I haven't posted anything in the series I've been working on for the past 6 months as nothing is resolved yet. Miles of rust-dyed osnaberg cotton and stacks of experiments, but I feel like I'm beginning to approach the deep dive so here's a (commercial fabric) micro version of one unit of a big wall piece, or 6. Fosshape and needle lace and miles of hand stitching are coming into focus! These are NOT cylinders but cave wall undulations.
Yes, these are the ones I made for Lorna Crane's workshop and then used! The feather is my favorite.
Here are a few of the goodies I made as a result of taking this wonderful workshop.
I see that it's been months since I last posted. CRAZY busy!! Here are a few nibbles. Bundles (By A Thread) and Wounded Sentinels. More to come!
During the worst of the pandemic in 2020 I obsessively hand stitched 6" squares. Here we have a finished piece which includes 16 of them and some needle lace which ties them all together. They maintain their individuality while speaking to each other across boundaries.
Shibori Dye Day also asks the viewer: looking up or down?
I did a smaller version of this series in 2020 where the sentinels are <24". But fires keep getting worse so Sentinels need to keep getting bigger. This guy is close to 40" tall and I am working on several that are approaching 6'. A bit daunting and physically challenging, but they tell the story dramatically.
Tough to do in fabric. This technique is meant to be made from paper which makes and holds a CLEAN fold. Thank you Photoshop for making this one looked like it worked!
This 27" x 32" raft is made of cotton rope of varying thicknesses. I wrapped each"log" 3 times in strips of fabric and many textile oddments some of which were given to me by a number of textile artist friends. So an array of hand dyed materials serves to protect the piece on its journey to salvation, or doom, depending on who is guiding its voyage. Some serious engineering when into this; pliers, lei needles, upholstery needles and even a hammer were involved.
These guys are inspired by the fires here in California and in many other parts of the world. They are made from a theatrical material called Fosshape which hardens when heated and can be easily cut, colored and stitched. The ones shown here are up to about 28" tall but in the next few months there will be cohorts as large as 5'. Stay tuned!! So far, 11 Sentinels have marched this way. No fixed arrangement yet. Wooden bases have been made by my friend Carol Segal for each to keep them upright as they weigh almost nothing.
These are 6" squares done on those days when everything else seems too much to handle. To date there are 11, but I suspect there are more to come. Printed on my home computer and hand stitched. They are on felt which will Velcro to stretched canvas for display. There's no fixed arrangement. Some of the Minims are based on fragments of other artists' work, so bits of pieces.
So far there are 7 in this series. The pieces range form 18" - 28". They are based on paper collages I made, photographed, tweaked in Photoshop, sent off to be printed and then hand embroidered like a made woman for weeks and weeks! They pretty much illustrate exactly what has been going on in my brain during the pandemic (to date!!).
The first 2 are below in a previous post so I'm only putting #3-7 here.
After the 6th Extinction is a one off. I just couldn't resist. It's up at the Oceanside Museum of Art till February 2021. There are secret metal rods in there holding those flowers nice and UP!
