still banging on about process

Tyvek garden

So I think this is a bit like talking out loud.   

Not having had any formal art training I am now trying to embark on a method of working that is sustainable.  It has taken more time than it should to acknowledge that my habit of diving in with a good idea and good intentions is not enough.  Making takes time and it is so disappointing when it doesn't come off.

What it is I am seeking?    A way to improve and move forward in my work.   

I really enjoy experimenting with different mediums and different styles.   Can I keep doing this?  How much/Does it distract from actually improving?  Should I stick to only one medium and one theme? Do I want too?  

I want to understand what process in art practice is.    My research tools are largely limited to the www which produces way too much information.  I have had to whittle all that info down.

Wikki has a neat definition which helps -  The term refers to the ways in which an artist goes about his/her work. Artistic practice goes beyond the physical activities of making artistic products and can include influences, ideas, materials as well as tools and skills.

Bu then I have discovered there is also something called process art which wikki defines as -   an artistic movement as well as a creative sentiment where the end product of art and craft, the objet d'art (work of art/found object), is not the principal focus. ... Therefore, art is viewed as a creative journey or process, rather than as a deliverable or end product.

So  with this in mind I have had a bit of a play with tyvek to see what I can do with it.  Can I push it so it is something other then the norm?   Do I need to?  I want to build on my BEE happy project and was thinking of bee environments when I made some tyvek leaves:

Painted tyvek cut into a leave shape and machine stitched to show the centre vein

Then melted with a craft heat gun

And arranged on a background with flowers 

And there is room for more play : the tyvek garden at the top of the post and some earrings below. :-)

beads and tyvek made some cute earrings

In the course of exploration on the www I came across a link to senior school  arts resources which bears a close look .  Its really a cheat sheet for students but I found it an interesting view of what should be taken into account when refelcting on process.

MORE ON PROCESS

small wall plaque with some of the mediums I work with:  paper, fabric,
 contemporary clay, threads, beads and a small piece of tyvek.

I have been working on tidying my studio space and trying to toss what is not needed.  I find that  really hard thing to do as I like to work in mixed media.  (But I have way too much fabric which needs a new home and am patting myself on the back for actually moving some of it on).   A tidy space is easier to work in... and I need to work on being tidier

I have had a play with some tyvek and thinking how it fits with my creative practice.  Do I need to go there?   It has some possibilities as it adds texture.  But I am trying to keep in mind that I need to focus what I do rather than expand it.  How do I refine my art practice ?  Does continued play in new mediums add or detract to this experience?   To quote a good friend of mine:  I can but I don't have to... use that fabric,  pursue that medium, try a new technique.  (Thanks Wendy)  As I understand process ,it allows me to explore, make mistakes, make discoveries and grow.

peacock carpenter bee

And I have started to collect images for one of my three major projects I have in mind in the coming year.  I have a solo mixed media exhibition happening in August 2019: BEE happy.   At the moment I am exploring Australian native bees and contemplating where I go next.   Some drawing I think.  It will help get their shapes in my hands and head.  Hoping not to over think it and enjoy the whole journey.   I find the final push to complete the works is the hardest.

PROCESS

Beetleman - mixed media sculpture

Like many of us I follow a few artists blogs.

This morning I got around to reading something Linda Matthews posted  a bit over a week ago.  It really resonated with me.  The gist of her post was that, rather than making resolutions each new year, she chose a word to guide and focus herself for the coming year.  You can read her post here. 

At this moment in time I have an exciting 2019 coming up with several projects on the go for group exhibitions and a solo exhibition in August.    With these commitments comes the worry of overcommitment and fear of actually producing a work which meets the scope of the exhibition themes.

And, in the past month I have had some serious discussions with artist friends about these worries and fears and how I produce a work.   The conversations have all circled around process.  

So what is process in art making?  

• Revisit the same themes over and over again but also keep experimenting.
• Allow yourself to explore your theme and play with your chosen mediums. 
• Flow with and explore your ideas – but with a bit of discipline.  Don’t jump to wanting to achieve an end result.

So how does this tie in with Linda’s suggestion to chose a word to guide and focus herself?    I have chosen PROCESS as my word for 2019.   I will work on my art making with a focus on process rather than product.

I  will continue to work on my themes of bugs, beetles and bees throughout 2019.   I now see that I can draw, work up in pastel, paint charcoal, contemporary clays, fabric, stitch and whatever else takes my fancy.    The challenge is to  push my boundaries, select, isolate, enlarge and grow as an artist.

more inspiration - more rabbit holes

Well I have been absent for a bit.  But that was because I have been down my own personal rabbit hole.  I have been on a long holiday in Italy and had a serious dose of medieval history and architecture, seen new sights and learnt a bit about myself :-).   I have not been to Europe before and it was an eye opener for me.

I have always been attracted to medieval imagery and colours be they bright or faded, drawn,  painted or woven.  I was in seventh heaven to see it for real. 

I really wanted to see embroidery and found that (other than clerical vestments) paintings were generally the best way to get an idea of costume which was highly embellished with gold and silk and amazing laces.  Here are a couple of images from the Civic Museum in Padua.   

I was really taken with the painting of a boy (above).  I have plans to try and make an art doll which reflects this image.

 And I was staggered by the detail in the woven tapestries.    The following are a couple of deails from the huge tapestry in the same museum.  Check out what the horses got to wear in the second image below.

And for imagery that borders on the bizzare .. Giotto's version of the devil and hell in the Scrovegni Chapel.

I am still processing all that we saw.  No doubt a seed of an idea (or two or more) is bubbling away.  I posted back a lot of tourist information and am yet to start working through it. I have great plans to draw on that material and my photos as a jumping off point for some new works. Padua is a town of arches/arcaded buildings ... ideas for some linio prints perhaps?

Intriguing websites ... like Alice I keep falling down rabbit holes

The Google Bar was so interesting looking this morning I had to follow the wiki link and find out more.  Who was Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky? Why is it worth noting he was born 155 years ago?

It transpires he was a Russian chemist  and a photographer who was a trail blazer in colour photography.  And he travelled the breadth of Russia as it was then and took photos.  Of course I had to look at images and came across this one which just floats my boat with all that colour, fabric and stitch.

There were several copies posted but this was the better photo.  It was posted in a site the TJS: The Juice Squeezer.   This link has more images of embroidered door mantles that frame the entrance door of the yurt.  Hard to tell whether the mantles are internal or external. There is definitely one at the rear in this photo.   

The rabbit hole bit is the fact that I started to look at other posts in TJS.  It is a really interesting collection of articles and images reflecting modern design. Hover your cursor over the logo on the top left and click to get a list of recent posts.   Enter something in the search engine to explore further.   I tried Mexico first.  Enjoy.

Grandmother's Garden and return to stitching

I have had a burst of soft sculpting and created some grannies and aunties for my exhibition Grandmother's Garden.  It was fun but exhausting.

 Grandmother’s Garden included an installation of hanging pieced hexagons.  The installation is a play on the quilting pattern of the same name.  It is a tessellating pattern which builds upon itself.   I have used old embroidered table cloths, tray cloths and napkins.

The earliest hexagon template that quilt researchers have found was made in England in 1770. Hexagon became one of the most popular patterns in England by 1830.    The pattern at that stage was know as honeycomb or hexagon.

Hexagon patterns bloomed in the United States in the 1930s under the name Grandmother's Flower Garden.  Many pieced quilts used fabric remnants or repurposed cloth to create a very distinct pattern.

I ran a couple of workshops during the exhibition and we paper pieced small bowls - we used old table linen and it came up a treat!

Its been a while since I put a needle into cloth with a decorative purpose in mind.  But glad to say I managed to lay out a fabric collage of sorts and started stitching.   Thinking they may become small bags.   Or just a piece of embellished fabric.   But trying to stitch sustainably and looking to my stash rather than buy new fabric and threads.   More later.

Grandmother's Garden Exhibition and workshops

I've  been lost in time and space .. and an exhibition and workshops to run in conjunction with it  :-)

I have been working with vintage (and not so vintage) embroidered cloth to create a hanging installation.   It has been a time of  contemplation and memories of my own grandmother.  She always set a table with an embroidered cloth or a damask cloth overlaid by a lace cloth if it was more formal occasion.

The title of my exhibition  is a play of words.   Most of you will know "grandmothers garden" as a quilting pattern using hexagon blocks.   The hanging 'flowers' are paper pieced - either single or pieced blocks.  Where I have come across a beautiful large applique as in the above photo I have cut it to resemble the pieced block. 

It has been a great experience.  I enjoy hand piecing and the time it allows for rumination and thoughts about where I can go/what I can do with the fabric stash I have at hand.