Cascade or the Lace Forest, in progress

(Above:  Me ... stitching in my sanctuary-sized studio on Cascade/The Lace Forest.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

For more than two weeks, I've returned to the installation started back in October during a two-week art residency at Bethany Arts Community.  It's called Cascade or The Lace Forest.  I'm keeping both names but will likely only use one or the other when showing the work.  Why?  Well ... if suspended from a ceiling in a way to allow viewers to walk through and around the individual strands, then its a "forest".  If hung tightly together against a wall, then it would better resemble a cascading waterfall.  (Click HERE to visit one of the blog posts I wrote from the art residency.  It explains my process and inspiration.)

(Above:  Cascade/The Lace Forest ... some time early last week.)

Even before starting to stitch, I was working on this installation. First, I was thrilled to have enough space to actually look through all the vintage and antique linens in my stash.  Having this big, sanctuary-sized studio is WONDERFUL.  Second, I spent at least six or seven evenings cutting up the stash into strips.  I filled two, very large plastic tubs.  Finally, I started stitching the strips onto the one-inch in diameter upholstery cording.  Each finished strand has been hung from the railing in my choir loft. 

I have had plenty of help with this project.  Above is Mr. Minnie guarding one of the tubs.

Later, Ernie took over guard duty.

Earlier this week, I had seven strands hanging.  Right now ... while I am typing this blog post, there are thirteen finished strands.  Fifteen were stitched during the art residency.  I think I have a great start on a "forest" and definitely enough for a descent "waterfall", but my aim is to create fifty.  I think I have enough crochet, lace, damaged tablecloths, ribbon, and other usable material (though I'm not quite sure and can eagerly accept any that is sent my way!)

I truly love this installation.  The details are wonderful.  I think that it will be a fabulous experience for people, and I'm especially thrilled that it is already headed to an invitational show called Rising Up! A Multi-Cultural Celebration of Stitched Fine Art at Featherstone Center for the Arts on Martha's Vineyard, MA.  Most exciting is that Steve and I are driving to the venue, helping install the work, and staying through the opening reception.  The exhibit runs from June 23 to July 21, 2024. The opening reception is on Sunday, June 23 from 4-6 pm!  I am grateful and happy!  

If I hadn't set up The Cabinet of Curiosities and my two walls on which I've hung small artworks, I could get a better photo of the strands as they are hanging.  Still ... this is likely the first shot from "inside my studio!"

Still ... my unique studio does have this interesting view from the atrium!  Believe it or not, there are three doors from the atrium into the sanctuary!

I can wait to install!

 

New work and establishing a new routine!

 

(Above:  First Communion.  Click on any image to enlarge ... some more than others! LOL!)

I purchased this special, hand-tinted, anonymous photo weeks ago at the Pickens County flea market.  It was fused to fabric and hand-stitched embellishments were applied for several evenings.  I posted it on Facebook and Instagram (April 23rd) with this caption: Just finished! This is "First Communion", vintage hand-colored photograph with embroidery. Framed: 18 3/4" x 16 3/4". Available for $275 plus sales tax and shipping. She's definitely ONE OF A KIND! 

 

(Above:  The Newly Weds. Anonymous, vintage photo with hand-stitched embellishments in an antique walnut frame with outer dimensions 13" x 11".)

Two days ago, I posted The Newly Weds to social media.  That's when I started to realize that my creative routine needed to be realigned.  Back in Columbia, I was in the habit of posting first to this blog.  Why?  Well, this is where my heart and mind really are.  This is where I prefer to share my work.  This is where I can later find images, information and back stories/statements that include inspiration and other details that might later escape my memory.  My blog has always served me well.  Countless times, I've linked a post when writing to a curator, an interested client, or just someone posing a question that requires a lengthy explanation (which is covered in the blog post.)  I love this blog.  Yet, posting to social media on my iPhone is easier and the routine that was once "habit" got lost during the move to Cateechee.  

 

(Above: Patchwork #124. Framed: 60 1/2" x 20 1/2".  Scraps of vintage and antique quilts, crocheted elements, fabric yoyos, appliqued butterflies, Battenburg lace, and assorted buttons hand-stitched together and then tacked to a black frame.)

 

There are sensible reasons for this disruption.  My desktop computer is now on the second floor of our new place.  My laptop is on the first floor.  (The opposite was true in Columbia, but in both places, my studio is on the lower level).  The desktop is not updated to Windows 10 or above.  Why?  Well, the desktop has Photoshop and the old version of QuickBooks.  To update means these programs don't work.  We'd have to subscribe to Photoshop instead of being able to use the program we have owned since before this blog started in 2006.  The same with QuickBooks.  (The laptop has the new PhotoElements.)  My iPhone, however, is not compatible with this old system. Plus, we are now living in an area that might never get high speed connections.  We are on a rather slow satellite service but using our iPhone's unlimited data hotspots. Basically, there's plenty of technical obstacles to overcome and a need to consciously map out a plan that gets me posting on my blog before social media.  Why?  Because I WANT THIS BLOG to maintain the continuity it has always enjoyed.  If I accidentally forget to post something to social media ... well ... it is forgotten within a day or two and doesn't matter.  To me, the blog matters!  So ... here's to my attempt to start blogging first!

(Above:  Detail of Patchwork 124.)

Today I finished mounting and photographing the piece started during Artista Vista 2024.  It began as a community crazy quilt public art project.  I blogged about it HERE.  Over a decade ago, I did a couple of public stitch events that just didn't satisfy me.  Sure, the public got the experience of stitching.  Sure, people enjoyed it.  Laughter and shared stories filled the few hours but later ... nothing happened.  The work never materialized into "anything".  So ... now I put together pieces that I know I will finish!  With intention, the project is laid out to become part of an installation.  This piece is part of my ongoing Patchwork Installation.  It is the same size at the earlier community crazy quilt public art event that was done at Bethany Arts Community while I was an artist-in-residence there last October.  (Click HERE for another blog post!)

(Above:  Selfie at the 20th annual Reedy River Duck Derby in downtown Greenville.)

Being able to link earlier blog posts is important to me.  Most art residency programs want some sort of community engagement.  Being able to document successful events with just a few fingertip clicks makes it obvious that the project is viable and that any new one will be equally shared!  Now ... I am determined to stick to my new routine ... going upstairs to download images from my phone, crop and color correct them on Photoshop, label them properly and create searchable folders, and BLOG.  Downstairs, the laptop will remain important for the reason I bought it.  It is there that I write my daily Morning Pages, a habit started in 2007 after my second experience going through Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way.  Yes!  I write at least five times each and every week.  I know what I was doing, thinking, and planning at any given time for more than that last fifteen years!

(Above and below:  Photos from the 20th Annual Reedy River Duck Derby.)

I am aware that much of this blog post must give the impression that I'm some sort of frustrated historian.  I am! LOL!  Yet, I like to have fun too!  Yesterday, Steve and I went to the rotary fundraiser known as the 20th Annual Reedy River Duck Derby in downtown Greenville.  The waterfall is one listed on my Upstate waterfall guide but there really wasn't a hike involved. 

We watched the ducks leave their upstream enclosure ...

... and then walked to the area where they were being scooped up by plastic crates and dumped into trash cans ... until next year.  We assume that the small tube projecting from the mass of ducks (photo above) are the winning ducks.  Every duck was "adopted" and numbered.  It was $10 per duck but there were discounts for multiple duck adoptions.  The top prize was "groceries for a year" donated by Publix grocery store.  Second was $2500.  There were plenty of lower level prizes too.  We did not win but had an absolutely marvelous time!
 

The Found Object Target

(Above:  Found Object Mandala CLXXX, The Target. Custom framed: 39 1/2" x 39 1/2".  Found and spray-painted toy soldiers and assorted buttons hand-stitched to the back of a vintage quilt.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

This mandala started about three or even four months ago.  At Bill Mishoe's auction (back in Columbia!), I was the successful bidder on a table lot of plastic military toys.  There were airplanes and tanks and all sorts of game pieces, but there were dozens of unopened bags of soldiers.  I knew while I was bidding what I would do.  After all, I've stitched practice targets before.  Ready, Aim, Fire! is blogged HERE.  This piece was part of the SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) global traveling exhibit, Guns: Loaded Conversations. A Midwestern lawyer saw it and commissioned another one.  

(Above:  Mandala CLXXX, detail.)

Thankfully, no one else at the auction wanted these things.  There were actually three filled tables.  When the first table didn't bring an opening bid, Bill Mishoe combined all three.  I got everything for under twenty dollars.  Most of it, I gave away or exchanged for a couple bucks to a few people who just didn't want to haul off three tables worth of toys!  All I wanted were the soliders.

(Above:  Mandala CLXXX, detail.)

Within a few days, I went to a big box hardware store and bought the needed colors of spray paint.  The back side of a red-and-blue, bow tie quilt was then stapled to my largest stretcher bar.  I considered using the front (as I did with Mandala CLXXII) but the solid blue back just looked better.  The circle divisions were drawn on in ink.  The lines were covered with buttons.  Then, the fun began!

(Above:  Mandala CLXXX, detail.)

The spray painting was done outside ... one color at a time ... one side of the toys at a time and then flipped.  I ran out of both black and white spray paint and had to return to the hardware store for more.  Every night for weeks, soldiers were stitched tightly on top of one another.

(Above:  Mandala CLXXX, seen from an angle.)

Even though I finished this piece shortly before we moved, there wasn't the time to frame it.  We had already moved almost all of the picture frame moulding and equipment.  The work just had to wait until we were settled into our renovated Cateechee church.  Steve is calling this my "statement piece" which is sort of funny.  Like Ready, Aim, Fire! it really doesn't say much of anything.  Neither are overtly pro or con on the issue of guns.  Honestly, I would hope that this piece causes people to pause for just a moment and think about so many toys being given to innocent children and so many soldiers fighting for causes in which they may or may not believe.  I hope the piece bears witness to "too many" ... as in too many guns, too many plastic soldier toys, too many wasted lives.  I rarely want to cram my own opinions down the throats of other people ... so, if you ask me ... I might just smile and say you're supposed to make up your own mind.  Mine is already made up (and I would love to live to see the day when all guns are banned.)