 |
| Boxed In by Judy Langille |
I visited an Italian palace built in the 15th century. It was constructed using 8,500 white marble tetrahedrons. Their carving and positioning created the light and shadows reflected on this building that I was so taken with.
My immediate fascination with the stories within these stones
allowed me to look closely and inspired this piece of 3-D work.
Jeanne Sisson, www.jeannesisson.com
To start I ironed fabric onto freezer
paper to stabilize it before drawing or painting. Then I used this Arabic calligraphy
pen and India ink to draw the figure onto the linen.
The textures above and behind the figure
are multiple layers of monotype printing with acrylic medium that will act as a
resist when a wash of acrylic paint is applied later. The background was masked
with freezer paper and textures were monotype printed onto the figure and foreground
with paint.
Lastly, I applied a couple of layers of acrylic
paint in washes to create depth.
Carried, 12 x 14”, mixed media on linen
During the pandemic I obsessively hand stitched. Here are some of the MINIMS I made, each is 6" square, banded by needle lace which separates them but allows them to speak to each other.
Like many of you, I started the new year cleaning and organizing my studio. In the process I found things that have been overlooked or forgotten. On one shelf, collecting dust, I found 7 ceramic raku picture frames that I made 5-6 years ago.
The frames are small - about 5 1/2 " square with an opening only 2 1/2 " square. What to put in an opening so small? I had the perfect answer - stitch meditations.
I was inspired to make these little compositions after watching a video by textile artist Liz Kettle. Each piece is a 4" x 4" composition backed with flannel. Making these little pieces was a way of warming up, got me into the studio and working on larger pieces.
In order to make the pieces stiffer for mounting to the frames I used a sandwich of the stitch meditation, Pellon Peltex 72F double sided fusible ultra firm stabilizer and a piece of black Kona cotton for the backing. The piece was then cut down to 3 1/4". I went around the outside edges with black paint.
Finally I put a bead of glue around the inside edge of the opening and attached the completed piece to the back of the frame and added picture hanging wire.
I am very pleased to have made use of these frames and small compositions. Here are a couple other pieces in black and blue frames. I can see these hanging as a grouping.
In early 2020, after the advent of the Corona Virus
pandemic, art museums, music venues, and most public institutions closed their
doors for public safety. With this
impetus, San Francisco’s de Young Museum initiated an ambitious local project. Seasoned and emerging Bay Area artists were
invited to enter a salon-style 9-gallery juried exhibition called “The de Young
Open”. Out of more than 11,000 entries,
877 pieces by 763 artists had been chosen.
I was honored to be one of those, with my piece “Heated
Boundaries.” In spite of virus case
surges and a planned 15 week show open for only 7 weeks, the show did open with
mask and distancing protocols in place.
A salon style show is meant to be eye-popping and
overwhelming. It invites you to return
because you can’t possibly take in the scale and “wallop” in one viewing. The sensitivity and subtlety of subject
matter also bring you back for exploration.
You can see the show on line (and my piece) until January 31, 2021 at: https://deyoungopenexhibition.artcall.org/pages/web-gallery?keyword=Ileana+Soto
My piece “Heated Boundaries” refers to that zone in which
populated areas and “the wild” come into close contact. It is here that we experience one of the many dangerous
effects of the warming of our climate.
Extreme fires have devastated communities in California and throughout
the world.
The show is wide-ranging, including potent and relevant themes
of Black Lives Matter, social justice, the pandemic, Bay Area views and scenes,
representation, abstraction, and portraiture.
All media were included. In
viewing the show, I was thrilled to be in the midst of the diversity, artistry,
and depth of expression that distinguishes our area’s artists.
The museum world is changing. De Young Museum Executive Director Thomas
Campbell acknowledges that “looking locally and relying less on traveling
exhibitions of internationally famous artists may be a key part of how Fine Art
Museum San Francisco (FAMSF) will move forward.” Timothy Anglin Burgard, FAMSF
curator-in-charge of American art, states that “museums have been dependent on
the blockbuster exhibition schedule.
Here, we are relinquishing that role for a more populist model that
engages community.”
Here
are some photos of the Forest Floor installation piece that I have been
working on for awhile. It includes, logs, tree stump, rocks of various
sizes, leaves, moss and lichen all created with Fossshape , paint, burning,
stitching. I hope to finish it this spring and display somewhere along
with an assortment of large tree bark wall pieces and tree ring quilts. I am currently in sunnier, warmer climes so will not be working on this again until spring. But someday I will be done! Then have to find a place to show it.
