Ideas and Inspiration

What was I thinking in my last post, promising to write about getting ideas?  For me, ideas for art pieces come from anywhere and everywhere.  If I lived to be 100 and sewed constantly until then, I still would not get out all the ideas that I have in my head.  For those of you looking for inspiration, it is a matter of training yourself to see and not just look.  Don’t overlook simple things, if you pass over many possible ideas, it is time to ask yourself whether or not you really want to make something.  Forget about the myth of waiting for inspiration, ideas are all around you. 

I might be captivated by a vintage textile.  My collages usually start with two or three vintage pieces that I like, and I build a composition around them.

A color combination could get me started:

I am surrounded by beautiful Appalachian meadows, forests and farmland, some of my art reflects the scenery I see every day.

Oddly, abandoned buildings hold great fascination for me.  My fabric boxes are my way of capturing the passage of time.  Those same boxes came about first from a quote in a John Steinbeck novel. 

Most importantly, just make things!  Make time to be creative at least several times a week.  Turn off the TV for an hour, and create.  Don’t be afraid of making a mistake, it will happen, but that is how we all learn.  I am always reciting my mantra that a new skill or technique will not be perfect the first time that you try it.  Keep going!

Slow Progress

I have been making slow progress in keeping up my New Year's resolution to make more stuff.  One of my goals for some time has been to make various sizes of my fabric boxes.  A couple of years ago I made many 2 inch cube boxes and a few large ones in the range of 4X6X4" and 3X5X3."  Finally over the past week, I cut sides for 3 inch cubes and 2X3X2 boxes.  I have a lot of fun embellishing the box sides in a variety of surface design techniques.  When I start a run of new box sizes, I first make a bunch in a blend of neutrals - black, white, grays and tans.  Here are the sides for the new sizes, embellished and sorted, ready to start zigzagging together.

I've discussed in an early post about how my fascination with boxes came in part from John Steinbeck's dedication to his East of Eden.  Another source of inspiration for my boxes comes from abandoned buildings.  Yes, run down, crumbling old buildings.

My boxes are made up of fabric scraps from other projects, capturing the patched together look of some dilapidated houses.  As I stitch the sides of my smaller boxes together, the action of pinching the sides together causes the box to undergo some shifting and warping.  This is a good thing, it gives the box more character and adds to the visual interest of the piece.  Even the house that I live in, built in 1994, has parts that have swayed and shifted.  This is what I want to capture in my little boxes - the natural, slow process of physical aging of an inanimate structure.  Of course, all of us get bumps, sags and wrinkles as we age, so the inevitable wear that these boxes show over time simply reflects us as well.

Image and designs copyright RPS

My little fabric boxes are mostly decorative, but they could of course be used to hold, as Steinbeck put it, "whatever you have."

The Purple Collage, the Finale

Earlier this year, or maybe even last year, I periodically documented the creation of a fabric collage here.  It was finished for entry into the Mutton Hill Quilt Show, and here it is at the show:

Image and design copyright RPS

It was an experiment, not completely successful.  While I made it, I had in mind the paper collages of Kurt Schwitters (scroll down on the link for images of his work).  I think the influence of Schwitters is evident in my collage.  However, it is a bit of a wreck in the technique.  My most significant fault with my purple collage is the trial of sewing a slightly smaller quilt base, allowing the edges of the purple dyed damask napkin hang free.  I will not do that again!  It was hard to quilt near the edges, and I just don't like the floppy edges.  Additionally, the quilting made the whole thing lumpy!  The next collage that I make using a dyed napkin for a sub-base will have a slightly larger quilt base, not smaller.  I would like to try mounting future collages on canvas and stretcher bars, like a painting.  I have heard of other textile artists having good luck with that method, citing that would-be buyers relate to the treatment better. 

Another thing that I like about the collage is the seed stitching I did to create an unobtrusive border.  The stitching was necessary to try and secure the floppy edges, and it added more texture.  Not only is there paper sewn into this piece, but there really are pieces in there that would have been trash!  There are foil chocolate wrappers and plastic mesh produce bag pieces in the mix.  Look around as you go through your day with a vision to find unusual materials to stitch. 

Despite the problems, I really had fun making this and I still love it as a learning experience.  I will hang it somewhere in my house, as it is still a visual delight to me.  I hope to start my next collage this weekend.

Another Children's Book Illustrator

Today, I’d like to take a look at the illustrations of Ed Emberley.  I discovered Ed Emberely’s Drawing Book: Make a World (Little, Brown and Company, 1972) when I was a bit older than the book’s intended age target, but I remember being charmed by the multitude of things he drew with just a few simple shapes and lines.  As I have been seeking ways to get people to not be intimidated by drawing, I recently purchased my own copy of Make a World. 

His drawings are in the realm of stick figures, however, he shows how to put lines and shapes together to make many recognizable things.  The animals, buildings and objects show how one can abstract something to a simple form without losing the identity.  Textile artists, think applique or free motion quilting here.  If you can get a copy of Make a World, study it for the breakdown of forms to their bare essentials, then try making your own near-abstract creations of everyday objects.  Draw them, or cut pieces of colored paper.  Isn’t it fun to be a kid again?

Here is a free-motion thread sketch of a train that I did in Emberley’s style.

copyright RPS, please do not copy or repost 

I made some changes from Emberley’s instructions, I didn’t like the look of his caboose at all, and my coal car is quite different too.  Had I not been running late with this post, I would have looked at some pictures of real trains to get the images I wanted.  Then, I added color to my quilted train:

copyright RPS, please do not copy or repost 

If you want to make your own folk-inspired or applique designs, take a good look at Emberley’s drawings.

Children's Book Illustrators, Again

One of my all-time favorite books as a youngster was Anno’s Journey by Mitsumasa Anno (original U.S. edition, William Collins Publishers, 1978).  As much as I loved to read from an early age, Anno’s Journey has no text, only ink and watercolor landscapes that trace a traveler’s path across Europe of an undetermined historic time.  Anno’s drawings consist of very simple ink outlines, augmented by watercolor wash.  (Take a look at examples here and here.)  They are simple and complex all at the same time.  His buildings are a delight of textures, while his people and animals are outlines unencumbered by shading for depth.  There really isn’t room for too much detail in his figures, as they are very small in his vast land and cityscapes.  The color in his illustrations is typically understated –mostly muted tones.

Image copyright RPS. Please do not copy or repost

My first attempt at a free motion drawing inspired by Anno.

As a child, I missed Anno’s Flea Market (first U.S. edition Philomel Books, 1984), but I have been studying a copy of it, and I think I love it more than the Journey.  Another wordless tale, this flea market unfolds over the pages, set within the walls of a medieval fort/city/castle.  The place and time that this flea market takes place is ambiguous, and the ages of the items don’t give any clues, nor does the dress of the people in the market.  What I find most fascinating in Anno’s drawings of the flea market is the way he ignores perspective and scale to show the viewer all that is happening.  The vendors’ table tops are tilted to nearly vertical so that Anno’s economical line drawings of the items may be viewed.  The items themselves are drawn out of scale; hand tools as tall as the people, garlic bulbs as big as the figures’ heads, and so on.  The skewed scale and perspective really doesn’t matter here, as there is so much going on in his story illustrations.  Here and there, you will find somewhat sinister things going on at this flea market – a man with a trumpet on his head, an artist painting a busty rendition of a flat chested model, and Kermit the Frog makes an unexpected appearance! 

Image copyright RPS. Please do not copy or repost

The same quilted piece from above, with colored pencil added. 

Next time, I would add a stabilizer under the top fabric. 

Colored pencil does not adhere well to stretchy fabric.

What I take as an art quilter from Anno is his use of line, his mastery of storytelling without words, and his inclusion of unexpected surprises.  After looking at these two books, some free motion quilting exercises came to mind.  First, try “drawing” outlines of everyday objects by free motioning.  This is a great way to improve you hand-eye coordination.  Next, try creating a simple line landscape with a building in it.  How can you add texture to the land and structure with stitching?  Finally, what little details could you add to your art that would surprise the viewer?  What can you add that would make the viewer look longer at the piece?  

Influences and Essentials

One of the books on art journaling that I have from the library (Alphabetica by Lynne Perrella) has an interesting feature. The author profiles fourteen artists who journal and part of each profile includes each artists' ten studio essentials and ten influences.  I thought I would come up with my own list of ten.  It is not easy to rank a top ten - I have more than ten each of essentials and influences.  So, the lists I present today could be different on another day!  Some of my selections would always make the list, others are subject to my whims.  Of course, the selections are in no particular order.

Studio Essentials:
1. vintage Sewing Machines
2. ephemera
3. Procion dyes
4. fancy embroidery threads
5. variegated machine and hand sewing threads
6. fusible interfacing
7. vintage damasks for dyeing
8. a variety of different fabrics
9. funky yarns and lace trims
10. my personal library of books, magazines and articles

Influences:
1. Joseph Cornell
2. Viktor Schreckengost
3. nature
4. Tom Waits
5. Heather Thomas
6. Stuart Davis
7. Robert Rauschenberg
8. Kurt Schwitters
9. classical music
10. my mother

Considering Children's Book Illustrators

I’ve mentioned before that I have been sporadically completing the exercises in the Art Quilt Workbook by Jane Davila and Elin Waterston (C&T Publishing, 2007).  One on the things that I appreciate about this book is the short list in each chapter of “artists to study” whose works relate to the lesson in the chapter.  The artists are mostly well-known and easily researched names.  No matter what art medium you are exploring, you cannot get away from looking at the work of other artists and learning from them.  Art history constantly builds on what came before.  College art students often get assignments to copy a painting hanging in a museum to learn multiple techniques.  One word of caution, it is always prudent to respect copyright, artists at any level need to be familiar with copyright laws.  Check your local library for a selection of good resources on copyright, and you could always try to wade through the essential source for copyright, the U.S. Copyright Office  

There are other artists to consider aside from the usual suspects of art history.  At my day job, I spent some time recently shelf reading the children’s books.  I have re-discovered some personal childhood favorite illustrators and found some new ones that are worth study for applying to my own art adventures.  Of course, I cannot insert images of these illustrators’ work here, but I encourage you to investigate them further. 

First, consider the collage illustrations of Lois Ehlert (Lots of Spots, Boo to You, etc.) and Eric Carle (Pancakes, Pancakes, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, etc.).  Ehlert creates images from layers of paper shapes accented with cut-outs and tiny paper bits.  Carle creates his collage illustrations from shapes cut out of painted papers, then adds detail with more paint and crayon lines.  If you want to create representational images from fabric using applique, take a look at these two.  The two small quilts below are what I created for the chapter two and three exercises in The Art Quilt Workbook.  These were done before I rediscovered Ehlert and Carle, but they make my point nicely; I certainly could have had the two illustrators in mind when I made the quilts.  The carrots and squash were created by fusing fabric cut into the desired shapes, then detailed with hand or machine stitching, similar to Ehlert’s and Carle’s techniques with paper.

Images copyright RPS, please do not copy or repost

On a bit of an aside, I highly recommend giving the children in your life a copy of Carle’s Pancakes, Pancakes for the message it contains about what it takes to make something. 

I’ll have something different on Thursday, next week I will look at another illustrator, hopefully with a quilted example that applies what I see in the art.  I’ve got to get busy!

Recommended Reading for Creativity

I’m not sure how much reading one should do about creativity; I strongly feel that you become more creative by doing, but if you need a boost, or want to make an in-depth study, one book I would recommend is Tom Waits on Tom Waits: Interviews and Encounters, edited by Paul Maher Jr. (Chicago Review Press, 2011).  Waits is singer-songwriter whose recordings defy categorization.  What endears his music to me is how he combines a multitude of music styles (blues, jazz, traditional ethnic, folk, hip-hop, rock, vaudeville, storytelling, etc.) with mysterious characters and story lines into something completely his own.  That is what we all try to do as artists, we are indeed the sum of many parts.  The book is not a manual on creativity, but it is fascinating reading on the creative process of one musician, and there are many valuable insights into Waits’ inspirations and evolution as a performer.  Regardless of how his music hits you (his voice is an acquired “taste”), there are lessons in the pages of the interviews for all artists, performing and visual.

From a 1999 interview by Brett Martin in Time Out New York, Waits advised that, “… you can take James White and the Blacks, and Elmer Bernstein and Lead Belly – folks that would could never be on the bill together – and that they could be on the bill in you.  You take your dad’s army uniform and your mom’s Easter hat and your brother’s motorcycle and your sister’s purse and stitch them all together and try to make something meaningful out of it.”  Of course, I love the sewing metaphor since my focus is on textile art!  Waits is right on there.  In my world, I put together the works of Joseph Cornell, Viktor Schreckengost, and Claes Oldenburg in the same museum exhibit.

Who would be on your concert bill or museum exhibit?  That would make a great art quilt idea – an advertising poster for your show of your influences…

The Collecting - Creativity Conundrum

I am a collector of many things.  I've often wondered about a possible connection between the collecting mentality and creativity in people.  Is collecting linked to being more creative?  How many producing artists are collectors of... anything?  One could get a headache pondering this, but I'd love to investigate it someday. 

Off the top of my head, there are some art history heavyweights that were collectors: Joseph Cornell, Louise Nevelson, Claes Oldenburg, and Robert Rauschenberg had to have some quantity of cast off stuff for materials for their artwork.  In the case of Oldenburg, the objects were not used in his artwork, but were the inspiration for his large scale sculptures of everyday objects.  In Claes Oldenburg, An Anthology (Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1995), there are a couple photos of shelves in his studio, piled with all sorts of odd items.  I sometimes wonder how these artists acquired their collections.  Did they go to junk auctions like the ones I frequent?  Were they dumpster divers?  Did they claim whatever things people that they knew were discarding? 

What do you collect, either consciously or unconsciously?  Some collections grow without the collector realizing he or she is collecting.  One of the easiest and cheapest (make that free) collections would be the gathering of quotations.  I have a small sketchbook just for the purpose of recording quotes that I like.  Since I have much to do before the quilt show this weekend,  I will leave you with this until next time:

"Art is not to be awaited; it is to be chased down, cornered, and beaten into submission with a stick."
--Michael Perry, Population 485

Now, go make something!  Or start or add to a collection...

Abstract Expressionist Fabric Dyeing

The murky mess of just-dyed fabric that I mentioned in my post from June 29 turned into this:

Images copyright RPS, please do not post elsewhere 

Two vintage damask tablecloths that I dyed in a technique that is influenced by the Abstract Expressionist paintings of Morris Louis.  (More information on Louis here.) I came up with this technique as a way to use up all of the dye at left over at the end of a session. 

 

I take two or three prepped tablecloths and spread them out in the driveway, stacking them to absorb all the dye.  Then I pull up an edge of the layered tablecloths, and pour one color down the ridge of the fold.  I move over a few inches, pull up another fold, pour another color, and repeat until all the colors are poured out.   

I don’t use my dyed tablecloths as table covers.  I cut them up for art quilts, and they are great for making garments as well.  I occasionally cut one into fat quarters to sell, but mostly I sell them as whole pieces for others to use creatively.

 

Why I make art quilts

I thought I’d ramble on a bit about why I make art quilts/textile art.  As I’ve mentioned in other posts, I have dabbled in other art media, somehow intrinsically knowing I wanted to make something, but not being happy with the materials until I forced myself to learn how to sew.  My mother has always sewn, making some of my clothes when I was a youngster.  I frequently tagged along to fabric shops with her, and I always appreciated the art and design in the print fabrics.  It wasn’t until I started seeing books and magazine articles about art quilts that I became inspired to learn the basics of sewing.  I wanted to make art quilts, not clothing, not drapes, not bed quilts. 

A little bit of my fabric stash

 

Fabric is easy to find, and in the realm of art materials, relatively inexpensive when compared to paint or the investment of equipment needed for ceramics, glass or metal work.  Yes, a sewing machine can be a big investment, but if you do like I did and find a nice vintage machine to get started, it is not that much out of most budgets. 

Sewing does not require a lot of space, even though most of us who sew have vast stashes of fabric, taking over significant portions of our homes.  In theory, one could get away with a boxful of fabric and notions, a portable sewing machine and an ironing board that is put away when not in use.  I don’t need a huge kiln to fire ceramics, no welding equipment or cumbersome power tools. 

Sewing does not make too much of a mess.  No paint spills or splatters, no long drying times.  Yes, I dye my own fabric, which is wet and messy, however, I dye outside and in only a few intense sessions a year.  Most sewing projects are easily interrupted, from five minutes to several years.  I don’t have to worry about a project drying out before I finish it.  They are not going to be ruined if I cannot finish them in a day.  If a piece doesn’t go together right the first time, I just rip out the stitches and try again.  I remember so many ceramic pieces that I put a lot of time on, only to have them crack in the kiln.  No good way to fix those. 

There are so many amazing ways to manipulate fabric, multiply that by the many different kinds of fabric (cotton, silk, wool…) and you have endless inspiration.  I am constantly astounded by the art quilts in the SAQA shows, there is always something new.  Fabric is incredibly versatile.  If I had to choose just one positive characteristic of my chosen medium, it would have to be versatility.  Finally, I fell into art quilting because I did not want to make things that had already been done. 

Who are your influences?

 In the movie The Commitments, the main character tries to assemble an R&B band, and he weeds out the applicants with one very simple question, “who are your influences?”  Regardless of the subject; music, art or anything else; the answers to that question tell a lot about the respondent.  This is the first in what will probably be a long periodic series on the influences on my textile art, not only who, but what as well.                                                       

Today’s influence could really be called more of an inspiration, but I suppose I’m splitting hairs on definitions.  Back in college, I got around to reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck.  The dedication ended up inspiring me and influencing my artwork: 

                Pascal Covici 

                Dear Pat,

You came upon me carving some kind of little figure out of wood and you said, “Why don’t you make something for me?”

                I asked you what you wanted, and you said, “A box.”

                “What for?”

                “To put things in.”

                “What things?”

                “Whatever you have,” you said.

Well, here’s your box.  Nearly everything I have is in it, and it is not full.  Pain and excitement are in it, and feeling good or bad and evil thoughts and good thoughts – the pleasure of design and some despair and the indescribable joy of creation.

                And on top of these are all the gratitude and love I have for you.

                And still the box is not full.                   

Pascal Covici was Steinbeck’s publisher and friend, and Steinbeck had carved a wooden box for the East of Eden manuscript.  This dedication struck a chord with me.  I love the idea of a box being symbolic for greater things, a container representing so much more than what could be put in it physically.   

At the time I read the book, I was absorbed in my ceramics classes, and I started to make clay boxes.  I thought about decorating the insides as much as the outsides.

 image and designs copyright 2016 RPS

I started to collect antique boxes, and continue to collect.

image copyright 2016 RPS

Now that I am into art quilts and textile art, I am making fabric boxes, and indeed, I still embellish the insides of the boxes, reflecting the outside decoration. 

 image and designs copyright 2016 RPS

The box form lends itself to so many variants, and I don’t think that I will ever run out of ideas for them.  I cannot make them fast enough to keep up with the ideas in my head.  As I hit the art fair circuit soon, I hope others will take delight my treasure boxes.