Category Archives: Art

ArtHash

©Sherri Coffey-Purple Haze

Purple Haze, hand-dyed wool yarns, tapestry, 38.5 x 38.5 inches $600 ©Sherri Coffey

A new art site (for me, anyway) is ArtHash. Skimming all the info there, I found this call for entries–Art: Square Exhibition.  Any kind of art is eligible, so I quickly looked at the square or almost square pieces I have, but had to eliminate all but two because of the size limitation of 30 inches. Deadline is February 20 if you’re interested. It takes place in New York. Then I looked at the exhibition fee ($100) and said to myself “no way.” Shipping is already expensive enough! I haven’t spent very much time cruising through ArtHash, but have put it on my list. Let me know what you think.

In the creativity slump department, I may have poked my head up enough to try out something. The reed has been re-sleyed, but still needs to be tied on. That’s on tap, along with colored pencils and graph paper.

Art on the plains

You can see why driving through west Texas requires a really alert driver. Things to look at are few and far between. I have only seen Cadillac Ranch from a distance, never stopping, but was reminded again about it when I read parts of the NY Times this morning–and not in a good way. The picture above comes from a website called Two Guys and a Map Riding in Ron’s Car Tour. Sounds interesting.

The best I can tell, each car was its original color, but somewhere along the way that changed. Which is better? Although we’re not supposed to like graffiti, I like those best.

I also read about a potter that developed a technique to put the designs on the outside of his pots while it’s on the wheel. I would like to see that demonstrated.

News in the doldrums department–I am cleaning up my studio, moving a large piece out of there so that there will be room to park the baby loom. Maybe it will actually get warped.

Now a question…I received a phone call today from someone who had seen my work online. He wanted my address, which I was reluctant to give, of course, and he wanted to visit one night this week. I explained that my mother was in rehab, so my time was not really my own right now. But I really didn’t want a stranger coming to my house at night. So I told him a general square foot price, and as I thought, he quickly demurred. It was to be a Valentine gift, and I have to commend him for that. The questions is: Do you think prices should be on websites or not? Thoughts anyone?

Matisse, process, and series

Have you seen this? If not the actual exhibit, but articles about the exhibit? This Matisse exhibition is right up my alley, and I would LOVE to see it. Below is a quote from the NYTimes.

“…this exhibition …sheds new light on Matisse’s penchant for copying and working in series.”

The exhibition at the Met will be up until March 17, 2013. Not only do these painting show his series work, but also glimpses of the process. The review likens these paintings as an “excavation.” How interesting! Also interesting is this bit:

In the 1930s Matisse began having black-and-white photographs taken of his paintings at regular intervals as he worked on them.

Maybe some wisdom for the weavers among us. Take pictures before it rolls past the breast beam! Because tapestry is slow, and I weave on a horizontal loom, I do write down date and how I began the piece, so that when I finally get to the end, I can do the same thing in the finishing. But I love reading about his process (seeing the works would be even better, right?). As I’ve mentioned before, having the artist’s sketchbooks or some other depiction of process, well, that’s what fascinates me.

Going back to the first quote above, the copying part—and I took that partly as copying “masters” but also his own work–maybe that would be useful to improve one’s own weaving and carrying forth the design into new territory. What do you think?

In the meantime, I may need to buy the catalogue for this exhibit. At least it’s cheaper than a trip to NYC!

Gourds, photos and a school

Gourd

Some old gourd seeds were thrown out last spring, and they sprouted and grew—and grew and grew. This one was picked green, and it just sat there on the table for months. Then it started to dry out, working its way downward from the stem. Only an inch or so, then another inch, and so on. Once it reached the “neck” I would find a white mold around that narrow part, which I wiped off immediately. In the interest of science—heehee—I should have started timing the length of time this thing is taking to dry out. The ones left on the vine are dry and have been harvested. I love the color and the variations in the color, as it develops.

In a total change of subject ….

When this picture came up in my ArtDaily newsletter, I immediately thought of the recent local news about the Plano school district and its plan to ban a humanities book after one parent complaint. There was concern about the depiction of ancient nude statues and other artwork that contained nudity. I am happy to say that the school district reneged on that ban. Some of the artwork mentioned as being offensive I have seen in museums, not only locally, but in other parts of the world. But, I don’t know—these statues could be pretty titillating, right? By the way, as far as I know, the above picture is not included in the textbook in question.

Love the Title!

The NY Times has an article titled

Where Fiber Art Meets Hot Fudge Sundae 

Love that title!  Check out the article here.  It’s worth checking out some of the links to various artists mentioned in the article.  Interesting stuff out there!

Art and Weaving

Beck_Toucan

Toucan, Beck 2009

I don’t really know where I’m going with this, but I’m familiar with several painters and their working processes.  It always amazes me that artists can finish a painting in 1-3 days!  I know they prep their canvasses, and then there’s varnishing and/or framing, so that probably brings it up to a week.  Like all artists, there’s also the incubation period.  When asked how long something took to produce, some weavers I know respond with “All my life.”  That’s kind of a conversation ender to me, but the same could be said for the work of any artist.  All that we are goes into the inspiration, training, etc. of producing any art.  I mention all of this because of the slow nature of weaving.  Each of my pieces takes about 3-4 weeks to finish the weaving.  That’s not counting the actual finishing of the piece—needle weaving ends in (or hemming), heavy steam pressing, and preparing the hanging device.  (Right now I have three pieces that need finish work done.)  One thing that has been surprising to me is that the weft-faced ikat takes about the same number of days to complete.  While measuring the ikat yarn and wrapping with the tape, I feel like it’s taking FOREVER.  But when I look at the dates of the last finished piece to the date of the next time I cut off a piece, it’s about the same number of days.  Even if it does take about a month to just get something off the loom from beginning to end, I love my job!

I am trying to spend some time daily with my sketchbook and either collage papers or pen and pencil.  I’ve never done much with collage, but it might be a springboard to some new designs.  Although, instead of tearing, I may need to use scissors and cut out shapes of some sort.  But, I promise, I will experiment with both methods of collage.

The picture at the top of this post is by my grandson.  He’s a great little artist.  Both the boys seemed to appreciate the new sketchbooks they received.  There is a variety of drawings filling the pages of their books, everything from the Star Wars Clone War characters (Cartoon Network) to anything else that comes to mind.  If you look at the Cartoon Network site about the Clone Wars, can someone tell me what’s up with these sick-looking female characters?  I don’t have cable, so have never seen the actual show, but the drawings look absolutely…what?

I am also going back to tracking studio hours for a while.  I need to get back on track and back to routines.