End of July Stuff in KMAC Studio

Still slowly plugging away at the installation in my studio at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft. I've sorta run out of room in the space I've denicated to the exploration of installation on this body of work. I leave the Museum this month and I'm feeling the pressure of wanting to finish a few more pieces/ideas before I leave. I know once I leave and get settled in my home studio again I'll be very distracted with placement for awhile before I get back to making art. I'm looking forward to doing a show at Zephyr in April, 2011 which will give me tons more space to see my ideas in full form.

New Stuff at KMAC studio

Installation going up in Studio at KMAC

Working on an installation in one half of the studio at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft right now.

So I had to move my workspace and all the other pieces in process to the other end of the studio.

Update to stuff in the studio at KMAC

Stuff I'm workin' on in the Studio

I'm exploring with texture. These pieces were constructed with a wire mesh (chicken wire) frame. Woven with strips of hand-dyed cotton muslin and then dye was again painted on after they were woven. I later took raw wool and hand rolled it into loose yarn and couched it into the piece to create another layer of texture and color. This has been the new experiment I've been working on the past two weeks...so far so good. I'm now curious what will happen if I take some woven work, over dye it with a dark hue or black, and then roll a lighter color or white wool into loose yarn and couch it into the surface. How will the contrast work with the texture?

Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft Residency

I was awarded and accepted a 5 month residency at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft (KMAC). I started moving parts of my studio down there on March 15th. The studio at KMAC is smaller than my own, but I so enjoy the company and love having a studio downtown, it is inspiring. I especially love being near the river and other art spaces, with both tourists and downtown suit types running around at lunch time.

There are two big windows looking into my studio space from the outside workshop area in the Education Department. I immediately hung my name to claim my space and begin my process here.

The space stills seems sparse to me, which is distracting. I like more visually cluttered places.

Since I've moved in, I've been working old pieces doing experiments. I'm planning out my next series of work and need to run a few experiments to inform what I'm doing.

The more I work on these pieces, the more I realize I need to do some workshops with other artists. I need to learn some new techniques and spend more time on formal elements in my designs. There are so many variables and I have to limit what I'm trying to figure out or I get confused and overwhelmed. Dying combined with applying texture to achieve certain effects is what I'm currently working on. I have some images in my mind of what I want to do, understanding how to best convey those images, (or ideas), is the ever burning question.

Making Baskets for Teen Art Program

This past Saturday I taught a basketry workshop at the Hara Center to benefit the teen art program there. This is me attempting to push the reed further down in the warm water. Unfortunately when I ordered reed this time, I ordered one size larger than I typically work with. Soaking became very important to make the reed more pliable.

Both adults and children participated in making twine and coil baskets. The very younger children were taken into another area to create baskets out of old newspaper with the aid of the teens the program would benefit. A big thanks goes out to Kelly McCarthy, the girl who runs the joint, for coming up with the idea of making newspaper baskets with the younger kiddos.