Pattern & Content: Day 5

Well, today was a great end to the week. Here's a picture of my final collection of cloth on the wall (all except for the 3 that are still batching). I wish that you could see the rest of the room. It was amazing.

I'm surprised by the volume of work that I did this week, but also by the amount that I feel that I've grown since last summer. The work that I did here is very different from what I did at Peters Valley: more complex, more complete. I feel good about that.

I had a really good critique session with Kerr. She gave me some very helpful feedback and somethings to think about as a way forward.

The picture below is of the last piece before cleanup. As expected, I was getting a lot looser. With this piece I was using polychromatic screen printing to explore complementary colors and designs that don't incorporate my ubiquitous black lines. I like it. It's big, rough, and basic.

My final observation about this is week is this: what a great group of people. As I said in an earlier post, all of my classmates are accomplished artists, some very much so. More importantly though, they were all open, enthusiastic, and supportive. That contributed tremendously to the success of the class. I feel like we all pushed and supported each other. And, if I'm going to give all due credit, then I must say that this second workshop with Kerr did not disappoint. She's a great teacher and guide. If you're a fiber artist and have not studied with her then you owe it to yourself to seek her out. I also have to say that Nancy and her family are excellent hosts, and chef Margaret did her part by making sure we were wonderfully fed all week. If you've never been to the Barn then it's time to visit the web site (www.nancycrow.com) and start shopping for a workshop. It's a great experience.

So tomorrow morning it's off for home for a couple of days of decompression before work starts on Tuesday. I've also got to get back on my diet and try to drop the pound or two that I picked up this week. I wasn't kidding when I said that Margaret's cooking is top notch!