Studio: Sorting, Organising, Cleaning

I have been very busy these past 2 weeks setting up my new studio. Each item I touch I make the decision to keep it or not. If it is to be kept it gets cleaned, organised then stored.

I have decided to store things in used paper and cardboard, like these grocery bags for painted papers.

I raided a shoe store's supply of empty boxes. I think the owner was pleased he had fewer boxes to flatten after I left. Yes, it does look like a shoe store but it is a most convenient way to organise my many collections of precious things.

Collections that I use more often I arranged in cut off boxes. I can easily take the whole box off the shelf to a table to find exactly what I need.

Fabrics and threads continue to be stored in clear (mostly) plastic containers. I went through every bin throwing out what no longer interests me. My fabric and thread collections are organised into a bin for each colour.

The shelving cardboard is being used to extend the new garden bed. When the paper and cardboard containers wear out they too will be added to the garden to make lasagna soil.

With my family, we are hosting an open house to celebrate the completion of the Green Shed. There is nothing like a deadline to keep one working hard. I am enjoying getting reacquainted with everything I have to work with.

Small Expressions Show, Tulista Gallery, Sidney

Synesthesia #4 Spring Green

I have just spent the day working in a team to install this year's 'Small Expressions Show' at Tulista Community Arts Centre, Sidney-by-the-Sea, BC. When we left the gallery late this afternoon all of the work  was in place and looked so inviting. It looked like a place to spend a couple of hours absorbing what it means to be creative.

Synesthesia #5 Green

The vibe on the Pacific Northwest coast attracts those who want to express their creativity actively. This is particularly so in the town of Sidney and on the Saanich Penninsula where there are literally hundreds of artists living within a small area working in every media.

Synesthesia # 6 Blue Green

The catch with this exhibition, Small Expressions, is every work has to fit within the limitations of being 12 x 12 x 12 or less. For some artists, this is their norm. For other artists, it is a challenge and often the results are surprising. A different side of their creativity surfaces.

This is my 3rd Small Expressions exhibition. I am continuing to show work from my Synesthesia series. The 3 above images are of the work I have entered this year.

Synesthesia #24 Golden Yellow

I entered the above and 2 below works last year.

Synesthesia is a series expressing how I feel the energy of different colours. They are sensing drawings in fabric and thread. I have made 10 and plan to make 24.

Synesthesia #23 Orange Yellow

Tomorrow we meet at the gallery to put up labels and to do the tweaking and tidy up until everything looks perfect.

The exhibition opens Wednesday March 4th, from 10:00 to 4:00pm. I will do my first shift that morning. Every artist who is able to sits with the show twice over the month. The exhibition closes March 29th. The gallery will be open every day except Mondays.

Synesthesia #22 Yellow-orange

The Small Expressions Show is just one of a great many different exhibitions, activities and programs under the umbrella of the very active Community Arts Council of the Saanich Peninsula (CACSP). CACSP is one of the 90 regional arts councils in British Columbia whose mandate is to nurture an appreciation of all the arts on the Saanich Peninsula.

Morocco - Things Textiley I Saw

Our annual family holiday was spent in Morocco this year. As you can imagine I have many pics of this fascinating country. I want to show you a few of the textiley things we saw.

Above is a display in a pastmentarie shop of handmade braided belts ready for the discerning bride to select from. Many of these pastmentarie shops could be found together in every medina. They are filled to the ceilings with braids, tassels, cords, cloth covered with sequins.... Every one an Aladdin's Cave.

Here is our wonderful guide, Tahar, explaining how the door into a house/riad works and what all of the symbolic embellishments mean.

But look at what he is wearing over his clothes. It is the traditional Berber unisex onesie, called a djellaba. Everyone was wearing one because it was cold.

Tahar's djellaba had beautiful braiding along the front opening and all of the seams were embellished.

A braider at work in his shop making and attaching braid to a djellaba. I don't know if you can see all of those threads he is manipulating while he sews. It is one of the many, many traditional, specialised skilled jobs still being practiced in Morocco. This is a man's job. 

Our driver, Mohammed, had my favourite djellaba. He comes from the High Atlas mountains where his mother spun and wove (women's work) sheep's wool, maybe goat as well, cloth for his djellaba and his uncle made the braids. It is a rich brown colour, letting people know that Mohammed is an eligible bachelor. I was so engrossed listening to Mohammed talk about his beautiful djellaba I didn't think to take a picture.

While walking the dim, narrow streets of a medina one has to take care not to trip or be garrotted by the braid maker's tool at work. When he needs to make cord he puts his twisting machine out on the street because there is not enough room in his shop to stretch out the thread to make the meters of cord needed to make a braid.

This is the only woman I ever saw making cord. I thought she was very clever to use the holes left by the construction of the ancient city wall to hold the sticks she wrapped the thread around. She walked back and forth along the wall warping up the sticks before taking one out of the hole and twisting it to make the cord.

More posts on Morocco to come.

Lilaberry ArtSea Festival Artist Residency

I worked 8 days straight in my temporary studio next to the front window in Lilaberry Home Decor here. Fifty artists were working, demoing and displaying as one of Sidney's ArtSea Festival events. 

Lilaberry's lovely owner, Chris Stephen, sent me these pics she had been taking during the week.

My time was divided between sharing my work....

...and making the work. 

It was a most productive week on all fronts.

Many of Sidney's residents and visitors experienced an art encounter. The relationship between Sidney's business and arts communities was strengthened. My art practice benefited and I hope Lilaberry benefited too.

The Spring Clean Continues

Sorting threads and yarns into 24 colour hues. Each pile gets put in its own bin.

The stage where things look worse before they start looking better.

I kept pinning pieces to my design wall to give me time to think about them.

A few new projects came out of this airing.

Sorting all of my precious laundered domestic linens.

There was great satisfaction in getting this resource shelf reorganised.

After I had washed the floor, I felt the spring-cleaning urge subside.

Now back to work.

Synesthesia #22 Yellow-orange

After completing my studies and starting to cleaning up my studio I was keen to get back to making.

I decided to take a break and make a couple more in the Synesthesia series - a collection of  24 small works about how I feel about different colours - what their individual energies feel like.

#22 Yellow-orange was next. I knew the feeling I wanted to evoke so assembled the threads and fabrics.

I made a quick sample...

...and started. But I was fighting fires the whole time. The first mistake was laying down too much 'dark'. Working over it with a lighter thread turned it a greeny colour. The circles persisted in forming straight lines...

Eventually I gave up and started again. I took the time to establish the values and their range then made decisions within those parameters to get the right feeling/energy.

Finished.

I think of a fermenting, bubbling energy when I see this colour.

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.

Cord Making Project

In between projects I was clearing up the studio when I saw how big my collection of 2nd hand machine thread had grown.
I decided to make a few cords with it, before moving on to my next project.
I started by sorting the big bag full into 24 hue groups.

I collected up the ends of 20 to 30 spools....

...and put the containers of colour grouped spools on the floor under my machine.

I passed the bundle of threads through the machine to be secured with a wide, open zig zag....

Synesthesia Series

Synesthesia #1 Yellow

Synesthesia #24  Golden Yellow

Synesthesia #23 Orange-yellow

These are the 3 works I am entering into Vancouver Island Surface Design Association's next exhibition, in the Nanaimo Art Gallery, January 2014.
 It is a juried show so my work may not get in.

Here is the series so far - 7 of 24 completed.

Having Fun With Synesthesia

When building a ground with snippets of thread....

...one uses a lot of it.
I do love to empty a spool.

Collecting up fabric and thread for Synesthesia #4

Collecting up fabric and thread for Synesthesia #5.
I am enjoying working on this series.