This Way, Please, Part 1

 

 

Ah, yes, this way, please. I love this journal, because I treasure my collection of "body parts" images, snapped by my husband at my request. I use them all the time in my artwork.

I am teaching a journal making workshop here locally next month, on October 2nd. All students (young adults welcome) will learn how to make a hand bound Japanese stab-stitch journal. In addition, we will discuss journaling techniques, and I will get the class started by showing them (this could mean YOU) how to "consecrate" their work.  The picture below shows a detail of the binding technique, which I have utilized on one of my own personal journals.

Last Friday was a rare "out of the house" day for me. I get so busy working, that sometimes weeks go by in

which I realize I haven't seen any people...and I'm a Taurus!! Believe, this can be painful. Anyway, my
artist friend Gail Crum and I made a studio visit last week. We talked art all the way there and all the way home, a total of three hours in the car. We also talked art while visiting the artist studio, of course, and we were joined by another mutual friend for lunch, so I got to talk books, as well. It was a lot of fun. Clare Murray Adams and I have been friends for a long time, and our creative paths have aligned themselves through sheer destiny, it sometimes seems.

Here is the door to Clare Murray's studio:

 It was such an inviting and inspiring location. Here is some of what we saw:
Collagraphs:
                                         Zippered rocks and zippered sticks:



                                   and a cool collaborative project Clare is doing with Oberlin artist Rebecca Cross:

And all of this before lunch! More to come in This Way, Please, Part II.

Finding Your Soul Through Your Hands and More Fall Fiber Exhibitions

This past week I heard a great interview on PBS by Jeffrey Brown of author Matthew Crawford. Crawford's new book, Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work sounds like a great read. It is about the value of making things and doing things with our hands. I can't wait to read it. I also can't help but think it represents the current societal trend, as happened in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, of re-learning how to be a maker. Once again, people across the world are turning to making; this is evident in the popularity of knitting, quilting, scrapbooking, and in online places like etsy.

I have been teaching workshops, ostensibly on making, for decades now. What my workshops are really about, though, is reconnecting. If my workshops are successful, the participants come away understanding how to find and listen to their inner voices once again. Listening to that inner voice is crucial for artists, but is also a honed skill that anyone can benefit from. Why do you think gardening is so popular? When my website update is complete, I will be posting some tutorials from my workshops, some exercises you can try at home. You can then test this out for yourself. If you are feeling lost or disconnected, you can find your way home.

Speaking of workshops, years ago two sisters signed up for my class, Spirit Boxes, Sacred Vessels and Shrines. One of them, Gail Crum , really found her voice, and has been creating fabulous assemblages ever since, several of which I have in my own art collection. She, her artist husband Sean Crum and painter Richard Skerl will be exhibiting at the Pentagon Gallery in Cleveland Heights, Ohio beginning today. The show will be up through October 24th.

As I mentioned in my last post, the art exhibition season is gearing up. The postcard announcements and emails are pouring in from friends and colleagues, so I would like to highlight a few more exhibitions I have heard about. Some of the local (greater Cleveland) galleries do not have websites, so you'll have to find your way to those locales.

Rock Ghost 2 by Rebecca Cross, solo exhibit, Transformations: Shibori in Silk At the Fountain Gallery, Malone College in Canton, Ohio

Having completed her MFA a few years back, Cross' work has blossomed, as she shreds the line between work for the wall and work for the sky.

September 4 - 27, Beachwood (Ohio) Community Center, fiber artists Jean Evans, Carole Pollard, Sandy Shelenberger, Judith Kessler Smith and Sonja Tugend will be showing work in Fabrications x Five.

In St. Louis, Missouri, a happenin' fiber art city, you can see the work of my colleague Pat Owoc in several group show venues. Her solo exhibition, Not Altogether Whole, will open in the Charak Gallery at the Craft Alliance on September 11, and will be on view until October 25, 2009.

Detail, Rest Area 1 Mile, by Pat Owoc

Enjoy your Labor Day Weekend, a holiday which was designed to honor the work of our hands. Make something this weekend!