Weavin Demon

Closing The Circle After All This Time

2011-12-27T06:15:00.001-08:00

I know, why did I keep you in suspense for all this time? I don’t know, I just kept putting off blogging the final post on City Streets. It has been done since June but life just got in the way.

So here it is. The story of life on the streets of New York is complete. Everyone has gone their way and a new day and new set of people have taken their place. I placed the tapestry high up on the outside wall of my upstairs bedroom so I could see it from a distance, as tapestries should be seen. It certainly was a learning experience. Not only did I learn about how to control weaving techniques (the hard way, of course) but I also worked out composition, color, and scale as well. I liked doing a large piece; it was great having a project that lasted two years. The idea of taking a concept and making it reality is one that I am new to. I never thought I could do it. I thought I could copy well but taking a concept and making it a reality I thought was beyond my capabilities. I guess you don’t know what you can do till you try.

Will I do it again? I most certainly will. In fact, I started a new one already. This will be on a low warp loom and it will be called Rear Window. Stay tuned as I start the process again, a bit wiser and a bit more in control of my technique. That is, I hope I will do better this time. You’ll have to be the judge.

Conquering the Dreaded Miter Box

2011-02-01T06:39:00.000-08:00

My pile of unfinished tapestries has been growing, awaiting their frames for some time. I bought a miter box and saw a while back with the intention of making my own frames but its been sitting on the work table in my garage ever since. I found I was just not able to start to do it. I just knew I would make a hash of it or it would be too hard for me to do so I ignored it, hoping it would go away.

But I finished this piece, "The Matterhorn" for Mom and it needed to be framed before I could send it to her.

In addition, I wanted to do justice to "You Must Sing Their Names, Hollyhocks," a fun little tapestry I did when I returned from the ATA workshop with Lynne Curran last July. Every time I showed my work to friends I thought, “I really need to get that miter box out and tackle the frame. I want this to be finished right.” But the days passed and the box remained where it was.

Well finally I decided to either conquer the frame or go down in flaming defeat. What could it hurt to give it a try? So I got out the as yet virgin tools, measured the wood and clamped it into the box for cutting. Well it was easy and it worked! Who knew? Once I did the first one I went crazy and did two more. What fun. What else could I frame I wondered as I patted myself on the back for a job well done. So I found "Saturdays at the Met"and framed it for good measure

At times we convince ourselves that we can’t do something and so we just don’t try. I am not good at exactitude, I am a close is good enough type of person so doing something that needed math to work out stumped me. The same thing used to happen to my sewing. My corners were never quite right, my seams didn’t lie perfectly as they should. So I thought making a proper 45-degree corner four or eight times would just be beyond me. It wasn’t.

It makes me wonder what other things I am stopping myself from doing just out of a lack of confidence or fear of... I'm not sure what. I am willing to jump out of planes, dive to 100’ with hammerhead sharks or take a chance and move to a different country couldn’t seem to get myself to pick up a saw and make a corner. How strange and powerful our minds are to be able to trick us in this way.

So, the next time I think “I can’t do that,” I will think of the miter box and just give it a try. What’s the worst that can happen? I won’t be able to do it myself. But the best is that perhaps I will succeed. That is the scariest thing of all sometimes.

So much shopping, So little time.

2010-12-17T14:42:00.000-08:00

“Oh, it is so difficult to get a taxi this time of day,” sighed Brittany, “and my feet hurt from all this shopping.” It had been a grueling work but she had found the perfect Baccarat vase at Tiffany’s for Emily and Theo’s wedding next week. The vase and the beautiful sapphire necklace she just couldn’t resist were now nestled in the oh so recognizable blue bag she was carrying. Charles will shout she thought, he always did, but she just had to have the necklace. After all it went so well with the fabulous little dress she picked out for the Saturday afternoon wedding in Central Park.

“How romantic,” she thought to be married in the gazebo overlooking the lake in the middle of Central Park, just the perfect place for a mid-summer wedding. “Oh, there goes another cab,” she huffed, “I just think it is awful how hard it is to get them to stop. “

Brittany was from Greenwich but she and Charles had found a perfect pied-a-terre on the Upper West Side when he became a partner at his investment firm. After all, they had to have a place to entertain didn’t they? They just couldn’t ask their friend to go all the way to Greenwich every time they wanted to get together. No it is best to have a New York address for those intimate evening dinners with friends. When they were in town she spent her day’s lunching with her friends or going to the spa for beauty treatments or shopping. Of course that was after an absolutely torturous hour with her private trainer Hans. He was a perfect sadist the way he made her sweat. But she had to admit her derriere never looked tighter, Charles had told her so just last night.

She put up her hand as another wave of yellow automobiles came her way. “If I don’t get a taxi soon I will be late getting home and Charles will have to make his own drinks.” He hated that. He liked her to be there when he got home from work. He said if Victoria could be there when David Beckham came home she could too. Brittany had met Victoria at a party just last spring when they were passing through on their way to LA, although why anyone would want to live out there is anyone’s guess. So gauche she thought. No, give me the Hamptons over Lake Tahoe any day. Any place west of Aspen was just not worth go to she thought.

She looked around at all the people out and about. The early summer is the perfect time to be in New York she thought. Even if you have to share the sidewalks with all these tourists, it is still the best place on earth to be.

“At last,” she said as a taxi pulled over to the curb. And in she stepped in to be whisked home. “Now I will have time for a nice bubble-bath and a glass of wine.” She sighed with relief as she gave her fashionable address to the cabbie and sat back with pleasure.

After ONLY 5 weeks …

2010-10-08T11:54:00.001-07:00

Well, it took a lot of ripping out and needle weaving back in but the damage has been repaired. I made a few changes to Henry--took him to the hairdresser to give him a new color but I think he looks bright and cheery again.

I do have to admit that the whole experience took a bit of the wind out of my sails. Perhaps it is because I am working on another diamond and I am just bored but I don’t seem to have quite the same enthusiasm as I did this summer. I think that will change when I get to another element of the piece, I am fast coming out of the park and up onto the front stoops of the buildings. Maybe then I will be excited about it again.

In the meantime, I am starting on a new piece, a whimsical one called “You MUST sing their names… Hollyhocks.” Let me tell you a bit about how it came about.

I’ve always liked hollyhocks. Not only because they are so tall and colorful but also because the name always sounded so musical. I can never pass one by without singing their name… hOLLYhocks. It is said with a rise in the middle like riding over a hilly road on a bike.

While we were in Taos New Mexico this summer I noticed these wonderful flowers all over town. I would sing hollyhocks and Betsy Snope would respond with cellar door, a phrase she found just as musical (yea, I know, who’d ‘a guessed?). I decided I just had to create a piece with the musical flower to remind me of our trip.

As most of you know, I was in New Mexico to go to the ATA biennial and take a workshop with Lynne Curran. When I saw her fun and amusing pieces I determined that I wanted to incorporate that whimsy into my piece. Here is the cartoon, what do you think? Does it look whimsical to you?

Disaster!!!

2010-08-27T07:52:00.001-07:00

I came home from my very enjoyable trip to Europe to find my cats had gotten under the cover I had on my tapestry and used it for a scratching post. Just look at what those little B******ds did.

Yes, they continue to exist. Luckily for them my mom was still visiting so they got off with being banished for the day. Every time Tucker came out to see if I had gotten over my inexplicable rage I sent him packing again. I know they haven’t the faintest idea of why I was angry but I just couldn’t stand to see them without going into orbit again. It was best that they stay away.

I guess I will have to cut out the damage and needle weave it in again. It will certainly take some time to repair. I guess it will give me another chance to work on faces and make Henry’s head a bit bigger. It is also good practice on repair and conservation. I hadn’t wanted to learn these tools right now but there you are.

Anyone who might have an idea of another way to repair the damage can leave me a note. I would be eternally grateful at any thoughts on this disaster.

Shawn, the Statue of Liberty, and the New York Yankees

2010-08-04T13:01:00.000-07:00

Shawn is a huge baseball fan. So huge that he had talked his dad into taking a trip across the US to go to the very last game to be played in Yankee Stadium before it was torn down. It didn’t take too much arm twisting to get his dad, Robert to agree. They arrived and on a hot June day we were running around the city seeing the sights.

I love taking people to the city it makes me see it again through their eyes. Robert had visited the year before but this was Shawn’s first time. It was all too exciting for him and he was determined to see everything.

The trip to the shrine of baseball was to be the following day. Today we were just going to be tourists, eat New York food, and see the sights. We took the train into the city arriving at Penn station. Shawn was already agog at the amount of people in the station itself. Being a California kid he could not believe the amount of people actually walking around. They just didn’t do that in CA. they drove; sidewalks were nothing more than quaint, decorative devices that finished out the front yard there. Now here were hundreds of people walking around, bustling around, all with things to do and people to see.

Of course, we hit all the stops - the Empire State building, Times Square, St Patrick’s Cathedral and now we were at Central Park. We had decided that with their tight schedule we weren’t going to have time to do the Statue of Liberty. Shawn was disappointed but he was okay with it. Now as we walked up to the park we saw the street performer. “Oh, Shawn,” I said, “here is your chance. Go pose with that guy and I will take your picture. It will be perfect, a real New York moment.”

At first he was a bit shy but with Robert and I encouraging him he stepped up. We made a contribution to the performers fund and he posed with Shawn. I thought the peace sign and the sun-glasses were just perfect. How could you miss with a picture like that? I snapped it and got another just in case and we thanked him. Only in New York could you walk down the street and experience moments like this. It was not the highlight of his week (After all, Yankee Stadium…) but it was a fun thing to do. And it makes me smile every time I look at the picture. I could not think of doing a city street scene without this image being a part of it.

Millie comes to the Big Apple

2010-06-06T10:06:00.000-07:00

This was their first trip to the Big Apple, heck it is their first trip outside of Missouri in the last 10 years. Not since they went to Kansas City for their honeymoon had they taken a trip for the sheer fun of it Millie thought. But the kids are with my mom and dad and we are footloose and fancy-free.

We arrived yesterday so this is our first day walking around. I have never seen so many tall buildings in my life I just can’t stop gawking at everything and everyone. People walk so fast here, always in a hurry! Where are they going? And so many of them, too.

Of course Henry is taking pictures of everything he comes across. That camera is going to become a part of his face if he doesn’t stop snapping pictures. Here I am posing again right at the entrance of Central Park. Imagine such a big park right in the middle of all this concrete. It really is amazing.

Millie shook her head one more time at the way Henry dressed. I tried to get him to change his shirt but you know him… “What?” He had asked when he saw me looking at him in the hotel room. As for me, New York fashion scares the heck out of me. No way I am going to look like a rube here. The problem is I'm not quite sure what a non-rube wears here. I decided on a simple white blouse and dark pants. Can’t go too far wrong with that. I hope...

She looked around again after Henry took about the thousandth picture of her. I can see him eyeing that Statue of Liberty guy... not a chance honey. Oh, what a cute hot dog stand, so New York. I wonder if it is safe to eat something you bought right off the street. But other people are doing it and after all, it is New York. Why not? “Come on, Henry. Take a picture of me buying a hot dog at that stand. No one will believe it.”

To be continued.

Expressionism at its finest - Fritz Lang's Metropolis

2010-05-31T07:06:00.000-07:00

I went into NYC the other day to view the newly found copy of Fritz Lang’s masterpiece Metropolis. The one released to the American Public in 1922 had been cut and, most feel, simply massacred. It seems that the distributor felt the need to deleted about one-fifth of the film because he felt the original movie would confuse the American public, so out they went. Unfortunately not only were they cut from the distributed piece but they were thrown away.

I think there are two kinds of people, those that save everything and those that see no point in the clutter. I am of the second variety, it seems so was the American distributor. As a result we lost a great deal more than just part of the film.

In the summer of 2008 a curator of the Buenos Aires Museo del Cine discovered a 16mm dupe negative of the movie. It included about 25 minutes of lost footage not seen since its Berlin debut. You can read more about the discovery and restoration at this website

As I watched the film on the big screen my art historical sensibilities took over. Not only was the story line fascinating (a commentary on the rise of capitalism and technology, its inherent dangers and the class struggle going on in Germany’s Weimar Republic) but I also found the imagery to be expressionistically brilliant. I just loved the way Lang differentiated the upper city and the lower city, the way he dehumanized the workers as they marched into the elevators that brought them to the heart of the city and how they became a part of the machine. Take a look and see for yourself how brilliantly he captures the melding of human and technology in this scene. ">

Today we have computers and huge programs to develop special effects. Lang had none of these tools yet he was able to give us this transformation.
Side note: These two scenes come from YouTube and do not have the original soundtrack. If you want to see the real thing these are both on the website noted above.

I often feel that we’ve lost our imagination. Yes, there are standout movies like Avatar but they reside in a morass of dreck. So little is worth watching these days, what with all the reality shows on TV and the regurgitation of TV shows made into movies. Even the titles show a lack of imagination. In the 1950s we had Father of the Bride and Father’s Little Dividend. Today we have Father of the Bride and Father of the Bride II. What happened?

Well thank goodness we have many of the older movies to remind us of what can be done if we just take the time to let our imagination take over. How exciting that we can still see true innovation and brilliant social commentary in older films such as this one.

The Story of Henry and Millie - Henry

2010-05-14T14:15:00.000-07:00

Woo-ee! New Yawk, the big city. I can’t believe we are actually here. I always dreamed of coming here ever since I saw The Big Sleep. Mom hated that I always had my nose in a pulp fiction comic book, Oh, sorry, graphic novel as a kid. “Read a real book, will ya?” she’d say. But I dreamed of being the hard-bitten detective roaming the streets of gritty New York. Maybe that’s why I became a cop, just like the idea of solving crimes.

So here we are, Millie and me. This is our first day walking around and already I think I’ve taken about 500 pictures. People on the street, Millie, all the tall buildings... and that Naked Cowboy guy, wait till the guys at the station see all the crazies, they all said I was nuts to willing go into New York City. Actually asked me if was taking my gun with me.

Millie is so excited to be here. I had to lay down the law though. No calls to the kids every 5 minutes. After all we are here to get some adult time for once. We haven’t ever taken a trip alone since our honeymoon. Our 10th anniversary seemed a good time to do it. She was so surprised.

So tonight we get to see the world famous Rockettes. Being a leg man, I know I will enjoy that. And tomorrow we are going to the Statue of Liberty. Hey, maybe I should take a picture of this one just in case I can’t get a good one of the real thing. I wonder if I can talk Millie into posing with her like that kid? That would be a laugh, wouldn’t it? But first a hot dog from an honest-to-god street vendor. I feel like I’m in the middle of a Law and Order episode.

The Zen of tapestry

2010-03-30T06:20:00.001-07:00

If you want to be a tapestry artist you need to be willing to unweave as much as you weave. That became crystal clear to me these last few weeks. I spent about 3 weeks laying the foundation of my piece, City Life. I decided to border the scene with the street and curb, putting the viewer at the corner looking along both sides of the sidewalk. I looked at photos of curbs and decided that mine would be a three-part curb with a horizontal apron, a vertical step and a horizontal element that met the sidewalk. I had put in all the elements and was starting on the sidewalk when I took a rough rendering of the scene to my study group. Immediately my mentor and another member of the group saw a glaring error. I had carefully measured the different pieces of the street and curb and wove them taking care to keep each element straight. The problem was that I forgot about perspective. Yes, shame on me, an art history teacher to forget about linear perspective, I even test my students on the concept in their midterm.

So what to do. Well there were several suggestion. I could make it a frame but it would only be on 2 sides. I could ignore it and say I meant to do it, or (and this hurt) I could take it out and start again. Well after a bit of pouting and scheming (I even missed my exit on the way home, I was concentrating so hard on how to resolve the problem) I decided to take the hard road and take it out. But that was not before I tried to push up what I wanted to save and needle weave the offending elements back in. Of course that didn't work, I created pulls and messed up the spacing on the part I was pushing around. "Ah, hell," I thought, "just do it and get it done with. You know you won't be happy with it until you make it right." So for 2 1/2 days I unwove three weeks worth of work. It is amazing how much easier it is to take things out than it is to put it in. Luckily I had plenty of bobbins to wind with the yarn. I was the recipient of about 100 quite nice bobbins from a friend in my weavers guild and even after I took a passel to the study group for use by newbies I still had enough to keep everything in order. I guess I won't have to wind a bobbin for quite some time (there is a silver lining for every cloud).

So two weeks later I am back where I started. The curb is now two parts with the vertical element dwindling away as the sidewalk moves away from the viewer. The longer element, the part that is right now going up the side of the tapestry will reverse this trend with the top of the curb eventually disappearing as the vertical part become more visible. It is hard to see how that will look right now but I think it is a better resolution.

I guess it is all about subordinating your own ego to the image. I may have been pleased with how straight my lines were, how good my selvages were but I would not have been pleased with the effect they had on the overall scene. So instead of worrying about the time spent doing and undoing it I decided to get into the zen of weaving. I weave for enjoyment and for creativity.

When I was doing research for my master's thesis I visited an embroidery guild in London. The women I talked to told me that they were not as interested in getting the stitch right, as they were in pushing the envelope. They said that this was the difference between them and American artists. They suggested that we are too caught up in the process to be willing to take creative risks. I was impressed with this and try to live by the same creed. So now I think about what works for the overall image. I am still trying to keep my edges straight and my spacing correct but if I have to take measures to fix it that are not exactly technically correct then I am fine with that. These measures will become design elements rather than crappeaux (not sure that is the way it is spelled but I know you tapestry artists all know what I mean). Twining to help realign spacing will be incorporated into the piece where needed. I like the dimensionality it adds to the piece. A little dip here and there will be preserved as part of the perspective of the piece.

So the project continues on, sometimes forward sometimes backward. I am sure this will not the be last time I will have to take something out so I will just get into the zen of weaving and not worry about it. Ah, life is like Persephone's cloth woven and unwoven each and every day. How deep is that?

Stepping up the curb on City Life

2010-02-22T15:24:00.000-08:00

Things are going well with the new tapestry. I've been plugging away at the first few inches (sounds like a long time for such a small amount of weaving, doesn't it?). I've got the street laid in and the curb started.

I am moving up to the vertical part of the curb and heading to the top of the step. With school, trips here and there and just general living it takes some time to lay in the foundation. I am also going slow to make sure my edges are good. I am determined to beat that drawing in problem. I found that the Victorian wool I am using is less forgiving than the Paternayan wool is. That means I need to be more careful when setting the edges with the Victorian wool. It pulled in a bit more. However, now that I noticed that I can make adjustments.

In an effort to keep the entire 48" even as I work on the piece I am also doing a row of twining between the colors (I think I will only be able to do it on the long straight pieces like the street and curb) to respace the warp. It should keep me from pulling in there too. As with every piece I am learning new techniques and strategies.

I love my weekly study group but I found that I can get ideas from many different sources. This week I went into the city to see a tapestry show in Chelsea. the following week I took a felting workshop and found that there was a very interesting crossover there. One of the artists who developed a piece for the tapestry show was a very well known artist named Kara Walker. Her favorite medium is actually silhouettes but she was asked to create a design for the medium of tapestry. Here is what she created:

If you look closely you will see that the black figure is felted. Now this might not have made too much of an impression on me except that it made me think of the workshop I was to take the next weekend. I don't know if I will try it for myself but I can see doing this in future piece. I think I will just stick with minimal surface embellishments right now. At this point I am only thinking of things like a ponytail or braids protruding from the surface for a couple of the figures. Perhaps I will try the felting on a smaller piece. I don't like to admit it but sampling has its purpose (mores the pity since I hate to do it).

Anyway, influences and ideas float around us every day if we look for them. So I plan to keep my eyes open to see what I can find. I am off to Philly this week and have plans in place for the new Picasso exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of art in a few weeks. I am sure I will pick up an idea or two from that. I'll let you know soon.

Interesting People

2010-02-07T12:42:00.000-08:00

Donald at the Slash ShowI was in the city the other day with a couple of fiber friends to see the Slash show at the Museum of Arts and Design. While we were getting organized to go in I noticed a woman fiddling with some wool so I asked her if she was knitting or Crocheting. She said she was knitting. We struck up a conversation about textiles and as we were taking a man walked up in the most outrageous outfits I've seen in quite some time. He ended up being her husband so she introduced us. I was so taken by his outfit that I had to ask him if I could take a picture. Of course he agreed (who wouldn't when they take that much time to choose their outfit) and posed as if he was used to the request. As you can see he was quite the Beau Brummel in his chenille blazer and pieced shirt. We had quite a wonderful conversation about fibers, fashion and piecework. New York City, you never know what you will see.

The show itself was all about using paper as the media of choice. There were paintings, collages, sculpture and videos all relating to paper. The video was quite amusing. It was a stop action piece relating modernist architecture to Gothic buildings. The artist started with a modern building and turned it into a Gothic masterpiece by "covering" the walls with paper cutouts of crenelation, stained glass windows and towers. As the pieces went into place you heard the sound of heavy objects moving into place as if the paper was, in fact, stone, brick and steel. The juxtaposition of paper and sound gave the piece an ironic edge that was priceless.

We were also lucky to see work by artists like Judy Pfaff and Kara Walker. There were paper topographical maps, cut outs on the windows and walls that made great use of both positive and negative space and some fascinating sculpture like the nude male figure with its magazine cut out body parts. All in all a very fun show.

Later in the day we stopped at the MoMA bookstore (we were too late for the show) an browsed for quite some time. Again I had to take my camera out to capture another wonderful fashion statement, this time a great hat. I don't know about you but I would definitely wear this hat.

Back Again - News From The Missing

2010-01-25T13:32:00.000-08:00

I know I know, where have I been? So it has been way too long since I last posted. I changed to a MacBook (boy do I love it) and had to work out how to post since I was using Microsoft Write for my posts in the past. But I am back now.

I have been working on smaller pieces these last few months. Not only was it hard to get enough time to warp my big loom but I was working on refining my idea for this next project. As you recall I want to do a piece called City Life. I had the concept in my mind but I had done a sample of one of the figures (the Statue of Liberty street performer) and got very frustrated with it. I had to put it aside for a while to get my enthusiasm back again.

But over the winter break I got time enough to warp the loom and I worked out how to do the people and I feel much better now. I decided that the figures were too small, that the buildings were going to dwarf the real scene. So I tripled the size of the figures and brought them forward in the picture plane and I think it will work now. I guess I will find out once I get to them.

So I did a continuous warp at 9 epi for a piece that will be 48" X 60". I anticipate it will take about a year to finish this piece. I took the individual pieces of the scene and instead of trying to manipulate them on the computer (I still haven't learned PhotoShop well enough to use it) I simply went to Kinko's blew up the various images and then cut them out. I then drew in the background and pasted the figures and objects where they belonged. The butcher paper is now sandwiched inbetween the warp and I plan to only ink the more complex parts of the scene. The street, curbs, buildings and trees will be pretty straightforward so they don't need to be drawn on. The cartoon will stay in place throughout and I now have the color pictures pinned to the walls around the loom so I can refer to them as I work them out. I am pretty excited and have about 2" of street in place as I write this.

I am taking Betsy's advice and using quite a few more bobbins on this piece than ever before. I am determined to keep my warp correctly spaced and my edges aligned with my guide string. For the 48" I have 10 bobbins going. That is about 4.5' per bobbin. That is what Archie and Susan suggest is the maximum space per bobbin. I guess they should know, they've been doing this for much longer than I have. We shall see.

So what have I been doing in the meantime? Well I made a piece for the upcoming ATA Biennial non-juried show. I chose a non-juried show, no pressure to compete which I am not ready for yet. It was a shack I found at Peter's Valley when I was there for a James Kohler workshop a couple of summers ago. The theme is Enchanted Pathways. I chose to put the shack at nightfall when the fireflies are just beginning to show their magical evening light show. I am quite pleased with it and look forward to seeing it on the wall. Betsy, Rita, Diane and I are all planning to be at the Biennial so I will have lots of company in the show. Betsy's piece is wonderful, so clever and interesting. I won't say what it is but I certainly will be a hit at the show.

So off I go on a new adventure and I plan to be much more forthcoming in my posts in the future. I look forward to sharing my work in the weeks and months ahead. I am glad to be back.

The Cutting Off Ceremony

2009-09-07T09:49:00.001-07:00

Well, after 7 months and a lot of weaving, unweaving, weaving and unweaving my tapestry is ready for the big snip.

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I was able to spend a lot of time on this project for the last couple of weeks and it shows. I wanted to finish before school started so I pushed through the last week to insure I did. It was worth it, I can’t be more pleased with the results.

It could have been finished a couple of days earlier but I was not pleased with the last corner. After 7 months of work I wanted the last inches to be as well developed as the rest of the piece. I had filled in the top right hand corner but it was too much wall without any definition. I thought it would be okay when I was weaving it because I thought my initials would fill in the space adequately. I knew once it was finished that I had to do it again. It was too much gray. It would have shouted “where are the bricks?” every time I looked at it if I had left it. So back I went before I did the row of half hitches. It was the right thing to do.

It was fun to work out the perspective, it really became apparent as the cars got smaller and especially as I was developing the wall. That was where I was able to really bring the scene together. It took some time to figure out the right sequence but after a few tries I think I got it right.

This has been a great learning experience. I find myself looking at things differently because of this piece. I was driving down the highway the other week and I noticed that instead of seeing the different colors of the trees I was seeing blocks of color. I now see a bit of what Cezanne tried to capture. I can see why he was so influential for so many artists. I think my trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see their Cezanne show was very helpful in my own visualization.

In addition, doing it in grayscale was great. Once the color was not an issue I could see so much more detail. It is quite interesting to see how intensity changes when the hue is not an issue.

So now my loom is bare and awaiting the next project. I am still thinking about City Life even though I found myself frustrated as I struggled with the faces of the figures in my test pieces. I think I have an idea of how to make it a bit easier. Right now the scene takes up the lower 2/3 of the tapestry with the buildings set to rise above it. I think if I increase the scene to 3/4 or even more I will have more space to work out the faces. Working in 9 epi will also help as it will give me more warp to work out the details. So I am back on track with that.

In the meantime I am also starting a smaller piece for the ATA 2010 biennial. The theme is Enchanted Pathways. I have a photo of a dilapidated building that I took at Peter’s Valley that I think will work well. I will tell you more about it as I work out the details.

I still have plenty of work to do on the Philly cars before it is ready to go on the wall so both tapestries will have to wait a week or so. The hand work is calling me. I need to sew down the warp and add the bias tape for the rod and weights at the bottom to keep it straight. The weaving may be done but the finish work is where it becomes a professional piece.

I can’t wait to show it to my study group tomorrow. How fun that they can finally see it in person.

My Travels with Mom

2009-08-21T12:52:00.001-07:00

They call it the Emerald Isle, a good name for the ocean of green that is Ireland. The view from our motor coach was all verdant, rolling hills tidily outlined by the sturdy rock walls that delineated the countryside. No tall rocks, no hard angles, this is an old land, one that has been worn down by millennia of wind, rain and the creatures that tread it everyday. For my mom who was born in Tucson AZ and spent most of her life in So CA it was a wonder to behold. She is used to green in January that turns brown by early June and stays that way through Christmas. She just couldn’t get enough of the scene, she kept exclaiming on the beauty of the flowers, the bright colors of the landscape and the water; that really amazed her, water at every turn.

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Our adventure started with a red-eye out of Newark with a stop in Heathrow London. We dropped our stuff in our room as soon as we got to Dublin and rushed downstairs again to do a city tour. Unfortunately we saw little of it since were could not keep our eyes open long enough to look around.

Disaster struck on the second day when mom tripped on a lip at the entrance of the hotel and pitched head first down two steps. She injured her face, shoulder, arm and leg. She was more angry than hurt as she kept saying, “I’ve ruined our trip on the very first day.” A trip to the doctors assured us that she had no broken bones or head injuries. Nonetheless I did not let her fall asleep that night until around midnight and I slept fitfully waking several times throughout the night to check to see if she was still breathing.

The next day poor mom’s eye was swollen completely shut and the rest of her body was a mass of bruises. The problem with that was that it was her good eye that was closed. She was sore, angry and scared but determined to keep going. I did not even think twice about this as it was what I expected from her. I’ve been hearing the same thing over and over again when I tell my friends the story. They all say they are not surprised to hear that. They now know where my determination comes from and that “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” I agree, she is a trooper, nothing stops her from what she wants to do.

So the vacation continued with Mom slowly changing colors from red to purple to claret to yellowish green. Her face was a source of fascination for everyone on the bus throughout the rest of the trip. It did slow her down but only slightly. The worst part for her was that she wasn’t able to climb the Blarney castle and kiss the blarney stone. Well who knew it was at that top of the castle? I just assumed it was on the ground possibly on a hill or cliff after all it is a stone! No, it was up a long spiraling staircase. So I climbed it and kissed it twice for the both of us.

Doing things twice became my job for the rest of the trip. I carried both cameras to take pictures for the both of us and went to the places she couldn’t get to. We did fine.

As I mentioned in the last blog I took along a small loom to practice with on the bus. I was able to do some weaving as we traveled, it worked out well since it was much easier to weave while we traveled than to read. I was not only rewarded with some practice time but I met another tapestry weaver and piqued the interest of one of our younger travelers. The weaver, a Canadian named Pat does 3D tapestries. She told me how she planned the darts before she starts the project so that when it is finished she can mold it into the masks and clothing she creates. I was amazed that she was able to visualize it let alone create such interesting objects.

One of our stops was a whiskey distillery where they gave us a tour and then allowed us to sample the whiskey. During the sampling they asked for volunteers to partake in a contest. Can you guess who volunteered? Yes, how could I not? And I won! The contest was to taste three whiskeys and match them with the bottles they came from. Of course it took the entire sampling to do it (grin) but I correctly identified each. One tasted of peat from the cooking process and another was sweetened by the caskets it was stored in. They had originally aged brandy and the wood absorbed the sweet liquor only to release it into the whiskey. What did I win? Well a sample bottle of whiskey, of course.

So Mom continued to improve, our trip brought us to the Waterford crystal factory, several castles, a folk park and the Cliffs of Mohar. I enjoyed traveling with my Mom and we got along remarkably well. Who knew we were so compatible? Perhaps that means that there is hope for me and Sarah eventually. We returned to NJ, took a short jaunt to Washington DC for a fine meal at a wonderful restaurant and I put Mom back on the plane home on Thursday of last week. We’ve talked since then and Mom tells me that her doctor has given her a clean bill of health from the fall. We both heaved a sigh of relief and then got down to discussing where we will go next year. We are talking about Italy. I am easy, I am ready to travel at any time. Just tell me where to go and when to be there and I will be ready, passport in hand. I love an adventure and we certainly had one in Ireland.

Oh, so close.

2009-07-26T14:15:00.001-07:00

It is exciting when you see the finish line on a project. It is also hard to keep from being impatient to be done. This is the time when it is easy to get sloppy, to say, “oh, that’s good enough.” But now it the time to be even more careful. Now is the time to make sure it is finished well.

I am about 5” from the end of this long, long project. I anticipate that I will finish it before classes start so I can switch my concentration to other thing. This has been a good, creative summer, one that I have enjoyed. Yes, I am still teaching both online and face to face but it doesn’t seem as onerous as last summer. Perhaps I am getting the hang of using my time well and enjoying the slow pace of the season. It is not necessary to have whole swaths of time to myself, it is enough that I know I will have time almost every day to weave. Sometimes it is a few hours, sometimes I am lucky to get one hour. But whatever time I have I take it for what it is, time.

As I work on my samples for City Life I see that I have set a whole new group of challenges. I am sooo not satisfied with my first attempt at faces but I have a plan to help me improve. I will be on holiday with my mother for the next couple of weeks and in anticipation of a lot of time on a bus I put together a small (10” X 14”) loom that I am warping to the specs of the large tapestry. I plan to use it to practice faces, necks and hair. I think I can work on quite a few small faces while we are traveling from one place to another. It will be small enough to put in my backpack and work on in the tight space of the bus. It certainly is better than reading, that’s for sure.

Summertime and the weaving in easy

2009-07-12T15:55:00.000-07:00

There is nothing better than having time to do some real weaving and the summertime is the best time for that. Being in academia I am lucky to have three months to kick back and really concentrate on my tapestry. Which is just what I have been doing.

It is really starting to look like a parking lot as you can see. I am starting to work on the linear perspective of the wall and trying to get those bricks integrated. It is not really visible in this image but I am using the flying shuttle approach on the vertical lines of the individual bricks while working out the diagonals between the rows. Hopefully they will be more visible in the next go round.

As you can see the dark element of the asphalt has lightened up quite a bit and is trailing off into the lighter surroundings. I think I will continue the line all the way up the piece wandering back and forth just to give it a visual continuity. I think it makes more sense than just letting it disappear.

What I am pleased with is the shadowing between and below the cars, especially on the left hand side. In this image they scan quite nicely. The cars themselves are starting to come together and the whiter windows (although hard to see here) are showing up well using the highly polished DMC.

In the meantime I am trying to work out how to do figures for the City Life tapestry that is next up. I expect to get to it by the fall so I am continuing to sample.

I am working on this image of my nephew Shawn posing with a street performer and boy is it difficult! Not only is is very small but it has a lot of detail, especially in the performers costume (I am losing the flag, I don’t like it). But the hardest parts have got to be the faces which are proving to be quite a challenge. I had the performers face and chest done but the weft was too thick and it was way too ribby. So I spent my Tuesday study group time ripping it back out. Right now I have an arm and chest back in place and I think it looks better. I want to get a bit farther before I publish it so stay tuned…

So I am working hard weaving, unweaving, weaving, unweaving etc, etc. By the time I am ready to do the real tapestry I will be much more confident about the different elements. I think if I had not done the sampling I might have given it up as too difficult. But now I think I will be ready for it when the time comes. So until the next update don’t let work get in the way of life. Find time to do what you love. For me is weaving, what is it for you?

Inspiration

2009-06-24T07:55:00.001-07:00

I was lucky enough to meet two of the most talented tapestry artists last weekend. Susan Martin-Maffei and Archie Brennan came to Medford Leas NJ to give a talk about their work. These are dedicated artists who weave every day for 8 – 10 hours. To say I was impressed is a complete understatement. All I could say as they showed us their work was WOW. I know that they have decades of practice between them but I thought to myself, “I would have to live to 150 to be as good as they are. What a treat it was. I came home and just had to sit down and weave, I was so inspired.

I have been able to really get some work done on my own tapestry over the last month. Ah, summer as an academic, is there anything better? I have passed the midway mark and although I had to lay in another line of twining to try to halt the drawing in, I think it is going well. Tell me what you think.

My traveling loom is free of the hot dog stand and being prepped for something that makes my stomach twist, people. I am most concerned about the faces, I want them to look realistic but I only have an inch or two for the entire face. That means only 9 warps for two eyes and a nose. Not too much to work with. However, I have been able to master everything else, I think I can do this too. It make take a lot of putting in and taking out but eventually I will probably work it out. Here are some of the images I am working with.

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I am not one who likes to spend time sampling but I can see the benefit of it here. I will be able to practice on the small loom and work out the process, then when it comes to the real tapestry I will be much more confident. At least that is the plan..

Time Marches on

2009-06-03T10:56:00.001-07:00

As I continue to enjoy the extra time from school to work on my tapestries I start to see the cars emerge a bit quicker. This week I redid the car on the right. I thought the top looked too broken up, it just didn’t work. The gray area in the middle was supposed to be a sunroof but it just didn’t scan well. So I took Betsey’s advice and simplified.

I know the concept of K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid) but I find it hard to stay simple. I like to mix it up. However sometimes mixing it up just makes it look like a big mess. I think that is what is happening with the central area, the one I have been worrying about pretty much from the beginning. I was trying for subtle changes in coloring as it moved away from the viewer but it was not subtle enough, I don’t think. Perhaps when it is completely surrounded by other shapes and colors it will come into focus but I doubt it. However, as with all things it is a learning experience. What I am seeing is how one shape can dominate the entire canvas. Perhaps if it wasn’t so dark it would not overpower the rest of the shapes but right now it does. I will need to ask Betsey and Rita what to do to bring it into balance. Perhaps they will have some ideas.

In the meantime, since it is quite difficult to take a 7’ X 4’ pipe loom back and forth to the study group, I am working on another project on my smaller loom I have a vision for a city scene with people in it. For now I am working on sampling parts of it. I am presently finishing one of the vending stands, as you can see - a hot dog stand.

I am working it in embroidery floss both for its saturated colors and for its sheen. I like how the colors mix and how they stand out from the background. The final tapestry will include this object, people, and buildings. When I complete this object (it is almost done now) I plan to tackle the scary stuff, the people. I will keep you updated.

Learning from Rita and Betsey

2009-05-25T14:15:00.001-07:00

I am a very lucky person to have two very talented teachers. Last week our study group met at Rita’s home. She has been in Florida for the last few months and it was good to have her back. As soon as she saw my sample piece for City Life she pointed out a few areas that needed my attention.

I took her suggestions and started incorporating them into my tapestry and surprise, surprise it improved it immensely. She talked about having to work the diagonals and curves in regular steps to smooth out the transition. That made sense; when I started paying more attention to this while working the cars in my big piece it was much better. She also showed me a different way to sew the slits. Although I had used the technique before I didn’t use the same color thread so I didn’t like it. This time I used the same color thread as the edge I was sewing into and it made all the difference in the world. To be fair, I had been using the technique that James Kohler showed me but I think my gaps were too large. This caused the slit to show more and look less professional. I think I will use both depending on the color changes and locations. It’s nice to have options.

I spent a lot of time working and reworking my pieces this week but I think the time was well spent. As I see the images grow I see that learning how to create professional tapestries takes time and practice. I suspect that it will take years to get to the point where I feel confident about my work.

People ask me if I plan to show my work but I can’t see that happening for quite some time. I know that I’ve learned a lot in the last two years but not enough to go up against real professionals. Also since I am interested in larger canvases I know that I won’t have a body of work to draw on any time soon. Oh well, I am not doing this to exhibit, just to learn and enjoy my new craft.

What is nice is that now that summer is here I have more time to learn and enjoy. Ah, I love academia.

The cars are finally starting to emerge

2009-05-16T13:51:00.001-07:00

It’s been a while since I last posted. I’ve been busy putting all my Spring classes to bed. Now that I’ve finished them I can get serious about weaving.

I started doing just that this week. As you can see, I now have two cars and a third outlined. I photograph it in two parts and then put them together. It usually works out well but this time the photo's don’t exactly match. No matter, you can still see the image. The second car was much easier to do than the first one was. I can now see how the shape needs to look as I weave it. Makes it easier to know where to start and stop.

I am so enjoying the process. Building an image line by line is almost like magic. I see a shape emerge out of where I stop and start the lines of wool, I make decisions on how to use the color and I see the way the colors react to each other. For example, the light shining on the windshield of the second car was made using a highly polished DMC that almost vibrates. It really gives the glass a reflective texture.

Learning to really see the lines, colors and shading of an image is a hard process, it takes time and practice. I see the work of friends like Susan of Susan Cohan Gardens, LLC and I wonder how differently her brain works than mine. When we visit museums or gardens I am constantly amazed at how she sees things. I learn from her every time we explore visual culture - natural or human-made.

I am lucky to also have the creative vision of my mentor Betsey Snope. I see her work grow from week to week as we meet in our study group and I am envious of her skills. Yes, I know, she has been doing it longer than I have but I still wish I had her practiced eye when it comes to color blending and shaping. Hopefully time and repetition will give me the tools to make images that are close to hers.

I took a tour of some blogs this morning. Some are instructional and others are inspirational. All give me the desire to get to my own work and try to develop my own voice. My feeling is that as I concentrate on my work through the summer I will start to see improvement in my technique and vision. At least that is the plan. We shall see if it works out that way.

Working the asphalt

2009-04-27T17:01:00.001-07:00

Although I haven’t posted in the last couple of weeks, that does not mean that I haven’t been working on my tapestry. As you can see it is coming right along. I was worried that the center dark shape was too dark but I decided that with the shading of the other shapes this

one is fine being dark. I am breaking it up with puddles so I think it will work when the piece is finished.

I am just beginning to work on cars on both sides so it will be interesting to find out if I learned from the first one. Hopefully it won’t be as frustrating this time.

What I am really pleased about is how my spacing is so much better since I put in a line of twining. It didn’t fix everything but it certainly did improve it. This is the reason I like our study group so much. I learn something from everyone in the group. It is great to draw on the different experiences each group member has had and to examine their work. How great it is to have that access.

So school ends in the next couple of weeks and I will have more time to work on this. How great it is going to be to have all that time. I am looking forward to it.

Automotive progress

2009-04-13T14:50:00.001-07:00

This week I wasn’t as motivated as I would have liked. My weekend, the time I usually get the most stuff done, was full of activities. I spent time with my Pitney Bowes friends and spent time at the Jenny Holzer show at the Whitney. Both were well worth the time.

However, this doesn’t mean that I wasn’t able to get some things done. I am progressing upward working on the asphalt and trying to work out how to blend the different shades of grays and blacks. I am not sure that they are going in the right direction. I think the difference between the various shades of asphalt might be too broad. I think they are too clearly defined. I wanted them to blend more than they are. Perhaps as the cars break up the picture plane it will come into focus better.

I am almost up to the next two cars (one on each side this time) so I will get another chance to work out how to get the light right. The left hand car will be easier since I’ve worked out how to do the light on that side, but the right hand car will be all new.

So Betsey, how is it going, do you think?

Parked car part 2

2009-03-30T07:19:00.001-07:00

Well, the more I looked at my first car the less I liked it. It just had too much wrong with it to let it stay. So, with a big huff I took it apart and rebuilt it. It seems that that was my lot this week as my real car had to be rebuilt as well. Take a look, it is much better now, don’t you think?

Tapestry, at least for me right now, is all about weaving, unweaving and weaving. I learn something each time I weave a new shape or object. I find I don’t really see it when it is in front of me. The only way I really saw the tire and the total shape was when I took a picture of it and then examined the photo. A real lesson in how to assess the days work.

My City life sample is going well. That was a lesson in itself. I put it on backwards and upside down the first time and didn’t see what I had done until I was almost done inking it. Luckily I am not working on a continuous warp on this one so I could turn the loom around and reink it the right way. I used a different color so I could see which lines I wanted to work with. Much better. I like the colorful umbrella and I am working for the first time on letters. These are simple letters on a vertical so they are going well for now. I will let you see it soon.

The first car is parked

2009-03-23T14:29:00.001-07:00

This week I was off on spring break so I had a lot of time to work on my tapestry. I needed the time too since that first car was a bitch. I must have wove and unwove it about a dozen times before it looked close to the way I wanted it to look. See for yourself.I used wool for the body and DMC for the windows.

I think there are still some improvements to be made but am hoping with practice the next one will look better.

Funny but I can see all the errors when I look at it here but they don’t seem to show up quite so glaringly when I look at the tapestry itself. This is a good way to check my progress.

In the meantime I am sampling my next tapestry. I am planning on calling it City life and it will be a street fair in NYC. I am working on things like the people, a hot dog stand, a street performer and kiosks for hats, tchocke’s and the like. It gives me something else to work on when I get frustrated with this one. One is all about mixing colors and shapes and the other is about grayscale and shading. I like moving back and forth between each.

But, alas classes are back in session tomorrow so my time will be greatly reduced. It will just make me more enthusiastic when I do get time to work on them again. So, I move from artist to art historian. Ah well, it pays the bills and is much better than a real 9-5 job.

So, here I go

2009-03-21T07:00:00.001-07:00

I started weaving about a year and a half ago and am still as much in love with it as I was when I built my first Archie Brennan pipe loom. I am lucky enough to have two very talented teachers and mentors, Betsey Snope and Rita Landau. They are both long time members of the Wednesday Group and have quite a body of work to use as teaching tools. I am so lucky.

I am not the kind of person who takes things slowly so when I announced I was going to do a Yei figure tapestry as my first project they were dubious. However I persevered and my finished product came out okay for a first try.

Working in a limited pallet made me long for color so my next attempt was the rose you see in my profile. I chose to take a Georgia O’Keeffe approach and concentrated on the interplay of colors on the petals. It allowed me to explore shading, hatching and mixing colors. Again, not too shabby.

Being the ambitious person I am I then decided that a simple portable pipe loom was just not enough. I wanted to do something big, a real tapestry. Something to hang on the wall and really make a statement. Back to Archie I went, this time it was to get instructions for a 7’ by 4’ black pipe loom. I set it up in my spare room turned studio. I love it.

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Warping Wanda was not easy. I damaged walls moving it around, I spent days struggling over crossed warp and shed sticks but eventually it was ready to go. I am happily weaving away now on my inaugural image, a Philly parking lot in grayscale.

This week I was off on spring break which allowed me to get some quality time into my tapestry. I will put up the fruits of my efforts soon. In the meantime, I hope you will enjoy reading about my journey as much as I am enjoying the process. See you soon.