On clutter

I am privileged to have a large studio in which to create my art. I have been in this space for about 15 years. Recently I realized that I am burying myself in my work. I have to shuffle things around to find workspace, storage space and display space. It is heaven.

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I like going to museums, craft stores, estate sales, second hand stores and libraries. They fuel my ideas.

My friend Juanita brought a group of us to this store in Memphis. It holds every which way of fashion materials from Church Lady hats to walls of earrings and stickers. Need a sequined bustier? A tie dyed pair of leggings? A beaded purse in the shape of a football? We got you covered.

I also love puzzles. I give myself permission to do one puzzle each year. I know my tendency to obsess. If I didn’t limit myself to one you would find me buried under a card table filled with sky pieces, water pieces, and that little piece that has a stripe of pink with a yellow tongue that I have been looking for for a long time. I finished this puzzle last week and lo and behold a friend of mine sent me another one as a challenge. It is a drawing in black and white and gray of the anti-war painting by Picasso called Guernica. I changed my mind and will allow two puzzles this year. I remember being awestruck and losing my breath when I saw the original in Madrid.

I am hyper focused these days. While walking I will actually get down on my knees to see a mushroom emerge. My wishlist includes an electron microscope. Sounds emerge where there were none before. And don’t get me started on those little beetles that show up if you dig. The bounty of inspirations fuels me, astounds me and if I am honest it can stop me in my tracks.

Here’s my latest work. I haven’t figured out what to name it yet.

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Food for thought

Here’s something we saw while driving through Arkansas. A jewelry shop is offering a free shotgun if you buy a diamond. It reminded me of a store here in Memphis that used to have a sign that said “Nuts and Furs”

Let the fun begin

I’m getting ready to leave my studio for a week to attend a workshop on collage. There is so much to do before I leave that my attention wanders while I make lists, clean up the space and plan for my return. That part called “cleaning up my space” always leads to new ideas for work. So I abandoned all the chores I didn’t want to do while concentrating on what I did want to do.

I cut up another quilt.

This quilt hung in the hallway of our house for about 7 years. I finally took it down and substituted a different piece. It is called File Sharing and I think I made it back in 2010. I like the color palette, I like some of the stitching, but I’m not too fond of the composition. So it became a candidate for recycling.

I’ve been thinking about how pieces linger in the studio. Repurposing them gives them new life and me a new challenge. This time I wanted to cut this quilt up into a traditional pattern called Storm at Sea. I have been playing with that pattern in an illustration program and wanted to see what would happen if I used quilted pieces to create it in a different way.

I made a set of templates with a stiff matte board. After cutting out the template pieces I am left with windows that I can position over the quilt to preview what I will cut. I simply use a pencil to draw the outline on the quilt and then cut the piece with scissors.

I think there is a song with the lyrics “the first cut is the deepest…” I was humming that while cutting into the quilt. It is a point of no return for this process. No amount of stitching or glueing will bring this quilt back to its original form. You have to just trust the process.

Here is the result of that day’s work.

Putting the pieces together into a layout is like playing with puzzles—one of my favorite things to do.

I attached the pieces to a backing fabric with small pieces of Misty Fuse.

Then started stitching them together onto the cloth background with a decorative stitch.

That’s when my sewing machine started acting up. And then it finally froze. I think it was reminding me that I had a lot of chores to do. So I guess I will have to come back to this piece once I return from the workshop. I have ideas on how I will add even more stitching to this beginning.

Watch this space.