Embroidered Collage

I stitch.  I layer.  That is the essence of the new artist's statement I wrote when I submitted "Dragon Scales". 

Over the last month, as I've mentioned before, I've been thinking hard about focus, just not blogging much about it as I knew I was still in the middle of the process.  I was helped along when Keisha Roberts posted a wonderfully long, detailed, and helpful post about succeeding as a professional artist to the Quilt Art mailing list.  Also, LuAnn Udell responded to a question she had been asked about the "secrets of her success" by a series of well thought out blog posts.  And then I had to write an artist's statement again.

The last statement I did began the same way - I stitch.  Yet, I haven't been, not really, which is why I discarded the statement a while back.  But I want to.  What I've been doing is moving towards layers and complexity.  I intend to bring the concepts back together and make my primary work be layered mixed media on stretched canvas. 

"Dragon Scales" was an approach to the concept, but I hope for future pieces to have more integration and references between the different layers.  I've bought a stack of 10"x10" canvases to give myself some boundaries, although I also have larger pieces in mind.  This format is the one I want to submit to exhibitions and will probably be mostly abstract.

I will continue doing paper collage and printmaking and stitching, but primarily on a small scale and directed towards etsy and potentially ebay, probably with more representational imagery.  These techniques address a portion of what I want to work with on a larger scale.  Also, from a business point of view, I hope they will be more easily saleable and available in the venues I currently have access to.

We'll see how long this lasts before my goals evolve.  But I think at least part of it will stay.  This month, for the first time, I've really FELT like I wanted to not do extraneous, entertaining, tempting things, but focus.  I've thought about it before, but not really felt it.  I look forward to the journey.

Woohoo!  Yay!  I came home to a message on my answering machine that "Dragon Scales" had made it into the exhibition.  I am soooo excited.  I can't wait til April 9th when I get to see it hanging there officially with the other pieces.   *GRIN*

I submitted "Dragon Scales" to the MCGOPA Mixed Media Show last night.  It's a local drop-off only juried show held by an association of professional artists.  I really enjoyed chatting with the two taking the entries, Karen Love Cooler and Sharon Steinhofer.  I'd emailed Karen to confirm that when the prospectus said all work should be framed it meant professional looking and the gallery wrapped, sides painted, stretched canvas would be acceptable, which it was.

She remembered me.  :)   She said when I'd written that it would be my first exhibit entry that she felt a little protective and had to go click on my links and look.  She liked "Dragon Scales" and asked some questions about how I'd constructed it.  She was relieved to see the $400 price listing and said that it was quite reasonable for a 16x20 with that kind of texture and detail.  She'd looked at my etsy site and had apparently been freaking out a bit that I had pieces for $20 and so forth, as in she considered them way too low, even for starting out.  When I said I was trying to go by the square inch she said that was fine, but to make sure there was a minimum.  She took the time to tell me not to despair or anything if my piece wasn't accepted, it was one show and one juror.  We talked a little more and it was really nice of her to do so. 

I'll find out tonight if "Dragon Scales" is accepted or if I'll be going back tomorrow to pick it up.  Either way I think I'll go to the opening on next Sunday.  I've never been to a show opening either and there should be a lot of people at this one interested in similar things to what I am.

This collage will also be going with me to Technicon.  It's 8"x10".  This is composed from the pieces that I cut up in disgust a couple weeks ago when my collage wasn't turning out as I expected it.  I painted a background page, arranged the shapes, and then filled in the spaces with a metal mesh.  I'm much happier with this version.

I'll be putting at least these three pieces up for sale at the Technicon Art Show in Blacksburg, VA this coming weekend.  Both my husband and I graduated from Virginia Tech and Tcon, a yearly science fiction and fantasy convention,  serves as our college reunion, when we see many of our friends.  So we go every year we can, but this will be the first time I'll be submitting art for sale, although I considered it last year.  It will also be the first time many of my friends find out that I'm creating art.  I'm pretty excited and hope to sell a couple pieces. 

I embellished three of my prints, as I had been intending, a heart 4x4, a green man 4x4, and a serpent that I deliberately left unnumbered for the occasion.  I cut the mats for the 4x4s and used a pre-purchased one for the 5x7 serpent.    I'm still hoping to complete the smaller Dragon Scales and a knightly collage in time to take them as well, but we'll see.

I had originally gone to the library to wait for the Art Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design to open.  It's a great little museum with nice examples of a variety of types of art.  I enjoyed an exhibit on the use of webs and loops and such traditionally associated with textiles translated into a variety of other media in contemporary art.  The section on decorative art was nice as well, and it was good to be able to spend my time instead of being on a tour like at Winterthur.  I sketched some of the chair backs from the late eighteenth century.  I put one in Kirsten's journal, which you can see in the updated blog.

I spent most of my time in a room with embroideries from along the silk road.  I sketched patterns from each of the pieces on display and I posted an example page below.  One half, mostly geometric in nature on a counted ground, were from the Caucasus, and the other half, primarily florals in chain stitch, were from Uzbekistan.  I'd like to translate these pattern sets into more complex collages of similar style to my spiral pieces.  I took color notes, but had to just use a pencil in the museum.  I had a good time at the museum and was very glad I went.