Two parter-Life, death,and rituals and creating videos .

Dog

This is a two part post. It didn't seem appropriate to put the first post with this post.  The first post is about James Koehler and other  losses. This post is about my life and times in the studio and trying to keep it all together. 

 This Dog is done. I am ready to start my next piece.I thought I would never finish this piece. It's only 5 by 7 inches, but it took me way too long to weave and way to many start overs.  Last time I wrote my blog I was just tearing out some out of sync soumack. It’s gone and I don’t think I am going to add the lines back. Makes me feel very omnipotent. I just wiped out a whole town on Lolo Pass without a passing thought of guilt only relief.

I have already photographed and sent it into a juried show that I am sick of entering. It’s always something with them and me. My only disappointment in this piece is-- Again,  I have woven something that is almost impossible to photograph. Mixing colours such as orange and blue, yellow and purples and of course greens and reds grey out in photo's badly.I love the complementary contrast and the contrast of warm and cool colours within a given colour especially in a weft bundle.  In person the weaving creates an active soft  active grey from a distance that you can still see the individual colours in the optical blends, but disappear in a photo.
       On top of that I may have just tied up several pieces that I really need for a group show in June. Now I need to weave double time if I am to have enough pieces for those shows I do want to enter. I seem to be such a glutton for punishment.

mottled Mayflower

      Like a good little camper I finished Dog, photographed, and promptly mailed it and several others to be juried in a particular international show.
        Now I am really kicking myself and wondering at my mind set. I keep asking myself how many times do I really need to be in this particular show. By the time I thought it through I had already photographed and sent Dog into a juried show that I am sick of entering without thinking it through. It’s always something with them and me.
      After the last 2-3 years of fiasco, why did I enter? There is always a problem when I enter this show, which at this point will remain nameless. Again, it boils down to why does one enter shows and getting ones ego involved. Much better to think of it as a game-win some loose some.  I get in to this particular show, but something always happens or goes wrong-bad advice from their office, damaged frames in transit, lost work,  CD’s that won’t open, bad colour in their magazine, not publishing all entries, their policy of a piece never having been published anywhere, won prizes and then been disqualified, etc., etc., etc.,  etc.
And, finally,  Et Al. I have been in it 14 possibly more times in the last 20 years or so. I keep telling myself that I am going to re-think why and the logic for my entering this exhibit every year, but always forget until too late. 
 OOPS!!! I am ranting again-so sorry! Need a disclaimer! I am turning into such a grouchy old lady.

      On top of that I may have just tied up several pieces that I really need for a group show in June. Now I need to weave double time if I am to have enough pieces for those shows I do want to enter. I seem to be such a glutton for punishment.
OOPS!!! I am ranting again-so sorry! Need another disclaimer!

Camellias in bloom

detail of Camellia 

Peachy coloured Camellias

Mayflower slightly different

The one show this summer I am very excited about will be at the Corvallis Art Center. Actually, there are several others such as Passages(ATA) and Fantastic Fibers 2011. "Oregon Weaving-The Tradition Continues" Exhibition date: May 28 - June 18 or 25*, 2011. Now I just need to find several of my students and or people who think I have influenced their weaving who would like to put their work in the show. I have no idea who to ask-again my shyness is hindering me. It’s a little like suppose I give a party and no one wants to come. It seems like such a personal question to ask someone “Have I influenced you with my teaching or the work that I do.  So perhaps if your reading this missive and I have taught you or influenced you and you want to be in an exhibit with me. You could maybe contact me-please, before I chew my arm off worrying.

I am excited about the new piece I am beginning. It’s a dog-not a mental dog, but an actual dog-Chene.  It’s the first time I have woven an animal since I was at OSAC in 1979 and wove a frog from the unicorn tapestries. I am not even sure that counts. It was copied from and not original. Occasionally, I Wish I had a picture, but I sold the tapestry in 1980 to buy more wool for the next tapestry
and in reality I hope it never resurfaces. It was so long ago and  I so needed to learn so much more.
      I have woven a face-human- and 3 caricatures of faces from several time periods and a Portrait of Pat from a shared project.

Mary of the little dark cloud

Same Old Same Old

Portrait of Pat

That I haven’t done more animals and faces is really rather odd because I began as a cartoonist and was always in trouble for my caricatures of -well-people I shouldn't have been drawing caricatures of doing not very polite things. Basically what one would expect from a teenager-so its been awhile. - way before I knew about tapestry other then needlepoint and embroidery.

If Mary could have....?

The word cartoon according to Wikipedia-“The original meaning was in fine art of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, where it referred to a preparatory drawing for a piece of art, such as a painting or tapestry. In the 19th century, it came to refer to humorous illustrations in magazines and newspapers, and in the early 20th century it was sometimes used to refer to comic strips.[1]. In more modern usage, it commonly refers to animated programs for television and other motion-picture media.”

Cartoon 5 by 7 inches

Two photos of Chene
 that I combined
to make a cartoon




I have been fascinated with the idea of weaving a dog after seeing tapestries by Kathy Spoering and a Tapestry by Ruth Jones that was in an ATA Bienale a few years ago. Ruth Jones was based on a  design of a dog  in a millefleur and,  of course,  Dogs are all through  historical tapestries...The main difference I see in weaving a Dog and what I normally weave is it has to look like a dog. Everyone knows what a dog looks like and you can't fudge it. Unless you can convince the world that your really working in abstract or an  impressionistic styles. But, Somehow I don''t see Chene as a cubist dog.

Videos: The Care and Feeding of Bobbins-5 short videos with video 4 being in two sections. SO there are really 6-4 has a b section.
        Pat (Spark)an I have been doing something that really fascinates me. Well, parts of it does. Pat is so meticulously patient with the process and getting better everyday with the process. BUT, there is so much to learn and search out just in the doing.  The process of Pat's doing is fun to watch, but I think the skill of using the program is more then I can do, which is one of the reasons of many that Pat is such a good business partner for me.  She has her stuff and I have my stuff that I do.
        We have been working on a series of 5-maybe 6 short video's about the care and feeding of bobbins. The reason they are 5 or 6 and not 1 is that Pat noticed that anything over 5 minutes in length creates a certain ennui in the watcher and can be difficult to download depending on dial up connections and computers timing out in when downloading.    I find the process fascinating both personally and technically. I enjoy watching Pat edit the videos, because it looks and sounds like magic.

       On a personal level it's interesting too and sometimes frustrating to realize that I have fallen into some very  lazy speech patterns using words like okay, that, this, and okay as an affirmative that whatever was done was understood. It's also interesting to see and hear how ones teachings might be perceived by others and seeing all of the ways and things that one should be doing better.  So my goal is to stop using the word okay and do things a little more audiovisually for those that I teach that learn audiovisual. Which is really hard/challenging-okay?(gr)
       Pat has/is downloading the videos to Facebook on her channel at Care and Feeding of Bobbinshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDQOVW07_TM to which a person can subscribe. We will be  linking the videos to  the FFP blog and this blog to the videos.  Tommye Scanlin and Pat Williams are embedding them into their tapestry share blog at http://tapestryshare.blogspot.com. Hopefully they will pick up and embedd the next 3.

RITUALS-

My Dad/ Grandpa Todd

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about rituals and ritual behaviour in weaving and life in general. . I  have always considered myself  a spur of the moment type of  person. After the last year or so dealing with the older people in my life I have realized that I am not. When I weave and begin to weave I follow the same process. Cup of tea, butting Chene in his basket with a chew thingy, straightening threads and bobbins,  check warp tensioning, laying out threads for the space I am weaving, placing tools in order, cutting ends from the day before,  and a few minutes of only  looking at what I did before and then I weave. If I don't do this before I weave I feel disjointed and out of step and am more prone to choosing the wrong colours or just not interpreting the cartoon correctly.  Ritual behaviour is not a bad thing over times many of our rituals become by rote and give one a sense of safety and a place where things are right or feel right.  In watching my Dad as ages and forgets things I have noticed that those things he does well follow a ritual. When he shops , drives, fixes a meal, or takes his medication if I interfere with the ritual he becomes confused and disjointed and forgetful  and closes down. Edith and Marge were both the same way as long as I didn't interrupt the ritual of weaving they could weave

Solar Flash 

        Some where in one of the books I have read by Joesph Campbell he writes about our creating rituals for those things we do not understand and cannot comprehend. I have begun to notice and remember from teaching several of my older students that they could continue with certain processes because they could remember the ritual of doing and the mind  had created a pattern that they could follow without thought or hesitations. In many ways it makes understanding and dealing with My Dad easier.




From A Joesph Campbell interview; "The purposes of rituals are varied; with religious obligations or ideals, satisfaction of spiritual or emotional needs of the practitioners, strengthening of social bonds, social and moral education, demonstration of respect or submission, stating one's affiliation, obtaining social acceptance or approval for some event—or, sometimes, just for the pleasure of the ritual itself."


Cheers and all, 
kathe

Keeping it simple and real!

Large Shannock

half done

It always amazes me how easy it is to cling to something that is no longer useful or does needs to be part of one’s life. Sometimes it’s hard to give up the security blanket of having it around-just in case.  I woke up a couple of mornings ago very early before the traffic and anticipation of trying to stuff too much into a day and realized I no longer needed or wanted my 6.5 Shannock- a probable epiphany  a long time coming on my part. I love the loom and its workings. It’s one of the first 20 wooden Shannock looms that were made. It has history! It has beautiful wood and beautiful engineering.  The loom is not the problem. I am not giving up tapestry, if I don’t use it or have it.  I am moving on and doing what I really want to concentrate on for the rest of my weaving career. I can still teach large format, but it will no longer be a weaving goal that always simmers in the back of mid and ask when. Well, of course, also teaching, writing and silver smithing-just doing.  I am out of love and out of the wanting to do large format tapestry. 

last Sweet WIlliams of the season

AND, finally, there are enough exhibits and people that will appreciate the small format work. I don’t need to do larger tapestries to stay in the “game”. I no longer care about the game. I am at an age where I probably have 10- 20 years or more of weaving left to do. I have already done 36 years.
I am what I am. No apologizes needed.  It’s a beautiful loom and I am doing it a disservice not weaving on it.   Perhaps, I am doing myself an even greater disservice by not focusing on what I really want to do. With it in the studio I feel guilty not weaving on it.  The loom is an icon of past realities. It really is time to downsize the size of my looms, but not my life goals.

I have  decided what I really want are 2-3 more Mirrix’s in different sizes. Which the sale of my Shannock will provide.

new cartoon that will be
10 inches 5 or 7 inches

 I have finally realized that what I really like about doing large format work is working with someone else on their loom. Some of the  best times that I have had weaving were sharing a bench with Shelley and working on large pieces with her. So with that one caveat on large format  it’s time to move on and make space and peace within my thought processes. I no longer think large format. We are talking about 6 feet square and bigger. When I think about working large format-10 wpi etc at any size,  I spend all of my time thinking that I need to reweave the piece at 20 epi and no larger than 2-3 feet square in sewing thread.  I have just spent the summer realizing  and trying to think through the process that the large piece on the loom needs to be about 2 feet rather than 4 x 6 feet to make me happy. I am no longer willing to invest 6 months to a year on a piece that I would be happier with at less than two feet and half the scale. So I am going to sale the Shannock for 4000.00- to be hauled out and packaged by the new owner  and may it bring them peace and contentment, but they still have to move it out of my studio.  There is just no way that my friends and I could handle getting it out of here and neither would I ask. Buy the Mirrix’s with treadles that define what I really need and want to do. Not look back to the maybe’s, might have, should have, or could have because they no longer define my designs or thought processes. It feels really good to know what I really want to do and not worry about working in large format-anymore.

acid eaten photo shopped
rose- part of new cartoon

 The trouble with  an epiphany is they have to be implemented which always leads to more work and more journaling. I am taking the first steps by reorganizing my weaving and design space. The large Shannock is no longer  a cog in the design process.  I am now trying to decide if I need to make the cartoon/ maquette smaller that I had blown up  to 6x4 feet . It is now 14 inches by 24 inches, which might not be a bad size. It was meant to be woven the first time around at  6 foot by 4 feet.  My main concern is the feathers in the wings of time. The weaving of the feathers was thought out at 10 epi and three times as large.  What are the concessions I will need to make in downsizing the woven structures. A corner I want to change back from what I would have woven at a larger format.

But first I need to finish 2 pieces by November 30^th and another by the end of January.

yellow tomatoes that should be ripe by now

On another note-In my last issue of American Crafts there is an article called the Cult of Simplicity by Akkiko Busch. It explains the difference between being simple and appearing simple. I am so tired of being told that tapestry technique should be dumbed down for the masses-DIY’s. To quote” 


Akkiko Busch from the Cult of simplicity.

“It's human nature to try to reduce what is complicated to something we can under­stand and live with. But it would be a mis­take to believe that complex things really are simple. Just as there is a difference between making something efficient, clear and operable and just dumbing it down. Observing complexity, acknowledging it, respecting it and then finding a way to manage it generally leads to the more desir­able outcome. ..

Chinese Kesi woven at around 60 epi

detail

At a time when the cult of simplicity is ever tantalizing, it is increasingly possible for those outside the field to romanticize the handmade object as an icon of the sim­ple life. But craft tradition has always been more about appearing simple than being simple: DIYers who go into crafts for its anti-consumer message find that making one of something can have the same complexity as making many; studio craftspeople often find themselves working at an intricate in­tersection of conceptual content, material skill and an appreciation for ambiguity. Which is why this seems to be the time for those engaged with craft to show how their •work is, in fact, a process effacing, rather than avoiding, complexity…” end of quote.

Chene's New friend-since
 he found it wants to keep it

    I am glad someone has finally defined and synthesized what has been causing me major frustrations with the way I see and deal with the new world that is so different then what anyone could have imagined 50 or 60 years ago.  I still come from an age before…Reading I, Robot  by Issac Asimov was considered to be our future and the future is nothing like Asimov imagined.  The computer I am typing on is a good example of just that-miniaturization did it in.

Churro skeins-Now what-so beautiful

Diane K. sent me some beautiful churro roving and yarn. I am not a spinner,but I do felt occasionally. How can one not with Pat Spark as a business partner and best friend. BUT, I more then like the samples of  churro tapestry yarns. I wish they were a little thinner because I would love to do bobbin blending with them on a small tapestry.   I think I am love with  the  feel and workability of the churro roving.  The roving looks like it will felt pretty hard. I have only worked with merino which is very soft and wears easily.  Just like I would never walk on a wool tapestry rug made of merino. Maybe, I’ll even do some shibori arashi with the felted churro. I think it’s time I made another pair of moccasins. It’s been awhile. I spent the first 10 years wearing moccasins and or oxfords depending on the weather to school.  My toes no longer like to be rubbed by the tops of my store bought leather shoes  and cross trainers. It’s too  cold in the studio during the winter to go barefoot-my preference in the studio. I once made a pair of Apache dance boots out of felt with leather bottoms. I think I want them a tad lower toped and closer to my ankles though. More like a Kiowa boot. I will use leather bottoms and have my orthotic sewn to the leather. It rains a lot in Oregon so it will take a lot of snow seal to make the bottoms water proof. I am unwilling to do it the traditional way-no time/no inclination to process leather.  The best leather  for bottoms comes from a leather  surrounding smoke holes in a tipi or as my Grandmother did it over firebox in her wood stove. I’ll bead at least part of them and maybe needle felt part with my Grandmother’s design. Who knows maybe I’ll add a few tinglers just for the joy of hearing them while I weave with my treadles.. .The more I think about it the more I like this idea.  

Apache Boots copied from a picture of Geronimo

Shorter style I am going to make with dyed felted Churro

The description I wrote for the last pair of moccasins that I made. It’s hard to believe this is from a show that was in 1996.

Dance Boots for the Between

Dance Boots for the between

detail of boots

Hand made wool felt, Shibori arashi (pole resist dyed), leather soles from a well loved pair of handmade moccasins, with dance tinglers (made from tobacco plug lids often used not for smoking or chewing but for gifts to the spirits) and silver thimbles (traditional tinglers are a sign of wealth and skill) created from a pattern for apache boots that would have been traditionally made from leather not felt. The moccasin style is one of several styles made by Todd-Hooker’s Grandmother for her to wear as a child and young adult.  Silver tingles are a necessity on dance and party regalia for sound, beautiful movement.  Whispers and rhythm for snagging, shawl, and butterfly dances which were never attended because of a religion and fear of discovery.  These boots were made for dancing in and out for places and people that are and were somewhere between cultures. None of the techniques, styles or materials would have been combined together in any of the three represented cultures. So the dance boots are for the betweens.

Chene' dismounts from favourite drinking spot

summer drinks

I finally reframed the icon I painted
carved and gilded. I love the background
etching. I'll probably use it again!

non ripe tomatoes-
Maybe green tomato juice

This has been a confusing couple of weeks. So I have been doing a lot of journaling. I needed to reassess my goals and where I am going and if I am headed in the right direction. I haven’t set the goals parts-yet-because too many important people in my life are choosing to be in inbetween places. I find that I really do need goals, good time management, and the discipline of stated goals and direction.  Life is just too short for anything else. Lately, it hasn’t been working that way because of too many outside responsibilities and reacting to others instead of acting for myself and my goals. Very few of the goals that I wanted to accomplish in a non rain season have  been done.  It looks to me after the last couple of days that winter and fall are very close and many of the sunny time goals will have to wait until next year and dryness. Even my garden of tomatoes and peppers have decided to take a vacation and not ripen this year. Summer is gone. Summer and all that it entailed and  promised.  is gone and I feel cheated. That acknowledged it is time to move towards the promise of fall and winter and good comfy things like lots of rain and wind.

Creeting card Spencer gave me after a particular disappointing day
Pretty much sums up the summer!

New Tapestry Finally Finished!

Between Again
Copyright 2008 with detail

This is my new piece that is done with sewing thread. The piece is 96 square inches. I am using one of my favourite techniques-soumak. It involves images that are important to me such as puzzle pieces, Alpha and Omega, feathers, peonies, and a picture in the background that I took of the Vancouver BC skyline. When I enlarged the picture, I discovered that I had taken a picture with an object falling from the sky. A nice surprise!