Making Marks

Fiber Art Experiment

One of my work friend/colleagues is having a baby in May and I decided to hand decorate a onsie. It almost did me in!

First, I have been trying to work with the supplies I have. . . and I have Adirondak spray-on color washes that are supposed to be colorfast on fabric. I have played with these a lot on silk scarves, but I haven't tried dyeing a garment such as this. It took several tries to get a color I liked for the background. Next I used a flower stencil (out of chipboard that I think was intended for scrap booking) and Memories Mist to apply the flowers. (This product also is permanent on fabric after heat setting.) I cut my own stencil and painted on the leaves using a Shiva Paintstick. Finally, the centers of the flowers are a pearly fabric paint. Whew! I'm glad I don't do this every day.

Abstract Lanscape

Late in 2008 I was using the Zentangle concept to start making some little piece of original art every day. After drawing for a month, I started putting small windows into the designs so they would have a distinct focal point. That turned into embossed pastels. I like these, and I wanted to try something similar with oil pastels.

One of my recurring inspirations is the landscape of my daily drive to work. I started making doodle designs for crops, trees, mountains, etc. and they became the foundation for the abstract landscape shown here. This one is oil pastel with gouache painted on top. The pastel resists the gouache and gives a flat background. I learned this from Ann Altman.

After I took this picture and posted it, I noticed that the two dark green marks in the lower left stand out. I'll go back and adjust. That's one benefit of taking photos of my work. Somehow I can see what needs help more clearly in a photo than I can in the original.

Carved Rubber

Happy spring! The blooming trees inspired me and I decided to try a carving a flowering tree image. This is the next step in the book I've written about, Finding Your Own Visual Language book by Jane Dunnewold. She suggests carving stamps to use for future projects in the book.

I've been trying to let go of making images for specific purpose and just carve stamps for the fun of it. Most of the images I made are much more abstract. As I look at them again; however, they look somewhat like an aerial view of the Willamette Vally - fields and farm roads. My environment is definitely an influence on my work!

Paper Houses

These little guys (approximately 3.5" x 2.5" x 2.5") are made from a Gocco print. I like how the design translated to a 3D form. The houses are identical, so you can see different views of the same design. The house shape was inspired by a directions sent in an e-mail from Go Make Art. Theirs was made from playing cards, and I just modified it a bit and cut shapes from my printed papers.

One end of the house has a hole punched out where I hung a little charm. You may be able to see writing inside since the house unfolds to lay flat. I'm sending this to a friend for her birthday.

As I wrote the title to the post, I was thinking that people who live in paper houses shouldn't play with matches! : )

Another Klee-Inspired Piece

I mentioned the need to mess around and explore different ideas. This is my third sketch that's inspired by Klee's garden pieces. Now I've got more control over the watercolor application, so the colors are the value I want instead of super-dark and saturated.

I think I'll work toward translating this idea into oil pastels. I could achieve interesting, subtle textures in the blocks of color. I like the overall concept that is developing, so this is a good area for more experimenting and exploration.

My sketchbook is getting more use than ever: it includes samples like this, photos and my drawn interpretation, and general images that inspire me. The size is very appealing (6x9") so the pages aren't too large to "fill up", and it's convenient for carrying around. I wonder - what's your sketchbook preference? Do you use one? What's in it?

More Klee

In college I took fiber arts classes - a lot of them. One of my favorite aspects of fiber arts was felt making. It was so fun to create fabric out of wool and skip the tedious steps of spinning and knitting or weaving.

I have also always been drawn to quilt designs. In the days when photocopies were expensive, I would trace designs out of books. I had notebooks full of copied and my original designs. I never finished a quilt, but I started plenty of them. The repetition of shapes still appeals to me; this is one of the aspects of Klee's work that speaks to me as well.

I've been looking at quilting magazines (Quilting Arts) and books (such as Nancy Crow's work) for inspiration. I'm not going to fool myself into buying more fabric for another quilt that won't happen. The photos are purely for the joy of looking at all those lovely color combinations and repetitious shapes.

Inspired by Paul Klee

Last summer I took a class in which some of the techniques and themes were inspired by Paul Klee's work. The images and ideas stuck.

I continue to think about the qualities of his work that bring me back. The paintings I'm currently focusing on are garden themes, such as Temple Gardens, Southern Gardens and Remembrance of a Garden.  One intriguing facet of his perspective is his value of primitive characteristics of images. Another draw is his idea of integrating a variety of arts (e.g. music and writing) into visual art. I've got several Klee books on my birthday wish list to learn more.

In the mean time, I've started working out some Klee-inspired ideas in my sketch book. This one turned out ok - I missed the mark when I wanted to change the focal point from one spot to another. As a result, some areas just got muddy.

Another thing I learned is how fabulous Inktense watercolor pencils (by Derwent) are. Some of the image here is colored in Inktense and some in Lyra Aquacolor crayons. I much prefer the Inktense and decided to order more colors.

Making Time to Mess Around

I have been known to be pretty goal driven. That tendency can be a good thing - I've accomplished many tasks, the biggest of which was earning my doctorate. However, like most strengths, focusing on goals has a down side. I tend to expect results from everything I spend time doing. That works in many facets of life, but not in my art work.

Try as I might, I've not been able to discern what I really want from my artistic efforts. I've had work published, and that satisfaction was short-lived. I taped a segment for a tv show. I joined a cooperative gallery and have been selling my work. I had a newspaper article in the local paper, and still I have this question mark about where I'm going and how I'll get there.

So I think it's time for some messing around. I'd like to work for several months without a specific outcome. To that end, I decided to enroll in an art class at the college. It's a little scary with a big question about if I really have time for it. But I think it's time to just mess around and find the right media and my artistic voice.

I envy people like Luann Udell who has such a clear vision about her inspiration, or the Seesters, Karen and Linda, who are driven by passion to help others make art. I hope I can this kind of clarity.

Embossed & Colored Doodles

My latest embossed pastel work combines the technique I learned last June with the Zentangle notion to create a pleasing synthesis. I see many possibilities with this technique and will continue to explore ideas. I'm working in a small format, so these invite experimentation.

As I was ordering more paper (hot-pressed watercolor) I saw a new type of pastel. I look forward to seeing how these work! The colors are luscious.

Gocco Prints - 1

I'm very happy with my Gocco machine! I'll have prints of my first design available at Lunaria since these coordinate with the paintings I did for my show with KC.

This photo is of the first steps I took when printing. I taped around the edges of the paper and masked areas that I wanted to print in the last steps. (These are circles cut with a hole punch out of sticky notes, so they stuck to the paper by themselves.) You can also see the samples I made of the Gocco inks on the papers propped up in the background.

These papers have had the first printing and are drying on the window sill. My office/studio is pretty small, so every space is used when I'm working on a big project. I was glad I took the time to apply tape for a clean edge since the ink bled out of the size I intended. You can see the punched circles lifted up a little and were an effective mask of the ink. The little white circles were part of the printed design.

The next layer was of a line design printed in blue ink. These were inspired by Rebecca Wild's class I took earlier in the summer and I also used in some of the paintings for the show.

This is a photo of the final image (5" x 7"). The last two layers I printed were the orange circles and then the blue marks over the circles. It's called Blue Gestures and there's a limited edition of 15. I also made one artist's proof.

I was so excited by this process and outcome that I've planned several more designs. Now I just need time.