Mark Makers at Victoria College of Art

Victoria College of Art - where the Mark Makers are presently having their first public exhibition. 

In the Drafting Studio, first on the right.
I will be taking my turn sitting the exhibition tomorrow.
Lots of people have been visiting so it will be busy.

This is the first time 'Hemoglobin: Chlorophyll II' has been out of my studio.
The artist statement:

How many breaths has this well-worn, opened-out pillow case absorbed?

Capillaries, veins and arteries make up the lungs of our planet. The sister molecules, hemoglobin and chlorophyll, the red and green, are responsible for the rhythm of our lives.

Familiar, used domestic linens allow me to communicate without the need for translation, to reach across time, and to honour the often anonymous original makers.

Domestic linens were dyed red or green, strip pieced, then the motifs free-motion machine stitched.

Tree Colour Studies

I continue my tree colour studies each new moon day of the month.
Here is a leaf on the maple tree in July. The chlorophyll has started to withdraw.

 

Here is the same leaf a month later showing very little change. We must have had a cold night back in July.


The arbutus is back to peeling its bark.

There has been no change in the colour of the Douglas-fir branches so I looked at its rough bark.

I also looked at the cedar's bark.
I am stitching these colours in a band across the tree cloths.

May New Moon

When the new moon appeared this month I visited my 4 trees to see what changes had taken place over the previous month.
Douglas-fir needles have grown longer.

Maple leaves have grown from buds to over twice the size of my hand - in 1 month!

Caterpillars are feeding on the new leaves.

New Cedar scales now have rust-orange tips.

Opps, I forgot to take pictures of  white flowers the Arbutus is dropping.
But here are the new irises I planted last September - so lush with lots of symmetries giving them a complex beauty.

Pollen Moon

April was 'Pollen Moon' because the Douglas-fir released great clouds of yellow-orange pollen from young bright-orange cones high in the trees. This image is of an old Douglas-fir cone.

The Maple flowered and released pollen too. 

The new Cedar branches become a bright red. 

The Arbutus dropped more of its vivid yellow-green leaves and red bark.
I stitched with more intense colours that month.

Maple Cloth Stitching Progress

I called the October new moon 'Falling Leaf Moon' and worked autumn leaf colours into the bed sheet.
The hole was made after the stitching, while the cloth was on the tree. 

During 'Wet Moon', I added colours of decaying leaves lying on the ground within the tree's drip circle.
The 3rd band, during 'Frost Moon' or 'Long Night Moon', I worked a colour study of the almost neon green lichens glowing on the bare tree's bark. 

Buds appeared in January during 'Cold Moon' month.

For 4 moons I have worked bands of red noting a shift in the hue from a cool shade to a warmer more intense shade as the buds matured.
Once the whole bed sheet is stitched it will visually show the chromatic physiognomy (biological identity) of the tree.

Stitching What I See

During fall and I was entranced by the Maple's colours.

 

 

 

I decided to stitch the colours I saw.

Gardening vs Nurturing

As a part of the work i did for one of my degree modules, I set up a series of dialogues with the environment outside my house. This one i called 'Gardening vs Nurturing'.

I made a checkerboard of black, weed-suppression garden cloth and crochet doilies.

20 months later, this is what the site looked like

As i anticipated, nothing had grown through the garden cloth, while the doilies nurtured lush growth.

Dialogue with a Maple Tree

Several months ago, just as the autumn leaves began to fall, i placed a table cloth under a maple tree.
I watched as it became covered with fallen leaves and disappeared.

Yesterday i decided it was time to find it and take it inside.

As I brushed the leaves away i found lots of black and pink! staining.

This horned animal skull shaped motif on the corners of this tablecloth is one i have been researching for my dissertation. The shape is known as a bucranium.
I will now gently wash the cloth. I'll show you the results when it is dry and ironed.

Dialogue

It must have been cold last night because this morning there are a lot more fallen leaves under the maple.
The tea cloth I put under it is quite covered.
I hope lots of interesting staining is going on under those leaves.
I have to watch it closely now to catch it before the cotton threads start disintegrating like they did in a previous sample.

This was an unexpected surprise. Even though it is October here in Victoria and I knew the lawn was still growing, I didn't expect grasses to grow up under the cloth.
They have found their way through the eyelets in the tea cloth. It looks like threading.
I could do something with this.

Dialogue Continues

The maple tree is showing signs of turning.

It is time to continue my dialogue with it.

I laid a soy soaked table cloth underneath it.

Now I am waiting for the leaves to fall.