The Inhabit Project : #5 "Floor" and "above/below & inside/out"

Vanessa Filley of Moira & Obbie and I have been busy lately with new Inhabit Project pieces. We took a month off to catch up on life and other work but we finally have #5 to share.

The Inhabit Project #5. Left: Floor by Kathryn Clark. Right: above/below & inside out by Vanessa Filley

My piece entitled Floor, on the left, is pretty obvious. The background is the layout of my floorboards in my studio made using two contrasting napkins cut and overlayed.

The Inhabit Project #5. Floor by Kathryn Clark, 2011.

The navy strips on top are literally what I pulled off the floor after piecing together the back of my latest Cleveland Foreclosure Quilt.

And Vanessa's piece, a  great study in the art of pleating:

The Inhabit Project #5. above/below & inside out by Vanessa Filley.

Vanessa's words about her piece "above/below & inside/out":

i look out at the world, an infinite horizon of information and possibility abounds. i seek to absorb what i can, distill the little bits flying through the stratosphere, tuck them away in my brain for a rainy day's application. here on the ground, at home, i make things in fits and spurts, struggle to find time to complete things, put them in order. this piece for me reflects that horizon and that which i wish to absorb, below is my mythically organized imaginings and creations reflecting what i have gathered.

And a lovely detail of Vanessa's piece shows her amazing attention to detail that always ties in beautifully with the well balanced overall design.

See all of Vanessa's previous Inhabit Project pieces here and mine here. To see all of our pieces together, read through our past blog postings about the project here.

work table : summer in the studio

These are my last days of thirty hour weeks in the studio as my daughter is now out of school for the summer. I managed to pack in a lot of work last week though, making good progress on the Cleveland foreclosure quilt.

All of my voile block pieces are cut, washed, frayed and ready to be assembled for the front piece. I have fallen in love with this fabric and love the faded greige. Isn't that a great name for a color?

And I even managed to piece together the back panel for the quilt. I think I'm loving the back right now more than the front. I think more of these remnants might be showing up in a future quilt, but in front. Who knows?

To the left of the panel, you get a little sneak peek of the latest Inhabit Project piece I'm making along with Vanessa of moira & obbie. I'm hoping to finish it this weekend. And to the right, a little quilt I'm making to enter here. Needless to say, lots of work happening.

I taught Zoe how to sew yesterday and she's really enjoying it. I might be able to get more work done than I thought with her in the studio this summer. Let's hope!

The Inhabit Project : #4 Bookshelf and Anschauung

Vanessa Filley and I were busy last week making new pieces for The Inhabit Project. Here are #4: Bookshelf and Anschauung.

#4: Left, Bookshelf by Kathryn Clark and Right, Anschauung by Vanessa Filley

My piece is simply a elevation view of a bookshelf in my studio full of magazines that I cannot seem to throw away. I was inspired by Inside Out magazine from Australia this time. It has the most beautiful colors on sidebar. And of course stacked magazines never stay neat, hence the wobbly layers on the right.

#4: Left, Bookshelf detail by Kathryn Clark and Right, Anschauung detail by Vanessa Filley

And Vanessa's words for Anschauung:

this piece is based on the feedback loops the artist mind experiences.  how the mind receives impressions from the outside world and then analyses, compares and combines these impressions.  from my little portal peering out on the world what do i see, how do i perceive, and in reverse those looking in, what to they see? this piece is that window, my perch, my vantage point.  loosely inspired by italiante windows.

Vanessa Filley of Moira & Obbie

See all of Vanessa's pieces and details here and all of mine here.

The Inhabit Project : #3 Art wall deconstructed and Coat: Threadbare

I'm really enjoying this collaboration with Vanessa of moira & obbie! We have two new pieces to share this week from The Inhabit Project. They complement each other nicely again, don't you think? We are working independently from each other yet somehow our pieces always click.

#3. Left: Art wall deconstructed by Kathryn Clark and Right: Coat: Threadbare by Vanessa Filley

My piece, Art Wall Deconstructed, started out as a basic image of my small art gallery area in my studio. It evolved into a deconstruction of several of my artworks including Glow and an earlier collaboration piece.

Art wall deconstructed, 2011. 16" x 16" Cheesecloth, wool scrim and embroidery on linen napkin

I love how the linen fabric became three dimensional as I embroidered the circle.

Art wall deconstructed (detail), 2011.

And here's Vanessa's piece, Coat: Threadbare.

Coat: Threadbare by Vanessa Filley of Moira & Obbie.

Once again, she offers a beautiful description of her thoughts:

"sometimes i feel homeless, uprooted, despite the reality that i am deeply nested. it's as if i am drifting from here to there with nothing but the clothing upon my back to provide a bit of warmth and grounding, a bit of my own history and where i have trod.  it is threadbare, once beautiful.  i have patched and repaired it, struggling to hold the pieces of memory together.  in this life we carry so much with us, collect so many bits, find ourselves amongst what we have, and yet we are not these  pieces, but in the here and now sometimes such bits seem to secure me to some sense of sanity..."

Vanessa Filley

See more of Vanessa's pieces here and mine here. In the next few weeks I will create a page on this blog so you can see the pieces together in their entirety.

The Inhabit Project : #2 Tabouret and Wheelhouse Maze

Here is the second Inhabit Project collaboration I am making with Vanessa of moira & obbie. We are using the word "inhabit" as a starting point for these pieces. I am interpreting the word in a physical sense while Vanessa is about the concepts around inhabiting the mind.

left: Tabouret by Kathryn Clark and right: Wheelhouse Maze by moira & obbie, 2011.

My piece, Tabouret, is a plan view of my work tabouret taken one afternoon. A couple of safety pins strayed from their bowls on the right, a woodblock rectangle below those, a leftover piece of dowel rod and a void above where my ironing board usually fits. I used all remnant materials from the studio work this week.

Tabouret by Kathryn Clark. 16" x 16", 2011.

And Vanessa's description of Wheelhouse Maze. "Maze for the circuitous route i take through my brains activity on a daily basis, the repetition and bits of pretty, the chaos and order all in one; wheelhouse as in the baseball term meaning: a hitter's power zone, as this is where i find and draw my own little bit of power from. The yarn I used to hand-stitch is from a life-sized stash I salvaged from my granny's attic."

Wheelhouse Maze by moira & obbie, 2011.

See more details of Vanessa's piece's here. And see our previous work here.

The Inhabit Project

I started a new collaboration with Vanessa of moira & obbie this month. We're calling it The Inhabit Project. We chose the word 'inhabit' as a starting point for our work. And now for our start. This is my first piece:

2 of 9 drawers used, 2011. 18"x18", Hemp napkin.

I have been studying Thomas Nozkowski's 'cool down' drawings ever since Found While Walking amazingly compared our work. I'm also reading a book about the mysteries of artist's studios and how we inhabit them. I wondered what would happen if I collected my  sewing remnants at the end of a week of art making and made 'images' of what you would find in my studio at the end of the day. My first piece 2 of 9 drawers used is an elevation view of my Ikea cabinets and shows the two drawers I used last week. I like the idea of not having control over materials (only using leftover fabric) and having the layout dictated by what exists. I can only control how those two elements will meet.


And now for Vanessa's beautiful first piece.

Ramshackle, 2011. 22 1/2" x 30 1/2"  remnants on muslin.

In her words: This is my first piece, a kind of a psycho emotional house, all ramshackle and falling down. nothing quite the same, nothing exactly like any other, nothing perfect. this would be how at moments i imagine my brain, a certain uniformity that we all share/inhabit, four walls, but mine somehow tumble down and on the verge of coming apart yet steady stable solid lived in comfortable. it is the place to come home to, to laugh within her walls, to holdfast to, for what if somebody tore her down, where would i be....


See more of moira & obbie's work here. We're busy working away on our next pieces. More coming soon!

The Inhabit Project

I've just started a new collaboration with Vanessa of moira & obbie that we're calling The Inhabit Project. Vanessa and I met through Flikr a few months back. I've been admiring Vanessa's artwork, craft and photography for at least a year so I'm excited to finally have the chance to work with her, albeit remotely! She came up with the word "inhabit" as a starting point. Each of us is interpreting the word differently (you will soon see) but they seem to work well together. This is our starting point: white muslin for Vanessa, linen napkins for mine.

left image, moira & obbie: right image, Kathryn

I plan to create a new page on my blog showcasing the pieces side by side. More to come soon! In the interim, check out moira & obbie's photostream on Flikr. She has lots of fascinating sets to see!