2 in 1

a blog for spring-break/post-crit so this blog and subsequent pictures will attempt to fill in any gaps and bring everybody up to date. Chronologically:

For the presentation of my work I diverged a bit from my original plan, which was more like an outline at best in the first place since it depended on change and influence to exist at all…But anyway, I had originally intended to put the pieces of fabric up, mounted on cardboard rather like pictures on the wall in the main school. When it came down to it though that just seemed a bit too cold and like I would be trying for a clean picture plane or something that wasn’t actually there. So by virtue of a divine muse or lack of any other ideas I tried wrapping the bits of fabric around random cloth things I had around, rather like bitty pillows. This was all very informal, I think I used my scarf, a mitten, and an apron as filler material. If anyone had bothered to look on the bottom of the ‘pillows’ they would have seen some distressed looking masking tape holding it all together. Technically this wasn’t the best route, and even some masking tape could be seen on the sides (distracting!) Half the problem (not really a problem more like thing) was that I hadn’t intended to do this so the wool was a bit short and the fabric a bit random. This influenced my later decisions for this week….Okay. Then the wall/shelving in the studio itself just seemed the right place for the work.
reasons:
1. I wanted people to look down on the pieces rather than have them mounted up. Mainly this was because I thought it would reinforce the sense of surface imposed on top of something, ie how we look down on water.
2. the shelf size was long and skinny which inclined it to be a good sequential display area
3. the wall above the shelf had gaps and crags in the white paint that reflects not only the rather arbitrary shapes of water but also the color with this great neutralized teal color. Fantastic!
4. I used the other fabric I had bought (Jana said it was un-something silk…I had thought she was crazy and it was plain linen…but then when I thought about it that was probably why it cost an arm and a leg fool…) this gave a clean surface to present on and a softer, earthier brown/white.
5. It all very happily informal and surprisingly intimate, the wall especially allowed connections to flow up and down through the forms

Feedback from class: generally it went over well and indicated more than I had intended but perhaps what I had hoped for. The whole intimate nature and reception of it was not expected but did in fact reference things I had been thinking about when working on the project, the pillows were unplanned but led into that as well and referenced a feminine strand of thought I had been pursuing as well as an absolute comfort that I had been actively pursuing, the search was in fact the initial impetus for the project. the softeness of the fabric base also led to emphasize a textural quality I hinted towards (more on that later). Finally the works were received cohesively when they had about a 40% chance of being knaves of disorder. Also people said they got a sense of water which wasn’t necessary for the work but nonetheless nice because it is what I’ve been inundating myself with and it allows more speculation and well, peacefulness or connection because everyone can recall it even though its never the same.

As for this week I’m clarifiying a bit, nuts and all but I think it would be more fun to call them cheez-its right now because that’s what I’m thinking about. Just like nuts cheez-its are the coming together of critical elements (as the back of the box will tell you) and the purification of distracting elements. There is the ridged edges for improved grabbing quality, the specialization and saturation of chedderness and the addition of salt because, well, it helps. I’m gonna do that in my own work. Gonna add a little salt and saturate some bits so that people can grab it better. So what is all that? Tactility and flow. Here’s the bit I wrote up in class post-nut conversation:
The moment I connected with the work was when I let go of my restrictions, impositions put on my hand and the material and when I began to listen to my instinct and let the material determine itself. The main thing is to not forget that, and in turn, expand on it. Open the work to more experimentation. I need to free myself of my fear of branching off too far. In itself, that was a restriction. My instinct will impose enough restrictions through preference and if my instincts wrong then I’ll just change paths. This is all linked through ideas. In actuality, it means I’m going to not going to pre-cut my fabric (if I cut it at all) and I’ll work in the same give-and-take manner and hopefully on a larger scale of fabric, and maybe also thread, the work will stand as evidence of that process and give a continual sense of movement as before. I’ll add things in, threads, other materials. I’ve been eying a specific ribbon, and maybe expand beyond the thread world with what strikes my internal fancy or aesthetic. There are recurring concepts, frozen moments over change, consistency. Tactility and the way it feels to the fingers or skin in general. Specificity and detail against a larger sensual experience. This is all formal stuff. I think I am concerning myself so much with the formal because actually just sewing with that as a loose base gives me the time and the lingering mind to think about other things which I haven’t figured out yet (not on the whole, its impossible! but on an incorporative level)

In there is my reaction to the problem of my fabric being too small to tape around stuff in the previous presentation. I mentioned how I’ll hopefully work on a larger scale but that doesn’t quite seem to have my interest so I’ve axed it in one sense, but in another its still working on a larger sense because of the way I’m letting the strings just keep rolling on in one fabric even if the work is still activating the space the same way as before.

Alright now the time gap is closed and not a single question unanswered (what?! impossible, they never go!) seriously any major questions send along (the grapevine or email or whatever.) Maggie

ps I included some other fiber artists work and pics from class don’t forget to click on the space or place class set or it will be all jumbled!