stitching LOVE

playing with paper and paint and stitch and glue and other stuff. LOVE!

more stitched cities

still working on some samples for my opus module, combining the features of two cities: baltimore and portland. i traced the outline of the cityscapes from various photos i took of each city. then i cut up the tracing paper into small square, rearranged the squares into a new arrangement. i took the design from that arrangement and stitched it onto the piece of an old felted sweater.

O yay! for democracy

i am going on a tangent from what i usually write about and opening a door about my personal side. i grew up in a city that was segregated and watched the city go up in flames during the '68 riots. last night, in that same city, i heard sounds of celebration on the streets. i watched my kids generation lose interest in the political process, after i had marched on washington when i was their age. today my kids, and other twenty-somethings told me how excited they were about having voted and having watched Obama's speech. last night BH called me from iraq and we listened to the speech together over the phone. TODAY is a new day in our country, and I think, in the world. O yay for democracy!

there is probably some good art inspiration in all of this, but i am up to my ears in opus homework...back to the drawing board and love to all.

stitching cities

working on my current opus module, focusing on the appearance of line in a cityscape. i took images of the two cities where i spend most of my time: baltimore, maryland and portland, maine. i combined the images in several mediums: photocopies of photographs, wire and stitch. more exploration on cities to come!

painted circles!

playing around with oil pastels. inspired by sue dove's work with color, i am playing with some of the exercises she recommends in her book, painting with stitches.

collage face

playing with the collage style of anne grgich. anne is not only a talented artist, but a good friend. if you get a chance to take a workshop with her, it's well worth it.

banned names list - in stitch!

a while back, i had some involvement with an arts organization, that had a 'banned names list.' this struck me as kind of funny, since we were not a group with any kind of policing authority. one day i was in a mood to stitch that phrase on a piece of cloth that reminded me of lined school paper. then i photocopied the stitching and stitched over the photocopy. it's hard to reproduce your exact same stitches. i guess it's the random spontaneity that i like about stitching - no two stitches are the same, as least not on my work. i have an idea to repeat this odd shaped paper over and over and hang all of them beside each other on a gallery wall.

stitching on a thrift store sweater

i am away for a few days. love to all!

experimenting with textiles

for my personal specialism module, i have to experiment with unusual materials using layering and cutting and twisting and lots of other things.

here are some photos of work samples using paint rags, plastic bags, melted wax, cut up bicycle tubes, wire, fabric strips, pieces of felted sweater, glue, tissue paper, magazine pages, paint, etc. i machine stitched many of the samples, which was experimental for me, as i am much more comfortable hand stitching.

happy bday to BH.

line drawing in stitch

i have been working on stitching some of my line drawings of everyday life. here is a sketch of BH and me having lunch last year in a park when we were living in portland, maine. BH is eating his usual lunch time hotdog and i am having vegan food from little lads.

while i was working on this piece i discovered a kindred stitching spirit in the work of Iviva Olenick.

still life with chair, mug, window, blue ball!

still practicing how to paint. i am working on color and contrast. this is an invented still life - a little sedate for me, but was a good practice tool.

slop sink

another language assignment for my opus BA course in embroidery in cultural context. here i photocopied a painting i had done of a slop sink.
then i stitched words onto the photocopied paper.

typography and stitch

my cultural stitch assignment on language is evolving more into an experiment on typography. here i have stitched onto a magazine page from vogue - kind of a play on the more conventional typeface of a table of contents. and then, of course, i had to take a pix of the back side of the stitching. looks like it fits in pretty well with the adidas advertisement.

meltdown

here i am having a meltdown over bh suggesting that we buy a lemon tree for our living room. hmmm... well, in hindsight i did think it was funny, so i made this drawing which will soon become an embroidery.

stitched sketchbook

i like to personalize the cover of my sketchbooks. this is a new one i bought for my opus homework: paint, magazine collage, stitching. yay!

stitched painting palette

more on my recycling theme! i love the look of paints mixed on a palette. i mixed paints for a painting on a paper disposable palette. let them dry. added strips of newspaper and covered with a gel medium to give it a little strength. after that dried, i stitched on top of it. i kind of like the look!

stitched bicycle tubes

playing around with some cut up strips of bicycle tubes. this idea of stitching together recycled materials really has me thinking!

by the way, the bicycle tubes are courtesy of bike the big apple tours.

4th of july recycled 'quilt'

working on more ideas of recycled work for my opus cultural stitched textiles module. my husband, granddaughter and i took a long road trip over 4th of july holiday. i saved all of the packaging from food we ate along the way and cut it up into 'quilt' squares.

mola samples

for my opus module on cultural stitched textiles, i have been exploring the mola. HA! i see how much more practice i need on my hand applique stitching!

the things we do for love OR sock goat on a boat

let me start off by saying i am not a sailor, but we do own a sailboat. sometimes things need to be fixed on the boat that require going up the mast. i have avoided this duty for years, but decided to give it a try today. BH flattered me by telling me he need a 'light weight' person to do the job...so i did and it was actually quite fun. i took a sock goat with me for good luck. the sock goat was made by my friend gavin. as you can see, i did make it down ok, cuz i am posting on the blog and i couldn't do that very easily from way up there! back to opus homework!

more recycled sweaters

my good friend in portland maine rescued an orange sweater from a yard sale and here is a doll i made for her from that sweater and a few others. since the doll, named 'funny,' will be living in maine, she needed a vest to keep her warm. here is a picture of her with the vest and without...and the beautiful portland head lighthouse in the background.