deus ex (sewing) machina

"Looking with your Whole Body"

2012-01-23T20:39:00.003-05:00

The complete Jane Rosen interview from Parabola Mag and Books online. Website http://janerosen.com/. She talks in the interview about how light, as in the image below, has transformed the way she sees her work in the studio and gallery.

There are also some excellent descriptions of her experience working with the materials, limestone specifically, and finding the ideal sculptural form as the end result of the combined forces in artistic intention and the organic materiality of the medium. I know this experience as a sort of "improvisational verisimilitude." That knowledge that a certain reality based truth has been reached through a combination of forces that include unknown or open-ended variables in the fabric and design processes that I work with.

Jane Rosen
"Dallas Bird," 2009
Limestone and pigment
62.5 x 12 x 6.5

Quiltmaking in American Culture at Cloth Fiber Workshop

2012-01-16T18:08:00.003-05:00

A Hands-on Approach to Quiltmaking in American Culture comes to Asheville and the River Arts District on Saturdays March 24, 31 and April 14. Barbara Zaretsky and the Cloth Fiber Workshop is the host and venue for the class and other fiber related classes throughout the year.

Quiltmaking using hand-piecing with assorted fabrics and reading articles about quiltmaking!
Register at the Cloth Fiber Workshop website!

2011-10-26T20:49:00.000-04:00

The City for Jean Lacy

A quilt to commemorate the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan. A gift to the artist Jean Lacy.

Summer Migration

2011-05-26T21:54:00.000-04:00

From confusing fall warblers

Colby Jan Plan

2011-05-26T20:56:00.000-04:00

From Final Presentations

And link back to full photo set.

Pecha Kucha Night Waterville

2010-10-23T00:44:00.000-04:00

The image says it all- the falls in Waterville, ME are where the natives set up seasonal fishing camps, the rail bridge to bring and take from the mills that were built on the river where the falls are.

PechaKucha Night Waterville

Bring and take and fish.

A Hands-on Approach to Understanding Quilts in American Culture

2010-10-11T23:04:00.000-04:00

A Hands-on Approach to Understanding Quilts in American Culture
Abbreviated title: Quilts in American Culture

Richard Caro
Course Goals
By the end of this course students should have developed:
•    Extensive knowledge of quiltmaking techniques including fabric selection, hand-piecing, block design theory, and hand-quilting;
•    A clear understanding of the history of quiltmaking in 19th and 20th century American culture with an emphasis on quiltmaking since ‘the quilt revolution’ of the 1970s;
•    A clear understanding of theoretical issues in which quilts can be analyzed and interpreted;
•    An improved ability to apply various analytical approaches to produce critical interpretations of cultural (especially visual) texts and objects;
•    An improved ability to express ideas in both written and oral form while engaging in class discussion and presenting material in the public context of an exhibit.

Quilts are a ubiquitous, but little understood form, of material culture. This course will explore how quilts function and gain meaning and value in our society. Students will acquire hands-on experience with quiltmaking including selecting fabric, hand-piecing, and basic quilt block theory. While making a quilt, students will explore the theoretical and historical understanding of textiles through readings and direct experiences with quilt-culture— magazines, quilt-shops, guilds, etc. Students will gain experience analyzing the relationship between quilts and their written and visual presentation in scholarly and mainstream publications. Related topics might include: identity performance in quiltmaking and gender claims for quiltmaking.

a community of cloth pickers

2010-02-20T20:08:00.000-05:00

The class: Being a Quiltmaker, a beginning 'quiltversation' is now officially on the calendar for Freshwater Arts and Barrel's Market on Mainstreet in downtown Waterville, ME.   (well it will be on the their webpage calendar soon- March 20, 27 and April 10!)

I've been kicking around the idea for the class for a while now and shared the concept with folks as I traveled at New Years and at the QuiltGuy weekend in January.   It's always great to get feedback on ideas and to hear what others think and feel about quiltmaker- and that of course is what the class is all about - a discussion of quiltmaking while quiltmaking.

In addition to feedback it was great to have folks offer to supply fabric for the class.   One of the key elements of the class encourages thinking about fabric in many different ways and introduces fabric collection practices that go beyond the quiltshop.

I sometimes call the people that are on the look-out for fabric for me my cloth or fabric pickers.   These folks are family and friends that know that I will use almost any type of fabric in quiltmaking.

Over the years I have received fabric from people's personal fabric stashes, from friends of friends, and from, specifically, my mother's jaunts to thriftshops in central NY state.   (That subject will need to have it's own write-up so prolific a picker is she).

So it goes with this class that I can only start teaching from a place I know and that is the place of alternative cloth collection.

KVT (Kathy Velis Turan) sent me the box of fabric below (it was her husband that coined the term "quiltversation") as an addition to the stash that I am collecting for the class.

It is a box STUFFED full of fabric.    I'd been warned that the contents of the box were under such great pressure that it might explode.

Fabric swaps are common place to quiltmakers; it would make a great piece of research to analyse the how and why of the practice and its norms.   It is within this tradition that I see my collection of an expanded range of fabrics suitable for quiltmaking.

Do you ever get fabric from non-quiltshop sources?   How does it change your quiltmaking?

quilt guy weekend and Hand/Eye magazine article

2010-01-31T21:35:00.000-05:00

The January edition of the QuiltGuy weekend in Woodstock NY took place over the MLKjr weekend.
Always a good time - see photos below.
Quilt Guy Jeff Rutherford linked in Hand/Eye mag for an after event write-up. Props to Rebeca Schiller for penning the piece. Check it out!

While you're at Hand/Eye take a look around- an all around beautiful magazine available both online and in print- I'm getting the print and signing up for the email mailing list. They have a mission statement, a totally cool mission statement- when was the last time you saw a magazine with a mission statement? They are in essence asking my favorite question all the time: what opportunity does this creative act and this medium, and this object afford us, you, me?

About time someone answered that question, better yet with an entire magazine. All proceeds go to non-profits working to support artists. Please subscribe and help this project to make waves in the waters of design and arts and material culture.

Quilt Guy pics start here:

The quiltshop mecca of Woodstock Quilt Supply owned by Quilt Guys Bob Silverman and Jim Helm is moving to a new address: check it out at either www.quiltstock.com or skip the 'we're moving info' and go straight to www.joyfulquilter.com. Good luck with the move- I'll miss the old shop but hey- 'what opportunities does this afford?"

kicksledding

2010-01-25T20:42:00.002-05:00

I used to ski. I'm cured now. But what to do with that old pair of skis?
Kicksled.

Props to Patrick Dansforth and Tom Strang for the design that got me started.   I of course had to change it up a bit to fit on the skis and then reworked the seat with the armrests for Elijah so he won't fall out on the curvy downhill stretches.

It's a crude apparatus really- needs a nice wide trail and even better icy packed snow.   I have to trim the skis in the back too and it will turn easier and still pretty straight.   There is a nice rail to trail thing along the Kennebec that will be perfect.

There isn't a regular angle in the thing and the seat fabric is a stripe - not straight.   It'll need a tune-up every now and then and especially after being run down a true sledding hill with a jump at the bottom.

Here it is on the car- you can see the seat better without Elijah in it.

Here we are on a nice downhill stretch in the Colby College Arboretum.

It was a perfect day- hope we'll have a few more like it before the end of March.
Peace

the mash-up continues- both literally and figuratively

2010-01-21T19:43:00.000-05:00

this is an "OMG I have a blog- I'd forgotten about that thing." sort of post.

Here is the continuation of the novelty mash-up kids quilt.

Then there was this- I found this printed stripe fabric in Skowhegan Maine at a thriftshop.

I attempted a one block wonder sort of thing for the Quilt Guy weekend. But I biffed a couple of the variables and although the results are interesting I know I could have changed up a few things in the process and had the result be, perhaps, better. Who knows?

This is how it looked laid out on the design wall in Woodstock.

I like how some of the colors flow from one line to the next almost like text.

Still many things in the works and still feel like I'm just landing- more when I can unpack my brain.

Peace

Gimme that old time Yoruba Orixás (spirit) tradition

2010-01-09T12:36:00.001-05:00

Spirit traditions. Creation images. Making things in concert with both.

RCaro, Blue Star Chupah, 2002 68x75"

The Rubin's museum has "mounted" the show “Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe" to lay it all out for us and I'm guessing they didn't even hang it salon style.

The main question of the show being: What makes one narrative visual image of creation different from another?   Further, what makes an Eastern deity based myth-narrative different from a Western Scientific one?   Based on the images- either of swirling gasses and nebula or of deities and their posses, it strikes one almost immediately that in the first case of telescopic or pseudo telescopic views there appears a one way mirror of sorts where we do all the looking.   In the Eastern example the emphasis is placed upon the narrative and the story where a protagonist acts to create. These images are, like crafted objects, composed of a narrative surface and a use driven structure- not representational as much as descriptive.   I see you and you see me. We are meant for each other.

We measure everything by the length of our own bodily frame (physical and psychological).   I use this idea of the physical body as associative scale often when I speak about the size of quilts.   It comes in handy too when thinking about images of creation and the cast of characters that populate them. Quantum physicists might speak of the characteristics of an "up quark" or other subatomic particle that might be responsible for the surface appearance of the universe, but these actors still suffer from a lack of credibility in social or dramatic situations where say any Eastern deity would do just fine.   Both systems of creations narratives are set-up on the presumption that we "expect" the characters to act in a certain way. The Eastern narrative effect is greater simply because our expectations are scaled to a human sphere.

Because the psychological scale is more flexible than the physical there is room for one to argue that both the Eastern and Western visual narratives are available as recognized patterns scaled to our experience.   The "subjective" experience of these objective visual narratives is as flexible as we are to them- but when working with physical 'things' that are used to mark and mirror the different characteristics of our creation narratives we encroach upon point where physical size and psychological (spirit) size meet.   Enter the Yoruba Orixas Spirit Tradition.

Read this entire blog post by Joshua Sofaer (Condamble, bananas, and a socially stratified recycling fetish).   Worth it.

Ultimate question: Can one experience more of the creation narrative (or of creation) if one invests more spirit into the things that we use to create our physical space?    That's the sort of tradition I need.
I'm off to the studio. Peace.

quilting mathilde

2009-12-27T23:06:00.000-05:00

and today was a more productive day in the studio. I added a sleeve onto the back of a quilt so that it can go to American Quilter's Society in KY for a photo. More about the experience of getting a quilt back from the owner in a later post. Always good to see a quilt again- especially when it's actually been used!!

and here is the crib quilt top for Mathilde (and her mom) ;)

linen and silk. The center medallion start was different until today when I replaced it with the star.

UFOs are falling one by one in a last ditch effort to procrastinate before diving into the landscape quilt that is dominating the studio floor space.

studio reflections

2009-12-26T22:30:00.000-05:00

having uninterupted time in the studio is a wonderful thing- sort of.

I share this visual observation with you until I have something along the lines of a quilt.

I picked this 'painting on glass' up in Albany NY back in 99. wanted to work it into a piece of furniture that was never built. so it continues to be a curiosity. Once in a library in East Greenbush, NY across the Hudson River from Albany I saw an exhibit of painting just like this one- by a man who'd made them locally and at the time had already past. can't remember now who it was. . .

There is a certain ironic 'claude glass" effect going on in the photo- a painting of mountains, falls, river, deer, trees and all and reflected in the surface of the glass is the light of the window that looks out in the direction of the Kennebec River.

here is another look

and another- but with this one I changed the colors a bit- viola -a la claude glass again.

until tomorrow when I actually do some sewing. . . .

"Brother!, Brother! Now for the Porter's shoulder knot a-creaking!"

2009-12-19T19:41:00.008-05:00

"the spiritual distance between 'eye' and the land" RCaro quilt- 2003

My copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam smelled too strongly of mildew like some books do. I keep it none-the-less for it is a nice hardbound copy with woodblock prints.

I'll work on the smell at some point- but I can't say when. I don't keep it very close at hand, but occasionally I take it out and read the classic lines or find a new passage that I do not remember. I usually though end up at the stretch of stanzas that begins:

"As under cover of departing Day
Slunk hunger-stricken Ramazan away,
Once more withing the Potter's House alone
I stood, surrounded by the Shapes of Clay."

A brief set of stanzas given to the personified pots in the potter's studio that speak about the human qualities of spirit, time, character and, of course, the grape that are the focus of the poem.

While not explicating the poem or even these few stanzas, I do share this final passage to make a point.

Thus:
"So while the Vessels one by one were speaking,
The little Moon look'd in that all were seeking:
And then they jogg'd each other. 'Brother! Brother!
Now for the Porter's shoulder knot a-creaking!'"

There is an onomatopoeic flourish in that line "And then they jogg'd each other. "Brother! Brother!" that suggests the sound that the jugs make as they are 'jogg'd' together in the process of being picked up by the porter. It suggest also, through the context of the jugs' conversation and the overall themes of the poem, relationships between sound and meaning, maker and object, form and function. Specifically how does the jug relate to the potter and how do both relate to wine?

I feel like I have been wanting to 'rant' recently about quilts. I deleted a post that did that too much. What I mean to be doing with my thinking about quilts, quiltmaking, and the use of quilts is akin to the dialogue that the 'Vessels' have in those passages in the Rubaiyat.

There is a tension built up in the Rubaiyat between the many aspects of holiness or purity and the carpe diem immediacy symbolized by 'the grape.' The personified jugs are but an extended metaphor for these themes I know, but at the same time there is manifest statement in the 'voice' of the pots when they audibly speak via their contact with one another. A unified social, or subjective, connection is suggested beyond the apparent differences of vessels on the surface.

The tension built up in the poem suggests a sort of Janus image- the Sufi model, the carpe diem trope, suggesting both Absolute and relative connected in the transcendent. That is the connection between sound and meaning (name and form) that I mentioned earlier as an extension of the straight onomatopoeia quality.

To find and identify this transcendental quality in quiltmaking is the goal of my work. The quilt already holds such social weight and seems to lend itself to simile for maker and object, form and function, sound and meaning, spirit and material.

Thank you Omar! thank you Edward!

"Wake! For the Sun, who scatter'd into flight
The Stars before him from the Field of Night,
Drives Night along with them from Heav'n and strikes
The Sultan's Turret with a Shaft of Light."

pattern and light

2009-12-11T20:29:00.005-05:00

RCaro Textile Weave (basket weave) Quilt, 2004, 55" x 55" silk and cotton, machine pieced, hand quilted.

Quilt patterns are the traditional (and contemporary) way that quilts designs have been exchanged and passed from one person to the next. Much has been said about how patterns are tools for knowledge transfer and for biographical and narrative meaning. In addition some patterns have seen a large amount of variation as quiltmakers have found creative license within the bounds of the patterns key characteristics.

The new and improved Quilt Index contains a database of quilt images searchable by pattern. The variations within a single pattern are obvious. The variation or combination of patterns is also evident. The Quilt Index represents a sampling of quilts that have survived and been recorded during one or another state quilt index.

I mention light along with pattern in the title of this entry in order to ask certain questions having to do with collected quilts, traditionally recognizable patterns, uncollected quilts, numbers of quilts, quiltmakers, and how quiltmakers transform light and power in their work.

The concepts that buttress my understanding of quiltmaking are: light and stitch or weave structure, use, size of quilts in relation to the body, and the quiltmakers choice within a system of market driven forces.

Continuing on from the last post regarding light, fabric and power in Polynesia I am relating this notion of power to the use of the quilt and to the vertical presentation of quilts in spaces where light is controlled and quilts are objectified.

Look again at an image of one of my quilts:

There are reasons why I chose to photograph the quilt and present it electronically in this context. None of those choices have anything to do with an acknowledged sense of how light is transformed in the quilt and how that might be represented. The process of image capture and presentation has nothing to do with this level of power conceived of for the quilt.

The image of the quilt "reduces" the quilt to something else- a pattern, a composite wholeness that is created through the image being reduced. I would suggest that this same process takes place on a museum wall, and is further reduced via the space of the museum that holds (controls power and meaning) objects.

Ultimately the "patterns" that are created are hegemonic- reducing choices and obscuring possibilities and opportunities that light and fabric afford the quiltmaker. Lost knowledge is a problem for quilts where the data of maker, time and place and context are "missing." This is in itself a pattern of loss that quilt study aims to modify with variations of data collection that record varying levels of contextual complexity. The preservation of the quilt qualities is in this data. There are of course other quilt databases that aim to preserve the more qualitative context and data for individual quilts and their makers.

The question that this continuum of patterns raises for me is: What "opportunities are afforded" (props to Webb Keane for that question) or not afforded by the products and processes of the contemporary quilt market that is created based on a prioritizing of quilt images where the power of the quilt is controlled and marginalized? The quilt market would have the quiltmaker believe that the opportunities lie within the process of making quilts that extend these patterns. I would ask: Why are there quilts on walls?

the importance of cloth

2009-12-08T21:45:00.004-05:00

rcaro quilts showing handquilting

"Pacific Islanders' fervent desire for cloth and clothing was inspired by its material qualities. particularly its 'whiteness' and 'luminosity' which demanded immediate action- cutting, sewing and folding- to harness and control the power contained within its folds."

from Chapter 3 "Contemporary Pattern: Material and Modernity" in Pacific Patterns by Susanne Kuchler and Graeme Were, Thames & Hudson, 2005.

"Many sources testify to the importance attributed to light in Polynesian ritual in particular, which derives from a conception of the world as having a dual composition: an exterior, wild and nocturnal world, which was the source of light and life; and an interior, domestic and diurnal world that depended upon the harnessing of light and life from the invisible and immaterial (such as the world of the gods or ancestors)." pp.85-87

It is perhaps clear in the first quote that "immediate action" suggests that fabric or textiles in their pre-manipulated form are in some ways strangely overpowering in energy and their perceived hegemony. The personal manipulation then of these textiles help to transform them into objects where the maker can "harness and control the power contained within. . ."

Are there correlations between this notion of power and control in textiles and sewn objects in Polynesia and the quilt style that is made in the West? With light as the currency of this power relationship between textiles, quiltmakers and objects- we can perhaps begin to develop an aesthetic that explains how each is related to the other and ultimately to the way the textile and the quiltmaker together influence the creation of the object.

This aspect of light defined as dual power source and reflector can help to define a quiltmaker's understanding of his created object beyond a preconceived audience or market. It is the initial manipulation of the textile that contains the impetus for transformation of the light and power that contained in the fibers. Observation of this self aware quiltmaking process may help to separate out the external influences from the internal, the cultural market force from the personal spiritual.

In my own work I have tended to collect these ideas around the central notion of the stitch. (root form: sutra).

more later...

light and the quilt medium, strip piecing (and Pacific Patterns)

2009-12-04T21:28:00.009-05:00

In October I picked up this book at the Colby College Bookstore. Back in March when I was writing the paper on quiltmakers and online groups for the Nebraska IQSC symposium I'd come across the work of Susanne Kuchler and Graeme Were and was intrigued by their approach to looking at textiles from the Pacific.

In early November Linda Leimbach came from Towson University, where she is writing her PhD dissertation, to interview me. Her dissertation, in the area of Occupational Therapy, looks at male quilters and how they work. Her visit gave me the opportunity to think more about how I view quilts. Specifically I spoke about two ways that I understand textiles and quilts. One is the relationship of the body to the quilt, and the second is the way light interacts with textiles and stitched fabric.

Both of these topics are discussed in detail in Kuchler and Were's "Pacific Patterns." Their work in the Pacific islands supports my thinking but takes off from a different starting point. My thinking is originally grounded in a more western approach that even suggests a Jungian perspective and aspects of the human shadow.

Kuchler and Were suggest also that the physicality of textiles (their relation to the hand and the body) are related and also parallel to the spiritual significance of light for the "maker" that is 'reflected' in the material. More on "Pacific Patterns" later.

What comes below is an example of light in my quiltmaking. Starting with an installation view of "Seven Strip Quilts for a Cafe." A site-specific piece, it takes selvages from a divers range of fabrics and places them in a improvisational sequence. Foundation strip piecing is the technique used.

This project led to subsequent products- the quilts from the original installation are now either in separate collections or the have been recycled into new work as can be seen below.

The original project called for seven quilts to be made in a very short period of time. The goal for my work in the studio was to utilize the selvage strips and to meet the deadline. What resulted was an extended exploration into a material, a process and technique and am understanding of light and fabric.

In the detail below I use a segment of selvage with text that labels the fabric and the content. "Superfine Australian Wool" denotes origin, fiber type, and most importantly, quality. What it also does it to serve as a semiotic reference for how the fabric relates to light and to the cultural appreciation of that illuminated effect.

The merging of the effects of light along with the effects of a layered quilt that relates to the body in both size and in protection (and the reflection of heat from the body) is not insignificant.

It is on the other hand seemingly random that I've chose to use this strip piecing technique to make a secondary material that I can then transform in pot holders. (see a related post below where I call the pot holders 'hot mitts').

light emitting pot holder anyone?

novelty fabric mash-up workout

2009-11-28T15:06:00.014-05:00

It's perfect as an exercise in piecing. Something to get the muscles working again after some time-off. And necessary before attempting anything more difficult that will require me to be in the zone: deus ex sewing machina!

This is the quilt-top as it is now- still needs a thin frame and a thin pieced 'mash-up' panel to either side of this central panel- it'll be a triptych of sorts. For now it is complete and can be revisited later.

The concept was inspired by a quilt that another Quilt Guy made for my son.
Here is Paul's 'eye (I?) spy' quilt:

Paul's quilt is a sort of "charm" quilt. A one-patch charm quilt. Each block is a single unit and no two are the same. I was amazed by all the different image based prints. It was only after seeing this that I started to identify the collections of 'boy-themed' fabrics available. I bought some at the City Quilter (NYC) over the summer and then when Paul visited here in September I bought more on our outing to the Yardgoods store. (That's a story for another day.)

I've used print fabric in the past on a number of occasions- mixing it into quilts and chupot. But I'd never attempted a purely image based quilt- and even this stretches that definition and uses patterned, non-pictorial, fabrics in the mash-up.

Two things about the exercise that I noted- one was that the images certainly dominate the surface of the fabric- the fabric itself is almost nonexistent - not even a sub-pattern- just a base for the image- and a bias for the cutting- I suppose. But visually- nothing.

I also noticed how long it took me to become comfortable with the balance of cutting, piecing, and sewing with this fabric. In this way it was a great exercise or warm-up. There were certainly some aspects of "fussy cutting" going on - other cuts were more improvisational. The intuitive approach that is activated through an exercise like this is pretty much the finding of the zone that I am looking for. Working with the fabric's limitations and finding the best possible rhythm and flow.

Here is a detail of the top half of the quilt.

The whole quilt top is sort of Anna Williams meets Alexander Henry in that it is primarily strip piecing with novelty pictorial prints. I sort of broke out of the linear strips toward the top when I needed to piece the line of blue cars that descend from the top right corner.

The palette that I worked with in terms of divers numbers of assorted novelty fabrics was, including the different colorways of the same pattern, rather small. Still I found some nice harmonies and especially like the way the fish and helicopter fabric work together in this next detail. They have the same basic ground color and the contrasting yet complimentary patterning of the fish and flying machine colors works for me. I'm contemplating getting more yardage of both and seeing where that ends up.

One interesting thing about these pictorial novelty prints is their ability to mash-up narrative. As I pieced everything together there were definitely some themes that I was reading. That said, the symbolic narrative of the piece is pretty straight forward ; ) It's for the kid so I can't read into too much. Oh well maybe I can. Here goes: it's a road narrative of course- dedications to Kerouac and all. It is the great highway that runs out west, car culture, and trains and planes. It's about the love of muscle cars, vegas, palm springs, la Brea, fossil fuels, mexico, and the ancestors. Or something like that. I just hope the kid thinks I used enough trucks.

Well gotta stay in the zone, on to the next project, deus ex sewing machina!

The many reasons for the pain in my neck

2009-11-27T21:51:00.004-05:00

Yes I have a pain in my neck- an actual pain that has been with me now for about ten days. It's on the left side- shoulder, neck, that general area. It hurts.

Now for the reasons.

First off, I simply have myself to blame. It all boils down to a physiological adjustment of sorts- my body catching up with my spirit you might say. Well I wish it would hurry up.

As for reasons- I suppose I can't name one. That's because there is no one reason, not even two reasons- although I blame the birds and the animals- I mean I give them credit for pointing things out to me (see previous post on shamanism) but no blame. Outside of that there's my quilt work (the thinking AND the making) and the job.

What else is there really?

I think that my left arm is trying to tell me something. Really, the left arm is (for me) the side that represents 'receiving' and the right arm and hand, 'giving.' So it seems that that is the message- receive more- be attuned- (see previous post on shamanism).

I think that there is a strict balance in life that maintains how much we get to experience outward spirit before we have to catch-up with our inner spirit.

I think that is where I am. Catching up. Purifying. Sure, I'm pure already- just not THAT pure. It'll be an ongoing process and gradual I presume- nothing that will clear out the nervous system in one fell swoop.

Now off to do some hand quilting- here is the quilt top:

More actual examples to explain neck pain coming soon.

cross-wild

2009-11-26T16:32:00.012-05:00

Check out these folks at the Cross-Cultural Partnership via U-ME at Orono:

wabanaki_trans_coyote_ill@m.jpg (JPEG Image, 219x300 pixels)

Pretty cool.

Today, as much as I am reluctant to acknowledge it, is Thanksgiving. I have ducked out of social obligations and have instead had an almond butter and jelly sandwich. Thank you very much.

If anyone reading this in the Messolonskee watershed missed my being at a gathering today- I am sorry for that. But after the preparing of food (that went where I did not), I settled down to read about wilderness, the Maine kind and it's associated spirit. It is ideally suited to the day.

I have come upon it not without some confusion and effort. For all the cultural allure of the Maine woods I have seen such a small amount of it in actuality, that now this reading into its history and people (see the entry below on Skowhegan) is a natural extension an almost completely 'inner' or urban-extended experience of the wilds that I am know (from tourist propoganda) extend off to the north.

My first step out the door: the 1945 text: "Old John Neptune and Other Maine Indian Shamans" by Fannie Hardy Eckstorm. An anthropological study of the tribal shaman himself and the cultural and spiritual ways of the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes that lived to the east.

Second step: "The 'Domestic Air' of Winderness: Henry Thoreau & Joe Polis in the Maine Woods" by Thomas Lynch. This essay serves as good introduction to what I consider the challenge. The ways of domesticating experience, both of "wild" things and of the non-wild in the midst of a still strong culture/nature duality.

The Wabanaki (including the Abenaki who lived to the north west of Waterville) were the "People of the Dawn." But I think that translation is about the extend of the first lesson in 4th Grade Maine state history so a certain intellectual ignorance still chides me for anything I can say on the matter. Amid the archaeological evidence and the history of European encounter and influence, I find myself trying to experience the region where I now live and to encounter the very spirit of it through that experience.

How shall I endeavour to gain this awareness of the place and to understand it? How shall I come to live in its wild and urban vastness with a feeling of the 'domestic?' John Neptune and Joe Polis and their ancestors and their spirit animals are out there somewhere now. Cross-wild.

Back to the Cross-Cultural Partnership and the Still Water program that houses it- here is their mission statement:

Still Water, a New Media program of the University of Maine at Orono, was founded in 2002 by Joline Blais and Jon Ippolito to promote network art and culture. Although the program's title derives from the name of a river that flows alongside the physical facility, "still water" also connotes the values electronic and cultural networks need to thrive.

These include transparency, open access to ideas and code; variability, the capacity to morph into new configurations as the need arises; and stillness, a rare quality in today's frenetic culture but one demanded by any creative endeavor. Still Water is not a center--for a successful network has none--but a medium primed for the transmission of multiple waves of culture.

And take a look at their RFC Project- a 'request for ceremony' that strives "for individuals to re-connect to the land around them by inventing ceremonies to accompany moments from their daily lives."

My quilt work and my experience and awareness of Maine are coming together is new and unseen ways. Striving to connect on both the wild level of spirit-nature and to connected culture has directed me to this vision of the shaman traditional to Maine.

What can I do with all this information that helps me to build awareness, experience and to take wild inside?

Hot

2009-11-23T19:58:00.003-05:00

mitts
returned to this classic rcaro hot mitt riff to take care of a gift need. Last year at this same time I cranked out 30 odd some of these made from the old remnants of "7 strip quilts for a cafe"

All good work as I flex the sewing and piecing muscles.

Also just found out that "Vision" has been accepted into a show of male quiltermakers at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum, entitle "Wranglers Among Us" Yee Haw.

Still piecing on the novelty fabric mash-up for the kid. Dragging out some vintage 2000 Alexander Henry prints from the stash to mix with the kid stuff.

Very useful for getting the groove back for piecing- all strips and curves and bad bias situations.
Just the way I like it.

The Kennebec River, the Town of Skowhegan and the Abenaki

2009-11-18T23:41:00.005-05:00

For the past few months I've found myself driving to Skowhegan Maine for work. Skowhegan is an historic mill town on the Kennebec River in central Maine.

The town was once home to many 'shoe shops' and paper mills.

As with many mill towns, Skowhegan is situated on the Kennebec at a spot where the river naturally had falls and the falling water was harnessed to run the mills.

Also naturally, the location of Skowhegan was important to the native Maine people the Abenaki Tribe. In Abenaki language 'Skowhegan' means "watching place for fish."

This photo is of one of two dams in town. The other one is off to the right in the photo-

Take a look at this painting by Yvonne Jacquette, Town of Skowhegan, 1988. The dam in the photo is center right in the painting.

I'm working on a quilt now that tries to capture some of the history of the Kennebec and the region and the industry. Pictorially the river and the development along its bank are quite stunning really- large production mills of brick or later white and off white corrugated metals- large smoke stacks, dams, conveyors, and a significant use of river bank space.

Skowhegan feels especially significant to my work with the quilt image. I want to say that the reason for this is purely geography: The way the town sits on the river, how far upstream it is from the large cities of Waterville and Augusta, how it seems to sit beneath the tall range of mountains to the west. It could be the tradition of art that Skowhegan has - the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture has been operating since 1946.

Geography and artistic tradition aside, I actually think that my interest lies solely with the native prehistory of the site.

I won't try to describe that feeling of significance- suffice to say that in contrast to my appreciation, in downtown Skowhegan, at the back of a parking lot, you can find this sculpture of an Abenaki with fishing weir and fish spear. Created by Skowhegan School grad Bernard Langlais the sculpture seems lost, as if the Abenaki can't see the river or the falls from where he stands. He needs urban renewal and a relocation to a park, south of town, along the river where he can use the spear every now and then if he sees a fish.

I oscillate between looking at the landscape for pictorial elements that will help add verisimilitude to the quilt I am creating and wanting to represent the native people and their significance that is present in the river and in Skowhegan. I hope I can accomplish both.

More images of the quilt making process coming soon.

landscape quilt design and the kid's quilt

2009-11-15T19:30:00.006-05:00

here's the design for the landscape quilt that I'm in for. always good to have a challenging project to work on while finding the groove in a new space. Good to have something connected to the land too. We'll see.

and of course here is Elijah's quilt that we are working on together.

the basic pieces and fabrics- not the usual fabric selection from the stash- here in the detail you can see a few pieces that did I have had for awhile.

And here is the quiltmaker at work

studio time

2009-11-15T14:00:00.004-05:00

updates from the studio
first the view of the veteran's day parade from the third floor window:

a great view of a traditional main street.

and the latest project (fabric selection) on the studio floor.
sketches coming soon. it is a maine landscape.

The first panel in the strip that is my relationship to comics

2009-10-04T22:27:00.021-04:00

I've just been reading a McSweeney's Quarterly devoted to comics and graphic lit. and in it various famous lit types expound on their relationships to comics. Ira Glass, john updike, and the comic artists themselves. The whole Quarterly is a good read and it jogged my memory in relation to how I came to know comics and perhaps why I'm going back to them to learn a bit more about one way that narrative and story work in quilt making.

My earliest memory of reading comics was a couple of thick collection of Peanuts comics that my folks bought for me. I read pages at random until I'd read the whole thing a couple of times and was content that I'd read every strip at least once. I still employ this hit or miss technique when reading collections of things that are not necessarily linear. It allows for a certain amount of intuitive reading to take place, it allows for a certain indulgence in the good and forgiveness of the less polished or personal. But as I think back on it I'm quite sure that I learned this technique while reading those first Peanuts strips.

Second memory. Somewhere on the edge of New York's Westchester county where it mashes up against Greenwich in Connecticut, in hunt country, there is a museum of the cartoon/comic. (The National Cartoon Museum www.cartoon.org now located in downtown Stamford). I was perhaps 13 or 14 when I went there on a rainy afternoon. I don't remember much about the framed original strips on the wall- I do remember that the resident cartoon artist was in the museum that day: Mort Walker. Walker draws "Beetle Bailey" and "Hi and Lois" and I remember his advice to aspiring cartoon artists- find a comic strip you like and try to draw it, and then keep practicing.

The idea of the master copy was a new one for me but I took his advice and that same day went home, picked a seemingly simple "Hi and Lois" strip and went to work replicating it.

I can recall story even now- the son of the family is trying to get up the nerve to call a girl he likes and he has positioned himself next to the phone and is berating himself for being a coward and working up the courage to pick up the phone. Of course when he finally does reach for the phone it rings beneath his hand and his response is appropriately exaggerated. It seemed both a plausible and an absurd story all at the same time. Perhaps too real for the comic genre and yet vividly pictured to be almost too accurate. I think I drew two panels out of the five that were offered: the one just before the phone rings and the one that shows the boy's reaction. These two offered both the meat of the story and what I thought were the most descriptive drawn elements of action and emotion. I think perhaps I kept that drawing because even as I executed it I knew that it would be the first and last time I did.

The drawing ended up, I think, as part of a large collage made from the collected detritus of my high school years that I constructed before leaving for college (the collage would now carry the comment: 'location unknown"). The fact that it ended up in a large format collage is perhaps telling of how I work and think about images and meaning.

I think the reason I have returned to comics and their relation to quiltmaking is that all along in my explorations with media I have sensed the relationship between the illustrated narrative and the patterns of spiritual and cultural meaning that make up the story that is being told. What began for me that day I tried to recreate the "Hi and Lois" strip was a process of knowing there are many different ways to draw a narrative, and to tell a story. Subsequently I have never seen a cartoon or a comic that I didn't 'get.' Comics are the daily alters or shrines where icons and fetishes of our culture exist in broad spiritual daylight as part of our mass media formats.

McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Issue Number 13, 2004

the aesthetics of working with frames

2009-09-14T01:02:00.001-04:00

My son working in one of his favorite media: chalk.

I think it is an interesting example of how frames and edges can influence our work. First think of 'sidewalk chalk' as a specific medium. It's a fairly 'open' medium: have chalk, sidewalk, and the ability to put the two together and the opportunities for expression are vast. Here's on example. My father, Saul, is prone to telling simple stories that he learn as a child and that tend to reflect a child's sensibility. Consider this:

Saul: "When I was a kid I took a piece of chalk and decided that I wanted to draw a circle all the way around the world and I'd start on the curb at my house and head down the street and just keep going.

Me: "How far did you get?"

Saul: "The piece of chalk wore down to nothing before I got to the end of the block."

The story articulates how two apposing artistic forces, narrative and medium, are connected and yet apposed. The narrative idea of continuing the line "around the world," and the notion that the chalk, and the canvas that is the curb, itself has finite qualities and quantities that make the accomplishment of the task impossible.

Here is a photo of the slate after my son completed his drawing. (I like the piece of lichen, middle right, that was already on the slate before he began).

I won't attempt to explicate the narrative of the piece outside of the revelation that my son likes nothing more than to fill space with chalk marks, or pencil, or crayon, when working on paper. We can note that even though there were other pieces of slate available to draw on he chose a single piece and purposefully added chalk to it.

And although it would be fun to discuss the aesthetics of children's chalk art, I'd rather talk about my personal aesthetic appreciations and more generally how personal and cultural aesthetics drive the way we utilize and articulate the artistic frame, the limitations of the medium, and our desire for that medium as a narrative tool.

In the process of 'developing' an aesthetic we are actually refining our willingness to exist within the 'frame' of a given artistic form or set of forms. And yet our desire to maintain an aesthetic seems directly connected to our inability to allow it to be altered. We define certain limits for both the physical bounds and the procedural bounds that make up an art form and then begin to use these bounds, in the applied arts, to develop a suggested narrative, whether literal or figurative.

I would suggest that the above statement is too linear- we don't always see the boundaries and then the narrative, sometimes it the other way around. This multi-generational example only serves to highlight for me how much we rely on boundaries to help us to make art. I may want to expand my boundaries and develop new aesthetics but ultimately boundaries are what help us to see beyond them. What boundaries or frames can you identify in your medium and what narratives and aesthetics or art are they helping you to create?

The Lake- or the Messalonskee Snow Pond

2009-09-09T11:41:00.006-04:00

The lake

Beautiful lake. It was still warm enough to swim in Maine.

Elou wading in.

... and getting deeper. .

We saw a loon, right as we arrived, the last time we were there.

I brought my snorkel gear and took a swim to see the world beneath the surface. Many beautiful rocks and vegetation and one very social smallmouth bass.

Obsessions and practice in making anything

2009-09-08T11:09:00.009-04:00

I think obsession has gotten a bad rap probably from a fragrance derived from whales and some concocted blossoms.

in definition:

–noun

1.	the domination of one's thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, desire, etc.

As per the provincial manners of the people we tend to think of obsession as akin to a sin- like lust as apposed to love. But who has not benefited from having one's thoughts persistently wrapped around a particular theme? Isn't this what we sometimes call focus and persistence when we wish to remove the idea of emotion from our intellectual endeavours?

Alternately we fear or resist loosing ourselves in obsession (the sin of it perhaps?) and rightly so for what use is complete focus on any one thing without the balance of grounded awareness that adds context to the fixation?

It within the notions of obsession that we find practice: the foundation for making anything. The obsessions of the artist, the maker, the creative person, are quite literally necessary for harnessing the needed creative forces to make great works. I will generalize and refer to peak, zone, or flow, experiences as aspects of obsessed awareness finding its balance and relaxing into a space of optimal performance.

It is with these thoughts that I try to gauge my overwhelming interest in baking bread, making kombucha, moving into the house, writing blog entries, finding a job, networking, and a myriad of other tasks and recreations.

More from Maine- after image

2009-05-21T22:16:00.002-04:00

Here is all that went down down east. We left on a day that included much preparation and deliberation about many things and eventually included the forgetting of the main suitcase of clothes, though thankfully not Elijah’s- because of course he needs at least three costume changes on any given day.

We used Portland as our home base for the first two days of the trip. After attempting to remedy the lost bag issue with a trip to Macy’s we dined at Costa Vida Mexican and put the day to bed. The one noted feature of the evening: while Julie and I executed tag-team shopping excursions to Macy’s, Elijah managed to acquire, from Borders Books, a new stuffed penguin because: “Maine is a cold place where penguins are most comfortable.”

The next day started with a trip to Whole Foods for Julie and Elijah.
Our first day of appointments to look at houses in Waterville went well though the most compelling attribute of the first house was its proximity to a well known playground. I stayed with Elijah at said playground, for a cold and windy hour and a half, while Julie visited and enrolled Elijah in the local Montessori school. We looked at one more house that lacked the necessary qualities we were looking for and we then headed south with stops at Staples for printing of the following DIY card

and then another stop at Whole Foods in Portland for dinner to round out the day before checking in at hotel number two: the Embassy Suites at the airport.
I attended my much anticipated Tweetup while Julie and Elijah played in the suite. I quite enjoyed the Belgian beer (though way pricey) at Novares in the port section of town, and the Tweetup was fabulous. I picked up a fused glass necklace from @magpiecreative for Julie for mother’s day and was home by 11.

The next day we were back in Waterville and found a great house to rent.
Close to campus, newly remodeled, etc. We toured campus a bit, lunched and then while Julie met with a colleague (Margaret from American Studies) I was back at the playground with Elijah- but this time we met the Director of the Colby Museum, Sharon, and her son, Finn! We stayed that evening with Sharon, Marty and Finn and much fun was had by all. Sharon showed us all the great food shops in the area and made an awesome risotto for dinner. The boys played, endlessly. Breakfast the next morning, an outing to Finn’s soccer game and more playground time, lunch and we were off.

We needed to be home to NY by the end of the day and we still needed to make one last excursion to the coast to Booth Bay Harbor.

Ruth Guillard, TM teacher and Mainer, welcomed us to Booth Bay. Her husband, Bob, is the algae and plankton specialist at the marine research center in Booth Bay Harbor and her son is the general manager of the Booth Bay Harbor ship yard. She and her two dogs, Benny and Moxie, welcomed the three of us for afternoon tea in her beautiful farmhouse overlooking the river. Ruth produced a small stuffed wolf for adoption by Elijah.

As is appropriate to the Maine coast, weather started to move in, and fog and rain with it. We started down route 1 toward Portland and one last stop at Whole Foods before hitting the road to NY state. A busy 4 days for sure with much accomplished.

Moving to Maine (MemeME)

2009-05-12T08:24:00.001-04:00

In anticipation of our first trip to Maine this week I thought I’d post a bit about why the Caro family is moving to Maine. My wife, Julie, has a two-year post-doc teaching position with Colby College in Waterville. August is when we’ll move, and we’re all looking forward to it- although Elijah, the 3 ½ year-old is pretty much just in it for the moose.

Last fall Julie finished her dissertation while all the while working as an adjunct art history prof. It’s been a long haul in many ways but we’re super proud of her and all her hard work and the Colby College gig is perfect for her.

We currently we live in the Hudson Valley north of NYC (we both grew up in the NY area). Until 1999 we lived in Austin, TX and before that Iowa.
This blog, deus ex (sewing) machine, records creative work as a quiltmaker. I started as a mixed media, assemblage, and found-object sculpture artist, but textiles and fabric are simply in many ways cooler than paint, wood and broken glass. Have a look at the flickr link.

Online social media is another interest. I presented a paper, in April, on quiltmaking and social networks at a quilt-studies conference in Nebraska and as many can relate- the theory and practice are an addictive combination. My day-job is fundraising and marketing for an educational non-profit and I’ll be looking for a similar yet different position in Maine. The perfect job would incorporate all the above: nonprofits, arts, marketing and social media. Email or DM any possiblities in the Augusta/Watertown area (or online, tele-commuted) if you would be so kind.

This week we’ll be in Waterville (but we’re staying the first couple night in Portland) lookin about housing and a school for Elijah. We have some excellent possibilities lined up for both thanks to the Colby community!
Mad props to the tweeps of Central Maine! I look forward to seeing some of you this Thursday.

@Rcaro

the spinners spinning and shooting it

2009-05-05T19:31:00.003-04:00

The spinners at the local cafe in Hudson, NY- every Tuesday night- letting it fly- a great group of woman organizing their art together around the flying wheels.

twisted fibers!

2009-05-01T20:20:00.002-04:00

I'm proud- yes I am. Finally finished this quilt. 62" square- hand quilted.
result of the king's ransom fabric swap on Quilt Guy and then a project at the first retreat in Aug. 08.

Corner detail view.
It's an original design of mine.

Quilt Judging and Context of Quilt Trends

2009-04-19T14:54:00.002-04:00

the notion of judged and juried quilt shows because it obviously sets up a binary between the judges and the quiltmakers. This binary in turns seems to spawn subsequent binaries around what criteria the quilts are being judged against.

The Yahoo Quilt Guy group has recently discussed the question of judges and judged quilt shows with varying comments from both quiltmakers and judges that are members of the group.

Without trying to summarize the discussion up to this point, here are my added thoughts. The quilt show is by default a venue that exists because of a given set of contextual criteria- location, scope, focus, connection to existing group, etc. This group or venue will by default have a set of norms that will drive the preferred criteria for its quiltmakers. Judges must then appreciate the intricacies of this context when they are judging quilts within the bounds of the particular venue.

That said, the overall preferences of the quilt community for a particular style or technique at a given moment in time certainly drives what the quilt group, venue, show or judge is libel to consider when they look at a selection of quilts. This delineated thread of influence and individual creativity seems to be the ultimate criteria for what would be considered successful within the larger community context and then also to a more specific degree within the local or specific community context.

The hegemony of the structure could be seen to be active in that judges must work with a preconditioned set of criteria that assumes a degree of similarity and difference that would be at least recognizable within the group norms. It is perhaps possible to see this phenomenon at work within the responses to the judged quilt show system that stress individuality of the pieces or their use.

Expanding the criteria to include these elements of the individual is perhaps impossible and unlikely do to the subjective criteria that they invite. It appears that the objectification of the quilt object leads to the necessity for judges to use established quiltmaking criteria as the basis for selecting the best quilts in a show.

Although there are alternative and 'open' venues for quilt display, what are other possibilities?

Central Mass Quilt Guy April Meeting

2009-04-10T09:27:00.003-04:00

13 guys showed up to the April meeting - this is the greatest number yet. Many thanks to Holice Turnbow for organizing the group and for the outreach that allows new members to hear about the group and to attend.

Paul Leger, the queen's quilting ambassador from the north (Canada), was the special guest (front row, second from left). Meetings every second Wednesday of the month at the Charlton Sewing Center in Charlton, MA.

These guys make some really amazing quilts!

Lincoln, quilts, the Beatles, and social media

2009-04-07T18:52:00.005-04:00

it happened that the last day of the IQSC symposium was also the David Lynch Foundation fundraising concert in NYC. www.dlf.tv

the fact the Paul and Ringo came out in support and played together made it historic one level - let's hope the fundraising and the Change Begins Within effort is just as historic.

I was waiting out my layover at midway in Chicago when the show started- got home to the house after it was all over.

Lincoln and the conference was just great- the new quilt center is beautiful and will make optimal use of the collection - a significant addition to the programs that they offer and an excellent archive for the objects.

The every-two years quilt studies symposium this year featured presentations on 'the global quilt: cultural context.' http://www.quiltstudy.org/education_research/symposium.html

I was honored to be on the slate with a presentation on quilts and social media and particularly the Quilt Guy Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QuiltGuy/

Ron Wilson, quiltmaker from Omaha, and Quilt Guy member (and featured prominently in my presentation) came down to Lincoln on Friday night. Thanks Ron! Always good to meet another guy from the group.

Of course, Judy Bales, www.judybales.com was in the same session presenting on fractals in African American quilts, and this made presenting all the more fun. I will list more event happenings here.

Bibliography for the presentation coming soon.

when I quilt alone. . . .

2009-02-13T14:34:00.002-05:00

when I quilt alone, I prefer to be by myself

more on this quilt later.

Since I have begun going to group sewing weekends I’ve become even more acutely aware of my preference for working alone. First, I’ve known this all along; second, I’m pretty sure that many quiltmaker feel the same way about have to make a quilt while other watch; it is a unique sort of voyeurism.

It is a social choice, of course, to attend the group session and as many will attest to the main goal being more social than it is efficient in the making of an object. So I know this, and the difference is not in how much more aware I am of the experience, but rather the ways in which it alters how and what I do in my quiltmaking. Choice of project becomes very important; one’s choice must take into account so many factors: time needed to complete, skill level, availability of materials, etc.

So after a recent retreat at Bob and Jim’s Woodstock, NY quilt shop I returned to the studio to more closely identify what I do that makes quilting alone significant. And primarily what I found was that in addition to the lack of voyeurism or the “quiltermaker’s gaze” my process is one of stops and starts. This again is obvious- but it is foundational to how one works- outside of all the other factors involved in the quiltmaking process timing is everything. Great expanses of time unfettered or a self assumed rush to complete a passage or segment of a quilt are what give us the agency to utilize our own set of principles and parameters that we use in the quiltmaking process.

Ultimately, when in the group we add the parameters of the social setting into our work- but I think for me and for many people the social parameter is too large (and too important) a variable and makes for too large and adjustment. So we must adjust our intentions and our expectations of what we can accomplish when quiltmaking in a group. I think we can gain socially from the experience- but for me ALL my quiltmaking is done “alone” whether I’m in a group or not and thus: when I quilt alone I prefer to be by myself.

Corduroy Quilt

2008-11-21T10:57:00.004-05:00

A corduroy quilt, color palette is mixed gray, pink, green, red, light blue and comprised of solids and florals. Hand-quilted. Basket-weave variation with curved piecing; gray wool suiting for the binding. dimension are approx 68" overall.

quilted 'off-the-frame' as more and more of my work is- I find handquilting a basted quilt without any tensioning or support for the quilt to be as easy and fast as quilting on a frame or hoop. Less of a strain on the hand and wrist as well. Quilted with Americana quilt thread - pink clay. Organic cotton batting; cotton back in two floral/paisley prints. In the collection of Ms. Jennie Hindes.

detail of quilting- free style pattern of concentric rectangles.

a basic need for . . .

2008-11-14T14:24:00.011-05:00

Photo by Ronald Simon.

There is something about the art of puppet theater and something completely different about the puppet arts as done by Bread and Puppet Theater.

There is a great book about Bread and Puppet titled: Rehearsing with Gods by Ronald Simon and Marc Estrin and published by Chelsea Green.

The book chronicles the concepts and movements of the theatre over the years- but it is the over all concept of the troupe's work with puppet's to further the basic needs of our culture that is most fulfilling and most entertaining.

I visited the farm/theater/museum in Glover VT. That's where the photo of the zebra and the trash can puppets comes from; from the cheap art bus gallery/store that was there when I visited.

I took in the circus that they performed in their barn built for the occasions- it is hard to describe the performance because for me it was one of those rare occasions when theater has expanded my consciousness toward, and right up to, a unity experience. Stuffed onto bleachers erected at one end of the barn, cramped and hot, the performers indulge in the main space and the band fits in on the side. And as if channelling everything that is Waiting for Godot and turning it into the essential revolutionary gesture that fits into a barn in Vermont, the performance hovered between iconoclastic defiance and domestic enchantment- between slapstick and ballet.

What I experienced sitting in the audience was the growing feeling that all the pageantry and display and poetry was fitted and found within the context of the great North East Kingdom and the outstretched nation that seems to tumble down from the ridges and run west. The performance was as if an anchor- both symbolically as is the theater's goal to point out, and establish in our awareness, follies both personal and communal and as an anchor for all work and progress evolving toward truth.

There is something in the human/mythic quality in the puppet that I often see in quilts- the strong narrative force matched to the human utility of the object's use. The unity experience that I had in Glover is not unlike the knowing feeling that is created in applied art objects. One transcends when looking at a quilt because of its mix of the complex and the simple. It is both a shelter and it is an object of art that is decorative, pictorial, and narrative. A quilt transcribes the path of its creation and it fixes that patchwork process into a unified wholeness.

At the Bread and Puppet farm, before performances, you stand outside the theater and they raise a flag honoring some aspect of the domestic, a broom, a chair, etc. the small flag has a picture of a broom on it, it's raised up onto a spindly, rough-hewn flag pole. There is a drum-roll as the flag is raised and when it reaches the top someone blows a "ta-da" on the horn and the cast of the theater all say something like: "The Broom." And then everyone goes inside for the show.

Quilt Guy Group meeting- South Central Mass

2008-11-13T15:54:00.004-05:00

Last night I attended the second meeting of the men's quilting group of South Central Massachusetts; we met at the Charlton Sewing Center in Charlton, Mass. The next meeting is Wed. Dec. 10.

7 guys from central Mass attended the meeting (actually 5 from central mass and 2 from Western Mass and NY) and shared their quilt interests and quilts. The group was launched in October by Holice Turnbow to gather together, instruct and inspire men who quilt.

I was the featured presenter for the evening and shared some of my quilts and spoke on the influence of improvisation on my work and on quilt-making as a craft medium in general.

Guys who quilt can also meet online: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QuiltGuy/

Inspirational indeed.
Thanks guys!

IQSC symposium

2008-10-31T13:50:00.005-04:00

International Quilt Study Center & Museum's 2009 symposium

The Global Quilt: Cultural Contexts

an excerpt from the proposed schedule:

Session Time: Fri, 8:30-10:30Title: Symbolism & CommunityPresenters:

1. Myra Brown Green, The Presence of African Symbols in Contemporary North American Quilts
2. Judy Bales, Fractal Geometry in African American Quilts

3. Pearlie Johnson, The Power of Feminism in Fabric Art: A Celebration of Motherhood, Sisterhood, and the Matriarchs

4. Richard Caro, Quiltmaking and the Online Guild

Pure coincidence that Judy Bales, a friend from the days when we lived in Fairfield, IA, is presenting, and in the same session, that I am.

improvisational narratives

2008-09-12T10:37:00.005-04:00

A basic def. of improv: what would be required for composition or construction was not known beforehand and so had to be devised momentarily.

I like the idea, among others in this definition, of working in the "moment".

Annie Dillard once wrote about the length of time that is encompassed in the "present" moment before or after a past and future. I think she calculated it to be roughly 11 or 12 seconds. I wonder if while working in the space of improvisation, working in the zone of the creative experience if the momentary space is extended?

I’ve read too that certain elements of narrative construction lead to greater episodes of improvisation. Or is it that certain factors involved in improvisation lead to episodes of greater narrative construction?

Dialogue for instance- we know this to be true for improvisational theatre and for children’s play and perhaps too for the artistic process. The difference in the artistic process from theatre and play is that the artist has an assumed role that is often not collaborative. As artists we must enter into dialogue with many things though and it is this give and take, combined with the freedom of improvisation that leads the artist to play off of past, future, and present intentions and impulses.

Perhaps it is within this dialogue of narrative improvisation that the artist’s identity is found. Improvisation is linked to personal narrative and the building of self-identity. During the experience of creative improvisational thought and action the artist is constantly asked to judge and discriminate inputs and actions that are created, and mediated from both internal and external, subjective and objective sources. Our responses to these two types of experience will be different and it is in the process of this continuing flux of subject/object evaluation that greater awareness of self is created. The quilter asks, what is needed here- am I responding to what is needed by the physicality of the quilt or by the creative space that is working to design and craft the quilt? Are we responding to how it looks now or how we want it to look in the future?

During the improvisational experience we exercise this natural response to defining self identity.

This is why it is important to quilt with a more improvisational creativity. As quilters we are asked to respond to the creation and identity of others in a long tradition. But it is our responsibility to be part of this tradition, visually, and with authority for our creative narratives.

quilt guy retreat

2008-08-27T15:52:00.003-04:00

Last weekend the Yahoo Group, Quilt Guy met in Woodstock NY at the Woodstock Quiltsupply quilt shop of Bob Silverman and Jim Helms - great shop owners, quilters and members of the group. Jim and Bob hosted and seven quilters in all took part in the three day retreat. A great time was had by all.

Many thanks to all of the guys for coming out and sewing together and sharing the weekend.

Many, many thanks to Holice Turnbow for his generous support of the quilters in all aspects of their work.

That's Holice on the right, Jim on the left, looking at a quilt that Holice made recently. Behind them is Andre Emmel's amazing hand-appliqued bird quilt. Beautiful.

Plans are in the works for next year. All quilt guys should plan on being there.

Rock-on

fabrics prints from Ghana

2008-08-21T13:53:00.002-04:00

This set of fabric scans/photos of fabric swatches of fabrics from Ghana made me ask some questions about the intention behind their creation.

Specifically one can see that the print register is off- is this intentional, stylistic, and if so then what aesthetic purpose does it serve, either intentionally or not?

where are these fabrics printed? from the small bit of research I've done it seems that they are printed in China, by companies that are dutch.
do these fabrics represent a collection of 'seconds' that just happen to appeal to my aesthetic?

if one looks specifically at the individual colors or screens in the prints then one begins to see the 'fill' colors don't naturally fit the outline shapes that they are meant to fill- this would lead me to believe that at least 'overlap' is intended in printing. as for alignment of register- I'm still not sure.

contents: partially recycled fibers (threads)

2008-08-08T22:09:00.006-04:00

I think the guys on the Quilt Guy Yahoo would like this.

I was reminded of this fabric by the recent tootsie pop challenge quilt and a thread of posts having to do with quilt fabric prices and buying used clothes (for the fabric) from Goodwill/Salvation Army type shops.

That's where this shirt/fabric came from. a Goodwill store discover, two shirts, new with the labels still on them.

The cost of fabrics available in quilt shops has been creeping up lately- and quilters are worried that they will not be able to purchase as much fabric as they perhaps have been and quilters are of course also worried that shops will not be able to stay open.

In once saw a sign in a quilt shop: "One yard a week is all we ask" - it made sense to me.

the sucker quilt challenge

2008-07-29T21:18:00.006-04:00

created for the Scott Hansen tootsie pop quilt challenge.

I chose to hand sew the entire piece- the challenge was to create a quilt incorporating a tootsie pop wrapper (I opted to included the complimentary wrappers) and the entire piece must be no larger than 4 inches-

the binding is an elaborate chenille- I wish I'd had enough to bind the whole piece (damn); the entire piece was created away from the studio so that supplies were limited. I'd grabbed some color coordinated scraps from my design board and backing and batting and the tools (white thread?) and then hit the road.

Scanner image got a little wonky there on the top edge- perfect.

A basic need for. . .

2008-07-10T10:18:00.008-04:00

photo by Ronald T. Simon

There is something about the art of puppet theater and something completely different about the puppet arts as done by Bread and Puppet Theater.

There is a great book about Bread and Puppet titled: Rehearsing with Gods by Ronald Simon and Marc Estrin and published by Chelsea Green.

The book chronicles the concepts and movements of the theatre over the years- but it is the over all concept of the troupe's work with puppet's to further the basic needs of our culture that is most fulfilling and most entertaining.

I visited the farm/theater/museum in Glover VT. That's where the photo of the zebra and the trash cans comes from; from the cheap art bus gallery/store that was there when I visited.

I took in the circus that they performed in their new barn built for the events- it is hard to describe the performance because for me it was one of those rare occasions when theater has expanded my consciousness toward, and right up to, a unity experience. Stuffed onto bleachers erected at one end of the barn, cramped and hot, the performers indulge in the main space and the band fits in on the side. And as if channelling everything that is Waiting for Godot and turning it into the essential revolutionary gesture that fits into a barn in Vermont, the performance hovered between iconoclastic defiance and domestic enchantment- between slapstick and ballet.

What I experienced sitting in the audience was the growing feeling that all the pageantry and display and poetry was fitted and found within the context of the great North East Kingdom and the outstretched nation that seems to tumble down from the ridges and run west. The performance was as if an anchor- both symbolically as is the theater's goal to point out, and establish in our awareness, follies both personal and communal and as an anchor for all work and progress evolving toward truth.

There is something in the human/mythic quality in the puppet that I often see in quilts- the strong narrative force matched to the human utility of the object's use. The unity experience that I had in Glover is not unlike the knowing feeling that is created in applied art objects. One transcends when looking at a quilt because of its mix of the complex and the simple. It is both a shelter and it is an object of art that is decorative, pictorial, and narrative. A quilt transcribes the path of its creation and it fixes that patchwork process into a unified wholeness.

At the Bread and Puppet farm, before performances, you stand outside the theater and they raise a flag honoring some aspect of the domestic, a broom, a chair, etc. the small flag has a picture of a broom on it, it's raised up onto a spindly, rough-hewn flag pole. There is a drum-roll as the flag is raised and when it reaches the top someone blows a "ta-da" on the horn and the cast of the theater all say something like: "The Broom." And then everyone goes inside for the show.

the thread as line

2008-07-10T09:57:00.002-04:00

A great gallery show in Arlington, VA
Watch the video on the gallery's blog: http://ellipseartscenter.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html

and read the artist profiles here: http://ellipseartscenter.blogspot.com/2008/05/thread-as-line-opening-reception-and_08.html

Great stuff.

kofi's quilt

2008-05-22T15:28:00.004-04:00

A crib quilt made from fabrics from Ghana- incredible fabrics.

The off-line register and general sophistication of the patterns is amazing and produces an aesthetic sensation unknown in standard quilter's fabrics.

I have scanned many of the fabics into the computer so that I can post the images and then the above statement regarding print alignment and design will be more apparent. Upload of images soon.

back to work -

2008-04-02T16:48:00.005-04:00

The work in the studio continues though at a reduced velocity. This is true of handquilting (which is what I'm doing now) in general, and quiltwork as a whole- but it also speaks to the frequency of my time put toward the work in the studio. Likewise virtually here.
For now, someone elses quilt top and my quilting. Deadlines. Next month- two crib quilts with fabric from Ghana.

the pace and scope of studio work

2007-10-25T16:08:00.000-04:00

a dash to the finish
just completed a quilt top that has been in process for a very long time- it took 95% of the time to do 5% of the piecing and then the opposite- or 5% of the time to finish up the 95% left to do

a full sized quilt 78 h x 88 w- going to the machine quilter for quilting and then to the "receiver" image capture after it returns from the quilter

then on to the next request and another quilt top, with a deadline that will make the turn-around a necessity- and it too will go the machine quilter

there is a quilt on the frame right now but it languishes while a lot of piecing takes place- this the the pace and scope of current work

more time in front of the sewing machine and pinning and ironing and time to think at intervals about the work and the quilts that slowly spill out of the studio and ones not yet made

more fabric coming in all the time-

for betsy- a silk quilt

2007-08-12T21:05:00.000-04:00

Another work in progress- though needing to be done soon- it is half hand quilted in the image.
I'll post the finished piece with binding and all.

I think it looks like a standard "quilters' cotton" quilt- but it is silk- not large- sized intentionally that way- about 30 x 30 inches, it is made of Versachi (the blue) and Cardin silk. The silks and my way of cutting and sewing account for the form that the star pattern takes. Less precision and more speed. The silk is not interfaced so retained all it natural "hand" and movement during the process of piecing the quilt.

cotton batt and back and quilted with silk thread.

I hope she likes it.

how's it hanging?

2007-08-12T20:37:00.000-04:00

Here is the latest thing to hang amongst the group in a group show in Catskill, (Leeds) NY

5 x 5 feet- it's another spin-off from a series of strip quilts that I did a few years ago- and have now cannibalized for the occasional bag, resized quilt or this collection of resized quilts mounted on a background fabric and stretched over a canvas stretcher.

Two other pieces hang as well.

A detail:

Still available although hard to ship.

Up until Labor Day at
Marshall & Sterling
300 Route 23B Leeds, NY 12451

Just before August- a return

2007-07-28T22:09:00.000-04:00

As if parting a particularly thick curtain and stepping back into things-

Strip quilt made from a asymmetrical printed fabric and an "open" hand quilting technique.

There are quilts being created, continued and finished.
Images forthcoming

There are ideas floating around and people to see.
Updates ahead.

fabric swapping

2007-04-20T11:23:00.000-04:00

fat quarters to be specific. a total of 28 fat quarters: 14 in gold and 14 in purple landed in my postbox recently as a result of a swap organized over the QuiltGuy yahoo! group I've joined up on. Now what to do?

they say quilters sometimes throw down the gauntlet and all and create "challenges" - The quilter equivalent to a dare. Bet you can't. . .

the design process continues

2007-04-20T10:51:00.000-04:00

Working on a quilt design toward the goal of teaching a class based on it. I keep an ever variable list of goals for the project.

1. design must have curved piecing in at least two places, a repetitive piecing task and a larger circle based inset curved piecing exercise

2. there must be some flexibility to the design so that students are free to add their own elements around or within the fixed design

3. the curved piecing can be taught either as a "pin-less" technique or as a "pins-required" technique.

4. the design contain some pictorial elements and some geometric/symmetric elements.

5. both pictorial and geometric elements read easily as such

The challenges that have arisen are due in large part to a deviation from my normal working practice of piecing pictorial images in a free-hand design process that allows the initial image study to be developed into a readable image via a flexible approach to manipulating the fabric.

The sketched image study shown in the previous post has not translated easily to fabric and thus the process has slowed as I have attempted to re-design the project to increase both the accessibility of the curved piecing technique and the readability of the image.

"Ocean Waves Revisited" is being revisited. By adding elements of my regular working process into the quilt I may actually find that I can reach the goals from above and add an additional element of design/technique and color practice that will be freed-up when the template driven repetition of the waves is transformed by some amount of free-hand, improvisational piecing. The challenge will then be translating the design into a teaching segment; ultimately perhaps an easier task than trying to get the original idea to fly.

back in the studio

2007-03-06T16:24:00.000-05:00

dusting off the machine and getting back into it.

working again with the standard quilters' cottons- pulled out the stash- they all live together only slightly organized by personality.

working up a prototype for a class at Foofsique Quilt Emporium in Chatham, NY.

ocean waves revisited- curved piecing exercises

what? a color study? a different border?
you'll see.

stitch aesthetics

2007-01-04T09:00:00.000-05:00

A brief hiatus from the studio work.

I've been working on the written word more these days. Piecing together what I call "stitch aesthetics" or "stitch theory"

It takes it's structure from the quilted hand stitch and its metaphors.

all about the process of creating meaning and experience within the act of quilting.

a poetics really; all quilts are texts and in the realm of discourse.

the carrying capacity of the quilt stitch is really that great.

nothing against the machine- it is simply a different thing.

the ugly quilt sleeping bag project

2006-12-28T08:53:00.000-05:00

I took this project to be an ideal way to give to those in need. Twenty years and running- over 5000 ugly quilts made by thousands of people volunteering their time, materials, and skill to produce a sleeping bag for the homeless.

The written and illustrated materials at the link http://www.uglyquilts.org/ gave me a great appreciation for those who spearhead the effort and for the thinking behind it.

Take a look- make one if you can.

making pretty for the camera

2006-12-02T12:49:00.000-05:00

Vision, 2004, 89 x 93in.

I like the way my work looks reproduced in its image format. In fact- while using a reducing lens to do the free-hand, improvisational piecing that I do- the reproduced image almost seems to drive the process. Not that I would admit to an impressionist style where-in some gesture stands for something real. I prefer the term "passage"- as in "this pieced passage (like a block you know) seems to say something to me."

It is a "midden" sort of approach. The cast off pieces of textiles coming together- scrap quilt is weighed down with too much baggage as is "charm quilt" - not that that is what I'm doing. My first work in the way of pictorial quilts started with blocks that each contained a certain part of the image- and as singular blocks they resembled crazy quilt blocks.

The City for Jean Lacy, 2000-2001, 90 x 56in

Look at the bottom of this quilt: The City for Jean Lacy, the blocks just above the line of coffins at the bottom that begin the section of the harbor where created like crazy quilt blocks- notice there is almost no curved piecing in the quilt as well. The quilt was started prior to Sept or 2001- it just turns out that a unique image to honor the artist Jean Lacy became a common, historic, image associated more with an event than with a location.

Again- can you avoid it- image of object, object in image- the pieces get lost I think. Too bad that the real story is in the pieces.

new work: wedding quilt

2006-11-18T10:04:00.000-05:00

a wedding quilt

long arm machine quilted by Mary Metty

detail

showing the quilting and a selection of the fabrics: raw silk, cotton/linen, and linens

STUDIO WORK cont.

working on the landscape series- the piece: two weeks in august is off the quilting frame and will get a binding.

procrastination is coming in around the edges as I gather the forces needed to attempt the whole clothe "Posted" sign quilt that will function as the centerpiece of the series.

Other new projects creeping in too.

Learning to quilt

2006-11-10T14:37:00.000-05:00

I've always had questions about how quilting gets propagated.

Maybe the third biennial symposium at the international Quilt Study Center will help

Education and the Quiltmaker is the subtitle.

If it does not answer everything then at least I'll get a chance to meet Jean Ray Laury who will be speaking the first evening.

the symposium starts March 1, 2007.

Local Color

2006-11-03T10:29:00.000-05:00

This sign hangs as the ubiquitous decoration on the roadsides in the neighborhood. No view is complete without one. And what quilted landscape series would be complete without a whole clothe quilt in this design.

Large enough for a bed- scaled to exact specifications. 7 x the original.

two weeks in august

2006-10-27T11:17:00.000-04:00

Two weeks in august. Under the ez up-
Color and light came in- technique went out sort-to-say or was refined anyway to fit the air; there was no worry with having the curved piecing eased in so that things were flat.
On the quilting frame the needle will adjust and take-up the slack.

I saved and then resurrected pieced "passages" not used in other quilts- it helped with speed and added to an appropriation of things that are already mine.

The whole things leans in the direction of being part of a series that uses abstract landscape to bring together assorted work on that theme.

The quilt top alone- 95 inches wide at the top and 45 inches high. It sort of has the shape of a fan now- and I might never square it off but leave it to have a Japanese fan reference.

And here on the frame ready for quilting. Only the back is attached to two of the poles the batting and the top are only attached to the front pole as they are pinned to the back.

Quilting continues with black glazed cotton in a freehand diagonal "stepped" zig-zag pattern.

2006-10-11T20:10:00.000-04:00

simple technologies and forces

pins
and the magnetic pin cushion