new posts in all blogs
Viewing Blog: PaMdora's Box, Most Recent at Top
Results 1 - 25 of 310
Statistics for PaMdora's Box
Number of Readers that added this blog to their MyJacketFlap: 2
This coming September, I’ve been invited to have a exhibition of my work titled “Threads of Thought” at the 21st Carrefour Européen du Patchwork / European Patchwork Meeting, a quilt festival that spans 4 villages of the Val d’Argent and draws 22,000 visitors from France and around the world. The festival will display 1200 to 1500 textile artworks, both traditional and contemporary.
Rhinetex, one of the largest wholesale supplier of patchwork and quilting suppliers in Europe, has generously offered to sponsor my exhibition!
Mostly I work alone in my studio, but it often feels filled with lots of company because of the dress forms, toys and other odd characters I have hanging around. Yesterday I took this photo after wrapping up a day of quilting and had to laugh, because it looked like two headless woman and PaMdora watching over my work.
The hole above my quilting frame is my attempt this hot summer to improve the air-conditioning in my studio by cutting a hole through my photography wall and adding two fans:)
Wait, I’m wrong. On closer look, one of the headless women has a very small head!
What a fun show! We did this last December at the Creamery Arts Center, and it was so successful that this year it became PoP ArT ReMiX2. As you can see, it’s a colorful exhibition that is sure to shake off the rainy day winter blues. The show will be up the whole month of December 2014 at the Creamery Art Center, 411 N Sherman Pkwy, Springfield, Missouri.
Next to that is Darlene Prater’s colorful pug dog painting is my contribution is called “I Dream in Color.” She’s covered in knitted and crocheted yarns. The hair is crocheted curls of eyelash and bulky yarns.
The table was an ugly old thing that I painted with gesso for a chalky look and then wrapped the legs with yarn. I’m kind of excited about this process and now am imagining all sorts of things I could paint and transform next.
Although I wasn’t able to attend, the International Quilt Festival is happening this week in Houston. I did send a quilt – Prince Charming’s Shoe Sale.
Patricia Kenndy-Zafred kindly send me a photo from Houston. The white ribbon is for Third Place in the Whimsical Quilts category. Patty’s quilt is across from mine in the Digital category. She did better than me — she won a First Place in Digital Imagery with a silk-screened quilt! You can see her quilt “Shared Destiny” her homepage and on the 2014 IQA awards page at Quilts.org.
The award-winning quilts from IQA/Houston (which ends tomorrow) will be traveling to IQA /Chicago in March, IQA /Minneapolis next May, and to Quilt! Knit! Stitch! by IQA /Portland next August.
Looking at Patty’s website, I just realized we will also be in a couple of upcoming shows together – Quilt National 2015 in Athens, Ohio and Expressions in Equality at Visions Museum in San Diego in 2015. So it’s kind of cool that although, I can’t go all these places, my quilt can. And I can develop these long distance friendships!
Yesterday on Halloween I was looking at lots of creative pumpkin carvings. It reminded me that last spring when I made this quilt, I was thinking a lot about pumpkins. Although Cinderella may have ridden to the ball in a pumpkin carriage driven by mice, I thought a modern Cinderella could drive herself to a shoe sale. So I made a pumpkin patchwork SUV, VW bug, van and sedan for her and her step-sisters:)
Last year I made a quilt using alternative materials for an exhibition called Radical Elements. Each artist in the show selected an element from the periodic table and was asked to create quilts to the same size dimensions, but not relying on traditional fabric and thread.
We were also asked to make a journal incorporating work samples. Since I used my real work samples, the book is sort of messy and irregular. It is spiral bound with a nice orange fiberoptic cable.
Curious Curium – A Radical Elements Journal
Curium is named for Marie Curie who pioneered research on radioactivity, was the first woman to win a Nobel prize, and the only person to win in multiple sciences. I was fascinated that she like to ride bicycles. She and her husband Pierre went on a honeymoon bicycle trip in 1895.
I had just bought a new bike and asked the bike shop to give me old used bicycle inner tubes to use in the quilt. Looking at photographs of Marie, I wondered how a forward-thinking person can look so old-fashioned to me?
I collected vinyl remnants that had a retro print look because I am drawn to those patterns and designs in my stitching and drawing style. As I began experimenting with cutting shapes and sewing, I realized the vinyl would be hard to work with, so I simplified my design and concept.
I started sketching, and from the beginning, I knew I would give her stars for eyes. Since at the time, I was also doing a lot of crocheting and yarnbombing, I decided to make the stars from yarn.
Blending images and concepts from 1895, 1950, and 2013 seemed impossible until I finally realized, regardless of our time or age, whether a scientist or artist, it is the commonality of curiosity that drives us forward.
Curium is a radioactive element used in space exploration and space probes. Last year we had visited the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and I had seen how varied and beautiful were the designs of space probes and satellites. It seemed a perfect fit for those starry eyes.
I collected odd metal parts to make my own space probes — door hardware, old sewing machine parts, brads, rivets, wire. My friends teach art in school, so I raided their stash of recycled junk and computer parts. In one box I found a folder of old classroom math acetates, so I cut and sewed them into the quilt.
Today space exploration seems futuristic, and yet at the same time, there is old space junk floating out there from years ago.
Sewing all these objects onto the quilt was a challenge and an addiction. Once I started, I did not want to stop creating fantasy space probes.
By some odd coincidence, although the bicycle image was lost long ago in the making of this quilt, I found the best way to hand sew onto the vinyl was wearing leather bike gloves. I’m not very good at using a thimble, but wearing the gloves, I could push and pull the needle through very thick material.
The end.
Here’s the quilt. At first I was going to finish it like my drawing. Then I realized that if I stopped right where it’s at now — instead of one face, there are three faces. This was purely an accident. Can you see them?
The exhibition is now booked for the National Academy of Sciences on Constitution Avenue in Washington D.C. for April-September, 2015.
The concept and initial curation is by Jill Rumoshosky Werner, managing curator is Gigi Kandler with loads of help from SAQA traveling exhibitions coordinator Bill Reker, and the catalog designed by Deidre Adams. Other booking include the initial opening that was at Montgomery College earlier this year and in 2016, at the Funk Center for Textile Arts.
Detail photos:
p.s. The blue spot inside the test tube is part of a yoga ball!
It’s been a long time since I’ve gone to a figure drawing session, perhaps since college. I thought I wouldn’t like it, but maybe I’ve learned some things since then. Maybe I’ve also learned some things from one of my favorite drawing books, The Tao of Sketching.
With only five or ten minutes to make a drawing, it seems you should just jump right in and draw as fast and as much as you can. But last night, I found myself sitting back and looking around the entire room. At the other people and things in the room.
Asking what most interests me about this particular pose? How does the pose relate to the room?
Is there a mood to the pose?
What can I add to recreate the mood or moment?
What in the room do I want to include? Leave out?
How can I make an interesting composition?
How big is my page? My pen?
Should I add color or shading?
I just imagined it might be a little like a rooftop assassin surveys a scene, taking in everything and then waiting for the right time to strike.
These are all short poses with the same model from last night’s session.
Early Saturday morning before dawn, we started the morning with poetry, bird calls, and frost on our feet.
It was part of a sound installation sponsored by ideaXfactory designed and led by Gerard Nadeau of Drury University’s architecture department called Morning Song Evening Song. Starting Friday evening with a workshop led by Greater Ozarks Audubon members, we each put a wooden Audubon bird call on an orange ideaXfactory lanyard around our neck and headed up to Park Central Square.
There at sunset, we spread through the First Friday Art Walk crowd and started a slow symphony of bird calls noises, first a few, then many. Then more, then faded away.
The next morning we assembled at the ideaXfactory at 6 am, shared bagels and coffee and headed to the West Meadows future greenways park site.
In the wet grass, Kate read bird poetry, then we started the morning crescendo of bird calls and watched the sunrise over the Grant Street bridge. The morning experience was much different, and I think, much more profound than the evening.
After it was all over, Ed Filmer showed up to video, so we got to do it all again. And I had time to make another drawing.
For more photos, please visit to ideaXfactory’s Morning Song Evening Song post.
This Friday I had planning on drawing a sound installation sponsored by the ideaXfactory (more on that later) but it turned out to be harder than I thought. So instead I drew some other interesting things that happened downtown on the First Friday Art Walk. There were a lot of people eating green cake as they walked around Park Central Square…
Turns out Park Central Library was hosting an “Edible Books” event, and they had asked local cake shops to make Call of the Wild cakes. The biggest one was made like mountains covered with green pines trees. There was a whole row of ladies cutting and giving away slices of cake. I must say I was a bit relieved as I had originally thought people were eating parsley cake.
The library was so crowded, it was hard to draw because people trying to get free cake kept bumping into me. I went back outside and saw this young guy spinning fire. The fire glowed nicely against the twilight sky, and so did the string lights hanging across Park Central East. There was a couple wearing hoodies sitting on the edge of the fountain. I would have stayed longer, but it was so cold outside that I couldn’t draw a non-shaky line.
Back at the ideaXfactory, there was a silent art auction going on organized by a lot of Drury University folks to raise money for Rare Breed. They had installed a beautiful folded paper installation on the ceiling for the upcoming Saturday night Drury Beaux Arts Ball, and the paper walls of the temporary gallery also glowed with changing colored light. A DJ wearing fingerless gloves played electronic music for the Friday night auction preview. In the glow of the “cloud” installation, it was a popular spot all evening long.
Over at Art & Letters, a collaborative show organized by Meganne had an opening. She has started about 20 ink on canvas and paper paintings, then asked other local painters to finish them.
Cattywampus was playing in the corner in front of Christiano Bellotti’s painting.
Ryan Dunn of Smokey Folk played a few songs with the band.
I really thought I knew this woman in front of a Tyler Estes and Meganne Rosen O’Neal painting. Turns out I know her sister! The best part about ending up at Arts & Letters was Russ and I had great luck at finding some funky retro clothes for the Beaux Arts Ball on Saturday.
Finally! Beautiful weather for a whole weekend, so we rode and walked on trails both days at Crystal Bridges. A family from India was visiting, the father on one side of the stream telling his daughters across the water how to pose for a photo.
These were all about 5 to 10 minutes sketches with a brush pen, colored with watercolors later. I didn’t know Russ took a photo of me sketching until I saw this on Instagram!
Looking out a window to a Mark di Suvero sculpture — a little tricky to draw!
From inside the museum, an interesting view of the outdoor plaza through a cast polyester ”Big Red Lens” by Frederick Eversley. The whole scene becomes a puzzle to draw, and probably doesn’t make much sense. I got confused myself and drew trees on the ceiling which I had to cover up later with cross-hatching.
Out on the plaza, there’s a funny orange-red Keith Haring sculpture. A museum staff person was passing out drawing boards, paper, pastels and pencils to invite the public to draw.
At first I saw more people looking at their phones. Then Russ got into the act, so I sat down too and drew some more.
Eventually I noticed a group of five girls, all with drawing boards. Some looked like they were seriously drawing.
How interesting the plaza bowl was so large, and yet with all that room to spread out, they sat squished together so tightly, their boards almost touching.
This guy sitting under a pavilion watching his kids was funny too. “You kids go run around the trails about five more times. And DON’T PICK THE FLOWERS!”
Russ surprised me with a weekend getaway, and we loaded our bikes onto our new bike rack and headed south. Riding around on the Compton Gardens and Crystal Bridges trails, Russ was determined to see a new sculpture that he read about at the entrance. After several trails and up many hills, we chanced upon this crazy installation of hay people by Tom Otterness.
“Makin’ Hay” is a series of three sculptures made of bales of hay by Otterness in Montana. Acquired by the Alturas Foundation, the sculptures have been exhibited in many places and must be newly arrived at Crystal Bridges because it’s not mentioned anywhere on the website.
The whole thing was a total surprise as we had the fortunate opportunity to visit Otterness’s studio several years ago during an ISC Conference. Seeing so many of his bronze figures there, I had no idea he had made these hay sculptures.
Not only that, but happening upon the installation by way of a back door trail rather than the entrance to Crystal Bridges was perfect!
It’s also a good thing we were on our bikes, because these sculptures and the hay field installation were huge. So trekking across tractor ruts to get to the farthest hay woman was rough, but do-able.
Here are some drawings I did last night at Arts & Letters Alternative Figure Drawing night. I like going to these things, but tend to back away from the crowd so I can also draw the drawers. It’s interesting to look at what materials people bring to draw with and how they hold their hands.
Also it gives me a chance to fill in some background elements that add color and balance the composition. Sometimes I’m completely off on my composition, proportions, and scale, but I like to draw with a brush pen because the mistakes become part of the drawing. People move around and you just have to adapt, which gives the drawing it’s own sort of internal life.
Sometimes I’m completely off topic, as when I noticed on the sidelines, Laura was crocheting in the most graceful way, and I was fascinated watching her hands.
Arts & Letters is Springfield’s newest downtown gallery and eclectic boutique, but one of the co-owners is Meganne Rosen O’Neal who has long been involved in our arts community. I’ve worked with her much over the last year and half on various committees, but most frequently Russ and I have worked her as we created the ideaXfactory and on various PechaKucha Springfield events.
So it seems funny to me that I drew her before I knew her. Several years ago she was one of the people behind this Art Factory 417 alternative figure drawing event that I blogged about several years ago. So even if I had known her, I wouldn’t have recognized her behind the bunny mask!
Uncommon Threads group exhibition
Evangel University - Barnett Fine Arts Gallery
1111 N Glenstone Ave, Springfield, MO 65802
Monday – Friday 8:00am-5:00pm, Saturdays 8:00am to noon
Free and open to the public
March 15-28, 2014
Doppleganger by Emmie Seaman
Uncommon Threads is a network of art quilters of 15 fiber artists from the surrounding Springfield area working in the contemporary art quilt medium. Each fiber artist maintains an individual style of work and subject matter.
About Uncommon Threads
The individual artists’ works are informed by a variety of inspirations, ranging from the natural world of trees, gardens, animals, mountains and oceans to the abstract world of adventures, dreams and experiences.
Birch Moon by Lettie Blackburn
Each style can include realism, abstract and portraiture and can be serious or comedic. The medium lends itself to a wide variety of techniques or treatments, including but not limited to dyeing, painting, cutting or tearing, fusing or seaming. The art pieces are often embellished by hand or machine sewing or embroidery.
Tempest by Merrille Tieche
Individual members have exhibited locally, nationally and internationally, receiving varied awards. These artists have established sales histories with work in public, private and corporate collections. Some members have taught art and design at the university level; some teach workshops nationally and internationally, both in physical venues and online.
For additional information, visit the group’s site: www.uncommthreads.com?, or contact Michael Buesking at Evangel University, (417) 865- 2811, ext. 7281.
Math to Go — Anywhere, March 7-28, 2014
at Arts & Letters, 214 S. Campbell, Springfield, MO, (417) 830-8186
Mon – Fri: 11:00 am – 9:00 pm, Sat: 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
Math to Go — Anywhere is a clever idea by Roxie Castro to create paintings on vinyl fabric inspired by her sister, the “Mad Mather.” This body of work on exhibt at Arts & Letters, Springfield’s newest downtown gallery and eclectic boutique, has been developed over a number of years.
Upcycling cast-off wallcoverings and outdoor fabric, Roxie prepares the surface with gesso, then layers imagery of mathematical formulas, tools, rulers and theories using acrylic paint and colored pencils. The paintings can be rolled up, displayed by hanging, used as table coverings, floor cloths, or as a portable work surface outdoors.
Well-known in Springfield as a print-maker, Roxie also has on display a few mathematically inspired mono-prints, and she has taken the time to print posters that can be cut and folded to make geometrical shapes such as the octahedron that is part of a blue and yellow installation in the gallery.
Statement from the artist:
Math to Go—Anywhere is a study inspired by my sister, the Mad Mather, who skillfully, cheerfully and patiently describes mathematic concepts. This body of work has been developed over many years. The Mad Mather’s fun attitude toward her passion is contagious! For me to understand, I must visualize the concept and am thus driven to paint.
My paintings take form at a tall, wide table where I stand and paint on large vinyl mats. I choose vinyl to incorporate upcycled cast-off wallcoverings and outdoor fabric. The vinyl is prepared with layers of gesso, as one would prepare a canvas. The structure of the painting begins with traditional mathematic tools, rulers and protractors, paired with colored pencils. Happy, bright colored pencil lines show through the final varnish and add sparkle to large planes of color. Sometimes, painting in the lines feels necessary, but often the color leads my brush or dauber away from sharp angles in favor of fuzzy edges. Handmade stencils and tape add to the contours and edges.
These mats can be rolled up and placed anywhere—table, floor, wall, desk, grassy knoll. They become backdrops for viewers to explore numbers and concepts in a fun way. A friend of mine used to say, “if you have a difficult text to read, put the book under your pillow as you sleep.” The implied result: learning by osmosis. Maybe it works for math concepts by imbedding them in artistic mats to be absorbed while sitting on or walking on or gazing into them. The general idea is that the exploration is internal and meditative.
Thank you for reading and I hope you find some enjoyment here!
Roxie Castro
Suddenly I thought of what I could enter in this show. I made this small 12″ x 20″ quilt last summer for a Squidfoo show. It’s stretched on a gallery wrapped canvas and called “Giant Girl in the City.”
Our SRAC Visual Arts committee thought up the theme for the show because the Creamery will be undergoing sort of a metamorphosis later this year when the front entrance is remodeled for better visibility and parking. It interesting because each of us had a different idea of what metamorphosis is – some said change, some said nature, some growth, Jonathan said David Bowie, I thought Kafka. That’s when we knew it would be a good theme, because there are so many creative possible interpretations.
It’s funny because while I was making it, I was trying to decide if she should have plain glove hands or eyeball-tipped gloves, so I made one of each for her and posted a photo on Instagram. Almost everyone said they liked the combination, which I never would have thought of one my own. So metamorphosis – done!
My friend Stephanie who is organizing the show loves the eyeballs. She says they are great because we all see the world now using our fingers on computer keyboards, smart phones and iPads. I didn’t think of that either, I was just thinking she’s so tall, she needs eyeball gloves to see into people’s windows, so I think that Stephanie’s insight (ha!) is amazing.
A selection of quilts from
Quilt National ’13 is showing at the
Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery in Columbus, Ohio, from January 30 through April 13, 2014 — including my quilt,
Seattle: Wish You Were Here. For her January 31 gallery talk at Riffe Gallery, the director of Quilt National Kathleen Dawson, asked participating artists about their process. Here is what I sent her about my process:
I usually start with some crazy idea that pops into my head – like a joke or a pun, or some life situation that bothers me or I find strange and interesting. Then I start doodling and sketching. I try to sketch in places and times when I’m relaxed like on a trip, or when I wake up in the middle of the night because my imagination is more free.
I scan the sketches into my computer, iPad, or iPhone so that I can trace the image, play with different colors and perspectives, and combine images. Often I work back and forth between the hand drawing and computer drawing stage, until I arrive at a design that I can enlarge to make a paper pattern the size the quilt will be. During this process, I try to retain the spontaneity of the original hand drawings, because I feel that’s what gives the quilts their unique quirky personality and also helps me to achieve the handmade quality that draws me to quilt-making in the first place.
Once I have the big paper pattern ready, I trace the elements onto fabrics, cutting and pinning the shapes like a big collage on a soft design wall in my studio. I don’t permanently attach anything until I have the whole composition pinned together, because I am always adjusting fabric colors and patterns to achieve good composition.
Once I have the composition complete, I temporarily fuse the whole thing together so I can sew it. I sew free-motion quilting on a Bernina and Viking machine. My sewing patterns are all designed for the specific quilt. If you look at faces and body parts, you’ll see kind of strange stiching that reminds me of tattoos or tribal body art patterns. The backgrounds will sometimes have thematic symbolic shapes stitched in them, such as wind, water, stars, or made-up hieroglyphics.
Because I change colors of threads often to match the fabric on the front, on the back of my quilts you will see a ghost image of the front. So I like to use coordinating batiks for the back that allow this ghost images to show up.
I’ve been so busy during the days this week that I haven’t been able to work in my studio. So tonight I drew some shoes and brought them home to finish. After a yummy vegan Moroccan dinner with chick peas, tomatoes, spinach and couscous, I finished these shoes.
Dear knitters, crocheters, and fiber artists:
We’re planning on yarn bombing a big yellow sculpture at the Springfield Art Museum on Oct. 19-20. It’s sort of like making a really big patchwork sweater for something 30-feet tall, 65-feet wide, and with seven arms. How do you do that?
And the answer is — with help from my friends! I don’t do these projects alone. We have a group that meets at the ideaXfactory, usually on Sundays, or more often for special big projects. You can see some of these at http://yarn.bombers.ideaxfactory.com. This sculpture sweater project will be the biggest one so far, so we’re putting the call out to everyone to join in helping with this huge project!
I’ve already had several questions about what to send, and although I spent a lot of time writing this invitation, I just realized that photos would be much better than words. So I’ll show you how we did another project.
How we made the column at the ideaXfactory
The brick column at the ideaXfactory holds up the corner of the building and is sort of boring. It’s the same width on each side, so it’s a lot like the sculpture that’s made of long beams with uniform sides. We put a call out for everyone to make something twenty inches wide, any height.
This is Adie assembling pieces of knitting and crochet by everyone in the group. Don’t mind the (WO)MEN WORKING sign, that’s a joke sign we made. We do have a couple of terrific guys – in our group. Some of the pieces were exactly the width of the column, some were pieced together. We added in round and unusual shapes, granny squares, other motifs. Wendy added lots of crocheted pockets for flowers, notes and one time, a geo-cache.
Some of the pieces, like the doll with swirly hair, were recycled from another project. Some of the words were knitted in contracting colors…
and some crocheted as chains and then stitched onto a background.
The cool thing about these projects is that by sewing yarn pieces together, we can wrap and completely transform the look of buildings, sculptures, trees, bikes, or almost anything without using any adhesives or things that might harm the object. Then later we take it down, and everything goes back to before – except for the photos!
Here’s what we need to yarn bomb the Sun Target sculpture (aka the French Fries) at the Springfield Art Museum
You can make sections 16 inches wide, any height. Even a little an inch or two smaller is okay because these things stretch. It helps for a more snug fitting sweater. If it’s bigger, we can always wrap it over to the next side. So don’t get too uptight about measuring if you don’t want to.
Also you can just send single granny squares or smaller pieces, and we’ll use them to fill in odd places. You can also pre-sew your motifs together if you have a certain design in mind.
We’ll need your contributions before Oct. 19 and the sooner the better, because we’ll be sewing them together ahead of the installation weekend of Oct. 19-20. Please mail your contributions to RuBert Studios, 1841 E. Bergman St., Springfield, MO 65802 or drop off or mail to Springfield Art Museum, 1111 E. Brookside Dr., Springfield, MO 65806.
You can also join us for meetups either at the ideaXfactory or outside the Springfield Art Museum, depending on the weather.
I’ll be posting times and days for meetup on my facebook page and Twitter.
You can also email me if you have more questions.
You can also follow this project on the Instagram at #yarnbombsam
I’ll be posting photos of contributions as they come in, and a lot more photos during the installation!
Additonal links:
Art Museum music video (with music by Plaid Dragon)
Yarnbombing the Tumbler on the Square (another fun stop-motion video by my husband Russ.)
Today is the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and it’s caused me to reflect on how different artists have portrayed the man and his words.
Last summer we were lucky be able to visit the MLK memorial in Washington DC. It’s a massive public art installation (look at the tiny people in the lower right-hand corner of the photo) by Chinese sculptor sculptor Lei Yixin. The figure of King is moving out of a “mountain of stone” and is at the center of the wall of inscriptions of his quotes. So many wonderful quotes!
On the other side of the sculpture, another quote is currently being removed by the sculptor. Not because of something offensive, but because many people considered the quote was taken out of context. There have been times I’ve written and said words that I wished I hadn’t, but can you image trying to erase words written in stone?!
This summer we visited the MLK memorial in the Yerba Buena Gardens across the street from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The gardens are a beautiful spot of nature and art in the middle of a busy city.
Unfortunately the MLK memorial fountain, a 50′ high waterfall over Sierra granite and shimmering glass, was close for repairs.
They probably they were working like crazy to get ready for today, but you could still walk behind and see the civil rights photos and inscriptions behind where the water should be falling. Here’s what the waterfalls normally look like, and also a lot of other fantastic features inside the Gardens.
The fountains were designed by sculptor Houston Conwill, Poet Estella Majoza and Architect Joseph De Pace. In the sculptor’s words: The Memorial is “a sacred space … meant to be experienced as a cultural pilgrimage and a journey of transformation,” and poems are translated into the languages of San Francisco’s 13 international sister cities.
This summer, my husband and sculptor Russ RuBert has been working on his own tribute to King. A few dark nights, he has projected images and video of King on historic silos in downtown Springfield’s IDEA Commons near the ideaXfactory. These silos are 170-feet wide and massively tall, so you can imagine the impact of the images on this scale.
Seen by only a few people in real life, he posted photographs of the projections on Facebook which inspired the organizers of today’s Unity March to invite Russ to help them project images and video on a large canvas installed in Park Central Square. This evening event will kick off a full year of a focus on civil rights for our city. It’s a step in the right direction, and I hope that it will also lead to commissions for more permanent public art here created by artists to tribute people, themes, and ideas as significant as other cities have done.
Although the “I Have a Dream” speech has been copyrighted and sold, the City of Springfield got permission from the King family to project the entire 15-minute speech. After I watch that tonight, I’ll probably have more to say on this topic!
You can see more images of the silo projections on the ideaXfactory website.
This is a painting that I started from a page of doodles in my sketchbook. I traced the drawings into Inkpad on my iPad and the background shapes and colors. Now I’m in the process of transferring it onto a large 48″ x 36″ canvas.
Today Karen Nyberg is launching to the International Space Station, and according to this NBC Science article, will be the first quilter in space. The article brings up some interesting complications of sewing in space including the challenge of keeping the work still because it wants to float and having to watch for stray threads that could get in someone else’s eye. Also you can’t take dyes or paints into space, but perhaps use available food like ketchup?!
This story reminded that while Nyberg might the the first quilter in space, her’s won’t be the first quilts in space. The shuttles were wrapped with high-tech quilts for thermal protection. I heard a story about this on NPR last year, then when we visited the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport, I could see them on the space shuttle Discovery.
Above the Discovery they had all sort of the satellites and space probes hanging from the ceiling, and I took lots of photos thinking that someday I might want to draw them or use them in some artwork.
Now it’s all coming back to me, as I’m just now thinking how to make a un-quilt-like quilt for a show called Radical Elements. For the show I had picked the element “Curium” and was thinking about doing some figurative work about Marie Curie, for whom the element was named. But the size and material restrictions have me flummoxed as to how to do this.
Yesterday I read that Curium is silvery-white, tarnishes slowly, and glows red in the dark. It’s rare and used to make electricity for satellites and space probes. Thus my new fascination with space, satellites, and these photos from last year.
Now, how to fit in Marie Curie’s bicycle, another element I wanted to include in the piece? I’m also thinking about all the “firsts” she accompolished – First woman to win a Nobel prize, First person to win two, First person to win one and then have her daughter win another!
Also I like this quote by her, “Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.”
By the way, if you like reading quotes, you may like to follow Karen Nyberg’s Twitter account as she tweets from space for the next six months. Susan Shie alerted me to this nice tweet she posted to her three-year-old son. It’s a YouTube version of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” by Jewel.
p.s. omg, after watching the song above, I just thought to follow Nyberg’s Pinterest account and found she’s created a pinboard called “Hair and Space!” I will have to think about this idea for a while.
If you’ve been to my Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram accounts recently, you’ve probably see lots of yarn bombing photos.
We started a yarn bomb group at the ideaXfactory last fall and since, we meet every week, have been getting lots of projects done.
When we found out the St. Patrick’s Day parade is scheduling to go right by the ideaXfactory, we decided to decorate.
You can see from the installation photo, that the building is sadly in need of some new paint, and we don’t have a sign yet. So I decided to knit one.
For the other sides of the column, we recycled another project we created for the Art Museum yarn bomb last January (here’s the stop-motion video), but it was a little too small. Yesterday afternoon was a great time to sit outside in the 80-degree weather, and crochet up a few odd pieces to fill in.
It turned out to be a bigger job than I thought, but now all that’s left to finish is the fourth side of the column, and we can probably get that done in time for next weekend’s reception for the Missouri Art Educators Conference.
Now I have to go back to crocheting shamrocks for the parade today. Here’s where I got the pattern for the shamrocks, and thanks to Mochi for modeling my first attempt.
The little ginko tree outside the ideaXfactory started looking a little sad after it lost its leaves as the weather got colder, so we’ve been adding a few things. Like a tree sweater. Actually it sort of start as a turtle neck I knitted, (heh) and then I’ve been slowing adding arms.
My friend Penny made all sorts of creative little pompom creatures and plants that are attached in the top branches.
For First Night Springfield, the ideaXfactory will be participating in the downtown New Years’ Eve celebration, with the new Art of Space “Knitting Space” installation, and Russ is building a neon and LED sculpture environment. Here’s more information about ideaXfactory, tickets, and other First Night venues.
We were planning on hand-on yarn activities, but because of the low-light necessary for the art environments, we are moving the hands-on activities two doors down to our friends’ SquidFoo Art Gallery and Hacker Space. Hopefully the evening won’t be too cold, and we’ll also be able to work out on the Boonville street.
We won’t be able to teach anyone how to knit or crochet in one night, so I’ve been thinking of some easy yarn techniques that people who show up can do — yarn flowers made on plastic lid looms has been very popular so far. Also I’m thinking of pompoms, tassels and braids.
Here’s a bike I started to test out the different techniques. We have two more Sundays to prepare our yarn bombers crew, materials, and supplies, so if you have any other ideas for simple yarn techniques, please let me know!
Sometimes I stress out when trying to organize events and collaborate. Here’s a nice short PechaKucha presentation reminder to relax and lighten up, and in fact, why to even collaborate at all: Collaboration and You, by Shantell Martin: ‘Get out of your head and into your body, Hell yeah !’
View Next 25 Posts
