Working backwards as a creative process

I am almost always a sketchbook-kinda-gal. I record ideas. I re-work them all different ways. I go back through the sketchbook. Then, when I am finally ready to put together a textile artwork, I create the pieces I’ll need for the work and create the piece based on my sketches.

Yes – surprise and serendipity happen along the way. But, for the most part, I’m following a plan.

But not in the new body of work that’s been occupying me in the studio recently.

To create abstract landscapes, I’ve created yards of fabric and rice paper, just going with what happens in the surface design and working for a rich mix of colors. Then – (which is the stage where I am now) – I gather the fabrics and let them tell me where to go.

I recognize and admire many other artists who work this way all the time. But for me it’s a new path – and a feeling of working backwards. And I like it!

Work-in-progress on my easel, stretched and taped flat to a plywood board

A little prep work first: I prepare my muslin base by “gessoing” it with exterior house paint primer both sides and stretching it out on plywood panels.  I’ve also glued a sturdy interfacing to the back. These panels serve as movable easels around the studio when multiple pieces are in the works. My goal is for these finished pieces to have a certain amount of rigidity when they hang. (Though they will be backed and have a pocket like any art quilt.)

Here’s how things have looked in the studio lately.

I’m going through the stash of my recently printed pieces to find ones that suggest a loose  landscape composition.

Fabric is adhered to the stretched muslin with matte medium, brayered to get a good bond.

Fabrics on my worktable. I just get lost in the soft washes of monotype printing created wet-on-sheer. And I love the way it contrasts with more intense muslin pieces.

The work on my easel (above) is further along. It also has some drawn elements. I’ll be adding a little bit of stitching to this.

So far—lots in the works. I should have some finished ones soon.-

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WOOF – just for fun, I’m exhibiting in a summer group exhibition of dog-themed artwork at Wendy Tatter’s Gallery on St. Augustine Beach. The opening is this Sunday, July 28, 4-8 PM. Drop in.

TRAVELIN’ – I have work in a few other juried group shows around the country. If you are near any of these exhibits, I hope you’ll take a look. (And send me some pictures!)

Endless Summer – Arts on Douglas Gallery in New Smyrna Beach, Florida
Exhibiting August 3 – 31, 2019.
Opening Reception  Saturday, August 3  4-7 PM

“America Is… “ - Touchstone Gallery, Washington DC
An all-media show of juried artwork
August 2 – 29, 2019”

“Perspectives” – An exhibit of work by members of SAQA Florida region
Exhibiting July 19 – August 31, 2019
LeMoyne Arts, Tallahassee Florida

“Fiber Fusions” – at the Whistler House Museum
August 24 – October 26, 2019
Lowell, MA

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

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Bringing a studio project to its next stage – and Spatter! - and magic

I have a lot of respect for the authors and illustrators of children’s books. Some can absolutely make my heart soar. When I volunteer in first grade, I can see the joyful response of children to books that are put together with imagination and insight. Simple images and simple stories require a lot of care to create well.

I feel a part of that process as I am bringing along one of the projects in my studio. It features a dull brown village beneath a dull brown sky. Above the browns, the sky blends to a beautiful blue. There will be something magical in the sky. I want this piece to speak to adults and to elicit an emotional connection. But I am using a child-like vocabulary.

Last week I had only put together the pieces of the brown village. (The fabric was the result of some wonderful fabric-printing sessions with a palate limited to brown and black.)

This week I have been working on completing the sky, and on putting the two parts together. I have created the watercolor-looking sky with monotype prints on sheer fabric, layered in an organic way. There’s lots of stitching. It holds the fabric in place, ties the color sections together, and creates a sense of motion.

I like the ambiguous way the color works in the composition. It does not imply a specific time of day or night. But there is clearly a contrast between the dull brown associated with the village and the bright blue above. That’s what I hoped for.

After I attached the village section to the backing of the whole piece, I felt they needed a little more visual integration. Time for spatter! I confess to loving to spatter paint. It almost always adds just s bit of nuance that I like.

Here’s the quilt-in-progress on sawhorses outdoors ready for spatter.

My favorite spattering tool is a round cleaning brush. It delivers a lot of dots quickly to a large area. With practice, I have learned to pretty accurately determine if I will get great big blob spatters or a fine all-over mist. (But sometimes there are unanticipated surprises.)

Next for this work is the creation of the characters that will inhabit the setting and the magical event.  Because I am creating this work for a specific call-to-artists, I think I’ll keep that under my hat for a while.

So… here’s some other magic that I enjoyed this morning. Just a little unrelated life joy – I can’t resist. They are so beautiful. It’s blackberry season!

The berries in our garden are just bursting off the vines. Each morning we hurry out to harvest what’s ripened — before the birds get them. The not-yet-ripe ones are an exquisite array of reds.

These have ripened indoors on the windowsill. I predict they do not survive the day without coming into contact with ice cream

THANK YOU for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

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Life Unseen – Life Unexpected

I did some studio cleaning last week. And so I rediscovered a newspaper clipping I had saved in 2011.

It has re-appeared in my creative life at just the right time.

I remember being captivated by this little science snippet

“It will illustrate once again that somehow life finds a way to survive in the strangest and harshest places.” True for microbes. True for human beings. True for hopes and dreams.

When I first started creating textile pieces, I focused on natural scenes and images. What was most interesting to me was the concept of life beneath – life unseen – the mystery of what there is beyond the visible.

For the past year, as I have focused on works about home and memory, what interests me is much the same. What one sees from the outside is not all there is. Inner life is rich, textured, vibrant, layered, full of mystery.  It’s my hope that the works have spoken both to the reality of facades and the reality of resilience.

I have just begun the process of thinking through some new works. I am filling pages in my sketchbook. I am interested in images of water, and juxtaposing them with non-organic patterns and abstract shapes. It’s another way to get at the idea of there being more that’s real than what we see.

I have begun some transfers onto fabric of enlarged text from this news clip, to incorporate into the new pieces. Even if it becomes obscured , I will know it’s there.  “Scientists keep finding germs in places where they don’t expect.” We find life even where it does not seem it should be able to survive.

“Living Deeply” explores the unseen world beneath the surface. On my web site HERE

“Sometimes You Can’t See In,” (DETAIL) suggesting life that is hidden within the home. On my web site HERE.

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Three Simple Houses. And More.

Three simple little houses.  Child-like in their form.

But there’s a lot going on in these houses, and I want it all to be an invitation to enter the story and to bring to it your own memories and dreams of home.

What’s inside the windows? Some reveal the interior, some reflect back the outside world.

Look inside the houses. Trees and growth. How would they be a part of the narrative?

The background is filled with the colors of forest shadows, with a horizon line that’s askew.

Two houses are broken open. One is not.

Yet the houses themselves are filled with crayon-box cheerful colors and lively, dancing patterns and shapes.

Like real homes, these three structures reveal that inside and outside don’t always match and that stories are usually not simple.

The video shows my process of creating this art quilt. I constructed each house from fabric -- printing, collaging and stitching -- and then placed them in the background. As I worked it felt very much like creating a play: constructing characters, building a set, and then placing them together onstage.

I hope you enjoy seeing the process.

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NEWSLETTER: If you enjoy more detailed behind-the-scenes stories,
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I hope you’ll become a Studio Insider.
You’ll hear from me by e-mail every two to three weeks. 
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