A Closer Look at Ottoman

Abstract

 

Hello hello! It's been awhile. We went on a quick trip to visit family...then school started for Boo. It's been a bit exhausting.

But, now that things are (sort of) settling down, I have a bit of time to myself to work. What you see above is a pattern I made from an image that exists in popular culture. It doesn't matter what the image is, and this is just a wee portion of it. What matters is that I wanted to make my own pattern...of what, it didn't matter. But, in order for me to make what I want to make, a pattern needed to be made. It therefore is an abstraction of the original (very much so) and gives me a basis for further abstraction. I've said it before, I need a method to the madness. I'll share more soon. Oh, but I must add that I've also mentioned in the past (maybe a few times) that I love working with grids...here it shows.

On a different note, I've been thinking that it's that odd, yet wonderful time of year when I can get both cantaloupe and apples from the farmers' market, and the blackberries are ripening while the acorns and leaves start to fall. I didn't see the apple cider I've been anticipating at the farmers' market yet, but I may have missed it...anytime now. It's the only time I buy something sweet to drink for the house....I just can't deny fresh-pressed apples...especially when the farmer has a pot of it warmed-up with whole spices mulling about at the market. Maybe it's because the weather is still hot. I bet when we get a cold snap that apple cider will be calling my name.

I usually smell autumn in the air in August...not this year. It's September now, but that familiar autumnal smell isn't in the air yet. I think that this year, I may actually be ready for the fall when it arrives.

 

 

With Age

Beeswax darkens when it's been heated repeatedly...especially the beeswax that I've been using for my sculptures since I heat it to a rather hot temperature for beeswax. When I get to the bottom of this batch, I'll start over with fresh wax and resin. This cycle will be subtly evident in the pieces themselves...subtly, because the wax on the pieces are in shallow solidified pools. This batch currently looks like the eucalyptus dye that I made...which by the way, is still sitting in my window sill. Apparently, eucalyptus doesn't mold like many dyes while stewing. So, I'm thinking of experimenting with it further...when I have the time.

In other news, I'm still recovering from a nasty cold...it's been over two weeks. I'm now to the *fun* part where I cough until I nearly crack a rib...yeah. So, there's lots of catch-up going on around here. I hope you are faring better these days. I also hope this means that our household won't be sick for Christmas.

I hope your week is treating you well, dear readers!

What To Do With Weeds

Jenny sent me a couple of links the other day and I gasped. Check out this work by Patterson Clark:

3-Weed Note ~ 2009 (Multiflora Rose, White Mulberry, English Ivy)

Clark has an undergraduate degree in biology and an MFA (one of my favorite things is the art/science blend). He makes paper and ink from the invasive species in his area rather than just getting rid of them. The woodblocks he carves to print his handmade ink on his handmade paper are also from the weeds he removes. The picture above is an example of currency made from the noxious plants and the value of the different notes is determined by how many plants, grams of a particular plant, or how many differnent species are used for that particular piece.

"'I'm going more in this direction of making art talk more directly about its origin,' Clark says. His prints are available for sale on his website in the 'endless' edition, or as long as the plants are available. He never destroys the blocks and says he likes the idea of intentionally devaluing his own currency to make it more 'weed-like.' By conventional standards, 'they're probably worthless,' Clark says. 'Rather than go through traditional rarified paths, I'll take the weedy path.'"(via American Craft Magazine...I may have to go get a copy! And, here's Patterson Clark's website)

Also, here's a link to Intelligent Clashing...beautiful! (via forestbound)

It poured on Boo and me at the farmers' market today and half of the venders weren't at the last market of the season, but we endured and made the best of it! Thank you local farmers!

Surface Quality

So, a little fine art talk today. After I finished the first piece I was working on (encased the seeds in the beeswax/resin mixture), I started on a second. I didn't carve the cavities for the seeds large enough for many of the seeds to achieve the surface quality I wanted when I filled them with the seeds and wax. So, I ended up scraping the wax off, digging out the seeds, and re-carving the cavities. Once I placed the seeds back in to see if everything looked the way I wanted, I noticed that there was beauty there as well. (The first two pictures seeds that had been re-embedded, but the wax was still too thick, so some had been scraped off...I find there is beauty there as well.)

I like for my process to show in my work (therefore, the piece becomes a palimpsest), so all the reworking to scrape the wax and dig the seeds out show on this piece. I like objects with a story.

Beeswax and Mummies

I've gotten back to work on my fine art. Recently, I did a little research on encaustic because in the past, I used strictly beeswax on my sculptures, but I found that a bit of damar resin helps the beeswax heat at a higher temperature (smoking point...it still smoked a bit...such a temperamental business), makes the medium stronger, and helps prevent the foggy film that develops on pure beeswax (I don't mind it, really). Unfortunately, I don't have a scale that measures such minute amounts, so I had to guesstimate the ratio of resin to beeswax. Still, I think that the results are quite good.

I also found some info on Fayum mummy portraits, which is a very interesting read (via). Gum arabic (a material I've experimented with in my fine art) was also used in mummification. Here's a bit more info on this substance (which is used in lithography...you know, I gotta throw in a printmaking reference).

Also, I mentioned that I picked up a Turkish Pot at a thrift store recently, you can learn how to make Turkish coffee here (via). 

the shadow club

Pssssst! Jessica aka Miniature Rhino aka little is the new big just opened a new shop: the shadow club. Be part of an amazing collaborative project!

Palimpsest

I mentioned in the last post that these new pieces were palimpsests...they are even more so now. I've re-worked them again. I suppose the printmaker in me could not resist stamping rather than hand writing.

The stamping may not be as legible, I actually prefer it. You can see I've also done the carving on this piece, now it's ready for seeds in these little cavities.

I've got enough seeds saved up for the first piece. And they will be encased in beeswax.

I love working with beeswax...the honey scent permeates the space. I started working with it as a sculptural medium almost ten years ago and I'm so happy to begin again. 

Nikole Herriott of Herriott Grace gave a tour of her home here yesterday. It's an amazing space and less than 400 sq. ft. What a responsible way to live...every purchase must be completely thought through. An inspiration.

From that post, there was a link to Shanna Murray's work. Lovely.

Numbering Specimens

While doing research on how specimens are numbered, I found a great deal of interesting information.

1. The artist Laura Moriarty, "visual art inspired by natural history." More on the decorative end of the spectrum rather than the content-rich (you know, I'm all about content in fine art). However, her work is certainly inspiring!

2. This interesting article on specimen labels, particularly regarding meteorites:

3. Here's how the San Diego Natural History Museum labels and curates fossils:

4. Also, some of my new pieces are palimpsests...they've been changed by sanding and erasing the previous image that wasn't quite right.

5. The word "palimpsest" lead me to this essay titled Erasure in Art: Destruction, Deconstruction, and Palimpsest. 

On a completely different note, I've been thinking about making Boo homemade popsicles this summer...then found recipes here and here...and if you think you are going to make a bunch this summer, you can spring for stainless steel molds!

Organizing Seeds

As I mentioned, I started saving seeds from the foods I eat for a new series of fine art I'm working on. I was having a difficult time storing them because the molds I was using to separate them didn't have room for all the seeds I need to save. I also decided to save one seed from each fruit [This process has proven to be tricky...there aren't seeds to save from onions, carrots, celery and the like...and some fruit have seeds too small (strawberry) or too large (mango/avocado) for the piece I'm working on....it'll take some time to save enough seeds for each piece].

So, the other day, I decided to make a series of pockets (think mini advent calendar) to hold one seed each. I started to hand sew the little pockets, but decided that my stitches needed to be too small (so that the pocket would hold the seed) and too tedious...this is the item with which to store the seeds, not the sculpture itself. I resorted to craft glue and it turned out nicely:

Apparently what I've been working with lately are all close to the same color. I used the same unbleached muslin that I tea-stained for some of my "for Your Wall" pieces. And, as you can tell, I didn't bother ironing...it is just an organizer after all! Each little pocket is 1x1 inch and perfect to store my seeds.

First Strawberry and Snake Spit

Between the rain yesterday, Boo and I went to the garden to see what's going on. It's nice that it's been watered for us quite a bit lately, but sun would be nice to break up the gray.

We found our first ripe (well, just about there) strawberry:

Can you tell our soil is red clay? Even better, it's full of rocks...sheesh! I think I might try dyeing fabric with this red dirt someday.

Boo noticed some peculiar foam on the lemon balm among other plants. While visiting family in Quebec some years ago, my grandmother said they used to call that foam "snake spit," it's stuck with me ever since. I suspect that it's from an insect or somesuch, however.

I also have tons of seed pods growing from a green that I believe to be kale (it was given to us). The plant is HUGE...it towers over Boo. I plan to collect the seeds to give to others, hopefully before they fall to the ground.

In other news, I got a new sketchbook. It's made by windpower!

Notice that it's 6.25 inches by 8.5 inches. This is half the size of what I always get. I thought it would be more user-friendly for taking places and I could use one page per idea instead of sectioning off pages. We'll see how it works...this is a BIG deal for me...sketchbooks are very personal!