Embroidered Collage

I'm amazed at the results when the project was so intimidating! 

I've completed my pages in Cece's calendar for July.  When I first received this one I was just agog at the gorgeous work in it.  Everyone's work in this round robin has been great so far, but this one seemed to have more than it's share of "good art days".  And it was a theme I was unsure about to boot.  Cece gracefully included some pictures and bits, which did help, though, and the original calendar was Klimt, so it had a richness all it's own.

I just glared at it until after vacation, then I seriously took to going through the bits and all my paper resources, looking at the pictures in the July section as well.  The scenery made me think of travelling and I knew I had maps and other journey related pieces.  I could use a gypsy picture to jsut do a generic beautiful spread...  As I was scanning some of my quote and definition pages I realized that a general theme of time , which I still had some stuff for, and predicting the future would fit in nicely.  The themes helped immensely as I moved forward.

I worked the pages in layers, first putting down the base color or paper and a couple elements I knew I'd want to only be partially showing through.  I went back over the next day, working primarily with my fluid acrylics and adding some more collage elements.  That was when I put the wagon on the first spread.  I also used partial bits of stamps and three different pigment inks on the third spread.  It just didn't look like it had enough to bring it together and I didn't want to do a full color wash.  As it turned out I didn't wait long enough before covering the design with acrylic medium and a lot of the lines smeared, but it looked good anyway.

The next day I added color to the first and third spreads with marker and colored pencil.  There's a HUGE difference in how sophisticated that first page looked, which is what I'd been hoping for, but had been a little worried about at first, seeing how simplistic the wagon looked when it was just paper.

The second spread took a little more work because I wanted to use stitching to embellish it.  The red rectangle on the right was done as a separate piece, to make it easier to attach and embellish the earring, and stitched on later.  The ribbon came from my stash and was a matter of sorting through what I had in my hands with the unfinished page in front of me, just sort of letting my mind drift through possibilities.  To finish it off I stitched the pages together, having deliberately left blank spreads in between for that purpose. 

I'm very happy with my results.  I feel that I really pulled together some of the things I've been thinking and learning about with this set of pages. 

One aspect of the San Diego Comic-con that surprised me, but shouldn't have, was how often questions about the creative process came up in panels and on the floor.  Where do your ideas come from?  How do you develop them?  How do you prepare to act as a specific character?  Two particular moments stand out.

It's still art and the same concerns apply.  I went to one panel that had Stan Lee answering questions.  He was the creative force behind Marvel comics introduction of Spiderman, the X-men, and other highly popular characters.  He said it always amazed him that these little stories that he wrote became such big things when all he was concerned about at the time was if he could make them good enough that readers would buy the next one and he could pay his bills.  The ideas come because they have to, because you're looking for them.

I went to a panel on the third Spiderman movie and one fan asked Sam Raimi, the director of all three plus other fun stuff, how he could become a successful film maker.  Sam's answer sent me straight back to reading Art and Fear or some of Robert Genn's letters.  Every weekend go out with a camera, get a couple actors, and film a short movie, asking them to do scenes different ways.  Every week sit at your computer and edit the scenes, put in the music, and add the special effects.  On Friday evening, show the movie.  Did the audience react as you intended?  Did you like what you did?  What worked?  What didn't?  And start over again on Saturday.  In other words, paint one hundred paintings.  Do the work.

I've finally begun a needle lace stitches sampler, although in an atypical fashion.  I'm using cardstock as my substrate, since most of this stitching will be on top of and integrated into my other art, and working with a #8 perle cotton.  I chose ATC sized pieces so I could slip them into the card pages and view and rearrange and play with, when necessary.  I'm starting by working my way through Jill Nordfors-Clark's earlier book, "Needle Lace and Needleweaving", and then I'll check to see if there are variations in the newer book and my other books that I want to add.

Last night I did the basic detached buttonhole, a buttonhole with a straight stitch return, then the latter with the next row of loops going through the eyes, then using it to couch.  The first two didn't hold surprises for me, as I'd used them before, but I was interested in the basketweave effect of the third.  The couching didn't hold my attention at first - why not just use regular couching if you're not making transparent stand alone lace?  But then I realized that in my applications it might be nice to not have to pierce the surface of the substrate very often, depending on how thick and layered I had made it.

It felt really good to start on this process instead of putting it off. :)

This year's vacation was a trip to the San Diego International Comics Convention, the largest and the industry standard for debuts and new releases, more than five times the size of the Philadelphia Wizardcons that I've written about each May/June.  It was more my husband's vacation than mine, although I do read comics as well, but I certainly found plenty to interest me and had a good time.  For one thing, it was visually overwhelming.

The exhibit hall was huge and in the central area were the most dramatic booths of the larger companies.  The Sci-Fi Channel had this twisty sinuous plastic structure with inset tvs and display areas lit by blue lights.  To see the Snakes on a Plane exhibit you had to walk through a very very large snake.  Banners hung from the ceiling over many booths.  Gentle Giant, which makes statues and busts based on characters from movies, had a multi-pronged set of displays, little windows in walls and rocks displaying the rotating pieces while above were mounted huge replicas of some of the popular pieces.

A significant percentage of the congoers wore costumes.   Some were purchased, some were obviously hand-made, both not so well and extraordinarily well.  It was interesting to see the variations on a theme of the most popular characters, as each creator used what they had available.

Comics are, at their heart, sequential art, a merging of words and pictures.  There were booths and panels on the expected superhero comics and the huge movies made from them.  There were smaller booths for individuals making their own small series, either with a traditional look or a very untraditional one.  There were panels ranging from the academic side of the experience to the most mainstream.  I'll be adding some more specific comments over the next few days.

This little piece of textured fabric, about 3"x4", is what I created during airplane flights and waiting in line and sitting in panels listening to speakers during my vacation.  When I was packing and thinking about what to take I decided to follow up on a desire to see what I could do with pulled thread to create texture. 

I'd never done a piece free form, always using the regular stitch patterns.  This started out as one, but I transformed it.  I love the way it turned out visually and the way it feels in my hands.  It's refreshing to stitch something in which the irregularity is intended.  If you want to read more about the actual stitching take a look at my entry on http://thestitchingpostblog.blogspot.com .

I chose the pattern because it lent itself to the repetition and variation of a motif - the lines and circles.  This needlework will provide a focal area on a finished piece which will have pattern built up in paper and paint on stretched canvas.  I'm contemplating if I want to do some additional pulled thread stitching on the canvas surface - I wonder if the technique will work with the gessoed fabric...  I'll need to be working in dark colors in at least some of the areas so that the  patterning of the fabric will stand out nicely.  I've had comments about bubbles, so I'm thinking about using blues and greens to go ahead and play to that feel.

I will be away from the internet beginning Tuesday the 18th and going through Tuesday the 25th. 

When I return, after I recover, I hope to really get into some of the work I was talking about a few days ago.  I'll also need to complete my July calendar pages, so there will be eye candy and creative process pics coming up.  I'm taking a class called Collage Transfers at the local art store for four Mondays, starting on the 31st, so I'll have nifty stuff coming up from that experience as well.

I've been exercising regularly, so that part of my focus worked, but I haven't cleaned since the last update.  My daily art went poof, but not due to the other two, as I supposed.  I spend much of the last week to ten days immersed in books - hence the scarcity of posts.  I used to read like that in high school and collage and it felt good to do it again.  After reading the new Anita Blake book I was inspired to go back and read the rest of the series.  Yes, I really do read that fast.

I'm thinking about deliberately expanding my reading.  It's been almost entirely art/craft books for the last two years, with a smattering of fantasy, and so that's all that's in my thoughts when I think about themes to base art on.  Yet I've been interested in so many things over the years.  I want to pull that back into my life.  I'm considering starting another side blog to go along with the non-art reading, but I'll see what I end up doing after vacation.

We had a meeting of The Fiber Alliance yesterday and I had a good time.  I took all of my little fiber on canvas pieces and they were well-received.  I learned a few new tidbits, but mostly just enjoyed myself.

See you all soon.