Happy 2010

I started this blog to journal the year in the U of W Fiber Arts Program. After we had our final show, the blog came to an end, but with a new year I think it's time to start again.

The update on the class: some of us continue to meet once a month to see what we're up to and to give encouragement and advice. We are currently planning a show for the month of March at a cafe in the University district. There will be eleven of us participating. We started a "portfolio blog" that shows the final projects of the remaining 11 members and it gets updated whenever someone has a piece in a show somewhere.

I am going to continue to work on the burlap pieces until I get a "body of work" or feel I have taken the idea as far as I can. I think parts of this work will move forward into my next exploration, but how that will play out, I can only guess at this time. (at right; "Canyonlands," 30" x 32")

One of my goals for the year is to explore other related fiber techniques. It may include card weaving, inkle loom, kumihimo, finger weaving and learning tapestry trechniques. My thought behind this is that you never know what will spark an idea and I think it's important for me to have a variety of techniques to draw on.

Assembly of the rubber band project

So there I am at the dinning room table with rubber bands and "rows" of rubber inner tubes ready to add on and "grow" the project. My stapler and I sit and add colored rubber bands, using it as my "paint" to decorate the canvas. I'm creating a linear design from bottom to top which should represent the emotions and feeling of riding a bicycle. I'm also trying to use the bands to their max in creating different patterns to represent these feelings. I couldn't just keep making squiggles, I needed to add some texture and use the colors to represent the emotional sections.

I think I was fairly successful creating the project I intended. Part of me thinks the surface is very busy and the areas are not as pronounced as one would like, but on the other hand I wanted the surface to have lots of color - empty space is not something I'm good at, again maybe my graphic arts work; always trying to jam too much text into too small of a space.

Photo: detail of project

My classmates projects

I thought some of my classmates projects were really clever, the photos shown here are not necessarily the "best," they just spoke to me in some way. I'm sorry I don't have names to go with the work.

The top photo is made of wire and beads, my first reaction was that it wasn't "fabric," and then immediately said "yes it is." I guess maybe my first idea of fabric is that it had to be more "solid" or something, I ended up really liking the lightness of it, the little bits of color - what a "world" this could be if it was made on a larger scale.

The next photo was an interesting 3-d landscape with little spiral shapes popping up all over, made me think of some kind of a little village with pointy houses. It was made with masking tape, I guess she just spent hours unrolling a spool of it, letting the tape spiral out of control a times. This could be a really cool project done on a larger scale.

Of course I was drawn to the bright color of the next piece. Bold splashes, putting it all out there in a big statement. I picked it up, very pliable, kind of plastic, smooth. I was happily surprised when I found out it was dried paint.

I think the bottom one was done by the same person with the paint, this time she used glue and photos. It had an interesting look to it, reminding me of when years ago I used a liquid plastic that I poured out onto glass or waxed paper depending on if I wanted it to be cloudy or clear, which I used in layering for a sculpture. I thought this had many opportunities to build on, especially using photos for a very personal statement.

The evening's slide show presented a few artists who used common objects in making over sized art with amazing mood and feeling, only when you looked closely, did you see it was Styrofoam cups, cellophane tape, drinking straws, spools of thread, bugs or shoes.




Artists pictured above; Tara Donovan, Devorah Sperber, and Willie Cole.

Our next assignment is to take one of our projects and "super-size" it, make something "human scale." We are to use what we have learned and observed in others work; it needs to be flexible in one direction; needs to have an "attitude", convey a mood and a point of view; include a brief description on what it is and how you achieved it; made from stuff you have or reused from somewhere else; use one type of fastening device; and document the process in our studio notebook.

School starts

Our first class in the Fiber Art Certificate Program started September 9. We all brought a piece of art to help introduce us to the class. There was quite a variety of techniques and processes represented - collage, knitting, quilting, felting, basketry and at least one other weaver than myself.

After introductions we got into small groups and discussed preconceptions and assumptions about cloth, textiles, fiber arts and visual art in general. There was talk of it being "female" and "craft" rather than "real art." I guess I concentrated on the word "fiber arts" which I guess I don't really feel falls into those stereotypes, maybe because I feel more like and artist and not a craft person, I don't draw the same conclusions? There will probably be more to say on that later.

Our assignment, besides doing a lot of writing in our journals was to create a piece that takes one of the assumptions or stereotypes and construct a work that undermines it. While at work the next day I sketched out a few ideas using metal and went to the hardware store after work to purchase some materials, all while coming down with this hideous cold. It's amazing how much energy gets zapped by a stupid cold. I did what I could while getting everything done at work and getting ready for a week in New England - a vacation planned a long time before deciding to take this class.

So, I'm not exactly starting out well in this plan to go to school. The first project is undone, a missed class, and now trying to guess at what the second assignment is by looking at the syllabus. Hopefully I'll be more in control of my time from now on.