notions of the body in nature

Today I continue from yesterday's post, my inspirations and route to my voice

I'll put some further links.  I'm using the new blogger and the links take you to a new window.  I'm not sure that it is for the best.  Also, if you are having trouble commenting, feel free to email me.  xo

African textiles   here   and   here   and here  and here  and here

Indian textiles       here      and here    and here 

Japanese textiles    here    and   here     and    here     and here

and my body

Quilts from Western India

       Permaben Maheshwari Dangera, Nani Khakhar, Kutch , Gujaret, India

collected by Patricia Stoddard and Martha Wallace
for the International Quilt Study Center and Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska

Permaben's quilts are improvisations on traditional styles.  This quilt is named Laheria (waves) which is the name of a tie dye motif for men's turbans but instead of the dye method, Permaben used thin pieces of cloth to make the zig zag motifs.

Permaben Maheshwari Dangera from Nani Khakhar, Kutch, Gujaret. 
Collected in India by Patricia stoddard and martha wallace
for the International quilt study Center and museum, Lincoln nebraska

In this mustard yellow quilt we again see Permaben'soriginal style.  There are no repeating patterns.   "The people in the village made fun of me" she told the researchers from the International Quilt Museum.

In this post are a few of the godhari (quilts) in the collection of quilts from Western India now on display at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum in Lincoln Nebraska USA.  For more, please visit this online link.   I am quite excited by these textiles.  As I am not able to visit the exhibition in person, it is wonderful that the internet allows us an opportunity to see the quilts. 

The next 4 square-shaped quilts are all made by members of the fortune teller group (joshi).  The one above was found near Pune, India by collector, Geeta Khandelwal.

The above godhari was found near Baramati,  also by Geeta.  At the link you can read about her time in these villages, and how eager the women were to show her their work.

The one above was found near Pune, also made by a member of the fortune telling group and collected by Geeta Khandewal.

This black one is from Wai, a village near the resort town of Mahabelshwar Maharashtra, another collected by Geeta.  The base fabric is a rarely worn black sari onto which the artist patched strips of colour radiating out from a face to represent the sun.

Siddi women's Quilting co-op member, Mibjam Bausabi, Uttar Kannad, Kamataka

The Siddi are an ethnic group descended from East African people who came as slaves to India in the  16th Century.  The women have made quilts for generations.

Iramma Kademari (1915 - 2010)  a bed quilt, made in Kumati Bijapur

The maker of the above quilt, Iramma, lived with 50 other family members all under one roof.  Over her lifetime she made more than 200 quilts from recycled clothing and bits of fabric.

These quilts are full of heart.  They are authentic expressions of enjoyment and love.
They make me happy.  

the private side

I pinned the daily practice wall pieces up on the design wall.
These are daily collages that I stitched on every day between January 1 and April 7 2018
In the first one, I tried to make collages about observations and intuitions.  (Super Moon an example)
In the second one, I used abandoned work, attempting to give new life to some cyanotypes.
In the third one, I just recorded the passage of time and the containment of love.

Then I flipped them back to front...and wow.

They stir my emotions more.
I wonder why.

the reverse of these pieces are simpler than the front
minimal colour
naked maybe, yet marked with those black dotted lines
they are sensuous
private

there's a serenity to them
maybe they are more spiritual
more connected to something ineffable

 the materials are wool felt and wool thread

they remind me of the sweet grass baskets stitched with black thread that I collect here on Manitoulin
made by the indiginous crafts women
this scented grass remains so sweet even when it drys from green to a golden colour.

I began collecting these small and simple lidded baskets when we moved here 25 years ago
this one holds some pieces of mica, gifts from nature

the three wall pieces also remind me of mbuti bark cloth from the congo in africa

click here for more examples of bark cloth

To make the daily practices, I stitched arrangements of plant dyed velevt to the felt

always designing from the front of the piece.

yet I prefer the back sides.

The inner side.
the inner world.

The front is too distracting and noisy.

we've been thinking about being alive for thousands of years 

Jessica Stockholder

the Ingrid Interview

Q When did you become interested in embroidery - or the textile arts?

A I became aware of world embroidery at age 25 when I was travelling in Great Britain.  I bought perle cotton, embroidery floss and a pattern book in a street market and worked on a linen sample, which I carried in my bike pannier over a period of months.  I also embroidered all the clothing i was wearing on this bike trip.  It was 1974.  I had been quilting since 1970

Q  What background do you bring to your interest?

A  Around the age of ten I learned to embroider by following stamped designs on pillowcases.  I remember loving this activity.  My mother helped me with some of the simple stitches.

When I was twelve I began sewing most of my own clothes.  Throughout high school I made the latest styles for myself such as flowered pants with solid co-ordinated jackets and zip up leather jumpers (made from upholstery fabrics).  I loved the challenge of creating them myself.  I wore these clothes to Expo 67 in Montreal when I was 16.

I also made a lot of Barbie doll clothes at that time for my younger sister's doll and was hired by several mothers to make wardrobes for their daughter's dolls.  These clothes were very imaginative and I used my mother's sewing scraps for them and very tiny buttons and trims that I found in the local Stedman's.  I also had success with my painting in high school and sold oil paintings to the teachers.

Q  How did you source your materials?

A   There were not many fabrics suitable for quilting in 1970 and I used recycled clothing in a variety of weights, as well as an old curtain to stitch my first quilt.  (which is probalby why it did not last).  For embroidery I used embroidery floss from the local five and dime.  When I was pregnant with my first child in 1978 I embroidered several blouses based on Eastern European designs adapted for maternity wear.  I did a lot of smocking and some embroidery for my baby Oona, born 1978.

Q  How did you source your designs?

I adapted sewing patterns and used embroidery designs I found in craft magazines.  I taught myself from diagrams and still have some of those maternity blouses.  I was also knitting and crocheting at the time and had a big collection of knitting magazines.

When Ned and I travelled through Western Europe in 1974 and 1975, a new magazine entitled Craft originated in Great Britain and was available on the Fort Frances newstands.  I asked my mother to collect them for me when we were gone (for over a year) and she did.  I still have those somewhere.

Q  Why did you pursue textile?

A  I think the main reason that I kept coming back to working with textiles is because I could fit it in with my life.  I had a passion for fine art and started painting with intent at the same time that I started having children in the late 70's.  However, embroidery, knitting and quilting could be picked up and put down again more easily and I found them satisfying and a great comfort.

I should also metnion that I began a fine arts degree in visual art in 1976.  I continued to work at this degree for nearly twenty more years, graduating in 1993.  My graduating exhibition was an embroidered quilt and a stitched paper installation in the form of a house.

Judy Martin in 2006 with her self-portrait quilt from 1985  (manitoulin expositor newspaper photo)

Q  How did your decisions impact your work?

A  Some decisions that I made during the 70's that had an impact on my work were:

1.  to have children (eventually we had four by 1987)
2.  to live in rural north-western Ontario (rainy River, thunder Bay, Kenora )   we moved to Manitolin Island in 1993
3.  to take a fine arts degree
4.  to have the ambition to make fine art

But this question is confusing as so many of life's decisions are made for you or happen along the way.  It takes a lot of will to be an artist of any type.

Q  What were your successes and what were your not so good results?

A  The 70's

In 1978 I made a lovely baby quilt for my dear friend Susan.  It was one of the first quilts I made.   It had a rocking horse appliqued and embroidered in the centre of a mass of triangles.  The colour scheme was red and white.   I made several more baby quilts during this time for my own children and also for my friends who were all having babies.

The 80's - I designed my first original quilt in 1982 and was really excited about it.  It was called Sleeping Giant and was an abstracted interpretation of a local landmark.  I remember being very excited to have such control over the arrangement of the geometric pieces and have them tell a narrative.  It was a break through. Before that I had made traditional quilts such as Bear's Pa,w, Dresden plate, Crown of Thorsns.

Another breakthrough came when I began dyeing my own cloth.  I started this after we moved to Kenora in the early 80's.

Another break throughs came in the 80's.  I stitched magazine papers into traditonal quilt designs and also family photographs which I arranged with seasonal fabrics.  I also began to use more and more embroidery in my quilts, and my piece entitled In the Centre of the Body is the Soul was made in 1996.  Every square in the central medallion is covered with dense chain stitch embroidery.

Q  What else can you tell me about your journey?

A  I spend time in the Textile Museum of Canada whenever I go to Toronto and over the years have been very much influenced by the world textiles on view there.  One year I saw large Indian embroideries that changed my life.  Covered with yellow, red, green and blue chain stitch, these hangings had such power and I felt such resonance when looking at them, that I knew I had to follow thorugh with this much hand stitch in my own work.  I've since taught myself some of the unique stitches used in Indian embroidery and have also studied African and Japanese dyed and stitched textiles.

A  Do you have images to help tell your story?

Q  Yes.  Lots.

..........................................................................................................................................................

This interview happened ten years ago (2007).  I came across it when cleaning out a drawer.  I do not remember who Ingrid was - I think she may have been a student from a college in Sudbury who chose me as a subect for a project.  If you are reading my blog, Ingrid - please let me know either through a comment or email.

As I go through my shelves and boxes and come across the items mentioned in this post, such as the clothes I embroidered in Europe and the blouses I embroidered when expecting babies - I will post them.  I have saved some Barbie Doll clothes too -

This is the first post that I have ever done that has no images.

Judy Martin in 2007 with daughter Grace (Manitoulin Expositor photo)

connected across continents with time and thread

The white cloths are from India.
The black cloths are from Sweden.
These are inspiring me now.
Don't you love how they resemble each other even though the makers never met?
Central floral, circular border decor, fantastical animals.  Red thread.
(The images are from books:   kantha and yllebroderier  )

The intensity of work built with thread, with its suggestion of obsession or even a kind of brilliant insanity is part of the viewer's experience.                                                                                                                                                                                     The process of stitching is meditative, essential in many cultures and traditions to quiet the mind and allow the spirit to evolve. Yet at the same time, there is a link to time passing and to the artist as a being in this world and the work is thus both physical and transcendent.

The contemplative, reflective nature of the process lends the work a depth and compelling gravity.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   There is a tradition of needlework through the ages and all that it means for women and cultures.  The ancestral legacy and dignity of needlecraft connects generations.    

                                                                                                                                                            Elaine Lipson (paraphrased a bit)                               

the huipil in Mexcio

self portrait with thorn necklace by Frida Kahlo  1940

Frida Kahlo expressed her love of country by wearing national costume. This blog post is about the Mexican huipil.

huipil 1964   Oaxaca, triqui culture  cotton and wool tabby, broocade

Huipil : Mexican tunic

huipil 1964   detail 

huipil  1950  Oaxaca

Huipils are simple garments made with rectangles that have been woven on a loom worn by the weaver.

backstrap loom

The photos of textiles in this post were taken at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto in November 2015.    That exhibit is on until May 2016.

detail of  complex pictorial weaving   - supplementary thread brocade

huipil 1945-1950  very rare  Oaxaca Zapotec culture. weft-wrap open work

 All the textiles in this post were in glass museum cases which explains the quality of these photos.

detail of weft-wrap openwork.  the openings are created by wrapping the horizontal threads around the vertical ones

three huipils

huipil with supplementary thread 

detail  - is this embroidery or weaving?

blouse 1964 

 Blouses have now replaced the huipil in most communities in Mexico.

the indigo is running stitch, the red is "whirl pool" pattern done with sewing machine

After the Spaniards arrived, heavily embroidered blouses were preferred.  They are made from factory produced cloth.

self portrait with monkeys by Frida Kahlo 1940  

These portraits of Frida are of her wearing blouses.

self portrait with small monkey   Frida Kahlo  1945