New Series of Found Text Poems

Believe it or not, it's actually much warmer than it's been. Temperatures will be above freezing for a few days and then head back down. This is snow left over from who knows when. So interesting to watch the fluctuations of ice on the river....some days none, but others, like today, the river is much more covered in ice floating down from upstream. It's a beautiful view of the Missouri, but I'm not seeing too much of it as I'm downstairs in the studio.

The 27 8x8" pieces are finished and I've moved on to a different phase....

I wanted to move into a more three-dimensional direction and after fiddling around with tiny fragments, I realized that I wanted to talk about language...and words....and I ended up making these little shrines with found text poems drawn out from book pages. Many more will be coming in this series, as they feel just right to be making. They allow me to play with text, pattern, beeswax, beads and stitching on paper....everything I love! These will also be in my Briar Cliff show and will plan to make a half a dozen more in the next week. It feels like a new direction and I had to share them with you!

Hope your week is going well and life has brought you some welcome gifts.

Cheers!

The Experimental Stage

Hi everyone....sorry for the late start to posting for the week. I prefer to greet you on Monday and here it is Tuesday evening already! Partly, I've been trying to get these new little "somethings" to a stage where I could show them to you. First, to show you how I made the jump to the new works, which I'll show you in a moment, you need to see the inspiration....one of the newest pieces from the MissouriBendStudio shop, which I posted here at the end of last week.

Navigation Chart

As I was making Navigation Chart, adding this and that, going further out from the center, I began to realize it was that center section that was "the thing".  What I really wanted to see were irregular round shapes that would hang on the wall on their own or in a grouping.  So....I began to play, which was quite fun.  Here are a few of the new pieces, but I still think they are on the way to something else....

Today was a terrible day for photographing anything....a milky white pallor to the sky as it rained all day, never quite turning to snow or ice, thank goodness.  Anyway, I found myself hand stitching a beeswaxed center drawing fragment to another unwaxed paper and then stitching that to something slightly larger, etc. etc.  I haven't been able to quite figure out how they hang, but have added a string of beads to most of them....but, that's just it.....I'm trying too hard to figure these out and not listening closely enough to hear them tell me what they want to be. All the while I've been referring to them as badges, but badges for what?  I want them to be about something....I don't want to just make more stuff....but their tie to a layer of meaning is still eluding me. However, they are a delightful joy to make and each one sits just so nicely in my hand while I'm stitching.  I kept thinking it would be faster and more efficient to stitch them up lickety-split with the sewing machine, but the hand stitched mark seems to have more to say. I'm adding these to the MissouriBendStudio shop, but may need to rephotograph them first.  I'll keep you posted....but let me just ask....are these badges?  If not, what are they?  If you have any insights....I'd be pleased to hear!

And of course, the daily proceedings continue on teabag clad paper....to see details and other views of these pieces, be sure to head over to MissouriBendMusings!

February 28 2012

February 27, 2012

February 26, 2012

February 25, 2012

It's nearly time for the end-of-the-month Inspirations post....a loosely constructed interview with an artist that inspires me....stay tuned in the next day or so!!  Still a secret....

Cheers!

The Last Day of January

Winter Meditation no.16

Looks to me like the winter meditation pieces are beginning to show signs of spring!  It may not look quite like it from this photo, but there are green beads at the top and those rows of stitches at the bottom....do they look just a bit like green grass to you?  One can only hope....meanwhile the snow and wind swirl around me.  An on-again-off-again day in the studio, as it seems kind of hard to concentrate.  It's WAY too early for spring fever, that's for sure.  I've been enjoying my periods of reading The Proust Project and and now I can't wait to read the actual books.  I am quite sure it is the nourishment I need at this point in my life.  By the way, I have really loved all the comments on that last post from Friday...thanks for your enthusiam! 

I'll leave you with this little book page, which almost got tossed away.  It was once part of a larger and more cumbersome piece that was clearly a failure, but once I tore it in two and saw this half, I realized right away that it was a Page From The Book of Lost Meaning.  Those strange marks clearly date from a time before the written language...and who knows what they mean.  You can read more of the description and see details here. Have a good evening and we'll see you tomorrow!

Page From The Book of Lost Meaning

Spring Into Summer

I posted this piece, Spring no. 24, from the Season Cycles series today in my Etsy shop...the last one for spring as we move into summer.  Doesn't quite feel like summer here in South Dakota.  Nights are still cool, as are the mornings and we've had so many violent storms, like many other places in the midwest.  This bunch of daisies is a delightful reminder of the garden and the cheeriness brought by all those flowering gems out there.  I suppose I know it's summer because the weeds are gaining a foothold and the daisies need to be cut back, but I'm happy to report all the varieties of day lilies have begun to bloom!  Perhaps they'll be featured in the first piece in honor of summer!

Dreaming in Collage

This is the front cover of another little book I just posted this afternoon in my shop (www.etsy.com/shop/missouribendstudio).  Lately I have been very much immersed in collage, partly because of the new work I'm making on my own and also because my husband, Johntimothy, and I have a show together at Black Hills State University late in the summer.  He's a printmaker and I would say a master of collage, pattern and surface so we are immersing ourselves in figuring out the work for the show...sort of the logistics of how our collaborative effort will work to make a whole new group of pieces for both of us.  Challenging, but fun!  In the meantime, I am making collages for covers on small pamphlet books, cards, etc. I'm dreaming of collage in my sleep, as I often do when my inner self is trying to figure things out.  It's best that I stay out of the way!

Handmade Blank Book With Collage Cover

I've started making a few simple, pamphlet-stitch blank books with the handmade paper my husband Johntimothy made.  This is the paper I use for almost everything...it's just so wonderful to work with.  The paper ends up painted in most of the work that I do, but here it is shown dipped in beeswax.  The paper starts out pretty white with light flecks in it, but the beeswax turns it much darker and greenish...still beautiful!  I'm making little collages for the covers and I must say, they are ever so much fun!  Listed this piece on Etsy this afternoon, along with another one, and had a sale almost right away.  More books to come!

Rereading Pilgrim At Tinker Creek

Season Cycles/Spring no. 22 posted this morning in my Etsy shop, MissouriBendStudio.  Am working on a series of new pieces that will happen alongside the Season Series.  I guess you'd say I'm in the research and development phase...testing, testing, working out the details.  Although I have a fair idea by now, it's still a bit nervewracking, but fun, to see exactly what will develop out of this work!

Meanwhile I've started to reread Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard...I read it decades ago, as a much younger person and loved it then.  Now, a bit older, perhaps a tiny bit wiser, or at least with more experience of life, I find the book astonishing.  I loved and cherished my reading of it then, but now...well, every page is a piece of magic.  I want to write some passages down in my commonplace book, but I wouldn't know where to start and where to end...it's seemless and every moment of reading is  perfect.  I can't recommend it highly enough, especially if you are an artist or are interested in seeing and experiencing life beyond the ordinary...or perhaps I should say THROUGH the ordinary and the every day.

Cheers!

Season Cycles/Spring no. 21

Season Cycles/Spring no.21 was posted this morning at my shop on Etsy.  Now, I'm excited to get down to the studio to begin some watercolors!  I'll keep up with the Season Cycles, but have been getting excited about branching out and working in a looser way in a medium I haven't touch in decades...should be interesting!  The weather is quite cool lately...rain on the way I'm sure, given this overcast sky.  A great day for working in the studio.

Season Cycles/Spring no.19

The latest in the Season Cycles Series, this is Spring no.19, which has just been posted at my Etsy shop, MissouriBendStudio.  I'm having fun abstracting plant forms from nature...the variety is so vast and amazing, there's probably nothing I could make up that isn't already out there in the universe in some form or another!

These little pieces are great fun to do--always a surprise by the end, since I never know what I'm going to do when I begin.  Often this means, lots of layers of paint and drawing until the little item announces itself and I know what it wants to be!

I think I'll begin to delve into some watercolors very shortly and see how this changes the way I work...never a dull moment!  It's kind of a cloudy rain day here in South Dakota and while, I'm itching to get out and work in the garden, think I'll be happy to head back to the studio!

Enjoy!

Season Cycles no.18

I finished up a couple new pieces in the Season Cycles series last night, no.17 and no.18.  They're both now posted in my shop at etsy.com.  Pictured above is no.18, a whimsical piece that has a column of beads strung in rows, like an abacus...fun to move and play with!  Somehow it's hard to get the color to translate on the computer -- the actual piece is so much more vibrant and lively in person.

Season Cycles no.16

A couple of new postings in my shop this morning...featured here is Season Cycles/Spring no.16.  Can you tell I love sewing on paper?

Cool with a gentle rain today...the plants are thirsty and are soaking it up.  Getting the herb garden underway, but hard to tear away from the studio these days.  The days are longer, but still only 24 hours!

Please visit my other blog where I post a daily found text poem: www.missouribendpaperworks.blogspot.com

Color on Color

Pictured here is one of the latest postings in my shop at www.etsy.com/shop/missouribendstudio.  From the Season Cycles series, this is Spring no.13 and it's loaded with tiny random stitches in the cloud and the bush.  One of the delights of my art making practice is seeing the way bits of color interact and work next to and top of each each other.  But I always wonder when it's enough...when are there enough stitches.  I guess that moment comes when my finger is too sore to poke the needle through the heavily stitched paper even one more time!

Sewn Paper

Just finished up Season Cycles/Spring no. 13 and no. 14 and added to MissouriBendStudio on etsy.com.  In my last post I showed this piece (Spring no. 14) before any of the embroidery and beads were added.  Here it is in its finished state, many hours later!  It's fun to watch what happens as each stitch is added...a very slow and meditative way of drawing!

Embroidery on Paper--A Work In Progress

I love being in the studio--working, thinking through my hands, holding brushes and pens, along with needle and thread.  And I adore sewing on paper!  There are lots of stages to the work that I make, starting with layers of paint on paper...getting the colors working together just so.  Many of the pieces eventually end up with embroidery and that's my favorite time....the meditative state of slowly stitching through paper.  I love the feel of the needle poking through that very textured handmade paper and the way the colored stitches lay against the color of the paper.  The simplest of pleasures.  I'd love to hear from anyone who also loves to sew on paper!  Here's a shot of a work in progress...before the sewing...you'll see this again soon in my shop, looking much different!

Day by Day

What a difference in the color of the landscape day by day.  The unfolding of green seems to be accelerating at a pace I can't quite remember from years before.  A nice rain last night and this morning has given the plants a nice long drink!  Posted a couple of pieces in my etsy.com shop today and am busy working on a several others, which I hope I can post over the weekend.  We'll see...one can't quite control the creative process.

Season Cycles/Early Spring no.11 is pictured above.  Visit my shop for others in the Season Cycles series, all with detail views.

Thinking About the Garden

Can't wait to get out to the garden...I hope it's not too soon to trust that the weather won't surprise us with another round of snow!  As I think about being outside and how the rhythms of my day will change gradually as I spend more time in the garden, I wonder about our collective ancestors whose lives were much more attuned to the change of seasons.  I am reading about the different activities engaged in by people living in the Middle Ages and how their lives were governed by the seasons and by the changing light.  While our lives our vastly different now, we still feel and appreciate the changes and ponder new activities that take us outside...for me, it's the garden.  This year, I'll start a real herb garden...looking forward to getting my hands in that dirt!

New postings in the MissouriBendStudio shop on etsy today.  Season Cycles/Early Spring nos. 4,5, 6