Holtwood Dam, the Norman Wood Bridge, and 52 Weeks

This week's Susquehanna River adventure took us to the Holtwood Dam area in southern Lancaster and York Counties in Pennsylvania.  Above is the dam from the Face Rock overlook in Martic Township.  Adjacent to the dam and hydroelectric plant is a steam generator plant that originally depended on dredged coal that washed down river from inefficient mining practices in the anthracite coal region..

Above is another view of the dam and facilities from the York County side.  The river level was very low on this day.  Below is a distance view of the Norman Wood Bridge spanning the river.

The area around the dam has several hiking trails for exploring the river hills.  Below is a shelter and fire pit on the Boy Scout Trail.

There are also some well preserved remnants of a once extensive canal system that paralleled the river.  Here is a portion of Lock 12.

The Norman Wood Bridge, circa 1968, was closed for a time in the fall when an inspection revealed a significant crack. The bridge inspection had been moved up from the spring in order to avoid disturbing nesting peregrine falcons.  It has since been repaired and reopened.

We were there early on a Sunday afternoon, and there were many Amish families out travelling in their buggies.  From our vantage point exploring below the bridge, the horse's hoofs and the steel wheels on the buggies were surprisingly loud and resonant.

52 Ways to Look at the River, week 26 Image

This view of the bridge and its reflection on the water became my inspiration photo for week 26 in my ongoing project, 52 Ways to Look at the River.  I really enjoyed the challenge of making a fiber art interpretation of this complicated image.  This marks the halfway point of the project and it's been a great success in terms of goal setting and productivity for me.

52 Ways to Look at the River, week 26 Panel

I've added a 52 Weeks tab to the header so you can track back the project to date.  You can also follow my weekly updates on your platform of choice:
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As always, thanks for reading and commenting!

52 Ways to Look at the River, update 4

52 Ways to Look at the River, weeks 1 - 24

 It's time to check in again on my ongoing project, 52 Ways to Look at the River.  It's been six weeks since the last compilation, so here are the panels from weeks 1 - 24 informally pinned up on a design board.  There's a lot going on!  The panels continue to get more detailed, and each one is taking more time to create than I had originally planned on.  And the perspective continues to shift.  In the beginning, I was working with a sort of loosely interpreted aerial view, like I've used in my larger River Series pieces like In Dreams I Flew Over the River and  In Dreams I Learned to Swim.  Now they are all from the the angle of standing on the shore, or high up on an overlook.  I'm also getting bolder with colors and patterns, which was partly spurred by the great autumn colors this year.

None of this has been planned, I am simply trying to react to each inspiration photo and create quickly and in the moment without overthinking them.  I don't "fix" anything as I assemble each one, I just keep going until it seems complete.  I am learning a LOT through this experience.

I am also enjoying the weekly field trip to find the right site for the inspiration photo.  Some weeks I have time for a hike, sometimes it's just a drive, park and shoot, but the Susquehanna never disappoints in its variety and beauty.  And while I do get out and about a good bit normally, this is really sharpening my focus and activity.  I've been helped by the extraordinarily mild weather.  The last two late autumns/early winters have been replete with snow and ice and poor traveling conditions, but that's not remotely in the forecast so far.

Below are the latest panels, weeks 17 - 24.  They are all 6" x 10", wool and silk, needlefelted and stitched.  Click to enlarge.

52 Ways to Look at the River, week 17

52 Ways to Look at the River, week 18

52 Ways to Look at the River, week 19

52 Ways to Look at the River, week 20

52 Ways to Look at the River, week 21

52 Ways to Look at the River, week 22

52 Ways to Look at the River, week 23

52 Ways to Look at the River, week 24

 To see the inspiration photos and follow along each week, pick your platform of choice.  I would love to have you join me on this adventure:
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I've also added a new tab at the top header for this project, which lets you trace the series back as I go.  Or click the "52 Weeks" tab in the right sidebar, or click here.

As always, thanks for reading and commenting.

York Haven Dam on the Susquehanna River

As part of my ongoing project 52 Ways to Look at the River, last week I traveled to the York Haven Dam, near the Conewago Falls on the Susquehanna.

The hydroelectric plant, completed in 1904, was an engineering marvel in its time, and is listed as a  National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark.

It’s been an exceptionally mild December here in PA, with record breaking temperatures.  Last winter when I was there gathering inspiration for Ice Jam, the river was clogged with ice.

Ice Jam

On this day the river was blanketed with a gentle fog that enhanced the natural beauty and made for some great photos.  I had a hard time picking which one to use for my weekly fiber panel.

See that walkway along the side of the building?  That’s where we are headed.  It was closed last time due to the ice, but this trip it was  open to give access to fishermen.

It’s safe enough, but doesn’t feel that way!  The plumes in the background are the steam from the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant a bit further upriver.

Below the walkway you can see the turbulent water being discharged.

The entire complex is incredible photogenic.  Check out this algae covered wall, above, and the row of stored  buoys, below. 

The architecture is functional, but the design is strong and appealing.

There are cool looking and once functional objects all around the grounds.

This is casually parked on the path used for boat portage around the dam.

The water was very still, which made for great reflections.

52 Ways to Look at the River, week 24 Inspiration Photo

Here’s the image I chose for this week’s panel.  Some of the others are still calling out to me, and may need to be transformed into fiberart as well.

52 Ways to Look at the River, week 24 Panel

Here’s the panel I made from the inspiration image.  It’s 6” x 12”, wool and silk, needlefelted and stitched.

You can follow along with my project on your platform of choice:
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Stay tuned tomorrow for an update on 52 Ways to Look at the River and the first 24 panels.


As always, thanks for reading and commenting!

Raccoon and Apple Acceptance for Contemporary Craft at Mesa Arts

I’m happy to announce that Raccoon and Apple has been accepted into the 37th Annual Contemporary Craft Exhibit at the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum in Mesa, AZ.  The exhibit will run from February 12th through April 24th, 2016. The juror is Elisabeth Argo, Associate Curator of American Modern and Contemporary Crafts and Decorative Arts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Raccoon and Apple is the latest work from my Flora and Fauna series, where I combine cyanotype prints of the skulls of native wildlife with vintage textiles and handpainted fabrics to create works that speak to their observed and unobserved presence in our environment.
I had work in this exhibit previously, in 2014, and it’s a thrill to be included again.  The contemporary craft world is a very exciting field currently and a good fit for my work, particularly the work in this series. This is an encouraging start to the coming year, and a nudge to keep moving forward with my Flora and Fauna works. 

Work in Progress – The Longest Day, update 2

I wanted to add more beadwork to the center panel of this work in progress, The Longest Day. I had done a lot of hand embroidery on the needlefelted portion, and stitched in rows of seed beads along the path of the river, so I had a large investment of time in the work already.  But I felt the borders would benefit from the addition of chunkier beads to represent the islands and rocky outcroppings prevalent in the river. I used a combination of larger glass beads and semi-precious stones to evoke that aspect. It was slow work, but very satisfying. (Pictures enlarge when clicked.)
In the meantime I was thinking about the my options for the background/supporting quilt.  I made a large strip pieced panel using my stash of silks from Mysore, India.  It will be sliced up and reconfigured. I did some digital alteration on a photo of the Veterans Memorial Bridge, in Columbia, taken at sunset.  I had it commercially printed as yardage.  It will also be sliced up and reconfigured.

I am additionally considering adding some cyanotype images.  It’s all starting to come together; now I need to block out some time without distractions to do the final design and construction of the quilt top.

Thanks for following along!

52 Ways to Look at the River, Update 3

It’s time again to document progress on my ongoing fiber art project, 52 Ways to Look at the River.  I’m at Week 16, and here is a shot of all the panels to date, informally pinned up on a design board.  Each week I travel to somewhere with a view of the Susquehanna River, take a picture, and use the photo as an inspiration to make a 6" x 12" needlefelted and stitched fiber panel.  I try to complete each panel within 90 minutes, although I’ve been stretching that just a bit longer as the panels are growing more detailed.
Below are the individual panels from weeks 8 – 16.  (To see weeks 1 – 8, click here.) All images enlarge when clicked.  You can follow along, and see the inspiration photos,  as I reveal them each week on your social media venue of choice:
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Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/people/suereno/
Instagram: sue_reno_studio

 
 
 
 
 
 
I am loving this project a lot.  I work well when setting up parameters that allow for experimentation within them. The panels started out as quick “sketches”, improvisational and impressionistic.  They are becoming more realistic and detailed. I’ve worked a lot with needlefelting previously, but my skills are growing exponentially as I figure these out each week, which is very satisfying. It’s worth noting to anyone who struggles with the creative process that satisfying is not the same thing as easy.  Each week when I am confronted with the blank panel and the photo, I panic.  I have NO IDEA of how I am going to pull it off.  So I start, and as I go along it works out, and when I’m done I’m rather impressed with myself.  That’s the usual creative arc, but most of my projects are large and take months, if not years, to complete.  I think it’s doing me good to go through this on a weekly basis.
The trip to the river each week is wonderful as well.  It’s a beautiful river and I never tire of admiring it. Above is the inspiration for week 16, taken on a hike to an overlook at Safe Harbor Dam.  Below is the view from above of the old railroad trestle by the dam. On the walk up to the overlook, we encountered black vultures!  They were hanging out on an old building and were slow to take flight.  This is the closest I’ve ever been to them, and they are magnificent:
 
And finally, an instant karma  tale of a type that happens frequently in the fiber art community.  Some months ago I was waiting in line at a fabric store and struck up a conversation with a young woman who was new to quilting.  She remarked on the silk I was buying, I told her I frequently used it in my work, and I gave her my card.  Recently she emailed me and asked for advice. She had been given her grandfather’s silk ties, and wanted advice on how to proceed to use them in a quilt.  I took some time to write a detailed response and sent it off, and she replied with her thanks.  And the next day, out of the blue, I was given a big bag of vintage silk ties.
They are high end, luxury brand silks, in great prints—the wearer had excellent taste in picking them out.  I deconstructed them, removing the labels and liners.
Then I carefully washed them, laid them flat to dry, and pressed them. They will be very useful for this and other projects, as I feel one can never have too much silk on hand. You can see one of them in the week 14 panel above.  It was perfect for the look of the river in the heavy rain.  Another bit is in the base layer of the foreground of the week 15 panel, giving just the right hint of gridded structure.  
Until next time, thanks as always for reading and commenting.