seeking grey

rug hooking wool

There are leftover potions from April's visit
goldenrod, onion, avocodo, sumac drupes, sumac leaves, and iron water
and I am seeking grey from them.

linen damasks

cool grey, warm grey,
it's not a neutral for me
it's a magical lifter-upper in my cloth paintings
any colour placed next to grey, glows

cotton, some overdyed

tanin plus a little iron = grey

Iron water can be made by soaking rusty bits of iron in a solution of vinegar and water for a few days before adding to the plant solution..
Alternatively, ferrous sulphate (available from Maiwa) also works to sadden the plant colour

Also,
I have been having new ideas.
The trick is to be AWAY from the studio for a month or so,
then return home and start cleaning it.
Ideas flow like water.

if you keep working on old ideas, new ones can't show up.
cosmic law

Notes from my journal

 

 silk and wool coloured with coneflower and iron

My teacher told me that my work did not fit into the modern aesthetic. 

But we aren't in the modern aesthetic.  That has happened.  Whistler.  Monet.  Monet only became really good when he was 70 and did those water lily paintings.

It took him his whole life to find his own voice

Monet empowered himself. 

Monet said to himself - "why should I paint a background -  a foreground -a middleground - when all I really want to show is the foreground?"   Those water-lily paintings are  huge. 

Monet would have failed art school.

Use your imagination.  Work beyond the eye.
What is imagination?   Is it your mind?  Not only.
You have to let your heart loose too.
Connect with your HEART.

If you want to reach a different level - an inner attitude, more pleasurable, more imaginative - then you need to go beyond what other people think.

Carl Beam

 

Images in this post are of fabrics I dyed with plants this past month.  I used coneflowers, walnuts, iron, and time.

As I continue with my project of reading old journals and then wrapping them, (see here),  I come across remarkable things.  In this post I am sharing notes I took while listening to Manitoulin Island's Governor General's Award winning artist, Carl Beam  speak in 2004.     

red rose and madder

 red rose tea bags and madder

I cooked frozen used tea bags with soy beans and water, drained that off and then added linen cloth (right) and silk-rayon velvet.  I added madder extract then and the fabrics turned a pink-tan colour.  I brought them to a simmer,  (not boiling) for at least an hour and then steeped them over night.

In the same potion the next day, I added alum powder from the grocery store plus madder powder from Maiwa and dyed some wool, silk and silk-rayon velvet cloths.  On the line, velvet on the left, and then wool, wool, and finally silk.  (a little pinker)

On the third day, I added a procion mx conectrate of chinese red to the mixture and dyed 4 more pieces of cloth a true red .  From the top, silk hemp, wool, wool, velvet.  Truly a gorgeous red  - the method used was with heat as for natural dye.  Bring the liquid with cloth immersed to a simmer and then steep overnight.

Also, I am still adding red edges to hankies embroidered with circles.

A cardinal came to our feeder and stayed calm while several chickadees flitted in and out and around him.   I admired his redness and stead fastness.

delight

detail of front - silk with silk and wool thread, judy martin

most of the back, quilted with hand embroidery, silk with wool batt, judy martin 100 " square

I put my silk quilt through the gentle cycle with cold water and hung it on the line.

make my way without a map

say yes to the experience that comes

trust beyond measure

Luce Irigaray

credo/indigo

 I believe that there is a mysterious and graceful and miraculous coherence stitched through this world.

 I believe that everything is prayer.

I believe that love is our greatest and hardest work.
text :  Brian Doyle
images:  indigo dyed damask and artist's coat.

who has seen the wind?

Working at this large scale (9 feet) involves my whole body. I need to stretch the cloth out as I stitch the long lines. I use big arm gestures, like making a bed.It's impossible to get a sense of what the work will look like while I stitch it. I have to go on trust. I step on it. I get lost in it when it's in my lap. But because cloth is soft, and folds up, I can carry this off. I can work on a monumental scale. I'll leave it to my daughters to work with steel, cement, and oceans. (which they each do)

How do you clean an ark?

Earth Ark In the delicate cycle,




and dried on the line.














Sunlight with Marimekko fabric back Clean. Draped over the sofa. Back view. and the couching survived.