Cyber Fyber Exhibition Report

Golly! Where to start? First there was Susan Lenz! She was right there and visible both days I entered the Vista Gallery. The first day she was updating the show's site on her laptop out in the middle of the gallery, the second she was hand stitching one of her Decision series pieces. I was thrilled to meet her ... to actually talk to and touch her.
To quote the article written in a Columbia, South Carolina publication, "Cyber Fyber is not your average gallery exhibition. It is the culmination of a monumental, yearlong project developed by Columbia-area fiber artist Susan Lenz. The project was inspired by the sense of community she developed with other fiber artists around the world through her blogging experiences."

The postcard and ATC exhibits are amazing! While I was there, they were the major draw for anyone entering that showroom. Those small pieces of art drew viewers in for closer inspection. There were audible "ooo's and ahhhh's". There was wonder when they realized that Susan had made as many postcards and ATC's as were hanging to trade for all those exhibited in this show. I'm sure everyone treasures theirs from Susan as much as I do mine.
I have been online multiple times to study all these postcards and ATC's, but their photos do not portray the intricate details, colors, and textures that could be seen with my own eyes. I've voted (commented) on many of them and am glad to see that one of the ATC's I voted for won. To see a video of the people's choice awards go here.

I follow the blogs of many of the exhibitors. It was great to get up close to study the work that I've seen and read about online.
Arlee Barr is the cyber fyber artist with whom I've had the closest contact and interaction. It was wonderful to get to see and touch her Exquisite Corpse piece, "Shifting Gears". Although, I couldn't help but feel wistful that the original piece, "Rust Never Sleeps", designated for this show had gotten lost in the mail. I had contributed my work to that one. To read about the other exquisite corpses that have been created thanks to Arlee's organization and overseeing as the originator and "Grand Corpse Vizieress" go here. A third round that again includes fiber artists from around the world has just begun.

"Shifting Gears" by Arlee Barr

Another of Arlee's pieces hung on the wall opposite to one above.
This piece, "Cache", is rich in color and texture that can be seen in this photo. However, seeing those qualities in person is an AWESOME experience.

"Cache" by Arlee Barr

Arlee says of this piece, "It is a composite of techniques and ideas, many of which I was exposed to or shared on line, with my “Cyber friends”. Go here to read more.

I love to see artist's studios, the place where their creations "become". Susan's works in a space that is astonishingly small AND crowded.
In the center of her small space is the installation of her doors piece. Three walls exhibit finished pieces. There is hardly room for a stool to be brought up to her very crowded work table. Below is a photo of Susan's studio that I lifted from her blog.
As you can see, the fourth wall is shelves for containers filled with supplies.

Among all of the wonderful pieces hanging in Susan's studio this one spoke to me. There is a quiet elegance about it that I found appealing. The stitched birch bark pieces have the feeling of runes to me. It can be read about here.

Westport Island Series: Birch Bark
by Susan Lenz

I'm privileged to add that piece of Susan's to our home filled with art.
Susan is truly an amazing artist and person. Thanks to her more of the world has become aware of how the internet has positively connected, as well as affected, many of us artists separated by a lot of geography. The process of getting this exhibition together,as well as the exhibit itself, has extended and helped cement a world wide community of creative textile artists. Thank you, Susan.

Exquisite Corpse Round 2 - Sun Mask

My Exquisite Corpse completed its rounds quite awhile before the deadline of December 20th. When it arrived I hadn't even opened Carol's. My work space was piled high with elfish duties of making and wrapping presents. I cleared a space, filled in the last section on Carol's corpse, packed hers up, and then excitedly tore into my package to reveal this piece of fabulousness.
Each talented corpse mistress in my group completed a section without having a clue to what was previously done. So those resulting alternate patterns of warm and cool hues amazes me.

The way this interesting round robin project of international scope worked is that a basic design was created by each of the six participants in three groups. I was in group two.I transferred mine to a background cloth and divided it into six sections and worked the first one. It is hand appliqued using a freezer paper method. Meaning each piece was transferred to and then cut out of the FP with an added narrow seam allowance which was then turned under before each paper covered shape was blind stitched into place on my chosen background fabric. I completely covered every bit of my worked section and sent it out into the world.
Included was a note to use full-strength colors ... meaning no pastels, nor muted tones. I also stated my preference that the piece be quilted after it returns to me. I requested that each name be written on the fabric covering a worked section (those have since been pieced together as the backing).

Carol in Wales was the first to get it. I'm sure she figured out that the section she chose was the other half of a face. The pink area is hand-dyed cheese cloth while the blue is machine felting. And then there is painted tyvec and newsprint as well as beads.
It was then sent onto Nancy in Canada who filled the bottom right section with wild colors and pieced it together with lots of texture.
Betty in Alabama was the last one to work on it and hand appliqued silks and crystalline fabric in the bottom left section. Her points could not be any sharper and the scattered beads sparkle on that rich, deep, shining blue.

In the meantime, Anne Marie of Canada was the third corpse mistress to add her talent to the upper right section. She suspected my design was a variation of a NY Beauty. She was a little surprised by that after checking out my blog and not seeing much traditional work. So she decided that my "traditional" block wasn't going to be very traditional, if she had anything to say about it. She even included orange snake skin pleather on the point pieces.
Paula in Maine painted the upper left section and then filled in the shapes with beads ... and then more beads to create radiating patterns.

Included in my package were six postcards from my 100 Lake Series with instructions for each corpse mistress to select one as a thank you for contributing to my piece. The one that came back with the completed corpse is my memory/reminder of the experience for this second round.
One of the postcards from this mini series of eight was an exchange with Susan Lenz and is part of her Cyber Fyber exhibition that opens January 8th. Susan created a blog about the exhibition here.

There is also a blog about all the Exquisite Corpse Textiles from the first round as well as posts about this second one as each corpse is revealed.

Now to get busy and add my finishing touches to this wonderful piece.

Exquisite Corpse Round 2 - Carol's Piece

Throughout this past year I've participated in a second round of Exquisite Corpse making, Go here to read the premise and beginnings of our project. This one belongs to Carol Taylor of Wales.
The design that Carol drew was based loosely on a Celtic swirl, but included diamonds and dots too.
She had enclosed pieces of brown silk and annealed copper mesh plus a request that aqua be included among our color choices.
Here is my contribution to Carol's Celtic banner.
I laid the bits of silk and deconstructed metallic threads and yarn as well as roving over the background of the square. The shapes were traced from her drawing on freezer paper over a light table and cut out of silk fabrics. The whole section is constructed in my "ortwork" technique, which is a form of collage. The pieces are placed and layered and then "trapped" under tulle netting. Machine quilting holds everything in place. I finished by couching metallic cording over the edges of the shapes as well as outlining the diamond shapes at the top of my square.

My finished corpse was waiting, still in its sealed envelope, for me to get Carol's finished and to the post office. It was difficult not to rip into mine until my obligation to the group project was fulfilled. Soon I'll post about my piece.

Arlee, the originator and "Grand Corpse Vizieress", is gathering another group of corpse mistresses for a 3rd round. The deadline for participation is January 15th. Go to Arlee's blog to leave a comment or find her email address if you have interest in "playing" in this international project.

Go to the Exquisite Corpse blog to see photos and read about the creative processes of all the corpse mistresses as they reveal their corpses as well as talk about the sections they've created on others.

"Flower Power" for Susan

I was the fourth contributor to Susan of Spokane's "Flower Power" themed Exquisite Corpse piece. My work blends into the edge of Arlee's section, but hardly into Susan's. Aargh! I wish I had been more attentive to that edge. It's now up to Susan to meld our work together.
I used my "ortwork" collage technique. I constructed it separately from Susan's whole piece. It consists of silk flowers, "bits & pieces", and roving collaged over a hand-painted background fabric plus a thin layer of batting. Tulle netting and free-motion quilting holds it all together. A bit more quilting secures it to Susan's large piece.
I have had the experience of being among such an array of wild flowers on a sunny blue skied day and have definitely felt their "power" ... I just collapsed and didn't want to leave.

Go here to see Susan's photos of the whole piece on Flicker.
Go here to read Susan's reveal and description of the whole piece as well as posts about the whole Exquisite Corpse Project.

Goodies in the Postbox

A very small box from Susan in Spokane arrived in my postbox about a week ago. It was stuffed full of marvelous art making materials.
There are wonderful hand stamped papers and fabric, a length of fun yarn, a hank of roving, fine copper mesh pieces, interesting beads and a pair of beautiful wooden earrings.

Susan is a fellow corpse-mistress and a contributor to my Exquisite Corpse piece (center section on the right side).
Soon photos of individual parts and my thoughts about the whole piece will be posted. I'm thinking some of those goodies from Susan will end up on the finished piece.

A Fairy for Vero

I was the fourth of six contributors to Vero's Exquisite Corpse Fairy project and had chosen the center space on the unworked side.
My work is rarely populated with recognizable forms whether human or mystical, but it often features flowers. So hiding a fairy among flowers was the most natural and easiest choice for me.
Creating the fairy was experimentation and play. I drew several versions of her. The chosen one's outline was traced onto freezer paper. I cut away her form to get an outline of her face and shoulders. The waxy side of the paper was ironed onto a piece of hand-painted silk. A flesh colored oil stick pastel was used to shade her skin. I ran the pastel across the rough surface on a piece of paper, then used a stiff bristled paint brush to pick some of it up to color the skin area exposed within the freezer paper template. I kept applying the pastel until it was built up enough to be seen against the background. I used a permanent pen to draw her facial features. If I were to do this again, I would use a light brown ink rather than black. However, black is what I had at the moment. Then her wings were traced from my drawing onto the silk with that same pen. I ended up painting them with a mixture of silver and white acrylic paint plus Gloss Medium to make them shimmer. Yarn, roving, and thread form her hair.

Days before Vero's piece arrived in the mail I had purchased a stem of silk hydrangea flowers just because it was so beautiful. I loved the multiple range of coloration within the flowerettes. A few of those were scattered around the fairy along with free form leaf shapes cut out of various batik fabrics. The centers of the flowers are made with "balled up" strands of silk and cotton threads. A few Angelina strands were sprinkled overall. Tulle netting was laid over all and it was machine quilted with just a thin layer of batting. Vero's background was a wonderful piece of linen that I didn't want to completely cover up. I cut away excess background from my piece around the outside edges and attached it to Vero's corpse with more machine quilting. The irregular edge gave opportunity to my fellow creators to fill in the dips while the extended pieces could interact with their edges.

Go here to see and read about Vero's whole piece. Go here to read about the various contributions to this other Exquisite Corpse pieces.

Exquisite Corpse Round 1 "What is a Weed?"

I was the fifth corpse mistress to add to Julie's "What is a Weed?" piece. (note: To see and read about the whole piece click on Julie's name to get to her weblog. To see and read about all the Exquisite Corpses as they are revealed go here.)
Arlee's dangling appendages presented a challenge to work around. I figure they serve to push my flat area more into the background. After all, weeds can hardlty be noticed growing in the hard dirt where nothing else will sprout.
The plants in this piece are actual weeds that I had picked along a rocky bed of a stream in Colorado. They were pounded with a flat river stone into a piece of muslin. That was done several years ago and the natural dyes had faded so I used crayons to give them color. I heat set the crayons to melt the wax and pigment into the fabric. A fusible web was ironed on the back before I cut them out and adhered them to the background fabrics.

The ground fabric is textured from a crayon rubbing over a cut wood surface from the same area. It is over painted with fabric paint. The blue sky is a piece of hand-painted fabric.

A dark green tulle netting is layered over the whole area. A piece of batting provided by Julie is sandwiched between my piece and her background fabric. I machine quilted with black thread to outline as well as to define the weeds. Seed stitching by hand quilts the ground and sky to add a bit of texture.

I had fun! I'm glad that a bottom square was left open for me. The dirt serves as a base or ground for the whole piece ... or at least this bottom corner. I like to think that I would've thought of a different composition if my space to fill had been in the middle of the quilt.

ATC's

Three quilted trading cards were made for Susan, Arlee, and Vero who have added their creativity to my Exquisite Corpse piece. You may recognize the elements from "Come With Me to the Kasbah".
I had previously sent ATC's to Caroline and Julie who also added their skills and imagination to that piece. Caroline's got in the mail before I thought to take a picture of it. Here's both sides of Julie's.
My Exquisite Corpse piece will be presented here with close-up photos when it arrives in the mail from Canada. The last two mailings from there to here have taken sooooooo long ... nearly five weeks for one and two+ weeks and still counting for this one. Is it the gas prices? Customs? What?