Small thoughts, growing larger

As I was reading The Art World Demystified, I kept gasping and thinking "Oh, I could never do that!" That thought ran through my mind almost as soon as I started reading. And then I thought, "Pay attention to when you think that!  That just may be the very thing you need to pay attention to."

And, so, I am paying attention. I am a polite, sometimes self-effacing feminist 1950's chick. While I was trained up to be a well educated professional of some kind, the role models were limited by the times: teacher, nurse, housewife.  Not explorer, breadwinner, CEO or inventor. Even in the late 1970's I remember a female friend who did not make partner in the accounting firm because women were not offered partnerships.

I am almost 66 and while I will still be polite, I am going to start asking for what I need and may even deserve (gulp!  Really?) Actually the asking has begun. I did not get a response, but I asked.  That was the big step.  It took me a couple of days of dithering and writing and re-writing the bold (for me) letter. It felt so good to put it in the mail.  It was a small thing, but it was a step.


SO, what ideas are growing larger?

I am seeking venues for my installations (Her)Suit , the Ophelia Project and Eros and Thanatos.  I actually do this all the time.  But the change is in how I am approaching the research.  It is time to reduce the number of "pay for play" competitions and juried shows on my resume.  Danielle is researching commercial galleries and I am researching college and university galleries and area museums in drivable distances.

I am looking for a temporary space to hang (Her)Suit so I can both show it locally and shoot some good photographs and videos for future proposals.   I have 2 recommendations.  Do you have any ideas?

I am reconsidering how the artworld has worked for years.  I know that the artist/dealer relationship has changed markedly. I know that while artists still garner respect through representation by highly respected galleries,  but alternative ways of exhibiting work are becoming increasingly important. Pop-ups, artist-run spaces, community actions...

I am also looking at how art is funded. Self funding and self representation have worked pretty well for me up until now.  However, the work is becoming more and more complex and more and more expensive to accomplish.  I am looking at grants, patrons, foundations, crowdsourcing...you name it, I'm considering it.

Meanwhile, I need to keep making new work. So, onward, ever onward.

Thinking about a lot these days...

Art-A-Whirl 2016 is finished.  It is a two and a half day extravaganza of art-looking, eating, drinking and art-shopping.  It began 21 years ago as a studio crawl.  It has grown into the largest studio crawl in the nation, I hear. It has become bloated, perhaps.  Every inch of available space outside the rented studios appears to be rented out to artists who do not work in the buildings year round.  As a result it is more like a huge, unjuried art fair.  There is artwork of all stripes and all qualities, from beginner to very advanced.  There are greeting cards, suncatchers, children's artwork and awe inspiring monumental art.  It is truly a mixed bag.

I have exhibited three times now, I think.  Twice in the Northrup King Building and, this year, in the Grainbelt Bottling House Building.  I participate when my work has required renting a larger studio than my home studio.  As a gallery/museum artist, Art a Whirl is not a big sales event for me.   But, it still is valuable.  My goals were to show the new body of work and to collect information. And I was pleased with the results.

So, here is what I am thinking about beyond the last couple of days:

I will be reporting here on how I am going about re-booting my art career.  I have been an exhibiting artist for the better part of 40 years, starting in art fairs with pottery and moving on to artists books and installations in galleries and collections.  190 exhibitions, 30 of the solo!  Most of my artists books have gone into collections.  There are still a few hanging around the studio that will go out to Denver this week to join a wonderful project that takes the books out to underserved communities.

I still work in installations and longterm projects that accumulate momentum and meaning over time. These are harder to place.  I have always been a self-represented artist...whatever that means!  I do show in galleries across the US, but I am my own agent.  It has been up to me to get my work placed.

Currently I am reading the books and watching the Youtube videos by Brainard Carey, garnering ideas for moving forward as an independent artist. Tonight I will be starting an online class with Creative Capital, taught by Sharon Louden, an author I have really enjoyed reading.

I invite you to follow along with me and participate in the brainstorming ahead.  Stay tuned.

New York exposure

I Dwell in Impossibility #14

Even as I continue to write unsuccessful grant applications (perhaps some will be successful again one day) and dye wool for Shepherd's Harvest Festival and shrinkwrap artwork for Art-A-Whirl, I keep sending show proposals and competition entries.

This week I heard from 2 New York galleries...in the affirmative!  Hooray!

I Dwell in Impossibility #14 , a collaboration with my son John Hensel, will be showing at the venerable Ceres Gallery.  I have wanted to show there ever since I heard about them more than 20 years ago.  The 12th annual National Juried Exhibition has given me the opportunity.

Ceres Gallery

547 W. 27th St. suite 201

New York, NY 10001

Juror: Carmen Hermo, Assistant Curator for Collections, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

May 24 2016 thru Jun 18 2016

opening reception  May 26, 6-8

My Mother, Myself

My Mother, Myself, a digital embroidery, will be exhibited at the First Street Gallery, in their National Juried Exhibition,

National Juried Exhibition

June 23-July 16, 2016

opening reception June 23, 6-8pm

First Street Gallery

526 West 26th St. Suite 209, 

New York 

The juror, Lori Bookstein, viewed 2,200 works in curating this exhibition.  Cool!

Competitions are not necessarily great career builders, but, hey!  It gets the work seen so it can begin to tell its story.

If you are in the New York area...Please go see the shows!  I'll be slaving away in the studio out here in Minnesota while you party for me;-)  

Erotica Aquatica Lace in production

The embroidery machine was in the shop for three weeks!!! but that did not stop me from digitizing more designs...or writing the grant that I unreasonably hope will support the next phase of development.

In the last post you saw some failed display efforts, on grids.  The grids overwhelmed the lace.  I moved on to biological specimen boxes, pinning the shell/vulvas to the soft backing.  Ish!!!  I think that is actually the response I want, on some level. 

I also threw a few on a small light box.  They are beautiful that way.  I have multiple 24" x 48" lightboxes in the garage.  I will drag one in this week and try a few things before I order more specimen boxes.

 Meanwhile, now that the machine has returned, I am stitching, threading, stitching, threading.  Many broken and shredded threads!  In the following photos you will see, not only 8 plus hours of stitching, but a technique that helps me prevent problems (only sometimes) and helps me to target adjustments needed in the designs.


I printed these designs out while the machine was in the shop to play with composition and develop photos shoots for the grant...helping show steps in the process, showing the technical mastery that is necessary for completion.

I have always printed out designs for cataloging purposes.  It's far easier for me to think of what I want to stitch if I can leaf through a binder.  Print-outs also print out thread instructions for multi color designs....exceedingly important since correct thread specs rarely transfer to the machine!

In the photos below, I have matched print-outs with stitch-outs.  The stitch-outs are still on their wash away stabilizer (Vilene) where is it easier to see obvious faults that need correcting. In all but one of the photos, you may be able to see orange highlighter marks. I have marked areas that need editing and improvement.  Once the stabilizer is washed out, more flaws will likely be evident.

For the embroidery nerds:
digitized in 6-D
75/11 needle
Threadart polyester thread
Vilene wash away stabilizer

Minor pull-aways.

This will probably hold together, but can be cleaned up.

The only one that needs no editing, so far, unless the red motif does not hold together!

This has a couple of minor pull-aways and needs higher density in the final satin stitch.

This needs a whole new layer added on the right side of the design in order for it to hold together.

So what's ahead?  More testing!!!  More digitizing.  I need to try these out with different threads: 60 weight will probably look flabby.  Try them out with cotton, will probably need less density. It will be a meaty looking lace.  I will be trying out different kinds of fills that will still hold the lace together. I get tired of tried and true crosshatch.  Gradient fills...motifs that I develop...inset text...stitching on netting.

Meanwhile, I am studying different way to think about assembling lace...developing motifs that can be mixed and matched to make a lace fabric...like the doilie in the machine.

This doily is in the machine now, shredding thread at an alarming rate! Time to change the needle and maybe order a higher quality, fresher cone of black polyester.

Thinking about machine embroidery: sort of a tutorial

Erotica Aquatica

Digitizing for machine embroidery is highly technical. There is not much that is automatic about it.

A screen shot of 6-D embroidery software

I use several brands of digitizing software: 6-D Embroidery, Embrillance Stitch Artist, TruE for the Mac.

I would describe the software as a non-intuitive cross between Photoshop and Illustrator.

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All designs are based on drawing.  The drawing may be done directly in the software, in Illustrator or in Photoshop to form a background image to use as a reference for designing the stitches. Additionally, one can directly draw the individual stitches without reference to a background image.

Print-outs of some lace designs

All stitches are straight.  There is no such thing as a curved stitch. Each stitch in a pattern is comprised of 2 needle penetrations, by definition, a straight line. Curves are made from many, many, little straight lines.

Thread and needles have real diameter that must coincide with the substrate that will hold the stitches.  Cloth can be woven, knit or felted.  When a needle and thread penetrate the cloth, the fibers are either pierced or pushed to one side. Each penetration distorts the substrate more.  The accumulated distortion of the substrate, not to mention the expansion and contraction of the stitches,  must be allowed for in the design.

You must be aware of stitch density: thread and needles have distinct diameters, limiting the number of stitches per square inch.  This limits both the fineness and detail of the design. The density of stitching over existing stitch fields can increase saturation of color, but it can also break needles and rip the fabric or substrate.

The direction of the stitching shows off the affects of light on color.  Subtle sheens that appear to sculpt the surface can be created by shifting stitch directions between contiguous shapes.

Types of thread affect outcome.  There are cotton, polyester, trilobal polyester, rayon threads, metallic threads.  Most come in a standard 40wt, but some are available in much thinner or much heavier weights affecting stitch out success.  All patterns must be digitized with the thread weight in mind

The stitches are digitized in groups, forming objects. The order of these groups affects the outcome.  One must be cognizant of where stitches intersect with lower layers. The order of layers can be rearranged in order to maximize stitch out efficiency and to combine stitches so the design looks as planned.

Pathing, or the order of operations in a stitch out, is very important.  It is important to reduce the number of thread cuts and ties-offs by designating start and stop points on each object and, when possible, connecting objects with hidden stitching.  Why is this important?  The more cuts and tie-offs, the more opportunities for the machine to jam and destroy several hours of stitching.  When digitizing for apparel, pathing is even more important as it affects comfort and durability of the design.

In addition to choosing appropriate thread-needle-cloth combinations, one also must choose the appropriate stabilizer and, sometimes, a topping.  Stabilizer is a form of interfacing that helps prevent the substrate from puckering and shifting.  It comes in many different forms and weights. Topping is a thin stabilizer made to be placed on top of the substrate and is used mostly when the substrate has high loft.  For making lace, the stitching is done on several layers of water soluble stabilizer, which is essentially a sheet of starch.

 

Designing for free-standing lace requires that lines of stitches interlace sufficiently for the design to retain its form when the stabilizer is washed away. Designing balances the density of interlacement with the desired airiness. The shadows cast are part of the design process. Stitch length must be kept relatively short for the lace to maintain its integrity.  However, it is possible, when long stitch lengths or unsupported elements are a desired part of the design, to stitch the form on bridal tulle.

Busy exhibition season

The work continues to travel: to 2 places in Oregon, one in Michigan  and three venues  just up the street.

Extreme Fibers closes soon at the Dennos Museum in Traverse City, Mi. closing 3/1/16

Au Naturel, at Clatsop Community College, in Astoria, Oregon closes 3/10/16.

Transgender Realities opens 3/2/16. closes 4/8/16

WARM Guerrillas: Feminist Visions  in the Grainbelt Bottling House Atrium, runs 2/26-3/12/16. The reception is 3/4/16. 7-10pm.  My work, WEARING MY AGE, funded by the Jerome Foundation, will have its second showing in this exhibition.

In Stitches is howing at the Cocoran Neighborhood Office for an indeterminant period of time.  It is 3 doors south of my building.

and last, but not least
I AM, a Guerrilla Girls exhibit with Altered Esthetics, at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis.

I am a featured artist in the show. Watch the video!

Life and Death in the New Year

It has been a while since I blogged about my own work. Certainly I have been posting pictures on Facebook...a substitute for the words?  Maybe.

The new year has begun and I am about to go into high gear!  or, higher gear than my already kind of obsessive work practice. I continue my year long commitment to the vulvar/shell form.  The theme remains Eros and Thanatos.  Eros, while certainly the root of the word erotic, also refers to the living body.  SO, the theme is life and death!  Well, actually, it is the always aging,  sensual, sensate body on the journey toward death, composting and eternity.  It has something to do with living in the moment, rather than clutching the past or fearing the future.  It has something to do with finding the luminous, numinous, liminal moment when the body ceases to restrict and the spirit soars free. There is breath and ritual and movement...and in some iterations, transgression and humor.

I began the work in the  Women's Art Institute at St. Kate's last summer.  I am about to continue working on this installation.  It will require at least 160 drawings done on 22 x30" Stonehenge, coated with chalkboard paint. My home studio is not large enough to hang four rows of 10 drawings each,  much less four walls of drawings. So, as I have done in the past when circumstances required, I have sublet a studio in the Grainbelt Building in order to work on this installation.
I am excited and nervous about starting up again!

Meanwhile, on other fronts, all kinds of things are percolating.  My friend Dale and I are framing the (Her)suit project so that the installation can finally find exhibition spaces!  The frames are huge and it is a kind of scary undertaking.  I am working on spec, as I always do, but on a larger scale that I am used to.

The frames are taller than I, the images are triptychs meant to be hung from the ceiling in rows, images back-to-back.
The images may be familiar to some of you who have been following for a long time.  They were begun in a residency at the Ragdale Foundation in 2009!

I have also been ordering fabric samples from a couple of fabric printers, designed to sew a matching suit jacket.

On yet another front, Danielle, my current administrative assistant, and I are continuing to work on the Art of Giving Project.  We have organized and sent out packets to collections who hold my artists books, offering to donate titles to expand the collection. Last year I placed many titles with Minnesota Center for Book Arts and with University of Colorado at Boulder.  It is time to place more in other collections.  And now we move on to the question of the archives associated with this project and with other aspects of my art history.  Ten years ago, I never would have thought of this. I have been saving things: press clippings, templates, edition notes, slides, journals, notebooks, postcards and posters of exhibitions...They are protected from moisture and sun, but in no way are they organized!  Much work ahead!
There is more, but this is enough for now!  Happy New Year!