new circles

These circle paintings are almost too easy, the colour and symbolic shape fall into calm yet dynamic pattern by themselves. This morning I returned to stitching. thrift shop table cloth, cut, gathered, then stitched back together

the circle is the most natural shape
it is complete and perfect

Amish sensibility

This week I've been finding ritual and order in my daily life by cleaning and by putting things away, seeking simplictity and sparseness. The house rewards this activity by giving us space to breathe again. No rushing to finish things for deadlines. No distinction between the sacred and the every day. I've also been reading old journals and occasionally come across things that I've forgotten all about. Like this:

"Sunday, Jan 9 2000
April fell through the ice yesterday. Her new thing is to go down to the edge of the ice and try to break off an ice berg to float away on. The water is so shallow, only ankle deep, so I wasn't worried too much, but yesterday was a scare. She was wearing Jay's huge boots because Jen was borrowing hers and they got full of ice water. Now she's soaking her feet in hot water.
"Maybe you'd better stop that activity" I say.
"I'm going to stop it" she said, looking at me very very seriously."

horizon line

recycled linen table cloth, beads

He gestured out toward the horizon, where a clear sky bordered prairie grasses as far as the eye could see. "Eventually, I fell under the spell of that line over there. It was so simple: a huge block of blue on top of a block of gold prairie, and the quiet line between heaven and earth stretching endlessly. It felt like freedom itself to look at the horizon.

from the novel, Loving Frank by Nancy Horan (about Frank Lloyd Wright)

Little Current United Church

The module I'm studying this summer for my degree is Liturgical Embroidery and I am thrilled to have found inspiration for a new body of work. A lapsed church goer, I've been welcomed into the Little Current United Church in order to discuss the subject with the minister, Faye Stevens. This simple church was built 125 years ago, with a lovely blue wall behind a large cross at the front of the building, and large empty spaces along the congregational pews. The first shapes I like to use in my work continue to inspire because of all the symbolism they carry. For this body of work, I'll use the circle, the cross and the square. Because of the requirements of the module, I have to go through a commission process and it's required that I make designs ahead of time. (Who would have thought?) Pictured are the two paintings I've done so far. My idea: four 90 inches square wall pieces to fit between the windows that would act as caring, intimate, hand stitched meditation devices.

empty circle

Yesterday, I had too many people in my life. Today, I need solitude.

Clover Field

The scent of all this clover and vetch along the side of my road is just as heavenly as the sight of it. In fact, I think that all of Manitoulin is lusher than usual with wildflowers this year.

Protection Study: Metal

Yesterday, I went to Spring Bay with some work to exchange in the Perivale Gallery. I gave Sheila Trillium Boat, Light of the Moon, Twenty Four Hour Care, The Dim, blue, dark Cloth and Protection Study: Metal. She was pleased I think.

Red Thread: the sweater

I took home four (uncommercial?) pieces. Red Thread: the sweater, The smocked dress, Seed, and On the Edge.

be contemporary

BE CONTEMPORARY.

Be unafraid to express the times in which we live.

Information that we gather with our senses (touch, smell, taste) is MORE REAL than that which we find with abstract thought.

red sky, red water

I think we might save ourselves from destruction by admitting what is close,
what is intimate,
what is real.
By perceiving the world with greater intimacy,
which in turn,
leads to kindness.


David Hockney

Julia Caprara School of Textile Arts

I received an email yesterday from Winy Smit with a link to the new Julia Caprara School of Textile Arts website. This website is only one page so far, but getting it up and running demonstrates the professional commitment of the RE-organization. Fellow student Chistine Spencer's blog gave me some insight into recent grads of the degree program and following her advice, I searched for Susie Vickery and found her website. Christine also raved about Andrea Butler's work and when I googled Andrea Butler, I found a Canadian textile artist who makes remarkable tapestries, but it's not the Andrea that Christine meant.

the blue and the dim and the dark cloths of night and the half light

I just finished this wax and ink piece and will display it over the weekend in my Little Current studio during the art tour. The title is adapted from W.B. Yeats' lovely and famous poem, He Wishes For the Cloths of Heaven.

Here's more.

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.


Manitoulin Art Tour
Friday through Sunday
11am - 4 pm

Manitoulin Art Tour

I spent the entire day in the studio, preparing it for the Manitoulin Art Tour. For the first time other artists will be exhibiting in my space along with me. Heather Thoma's colourful weavings, Andrea Smith's pottery and Christine Williston's masks are set up now, as well as a new wax painting by our daughter April. (pictured)
I've put up my prize winning quilts as well as several new works on paper. I wrote notes about the quilt process and pinned them up beside my quilts and hope that visitors will respond in my guestbook. Here's one of my notes.

holy yes

jingle bells, recycled wool, seed stitch

The cross is the simplest geometric form. It appears so extensively, it is the most important and holiest of symbols. The cross appears in the most remote corners of the earth. It was used by primitive man as an emblem, and always it is associated with reverence and spiritual power.

It has always meant LIFE.

New Sister

This is a detail of a drawing I did in 1989. In preparing my studio for the Manitoulin Art Tour this coming weekend, I am putting up a display of new work and taking down the paintings I had up for the Canada Day Open House. I'll put them on what's available for purchase over the next few days.

ladder stitch

I'm using the ladder stitch to create surface texture on this large silk quilt. It's a new stitch for me. Thanks, Linda.

The Circle

wholeness
original perfection
roundness is sacred, it is the most natural shape
self contained
the self
the infinite
eternity
time-enclosing space
timelessness - no beginning or end
spacelessness - no above or below
It was my birthday weekend and we spent it at the cottage. April made this beautiful cake to celebrate.

Lace

Lace Camp starts next week and yesterday April and I drove to Gore Bay for a lesson in bobbin lace from the camp founder, Tini Pel. We also visited the Gore Bay museum where two art exhibits are up for the summer. Malgorzata Wolak Dault's watercolous of strewn carnations may have inspired me to paint again.






We stopped in to see my work at the Perivale gallery in Spring Bay and visit with the owner, Sheila McMullan.





It was a lovely way to spend time with my daughter. Shown are the lacy doors and windows seen last spring in Paris with Ned.

That was then

Watercolour, 1996 - Grace (about age 10) and two friends.

Happy Birthday Grace!

Momstuff

The LaCloche show looks amazing, the prep for the wax workshop proved worthwhile, the opening went well, the place was packed, the word "different" was used to describe my work, two of my pieces sold, the brief talk I gave before the awards presentation is posted in my updates .

That was yesterday.

Today Grace wore this lovely brides-maid dress in Courtney and Scott's wedding.
I moved the zipper, took in four seams, shortened it by two and a half inches.

Prep for workshop

I've been working off and on with hot wax since 1996. In 2006, I discovered that the transfer of wax onto a second surface gives unpredictable but often beautiful results. I'll demonstrate the process in Friday's workshop.

wax transferred from paper to linen
wax tansferred from cloth to cloth

Grace is home. April is home.

wax workshop

wax resist, dye on cloth
I've been asked to give a workshop for the LaCloche participating artists this coming Friday. A month or so ago I told the committee that I would demonstrate my wax techniques on paper and on cloth and now it's in stone on the website.
Basting to a backing on the kitchen floor.

My method focuses on using wax as a resist. To simplify here it is:
heat wax, apply , scratch into wax if desired, add dye or ink, allow to dry, remove wax.

There's an earthy feel to anything wax touches, I'd say.

This will not be an encaustic workshop - it's only two hours in length. However, I am starting to experiment with encaustic, adding colour to my wax. Perhaps I have the LaCloche committee to thank for pushing me in this direction.