Kandinsky on colour

"Generally speaking, colour is a power which directly influences the soul. Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand which plays, touching one key or another to cause vibrations in the soul."
- Wassily Kandinsky in Concerning the Spiritual in Art, 1911

Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France.

Kandinsky expo poster photographed from the roof.
April, 2009

'I make pictures by cleaning...'

Seeing how dirty a wall is by cleaning it in this way, kind of gets people immediately. - Paul "Moose" Curtis, The Reverse Grafitti Project

Thanks to Heather Dubreuil for the link.

Mozart's requiem will play, on tiny speakers made of clay...

I am so amazed at times, that I am actually alive.
- Andy Goldsworthy; [Interview][Digital Catalogue][Wikipedia][Google images]

Gender equality - still a work in progress

I was inspired by the artists who shared their stories in the film, Who does she think she is?, currently touring North America, which made me laugh and cry. As an afterthought, it still amazes me how, in so many ways, things have not changed radically for women since I was in my twenties. Gender equality is still a work in progress, perhaps even more so for artists than for many other professions. Good film.

Human Marks

"A stitch is a very credible mark." - Dorothy Caldwell

Free-hand stitched kantha sampler
Embroidery floss on
two layers of black cotton
4 x 7 inches

I stitched this in a two-day class called Human Marks taught by Dorothy Caldwell, offered through the Kingston Fibre Artists' Guild. The course was designed to run for five days so the two-day class was a somewhat condensed version. Nevertheless, I had the impression of things slowing way down. We worked with our fingers and ink, pens, brushes, candle smoke, wax, hammer and nail, and needle and thread to make marks of one sort and another, repeating them, overlapping them, changing speed and direction and so on.

It seems to me that most of what I produced, expressed by way of many discrete marks, suggested not so much a series of images, but something unintended or unconscious, the suggestion of something, perhaps something forgotten. An interesting couple of days, and a nice trip away from home.

If you find yourself in that neck-of-the-woods be sure to check out the Kingston Fibre Artists exhibit, Inspiration and Exploration currently at the Kingston Public Library, 130 Johnson Street, Feb 28 - March 30.

Christmas Eve 2008

"Each night a child is born is a holy night."
-Sophia Lyon Fahs (1876-1978)

Radical Lace and Subversive Crochet

"I wanted to turn an oversize, macho, gas-guzzling vehicle into a technological ghost by shrouding it in a white, fuzzy cover reminiscent of women's hard work from another time, another place." - Jerilea Zempel

Fibre artist Jerilea Zempel, known for public art projects that take a humourous and for some, a provocative approach to subjects like violence, war and the environment, was featured on the comedy news show, the Colbert Report last week, in a skit called America’s Fragile Borders. Her art, part social satire, part political activism, challenges viewers to reflect on the meaning of traditional historical monuments, as well as our use of everything from guns to gas-guzzlers. Examples include a piece installed outside a Polish military museum in 1995 called Guns and Rosettes in which she shrouded a Soviet tank with what appears to be an enormous pink doily. The Colbert Report skit, a spoof on American Homeland Security, chronicles Zempel’s experience this past summer. Upon returning home to the U.S. from Canada, she was detained by U.S. customs agents at the border after drawings in her artist sketchbook, showing an SUV adorned in a lacy white coverlet (a piece she now calls Homeland Security Blanket) caused the customs agent to suspect her of being an industrial spy. In October, the Plattsburgh, New York newspaper, The Press Republican reported the details in this article, Keene artist had a hard time getting back into the U.S.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Nailed 'Em - Radical Knitting
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Mark Sanford

New York, N.Y.

"Something began me...

53rd Street & 6th Avenue

and it had no beginning:

Florence Schoenborn Gallery - MoMA

something will end me...

Rustic Pavillion - Central Park

and it has no end."

Carousel - Central Park near 66th Street

-Verse from Carl Sandburg's The People, Yes 1936

We spent three wonderful days in New York City in celebration of my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. The city was a beauty to behold. Although it was cool and wet, it did not rain, and at times mist hung low over the buildings. In Central Park the ginkgo trees dropped their magnificent leaves, blanketing everything in a flaming yellow carpet.

Each person has something to teach us

Red Oak Leaves
October 2008

"People do not arrive in our lives by mistake, even when we did not choose them to be in our lives. It is best to learn the lessons about ourselves and life that we can learn from this person. That we do not like this kind of person is not the lesson. This person is in our life as a teacher...to illuminate an area where we struggle and where we can grow."
-Lynn Fitz-Hugl, Tip#10 from 21 Tips on Personal Peacemaking

A link to the article 21 Tips on Personal Peacemaking arrived in my e-mailbox this morning from a friend who has struggled through a very difficult divorce over the past year. As I read through the article, the tip which I have quoted here really seemed to speak to me. It underlines the human connection that exists in all our relationships, including the troublesome ones, and affirms that growth and healing are possible outcomes even when we find ourselves at odds with another person. I also felt happy that a sense of resolve was returning to the life of someone I care about and who has had a long, rough year.

Kimmelman on Art

"There's a certain point at which it may be obligatory to try and understand something that does not automatically explain itself to you."
- Michael Kimmelman

Michael Kimmelman is the chief art critic for the New York Times, and naturally he has his fans as well as his detractors. Personally, I've benefited whenever I've read something he's written or heard him give an interview.

Kimmelman on Art: Part 1 of 2



Kimmelman on Art: Part 2 of 2

Breaking open

Luskville Falls Trail, Quebec, Canada
October 2008

"In the process of grieving we break, but we break open so that we can include more of life. We get bigger in order to carry with us what we choose to continue loving."

-Deborah Morris Coryell in Good Grief

Transforming the dry language of data

"Beauty is a powerfully effective tool for drawing viewers into uncomfortable territory." -Chris Jordan

'Consumer Culture Turns into Murals of Trash' is an article that explores what led American photographer Chris Jordan to take a unique approach to documenting waste. His website showcases additional images from the exhibit Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait.

Perception beyond the tangible

Spring Water
Laura Cater-Woods

"I work in an abstract manner, I am not interested in depicting but in evoking. When the work succeeds, it speaks beyond itself."

- Laura Cater Woods

"Abstraction allows man to see with his mind what he cannot physically see with his eyes. Abstract art enables the artist to perceive beyond the tangible, to extract the infinite out of the finite. It is the emancipation of the mind."

- Arshile Gorky [images][biography][wikipedia]

After taking a number of workshops with quilt artists over the past couple of years I consider Laura Cater-Woods to be one of the best teachers I've had. I had a fantastic experience with her and will take a course with her again if she teaches anywhere near me in the future. What did I like about her? She works with each person individually, she inspires original work, and she appears to deeply connect with the creative spirit in each participant. She has a great sense of humour and does not shy away from discussing any topic. Did I mention technical expertise? Great person, great teacher. She blogs here.

Image of the quilt 'Spring Water' used with permission.

Some day we'll all have perfect wings

"you can use pain to self-destruct or reconstruct."
-Ellen Goodman, journalist [paraphrased]

Things stood still for several weeks, after my younger brother died unexpectedly, on July 21, of unexplained heart failure, he was thirty-eight years old. His home was a short walk from ours, my daughters adored him, and my husband and he were friends. Over the past month we've taken time to grieve, to think about my brother's life, to remember the person that he was, and to say good-bye. Some moments, and some days are better than others as life slowly returns to some kind of 'normal'. Part of me is 'dealing with it' because I have to go around and get things done. Another part is still struggling and to some extent, remains in denial about what happened. I think a part of our brain keeps the person alive in our mind, stubbornly refusing to let go. Eventually I suppose it sinks in.

At the same time, something seems to have shifted for me in my thinking about how I want to go forward with my life. It's something subtle, because I can't really put my finger on what it is, and I often feel I'm in a state of suspended animation waiting for some additional insight to get me moving in a forward direction again. A close friend whose brother is dying of lung cancer, wrote to me and said, "when you lose a part of yourself, you can simply never be whole again. That is what we have to live with." Sometimes, life seems so meaningless, other times so beautiful, a gift. Basically, cognitive dissonance reigns.

For now, I have decided to slow the pace of my activities way down and leave lots of open, still space in my life, I cannot really do otherwise. I have decided to stop blogging except that I will continue to post photos of work in progress, and finished pieces. I'll also post quotes that are meaningful to me, related to creativity and personal growth. This is the most useful way that I know of to keep track of what I am doing, and document my creative journey.

The title of this blog post is a line from a song called 'Don't laugh at me' written by Steve Seskin and Allen Shamblin. Country singer Mark Wills recorded it, as did folk singers Peter Paul and Mary. Peter Yarrow has made it the foundation song for the Don't Laugh at Me Program whose mission it is to stop bullying in schools. The song reminds me of my brother, who was a childhood survivor of cancer and was often teased in school because he was very sick for many years and developed a disability due to the aggressive nature of his cancer treatment. You can listen to the song here. Thank you to Christine Kane for introducing it to me.

Art criticism

"I know that Ellsworth [Kelly] says [his work] comes from nature. But I don't know why you'd want to say this, because art relates to perception, not nature. All abstract artists try to tell you that what they do comes from nature, and I'm always trying to tell you that what I do is completely abstract. We're both saying something we want to be true. I don't think artist like myself, or Ellsworth, have the faintest idea what we're doing, but we try to put it in words that sound logical." - Roy Lichtenstein in Portraits by Michael Kimmelman.

I'm reading the book Portraits: Talking with artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre and elsewhere by New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman. In the book, Kimmelman goes to the art museums named in the title of the book, with well known, older contemporary artists such as Elizabeth Murray, Roy Lichtenstein, Lucian Freud, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Jacob Lawrence and Chuck Close, taking notes while each one talks about art that interests them. It's a great read and gives much insight into how the artists see and relate to historically important works. The artists also talk about their own lives and work. What strikes me in reading the book is that the artists’ commentary is always so highly personal and subjective, underlining the notion that it is your own subjective perceptions and inner voice that are most important when you look at and think about art. To some degree, I also think that, as an art critic, Kimmelman underlines the essential personal nature of art criticism by letting artists speak for themselves. In this interview with Charlie Rose, Kimmelman talks about the book and why he wrote it.

Quick study: black and white

All of the fine arts should be a source of inspiration for quilt artists. -Pamela Allen

I am feeling real happy to be taking a five-day course this week with quilt artist Pamela Allen, who is known for her quirky, humourous and very colourful art quilts. The course, called Think like an Artist is offered as part of the Summer Academy of the Arts program at Algonquin College in Ottawa. Below is the result of a quick study in black and white that I did this morning. Not sure what I'll do with it next. Pamela teaches a neat appliqué stitch for holding these raw edge fabric pieces down to the background which looks fast and adds some nice texture to the work. I might try that, or I might do a more quick and dirty version with the sewing machine.

Black and white still life
Commercial cottons
8 x 12"

Masters: Art Quilts

Have you seen the new book Masters: Art Quilts: Major Works by Leading Artists?
I was captivated by the quilts included in it. Among other artists, it was great to see more works by German quilt artist Inge Hueber, whose quilts I first saw in Robert Shaw's book The Art Quilt. She has developed a unique style using visible seams and layering, to depict texture and depth. Of her work she states:

"My quilts have developed into a kind of visual diary. I cannot plan changes - they occur when they are due, just as in real life. Making quilts has given me a key to my own life, a key to open doors that would have been locked otherwise."

Another artist's work that I instantly fell in love with and whose work I had never seen before, was U.S. quilter Joan Schulze. She creates collages of hand-dyed fabrics in somber or muted colours in combination with gray scale digital images transferred onto cloth. Her work has a surreal, dreamlike quality which is both serene and jarring at the same time. Of her work she says,

"Erasure, fragments, and layering are my primary processes...I find things are more interesting to me if they are elusive and poetic."

There are truly many breathtaking quilts in the book and the diversity of inspiration, design, and construction techniques is impressive. The book is an international compendium and includes artists from Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Scotland, South Korea, South Africa and the United States. I highly recommend it.

Ruth Asawa

"An artist makes use of ordinary things and makes them extraordinary" -Ruth Asawa

Last month Glennis Dolce left me a comment here in which she mentioned a favourite artist, Ruth Asawa. I had never heard of Ruth Asawa but soon discovered a great deal of information including video clips , podcasts and articles (see below), about this amazing artist and her life's work. Born in 1926 in Southern California, USA, she is perhaps best known for her tied and crocheted wire sculptures.

Organics
Crocheted wire sculpture
by Ruth Asawa
Photo by Aqui-ali

Among other works, are hundreds of masks that she has made over the past forty-five years of family and friends, documented in this short film by her son Laurence Cuneo. About the masks she said, "When I cast a face I know I’m just capturing a minute of a person...I don’t care about making that a technique. But I like the idea of stopping the moment of time" [link].




If you're interested in reading more about Ruth Asawa, the Oakland museum of California has posted this article on its website entitled Ruth Asawa: Completing the Circle. Leonardo Digital Reviews has an excellent online review by Amy Ione of the book "The Sculpture of Ruth Asawa: Contours in the Air" by Daniell Cornell, Director of Contemporary Art Projects at the deYoung Museum in San Fransisco and curator of the Ruth Asawa retrospective of the same name. There are also several good blog write-ups about her life including one by quilt artist Pam Rupert on Ragged Cloth Cafe and another by jewelry artist Louise Hill on Louise Hill Designs.

Thanks to Glennis for telling me about this artist.

Quilting as a metaphor

"[In] my 'Secret Garden' series [link]...I take as a starting point, old memories of gardens of my childhood with their combination of water paths and foliage. This also becomes a metaphor for deeply embedded old memories that rise unbidden in our consciousness; sometimes clear and structured, sometimes vague and formless. Quilt-making with its multiple layers seems an ideal medium for exploring these ideas." - Rosalie Dace

I have an opportunity to take a one week class with Rosalie Dace who is teaching at Quilting by the Lake this year. I have looked at her work on line [link][link] and read about her on a handful of websites and blogs. Her quilts are absolutely sumptuous and appeal to me directly. As well, she appears to be a process person; no patterns or kits provided. On her website she states that her interest is in helping students to bring out what is personal to them in their work, and to encourage them to stretch beyond what they think is possible for them. Great! I am hesitating to proceed though, because I attended a class at the same conference last year and had a very mixed experience, largely because the class I took was poorly organized and, I thought, did not deliver what had been advertised. I would hate to set aside this kind of time and financial resource again for a repeat experience. However, all things in life present certain risk, along with the concomitant possibility of benefit or great gain. So, I'll ponder on it for a few more days and think about the benefits that this experience has to offer. It has long been personal challenge for me to let go of preconceived expectations about how things should or shouldn't be, a challenge which requires a heightened trust in life and in people, and a willingness to allow things to unfold as they may.

Wrap, Stitch & Burn

If you're in Toronto in May, textile artists Nieves Carrasco and Valerie Knapp will exhibit at the *new* gallery in Toronto. "A monochromatic palette captures the unique qualities of resist-dyed Japanese paper" says Nieves Carrasco about her work.