Work Table : The Dress ... for lack of a better name for now

Over the past month I've been processing all of the sewing I did over the summer into a new piece. I'm working on a dress, but not an ordinary dress. This one is made up of sixty four pieces of clothing. These sixty four castoffs (from my and my friend's closests) represent the amount of clothing that the average American purchases every year. I learned this little fact from reading Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth Cline.  Ponder this for a moment. That's over one new article of clothing a week. Really? It's hard to visualize, no? Hopefully, this dress will help us see it for what it is.

The images show only twelve pieces of clothing at this stage, a far cry from sixty four. And yes, that will be some train coming off the back.

Most of us are guilty of buying a lot clothes these days, myself included. It took me an entire year to figure out why I wasn't wearing half the clothes in my closet. It's because after one wash, they never look as good as they did on the rack. In fact, they look terrible. Oh yeah, it's because they're cheaply made! So the clothing languishes in my closet, unworn.

This dress also won't be worn, unless I want to break my back wearing it. But, hopefully, it will make a statement about how much we're wasting with the 'fast fashion' movement. We will be able to see it with our own eyes.

And now I need to come up with a name for the dress or, perhaps the project, if it turns into one. I ponder that as I sew it together. Yes, I'm handsewing it. With a visible, bright red thread, of course.

Exhibition schedule and catching up

I've been so busy the last few weeks I didn't even remember the last time I posted here. At least I left the blog with some lovely eye candy. I'm also behind in updating my current exhibition schedule so here we go. Currently, the Foreclosure Quilts are spread across the U.S. Here's a little info on each show:

Unbound: Quilters and Artists Redefine Quilts, September 11 through November 5. Hollister Gallery, Babson College, Babson Park, Massachusetts. For all of you east coasters, this should be a wonderful show, especially if you're interested in quilts. Be sure to check it out before it closes. I was only able to spare one quilt for the duration of the show but it's my latest one, Miami. My, have I even shared Miami with you yet?? Once I have it back, I'll take some better photos and repost them.

Miami Foreclosure Quilt, 2013.

Material Witness, September 26 through November 15th. Dalton Gallery at Agnes Scott College, Atlanta, Georgia. I have a great story to go with this gallery. My late aunt, Louisa McIntosh, owned the McIntosh Gallery in Atlanta. (Yes, I'm a Southerner and yes, my maiden name was McIntosh - why did I give that up!) When I was thirteen, I had such a memorable experience visiting the gallery for the first time. Something I had been studying in art class at school was expressed in a painting on her gallery walls. There was a click that went off in my head that said "You need to be an artist when you grow up." I even made my dad take a picture of the moment. She attended Agnes Scott College so it is like full circle to exhibit my work here. I have two quilts in the show: Albuquerque and Riverside.

Albuquerque Foreclosure Quilt, 2011.

SPRAWL, October 4 through January 5, 2014. Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston, Texas. This looks like such an exciting show and I'm thrilled that when you hit HCCC's main website, you're hit with a picture of the Chicago quilt. I have three quilts in this exhibition: Chicago, Detroit and Cape Coral.

Detail of the Chicago Foreclosure Quilt, 2013.

And there's more coming soon! I can't believe how these quilts have taken on a life of their own. One of the quilts will be in an exhibtion in St. Louis in February and for all you Bay Area people, I will finally have a solo show in Santa Cruz in February. More details on these coming soon. In the meantime, you'll see what I've been up to in the next few posts. All good, just not enough time to sit down and type these days! Happy Friday!

Artist : Daniela Gregis

Perhaps Daniela Gregis is more of a fashion designer than an artist but as you can see, her clothing designs are pure A R T!

Image from www.firstVIEW.com

A love of natural fabrics, linens and such and a love of color and pattern play drew me in immediately when I came across her work on Pinterest.

Image from www.fasionising.com

For the Spring/Summer 2013 collection, Daniela Gregis writes this. Perfectly written.

Simply mint and lemon ... or the opposite, many times together ... as a meadow

under the sun where you look around,dreams , and you get lost,

look down and start counting: primrose, buttercup, poppy, rosemary, forget-me, sage, ...

Once I started to delve deeper into her work, I discovered just how conceptual the clothing can be. In an interview I came across online, Gregis said "My deepest desire was to recover the lost arts as crochet or embroidery. I dreamed of reviving them in a modern way, mixing ancient tradition to contemporary shapes and patterns."

Image from www.firstVIEW.com

Often, the clothing can be transformed into something like a tablecloth. She mentions how she saves every scrap of cloth from previous cuttings. "Even a square centimeter can be the starting point of a new dress."

Needless to say her clothing has inspired me like crazy this summer. It reminds me to play and have some fun with fabric. I mean it's only fabric, right?!

Image from www.firstVIEW.com

Be sure to browse Daniela Gregis's website. And Kristina Bergman has two amazing Pinterest boards here and here about the clothing. And see my little Pinterest inspiration board here.  Enjoy!

A Dream Foreclosed: Black America and the Fight for a Place to Call Home by Laura Gottesdiener

Something magical happened this year. I met an amazing author named Laura Gottesdiener. Many months ago, she contacted me to tell me she was writing a book about the Foreclosure crisis and had happened upon my Foreclosure Quilts. She wanted to find some way to include my artwork in the book she was writing entitled A Dream Foreclosed: Black America and the Fight for a Place to Call Home. I was beyond flattered and so happy to hear that there was someone out there writing the words to what I was showing visually with my quilts.  This is a story that needs to be heard and I couldn't imagine a better person to write it.

Image from www.wagingnonviolence.org

A few weeks ago, Laura let me know that the book is now available in print through Zuccotti Park Press here. It's even on Amazon where there are numerous impressive editorial reviews. The editors at Zuccotti were going to use just one quilt image at first, but eventually they decided to intersperse several of them throughout the book (I don't have my copy in hand yet but it's on its' way!)

And now you can hear Laura speak about her work, and a sweet mention about the quilts on Democracy Now! What a compelling interview. I feel so incredibly honored to have my work alongside Laura's writing. And better yet, let's hope this book really makes an impact on spreading the hidden stories behind the foreclosure crisis. Share this post and please spread the word about this book. We need more writers like Laura!

Artist : Batia Sofer

It has been SO long since I featured an artist on my blog so it's time to rectify that! I'm sharing the work of Batia Sofer today, an artist who lives in Motza Illit near Jerusalem.

Cloak. Acrylic, Gold Leaf, Gauze Pad on greenhouse netting 
Embroidery Thread. 155x130 cm, 2013

Incredible, beautiful work, isn't it? She utilizes natural materials that have a wonderful texture and earthiness to them. Found pieces come together to tell a myriad of stories.

Three Figures. Acrylic, Mineral Plaster, Masking Tape
, Gold Leaf on Jute
Embroidery Thread. 104x184 cm, 2012

These pieces are from her Ancient Dreams series which she has been making since 2009.

Cactus - Bird. Acrylic
, Masking Tape
, Gold Leaf on greenhouse netting,Embroidery Thread. 88x128 cm, 2013

Her artist statement about the series:

"For as long as I can remember, I have always been attracted to primitive tribe culture, the significance of the tribal ceremonies and their visual expression. 

These cultures are characterized with special colors, various textures, with strong elements, and simple unsophisticated techniques. In my initial works in the studio I sought out material whose texture was grainy and coarse; material which resembled earth and reverberated the materials which were used by the ancient tribal cultures."

Batia Sofer 

Two Headed Animal. Acrylic, Mineral Plaster
, Masking Tape, Gold Leaf and

Palm Fronds on Jute, Embroidery Thread. 103x120 cm, 2012

See more of her work on her website. Be sure to look through her earlier series entitled Childhood Landscape that reflects her life growing up on a kibbutz. Fascinating images.

A week in the studio

Uh oh, I think I like my summer studio better than my San Francisco studio. Even though it's probably half the size, the new space is brighter and definitely warmer! After being in the same studio in San Francisco for fifteen years, my usual studio is clearly in need of a deep clean. One thing that will be moving back with me is my new sewing machine!

After hearing numerous snickers about my old machines and having a particularly frustrating day that involved two types of screwdrivers being used multiple times within two hours, I gave up on my old machines. I was digging around for an old one on Craigslist but came up empty. Then I started thinking about how every place I'd been recently had a Juki. Little did I realize they made home machines as well. I didn't need anything as fancy as a Bernina (nor could I fork over the money) so I thought I'd give this one a shot. Not too expensive but does everything I've been wanting for years. Feed dogs that lower, reverse stitch that works, I can even put through more than three layers of fabric without the needle getting stuck. Yes, I had it bad before which may explain why I hand-sewed all of those quilts!

And now I'm eager to tackle the indigo fabric I made recently. Not sure what I'll do with it but Louise Bourgeois has one amazing piece that I've fallen hard for.

Louise Bourgeois: 'Untitled' (2005). Fabric © Louise Bourgeois Trust.
Courtesy Hauser & Wirth Photo: Christopher Burke (via Louise Bourgeois: The Fabric Works)

Lots of ideas flowing. I promised myself that I would just play a bit this summer and not focus in on anything in particular ... yet. First, there's the book. Everyone at the indigo weekend fell for it, hard. It's worth every penny. I've also been spending too much time on Pinterest. Check out my summer smock inspiration board. I've also been making smocks, dresses and playing with a lot of color.

This dress came from a pattern I made from an existing dress. And that hot pink? I ordered some remnant wool felt from Filzfelt to play with. Yes, I'm thinking about a new series but I'm not committing yet.

We'll see what the next few weeks in the summer studio bring. In the meantime, there's a whole lot of produce to harvest and process just outside the studio door.

You won't see any of that growing in San Francisco!

A weekend of indigo dyeing

I just had the highlight of my summer in Sonoma last weekend. My talented friends Myrna, Katrina, Sonya, Patty, Shelly, ReCheng and Neiley drove up to the wine country to spend the weekend with me indigo dyeing fabric, paper and even a few ceramics.

Last summer I took a five week indigo dyeing class with Barbara Shapiro. I left the class with a wonderful recipe for a Greener Indigo formula. The best part of the vat is that it is ecologically sensitive and has no fumes. It's also really easy to start and to manage. We left the class with several useful handouts and a lot of dyed fabric. Take Barbara's class or workshop and you'll have access to her recipe which is derived from Michel Garcia's indigo formula. Starting the vat was WAY easier than I imagined. Well, at least once I learned how to read a ph test strip accurately!

On Saturday morning, seven lovely ladies arrived with piles of fabric to experiment with.

We spent the morning clamping, tying and bundling and dropped our fabric into a Synthropol solution (another bonus, no pre-mordanting!) to soak while we enjoyed a potluck lunch with some of my Southern iced tea.

After lunch we got to dyeing!

We pulled our fabric from soaking (there was a lot of awesome fabric in the mix).

Let me tell you this vat was potent which was good because we dyed a lot of fabric! Everyone's personality came through, some people with very controlled results.

And some with looser styles.

Meanwhile all of our kids ran amuk in the yard, picking ripe grapes and green beans to their hearts content.

After two days of many, many dippings the vat seemed exhausted until my friend Shelly told me to test the ph and just add more indigo to it. I did and the next day it was going again, like magic! 

What a weekend! I plan to do it again and likely before summer ends as the vat does best at 82 degrees. The temperature on Saturday was exactly 82 degrees! How perfect was that?!

A lunch, a poetry reading and seeing my art at Marion & Rose's Workshop

I had an amazing Wednesday last week. I escaped Sonoma to head back into San Francisco for a very creative day. First, I popped down to the Mission for an awesome lunch at the Slow Club to celebrate Eireann Lorsung, poet, artist and co-owner of MIEL publications in Belgium (you might remember that name from here). Eireann is traveling the US on a giant book tour and it was so wonderful to finally meet her in person. It was a truly creative gathering, including Sonya, Katrina, Lisa, Mati, Rori and Jen. When we got up to leave we were all admiring each other's shoes so we snapped some pics.

Next, I popped over to Oakland to visit Marion & Rose's Workshop to see two of my Idiom pieces that are a part of a group show curated by Andrea Voinot of Kala Art Institute. Read more about the show here in an interview with Andrea.

I loved shopping the store, so many things I wanted to buy, including the art! I walked away with a red cedar pepper grinder, the latest copy of Kinfolk (all about Japan!), and a sweet little horseshoe charm for my daughter.

The trip to the East Bay was double-fold. I was to meet my friend ReCheng Tsang at Marion & Rose's to lend her a piece I'd recently given as a gift to my husband for our 24th wedding anniversary. No, I'm not that old, just married very young! The piece is similar to this one below. Lovely, no?

Study for Ovals, glazed and unglazed porcelain on aluminum panel, 10" x 10", 2012
by Recheng Tsang.  Image by Muffy Kibbey.

I wrote about ReCheng's work last year and am still blown away by it. She's inspired me in so many ways. She has some new ideas up her sleeve that will be amazing.

Image via Daily Candy.

Then it was back to San Francisco to Little Paper Planes to hear Eireann's poetry reading. It  was incredible. I'm not much of a poetry reader. Well, except e.e. cummings, love his work. Her reading was funny, witty, calming, insightful and inspiring. Her new book, Her Book, includes fifteen poems inspired by Kiki Smith's artwork. I was so immersed in the visual poetry of the shop during the reading, they seemed to go together along with the colorful people walking through the Mission district.

And then back to Sonoma that night so I could be sure to enjoy some early morning jam making. We've been on a blackberry hunt every evening after dinner this week. Quite a contrast from San Francisco!

In the new studio

Having a new studio has been a bit liberating, giving me the freedom to play a bit. 

Somehow I always end up starting with quilt blocks. But this time, the
blocks inspired a completely new series that is not a quilt.

The freedom has brought new ideas, including what I think(hope!) will be a good series. Yes, it's fiber. I'm so in love with the medium.

It started with the desire to make a few pieces of clothing that I actually liked this summer, just a little breather from the deeply conceptual work I've been making over the past two years. Anyone else disgusted with the cheap clothing available in stores? And when I do find clothes I love, they cost a fortune, in the $300+ range. Which makes sense, since they're all handmade. So why couldn't I just make my own? I know how to sew. It also doesn't hurt to have a friend, Sonya Philip, who practices this mantra every day.

I started with the most simple pattern there is. Perfect for the hot summer days we've been having in Sonoma.

Once I hung the clothes on the wall, they no longer looked like clothing but more like soft sculpture. Hmmm, the ideas started flowing. In the interim, more peach preserving happening here, I think a total harvest of 70 pounds this year!

Summer happens

Summer. This summer I've been so busy but in a good way, I haven't even had time to post on the blog! And then I realized, I could just post photos, don't worry about text. This summer is my self imposed residency at our cottage in Sonoma. And so, without further ado, I will start posting again but without much text.

Some ideas I've been playing with. I've been wanting to work with
bright colors.

Just some glimpses into my studio where I'm 'playing' with ideas and into my garden adjacent to my studio, where I'm spending a lot of time.

Harvesting about six pounds a day of peaches! I think I might end up with
three dozen jars of peach jam.

What are you up to this summer? Any exciting projects? I'd love to hear!

Chicago Foreclosure Quilt

I finished the Chicago Foreclosure Quilt last month and have finally been able to find the time to update this long neglected blog! More on that in the next post. The quilt is currently hanging at Gallery Nord in San Antonio. I wanted to make a quilt of Chicago at some point but I was having a hard time pinpointing a particular neighborhood as foreclosures were widespread across the city. One afternoon, while listening to This American Life on NPR, I heard a two part story on Harper High School in Chicago which is located in the Englewood neighborhood. 

Chicago Foreclosure Quilt, 2013

It was a gripping story. There had been 29 shootings at the school in 2012. The students talk about how unsafe the neighborhood feels, with abandoned buildings and empty lots. They have to navigate the neighborhood in unusual ways in order to feel safe. Gangs were in charge of the neighborhood, using it's vulnerability to their advantage.

Chicago Foreclosure Quilt detail, 2013

RIght in the center of the quilt, shown in light blue above, is the block of the high school.

Chicago Foreclosure Quilt detail, 2013

I'm not sure how I want this quilt presented but I know if the quilt sells, I'd like to give the money back to the community somehow. In the meantime, you can listen to the entire podcast here.

Upcoming Show : Gallery Nord in San Antonio - June 8th through July 6th.

I'm off to San Antonio tomorrow to attend the biannual Surface Design Association's conference. Interface runs from June 6 through June 9th. I'm leaving early to install many of my foreclosure quilts at Gallery Nord in San Antonio. This will be the first chance to see two of my most recent quilts, Chicago and Miami. Here is the Chicago quilt. There's a great story behind that I'll explain in more detail later.

Chicago Foreclosure Quilt, 2013. 31" x 42"

The exhibition is sponsored by Surface Design in conjunction with the conference and runs from June 8th to July 6th. I'm thrilled to hang my work with Natalie Miebach, Maria Shell and Eun-Kyung Suh. Natalie's work is a featured exhibit and she will speak about her work at the conference. All of the artists' work is incredible and I look forward to meeting them as well as other fiber artists at the conference. I'll be with my people!

If you're attending, I'll be in the gallery all day on Thursday to greet visitors on the exhibition day tours. Be sure to say hi, I'd love to meet you! There will be an opening reception on Saturday, June 8th from 5 to 7. Visit Gallery Nord here and learn more about the exhibit and the artists here.