#52 - Fini!

The Big-O has arrived and with it the last of the 52 projects. I wanted fire-works or streamers but settled for Shiva Paintstiks rubbed over a texture plate to provide the design. The O is silver and gold paints that were stenciled on and then hand-stitched around with silver embroidery floss.

When I started the 52 projects I had every intention of experimenting with different techniques and while some of them may not appear to have been experiments they all were in the sense that I discovered that working with two sizes, 4x6 and 5x7 inches, is restrictive. Working with those sizes became challenging especially after I had just started working larger. I had planned to do a lot more machine felting than I did so I hope that future projects include machine felting. I had also had hoped to explore machine stippling, but that hasn't happened yet. To that end a friend just gave me a link (do a google search) so I'm now armed with some great tutorials. I did explore hand-dyed fabrics, deconstructed printing, machine applique, painted fabric, glue resists, inkjet printed photos, and some other techniques that presently escape my memory bank. A couple of things that I learned while working on the 52 is that it I do indeed love to work on a series such as horses, pears, white-on-white, photographs, and layers of texture. But then I already knew that so I suppose that I should say that working on a series has become paramount to me. I also learned that I need to find more ways to finish a piece than edge stitching which I still loathe doing! Once in a blue moon I nearly do it perfectly but the majority of the time I want to toss the finished piece because the edges are wonky. And even if I got off track over the months I worked on this project it was the challenge of finishing that often brought me back from the brink of insanity. With that in mind I know that I need art challenges to keep me interested in learning new techniques and to keep me from falling off the precarious cliff I often stand on the edge of.

I've loved reading the comments some of you have left here or emailed me privately; your encouragement kept me going. I think that everyone should partake in a challenge like this at least once in order to achieve a personal goal. Actually, my personal goal is secret and will remain so, but I did achieve it.

To see all of the 52 projects go here:

And here:

I'm off to Las Vegas to celebrate this Big-O birthday with Cher and maybe see another Cirque du Soleil performance. In April of 2008 the Cirque performance of "O" at the Bellagio was the impetus of my abstract work in acrylics. What will this trip to Vegas initiate?

Quotes: Life is a celebration of awakenings, of new beginnings, and wonderful surprises that enlighten the soul. Cielo

#51, Many, many moons ago

Many, many moons ago in a Galaxy far, far away, well it does feel that way sometimes! I remember reading "Passages" by Gail Sheehy way back when I was interested in such things. I didn't understand how life could change so much but after all I hadn't lived as long as I have now. My life at times feels alien to me; kid, student, wife, daughter-in-law, mother, ex-wife, new in-laws, working at jobs I loathed, ex-wife again, and then finding my way back to art first through off-loom weaving, photography, and finally to where I am now which I like to think of as abstract experimentation in a variety of mediums. It's a good thing that we can't see too far down the road, well actually, we can't see down the road of life at all. We leave a trail of events behind us that shape who we become on any given day. If only I'd known that with age comes some wisdom that wasn't afforded to me when I was younger. What wisdom you may ask? One thing I know for certain is that nothing stays static long enough to give up our happiness for. Now if I could just remember that on a daily basis perhaps I wouldn't drive myself so crazy with anxiety.

While looking back at the 52 projects I am shocked that so much has happened in a span of a short time. One year can seem so long when entering it and so short at the other end. This time last year we had just gotten word that Stacy was on a kidney transplant list something that we'd worked toward for nine months of physical and endless lab tests. She'll celebrate her first year with her new kidney, an awesome gift from a donor, on Oct. 28th. We went through Melanoma and the scare of the unknown and came out of that experience with a second miracle, no spreading of it anywhere surrounding the eradicated area. Mom on the other hand continues to disappear into the Alzheimer's abyss and I continue to daily mourn the loss of my mother and try to gracefully take care of the stranger she has become. The gift of a trip to Italy was a much needed respite and visually/culturing exciting seven days, I was blown away when I left mom and Stacy in the capable hands of my youngest daughter and her husband; I was overcome with pride, I had raised a marvelous young woman who continues to astound me. It was truly a remarkable year.

Components: hand-painted fabric base, water-downed black fabric paint. Using a hand-made stencil three colors of paint were applied with texture tools including hand-made stamps. Haphazard machine stitching around the circles in the hopes that the moons would stand out from the background.

Quotes: Buckminster Fuller: When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.

Carl Sagan:
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.

#50 of 52 projects

Two more to go! I haven't decided yet, but I'm considering working on monthly projects rather than another 52. This week nearly did me and during the moments of intense insanity it occurred to me that I need to even lighten the creative side of my life. The pressure, though manufactured, to finish this project has added some stress to an already overwhelming stressful month. Too many appointments where the outcome has defeated me and not only am I slightly depressed but in dire physical pain. I need time to repair the mental and physical damage and that won't come for awhile. More appointments are looming on the horizon. But today I can say that I finished the week standing; that was a feat in itself! DMV, Social Security and, a diagnosis from a doctor can be put behind me now; there isn't anything I can do about any of the F** things, so the best thing is move on. They are what they are.

Fall is in the air! Even though it's about 108 today the lighting is softer and the garden is glowing under the softness; no hard edges. The random clouds that were in the sky earlier never did gather in formation and are presently gently hanging out near the mountain tops. The view through the bay window is restful.

Components: Hand dyed fabric background. This particular piece was dye painted by using a spatula to apply alginate paste/dye to muslin. A photo of pears in a cardboard box was manipulated with PSE. The single pear shape on the right was painted on using a stencil for the shape. Machine stitching and the 5x7 inch piece came to fruition.

Quote: By forgiving and choosing to move on, one takes the power back to morph it into positive energy. Eugenia Tripputi

#49 of 52 projects

I was looking through the ideas journal for the 52 projects and realized that I hadn't used postage stamps on any of the pieces.

Components: The turquoise painted background fabric was first rust dyed, a few of the markings are still evident. Two muslin patches, painted and marked with black ink. Three postage stamps, machine stitched in a haphazard manner, and found object circle stamp complete this 4x6 mail art piece.

Quote: Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly. Lanston Hughes.

Question: do any of you know of an online tutorial for making fabric books. I ran across one a few weeks and didn't bookmark it. The pages were created from painted muslin and machine stitched together. Thanks!

#48 of 52 projects and a Storm

When I started dyeing and painting fabric this is the sort of piece I envisioned creating; whole cloth where nothing has been sewn or added on. The 4x6 inch piece is adhered to a 5x7 inch painted Peltex that has the thickness of mat board.

It's been such a long time since I've seen rain that when it happened yesterday the novelty of it was an event. If it hadn't been for a guava tree that required re-staking after the monsoonal wind raced through the area on the tail of the rain I would never have seen the cloud formation that was to the north of us. The windows face south. Truly a break from the mundane sunshine endless hot days. Sweet! I blogged a little more about it on the photography blog.

http://g-photosi.blogspot.com/

Quote: Stress is basically a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath. Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is emergency. Nothing is that important. Just Lie down. Natalie Goldberg

#47 of 52 project

On of the ideas for the 52 projects was to use scraps from some of the pieces and create a new one, thus this one was born.

Components: Black painted Peltex background, numerous scraps, and 3 squares of copper with a rich patina on them. Machine stitched in place.

I'm starting to see the end in sight for this project which brings up the question, do I do another year of 52 projects? I have a couple of ideas brewing, one of which is to work on muslin pieces no larger than 8.5 x 11.5 inches. Books maybe? To that end I started messing around with muslin, paints, and a variety of textures. First copper fabric paint was brushed over the entire surface and while it was still damp black black mixed with water was misted on from a spray bottle. Before the black dried a texture tool was scraped through various areas. Bubble wrap was then painted with Red Iron Oxide and randomly stamped on the piece. The depth of the textures aren't evident in this photo.

Quote: It is difficult to commit to living where we are, how we are. It is difficult and necessary. In order to make art, we must first make an artful life, a life rich enough and diverse enough to give us fuel. Julia Cameron from "The Sound of Paper."

#46 of 52 projects

Crooked? Yes. The hand-torn fabrics decided they wanted to be crooked, so why not go with it? Besides, I did have in mind a fragment effect which is often achieved by loose threads, uneven and raw edges and haphazard sewing; that's my story.

Components: Manipulated photo printed on Bubble Jet Set fabric. B/W stripe remnant. Backed with black fabric.

Quote: A horse is the projection of peoples' dreams about themselves - strong, powerful, beautiful - and it has the capability of giving us escape from our mundane existence. Pam Brown.

#45 of 52 projects

It looks monsoonal outside, but the temp is still ridiculously high. 115 today with some humidity so it feels more like 120, or so the weather cast person informed us. I'm positive that I never wanted to know what temps this high felt like! It hurts, that's for sure. Every time the AC doesn't sound right I start to panic! We'd have to pack up and head west if the AC died, or the power went off.

Components: Altered photo, went for an aged look. Dyed fabric background, grey and red with some bleached muslin showing through. Machine stitched. Rust dyed cheesecloth.

This one is in honor of Christina's love of horses, one of many things we have in common.

Quotes: The essential joy of being with horses is that it brings us in contact with the rare elements of grace, beauty, spirit, and fire. ~ Sharon Ralls Lemon

One reason why birds and horses are happy is because they are not trying to impress other birds and horses. Dale Carnegie

#44 and personal symbols

This piece started out life as a piece of white canvas cloth that was painted red with textile paints. Some time passed and a new rubber stamped circle design was repeatedly stamped on the fabric in blue ink. More time went by and a gold shiva paintstik was rubbed over a texture plate. Awful! Would machine stitch doodling help? A little. Would gold and silver paint stenciled through a fleur-de-lis motif make a difference? Most definitely. How about more gold paint dry brushed over the surface? And how about attaching the tapestry-looking piece to distressed lutradur? And so #44 came to life on the day that it hit 118 for the second time this summer.

This piece is for Caterina whose personal symbol is the fleur-de-lis. Be sure to go check out her blog to see her beautiful work.

My personal symbol is the horse. I can't remember a time when I wasn't moved by the sight of a magnificent horse so when I pulled the car over to the side of the road on Thursday to attempt to photograph these beauties I could have stood there all afternoon watching them. But the 114 degree temp forced me back to the car.

I had just come from DMV where I had an appointment to have my driver's license renewed and where I found out that a vital form was required before I can receive a new permanent driver's license, in the meantime it's pending! My right eye, the one that had an infection about 10 years and blew a hole in the center needs an explanation provided by an eye doctor. I was one step ahead of the game by seeing an eye doctor two months ago so I knew my left eye is perfect. I dropped the form off at the eye doctor's office and drove down a country road to visit the horses I had seen on the way to DMV. A car slowed down while I was climbing the hot sand to the barbed wire fence, I lost my footing a little when I turned around hoping that the car would continue on. Happily, it was a police car probably checking to see if I needed help, after all the car was off of the road. When I stumbled the horses started to bolt then stopped to see what I was up to; they had been eating so while they checked me out I was able to get some fairly decent shots. Yes, I'll be using horses in my work very soon.

In Native American culture the horse has long been honored as messenger, helper, and harbinger of spirit knowledge.

Quote: Who's gonna ride your wild horses? Who's gonna drown in your blue sea? --U2

#43 of 52 projects

Have you ever wondered why pears are the subject of so many art pieces? Could it be their shape, or color, or? I've been photographing some pears for a couple of days now and seemed to have joined those who use pears in their work. This grouping started out as a rubber stamp stamped onto freezer paper and cut out for a stencil. I very nearly tossed this piece in the trash, but then I remembered one of the rules, finish the piece . . .

Components: Shiva paintstiks for the pears and black wall hanging. Screen printed fabric for the third pear. Machine stitched, doodles, on canvas fabric. Dye-na-flow paint, ochre, to pull the piece together. Sort of a funky 4x6 inch piece.

Quote: In times of great stress or adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow through your anger and your energy into something positive. Lee Iacocoa

#42 of 52 projects

The coat-of-arms for Florence, Italy is the Fleur-de-lis which is where I photographed this image.

Components: hand-dyed fabrics, red and a blue, a photo on ready to print fabric, and machine stitched.

This piece nearly didn't happen! Everything I've started for the last few days was a bust and I starting to fret until I remembered to not stress over this project, it's supposed to be fun!

Quote: If you ask what is the single most important key to longevity, I would say it is avoiding worry, stress and tension. And if you didn't ask me, I'd still have to say it. George Burns

#40 & #41 of 52 projects

The white muslin that the photos are printed on is whiter in "real life." Color balance in cameras along with getting a moire pattern off of the fabric that doesn't exist in "real life" can be such a bother. But I'm not going for photo perfection when I post these on the blog; that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

#40 was photographed in Orvieto, Italy. I haven't posted the Orvieto photos yet but suffice it to say that the village exceeded our expectations and I would return there in an instant. It's a day trip from Florence where we didn't spend enough time.

Components: hand-dyed muslin, photo printed on prepared for printing muslin. scraps of blue dyed fabric and machine stitching. I like the serendipitous imperfections of these pieces; they remind me of the richly aged buildings in Italy.

#41, Positano, Italy, photographed on the long walk into the village.

Components: hand-dyed fabric, photo printed on prepared for inkjet printing muslin, distressed lutradur sewn onto scrap of fabric, machine stitching.

Learned: that having a stash of hand dyed fabrics is as great as I thought it would be! Can't wait to be able to dye fabric again; no relief from the brutal temps yet, though, a drop from 113 to 100 was very nice! I've never experimented a lot with printing onto fabric and now that I've done a few pieces I will be stocking up on Bubble Jet Set. I also know for certain that I love doing a series of images or approaches and could continue with the Laundry Day series for awhile, but then I wouldn't be following one of my guidelines for the 52 projects. Experiment!

Later: I'm not in the mood, too many stresses lately, to redo this post, but I wish I had waited to read lesson #2 of a digital photography class that I'm taking. Go to my other blog to see what I learned today, August 11th post. I'm excited about the possibility of improving how I photograph my art pieces. White balance built into a camera is a good thing!
http://g-photosi.blogspot.com/

Quote: our waking hours form the text of our lives, our dreams, the commentary. Anonymous

#39 of 52 projects and Give Away.

Knowing myself as I do if I hadn't completed the journal before starting more experiments with fabric I'd never return to it. Oh how I've been yearning to work with this photo. This one is my favorite of the laundry series photos and was photographed in Tarquinia, Italy in an alley.

Components: hand dyed muslin, scraps from the white pieces #37 & #38, photo printed onto prepared for printing muslin. 5x7 inches with loose threads.

Give Away Announcement: I lost the list of names which meant that I needed to go back over the comments left up to July 31. Stacy said that two names should be chosen so she pulled out of her hat Penny, whose address I have and Julie, whose address I need. Can't say when or what I'll mail, but it should be in the next few weeks. I will be doing another Give Away next month in celebration of my birthday.

Quote: The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. Alan Watts

#38 of 52 projects

In 2000 I was enamored with antique photos most likely because I was working on a memory book after my fathers death that year; my aunt sent me a box of old photos, plus, that was around the time the use of cabinet photos in altered work was the "in thing." I've never been "in" so it's not surprising that my love affair with the collection I built up died fast. This piece seemed to scream for a focal point so I got out the container of metal ephemera and viola!

Components: pellon interfacing, tissue paper, cheesecloth, perle cotton stitched on, loose threads needle punched on, image on metal, buttons.

Okay, the answer about the image on the metal metal piece is: An altered image, done in PhotoShop Elements was printed onto a transparency and run through a xyron machine, cut out and adhered to metal which in this case is a seltzer water can that was heat distressed. The transparency image is too shiny and raw so it was sprayed with matte spray. The metal piece sewn onto the left of the photo was painted with gesso and blotted off. Nice to have pieces of metal just waiting to be used! (Years ago I played around with ways of applying images onto metal and came up with this approach rather than doing a transfer; gel medium or other types of transfers I tried rarely were successful. When I ran across the ones I did years ago I was blown away by how good they still look.)
PS. my good friend D. just asked me a question about matte spray on the transparency. I wrote an article for a now defunct Zine about Faux Tintypes and this was one of the examples, so yes, this is a great way to create faux tintypes. So much for memory!


Quote: So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains And we never even know we have the key.
Lyrics from Already Gone, performed by the Eagles for their 1974 On the Border album

#36 and #37 of 52 projects

First off, thanks for the lovely comments! Much appreciated. Secondly, the Give-away deadline is July 31, leave a comment. And third, I finally worked on two pieces for the 52 projects. I haven't made fabric paper in quite awhile and for some reason whites, ivory, and cream

intrigued me.
Components: pellon, tissue paper, cheesecloth, glue, gesso, and machine stitched. How did I get the stained effect? From not using a clean piece of freezer paper. A mixture of white glue and water was used to adhere the tissue paper and cheesecloth to the pellon, thus lifting some color from the freezer paper and staining the pellon. Click image to enlarge, 5x7 inch pieces.

Quote: If you pray for rain, it is only common sense to carry an umbrella. Ernest Wilson.

#35 of 52 projects

Glue resist on screen. The purple is textile paint. Being that this piece doesn't look like much I thought I'd show the first layer. What to do with all of the white? Some of the prints look like batik while others are lifeless.

Components: textile paint screened print, watercolor crayons, dyed cheesecloth hand-stitched

on, edge-stitched.

Mosey on over to g-photos to see why I'm in a rush to get more dyeing and screen printing done!

http://g-photosi.blogspot.com/

Quote: And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know that I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me. Lee Greenwood. (In honor of Memorial Day weekend.)

#34 of 52 projects

Grids seem to have replaced circles, guess I'll go where the muse leads me.

Components: glue resist on muslin. Handmade grid stamps, buttons attached with orange-red thread. Probably the only thing that remotely saved this piece is the blue and white grid. One of my rules for a 52 project is that I have to finish a piece regardless . . .

Quote for Memorial Day weekend: When we say "War is over if you want it," we mean that if everyone demanded peace instead of another TV set we'd have peace. John Lennon

#33 of 52 projects

Interesting, didn't I just post that I had moved on from hearts? While I was trolling through scraps looking for something useful to create for #33 I discovered this one. I think that I meant it be #29.

Components: handmade stamps on hand dyed fabric for base. Screen printed purple and ochre hearts, textile paint plus cookie cutters used as stamps.

Quote: Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely. Rodin

#32 of 52 projects

Do you ever find the perfect button? I rarely do especially in my collection. I wasn't even thinking button when I found this one mixed in with junk jewelry.

Components: hand dyed fabric scraps. The blue was needle punched, #29, and the piece across the width of this 4x6 inch piece was scrunch dyed.

Quote: The mind that is anxious about future events is miserable. Seneca (sounds like something you'd find in a fortune cookie.)

#31 of 52. More grids plus circles.

As mentioned, I thought that it might be time to return to circles after working in the land-of-heart-motifs but I wasn't expecting grids to sneak their way in. All of the stamps in this piece are from my recent stamp making session. I'm sure that most will figure out the grids, but for now I'm tight-lipped regarding how I've done them. Thanks for the comments and emails!

Components: I had cut off the bottom of a larger piece done on unbleached muslin and the remaining section only had one and half grayish circles on it. Oops, I didn't create the swirly background stamp, in yellow and blue. That background stamp is barely visible. Grids, circles and a design stamp in blues and red textile paint brought the piece to life. Machine stitching, feather stitch in red and edge stitching finished this 4x6 inch piece. (click on the photo to enlarge.)

Quote: New York . . . is a city of geometric heights, a petrified desert of grids and lattices, an inferno of greenish abstraction under a flat sky, a real Metropolis from which man is absent by his very accumulation. Roland Barthes - French Critic 1915-1980