Three Ring Circus, Part I: Art + Teacher = Art Teacher

Mrs. Whitmore's 2nd Grade Class -- collage quilts

It's been a juggling act of sorts: teaching, art, family.  Unfortunately, I can never seem to keep more than 2 balls in the air at a time, which has left art rolling around somewhere near my feet.  But soon, and hopefully for a long time, I will be combining two of those loves: art and teaching, beginning a new gig as an elementary art teacher.  It will probably take me all summer to sew all of the fabulous smocks I will need to wear and dust off my beret, but I am up for the challenge. 

Ooh,Shiny

I have been experimenting with painting on different fabrics.  This one has a sheen to it that makes it look fairly similar to a necktie, which prompted the suggestion, "You should paint on neckties."  Be careful what you wish for, Mr. Whitmore. 

Build Your Wings on the Way Down

Ray Bradbury died last week.  In my teen years, I was a big fan of his writing.  The Martian Chronicles.  Fahrenheit 451.  Golden Apples of the Sun.  Stories about what it means to be human.

I heard an old interview, where Ray Bradbury said, "Stand at the top of the cliff and jump off and build your wings on the way down."  Yeah!  I dig it.  


For someone who looks only slightly quirkier than a librarian, I am actually surprisingly good at jumping off and building wings, again and again.  Risk-taking works best if you are not overly attached to a particular outcome.  For example, I can no longer parachute because I am very attached to not dying, but I will still snowboard because I am willing to break a bone now and again.

And so it went with my storyquilt painting from a few posts ago.  It was a good first effort but I really wasn't happy with it.  And so, having nothing to lose, I cut it into pieces which I then stretched around boxes.  Actually, it took some pretty handy sewing to get them to fit properly.  The effect is completely different but I am much happier with the outcome.

Lights, camera ...

Click here and here to see even better photos of the set from the actual performance, with the beautiful lighting, costumes and (last but not least) dancers.

Set Painting. Why Not:

80 hours of painting to pull it off.

But as I was in the midst of it, I kept being surprised by how much fun I was having. I kept thinking, "This is what I love to do!" It wasn't a slog. It wasn't a chore. It was genuinely fun. (I hope the other folks helping out can say the same). I listened to a few hundred TED.com talks while working on the cottages in my basement. And I renewed my knowledge of 80's music while working on the stage (the backdrop section was 13.5' tall by 28' wide, not to mention the 6 flats by the wings).

I guess I forgot how gratifying it is to be a part of a community effort. You get to know all these people in a whole new way. Everyone does their little part and then it all comes together as something great. Of course, it doesn't hurt that, in the end, the whole thing is this great experience for the young, dedicated dancers who are actually doing the performing. In the end, it's their show.

So would I do it again? I've already started planning for the Nutcracker...

photo credit Bridget Shore

Set Painting, Why Not?

This spring, I ended up volunteering to design the background painting for the Blue Heron Dance Company production of Giselle.  I wasn't planning on undertaking this huge endeavor, but then I realized a) nobody else was stepping forward and b) I do, in fact, have a degree in painting.  I could come up with a German forest.  Why not?

I tried to come up with a design that could be done in a weekend by a small crew of volunteer artists and non-artists alike.  To keep it simple, I painted the mock-up in stages so we could do sort of a step by step, painting background to foreground. 

Step 1

step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Sometimes You're the Catch

"Sometimes You're the Bait.  Sometimes You're the Catch" 18"X18"

I found this cat fabric and was dying to use it as a border for a fish painting.  The problem was that the white background didn't go with the rest of the painting.  So I painted in the black bars and the green/blue background, which took the same amount of time as rewatching the entire Season One of Downton Abbey.  What is now nagging me is this question: Why did they have to make Maggie Smith's character increasingly sympathetic?

This Is Not Your Grandmother's Quilt

"Why Swim Upstream?"

The beginnings of a new body of work.  I am incorporating fabric, painting and text to accomplish storytelling.   I consider this work to be an homage to Faith Ringgold and her storyquilts (a personal hero who was herself paying homage).   I had a lot of figuring out to do with using mixed media materials and not having everything fall apart.  Then there was the issue of having to fight my impulse to paint really juvenile, thumbing-your-nose-at-convention subject matter (still funny to me but apparently not to others).  And finally, I kept running into the challenge of trying to keep it from looking too "craftsy" or outdated, like macrame.  For one thing, I would like to charge "fine art" prices and not "quilted potholder" prices. 

"Tar Beach #2" by Faith Ringgold

 

Guppy Love

Every time I break a bone, I think it's a good time to ask: "What really matters?"

The answer: fish.  Fish matter.  Oh, and people.  And making art.  And being true to yourself.  So in the spirit of all of that, I have started new art. Acrylic paint on fabric.  More to come.

The Babysitter

I made this piece for a silkscreening class.  It may be hard to tell, but the dots that make up the grayscale are all tiny, hand-drawn hearts (hand cramp).  I was fondly remembering my babysitter Katie, who spent her entire babysitting hours sitting at our kitchen table chain-smoking cigarettes and talking about boyfriends.  I loved Katie.  She was so light-hearted.  And kind.    Soon after, Katie was replaced by her sister Colleen who was kinda mean and scolded me for wetting the bed during my parents' divorce.  Boy did I miss Katie.

Everyone is so creative, except for most people

How hard would it be to get 23 random children to paint? Easy.
How hard would it be to get 23 random adults to paint? Hard.
Imagination is a beautiful thing.
Score: kids 1, grownups 0

Double Agent

It's summer, which for me means taking a vacation from my life as a double agent.  It's not an easy life.  Having two names, two languages (one being English and the other being Potty-mouth),  two sets of costumes, two Facebook pages.  And then there is all the moving, all the back and forth we seem to do every summer.  At one point, I decided to paint those few objects that had made it through all of our moves, such as this bowl.  I thought it would be interesting, revealing, and that I would be documenting the very most precious things in my life.  Then maybe I could stop moving all the time.  Around the sides I painted "Keep me always".  But in the end, it's just a bowl.