Dorothy Caldwell Workshop

Dorothy Caldwell taught her 'Human Marks' workshop in Gloria Daly's Duncan studio. Many of us had registered for the workshop over 18 months ago, as soon as we heard Dorothy was coming to the island.

Dorothy is a gifted teacher and a great artist. Everyone was so eager to be coached by her for the week.

The first exercise was to make a quick spontaneous mark on paper with black ink. We put our efforts up on the wall and looked at them while Dorothy explained the notion of the human mark.

The next exercise was to make  repeated marks with only our hands, ink and a small felt pad. We worked on both sides of a long piece of soft paper.  I used all of my finger tips on my right hand to make my repeating marks.

We lay our papers end on the full length of the room and marvelled at the variety and different effects and feelings in each one.

Next exercise. This time we used a fine pen to make a small single motion repeated mark over and over. This exercise required more arm movement and produced quite a different kind of mark. One that looked different close-up and from a distance. The mark itself makes the drawing.

Throughout these exercises, we were thinking of the word Dorothy gave us -

Allow

Done & have the paper to prove it!

My drawing desk. 

Notice the drafting board is empty.

 I completed the final assignment, presented it....

...and graduated.

For the past couple of months I put everything else more or less on hold and focused on this program. 

I feel a great sense of achievement and also pleased I am able to return to my 'normal'.

I took the following week off to do nothing in particular - sleep, read, sleep, eat.

This week I am back in my studio.

 First I want to put away an accumulation of materials: project left-overs, acquisitions, gifts. 

While doing this annual task I enjoy getting reacquainted with my resources. I keep a pen and paper handy because the activity always generates a heap of ideas.

New Studio Work Area

This used to be the admin area in my studio until I moved it outside my main studio room.

In the process of moving out.

I didn't decided what to use the space for but just waited to see what happened there.

For the past year I have been in the Gaia College Ecological Landscape Design program at Royal Roads University. The last 2 courses have involved lots of sketching and drafting.

My new work area has turned into my drafting work station. It is so good having a dedicated area for it where I can leave things out.

Here I am working on my big final project.

Current Threads 2013 Artist Talks

On Saturday 21st, the Metchosin Art Gallery featured artist talks during the Vancouver Island Surface Design Association's annual Current Threads exhibition.
Curator of the gallery, Hailey Finnegan, made the opening remarks and introductions.

Sarah McLaren spoke about the processes and techniques involved in her monumental thread painting of a path through a forest. We are all familiar with this native, island forest, which makes the details and accuracy of Sarah's work so inspiring.

Kristin Rohr http://kristinrohr.com/combines science and art to produce maps about important social issues. She made the audience aware of how much sampling she does and how important it is in her process before she is ready to produce a major work. 

Linda Wallace http://www.americantapestryalliance.org/AP/ArtistBio/WallaceL.html is a tapestry weaver extraordinaire. She also makes a bridge between science and art to express how she feels about important personal issues. Linda also produces exquisite, small graphite drawings, most of which stay in her small sketchbooks but some have a second life providing the motifs in large woven wall hangings.

Then I spoke about the 'Synesthesia series I am working on.
I couldn't take a photo of my self but I will be posting more about this series later.

Staining on Tree Cloths

By November 1st snow and cooler temperatures slowed down the rate of staining on the tree cloths.

In the darkness under the Cedar tree its cloth stayed wet and had decayed more rapidly than the others.

By November the Cedar tree cloth was in a fragile state.

over the summer and fall I had continued with other dialogues within the  Douglas-fir ecosystem. I laid a piece of cloth on the ground and left the leaves and debris fall on it. Each week I would uncover a corner, cut off a piece and bring it inside.

On windy days I tied a brush to a branch and held a framed cloth up for the tree to draw on.

Most of these dialogues suggested ideas I could take further but it was the tree cloths I decided to focus on for my BA(Hons) studies.

More Portraits and Flowers

Here are some more of the portraits and flower drawings my Mark Making With Machine students did last week.
Each drawing is full of character -both the sitter and the sewer's personality comes through the quality of the marks made.

Drawing With Sewing Machine

At the beginning of my Mark Making with Machine course a number of students said wanted to learn how to draw with their machines. Last lesson we spent the afternoon drawing.

First they traced a flower to get the feel for making a line.

Next they made several drawings of the flower they each brought to class.

Then they turned their sewing tables to face each other in pairs and spent the rest of the afternoon drawing portraits.

Didn't they all do such a great job!!

Dialogue 2 My Turn

Once I had dried the cloth and sealed it with a workable fixative, I pinned it to a frame and waited for a windy day.

When the wind came I raced outside with a bottle of brown ink and tried dipping Douglas-fir needles then holding up the framed cloth for the inked needles to draw on it.

But I found the needles couldn't hold enough ink to leave enough of a line on fabric. With previous sampling I had the needles draw on soft paper and it worked very well.

So I rushed inside, hoping the wind was going to hang around, found a small brush and some wire and ran out to the tree again.

I wired the brush tip to the branch, dipped the bristles and held up the framed cloth.



It worked much better with the brush being able to hold more ink.

I think I got so into co-operating with the tree that I overdid the amount of drawing.

But the tree had a lot to say.










Worm casts had stuck to the cloth even after it was dried.

I didn't like these lumps of dirt because bits of them kept dropping whenever I handled the cloth.

So I brushed them off.












Some of the bigger 'bits' were not being held by the fixative and I wanted to keep them on the cloth.

So as my next response, after the tree did its drawing, was to secure the leaves and tree shoots with various types of stitching: closed herringbone, cross stitch, whipping.

I forgot to take a photograph of this stitching before I sent it off to my tutor in the UK. I'll post images it once I get the work back.

Dialogue with Cedar

One of the trees I have been working with is the Western Red Cedar.

I found this burnt stump......

... and rubbed my sketchbook over it.

The tree has wonderfully suggestive textural bark.

The drawing the cedar did on a breezy day.

Tree Drawings

This semester with my BA (Hons) studies I am taking the Personal Specialism module, which is all about learning how to write a proposal for an art project, 2 of them actually and to show how the art work would change to suit the different sites.

My first proposal is for my work to be placed out in our garden as a dialogue between the trees and myself. I am exploring the intimate human connection with the natural environment so I am starting by exploring my own relationship with our garden.

These are some images of drawings made by trees. I waited for a windy day then went outside with my sketchbook and a bottle of ink. I dipped a leaf/needle that was still on the tree in the ink then held the sketchbook up so the page just touched the inky leaf.

It is very interesting to see how each tree produced its own distinctive marks.
The idea for tree drawings came from Nalini Nadkarni's book 'Between Earth and Sky', a very good read for those interested in trees.

'Costume In Detail'

I just received this yummy book in the mail & I have already spent several hours dipping into it.

Nancy Bradfield obviously loves costume because it shows in the inspiring, detailed drawings she has made of the outside & inside of hundreds of garments & accessories. Most of them have never been seen by the public and never will because they are too delicate or are disintegrating.
Most of the earliest costumes are drawn from a cache she discovered in the basement of Westminster Abbey on wax effigies beside the owner's tomb.
The drawings are so detailed they are an 'invaluable source of information for those concerned with fashion, with period dress, with history, and with theatre, film, or TV.'
ISBN 0-89676-217-3