In that very large abstraction book that I checked out from the library,
there was a piece titled From Yellow to Violet by François Morellet. It was a kind of squared spiral, with yellow in the center going to violet on the outside line. That got me thinking about all the colors in between. The handy Color Schemer came out again.
In “Mixer” I chose a yellow and a violet. The default gives you 52 colors, in this case from yellow to violet. I changed that to 21 and this is what I got. Notice that there are lots of browns and some not very interesting colors in the middle of this. Then I happened to notice the drop down menu beside Path. Evidently I’ve never done that before, but there are three choices in all: linear, radial clockwise, radial counterclockwise.
The example above with the not-so-interesting colors is the linear path. Left is the radial counterclockwise. When they say radial, they are meaning on
the color wheel. Here is the radial clockwise. Both of these schemes are interesting to me, maybe even a little exciting. These color palettes look like they could be for the abstraction book. I love them! After all, they have purple.
Category Archives: Artists
Towels
The Fort Worth Weavers Guild show is hanging, as mentioned before. Several items caught my immediate attention, but alas, they already had red dots and were sold. These towels were already sold, but there were more at home. Yippee! These and the next two pictures
show towels woven by Margaret Humphries.
Both sets of towels are part of her drink series, as in Tequila Sunrise series and Margarita series.
I love handwoven towels and use them daily, but I also buy them for gifts. Those of us who use them, like to think and acknowledge the weaver each time we use them. It’s nice to have Margaret in the kitchen with me–and many other weaver friends.
Below are three towels that I picked up at the guild sale.
This picture really does not do them justice, because the weave structure is not very visible. Click on the picture to really see how beautiful they are. These towels were woven by friends Lynn Smetko and Nancy Berger. As for Margaret’s towels–I bought the ones on the right in each picture. And they’re gorgeous! Just like the others.
Who do you admire?
Who are the people you admire? What’s the first name that pops up?
I haven’t thought about this in a long time, but today I was listening to a recording about creative blocks. One suggestion, before getting to the actual blocks, was to be clear on what your idea of success is for you. Who are the people you admire? Used to be, that when I was asked that question, my immediate response
was Margaret Mead. I’m not even sure how I knew of Mead, except that I have a vague adolescent remembrance of reading something about her or by her in a magazine. Later, I could even tell you what I admired about her, even though I didn’t actually know if it was true. I admired her independence, or what I perceived as her independence.
Back to the recording–I have now added Georgia O’Keeffe to my very short list, and again, I think it is because of her independence. And again, I’m really not sure how independent she really was. To me, living in New Mexico the way she
did, away from everything, persuing her art, seems independent, even though we know she had relationships and people visiting her in the desert.
Fact of the matter is that I really know practically nothing about either of these women. Maybe it’s time to change that–read a biography, watch a movie. I’ve put on my wishlist a DVD from Amazon about Georgia.
Who do you admire? I don’t know what it means that the first names that pop into my head are dead, but so it is.
Links:
Same song, same verse
You know, it’s amazing how exhausting one can get weaving for several hours and/or wrapping ikat. I’ve been splitting my work day fairly equally between the two, but geez, it’s uncomfortable sitting so long. I am seriously considering a walking loom. Does anyone have any experience with one? I’m wondering how weaving for hours standing would be, or would I just be complaining about how tired I am after standing all day? The day started out with a small rain, a wonderful day for weaving. And, oh, too bad, no mowing today! Now there are all kinds of storms swirling around, some with tornadoes, and even grapefruit size hail. That’s a new one for me. Grapefruit? So, I go from room to room carrying my flashlight just in case. And they say that these warnings will be here until 1:00 AM! And then I went through all my bank transactions looking for an $800 mistake. At least it’s in my favor, but I’m one of those people that balances a checkbook to the penny–well, at least I used to. Now I like to at least be under a $50 error.
Thursday through Monday
This is what I’ve been doing for the last few days, just a few notes that I made at the end of each day. I’ll post more later.
Thursday–May 2, 2013
- the wind is blowing 45 mph and it’s 50 outside. Cold. It’s May!
- hotel key cards can be de-magnetized by a phone in a pocket with the key card
- my car is so full I can tell a difference in the way it “feels”
- set up tomorrow should be fun–see #1
- have I mentioned that it’s cold?
Friday–
- much better day today, warmer, b
ut not quite as cold - set up my booth, learned a few things, added to my list of things needed
- walking, walking, walking–lost my pedometer, too bad because I really wanted to know how much walking I was doing
- drove past a section of wildfires two years ago, totally depressing, but seeing the houses nestled in amongst the burned trees, a miracle for those folks
- when they say that booths are 10 x 10, it’s probably really not, there are leftover pieces
. Had room for 9 inside the booth - Tomorrow’s the day!
Saturday–
- Wow! Turns out to be a great day!
- Discouraged earlier-lots of people wandering into my booth, saying very complimentary things about my work, finally someone came back to look again. Sent pictures to her husband, he said she has to choose. She did, one of the larger pieces-Sine Wave, shown at top. I hung the piece vertically because of space, but maybe it should be hung horizontally. What do you think?
- Booths close at 5, artists wander to the old hotel across from the square, awards ceremony, barbeque dinner
- Awards ceremony–ceremony is too formal of a word, I won two awards! One for Best of Show and another a “just because I like it.” Monetary awards! Total surprise!
- After a couple of years of dealing with grief, estate stuff, house stuff, my creativity had gone out the window. It’s been back for a while, but this helps, believe me! Kind of like validation that this is a good track to be on.
- Even before the awards, I had already decided to try fro this show again. The people are nice, it’s a small venue, lots of really good art, many knowledgeable visitors.
- This means I have a goal of 9 new pieces. Doesn’t sound like much, does it?
- I’ve really got to track time weaving. It IS the perennial question, you know.
Sunday
—
- easier day today–shorter day, fewer visitors
- One of the other artists said I should put my
blue ribbon in my booth. Lots of people noticed it and congratulated me - the eccentrics showed up today
- bought a painted bunting from Melanie Fain
- sent six pieces with Karen Vernon for gallery
- Allison and Tony helped with take down
- donated From Above
- dinner with Allison and Tony at Roadhouse
- Arts for Rural Texas puts on ArtWalk. They provide arts for the communities in the area, three counties. This is not just the visual arts, but also symphony, plays, etc.
Monday–
- Why does driving make one so tired? Exhausted after four hours or so on the road
- Went to Hill Country Handweavers, bought some silk straw, what, is that called yarn?
- Drove to the churro farm, picked up two fleeces, saw the lambs, ewes, rams (see below)
- Drove, drove, drove
Mostly pictures
Viewers in gallery
Stormies’s bottles
First the pop-up gallery–on the left is a shot of the viewers, a surprisingly nice crowd for a gloomy, cold afternoon. And this space cleaned up well, only needs better lighting. The rabbit in this shot is Stormie Parker’s, as are the bottles below.
another section
Here’s another shot of the space. It cleaned up really well–the space I mean.
stolen garden sign
Now for some good stuff. This neighborhood is being “re-gentrified” and they have built community garden beds.Notice the cute entrance of branches painted blue. You might also notice the sign. The gardens are called Riverside Stolen Garden because the first beds were stolen. They’ve been redone, obviously. The fence to the right of the gate is made with wooden pallets.
Birdhouses
These birdhouses adorn the fence. They are all constructed alike, but the painting is different, as are the garden beds themselves.
Garden beds
wall art trailer
And there is the portable pop-up. I want one of those!
Brandywine and warping-But not together
In my ongoing love affair with process and the artist’s final result, there’s an exhibit that should be interesting at the Brandywine River Museum. I wrote about this museum a few years ago after a trip to Philadelphia. We absolutely loved our visit, even though Jamie Wyeth’s art was not my favorite. The “docent” leading our group was one of the Wyeth grandchildren, a very vivacious and entertaining young woman who included family bits in her presentation.
Warping
warping spreadsheet
I can’t tell you how many times I have sat down with my calculator, pencil, and paper to figure out how long a warp I can put on with the fewest possible number of tubes of warp. Literally dozens, I’m sure. I did it again on Tuesday, even though I just bought this yarn and know I figured this all out before I ordered. Well, in my geeky way (or maybe it’s procrastination??), I have made a spreadsheet so that maybe I won’t have to do this again. I already keep a spreadsheet of how much I weave off, so I added this one to the sheets. That way I’m hoping I can remember where I put it!
Stalking the wild yarn store, danger ahead
Turquoise button
Red/orange buttons
It seems that I haven’t been writing much about weaving lately. Hmmm…..maybe because there’s really not much weaving going on? I did start with the warping process today. I was going to tie on to the old warp, but decided that probably wouldn’t be a good idea since I re-sleyed that warp from 4 epi to 6 epi. So, fresh start it is.
I went to the yarn store on Friday, always a dangerous thing to do. Of course, I only went because they were having a trunk show, not of yarns, but closings. I’m a sucker for buttons! I’ve got a collection of them from various travel locations and don’t have a clue what I’ll do with them. Probably nothing. The closings are from a local studio called Crone Art. You gotta love a name like that.
The Jennings Street Yarns is on one of the oldest streets in Fort Worth. If you go to their website, there is a picture of the current store and the street as it used to be. Scroll down to see other comparisons of a few streets in the city. I love those old buildings. Oh, about the yarns…yes, I bought some. After all anything with green was 25% off, everything else 20%. Yarn stores are dangerous!
Starting again
From Above
Tapestry, Hand-dyed yarns, 23.4″ x 37″, ©Sherri Woodard Coffey
After starting the current weaving, you know, the one with slits, I decided that I really didn’t like it and wasn’t going to waste anymore time on it. So I cut it off. I like the colors (kind of like the ones above, but brighter), so I may just weave a stripe until I can finally decide on what to weave. How long does one stay in a state like this anyway? I am reminded of a video about Susan Rothenberg (which came to me via Lisa Call). She says how important it is to go into the studio each day, to do something, even if it’s wrong, even if it’s changed later. That so makes me feel better! The video is below, but there’s text with the link above.
While I try to figure out where to go from here, I will clean my studio. Exciting stuff! I ordered new warp today-on sale at Lone Star Room. I don’t need it right now, but there’s not a whole lot left on the warp beam. Since that’s the case, I switched out reeds from a 4-dent to a 6-dent. The big concern with that is whether my two strands of weft will cover the warp. I sometimes weave with three strands at 4 epi, so surely two strands will cover at 6 epi, right? So now I want to know–how do you get out of the doldrums, the creative slump? Hints, anyone?
Learned something new
Learned something new–I had no idea that the weaving of Navajo blankets began so long ago. The quote below is from here. And you can see the Sotheby press release here.
While it is thought that Navajo blankets were woven from the late 1600’s, very few dating from before 1850 have survived. By that time the blankets were well established as a trade item throughout large parts of the American West. The going rate for a Navajo chief’s blanket was one hundred buffalo hides, twenty horses, ten rifles, or five ounces of gold. Chief’s blankets were expensive – by 1830, they were the most expensive garments in the world, but were known for holding their value and were essential for high ranking members of the Plains and Prairie tribes.
And another artist, Joyce Pensato. Several things fascinate me about this artist. The fact that the above piece is painted with enamel on linen is one. But then I checked for other images, and it seems that Batman is a continuing theme, just now branching out into color, and the way she works. See quote below from here.
Pensato draws in charcoal and paints in enamel. For years her palette has been black, white and silver, though color is beginning to make an appearance in her recent paintings. Her drawing process is one of making marks, rubbing them out and making more marks, with line being the essential form. In her paintings, the line is made of enamel that initially appears to have been applied quickly, though its varying densities and its field of drips and splatters makes it clear that it wasn’t done in a single shot. In both drawing and painting Pensato is committed to finding the linear form that captures her subject matter, the cartoon characters and toys of contemporary American culture.
Somehow, an artist using cartoon characters to make this kind of art is surprising to me. But I am interested in line, and of course, color. More images here.