Crutch club newsletter

It has been a few days since I wrote anything. Not much of interest happens when your world shrinks to being in bed 23 hours and the other hour is spent hobbling to the bathroom and back....

I did have a delightful visitor yesterday afternoon when Charlotte from down our street dropped in and bought a yummy homemade chicken casserole made by friend Meredith. Many thanks! My sister Kerry rang from Sydney this morning to commiserate and give me some helpful tips on membership in the crutch club. Perhaps its a hereditary weakness but she also broke her ankle last year so she had lots of legs on advice from personal experience.

Fortuitously some books I had ordered from ebay a few weeks ago arrived. I love my craft books and have 3 bookcases to accomodate them. As wonderful as the ebook technology is I can't ever imagine it replacing the usefulness of having hardcover reference books. The oldest books in my collection I've had for about 30 years and I think I buy around 10 -20 books a year. Craft and art books usually reflect contemporaneous interests and are usually out of print within 2-3 years and are rarely republished so the vast bulk of what I own wouldn't be replaceable unless I found them second hand. Often I come across ideas and inspirations just through the serendipity of pulling a book off the shelf when I've just been standing there idly perusing. An ebook collection could never work like that!

One of the books I bought off ebay was "Shaped Beadwork" by American Diane Fitzgerald. It has been a rarely experienced indulgence to immerse myself in this book to learn a new technique for the last 3 days with hardly any interruptions. The technique is loosely based on the peyote stitch which is my all time favourite beading stitch and the one I'm most adept at. The beadwork is put together in a modular way as the motifs are constructed as separate pieces then collaged together. Pictured above is a necklace I just completed a few hours ago. In this work I have only used the motifs as flat items, rather than using the potential to make 3 dimensional constructions.

I got Rodney to drive me down to the Pearl Red Moon Gallery and opened it for 5 hours today. I figured what I was doing in bed at home - sitting there with my leg up and beading - I could do just as comfortably down at the Gallery while also doing something useful in having it open for the public to visit. If there is anybody in Murrurundi actually reading this blog who would like a free introductory lesson on Peyote Stitch I invite you to the Gallery any time between 11am-2pm next Sunday. All materials, tools and tuition provided for the cost of bringing me a cuppacino! (no sugar please)

from the horizontal kingdom

Yesterday I went up to Tamworth for more examination of my injured ankle. Many thanks Mandy A for the ride and interesting chat on the way up! Also wonderful to have a loan of the wheelchair from you. So much easier for me to get around the house than on the crutches and makes it possible for me to transport items to the horizontal kingdom.

I'll be going back next week to get the leg plastered for another 6 weeks. Its too swollen at the moment for the all over cast.

Tribute to Frida, 2010

Heres a picture I made of another famous invalid artist, the extraordinary Mexican woman Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) My work pictured above measures 45x60cm and is based on an actual photo of her from 1940 (original photographer Leo Matiz) The face, arm and pose are taken from the photo but I did a textile "interpretation" of her gown. Frida was meticulous about her clothing choices and personal style. She was a great admirer of indigenous traditional Tehuana indian clothing and throughout her life she collected and wore gorgeous outfits hand embroidered and made by indian women from all over Mexico. She usually wore these with the appropriate traditional style jewellery of chunky beads of coral or semiprecious stones and silver. In numerous of her paintings she depicted herself wearing these lavish garments decades before "hippie" women of the 60s popularised the wearing of ethnic clothing styles.

When Kahlo died in 1954 her husband Diego Rivera had her personal rooms sealed in her house for 50 years. They were opened by a team of art historians and conservators in 2004. I have a marvellous book which was subsequently published based on what was found and preserved. The book is "Self Portrait in a Velvet Dress: Frida's Wardrobe" published by the Museo Frida Kahlo. Another interesting footnote to Kahlos life is how she left the copyright to her artworks to "all Mexican women".

I really love this quote from Honore de Balzac in the front of the book -

                                            One's wardrobe reveals one's politics;
                                                              it is the story one lives by;
                                                                  it is one's symbolic self.

It really resonates for me why the art medium I'm passionate to express myself with is fibre and textile.

Perhaps it is all this time being spent physically, literally flat which is making me yearn to uplifting thoughts! I want to fly with Plumage again....! However, best to leave it a few days yet for my arms to get stronger using the crutches till I try to get down the back yard to the studio.

my work table in bed

Today I've kept occupied getting some bead resources into bed next to me. I made this strung bracelet from some favourite beads, a lot collected from my trips to the USA. In the bracelet there is - an alloy metal face plus beads bought in New York in 2008 which are - 2 beads purportedly from Tibet, a flat chinese red lacquer, red coral bead and a brass square. Other beads are a vintage African trade bead (salvaged from a necklace bought in a thrift shop) a flat amethyst oval, 2 chrysopatite semi precious gems and a beaded bead I made this morning. Will go into the gallery tomorrow for sale at $90

risky activities

It will be probably be a few days before I can resume the flight with Plumage again...not due to the usual problem of lack time I can spend in the studio, in fact I will be having LOTS of time at home for the forseeable next few weeks....! I would be chuffed to be able to move easily in any direction at the moment....let alone FLY anywhere!!!

On Friday afternoon, just a half hour before I was due to finish work, I stumbled down a small platform (at barely 12cm high it can't be honoured with the description "step") and broke my left ankle. Until I was able to get to hospital yesterday afternoon and have an X-ray I had assumed for 24 hours it was a bad sprain.

Rodney won't be back from Melbourne until this afternoon so I have been trying to get myself comfortable at home in bed. The leg is backstrapped with plaster and I have crutches. Strict instructions have been issued  from the medico authorities regarding no weight bearing whatsoever on that ankle and they will know about it if I disobey as the thin layer of plaster under the foot will break with minimal pressure and my indiscretion would be revealed. I have discovered the big nuisance of crutches is that you can only move yourself from A to B, nothing can be easily carried such as a cup of coffee, books (why are artbooks inevitably weighty hardcover tomes?) a computer or ones tray of beadwork.

However, lying frustrated on ones back for hours contemplating that necessity is the mother of invention lead me to devising this ingenious solution...I crutched out to my computer desk chair, which is fortunately an office job on wheels and I've been able to transport the necessaries for avoiding braindead from boredom (for the immediate future) back to my horizontal kingdom. I now have a jug of cordial, crackers cheese and tomatoes for lunch, a pile of books, beadwork tray and the laptop!

So many risks in life to avoid! Not least of which is actually Blogging in Bed, which Rodney can attest to. Having recently taken up the challenge to become a blogger Rodney went at it with his usual missionary zeal and gusto. Despite me thinking that shaggers back was the more customary affliction of the recently wed Rodneys favourite bed activity throughout December and January become blogging in bed for hours at a time! Ironically, it just goes to show how dangerous inactivity can be, as it ended up with him having a very stiff, sore back for the last 3 weeks.

Considering what creative pursuits I might be able to safely undertake in the next few days I came across this picture in my archive of a "scrumble" cardigan I made for granddaugther when she was 2. I don't think knitting and crotcheting are associated with too many risks but I shall be extra conscious of sitting up with good posture and making sure my back is properly supported in bed.

Meantime I have 2 weeks off work and a referral to an orthopaedic surgeon that I need to make an appointment to visit tomorrow...

The bird is flying

the face and headdress, probably finished today

Good progress working on Plumage today. I feel the work is more than half finished now. I finally got to that pleasing stage where it no longer feels like the discipline of "work"  -  as in, that place where you have to keep plugging away and have no certainty that the idea will succeed aesthetically. I took the textile I had been creating for the lower part of the body a few days ago and cut it up into leaf shaped fragments and then machine appliqued the pieces to the canvas leaving large areas of the background showing through. These pieces will be integrated with more stitching and painting in a similar way to how the headdress has been embellished today. One of the important things I have learned as an artist is to persevere with the struggle and uncertainty when you start a new work and to keep going until it segues past the ugly and awkward beginning stages. It doesn't always work out, of course, as sometimes there are failures, and its equally important to come to terms with those and to learn the confidence when to abandon them before they take up too much valuable time and before you become mired in frustration and doubts about your ability. I think I have about every 4-5th work end up in a blind alley and have to set them aside and turn to some other idea.

the whole canvas

close up, face, headdress textile and stitching

Rodney is away in Melbourne tonight....hello, beloved husband! He is staying with a dear old friend whose wife passed away a few days ago to support and assist him during the secular commemoration gatherings of family and friends.

Growing feathers

Stitching detail around headdress

 Today I did a lot of stitch detailing to embellish the headdress.

 This was done through a technique called free motion embroidery. The feeddogs of the sewing machine are dropped and a special walking foot is attached and the stitch length set to zero. I then literally draw on the surface of the canvas by moving it around under the machine needle as it stitches with thread. It is a technique that requires a great deal of skill and concentration. I have to simultaneously press the foot control at the right speed and move the canvas either fast or slow to regulate the length of the stitch.

I can only do the stitching once and mistakes cannot be made as the needle punctures the canvas and leaves holes, so the stitching can't be removed without leaving damage.

I decided not to use the piece of textile I had pinned to the bottom of the figure yesterday. It was too difficult to integrate with the significant colours I had already committed to using with the headdress. The picture above shows the beginning stage of the new piece of textile being created specifically to coordinate.The white bits at the top and bottom in the picture are just pieces of masking tape used to temporarily adhere the piece to the surface while working out what to do next. I will continue to work on it as a separate entity and only apply it permanently to the composition by stitching it on as an applique when I feel it is developed to the right level. When finished many areas of the textile will remain transparent or have open lacework and show the painted canvas underneath.

The picture below shows how it was developing by the end of the day.

ummhhhhhm...strangely enough!...I actually really like the picture of how the textile looked previously at the very first stage!

The feathering of Plumage

torso and headdress

the whole figure

Progress today was good. The background had several layers of colour applied and the figure was shaded in a bit more. I started stitching the headdress piece into place.

In the picture of the whole canvas on the right you will see there is a piece of textile pinned into place over the lower part of the figure and I'm presently considering whether to apply this. It will be fairly challenging to incorporate it as I'd want to integrate the colours a lot more with the headdress, so that would mean trying to bring in some of the bright pink. I also feel I'm straying a little from my theme of "Plumage" and will be giving some thought to how I can introduce in the next stages of work some features that allude to flight, feathers or wings. I am thinking of making that big area beyond the right arm into the suggestion of a wing.....

I had thought of putting a beak onto the face....but "chickened out" hahaha.... as I didn't have the confidence in my ability to bring off successfully such a surreal element in the work.

will fly tomorrow!

No art happening in the last few days, I have been at work.

This is a picture of "The Dancer". A cloth figure from 2002, it measures about 58 cm in height. The body is an embellished, stitched piece of textile made by me. It is armatured with wire and stuffed and set into a wooden stand. The face is not sculpted by me and is absolutely the only doll I have made of hundreds that I didn't sculpt the face for. "The Dancer" had existed for about 4 years until I bought the face during one of my teaching trips to the USA in 2006 and attached it to the figure. The glazed stoneware face is made by American sculptor Diane Brieglieb who has been reproducing this iconic face in thousands of variations for 25 years. I have collected a dozen or so of her faces over a decade but this is the only one I have used in my art.

Tomorrow I look forward to having a couple of days to fly with Plumage...!!!

Helsinki Cathedral Oct 2011
see website: here

WOOOHOOO!!! Look at this incredible feat of needlework! This is stitch porn to be drooled over by stitcherbators the world over. More to be revealed about guerilla stitchers in future blogs....!!??? Keep your fingers poised in anticipation.....

feathers and frisson

Headdress

fragments laid onto figure

After work yesterday there was very little time to do much in the studio. I got out some of my "fragments"  and moved them around the surface for inspiration. The picture on the left shows some of the pieces pinned to the work. I really liked the piece which was put onto the head, it is the cut off end of a felted scarf I made, which is why there is fringing. The fringes could be spread round at different angles around the head, to simulate the idea of movement, one of the ideas I wanted to capture in this work. I really like the colours too - bright chartruesey green, hot pink and plum. Those colours will become the basis of the composition.

The fragments pinned to the bottom didn't give me that necessary "frisson" of excitement so they will go back  onto the pile and the headdress piece will be the one used for the colours and developing more textiles to embellish the work.

I hope to have some time this afternoon to paint the face and background colours!

art tells a story

Cloth book cover from 2004

This is a picture of a book cover made in 2004, measuring about 27 x 19cm. Sometimes people have asked why I don't make  larger scale work. It is generally a practical consideration because I machine embroider directly into the surface of the canvas. Perhaps I should show a picture of the back of one of the completed works so the stitching can be seen! So my preferred scale to work on is seldom any bigger than 70x 1metre because of the practical consideration of getting the canvas and manouevering it effectively under the arm of the machine and the stitching foot.

Yesterday I assisted at a workshop for children with Autism. It was a high energy day! Over 20 years I have taught many workshops to people who want to learn more about making art and attended many as a student myself. There is always something to learn whether you are the teacher or student! I learned this fantastic technique and plan to make some time to experiment with it. Working on thick watercolour paper (or in my case probably on canvas) the teacher prepared about 6 colours of acrylic paint in disposable plastic bowls, thinned about 20% with acrylic thinner medium. Small puddles of paint were tipped at random over the paper and a blow dryer held over them. This caused the paint to move and spread out. More puddles of paint were tipped into this to build up many layers of paint. In some areas because the paint became so thick a really interesting crackle effect started happening. The whole surface could be covered in this way or parts of the background left showing through. The finished "art" was fantastic! 

Plumage will fly....

Abigail, newly displayed on the wall of my gallery today

The new picture - Abigail - has been completed and is now being displayed on the wall of my gallery at Upstairs Art Studio at Murrurundi from today. To the right of it are "Pages River" and "Bridget with Bright Flowers"

In my last post I said I would show and explain step by step the process of how I build up and create one of my artworks.

The theme I want to explore is "Plumage"...so some of the ideas this evokes are: feathers, flight, wings, fluttering, movement, flash of light, sky.... Some of what attracts to me to these ideas is simply a reaction because the last work was so still and static (Abigail) The colours will certainly be different, I usually will go to the opposite complementary colour, or monochrome after a series of coloured works.

In the picture below is the development of absolute day one of "Plumage". I ripped a piece of canvas 70 x 93cm and painted it all over in a darker than mid tone grey acrylic paint. When dry that colour was then broken up roughly with slashings of a lighter shade paint. I don't use base coats of gesso, as most artists traditionally/conventionally/practically do, because it hinders my ability to machine embroider into the surface. Because gesso is virtually a thin plaster (thick with calcium carbonate, or chalk) it tends to rip my polyester machine embroidery thread to shreds and cause constant breakages when stitching. So I have adapted to painting directly onto the cotton canvas surface without any sealer. This means the canvas is much more porous and it is necessary to build up many more layers of paint than would normally be required if the canvas was primed with gesso.

Plumage - day 1, blocking in the form

 The figure is blocked in with light and dark paint. I will probably work on the face next. To me this strongly creates an emotional mood in the work. Perhaps it is a bit like writing a book....you have to have a strong sense of the character to create the story around.