Formulators Round Robin

This is the second piece I did for the Formulators series.   I do not feel free to include a photo of the work by the artist whose piece I was responding to, but here is my interpretation of it.   When the whole series is complete we will post the entire adventure.  Meanwhile, enjoy my work!

COGS

This is my first piece in a round robin I'm doing with five other artists.       Our series is based on form and mine starts with Cogs - overlapping, interacting circles.  I painted the ground fabric then printed the cogs from a screen I made.  Used mixed metallic paints for the printed circles.  Lots of embroidered french knots add to the movement.   The series will be complete early in 2015 with new pieces done every two months.

Mixed Media Workshop!!

To sign up, please contact Deborah at

FiberFly@cox.net

Black/White/Silver

I've just completed the first module of the penultimate piece in the HUGE Chroma series.  Been two years since I started on this eight piece series which now has six 2 meter pieces complete.    It is an exploration of color, its sources and meaning.  My goal is to finish Black/White/Silver by summer's end and the last piece (EarthTones) by the end of the year.  If you have missed any of the previous ones please scroll back and back in this blog to get caught up. 

The pictured module explores textures through weaving and hand made beads.  Each of the pieces in the Chroma series has a texture module. 

Ghost Circles

Another pretty complex art quilt:   I dyed, printed, painted, laminated paper to fabric, applied Angelina, and stitched both on the sewing machine to piece the work and then by hand to quilt it.  The feathery nature of the Angelina gives the work its name.

Roiling Waters

Just finished a new quilt.   All of the underlying fabrics were shibori dyed and screen printed.  I used upcycled household plastics to continue my theme of Gyres (Garbage Patches in our oceans), and then made hundreds of French knots in white and silver threads/yarns to accent the foamy surface.

Chroma:Purple DONE!

I've been up in Sacramento for the opening of Confluence at the Temp Gallery (the show is there until the end of the month and looks GREAT) but somehow have managed to complete Chroma:Purple.  This is the sixth one in the Chroma series and a tough one as there are just not that many associations with the color.   The next one: Black/White/Silver, will be a breeze in terms of thematic possibilities for each module.    I'm aiming for completing the whole series of eight by the end of this year.  Wish me luck.

Playing in the Gyres

I ice-dyed the fabric and then appliqued the plastics.   Got another one on the clothes line which I'll post when it dries.

More Gyres

Who knew playing in the Garbage Patches could be so much fun???  The first of these is on chicken wire, the second is on bird netting.  Currently working on one on fabric which may become a quilt.

Gyre on chicken wire

Gyre on netting

What do you do?

When I tell people I'm an artist they assume - like 99.9% of the time - that I paint.  Then I mention that I'm actually a mixed media textile artist, and that's when they mostly go all fuzzy eyed and confused.   I hand them one of my cards and say "please look at my website and blog and all will become clear."    Well, the secret is out:  I do paint!  I've just been playing that card pretty close to the chest.    So here are a couple of my Abstract Expressionist paintings.    I mean, of course I use a lot of paint in my mixed media work, so I guess it's not much of a stretch.  And these paintings are, as anyone giving it a bit of thought can see, TEXTILES, as in CANVAS is a textile.  So it isn't a far leap.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

Round Robin

My students from a spring 2013 four session workshop  have now completed (!) a round robin where each of the 6 of us made an 8" square, sent it to the next group member, round and round until everyone had contributed to everyone else's  thread.  This is my last piece in the series.  I used some of the gold lace I bought at Mokuba in Paris years ago.  When I get my strand back next month I'll post the whole series that was inspired by my initial offering.  Can't wait to see all 6 pieces!!

Gyres resolved

I've added a lot to this piece so wanted to post the finished version.

Gyres

I have been moving in a new artistic direction with my interest in water.   I am planning a series about the nine (there is debate about the actual number) gyres - tidal swirls in the world's oceans which collect vast quantities of trash, largely plastics, which take forever to break down.  Some of these are miles across but very tough to measure  precisely because the garbage which comprises them is not photographable from space and they are too huge and move about too much to get a true fix on them from the sea itself.    They are destroying wildlife which comes in contact with them and cause much other damage.  They are quite colorful as the detritus we toss into the seas is often bright packaging.  The gyres above the Equator swirl clockwise and those south of the Equator move in the opposite direction - just like the water going down our drains.   I am experimenting with various techniques to see which best suits the results I'm aiming for.

Chroma:Purple

Here's the first module of Chroma:Purple completed.   All of the pieces in the Chroma series have one pure texture module.   This one is woven then I embellished it with beads I made (love those chopsticks for drying them!) and some stitching.

Big day at FiberFly Studios

I finished Chroma RED!   This is the fifth piece in my Chroma series (Yellow, Green, Blue and Orange are done, and I've already begun Purple);  Black/White/Silver and Earth Tones are the last two.  RED took me about four months.  Each piece is two yards long and about 42" wide so they are a lot to contend with.  But it's photographed and wrapped up in the storage shed.  YIPPEE!  I'm hoping for a show of the series in early 2015.

New iPhone APP

The Kaleidoscope APP gives you options about how to create the pattern then takes a photo of it.  YIKES!  Love the new technology - when I can make it work . . .   This is of a pillow I wove which is sitting on the sofa.  Are those sad teddy bears???

Back from India

We made it back from a long, exhausting and complex trip.  Lots of interesting things to see and lots of "developing nation" issues to be confronted:  women's rights, population control, education, and the environment - filthy unpaved roads (think ubiquitous mud mixed with animal dung), unbreathable air (dust and industrial pollution), and untenable water (black, fetid rivers).     But lots of color, lots of folks working hard and creatively.    Here's just a taste:


     Lotus Temple

     Street Sweeper

            Hand Prints on Wall

       

           Step Well, maybe 100' deep

     Weaving Tools

    Privately Owned Truck