Thoughts & news
Beginning the new adventure
Updated 1/27/2016 to correct an intolerable number of typos.
I took off the last 2 weeks of December in anticipation that the last day of the year would mark my last day at National Geographic after almost 26 years--that's 9,448 days, but who counts. It was an amazing experience--many jobs, at least 2 careers, and tremendous people, all under a single roof. The decision to leave was not taken lightly or made with ease. The recent reorganization (just Google "Washington Post National Geographic") presented me with both a job opportunity and a chance to take a voluntary separation package. I chose the latter. I hope that years from now I can have a Frost-like moment when I can rightly compare this inflection point in the arc of my life story to those roads in a yellow wood. I confess that having just reread "The Road Not Taken," I'm struck by just how very appropriate it is to the moment.
So here I am, nearly a month later. I've had a couple weeks of holiday slacking, followed by a couple weeks of a lingering, gurgling, post-holiday virus, which I can always count on before Epiphany. I've cleaned the closets, remembered how to cook, cleared the backlog of ironing, and tidied my desk. And of course we've had a blizzard, affectionately dubbed "Snowzilla". Now what? I suppose it's time to embrace this whole idea of being a self-employed artist. You see, that's what this leap of faith is supposed to be about--moving from my day-to-day corporate job to being a full time working artist. The universe has seen fit to send me several bits of reassurance that I've made the right decision: a supportive husband, a host of friends cheering me on, a small show at the New Deal Cafe, and a commission that I'm hoping to finalize within a week. I'm grateful.
What's missing at this point is a routine, my great boss, and my work friends.
A regular rhythm to my day is only just starting to come together. I like a certain amount of routine and a certain amount of flexibility, but I'm little surprised to find just how aimless one can become when all structure is taken away.
I've had good bosses and bad bosses--and I mean seriously bad. I was fortunate to leave NGS on a high note, having spent most of the last 2 years working for a great boss. I miss having a leader I can follow with confidence and someone who I knew was thinking faster and farther than I was. Now that falls to me. I get to be both the leader and the follower. It's great to lead; sometimes it's also nice to follow--just saying.
I love days spent in near silence, or perhaps with an audiobook or NPR. Having said that, I can also say that a week spent that way will definitely make you appreciate the folks with whom you used to spend your days. This is my opportunity to make new connections, but I miss my colleagues.
That's the news. Whatever I write next (could that possibly be as early as tomorrow?) will be about what comes next.
Greenbelt Festival of Lights just 2 weeks away
Visit my booth at the Greenbelt Festival of Lights Art & Craft Fair Dec 6-7th where I'll be selling original art cloth scarves. This is always a wonderful event and a great opportunity to shop locally, support makers and small businesses, and save money by purchasing directly from the source. It's hard to believe that this will be my 4th year participating.
Progress: drying out + rebuilding
We're making amazing progress on recovering from the flood. Damage to my Bernina 1090 was worse than I thought, but less than it could have been. Two motors and a full overhaul later, I've been told by the repair guy that it's performing very well. I'm hoping to see that for myself this weekend. The insurance company has been great about getting us through the cleanup and inspection process and providing funds to start the repair. Just as amazing was the fact that our general contractor was able to fit us into his schedule earlier than he anticipated. So, we're very far along with the rebuilding.
The basement got a little worse before it got better. After the old tile floor was exposed and thoroughly dried we began noticing a few loose tiles. By "a few" I mean just about all of them. That meant removing all of the tiles and disinfecting the cement floor underneath.
Yesterday we came home to the scene below. The new vinyl blank flooring is installed and the painting looks like it's just about done. With luck we'll be completely finished by Friday afternoon and ready to begin moving back in over the weekend. It's been a complete whirlwind--the flood was 2 weeks ago yesterday--but that's way better than the long-and-slow process that it could have been.
Acqua Alta: The Destruction of my Studio
For hundreds of years the Venetians have lived with the waters of the lagoon--not next to or near, but with. The moon, tides, and storms combine periodically to inundate the city. I've been there to see it; it's impressive. The Venetians cope by donning their Wellies, assembling temporary elevated walkways, and, for the most part, living above the ground floor. The water goes away, they clean up, and move on. So why did I locate my studio in a basement space? Necessity, limited options--whatever--that's where it was. This past Tuesday we were hit with what will probably be called a "50-year flood event"--the second in about 5 years. You do the math. Here's a photo of Dan's weather station. Note that at 9:17AM we reached a maximum rainfall rate of 15.57 inches per hour. All told we got almost 7 inches of rain in less than an hour. And, that's where flash floods come from.
There were people in our neighborhood being rescued from cars trapped in 5 feet of water in an underpass where I've never see water. The storm drains were overwhelmed causing the drain at the bottom of our basement stairs to backup 2 feet of water outside the exterior door to the studio. We have a 2-pump system to deal with just this sort of emergency. It failed (long story; someone's fault; not the ours, the pump's or the pump contractor's). The net result was about 10 inches of water in the basement.
Here's the before. Pretty.
In the photo below you can see the water line along the exterior door. We're lucky that this was storm water and not sewage. Some neighbors and friends weren't so lucky.
I was able to save almost all of the dyed fabric. This is the beginning of a small mountain that formed in the driveway. I've got 4 garbage bags of ironing waiting for me, but it's better than a total loss.
Among the saddest losses was a stack of books I'd just started moving to the basement. Some were rare and out-of-print. It hurts to see any book ill-treated, and destroyed is that much worse. However, all of my workshop notes and dye sample books survived. When I say, "Thanks be to God" I mean every single word!
So we spent from midday Tuesday until midday Friday packing, cleaning, repairing damaged appliances, pumps, etc., and talking to adjustors, estimators, and other helpful folks.
Friday afternoon the cleaning and mitigation team arrived to rip up the floor and cut out 24" of drywall and insulation all the way around the studio and utility room, apply disinfectant, and setup industrial dehumidifiers and fans (many fans). Our contractor comes today to talk about rebuilding.
In the end we lost some stuff, a few small appliances (e.g., dehumidifier, condensate pump, vacuum, etc.), but the furnace survived and the hot water heater was repaired. Three of the four sewing machines are OK, despite having their foot pedals submerged (or floating). The fourth machine (my faithful and much loved Bernina 1090) was on the floor. I dried it out and it appears to be running, but acting a little strange. It's going to the repair shop today. I lost a big stack of wool suiting remnants, an entire bolt of felt, blah, blah, blah. Basically everything in a plastic tub survived. After this my whole life is going into plastic tube, ziplocks, and sheet protectors.
Dan and I are both grateful that it wasn't worse. "Why?" is not really a productive question at this point. However, "Never again!" might be a good battle cry. WSSC (the sewer people) has some explaining to do.
David Hornung's "Collage" workshop
It's Wednesday, and a week ago today I was in David Hornung's "Collage" workshop at the Crow Timber Frame Barn in Ohio. It was the second workshop that I've taken with David (davidhornung.com), the other being "Color: A workshop for artists and designers" back in 2009. Where the color workshop was predominantly a carefully programmed and exercise-focused experience, the collage workshop was almost entirely unstructured studio time with a general rhythm of slide show, discussion, working, and critique. We started Monday morning with a sideshow and discussion of collage as a medium and looked at examples from previous students. It was only then that I realized that several of my fellow students were "repeat offenders", returning for a second year for another week with David. He's a good and gentle teacher, and I find that he's particularly adept at creating a peaceful and contemplative environment in the studio. I think that might come in part from his own habit of working in silence. It was a real treat to work in the beautiful sunny upstairs studio at the Barn with something like a dozen people, all of whom were able to work in relative silence for hours. I confess that I went into this workshop hoping for more structured design exercises. [As it turns out, I'll be getting that in a two week design principles class with David next spring.] As a result of the open ended collage composition assignments ("Try to make 3-6 compositions per day") I was free to follow whatever path I found myself on. And, the paths turned out to be interesting. The image below show most of the work that I completed in the week. They're all small studies, but they revealed some interesting things about my thinking and aesthetic sense.
A few observations:
- In spite of my obsession with circles, when you put an Xacto knife in my hand I seem more likely to cut a straight line. I should probably be more thoughtful about my choice of tools, and mix things up a bit.
- I'm analytical about my design (e.g, straight lines, numbers, math, balance, and carefully planned imbalance).
- I really enjoy neutral backgrounds.
- The drawn line combined with the cut/pieced/collaged line is beautiful. Others do this far better than I, but I love it in almost all instances.
- Linear does not have to mean tight.
- Nerdy is OK.
Toward the end of the week, having completed so many analytical compositions, I intentionally created some very loosely brushed paper that I could cut up and rearrange. The images below show the result. I think they are pointing to possibilities--heck the whole week is pointing to possibilities.
In sum, it was definitely time well spent. Many thanks to David and my fellow collage warriors for creating such as supportive and productive environment.
Carol Soderlund's "Neutral Territory"--way more than 50 shades of grey
I've just returned from two weeks at the Crow Timber Frame Barn in Ohio for two outstanding workshops, one with Carol Soderlund (carolsoderlund.com) and one with David Hornung (davidhornung.com). I'll write about David's workshop in a future post. This one is all about Carol's workshop, which was titled "Neutral Territory: 50 Shades of Gray + 50 Shades of Brown."
In her "Color Mixing for Dyers" workshop, Carol teaches the basics of full-immersion and low-water immersion dyeing with Procion MX dyes. The tangible products of the class are a head full of knowledge, Carol's stunningly detailed handouts, and THICK binder that her students affectionately refer to as, "The Bible". This reference volume contains thousands of dyed 1-inch square fabric samples (made in class) to document the cubic color model for several combinations of different yellow, red, and blue dye. It's amazing, and I use my notebook almost every time I'm in the dye studio.
So, why all of the description of a workshop that I took 6 years ago? Well, "Neutral Territory" builds on "Color Mixing." Every combination of three pure MX dye primary colors has the potential to create a neutral black, warm black, cool black, etc. The trick is finding the right proportions of yellow, red, and blue. What I'm telling you is that I paid good money to spend 5 days with Carol and 19 other students mixing untold numbers (way more than 50!) of very carefully formulated mixtures of dye searching for good black candidates, then creating 10-step gradations of the best candidates to see if what we thought was black was really neutral or had a hue leaning. And, we only scratched the surface of the 80 families (i.e., possible combinations) of yellows, reds, and blues. It was as much about the investigative method as it was about the end result. That said, I'm now the proud owner of another mighty sample book, which might come to be known as "The Apocrypha".
For me, the culmination of the workshop came late on the 4th day when I washed out some silk samples that I'd just discharged and realized that I'd managed to combine what I learned in this workshop with what I'd previously learned in Carol's "Dyeing to Discharge" and "True Colors" to select a dye combination, mix a black by eye, and create a predictable result that I've been wanting for some time now--a black that grades down to a silver-gray and discharges to near white. I love that feeling that comes when deep study in a subject area produces learning that all begins to overlap and intersect.
I count this workshop as another great week spent with an outstanding teacher and excellent mentor. If you have any serious interest in dyeing, I urge you to seek an opportunity to study with Carol. Rest assured, you'll be a better dyer for having done so.
I'm launching a new online series
I'm feeling the need to make a commitment to something that will feed my inner artist on a day-to-day basis. I still have a corporate job that keeps me busy most days and leaves me tired most evenings. And yet, I'm also very committed to growing as an artist. Part of that growth is keeping the creative fires stoked on days when I'm not able to be in the studio. Several years ago my friend Sherill Gross (http://sagworks.wordpress.com) embarked on the ambitious project to created a completed work for art almost every day for an entire year. The result was a wonderful series of cut paper works and an accompanying book titled, "2007 one-a-(week)day." Sherill inspires me on many levels, high on the list being her dedication to her craft.
I'm setting the same challenge for myself, but keeping it simple. I'm totally enthralled with TileDeck, an iOS app that let's you create color doodles that you can then arrange in various different tessellation patterns. It's really cool; perhaps even a little addictive. So here's what I'm going to do (at least what I'm planning to do): I will create and post one new pattern every day for the next year. That's all--just one image each day; no narrative. I just realized that I'm holding my breath and sitting on the edge of my seat as I type this. That means something. I think it's apprehension. This project won't be demanding work. On the contrary, it's going to be fun. The apprehension I'm feeling is about making a commitment to myself that I might fail to keep. But, that's casting myself a bit too far into the future. For now, let's just make a start...
You can see the daily posts here or by clicking the "365 patterns" link under "Portfolio" in the menu bar, above.
"Illuminations" online gallery posted
Check out new work from the Art Cloth Network at http://www.behance.net/gallery/Illumination/13426437
The online gallery for the Art Cloth Network show "Illuminations" is now live. The show, juried by Bruce Hoffman, is one of our strongest ever. I'm so very proud of this group of artists, of what we've accomplished, and of how much growth I've seen since joined. Check out this fine exhibition on our Behance site at http://www.behance.net/gallery/Illumination/13426437.
Fallow time
The last few months have been a bit of a dry time for me in the studio. A mixture of happy and not-so-happy life events have combined to create an emotional roller coaster that’s left me feeling rather overwhelmed and unproductive. On the positive side, Dan and I got legally married and escaped to the Caribbean for a week of warmth with friends. That happiness stood in sharp juxtaposition to other events, such as the death of a friend, work stress, and the seasonal malaise that seems to be epidemic this winter. Given my temperament, unproductive and overwhelmed live just around the corner from guilt, obsession, and worry. Not pretty, but I’m working on that.
Like most everyone this year, I’m eagerly awaiting the permanent arrival of spring—not this 70’s-one-day-and-snow-the-next stuff. Spring is about renewal and rebirth, and yet I’m trying to look at this not-so-great studio time as fallow time. Good stewardship of the land requires that a field not be planted every season or always with the same crop. Periodically, cropland needs to be allowed to regenerate, often through planting with a fallow crop that promotes soil enrichment. We too need time to regenerate. I feel that I’ve harvested a lot of good things from the my field—my studio—over the past few years, and yet it's so easy to fall prey to the expectation of continuous growth and continuous harvest.
So for now, I’ve got a commission piece is process, and I’m experimenting with ideas for a new series—and, I’m trying to be patient with myself. That’s easier said than done, but I’m trying.
Art Cloth Network accepting membership applications
I've been a member of the Art Cloth Network for several years. It's been a great experience. I've met some extremely talented artists who've helped me grow as and artist and as a person. We're currently accepting membership applications. If you're interested, please read the notice below and consider applying. The application deadline is March 15, 2014.
Art Cloth Network is open for new members! If you'd like information about the group, see our website at http://artclothnetwork.com.
Members of the Art Cloth Network find that the opportunities for community, conversation, sharing of techniques, inspiration and resources benefit our art and creativity. We have recently increased our membership limits to 30 members in good standing, including those on formal leave. When the number falls below 30, we accept new member applications. We currently have openings for up to eight new members.
The current deadline for membership applications is March 15, 2014, and you may send in your application materials at any time prior to the deadline. You will be notified by April 15, 2014 whether your application has been approved.
Send a request to jeanne@jeannesisson.com in order to receive detailed information and application instructions.
See ACN Interpretations online
Work from the ACN "Interpretations" show can now be viewed online at http://www.behance.net/gallery/Interpretations/10621347.
The Art Cloth Network "Interpretations" show just finished what I've heard was a very successful run in the FiberSpace at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. Now you can see the pieces from the Exhibit online by visiting the ACN portfolio on Behance at http://www.behance.net/gallery/Interpretations/10621347.
Festival was a big success
Although we loaded in while it was raining, closed an hour early on Sunday, and loaded out with sleet bouncing off our heads, last week's Festival of Lights was a big success. Many thanks to all of you who came out to shop and support the event. If you missed the event and are still looking for that special gift for yourself our someone else, please stop by my online store at shop.russlittlefiberartist.net.
Art+Craft Fair this weekend (Dec 7-8)
You absolutely must put this event at the top of your "to do" list for this weekend. See great work, meet the artists, and purchase original, meaningful gifts for yourself and others.
This will be my 3rd year having a booth at this show, and it get's better every year!
Saturday, 10:00 am - 5:00 pm Sunday, 11:00 am - 4:00 pm
Click here for a map to the Greenbelt Community Center.
Can't make it to the show? Check out the online shopping opportunities at shop.russlittlefiberartist.net
Successful "Small Business Saturday"
Yesterday I hosted the first open studio event in my new studio to kick off the holiday sales season and mark "Small Business Saturday." I'm happy to report that it was a big success. It was great to welcome a few folks into the new space. It was also just the right kick in the pants that I needed to get me to clean up and put a few things on the walls!
New art cloth added to my portfolio
Illumination- Shockwave FULL
I've just added three recently completed art cloth pieces to my online portfolio. Click the images below to visit the individual pages in the portfolio, where you'll find more images and details about each piece.
Illumination- Stripped DETAIL 1
Illumination- Counting FULL
Buy my wearable art at the Festival of Lights
I'll be exhibiting at the Greenbelt Festival of Lights Art & Craft Fair, Dec 7-8 at the Greenbelt Community Center in Greenbelt, MD. This will be my 3rd year participating. It's a juried show with outstanding vendors, a great local event, and an excellent way to buy local and support small business. Hope to see you there. Click here for a map to the location.
"Counting" accepted into ACN "Illumination" show
I learned last week that my art cloth composition titled, "Counting" (shown below; additional images and info in my portfolio) was accepted into the new Art Cloth Network show, "Illumination." Bruce Hoffman juried the show. I'm thrilled to have had an opportunity for him to see my work, and delighted to have been selected. We're currently seeking a venue for the first exhibition of this new show, but I expect that an online gallery will be available soon as well.
"Interpretations" traveling to San Jose
The Art Cloth Network exhibit, "Interpretations," just finished a successful showing at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center in Evanston, IL and is now on it's way to the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles in San Jose, CA. I saw it in Evanston and was just blown away. I count myself fortunate to be a member of this group, and I've got some super-talented friends.
The show includes my piece titled, "van Gogh Bubbles #1," which was inspired by the colors and brush stroke quality of some of van Gogh's paintings of cyprus trees (http://russlittlefiberartist.net/portfolio/van-gogh-bubbles-1). If you find yourself in the San Jose area between Nov 6 and Jan 19 check it out.
I made the Washington Post Going Out Guide!
How cool is this? I just found out that my exhibit was mentioned in the Washington Post!
How cool is this? I was checking actiity on my website last night and noticed that I was getting referral traffic from the Washington Post, which made no sense until I followed the link and discovered that there's an item about the "Moving in Circles" exhibit in the "Going Out Guide". Thanks to ardent Tweeting by Kelly Wargo, Arts Education Specialist in the Greenbelt Recreation & Parks Department, I've become something to do!
A photo of one of my pieces (left) was the lead image for the column on Tues, 10/8.
The actual notice about the show appears on page 2. The show closes this Friday, so if you're planning on "going out" do it soon.
Gallery reception this Sunday (10/6)
The closing reception for "Moving in Circles" will be this Sunday (10/6), 1:30 - 3:00 PM at the Greenbelt Community Center Gallery. I hope you can stop by. If you miss the reception and still want to see the show, it will be on display through next Friday, the 11th.