Working in series (painting olives?)

A suitable subject for art??

A thoughtful article about working in series has me thinking about my Olives series. (Writing this post sent me to the internet to see how painters had treated the subject of olives - and lots of them have!)

"Olive jars" by Jennifer Stengel (image from here)

The bit in the article that particularly caught my eye is this:

"The idea of working in series or in distinct purposeful directions is actually the opposite of condemning oneself to a life of sameness or repetition. The process is not about repetition at all, but rather about being able to explore, investigate, examine or address particular ideas, themes, compositions, concepts or topics in deeper and more meaningful ways and from a greater variety of perspectives than from just one or two."

"Olive Shot" by Caroline Marine (image from here)

And also:

"The knowledge and experiences that accrue from contemplating or considering a well-defined set of parameters from multiple perspectives allows you to nuance your compositions more thoroughly, accurately and in greater detail, and to thereby communicate the results or conclusions of your observations in more impactful, compelling and consequential ways. You're able to more convincingly get your points across and to more profoundly connect with your audience. People have an easier time understanding, appreciating and being moved by what you're up to when you make an effort to explain it to them in detail (through a unified body of work) rather than give some snappy answer (in one or two works) along with the impression that there's not much more to say."

"Olive Branches" by Robin Maria Pedrero (image from here)

What's there to say about olives, then? What parameters have I defined, and how can they be examined from multiple perspectives? Will there be "impactful conclusions" arising from whatever points I'm trying to get across? More basically, is an exercise like the journal quilts in the same league as making "art that communicates" or "art that expresses feelings"?

"Olives all decked out for the party" by Elizabeth Blaylock (image from here)

What I want to say about olives is that they are more than a nibble with drinks. They are an important foodstuff, mainly for their oil, and a common factor in the life and economy of many countries - they are worth knowing about. Olives and things associated with olives can be visually interesting - they are worth looking at more closely.

"Olives and martini shaker" by Joy Argento (image from here)

Parameters - this buzz-word usually means boundaries, or variables, or things that can be measured. Based on the shape of olives, and their range of colours, the work will also include context, ie non-olive shapes and colours. Or maybe those non-olive things are the "multiple perspectives". I'm truly unclear on this bit. Nor do I expect impactful conclusions, either on my part or on the part of the viewer - possibly those conclusions are actually my starting points.

By Lutz Baar (image from here)

As for the matter of JQs being an exercise - well, they can be considered that way - a means of building up a repertoire of resolved samples of techniques, or of "interpretaitons of themes". Or, each is an art-making opportunity in its own right - a chance to compose, harmonise, highlight, focus, emphasise ... perhaps even for a hidden quality to emerge, which will inform the rest of the series. If not a hidden quality, such a series lets the maker find what it is that interests them - for instance, I'm starting out with anticipation of using green and purple "olive colours" but perhaps that won't be the thing that emerges as worth continuing to work with once this series is done with.

By Jeff Hayes (image from here)

One further section from the article, which elicited different thoughts:

"Most people don't get it the first time, whatever it is. They need to have it explained, approached or presented in more ways than one, from multiple perspectives. Simply put, redundancy works-- not the same exact thing done over and over again, but rather stated and restated in different yet interconnected ways. Your job is not done until viewers can say, "I get it; I see your point; I know exactly what you're thinking, where you're coming from, why this is important to you, and why it's worth my time to consider." "

By Demetria Kelly (image from here)

This implies that your work, or series, will be seen all at once and looked at with attention, with a view to being "understood". And that it really does contain "meaning" - rather than being work you make solely for aesthetic reasons, or to "express feelings". Maybe "meaningful" work isn't your agenda. Or ... chilling thought ... maybe without meaning of some kind, it isn't really "art"??

By Stan Fellows (image from here)

Olive ennui, machine problems

Not so much ennui as - frustration - and not so much with the the piece (silly as it is) as with the sewing machine, my previously reliable and beloved Janome 6600. It skips stitches, it breaks the thread - you can see at top right the way the thread has frazzled. On certain of the background fabrics it won't stitch at all.

This piece - working title Olives of Many Nations - is for the chop. The stitching problems have revealed that the olives would be better added as pre-stuffed blobs, invisibly appliqued, on top of the flag shapes, rather than with fusible web and raw-edge applique, which can lead to a certain clumsy look...

At least it's led to some better ideas! But the machine... I have changed the needle, checked that the needle is inserted properly, cleaned the bobbin area, checked the bobbin [there is a squeak...] - all that remains, according to the checklist in its manual, is that the fabric and thread may be unsuitable.

Could the problem lie in the foot - my new freemotion foot? I got out my trusty "trial sandwich" and first tried stitching back and forth with the normal foot - that works fine. So I tried it out on the olives, and discovered that it's possible to do raw edge applique with the feed dogs up and a normal sewing foot.

Olives aside, I do need to be able to do freemotion for another project, so it was back to seeing if the old freemotion foot - the one with the tiny hole - could be used. It has a screw on top that adjusts the height of the foot from the fabric (whereas the open-toe foot has a protrusion that goes over the screw bar and makes the foot bounce up and down a bit as it sews). When the screw is tight, and the foot hugging the fabric, it works fine, no missed stitches etc ... but as I loosened it, there came a point when a stitch skipped ... loosened a little more, lots of skipping.

Using the tiny-hole foot on the Olives piece was a success - in terms of very few stitches being skipped. One of the fabrics, a thin silk backed with iron-on interfacing, definitely does cause problems. Another thing learnt (beware of iron-on interfacing)! The thread is still frazzling a bit - probably this happens (why, though) when stitches are skipped.

I will finish the piece before binning it, because "taking it to the end" is about the process and the experience gained, not necessarily about having something you'd actually show the world.

"I've started, so I'll finish" - the olives look like islands, or are they swimming upstream?

So it seems the open-toe foot with its jump-motion isn't suitable for this machine. Boo hoo! I like being able to see where the next stitch will be, which the tiny-hole foot obscures. Or ... am I doing something wrong when using it?

Olives galore

After putting fusible web on suitably "olivey" fabrics -

 the next task is to cut out lots of "olivey" shapes - it's so much more efficient to do this stage all at once -

and then there will be plenty to use in JQs as many ideas (some of which are exceedingly silly) appear in my sketchbook.

But turn your back for five minutes, and the studio turns back into a workshop, the work area becomes inaccessible, painting threatens to take over  -

Consider the Olive - fabric selection

Olives come, depending on ripeness, in shades of "their" green, brown, black - the brown even tending to pink, depending on variety. And there are backgrounds and other elements to consider. It's all rather chaotic at the moment...

The hand-dyed fabric at centre top is perfect olive colours - I used it for With Every Heartbeat a few years back, in the CQ "Thin Blue Line" show. Often it's the dull, assuming fabrics that turn out to be most useful.

So many fabrics come with their memories! On the left is the "gingko" fabric, a raffle prize, that led to the Gingko Gold quilt that sold in London Quilters' show in 2008, and on the right some discharge dye made at Bob Adams' workshop at Festival of Quilts in 2007 (he made a video about the discharge process there).

Now, the development of the Olive Idea ... I've had some mad thoughts about what olives might get up to in the world if they were creatures rather than vegetation ... or if they were points on a map ... or if they were states of mind ... which is all mad fun but perhaps better realised in a medium other than fabric ...

So, some drawing. That roundish shape has its attractions, and it has its limitations. But in the doing is the thinking, so the more drawing the better -

The colours of the photos come from playing around in Photoshop - adjusting the Levels of red, green, and blue in a photo taken under incandescent light (rather than daylight), which came out yellow-looking. (I should have changed the setting on the camera - or waited till later in the day.)

More thoughts about olives - Wilhemina Barnes-Graham

Thinking about olives

The guidelines for the 2013 journal quilt challenge have been announced by the Contemporary Quilt group (open to members only, sorry...). I've done JQs every year, and documented them on my website, so I'm raring to go with the new batch.

The constraints are the size, 12"x8", and the orientation - horizontal. And, a theme must be stated on signing up.

I saw somewhere - ah, it was here - an artwork by Yvonne Porcella inspired by "Olive trees, new industry and tasting rooms open in our area. I’ve done several works with the theme of olive. Great color combination, olive green, black, and of course, those red pimento stuffed ones."

Yvonne Porcella, First Press (image from here)

Also I remembered a degree show at Central St Martins, years ago, where one textile student used olives as her theme - black ones, yellow-green ones, olive-green ones ...  in many techniques and many configurations. It was hellish impressive, how much creative juice she squeezed out of those olives!

So, my theme found me. I'm partial to those round shapes in their variety, to the possibilities of marinade and the textures therein, to the nuances of colour, to the practical and symbolic possibilities, of the Humble Olive.

The research will include:
Olive oil.
Olive trees.
Olives in history.
Olives in diet.
Olive branches, etc, symbolically.
Other things related to olives - the wonderful labels on olive oil bottles and tins. (Hmm, perhaps use the tins themselves...)

Who knows what surprises lie ahead?

Nano olives are highly magnetic (image from here)