Making Bugs

I took a flight of fancy in the studio last week and made a set of creatures for the upcoming Rainforest Festival art show.

Making Tyvek beads is a blast and I knew that this technique would make dandy bug bodies if I cut the Tyvek strips wider.  I included Angelina Fiber and left-over thread scraps in the twist.

The day before, I made wing material by Gelliprinting on Pellon stiffener, to which I fused Angelina fibers.

Here is the green body after being heat-gunned; wing material for the green bug is in the background.

A roll of very fine brass wire has been laying around my studio for years and proved exactly the thing for wiring on the bug heads and forming the antennae.

The green bug head.

Another old spool of wire was the perfect gauge for legs. 

I just twisted the leg wire around the bodies.

When the bugs were completely assembled, I hot-glued on their wings.

The Rainforest Festival art show hangs at the Clausen Museum here in town from August 31 through September 9 with an opening reception during September's First Friday art walk.

Daily Drawing

pigma pen and prismacolor pencil in 8x6 gamma sketchbook

pigma pen and prismacolor pencil in 8x6 gamma sketchbook

All the deadlines of the past several weeks have been met.  As I breathe a sigh of satisfaction, I am also looking forward to preparing for a new round of challenges coming up toward the end of the summer.  

My next solo show one of our two local galleries will be opening the first Friday of September; I am curating the Rain Forest Festival art show that same weekend; mid-September I am going to be traveling - more about this in future posts.  Lots to anticipate with joy and enthusiasm.  

What's coming up for you?

Lino Cuts

Happy Easter, everyone.  We had lots of extra activities going on through Holy Week here, so I am having a bit of trouble getting myself back on schedule after getting home from traveling.  As a result, this post comes up a day later than my usual Saturday post.

I have the honor to design the poster art for our local Rain Forest Festival this year, and with that in mind, I have been cutting some new stamps.  Have a look:

I begin my stamp cutting process by drawing the image in a sketch book, using a real soft pencil, which facilitates the transfer of the design to the stamp block surface.  (This is a raven, which we have lots and lots of).

  And, with apologies to Nadine, here is a wolf, maybe looking pretty friendly and domesticated.  Once the drawing is complete, I lay it face down on top of the cutting surface of the soft-kut block and rub the back with my bone folder to transfer the image.

Using Speedball linoleum cutting tools and the transferred lines, I carve into the block, removing the rubber where I do not want ink to adhere.  

 After the stamp is cut, I check my work by inking with a black stamp pad and printing on sketch book paper.  Once I like what I've got, I often print the new stamp off on a fresh piece of soft-kut to produce a mirror image.

Here are some test prints of the raven and wolf stamps.  I think the wolf looks a bit fiercer now, do you agree?

Watch out for tricksters!  Tomorrow is April First which is a day to trick and joke your friends in this country.  Do you have April Fools Day where you live? 

'Archipelago' and Studio Progress

Friday afternoon we hung the Tongass Rain Forest Festival 'Archipelago' exhibit at the Clausen Museum.  Here are the two pieces I have in the show, which you have seen details of in posts over the past couple of weeks.

'Archipelago Jewels' - hand dyed cotton with beads and hand stitching; 9"x12"

'Eye Land' - hand dyed cotton with beads and hand stitching; 3"x5"

This coming Friday my solo exhibit of 20+ new dye paintings opens at Miele Gallery here on the island.  I am excited to see the work hanging together, out of my studio.  Always seems to look a little different in a formal setting.

Now that these two shows are done deals, I am continuing to paint toward my December exhibit with Pia Reilly in Juneau.  There are new acrylic-on-paper collages taking shape on my work table.  

Just starting out... these are about 9x12 inches, cut from one of my old water colors, gessoed over

The same three paintings, late in the day

detail of the far left painting, as I left it last evening

I am having a wonderful time immersed in paint again, appreciating the directness of the process.  Can't wait to get back to the studio tomorrow.  Happy Labor Day those of you in the United States. and happy September to ALL.

Green Inspiration

These green days of summer have me going on a beading project for the Tongass Rain Forest Festival art show coming up the beginning of next month.  What's your current inspiration?

Water Color Workshop with Andie Thrams

Saturday I had the privilege and pleasure to spend the day with Andie Thrams at her water color workshop given in conjunction with the Tongass Rain Forest Festival.  About a dozen of us met at the Blind Slough picnic shelter mid-morning.

After introductions and a short contemplation exercise, we loaded our water color palettes with two different greens, yellows, reds, blues as well as a purple and a brown.  Soon everyone was happily mixing colors.

Everyone's approach to the color mixing play was unique and reflected out individuality.

Color study, approx. 10"x10:

 
In addition to her amazing art journals Andie is a generous and gifted teacher.  The demonstrations she gave were mesmerizing.

We worked on several exercises during the course of the day, including finding and using 'magic sticks'.

Water color and ink applied with stick, approx. 10"x10"

 
The time flew by.  I was reminded of how much I love water color painting...

My landscape studies...approx. 10"x10"

and vowed to continue painting out in our beautiful forest from time to time in the future.  Andie stressed that recording our rain forest environment is honorable and important work.  (It's also tons of fun)!

House of Seasons

My photography project for our Tongass Rain Forest Festival is completed and I want to show you how it turned out.

Because this object represents Southeast Alaska, it had to be supported by a pile foundation.  I made the pilings from driftwood K helped my gather from Sandy Beach last Saturday.

This is a detail of the pile caps.

 House of Seasons - photos printed on cotton with fibers and sticks, 20" tall by 4"x4"

The winter face is my favorite.

Detail of the top, showing the fabric 'bead' closure.  The box opens, with additional content on the interior, but I am not able to get a decent photo - I will leave that to your imagination!

Thanks to Janet Edmond's fabulous book, Beginner's Guide to Embroidered Boxes, for some of the techniques I used in constructing this box.

Tongass Rain Forest Festival 2011 Photography Project

The annual Tongass Rain Forest Festival is coming right up, with a photography show kicking things off in early September.  One of the categories is 'altered images' including work that incorporates photos in some way.  The theme of the exhibit is 'celebrating our natural home'.  This week I got started on my entry, using fabric prepared with Dan Smith's digital ground for inkjet printing and photos taken on our many walks through out the year.

After the images were printed onto the raw silk and cotton, I used Mistyfuse to attach them to Timtex, fusing the backing onto each piece at the same time.

 

Made a quick trip to the library - in close proximity to my studio - to get a bird book to look at while I drew a raven for the base.  He will be a surprise hidden on the bottom.  I made the drawing on tissue paper, spray basted that to the fabric/Timtex sandwich, and stitched him with my sewing machine.  On the lower right is the base, trimmed, ready to be edge finished with cording.

I had lots of mindless fun making the cording by zigzag stitching over multiple lengths of embroidery floss and other fibers. 

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter walls finished with cording zigzagged to their raw edges.  Before trimming and cording, I machine quilted each photo with simple wavy lines signifying rain.

A detail of Summer's roof.  Have you guessed what I am building yet?  Stay tuned in days ahead for more on this project.

Oh, before you go,  I want to show you the banner with its fused design complete:

This work is now on the back burner until I get fall commitments met.

Tongass Rain Forest Festival Art Show

The well-attended opening was Friday night at the Clausen Museum here in Petersburg.  I helped Annabelle hang the 60 plus pieces the day before, and set the lights myself Friday afternoon.  I was pleased with the response to my work, shown here in situ.

I used one of the window niches to display three of my pieces, from left to right: 'Artifact'; 'Lichen Angel'; 'Mosquito Town'. 

'Artifact' is the muslin figure which I buried in my woods July 15 and exhumed on September 2.  I plan to re-bury this piece after the show comes down and re-exhume her for next year's Rain Forest exhibit.

Here is a detail of her face, which utilizes an interestingly perfect piece of rust from the side of the road, found on my afternoon walk the day I made her.

The little 'Deer Woman' got to be displayed by herself.  She was proud (and nervous) to be the first piece inside the entrance to the gallery.