Monday, January 23, 2012

2012 News from Barbara

It has been a busy month! I have an exhibit coming up at The Anderson Arts Center in Kenosha, Wisconsin that starts on January 29. I will have 10 art quilts in a room of their own - my part of the exhibit is called Water Colors and it displays both art quilts and art cloth based on water reflections. It is part of a 5 person exhibit called Quilts In Color. At the same time the Women's Journeys in Fiber group that I am part of will have the Aprons: Myth, Memories and Fantasy going in the same venue. I will post some photos after next Sunday's opening.
http://www.andersonartscenter.com/

I have also been working on the ACN catalog, postcard and banner for our upcoming exhibit in Philadelphia. I think the items came out well and will enhance our exhibit and raise more awareness for the ACN. Here is a photo of the banner laying on the floor.





And in the studio I am working on 3 art quilts that I hope to submit for Visions (due mid February!!!!) and a very large piece for submission to the SAQA A Sense of Scale exhibition. That piece is made up of individual leaves (about 100 at last count) that I have been scanning, enlarging, printing, backing, stitching , cutting and stiffening. I envision the whole piece to look like a forest floor in autumn.

I have been following a blog that might be of interest to others called Slow Muse. Here is a link to it. I like the thoughtful writing about a variety of subjects.

http://slowmuse.wordpress.com/

That's it for now. More photos coming after Janaury 29!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Art Cloth in the Making


Art cloth is all about layering. Any given piece of cloth has 10-20 layers of dyeing, printing, color removal, stitching, applique, etcI love the richness that layering lends to the cloth.  Each layer may not be apparent to viewers, yet they all work together to create depth and texture.  I like to think of it as similar to a symphony.  One may not hear each individual instrument, yet each instrument contributes to the composition.  Likewise, each layer of dye, resist, paint and stitch complete the cloth. Leave out one layer and it just wouldn't be the same.

The following narrative walks through the steps I used to transform a piece of white cotton into art cloth. (Action photos are courtesy of Lynn Luukinen and were taken during a demonstration I gave at the Hill Country Arts Foundation. Please excuse the blurs on some of the photos - I moved too much for Lynn to get a clear shot!) Below is a photo of the finished cloth.

Photo of finished cloth

I use a lot of resists in my work, and they are often the very first step.  I like to begin by creating background texture.  There are lots of options for this - most of the paste resists work well (flour, oats, grits, potato dextrin, mashed potatoes).  I chose flour paste for this cloth. I mixed equal parts of flour and water (this version used bread flour since that was all I had on hand) and spread it over the entire cloth, then let it dry.  Once the flour was  dry, I scrunched the fabric to crack the paste, then applied dye thickened with sodium alginate.

Painting over the flour paste with thickened dye

The finished first layer

Before adding background color, I created a layer of my chosen image - a stylized leaf.  I applied the image using a hand-cut stencil with red and yellow-orange thickened dye. 


Adding a stenciled image with thickened dye


The completed second layer


Before adding background color, I reserved some of the white space with another resist.  I didn't want a stark white, so I chose Elmer's Gel Glue.  It is a water-soluble resist that leaves a soft, ghost-like image.

Screen printing with Elmer's gel glue resist
The next step was to add the background color.  I  chose to apply olive green, blue green and golden brown thickened dyes with a scraper (aka an old credit card). 


Adding background color with a scraper and thickened dyes


The finished fourth layer - note the "drip" pattern created by the glue resist

The piece needed more value contrast, so the next step was to remove color with diluted bleach. I wanted to add texture rather than creating an additional image, so I flicked the bleach on with a brush to create spots.

After completion of the fifth layer
At this point it was time to put away the dyes and add a few additional touches with textile paint.  I started by adding more of the leaf imagery in an opaque yellow orange.



Adding more leaf imagery with textile paint - layer six

Then I added more value contrast by stippling on dark brown paint with a stencil brush.

Stippling on brown paint - layer seven
At this point, it needed a little something to brighten it up, so I used copper metallic paint. I wanted just a hint of gleam, so I rubbed it on lightly with my finger.

Applying copper paint with a finger - layer eight
Knowing when to stop is always the difficult part. At this point, I felt I was finished with paint and moved on to the final details. I added some hand-dyed fibers with needle felting and a touch of copper leaf.

Needle felting with hand-dyed fibers - layer nine

Applying metal leaf with acrylic medium - layer ten

Isn't the transformation exciting?