sign of the week
Friday, February 4, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
The Jane Dunnewold extravaganza -- part 3
I wrote earlier about Jane Dunnewold's show in Louisville. I want to return to that subject to zero in on one aspect of the work: its presentation.
Jane remarked at a gallery talk earlier this week that she thinks one way we can "escape from the textile ghetto" is to experiment with new ways of finishing and presentation of fiber art work. She thinks that the traditional methods of binding and facing quilts and other wall pieces may contribute to these works not being regarded as mainstream art. And though she said she really doesn't want to have to frame her works or otherwise compromise their presentation to make them resemble traditional painting forms, she resents that less than she resents the pigeonholing and downgrading of fiber art.
She suggested that fiber artists might fruitfully explore the use of fusibles to permit clean cut edges. She and many of her students are finishing their work that way.
For her show here, she came up with an exciting new way to present those clean-finished pieces. Rather than simply hang them against the wall, she got short spacers made from aluminum tubing that screw to the wall. A metal bar is screwed to the spacers, and the top of the work is attached to the bar with industrial-strength two-faced Scotch tape.
The tape is sturdy but peels easily off the Lutradur backing of the work, so it can be taken down and rolled for shipping, or to allow the screws to be repositioned, or for the work to be framed if a buyer likes that presentation better (or to take a picture of the hanging system).
Jane has just come up with this display method, and she told us that she had a couple of pieces hanging in her studio for a week or more just to test whether the work would hang nicely suspended only from the bar. It passed the test, so she shipped everything off to Louisville.
But almost immediately after the pieces were hung in the gallery, they started to curl up -- different heat and humidity profile! There ensued a frantic search for more spacers, and eventually two more were installed at the bottom corners of each piece as an emergency fix. The bottom edge of the work was stuck to the top of the spacer with a small bit of the tape.
Here's a view of the bottom spacer; the tape stuck to the work and can't be seen in this picture.
Jane thinks that in the future she will use the aluminum bars at both top and bottom to keep the work nice and flat.
The spacers made for a striking presentation, allowing the works to cast slight shadows and giving a lot more oomph than if they had been flat against the wall. It's certainly an approach that other fiber artists might want to consider.
Jane remarked at a gallery talk earlier this week that she thinks one way we can "escape from the textile ghetto" is to experiment with new ways of finishing and presentation of fiber art work. She thinks that the traditional methods of binding and facing quilts and other wall pieces may contribute to these works not being regarded as mainstream art. And though she said she really doesn't want to have to frame her works or otherwise compromise their presentation to make them resemble traditional painting forms, she resents that less than she resents the pigeonholing and downgrading of fiber art.
She suggested that fiber artists might fruitfully explore the use of fusibles to permit clean cut edges. She and many of her students are finishing their work that way.
For her show here, she came up with an exciting new way to present those clean-finished pieces. Rather than simply hang them against the wall, she got short spacers made from aluminum tubing that screw to the wall. A metal bar is screwed to the spacers, and the top of the work is attached to the bar with industrial-strength two-faced Scotch tape.
The tape is sturdy but peels easily off the Lutradur backing of the work, so it can be taken down and rolled for shipping, or to allow the screws to be repositioned, or for the work to be framed if a buyer likes that presentation better (or to take a picture of the hanging system).
Jane has just come up with this display method, and she told us that she had a couple of pieces hanging in her studio for a week or more just to test whether the work would hang nicely suspended only from the bar. It passed the test, so she shipped everything off to Louisville.
But almost immediately after the pieces were hung in the gallery, they started to curl up -- different heat and humidity profile! There ensued a frantic search for more spacers, and eventually two more were installed at the bottom corners of each piece as an emergency fix. The bottom edge of the work was stuck to the top of the spacer with a small bit of the tape.
Here's a view of the bottom spacer; the tape stuck to the work and can't be seen in this picture.
Jane thinks that in the future she will use the aluminum bars at both top and bottom to keep the work nice and flat.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
The Jane Dunnewold extravaganza -- part 2
Last week I took a three-day workshop with Jane Dunnewold on improvisational screen printing, a technique that I have done my best to avoid for many years. For several reasons I have always been intimidated by the process -- let me count the ways.
First, it takes a lot of room to spread out the work in a wet studio and you need an actual flat, sturdy surface, the larger the better. (My wet studio is the top of my washer and dryer, complete with nice crevasse around the edge of the washer lid.)
Second, you need screens, and from everything I've heard, twelve screens is a lot better than one. That starts to cost money, and take up space.
Third, you have to mix up thickened dye in careful proportions, whereas my usual dye method is far more slapdash and accidental.
Fourth, what would I put on the screen? Would it require (gasp!) drawing???
Finally -- and most substantive -- many of my closest art friends, not to mention a substantial portion of fiber artists in general, are heavily into screen printing, and I thought this might be a pretty crowded ballpark to be playing in. By contrast, my chosen niche of pieced quilts seems to be getting less and less populated all the time.
But I decided I couldn't pass up the chance to take a class from a giant in the field. And am I glad I made that decision! We tried several different techniques, and one really struck a chord with me. That may seem like a low batting average, but I believe that a workshop is wildly successful if you bring one thing home with you to love. It may even be better to bring home one thing than to bring home five, because if you have too much whirling around in your head you may have a hard time deciding what to focus on, and too often that means you don't do your best with anything. I know this from experience.
What I loved was a technique of coating the screen with a thin layer of flour paste, then drawing into it with a skewer. Because the flour comes off in little flakes, any line you make will have wonderful scratchy edges.
Here's Jane drawing onto her screen.
Most of the people in the class made beautiful abstract designs with their flour paste.
Valerie White
Denise Furnish
I chose to write words. At first we thought that we had to mark from the back of the screen, where we had applied the flour paste, so my writing printed in reverse. But we found out that the paste had penetrated the mesh and we could write from the inside of the screen as well, thus enabling readable writing.
Here's what I came up with. I'm delighted with the quality of the writing, especially since I have a strange mental block that generally prevents me from making letters that I like. Something about the imtermediate step of the screen made me happier with the letters than if I had written them directly onto fabric or paper.
I have no idea how (or if) I will be able to use this technique in my art, but I sure love what I made. I will be thinking about what to do with 10 beautiful copies of The Battle Hymn of the Republic.
So thanks, Jane, for getting me past my fear of screenprinting and giving me a new toy!
First, it takes a lot of room to spread out the work in a wet studio and you need an actual flat, sturdy surface, the larger the better. (My wet studio is the top of my washer and dryer, complete with nice crevasse around the edge of the washer lid.)
Second, you need screens, and from everything I've heard, twelve screens is a lot better than one. That starts to cost money, and take up space.
Third, you have to mix up thickened dye in careful proportions, whereas my usual dye method is far more slapdash and accidental.
Fourth, what would I put on the screen? Would it require (gasp!) drawing???
Finally -- and most substantive -- many of my closest art friends, not to mention a substantial portion of fiber artists in general, are heavily into screen printing, and I thought this might be a pretty crowded ballpark to be playing in. By contrast, my chosen niche of pieced quilts seems to be getting less and less populated all the time.
But I decided I couldn't pass up the chance to take a class from a giant in the field. And am I glad I made that decision! We tried several different techniques, and one really struck a chord with me. That may seem like a low batting average, but I believe that a workshop is wildly successful if you bring one thing home with you to love. It may even be better to bring home one thing than to bring home five, because if you have too much whirling around in your head you may have a hard time deciding what to focus on, and too often that means you don't do your best with anything. I know this from experience.
What I loved was a technique of coating the screen with a thin layer of flour paste, then drawing into it with a skewer. Because the flour comes off in little flakes, any line you make will have wonderful scratchy edges.
Most of the people in the class made beautiful abstract designs with their flour paste.
Valerie White
I chose to write words. At first we thought that we had to mark from the back of the screen, where we had applied the flour paste, so my writing printed in reverse. But we found out that the paste had penetrated the mesh and we could write from the inside of the screen as well, thus enabling readable writing.
Here's what I came up with. I'm delighted with the quality of the writing, especially since I have a strange mental block that generally prevents me from making letters that I like. Something about the imtermediate step of the screen made me happier with the letters than if I had written them directly onto fabric or paper.
So thanks, Jane, for getting me past my fear of screenprinting and giving me a new toy!
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