Belgian Hump Author
PROM, 24" x 24"
Got back from Buffalo and was throwing out the dead roses the other day when I decided to photograph them first. I took a bunch of pictures and photoshopped them, then printed them out as large as I could without getting just pixels- I think these are about 18" long and should be printed about 6" for good resolution but I have discoverd that when you put these large pixel photos onto the canvas that they look like they are supposed to be like that. Sneaky me.
I am feeling a bit miffed, sent this to 10 people and have heard back from just ONE with any interest. Maybe I am sending too many? Maybe I will just post here and try not to feel like no one is talking because they hate it. Oh well.
The trip was awful, as I expected, but I did come back with many boxes of old slides- these are from the 30's and in glass mounts that look homemade. Most are of scenery in Colorado but there are some of my parents and some of their friends from back then- I don't think they were even married yet. There were also a whole bunch of me-as-baby, and a few more with Gary. Also it included some from my high school graduation and Beans too- I never knew these even existed and it was so good to find them. There are also a few from Parris Island when we went to Gary's graduation from boot camp in 1968, 6 months before he died. Anyway, it is interesting to look at them. Now I will think about what to do with them, gotta USE them.
Which led me to cleaning out the boxes and boxes of quilt slides I have accumulated. I have a wastebasket full, and have put 1975 through 2001 into a metal slide box, so neat. I saved all the envelopes for the information on the backs of where each quilt has been, but from now on I will do that on the computer.
Nate and I talked about updating my website, long overdue, but I am fired up about it and ready to spend the time. Trouble is I have to re-learn the code all over again. Oy, I am in the web dark ages!
June 22, 2004
Alligator Dryad Mad
MOODY, 24" x 48"
HOLD THE PRESSES. The name was just changed to
(drum roll) 'The Greater Good'
Thanks, Valerie. I am through brooding now.
Oh boy, here's yet another one. This one stemmed fromn a silk Chinese scroll that Max gave me last time she moved and had to clean out. I stuck it into the stacks and waited for it to turn to cloth compost, but yanked it out just in time. The silk was starting to break in the folds, lord know how old it might be. Anyway, it seemed to work great on the canvas stencilled fabric I made years ago, so I mounted the whole thing onto a stretched canvas and started with the glue process.
This morning Nancy Halpern called to tell me I have to enter the Fuller Recycling show, told her my stuff is already on their desks and that she should enter because all she uses are old recycled fabrics. She just got back from Haystack- I don't know why I don't plan that into my life, gotta do it next year. Wendy was after me to take some class on silk dyeing at Arrowmont this fall, but I am not interested in shibori---love it, just don't want to DO it. Guess I should put up the links for those two places, hold on.....
OK, put them both places so I can find them when I need to FOR NEXT YEAR, right?
I am on a quest for some tiny clothespins, photos OK too, for the Measuring Up project. I cannot find the ones I know I had at some point and am not in the mood to go hauling ass through craft stores for the rest of the day just for that, so will settle. I've been scannign Nate's source books and there were hangers but no clothespins I could use. Hmmm, actually maybe I would have some in that book of women through the ages. OK, I'm off to hunt down clothespins- for the time I spent at it already I should have just gone to Michaels. Geesh.
Oh, am headed for Buffalo tomorow in the morning and this time Nate is coming too. I know he will be champing at the bit about a minute and a half after we arrive, but he hasn't been there for 2 years now and he owes me. We have an appoint ment with an estate lady to see about clearing the dad's house out. I hoipe Nate finds something he can use. I have to remember to grab the iron skillets for Amanda this time. Sure wish I could sleep through this one. Be home Saturday.
June 18, 2004
Avocate Longevity Granule
MEASURING UP, each piece 6" x 8", can be arranged in a horizontal line also.
These generated no discussion at crit group the other night- I am thinking of adding a clothesline and some wee clothespins tieing the pieces together. I have quite a few dresses left and can back them and fuse them so they hang off the blocks from one to another, as if the dumpy paper dolls are choosing what to make next. Only Problem I see is finding clothespins about a half inch long. I used some on the Hearts and Gizzards quilt long ago, wonder if I can find more...
Meanwhile Maxine expressed some interest at having the pattern series at Friends Fiber Art over the Lowell Quilt Festival- haven't answered her yet. Don't think I want to do it unless she takes them all as a unit, we'll see if she'll go for that. It WOULD kind of make up for not getting in to any of the damn shows this year. A small presence, but at least I would be there.
June 18, 2004
Particular Remitted Belief
SYNC OR SWIM, 24" square
Today's horoscope: Leo- A private insight will show you the way -- and even those who have been most worried about you recently will be impressed.
Well, no one will be able to accuse me of not being busy. I finished up the Sync or Swim piece (above) over the last few days, the center changed about four times and I finally just took the Xacto knife to the canvas and backed the hole with some beautiful hand dyed silk. Then it was a matter of propping it all up so it dried flat. And it DID!!! Yea!!! I then added beads and some silk waste threads to look like a pool. I don't know why but the last few things seem to be about body image. I have my whole high school synchronized swim team floating on their backs and waiting for the features divers to dive into the center. Then, in the lower left is, of course. me- submerged in my own private pool away from scrutiny. Oy. The mermaid on the right is of course what I want to be. Who needs feet?
I have another canvas ready to go and I have all my pattern pieces categorized now and in labled bags so I can get at the ones with the good lines quickly. OK, so that's a little anal, I admit. I do have a whole bunch of great shaped bodice pieces, that will probably be the next idea to ferment.
June 12, 2004
Choirmaster Merriam Parch
Fuller Craft Museum
Well, damn. Last night I was getting an entry ready for the upcoming Trashformations show and realized that I didn't get one piece photographed at David's the other day. He's gone for July and in and out over August so it may be months before I see him again. Got the 75 slides all separated last night and ready to deliver at crit group Tuesday- the math kills me (!)
Today I get to The Art Store and spent more money in a shorter time that I can even do at Whole Foods! I was out in about 15 minutes. When I got the bounty home I discovered I got the wrong kind or gel medium so have to return. Today I've been spending time gesso-ing and underpainting. I have cut out a bunch of paper dolls and little dresses for them so that's what I'm aiming at- somehow they don't look right yet- can't figure out what's wrong at this point so I just keep cutting and stacking them up. Maybe later I will get to something more exciting.
Meanwhile I started listening to "My Year of Meats" while I am working- wonderful story so far.
June 10, 2004
Commercial Potomac Grit
The horoscope du jour: Leo- You know how to make things happen -- and there is something very big just around the corner waiting for you.
Yippee.
Yesterday we saw David and I had 10 pieces to photograph, probably the most ever. The slides will be done tomorrow and I am anxious to see how they come out since I have such a problem with reflections on a shiny surface. Unloaded the $15,000 worth of quilts I have been hauling around with me to S and J too, still have N's so I'll call her tonight to drop them off on the way to the gym tomorrow.
Got a new pattern collage started last night, but we left for dinner and when we got home the power was out AGAIN. I'm really getting tired of going to bed at 9 PM! Today I had jury duty all day so didn't get anything done except a few rows of knitting, and tonight L is dropping by so I can't get going with the glue until late. Tomorrow I must also get to the Art Store and stock up on canvasses. I seem to go through them like kleenex lately. I will be carless this weekend too since M and J need my car to go look for their car, don't ask...
And that's it for today.
June 08, 2004
Arteriolosclerosis Declamation Solvate
Today is Gary's birthday, always a sad day for me, you'd think that 35 years of 'sad days' would eventually end, wouldn't you?
Whew, my fingers are aching from hand sewing on the collage pieces- I am following the lines of the marbelized paper background with running stitches matching all the different colors and it's tough going. I have finally finished the first one, just put the binding on this morning, but that's another story...
Yesterday Barb and I drove up to Plaistow to pick up the quilts from the show that just finished- the woman who ran the show is certifiable I think, a real detail person. The forms and info we got from her over the course of the show were more than any of us have ever received from fancy museums and galleries! It was hyper-professional, and I gotta say, quite off-putting. Yesterday she was worried that the video of the show would get released into the wrong hands but Barb and I decided it was a dead dog once the show closed. Anyway, we learned a lesson that if we don't like the 'feel' of a show that maybe we shouldn't do it.
So, right now, much to Barb's chagrin, I am driving around with about $10,000 worth of quilts in my back seat. And that is where they will stay until I see the owners- several tomorrow at the photography appointment and I'll be glad to get rid of them.
On the way home I stopped at Fabric Place and got a couple of patterns for knitting but exhibited remarkable restraint and didn't buy any yarn for a change. Last night I cast on the suede yarn and started a few rounds of a sweater but the lights went out and we had nothing to do but go to bed. Of course I have had to spend the morning fixing clocks and trying to get my internet back but finally managed those tasks in between rows of stitching.
Well, I gotta get back at the sewing so I can get it backed and bound for tomorrow- nothing like a deadline to get a little focus.
June 04, 2004
Haiti Rasmussen Flotation
TRIPLE IRISH GRASS, 25" square
TRIPLE IRISH SHROUD, 25" square
Worked on a collage yesterday with pieces from those huge advertising promo sheets fromt he photography place. nate assures me it's OK, no copyright violation since they already pay for the images but I think it's a slippery slope! So, I have cut the images up to such small pieces that they are unrecognisable! So, here they are. Haven't figured out how to fdinish them off, they are paper mounted on canvas here, may do some stitching on the surface. Whatever it is, I have to finish by my appointment with David this week
I spent the whole day on the ladder in the studio throwing stuff off the top shelves. All the brick dust has scattered and I now have to get in there with a vacuum to suck it up, but I hauled three lawn and leaf bags out of there full of crap and the place sure looks better. I could probably still take another three bags out and no one would notice the difference, but at least now I can get to the light switch! Whew, big job.
June 02, 2004
Hecate Earthmen Bitumen
THANKS FOLKS- I GOT THE MARCH ARCHIVES BACK!!!! There really is a person out there! They just suddenly reappeared, much to may amazement.
June 02, 2004
Main Repairmen Cockroach
DRAPERS, completed, leafed, and hung! Note the three new guys I added to 'help'.
Checked my site today and somehow Sparkpod has decided not to let me have my March archives- hope that the feedback team helps me out on this because what good is a 3 month blog? I need to see what happened a few months back and how it's influencing what I'm doing now.
So, Now! I started a paper collage today, mounted fabulous hand marbelized paper to canvas and have been glueing small squares of the Shroud of Turin over that- using those wonderful gigantic photos that Nate gave me. After I got the shroud all cut up and pasted I also found a closeup of a metallic yellow knit fabric and added that so it crosses the shroud in the center and I now have a triple Irish chain in very subtle colors. Then I went back in with some small squares I cut from a photograph of an ass in jeans and the blue is perfect on the other patterns. I next have a close-up of a zebra and will make more teensy squares to arrange in a diamond, center to center, crossing the bluejeans, the shroud, and the yellow knit. Triple Irish Shroud, working title.
Pictures to follow, maybe by morning. I must take pictures of the Drapers too because I changed a lot about it, as I discussed yesterday.
Found a little motherlode of Koigu nestled in Needham last night- got a few more skeins and fondled them all the way home. These are the off white ones with tiny specs of yellow and greens, very subdued colors, but I have 5 of the same now so will start thinking of what to combine them with and then, what to make.
Pulled out the whole shawl I was working on- made me sick to do it but I know I'll be a lot happier with a plan on this one, even might like to add a pattern or something to make it worth the tiny needles and the endless knitting. Love the yarns, but I need a lesson on joining ends properly. 'Bout time I got serious in my technique. Of course as soon as I learn the right way to do something I have license to figure out how to break it up. Worked with quilts, why not with knitting?
Looking forward to getting the glue off my hands- I am sticking to the keyboard.
June 01, 2004
Indistinct Duet Gavel
Himalayan recycled silk sweater, I-cord belt
Absolutely finished! The I-cord was a pain in the butt because the little wooded spool thingy was too small for the yarn. I about wrecked my hand progress by pulling and tugging it through. So I bought a new big plastic one with an easy turn. I can now make I-cord till the cows come home
Today's hororscope: "You may find it difficult to communicate openly with a loved one or co-worker. There is more to this dilemma than meets the eye." Well, duh. Today it's on my schedule to go to the Needham Assisted Living place and check it out after I do the gym, fun day ahead. Shoot me now.
Oh, I am sick- I added gold leaf to the "Drapers piece, splattered around the sizing, let it dry well and then leafed the splotches BUT the damn gold stuck to the background too so now I have big splotches of gold- then I took a very stiff brush to hopefully wipe off the excess but all it did was dull the high spots and not budge the low. Didn't know what to do so I added two more gay guys, both tired and disgusted like me! One is walking off the left side of the picture and the other is lying on the ground with his hands over his face. Oh, and there is a third new gay guy too, added before the gold leaf disaster- this one is lying on the top of the canvas and reaching down to help arrange one of the Yukon Gals from above. The canvas is getting a bit overpopulated...
Oh yes, went to the next Assisted Living place and crossed it off my list, back to the one across the street if he is so inclined.
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