Artistic Endeavors – Free to Use and Reuse

Bless the Library of Congress for making so much good stuff available. To quote from its website,

This page features items from the Library’s digital collections that are free to use and reuse. The Library believes that this content is either in the public domain, has no known copyright, or has been cleared by the copyright owner for public use. Each set of content is based on a theme and is first featured on the Library’s home page.

These sets are just a small sample of the Library’s digital collections that are free to use and reuse. The digital collections comprise millions of items including books, newspapers, manuscripts, prints and photos, maps, musical scores, films, sound recordings and more. Whenever possible, each collection has its own rights statement which should be consulted for guidance on use. Learn more about copyright and the Library’s collections.

I can’t add to that description, but will share some of the delights that appealed to me as I browsed the collections.

Japanese woodblock prints

Doesn’t it look like they’re wearing quilts?

Posters

Looks like inspiration for a modern quilt.

I never thought of costumes as Pennsylvania’s prime attraction.

People

Montana cowboys – the original Marlboro man?

Billie Holiday

Geo. Miles with an impressive ‘stache.

J. E. Hanger. I’d love to know why he wanted to show his prosthesis.

Covers and Miscellaneous

What a great font.

Love the art nouveau styling.

I think that lady better be careful of her foot. The axe wielder looks none too competent.

Word of warning, you can spend many hours poking around the Library’s offerings. And what’s shown on the Free to Use and Reuse Sets is a small fraction of what’s available. The digital collections contain thousands of items, some more esoteric than others.

Icing On The Cake

Last Friday night my husband and I attended the opening reception for a landscape art show called Against The Sky because my “Sunset On Main” was juried into the show. I was glad my piece overcame the attitude that a quilt can’t be art, though my piece was indeed the only fiber art in the show.

After I checked out all the other work in the show and had some lively conversations about my work, the show awards were announced by the show’s juror. He began with the honorable mentions, which I thought maybe I had a shot at. No joy there. Then third and second place works were announced and I thought it was enough to get into the show.

My jaw hit the floor when the juror awarded first place to “Sunset On Main.”  There was some talk about how a craft can become art, but I was too stupified to take in all the speech.

Here are the few photos I took at the show. The crowd didn’t seem to be taking pictures, so I snuck in just a bit of smart phone photography.

As you can see, there was lots of photography in the show; I’d say about half of the 69 works.

And what do I get as first place winner? – a certificate and a little sticker by my work. It’s a start.

Linking to Off The Wall Friday.

Artistic Endeavors – Way Beyond The Crocheted Afghan

Crochet is one of the simpler thread and yarn hand crafts. You need only yarn and a hook. Scissors help, but aren’t essential. Granny square afghans are favorite creations of crocheters as they’re made square by square, use up leftover yarns, and make good portable projects.

However, thanks to Diane Savona, I’ve discovered a whole ‘nother crochet mindset. Savona curated a fiber show with a scientific bent that never happened, but she shared her choices for that show here. Through her post I found Gabriele Meyer and Caitlin T. McCormack who have developed strangely beautiful art from the simple hook and yarn.  

McCormack, who has a BFA in illustration, views her work as sculpture. I’ll warn you her work is macabre, creepy even, and would work well for Halloween. I believe she uses glue to stiffen the threads. Apparently she unravels old, discarded garments and linens for the thread. And, yeah, her grandmother taught her to crochet.  

Meyer is a math professor at the University of Wisconsin in real life, but she crochets what she calls hyperbolic surfaces, often turning them into hanging lamps. Crochet, as seen in Meyer’s lamp shade, is the perfect tool to help people visualize Lobachevskian geometry. Meyer started by crocheting an ordinary spiral. Then on the edge, she added more stitches than fit in a flat space, creating frilly, billowing edges that catch light or let it through. You can read the math details here.

Maybe all this time my crochet projects were trying to be art, not afghans. Heavens knows they have enough ripples in them.

Taking A Gamble

Way back at the beginning of 2018 I set myself a few quilting goals. One was to have my work accepted in an art show, not just a quilt show. To that end I mounted “Sunset on Main” on a prestretched canvas in hopes that would appeal more to an art show juror. Such a presentation precluded any usual quilt show entries with their “must show your work” rules about quilt backs.

My gamble paid off when that work was accepted into Against The Sky, a juried landscape exhibition coming up at Summit Artspace from October 19 to November 17.

I’ll know more about the other entries after I attend the opening reception this Friday night from 5-8 p.m. From the few I saw when I took in my piece it will be an interesting mixture of media.

So, if you’re planning to be in downtown Akron on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday afternoons, stop by. Summit Artspace at 140 East Market Street is a block from the Akron Art Museum. Specific hours are 12-7 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, and 12-5 p.m. Saturdays. Special Artwalk hours are from 12-9 p.m. on Thursday, November 3.

Artistic Endeavors – Art From Paper

Recently I came across a new-to-me twist on paper sculpture – replicating historic costumes in paint and paper. I won’t touch on the issue of whether fashion design is more than a decorative art, but I consider it an artistic endeavor.

The Frick Museum in Pittsburgh, PA, has a new special exhibit “Isabelle de Borchgrave: Fashioning Art from Paper,” which includes life-size trompe l’œil paper costumes, in addition to paper accessories such as shoes, jewelries and handbags, created by Belgian artist Isabelle de Borchgrave. French for “deceive the eye,” trompe l’œil is an art technique that uses photographically realistic details to create optical illusions; in de Borchgrave’s case, she uses paper and paint to simulate various fabrics.

The artist’s interest in creating paper costumes was sparked by a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1994, where she found herself inspired by the historic costumes on display. Back in her studio, she began to experiment with creating renditions of the pieces in paper.

According to de Borchgrave, “After I make some drawings, after I put the paper on the table, I have to choose the color to give the effect. Sometimes it’s more satin, sometimes it’s like a felt … or silk. I look and I try to find the effect through the color. When I find that, I paint all the paper … and after, there are people who cut the paper and put it together. For sure, I am next to them because I have to decide if it’s large enough or maybe too big or maybe too little. That’s like haute couture for all the dresses you can see in that exhibition.”

Marie de Medici

Closeup of ruff

Painting of the Princess of Conde by Rubens

The dress created from the painting of the Princess of Conde. 

You can see closeups of garments created for the 2009 exhibit called Les Medicis: Le Reve Revient here. The costumes take center stage after about 45 seconds of location footage, and the video shows their sumptuousness through slow pan shots.

De Borchgrave’s website gives a taste of her current projects such as the life and work of Picasso. She is also involved in fabric and paper products design, and rents out her studio for special tours and gatherings. You and 14 others can enjoy a guided tour of her Brussels studio for a minimum of 225 Euros.

Blue and White (With A Little Red) Quilts

Earlier I wrote about the preview party for Patterns of History: Quilts of the Summit County Historical Society. Now I’d like to share a few of the quilts on display with you.

First, the blue and white quilts.

The tiny feathered edges are well done, and the scallop edge is shallower than many. You can see the fading on the blue where the quilt was exposed to sun, probably when it was on a bed.

An Ohio quilt display has to include an Ohio Star quilt.

This Devils Claw design features subtle variations of blue.

Tiny, even quilting stitches are the highlight of this nine patch variation.

As promised, an applique quilt that features reds.

These and many more quilts and coverlets are displayed throughout the Simon Perkins Mansion and the John Brown House during October. Self-guided tours are available Wednesday-Saturday from 1-4 p.m. for an admission fee to non-Society members.

Artistic Endeavors – James Stanford’s Mandalas

Player

James Stanford’s Shimmering Zen is now on exhibit at The Studio-Sahara West Library in Las Vegas, Nevada, through December 8, 2018. It has been described as the intersection of Las Vegas and Buddhism. The digital images are intricate, detail-dense, neatly symmetrical, abstract, mandala-like. Most often they’re layers of details cropped from historic photos of Vegas signage and architecture.

Skrolls

Stanford uses the iconic vintage signage of Las Vegas, where he spent his childhood at a time when the town was small and provincial, without access to global culture. His layered images reflect a mirrored geometry that unravels and then recomposes. Printed on metallic paper, the works evoke a sense of infinite reflection.

Some of the pieces in the exhibit are “lenticular” images — several layers of the same image, each treated and colored differently, backlit and viewed through a lenticular, or striated, magnifying lens. They are the product of intensive Photoshopping — up to 30 or 40 layers each. The picture shifts as you move in front of it. So when you move, the image shift, while brief, is pronounced, a disruptive flutter before the picture snaps back to clarity, albeit now in a different alignment. Think kaleidoscopes.

Kings 8

Lucky Lady

Stanford’s latest photo montage exhibit is part of his Indra’s Jewels, and is available as a book. You can sample more of Stanford’s work on his Vimeo channel, https://vimeo.com/jamesstanford. These short, often silent, videos can be mesmerizing.

The End of the Line

For some months I’ve been preoccupied with my canal map project. I’m relieved to report that it’s done, hanging sleeve and all.

It was made for a map quilt challenge, and was supposed to be no larger than 20 by 20 inches. That didn’t happen as canals are long and skinny. My piece is more like 19 by 29 inches.

I tried to depict the story of the Ohio and Erie Canal over time through part of Summit County, Ohio, from the Cuyahoga-Summit County line to just north of downtown Akron. The canal was much longer, beginning at Lake Erie and continuing south to the Ohio River.

The blue embroidered line that runs the length of my quilt represents the Cuyahoga River, and the red line the canal. The short red lines mark the canal locks. The brown lines show the current roads in the area, one of the transportation systems that has superseded canals. They are also the quilting lines. The map at the top left outlines the area my map covers.

Map of the area covered by the quilt.

Continuing down the left side, a photo printed on silk organza shows a typical canal boat being hauled by horses. The period photo was taken near the Ira lock, for those of you familiar with the area.

The next photos on the left show a lock that remains today, and some of the devastation wrought by the 1913 flood that wiped out the canal for good. The picture was taken on North Howard Street in Akron, Ohio.

Continuing on the right side, the top photo shows a group posed outside the Mustill Store in Akron. It was a store and butcher shop that served the canal boats, and has been restored. The photo beneath the store shows boats lined up to enter a lock.

Many mills, such as the Moody and Thomas Mill in Pensinsula, Ohio, at lock 29, were developed to take advantage of the canal. The photograph I used was damaged, but shows a typical grist mill.

The final picture shows the front page of the Akron Beacon Journal for March 26, 1913. Akron was one of many Ohio cities flooded.

“When Akron’s east reservoir gave way, some thought it had been dynamited. Water roared over the gates of the canal locks to a depth of eight feet, making them impossible to open. Lock 1 in Akron held back 9 miles of water. Canal cities were warned by those on horseback to evacuate the area. John Henry Vance, a B.F. Goodrich engineer, used dynamite to blast open the lock gates. The water crushed gate after gate, ripping the clay lining off the banks of the canal, as it rushed north to Peninsula and Boston.” (http://akron.com/akron-ohio-entertainment-news.asp?aID=18840)

This quilt represents a lot of compromises as I tried to be historically accurate yet create an artistically pleasing work. The graphics gave me trouble as I searched for historic photos that were interesting, clear, and of high enough quality to survive being printed on fabric.

I tried to blend the photos with the background using embroidery, which also serves as part of the quilting. I would have preferred to arrange the photos close to the points where they were taken, but space constraints got in the way. I won’t bore you with my adventures printing on fabric.

Would I change things? Absolutely, but I have no plans to return to the canal except as a hiker. I suggest this site if you have a burning thirst for more information on individual canal locks.

I’ve linked to Off The Wall Fridays.

Artistic Endeavors – Marilyn Henrion

Now 80 years old, mixed-media artist Marilyn Henrion is a native of Brooklyn who has spent time in the New York artistic and literary world.  Her aesthetic vision has always been deeply rooted in the urban geometry of her surroundings. You can see this in her earlier works of geometric abstraction as well as in more recent architecturally-based mixed media works, which feature New Orleans and Europe.

Some of her works are quilts, for all practical purposes, with piecing and quilting. Many of Henrion’s quilted pieces are featured here.

Disturbances 1

Byzantium II

Other works consist of hand quilted digitally edited and printed photographs.

North Phillip, New Orleans

Still others are edited photographs cut up, sewn together, and digitally printed with no quilting.

Patchwork City series

Then, some defy categorization, though I think the piece below is very modern.

Vanishing Point series

And this piece has elegant curves and lovely hand dyed looking fabrics.

Byzantium IX

Henrion works in series so you can see how she plays with an idea. Her website has many examples of her work, nicely grouped by theme. I’m glad to see how her techniques have simplified over time as I’ve been looking for less complex ways to create work. Her latest work uses digitally edited and printed photographs. I don’t know if that’s the direction for me, but it’s one path to try.