Friday 30 June 2017

Resting Between Night and Day


  'Resting Between Night and Day'
43" x 50"
2016
Hand stitched on Natural dyed silk & linen
with discharged black cotton.


We packaged it up and sent it off


for the new Connections Fibre Artists show
'Running with Fibre'


is a group of amazing artists and friends
that I have had the privilege of being
a part of since I started this journey into stitch
way, way back.


As I photographed this piece 
I noticed all the small pebbles stitched into the
body of the large rock.


Working every day
threaded needle in hand
Cloth either stretching out flat on the table
or stretched in a frame on my lap
is what I do
and love to do.


It is hard to send a work like that far away.
I wonder if I will see it again
for it is like an old familiar friend
after months of stitching.


'Running with Fibre'
will run from July 15th to September 24th
at the Gallery Stratford, Ontario, Canada
with opening reception on July 14th 7-9 pm.



Monday 26 June 2017

When a Stone Travels


This little beauty arrived all the way from Washington State


It arrived with two lovely stitchings from Vicky
So kind of you....thanks!


Love this chevron marking.
The other side is beautiful too
but so far I have insisted on a new stone every day.
Perhaps I might allow myself to use both sides of one pebble
in future.
Some are just too beautiful to miss.


Encircled by wrappings of tiny marks.


I thought it was interesting that as soon as I spied this one
on the ground I thought needle weaving.


A tiny speckled stonette!


A streaked beauty


Nature did a much better job than me.

Now I am off to visit the grand little girls for a few weeks.
Can you imagine Ashley, the 2 3/4 year old,
is now playing (?) soccer!
And Stevie, the 6 week old, now
actually looks at the screen as we Face Time!
It is so amazing watching little ones grow and unfold.

Wednesday 21 June 2017

Walking Woodland Stones


'Walking Woodland Stones'
2017
Natural dyed and printed silks and cottons
Threads of cotton and wool.


Running stitch
straight row upon row
Higgledy piggledy
Loose and lumpy
but running stitch all the same


Couching travelling the edge of stones.
Imagining the footsteps of insects and small critters
marking pathways across the stones.


The woodland canopy keeping the land beneath cool.


Touching the edges of rocks.
Can a rock speak of what it is feeling inside?


Monday 19 June 2017

Feeling Stones


Touch is crucial to our experience here on earth.
I suppose some of us become more immersed in the sense of touch than others.
I surely am drawn to expressing myself with thread and cloth
simply because of the immediacy and honesty of touch.
After all, your eyes can deceive you
but touch confirms that which your eyes can't believe.


In his book 'The Senses of Touch'
Mark Paterson reminds us of the expression
"Seeing is believing, but feeling's the truth".
Interesting how nowadays we seem to have dropped the second part.


Touch also makes me think of intimacy and proximity.
Holding my loved ones in my arms
gathering those little grand-girls in a close embrace
and I am eagerly awaiting being able to do exactly that very soon!


But there is more than the immediacy of touch on the skin.
I have always felt that
"Art can and should be a touching experience."
And Paterson goes on to explains this further
"Standing in front of a painting, appreciating a sculpture, or walking through a building, even if we are not permitted to physically touch the work we should at least be touched by it."


Therefore we feel or have a haptic experience
not only through our skin
but internally because of our aesthetic ability
for feeling, sensing and being affected
by what we see.
"Haptic Aesthetics"


 As a teen, before I thought of stitching as an expressive art form,
I loved (for teens always love or hate don't they!) the paintings of Cezanne.
I never understood why
but reading this book I am trying to understand why.
"Cezanne himself rather boldly declares that talking about art is almost useless since the man of letters expresses himself in abstractions whereas a painter, by means of drawing and colour, gives concrete form to his sensations and perceptions."
I think it must have been his direct approach
his ability of creating an aesthetic haptic experience for me
because of his ability to translate depth, smoothness, softness, hardness and even smell into paint.


He was able to "paint the sensation".
I am still absorbing and thinking
trying to simplify Paterson's complex thoughts
and bring them into daily life in the studio.
Working towards stitching the sensation
Sometimes successfully
Sometimes not so
but somehow people like us are driven to try and try again.

I hope you have a haptic aesthetic experience today!

Monday 12 June 2017

Summer Rocks!


Summer, precious Summer
When the sun is up before I rise
and seems to go to bed long after me.


When squawking hatchlings
of every kind
chase their patient mothers all over the garden
demanding to be fed the next bug or worm she finds.
I spied a A grackle being swarmed by no less than five babies
yesterday
Babies that seemed so much bigger than her.
She must be exhausted.


Summertime
when early morning shoreline fog
is soon burnt off by the heat of the sun.


Summertime
when the weeds grow faster than I can keep up!


Summertime when
the Rusty Pups, Handy Hubby and I
look forward to hikes
on long sandy beaches
or rocky shorelines.


Precious days filled with bright specks of colour
from a myriad of flowering plants.


And the smells of summer
The salty sea breezes that cool us down
The welcoming scents from perennial flowerbeds
The mouthwatering smells of barbecues sizzling in the neighbourhood
the refreshing smell of newly cut grass
and of course enticing aroma of suntan lotion.

I love Summer Days
Hope your day is great

Monday 5 June 2017

Seven Plain Stones Plus One


This past week found me retreating
like a snail or a turtle from the world.
Retreating not only to look backwards and mull over my feelings
about the five larger stoney pieces just completed....
(I will post their stories soon)


....but also to clear my mind and studio for new work.
Always an exciting but calm time of reflection.
A time to make sure I have a clear idea of
what I want to say
and how I want to accomplish that. 


"First comes thought; then organization of that thought, 
into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. 
The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination."
 Napoleon Hill


Sometimes what one sees is crystal clear
but becomes fuzzy when reproduced!


At the moment ideas
are coming fast and furious
like a bombardment.


I have to remember they can be fleeting!


In order to coax those ideas into clarity
I need to have my notebook handy at all times.
At a time like this I like to keep away from the computer as much as possible
because everything on the web is so seductive
and so easily muddies the clarity of one's voice.
I get tempted here there and everywhere!


Found this tiny little pebble among my mementoes.
In the sixties I painted stones
now I stitch them.

I hope 
Summer has arrived where you are
because she is certainly taking her time to get here!