point was. Now that the full enormity of it all has hit, I needed to make another one...bigger, more substantial and downright scary...something like my dental bill. It measures about 50"x60". I sort of started it with the same influences in the back of my mind...medieval hyper decorated and precious. But she would have none of it and became a kind of Frankenstein! So now I am embellishing and have come to a standstill. I can see that baubles and gemstones won't do. I am toying with the idea of using dental instruments ( which my dentist kindly gave me) as embellishment. I dunno....maybe too wacko?

Motivation

2007-10-01T00:02:00.000-04:00

This evening one of my husband's sons was visiting. We began talking about what makes us do it so to speak.....make art, I mean ( both DH and step son are painters). Our son, Luke, had just met a man on a work site who it turns out is an artist he has admired for years and who is now exhibiting in our local museum. This had made Luke feel discouraged as he himself seemed not to be doing as good work, not having sold much and not getting any exhibitions offered. This led to a more general discussion about why we work at all.

Now my husband Ralph ( who is 80 BTW, and has painted now for 62 years!!!!) seems to need to paint as an personal expression. And that's IT! He has not shown his work in over a decade, but continues to go into the studio every day as usual. His drive is purely private and self contained and it sustains him through fertile periods and blocked times as well

I on the other hand am almost manic in my drive to get the work I make OUT THERE and enter every show going where my work might be suitable. My friends call me a show slut!!! It got me thinking.....do I do it to make a living? NOT...even tho' I do bring in some income , it is hardly a living wage. Do I do it to gain acceptance, or better yet, accolades? I had to accept that the answer there is yes. But only partly.There is also an element of "what else would I be doing" if not making art. I wake up most days eager to go to work. I think about the projects I'm working on constantly. I spend quite a lot of time taking care of the business side too...online or mailing off proposals and such. And I keep in touch with like minded people all over the world thanks to the internet. Having a creative career seems to make life richer, more hopeful and full of pleasure because of this. So I guess I am not one who is compelled to make art for it's own sake. I make art for the rewards of being part of something bigger and richer.

I get on a roll sometimes....not frequently as most of the time it's a lot of problem solving and a bit of a struggle. But isn't it a great feeling when you get into a sort of creative groove, and the conversation between you and your work is lively and productive?

Just to keep the post visual as well, I'll show a WIP that's got me atwitter right now. I recently took a fat book out of the library on an artist who was a big favorite when I was a student. Eduard Vuillard (see painting of two figures). Very intimate, domestic scenes done in a very narrow range of tones and colour. It got me enthused again and I started a piece with the same restrictions of tone and pattern. It's a slight departure from my normal "in your face" humor and subject matter. In fact as the work progresses the narrative became very tranquil. Usually at some point my figure starts to tell me what she's doing....like getting a haircut, or playing a violin. In this case the only action is taking a coffee break! Haha!

Garden that's MINE MINE MINE

2007-08-31T08:41:00.001-04:00

Here is my Grandkid sized garden piece called "BUGS AND OTHER LIVING THINGS" It measures 57"x42"

revising or pulling a fast one?

2007-05-07T18:33:00.000-04:00

I spent last week "revising" an old quiltto enter in a show. In order to ease my conscience about it , I DID contact the( Lowell ) New England Quilt Museum to ask if a revised quilt would be considered "recent" It all started when I heard they were hosting a show whose theme was games and game boards. I had a biggish quilt from my early days ( 2002 ) that was an OKAY idea that never came fully to fruition. Not to mention the crappy sewing on it as I was still learning and sewing on a $30.00 church basement special. So having gotten the okay from the Museum, I took stuff off, added some much needed interest in the background and gave the figures some sort of structure to exist in. It's much better. But not one I think is really good. Nevertheless, having done it, I duly sent off my entry to NEQM. I was swearing off entering every show in the world this year. My friwends were calling me a "show slut". I don't know what happens to me when I see a call for entry that one of my quilts might suit. But I began asking myself why. Some of the reasons are personal...you know the "seeking approval" thing we learn as kids...especially a kid whose parent didn't like her all that much! But there is also a phenomenon I realized of being part of a big thing. When I worked worked worked every day as a painter/assemblage artist, it was more or less in a vacuum. Only one other artist friend and maybe one show a year with the gallery. But NOW because my milieu is so much bigger, and there are so many more people doing what I am doing, I feel more a part of life. A case in point is...I LOVE getting up each day and reading email. Then I have the pleasure of waiting for the snail mail because often I am expecting news of a show entry, or a quilt coming back, or a package from some nice quilty person ( like Thelma, who once sent me a BUNCH of fabric and I hardly even knew her then!) So even tho' seeking praise is part of it...maybe not the good part, the camraderie is also imposrtant. So I am forgiving myself for being a show slut. And anyway, I make so many art pieces what the heck else would I do with them?

Oh here is the before and after to my revision "Checkmates"

rotten teeth and quilt

2007-05-02T19:03:00.000-04:00

Ack! I don't want to be dumped from this interesting group so I shall post something completly incoherent as I have just had my jaw all jackhammered today for implants in the future. I hurts like hell! I CAN relate it to quilty news though as I made a quilt called A VERY STINGY TOOTH FAIRY just after my teeth broke off and I had received that bad news that implants would be $10,000.00!! It even won best in show at the Paducah Lower town quilt walk:
I am so out if it at the moment that all I can think of is to bitch once again about that old saw why quilt shows that offer ART categories can't judge them by ART standards. But my Codeine is kicking in and I have to leave the room.
Love you guys,
Pamwela

BOOKIE POSTCARDS

2007-04-09T18:48:00.000-04:00

Some of you may know that I am an avid dollar store shopper. Over the last year, I have been buying up shadow boxes and frames...about 9"x7"....I mean who can resist at $2.00 each? I knew ONE DAY I would find a use for them. Well that day arrived last week, when I got the first commission I ever agreed to do from a cyberfriend/novelist. Her new book features a main character who is an artquilter!!!! Apparently based on me and another Artists Deb Richardson...we are all members of a cyber "guild" called Quiltmavericks ( mess with us and we'll quilt you to the floor)...but I digress.

She had an idea for publicizing her work. She would have me make 11 postcards . She would announce to 100 publishing/editor people that they would be eligible to win one. The postcards depict subjects I normally do....not related to the book, but within each composition, is the title of her book THE GIRL WHO STOPPED SWIMMING. ...so I made use of my cheapy dollar store frames, tarted them up with caulking and doodads and they came out really well!

I'm off to get more frames for the future...our dollar stores BTW are WAY better for such things than those in the US. I get bags of little kitchen utensils, teeny Harley motorcycles, keys, locks, brass fish,teeny tools an amazing array of miniature things for a pittance.

Atlantic Center for the Arts

2007-03-24T10:27:00.000-04:00

The quilts of Gees Bend

These were the most influential artworks that I saw while away. I do believe the work of these ARTISTS is already filtering through my work in that I am being even MORE "sloppy" so to speak, with execution. Not a deliberate coursening but rather I feel I have been given permission to become more painterly by virtue of rougher edges, less precise compositions, and less selfconsciousness intellectualizing my ideas. I have been reading the catalogue for this particular exhibition ( The Architecture of the Quilt) and noticing more and more the amazing...almost miraculous...designing that appeared to just come naturally to many mant of the quilters. They had a passion to make every quilt personal and different while all along using very familiar patterns such as "rooftop" or"log cabin". Only their roofs and logs came from direct observation of their own surroundings and were exquisitely sensitive to the material they used....old dungarees, dress bottoms and scrap corduroy! Here's one I started yesterday....not gees bendy in style but I'm happy with the larger stitching and more impromptu fabric collaging.

The entire week was an amazing experience. Just working all the time, then playing over wine, then more hand work in the evenings with Rosemary Claus Gray and Claire Fenton. So many ideas bandied about! I confess I had great plans to work on NEW things...like printing fabrics and an abstract sort of thing I started at home and posted earlier to the blog. I DID work on the abstract a bit, but no printing, no stamping, not dyeing. I was just not interested in doing that! So I started on a new quilt that reflected the friends and get togethers we were having at the time. All in red as I had brought only a small amount of red fabrics...all mixed specialty type material. Velours, Embossed velvet etc.

JUDGING ART

2007-03-09T17:15:00.000-05:00

They are talking about judging on the artquilt list and once again I am baffled by the whole thing. Having come from 20 years in the so called FINE art market, It amazed me when the first artquilt I exhibited in a show came back with judge's comments. Thelma has gently pointed out on the list, that if you are in the real art world, your work gets shown in a gallery and comes back if not sold. period.

Now I know quilt shows have judges that have criteria that are "marked" for each individual. But in my opinion, if they have an ART category, that sort of thing should be discontinued. It doesn't apply! Now I HAVE been in fine art shows that have prizes. So you get a prize. STILL the participants do not expect ( or even welcome) comments about their non-winning work. I am cranky today and this issue reminds me of some of the irrelevant comments that have been made about my fabric work....even work that has won an award! Every time I lecture, I tell every one that I don't care about the knots in the back of my work any more than I cared if my staples were evenly placed on a stretcher frame for a painting. However the judges of art quilts DO care! Well they shouldn't.

On a lighter note I am packing finally for my artists rendezvous at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida. I have not worked properly for two months now and look forward to a lively creative environment to get my batteries charged. I'm taking all my irregular quiltlets to see If I can make something of them:

Off to Atlantic Center for the Arts

2007-03-04T16:57:00.000-05:00

A week from today I start wending my way to Florida for a glorious week at the ACA. This will be the fourth time I've been, but the first when I will not be doing any teaching. About forty fiber artists will be there including several I have met through the quiltart list. And of Course Mary McBride who has become a real friend and who no doubt will be over at my place for wine and laughs .Picture here..... the last time I was there ....she had made about 30 hilarious hats out of paper for an upcoming event and we are modeling them. We are in the "annex" a really nice workroom off campus so to speak from The Atlantic Center. It's associated with Harris House a satellite gallery and studio space. They have a fab etching press there that I want to use . Rosemary Claus-Gray and Claire Fent and I are conspiring to work, play and drink together while we are there too.

Picture of the rooms at the Center itself, which by the way is in a beautiful peaceful setting, in a natural Florida hammock environment. All the studios, common rooms, dining room, library etc are connected by boardwalks to do as little damage as possible to the reserve. The rooms are spartan and efficient ...sort of a Meis Vander Roe feeling: Hmmm the pictures seem to want to go where I DON"T want them...but you get the gist.

As for MOI....I am pulling out ALL the stops and renting an artist's cottage..more pics in and out....absolutely beautiful little self-contained spaces...very private with all the amenities. Am renting a car too. DH thinks I'm extravagant...and he's right. But I'm like the L'Oreal commercial "I'M WORTH IT!" Also picture of studio we used for my workshop. But there are dirty studios for wet work, painting studios, computer labs, theatres...everything! Did I mention the dining room? With an on site chef? and delicious gourmet meals three times a day?

I think there are still a few spots available.......tempted? Here's Mary's email just in case: mrsgorgon@gmail.com

Running away

2007-03-02T22:44:00.000-05:00

Not really....but looking forward to going to the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida in less than two weeks. I have done so little work so far this year. Spent a lot of time "experimenting"...surface design mostly, only to discover it isn't really what I want to do. I had succumbed to the dreaded comparing-my-work-to-others syndrome and became dissatisfied with what I do. But it's out of my system and I'm ready to move back to MY thing. There is still lots to learn and explore and much improvement needed so I will still feel challenged. I kind of need that in order to get excited about what I'm doing. Anyway here's what I spent all of February doing:http://pamelart2.homestead.com/miscellaneous.html
Hmmm I hope that link works...I'm such a dud sometimes with cyberstuff.

2007-02-26T22:27:00.000-05:00

Okay...I'm trying again....here's me, fairly recent altho' I may be a little chubbier now. the hair is a bit shorter too as I always compulsively cut it when I'm worried or stressed....and I am right now but this too will pass. I shall wait to see if this appears on the planet by some miracle and then I will not feel so stupid about technology.

2007-02-26T21:27:00.000-05:00

Okay here I am....now what do I do?