Weaving and letting the light in

Woven painted muslin with some random stitches

(work in progress)

I'm not quite sure where this is going, but I know I will be stitching on it some more. Right now I'm loving the rough edges.

And while I've been doing this bit of intuitive weaving and stitching, I've been allowing my mind to drift. A wonderful feeling! It's led me to think that this might be the perfect time for me to weave a new way of looking at life, as well. A new way of looking at the world and my art, and who knows what else?

This weaving and stitching is letting the light in, in more ways than one. . .

I'm also still enjoying meandering through blogland, visiting blogs, maybe even commenting, if I can find words. I'm not forcing the words to come out so much right now. And yes, our old Beau-doggy is still with us. He still has more good days than bad, although he is eating less and less, and sleeping more.

This weekend, I plan to visit this exhibit on contemporary Wisconsin textiles at the Museum of Wisconsin Art. If it's anything like their other exhibits, it will be fabulous.

Wishing you all a happy week!

Subtle changes

“My soul is impatient with itself,
as with a bothersome child;
its restlessness keeps growing
and is forever the same.
Everything interests me,
but nothing holds me.”
~ Fernando Pessoa

I've added a few more details to the stitching. Subtle changes which pull it together a bit, so that it could potentially stand alone, or work as part of a larger piece.


I'm ready to move on, for now. Although I'm not sure what I'll be doing next. Something different, or maybe just subtly different. I'm taking a bit of serious quiet time to try to figure out where I go from here.

“Without great solitude,
no serious work is possible.”
~ Pablo Picasso
(both quotes found on tumblr)

P.S. I'm also still working on getting my online "stuff" in order, so if I disappear from here or there, it will only be temporary. In case you don't know what I'm referring to, I explained it at the end of my last post. 'Til then!

Contrast

"No bird soars too high
if he soars with his own wings."
~ William Blake

The two flower petals have now become bird/petals. I love the texture of these stitches.


While I really like monochromatic art, I never seem content to create something myself without adding some stark contrasts. I love how the deep purple is making the yellow pop, and vice versa.

"Contrast warm to cool.
Make color sing,
ring like a bell.
Work from big to small."
~ Sergei Bongart

The dense scattering of the contrasting French knots, among the simpler seed stitches, back stitches, and running stitches is adding lovely texture, too.

I am learning a lot about my use of color by doing these stitches, things I never noticed before when I was painting or drawing. Stitching is so much slower and more deliberate, you notice how each stitch affects the appearance of the one next to it. It reminds me of the ripples our own actions cause, and how the simplest thing we do or say can impact someone else.

"Without contraries is no progression.
Attraction and repulsion,
reason and energy,
love and hate,
are necessary to human existence."
~ William Blake

And please note: I've been trying to do some online Spring cleaning. It turns out that I am too interested in too many things. Hahaha! As if that's even possible! On Blogger, I am following approximately 900 blogs. I can no longer use my Blogger dashboard to manage what I follow, since it can only handle up to 300 blogs. It's been causing me nothing but headaches to try to get this under control. I can't delete inactive blogs, blogs without a followers' widget, blogs that have totally changed focus, etc., etc. using my dashboard, until I get under that 300 point.

If I temporarily disappear from your followers list, don't worry. I'm following you another way until I can get this all taken care of, and so that I can access the dashboard again.

I've got the same situation with Facebook and tumblr, too. There is just too much interesting stuff out there on the web!

“...I have always lived on contrasts!
To me the only death is monotony.
Beware of monotony;
it's the mother of all the deadly sins.”
~ Edith Wharton

Back on track

I've begun to stitch beyond the muslin onto the recycled denim, and I love how it's all coming together.  Several people have referred to all of my recent stitching as a meditation, and it really is.

It's much easier to relax and be creative when I'm simply enjoying the process, rather than thinking about how I want the finished project to look.  I'm not even sure if this will ever become anything more than it already is.  Recycled cloth, paint and stitches.  It's enough for now.  It's helping me get back on track in a number of ways. 

Jacky mentioned in her comment on my past post, how some of the petal outlines reminded her of birds.  Yes. I see it too, and I like the idea of working some birds into this.

The lack of space to create, and to store what I've created, continues to challenge me.  But we all have challenges, this one just happens to be mine.  In the greater scheme of things, it's a small challenge.  Maybe it just means that I am not ready to work on the large canvases I want to work on.  This seems to be my time to focus on working on smaller canvases, on paper and on cloth.

That's not so bad.

Thank you all so much for your kind comments to my last posts.  Beau has had some much better days lately.  I have mixed feelings about medicating animals, but the addition of the daily pain pills seems to be helping him for now.  So we will take each good day with gratitude.

It feels great to be back on track with art, and blogging, and life in general.  It might be a different track, but a different track might be just what I need.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

 The good - I'm finding such joy in picking up the needle to stitch whenever I have a few moments!  "They" say not to stitch too much on muslin, since it puckers easily, but I'm finding the roughness of the stitched muslin very appealing.  Beginnings can be rough, after all.  When I began to stitch, I thought this would be a very simple piece, with very little stitching, but it's not turning out that way.  In fact, I think this is the beginning of something much larger, although I don't know what that is yet.

These two paintings sold recently!  I'm very grateful to all who were involved in the sale.




                                                                                               

The bad - We had to take our old Beau-doggy to the vet last week, after a pretty rough week for him.  It turns out that, in addition to the arthritis we knew he had, he also has dementia, cataracts, more bladder stones, possible epilepsy, and worst of all - a fairly large tumor on his spleen.

We have been through three surgeries with him, and he is no longer a candidate for surgery, so at this point we will never know if the tumor is cancer. It doesn't really matter anymore.  Thanks to daily doses of medication and pain pills, he is comfortable and still finding joyful moments in his day.  It's a daily vigil, though, to check his gums for signs of internal bleeding from the tumor.  We are taking it day-by-day.  Every day together is a blessing.  And when his time does come, we will work with our wonderful vet to make his final moments as comfortable as possible.

The ugly -  This part is something I really didn't want to write about, but it is finally time.  I have been blogging since October 2008, and for the most part it has been a real joy meeting people and forming genuine bonds with quite a few very special people.

However, four times during this period I have been the target of bullying, threats and criticism, if I did not do what someone wanted me to do, in the way they wanted me to do it.  And, frankly, I'm tired of it.  I have a life beyond what I share here, and that life is my priority.  I know most of you will obviously understand this, but apparently there are some who do not realize that they have no right to make any demands on me.

Enough said.  Onward, to better and more positive things!

"There are better things ahead

than any we left behind."

~ C.S. Lewis

Boldness and distraction

a spiral of French knots

There's been no time for painting so far this year.  During my free moments lately, I find comfort in stitching.  And I find that my stitches, which were very tentative at first, are becoming bolder.

Things are still not back to normal here.  I'm still very distracted.  All in knots.  There's little time for blogging while I spend as much time as possible with our old Beau.  Looking deeply into his eyes, waiting for him to tell me when he is ready to go.  He may still rebound.  I hope so. . .

The flower on my muslin has chosen to be a lotus, a very symbolic flower, which stands for rebirth and enlightenment in some cultures.  Very appropriate for me right now, I think.

The spiral of tiny star-shaped stitches has overshadowed the ink, which whispered "begin begin begin" when I first started working on this piece.  If you look closely, though, you can still see glimpses of those first whispers on the cloth.

But in the center, the embroidered word has become bolder.  I'm not sure if the spiral begins with the word and works its way outward, or spirals inward toward the word.  Both, maybe.

I've never really had one word that spurred me on for an entire year.  This year might be different.  I think "Begin" is a perfect word for this year.  This year I'll focus on beginning all the things I've put off for years.

In fact, it might be my word for life.  Begin.

Up and down, round and round. . .

(detail of muslin with acrylic paint, ink, wool, embroidery floss)

Up and down, round and round - that's a pretty good description of my life (and moods) lately.  Other than some creative cooking, I haven't had much opportunity to create lately.  Just a few stitches to start embellishing the piece of muslin that I've become obsessed with.  

(detail of muslin with acrylic paint, ink, Inktense pencils, embroidery floss)

Our old dog, Beau, now only eats if we entice him by hand-feeding him first.  Even this takes time and patience on our part, since he is slowly reverting back to the timid dog he was when we adopted him from the shelter.   He is slowly forgetting what he learned during his time with us.  He is forgetting that he learned to feel safe and confident and happy with us, and that the dog food in his bowl is his to enjoy.  It's sad to see him old and confused and in pain.  It's sad to know that our days with him are numbered.

Unfortunately, there's been very little time in my life lately to read and comment on blogs and elsewhere online, either.  But after next week, I think I'll have a bit more time again.

Thanks to all who commented on my last posts.  I may not get around to thanking you each personally, but I value all your comments more than you'll ever know.

In the mean time, I'm really loving this change from painting and drawing on paper and canvas, to stitching on muslin.  More changes are coming, too, I think, but I'll still find my way back to painting those portraits that I love.

I have a feeling this will be an interesting year, and I'm working my way into it slowly. 

"Take a breath,

take your time, 

spread your wings

and rise."

~ Counting Crows lyric

Begin

It's the first day of a new year- what a perfect day for new beginnings!

Not much has gone according to plan since I posted here last.  As a result, I've been keeping a low profile online.  And I'll continue to do so for a while.

Maybe I'll use this forced interruption as an opportunity to begin doing many things differently this year.  Beginning to do something differently can start as a whisper, after all.

(detail of ink and thread on painted muslin)

The important thing is to begin.

(detail of ink and Intense pencils on painted muslin)

And to simply be, sometimes. 

I've been slowly beginning to work on my muslin rags.  Letting them tell me what they want to be.

"Be willing to be a beginner

every single morning."

~ Meister Eckhart

Happy New Year, everyone!

xo

What next?

It's a gorgeous, bright, but cold, day here today, so I was able to apply the more muted finish to the leaf/tree paintings I wrote about in the last post.  You can see on my other blog (here), that the finish mutes and mellows the acrylic colors so they look less plastic and more organic.

While I was working, I was thinking about all the things I could do next.  Several months ago I was experimenting with weaving things, like wood-grained wallpaper samples.

About a year ago, I learned that quite a few of my ancestors had worked in the textile industry in the 1800s.  I've always been intrigued by textiles, and learned about fabric art (LOVE IT!!!) a few years ago.  I'll definitely be doing some more of that soon.  I can carry on the family tradition. :0)

And I'm not one to throw things away, so I have stacks of muslin scraps which I use to clean my brushes when I'm painting.

Believe me,  I had to restrain myself from putting more paint on that top piece of muslin!
:0)
I wash and iron them when I have enough of them.  Some look like little abstract pieces of art to me already, and in others, I see images I can add to with other materials.

These days, I'm drooling over the work of Flora Bowley.  You can see why at her website (here) and blog (here).