This is has been an intense week of artwork for me. I’ve been getting up at six a.m. each
morning and going straight into the art studio to weave. I’m steaming along on pieces for my
exhibition titled “Looking at Water.”
My goal is to have sixteen new pieces, and I feel like I’m on track to
reach my goal. I have eleven
completed, but I have four more in progress and a sketch for the last piece. In some cases I have the weaving
largely assembled but I’m still lacking a featured animal or physical structure,
such as a fish, turtle or a dock.
I don’t think I’ve ever had so many open books! My attention is now is focused on a
second weaving featuring a dock that I’m pretty excited about.
The inside of the weathered dock boards
are felt from army blankets that came to me in my treasure hunts. That continues the strong connection to
my father-in-law’s old army blankets that supported so many pieces, but the
wool from them is mostly gone. As
each piece comes closer to completion I feel better about the show.
My desire to do this exhibition came in part from a very
successful exhibit I did early in the year at City Hall and Meadowood, "Portraits of Trees." The show featured trees and lots of
fresh spring green. It felt great
to see the pieces together on the wall after a long, cold winter. Around that time I decided I wanted to
assemble pieces for another exhibit built on a theme. The idea transformed into the “Looking at Water” themed
exhibit scheduled for October at the Convention Center. Thinking about the shows reminds me
that while I lack formal training as an artist, I seem to learn about the art
world from unexpected places. I’m
not a television watcher, although I do watch Project Runway religiously.
At the end of each season the surviving
artists create collections that determine the winner. I love the continuity in the collections the designers
create, where theme elements connect the pieces—it might be a style, a fabric
or a color. One piece speaks to
the next, not as a reiteration of the composition, but as a spark to begin the
conversation on the next design.
I’m consciously trying to replicate that concept in my exhibition. I’m looking forward to hanging the show
as a linear story of “Looking at Water”, with design ideas and materials that
flow through the exhibition. The
broader concept is still solidifying in my head, even as I have now mentally
created all the pieces. Come and
see the exhibition and we can see how the story unfolds!
My other big art news is the completion of the bigheaded ants
last month, which were finally delivered to Wonderlab. This past week they invited me to
participate in laying out the ants in their new home. They are going to be crawling over the wall up to the sign
that introduces the bigheaded ant exhibit. After laying it out it became clear that they needed one
more ant on the back of the sign.
As soon as my water exhibit is complete I’ll create one more worker
ant. Then I’ll re-launch on all my
commissions in progress to bring everything together. I have the large “Garden Path” piece to complete, and that’s
my top priority.
I also finished
weaving and stretching out the background for the “Summer Salad”commission. That means I’ll be felting lots of
vegetables for the foreground.
Sliced tomatoes, here we go!
On the family front, Jim and I celebrated fifteen wonderful
years of marriage together. It’s
hard to imagine a life before marriage and my family. Jacob grilled salmon for the celebratory dinner, which came
out beautifully.
There was also a new
peach pie, but the boys (and I) again made short work of that. Then, somehow we managed to walk right
past the raspberries at the farmer’s market on Saturday! With the peach pies so fleeting,
shouldn’t another pie appear very soon?
I know there’s fruit in the freezer!
Until next week,
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