In the Name of Art

A List for the 'Fest

The Saturday before Artfest I attended a collage workshop to make an altered book and decided to make that my journal for Artfest because I ended up with about 9 pages and a lot of pockets (which happens to me when I make altered books, I cut down the amount of pages because trying to alter 100 pages becomes very daunting). This is a page for that journal with a list of things that didn't end up in the rest of my commentary.
Marking each of these small events and reading them later starts a cascade of memory that isn't restricted to the structure of my daily reports and other written meanderings.

Artfest's End, Drat!

Well, I'm down to all the scenic views and the farewell picture taken of some early risers (5 A.M.!) on the Bainbridge Ferry enroute to lovely Seattle. Every time I attend Artfest, I'm one of those people who was a botanist/zoologist in another life, and find myself fascinated by lichens, moss, and the twists and turns of tree branches. I won't even post the photos I took of what appeared to be holes in the mud cliff made by swallows! As you can see, clouds and sun figure large in my interests also.

The Bainbridge travelers are Annie on the left, Arlene in the middle and moi on the right. The flight back was uneventful but looooonnng and I'm still standing up to compensate for all that time on my butt. As a bonus, came back to weather in the 60s and sunshine, can't get any better than that!

Artfest inspired PCs

The first 2 pcs were made before Artfest with an idea to sell them in the gallery, but I decided to make pins instead, so these substituted as my daily collage work. The theme had me stumped at first but once I started I could probably make dozens of these out of some old reference books about trees and plants that I have. I wanted to put a quote by Derrick Jensen in these but ran out of space. Anybody out there read him?

The second 2 pcs were done almost completely with trades in ephemera I picked up at meals. The last couple times I went to Artfest I didn't do anything with the papers I got and I wanted to use them up quickly this time, strike while the iron is hot! I also hate to waste papers and these have the good, creative intentions of Artfestees behind them. So, voila!

Artfest day in and day out!

In no particular order these are more shots from days and nights at Ft Worden. The first is of Catherine Witherwell demoing how to fire pmc clay. I was a little startled when it caught on fire but she, of course, was unflappable and besides, thats how it works. The trick is to have good ventilation and nothing flammable around, including students!

The next 2 shots are of the water, moonrise and sunrise and are examples of the positive results of insomnia, Washington State has my vote as most picturesque!

The last is another shot of my Woven Narrative class and shows more of my truly awesome students putting pieces of their narrative together. These folks were terrific students and artists!

More of the Artlings at Artfest

It doesn't get much better than this! Spokandy (those mints are delicious!), a special Artfest thermos to drink hot tea allllll day and a class of students that blew me away! These are more pics of The Woven Narrative class. I wish I'd taken photos of all the finished work but some weren't complete until show and tell and I didn't have my camera. Drat! If you were in the class would you post photos to my email (if you have it) or on the group site? The weavings I saw on Saturday night were drop-dead gorgeous and I'd love to have images of them! My trip back home went off without a hitch and other than a sore butt from 8-9 hrs of sitting (gotta love those coach seats) everything was exemplary! Even saw the movie The Water Horse on the way back! Will be posting more shots with more commentary each day this week so come on back soon!

Whirlwind Return from Artfest

Lions and bears and time-change, oh my! Was able to navigate home yesterday with my trusty guide Annie and side-kick Arlene in time to post some photos. These are shots of the class I taught with all the happy artsters busily weaving papers and stories together on Friday, it was a fabulous group and I loved teaching it! Keep posted for more photos. I'm looking at the clock and wondering why I don't have enough time, logic does not help me! Artfest rocks!

Woven Narrative News

The paper-weaving on the left you've seen before in this blog, the diagram on the right is a cursory visual of the steps I used to make it. I'm posting this so that students in The Woven Narrative can see how the horizontal and vertical parts fit together. Writing about horizontal and vertical axis (what IS the plural of that word?!) can be confusing if there is no visual to reference. So here you go! This is how I combined the images (on a horizontal axis) with the transparency (on a vertical axis). I'll cross my fingers that this is clearer than mud. If not, you folks on the Yahoo group know how to find me!

Woven Narrative Q and A.

Just in case you have questions about the materials list and procedures! I recently received an email from a woman who is taking the class and she asked the questions answered below. Questions are very good!
If you have any other questions, please feel free to email me. Examples of work done with this technique are posted under the category Artfest on the right side of the blog.

1. Am I to assume I should come in with a theme or
story to tell?
* It can be as little as a sentence
about a day at the beach with photos to back it up,
I'm not talking Gone with the Wind, more something to
say about pictures you combine.
2. Should I have a color scheme in place?
* Possibly, you
may want color of string and copies of photos to match
up. I used B&W photos in my first ones and white
string. It worked.
3. What is a transparency?
*At most copy centers you
can have a written document copied to a sheet of
acetate that you can see through to the stuff
underneath. Will we be learning about
4. How do I transfer
the transparency to the surface?
*Simple, we'll be sewing the transparency to the paper
weaving.
5. Will we be sewing on the paper directly?
*Yes.
6. What kind of paper
should I be looking for?
* Nothing fancy, copy your
photos to the paper normally used for that (even
regular B&W copies though I like the color copies
better, even of B&W photos).

Smaller (6x4) Paper Weavings

I wondered how small these could get......this is PC size and if you look closely you can see how the loops on the edges or the selvages sometimes show up depending on whether an even number or odd number of warps are strung on the loom. The cowgirls are me and my sister feeling very fine and adventurous at the ripe age of 6 and 4. I was way into Davey Crockett at the time but my parents wouldn't spring for the racoon skin cap. There are overlays of chine colle and a cut-up transparency of a map of Ohio on top. The stitches are simple overhand knots, nothing so structured as French knots, I like the messy look of the overhand knot.

Tinybuttons was an even smaller weaving applied to a background page from a vintage book. It was sewn down with running stitch and then a variety of collage elements were added with some paint and a flamingo feather that Deb Denton sent me through the mail....those feathers are soooo beautiful and I couldn't resist adding it.

Narrative in Paper

Just finished! Another example of work in paper-weaving that combines images to tell a story. My mother is at the middle and her parents are woven into the top and bottom. A map of Washington state is to the lower left, not all of it but the part that includes Elma. My grandparents moved to Washington State just after they were married in 1910 to find work. Once they got there work was harder to find than they thought and my grandmother got pregnant. When the baby was born it was a premie and she said the doctor told them to put it in the oven to keep it warm. The baby died at about 3 weeks and my grandparents left Washington but not before they bought a small plot to bury the baby. The certificate for the plot is the transparency on top of the weaving. My mother figures so prominently in the work because she has the original deed to the burial plot and wants to make a trip out to Washington to see the sights but also to locate the burial plot.

I chose the color blue for the threads because its a sad story but also one of connections, some are tangled and some are (like the weaving) structured. Weaving and sewing into photography indicates that these memories and the narrative have been restructured and reflect the hand of the story-teller.