Tuesday, May 26, 2015

charged with energy

When I realize that I have brought something new into the world, I can tell myself again that I am not a fraud.

In this piece I am using a combination of two opposites, the seductive and the repulsive, to create something new.  It's not a story cloth really.
There is no meaning other than an artwork charged with energy.
My thoughts come and go so quickly yet the work progresses slowly.
I'm faster than me.
The threads and fabrics are familiar things used in an unfamiliar way.  What is usually used to make a neat seam or a mended pocket, is used here in a messy and raveled manner.

An affront to what is expected, but like a storm we want to watch, it gives a bit of a thrill.
We want to touch it to see if it's true.
The work starts to invent itself.
It's not that I lose control, but things happen that although interesting are not my original idea.
It's as if I'm ordered to do something that doesn't come from me.
In this piece I am working from the back, which gives me some control.  There has to be order, even though I am using cut bits of threads and frayed cloth which are couched and then covered with snugly pulled running stitch.

I am always working from both sides.

beautiful - ugly
control - lack of control
shape - line
order - chaos
front - back
fast  - slow
Working with opposites is what drives me to continue with the making over a period of months.
For me it's exciting to see the messiness under my control.
Untidiness is the subject.   That's interesting.

The smoother side is a bit too charming, but it is the result of that raw inner making.
I try to give my work that extra edge.

28 comments:

Mrs. Sew and Sew - Karen said...

Judy I have read your blog for a very long time....years in fact! I don't comment often! I love your work. I have a craving to see it in person someday!

Mo Crow said...

working the random with intent
almost an oxymoron
& yet it works
in your hands

Liz A said...

I have an inordinate amount of interest in b-sides ... they fascinate me. And I love your notion of working from the back, which I sometimes do to overcome my tendency to be extremely precise.

Likewise, the picture of sun on water is spot on in conjunction with your cloth ... they are (arguably) the most potent forms of power/energy on earth

Silvana said...

non so il perché ma quando vedo i tuoi lavori mi emoziono mi piacciono un sacco sono proprio delle opere d'arte
complimenti

Heather said...

Both Sides Now!

Thread Born said...

Hi Judy- Many thoughts are forming in my head after reading your post today. I've decided to focus on going back to my stitching roots this summer...really experimenting with the basic stitches...this was an inspiring post to read. Thank you for this and the many inspiring posts you write!-Julie

Robbie said...

This is amazing!!!! My love of handwork is always reinforced by reading your posts!!! Again, a WONDERFUL piece!!!

Martine said...

Stitching with no intention of story and then the story forms itself...........

jacqueline said...

Absolutely beautiful....thank you for sharing the work, the thoughts, the process......

Occidental Tourist said...

Wonderful, beautiful, evocative. I like the idea of the work taking its own path.

Lorie McCown said...

It's really coming along~love seeing your processs.

Judy Martin said...

Thank you for all comments. I appreciate them and they encourage me.

I've been stitching into this piece for two months. Its one of the indigo runners I dyed for my daughter's wedding a year ago. The base fabric is a wool twill - which has a good weight for all this stitch. I'm using Denim thread to couch with, I suppose it's usually used for mending jeans.

I am pleased when some of you say this is an inspiring blog. Sometimes we never know where our next inspiration will come from. We have to be so alert.

xx

jeanne hewell-chambers said...

i am enthralled. i feel right at home. i feel unbridled energy.

jeanne hewell-chambers said...

and now that i've come back to read the comments, i see that this is created from the runners used at your daughter's wedding over a year ago. funny (in that way that brings on not gales of laughter but nods of Knowing) . . . in the last 2 weeks, i've pulled out the huge, near-unmanageable cloth (Only Love Survives) i made from table runners used at my son's wedding and have decided to rework it into something more pleasing (whatever pleasing is). i do this to work through, untangle, remake into something new and more palatable my feelings about and memories of the wedding.

grace Forrest~Maestas said...

THIS WHOLE THING...the work, the words, just all of IT is
well....it is just.....
......EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!...........
the feeling i get in my chest, reading, looking,

Tina said...

This cloth speaks to me, the water, the gentleness of the water across a lake

Threadpainter said...

I, FINALLY !, got to see your beautiful work on display at the Homer Watson Gallery last week ... mind-blowing when seen up close and personal ! Now I want to see this piece and feel the love you place deep within your canvases.

Lisa said...

Stunning! And soothing

Ms. said...

It's an inspired departure arriving here.

Susan said...

I really love that you have used your daughter's wedding runner as a part to another whole. It's what I love about making things with cloth. That it can be stitched into or onto another cloth so that it might never really be the end of it. All of the fabrics holding a bit of what they may have been even when they become something else and all of the layers of everything and everyone involved in that. Always inspiring, thank you Judy.

jess said...

Oh my gosh Judy you're making me absolutely HAVE to try this technique. I love the drape of the fabric, the energy, and the honesty you create. You're never a fraud. You're an inspiration, a nurturer, a teacher and so much more.

Unknown said...

One meaning of topography is: "the distribution of parts or features on the surface of or within an organ or organism". Is your current work "the topography" of your life at the moment? You are making it and it has become part of you - or should that be, it is part of you and you are making it?

Annettevdbp said...

beautiful. It reminds me a bit of Van Goghs Starry Night for some reason

Carli The Quilter said...

Lovely wild abandon stitching to your hearts content.

Carli The Quilter said...

Judy,
I'm into textile art and live BC. Please check into Good Earth Quilting blog. I'd love to follow your blog.

Elizabeth said...

found on Pinterest... wat mooi is dit.

Unknown said...

I love your work, came across this through Pinterest. Thank you, it's inspirational and I agree with Annettevdbp it also does remind me of Vincent's Starry Night.

Audrey Reiss said...

Me too, though I live so very far away, in the north of England.