And the Days Go By Waiting for Spring

As seen on etsy, an artwork by AmandaJean

I had a flash of a thought this morning while standing on my front porch: sloshing around in mud puddles in early spring. I can’t tell you when exactly, but it would have been in the persistent indentation in the gravel road in front of my childhood home. We had those kind of rubber boots that rose above the ankle and had an elastic ring that fastened to a button on the side of the boot. Since I was child number four of five, they were no doubt hand-me-downs, and had newspaper stuffed into the toe to make them fit.

Today, I don't want the rain, rain, to go away! I am more than ready for spring to arrive. The rain on the now bare soil smells like spring. Hurrah!

My life has been crazy busy since my last blog post. In addition to teaching three art classes at our local BayArts, I have been working with my friend Susanne to finish my daughter's wedding dress and a lace jacket. The first fitting has taken place, and this week it is time to begin constructing the jacket. Having found a lovely blue lace, we decided to forego painting the silk for the dress bodice, as I discussed earlier, and instead make the entire dress out of lovely slinky fabric with a lace covered bodice.

This lovely lace, with two different shaped edges, will cover the dress bodice and be made into a jacket.

In March, I also received a commission to create a Parokhet for a synogogue. A Parokhet is the decorative fabric curtain inside the Ark. I have been gathering fabric swatches, created an initial design sketch, and this week must create a scale drawing of my sketch, which I plan to color in for presentation.

I spent much of March gathering and tallying receipts to pull my tax information together. I am happy to report that all has been dropped off with our accountant. So glad to have that dreaded task off my list.

I hope signs of Spring are cheering you up. I hope to have time to stop and smell the roses when they bloom.

More Experiments: Painting Lace

A selection of paints on hand to try: Jacquard Dyna-Flow, two Pearlescent liquid acrylics, Deka Perm-Air paint, and a pearlized Createx airbrush paint.

My daughter is getting married in late spring. This is a joyous occasion, of course, and has presented me with some new opportunities to experiment in the studio. How are my studio experiments connected to a wedding, you ask? It started when my friend Susanne Gregg agreed to make my daughter's wedding dress.

My daughter is not a traditional woman, and this will not be a traditional wedding dress. It will be blue, and it will be in a sumptuous knit fabric. This is where Susanne comes in: she is not only a terrific fiber artist, she is also a fabulous seamstress who has way more experience than I do in working with knit fabrics. (Plus, she has a serger!)

The wedding dress design is floor length, and sleeveless. Over the sleeveless dress will be a fabulous sheer and lace jacket that curves its way from front to back, and has long, bell-shaped sleeves. Susanne has already measured, done a fitting, and created the patterns. Because my forte is combining multiple fabrics, I will be designing the jacket once the dress is sewn.

At $28 a yard, this gorgeous silk is worth every penny.

The dress design we came up with utilizes a gorgeous puckered silk in the bodice. The challenge presented is that the silk is a creamy white, and provides too much contrast against the blue body of the dress. It could be, and may well be, covered by an overlay of some of the laces from the jacket. It could also be dyed, but I don't have a large selection of dyes around the house. This is where paint comes in to the "what if" discussion.

I pulled out a selection of paints I had on hand in the right color-way, and decided to experiment to see how the colors looked, and how the body of the paint worked with the fabrics and trims selected. Along with a snippet of the puckered silk, I cut small pieces of pre-washed laces and trims for a test. These are samples of fabrics that will be used in conjunction with the main jacket fabrics, shown below.

I laid out the snippets, stapled to a foundation paper, and grabbed my paint brushes. Across the top, I wrote the brand and color name of each of the paints I wanted to try.

I worked with dry fabrics, because I wanted to see the intensity (and body) of the applied colors. Within those parameters, I experimented with both dabbing and brushing the paint. On the silk, after brushing the paint on the left, I used a sea sponge to dab it on the right side of the swatch.

I had expected the Dyna-Flow paints to give the best results, but that was not the case. Maybe it was the color I chose, but it was a bit "clumpy" on the multiple textures of the lace. My favorite turned out to be the Pearlescent acrylic inks, with the "waterfall green" (shown in the center of the paint swatches) seeming to offer the perfect way to pick up the light aqua color my daughter wanted to include.

Again, stay tuned. I will show you the dress and jacket as they develop. Oh, and I will be adding pictures of my Galway Circus Poster piece as I get them uploaded.

Experiments and Getting it Done

I found this poster in Galway, Ireland several years ago. When I travel, I like to find stuff to use in my artwork.

There is nothing like teaching a class to inspire some quick work in the studio. Tomorrow is Week 3 of my class Unraveling the Stories: Narrative Fiber Collage. Each week, I like to present a few new approaches in addition to the creativity exercises I hand out as 'homework.' I also like to develop a new artwork over the course of the class, so that students can see my process. In addition to giving me something to work on while the students are engrossed in their own projects, making an artwork "live" also provides an easy opening for shyer students to get their questions answered. For all the students, it helps to alleviate any fears they might have about experimenting and just starting to work.

Anyway, I have wanted to do something with this circus poster ever since I found it in a shop window in Galway. To bring it home, I packed in the bottom of my suitcase, covered top and bottom with the large sheets of paper and mat board that I always travel with. When I got home, knowing I would want to attach it to another surface, (and that would require strengthening the paper,) I fused the poster to Heat-n-bond lite.

In these two pictures, you can see the iron on adhesive on the back of the posted, with the still unremoved protective paper behind it.

The next step was to prepare a surface for the poster. Since my students are working with the same unprimed canvas that I like to use, I decided it would be great to show them what can be done with a couple applications of gesso and paint to create a background surface for other artwork.

I cut a hunk of pre-washed and pre-shrunk unprimed canvas, then positioned the poster where I wanted it, off center vertically. With a pencil, I quickly traced the edges of the poster, then removed it. I applied a layer of gesso and let it dry. Yesterday, I added another layer of gesso, and this time, I added textures to it with a bamboo skewer and a comb from my bathroom drawer.

I still have not adhered the poster to the canvas, because I want to paint it in class tomorrow. I will also want to sandpaper, draw on, collage and paint the poster itself. After that, I will finish the composition, and likely add a lot of stitching, which is something I love to do at night while watching PBS or the news.

More to come as the piece moves along. I have another experiment to show you later, too: hand coloring lace. Stay tuned.

Tristan's Celebration

Fellow blogger Tristan Robin is celebrating his 300th follower! Wow, I am really in awe of anyone who has put out that many blog posts, let alone ones that are so fun to read. If you have never read is blog, now is the time to check it out. Leave a comment, and you can also be entered in his art supply celebration giveaway. Good luck, and thanks to Tristan for the fun reading.

Losing Our Minds

My friend and fellow artist Christine Mauersberger, sent me an email yesterday with pictures and a question about a family heirloom, a gorgeous mid-19th century red and green quilt. I didn't ask permission, so I won't post a picture of the quilt here, but will tell you a story of what happened when I looked at it.

Gayle and Christine at our group exhibition opening, Flavors of Fiber

I am not an expert in 19th century quilts. My research expertise has been focused on the contemporary quilt movement, which emerged in the 1950s, and which I wrote about in my book Uncommon Threads: Ohio's Art Quilt Revolution. Two of my friends, however, happen to be world renowned experts in quilt history: Virginia Gunn and Ricky Clark. I first met Virginia in 1988 when we moved back to Ohio from Philadelphia. She was presenting a program on quilt dating, and participants had brought quilts for her to look at. Recently retired from the University of Akron, Gunn is still teaching courses at the International Quilt Study Center. Seven years ago or so, we had both been invited to speak at the Ohio Historical Society in celebration of Ohio's bicentennial, as had Ricky. Having recently received a family heirloom quilt of my own, I decided to bring it along, so I could show it to Virginia. Having told her nothing about it, she took one look at it, and said, "This quilt was made in Knox County, Ohio in 1840; I recognize the fabric." I was stunned, and she was right. That's how good she is.

I met Ricky Clark around the same time I first met Virginia. I attended a program on quilt history that Ricky was presenting related to the Ohio quilt documentation project she was conducting. Over the years, Ricky truly became a mentor, enthusiastically supporting my artwork production and my interest in quilt research. It was she who suggested that Ohio University Press approach me to write a book; it was she who gave me all of her old Quilter's Newsletter Magazines, and generously shared her other research materials. It was she who invited me to serve as co-curator for several exhibitions she assembled, and it was she who suggested that I take over as curator of the Artist as Quiltmaker exhibition, which she had founded in the early 1980s.

When Christine emailed me the picture of her quilt, I responded with my initial observations, then immediately went to put my hands on two of Ricky's books, which I knew contained detailed information about the style of quilt in question.

Quilts in Community was published with the research results of the Ohio quilt documentation project, and has always been one of my favorites. It is the perfect combination of quilt and state history, two of my passions. It is chock full of information about Ohio's wonderful treasure-trove of quilts and quiltmakers, with just the right helping of historical detail, such as the types of dyes used, or where Ohio's immigrant community came from. Oh, and there are lots and lots of color pictures.

Quilted Gardens was directly written about the type of quilt Christine had, and, although it wasn't strictly focused on Ohio quilts, the book contains its fair share of Ohio-made quilts from the 19th century, with wonderful genealogical stories to go along with the heirlooms.

It was delightful last evening to look through these books, since it had been several years since I had read them for the umpteenth time. Reading Ricky's words, the exquisite detail ferreted out from 150 years of quilt history by a brilliant mind, reminded me of the joy that comes from following one's passions. It also saddened me, because the Ricky Clark I knew no longer exists. She has been taken from us by Alzheimer's disease.

In the past several years, several fabulous women in my life have fallen prey to this terrible fate. Like Ricky, family friend, colleague and Oberlin printmaker Mary Rosenthal is gone. Painter, entrepreneur extraordinaire, dear friend and former mother-in-law Kathy Pritchard is gone. Kathy technically died of breast cancer, which she fought valiantly, but when I saw her last prior to her death, at my 50th birthday party, she didn't know me. I miss her. She was only in her early 60's. Another close family member, also quite young, was just diagnosed with Alzheimer's last year. I dread the day when she no longer remembers who I am. Finally, two nights ago, our dear Aunt Jane succumbed. Jane was also young, and had been a brilliant accountant, and one of the brightest women I ever knew. I miss her, too.

As the New Year, and the new decade, approaches, I am once again reminded of the frustratingly fleeting quality of life. I was hit over the head with this not-so-gentle fact when both of my parents died a year apart in the early 1990s. Once again, life nudges me to remember...remember love, remember who I am, remember to live in the now, remember, remember, remember...lest we all lose our minds.

New Classes Scheduled

I am teaching classes locally for the first time in many years: check out the Winter Newsletter at BayArts for more details. (My class descriptions begin on page 11 of the pdf document.) Hope to see you there! Here is the newsletter description for the first one, coming up in January.

Mixed Media - new & cool
Unraveling the Stories: narrative fiber collage - with Gayle Pritchard

In this course, you will learn the elements of design, composition, color use and idea development, along with lots of encouragement to develop the confidence needed to explore.
Using surface design and embellishment techniques, small base images will be created on canvas. Layer by layer, the compositions will be developed through mark-making, stitchery, collage and narrative to create an art object from the stories of your everyday life. No previous experience is necessary. Drop the kids off at school and enjoy a few hours of relaxation, creativity and spirituality.
tuesdays 9:30 - 11:30 am
Jan 12 - feb 9 (5 weeks)

Baby, It's Cold Outside...

As I stood outside on my front porch today, a snowflake landed on my black glove. The glistening white stood in sharp contrast, so I could see every detail visible to the human eye without a microscope. Looking at it immediately reminded me of how much I loved cutting paper snowflakes in elementary school, and how, when the folds were opened, a lovely surprise revealed itself. Today's snowflake was teeny-tiny, less than a quarter of an inch in diameter, and it was absolutely perfect. Every little point and space was pristine; it was beautiful.

The plants in my yard have been winterized now that December has arrived, and the still uncut flowers are frozen in their fall colors on their branches. A few of my roses still have pale pink flowers. Meanwhile, inside my porch window, cozy in the warmth of the house, one of my jade plants has decided to bloom.

I have had this plant for a very long time, and over many years it has grown to be about two feet tall. It has never bloomed before. In fact, in all my years of plant-loving and nurturing, I have never seen a jade plant in bloom.

I am in a somber mood lately. Nearly everyone I know is experiencing some sort of difficulty, some with their own health; others are worn out by juggling their lives while care-giving to family members in failing health. Almost all of the others in my circle are struggling through the economic downturn our country is mired in, and my own family unit is no exception. Times are tough out there, and people are stressed to the limit.

This is why it is so important to notice what is around is, and to search for the small pleasures of life. Artists have an advantage in seeing, because artists are hard-wired to see the world through their own peculiar lenses, finding beauty and inspiration everywhere they look. Noticing the small, quiet splendors is an especially potent way to nurture the soul. I can't think of a more healing way to spend a moment of our precious lives.

Today, a tiny snowflake and a blooming jade plant buoyed my soul. I have chosen to see them both as sign of hope. What is keeping you afloat?