Walls Talk

Walls Talk is finished - 120 hours of stitching!

John Dean is the photographer. He always does a superb job with my work.

There is lots of clear detail, which is important with this work, particularly because it is all about the materials. Click on the image to zoom in on the detail.
John can see light and he understands textiles are not watercolours. He deliberately sets up lights to make shadows. These images have shadows to show the texture which is one of the most distinctive elements of fibre art.

John's colours are true. Compare his images with my snaps in previous Walls Talk posts.

Walls Talk

Working on building up the focal point of the wall.

This is a large fossil form caught in the stone.


I will have to move the stone blocks around, remaking the wall each time to find the most pleasing arrangement.
Block #7 is having a bubble bath.
I used a lot of old yarns, worn clothing torn into strips and threads that have waited a long time for their day. Also, I dragged these blocks to many places to work on them whenever I could. One day, while sitting on a boat stitching, we both got covered by a salty wave. So they all needed a good wash before being blocked.

Hewing Stone

I am hewing the last stone for the Tyndall wall. Each day I have been washing and blocking a block once it looks as though it has enough of the detailed stitching.

But I won't really how much is enough until I can see all of the blocks laid out side by side as a wall.

Walls Talk Progress

One of the Walls Talk blocks told me it was finished so it went into a soapy bath for a good clean.

Then it was blocked, right side down, and left to dry.

I use a system of wires and pins to block stitching and knitting.

Walls Talk

I'm back stitching in earnst on my Walls Talk (I think that is its name). I have made 8 blocks of Tyndall stone to make the wall. I now have to add lots of detailed stitching to build up each block. Tyndall stone captured lots of different fossil forms so I'm working their shapes into the stone.

Mind Like Water

These past few days I have taken a time-out to do a tidy-up of my life. I listened to David Allen reading his book (7 Cd's) while I took notes. His book, Getting Things Done The Art of Stress Free Productivity, is about setting up a system to capture all you want to do in your life so your mind is free to become like water, free to be creative and to come up with those brilliant ideas.
Another half day of work and my studio will be set up according to his system.
I am looking forward to having a mind like water.

Antonio Gaudi

I saw an old Japanese movie, early 80s, almost no talking, no sub titles, some b/w footage, no information, and it was great. I was able to really focus without distraction on the incredible detail in everything this art nouveau architect touched. It was enthralling to spend well over an hour just panning through his structures.

Louise Bourgeious

Don't Abandon Me
Another artist I looked at in my essay was Louise Bourgeois. A vital part of her human form sculptures in cloth is they are made from her own garments. This is self psychoanalysis.
She is an amazing role model, producing several shows of new work each year. She will be 98 this year.

Christian Boltanski

Christian Boltanski is another artist who works with cloth and the body.
I wrote about his work in my essay too.

'Art can only be made if one has a Utopian faith in the possibility of changing the world.'
-Christian Boltanski

Return to Earth

I have returned to earth now that I have completed an essay for the Opus BA module I am doing this semester. What a journey. I learnt lots while working out how artists transform used and sometimes dirty garments into art.
This is an image of Maria Ezcurra's work. She has unpicked a woman's swim suit and tacked it to the wall. She says she releases women from labels which are restrictions society puts on her. She has changed something 3D into 2D abstract art.
The problem is, I can see the male gaze focusing on the woman as a trophy, turning her into an object just the same way westerners have mounted and displayed kills from a hunt.
I think these works of Maria's could have their meaning turned around to do reinforce what she was intending to change.
It was her other work I wrote about in the essay because it is exciting stuff.

Sue Stone

I recently came across Sue Stone's work and find this one 'East End Chair' so appealing. I don't know why. Is it all of the textures she has worked up with needle-weaving and hand and machine stitching on recycled fabrics?
Plus, it is funny.

Chinook - the Snow Melter

20 minutes ago a wind hit the house. I heard a dripping sound and looked out the window. All of the snow on the trees was gone. A grand-daddy of a Chinook popped over the Rockies and blew into town. The temperature has just risen 12 degrees in 30 minutes. What an exciting place to live.
Here is a photo snapped in the fall showing the typical arched cloud formation of a warm wind we experience here in Calgary, which brings the rapid rises in temperatures.

Snow Snow Snow

Calgary had its first big dump of snow yesterday.

I took a break from writing my essay to go outside

and enjoy the tranquil beauty in our back yard.
Now back to my essay.

Censoring the Body

While doing research for a term paper I read a great essay by the art critic and historian, Edward Lucie-Smith. He is someone with the ability to look over history and pull out key ideas, trends and shifts in ways of thinking.
He begins his essay with the observation, "from the earliest times, humans have found it difficult to represent their own bodies in a straightforward way" and he continues to bring his observations of censorship of the body up until the present day. He raises lots of provocative ideas.

Peabody Essex Museum

A good friend gave me a delicious book, Painted with Thread: The Art of American Embroidery, published by the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts. It is volume 136 in a series featuring their museum collections. The museum has more than 25,000 American textile items. The ones shown in this book are from an exhibition that showed items to the public for the first time.
The format of the book is perfect for the study of work when you can't go and see the real thing. Each of the 68 works has a 2 page spread, a full page close up of the work and a page giving details and background on it.
I have put this museum on my 'must see' list.