textile paintings
Posts tagged art
Third in Abstract Series
011 years ago
I met with Leisa over a week ago. As I last mentioned, I had finished quilting our 2nd collaborative piece and I offered it back to her for additional changes. We decided that it was done and that I would bind it — which I started yesterday. Last week, I spent a glorious week of cutting and fusing our 3rd abstract piece. Leisa was out of town and I wanted to have something to give her when she returned this week.
She asked in that meeting if we could extend out the edges on this piece. It was already drafted but after talking about it, we decided to rotate it and extend the two sides — which would become the top and bottom.
I started with the whites and yellows. In retrospect, this piece has a lot of yellow and I wish I had toned it down. This is its original orientation. It’s on my drafting table that’s covered with an ironing mat. I have to stand on a ladder and hold the camera above the piece to attempt a picture. Moving it to the design wall doesn’t work well for my process.
Then I added the reds.
And then the blues. I rather like it at this point.
Then I added the black and changed the orientation. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was completely flummoxed. There are several things that changed in the piece when I changed in the orientation — some of the shapes began to take on new and unintended meanings.
My first reaction was to take off the black and replace it with something else — but Leisa wants it just like this. I hope she paints it. I know she intends to cut strips in the bottom — maybe also the top. It’s just very striking color wise. Maybe that isn’t such a bad thing. It still has a lot of transformation until it becomes its final self.
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Collaboration
011 years ago
Yesterday I met with Leisa. She still has plans for the small piece we did first so I didn’t get it back — but I took her the larger abstract piece that is second in the series — now that it’s quilted — and she liked it! I thought she would want to embellish it but she made an excellent point about restraint and knowing when to stop. We are both happy with it as it is — so I will add a binding and sleeve and consider it done.
I’m strangely drawn to the thought of an almost completely machine stitched binding. I’ve only done this one other time but it seems apropos to the piece — and has the plus of eliminating a large part of the hand sewing.
I have finished drafting a third piece — I picked out fabrics today — and Leisa and I talked about a fourth piece which will be a whole cloth that we will cut into strips and otherwise playfully manipulate. I have learned so much in this collaboration.
I really didn’t know how to work in groups until graduate school — and I was really forced to do it there. We each gave our best to create the best collective effort. Now it’s easy — with the right people that know how to do it too. People with control issues don’t work well in collaborations. It has to be a give and take. You don’t always get your way but you learn from the other person and respect their opinion. You don’t worry about getting your way — you work on finding a solution that works for both of you. It’s a beautiful theory — it’s a shame that governments don’t work this way.
Hoping for Fat
011 years ago
by Virginia Greaves
in Exhibition
Back when all exhibit notifications were mailed, you knew if a piece was accepted by the size of the envelope — a skinny one was a rejection — a fat one was an acceptance (brimming with forms and instructions). Now we get email — which is faster — but I still think of them as fat or skinny. (An irony given that our culture values skinny over fat — and in this ONE case we hope for fat.)
Yesterday, notifications were scheduled to come out for the International Quilt Festival: World of Beauty show in Houston. Due to technical difficulties, they did not come out until today.
And the news is . . . . . . . . . . . . . One fat — and one skinny.
Worry was accepted.
Golden Moment was not.
Although I’m not sad, I was surprised. This piece recently won first place in an art exhibit.
But hindsight is another matter. I had originally made this piece for the special exhibit It’s Raining Cats and Dogs — also in Houston at the same time as World of Beauty. I have been in this exhibit the last couple of years and was caught by surprise when they added a virgin rule — thereby excluding my entry from consideration (I had already published in process and completion pics of it on my blog when the rules were published). I was sad — but decided that this piece was one of my best ones for the year — and entered it as one of my two into World of Beauty (no virgin rules for this exhibit).
In retrospect, I realize my mistake. Dogs and cats as subject matter would be among the first logical cuts made. As a judge, I realize you wouldn’t want the entries in World of Beauty to compete with the other special exhibit.
Or — I could be completely wrong and it was some other reason entirely. No worries. I’m already planning its entry in another show. Rejection is part of the process.
I did receive the good news lately that I was accepted as a Juried Artist Member (JAM) in Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA). After seeing all of the SAQA exhibits at Houston last year, I definitely felt left out. I spent quite a while working on my resume and tracking down details I hadn’t included before (you’ll see a lot more detail on my Resume page now) to finish my application properly. After waiting several months, I was excited to receive my acceptance from Martha Sielman herself.
I continue to work on abstract pieces with Leisa Rich. I’m taking her the draft of the latest piece tomorrow. It’s her birthday and we’re planning to have lunch to celebrate. Good friends — a little art — a little food. What more could you ask for?
Making Friends with Abstract
111 years ago
by Virginia Greaves
in Design
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been busy working on another piece inspired by a pic taken by Leisa Rich. I know — I haven’t finished the last one — but I wanted something to work on when I handed the other piece off to her. I don’t like to have more than one project open at a time — but in working collaboratively, it just happened.
This one is much bigger — it’s about 42″ wide by 36″ high.
I didn’t take a ton of in process pics. It just doesn’t make as much sense as it does when working in pictorial. I tried to take pics for each color group, but I ran into a problem with that. This piece was pinned on my drafting table with the ironing pad. I pinned it there so it wouldn’t shift around. I couldn’t construct this piece in sections — the entire piece had to fit together like a puzzle. However, it’s so large, if I stood on a chair and took a picture of the top, I couldn’t get the entire piece in the frame and everything would be skewed. Therefore, I took a lot of pics, many of which were terrible — and I got to be friends with the Delete All option on my camera. Unfortunately, in doing that, I inadvertently deleted an all yellow and all red pic that I had taken and planned to use. C’est la vie.
That yellow with the pink is really horrid. I think that this was the worst stage — with all the hot colors and none of the cool colors (there was a little bit of purple and green but not enough to balance the hot).
Then I started adding the blues. It made a world of difference. Adding the cold colors gave life to the hot colors. I also needed the intensity of a deeper value. That comes in the dark blue — and then ultimately in the black.
I took this picture while it was tilted on the table. For the previous picture, I had unpinned it from the table and set it vertically on the design wall for a good pic. Unfortunately, it shifted everything around in my puzzle — so I wasn’t going to do that again until the end.
And here is the final pic of the top — vertical on the design wall — with all of that deep black.
I am very fond of this piece. I am using the skills that I learned in making pictorials but applying them to abstract design. 
Tweek!
011 years ago
by Virginia Greaves
in Twitter
I did not post a Tweek last Sunday — I had had a long day entertaining and then spent three hours painting my daughter’s room. I was just too tired — so this post covers the last two weeks.
What else have I been up to? It’s summertime and the living is easy. I am not quite up to my usual studio speed but I do have more time than I’ve had in previous years. I’ve found that my teenager sleeps all morning so if I can get myself in gear, I can pack a couple of hours in.
I have been expanding on my car wash series collaboration with Leisa Rich and set her up a couple of days ago as my first contributing author on the blog. We met earlier this week to discuss what to do with the first piece — but I admit I’ve already put my attention into another piece — a bigger one. I’m almost done with the drafting. Hopefully I’ll have some pictures up on the blog by next week.
These are my tweets for the last couple of weeks. If you would rather follow me in real time, I’m @vsgreaves. I have several social media icons in the upper right above the menu.
Although leasing work is probably not a good consideration for textile work (given its added limitations on exposure to direct light and its ability to absorb smells), I found this article about leasing artwork to be a great marketing idea for most artists.
Have You Considered Leasing Your Artwork? – http://www.artsyshark.com/2014/06/12/leasing-artwork/ …
Wise words of Winkleman — he always has a pulse on the art world. As an MBA graduate, I was fascinated by his analysis of why the art market is an exception to many economic principles.
“Applying the Rules of all Markets to Art” Why economic principles don’t apply to the art market & unethical flipping http://feedly.com/e/JQarmMqG
I found this court case to be disturbing. Although it is wonderful that there will be more books digitized for the blind, I find it unconscionable that a judge would take away the rights of the authors as to whether or not their work would be digitized (and thus its subsequent inevitable pirating).
“Digitized Books for Disabled Don’t Need Authors’ OK – Bloomberg” Good for disabled — bad for authors. http://feedly.com/k/1pYwO8S
Another author making a case for doing work and not waiting for inspiration to strike.
“Don’t Waste Your Time on Inspiration” http://feedly.com/e/Msi0Qdk1
It’s not often that I find a fiber artist highlighted on My Modern Met. Ana Teresa Barboza’s work is striking. I love the one of the fiber lion placing the drawn woman’s head in his mouth.
Inspiration: “Artist Uses Colorful Embroidery to Explore Natural Forms” http://tinyurl.com/ka9rzr3 via @mymodernmet
I don’t usually refer people to music videos, but this one certainly qualifies as performance art.
This is genius performance art — check out OK Go’s new music video: http://tinyurl.com/lhaaolb @Colossal
I was fascinated by this article about Gauguin and that he often painted still lifes to bring home the bacon.
Even Gauguin needed to pay the bills. “Previously Unknown Gauguin Reveals a Lot About the Artist” http://feedly.com/e/NNfApeXh
This is Leisa Rich’s article on my blog about our collaboration. I’ve added a feed from my blog to Twitter. It occurred to me that I routinely tweet articles that I’ve read, but I haven’t been tweeting about my own work. It’s ironic that my first syndicated post is not written by me.
Ruminations on Collaboration http://wp.me/paQW6-1tC
Famed designer Massimo Vignelli who passed recently put forth the idea that all creatives need vision, courage, and determination to be successful.
“Massimo Vignelli: The 3 Traits of Great Creatives” Vision, courage, & determination. http://feedly.com/e/ofnU8ehr
Struggling with Abstract
011 years ago
This week I met Leisa Rich at Abernathy Arts Center. We picked up our work from the Georgia Artists show that closed last week and spent about an hour talking about our abstract piece. She has added a bunch of stitching and it looks amazing.
I love the vinyl on the piece — it makes it look a lot like water. She took these pictures. I admit to having a problem photographing it. The vinyl is very reflective and cannot take direct light. But I was so pleased at the different life that it has now taken on.
These are detail pics.
I can’t get over how much its character has changed. I love it so much more than what I would have done with it.
She handed the piece back to me and we talked about what to do next with it. We’re considering making a larger but more realistic piece that this would fit into — but I’m having a problem working out value problems. There is so much huge contrast in this section that it’s difficult to resolve the focal point issue with the entire piece. Obviously the focal point should be the abstract. I’m still working out in my head how to accomplish that in light of this other idea.
And while I was waiting on Leisa to do her part last weekend, I started another abstract piece — a much larger one — and to be honest, I’m struggling. I can’t rely on my usual practice of logic to determine where colors go. I usually have no problems turning my value studies into colors — but that system doesn’t work very well here. It was an issue with the small piece, but I was able to work around it. It’s harder to do in a piece 45″ wide.
I’m telling myself that there are no wrong answers. It can be whatever I want it to be.
Right now I’m marking all of the sections on my pattern with colors. I’ll hopefully finish that later today so I can move on to picking fabrics. Maybe I’ll even come up with an excuse to take a trip to Red Hen!
And let’s face it — it’s summer. There are numerous distractions to take me from something that isn’t holding my attention very well. Even in art we have to slog through difficult tasks sometimes.
One last thing — Leisa has asked if she can be a guest writer on this blog to which I happily agreed. Given that our work is a collaboration, I definitely think that her point of view should be shown as well. I’m looking forward to having her contribution.
Outside My Comfort Zone
211 years ago
When I went to the opening reception of Georgia Artists last month, I was so glad to see Lauren Bernazza there. She is the former Curator and Program Director of the Abernathy Arts Center (she’s retired to raise twins — been there, done that).
We did get the chance to talk about the work I had in the show, and at one point, she challenged me to make an abstract piece. I was standing with her and Leisa Rich, a friend of mine that had work hanging next to mine — and I slowly smiled. I challenged myself to make an abstract piece last year — and as whole, I didn’t consider it very successful — which I patiently explained — but neither of them would hear it! Finally Leisa took pity on me and told me that we could collaborate on a piece. I’ve never done that before and I was so excited at the thought of working with such a talented artist as Leisa, I quickly agreed.
The collaboration rules are that I start and then pass the piece to her. We pass it back and forth a few times. The goal is to end up with something different and hopefully better than either of us could create individually.
I purposefully made this small — it’s about 23″ x 17″.
For inspiration, I started with a pic Leisa had taken from inside her car during a car wash. I loved the luminescence of it.
photo courtesy of Leisa Rich
When I printed out the pic, I ran out of black ink halfway through — so I had to go to the store for more. Then I printed it out again — and ran out of colored ink. Such is my lot in life. I sighed and decided to take it as a sign that I could make it whatever I wanted — so I did. I’m supposed to not be so literal with this piece anyway — and I often change colors in my pieces.
I started with a white piece of muslin as my canvas. Then I added white. I know — but it’s a brighter white than the muslin — so I went to the trouble.
Then I added three values of yellow. I know — just blobs of color.
Then I added orange — I think there are five values.
And then I added four values of green at the bottom — and I decided at this point to add some dark blue. It looks black here against the white — but it’s a subtle change from the black that will be placed in the background. (There is also just a little red in the upper right area.)
This is it except for the background. It doesn’t make much sense on the white.
However, once I added the black batik as the background, the entire piece comes together and makes sense. It took hours to cut out all those spaces in the background but worth it in the end.
I’m pleased with it. I’ll take it to Leisa today or tomorrow and let her have her way with it.
Reach for the Stars
111 years ago
I was giving an interview yesterday for a local paper. She asked me, now that I had won a prize in Houston, what was my next goal.
I am a firm believer in having goals. I’ve spoken before about always reaching for the next rung on the ladder. But I didn’t have an answer for her. It sounds silly to say that I’m still stunned by having won in Houston. It was 7 months ago. Surely I’ve made new plans.
I’m not sure where my brain has been on this one. I know it should be doing something, but it seems stuck. I have applied for professional juried membership into an artists organization and I’m hoping to be accepted — I’m re-entering the same shows — but what am I going to do next that is different?
I have some distant things I’ve thought about — a shot in the dark. If I tell someone, will they be more likely to come true? Or less likely?
A couple of years ago, I entered the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the National Portrait Gallery in DC. I was not accepted. I was not surprised — but because I had entered, they continue to send me emails on the competition and other events at the Gallery. I was surprised to see a LOT of mixed media winners in last years competition. I want to say that last year’s top winner was made from salt. It may be time that I hang up that lack of confidence and enter again. The only way to guarantee that you will never get into a show is to never enter. (I need to keep telling myself that. It’s true but sometimes it helps to use it like a mantra.)
This week, in the process of writing this post, I did make a change. A friend of mine told me about an opportunity for exhibition with a prestigious gallery in Brooklyn, NY. If I entered, I would be unable to enter two other shows that I’ve entered in the past. I would be competing at a much higher level with other artists — this is not a quilt show. It’s about time I change — reach for that next brass ring — so I sent in my application last week. The great thing about this show is that it only required that I be female — and there was no restriction on when the piece was made — so although I entered a couple of new pieces, I also entered a piece that has timed out for most quilt shows. It’s still a great piece and should still be exhibited. My mom was represented by a couple of galleries in NY at one time — so why couldn’t I also have my work shown there? If it was possible for her, it’s also possible for me.
So — this year, my exhibition list may not be as long as last year but hopefully I can shake things up a little and enter some new markets. If nothing else, I’ve pulled myself out of my rut of doing the same thing that I did the year before. Change is good. Carpe diem!
Making a Plate
111 years ago
After realizing that the “It’s Raining Cats & Dogs” special exhibit at IQF/Houston had added a new virgin rule this year — thereby disqualifying my piece Golden Moment since I had posted LOTS of pics of it on my website and blog — I decided to make a small piece for another one of IQF’s special exhibits. At first I thought about Life Begins At 40 — since I am currently in my 40’s — but what struck my interest more was What’s For Dinner.
I’m friends with Jamie Fingal, one of the curators, on Facebook, and every night she posts the question “what’s for dinner?” I get to hear about what delicious meal she is preparing and it usually makes me hungry.
Keep in mind that at this decision making point, I was at the beginning of May. I don’t typically spend many hours in the studio during the summer, and May itself is full of constant interruptions — so I was looking for a small piece to do. This needed to be an exact size — 24″ x 15″. Perfect.
Then I started thinking about what to put on the plate — and I started to get hung up on plate design. Let’s face it — there are people that go to culinary school to learn how to properly plate food. (I know — I’ve watched way too many hours of Food Network.) So I was stuck for a while — until I decided I was making this too difficult. I went to my cabinet, pulled out a plate, knife, fork, spoon, and a crystal glass. Then I pulled some simple things from my kitchen — a croissant, a couple of different kinds of miniature cheeses, a boiled egg, and some fruit.
Simple yet elegant. It reminded me of the plate that Julia Roberts makes in the movie Eat, Pray, Love when she is learning about “dolce far niente” — the sweetness of nothing.
I started with my cream Wedgwood Edme plate. There are shadows all ready added for the different items on the plate.
I put the egg in the middle. Probably not my best choice — a white egg in the middle of a cream plate. And I really struggled with how to make it stand out on that plate. I tried many combinations of white and gray. This is what I ended up with (with one change later).
And then I added the fruit. The blackberries are from one fabric — a dark blue batik. It looks really dark in the pic but that’s the limitation range of a camera. If I want the plate to be sharp, then the darkest dark will be a little blurry. Then I added the grapes — and then the orange. I actually had a print of grapes — perfect size too. I thought about using it — but I wanted an artistic representation — not perfection.
You’ll also noticed that I added a rim of gray around the egg. I think it gives the egg more depth than it had. (The bias of white is a little choppy but it’ll clean up when it’s appliquéd.)
And then I added the croissant in the corner. I was dubious about the fabrics but I think they turned out well. It looks even better quilted.
My last food items were miniature cheeses. When I originally photographed them, they were covered in their commercial labels. Those had to go. I redrew them plainer for my plate.
And here you can see the napkin and the silverware. I could tell from last year’s entries that people struggled with the silverware. Using non-metallic grays and black, I took a literal interpretation of the values in the silver. (I did use a metallic thread for quilting them though.)
I chose the background before the napkin. I loved this print and how it worked with the plate. I barely had enough — although I’ll admit at this point that I had it in my mind that the piece had to be 24″ x 18″ — and I wasn’t sure if I would end up with 18″ after quilting. I used it anyway, figuring I could add across the bottom if I had to — and it was just as well since the actual height requirement is 15″.
The glass was also something that I think presented a high level of difficulty. I had a nylon sparkly sheer in my stash that I thought might work. I started by experimenting with it and Wonder Under. I wasn’t sure if the heat from the iron needed to bond the Wonder Under would melt the fabric — so I kept the iron low and raised the heat as needed to make it bond. I worked in reverse order. I usually work light to dark — but since I could add depth by layering the fabric on top of itself, I put the pieces that I wanted to be darkest on my pressing sheet first.
Then I laid my largest piece of sheer on top. Not only are the raw edges of the first layer all covered (and there are a LOT of raw edges down there), but the layer on top gives the layer underneath more opacity.
I know — it’s a little hard to see on the white pressing sheet.
This is the glass on the background fabric. Not as sheer as I would have liked — but good enough. (It really looks fabulous wet — you can really see the background coming through then.)
And here is the full appliqué top before quilting.
At some point after quilting, I realized that I only needed 15″ in height — which was just as well since my background fabric had shrunk closer to 17″ — but it’s sad because it meant that I would have to cut off the top of my glass. Oh well. No use spending too much time worrying about that. The glass is to scale and shrinking it to make it fit on the 15″ height would have made it look too small for the place setting.
