in the middle of my story

I am an artist.

I live on a large island in Lake Huron.

I have lived here for 26 years with my husband.

Before that, I lived in North Western Ontario for 40 years.

My cities were Winnipeg and Thunder Bay, half day car drives away. 

I dream all the time.

I have made art my whole life.  

While raising my family of four kids, I taught classical piano and continued my art.

I constantly study art.

I obtained two fine art honours BA degrees through distance education. 

 In December 2018 I received the Craft Ontario award for mid-career excellence.

The name of the award (mid-career ) is inspiring.

Does that mean that although I am in my mid-60’s and have pursued art my whole life that I am merely in the middle of my artistic career?   Yay.

Mid-Career - those words make me want to go closer to the edge. 

Those words make me want to go deeper into myself.

I want to go somewhere on my art path that I have not been before, and that I do not know.

I want to be brave in this journey.   I want to take more risks.

the sun, the moon, and also the stars

moon, wool thread, wool felt 2018  Judy Martin

sun  wool thread, wool felt, acrylic paint ( in progress)  judy martin 

and also the stars  wool thread, wool felt, 2018 judy martin

 

Intuition and conceptual thought are married in most of my work.
And some of the time they live happily ever after.

But there is usually some tension along the way.

I need to make my work as true as I can.
Believable.

Real

I rely on the archetypal shapes of circle, cross and dot and use them as language.

The works in this post are the under-sides of pieces made last winter  (see here)

They are the backs I suppose.
Felt drawings
I plan to display them so that the original 'first side' will not be shown.

I don't mind that the original designs will be secret.
Believe me.

I took them outside and laid them in the garden, amongst the caterpillars
and forget me nots.

from left to right:  sun (february)  and also the stars (march and april)  moon (january)  2018

These three pieces document each day of January, February, March and half of April 2018.
I used velvet and found fabrics to make small collages on wool felt

which were then attached together.

I kept going until I ran out of felt.

Then I turned them over, and used the felt 'backs' as if they were pieces of paper
and made completely fresh and new drawings.

Drawings that don't have anything to do with the winter.

These new drawings will have their first showing in Halifax Nova Scotia this summer.
Penny Berens and I have produced an exhibition entitled Cloth Of Time.

the underside of the leaf

cool in shadow

sublimely unemphatic

smiling of innocence

Agnes Martin

Arms Race Catharine MacTavish

catharine mactavish arms race 1984 detail

I visited the Art Gallery of Ontario last week.
The most interesting piece for me was this painting by Toronto artist Catherine MacTavish.
I liked the scale of it.
I liked the layers of acrylic paint over and under beads.
I liked the slashes that are used as if drawn marks.

catharine mactavish arms race 1984 acrylic, glass and plastic beads, metal grommets

The painting dates from the mid 80's and I assume that the title refers to the nuclear arms race of that period of history.

The bead-marks are intuitive yet obsessive.  They attract yet repulse.
I yearn to touch them, even pick at them but they look as if they might rub away.

I'm afraid of that.

catharine mactavish arms race collection of Art Gallery of Ontario

It's white like a piece of paper, only extra large.
A cosmic scale.

arms race detail of acrylic and bead painting by Catherine MacTavish

It's hard to find information about this artist but there are several paragraphs on the Paul Petro gallery web site - here and here.

From these I learned that Catharine MacTavish studied at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and then at York University in Toronto during the early 70's and that she then exhibited at both artist-run and public galleries.  I learned that her work is included in important public collections, (the Canada Council Art Bank and the AGO) and that she acquired a Masters degree in 2005.  I learned that although she removed herself from the art scene during the late 80's she continued to make art.

"Each piece entails a slow conceptual and technical percolation, she produces one dense painting every two or three years."  Paul Petro. 

safe

One of the reasons I make quilts is that they make me feel so good.
I love to make them and I love to be wrapped in them.
The weight of those layers of fabric and miles of thread, combined with months of embedded, repeated touching is a perfection of comfort.

Above is a pencil drawing I did in 2009.
In it, I'm wrapped in Something More Magical Than It Ever Was.  also see here
A similar drawing with When Asked She Replied is on my website - see here.,  the quilt here

If that is why I make quilts, why do I blog?
Is this blog another cover-up?
Do I pull it over me when I need to feel in touch?

I'm sad that Leonard died.
I'm sad that Donald won.

I have a lot of readers who come from pinterest to visit images of work from years ago.
I do not need to write new blog posts for them.
I need to write for me.
I need to feel in touch.

I'm going to try to be more honest here.  (not safe) 

hoop by hoop

 one thing at a time

slowing down
hoop by hoop.
I don't need much really.
This enforced quiet time is just what I've been wanting.
hoop by hoop

I use the hoop as a design tool
I stay within its boundary
not planning but trusting
I'm not sure it will be OK

 "living is a form of not being sure,
not knowing what next or how
the moment you know how
you begin to die a little"  agnes de mille

an emergence
an unfolding
hoop by hoop
like nature does
hoop by hoop

the creative act is miraculous
it is defined by its situation

we are defined by our situation

studied simplicity
the world's fragility
the connection of textiles and healing
hoop by hoop

this piece is very large  (nearly 9 feet square)
the size means that it is part of my life for years
three years just for the stitching

hoop by hoop

this cloth is physical evidence
of hours of labour
of silence
of stillness
of healing for body and soul

 "the repetitive motion of a line
the caress of it
the licking of wounds
the back and forth
the endless repetition of waves
the rocking a person to sleep
an endless gesture of love"  Louise Bourgeois

hoop by hoop
made with the body
not the mind
with the heart and the empty quiet

you never know what's going to happen
please let me be myself and love me for it
hoop by hoop

nigel peake birds

I am re-organizing the single level of my house so that I can resume work on the project I was doing in my new studio.  I have emptied a drawer and a shelf and have set up my sewing machine and iron.

This book by Nigel Peake was on that shelf.

I think that I'll pass it on to my grand-boys.  They like to draw.

drawing with touch

A drawing with thread

framed without glass, sewn to a linen-covered board

and placed on a wall with Tortoise (my sister's acrylic painting)  and the Energy Cloth I made in 2011.

Just looking.

To see an earlier presentation, entirely different,  click here.  

mothers almost always mean well

"Don't use up words to get rid of tension....

 That tension should be in your sculpture."

                                                                                                                     Henry Moore

                                                                         

New Life

Welcome to the world, Aili Evelyn Martin. 

 

Born in Toronto on March 25, 2014 to Jay and Erika.

Ned and I visited  

A beautiful miracle.

what makes a drawing?

 

 

 

 

 

The drawings were made in Nova Scotia
charcoal and acrylic paint over two pages of sketchbook
The photos were taken here on Manitoulin
my first day back