Random mumblings

Well, I can take a big, deep breath now. I finished dying all 30 something of my skeins of yarn for the big project at school. Jeremy video taped me while I was dying, without my consent. But then, I saw how funny he was, so I allowed him to upload it. Just silly, very silly. I had just come home from teaching swimming lessons, my hair was wet, and I was wearing my very attractive dye clothes. I'm trying hard to not let that bother me.

And for anyone worried about the tri-beam scale being on my kitchen counters while I was doing my dying, don't. I was just measuring salt, common house-hold table salt. Hardly a toxic chemical. I mix and measure the really powdery stuff outside (brrrrr!). All my containers and measuring equipment is kept separate from my cooking/kitchen stuff. I'm very anal. Normally I do my dying outside, but since there is still snow on the ground, I was forced to do part of the process in my kitchen. Nothing goes in my kitchen unless it's already in liquid form, except the salt.

I use mostly fiber reactive dyes. They're cold-water, and relatively safe, chemical-wise. Just the power from the dyes is very light and airborne. I always wear a dust mask when I use them. I never would measure those in my kitchen.

I'm really pleased with the results. I will post a picture of the skeins once they are dry.

On the family side of things, Ruthie has to go to the doctor today. Her fever is better, but now that we're past the 72 hour mark, the dr wants to see her, the school wants a doctor's excuse. Joshua still feels pretty lousy too. It was a shame. The Mr had gotten free tickets to a jazz concert last night, but he and the kids couldnt go due to the illness. We just wanted Joshua to see a live jazz concert. Hopefully we can do something before Jazz Fest is over.

So, now I need a vacation...a long one. Between being up with sick kids, being up late dying fiber, trying to keep going, I'm ready to keel over. I'm just going to sleep the summer away. I can just feel it. May 12th can't get here fast enough!

This semester's projects:

It's my last semester of school, so why should it be any different from the others? Well, if anything, it IS more enjoyable if for no other reason than I only have fibers classes and I LOVE what I do.

Here's what's in the project queue:

For Non-loom, I'm wrapping black bath towels with copper wire. It's part of an on-going series called "Metamorphosis." The concept is to take common items that are used for every day activities and re-purpose them. Whether or not others think they're "beautimous" or not, I cannot say, but I'm enjoying the project. I made two several years ago, one hung in a show this past summer. But the Mr. said I wasn't allowed to make any more of these sculptures unless I could find a way to wrap the fabrics without his help. He held the variable speed drill for me. Hours and hours of wrapping hundreds of strips of cloth. So, I figured out how to use my spinning wheel. Tons of fun. Here's a couple of pics from the first two in the series:


This was the first sculpture, Metamorphosis I. It's made out of wrapped Upholstery fabric. I was imagining stripping a couch down to nothing while I made it.

The next in the series is made from dyed and wrapped T-shirt material. This is the one that hung in a show:


This is me and Eeyore standing next to it. I was told people were touching it on the sly. Every time I went in, the piece was misshapen and the info desk helper told me the why. Now, for a fibers artists, that's a high compliment! I always want my work to look so inviting and playful that people just have to touch it. Or they want to feel it because they want to know what it is made of.

They are purposefully vessel shape referring to the scripture where we are all "jars of clay." The concept is primarily that of transformation when we invite Jesus into our lives and make him Lord. Our minds, thoughts, actions, are completely re-shaped by the Holy Spirit if we allow. We go from something recognizable (i.e. a t-shirt, bath towel, sofa, etc) to the world as something completely different, (the finished sculpture) through God's transforming power. It's abstract, I know, but I kind of think the whole concept of our spirit becoming alive through Christ is rather abstract as well, else why would Nicodemus question what Jesus meant by being "born again?" (John 3:4)

I'm not sure how my next piece will turn out. It's beginning to cost me a fortune. ha ha. Who knew wire could be so expensive!

For Weaving, I'm finishing up my Fatherless series.



I made the second of the series last semester (no pictures of it yet), and at the moment, I'm about to warp my loom at home with the third in the series. The figures are supposed to be somewhat abstract. I purposefully left them featureless, and humanoid looking for several reasons. The child is supposed to be gender-neutral. I want the viewer to be able to insert themselves into the picture. Secondly, the weaving is made from a technique called Spanish Lace. It's rather delicate looking in person. There is supposed to be this feeling of unraveling or disintegration. A normal "portrait" would have all of the features drawn in and be more realistic. The colors are predominantly mono-chromatic because the subject is supposed to be rather bleak.

Why Fatherless? It speaks about two conditions, our physical condition and our spiritual condition. On a surface level, I'm attempting to make a social commentary about our single parent society. Don't get me wrong, if you're a single parent, it's a tough job. But there's this whole mentality in society that says "Dads aren't important." Or if a Dad is portrayed in the Media, he's a doofus or an idiot. Look at the Fathers in Rug Rats, or Jimmy Neutron. Look at the Fathers in any sit-com. When did Dad's become so unimportant? Then you have weekend dads, or those Dad's who are just such good dads they drive all the way to such-and-such a place to get their kids to and from school, and spend a whopping 9 hours a week with their daughter, leaving behind the other daughter because "she's too young yet." So Dad is there, but not there...that's why the portrait is without detail, incomplete. I am hoping to depict an incomplete relationship.

The second, deeper meaning is more spiritual. It is really speaking about the time in my life where, spiritually speaking, I was Fatherless. I ran around waiting for God to smite me with his angry discipline for all the things I did wrong. My relationship with God was like these weavings, fragile, and without detail. Somewhere in my mid-twenties, I came to realize that He loved me. I can't even put into words that discovery. It's one thing to know with my head I'm loved, but its a whole other thing to understand and feel it in my heart that I am treasured, valuable, made this way on purpose for a purpose, "altogether beautiful, there is no flaw in you," "dark but lovely." My responses to Him became less religious (doing it for the sake of being "good" or "right") which failed all the time, to wanting, no deeply desiring to follow his ways because I wanted to express my love back. A love response. When I was going through this time in my life, I began to draw. Those sketches led me back to school as I sensed God wanted me to get them out to the world. So when I went back to school, I ended up starting at the beginning of my sketchbook. My earliest sketches were titled "My Abba, My Daddy." I had a great father, the best Daddy a little girl could ever be given. When I realized that my Abba was even better, well, I just still have trouble fathoming it sometimes. But I felt that before I could depict what the relationship could look like, I had to show what our current condition is.

Each piece is a little more unraveled, a little more unwoven, a little more fragile. It's been very frightening to be so inexperienced as an artist and to try and replicate the same weaving three times.

My last weaving project is not as deep. I'm merely making a very large abstract with Spanish lace and plain weave. Mostly, I'm doing it to work out a few ideas before trying to put imagery into it. Can I make it sculptural? How much work is it to make a gianormous weaving (I'm about to find out!)

I've woven some functional pieces in between, a shawl, a scarf, stuff that I do for fun and enjoyment. Not that my artwork isn't fun, it's just more "work." I have to think, plan, and design more, and sometimes after all that, it doesn't turn out well at all. My functional pieces give me satisfaction that they can be used and enjoyed. My non-functional serve as my therapy.

Hopefully, I'll have pictures later. I'll have to go bug my sister. She's the photographer for the two above Metamorphosis pieces. She has amazing talent, and took my entire portfolio last year. Well, I've made a few more things since then, so it might be time for another mega-photo session. Here's hoping it's not so cold and breezy this time. ;-)