Last Words at the Caldwell Arts Council

(Above:  Last Words, a solo installation at the Caldwell Arts Council, Lenoir, NC.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

Yesterday was spent in the upstairs gallery at the Caldwell Arts Council in Lenoir, North Carolina. It took all day to transform the space but every effort was worth the result!  Every month there is a general theme for all the artwork on display.  This month, the unifying title is Ties That Bind.  Four other artists have work in the downstairs rooms. I can't wait to return this coming Friday to see their work.  There's an artists "meet-and-greet" starting at 4:30.  The official reception is from 5 - 7. 

(Above:  Photos taken by my husband Steve Dingman ... who drove the van, helped unload the artwork, and was otherwise "bossed around" all day!  Thank you, Steve!)

I've installed this work several times in the past but every location is different.  For this show, I had to take the windows and two closet doors into consideration as well as the orientation of two padded benches.  Placing the signage was also different.  It went just outside the room, beside the doorway ... as if the title frames from a movie or the title page of a book.  I like the idea that there are no distractions inside the exhibit, just the artwork.

From the start, I knew exactly where I wanted the framed "Angels in Mourning" images, The Book of the Dead its Victrola pedestal, a couple of the largest art quilts, and two suspended pieces.  Then, Steve and I scattered the grave rubbing art quilts all over the floor.

Being able to see the available pieces made the task of hanging easy.  Not every piece got to hang, but the ones that went up look great together.  I didn't bring all the "Angels in Mourning" series pieces.  (There are more than twenty; I brought five.)  I didn't bring black curtains, an altar, either of my two kneelers, or several other items I've used in the past.  I certainly didn't bring The Canopy which was part of Last Words when it hung at the Georgia Agriculture Museum.  That piece is taller than the 10' ceiling in the Caldwell Arts Council!

After all the artwork was on the wall, Steve and I suspended about twenty-four of the forty-three chiffon banners on which collected epitaphs have been stitched.  Most of these panels are sixteen feet in length.  To hang in this space, the top sections were rolled and pinned ... making them short enough for the room.  Having extra long banners makes it possible for me to hang in a variety of locations.
 

The air conditioning system makes this exhibit simply awesome because the banners do seem to move in the slight breeze.  It is as if a little bit of nature is part of the experience ... just like adding the artificial cemetery petals.  Compare the two photos directly above!  The flowers eliminate the sharp, ninety degree angle of the flooring and white base board less noticeable.  They bring a touch of the colors from a real cemetery into the space.  I like that!

I like the fact that viewers can't help but to notice the epitaphs hanging in the air whether they read them all or not.  This mimics the feeling of walking through a cemetery, being aware of words like "Rest in Peace" and "Gone but not Forgotten".

Please enjoy the rest of the photos, and if you're in the area of Lenoir, North Carolina during this month, please stop by the real thing!

Plenty of new work!

 (Above:  Me with some of the recently finished and framed pieces.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

I've been busy!  During this past week nine "Window Series" pieces were created in addition to four, extra-small "In Box Series" pieces.  Each one was fused together, stitched, melted, mounted, photographed, labeled, and entered into my inventory book.

 (Above:  In Box CCCLXI. Layers of fused polyester stretch velvet on recycled black industrial felt with self-guided, free-motion machine embroidery and melting techniques.  Framed 34" x 22". $550.)

In Box CCCLXI was finished more than a week ago.  At that time, I blogged four others in this size.  Unfortunately, I ran out of the acid-free mat board on which I mount my work.  So this one had to wait for this week's delivery of custom picture framing supplies.

(Above: In Box CCCLXI, detail.)

For the most part, I create my "In Box Series" in three different, finished sizes:  Large, 34" x 22"; Medium, 21" x 17"; and Small, 19" x 17". After so many years working with these materials and using the same, basic approach, it's easy to create work to any size.  Recently, the picture framing moulding used for my small In Box pieces was discontinued.  I picked another one (and I like it a lot!)  I used the rest of the old moulding to make four, smaller frames.  For them, I made four, smaller "In Box Series" pieces.

(Above: Composite of all four, extra small In Box Series pieces.)

Each one measures about 12" x 9".  The framed dimensions are 15" x 12" and the price is $175 each. I don't think I'll be making more this size but you never know!

(Above: Composite of all nine Window Series pieces.)

The framing for my Window Series has also changed.  I used the same moulding on them as I did on the smaller In Box pieces.  Nothing lasts forever.  Thankfully, I like the new moulding even better!  All these pieces are earmarked for November's Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show.   I've posted each one below.

(Above: Window CLXIX. Layers of fused polyester stretch velvet on recycled black industrial felt with self-guided, free-motion machine embroidery and melting techniques.  Framed:  19" x 17". $265.)

(Above: Window CLXVII. Layers of fused polyester stretch velvet on recycled black industrial felt with self-guided, free-motion machine embroidery and melting techniques.  Framed:  19" x 17". $265.)

(Above: Window CLXVIII. Layers of fused polyester stretch velvet on recycled black industrial felt with self-guided, free-motion machine embroidery and melting techniques.  Framed:  19" x 17". $265.)

(Above: Window CLXX. Layers of fused polyester stretch velvet on recycled black industrial felt with self-guided, free-motion machine embroidery and melting techniques.  Framed:  19" x 17". $265.)

(Above: Window CLXX. Layers of fused polyester stretch velvet on recycled black industrial felt with self-guided, free-motion machine embroidery and melting techniques.  Framed:  19" x 17". $265.)

(Above: Window CLXXII. Layers of fused polyester stretch velvet on recycled black industrial felt with self-guided, free-motion machine embroidery and melting techniques.  Framed:  19" x 17". $265.)

(Above: Window CLXXIII. Layers of fused polyester stretch velvet on recycled black industrial felt with self-guided, free-motion machine embroidery and melting techniques.  Framed:  19" x 17". $265.)

(Above: Window CLXXIV. Layers of fused polyester stretch velvet on recycled black industrial felt with self-guided, free-motion machine embroidery and melting techniques.  Framed:  19" x 17". $265.)

(Above: Window CLXXV. Layers of fused polyester stretch velvet on recycled black industrial felt with self-guided, free-motion machine embroidery and melting techniques.  Framed:  19" x 17". $265.)

He Said, She Said, a commissioned artist book

 (Above:  He Said, She Said, an artist book.  Shut:  9 1/4" x 6 1/4".  Click on any image to enlarge.)

A client in NYC challenged me to create "something erotic".  While this at first seemed more than a little unsettling as I have never actually met the man, it was also in the context of a conversation about one of his other, recent purchases.  He is the proud owner of several Coin Cunts by Suzanna Scott.  They were purchased at Paradigm Gallery in Philadelphia.  (CLICK HERE for Sarah Rose Etter's Philadelphia Weekly article about the artist's work when on display at Paradigm.)  Thankfully, I had already heard about these inside-out coin purses stitched to resemble a vulva. 

 (Above:  He Said, She Said, an artist book.  Cover.)

What I didn't know at the time was the inspiration behind the Coin Cunts.  In Sarah Rose Etter's article, Suzanne Scott says, "I have a thirteen year old daughter and I’m worried about her future. Every day we are bombarded with misogynistic, racist, sexist rhetoric on so many fronts. The poison seeping down from the highest office in our country is emboldening the lowest forms of humanity among us and hate speech is rampant. I do not want my daughter to have to live in this new reality. Our lying, pussy-grabbing president has ignited a smoldering fire among feminist artists and has added many, such as myself, to their numbers.  I feel helpless but I keep making art in the hope that by speaking out through my work I can in some small way help influence positive change for future generations."
 

(Above:  He Said, She Said, unfolded.)

Such a statement makes sense to me.  Then I looked up the definition of "erotic" and it reads:  relating to or tending to arouse sexual desire or excitement.  Just because I was raised never to speak of anything erotic doesn't necessarily make the entire adjective "bad".  In fact, making "erotic" synonymous with secret/shameful/naughty/indecent/improper is to push matters into a closet, is to allow misogynistic, racist, and sexist rhetoric to continue, and is to make female body parts taboo.  Besides, I've actually made erotic art before ... and I revisited one of these pieces in order to create this artist book.

(Above:  He Said, She Said, an artist book from 2011.)

In fact, I gave my new book the same name and used most of the lines too.  CLICK HERE for a video showing this earlier work.  It is musically set to Ravel's Bolero.  Instead of a Coptic bound book of words written in clipped letters, the new book is a digital creation in an accordion style placed inside the covers of an old, cloth bound book.  It was fun to make.  It was a challenge to think about eroticism, personally, politically, and artistically.

New Large "In Box" Series pieces for the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show

(Above:  In Box CCCLIX, detail. Layers of polyester stretch velvet fused to recycled black industrial felt with self-guided, free-motion embroidery and unique melting techniques.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

I'm happy to report that studio work is coming along nicely in anticipation of the upcoming Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, November 8 - 10 though I'm a bit worried.  Why?  Well, we didn't end up on the odd numbered side of the first aisle.  This is the area behind which is a large, open space ... as in "storage" for art as opposed to another artist's booth.  We've been assigned booth 104.  It will be different.  I will make it work but I'm still worried.

(Above: In Box CCCLIX.  Framed:  34" x 22".  $550.)

I'm also working on a new batch of Christmas ornaments.  They are coming along quite well.  I'm not worried about them at all!


(Above:  Steve just after a successful cataract surgery.)

I'm also no longer worried about Steve.  Yesterday he had cataract surgery.  He came through with flying colors and spent most of the rest of the day resting with our "therapy cat" Max.  Today, he's back to framing pictures as if nothing ever happened!  Below are the other, large In Box pieces finished this week.

(Above: In Box CCCLVII.  Framed:  34" x 22". $550.)

(Above: In Box CCCLVIII. Framed:  34" x 22". $550.)

(Above: In Box CCCLX, detail.)

(Above: In Box CCCLX. Framed: 34" x 22". $550.)

This Was Meant to Last Forever

(Above:  This Was Meant to Last Forever, The Wall of Ancestors.  10 1/4" x 8 3/4". Original Ambrotype with words clipped from a late 19th Bible and a pressed, four-leaf clover in an antique frame. Click on any image to enlarge.)

Almost every Tuesday and Friday finds me hand stitching while at Bill Mishoe's auction house.  Sometimes I bid.  Sometimes I don't.  Sometimes I'm successful with a bid but generally not.  Why?  Well, most of the time I'm not willing to pay much for anything.  Basically, I'm cheap ... as in "really cheap" because I honestly don't need anything.  I just love watching the remains of other people's lives up on the auction block.  Thinking about things saved, things discarded, and the changing nature of memory and value are at the core of my artistic concepts.  

 (Above:  Daguerreotype disassembled.)

So until recently, I never ended up with a real ambrotype.  They generally cost more than I'm willing to pay.  Unbelievably, I ended got three of them just the other week. Of course, the covers were broken, but I didn't care.  The glass was dirty too, but again ... I didn't care.  This gave me a chance to really LOOK at an ambrotype, take one apart, and figure out how to use it!  What I thought was hard, metal was actually quite soft, embossed foil-like material.  It was easy to take apart, clean, and put back together again.

(Above:  This Was Meant to Last Forever, The Wall of Ancestors.  10 1/4" x 8 3/4". Original Ambrotype with words clipped from a late 19th Bible and a pressed, four-leaf clover in an antique frame.)

I wasn't sure how I wanted to use these once precious images even though I knew they would somehow become part of my Wall of Ancestors, a collection of altered anonymous photos that are part of my solo installation, Anonymous Ancestors.  For two weeks, the ambrotypes sat idle in my studio.  Then, I bid on four, late 19th century oil paintings in antique French country style frames.  Each scene was painted on a beveled wooden panel.  The frames were in rough shape, but had a certain "old world charm" and weren't so damaged that I couldn't repair enough to use.

(Above:  Four antique paintings on wooden panels, top mounted on hunter green linen and framed with a green patina liner and heavy burl veneer frame.  15 1/2" x 27".)

It didn't take me long to scrounge up some absolutely beautiful scraps of picture frame moulding to present the four paintings in a new but still traditional way.  Two of their original frames were then used to shadowbox two of ambrotypes.  Words were added from a late 19th Bible.  When searching for the words, two pressed four-leaf clovers fell out of the Bible.  I added them too!

(Above:  Box of old keys from my friend Margaret Blank in Canada.  THANK YOU, Margaret!)

I still haven't decided exactly what to do with the other ambrotype or the other two antique frames but I'm sure something might happen at another, upcoming auction!  Perhaps I will incorporate a few of the old keys my friend Margaret sent me from Canada!

Medium and Small In Boxes

(Above: In Box CCCLIV.  MEDIUM SIZED. Layers of polyester stretch velvet on recycled synthetic industrial felt with free-motion machine embroidery and melting techniques.  Framed:  22" x 18". $325. Click on any image to enlarge.)

The studio area at the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops were open 24/7.  While there, I was able to construct ten new pieces. It was especially fun to do because all around me were participants working on their workshop pieces.  We all got to talk, share, and discuss art together.  Since returning home, all ten pieces were stitched, melted, mounted, and framed.  They are headed to this November's Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show.

(Above: In Box CCCLV.  MEDIUM SIZED. Framed:  22" x 18". $325.)

I make my In Box series pieces in three sizes.  Four of these are "medium" sized at 22" x 18" framed.  Six of these are "small" sized at 19 1/4" x 15 1/4" framed.  Currently, I've got five large ones in production and will share them once finished.  

(Above: In Box CCCLIII. MEDIUM SIZED. Framed:  22" x 18". $325.)

I'm actually quite able to make these pieces in any size at all, and I've been lucky enough to have accepted several commissions.  I love this work and especially the conceptual story behind them.

(Above: In Box CCCLVI. MEDIUM SIZED. Framed:  22" x 18". $325.)

These works are meant as an aerial view to an imaginary Freidensreich Hundertwasser city.  Hundertwasser was an Austrian artist who architecture looks as if Dr. Seuss ought to live there.  The Hundertwasser Haus in Vienna is a popular tourist attraction and has its own gift shop even though very ordinary people live in the units.

(Above: In Box CCCL.  SMALL SIZED.  Framed: 19 1/4" x 15 1/4".  $235.)

Hundertwasser's philosophy was based in the concept of individualism.  He believed that "if you had to live in a box", you had not only the right but the responsibility to make that box your very own. He advocated decorating outside every window as far as one's arms would reach ... so that everyone in the outside world knew what sort of person lived there.  Hundertwasser hated straight lines and saw no good reason for corners to all be ninety degrees or floors to be perfectly level and flat.  He used bright colors and incorporated found materials, even broken ceramic shards.

(Above: In Box CCCLI.  SMALL SIZED.  Framed: 19 1/4" x 15 1/4".  $235.)

 His buildings have dozens of trees growing from all sorts of balconies.  He wanted all roofs to be grass covered.  Hundertwasser lectured about art and environment.  He knew that the only way society could live in harmony with nature is if we first lived in harmony with our neighbors.  As a painter, he used "all the colors all the time".  Hence, my In Box pieces show an organic city, not one where buildings were laid out in a well established and regular grid.  Each "box" includes a stitched motif to reflect the unique individuals who live there.  The connecting threads represent the harmony in which such a community lives.

(Above: In Box CCCLII.  SMALL SIZED.  Framed: 19 1/4" x 15 1/4".  $235.)

I don't think I'll ever tire of making these pieces.  Please scroll down to enjoy the rest of the recently finished ones.

(Above: In Box CCCXLIX.  SMALL SIZED.  Framed: 19 1/4" x 15 1/4".  $235.)

(Above: In Box CCCXLVII.  SMALL SIZED.  Framed: 19 1/4" x 15 1/4".  $235.)

(Above: CCCXLVIII.  SMALL SIZED.  Framed: 19 1/4" x 15 1/4".  $235.)