More Work from the MacNamara Foundation!

(Click on image to enlarge.)

My days are numbered here at the MacNamara Foundation but the work is continuing rapidly. I've fallen completely in love with the acorn caps and had to create a few more "In Box Series" variations using them. The last of my purple felt was used for the one above; the recycled white felt (a gift from Guy Jones, owner of River Runner in Columbia) was used for the other two below.

(Click on images above and below to enlarge. "In Box" series variations using real acorn caps and beads on melted white, acrylic felt.)

The white felt is now running low too. It is the middle layer of all my Decision Portrait pieces. I'm also now using it for EVERYTHING including two miniature "In Box Series" pieces, below.

(Click on image above and below to enlarge. Miniature "In Box" series on soldered and melted white, acrylic felt.)

I like the white felt very much. These works were the first time I tried soldering and melting it. For some reason, it seems to disintegrate differently than the felt I've purchased in craft and fabric stores. It doesn't seem to have a darkened, burnt edge.

Since this recycled, white felt is so nice, I used it to create Westport Island Series: Birch Bark. (Above.) The bark is real. I washed and dried it several days before using it. I also coated each piece with a little matte medium. This piece and two of the others incorporate scraps of material given to me by Maureen MacNamara Barrett, the generous lady behind this artist residency program. I am deeply astounded at her kindness and quiet interest in every artist and their desires to create work.


(Click on image above to enlarge. Westport Island Series: Crabs.)

Also in the Westport Island Series, I've created three works using the embellisher. Above are the shells of five crabs I found at the nearby cove. I discovered that my "moon crater" paper can be used as a surface for embellishment if a layer of white felt is underneath. I attached the crabs with threads stitched to a roll of material which I glued (Gorilla Glue) to the underside of each shell.


(Click on image above to enlarge. Westport Island Series: Sea Gull.)

There's also been another use of "roadkill" here at the MacNamara Foundation. Lisa Robinson, the photographer, and Maria Robinson, the writer, collected a dead sea gull from the side of the road. Lisa cynotyped it with amazing success. I plucked dozens of the feathers before burying the remains in the tidal marsh on the back side of the property. I'm getting rather good at cleaning feathers, fur, and porcupine quills! Nature is wonderful! The background is more of my "moon crater" paper with embellished wool, silk, scrim, and millinery netting.

I'm calling this piece Westport Island Series: Collection as it has shells, feathers, birch bark, a barnacle, and acorn caps stitched to an embellished background of heavy yarn, millinery netting, chiffon, wool and silk fibers.

Of course, I don't actually spend every minute stitching. I have been going on a nice walk every day....collecting acorn caps, shells, roadkill, etc. I've found three little, private cemeteries within a mile or so. Using silk remnants and ordinary crayons, I've been making rubbings. Each strip has been ironed, setting the crayon. I've done another rubbing on tea-stained muslin on which I'm already stitching. My plan is to cut and applique the parts below.....a memory of Maine...for future work back in South Carolina.