Balance

I am pulled between two very different color stories.  I am energized and excited by the intense, saturated colors like the ones I dyed last week.  But the historian in me is also drawn to the grungy, vintage browns, rusts, and sepia colors that evoke a weathered past.  So to balance all the color from my last post, I decided to go vintage this week for my Texture Tuesday submissions.  Kim left the theme up to us, as long as we use at least one layer of her textures.  That part was easy, since she freely offers so many of her gorgeous textures.... but sometimes I find it hard to come up with interesting images to use in the first place.  I am looking forward to taking some online photography classes, as well as going on some "real-life" photo walks this fall, so hopefully I'll start to get some inspiration.  In the meantime, check out Kim's cafe for some wonderfully inventive uses of texture.

This photo was taken at 6 am on Friday.  My dog, Jackson, is an early riser, and I have learned to keep my camera handy just in case.....

Processed with Kim Klassen's "Thursday" (soft light @100%, color burn @16%, and linear burn @35%) and her "Scripted Autumn" (soft light @60%, texture brushed off of sky)

I see so many people setting up their own still lifes, so I gave it a try:

Kim Klassen's "Luminous" (soft light @100% and overlay @33%) and her "Pourvous" (overlay @53%, texture brushed off books and jug.)

This is an antique mixing bowl, which I set on the table runner I made from my erosion bundle fabrics:

I can't find where I wrote my recipe for this one, oops!

Speaking of erosion bundles... I started a new one on September 15th:

This one has a lot of rusty stuff bundled up in there, along with several photographs.  It's mostly fabric this time; fewer papers.  I decided I like the weathered look that you get from rubbing citrasolv on National Geographic pages better than the aged papers I got from the erosion bundle (with a lot less effort ) -- so this time I focused more on seeing what a year of weathering will do to fabrics.  Check out this space again in a year for the results!!

Gratuitous Jackson pic:

Hipstamatic shot taken on my iphone, processed with two layers of Kim's "Warm Sun" (overlay @50% and color burn @17%)

I'll close with a page from my art journal:

I was thinking I couldn't link up with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's Art Journal Every Day this month because I am not always able to work directly in my journal...

But then I thought about it some more, and decided that yes I can!  Taking photographs counts as journal time, because I might use the images as collage fodder.  Working on the erosion bundle counts, because I'll use the eroded materials in my journal in some fashion or other.  Dyeing tissue paper counts, because one day I'll use pieces in a journal page.  I've decided that as long as I'm following my artistic impulses -- no matter how circuitous they may seem to an observer -- one of these days I'll get to wherever it is I'm going.

My erosion bundle ...revealed

On August 5, 2010, I bundled together fabrics, photos, tea leaves and various papers, and placed it on my fence to weather for a year.

I wrote about the Erosion Bundle project a few months ago (here); I meant to open my bundle exactly one year later, but life (and Irene) intervened.  So, better late than never, here is what I found:

The bundle itself was in pretty good shape.

The fabrics definitely faded where they were in the light, but showed little wear in the areas that were encased in the bundle.

I decided to make a table runner with my weathered fabric.  I wanted to make something that looked like it had been used for years.  My husband, very tactfully, asked me if I had experienced some problems making it.

...He doesn't get "wonky:"

I didn't photograph the back, but I used the pojagi method of piecing, which encloses the seams so front and back are interchangeable. Victoria, over at The Silly BooDilly, has a very clearly-written tutorial (and if you search for "pojagi" on her blog, you will find some gorgeous examples.  Pojagi is a Korean form of patchwork that can be interpreted in so many ways -- see videos of Korean artist Chunghie Lee
here, or here).

My erosion bundle also revealed some gorgeous papers.  The photos I included discharged their ink in interesting ways.  I can't wait to use them as backgrounds in collage:

Some of the papers look like they are covered in black mold.  I had painted them with black tempera paint -- it's not mold, so no health worries here!!  Actually, I wish I had used a more permanent acrylic paint, since the tempera brushed off the surface after everything dried out, leaving a more subtle charcoal effect than the black streaks you see here.

I put some tea leaves in the bundle, too.  They really didn't have much of an effect at all -- in fact, you really can't see them:

I think this was a pretty successful effort overall.  I am going to do this again, but this time I will include rusty items among the fabrics.  I will add some threads and laces, too, and lots more photographs.  I really like the way the inks ran.... I wonder how they would run on fabric? Hmmm... lots to think about here.  Any suggestions?

Push-Pull

I studied karate for 10 years, and there was a principle we were always working with, called push-pull.  That is, power is created when force in one direction is balanced by an equal force in the opposite direction.  This principle applies to life and our creative pursuits, as well.  I've been thinking about this a lot lately because I am caught in a dilemma.  Do I make art, or do I write about it?

I love quilting and other needlework.  Passionately.  I love the meditative quality of slow stitches and the deliberate, relaxed process of creating a large cloth out of lots of little pieces.  To the outside world looking in, however, it is kind of like watching the grass grow.

I am not afraid of "slow."  I am following the Erosion Bundle Project, an internet-inspired effort to create naturally aged and weathered materials to use in my art. The basic idea is that you gather and put together a bundle of materials -- fabric, paper, bits of metal or other items to bleed color, plus any other ephemera you can think of. Then, you leave it out in the elements (some people bury their bundles underground) for a period of time to weather, after which you make art with the results.  Here is my bundle, which I put together in August of 2010.


And here it is today.  In August, it will have been out on my fence for a year -- I don't know if I can wait that long to open it!!!


Back to my dilemma -- the internet community is so inspiring.  I am constantly amazed when I see the wonderful art that people are making and sharing online on a daily basis.  I am not part of a local art community, so the internet has become a virtual group of friends with similar interests.  The trick is, you have to participate to be part of it.  It all moves so fast, though, so if you wait more than a few days, you are not part of the conversation.

I think that karate holds the solution.... push-pull means finding a balance between "slow" and "fast."  Now, if anyone has a clue how to do that, please let me know!