Walking Through Gardens…

I’m really excited about the piece I just finished.  I’m calling it “The Visit,” and it’s another piece in the series I’m creating for the Monroe County History Center’s Garden Walk Show.  I think that it’s a piece that nicely conveys the inspiration for the piece, so I’m really pleased with how it turned out.  I had been thinking a lot about two ideas that fit together in my mind. 

One aspect is the effort to see things that are slightly hidden, obscured by something in the foreground, looking through a mesh or partly closed curtains. My mind’s eye is trying to build a picture of what’s on the other side from the bits and pieces I can see.  The fence blocking the path and some of the flowers captures that essential part of ‘The Visit” for me.  The other aspect is the feeling you get when you visit a friend and leave pieces of yourself outside and step into their world.  

I tried to capture that with the abandoned bicycle at the fence, leading you to the conclusion that you’ve stepped through the gateway and into the yard beyond, something you couldn’t see clearly from outside the fence.  I really enjoy visiting with my friends, both in the physical sense of being with them and because I can step out of my world to get an idea about how they experience life. 

I had two wonderful experiences this week that helped me bring those ideas together.  Early in the week I went with my friend Dawn Adams to the SOFA gallery at IU to see the current BFA show.  It’s a completely different experience from my usual routine, and I learn a lot by paying close attention to the art – what works and what doesn’t.  One of our memorable conversations was about the concept of large areas of open space in artwork, really pushing the amount of negative space in a piece.  I tried to incorporated that concept in ‘The Visit’ through the amount of green space off in the distance and balance it with an abundance of information in the foreground.   

The other terrific experience I had this week was a visit to Jill Bolte-Taylor’s studio.  She invited me to play in her sandbox, working with stained glass, which is a medium I’ve never explored.  Her studio is a welcoming place—it’s well organized and brightly lit and she has power tools!  My standard choice for composition when I’m exploring a new medium is to create a tree.  Jill is going to fuse it for me, but for now it’s already laid out, foil wrapped and ready to assemble.  She’s really an amazing person—caring and generous, and just fun to sit and chitty-chat with.  I’m glad she makes Bloomington her home. 

This week we had what I expect is our last snow day of the year.  I could tell you we had lots of snow, but the reality is that two inches of wet snow closes the schools in Bloomington.  It was very pretty to see.  The wet, sticky snow attached to all the branches and gave a nice patina to my yin-yang piece hanging at the carport.  I made it as an installation piece, where the yin and yang are the arts and sciences.  I thought it was pretty with the branches covered in snow.  I was ready to take it down earlier this year, but now I think it’s OK to stay up a little longer.  And the really big news of the week—I got a raspberry pie!  Jim ‘discovered’  frozen farmer’s market raspberryies he had squirreled away in the freezer and forgot about.  It was under the frozen Girl Scout cookies.  Anyway, the flavor was awesome!  And spring is almost here!  The birds building nests and chirping happily outside, so I know it must be true.

Until next week,

Martina Celerin

Hard work pays off!

This week was full of weaving like a madwoman, which resulted in a couple of completed pieces.  I have been juggling five ‘in progress’ pieces.  I didn’t have any evening meetings this week, which gave me lots of weaving and needle felting time.  Plus, both boys were healthy, so I really got to focus on my projects in the art studio, pushing projects forward.  I completed the last of my commission pieces, which was a revisitation of ‘Winter Birches’.  That piece is complete and on its way to Chicago.  I turned my attention to my ‘Spring Treasures’ piece.  It features a crocus bulb and a clump of emerging flowers, which are now planted in their new home.  Buoyed by my successes, I put the finishing touches on the feature piece for my upcoming garden walk show. 

As I was working on the piece, I was reminded of some advice I got from Mary Hambly, a local paper quilter I met when I was starting into my art career.  She wanted me to think carefully about the relevance of materials that went into the art, choosing fabrics for their relevance to each piece.  The ‘Garden Walk’ piece features a flagstone path made from fragments of Grandpa’s army blanket.  I needle felted raw washed wool over the blanket to create the stones.  This was my first synthetic stone piece, because I usually enlist my family to find stones for my weavings.  Grandpa’s blanket opened up a whole new path for me, and like so many other materials in my creations, will always have fond memories for me when I think of them in my art.  I also really enjoyed making all the flowers along the path.  I was channeling some of our still-sleeping garden beds, especially the color combinations.  We have some beautiful tradescantia, with their vibrant purples over blue-green foliate.  I was imagining deep red roses, which we don’t have because the Japanese beetles eat them, over intense, dark, rich green foliage.  Nobody eats that, so I have plenty to channel.  The tree in the piece was actually a leftover from a previous commission.  It turned out that I had one too many trunks and it seemed to fit perfectly here.  The whole composition was a very organic process that just came together beautifully at the end. 

I still have some other works that will come along shortly, but the upcoming week is Re-shirt week.  The Bloom artist showcase is coming up on the twenty-fourth of February.  I want to have plenty of shirts for that show, and I promised some new ones to people who said they’d visit the show.  The Garden Walk show, which will hang at the Monroe County History Center, will go up on April first.  That’s my big wall art push, to have all the garden-themed pieces ready.  I also want to give a shout out to my gallery out in Laramie Wyoming.  It’s called JenyOriginals, and they have a new website and will be carrying my Sweater Petals.

The rest of the week’s news is all family-oriented.  The boys earned their red-with-a

-white-stripe belt in Tae Kwon Do on Friday.  I like to think of it as the Canadian belt.  After illnesses the previous week, they puffed a little but got through it just fine.  Oh, and I must be doing something right—a peach pie appeared on Monday and I had slices for breakfast all the way through Friday.  Yippee! 

Until next week,

Martina Celerin