Armstrong Industry Journal

Scale of Art

Recently I did some art for an invitational "small" (nothing larger than 6 inches)show at the Charles Taylor Arts Center.  It was a little tricky.  Working in fiber and fabric I usually create clothing or home accessories and they need to be on a larger scale.  It is best, especially with sewing machines, to make things larger than you need then cut away excess.  That does leave you with some interesting tidbits of scraps for future projects. 

On the other end of the scale, my current show going up at the Red Thread is a collection of work from two mural paintersGlenn Bangley and Erick Murray. Their work is much larger in scale than any show we have presented and offers some nice insight for me in my own work. I have always wanted to do some large pieces, thoughts to ponder.  

              
                 "Treasure" by Erick Murray

Art Action Obamaware

I just found out about a great art auction, Obama/Biden fund raiser. Jessica'sblog is always full of great information.  We have an Obama office right across form the galleryand it is so exciting to see the energy and work on some of the activities in a campaign this big.  Ayumi Horie is the originator of the sale and they have some lovely work form 27 ceramic artisans.  You can go the the live auctionnow and it will end Wednesday, so hurry and Go Obama.

Update:  This is a beautiful post and very touching thoughts on parenting, and mothers.(Via Atrios)

A Single Piece of Paper

While researching and geometric paper folding project for my building and design students, I found this wonderful artist, Peter Callesen.  He does the most unbelievable paper cuts. Each one is made using and single sheet of paper.  I use blocks and Legos and other items for the class (middle school), but I love showing them how to create in three dimensions with simple items, such as paper.  The images speak for themselves, more here. 

 

Cloth Texture Color

We are discussing different types of fabric in my design class.  It is difficult to find, in local fabric shop, a variety of natural fiber.  The independent quilt shops offer cotton, but silk and wool in a pure form (not blended with man-made fiber) is getting harder to find.  I order my fabric on line which is easier, but if I tell my students to look at the shops, it is the "faux" silks, linens, etc.

My work is in silk, linen, cotton and love all the texture that can come with just these fabrics.  The dying and printing is a little different for each but not a big change in process.  The silk does take the dye so well and presents a great color range.  I found this artisan Pamela Tang on line a while ago and have loved her designs, they have a feel of my own style and color favorites.  Her work and the photography is so lovely, more can be found here. 

Pamela Tang Quilt

Green and Grey

I teach a design class for fiber art students and we are working on color theory these next few weeks.  I love the research on Flickr and this is a lovely group with greena dn grey as the focus colors. Enjoy.

 

1. Spring, 2. Green and Gray, 3. Every night for a hundred years the angel of dreams came to the town & splashed the walls with bright colors that stayed until the first light of day., 4. Path, 5. Nantucket, 6. Lines and Circles, 7. Driftwood, 8. Global Warming and Climate Change, 9. JL_507ra, 10. Pigeon, 11. tree girl, 12. Pods

Design Studio

Still in the process of my new studio design, it is crazy trying to work with things packed away in two or three locations.  Now it is finally starting to take shape and I am unpacking and putting things away.  It is an interesting part for the future of the work spaces.  The trick is to make it functional, but I still need it to look and feel a certain way.  I have some new ideas on lighting, since my back area has no natural light, so important.  I do have a large work table area, now which is great, it is always a pain to have to put one thing away to make room for another.  I really like to pull out many different fabrics while I am working.  Last year I found these photos via Decor8 and they still offer an inspiration for my studio planning.  The old and new,  the color it all just works together. This is the Urban Outfitters Corporate Campus.  You can see more photo here.

Now I am off to unpacking and sorting.

Images copyright Lara Swimmer. Credits: MS&R for the architecture and interior design, and Lara Swimmer for the photography.

Mural Painting

As I spoke about in my previous post, last Saturday during the Taste of Suffolk Street Festival, we painted a mural on an old building, in one day in 98 degree heat.  The three main artisan Glen, Dana, and Eric we so amazing, and stuck with it, as well as a few other artist pitching in during the day, to finish the painting in one day while all the people walking around watched and commented.  It was such a learning experience, working in such a large way and none of the people had ever worked together before.  It took many weeks of preparation with the design and city and historical zoning approval and all.

Our town in in a redevelopment process and several building are in very bad shape and boarded up.  but they have such potential and we hope to continue to bring new business and ideas to Downtown Suffolk and make it a great venue for artist and other creative businesses.  This building was across the street from my shopand very ugly to the street.  Now it is so nice and we have received many positive comments since the completion. You can see more photos here.

   

Fabric Friday

This will be a little short post today.  We are here on the East Coast getting ready for a tropical storm.  I  have been working with a lot of different types of fabric and various coloring and sewing techniques.  I really love texture, I am always trying a look of mixed color and tone on tone but with stitching, embroidery applique to enhance the look of base fabric. Here are some of the colors I am starting with in the dye house.  I will be cutting and stitching these hand dyed silk fabrics to a background fabric of linen or heavy raw silk. 

Base fabric

Some textures here

Scoutie Girl, Thanks

I have been so busy with studio an design and back to teaching that I missed a thanks to Jan at Scoutie Girl for adding my mini link.  She is a fabric and bag designer with a great indie designer support blog.

Studio Design

There are some big changes coming for me this fall and I now have to make some studio decisions.  It is crazy but I always seem to work better under pressure.  I can see what I need to do and will have to get this space together in the next few weeks.  I have been playing with space and lighting and here are some partially done sections of the dye/paint part of the studio.  What a mess, but I am so looking forward to having all my working space together in one place, instead of boxes in three locations. Although this sure looks like a big mess right now.