Swept Away

Working my way through the beginnings of a new series about love and relationships. What draws us to another person? How do we move through the complexities of choosing a partner? These are some of the questions I am thinking about. I am using an unusual found wedding ring quilt top for the first three pieces. I got this on Ebay for less than $20, and originally the background was a light lavender color, so I cut it into three pieces and overdyed each using painted on pigment dyes. The results were unexpected. The rings themselves are very large—about 24” across, and they were overlapped and stitched by machine onto whole cloth, rather than traditionally pieced. Some of the symbols I have embroidered come from archaic alchemy symbols—a reference to the elusive “chemistry” of attraction.

I have been reading some interesting things, here is a sample: Straight Man, by Richard Russo; The Housekeepers, by Alex Hay; Foster, by Claire Keegan; Silver Nitrate, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia; Thin Air by Anne Cleeves; and Horse by Geraldine Brooks (five star review—this was a wonderful book).



Last of July

It is hard to believe tomorrow will be August. The last weeks of July have brought full bloom to the flower borders and some substantial rainfall. We had some hot temperatures, but nothing like the Southwest. We have a pleasant weather week ahead, so I plan to repair and paint the ceiling of my tiny studio and freshen the lovely yellow color on the walls—a good excuse to organize and maybe even let a few materials go.

I have started a new series of works that will explore ideas of love, relationships, and navigating the challenges of a shared life. The first group of quilts are about the first blush of attraction and the chemistry that leads us to another person. Early days, but here are a couple of details from work in progress (and overdyed quilt top with chonky cat). I am using a found wedding ring quilt top, cut and dyed in different colors, as a starting point.

Here are some reading suggestions for the end of summer: Exiles, by Jane Harper; Olga Dies Dreaming, by Xochitl Gonzalez; (both on audio) Queen of Dirt Island, by Donal Ryan; The Lost Wife, by Susanna Moore and Hestia Strikes a Match, by Christine Grillo (all in print).

I’m very excited to have Amulet Bundles for a Happy Childhood selected for From Fiber at the Springfield IL Art Association this fall.

Glimpses

New Legacies has opened at the Lincoln Center in Fort Collins, CO and two of my Ordinary Oracle pieces are on display until August 5. Glimpses was inspired by reading about the ancient oracle at Delphi. It is said that she went into a trance, then gazed into a dark bowl of water from the sacred stream to see the future and make her predictions. I was interested in the fact that virtually all the ancient oracles were women, and were considered to be the most powerful sources of wisdom at the time. One of our kids did a semester abroad in Athens, so we went to visit and took our hostel-arranged bus trip (with a bunch of fun twenty-somethings) to Delphi. You can still feel the power of place there.

Ordinary Oracle: Glimpses (detail), 52 x 28, cotton, linen, silk noil, wool, small objects

Summer Reading: Winter Counts, by David Heska Wanbli Weiden; The Midnight News, by Jo Baker; Singer Distance, by Ethan Chatagnier, and on audio, Dead Water, by Anne Cleeves.

Ordinary Oracle:Talismanic Cloth was selected for Fiber Art Now Excellence in Quilts. Apron Strings 2 is on exhibit in Indiana Now, at the Art Musuem of Greater Lafayette through August 6. Amulet Bundles for Cutting Strings will appear in SAQA Global Art Evolved: Intertwined, at the Yellowstone Art Museum, opening today, June 30. Online, Afterlives, a Surface Design Association online exhibit, includes Amulet Bundles for Teenage Drivers.

We have hazy air here in Northern Indiana due to the wild fires in Canada, but some much needed rain has put the garden into full bloom. You can check my Instagram page for garden photos.

Afterlives

Last night I had the pleasure to gather on Zoom with other artists exhibiting in the latest Online Exhibition from SDA, Afterlives. The guest curator, Destini Ross, generously gave her insights and comments as we previewed the exhibit. To take a look at all the wonderful works, click here

Amulet Bundles for Teenage Drivers, 2022

“Afterlives, our Spring 2023 Selections Online Exhibition, features artists who consider an artwork’s lifespan before and beyond the moment of creation. Whether material or conceptual, their artistic transformations foreground lived experiences including migration, childhood, disability, and climate anxiety. These artists pull us in close and invite us to connect through shared identities or empathize with those outside our own.” – Destini Ross, Guest Curator

Several of my Amulet Bundle series will be on exhibit this summer, including the SAQA Exhibit, Art Evolved: Intertwined. More on that next month. Fantastic Fibers continues at the Yeiser Center through June 24. See an exhibit catalog of all the works. New Legacies opens at the Lincoln Center in Fort Collins on June 10.

Reading List:

I have spent most of May gardening and traveling, but managed to read a couple of books: Seven Steeples, by Sara Baume; The Trackers, by Charles Frazier, and Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters (all as paper books).

Reading the Tea Leaves

Ordinary Oracle: Reading the Tea Leaves has been selected for the 39th New Legacies: Contemporary Art Quilts Exhibit at the Lincoln Center Galleries, Fort Collins, Colorado. The show runs from June 10 to August 5, 2023. Ordinary Oracle: Glimpses will also be in the exhibit.

These works are quiet, meditative pieces. They are densely stitched and contain a lot of different textures and fabrics, mostly repurposed from clothing and domestic linens. I have backed them with woven wool. For this series, celebrating the visionaries among us, I was drawn to a more neutral color range and roughly textured fabrics.

I am thrilled to have two of these pieces accepted for exhibition.

Here is what I have been reading: The Curator, by Owen King; Maureen, by Rachel Joyce; I Have Some Questions for You, by Rebecca Makkai; Blue Lightning, by Anne Cleeves and The Reindeer Hunters, by Lars Mytting

RED

Spring still feels far away. A few blooms have poked up, but the days are cold and cloudy. I hope to be able to take some photos outside of recent work, just need the right conditions (bright but overcast, no wind, above fifty degrees). I am restless, between projects, looking for some kind of “transition” handwork to help me move to the next thing. I may just start stitching scraps together and see where it leads--or maybe continue my handkerchief stories.

Wisdom Cloak: The Grandmothers. 54 x 57”, wool, cotton, small objects.

Wisdom Cloak: The Grandmothers, was selected for the SAQA Global exhibit Color in Context: Red, juried by Judy Kirpich. The exhibit will premier at the International Quilt Festival in Houston this fall. I was inspired by some research I accidentally stumbled into about ancient, neolithic standing stones called menhirs or “grandmother stones” that are found still standing throughout Europe. Here is my artist statement:

The ancient ones, our grandmothers going far back in time, preserved a legacy of wisdom that lives on in women today. All of womankind is a sisterhood of time and place—our own stitches and threads connecting us to the past and into the future.

Reading List:

Long winter, lots of books…A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny; Now is Not the Time to Panic, by Kevin Wilson; A Dangerous Business, by Jane Smiley; The Book of Form and Emptiness, by Ruth Ozeki; and One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow, by Olivia Hawker.

Cranes Overhead

Over the last several days I have heard the calls of the Sandhill cranes as they move north. These huge birds fly in flocks, high up in the sky, but their sounds are loud and unmistakable. The daylight is longer and the snowdrops are in bloom.

I have been thinking about ordinary women—our friends, neighbors and colleagues—our fellow needlewomen. My ongoing series, Ordinary Oracle, is meant to speak to the wisdom and goodness in the people around us. Everyday we find evidence of women who have a vision for repairing the mess we have made of our world. We need to listen up.

Ordinary Oracle: Talsimanic Cloth, 46 x 32”

What I am Reading:

This Time Tomorrow, by Emma Straub; Nightbitch, by Rachel Yoder; The Cartographers, by Peng Sheppard; (all on audio) and as print books, Shotgun Lovesongs, by Nicholas Butler; The Rabbit Hutch, by Tess Gunty and Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver. I loved the Kingsolver book—I didn’t want it to end.

Apron Strings: Moments of Passage, was selected for Fantastic Fibers, Yeiser Art Center, Paducah, KY. More on that later.

Winter Stitching

Winter is the perfect season to hunker down and stitch. I find the process of moving needle through cloth to be very restorative. I have been working on a small series of works called Ordinary Oracle, about women who live among us, speaking truth and seeing visions of a better future. These are smallish pieces, with dense stitching.

Ordinary Oracle: Vision of Repair (detail) Linen, cotton and silk noil, hand embroidered and stitched.

I have been voraciously reading. Here are a few I have enjoyed lately:

The Marriage Portrait, by Maggie O’Farrell; Lucy by the Sea, by Elizabeth Strout (on audio); Less is Lost, by Andrew Sean Greer (on audio); Our Missing Hearts, by Celeste Ng (on audio); How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water, by Angie Cruz, and The World Made Straight, by Ron Rash.

I am able to read so much because I listen to audio books on Libby when I am stitching—it keeps me out of my own head too much. I still love to hold a book and always have a library book on the nightstand.

Holiday Snow Storm

Winter blizzard warning here, temperatures have dipped to seven below, a good time to stay indoors and think and sew. My solo exhibit Cloaked in Wisdom ends December 31 at the Visions Museum of Textile Art. So, today I am showing some collected details of these pieces, all in wool, hand embroidered and stitched. Each cloak includes a small primitive needle to remind us of our textile legacy, and the women who have stitched before us.

Suggestions for winter reading:

Lark Ascending, by Silas House; A Secret About a Secret, by Peter Spiegelman; Northernmost, by Peter Geye; The It Girl, by Ruth Ware; We Spread, by Iain Reid; Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro; The Night Ship by Jess Kidd and Dinosaurs, by Lydia Millet.

Warmest wishes for a joyful new year, and a shared hope for peace and justice in 2023.

Helen