Embroidered Thoughts: New Year Commitment to Create

We start the New Year with good intentions and aspirations. I'm moving on from that "stuck place" trying to decide if my last piece is indeed complete before embarking on the next one. This one tentatively entitled "1st, 2nd & 3rd" has taken over 6 months. I would not call this my magnum opus although with respect to size and some opulence in embellishment it actually could be just that. I've also been drawing in an attempt to free up my labor intensive tendencies and hoping that drawing will inform my next embroidered piece.

So, New Year: more blog discipline as it's interesting to re-read old posts to figure out my mindset. It's also an opportunity to focus and play with imagery and ideas. My studio is inviting - I have new music and I have Samantha, my studio kitty buddy who has christened an old NIU silkscreen project as her "nap area" so I do have company.

Embroidered Thoughts: Back to the Nib

My fingernails are cut short since I've been playing in the dirt of my flower garden, planting like crazy to fill in the vast space of the new plot. Each time that I view my nails in their sorry state I remember how lovely it was to dig down in the warm dirt and transfer the plant from the plastic pot to the earth. With my gardening exploits and the ability to spend time outside (before the EEE mosquitoes descend at dusk), my embroidery has taken a back seat and I'm also at the point in my current piece that is pretty much mindless stitching as I fill the values of the background around the three figures. Needless to say, it's not very stimulating and even stitching to Netflix (well, I could not stitch while watching the Tudors - it had my rapt attention - poor Cromwell...!) becomes a chore. I think that means that I need to wrap up this piece once and for all and move on.

Today, I decided to take my pen and ink (using a real nib) and sketch a few of my flowers. I especially like the look of the cone flowers and the black eyed susans as they lose their petals and look like something from a Tim Burton movie set. As I was drawing I was reminded of how interesting it is to cover the total space of an object be it a room (as in the stripping of wallpaper, scrubbing, patching, sanding and painting of my dining room) or be it an object that I am observing and drawing. With the morning glories (before drawing them) I had only observed their color and the activity of the tendrils as they wrapped around neighboring plants - but today, I noticed the pattern of the veins of the leaves, the negative spaces between the leaves and the blooms and the line of the tendrils. It was the same observance with the textures of the black eyed susans and the delicate striations of the lines of the petunia.

So this is the result of my labor of observing with some license in placement. I also needed a new piece for the dining room wall - almost instant art. But as an exercise, this was a way to stretch that "seeing muscle" of objects and perhaps to provide me some guide for the next piece to be stitched.

Embroidered Thoughts Paris Drawings

I rarely travel anywhere without my Rapidograph pen and a small sketch book in case I have an epiphany and need to put it on paper. I have always loved pen and ink drawings especially after learning to finesse the art of cross hatching from Dr. Moldrowski, my first drawing instructor at Eastern. So, my rapidograph pen needs to be kept functioning (it will leak when sad - just like tears) which means I take it apart and soak the parts in ammonia. Ammonia always works (thanks Michael for the cleaning tip!) and my pen will be good as new for a time. Of course, frequent use (drawing) keeps it going longer which means I am compelled to doodle as often as I can.

I decided to utilize my pen for a full scale drawing to recount and illustrate the Paris trip of 2004 for Elaine and Tom. It was a week in January - Tom had a conference and I was a tourist in my glory with guidebook in hand, good walking shoes and enough knowledge of French to get by. After two days on my own, Tom and I then spent a few days walking the city, going to amazing monuments and famous sites all of which are depicted in these drawings. Of course, time filters reality so I pulled out my photo album of Paris, some guide books of Paris and just general knowledge of Paris to put together this little ink collage of our trip. And for practicality, I also needed to have something to hang on my newly painted dining room wall therefore this drawing which is now framed and taking up wall space.

This was fun to compile and is totally illustrative but that was my intention. When I walk by this drawing I am reminded that I could be in my studio putting down thoughts of experience and lessons learned. Those drawings would then be transferred to fabric to be stitched. But this was fun to do and yes, that waiter was "oooo lala...!"

Embroidered Thoughts on Fabric

These are images of recent work. The process begins by constructing an image on paper, transferring the image to fabric (tracing on a light table) and then stitching. My sources include old photos, illuminated manuscripts and grid sensitivity from growing up in the agricultural Midwest. Each image is long calculated before I begin to stitch because each piece can take months to complete. However, I often find the end result takes on a different or enhanced interpretation than the initial drawing.

with some trepidation...

With one website attempt a few years ago that was left to languish, I've decided to start a blog. And yes, I have images of "Julie and Julia" racing through my head, although I'm sitting in a basement office with Morris, our newly acquired orange tabby at my elbow (he's eyeing the keyboard as he has some plan to plop his massive body where my fingers are nimbly typing - my elbow serves as the barrier to thwart his attempts to "squat"). Instead of the sound of city in the movie, I hear the de-humidifier, clothes dryer and footsteps upstairs.

I see this as an opportunity to transfer thoughts that I have in my head and in my sketchbook. I will be curious to see if and what patterns arise and how they translate into the images that I will ultimately stitch. Also, I will post images of pieces already completed and in process. I'm thinking this will be a tool for expressing thoughts as they relate to process. A few "aha" moments would be welcomed. So, will the utilization of a blog add to the creative process?