Process Shot of the Week

Quote of the Week

"The capacity for wonder has been called our most human faculty, for in it are born our art, our science and our religion."

~Ralph Sockman

Love on the Side

I'm really into vintage handkerchiefs right now. I don't really know why. They have nothing to do with the rest of my work. I picked up a few when I went antiquing with Keith LoBue several weeks ago, but I'm still not sure what I'd like to do with them yet. I think there's a bad pic of them a few posts back. Here's some much prettier pics, all found via Flickr.

Monday Gifts

I love when I come in in the morning and find gifts on my bench! This morning I came into two fantastic pieces of lacy fan coral, most likely left by The Ebendorf.

Process Shot of the Week

So, I feel like I've been spending ALL week on preping for my design class! So much grading! Plus, we started on color this week, and I wanted to make examples for my students. It literally sucked up all my time this week. But, I did manage to get White Sands finished.

Bonus Quote of the Week

" I have also come to the conclusion that the square is a human invention, which makes it sympathetic to me. Because you don't see it in nature. As we do not see squares in nature, I thought that it is man-made. But I have corrected myself. Because squares exist in salt crystals, our daily salt. We know this because we can see it in the microscope."

~Josef Albers

Quote of the Week

"What have we been doing all these centuries but trying to call God back to the mountain, or, failing that, raise a peep out of anything that isn't us? What is the difference between a cathedral and a physics lab? We spy on whales and on intersteller radio objects; we starve ourselves and pray til we're blue."

~Anne Dillard

Process Shot of (Last) Week

Sorry these are a few days late.

More Mushrooms

Found these great clumps of mushrooms on my walk to school on Monday.

Pitt County Fair

Some pictures of my outing to the Pitt County Fair last Friday. I ate fried Oreos and they were amazing. There was a disappointing lack of livestock, but I did get to see some rabbits and pet some sheep.

Quote of the Week

"The mountains are great stone bells; they clang together like nuns. Who shushed the stars? . . . . The sea pronounces something, over and over in a hoarse whisper; I cannot quite make it out. But God knows I have tried."
~Anne Dillard
From Teaching a Stone to Talk

Inspiration?

So, as I said before, I'm taking a grad level fibers class this semester. It's an all grad class, and it's a mix of learning techniques, discussion, and eventually making work. I'm enjoying the techniques, but the rest of the class content seems to be a little fluffy, particularly for a grad level class. Last class we were to bring in our "inspiration" for our work. I think my inspiration is pretty obvious when you look at my work, but, ok, I'll take an opportunity to brag about all the cool stuff I have. I don't mind seeing other people's cool stuff either, it's just that I think I'd rather look at the work and discuss the work, especially since we're all at the stage we're at.

A few of us brought collections of objects, our professor brought work, most people, frankly, I think forgot to bring anything. But one student said that she gets her inspiration from looking at other artists. She says she spends hours and hours on the Internet looking at lesson plans (she's Art Ed) and other art. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I certainly like to look at work, and try my best to keep current with the field, but I try not to look too much at other work in the context of my making, for fear I might emulate something too closely. For a while, I was always asked "What other artists are you looking at?" and I usually came up with some artists work which I loved and kinda had a relation to mine, but really in my head and heart, I was thinking "No one. This is my work. Why do I want to let what someone else is doing influence my work? Why can't I let these objects I love inspire me?"

Don't get me wrong, I understand the value and need in looking at other work, I just have an issue with someone making work "inspired" by the work of other artist. Thoughts on this?

At any rate, I think this exercise for class was beneficial for me. I was thinking about what to take (Which rock do I love the most?) and I think I realized why I make large neck pieces as opposed to objects or bracelets or whatever else. I only make brooches and neckpieces. Large neckpieces. I think this is because I love these things I work with so much and what they represent to me, that I literally want to wrap my self in them. Cover myself. Swathe my self in them like a favorite blanket. I love these things and I want them on my person. I want them within reach.

Sorry if that was a bit rambling. Thanks for reading.

Fall Break?

What I would like to do over the Fall Break:
- go to the beach
- go to a flea market
- go to the Hexchange show in B'more
- finish reading my favorite book
- spend some time in the country
- go to the fair
- sew something
- go see a really excellent movie
- relax

What I will actually be doing over the Fall Break:
- grading
- documenting all of my student's work up until this point
- make up a mid term exam for my students
- sew something
- studio work, but I'm not sure what
- work on coming up with my art history topic/ bibliography

Wish I had the whole week off.

Fabric Fun

So, I'm taking a textiles class this semester. It's supposed to be about wearables, but right now, it feels like a survey class. We've been watching various demos on various techniques, the first two of which (acid dying and felt making) I've had plenty of previous experience. But last week we covered Thermofax, a low tech silk screen method, and fiber reactive dyes. I've also been messing around with rusting fabric. I don't really know what I'm going to do with all of these test pieces, but I'm enjoying playing around. I really love fabric and always have, but I don't always know what to do with it. Hence, the trying to learn how to sew. Anyways, here's some of the fabric I've altered in the past few days.

Quote of the Week

"The creative mind plays with the objects it loves."
~Carl Jung

View From a Sunday

Trying to make mushroom prints.

Saturday Finds

Jewelry artist Keith LoBue is visiting us in Greenville this weekend and yesterday I had the opportunity to go antiquing with him at a few of the wonderful junk shops here in town. It was a wonderful outing full of great furniture, lovely rusty things and just all manner of stuff. I got some beautiful vintage linens and these really fantastic old needle cases (I'm a sucker for a needle case!). Later, after I purchased them, I discovered that each case was full of sewing machine needles! They're all different sizes, though I'm sure none will work in my more modern machine, but they were a nice surprise!

Tea Infuser

Here's the tea infuser I made in 2 days. I'm going to sleep now.