Real Quick

Good evening!

Three new things: quilt 1 is the finished top of the three guy thing started last post, "Riddle Me This: Hey X 3." It's roughly 20" x 80", from cotton and polyester fabrics, with cotton and polyester threads.

The second is another minimalist piece, entitled, "Skipping Class," and it's about 40" x 42", from cotton fabrics, with cotton thread, and you see again I'm leaving the seams exposed on the front of the quilt.

Finally, this is the next in that series "Self Portraits as..." This is "Self Portrait as an Explosion," and it's 17" x 22", from cotton, polyester, and nylon fabrics, a cotton shirt, with cotton and rayon threads.

Have a good one!

M

Brocade Helix, On Set, and Riddle Me This

Howdy!

It hasn't been a week, yet, but, if I write more frequently, then the posts aren't such lengthy essays to read! As my older brother would say, "Doh!" Too late!

Here's some of what I've been up to:

Been working on a brocade minimalist helix:

It'll finish at about 40" x 80", and is made from polyester fabrics and polyester threads.

Here is a close-up:

I dig the butterflies and the flowers, and yes, I deliberately chose to feature the seams on the front of the quilt, frizzies and all. I know it might drive some people WILD to see such a seemingly unfinished aspect to a quilt, but that's part of what I like about it (seeing the imperfect).

Here is the initial piece, which is about 40" x 40", also made from polyester fabrics and cotton threads. I'm attracted to minimalist work (particularly Frank Stella and Agnes Martin), and that seems to be a way to go for many who call themselves Modern Quilters. I wouldn't say I'm one, but a combination of many -isms.

Then, I've been doing some background acting over the past few months and can't really post anything until after the shows/movies air. As you can see, I'm background, and look forward to the day when you can actually see my FACE, or hear my voice.

These are both from NCIS: New Orleans, the first from Episode 14, titled "Careful What You Wish For," and the second from Episode 15, titled "Festival du Mort."

Lots o' fun.

And this is what I looked like from the front, in Episode 15 (a pimpin' selfie).

Next, here is one of the three guys in a grouping of three (they'll be sewn together horizontally, with some sashing) in the vein of the other guys I've been sewing. This one features Chris Evans as Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and I'm toying with the title, "Riddle Me This: Hey X 3." Each dude is 16" x 22", of cotton fabrics.

And here is the screen capture I'm working from:

Part of what I'm doing with that whole series is exploring masculinities, current U.S. culture, my own ideas about being a man, and other fun stuff, by collaging fabrics to create fabric renditions of screen captures from shows and movies that were either, 1) influential in my life, 2) I enjoy(ed), and/or 3) intrigued me.

Choosing suggestive, symbolic, illustrative fabrics to form the men, their backgrounds, their words, and attire allows me to make statements  about the ideas I mentioned above.

Below is an example of a guy who's finished. This one's called, "I Can See Why: Edward Burns as Jake in Confidence." It's roughly 17" x 22", made from cotton fabrics, with rayon and cotton threads. I completed it in 2015.

To me, this series links to Ed Ruscha and the Pop Art Movement and Conceptual Art, in some ways.

Finally, here's something from a piece I've been working on FOR-EV-ER (that's about six years, actually). I designed and completed the background of diamonds in 2008-2009, and knew I wanted to put some kind of applique in the spaces between blocks. But, the right designs eluded me.

Mom and I went through some paper-cutting books, saw some cool stuff with animals, but I didn't render any I liked enough to use. I also thought, for  a while, that I'd hand-applique the pieces down. Well, frustrated, I decided to get off my hiney and cut a design out of Heat-N-Bond, then fused that to some fabrics I overdyed. Here are a couple of images from the work I've done fusing so far:

The piece will finish at around 40" x 70"


Thoughts? Comments? I'd dig hearing from you.

Merry Day of Love?

Here's the newest in the "Self as..." Family: a peach, sliced!

 It's 23" x 28" finished, roughly, and that's the shirt I got for our guild's last quilt show. Check out the peach close-up:

And, below are the banana and strawberry, framed:

Also, I framed the single primrose block, and think I've decided to call the whole thing, "Primrose Party." It finished at around 27" x 27". Now, I've got to quilt and bind it, though I already know the binding fabric I'm going to use.

What do you think of the primrose block (too wild?) and of the framed fruits?

Banana, Primroses, and Poems

Hey Folks!

For the past few days, I've been thinking about the "Self as..." series, and have come up with some other ideas that you'll be seeing more of soon.

Here is the next in the series: "Self as Banana, Peeling." It's 16 1/2" x 21", in cottons, nylon (or poly?) tulle that I overdyed (it didn't take the dye well, but a tiny bit), with rayon and cotton threads and the shirt is cotton, the tie is silk.

"Self as Banana, Peeling," 16 1/2" x 21", cottons, silk, rayon, nylon

I'm creating the fruit/whatever using collaged scraps fused to a similar-colored background fabric, then I applique the tulle over that to unite it, and then I machine applique the entire form to the background (in this case, the Desert Storm khaki) after I've machine appliqued the shirt to the background.

Yes, I want the selvage edge to show, to comment on the creation process/the materials.

And here are the two together, so far:

Also, I'm trying to render some designs to get them published  from a series that Mom and I have been working on for some time. We created a Block-of-the-Month series of floral applique blocks, with her designing six and me designing the others, based on a flower per month. The following is the block I created for a primrose: it finishes at 20" x 20", though the original is 12" x 12" finished. Then, below that is a four-block rendition of the pattern. It's machine appliqued and fused, in cotton fabrics with cotton and rayon threads. I've yet to quilt them, but am working on it.

Finally, here are a few poems I've written over the past few days: the first, a prose poem inspired by reading an interview with a male quilter (see the link below), the second a poem inspired by reading something else (don't remember now), and the third, a senryu inspired by an image.

A poem is…*

A poem is a prayer with no breath, no feet, no strawberries. A poem is a cat that doesn’t sleep, a dog without a tail, a bird who can’t remember when to sing and when to eat. A poem is a prayer, that long and winding prayer that climbs the steps of a mountain through a foggy wood and ends in a clearing overlooking a river, a city by the river. A poem is a lumberjack wearing nothing while he cuts wood,  a waitress licking her fingers before she serves you pie, a CEO hiding out from reporters trying to understand why lies are necessary to live. A poem is a prayer who doesn’t know it’s time to get up, stop praying, and live it out.

* inspired by reading Roy Mitchell Jr.’s interview at http://www.allianceforamericanquilts.org/qsos/interview.php?kid=14-31-904

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Elegy for a Poem

I quilted today, or read

a book about Klee, or opened

a package of chicken thighs and boiled them to make

chicken salad and chicken stir fry, and watched

The Flash, about fathers proclaiming pride in their sons, and loaded

the dishwasher after making sure to rinse yesterday’s beet stains from the plates, or played

with the cats—we’ve got four—Corduroy, Meeka, Sandstorm, and Sophie; they love a black thread stand holder made from plastic, which reminds me of a lion tamer each time we play, and I thought

about writing a poem about cats other lives dreaming

and it’s time to go to bed.

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Daddy Daughter Dance

orphan sweeps away

the garbage

Again?

Inspired by my friend's, Sandra Cassibry's, sandraecassibry.blogspot.com