EVENT: The Texture of Textiles

There's A First Time for Everything

 

I love that my students are always up for trying new things in the studio.

     

  Another returning student explored painting with knives. She added dimension and texture to her canvas by trying new techniques and unusual materials.

This student is musically inclined so
she designed the first ever clock to
tick-tock 'n rock from my studio.

If at first you don't love it, paint over it! Doodle and dab.        
    

Another bright idea and first! 

This student was the first to design a pillow and use a sewing machine in the studio.
 She sewed the straight lines and I added the free-motion stitching to her canvas & leather creation.

A 9-yearold boy surprised me with his knack for fine-line mark-making.

Creating a walldoll was added physical therapy for a hand on the mend.
Aside from working his clever mind, this student sketched, cut, drilled,
gripped pliers, twisted wires and managed a glue gun.
His "Mister Kaens" assemblage is more that meets the eye.

ADULT ART CLASSES / Natick, MA

FYI:  Check-out Five Crows in Natick for their spring schedule art schedule for adults.
www.fivecrows.com

The upcoming Monday and Tuesday morning workshops are taught by yours truly.
Two 4-day classes offered: Fish or Fly  and Cutest House on the Block.
They each start at 10AM.
See what you can create with a simple block of wood.

Repurpose an old lightbulb when you sculpt a spring bird or a summer fish.

 

Community Art Projects Get Permanent Homes

I am very proud to report that both of my community art projects are now in permanent collections.

Out of Context/The Pulse of The Page is now at home in Sudbury's Goodnow Library.
Initially I was invited to participate in the library's year-long 350th anniversary celebration by exhibiting a work of art that included a book theme.  I decided to get community members involved by taking words out of context from discarded books.  I also looked hither and yon for discarded books bearing red or white spines. After many, many hours of work ...

Out of Context: The Pulse of The Page / studioCB

 Old Glory, my first community art production, is now at home in one of Sudbury's town hall offices, ----the town manager's foyer, to be exact.

Old Glory / studioCB

Abstract Show

Now exhibiting: Interlopers.
Jurist Bob Collins chose this acrylic piece to be included in the Post Road Art Center's 2014
Abstract Show which runs until May 1st in Marlborough, MA.

This painting could be a poster-child for the admonition to try something new.
Physicality, mystery and adventure kept me hyper-focused.  The paint reduction technique involved creating shadows and light by subtracting paint (as opposed to adding more paint) ---and I loved every minute of it.

Using knives on a gessoed panel substrate, I applied layers of acrylics, working my way up from light to dark.  I then saw the light again by rubbing away the darker layers. It took time and isopropyl alcohol.

Interlopers /acrylic on panel /18" x 24"

 Some of my art students wanted to give it a shot.  Student Raquel S. earned a Silver Key Award in  Scholastic's 2014 Art and Writing Competition.

Art student, Raquel, employed another technique of mine
involving the use of Contact paper. 

In process and upside down.

Design Week 2014

Please join us for a reception at 60nobscot as we celebrate the art and design community of Sudbury.  Come tip a glass, and meet the people responsible for some of the most diverse, high energy and creative work emanating west of Boston. Pieces from Kolman Artisan Glass, Walker-Cunningham Gallery, Cathleen Bradley, James Heroux, Jaeok Lee and 60nobscot's Ray Bachand, among others will be on display.

We are a group of artists and designers working within the confines of Sudbury, a small town West of Boston. We hope you will join with us early on a spring Saturday evening as we celebrate the creativity, imagination, inspiration, and fancy that bonds this diverse, loose knit group of like minds together. Our "wares" will be on display at the opening reception as well as during the entire period of Design Week. We also hope that a glass or two of wine, delectables from our own Bullfinchs Restaurant, the viewing of our works, and some thought-provoking conversation will motivate you into the rest of your Saturday night activities.

Leather On The Walls

My thing for circles continues. Wassily Kandinsky's study of color in squares probably did it for me.

So much time is put into creating my vibrant leather table runners that I thought it appropriate to create something for vertical viewing.

These can be viewed in person and purchased during Design Week in Sudbury.
The event reception celebrating art and design is March 22, 4:30 -7:30, 60 Nobscot Road.

leather wall or table runner

55 x 34"/ leather and stitching

Scarlet Scandalvarius

11" x 23"

                                                                                       

Stringless instrument #4.
                                                     
The recent discovery of a 299 year old
Stradivarius violin (stolen and found stashed in an
attic) coincided with the construction of my            scandal-less scarlet sculpture.

As I work in my studio, I often listen to NPR broadcasts.  It was oddly inspirational to work on Scarlet as I caught this timely news-story last month. That news chatter then inspired me to view the older film, The Red Violin. Now there's some scandal!
                                                                                     

 Materials include vintage red tabletop, baseball threading, shoehorn

... piano hammers, snap findings and more.

Where there's a scandal, there's jeopardy!

Banjo / In memory of Pete Seeger

Oh Susannah. (found object assemblage / 2014 )

Riffing on the games we play ... the chase to win.

WINNER came from salvaged ribbon medal found in cigar box

Book Art / New Versions of the Reproduction System and Open Heart Surgery

With my recent community art project, Out of Context---The Pulse of The Page, finished and installed in the Goodnow Library's permanent collection, I now have an interest in repurposing old books. A stash stares at me whenever I enter my studio and they need to be moved. Some of the books are spineless and a few are still intact.  What now? 

I chose the new edition's design specifically to go with the book title
--- my condensed version of the reproduction cycle.

  On display at a favorite boutique are vintage condensed Readers Digests carved into alphabet letters. With that in mind, I cut a few letters. Very cute. Of course, I had to go a little further and make it my own.  Neither of these books (published in 1961) looked like they were ever cracked open. Hmm, I guess humanity figured it all out without reading the text. 

The expression on the female's face is so telling ---compared to the male in the shower.
The juxtaposition of the carving was spot-on!

Carving love was much more challenging.  (---aint that the truth?)
Not finished with these new editions;  I plan on editing the insides with my own stories.  

Again, the choice of book makes all the difference in the new version's design.
With a fabric scrap looped and glued in the spin. it can now hang ---like mistletoe.

 Much time and effort went into this open heart surgery ... but I have to try everything once (or twice or thrice).

Enough of getting side-tracked.  I gotta finish the book I am reading and then start my book group's latest title. 
I do like listening to books on tape as I work.  It's nice to hear someone else's voice in the studio.

Guest Artist In Window at Five Crows

How fun is this?
Five Crows Gallery in Natick asked if I would like to be their first Guest Artist.
Artists and artisans are juried in to their shop for representation and the window displays are usually shared spaces.  However with their new Guest Artist idea, the entire front window is mine until February 16.  Not sure if many people are lingering outside window-shopping in 12-degree winter weather, but I am honored to have the space and exposure on Natick's Main Street.
Thank you Five Crows!

Re-Construction Mode in the Workshop and Studio

If the found object can be carried, disassembled, cross-sectioned, sanded, drilled, wired, glued, screwed, nailed, folded, painted, polished
---it it is mine to re-imagine.

Enough said.

... put down the electronic device.

... leather table runners in the works.

Tree Craze

On a whim, I gave myself a challenge to use what I have in creating 

 a-tree-a-day 'til the 25th.  Sizes varied 8"- 48".

 I gave away a couple ... sold a few ...  others were digested.