serendipity

getting ready

My studio looks like a tornado has ripped through it.  Fabric, beads and mini pompoms are everywhere.  I'm getting ready for the Craft & Hobby Association's summer trade show which comes to the Chicago region in just a few weeks.  ACK!  Every morning I wake up with a list of things to accomplish and by nightfall the list has gotten longer.  How does that happen?  It equals the mystery of the Washing Machine Sock Monster.

I admit to having Multiple Idea Disorder, also known as MID.  I get an idea.  I sketch it out.  If it seems feasible, I act upon it.  Then I get another idea....  In short order, I have a 1/2 dozen or so projects going on my craft table.  The challenge is to finish them before skipping off to start yet another new project.  

I know it will all come together, if only because the deadline is looming.  That's me in my booth at the January show. I look so calm and serene.  Ha!  I had about 5 hours of sleep in me, but a little red lipstick, an IV coffee drip and I was good to go.  

Thank you Rebeca of Blue Buddha Boutique for the image!

Stitched Science

Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him

and calls the adventure Science.  -- Edwin Powell Hubble

Stitched Science, a two day science and fiber art festival is this weekend at the Science Museum, London.  In addition to the exhibition, there will be tons of kid friendly projects, like knitting i-cord to add to the giant fuzzy Jupiter or Martians to knit for Mars.  

Folks from around the world have contributed knitted, crocheted, embroidered, quilted replicas. My piece Ovum II (above) is part of the extravaganza.    I love Sami Teasdale's "Golden Hope" made from a radiotherapy mask and Liberty fabric.

Organized by Stitch London, you must check out the rest of the collection.  There is everything from water molecules to submarines.

 

 

membrane

"Painting is the art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic."

 -- Henry Louis Mencken

Membrane.  A thin fold of skin or tissue covering a limb or organ.  It derives from the Latin word membrana meaning parchment.  

New work from my Micro Pattern series.  I love working with this circular paper.  It's shape mimics the beaded pieces from my Chirurgi series.  

The paper itself has some sizing, but not enough to remain perfectly flat once wet.  As a result, it takes on a slight three dimensional quality, reminiscent of relief, which makes me love working with it all the more. 

garden inspiration

"The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses." -- Hanna Rion

The garden has long been a source of my inspiration.  There is the act of gardening which helps to clear the mind while exercising the body after hours working in the studio.  And then there are its many forms and colors.  I often reference it in my hats, such as this beanie called Lee.

My Visions of Paradise series was all about the garden which you can see in this piece from 1988 called The Enchanted Forest.

These days its wild flowers that inspire my work such this sunflower from my latest series A Glass Prairie.  

Of course, every gardener must have a helper.  Mine is a dog.  She digs holes for me, "trims" plants by tearing off leaves and supervises from my lap as I pull weeds.  Josie's shenanigans frequently force me to get on her level and take a closer look.  Here she's sitting in the herb garden among the lavender and boxwoods.  I had to keep shooing her off the thyme which she decided made a most comfy cushion.

Streeterville Artisan Market 2010

The Streeterville Artisan Market is this weekend, opening at 4 this afternoon.  Check out the Magnificent Mile Parade of Lights on Saturday and then walk over to complete some holiday shopping.  I'll be there with my Enjolive line of whimsical knit accessories and herbal sachets (based on my Gam's recipes).  I will also have a few works from my Visions of Paradise and Chirurgi series available for purchase.  

Purple Field, 1991, bead embroidery, 16" x 9.75", photo credit: John Phelan

Purple Field is one of my earlier works.  It's based on the famed fields of lavender in southern France.  The piece has been on exhibition throughout the United States and Colombia and has been featured in both Fiberarts and American Craft. 

Hope to see you!

procrastination

"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday."  --  Don Marquis

I've been cleaning.  Cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning.  The positive side to having had 4" of sewage backup into my basement is that I have no choice.  I can't procrastinate.  If I procrastinate, I have no office and no studio.  Cleaning isn't an option, especially as the contractor is finally here to work.   

You can only imagine the stuff I've accumulated over the years.  I still had floppies lurking in every corner of my office.  In my defense, the IRS required I hang onto them for seven years.  Okay, so I sold my yarn store 10 years ago.  I consider myself cautious.  Anyway, today I shipped them off to a recycling center in California that will erase the data and package them for reuse.  Who buys them?  I don't know, but at least these towers of plastic aren't in my house and won't end up in a landfill.  

Now I'm tackling the stack of unlabeled CD's.  I found one buried in the pile that Sam B, a former studio assistant, sent.

It shows the progress of my piece Femur, which is now part of the collection at the Jewish Health Foundation in Pittsburgh, PA. 

I'm not only labeling the unknown CD's, I'm organizing them in a file box.  Watch out Martha Stewart!  Lindsay is in a cleaning, sorting, tossing, donating kind of mood!

supermarket art fair: stockholm, sweden

  

  

Hej!  That's "hi ya" in Swedish.  This week, four of my smaller Chirurgi works are at the Supermarket Art Fair in Stockholm, Sweden with Art on Armitage, a Chicago-based gallery and the only one from the United States.  I'm so excited!  It's my first international art fair.  I'm especially thrilled as its focus is on artist-run initiatives.  I wish I could be there, but I will be in St. Louis with The Red Thread Project®.

Yes, the exciting news gets more exciting!  Springboard to Learning was awarded a Kresge Foundation grant to bring The Red Thread Project® back to St. Louis.  I'll be at 3 schools this week teaching the basics of knitting and community service.  A follow up performance will occur in the spring.

March 1st, my installation "Glass Prairie" premieres at Art on Armitage with a reception March 7th from 4-6.   I hope you can make it!

radiation poison

 

"A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses."  -- Hippocrates

There is nothing like scaring yourself witless before you've had your first cup of coffee.  I made the grand mistake of reading the news while waiting for the water to boil.  In today's New York Times, there is a horrifying article on radiation poisoning, a subject of which I have more than a little familiarity.

The title reads "The Radiation Boom:  Radiation Offers New Cures, and Ways to Do Harm."  The use of radiation in the treatment of cancer isn't new, but the method of delivery is.  The new generators are extremely powerful.  Without proper use, they can burn a hole right into you.  Humans are humans, so mistakes are bound to happen, but for some reason (probably money says the cynical me) nothing is being done to regulate these monsters of healthcare.  We have inspectors for elevators, commercial kitchens, school buses etc., but no one is regularly inspecting these machines for malfunction.  

My own experience is not atypical.  Radiation treatment has its side effects.  In my case, they've included a second round with cancer as a direct result of radiation exposure, scoliosis, dead nerve endings throughout most of my abdomen, and an inability to conceive and that's just for starters.  Scratch the conception bit,  I was told if I did happen to conceive, the fetus would most likely be miscarried.  If it did survive and come to term, I would have a child that would die within a year.  Just to make sure I got the point, my specialist at the time told me I was likely to face a child that would be born with three legs, no hands or some other major complication.  What a nice visual image for a 15 year old, don't you agree?

But I'm lucky.  I'm lucky to be alive and I'm lucky that my treatments were in 1974.  I didn't face the risk today's cancer patients do.  I'm not saying radiation should be eliminated from the doctor's medical kit, but I do advocate for regulation.  In the meantime I think we patients would do best by asking questions about the machinery being used on us.  Is the filter in place?  How's the computer working?  One small question may annoy the technician, but it may also cause a life changing double check.  

The above piece, The Curing Ritual, was part of a triptych now in private collections.  The base cloth is embedded with a cyanotype image that was then heavily embroidered and beaded.  It dates from 1993, a few months after my thyroid was removed due to cancer caused by radiation poisoning from the first cancer's treatments.

a prayer and a thank you

 

"Overwhelmed by my own life, but severely humbled by it's ease compared to some."  -- Melissa Chakmakian

I can't imagine the horrors currently being experienced by the people of Haiti.  I watch the news and check for updates every few hours, hoping and praying.  I have no physical connection to the country, but I owe much to its culture.  The voudou drapo (voodoo flag), such as this one by Haitian artist George Valris, was my initial point of research as a young art student and the primary influence for my collection Visions of Paradise.

Contrary to the stereotype perpetuated by Hollywood, voudou is not a dark magic, but a religion blending traditional West African beliefs with Christian ones.   The drapos represent certain saints or spirits and call upon them for help.  

Help is needed now.  You know what to do.  Give blood.  Send a financial donation to the Red Cross International Response Fund.  

direction by design?

 

"Design can be art.  Design can be aesthetics.  Design is so simple, that's why it is so complicated."  -- Paul Rand

The patterns lurking beneath our skin are an endless source of fascination for me.  My entire Chirurgi series investigates this subject.  But where do I take this work next? Do I continue in this vein or do I take the work in a different direction?  I'm working on a new series connecting the fragility of our ecosystem with French beaded funerary wreaths (more on that at a later date), but these patterns, they continue their grip.   

I found this book at the Victoria and Albert Museum's book shop.  What a book shop!  I could have spent my mortgage there (literally, one book I wanted was $175).  It's an exhibition catalog from a 2008 exhibition at the Wellcome Collection, one of my favorites.  In fact my entire graduate thesis portfolio was derived from research at this magnificent history library and art collection. 

What I find fascinating is the partnership between science and design. Plates, ties, curtains, you name it, all receiving their design cues from crystal structures.  Could my little gouache studies be used as the base for such?  If so, where to start?  Paper products such as cards and wrapping paper?  Mugs?  Rugs?  This leads to next question - do I ultimately dilute my other work by moving these sketches into design?