November 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

protection blanket, reverse side, procion dye on rayon, hand quilted 2005

 
I make very simple, large constructed textiles.  All my work is hand stitched, a slow method that gives me solace as well as a place where I can gain perspective on world events. 

wrapped form, my mother's clothing, wrapped in sheet, life sized  2007

The concept and technique of wrapping and being wrapped grounds most of my work. 

I think about their mothers, newspaper clippings, graphite, on 22 x 30 inch paper, 2008

I create installations of large-scale textiles covered with stitch in combination with wrapped bundles.  

gathering myself, silk thread on linen monogrammed pillowcase, 2009

Visitors move alongside and through the work as if in a natural environment, able to view both sides and understand the work through time and with the body.  My work is usually large scale and is densely covered with small marks.  

not to know but to go on, one skein of embroidery floss a day for three years, (2010 - 2013)  

Yesterday, I had to write a description of how I work.  When I wrote the few paragraphs, I was thinking of my newest pieces, but all the images in this post are from my early blog posts.  I found them in the first five Novembers in the archives. (see sidebar in web version) 

My work hasn't really changed all that much.  I still use wrapping and I still work very simply.

I am so grateful for this work.

Underfoot The Earth Divine

 

In this post I am trying something new.  By using the online record keeping that Judy’s Journal and My Process provide, I can show in a single post, the making and exhibition history of one of my best quilts,  Underfoot The Earth Divine.   

To view the original posts, just click on the date.   

January 1 2019

The sewing started from the middle on New Year's Day, 2019.

January 5 2019    

January 19 2019  

technique: machine piecing                                                                                                           materials:  a variety of linen damasks coloured with natural dyes.

February 17 2019    

I cut holes into the pieced strips and inserted velvet strips  to add interest to the sky area of the large emptiness.

September 10 2019    

Hand quilting starts from the centre with an oval hoop.  The backing fabric is naturally dyed linen damask, the batting is wool.  To make the large piece easier for me to handle in my lap,  I turn in the outer edges at first.  

February 7 2020    

The hand quilting is finished.

February 19 2020    

The back. 

July 17 2020    

Then the pandemic happened, and everything flipped including this quilt.  I turned the quilt so that the velvet pieces are at the bottom and added a couched yarn circle.  I was reading Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.  

"This then is life, here is what has come to the surface after so many throes and convulsions.           How curious!  How Real!  Underfoot the divine Soil, overhead the sun" 

September 13   2020  

December 31 2020    

I had professional photos made.  The reverse side has a name:   "Overhead the Sun"  

September 15 2021     

Underfoot the Earth Divine is part of the two person exhibition with Penny Berens, In the Middle of the World.  The show opened October 2 at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum and I was advised that a black sleeve would disappear into the dark ceiling when it was installed so that visitors could walk around it, and view both sides.  

July 30 2022        

I made a new sleeve for the Fine Art Textiles Shortlist exhibition in the UK.  (honourable mention award)

February 21 2023    

The second rendition of In the Middle of the World happened in spring of 2023, and Underfoot The Earth Divine was shipped to Kenora, Ontario.    

 November 6 2023    

Underfoot the The Earth Divine won the Schweinfurth Award at Quilts=Art=Quilts in Auburn, New York, last weekend.  

what does Rothko mean?

Then Rothko would sit and look for long periods.

Sometimes for hours, sometimes for days, considering the next colour, considering expanding an area.  He worked on more than one painting at a time.  The veils of colour were  actually applied quickly and spontaneously.

Most of the time in his studio was spent sitting silently on his bench and looking.

Dan Rice, Rothko's assistant  (quoted in James Breslin's biography of  Mark Rothko)

I don't know if he knew what he was doing.  I don't think artists always need to know what they are doing.  Artists often do more than they know they are doing.

David Antin art critic  (also quoted in Mark Rothko: a biography)

This post is a copy of the one I wrote when I studied Rothko for my UK degree.  Click here to see another 2007 post about Rothko that contains a self portrait of moi.

Click here for my post about Rohko on the modernist aesthetic blog.