Pittsburgh, PA: October, 2008. Owls.
Washington, DC: June, 2009. Wall of Mexican shadow boxes.
Detail:
Butte, Montana: October, 2009. Free advice.
I do need a holiday. Love you all. See you Monday.
November 04, 2009
Claes Oldenburg: Soft Toilet
Claes Oldenburg, Soft Toilet (1966). Wood, vinyl, kapok fibers, wire, and plexiglass on metal stand and painted wood base.
November 03, 2009
Things I Am Afraid Of.
- Getting trapped in a public restroom stall.
- Growing old, generally; growing old alone, specifically.
- Driving on the Beltway in Washington, DC.
- Total body paralysis. A brain trapped in a body.
- Balding.
- Mayonnaise.
November 02, 2009
October 30, 2009
Yam Dreaming.
Emily Kame
Kngwarreye, an Australian Aborgine, began painting at age 82. She was senior custodian of "Yam Dreaming" for the community of Utopia, which meant that she carried the responsibility for maintaining
knowledge about how and where yams are found, and when they are ready
to be dug.
This painting was completed in the last year of her life and shows the underground network of overlapping
yam vines. Her work was a dramatic departure from the traditional Aboriginal dream time paintings, and it made Kngwarreye a global art world phenomenon literally overnight. In four years, the market price for her work reached $1M for each individual canvas. She died at 86.
October 29, 2009
Rainer Maria Rilke on Dreams
Imogen Cunningham, The Unmade Bed (1957)
"That's how it always is. People would sooner weave their dreams deep into the linens than let them grow up next to them into a life without enough sun for them to ripen. When you near your end, you leave your dreams behind in small and seemingly worthless, old-fashioned things, which betray no secrets before they perish in turn. And not because they keep quiet, but because they sing their sentimental songs in a language which no one left alive can understand, for which there is no dictionary and no teacher."
--Rainer Maria Rilke, Interiors, IX
October 28, 2009
A Cure For Dreams.
If there was a pill to cure your dreams, would you take it? I might.
Things come to me in dreams. Those dreams rattle, they exhaust, and then leave me totally changed in waking life.
Fifteen years ago this month, God spoke five words to me in a dream. I sat straight up in bed, wide awake, and understood what had happened with perfect clarity.
God still comes into my dreams, but only to introduce something I won't accept in waking life. Not often, and never with spoken words as He did in that place and time, but it has happened more than once. I believe that. I do not understand it, but I do believe it.
Usually I dream about people I love. More often than not it is a person that is still alive - just far away. I dream over and over about someone I love so much that when I wake, I'm heart-broken and tired from having to let go, not wanting to live that next day knowing they won't be with me.
The other night, I dreamed that a friend came and gently put a hand on the back of my neck. I could feel the weight of it, and the comforting presence in the room.
Has a dream ever changed the direction your life?
October 27, 2009
October 26, 2009
Combat Paper: Drew Matott and Drew Cameron
Combat Paper is a collaborative project between artists and soldiers returning from the war in Iraq. Uniforms worn in combat are shredded and beaten to create pulp for handmade paper used for prints and artist books.
The overarching goal of the project is to help veterans reconcile their experiences in the war zone and alter traditional narratives of military service, culture and the re-construction of individual identity on returning home.
The images you see above are broadside prints from a portfolio created in the Combat Paper studios. Initiated by the artists Drew Matott and Drew Cameron, the Combat Paper project is based out of Green Door Studios in Burlington, Vermont.
Project Facade is another project that explores the tensions war introduces to individual identity. Check out this post from the blog's archives to learn more about Project Facade.
October 21, 2009
Cynthia Treen Pin Cushions
Cindy taught us how to make these beautiful pin cushions. A photo will never convey what it is like to hold one in your hand. The cushion fits right in the palm of your hand. The silk velvet and the weight of the Turkish emery inside makes the cushion feel interestingly alive.
Here are mine. The finished cushion is one that Cindy made for me. The other is my work-in-progress.
Cindy wrote about Turkish emery and these pin cushions over on her blog.
October 18, 2009
How to Needle Felt Animals
During our studio week, Cindy Treen taught us to needle felt small animals. In this photo, she is wrapping yarn around her fingers to make the core of the body. You can see the rabbit she made earlier on the table just in front.
Wool roving is then punched into the yarn body using a set of felt needles and a brush mat. Cindy brought these needle felting pens made by Clover. I decided to make a miniature "White Kitty", and you can see his yarn body below.
He turned out nicely!
Debra made a set of bunnies. The bigger bunny is a kind of family icon, often featured in the cartoon notes her husband draws in love notes. This rabbit was a gift for him. He has a cream colored underbody with a mustard overcoat punched in.
This is a very satisfying process and it really is amazing how the wool can be shaped into almost anything with a couple of needles and a brush or foam mat. I can imagine it being somewhat therapeutic after a stressful day of work. I bought my sister all of the tools, wool roving, and a "how to" needle felt book for her birthday. I thought of her every moment I was working on my kitty - I could totally imagine her just punching away.
By the end of day two, yellow bunny had a baby. Here are the three of them together.
October 12, 2009
Encaustic Fabric Collage
I've been doing some encaustic work the last few years. I learned from an artist based in New Orleans named Miranda Lake. Recently, I've been printing my digital photos on fabric or adding bits of vintage embroidery to my wax collages, and this is what I plan to do with the gravestone rubbings we did last week.
For my "demo", I did a quick and dirty "Intro to Encaustics" session for Cynthia Treen and Debra Tomson Williams. First, though, I had to tidy up a little bit. By mid-week, the studio had been completely annihilated - a sign of creative work in progress.
Cynthia did an absolutely lovely encaustic piece. Of course, I do not have a photo of the final product. But you can trust me on that one. In this photo, she is fusing the beeswax to the board with a heat gun.
We had some time to relax, too. We did a little knitting and crochet by the fire. Here's Cindy on Mike's beloved "baked potato" couch.
Debra cooked some fresh, healthy meals.
We went down to the beach on a beautiful sunny afternoon and sat by the shore sorting rocks.
It was hard to ignore the giant piles of bear scat along the way...it's just that time of year. Over the years, I've become more comfortable sharing space with bears. They leave us alone, and right before hibernation-time when they are devouring the fruit that is left in our orchard, we're just extra careful. But nothing could reassure Debra. I may as well have slathered her in honey and locked her outside at night.
And I took the ladies into town to visit the yarn store. We saw this piece of art when we stopped for coffee. I'm sure they won't find anything like this in Providence or Pittsburgh.
To be continued....
Debra Tomson Williams' Tutorial: Fused Plastic Bag Totes
Each of us approaches art and craft from a different direction, so during studio week we all brought a favorite technique or project to demonstrate for one another. Here, Debra Tomson Williams is showing Cynthia Treen and me how to fuse plastic bags together to make "fabric."
This is the ultimate reuse project. Two or more plastic grocery bags are fused together under parchment paper using a warm iron. They can be cut and manipulated like fabric - the possibilities are endless.
Debra recommends choosing bags of similar weight - she looks at the recycling symbol printed on the bottom and matches the numbers. We collected plastic bags from the grocery store - looking for interesting graphics or bright colors, and we raided Mike's garage for some "CAUTION" tape.
You should proceed with caution - you don't want the iron to get too hot and you definitely want to keep the iron moving. Do this project outside or in a place where air circulates freely. I rate it a 3 out of 10 on the smelly scale, but my studio door and windows were wide open.
Once again, I was too busy making things last week to take many photos, but luckily there are photos of Debra's bags from a post I wrote last year.
You can see photos of Debra's finished bag here and, if you want to try this yourself, you'll find a helpful tutorial from Craftzine.com
October 09, 2009
Crayon Rubbings on Fabric Cemetery Headstones
Last year, I became obsessed with some of the fabric manipulation techniques I read about in The Uncommon Quilter. Crayon rubbings on fabric was something that I really wanted to try while Debra Tomson Williams and Cynthia Treen were visiting. We found some really interesting old Montana headstones, and set to work.
It's really very simple - crayola crayons and the fabric (or paper) of your choice. We found it helpful to bring some low-tack tape to keep the fabric in position and some rags and a brush to clear the stones of dirt and dust. When you're back at home, press the crayon into the fabric using a warm iron and a sheet of paper towelling over the image or text.
The sharpest rubbings came from fabrics that had a stabilizer - I used some inkjet cotton that has a peel- off backing, because I plan to print on top of it. Cynthia brought some beautiful silk used for painting in China that has a light stabilizer on the back. Both worked well. I also brought a selection of papers and had great luck with them.
I was particularly fond of the text, and would take rubbings of certain words - "We'll be together in the clouds..." which I thought would fit well with some of my bird encaustic pieces.
Unfortunately, I haven't (yet) taken a single photo of the finished products, that's how busy we kept ourselves last week! But I promise you they are stunning and I will share them soon. Today, I'm actually going to hit some of the cemeteries in Butte and Anaconda, Montana - home of the copper mine kings - and I think I'll find some pretty amazing carvings there.
It's always interesting to see what people choose for their stones. Even more interesting that these two people aren't even dead yet.
October 06, 2009
Studio Day Two with Debra Tomson Williams: The Spool Bird Pattern.
Debra arrived a day earlier than Cynthia. We woke up to cold, blustery weather - good for sewing.
The first project we decided try was a pattern for a small bird published on the Spool blog last year. These tiny birds look amazing when grouped together on Spool's Flickr site. We thought the birds might be beautiful art installations - either in the orchard or placed in public spaces for people to find and take home.
Debra decided to sew her birds with money. It was sinful to watch dollar bills being cut into pieces. Is it illegal? We're not sure.
I loved the money birds.
But Debra wasn't happy. She decided to sew a bird out of white muslin and stuff him with [now heavily fermented] cherry pits from our orchard. A gorgeous color, but he had a smell to him and refused to dry out. At the end of the week, he wound up in the branch of a tree along the creek. NOT sent home to Pittsburgh.
I made approximately half a dozen little birds (and counting), but I didn't take photos of them - that's how busy we were last week! I'll upload photos when they are finished.
October 05, 2009
My week with Cynthia Treen and Debra Tomson Williams
So many exciting things happened in the studio last week, it's difficult to know where to begin. Perhaps at the very beginning. The trip down the stairs to the coffee pot.
Even the smallest details of my life are creatively charged when artists are in the house.
October 01, 2009
My art studio.
I've been quiet this week because I'm in the art studio. I'll tell you all about it in a few days. It's kind of exciting stuff - Cynthia Treen and Debra Tomson Williams are here working with me! In the meantime, if you'd like to learn more about the history of my "art cabin", I've written about it here and here.
September 30, 2009
Viktor and Rolf: Spring 2010
Sculpted tulle was the fabric of choice for Viktor & Rolf's Spring 2010 collection. Check out snapshots from the complete collection here.
September 23, 2009
September 20, 2009
Amy Karol: The Angry Chicken's Gift Label Set.
I like to make things and give them as gifts. But people don't always want something handmade as a gift. Some folks want something store-bought. Or maybe even just a wad of cash in an envelope. But why get into all that, when I wrote about it last year, anyway? Short summary: these labels were tailormade for the people that love those people.
"I made this, just so you know. So don't say anything mean about it" is perfect for me. By Amy Karol of Angry Chicken blog fame. You can buy these labels over on Amazon.
September 18, 2009
My Scars.
My scars are a kind of road map to my body. A head-to-toe accounting of injury, accident, illness, or just plain bad luck.
Over my left eye, there is a small white scar that makes a hole in my eyebrow. Chicken pox. I remember sitting in front of the television. I remember my mother telling me that if I kept scratching the pox would scar my face forever. Aged five, I was incapable of imagining the consequences. I scratched. Each morning, I fill in the hole with a Guerlain pencil, "Blonde", and re-think the decision I made.
On my left wrist there are three. The largest two, a skin biopsy to determine the cause of a chronic case of hives. At the time, my friend Mary Anne joked that it would look like I tried to kill myself. Years later, my cat scratched me deeply just above that same scar. The hives cleared up when I moved back to the US. It kind of does look like I attempted suicide.
My right breast has a one inch scar left by a lumpectomy. The lump they removed was just about a centimeter in diameter. It's absence has changed my breast, just as the doctor told me it might, but it wasn't what I imagined. I thought he meant smaller, which would have been fine by me. Instead, my right breast spills over the side of my bra, like rising bread dough over the edge of a pan.
My belly is marked with evidence of naievete. I thought that because I didn't have children I'd be able to keep my figure. Four inches below my belly button a long scar crosses my abdomen and then, on the right side, looks up in a smirk. The skin all around it is slack and numb. Three smaller scars are its constellation - one at the belly button, one where my left ovary was located, and one toward the center. They tried. Too many times. At 3M, my first job, we had a saying, "Right the first time, saves time."
On my left knee, something I will never forget, a massive bicycle accident, aged 9. I wiped out on the pavement in front of my then-house, 961 Absequami Trail, Lake Orion, Michigan. Red Schwinn Three Speed. Just about the time it was healed over, I did it again, re-opening the wound. It would become the small, bumpy, white triangle I still see today. I didn't regain bicycle confidence until I visited Versailles in 1998.
And finally, the inside of my right ankle. A flat, white, one-inch scar left by a shoe when I nearly drowned at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. Aged 11. My foot was caught on a rock and the weight of the water pushed me forward and then face down. My sister saw it and came to my rescue. Our parents, barbecuing down the river, didn't believe it happened until they saw my foot.
I'm 38, and I've never broken a bone.
Image credit: Jonathan Rosen
September 17, 2009
September 15, 2009
September 14, 2009
How to Make Seed Bombs
Heidi Rettig & Associates (that's me, in real life) is working with a group of artists in Superior, Wisconsin on formalizing plans for an "arts district" in their neighborhood. Part of this work includes temporary public art installations in vacant lots in the area. We hope these installations will call attention to the creative work happening in the neighborhood that residents may not be aware of, and beautify the many vacant spaces. What would you do with a vacant lot?
We had great fun brainstorming with the artists about the possibilities. The idea of throwing 'seed bombs' out your car window as you drive around the neighborhood to flower naked lots with shots of color was brought by Darnell Nelson. Another Superior artist, Karin Kraemer, remembered her year of unemployment in Victoria B.C. as the period when she went around shoving flower seeds into cracks in the cement. A quick google introduced me to the wild world of guerilla gardening. There are just so many possibilities.
SEED BOMB RECIPE
Ingredients1) powdered clay
2) worm castings or compost
3) wildflower seeds indigenous to the area4) water
5) mixing container
6) stick1) mix 5pt powdered clay, 5pt worm castings or compost, 1pt seeds in a mixing container.
2) add just enough water to make a nice muddy clay consistency
3) roll up the mixture into little balls like gum balls
4) let dry in a cool dry place for like 3 days
5) throw them in empty fields.
September 13, 2009
Man Tools
It's never good to come home from a business trip and find one of these in your driveway. First of all, how much does it cost to rent one of these pups? If you're thinking, "mmm...Might be better left unsaid...", then you know exactly how Mike responded when I asked the same question.
Like an idiot, I asked him if he'd driven it yet. He hadn't, and I was pretty surprised. During our remodel, he was notorious for taking the workers' machines for joy rides over the weekend and burning up all of their gas. I must have planted the seed. Not twenty minutes later, I heard the sound of the engine firing up. There must be something on the roof that needs urgent attention!
September 10, 2009
I'm Working In Duluth.
That's why you haven't heard from me.
September 06, 2009
September 03, 2009
Rollasole Shoes
Rollasoles are roll-upp-able ballet flats for sale in vending machines installed in a select group of nightclubs in England. For those nights when you're too drunk to find your shoes, I guess.
August 31, 2009
Elmer Bischoff and the Bay Area Figurative Movement
Elmer Bischoff (1960) Two Bathers
This summer, I've spent a little time looking at figurative painting, portraiture and still life. I'm trying to gather information for insight into some of the flailing I've been doing in the art studio over the last year or so.
I'm 38, and I've never, in my entire life, had any ability or interest in figurative work. Until now. All of the sudden, I want to paint portraits of people - real and imagined - and paint bodies.
I discovered Elmer Bischoff and the "Bay Area Figurative Movement" a few months ago and now I see him everywhere. And Richard Diebenkorn, Paul Wonner, James Weeks, and David Park. This is the kind of work I'd do if I could. I love the faces most of all. What appears to be blank and expressionless is, in fact, a tell-all.
