Story Telling through Collage

I had a fabulous day last Sunday.  I was invited to run a collage workshop at the Write Around the Murray Festival.   At the end of the day, I posted of FaceBook:

A fabulous day. A fabulous workshop. Fabulous people. Says it all.     Had a ball faciltating a collage workshop as part of the Write Around  the Murray festival.       

My fabulous workshop participants made it work. I thank them all for their enthusiasm, laughter and sharing with me and fellow participants.                                                                                                                                                                                                   I have been given permission to share their work and here are a couple of photos.  Every one was so engaged to the last minute I forgot to get a group shot and photos of all the works made.   (Please seek permission before resharing these images).

 

Here is what we had up on the white board - a tad neater and clearer than it was on the day

STORY TELLING WITH CREATIVE COLLAGE

Collage – torn and or/ cut paper and glue                         Paper – heavy enough to hold collage

Photo montage – magazine images& photos                    Cardboard                                           

Assemblage – above/orand found objects                         Timber                                                

Mixed media collage –  “the kitchen sink”                        What else ?  Natural substrates         

Booklets, postcards, concertina, scroll, min, maxi            Archival – acid fee                            

                                                                                            Found papers not archival               

 

How will you tell your story:                                             GLUES:                                              

-          Realist                                                          -  Glue Stick                                      

-          Surreal                                                          -  PVA (White Glue)                         

-          Cubist                                                           -  Aleene’s Tacky Glue (if heavy)    

-          Abstract                                                         -  Paper Cement - bookmakers glue

-          Fantasy                                                           -  Gel medium - glue and glaze     

-          Geometric                                                                                                             

-          What other style or format can you think of ?                                                      

What is your story?                 How do you want to tell it?             Be inspired by the image

TRUST THE PROCESS

Much metta  

Donna

Resolutions, my word of the year and whats happening in 2020

Celestial spheres - Once on earth

Inspired by Linda Matthews  I didn’t go through the process of making New Year resolutions but, rather, chose a word to try and use as a pivot for my art practice.  Last year it was process.

This year I am struggling to choose a word. I keep returning to  process .   I mind mapped and came up with a selection of words which are, in reality, synonyms of process.

growth   advance  

action  trial  movement   

routine evolution development

I'm thinking I might put them all on the wall!

  

Toward the end of 2019 I made some decisions about  what I wanted to do more textile work.  I also want to continue to make dolls both traditional (cloth style and art dolls) and  to explore assemblage. I am drawn to and  fascinated by faces and wish to include them in my work.  Factor into this is the desire to be part of the creative community at large, to enter calls for entries and exhibit.

Celestial spheres  - Orbiting in the galaxy WIP

I am mindful that focusing on one medium/technique/style leads to some of the outcomes above.  But I get bored doing just one thing and need to work to several outcomes.  I will try to be a little more controlled this year but suspect I am failing already.    The reality is that I do the work for myself.  I hope someone will like it and buy it but I haven’t really gone down that rabbit hole.  (My etsy shop has been under development a couple of years now. )

However, I have a couple of exciting events happening.   I have been accepted as a stall holder and to run drop in workshops at the Sunday of Curious Things.   This eclectic styled makers fest and market is being held on the banks of the Murray River on Sunday 8 March next.   It has motivated me to play with assemblage and create works.  

I am again contributing to a textile exhibition in May next and have been slowly making things for it. 

I want to enter two juried exhibitions early this year and have the works underway. 

Its going to be a good year.  😊

Reflectiions and ruminations on exhibition, processs and theme

As someone who has no formal art training and plays in different mediums I still struggle with the definition of art and craft.   And whether what I create is art.   And whether what I create is worthy.

I am still coming to terms with what “process” is and wonder whether I have partially confused it with theme.  And the fact that I like to work in several mediums and hop from one to the other and then back again doesn’t help.

This year I have been exploring bees as a subject.   I really enjoyed my research and what I learnt.  I will continue to explore bees (and consequently gardens and the environment) as it has given me so much pleasure.   It also fits with my concern about global warming, climate change and species extinction.  My study of bees and my consequent exhibition gave me a chance to be a voice and raise concerns without preaching.

My exhibition also gave rise to some comments which gave me cause for thought.

By way of context I said tell you that my works were in a number of mediums which included:

·        Works based in textiles and fibre: some classic stumpwork embroidery and some more contemporary installation styled works;

·         Collage involving paint, pastels, paper and stitch;

·         3D works using contemporary mediums such as polymer clays, hardened fabric and various “products” that are available to crafters; and

·        Words which included information about bees, newspaper clippings, identification pamphlets  and snippets about bees over time.

My exhibition was always intended to include mixed works, be informative, be fun and raise awareness about the loss of bees due to habitat change and pesticides.

Neon cuckoo bee - Raised embroidery (stumpwork)

One comment that resonated was that works on display were good explorations of process but, in that person’s view, were unresolved works.   That same person did not like the inclusion of what they considered to be “craft”.  And offered some ideas about how to improve how the exhibition was hung.   Some of them were goods points.  But views as to what was “art”, “resolved works” and what an exhibition should look like caused me some grief.  I looked with fresh eyes and agreed that, yes, some works could be regarded as unresolved.  But I couldn’t agree that the fibre works did not belong in the exhibition.   And we will not meet anywhere in the middle regarding my exploration of bees in 3D.

Launching - contemporary mediums - sculpture

To complicate matters I then actively sought feedback from those who came to visit the exhibition; some of whom I respected as creatives.   Every one had their own views.  Things I thought unresolved they loved.  Fibre people loved the fibre works.   There was mixed reaction to my small bees.   In short, people liked what they liked.  Some works provoked a response. Some didn’t.

Gum Blossoms - detail - textile hanging

So what should I take away from this?   By exhibiting we expose a part of ourselves.   I had to put my big girl panties on and suck up what was said that hurt, accept that some people have set views and that most enjoyed what they saw and took something away with them.   

I hope that my exhibition will encourage people to take up artmaking in any of its many forms, have the pleasure that I have had in exploring and creating and perhaps share what they learnt in an exhibition as well.

I thank the Albury City Council for its grant which helped defray the costs of putting on the exhibition.

And for those that would like a bit more reading on the tangled subject of art, craft and creating – here is a link to an excellent “what is art” discussion

Up date on doll making

In November last year I posted that I had become interested in doll making.

Whilst I haven’t written about it since but I have been slowly progressing with my skills.     

I got two craft orientated presents from my better half this last Christmas a: doll pattern by Cindee Moyer and an online course  with art doll maker Deb Wood through A for Artistic (no affiliations).   Deb's course was polymer clay face making over four weeks  I haven’t quite made the soft female faces that Deb makes but my faces have improved leaps and bounds.

Meet Arnold -  not quite the beautiful smiley girl I set out to create.    But he is alive with humour and is patiently waiting for a body.

The next face I made was more like an old crone.  But Deb kindly said she reminded her of one of her fairy godmothers.  I have made a few more and there are more faces in the pipeline..

Cindee's pattern was called "the Gatherer" and involved simple needle sculpting and a a lot of mixed media :-).

In the past I have resisted courses because I didn’t want to duplicate other peoples’ work or replicate their projects.   Silly me!   Very rarely is anything ever exactly the same.   And now I realise that have missed opportunities to learn.   But most importantly I have missed making friendships and connections in the creative community.  

And of course like everything in life, if you want to get better one must practice, practice, practice.  Which is fun, fun, fun when it comes to creating.  

To this end I have been working on a small series of cloth dolls which I have called Garden Girls.   They are simple skittle shape and the  purpose is to practice painting faces  and designs on cloth.  This is Lily who is singing in the garden.

I have heaps of idea to work on  - recorded in my visual diary   The trick is to remember to look through it occasionally :-).

So where am I going next in this doll making adventure ?   I will keep at the faces and bring embroidery back into the bodies or the costumes that I put on them.    I have ideas tucked away in my visual diary for garden girl variations and will remember to look at them.

And I am finalising pieces for a group exhibition with Six Running Feet.   We are five textile artists who have each worked on pieces which reflect what "off the beaten track" means to us.   We have a date next year and I will tell more next week.

Cheers

Keeping on running, Workshops and an apple a day

I have been adding to my cloth with more running stitch.  It has been a slow task as I have been busy with other things - run off my feet one could say :-)

I have been preparing for another  garden art workshop at Azures Den on the 16th May and we will be making a moon maiden.    Above is a photo of Io (named after a moon of Jupiter) .  I have also made a faceless version for those a little intimidated by the thought of putting a face into their work.

I have had a happy time introducing a new student to fabric sculptures over the the last 3 weeks. Wei was a lovely student with a visual arts background looking for something different to do.    We made a siting lady, a tall elegant stuaue and a bird with some chicks.   I felt a bit in awe as I went to her house and was surrounded by her wonderful art on the walls.  We had fun and Wei made me think outside the square a little with how she went about creating her statues and ideas she had on the way.   I am sure I learnt as from form her as she did from me,   Thanks Wei.  

I also met with my stitching mates at the Embroiderers Guild last Saturday  - I got heaps of stitching done on my cloth then and chatted and shared.  I have it linked it here so you can see some of our show and tell from March.

Cheers all

Running Stitch and Learning from Others

I am still exploring running stitch.  At the moment I am stitching into a small cloth that I found at the local op shop when I was on holidays recently.

The fabric started life as an old linen tray cloth or napkin with a small amount of clumsy embroidery on it.   I have pulled the embroidery out and been stitching tea dyed gauze bandages over the surface.  With the wisdom of hindsight I realise that I should have left the embroidery in and just stitched over it – well, maybe next time.  It is a sample or prototype for a larger work  I am planning to make for an exhibition in November.  I will have to get cracking on that larger work soon as time is slipping by, and as time passes,  that larger work is getting smaller.

Because the cloth has is old and has been wahed many times it is soft and supple to stitch.  It is very cathartic just to put a needle into same fabric and turn the conscious brain off.  In fact any art exercise turns into a form of meditation for me.   I am sure it is the use of my hands and the sole focus on what I am doing that quietens my mind.  There are times when what I want to do doesn’t work out and I get frustrated and toss it aside but I try to go back to it and work on it again later.   

I have learnt to accept that some things don't work; either because of bad design and planning or it is just plain wrong!   But also that also I have learnt that I need to push through frustration and keep working on a project.   For this I have to thank  textile artist Jean Draper.

I was very fortunate take part in some workshops with Jean in late 2000.  Jean herself is very inspiring and I have linked to an interview on the web here for you to read at your leisure.  Jean was very generous with her time and mentoring during the few days I spent with her.   During the course of the workshops Jean told us about artist JasperJohns and quoted him:  Do something to it. Do something else to it.  

Jean has given me the confidence to strike out and strive for my own voice, to look properly and learn from others and not give up.   As I work I am sure I sometimes hear Jean whisper ‘Do something else to it.’

Jasper Johns - Cicada 700 x402