Expressionism at its finest - Fritz Lang's Metropolis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.