Experiments

(here's the pillow I made from this textile )

This week I expanded on the idea of drawing and sewing  by experimenting with drawing in marker on cotton canvas and mixing it up with cut-outs, drawing and embroidery.   I like the contrast of the whiteness and flatness of the drawing against the chaos of colors, textures, and patterns.  The bird reads clearly as a simple image in the middle of  a bunch of complicated stuff (wording maybe not so eloquent but gets the point across.)  

I'm interested in how we take in and experience what we see--  in this case there's the cognition/identification of the "thing"-- the bird, as well as the sensations evoked by colors, patterns, textures, movement. 

Here's an earlier version before I added the sheer printed fabric on the back. The green slash on the left, which I like, got covered up, so I'm thinking of slicing through the overlay fabric to expose it-- one of those things you don't see until you look at successive photos.

...and another version showing the brain opened up, so to speak.  Ultimately I decided to make it uniform-- smoothed out Italian linen not a bad metaphor for a mind state.

Last week I drew this bird on canvas, and put a tiger in it's square-- peaceable kingdom? Interesting how narratives can evolve depending on what fabrics are on hand.  The color swatch triangles printed on the selvage reminded me of writing or language, so I used them as the title.

 Here's an experiment with different inks,  pens,  and a soak-stain of acrylic wash on old cotton curtain lining fabric. I really love the way it bled into the fibers.

The lining of my lamp shade deteriorating  after what, 70, 80 years? isn't exactly an experiment,  but it's certainly created a new lighting effect.  .

                     Here I drew one of the birds with a marker instead of the pen I usually use. The heavier line gave it a comic-book character quality, like a super-hero, so I added an energy field and named it "aura bird".


--- more birds in squares drawn on old cotton sheets:

On a shopping note, I scored this large scale, digital-print silk remnant at the Austin Fabric Co-op , which will make a great scarf.  I love scarves and am happy to now have one with the words "Hot Pizza" and "Italian Sausage" written on it.

I was playing around with it,  tying it in different ways--  bet I'll never get it tied exactly this same way again with the beautiful bit of blue-green turned out at the knot-- such is the nature of experiments.

.... a couple of photos I have up in my studio - the revolutionary early 20thc fashion designer, Emile Floge (left), and the Irish poet Seamus Heaney with a quote from his poem "The Gifts of Rain" .  

.....and  Emilie Floge  with her best friend and life companion,  the artist Gustav Klimt-- great robes,  not to mention those wicker chairs.

              and the two of them knocking around -- Emilie wearing one of her own experiments.
Just wow.

Clothespin scarf

Iron locks, chains and keys.  Nails hammered into silk; ropes and lassos and wooden clothespins on a scarf given to me years ago by a dear, close relative long since gone.  I'm guessing she bought it in France in the the 1950's or 60's--a whimsical era for scarves with themes that go beyond color and pattern. This one is a mix of familiar objects in an offbeat vignette of everyday life.
Love.

1950's silk scarf

I came across this 1950's silk scarf that was either my grandmother's or mother's, or maybe first one, then the other, and now mine.

Everything about it makes me feel crazy-good.  There's an obvious Japanese block-print influence in the fluidity of the lines, as well as the saffron, aqua, pink-and-black color combo. The bright red border has nothing to do with anything, but once you put in some like-minded umbrellas as trim, it works.

...and the fashion!  McQueen must have seen those claw-foot booties before he brought them (back) to the runway several years ago, and the fantastic trench coats are screaming Claire McCardell's "American Look" of the 1940's and 50's.

Claire McCardell Dress 1949