layering

Moon of Kindness  2018 by Frances Dorsey
dyed printed, stitched pieces of old discarded table linens, natural dyes
42" x 42"

In 2018 we were in Halifax, and visited the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.  While there I came across Nova Scotia artist, Frances Dorsey's work with domestic linens.  I share them here, so that I can see them again.

 I like the way the fabrics are layered and allowed to hang rather free.

Moon of Meanness  2018 by Frances Dorsey
dyed, printed, stitched old discarded table linens, natural dye
42" x 42"

The artist holds back on the addition of stitched marks, although she used stitch resist with dyes.
This is interesting and informative for me.
The fabrics have a different way of hanging when they are not stitched.
The layers are more evident.

Dorsey uses the archetype of circle within a square, and I identify with that.

These next three images are of pieces by Berlinde de Bruckere, an artist from Belgium. She  also layers her fabrics and does not stitch them much.  The holes and tatters in her work reveal layers that are sometimes 16 inches deep, more like sculptures. Go to this link and watch the short video.  Then you will have more understanding of how evocative her work is.

Fabric is very evocative of the human body as both are so vulnerable to aging and exposure to the elements.  Berlinde de Bruyckere's pieces have a sense of history and memory.
There have an emotional narrative, about love, suffering, and time.

 "I want to show how helpless a body can be.  It's nothing you have to be afraid of - it can be sometimes beautiful"  Berlinde de Bruckere

 Shot through the Heart 2010  by Frances Dorsey

used linen napkins coloured with natural dyes, oxides and metal salts
screen printing, discharge, stitching  108" x 108"
and click here  to see another direction that Frances Dorsey takes with dyed table linen.

Moon and Chrysalis number 2 by Junko Oki  2017

stitch, wax, cotton bandage over an iron frame

39.5" square  ............ and I continue in my admiration for Junko Oki 

paintings

with your dominant hand

 ask yourself a question

with your non dominant hand

write yourself the answer

Text: spoken by fellow participant Anne Barkley during our workshop with Janice Mason Steeves over the weekend
Images: some of the studies I did with cold wax and oil paint

addition then subtraction then addition ...

Egg, Rochelle  Rubinstein, block printed, painted and carved wood panel

I respond to this carved wood panel by Rochelle Rubenstein.   It reminds me of Paterson Ewen's work with routered plywood, cosmic imagery.

The rugged material, uneasy horizontals, and jaggedy marks tip me into some unnameable emotion.

Her marks are made by taking away material.  She subtracts.  This is opposite to stitch.  Stitch adds.

I saw Rochelle Rubenstein's piece  in  Momento Mori , the exhibition curated by Gareth Bate for the World of Threads festival from works that were fibre inspired, not fibre based.

Cohobate, Nicole Collins, wax, pigment, jute twine on canvas, on board

World of Threads also introduced me to the layered work of Nicole Collins.

She begins with a layer or two of wax and paint, which are then partially removed by scraping or melting, only to be reapplied slightly differently.
The show is up until November 25 at the gallery in Sheridan college of Art and Design, Oakville, Ontario..

I was inspired to research these two Toronto artists online.  A humbling exercise...there is so much..

 Holy Well , Rochelle Rubenstein

Humores, Nicole Collins, encaustic on canvas

"painting is so difficult

life is so short"

Louise Bourgeois

the blue and the dim and the dark

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.

William Butler Yeats

This encaustic collage is part of an art show at the Little Current library next month. I'm delivering it today.

The Principles of Uncertainty

gunnera leaf rubbing on cotton bed sheet, waxed.

I have heard from Middlesex University and they have indicated that they are looking into ways to ensure that we do graduate. Something positive will come from this. Thanks v much for the encouraging emails and comments. I am OK. I noticed my own old work yesterday when I wrote that post. Those giant leaf rubbings were first made in 2007, then in 2009 I painted them with hot wax. Stumbling, taking risks, I don't know where these are going, or if they're going anywhere at all.

I've also been re-reading The Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman, a most excellent graphic masterpiece. I keep it at the cottage and read it every year around this time.


Step, step, step.
How are we all so brave as to take step after step?
Day after day?
How are we so optimistic, so careful not to trip and yet do trip, and then get up and say OK.

and what you do not know is the only thing you know

Open Heart, encaustic on paper, thread on silk

The text is from East Coker by T.S. Eliot.

You say I am repeating
Something I have said before. I shall say it again.
Shall I say it again? In order to arrive there,
To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,
You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.
In order to arrive at what you do not know
You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess
You must go by the way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not
You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are is where you are not.

The complete poem is here. I read this verse as advice about how to be an artist (and a human). How scary it is to do things that one really wants to do, rather than fall back on what one knows how to do already.

This piece sold through the Perivale in August.

Jeana Marie has stretched her hand out to me from Australia. I stretch mine back to her with an open heart. You've gotta be in awe of it, the power of the internet.

mixed media with stitch

open heart
encaustic on paper, thread on silk, text by T.S. Eliot
Shield for my open heart
block print, couched metal thread on book pages

The Perivale gallery opens for the season on May 23 so I took these two new mixed media pieces over to Minemoya for framing today.
We had snow.

intuition

I brought this piece of en caustic printed linen with me as a sample for the workshop, but did not get to start stitching into it until everything was over.


I don't KNOW what I'm doing, but it is a great comfort to me just to stitch while talking with my dad.

We watch Coronation street and the news together.

I stitch.

ceremony for innocence

I made this piece last summer when I was experimenting with wax, ink, paper. It has hung since them by a clip in my studio and I have never grown tired of it. I wasn't sure what to do next, and finally decided to do nothing but add some stitch. Last night I took it and five other new pieces to Gloria to have them framed up for the two exhibitions in April. More on those later.

the dress again

I've been working with the motif of my black dress for the last few weeks. The experiment pictured here uses one of my favourite combinations of materials, hot wax and ink. It's not finished yet but I'm putting this image up anyway because I'm excited about what happens with wax. Wax ages things with a fragrent transparent layer. It removes the artist's control of the image and replaces it with chance and intuition.

Its about the inner self in contrast to the presented self.
Its about invisible emotions and the visible control of those emotions.
Its about being here. It's also about being elsewhere.

Gunnera

I love these rubbings of giant gunnera leaves that I made a couple of years ago. Today I painted over them with hot wax. They have become more important. They're older. Wiser.





View of swing bridge from studio window.

earth sky connection

Rose came to my studio yesterday to pick up this stitched waxed piece that she purchased during the art tour last July. I'd been meaning to photograph it all summer but because it's so large (22 x 45 inches)it's a hassle to remove the glass. I'd been waiting until I had more free time. Ha.

Anyway, I wanted a document of how it looks finished. I'm sure if I need a better photo, I'll be able to get one.

Perivale closed for the season

The half light
wax and ink with collage 2009

The Perivale Gallery has now shut its doors for the winter and this is one of the pieces I picked up yesterday. I still seek a good commercial gallery that is not so seasonal. Until then, I'll store the stuff.

David Reid and Ivan Wheale (with his wife Jean) were also picking up their paintings and it was nice to accept Sheila McMullan's offer of a glass of wine and share some stories with everyone for a bit. Ivan Wheale is the Perivale's main 'seller' and is being honoured with a large retrospective this coming January at the Art Gallery of Sudbury. He also has gallery representation in Toronto at the Odon Wagner gallery.

Ritual

A life passage like birth requires the attention of a special textile.
Cloth touches the surface that it wraps. It is intimate.

I am planning a new baby quilt.
We are expecting another grandchild in the fall.

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.

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.