Posts Tagged ‘words’

04.16.11

Posted on: April 16th, 2011
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I’ve been painting purple tulips

for my once-older sister Kukla, who died 6 years ago today. I am older now than she was then, and I am still at a loss for words, while I continue trying to figure out how to move through life carrying this giant hole that she left behind. You wouldn’t think a hole could weigh so much.

Purple was her favorite color. She collected pitchers. And she loved flowers, especially tulips. One of my favorite memories of time spent with her was when we took my mother back to Holland, just the three of us. On a cold rainy day – almost exactly 12 years ago today – we went to visit the Keukenhof gardens. They were in full bloom and my sister was a pig in you-know-what. She was completely delighted by every single glorious bed of color.

Snapshots below are of shopping on the streets in Amsterdam; and my mom’s elementary school – directly across from the little hotel where we stayed.

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Letterpress 101

Posted on: February 13th, 2011
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Letterpress and the art of persistence

I attended a great Letterpress workshop yesterday taught by David Wolfe. David is a terrific artist and printer, and his studio is full of extraordinary energy – maybe it’s all those really cool and diverse printing presses.

Letterpress printing is a type of printmaking that I have been interested in learning, and incorporating into my work for a long time. I had a blast yesterday and my head is spinning with ideas. For those of you unfamiliar with the process or term “letterpress” see the link above for a decent wikipedia explanation. The image at left is a detail of what I worked on in the workshop; the background print is a mat-board etching/collograph that I worked on a few days ago.

Not knowing when…

Posted on: August 31st, 2010
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the dawn will come

It all started with a few lines from an Emily Dickinson poem:

NOT knowing when the dawn will come
I open every door;
Or has it feathers like a bird,
Or billows like a shore?

Well, actually, it all started with an invitation to participate in an upcoming show at the George Marshall Store Gallery, in York Maine. A number of artists were asked to respond to the Bulman Bedhangings, one of the most important objects in the Museums of Old York’s collection. I didn’t even know what a Bedhanging was before the invitation. But these are evidently the only complete set of American crewelwork to have survived from the 18th century, and quite an amazing set to see. By clicking the link above (on the Bulman Bedhangings text) you can see a small photo of them and read more about them.

I had long considered adding stitches to some of my collages, and this proved the perfect opportunity to start experimenting with yet another way to add color: embroidery thread. At left is a detail of the first piece I worked on. It evolved, as most of my work does, over a span of time. In the beginning there were just the words; then I printed a monotype on top of the words; next were some collage elements – the lace on top and bottom were stitched on; and finally stitches, and after hanging on the wall for a few weeks, more stitches (to try and tone down the heavy handedness of Emily’s quiet words).

Stay tuned for more details about the show itself – which happens in October! If you’d like to get a sneak preview of more of this new work, click here.

One Hundred

Posted on: June 10th, 2010
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Meditations on 9 collages …

It may have taken close to four years, but I finally reached the one-hundred-mark. I started the Meditations on 9 series after coming across a reference to a nine-patch Amish quilt in a book I was reading. I’d often worked with a grid, and wondered what would happen if I made one hundred collages based on that simple nine-patch pattern? Could I even sustain that idea?

I started with a bang the first summer – initially finding something soothing about the challenge. All I had to do was go in my studio and move pieces of paper around. There was a structure within which to work. A task. I could settle into it. And even though I veered off in several other directions as time went on, I did keep coming back to it, and 100 collages later, I am still compelled by them.

Salvaging un disastro

Posted on: March 17th, 2010
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my new title: salvage queen

Last week I went into the print studio with a plan. I had a grid marked out for the press bed, and was going to print a set of small plates multiple times on a large piece of paper. Nothing too seemingly complicated about that. I put my grid on the press bed, and proceeded to spend the next hour inking up the plates. Turns out, it was the wrong set of plates. UGH.

Well, what could I do? I printed them anyway – randomly on the big piece of paper. Made myself a huge mess – the paper was too wet, and in certain areas it pulled up onto the plate. I had written on the page with all kinds of materials – including watercolor crayons which ran all over the place. Oh well.

There’s always the possibility of ripping and reconfiguring the thing. So that’s what I did. It continues to amaze me – the power of a bunch of marks on a page.