HGA MIXED MEDIA EXHIBIT AND TEXTILE SCULPTURAL WORK

"Sway" ,  34 3/4" X 13 1/4"  Lori LaBerge  2016

"Sway" was juried into the Handweaver's Guild of America's "Mixed Bag: All Media Art Exhibit".  This is an international juried exhibit featuring high quality, contemporary works created in any material using any fiber technique.  The juror was Beverly Gordon, a retired professor in the Design Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of the book below. 

"Textiles: The Whole Story: Uses, Meaning and Significance" by Beverly Gordon

The exhibit corresponds with the HGA annual "Convergence" conference.  The conference will include exhibits, workshops and  textile tours.  This year's conference will be in Milwaukee, Wisconsin July 30-August 6.  Karen Donde and Catherine Ellis, two well known artists in the Asheville area will be holding workshops this year.

Here is what is in progress this week:

Smaller section of "Mother Nature and Child",  5 1/2" X 4" X 4" , 2016.  This will be attached to the larger section.

Larger section of "Mother Nature and Child" being stitched.  24" X 8" flat (the piece will be rounded for the completed work)

Next week, I will go over what I am learning working with industrial felt and why certain decisions are being made as work progresses.

Attend a class or show, experiment with new media and have a great day.

WORK ON NEW TEXTILE ART, PLEIN AIR EXHIBIT AND CLASS AT SAUDER

Two sections of "Bridging the Gap" in progress,  Lori LaBerge  2015

I'm finally back in the studio.  Work continued on "Bridging the Gap".  Art boards had to be created in studio as they are not standard size.  Whipping was finished, work was labelled and stitched to a wool backing then attached to the art boards.

Metal bars were painted along with the screws that will be used to attached the bars between the two sections of artwork.  The work should be completed early next week.

Last Friday was spent at Sauder Village Rug Hooking Week.  Our plein air group had a special exhibit of our work.  This was our first exhibit since the formation of the group last year.  There was quite a bit of interest in the methods we use and I gave a short talk on the exhibit to the class I taught.

Above are some students working and discussing during the class, "A Creative Approach to Creating a Series".  I really enjoyed teaching this group.  Everyone had great questions, worked hard and I was really proud of the ideas for series people came up with.  

Subjects discussed were nature sites while hiking, bees and their nests, music, medical experiences, factories, rabbits and trees, and stripes.  I saw great possibilities for building a series of work from all of these choices.  

The discussion was my favorite part.  It seems like we don't always get the chance to do this and it is great for expanding creativity, motivation and camaraderie among artists.  I look forward to seeing future work from all in this group.

We discussed taking photos of subjects that interest us and keeping a journal of color, texture, subject and other artistic interests that can be referred to for ideas.

Composition used by the masters of painting was discussed with attention to line and shape as the basics of good composition.

Get together with artist friends ( in person or over the internet), discuss or study various aspects of art and have a great day.

RUG HOOKING DESIGN, LINE DUFOUR PROJECT UPDATE

This week our yard was filled with the flight and songs of the local birds.  They swooped past the deck with amazing grace and speed.  One hummingbird made it into the house, flying aimlessly among the upper timbers of the living space.  Opening the french doors, I waited patiently for it to find its way back into the open air.  An hour later, after what appeared to be a nap on one of the timbers, it happily found the open doors and flew off. Our cat was bitterly disappointed.

While the "Road Series" I've been working on deals with the physical and emotional roads we travel in life, I began to think about the paths birds take.  I had worked with this theme earlier when I created "Southern Flight".  

"Southern Flight"  10" x 10"  Lori LaBerge

As I look back at this piece and its meandering lines, I can see that the road series was beginning to develop.  

I researched and found four major migration routes birds take.  They are the Atlantic, Mississippi, Central and Pacific routes.  Here is how the piece is developing so far:

Various grids were sketched out.  The sketch was divided into five sections, four for the routes, plus a side section to the left. There were choices to make as to size and placement of the sections.  I usually draw out a few (sometimes more) variations during the design process.  It doesn't matter during this process if things feel right or wrong, the idea is to get a starting point.

Migrations routes were drawn into four of the sections.  As they are separate routes, the lines within each section do not connect to another section.  I wanted something related to the birds and their flight to go into the left section.  Since they fly from one home to start another, I decided on an abstract nest.  A rough sketch in a circular form gave me an idea of what size it needed to be. 

While drawing onto the linen, I changed the lines in the upper right section as in the sketch on paper, there seemed to be too much space above the lines.  The nest will be hooked randomly, so there was no need for a concise drawing of it on the linen.

Colors were decided upon.

The earlier sketch was placed into Photoshop for color placement.  I'm debating on using the medium taupe on the migration routes or changing it to a lilac with the color behind the nest being a herringbone gray.  The striped area under the nest will be filled with small washers hung from strings of yarn or string.  This will probably end up looking different as the hooking process progresses.

I searched the studio for various materials to use for the nest area.  Scrap materials from the studio are often placed outside for the birds to use. They find these fairly quickly and I've seen signs of them in nests that have been left in our birdhouses. Yarn, sisal, string and paper strips will be added to the work.

On another front, Line DuFour sent e-mails to participants in her project Fate, Destiny and Self-Determination.  She mentioned a write up in Hand/Eye Magazine online. See it here.

Allow for new ideas to develop by sketching out options and have a great day.

MIXED-MEDIA "FREE PASSAGE" IN PROGRESS

The past week was spent designing and hooking a new piece. Mixed-media is always interesting as construction issues have to be taken into account. In this piece, I plan on putting a metal plate in the center with an item screwed to the top of the plate. This led to planning the center of the piece so the plate will fit properly after the hooking is done. Since fiber is rarely perfect, the plate had to constantly be placed onto the empty center of the piece for fitting purposes. I want a tight fit with no backing fabric showing through on the edges of the metal plate. This piece was worked on monk's cloth rather than linen to allow for some stretching to fit the plate. 

An alternative to this method could have been to adhere the plate to the backing fabric before the hooking process and hook around it. In a few experiments with this method it seemed the backing fabric showed on the edges and I did not get the tight fit I was looking for. The size of the plate did not always match up to the holes in the backing fabric. I'll experiment more with this at a later date. Here are photos of the work so far: 

Hooking and whipped edging done with center awaiting completion.

Artboard primed, painted, and glazed with patina.

Work table with items for finishing work.

A great old lock found at an architectural salvage company.  This will be used for the centerpiece.  I have not decided whether to leave as is or paint it, but I really like the old feel so am veering toward as is.

This is my old piece of cardboard and the metal pieces I am spray painting for the piece.  It looks like a work of art all by itself.

Experiment with news things, try alternatives when things aren't going the way you planned and have a great day!