A Different Way To Collage

Almost all paper collage techniques involve glue – gel medium, glue stick, Sobo, wheat paste, rice paste, etc. Because my fine motor skills are subpar I usually end up with glue, and sometimes bits of paper, all over my fingers. So I was intrigued to read about another way to collage, thanks to Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. She hosts an online monthly art book club, and one of her picks was Gerald Brommer’s “Collage Techniques.” Her review highlighted a different kind of adhering process Brommer describes.

The secret to the process is gloss acrylic medium. You coat both sides of your papers with the medium, allow them to dry, arrange them to your satisfaction, and then iron them down using release paper between the iron and paper. The iron melts the medium. The joy is once you’re happy with your composition you don’t have to take it apart to glue it down.

Yes, it has to be gloss medium because it gives paper a sticky surface, and you’d better use release paper if you value your iron.

I coated many magazine pages with medium (it dries fast) and made several compositions on watercolor paper and bristol board. The base also needs to have a gloss medium coat. The finished product has a glossy finish and is best stored covered with a nonstick sheet like wax paper.

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I have several coated pages left for still more compositions. Goody, yet another form of scraps.

I can recommend Brommer’s book for serious explorations of collage. It is old, published in 1994, and the author is no longer with us; but it brims with wonderful examples of all kinds of art collages. It covers design, approaches, and specific techniques. I consider it well worth the $12 I spent for a used copy.

I’m linking to Off The Wall Friday.

Urban Grime

Ever since I took Tansy Hargan’s “From Sketchbook to Wall” course I have wanted to use painted fabric on a larger scale than 10 inches square, with a lot more glue, and maybe even forget about thread. In essence I wanted to move from a three layer quilt to fabric collage. Restrictions on the amount of time I can spend actually sewing spurred me to combine a photo printed on fabric with leftover hunks of cut up clothing already painted with acrylic. The painted hunks, ripped and rough with some curled edges, are stuck on a foundation with matte medium. The result is quite stiff and grungy.

My starting point was a fabric printed photo taken by Penny and a dye experiment leftover from a theatrical costume.

By the stage above I had covered the dye experiment with diluted india ink and started to audition my painted hunks. The sheer fabric is from an old curtain.

I sewed the dye experiment to the photo and backed it with iron-on nonwoven interfacing. Then I started to position the hunks, adding bits of painted heavy non-fusible interfacing from my experiments pile.

More pinning bought me to this stage.

Close to what I wanted, but not quite there.

I glopped a lot of matte medium under and over the pieces and added a few more flourishes. It’s now pin free.

I think I’ll add a bit of sewing to make sure the pieces stay in place, though how much I add will be a function of how difficult it is to sew over the stiff surface. I may also add bits of paint.

I want to thank Julie Fei-Fan Balzar and her blog for introducing me to Margo Hoff. That post has tons of photos of Hoff’s work, so I recommend you check there for a visual feast. Hoff painted canvas fabric with vivid solid colors and then cut it up to make multi layer collages on canvas. Color, curves, transparency – her work has everything I want to do.

I’m linking to Off The Wall Friday.

How Are Show Award Winners Picked?

If you’ve ever attended an art quilt show or any art show, you may have wondered how the winners were chosen. You can get the perspective of one judge, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, who summarized her experiences as a show judge in a recent blog post.

She began with her criteria for works to consider for awards:

• Be well executed.
• Have a point-of-view.
• Make the viewer feel or think or react in some way.
• Be unique in some way.

Then, she narrowed her choices for top awards by asking herself which pieces stayed in her mind the next day. Finally, to choose the grand prize winner, she asked herself, “Which of these works shows complete mastery over this person’s craft?” and, “Which of these works do I not have any suggestions to give the artist on how to make it just a little bit better?”

Her takeaways from the process were:

• Art is subjective (obviously).  I like seeing the hand of the artist.  Another juror might not.
• It’s often attractive to go towards creating work that is like what everyone else is making, but standing out is often about standing alone. 
• Titles matter.  Is your artwork about something?  Can the title add meaning to what the viewer is already taking away from the work?
• For me, pretty is not enough.  I need story, emotion…something more substantive than pretty.

While these points may not apply to a craft oriented show, I think they work in an art show context. They also remind us that judges’ preferences vary. One judge may love lots of hand stitching and raw edges while another may prefer a more polished look. Please note that Julie fully recognizes the importance of craftsmanship, but feels that the story a piece tells and the emotions it evokes are what make it award-worthy.

I tried to apply the above criteria to choose my work to enter in future shows. I do pretty well on titles and written overviews. I think most of my work is sui generis and doesn’t follow the latest trends. I worry whether there’s a story and substance to my work, other than I liked the fabrics and colors together. I do know if my husband calls a piece pretty, I won’t enter it. As to level of craftsmanship, that’s the opinion of the judge. No one will ever gush over my fine workmanship.

Here’s an example of a piece that was juried into a national show. The juror must have liked my title, “The Language of Pink Elephants,” because there are many, many workmanship errors in the piece. That silk bias tape should have been handled better, and the bottom has waves when it’s hung. I’ve never entered it in another show, nor will I. And I will never use silk crepe bias tape again.

The Language of Pink Elephants

Artistic Endeavors – Opinions

Skirting the issue that what IS art is a matter of opinion all by itself, I’ll close my year of artistic endeavors with opinions on art related issues.

First, the question of who owns rights to a quilt has vexed commentators. The saga of art collector Will Arnett and the quilters of Gee’s Bend shows the unequal level of business savvy between those who license quilt images and the quilt makers who were happy to get $200 for a quilt. Some Gee’s Bend quilters filed lawsuits challenging their handshake agreements with Arnett.

As a general matter, copyright is inherited, like any part of one’s estate—an immaterial heirloom. In some countries, like Australia, artists receive royalties on a resale, so if a quilt were purchased for $200 and next sold to a museum for $20,000, the artist would benefit, receiving some percentage of the increase. In the United States, at least for now, there are no resale royalties; copyright can police only the most egregious instances of appropriation, paying scant dividends on use of images of the work. But at least, as Ms. Pettway [one of the quilters] puts it, “it acknowledges the quilter.”

More generally, ownership of a work of art is a slippery concept.
“The first lesson that prospective art buyers have been learning is that artworks aren’t yours to do with whatever you want.”

Then, there’s copyright on a painting (or other work of art.) “When you buy an original painting, you buy the physical object to have and enjoy. In most circumstances, you own only the artwork, not the copyright to it.”

Melanie at Catbird Quilt Studio had a recent post about the whole copyright/cultural appropriation debate.

Joe Cunningham takes on Calvin Klein and a host of condescending attitudes towards quilts and their makers. He begins his rant with,
“Even today, when the walls between High and Low art are beginning to crumble, when the divisions between Art and Craft have less and less meaning, there is such a long way to go before quilt artists can get anywhere in the art world that I am resigned to the concept that I will not live to see the day when a quilt artist can be seen as an artist pure and simple.” He then moves on to a recent Calvin Klein ad campaign that features quilts as floor coverings, and A.P.C., a French company that sells limited edition quilts made in India.

Another choice quote, “Sophisticates justify using old quilts and the graphic ideas they contain using statements that imply that quilts were once made in a long ago, grandmotherly place, and that these sophisticates are now using them in this fun, quirky way to simulate some sort of interest in the past.” I’ll leave the rest of Joe’s spot on comments for your discovery.

I want to end with an opinion on the role of fear in art making. Julie Fei Fan Balzer addressed this topic in an Instagram post. “This quote [Fear tricks us into living a boring life.” – Donald Miller] struck such a chord with me. I get a lot of art related questions that I think are motivated by fear: “What will happen if I do xyz?” “What should I use to do xyz?” “How should I do xyz?” The fact is: I know nothing more than you. In fact, I might know less. I didn’t go to art school. I just tried things. Some of them worked. A lot of them failed. I used up tons of precious art supplies doing stupid things. I still do! I burned time and wasted effort and I’m so glad that I did. All of those failures, all of that waste, all of the mistakes — they all made me fearless in my art making. Experience has taught me that I can paint it over, flip the page, throw it out, learn to live with it, scrape it off, and sometimes even “fix” it. It’s all okay. So if you’re staring at a pile of art or craft supplies, throw away the fear. It’s time to find out what happens if you {insert your own adventure here}.”

She has done a podcast on artistic fear you may want to listen in on. The meat of her discussion begins about 1.5 minutes in. Of course, the book Art and Fear is a great resource on this topic.

I have enjoyed sharing my discoveries with you and hope to feature new ones in 2019 every so often, as the spirit moves me.

The Nancy Crow Experience

Many art quilters make a pilgrimage to the Crow barn outside Reynoldsburg, Ohio, to study with Nancy Crow for a week or two. Work by Crow and some of her students, as featured in an exhibit called Color Improvisations 2 that’s now touring, will give you an idea of Crow’s style.  I’ve not had the nerve, or cash, for the experience, but I think Julie Fei-Fan Balzer’s blog posts give me a good idea of what’s involved.

Julie is a whirling dervish of a multi-media artist. She paints, does art journaling, hosts the “Make It Artsy” show on PBS Create TV, designs stencils, shows how to make your own stamps, blogs copiously about her work and her trips, and has taken up quilting. She leans toward the modern style, no surprise.

Julie has graciously given me permission to reblog her two posts about her experiences. Please check out all her posts at Balzer Designs. Her week one post is below. You can also check out her five lessons from the Crow Barn here, and her “rear view mirror” view in her podcast. (It’s at the beginning.)

Now I’ll turn this over to Julie.

June 04, 2018

Two Weeks at the Crow Barn: Day-by-Day (part one)

I’m back from The Crow Barn!  Each night after class, I wrote down a few thoughts about the day.  So, here is my day-by-day recap of the first week:

Sunday, May 20, 2018

• Set-up from 4-6pm.  I set up my space and then looked around.
• Everyone seemed to know each other.  I felt very out of place.
• Looking at other people’s set ups: I need to go to Walmart after set up to buy: bed lifts to raise my cutting table and a small folding table for my sewing machine.
• Surprise!  Class started tonight with notes we need to copy.  BUT, I left my notebook in the hotel room…not off to a great start.
• At Walmart, I bought the bed lifts, a folding table, and I found some under bed storage containers that will be perfect for my fabric!

Monday: May 21, 2018

• We spent the first hour-and-a-half of class copying Nancy’s handwritten notes, which she posted to the walls of the classroom.
• We were given our assignment.
• Nancy circulates through the room asking if you want to talk or “pass.”
• I am surprised and delighted to receive a compliment: good eye for composition
• I struggle to understand some of the concepts and terminology but work quickly nonetheless.
• I am enjoying the process of figuring out how to piece the designs I’m imagining.

Tuesday: May 22, 2018

• I finished the assignment before lunch.  Everyone else is very far behind.
• Nancy gave me an extra challenge because I finished early.  She said that I wasn’t exaggerating things enough.  So, she challenged me to take one of each “sketch” and more completely exaggerate it.
• The feedback I received after doing this was: better, but you could still exaggerate more!  She told me to relax and let go.  I find this hilarious because I’m usually completely insane and out of the box, but maybe not with quilting?
• Nancy said that most people have a lot of trouble with exaggerating and I might not be able to get there yet.  Need to keep doing it and practicing.
• She gave me the next assignment and I started to work on it while everyone else was finishing up assignment #1.
• The hardest part was the lines to create the frame — hard to keep them straight.
• I really like my composition.  My classmates were very complimentary.  They noted that I didn’t do a lot of thinking or hesitating. I just jumped in.  I think that’s why I’m faster than others.  I just make decisions and don’t dither around.  Even Nancy commented (on my earlier work) that I just plowed ahead and didn’t give myself any obstacles.  It’s a learned skill after years of creating and the secret to my productivity.

Wednesday: May 23, 2018

• Really really tired today.  Burning the midnight oil at night, after class, to do the work for my job and the lack of sleep is killing me.  Brain hurts.  Body hurts.  Need sleep.
• Spent hours and hours today refining my design.  Very proud of how it turned out.  I never would have pushed myself so hard at home. Very proud!
• However, I am in the hot mess phase now that color is being introduced.
• I chose the most difficult color combination under the theory that this is class and I have an expert here to help me when I fail!

Thursday: May 24, 2018

• Fail, fail, fail.  The switch to color is making me crazy.  It’s so hard!
• I tried piecing together little bits at one point today.  Nancy literally gives it the thumbs down.
• I think that I may have cut every piece of this composition from 4-5 different colors.  Sigh.
• I decide that I have to stop screwing around with the colors and need to just start sewing.  I start with some of the easy areas.  Ugh.

Friday: May 25, 2018

• Didn’t finish.
• I think that only one person in the class finished stitching her piece together.
• I ran into sewing issues.  Major sewing issues.  I just don’t know enough about piecing to get some of these curves.  It’s frustrating.
• Scrimping on fabric has screwed me multiple times.  Each time I end up having to add more fabric.  Sigh.
• Nancy insists that we clean off our design walls.  We can pin the fabric and then come back Monday from 7am-9am and sew.  Should I?  Will I?  I would like to finish, but 7am?!

Saturday: May 26, 2018

• Today is the day off.
• I’ve been thinking about why I was so unhappy at the end of the week after being very happy at the beginning and I’ve come to an important conclusion: I designed my quilt to be black and white,  Therefore it didn’t work in another color scheme.  If I wanted it to be color, I would have had to design it IN color.  I think Nancy’s method doesn’t necessarily work for me.  Good to know.

So, there you have it!  Week one in the books!  I’ll be sharing more from The Crow Barn tomorrow!

Here’s week two.

June 11, 2018

Two Weeks at the Crow Barn: Day-by-Day (part two)

As promised, here is the day-by-day accounting of week two at The Crow Barn:

Sunday, May 27, 2018

• Presentation Day!
• The presentations were fascinating.  I had ideas about each of the women in class after last week, but after seeing their personal work, I have a different or more complete picture.
• Last year, Nancy assigned homework to students and told them not to come back if they didn’t do it.  The homework was amazing — in volume and dedication.
• I have no idea what the rest of this week will hold.

Monday, May 28, 2018

• Wow!  I can actually see that I learned something last week! I created this week’s composition focusing on the white space instead of the black lines. (Not pictured, by the way.  The photo above is just me getting started with a blank slate.)
• Actually, I learned a few things last week:
  • My ambition/imagination and my physical skills don’t match.
  • Simple is actually more difficult in some ways.
  • The rules of art are the same in quilting as in painting: variety of line weights, value changes, tension, etc.
  • Think about the white space as much as the black lines.
  • Be dedicated in refining and don’t get lazy.
• Nancy looked at my composition and accused me of being lazy in one area — she was right.  I was being lazy.  I was surprised that it showed.  I shouldn’t have been.
• I got done with everything before dinner, so I got to go home early!

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

• Fascinating day.  Today we worked in greyscale and my brain is blowing up.  Value is both confusing and elucidating.
• My thought: If you can get the values right, then the switch to color will be easy (famous last words?)
• I’m still struggling with the sewing. I have ripped out so many seams and I can’t get anything to line up.  Sigh.
• I’ve been drawing graphs and charts to try to figure out how to stitch it together.
• I know that I said I’d never go in at 7am, but I’m setting my alarm for 6am and planning to be there early tomorrow to sew, sew, sew!

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

• Sew, sew, sew!  Today was a massive day of stitching.  I definitely got better as I went along — proof that practice works.
• I accidentally cut off the entire lower right corner of the quilt top when I tried to square it up.  Sigh.  Need more practice.
• Understanding color value is kicking my behind and I love it!  I’m struggling to be able to do it by eye instead of relying on the black and white filter in my phone.  It’s not easy.  Must practice.
• I’m starting to see a theme here: practice.  It’s true in quilting.  It’s true in art journaling.  It’s true in everything.
• Starting to feel like my time here is coming to an end way too soon!  I didn’t understand it when other students talked about crying when they left The Crow Barn.  I don’t think I’ll cry, but I get it!

Thursday, May 31, 2018

• I’m so tired.  So tired.  Feel light headed, but pushing through it.  Must.  Finish.  Quilt.
• I’m over the moon when I get the okay to start stitching my colored pieces together.  The question is: can I finish this one?
• There’s one problem area in my quilt where the colors are just so-so and so Nancy says just stitch other parts and come back to it.  Good advice.  Don’t obsess, just work.
• This is my second day-in-a-row of showing up to sew at 7am.  Who am I?  I hate mornings!
• Everyone is asking, “Do you think you’ll come back?”  That’s a tough question.
  • I’ve definitely learned A LOT.
  • And enjoyed myself.
  • And Nancy probably won’t teach for much longer.
  • BUT, this is really expensive.
  • And two weeks is a long time away from home.
  • And I have to work to pay my rent.
  • And I don’t think you get the real benefit of the class unless you really practice between classes.
  • And quilting is not my main focus.
• Over the past two weeks I have become more and more convinced that you really need a large design wall to do any kind of successful art quilting.

Friday, June 1, 2018

• I did it!  I finished stitching my quilt top together!  Had a lot of trouble squaring it up…ending up cutting off a lot more than I meant to in an effort to straighten things out.  Sigh.  I need to practice.
• Everyone who wanted to had an opportunity to present their work from the last two weeks for 5 minutes.
• Nancy asked me two questions:
  • She asked me if Brother had sent me (I had mentioned that I wanted to work on bettering my sewing skills now that I’m demo-ing sewing machines for Brother on HSN). The answer is no.  I sent myself.
  • She asked if I felt like people were watching me and waiting for me to fail.  The answer is no.  I actually found everyone in class to be really warm and kind and generous.
• I’m sure that I’ll have lots more thoughts as I process it all in the next few hours/days/weeks.  At the moment I’m just so tired.  I’m going to bed!

In the next week or two, I’ll be sharing a podcast with some thoughts about the workshop, after I’ve had some time to process it all.  It’s still percolating at the moment.  See you then!