Beyond the Trees. What’s Next?

If you follow along this blog, you know I’ve spent a number of weeks in the trees: seeing shapes and patterns, drawing, painting, then stitching.

TADAAA! I’m pleased to have this project completed. Here is the quilt, Discovering Tree Messages, as I envision it, being a part of someone’s home.

I have uploaded this work and all its information to my website. If you’d like to learn more, click HERE.

As always happens following time spent focusing on a single project, I am now in the what-can-I-learn-from-it stage, which is the beginning of the what’s-next-stage.

There is a lot I really liked about this project. I enjoyed creating a whole-cloth work, which was – for most of the process – more like a painting than a quilt. I really enjoyed being inspired by the complex tree shapes that I discovered. I enjoyed the fact that the project evolved, heading in some final directions I did not envision at first.

I am interested enough in this pattern of limbs that I want to do more with it.

But, there were things I learned that I don’t want to do all the time. The particular way I worked the images, masking off sections and then re-masking different sections, to build up the layers of color and pattern was, well, tedious.

And, while a whole-cloth work is easier to handle, I missed the interplay of fabrics I normally experience in a collaged quilt.

How to solve this?

I’m not sure yet where this will go, but here’s how I am developing my vision of what’s next.

LOOKING AT MY SKETCHBOOKS FOR INSPIRATION . . . My sketchbooks serve as an idea file. I create loose, linear depictions of ideas. I create them quickly without attention to making finished drawings. These shorthand images remind me what I was interested in at the time.

I have a number of sketches of large works, maybe 70-80” wide, created in panels, with the panels attached to each other in some way, and with a mix of images, possibly still life objects. I returned to this idea, this time wondering if one of the elements in the picture plane might be the tree limbs.

I also have some sketches of a traditional house, photographed from multiple angles, then overlapped on top of one another.

Could the tree limbs be a part of this idea as well? Trees behind the houses? Limbs growing up through the houses? Limbs on a side panel reaching over into the composition of houses? Hmmm. I’m not sure.

I’ll keep thinking on this one. Maybe both ideas will evolve into something I want to work on.

Meanwhile

CREATING A NEW TOOL . . .  If I want to use the limbs more than once, I’ll want some way to reproduce them that is not so tedious. I don’t want to start from scratch each time.

My solution to this has been to create a large, re-useable stencil that captures a large section of the tree patterns.

First I drew it. (on taped-together manila file folders.)

Then I cut it

That’s where I am today. I plan some time in the next few weeks just experimenting. I am going to paint several different kinds of fabrics, using different but related palettes, and building up images with the newly-cut stencil.

 I am hoping that what happens in this printmaking experiment will inspire what comes next.

. . . . . .

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

BLOG POSTS  - once a week:  Mostly about what I am creating in the studio. If you would enjoy receiving blog posts by e-mail, please subscribe here:  I post and send by e-mail each Sunday evening. BLOGS-BY-EMAIL

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: Mostly news of exhibits and my way of introducing new work. You’ll get FIRST LOOKS at new artwork and members-only discounts. You’ll hear from me about once a month.  NEWSLETTER

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Three brave women

This week I’ve been thinking about and processing lessons from three brave women. So tonight I thought I’d share some thoughts.

Earlier in April I attended the Studio Art Quilt Associates Global Conference in St. Pete, Florida. Great event. Great speakers. Lots to learn and absorb. Two of the artist-presenters inspired me by their bravery.

HOLLIS CHATELAIN spoke about ways to add emotion to your artwork, emphasizing the importance of color. She encouraged artists to be motivated by what we want the viewer to feel. She uses color beautifully, as in this example:

Hollis’ artwork is extraordinary. She has well-developed ideas and concepts to express and strong drawing and painting skills.

But my take-away about bravery did not become clear to me till I was discussing her presentation with another SAQA artist later that evening. My artist friend confessed that she had never really thought about what she wanted someone to feel as a result of seeing her work. And I realized that it is an act of true artistic bravery to be willing to do so.

It says that you consider your own feelings worthy enough to express them. It says that you dare to think of the images you create as a means to communicate those ideas and emotions.

That process is the heart of artmaking. It’s what makes art different from craft or illustration.

SHIN-HEE CHIN also spoke at the conference. She is a fiber/mixed-media artist and Professor in the Visual Art Department at Tabor College. I also find her work to be extraordinary, as in this example:

Shin-hee’s detailed image-building with thread is amazing. And much of her personal journey is filled with bravery: moving to the US from South Korea, learning a new language, earning a teaching position.

But my biggest takeaway from her talk was her bravery regarding discipline. Because she must balance her studio practice with her teaching schedule, she is very disciplined in her use of studio time. She also devotes regular, scheduled time to artistic meditative practices that feed her creativity.

For an artist to do this, you have to take yourself and your work seriously. It is an act of bravery to commit time and energy – regularly – to your practice of artmaking. You have to be brave to show up regularly. It means you must have or must develop the belief that your work is worthy of the time you will invest.

Often that requires a courageous leap.

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON is the third brave woman I have been thinking about. She is not an artist. She is a historian and a writer. I (along with 2.5 million other readers) receive her daily writing by email each morning. I have not found another current commentator who so powerfully uses the lessons of history to inform our current political life.

On April 19, her daily email commemorated the 250th anniversary of the lighting of the lanterns in Boston’s Old  North Church, part of the warning system the colonial rebels had devised. She describes this dangerous act by John Pulling and Robert Newman (associates of Paul Revere, and – like him – part of the Sons of Liberty.) They and other individuals played small roles that added up to a powerful force, the beginning of our war for independence.

If you feel like you could use a shot of bravery, here ya go:

“The work of Newman and Pulling to light the lanterns exactly 250 years ago tonight sounds even less heroic. They agreed to cross through town to light two lanterns in a church steeple. It sounds like such a very little thing to do, and yet by doing it, they risked imprisonment or even death. It was such a little thing…but it was everything. And what they did, as with so many of the little steps that lead to profound change, was largely forgotten until Henry Wadsworth Longfellow used their story to inspire a later generation to work to stop tyranny in his own time.

What Newman and Pulling did was simply to honor their friendships and their principles and to do the next right thing, even if it risked their lives, even if no one ever knew. And that is all anyone can do as we work to preserve the concept of human self-determination. In that heroic struggle, most of us will be lost to history, but we will, nonetheless, move the story forward, even if just a little bit.

And once in a great while, someone will light a lantern—or even two—that will shine forth for democratic principles that are under siege, and set the world ablaze.”

. . . . . .

Learn more about Hollis Chatelain…….     https://www.hollisart.com/

Learn more about Shin-hee Chin……….   https://shinheechin.com/

Learn more about Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American
         heathercoxrichardson@substack.com

The artwork depicted in this week’s blog header is from my Art Quilt Stepping on the Cracks. I didn’t think it would be right to crop the works by Hollis or Shin-hee. So I chose this little girl, who embodies a courageous spirit. The work is on my website HERE

. . . . . . . . .

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

BLOG POSTS  - once a week:  Mostly about what I am creating in the studio. If you would enjoy receiving blog posts by e-mail, please subscribe here:  I post and send by e-mail each Sunday evening. BLOGS-BY-EMAIL

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: Mostly news of exhibits and my way of introducing new work. You’ll get FIRST LOOKS at new artwork and members-only discounts. You’ll hear from me about once a month.  NEWSLETTER

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Some Found-Object Printing Step-by-Step

This week I am back at work with the whole cloth project depicting complex trees.

It’s time to convert this linear drawing into a fleshed-out image: some colors, some forms, some positive-and-negative shapes.

One of my first steps is to fill in the trees with printed patterns. Not the same pattern on all trees – a mix of this and that.

(A thought about concept: As I look at this work from a step back I amazed at how much it appears to be a forest, or a group of different trees. I am still fascinated that this composition is a close-up depiction of a single small tree that lives outside my studio. Exploring it in pattern and color will, I hope, give voice to how varied it is, to the ways the light hits the different parts, although it is a single thing.)

So, back to details. Masking out areas to stamp and work with resists is something I do all the time. I hardly think about the process. But I often hear from readers who are nice enough to follow along, and are interested enough to ask questions, who ask, “Can you slow that down at bit and let us see more?” OK! This blog is for you!

THE FOUND OBJECT: These pattern experiments will be created with a mat that has a simple vertical-horizontal grid pattern. It is a rubberized plastic of some sort. It’s a mat you would cut to size and put in the bottom of a drawer for cutlery or on shelves beneath glassware. Find them at any hardware or big-box store.

THE WORK SURFACE: To do any relief printing (i.e. stamping) you need a padded surface. Pressing the inked object onto fabric on a hard surface won’t provide enough give. Here’s my padded surface:

I’ve wrapped a beach towel around a piece of foam insulation board.  A wood base would also work. I’ve taped a scrap plastic sheet over it to protect the towel. You could create something similar with batting or any other kind of soft material.

INKING THE PLATE: For this first part of the experiment, the mat will serve as the printing plate. I am using the phrase “inking” as one would in printmaking: as a verb. I don’t actually use ink; I use acrylic paint. So, this is how I get the acrylic paint onto the mat to use the mat for printing. I roll it on with a foam roller.

PRINTING THE IMAGE: This is low-tech printing by hand. The printing press is my hand. I flip the mat over, paint side down, and press it on the fabric I am printing. (For my test, I am printing onto unbleached cotton muslin that I stiffened up in advance with a thin coat of acrylic white. That will approximate the fabric in my actual fabric artwork.)

TAKING A PEEK: With most hand printing techniques, you can lift an edge of your plate (or printing object) to take a look at the image. If it’s too light you might want to put I down and press some more.

This mat is not the same on each side. On one side, little nibs stick out at the intersections of the squares, meaning they print as dots. I also flipped it over and printed from the other side, which shows up more as a linear grid. Below, you can see them side by side.

You’ll also see in the picture above a third image created by painting inside the square holes of the mat. This used the mat as a stencil instead of as a relief plate. It is the pattern I finally chose for my tree artwork. Just use a stiff brush, back off on the paint so it doesn’t glob, and force the paint down through the holes. Like this:

Now, just to be a thorough experimenter, I tried one more technique. I placed the grid mat underneath the fabric and rolled some paint on top to get a rubbing. You can experiment using a brush, a soft roller, or a firm brayer.

All of these techniques can be interesting and useful for different applications. I’ve used them all from time to time.

Now my experimenting was done and it was time to paint the pattern, in the actual color I wanted to use, on the actual tree artwork. You can see I masked out the edges of the trees with masking tape so I could work freely without worrying about printing an area that’s not supposed to have the pattern.

I used other found objects and other colors across the tree pattern. It’s getting there!

What’s ahead: more masking and painting. I will be changing the background behind the trees to a dark black-blue, and doing that by rolling on the paint. I’ll be masking out the entire tree portion to let the background show through.

Stay tuned!

BONUS: MOVIE TIME!  Last week I shared a poem inspired by a roofing crew at work on my street and I used one of my artworks, “So It Will Not Break in Two” as illustration. I re-discovered this week a video I had created on YouTube that depicts that quilt step-by-step. It’s a nice bridge between this week and last week. It depicts both some step-by-step descriptions and also gets at the emotional content of the work. It’s just a few minutes long. I hope you enjoy. Find it HERE

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

BLOG POSTS  - once a week:  Mostly about what I am creating in the studio. If you would enjoy receiving blog posts by e-mail, please subscribe here:  I post and send by e-mail each Sunday evening. BLOGS-BY-EMAIL

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: Mostly news of exhibits and my way of introducing new work. You’ll get FIRST LOOKS at new artwork and members-only discounts. You’ll hear from me about once a month.  NEWSLETTER

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