Sherri Woodard Coffey

Now this is certainly not a great picture, but I’m excited to have these off the loom! They are still joined together, and, as usual, the colors aren’t true in the picture. My time will be spent doing finish work for a while—I’ve got five pieces now that need steaming, and either hemming or needle weaving. I am going to tie the warp back on the loom in the next day or two for the next piece (to be decided). Since I did several designs of about the same sizes, I can tie on and then make the decision of what to weave. And, hey, maybe I should sweep around the loom! I’ve really got to get the finishing done because there are a couple of shows here in Texas that have entries due soon.

Reading (Listening) I’ve finished listening the audio book The Swan Thieves. The book is 565 pages long, and the audio version is 18 hours. It’s a little slow in the beginning and never moves through the plot quickly, but it is interesting. It is about art through a psychiatric patient, his doctor, and the women in the patient’s life. I keep thinking about how I still don’t know how I feel about this book, but the fact that I keep thinking about it tells me something. Have you ever seen a movie that you keep thinking about even though you didn’t like it much? To me, that means the movie was good in the sense that it was thought-provoking.

Now, for a little fun, take a look at these here and here. They are the work of Elaine Bradford—taxidermy and crochet—at the Houston Craft Center.  They’re infectious.  Love the images. 

In the fall, 1986 Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot, there is an article called A Journey in Progress by Annie Curtis Chittenden. The article follows Ms. Chittenden’s work as it progresses through various styles of weaving, from tapestry to Theo Morman technique. One of the ideas that interested me was her method of designing. After making small sketches, she used an opaque projector to see the design on the wall in various sizes. Choosing the size that seemed to work best for a particular design, she then traces over it for use as a cartoon.

She also uses the original small sketch by placing tracing paper over it and experimenting with color. This is something that I now do with the computer.

I have tried to find information about Ms. Chittenden, but could only find a reference of her tapestries (no pictures) hanging in Mackenzie Dining Hall in Connecticut. I am really enjoying reading the articles in these old magazines, but would love to find current information on the people mentioned in them.

Both of the pictures here are scanned from the Fall 1986 issue of SS&D.

Gardening Last week, when it seemed that spring might actually occur again, I ordered some galvanized metal walls for a raised garden bed. I expect to grow at least a few vegetables this year, although the weather yesterday and today totally belies the whole idea of spring. Black-eyed peas will one of the plants that will be planting. I miss fresh black-eyed peas cooked with snaps. Sometimes fresh peas can be found at farmers’ markets, but not with the sizes needed for snaps. February is around the corner, so March can’t be far behind!

Books While weaving, the book on the iPod is The Swan Thieves, which I got from audible.com. It’s the unabridged version, which makes it 18 hours of listening. The verdict is still out on this one for now, even though I’ve finished the first 12 hours. The pace of the plot does seem to be picking up a bit. As quoted from the NYTimes.

THE SWAN THIEVES By Elizabeth Kostova. 564 pages. Little, Brown & Company. $26.99. Elizabeth Kostova’s first novel, “The Historian,” was the subject of a heated publishing industry auction and went on to spend nearly 20 weeks on The New York Times’s best-seller list. Now she is back with her second novel, which buyers at both Barnes & Noble and Borders put near the top of their lists of hotly anticipated books for 2010. The plot follows the obsessive search by Andrew Marlow, a psychiatrist, to unravel the mystery of a patient who defaces a painting at the National Gallery. The point of view shifts among narrators, and the book goes back in time to the 19th century to explore the lives of the painters Béatrice de Clerval and her uncle, Olivier Vignot, who form a large part of the story. Writing in Publishers Weekly, Katharine Weber said: “Legions of fans of the first book have been waiting impatiently, or perhaps even obsessively, for this novel. ‘The Swan Thieves’ succeeds both in its echoes of ‘The Historian’ and as it maps new territory for this canny and successful writer.” (Publication date: Jan. 12.)

From Kimbell Art Museum 

Even though I’m listening to an audio book while weaving, my mind still wanders.  Lately, I feel kind of in flux as far as where I want to go next with my designs and my weaving.  One of the things I was thinking about was taking a watercolor class (or other art class), but I know I don’t want to devote that much time to it.  I was reminded of the education workshops given by the Kimbell.

The Friday Workshop

Spark your intellectual curiosity and creativity during afternoon programs that combine thematic gallery tours with hands-on art activities for adults of all ages. A light snack from the Buffet Restaurant is included. The materials fee for each workshop is $15 ($12 for Kimbell members). To register, call 817-332-8451, ext. 297.

Picturing Still Lifes
Friday, February 12
2–4 p.m.
Spark your intellectual curiosity and creativity in this program that combines thematic gallery tours with hands-on art activities.

Rhythm in Nature
Friday, March 05
2–4 p.m.
Landscape paintings in the special exhibition “From the Private Collections of Texas: European Art, Ancient to Modern” inspire our investigation of how nature is organized and abstracted by old and modern masters.

Seasonal Change in Asian Painting
Friday, April 23
2–4 p.m.
Snow on blossoming branches or abundant displays of harvest fruits are among the most beloved evocations of seasonal transformation in Chinese and Japanese paintings. Gallery tours highlight examples in the Kimbell’s collection before participants begin a related studio art activity.

Eye for Fashion
Friday, June 11
2–4 p.m.
From Italian brocades to 1930s haute couture, an in-depth exploration of historic dress represented in European paintings sets the stage for a mixed media activity focusing on texture and color.

I think taking a couple of these workshops might be just the spark I need to get me moving again.  Although, today while waiting for the oil change on my car, I did sketch out a couple of designs.  Will need to get out the graph paper and see if I can translate those sketches into something usable. So, all in all, a pretty exciting day!

 No not the beautiful insects, but the yarn kind.  Some weavers have thrums, I have butterflies.  I love how they look all together in the big jars that hold them.  I keep thinking that some day I will weave something with them.  Maybe something with squares all over, with the slits obvious and the squares only attached at the corners, similar to the Ellsworth Kelly Sanary below. A poster of this is thumb tacked to my studio wall.

But, somehow, these two by Klee here are more appealing, perhaps because they seem a little more random.  

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe shapes like this Klee painting called Three Flowers. 

I would like to explore the squares, I think, with some them extending up into the border, so that there’s a more spontaneous feel to the piece.  Or maybe I’ll do some fantastical faces or even robots! Or maybe just start and see where the fingers take me. Or not…

I’ve always said that if I were to win the lottery (not likely since I don’t play it), I would be able to fly somewhere for a day or two to see an exhibit that interested me. One that I have just missed was described on the blog of Seven Pines Designs.  The Georgia O’Keeffe: Abstraction exhibit ended January 17, but it looked like one that I would have enjoyed.  I love all the photos that Seven Pines Designs includes with her review of the O’Keefe exhibit.  Lots of inspiration there, from the paintings themselves, but also from the colors used.

One of my favorite photographs is a Laura Gilpin of O’Keefe sitting at a window. I really don’t know why this particular photo appeals to me so much, but it does.”Georgia O’Keeffe” by Laura Gilpin, 1953, gelatin silver print.  You can see a copy of this photo here.

I looks like this particular exhibit may be coming to the Georgia O’Keefe Museum in Santa Fe.  Maybe I’ll get to see it after all.  It will be up during Convergence.

Upcoming Exhibitions

Georgia O’Keeffe:
Abstraction
May 28, 2010 – September 12, 2010

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 17, 2009 – January 17, 2010
The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C., February 6, 2010 – May 9, 2010
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, May 28, 2010 – September 12, 2010

“[This] revelatory survey of the work…should reopen eyes to an undeniable fact: O’Keeffe produced some of the most original and ambitious art in the twentieth century.”
– Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine

Another exhibit that sounds interesting is “The Subject Is Women: Impressionism and Post-Impressionism,” as written about in the NYTimes.

And then there’s this as stated in the Times:

“Design USA: Contemporary Innovation” at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum is less an exhibition than an extra-large design seminar in your head.

This article is mostly about using an iPod Touch as the guide to the exhibit. I might find that difficult since I’ve never used a Touch before. Hmmm….  Cooper Hewitt link here.

Deciding to forgo cutting off the first piece, I have woven some weft for a few inches, then left an inch or so of unwoven warp before beginning the new piece. I would have left a larger area of unwoven warp, but was afraid there might be tension problems later.  On each side of the woven area, the warp not being used for this piece is hanging down, with knots to keep it out of the way.  I usually put on a warp of a certain width and 33 yards long, but not all pieces are of that width.  The extra just hangs down on each side.  When a piece is finished, I cut off that extra warp and measure it to get a fairly clear idea of how much warp is left on the warp beam.  I don’t want any ugly surprises in the middle of a piece! The tape below has stopping points and reminders of what I am supposed to do.  Sometimes, when there are large areas of plain weave, I forget to start the tapestry portion in the correct spot.  Once the tapestry starts, I’ll just follow my to-scale diagram.  The previous piece is visible below the empty warp yarns.