Penny Fabric Art

2012-02-15T20:05:00.000-08:00

Am I really thinking, or am I just sitting and staring?

I think I'm thinking.

What do you think about when you're "working"? Do you wonder if the punctuation goes inside the quotation marks or outside? Does it depend? Or are there exceptions? Did I just screw up?

I'm working on editing my book, and though I've gotten past the iterations of Strunk & White, every time I make another pass at a draft with a plan to add all sorts of depth of characters and setting, I still get hung up on vocabulary and style. There's one passage I've edited 3 times, each time changing it to what it was before.

That's not to say I'm a ding dong. It's hard to know if a reader will get the subtlety. So I switch from subtle (trusting my potential readers' savvy) to more flagrant (did I hit them over the head too hard?) and back.

I usually settle on going subtle. I think people who are analytical appreciate subtlety. And I think people who prefer to skim like to be surprised by extra levels.

I try to be sort of subtle in my artwork too. I don't want to tell you what you have to see in my pictures. I want you to get a feeling that's kind of like the feeling I got, but experience it in your own way.

This new piece came together from a wide range of thoughts and feelings, about New Years, and going out, and dating, and loving, and hoping, and maybe being a bit jaded too.

It's a mixed media piece that was inspired by Peter Max's style of bold, abstract forms, combined with an inspiration from Gustaf Klimt to combine textile patterns. Only I used real fabrics, which Klimt didn't (chicken!)

Not that I'm comparing myself to either of them. But this is where my sitting and staring took me.

What does your sitting and staring make you think of?

How Did You Do That?

2012-01-11T08:10:00.000-08:00

People often ask me how I make some of my more complex fabric art pieces. Ok, I'll show you.

The trick, as in creating many types of artwork, is to work in layers - building, adding, editing, detailing bit by bit as the form takes shape.

Of course, there are technical skills involved, some pieces requiring more intricacy than others, but the basic strategy isn't so different than many forms of painting, pastel, watercolor, etc.

I made a sweet piece of an aerial view of Aarau, Switzerland a few years ago. My customer wanted a special, personal gift, made from a photo from a tourism brochure. Here's it is:

Vurma's original

The first thing I did was find out that the photographer was Jiri Vurma, and I contacted him for permission to use his photo for the derivative work. His work is excellent, if you want to click his name to see more.

Next, in order to really personalize it properly, I had to know something about Aarau. I spent about 3 hours on Google, reading about Aarau's history, finding pictures of special features.

It's where Albert Einstein went to gradeschool, so of course I wanted to highlight that building, along with several other classic monuments.

I collected photos of the key places, so I could represent their shapes and choose fabrics that would fit the sense of time and place.

I decided to do all of the important architectural treasures in silks and brocades, to make them stand out.

I then trashed my fabric stash, pulling out every fabric that I might want to use. About 70 altogether. Pain in the butt ironing it all and hanging it by color scheme...

I blocked out the basic color areas with a selection of foundation fabrics:

I cut and sewed into place the underlying shapes of the landscape:

I added another layer of detail:

Then another layer, sewn down bit by bit:

Many of Switzerland's old towns have their own crest. I created the Aarau crest in silk embroidery. After the last round of applique to add the more fragile silks, the last step was to add an insane amount of detailed stitching, both general free-motion quilting in the landscape and sky, and especially multicolored stichwork to put a thousand little shutters on all the windows in the city.

I gallery-wrapped it on a stretched canvas frame (to hang like a painting), using a chocolate (of course! It's Swiss!) microsuede border.

This was such a fun piece to make, and the gift recipient (who grew up in Aarau) was delighted. This is probably my own personal favorite of all the artwork I've done.

So there you go. Easy...

And here's a song from Swiss rock band Wind of Change:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFrqx5RgJbQ

Pin It

The Scarlet Letter (P)

2011-11-23T10:04:00.000-08:00

By now you've surely heard about the Pepper Spray Cop from UC Davis. And the meme that's taking over the internet and Occupy dialog.

I've seen comments ranging from frivolous to furious over the use of the Photoshopping of the cop onto everything from fine art to pop culture to Vietnam and Holocaust photos.

Since you didn't ask, here's my opinion. On the surface, it may seem too flippant to take a such a serious issue as a cop calmly assaulting peacefully assembled students on their own campus and turn it into a joke.

But what is really happening with all this photoshopping mania and hype?

I'd say it's the contemporary version of applying the Scarlet Letter to Lt. John Pike. It's the public mockery of his egregious action. The symbolic meme that is his badge of shame, to wear forever in the interwebs for all the populace to see.

Comedy isn't just silly jokes. The best comedy strikes a universal cord that reaches into our hopes and fears and awkward agonies and ironic perspectives.

To put Pepper Spray Cop onto great works of art, or horrific war scenes, or silly pop icons, is to point out the absurdity of Lt. Pike's cavalier attitude and terrible judgment; while in some cases it also puts the incident into a much broader perspective relative to our world's most severe problems.

So, in that spirit, I also spent some time messing with Photoshop & Twitter, and contributing to the meme with the pics on this page, spanning Amish Quilters, the Bumble, Karl Pilkington, and of course, Johnny.

Comments with your opinions on the meme (or incident) are most welcome.

Time to Dance

2011-10-18T07:36:00.000-07:00

I haven't gone dancing in a couple decades. Don't know why, except that nobody I know likes to go dancing. Ok, that's probably why. Not that I was ever any good. But that shouldn't matter - it's not like I was as bad as Elaine on Seinfeld...

So instead I crank up the iPod in the studio and live vicariously through dancers I put into artwork. And I boogie around the studio a bit.

My Native American name would probably be "Dances With Elephants."

I was hopping to the wild guitars of Al Di Meola, Paco De Lucia, and John McLaughlin, with their unique mix of insane skills with some flamenco influences when I made my most current art quilt. I wanted to capture the colors and postures in a sort of abstracted, Modernist style. Kind of like the patchwork effects of Robert Delaunay.

Thus, my newest piece, Samba. It's a wall-hanging piece from cotton and burlap.
Hope you like it. I do.

Here's a fun video of Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, a group modern dance that's got a great underlying humor in the choreography. Enjoy.

MaryJane's Farm Magazine

2011-09-30T05:52:00.000-07:00

Oct/Nov 2011 issue

Anyone who says the internet age is making magazines irrelevant hasn't seen the current issue of MaryJane's Farm Magazine. What could be more relevant than a publication that covers a wide range of organic/green living issues in a practical, hands-on way?

One thing that could make it better would be to put me in it. So they did. Yay!

The Oct/Nov 2011 issue includes an interesting article "Why Women Quilt" presenting perspectives from the traditional handwork style to contemporary textile art.

If you haven't peeked at my website yet, I'll give you a hint - I'm the contemporary textile art they featured.

I'm very happy to be part of the dialog that MaryJane shares with her readers, as for the past year or so I've been shifting so much of my work toward using eco-friendly and organic supplies, including organic and free-trade fabrics, and recycled/repurposed materials for sustainable studio practices.

These practices may be emerging with a bit more vigor in the art world these days, but the quilting world has used recycling and repurposing of fabrics and fibers throughout its history, like the antique quilts that used clothing and blanket scraps, that embody such a broad picture of the era from which they emerged.

Here's a blurb I pilfered from MaryJane's website, to give you an idea about the publication:

Here’s what Deborah Needleman, former Editor of House & Garden magazine and current Editor-in-Chief of Domino magazine, had to say:

“MaryJanesFarm is charming and well done—hugely appealing. It is homey, and smart and interesting ... part Martha Stewart Living, part Oprah magazine, part Organic Style, part Nation, part Ladies Home Journal ... full of tips, ideas, and information.”

So pop on down to the newsstand and pick up a copy of this month's issue.

And many Thanks to MaryJane, for including my work in your fabulous magazine.

Shameless

2011-09-14T13:28:00.000-07:00

Yay!

34 Halpin Lane, Ridgefield, CT

Ridgefield Guild of Artists in southern CT runs a great juried art show every fall, and this year the juror was Cynthia Reeves. Very knowledgeable woman, and even better - extremely nice.

Wonder of wonder, she chose my Greensward Labyrinth piece for the show, and said some nice things about my work in general, so it's good to be alive this week. Well, it's good most weeks. Especially next week. And the next. And the next (ad infinitum).

Here's a pic of the piece. It was a pain in the ass to make, cutting 896 little curved pieces of woven grass paper of lots of different sizes, and meticulously laying them out without touching the wine. Wine would have made it more of a Greensward Meander than a labyrinth. The frame is an amazing olive wood.

So cheers to me, and the other 60ish people who made the cut. There's some fantastic work in this show, so in my next post I'll try to share some of the other artists' info and pics.

And if you're in the NY/CT area, go to the opening on Sat. Sept. 24 from 2-4 pm, 34 Halpin Lane, Ridgefield, CT.

I Lied.

2011-09-10T18:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, so in my last post I said I was getting to work. Instead I went to Acadia up in Maine. Had a hankering for lobster, which trumps career success any day of the week.

It was a week of togetherness.

Here's me and Phil hiking together:

See that little blue dot? That's him.

Here's me and Phil riding bikes together:

See that even smaller blue dot? Me neither.

I surely do miss my favorite physicist. The tandem bike was more fun, even if he never did pedal much. Probably was too busy calculating the force I was exerting.

Here's pic of the incoming tide. I got a bit too close and caught a massive splash in the side of the head. All the people up in the safer zone had a good laugh. Glad to be of service.

Spent the rest of the afternoon smelling like wet seaweed.

So it's back to the studio tomorrow. And maybe some new work up by week's end. I did put some new work up on the website, if you'd like to have a peek. Here's one of them:

DUMBO (Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass)

Back to Business, I Suppose

2011-08-11T10:59:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been nearly four months of writing and editing, with very little artwork happening. Time to re-balance the scales, I suppose, and make some art and stock up on the items for the holidays.

My quilted wall-hanging Advent Calendars are always a big seller, so this week it's been crank-it-out-craft week. Shooting for listing all those around September 15, so have a look at the website around then if that excites you. People find they make great kids gifts from grandparents, aunts, and uncles - it's an easy way to get a whole month worth of spoiling taken care of in one fell swoop.

Wengen, Switzerland

Also got going on some small works. 8"x 10" and 9"x 12" textile collage pieces that are also excellent unique gifts. I love making the small ones, because it's challenging to get the mood and detail into small works. Plus they go faster, obviously, so they're good for sparking a feeling of productivity - unlike some larger pieces that can take a month or more.

Will also have ornaments on the site's gift page. Kimekomi fabric ornaments, Temari embroidered orbs, and perhaps some cool, intricate Kirigami work. I make my Temari the traditional way, with fabric scraps and yarn centers, not with styrofoam balls.

So, please check back for the listing announcement. And act early on the Advent Calendars, because they go pretty fast, and of course, must be delivered before December first! And until then, enjoy some Reggae Feliz Navidad by Freddie McGregor:

An Unusual Idea

2011-06-15T07:57:00.000-07:00

How is that light bulb lit up? Eerie...

Woody had an idea about seven weeks ago.

Here's Woody having his idea:

I told him the skirt was a bad idea. He said it was a kilt. I reminded him he's not Scottish, he's just American White Pine. He said to mind my own business. I asked if he was having gender identity issues he'd like to discuss.

A voice from the other room said "Who are you talking to in there?"
"Nobody."

Woody doesn't like to be called a nobody. I had to apologize.

But his idea was good. He said I should write a book.

So I did. I sat my butt down at my laptop and started writing. I wrote for about seven hours a day for the last seven weeks. Lo and behold, I wrote a book. Fiction. It's alright, too. I'd read it.

I discovered my propensity to talk to inanimate objects in my studio led logically to writing dialog and stories. This is useful, because now I can say I'm not insane, I'm a writer. And an artist. Double Indemnity. I'll get paid twice the amount for the loss of my mind. (Let's not discuss the arithmetic of multiplying by zero, ok?)

To be honest, I started writing this in my head about five years ago. So the typing was just the quick and easy part, when I finally sat down to do it. It starts out on a beach in St. Martin...

A tiny diptych of a beach in St. Martin, in acrylic & fabric

I may post some excerpts, especially some good ones that I cut because even though they were fun, they weren't sensible to keep in the book. Hard to let go of good ideas, isn't it? The hardest parts to write were a couple romantic interludes. Just try writing something romantic and not having it turn out like cheesy erotica, or your journal from eighth grade.

Next up, a great Historical Fiction piece. Hatchet murders, blood, guts... you know, a Romance. (I mean it. Go figure.)

I've promised myself I'd blog more regularly, post more art, have more fun and give you something interesting to look at when you're done cleaning up after the dog/kids/spouse/hatchet-murderer, so click to Follow the blog if you trust me.

Of course, I've lied about that before. You'll have to ask yourself:

Woody and Leeds United

2011-05-19T20:10:00.000-07:00

So here's a treat for you. Two posts in as many days.

It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't treated my meager audience to the joys of Woody. I promised that, yet I kept Woody to myself. And who could blame me? Well, you, probably.

So here's another entry in the Joy of Woody cookbook.

I've been working on a very nice new piece involving some dancers. With any luck, I'll have some pics up on this most excellent piece very soon, and you'll all be checking your accounts and trying to work it out so you can buy this amazing piece, which I won't tempt you with photos because I'm too lazy to take the pics and after all, you can't wait to check back for it anyway, right?

But while I was working away, struggling to put my visions into fabric, Woody was happily molesting my studio angel that my Mum gave me. She obviously worries about me, otherwise why would she think I need an angel to help me along, when I'm not really an angel sort of person. But what the hell. If angels are real, they probably don't need me to justify their existence. And if they do, they can't be very successful angels anyway.

So, hedging my bets, my angel stands there on the corner of my table. If she were a judgmental angel, she'd be glaring up at me saying "WTF" every time I glanced her way. But thankfully, she's not. She just looks sadly down at my cutting board, and endures the lurid advances of Woody.

I probably should protect her from him.
But, go figure, we all have our crosses to bear.

Cheers.

Here's a song, that has nothing to do with this, unless Woody loves Leeds United, which is highly possible considering his wayward style:

Put a Bird On It

2011-05-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, so here we are 42 days after my last blog post. It’s going swimmingly, wouldn’t you say?

I swore I’d post at least once a week. But then, there’s lots of speculation that while God created the earth in seven days, each day was actually about a couple eons in the time that our puny little minds can fathom. So really, I’m way ahead of the game here.

I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately, which is probably why at the end of the day I don’t feel like piling on and writing a blog. Can’t write when you’re being a writer, right?

I’ve actually finished several good art pieces during this time, but bailed out on the photography and posting them to the website. I’m going to invoke the “I make art for art’s sake” clause here, to rationalize why I haven’t appeared very productive. That’ll work at least until the property tax bill arrives, which is due next week. Guess it’s time to update the website. Go look. Tomorrow.

One marvelous turn of events in the past month has been my discovery of the Magnolia Bakery. Pumpkin cupcakes with maple cream frosting. Lemon cupcakes with vanilla, S’mores cupcakes with oozing chocolate centers, and of course the daily specials.


Ripped off from Gervais and Merchant

If I were famous, you’d all be falling all over yourselves Twittering what kind of cupcake I’ve eaten today, and what kind I might go for tomorrow, and whether I’ve run a couple miles so I don’t start looking like David Brent. But since I’m not, try to amuse yourself with this lovely apparition:

I could make cupcakes at home, but that would take about an hour. I’d rather drive to the train station 15 minutes away, hop the train to Grand Central, and walk a bucketload of blocks to the Columbus Avenue branch of the Magnolia. Then slog back to the train and reverse the process, with an extra Snickerdoodle cupcake in my pocket for the ride.

I don’t even like Snickerdoodles. I just like the name. Say it with me: Snickerdoodle… Snickerdoodle… Snickerdoodle... Ha! Made you say it.

I know, I’m not a foodie blogger, so you won’t get any recipes here. But trust me. I know cupcakes. After all, I sold my small works on Etsy for a few years.

So with that, I’ll leave you with a few words of wisdom, to hold you for what hopefully won’t be 42 more days of longing for the sound of my Arial, or whatever font this is. At least it's not Comic Sans:

1) Don’t drink and blog.

And

2) Check out this contemporary art video. And put a bird on it:

Literally and Figuratively Speaking...

2011-04-06T12:03:00.000-07:00

Obviously, not done yet

Those of you who follow me on Twitter (it's ok, you can admit it - I give you permission within this blogspace to check your ego at the door and agree that there's something potentially wonderful about Twitter, if people could only get past the urge to spam and obsess and "collect" and just be like fun people at a really huge party...) may have seen my post stating:

"Strange- set out with a sour mood and dark fabrics figuring on an angry/edgy new piece. It's come out all colorful and flowery. I'm confused"

Of course, considering this post was blurted less than 24 hours after posting about the availability of gorgonzola moldings at Home Depot, I suspect most of my followers just rolled their eyes and moved on to peruse more expedient topics such as "Pop Your Twits with Xtreme Verve." Or maybe that should be tweets, not twits... or maybe not... well, isn't that the whole dilemma of Twitter anyway, discerning the tweets from the twits :-)

But if you are the one person who follows both my Tweets and Blog, I have a treat for you (Hi Mum!)

Within the past 36 hours I've read both Seth Godin's Poke the Box and Steven Pressfield's The War of Art. Yep, I really did admonish Seth on Twitter for keeping me from getting to work. So what?

Now, I'm not much on self-help books, because really, I think they mostly are about helping the selves of the people who wrote them. The only way a self-help author can convince me to delve into their theories is if their book is shorter than a Yankees game. Luckily for Godin and Pressfield, I'm a fast reader.

Lady Hails a Taxi

The reason I'm divulging my sources for inspiration for this week is because it relates to my Lady Hails a Taxi piece that came of instantaneous inspiration, and sold within hours of listing it. It was a case of wanting to make something, so just starting it and seeing what happened, without overthinking it. I'm not going to go mass production and exploit whatever this thing is that clearly interests people. But it was a good lesson in just getting down to work.

Instead I'm going to let Woody be my guide.

I agonized over whether or not to call him Woody, because it's just too damn obvious. But in the end I decided it was too damned obvious not to call him Woody. Any attempt at another kitchy name would have been weak.Woody it is, with all its pedantic yet erotic implications.

Woody, drinking my tea

Woody is my psychotic studio companion, who every day takes on a new pose and mocks my efforts to pose him. Every time I pose him for a drawing (like the one I'm supposedly writing about right now), the drawing comes out different, and he ends up drinking my wine or deflowering my studio angel.

More on that later, because I could use another glass of wine and I still don't think I believe in that angel.

But of course I believe in that angel, that you gave me, Mum. Of course. Come back soon, and I'll show you a few things about Woody and that Angel...

My favorite -ism

2011-04-02T17:16:00.000-07:00

Sonia and Robert Delaunay

would have to be Orphism. Specifically, the orphic cubism created by Robert and Sonia Delaunay in the early 20th century. Not to be confused with the Greek religion Orphism/Orphicisim, although I must admit to occasionally favoring the latter's reverence to Bacchus.

Breaking out of the more monochromatic style of early Cubism pioneered by Picasso and Braque, this romantic couple, sparked by Sonia's colorful sensibilities, brought bright, bold colors, light, and energy into this small movement. Oddly, they drew inspiration for their color styles from the work of the chemist Eugene Chevreul, who discovered margarine. While I don't believe margarine played a large role in their art or their romance, they were inspired by Chevreul's creation of the Chromatic Diagram classification of colors - a foundation of the modern color wheel.

Champs de Mars, Robert Delaunay

I love Robert Delaunay's works, and unsurprisingly I gravitate toward the pieces in which he uses a cool patchwork style of detailing, like in La Ville, though that one doesn't break very far out from the monochrome.

Sonia is my hero. Raised in St. Petersburg by her rich uncle, she went to Germany to study at Karlsruhe, then on to Paris. She studied at the Academie de la Palette, but later ditched the strict art school vibe to create her world where art and life were conjoined twins.

Sonia is just too cool.

She played the beard of art dealer Wilhelm Uhde, marrying him to cover for his homosexuality and secure her immigration to France. But she fell in love with Robert, later saying “He was like a whirlwind. His eagerness for life, his aggressiveness, filled me with delight.” {sigh} Her good friend Wilhelm faked an extramarital affair to give her legal cause for divorce, so she and Robert could marry. This also conveniently boosted Wilhelm's reputation as a womanizer, keeping his highly respected status intact with his posh clientele.

I want a Matra.

Unlike many art purists, she produced paintings; public murals; theatrical, graphic, fashion, and interior designs; and designs for playing cards, ceramics, mosaics, and stained glass. Well respected within art circles, she also designed couture with Coco Chanel, Jeanne Lanvin, and Jacques Heim.

And what's not to love about her painting of the Citroen-B12 and the Matra M530A?

Whenever I hear self-aggrandizing snots argue over the Art vs. Craft debate, I ignore them with my own smug pantology and wax obnoxious on the works of Sonia, and her influence on art, craft, and fashion.

2011-03-18T13:35:00.000-07:00

With my own birthday on the immediate horizon, I'm dedicating this post to all those people who are someone's Best Friend, especially my own best friend Val.

We all only have one "best friend," yet there are some who are the best friend to many people. My friend Val is that sort of woman. I suspect there are several people who consider her to be their best friend, so I'm not alone in that regard. To be fair, I'm certain I'm not her best friend, because I'm a sluggish responder to calls, and lame with important milestone events. But that's ok, because the person who I think is her best friend is way more deserving of that position. Plus she's wonderful too, and I've mentioned her in this blog if you're fanatic enough to bother checking (I doubt that). That said, we have so much freakin' fun together. I can't imagine whom I'd rather be stuck with on a desert island, as long as there were also margaritas and cabana boys.

Today Val made me a wonderful Birthday lunch (surprise!) and gave me a lovely pair of seaglass earrings. I don't remember ever telling her that I love seaglass, but whenever I did, she remembered. I think that's what makes best friends the best. They remember the little things that are seemingly unimportant, but that remembrance totally expresses that you're important to them. Guys, take note. It's not about emeralds and pearls - it can be way simple (and cheaper) and still be better.

Another excellent thing about best friends is they know you well enough to be really useful. Val got two Happy Birthday balloons, knowing that I would love the little festivity that they created - and first off she said "and you can take them with you and give them to Chris!" There's a friend who really knows me - I like the balloons, and even better I totally like that I can re-gift them to MFP (My Favorite Physicist, see earlier posts), as if I were astute enough to have thought to buy him balloons, which of course Val knows I wasn't.

Tomorrow I'm hitting the Guggenheim & the NY Botanical Gardens with MFP (and his new girlfriend) ...{sigh}... and I'll post next week with some brilliant impressions of something-or-other that hopefully inspired me this weekend. But at the moment, I'm enjoying the inspiration that comes from having a great friend. Hugs to you, sweetie, if you've figured out how to find your way here to my blog, you ding dong.

Thoughts On Innocence and Lying

2011-03-13T16:54:00.000-07:00

With the birthday of my favorite physicist fast approaching, I've been contemplating those bits of misinformation that we pick up along the path of life, and that moment of epiphany when we realize we've been wrong (or lied to).

Speaking of "fast approaching" things, perspective from Mr. Stephen Merchant:

(from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, January 19, 2011)

Once upon a time, there was a cleaning lady named Sherry. She was a marvelous cleaning lady, who resembled Elvira and dated the President of the local Hell's Angels chapter, and drew the admiration of a certain little boy who was fascinated by the world in general, and by Sherry in particular.

One day, the little boy came home from school to discover that Sherry hadn't come. With great concern, he asked his Mum "Didn't the cleaning fairy come today?"

After some discussion, it became clear he had always mistaken "Sherry" for "fairy."

His deep disappointment in learning that there was no cleaning fairy rocked his world, thus prompting his developing mind to voraciously demand facts forevermore, in true physicist fashion.

I love Photoshop, don't you?

I remember sitting around the breakfast table with my brothers, moping over cold scrambled eggs. My Mum came over and poured ketchup over them, and told me "they're not scrambled eggs, they're Eggs Benedict, like they serve in fancy restaurants for brunch."

Many years later, I ordered Eggs Benedict for brunch at a fancy restaurant. Imagine my utter dismay when I received muffins with runny poached eggs under a posh yellow sauce and a disoriented sprig of parsley. Clearly the chef was a total amateur. Deplorable.

I'm a terrible liar. By that I don't mean I'm terrible because I lie a lot. I mean I'm really terrible at lying effectively, so I just don't generally bother to do it.

When I was eleven we lived in Mexico for a year. Toiletry items like shampoo, conditioner, and hair oil were purchased in little plastic packets (either that, or my parents were stealing those from the hotel across the street). One day I showered and shampooed as usual, but my hair remained ridiculously slick and greasy all day. This gave my brothers more opportunity for cruelty than usual.

Not being quick enough to simply blame the person who put the hair oil packets in the shower, I lied. I insisted that I did not put that goop in my hair. I still maintain that lie to this very day, to no avail. It's become the zombie conversation at every family gathering since. Don't tell. I don't think they read this blog anyway.

Microexpression

I wondered how they all knew I was lying. I now realize that they were actually brilliant, having discovered the phenomenon of Microexpressions as insights to exposing true emotions and lies. (Plus, my hair).

Paul Ekman is such a Johnny-come-lately.

Here's a silk collage piece I did called Microexpression, based on a photo I took at a family gathering. Care to comment on what this microexpression is? Is it:

A - Disgust, at my pairing of a lovely Malbec with Cheetos

B - Irritation, at me for taking her picture after she showered with hair oil

C - Frustration, for being at my house instead of sipping Jägermeister with Sven

D - Joy (damn that botox anyway)

Top 3 Ways to Save Money in the Recession Economy

2011-03-04T09:10:00.000-08:00

The recession has hit the southern CT gold coast, just north of NYC, fairly hard. All around me people are having to rearrange their lifestyles and priorities to redevelop that nest egg they lost to Madoff, Goldman Sachs, et al.

After much research, I’ve developed my surefire top 3 strategies for personal fiscal recovery:

some of my orchids

1. Stop watering the plants with San Pellegrino Yep, I know it's a tough habit to break. It took me several months of trying to wean them from it. They didn't really kick the habit until I went cold turkey and stopped buying the Pellegrino by the case at Costco.

That of course meant there wasn't any around for me either, so I've had to resort to daily pitchers of green tea. I think the green tea might be what killed the big jade plant. Time to stop sharing with the plants altogether. They seem to be doing alright on just water. Maybe I should try it.

Nihilist Ridge Meadow (my yard)

2. Stop paying for landscaping: put up a sign identifying the yard as a meadow conservation zone.

Face it, landscapers are expensive. And if you do it yourself, you have to pay for all that gas for the mower, and the hours not earning money making art or scrounging around on the floor of the car for coins.

While mowing one day, the little girl from across the street was sitting on her stone wall watching with great interest. This family had a team of landscapers working several days a week. When taking a short break I went to chat with her. She exclaimed "You have your own lawnmower?! Wow! We don't have a lawnmower. You must be rich!" I kid you not.

photo stolen from the internet

3. Stop throwing handfuls of money at the deer to get them out of the garden. This was another difficult habit to break, as it's just so convenient and effective.

It all started one hot summer night when I had the bedroom windows open and woke up to the sound of chewing. Right under the window were 3 deer chomping on my roses. The change jar being in a handy spot on the dresser, I grabbed a handful of coins and whipped them down onto their heads. Smorgasbord over.

It's proven to be a productive and satisfying pastime, but in the interest of... well, interest, it had to go. Used tennis balls are a cheaper alternative, and if you've stopped mowing the lawn you don't even have to bother picking them up.

So there you have it. Follow my lead, and you'll soon be wealthy beyond your wildest dreams.

Wall Street: the New Millennium

Another reasonable strategy to increase my wealth might be to actually get some new photos up on my website, so some of my brilliant followers can purchase all my new artwork with your newfound savings. One of these days.

In the meantime, here's a sneak preview of my latest piece, a complex work of fabric and thread painting, of Wall Street: the New Millennium. I suspect I'm not done embellishing this, but keep an eye out for the final version on my website sometime in the next week or so.

It Ain't Rocket Science (it's just physics)

2011-02-18T14:04:00.000-08:00

I am haunted by algorithms.

Ok, not as poetic as Norman Maclean. But still. It's a bit eery how every place I hit online wants to make "connections," and "circles," and make me part of its "community" of data miners.

So follow my blog and Tweet me.
(sorry, couldn't resist)

I worry about my confidential Google dossier. This morning I googled an online thesaurus and typed in "angst." At the top of the results, before the synonyms, were three ads for "Treatment for Depression," "NY City Therapist," and "NYC Psychiatrist." Yesterday I googled "elephant sputum" because it showed up in my Analytics keywords and I wanted to see what great company I was in with that search result.

Schrodinger's Cat

I can't help but imagine a day in the future: I'm on trial for some scofflaw antics, when the prosecution's counsel pulls up my Google profile and proves that I'm a manic, weltschmerz-ridden, mucilaginously obsessed troll. Bang! Guilty as charged, and then some. I guess that's better than being a geek who abuses the thesaurus.

Had a great conversation with my favorite physicist/mathematician the other day. He explained in great detail how in four dimensions time slows down when you accelerate due to the constant velocity of c. He makes so much sense... for a while. Next time I'm caught speeding down the Merritt at 80 mph late for an appointment, I'll try explaining to the cops how I was accelerating to slow time so I could make the appointment.

St. Mark's Garden

He gave me the lowdown on Schrodinger's equation over the holidays. Nice to finally understand that imaginary numbers are real, and that my dead cats actually are still simultaneously alive and well on that farm upstate.

Ok, so search algorithms and advanced linear algebra aren't my strongest suits. I can still make cool things, even if I get bored of graphing them.

A few thoughts on Project Quilting

2011-02-10T14:40:00.000-08:00

by Kim's Crafty Apple

Project Quilting is a fun online challenge for quilt artists, that is based on the Project Runway concept. Every other Sunday (for the length of each "season") a challenge is posted, and participants have 1 week to create their entry. Anyone can participate - there's no registering.

People can choose to do a challenge whenever they feel like it, or they can do every challenge to compete for the end-of-season grand prize. People who don't sew can vote on their favorite works. Every week prizes are given to the Judges' winner, the People's Choice winner, and a random participant from the Voter pool in the blog comments. There are 3 regular judges, and 1 guest judge per week. I'm a weekly judge.

My fave from Week 2

I'm always amazed at how different people will solve the same challenge in such different ways. The most fun for me is seeing the incredible variety in how all of the competitors interpret the themes. Not all entries are quilts - there are often totes, vases, pillows, soft-sculpture, and other unique inventions.

I judge work based on 3 key characteristics. First, the concept - how the artist makes the leap from the challenge parameters to their design. I look for that unique creative spark. Second, I look at how successful the artist was in executing the design. I look to see if the end result meets the challenge requirements, communicates the artist's unique interpretation (which they describe), and uses color, light, movement, and good design sensibilities. Third, skill quality is obviously important. This doesn't necessarily mean that beginners are automatically out of the running though. Simple stitch work done beautifully is better than highly complex work done terribly.

I think the best aspect of Project Quilting is the camaraderie of the competitors and the viewers in the comments on the blog and Facebook page. The competitors range from beginner to advanced skills, and from traditional to modern styles, but every one of them brings great creativity to the projects.

Click the PQ link above to go and vote for your favorite in the current week.

Growing Up With Art

2011-02-04T20:28:00.000-08:00


Something from the living room

For the past week I've had the pleasure/misfortune to stay at my Mum's house in NH. Pleasure because I love my Mum. Misfortune because I was there to help her through an illness, we got nearly 2 feet of snow, and by the end of the week everyone including me was sick too.

Going back home for an extended stay after many years in your own home gives an interesting perspective on those formative years. Here are a few of the thoughts that I found myself ruminating on during the week:

We had statues around the house, with broken arms (and necks or faces). I wished we had good ones, and was embarrassed that we had broken stuff. Then in middle school Art History, lo and behold, I discovered the real statues were all broken! What a relief to know that it wasn't our fault - it was those Greeks that shouldn't have made them broken in the first place.

Lisa, by Jan Dolan

My Mum, Jan Dolan, is an amazing painter. Her most recent one of me I call The Virgin Lisa. Others have suggested Lisa Von Trapp. Feel free to add your own interpretations in the comments. Clearly her vision of me is quite angelic.
I'm ok with that.

She used to make me sit for paintings, the earliest when I was 3 years old. I think there are 5 or 6 in total. I'd have to sit without moving an inch for hours and hours and hours (and did I mention hours?).

Remember The Far Side comic of the dog holding a violin and looking mournfully out the window at the other dogs chasing a cat while he had to take violin lessons?

That inspired this little Photoshop piece:

There's probably an artifact from just about every region on earth tucked around the walls and shelves and bookcases of that house. Balinese carved monkeys, bronze Ganeshes, ceramic Buddhas, dragons and plumed serpents, a frosted glass Madonna, textiles remnants from all over, a Mexican fat lady candle holder, hundreds and hundreds of books of all sorts. I don't know how many other families have copies of "Teach Yourself Sanskrit" in their bookcase, and actually used it. I have to admit as a teenager I could never get excited about the Sufis though. One day my Mum and a couple friends decided to paint the kitchen. The result is a 4-wall mural of an English garden, complete with roses, peonies, hummingbirds, and a couple fairies. We decorated our Christmas trees with kumquats and Mardi Gras beads.

I have to admit, while I fail to see the point in slogging compost through knee deep snow in February, only drinking water that's sat out in the sun in jars for several hours, soaking your head in bowls of Ayurvedic oil to improve hearing, dipping your feet in mustard to cure bronchitis, and keeping dead birds (that hit the windows) in the freezer because their feathers were pretty, we did enjoy a fairly vast spectrum of the world's idiosyncracies captured between those walls.

Thanks Mum.

BONUS: The first person to leave a comment with the correct identification of the bawdy activity going on outside the window in my little photo comic wins a free aceo art card, complete with little easel.

Why I Love Matisse

2011-01-26T17:53:00.000-08:00

Henri Matisse, Self Portrait

Ok, so I don't actually believe in the whole channeling phenomenon. However, if I were inclined to wish I were channeling a great (dead) artist in my work, Matisse would be my top choice of conceits.

Henri Matisse came from a family of textile artisans and weavers, and his work celebrated the art of fabrics throughout his life. He is known to have an extensive collection of textiles from around the world, and his paintings highlighted pieces from his collection across the years.

If you're interested in delving into the Matisse textile fascination, Ann Dumas curated a wonderful exhibit of his art and textiles in 2004, and published a great book that catalogues the collection, Matisse, His Art and Textiles.

Henri Matisse's comprehension of textiles included the recognition of how fabrics communicate regional and historical details of the subject matter. In my travels I've been consistently struck by the regional variety of styles and construction of fabrics- the textiles of New England vary greatly from those of Mexico, vs. Spain, vs. Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Ireland... you get the point.

While art is generally accepted to be "non-functional" by nature, fabrics are artistic creations that generate the backdrop for functional living, representing wide ranges of historical and socio-economic strata.

Try engaging yourself in a brief study of art from the major time periods and focus your eye on just the fabrics and textiles represented in those pieces of art. From clothing to rugs to bed-linens, a very real story of the aesthetic of the age is clearly represented in the fabrics depicted - even many petroglyphs from different continents show draping of fabrics (or hides) in the silhouettes of human figures.

The Parakeet and the Mermaid

Matisse used many of his collection textiles as backdrops and inspirations. I think it's cool that many of his later works shows a design aesthetic that closely resembles fabric pattern design. His Large Decoration with Masks, Apollo, and The Parakeet and the Mermaid pieces in particular would make fantastic textile pattern designs.

I love fabric (from celebrated designers to aboriginal free trade artisans), and in my work I've decided rather than depicting the textiles of my world in paint like Matisse did, I prefer to put the fabrics right in there.

There's room for paint too, and any other materials like wire or stones or cork that tell the story I have in my head. Yeah, I'm no Matisse, but that's ok. I'll get over it.

Rave

My newest piece is a fun mix of Australian Aboriginal fair trade fabrics, organic cottons, and cork, in 3-dimensional mixed media, loosely inspired by Matisse's style of figure drawing.

Remnants of a Powder Hound

2011-01-17T18:53:00.000-08:00

Isn’t it great to have buddies who will question your idiosyncrasies (i.e. flaws)?

A friend asked me “When you’re walking around and you change direction, why do you point in the direction you’re turning?” I’d never consciously noticed it. But it’s true. She’s baffled as to why it would even occur to me to do this, as if I were giving myself directions. Hmmm.

Winter Forest, Vail CO

I think it’s a skiing habit. I once had the treat of skiing for a couple runs with a Mountain Host at Deer Valley, getting a quick impromptu private tour and lesson while my companions enjoyed a beer at the Stein Eriksen Lodge.

He showed me a great powder cache in the trees of Gumby Glade, and explained that in the woods you have to not look at the trees – look at the gaps between them. (Ignore Burl Ives on this – watch the hole.)

After several near-misses (that is, I nearly missed the trees), he instructed me to point my hand directly at the gap I want to turn in to. This worked beautifully, and I learned to apply this to trees, moguls (bumps, not executives), and other maneuvers requiring quick turns.

Wengen, Switzerland

An odd manifestation of muscle memory, when taken out of its original context becomes a geek reflex. It’s not as effective on I-95, but it gives other drivers something to think about.

My favorite place to ski is Wengen, Switzerland. They actually have a St. Bernard with a little barrel around his neck, just like the cartoons. And amazing apple fritters with vanilla cream.

Plus, the occasional naked ski racer.

This will be the first year since 1993 that I haven’t gone on a ski trip to either the Rockies or Alps.

I guess I’ll just have to live vicariously through these people this year:

The Best Elephant Joke

2011-01-13T17:53:00.000-08:00

It's amazing that there are entire books filled with nothing but elephant jokes. Elephants with sneakers, elephants in cars, elephants and pygmies...

I personally witnessed the best elephant joke ever. It was played by an elephant, on a little fat pygmy brat with cotton candy and a stick.

I was at a circus, watching the elephants milling around in a fenced pen between acts. A brat was poking one elephant with a stick through the fencing, laughing with his sticky candy-coated face. The elephant was clearly irritated, looking back at him and grunting.

Fed up, the elephant put the end of his trunk into his mouth and loaded it up with a monster wad of spit. He reached the trunk back and sprayed the boy with a slimy shower of gooey sputum. The elephant happened to look me in the eye as I laughed and cheered for him. This made the boy and his Mom rather irritated with me. The episode will forever remind me that sometimes there is justice in the world!

I created this small fabric art collage with that day of reckoning in mind, cotton fabric applique and free-motion stitching. A cute little 8" x 10" piece.

More elephant news:
The woolly mammoth, extinct for thousands of years, could be brought back to life in as little as four years thanks to a breakthrough in cloning technology.

Perfect. Where do you think those mammoths will end up? The zoo or the circus probably. Let's hope they have mammoth salivary glands too - they'll need a new defense mechanism than what they used a 5,000 years ago.

On the subject of elephants, Cage the Elephant is pretty fun unless you're a garden gnome, in which case don't look.

Well, that's all I've got on elephants, since I already posted my elephant tessellation piece in my last post. I forgot that when I started writing this. What can I say? I'm not an elephant.

Welcome to PennyFabricArt

2011-01-09T19:27:00.000-08:00

Some people are saying “It’s about time,” while I’m sure others can’t fathom why the world needs yet another blog clogging up the tubes of the interwebs.

When my friend Kathy first invited me over to try quilting and teach me a couple of simple blocks (a decade ago now), my first thought was “Oh God, I haven’t gotten that old and in the way, have I?”

Unexpectedly, it appealed to the geek side of my nature – the one that thinks geometry and tessellations are cool, and that compels me to purchase and actually read physics books that I probably don’t really understand.

So I’ll be writing some anecdotes for you that might enlighten you a bit on how a life of art and geekery combined with fabric and thousands of hours to create what I have the audacity to now call a “textile artist.”

I’m also a judge on Project Quilting (the quilting version of Project Runway) for Season 2, which starts Sunday, January 9, 2011. I hope to post some interesting insights from the judging side of the competition.

Project Quilting is open for anyone to participate – contestants can compete all season for the grand prize, or they can choose to do individual challenges for the fun of it. If you don’t sew, you can participate by being a Public Voter in the weekly People’s Choice award – and one weekly voter is randomly selected for a prize.

I also plan to share insights into art that I like, galleries and shows that I check out, and artist/artisan websites that deserve a good shout-out. Like this:

Best of all, I’ll try to keep my drivel short and sweet. That’s always appreciated, I know.

If you like what you read once I get going, please follow my blog, check out my website, and please tell your friends how cool you think I am.