new work

Ive got a bunch of photos so be ready. I’ll start with some dailys:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The book is almost full! I have really enjoyed this project and I plan to make another one very soon.

 

 

Tea bag collage.

Tea stained organza spine.

 

For this one I screen printed my neck x-ray (can you see my scull and jaw bone from the side angle at the top, and shoulder at the bottom?), then embroidered on top of it. I am just learning to embroider and am still getting used to it. Im definitely enjoying it tho.

The very beginning of another embroidered screen print.

Screen printed x-rays. Im thinking about making a new daily that includes the screen printed x-rays and embroidery. Some could be quick and some more involved. What do you think? I’d love some feedback!

And since this is such a long photo post I thought I’d add one more and give you a little sneak peak into my studio.

I have posted a lot of images of my work from this quarter, but I feel like I dont really have any “finished” pieces. Of course, this happens and I had several breakthroughs this quarter, so I feel it was a success. I would love to know what you think and get some feedback on my work. What are your initial reactions? Are you seeing any connections? Your opinions are very important to me! Speak up!

 

 

new dailys

I dont have time for a long post today so I thought I’d update you on my daily practice collages. I started this book on 6 Aug. I hope everyone is having a great day!

 

 

 

 

 

studies

 

I have been saving every tea bag I use this summer so that I can possibly use them in the fall in a quilt. When I looked at the bags last week I discovered some of them had gotten moldy. It was almost heartbreaking to think that I would have to throw them away, so I boiled them all again in hopes it would take care of the problem. I laid out all the bags on a piece of watercolor paper to dry. Their impressions are much fainter than the first round but they look beautiful. I love the shadows of the tea bags.

 

 

The daily teas werent working very well under the rock so I started playing with them. I plan on finishing it this weekend (hopefully) so I’ll show pics soon.

 

 

 

My daily practice has changed a few times this quarter so this is the new book to hold the dailys. I am sticking with the same 5×7 format, but I am allowing myself to use whatever materials I have, not just scraps, so I can paint and draw as well. I really like how the book came out. I have short pages to attach the dailys to.

More pics on my Flickr page.

(Im having some trouble with the editor, for some reason it does not want to left align, but I (Chris actually) downloaded a Flickr uploader so I can upload in batches from iPhoto!! Can you feel the excitement?! Wow. And it was like right in front of my face, but downloading programs makes me nervous so its nice to get a second opinion from the expert.)

impression

I have been playing with the idea of “impression.” As in the impression of an object, something left behind after that object is gone. I just wanted to see what would happen with the tomato….

But what I am really interested in are tea bags. I have been saving my tea bags from this quarter to possibly do something with in the fall and I had this idea last week to also have the impression from each bag. So I began on this piece of watercolor paper last Monday.

I love the ghost-like image that remains. The contrast between the hard and soft edges are beautiful and they almost resemble cocoon shapes.
The blue-green impressions are from a green tea with berries. Its supposed to suppress the appetite, but I dont think it works. I like the taste tho and the colors from the impression are intense and deep.

I am going to start a daily practice of collecting the impressions from my tea bags. I have made small pieces of paper into single signatures (just a folded piece of paper that would be sewn into a book) but instead of binding them I am stacking them between two blocks of wood.

Once the stack gets very high it will be hard to balance, which is ultimately what this piece is about. Drinking tea brings me a calm and balanced feeling. I try very hard to have balance in my life, I need it and I thrive on it.

Thats it for now, I am trying to figure out whether to post my daily collages all at once because I have about 16 to catch you up on. It would be a super long photo post, but I guess that wouldnt necessarily be a bad thing.

two, three and four

two, 28 Jun 07

three, 29 Jun 07

four, 30 Jun 07

I am having a lot of fun with these daily collages! I am also getting better on being more disciplined with my studio practice. I made a calendar that outlines my entire day and it has been much easier to stick to.

These have been in my back yard for about a month and a half. After many thunderstorms they are tightening up and the felt is migrating down the stick. Some bits have fallen off and my hope is that animals use them for their nests. I still havent made it out to the marsh to see my other installations since my jeep died, but hopefully this week I can borrow Chris’ car.

hit the ground running

I was quite bored with my daily practice of drawing the bird bones so Ive decided to do something different. In my effort to live more “green” and create less waste, I am going to make a collage a day using my scraps from other projects. This will keep (most) of them out of the trash and will be a fun creative outletThese scraps were from a book I made for Cori’s birthday. I learned how to screen print last week! I printed little alpacas on paper and I used the paper for the cover of the book. I bound it too loose the first time and I had to redo it so I had all these little bits left. I broke a needle on my sewing machine going through the waxed threads.

This was the book I made last week that I wanted to show you. Its my process book for Working Class Studio. It has a grey paper cover and green dots on grey fabric interior. Throughout the quarter I’ll add things like scraps or stickers to the cover to make it more fun.

This will be clapotis… eventually. Its taken me months to get this far, I think I started it in March. Geez! But when I do get time to knit its fabulous. Im using a silk yarn by Habu, just about the best yarn company ever.

This gorgeous hand dyed merino wool from Malabrigo Yarn will be a pillow cover. It is kettle dyed and the color is lettuce. I made up the cable pattern and its creating some interesting textures. This wool is like a cloud, it’ll be so nice to lay my head on…. eventually.

I generally dont get a lot of time to knit while Im in school, and this quarter already feels like its going to be a sprint. But thats when the good stuff usually happens in my work so Im looking forward to seeing what I come up with.

I have to go research trends in fabric wall art before I head out to WCS this afternoon, so have a wonderful day!