Carol Wiebe creates art from this studio: textile, paper, mixed media, poetry
Well, one quilt so far, that is. I am about to place my paper appliqués onto the quilted background. I haven’t finished all the stitching on the background yet, and I plan to add some collage at the top. Then, I will move the appliques around until I find a pleasing place for them. I used a couple of my gelatin plate prints on the quilt top.
I fell in love with the work of Roxanne Swentzell when I visited New Mexico a number of years ago. Her figures captured my heart. My initial reaction to them was incredulous laughter, so imagine my delight at finding a video about her. It is an amazing portrait. Her voice comes through in an absolutely authentic way, and fits her work superbly. This is a woman who builds a house and raises turkeys as graciously and consciously as she creates her sculptures.
I come from a Pueblo perspective, where the aim is to have a center and have it be balanced. ~Roxanne Swentzell
Even the descriptions of her sculptures echo Swentzell’s strong voice:
All Directions Covered ~by Roxanne Swentzell
This [All Directions Covered] is a storyteller piece. Even though the mother figure is holding her children, their combined effort has all directions covered. Walk around them. There is always one looking your way.
The Next Generation~by Roxanne Swentzell
This storeyteller piece [The Next Generation] is about generations. The parent holds up the child helping him to see from a higher advantage point. I believe this is what we do from generation to generation. We use what our past generations learned as stepping stones to grow from. As a species we evolve in this manner.
Roxanne’s biography encapsulates her work this way:
Her first piece of art was a clay dog at the age of four. After formal training and the development of her own style, Swentzell began to create full-length clay figures that represent the complete spectrum of the human spirit. She feels that many people are out of touch with their environment and hopes relating to her expressive characters will help them get back in touch with their surroundings and feelings. Her figures represent a full range of emotions and irrepressible moods. Swentzell focuses a lot on interpretative female portraits attempting to bring back the balance of power between the male and female, inherently recognized in her own culture. Additionally, she increasingly uses a powerful sense of humor to communicate.
Savor the Living Portrait of New Mexico artist Roxanne Swetzell for its phenomenal artwork and wise words. Roxanne Swentzell is a woman of deep integrity, who works “for life,” and makes art “for all of us.”
More links:
Roaxanne’s work in progress at the Santa Fe Civic Center.
Order the DVD, Living Portraits: New Mexico Artists & Writers.
This DVD is a series of three, short films. They feature interviews with the artists Roxanne Swentzell, Lonnie Vigil, and Beverly Singer. The films include examples of their work, and footage of places and activities important to their lives. A discussion guide accompanies each film to assist teachers and others in fully considering the issues raised in the films.
Order Roxanne’s book, Extra-Ordinary People. There is also a booklet available: How I Make my Sculptures.
SouthwestArt by Dottie Indyke
If Roxanne Swentzell had not found art, there would have been no communicating. As a young girl, she had a speech impediment that made it impossible for anyone to understand a word she was saying, even when her sister helped translate. Out of desperation the 6-year-old made miniature figures in clay, sculpting their faces to convey her stifled feelings. “Those little pieces said a thousand words,” she recalls.
The Heard Museum Also features the wonderful artistry of Rose Simpson, Roxanne’s daughter. Rose is an amazing artist in her own right: a poet, singer, sculptor, and painter. Visit 3D Poet, Rose Bean Simpson.
National Museum of the American Indian See the phenomenal For Life in All Directions.
Published articles about Roxanne.
Are you a river rat? Check this out!
Twisted Thread is a newsletter that will inform you about the various shows organized by a small company in the UK called Creative Exhibitions.
The company may be small, but the shows are definitely NOT. For instance:
At least, that is what I am told on the Twisted Thread website. And having spent some time exploring many links on this site, I found a lot of fodder for my inquiring mind (it does seem to be its own animal much of the time).
Here are a few highlights:
I use my own technique of machine stitching onto knitted wire to create both large scale and smaller decorative wall hangings and framed pieces that I hope are both pleasing on the eye and increasingly thought provoking.
Header for Kerry Mosley's website
I love paper appliqué. It is a terrific way to add detailed images onto paper quilts.
Also, sometimes you have the quilt at a certain stage and feel that something is missing—there’s more you need to add to achieve your vision. Gluing it on at this point may look very much like the afterthought it is, because it doesn’t have the benefit of all those layers of paint and whatever else you have used on the rest of the artwork.
I have found that paper appliqués blend in quite nicely. Here they are in a few easy steps:
1—Print out your image. You have, of course, the option to simply draw or paint an image. I use ordinary, 20lb printer paper.
Images I created to use as appliqués on a paper quilt.
2—
Glue your image to the smoothest side of a paper towel with soft gel medium, gloss (I use Golden). Smear the gloss all over the top of the image as well (just make sure whatever materials you used have dried well, and are waterproof, to prevent smearing).
Paper image glued to napkin with gloss medium.
3—
Once this is dry, you cut it out with a little of the paper towel showing. It’s time to hand sew (or sew on the machine if you are very accurate on fairly small pieces). I love doing some hand sewing, and save these pieces to take along with me or work on in the evening. They are fun and relaxing to do.
4—
I use whipped double running stitches to make thread lines over my image lines.
See the finished stitching on the image below.
I have completed a whipped double running stitch around all the lines in my appliqué.
5—
When the stitching is complete, I smear gel medium all over the top and let it dry. Then I carefully cut out the image.
The sewing gives the lines a nice raised edge.
Appliques are cut out and ready to attach to the quilt.
As soon as I have the quilt ready for the appliqués, I will demonstrate how I apply them.
See more articles like this coming to Cracked Paper Quilts. I’d love to have you join us!
Mary Buchanan, at Threading the Needle, has come up with quite a bucket list.
Actually, she insists it is NOT a bucket list, but a compilation of things she really wants to do. It was inspired by Patti Digh, who made a list called 50@50 (this is an incredible list!). Patti Digh’s name keeps coming up in the conversations I have with other women (i.e Tammy Vitale), so I checked out her blog, 37 days. The byline is “What would you be doing today if you only had 37 days to live?” If that sounds depressing to you, spend a half hour on Patti’s blog and you will feel uplifted. You will find out why she called it 37 days, and the fact that it turned into a book that has won hearts and awards everywhere.
She certainly won Mary’s heart, who dubs Patti her “new best friend” and attests that Life is a Verb makes her heart sing. Mary feels so good about turning 57 that she is not afraid to broadcast it. In honor of those years, she named 57 goals she has always wanted to accomplish. Go, Mary!
Mary admits she loves to make lists–I don’t and seldom do–but I did leave a 10 item list as a comment on her post for a very altruistic reason (the chance to win a pair of handknit socks). Can I pick the colors, Mary?
1–Be published in magazines (I have achieved this, but want to do MORE)
2–Publish books,e/books and DVDs to inspire and delight
3–Teach art with some of my favorite teachers (this would mean travelling ALL OVER the globe)
4–Encourage and support those who do not think they have the talent to make art (this is a special passion of mine)
5–Start and run an art centre (like Claire and Leslie at Committed to Cloth. Have you SEEN that facility?
6–Make a living from art alone
7–Have any and all the art supplies and books I desire (I would need the centre from #5 to contain this much)
8–Become very good at business (I have SO much to learn, because for decades I thought I was above all that~LOL)
9–Become THE expert on paper quilts
10–Enlightenment
Ten does kinda stick out, doesn’t it? But it has been the basis of my whole life. I simply misunderstood that the material and spiritual are quite compatible. Money is just energy: you use it to achieve goals.
Learning about business presents exciting new challenge that I am exploring at an age where most people have switched gears AWAY from business and are on the cusp of what they hope will be a blissful retirement.
Making art and learning the business of art~this IS my bliss.
I have a new article in Quilting Arts~Issue 39, called Cracked Paper Quilts. (Here’s an extra, as well). Against the Grain was published exactly a year before in Issue 33.)
I LOVE writing as much as I love making mixed media paper art. It is so thrilling to connect with other writers and readers, as well as promote artists, products and methods I have discovered. Luckily, there’s here’s no contest between making art and writing about it: I CAN DO BOTH!
I am SO excited about working with paper that I have started a social network called Cracked Paper Quilts. Here I will be posting pictures of my work and videos of my methods, with the desire that others will do the same. We can discuss the many ways of creating design papers (these are the basis of my paper quilts) which includes everything from handmade stamps, monoprints and gelatin plate prints, painting, drawing, collage, photography, stitch, inclusions (with clay, Shrinky Dinks, papier mache), Photoshop Elements. I could go on and on . . . and I will!
My goal is to interact with others who are interested in the following:
~~making and promoting paper quilts
~~experimenting with the myriad of ways to “decorate” paper
~~experimenting with ways to add “inclusions”
~~mixed media
~~creating a magazine and/or e-books about paper quilts and other mixed media involving paper
If any of this applies to you, please join me! I will be adding material often, and looking forward to seeing what you have to offer.
I admit I have never been concerned with being “current.” It’s not important to me to be the first to buy something or see something. I find things in my own time, on my own terms. Sometimes, they happen to be current.
Lately, I’ve been reading Seth Godin. I had heard about Tribes here and there, and vaguely connected it with the reality show Survivor. There is also a Tribes program that various school boards have adopted “to transform young lives.”
I was actually looking for a different Seth~an artist whose name came up on a number of art blogs I frequent. But I found myself lingering on Seth Godin’s blog. I am not a business person by nature (at least, that is what I told myself for 3 decades), but I seem to have been ambushed by a great interest in business ideas at a time in my life when most people want to retire to get away from doing business.
I went online to access my local library, and put holds on five of Godin’s books. They all came in at once, so I am skipping here and there, writing numerous quotes on yellow stickies. I have a LOT of quote covered stickies.
Godin provides handy little synopses for his books, and Tribes promises to “make you think (really think) about the opportunities in leading your fellow employees, customers, investors, believers, hobbyists, or readers.” The call to leadership can be ignored, but then “you risk turning into a “sheepwalker”—someone who fights to protect the status quo at all costs, never asking if obedience is doing you (or your organization) any good.”
One of my favorite posters of all time shows a huge herd of white sheep, all rushing towards the edge of a high cliff. Only one sheep, black of course, is going in the opposite direction. A balloon over its head says “Excusez moi, excusez moi.” Whenever I think I might be thoughtlessly acting like a sheepwalker, a voice in my head says, “Excusez moi?”
I watched the following YouTube interview with Loic Le Meur and Godin (there are many Godin videos to choose from):
The most memorable insight on this interview was that it’s important to do something you’re good at. Too many people settle for being “a wandering generality instead of a meaningful specific.”
Years ago, I gave up piano because I knew I would never be an excellent composer. It wasn’t enough for me to play other people’s music well~even if they were a Mozart or Bach. I wanted to express my self, which brought me to writing poetry and creating art. I can’t claim I am “the best in the world” at doing those things, but I am concentrating on what I do best. That’s a strategy that will guarantee growth.
Is there something you need to give up so that you can concentrate on what you are really good at?
There is a particular artist whose aesthetic never fails to move me . . . deeply. She is a shaman of the heart, visionary artist Elena Ray.
Shaman's Bowl~by Elena Ray (used with permission)
So you can understand that when Elena Ray points, I do not hesitate to look. Her recommendation led me to the work of Shinichi Maruyama. Born in Japan, Maruyama graduated from Chiba University in 1991. He now lives in New York, where he created, and has become known for, his latest two photographic series: Nihonga and Kusho.
Kusho #2~by Shinichi Maruyama (used with permission)
NYArtsmagazine.com noted that:
Shinichi Maruyama’s work is subconsciously influenced by a Japanese sense of beauty. This sense of beauty can be found in the concept of “wabi-sabi,” referring to the beauty of imperfection and understated elegance. Additionally, this beauty is also expressed in “ma,” the use of negative space, found in the art of calligraphy as well as in the design a of a traditional rock garden.
NY ArtBeat described the Kusho images as “more painting than photograph” and observed that they “literally deconstruct the material elements of ink drawing and calligraphy, allowing the viewer to see in extraordinary detail chemical and physical processes invisible to the naked eye.”
About.com featured an article by Beth S. Gersh-Nesic entitled Spirit in the Sky: Shinichi Maruyama’s Kusho Lands in Chelsea:
Shinichi Maruyama hurls black India ink into water (or visa versa) and photographs the millisecond that these two liquids collide. Capable of capturing this phenomenon at a 7,500th of a second, Maruyama takes full advantage of a recent advancement in strobe light technology which can record physical events faster than the naked eye can perceive them. In the series Kusho, which means “writing in the sky,” Maruyama’s goal is to arrest in space and time the sublime intersection of two different media before they merge into one.
The raw power of Maruyama’s large-scale photographs, “seem to enshrine isolated calligraphic events.” Gazing at one of his photos, you have a sense of witnessing something elemental. The image is “still,” but the inherent movement initiates a visual vertigo that leaves you breathless with astonishment, like a Dervish whirling his obeisance to the sacred.
Urban Shaman Gabrielle Roth has been quoted as saying “If you just set people in motion they’ll heal themselves.” I am sure she would greatly admire Maruyama’s works as a tribute to motion, and attest to the healing power they exude.
(To see more art by Elena Ray, visit her blog: The Transitional Image, her website, and these sites.)
I am continuing with my gelatin print obsession. As I stated in my last post, I created my first ever gelatin plate prints. I used the theme of eggs as an entry point into the following associations: ovum, spring, new life, embryo, protective covering, nest, ovoid.
All Your Eggs in One Basket 2
Egg Idioms:
Egged: to throw eggs (or insults) at.
A good egg: a good person.
Egging someone on: inciting someone to do something.
Egg on your face: humiliation
Lay an egg: fail at something.
Put all your eggs in one basket: risk everything for one thing.
Egg Quotes
It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad. ~C.S. Lewis
The egg is a germ of life with a lofty symbolical significance. It is not just a cosmogonic symbol — it is also a “philosophical one”. As the former it is the Orphic Egg, the world’s beginning; as the latter, the philosophical egg of the medieval natural philosophers, the vessel from which, at the end of the opus alchymicum, the homunculus emerges… the spiritual, inner, and complete man. ~C. G Jung
Robert Assagioli’s “egg diagram” of the human psyche.
I have quoted C.J. Jung and C.S. Lewis. Perhaps I should start signing my work C.A. Wiebe. It sounds so professional.
Blue Eggs
Egg Yoke
I have been wanting to try gelatin plate printing for a quite some time. However, one has to question how much one wants something that one never gets around to doing.
It reminds me of the letter written by a little girl to her aunt, thanking her for the birthday present of some beautiful hankies. They may be heirlooms of the future, but we are fairly certain that the letter is parentally prompted. The wording gives it away:
Thank you so much, auntie, for the beautiful hankies you sent me for my birthday. I’ve always wanted hankies, although not very much.
Last Monday I cooked up some gelatin and poured it on a cookie pan. When the gelatin had set enough to move without spilling, I put the pan in the fridge downstairs, and was not able to get to it until Friday. I wondered if I would find one large, hard, gelled lump when I pulled it out. Happily, it was firm, but still giving and responsive to the touch. A good friend of mine works for the Ontario egg board, and her birthday is coming up soon, so I decided to do an egg theme in her honor. I wanted simple, uncomplicated shapes so that I could just play and get a feel for the process
I pulled about 50 prints all together over 2 days. I used ordinary acrylic paint, which is not supposed to be suitable because it dries out too quickly, but it worked for me. Next time, I will experiment with Golden Open Acrylics. Not all of the prints are worth keeping, but I really took to the process. When your mind offers a full length movie of possibilities using a certain technique, you know you are onto something.
Here are 3 pulled prints, and 3 variations. See the wonky edges of the gelatin? Now the prints are in my design paper collection.
This is an actual pulled print.
Gelatin Print 1
This is Gelatin Print 1 with a few changes via Photoshop Elements (mostly higher saturation).
Gelatin Print 1a
Gelatin Print 2
I thought this design lent itself very well to a cruciform composition. I like that egg mandala in the centre.
Gelatin Print 2a
Gelatin Print 3
I really saturated the colors of Gelatin Print 3 in Photoshop Elements.
Gelatin Print 3a
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