"The Painted Lake"

My sister-in-law Julia Usher has been visiting from England and we have enjoyed afternoon walks in the nearby woodlands. I took these photos at the Mount Misery conservation land in Lincoln, MA. Julia is a watercolorist and has been trying to capture these views in her paintings. She came up with the title, "The Painted Lake," because of the autumn hues reflected on the water in late afternoon light.

24 x 80 Art Cloth Network's Exhibition

"One thousand nine hundred twenty square inches"
24x80"
Silk Crepe, MX dyes, discharge paste, textile paints,
composition metal leaf

I prepared two pieces for the upcoming Art Cloth Network exhibition. The unifying theme for this exhibit will be the consistent size of each piece: 24 x 80."

I started this piece as I usually do, by manipulating the cloth, using physical resist processes — binding, clamping, wrapping — derived from the Japanese shibori tradition. I usually do several layers of shibori using different colors to see what pattern emerges. In this piece, however, I started with an idea of the pattern I wanted, lots of little squares, about a square inch each.  I then made stencils of blocks of informal squares within a formal grid. I used these to remove color and add more colors. I like to work in layers, repeating similar elements, building up color and pattern until that point when the piece tells me it is finished.

"Down by the Pond I Found an Old Fishing Net"
24 x 80"
Silk Crepe, thickened MX dyes, textile paints

In this piece I used an old rusty fishing net I found at a pond near my house. I wanted to explore the design potential of a single tool. I prepared deconstructed screens by printing the fishing net image in dye on the screen. I also used wax resist and stamped with the fishing net. I monoprinted with the net, and then used the tool as a stencil. My favorite feature of this tool is that I can use it as both a stamp and a stencil, achieving a positive and negative image.