On Critique

I was thinking about critique the other night. The art center I belong to has a monthly crit group and I decided I should participate. But what to bring?

I am working on a large quilt for my Security Blanket series. I hesitate to bring it for several reasons. The first is because I am adding some appliquéd shapes and I don't want them to get crumpled or misplaced in transit. The second and more important reason is that I feel like this piece is far enough along that I am committed to it for good or bad. There is no turning back. I'm not proud or happy that I feel that way about this piece (I recognize that it's not a position of growth), but I do.

I could bring a few drawings from the life drawing sessions I attend. But those are never really meant to be finished artworks, just exercises, so what would the point be? Of course, I could probably get some insight on avenues to explore in future drawing sessions, so maybe I should bring my sketches one of these days.

I decided to bring a collection of hankies I am altering for my Army Wife series. I feel pretty solid about the basic premise, but I'm not sure how best to present them. The crit group could help me with that, and the hankies are not so far along that if there was input that could potentially change other aspects I wouldn't be able to implement it. The other artists at the session did indeed have some great ideas about how to present this work, and confirmed that I was on the right track. Next month I promise myself that I'll bring something meatier to crit!



All this agonizing over what to bring reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend a while ago about critiques and Show and Tell in general. It is often difficult to share work in a forum where people might question it. That questioning is often taken personally. My answer to my friend's query how I dealt with criticism was that art school taught me to develop a thick skin, not take it so personally, and to take what was helpful and ignore the rest. She asked what our art school critique sessions were like.

To tell the truth, I can't remember. I remember the lessons I took away from them, but I don't remember the format or my feelings at the time. I think it was pretty simple. Put your work up on the wall (everyone's at once if I remember correctly), and then one by one we explained what it meant. These were design classes for the most part, so there was usually a list of "client" needs we were to have addressed. Then the instructor and students talked about what in each work addressed those needs and what wasn't so effective. There were what-if questions too about color and compositional choices and type faces and the like. I don't remember ever being completely crushed by anyone's comments. Disappointed maybe, but never crushed. And there was almost always something that could be changed or applied to the next assignment. Maybe it was because we were all relatively equal -- similar ages, at the same place in school, all good enough to have been accepted into the school in the first place, etc. Maybe quilt guilds and art quilt groups are too varied in experiences to be comfortable places for hearing opinions (and it is all subjective opinion) on one's work.

As uncomfortable as they can be, I think critiques are important for growth. I think they can be effective even if it's as simple as a group of friends one is comfortable with, or if it's a more formal setting. And let's not forget the self critique. Is my work good enough? Am I relevant? What can I change to make the work better? Eternal questions, I know. But critique can help me find an answer, at least temporarily.

Small Wonders

Our Exhibit is ready to be seen! Please join us for the opening reception on Sunday, September 7th from 1 to 4PM at the Etui Fiber Art Gallery in Larchmont, NY.

Here's the official invitation:

Diminutive bugs and birds, petite scale, delicate details of line and stitch – all in tiny treasures on view at Etui Gallery during the month of September, 2014. Eight artists brought together by a love of fabric and stitch show off their varied approaches to mixed media textiles in this exhibit of small works. Layers of machine and hand stitching intimately render buildings and homes both in Natalya Aikens’ works, which incorporate recycled ephemera, and in Kristin La Flamme’s fabric collages. Benedicte Caneill’s work incorporates impeccably sewn pieces of her monoprinted fabrics to create dancing compositions of color and line. Jane Davila and Gloria Hansen turn their focus on small-scale flora and fauna with an eye to graphic simplicity and macro photography respectively. Carol Sloan, Liz Kettle, and Beryl Taylor round out the collection with tantalizing layers of intriguing fabrics, delicate paper, painted textures, wee stitches, and tiny details that draw the viewer in for a closer look.

Here are a few photos to entice you to come see them in person!

Front facing wall with art by Jane, Benedicte and Gloria

Small wonders by Kristin

Corner view with work by Gloria, Benedicte, Liz and Natalya

Gloria's butterflies

Benedicte and Liz's work

Main wall with work by Liz, Natalya, Carol, Beryl and Kristin

A restful spot with work by Kristin, Natalya and Carol

 

Traveling Down Under - Inspiration Files

Travel is a most inspiring experience for artists. The memories and photos can provided fodder for years after a trip.

Last month I was fortunate to be invited by Cecile from Unique Stitching to teach at a paper craft and mixed media show in Brisbane and a big quilt and craft show in Sydney. First stop, Brisbane, a charming city with a lot of interesting street art.

The two abstract fern patterns above were metal work on concrete benches on the sidewalk.

The inside of the roof in the expo center in Brisbane had a beautiful pattern in the trusses, below.

After a few days in Brisbane we flew off to Sydney. The show was held in the expo center in Darling Harbor and we stayed in nearby Chinatown.

The wall along the walkway from Chinatown to Darling Harbor was sinuous and undulating.

There were mosaic sidewalk installations in the grassy areas in front of the expo center.

The expo center itself looked like a ship at berth. Sadly the building is being torn down later this year. I hope it will be replaced by something equally elegant and architecturally relevant to its location.

Darling Harbor is a revitalized seaport housing not only the expo center but many restaurants, cafes and shops. It is especially charming at night looking across the harbor at the city lights.

Chinatown had many fierce foo dragons including this massive guy and his twin.

The show was beautifully run, and had a varied, eclectic mix of vendors. Unlike most quilt shows in the states, this was a quilt and craft show so there were vendors selling supplies and finished goods in many, many craft disciplines other than quilting. This might contribute to the fearlessness that I noticed in Australian artists to mix their media and blur the lines across fields. 

The quilt exhibit was extremely inspiring. Not having the rigidity of the tradition of American quilting holding them back (no "quilt police" that I saw at all down under!) Australian quilters tend to experiment more than their American peers and worry less about how things "should" be done, or what's "correct". It was a really refreshing attitude reflected in the finished quilts and the students in classes. Another refreshing aspect of the quilt show was the music that was played all day every day - it really contributed to the energy of the show. There were mostly hits from the 70s and 60s, and each day the show opened with a dance party in the lobby with the vendors dancing (gangnam style, the macarena, even the electric slide) for the patrons waiting in line to get in. What a fun, happy, and original way to start the day!

After the show closed, Cecile, the most gracious host on the planet, treated me to a day tour to the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney that started with a bus ride to a wildlife sanctuary - where, yes, I pet a koala. We  paused for lunch in a chic mountain town, stopped for a ride on the steepest railway in the world, and ended with a ferry ride down the river and past the Opera House (plus even more in between). It was a magical experience.

The flora is so interesting and has sparked all sorts of ideas for surface design.

Crazy steep railroad - slightly intimidating but so so cool. You ride down to the bottom in cars in a nearly reclined position and then return backwards.

An amazing Aboriginal sacred site called the Three Sisters. The landscape was truly breathtaking everywhere we went. At one point we walked down a steep path to an overlook to see the valley and imagine it when the first European settlers arrived and learn about the trees, the periodic bush fires, and the history. The entire day (the whole trip really) was so educational and enlightening.

I came back invigorated and inspired and ready to hit the studio. 

Series

Hi, it's Kristin this time. In my previous life as a graphic designer, working in a series was something of a foreign concept. With each client came a new set of parameters and goals. When I took up quilting, a series was far from my mind as well. Unless you count baby quilts for friends as a series (which one totally could if one wanted). But as my work became less practical and more conceptual (and after many years of learning various techniques and themes), I began to work in series. Once you realize that you have ideas that can't be fully explored in one piece, it's pretty much inevitable. At first it was vague -- just a tendency towards landscapes. Then I had an idea for a war quilt (War Sucks). That quickly spawned more ideas, which then became The Army Wife series.

 

 Some people look for strict rules about working in a series, but for me it's just about continuity. That continuity could be size, color, technique, or just a theme or story line. It's about exploring an idea. When there's no more interest in that exploration, then the artist moves on. I've been working on the Army Wife for about four years, and I have a few more pieces I'd like to make. But...

 I had an idea last week. Security Blankets. I'm intrigued. I'm making lists of places to go with this. Lots of ideas to explore. This will be my new series. Of course, that doesn't mean I can't go back to a previous series if I want to. And the new series may or may not have legs. But, my brain has just jumped tracks, so off we must go.

 Do you work in a series, and if so, when do you know a new line of exploration has begun?

By the way, three aprons in The Army Wife series are traveling in SAQA's Beyond Comfort show and are currently at their last stop, Texas A&M University, until August 18th, 2013. Absence II, another in the series is part of an SDA regional show at Craddock Terry Gallery in Lynchburg, VA until June 16th, 2013.

Architecturally Inspired ~ Delicately Stitched

Liz Kettle here with you today. I am thrilled to be able to introduce you all to new 8 That Create member, Natalya Aikens. I have loved Natalya's work ever since I first came across it on the web many years ago. We share a love of vintage fabrics, stitching and architecture. Welcome to 8 That Create Natalya!

 Natalya takes the seeming unrelated elements of Russia, recycling and photography and melds them together to create magical pieces of art. Her work is evocative of a beautiful memory, history and stories of a special place and time. Natalya grew up in St. Petersburg Russia and much of her art reflects the folklore and beautiful architecture of Russia. Natalya currently lives in New York and finds inspiration in her surroundings as she explores with camera in hand. Many of her photographs find their way into her artwork.

 

"Marrying together of the disparate influences on my art – heritage and recycling – is my greatest challenge and my greatest pleasure. It is what drives me into my studio everyday."                             Natalya Aikens     

                                                                                                                  

Natalya is passionate about recycling and likes to add bits of plastic and mesh bags as well as paper into her work. Natalya's goal is to transform trash into something treasured and sophisticated.

You can see more of Natalya's beautiful work on her website and you can connect with her on Facebook and Twitter as well as right here at 8 That Create.

 

A quick peek into Natalya's creative space

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Isn't it fun to see what is in someone else's space? I have some of those insulators too.

I asked Natalya to share 8 little tidbits about herself with our 8 That Create followers.

1. I love to experiment with many tools and materials.
2. I don't feel married to one particular set of techniques and will use any technique to achieve a desired effect.
3. I like to think of myself as rather thrifty.
4. I love to find new ways to use old materials.
5. I enjoy listening to NPR  or books on tape while working away in my studio, but only during the execution phase, never during design.
6. I need quiet when figuring out a new design, no distractions while concentrating.
7. Costume design was my first love.
8. I have an extensive library of art, design, history of fashion and film books and I refer to them all often.

If you want to hear Natalya talk about her work check out this SAQA video interview:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_zUgrnRKho&feature=player_profilepage

 

Empty Spaces - "What We Keep"

Jamie Fingal here. My piece is all about loss, and the things that we keep, to remind us who we are.  There is more in a previous post, and you can view it here.

The fabrics were Mistyfused to wool blended felt, free motion machine quilted, and a bit of hand sewing with #8 Perle cotton threads

A vintage zipper, and a photograph of scissors from my mother's sewing desk.  The photo has been transferred to fabric, with an ink jet copier.  The background of the scissors was painted to enhance the colors of the scissors.

Full view; with a photo transfer of my mom's cookbooks, apron, recipe holder, etc., on the upper left - scissors on the right.  Title:  "What We Keep: to remind ourselves who we are" by Jamie Fingal 2012  - 16" x 16"

Listening To Myself

Liz here this beautiful Spring Sunday. I have been madly stitching away on my Empty Spaces piece and all the while questioning just what the heck I am doing! I am hand stitching white on white. Is that insane or what? Why am I compelled to do this intensive amount of stitching when it isn't even obvious unless you are looking closely at the piece?

I have to confess...this isn't the first time I have caught myself doing this sort of barely visible stitching by hand. Each time I ask myself why. Why is it important to me do this sort of stitching? Do you ever talk to your art in progress? I do. All the time. Not out loud of course! Well, actually, now that I think about it I do sometimes talk to myself and my art out loud.

Here are some examples of what I mean--of the stitching not the talking out loud:

 

 In this one I even used beads that blend!

This isn't new, I have been doing this for years. I just sort of went with what my intuition told me and while I wondered why I needed to do this I didn't think too much about it. Though I have to admit to telling myself I am stupid for working this laboriously on my pieces.

While working on this  Empty Spaces piece the last couple months I have been traveling a lot; away from home about as much as I was home. This crazy need to add so much hand stitching was on my mind a lot.  Why couldn't I just quickly machine stitch this and be done with it, I asked myself over and over. I have a deadline and I didn't really have time for all this hand stitching that is hardly visible!  Then, on one boring flight (can't remember which one) I was mulling this over when I remembered what my friend Terry White said about my work. She said that what she loved about my work was the details. All of a sudden I had this big thought shift! I realized that these details are my way of inviting the viewer to slow down and look closer. All of this stitching is my way of saying: stop, be here now, allow yourself a moment to be, think and simply breathe. Wow...my work was talking for me. My work is (hopefully) telling the viewer what I would tell them if I was standing there next to them.

Now, unfortunately, this piece has also told me that it isn't finished! It doesn't care about the deadline. It wants to be a diptych. I started out to make one small piece but it is insisting on including the questions I asked in my previous post; is empty space the positive or negative, the black or the white? And, of course it is insisting that a lot of hand stitching be included.  I could ignore it, call it done and spend the day reading outside but I would never feel right about the piece. As you can see in my sneak peek photo above that I have a bit of stitching in my immediate future.

What We Keep

Jamie Fingal - In contemplating 'Empty Spaces,'  I have brainstormed many different ideas, but then it became clear to me, what my subject would be all about.  I lost both of my parents within a four month period.  There is certainly a large empty space in my life, without them in it.   In cleaning out their house, I began to photograph my memories of the things that they used with their hands in the kitchen, sewing, office, and tool chest. 

My mom had a great spoon collection, but I had no room for it in my house, but I do have a lovely photograph of my favorite spoons, to keep forever.  From my mom's favorite cookbooks, to the wood bird with a clothes pin beak, that held a recipe card, to funky aprons and even a apron pocket prayer book.  This has become my labor of love to honor them.  What we keep to remind ourselves who we are.

These photos of my art quilt are what I would call a 'sneak peek' of portions of the piece that I made for our on-line exhibit 'Empty Spaces.' 

Brain Wars

Liz Kettle here, posting today about my progress…or lack of…my Empty Spaces piece. I was immediately intrigued with the proposed title Empty Spaces and thought to myself…wow that sounds like an easy theme to work with! Boy was I wrong. I thought I had a bunch of ideas and I did but the problem was that I ended up completely stalled out because I found myself spinning in circles. I had too many ideas and none of them were any good.



I once took a test that was supposed to tell you if you worked predominately from your left (analytical) or right (creative) brain. I scored really close to a balanced middle brain thinker. At the time I proudly thought this was a reflection of how well balanced I am and how well rounded my thinking skills are. HA!  Well...You all know what happens to pride before the fall right? This balanced brain was my undoing in this art endeavor.



First of all, I am a bit of a science geek. I home-schooled two of my kids through high school and we did a lot of science. I love learning about quarks, string theory, neutrinos and black holes. There is no such thing as empty space. There is no glass half full…they are all full. This fact kept pushing to the surface every time I started thinking about empty spaces. I tried to outsmart myself…thinking about psychological empty spaces in our hearts, lives and experiences but I kept coming back to the notion that even empty spaces in our hearts are filled in with love, longing or regret. Empty spaces in our lives are often filled up with physical stuff. That led me to a personal rant on how we have too much stuff and I considered doing a piece featuring the absurdity of the storage units phenomenon but that felt too confrontational and judgmental for my art.  Still spinning in circles.



Next I asked myself is empty space positive or negative, black or white, figure or ground? This intrigued me but I still kept going round in circles because I had no answers to these questions and at every turn I could only think that there is no empty space! At this point the deadline is looming and I really just have to start something. When I am totally flummoxed but still need to work my salvation is in cleaning the studio.  Not cleaning cleaning...there is no dusting or vacuuming. I pull out piles and sort them. I move fabric around, pull it out, fold it, put it back. I find lost scissors and rulers and that little doo-dad that would have been perfect on my last project. I make a mess piling fabrics up, touching and folding trying not to think too much.

On this day I was guided to my overflowing bin of hand dyed, mono-printed and painted fabrics. What a mess! I dumped it all out and folded and sorted. Towards the bottom of the pile I discovered this:



Wow! It was black and white, figure and ground, positive and negative…this could turn into something. There is a pattern underlying the black and white reflective of the idea of empty space not being empty and best of all there are CIRCLES so I could stop my incessant mind spinning. This has potential!

I am hand stitching the top. I love hand stitching and because my spring schedule has me away from my machine so much it will allow me to work while I am on the road. I have developed a compulsion to densely hand stitch in blending thread colors. It is a bit insane when I stop to think about it because the stitching can't be seen unless you look closely. But then again,  asking the viewer to slow down and look closely is what I am aiming for.

 

An Introduction: Gloria Hansen

Hello, I'm Gloria, and I live in East Windsor, New Jersey.  My art centers around geometric pattern, visual ambiguities, and photographic imagery, and I get tremendous satisfaction from merging my love of digital tools and technologies with traditional media to express a particular vision.

My passion for digital design began in the late 1980s. At that time, there was not much information available for using the computer as an quilt/textile design tool.  Even so, I was immediately drawn to the Macintosh and experimented with early vector and pixel-based programs  to adapt them to my artwork.  As those early programs matured and inkjet printing technologies evolved, so did my ability to use them.  Prior to the digital days, I  was involved in a wide variety of crafts, photography, art and design, and was in the Embroiderer's Guild of America's master craftsman program.  It is from this eclectic background of skills that my style developed.

Today my work continues to evolve and dance among pixels and fibers, paintbrushes and inkjet printers, and different types of media  I invite you to my website to learn more about me and the art I create.

[caption id="attachment_152" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption=""Artifications" - 41" x 42" - 2011"][/caption]

After this piece returned from an exhibit, I removed the finishing and am now in the process of adding curved lines of hand stitchery for additional texture and movement.

[caption id="attachment_156" align="aligncenter" width="250" caption=""Lost In Illusion" 2010 - 47.5" x 40.5""][/caption]

Lost In Illusionis a piece that evolved from a series of work that focuses on progressively diminishing squares and an interplay of geometric shapes.  It's a subject matter that I continue to explore.

[caption id="attachment_141" align="aligncenter" width="233" caption=""The Journey" - 2010 - 40.5" x 54""][/caption]

The Journey is a piece that combines imagery of various types of transit and flight.

 

 

Introductions: Jamie Fingal

I live in Orange, California and mainly focus my work on making mixed media art quilts, but I do dabble in paper as well, because it is rather fun not to limit myself to one medium.   I think outside the box...a sort of rebel, and follow my own path by using unconventional materials in my work.

[caption id="attachment_124" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Metal Measures - 2010 - 16x16"][/caption]

A labor intensive piece of artwork made with measuring tape fabric, Mistyfused onto a wool blended felt foundation, hand-sewn, and then free-motion zig zagged to create my version of a log cabin quilt with zippers and a metal washer.  Before adding the backing, sections could be zipped apart from one another.

[caption id="attachment_125" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Urban Footscape - 2010 - 10x10"][/caption]

I have an entire series of art quilts around the subject of my Doc Marten boots, standing on a variety of surfaces in several different cities.  Collaged with a variety of fabrics, including images from a trip to San Francisco, and ransom lettering, have been photo transferred onto fabric.  Metal washers, snaps, safety pins, buttons, fuses are some of my uncommon embellishments.

[caption id="attachment_126" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Soul Sisters - 2011 - 16x16"][/caption]

Portraits are just one of my favorite subjects in my work, but in a whimsical way, in bright colors and a touch of surface design with paint and stencils.  Cups and saucers are a common motif in my work and are here on their heads, but commonly put on the roofs of my whimsical houses!

[caption id="attachment_127" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Zippy House - 2011 - 15x15"][/caption]

And houses, another time honored tradition in many of the quilts that I make, with the cup and saucer on the roof.  Zippered flowers, landscaping, house, roof and all around the edges of the art quilt, including a zipper for the front door.  Looking forward to 2012 and making art for 8 that create!  Let the fun begin!