Creating a body of work

I’m really enjoying working on my first real ‘body of work’. Having found the overarching theme that ties it all together, I exult in watching it come together little by little, watching connections form, living the experience. There are many different pieces in creation at one time, in many techniques, and they all reflect on, and inform, each other. Amazingly, despite not having work commitments, days can easily disappear quickly, so often just one little task or some preparatory work gets completed, but it’s the constant daily flow in the right direction that really creates the feeling of immersion. 

I say my first, although I had two exhibitions - Morphology I (2009) and II (2011)  - ‘exploring the fascinating surfaces and forms of fungus and lichen through contemporary textile practices’, featuring felting, dyeing, shibori and free-motion embroidery. Yet this feels quite different. Partly no doubt, because it’s a decade of experience on, it’s solo, and it’s based specifically on my five-week artist residency experience on King Island. It’s my main focus, my number one priority, it’s what I think about night and day.

It’s also very different for me to no longer be working on body-based sculptural pieces. I tried very hard to do this with Morphology, but just couldn’t manage it. It simply would not work back then; now it’s coming together almost effortlessly. It’s really different to living with just the one idea for many months, as I have for my previous wearable art works. I’m living with hundreds of ideas and techniques at the same time, and surprisingly, working within the bounds of natural colour. So many firsts. Below is a rack of backgrounds I am working on - all on solid felt backing.

Another is the use of synthetic material. Normally an anathema to me, for this series I was looking to use materials I already had, as well as those I could find second hand.  Bags of bridal fabric scraps bought years ago had been pillaged for the beautiful lace, silk, and tulle, with polyester satin begrudgingly stored in hope of future use somehow. These came into their own, teamed with Polysol dyes, for creating large background covers. Being polyester, I felt no compunction in painting over them, piecing them together – making the most of them in general.  The dyes have also been a challenge to work with, as they don’t appear true in the pot. To summate – they are murky buggers that remain a bit of a mystery until they come out!

The beauty of this though, is that I finally get to work through this stash of both artificial fabric and the dyes for them. Another way I have found of dealing with synthetics materials in a non-wearable environment is being able to paint in watercolour, as laundering is no longer a consideration.

It’s also really nice to be revisiting the free-motion embroidery techniques which initially brought me into the textile art world, learned in workshops from Ken Smith and Carol Wilkes. I really value the notes and samples I have from these times – from inspiration, to technique notes and machine settings.

 I always remember thinking in high school “if only I could concentrate on one thing, just one discipline”. University disappointed me in this way, but finally, given full free reign, and the years on me to care little about other possible restraints, it’s a joy to be immersed in this work.

Leather Kelp detail panel construction

I took these photos of this work in progress today, imagining I'd be able to do a fun, quick, wee slideshow video of the transformation, but noooo, it's not that easy! So here y'are!! Red leather, sewn onto the backing, ready to be stiffened with glue and then painted.
Inspiration:

*** Lovely lady from the Northside of Brisbane who gifted me all these offcuts of grey and red leather, I have searched high and low for your email address to thank you once again. It was quite a few years ago, and for a while I thought I would use these in a WOW entry, but now they are really coming into their own in my exhibition work. THANK YOU.

Artistic progression

Since my last post, I've continued to play in the studio - including weighing down pva-coated leather as it dried so it retained a stretched format, painting and stitching on 'glass' organza, needle-felting over wire armature, botanical dyeing, and creating fragments with silk paper, cricula cocoons and thread.

Most importantly, design-wise I believe I have found a way to both explore the imagery I have of King Island and represent it in both a meaningful and an artistic way. It was hard to tear myself away from the desire to simply try and reproduce the magic of my photographs, although ultimately I knew this wouldn't work. Like most things, with time, it found it's own way. An overarching theme, within which I could include elements of my photographs, emerged. Suddenly, 20 or so images which were important to me found a way of coalescing into a series of work which made sense, and allowed for focus to be dedicated to the parts I was most interested in. I feel like I have made that leap from simply replicating an image, to using it to create a work which is uniquely my own.

Other images have found their way towards fully sculptural interpretation, which I look forward to experimenting with further. These are the ideas that float around at 3-5am! Suddenly, I seem to have created a vast number of sketches which need to be fulfilled! The book of selected photos I had printed when I returned has been a very useful tool, although it is amazing how often I look for an image that isn't there. Images I initially didn't rate as vital have now become so! The constant scanning through it, and the computer files, sorted into weeks and days can be very time consuming, so on my latest plan of work I made sure to note the file number on each sketch! And they say artists are disorganised......

It seems fortunate in many ways that I had pre-determined my wish to try and create this project with as much of my own materials and that which I could scavenge second hand. TST (These Strange Times) has now made that somewhat of a necessity, but I couldn't be better placed to not only survive, but thrive. I've uncovered amazing fabrics which I have dyed over the years, hand-dyed yarns I've bought, fabrics gifted from friends, dyes unused for many years now coming to the fore as I work through synthetic fabric off-cuts. I am almost entirely unaffected by TST, and once again recognise the fortunate umbrella I live under. Days spent sewing and painting in my studio are special, and I hope one day that the result of this this work will be seen as special by others!

Watercolour on Silk

I had a bit of a Eureka moment during the week when I tried out watercolour paints on satin and silk as a background to embroider over. I’ve always loved watercolour as a medium, but it is by no means as easy as it looks. I feel like I might have discovered another transitory point for myself now though, with painting on fabric. This whole crossover of mediums is turning out to be fun! It’s certainly working better than my last attempt to create art panels many years ago.

Another change is the way I look at and review my progress. Now, with Facebook, Instagram, a blog and a website, I feel obliged (the apps even remind me) to post images frequently. Apart from the time taken to photograph, caption, and post them, I am finding the process to actually be helpful. I create a solid record of my progress to reflect on and use as a resource. It has often been said that a good way of reviewing your work is to look at it in a mirror, or in this case, in a photo. ‘Framing’ my work in this way for reflection is both useful and gratifying.

Much has happened in the studio this week, so a good tidy-up is in order. I avoided that this afternoon by sitting on my table and painting my leather ‘kelp’ for hours. The single sculptural piece didn’t take too long, but the densely layered piece was endless! Still a long way to go on both, but I am happy with progress overall.

A little process work

Having endured my soul searching for the last few posts, today you can just enjoy looking at some fun stuff I've been playing with.

I made a screen to print through by dabbing on pva glue with glad-wrap to make an organic pattern as a resist. I wasn't sure if it would work, but it did, and also survived the clean-up, so I can use it again. I used fabric paint and squeegee today, but I think sponging some paint through would allow some more subtle effects. The image below is one of the last runs, as the paint was running out.

 When it was  dry, I free-motion embroidered over the print, with a thick felt base underneath it, and was very pleased with the result! I'm trying to build up a rock-like texture.

I placed a little piece of leather kelp I made during the week on it.

I made another small piece as a brooch to enter in Timeless Textiles Brooching the Subject exhibition, along with one made of silk paper and uv free-motion embroidery.

 During the week I also played with securing dyed fabric strips with overlocked edges around a frame and draping the rest in the centre to look like ruffly kelp.

 This was a piece of polyester satin painted with metallic acrylic through a flour paste crackle - I liked the effect but thought it was a lot of effort for the result, which led me to the screen-print idea!

When I was tidying up I found my stash of very fleshy eucalyptus leaves from King Island mouldering away between paper in a plastic bag. They made some wonderful marks, and look so beautiful themselves. They are now all dried out and should last a while.

Last week's yarn dyeing worked out well, as did my free-motion embroidery sample with it - sewn on organza on a hoop and burnt out with a heatgun - it shrinks a little, but it also curls up and creates a nice crusty texture.

The orange yarn went pretty well so I tried some different yarn with the lighter green/yellow colours.

This time I also fared better in the winding up when dry - there is a way to make an incredible tangle and drive yourself completely crazy! All in all a success week of work. I am definitely finding it freeing not to have to worry about washability - I can use any paint or process I like. It's also great not to have to consider sizing and openings. I can feel my brain opening up like a blossoming flower. Or perhaps an alien sucker. I guess we'll see.

Experimental work

I ended my last post regarding King Island, “The challenge now is to translate all this into a fitting expression of these primal and timeless tenets”.

Thinking about what pieces I was going to make, I was concerned that I was perhaps being too literal with my interpretations, before realising that many of my source photos had already become an abstraction by the way I had framed images. So many images – so overwhelming!

Although I felt unable to begin work on the island due to the lack of my multitude of materials to experiment with – now, at home and surrounded by them, I have so many choices that I am in danger of becoming paralysed.

At these times, this quote from Sylvia Plath generally sets me right again:

 “I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

Image by Gavin Aung Than, Zen Pencils.

Well we can’t be having that, can we. Anyway, apparently she may have felt like this because she was hungry. ....

It can be hard to discipline yourself to calm down a bit, make decisions, follow through with experiments, and to properly partake in the exchange between you and the material. Particularly as I am changing the type of work I make, more-so than ever, I can’t just forge ahead, but must slow down and explore options.

I want my new work to explore the themes I described such as mortality, the cycle of life, and the beauty of decay, as well as being intriguing and powerful pieces themselves – no pressure then! Sitting here writing this is like making a mission statement for myself. I’m a little wary of making steps in a wrong direction. Over-excited, I have to focus on exploring the process of sampling. That’s hard when you just want to go forth and make!

Something I do know though, is that the more you play, the more ideas you have, and the more they extend and grow. They all swoop down on me when I try to go to sleep, so I now have to have a wee lamp and my notebook next to the bed for surreptitious scrawlings!

So here are some of my experiments: flour paste on dyed silk to create a crackled, rock-like texture.

Painted over with black dye.

Washed out and ready to stitch into.

Various samples of stitiching into leather, onto satin, free-motion embroidered pieces, and satin and leather stiffened with gelatin.

Embroidering wings over acrylic on satin.

Gummy silk cocoon strippings, painted with glitz sprays.

Leather as kelp, shaped and stiffened with PVA glue.

 Leather as kelp, stitched onto backing and stiffened with PVA glue. Very happy with this!

Leather as kelp, shaped and stiffened with PVA glue, beginning to be painted.

 A background canvas for kelp - covered in beard snoods wet down with PVA to create a textured rock surface - this is going to be a heap of fun to paint!