New Work in Small Expressions and South Shore Gallery

'Currency'

I have a series of new small works currently out there in CACSP's Tulista Gallery exhibition 'Small Expressions' and VISDA's 'Current Threads: Garden Tapestry' at South Shore Gallery.

'Currency'

'Currency' is about how many early tribes first used shells for money when trading commodities. 

The most common shell was the cowry, (Cypraea moneta) but other types were recognised and used in trade.

'Currency'

One of the most influential commodities that drove early trade and established the first trade routes caused wars and stimulated government laws was textiles.

I put the shells on silk, one of the most highly prized textiles.

The silk used in 'Currency ' is hand spun, hand woven wild silk I bought back from a textile tour of NW India.

The horn frames reference the on-going illegal commodity trade of rhinoceros horn with China leading to the near extinction of the animal.

'Currency'

These cowry shells are on a silk textile with a gold coloured frame.

Gold is a commodity many are familiar with and it was probably the first international currency.

These two exhibitions gave me the opportunity to explore an idea. What is the simplest way I could tell a story? I challenged myself to take a complex story and to pare it down to the minimum of elements needed to tell the story.

'Small Expressions' Opens in Tulista Gallery, Sidney BC

The Community Arts Council of Saanich Peninsula is hosting its annual 'Small Expressions' exhibition in the Community Arts Centre at Tulista Park, Sidney BC, March 4 - 30, Tuesdays to Sundays, 10:00 to 4:00 pm.

A team of us spent 9 hours the first-day accepting work and hanging the show.

One of the challenges with hanging the show is all of the works are small. 

Artists were challenged to work within a 12" x 12" x 12" framework. This is not always easy when one is used to expressing ideas in a much larger format.

It is interesting to see how many of the artists take the opportunity to explore a new technique or medium. They take more risks and they make discoveries. I wonder if for some this Small Expressions exhibition works as a catalyst or a jumping off point to head in a new direction.

When planning the hanging we had to forget about going for contrast in size and focus more on themes, colour contrasts and compatibility and how different works influenced each other. 

With all the works being small we hung them close together and in groupings ensuring each work sit comfortably with the others.

That is why it took 9 hours the first day and more hours the next day to straighten, adjust, fine tune, tweak, and add labels. I wasn't able to help the second day because I was out at Sooke hanging the VISDA 'Current Threads: Garden Tapestry' exhibition I posted about here 

One of this exhibition's charms is how it makes the viewer  physically get up close to the works. Each work enters the viewer's personal space creating a feeling of intimacy. Having to look at one work at a time slows the viewer down and encourages contemplation. Long distant scanning of the walls is unsatisfying. There is an absence of the usual back-and-forward dance in front of the wall. Instead, the viewer moves along the wall with their nose nearly touching the works.

'Current Threads 2015: Garden Tapestry' Has Been Installed

Current Threads 2015: Garden Tapestry has been installed at South Shore Gallery, Sooke.

Here is the view as you walk into the Back Gallery.

The back wall

The lights haven't been adjusted yet but it was time to leave after spending all day installing the work.

The artists worked with the size restriction of 12" wide x 60" or 72" long.

The idea was to give a picket fence feel to the installation.

It appears to be currently a popular format to work in.

The artists also worked with a garden theme which they interpreted freely and widely.

There's my triptych on the left. 

Forest Flowers is about fungal flowering and fruiting bodies found in the forest.

It will be fun to meet up with lots of the artists at the opening reception, tomorrow, Saturday, March 5th, 1 - 3 pm,

Exhibition: Current Threads by Vancouver Island Surface Design Association

The annual Vancouver Island Surface Design Association exhibition Current Threads 2015 is travelling after its showing in Duncan last year.

Jessie Taylor-Dodds' gallery South Shore Gallery, in Sooke, is hosting the exhibition.

This is a great chance to view this juried collection of recent work by VISDA members.

Many of the artists will be at the Opening Reception.

Do hope you can make it.

'Aunt Flow Speaks Out' - How she came about.

'Aunt Flow Speaks Out' - Artists Statement

Women menstruate.

If women did not menstruate, you and I would not be on this earth. We would not be alive.

Menstruation is a necessary part in our chain of life.

This artwork celebrates the humanity and acceptance of this monthly visitor. Aunt Flow comes to visit, sits on a tomato, and can’t go swimming on certain days. Strawberries, rabbits, Maggie the Red Bird is flying her colours. Speak about it, share words and stories, celebrate women, and this part of womanhood that just is, that makes life possible. We are enough, we are OK.

Menstruation Euphemisms penned by Kirsten Horel, website, artist and lettering artist.

After reading 'Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation' by Elissa Stein and Susan Kim, I had a strong urge to stimulate a conversation about this hidden subject.

It was time my collection of perfectly laundered handkerchiefs got to work.

I rubbed the centre of each handkerchief with red ochre to represent the blood.

I contacted Kirsten and asked if she wanted to work with me on the project. I was so pleased when she agreed to. She went to work researching and collecting more euphemisms and tested different ways of working the lettering with different inks and different pens. She also lettered the signs inviting the viewer to touch the handkerchiefs and to write their menstruation words and experiences in the red book. 

Together we worked on the artist statement where Kirsten's wonderful sense of humour lighted my rather heavy expression of indignation at yet another social injustice.

Each saying was printed on cloth and torn into a strip then a cotton thread was attached to the bottom.

Each handkerchief was nailed to the wall with its euphemism mostly hidden by the natural fold of the handkerchief hung on point.

I trialed different arrangements for hanging the handkerchiefs.

I wanted to give the feeling of lots, as though the installation could go on and on if there was enough room - to make the viewer ask why there were so many of these sayings.

I decided on this staggered arrangement then made a template out of gridded interfacing to show where each nail needed to go.

Satisfied I packed everything into a box and went looking for places to show 'Aunt Flow Speaks Out'.

'Aunt Flow Speaks Out' Has Been Installed

'Aunt Flow Speaks Out,' Kirsten Horel & Lesley Turner; size variable; cotton, silk, linen women's handkerchiefs, cotton thread, earth pigment, nails, notebook, pen; thrifting, laundering, ironing, lettering, painting.

This is Aunt Flow's official photograph.

'Aunt Flow Speaks Out' has been installed.

The Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria (CACGV) is commemorating International Women's Day with the art exhibition "Women Hold Up Half the Sky." It is in the Bay Centre, downtown Victoria, on the 3rd floor, next to Club Monaco.

The exhibition is on from February 25th until March 13th.

The Installation

The curators, Stepanie and Brin, have given Aunt Flow 8 feet. The ceilings must be 12 feet high so this is going to be the largest Aunt Flow has ever been. The bigger the better for Aunt Flow.

Step 1. The Template

Pin up the template and mark the wall through the holes.

The template is made from an on-point interfacing. The red dots are around holes in the template where I can make a pencil marks on the wall.

Step 2. Nail a handkerchief with a tag over each pencil mark.

Step 3. Place the plinth in the centre with the book and pen on top.

Complete.

Backyard Project: Shoe-design Garden Beds

The next garden room Tom is going to construct is made up of raised rock beds. I showed him a print made from the sole of my shoe and said it was the type of shape I wanted for the beds.

He said, "OK" and away he went to work.

He removed the existing rocks and dug out the soil.

He placed the large rocks to make a meandering curving raised edge.

The 2 lines of smaller rocks in the front of this image define the gravel bed garden.

Tom placed the rocks following the pattern of the shoe sole. He placed decomposing logs in the bottom of each growing area then filled the spaces with the soil mix. 

This garden bed shape is known as a key-hole design. 

It has many benefits including increasing the area available to plant, reducing the amount of real estate given to non-productive paths, increasing the amount of 'edge' where plant growth is most prolific and making ergonomically efficient areas to work in.

 The large rocks act as heat sinks which will warm the soil and extend at each end the length of the growing season. 

The beds are aligned north-to-south to capture the maximum amount of sun. They have been built in this particular spot because a sun-shade analysis of the back yard area showed this area receives up to 11 hours of sunshine each day at the height of summer. 

The raised beds mean we can work beside them while standing, saving our backs. The beds are at a maximum of 8 feet wide which means all of the growing area can be reached by my outstretched hand. There is no need to walk on the soil and compact it.

This image gives a better idea of the different levels that now cover what was a vast expanse of level lawn. Design wise, changing levels and curving lines are visually much more interesting.

Backyard Project: Prep for Next Room Construction

Preparation for the construction of the next room included Tom doing a few tasks while he could still get the excavator into the areas.

One task was to lift the 2 Garden Towers off the balcony. Ron had removed all the railing in preparation for the conservatory construction which made lifting the Garden Towers easier.

For Tom, it was just a matter of lifting them off the balcony then rolling them off the bucket. Without the excavator, it would have been a major task requiring lots of preplanning and manpower (not girl power. I don't like doing those sorts of tasks).

The deer will be delighted when they discover these 2 picnic baskets set out for them. I am resigned to the plants all being eaten to nubs. We will replant the towers once the deer fence has been built.

In the meantime, the girl power is scraping up the last of the compost from the compost area and spreading it on existing garden beds. I didn't want to lose the compost we had made.

The critical task in preparation for the construction of the next garden room is the placement of needed materials where they are both accessible and out of the way of the construction.

Tom piled the decomposing logs on one side of the track downhill from the next lot of beds.

He piled up his specially mixed soil on the other side of the track.

More truckloads of rocks were delivered. Tom spoke to the driver each time. I think he asked for bigger rocks with every load. One truckload had only 8 rocks because they were so big. The rocks come from a construction site not far away where they are blasting out a mound to level the ground. With the rocks being local in origin they match perfectly the  rocks used in the original construction of the house.

Tom's next task was to remove all of the existing plants I had tagged with tape because I wanted to  keep them for the new beds. He put them out of the way of the construction area.

Let the construction of the Raised Rockbeds begin.

Real-time Update: February 2016

Most of my blog posts are about events that happened some time ago. I focus on telling a chronological story because my blog is a journal.

However, I have decided to make the occasional post in real-time to document what I am up to in the present. So here goes - my first Real-time Update.

In my studio, I am working with buttons, lots of buttons. After sorting washing and placing them, I am sewing them onto a ground with the machine. 

Outside the studio, in the studio beds, the first of those spring bulbs I planted as soon as the garden beds were constructed, have popped out of the ground. They are the hyacinths.

About the same time as planting the bulbs, I planted a green manure mix of seeds and compost over the hugelkultur beds. The seeds the birds didn't take have germinated and the remnants the deer have left after their nightly grazing have turned into a green fuzz now the days are warmer.

We have had 40% more rain this winter than in any other we have experienced since we moved here. The damp conditions are ideal for rotting away the leaves while leaving their skeletons. I am collecting some of them for a work called  'Earth Repair.'

So that is what has been happening inside and outside the studio, today.

Backyard Project: Gravelbed Garden

Here I have laid out with tape the boundary of the next area Tom will work on, the Gravelbed Garden.

The Backyard Project is made up of a series of interconnecting rooms. This is a concept from Christopher Alexander's Pattern Language research where each room is considered a centre.

It is the use of centers, and the knowledge of the fundamental role that emerging centers play in the evolution of a design, which gives the design process an orderly character, that can succeed, and allows you to keep a clear head while you are doing it, and a clear mind about the long term target, and the immediate action you must take, at each step, step by step, that will guide the design towards a successful end-state.

He explains and expands on this important design principle of centres in his books 'The Nature of Order, volumes 1 to 4.

First Tom works on the pathway which is one of  the boundaies defining the Gravelbed Garden room.

Tom lays down and compacts a mixed-size gravel base for the path.

Next he turns to his pile of smaller rocks and starts sorting them by shape. He mentally names the piles according to their function.

Then he begins the slow task of selecting the right rock and putting it in its place. The task demands a lot of focused attention.

Tom was wiped by the end of the day. It took him another half day to finish placing the rocks.

I can see in my mind how it will look when it is planted and surrounded by the other interconnecting rooms. It looks fabulous. Once again Tom did an amazing job.