March 28, 2018

Squirrel and Locust acceptance for Metamorphosis Exhibit

 I am thrilled to announce that Squirrel and Locust has been accepted for the SAQA Exhibit, Metamorphosis. The juror is David Hornung. The exhibit will debut at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX in November, travel to the Chicago Festival in April, 2019, and further dates and venues through 2021 are TBD.
 From the prospectus, the Show Concept:
Metamorphosis generates transformative change in shape, nature or structure. Just as animals physically develop and change from birth to maturity, concepts, ideas and even the landscape of the
earth itself progress through many stages. Change may be positive, negative, frightening or enlightening. Consider physical changes, philosophical changes or personal life changes and the inevitability of decay as a process of change. Realistic, representational, and abstract work will be considered.

 SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) exhibits are highly competitive, due to the deep and wide talent pool of its members, so I feel a bit like I've won the lottery.
That being said, I've always had a particular love for this quilt of mine--I mean, look at that bit of vintage needlework! What are those romantic squirrels doing? Contrasted with the skull print cyanotypes, it's a powerful yet accessible work, I think. I'm so glad for the opportunity to send it out into the world.

March 7, 2018

New Work - Rabbit and Maple

Rabbit and Maple, by Sue Reno
Rabbit and Maple
 I am very pleased and excited to share my latest work, Rabbit and Maple. It's the ninth art quilt in my ongoing series, Flora and Fauna. It's a large quilt by my standards, 71" high by 86" wide, so I encourage you to click through and enlarge the pictures to get a sense of the scale.
Rabbit and Maple, by Sue Reno, detail 1
Rabbit and Maple, detail 1
 The series focuses on the animals that share my environment here in Pennsylvania. Each animal is represented by its skeletal remains--usually a skull. (With Skunk and Garlic Mustard I had the luxury of the entire skeleton.) Each also includes a print of a plant I associate with the animal, and some vintage needlework.
Rabbit and Maple, by Sue Reno, detail 2
Rabbit and Maple, detail 2
One summer I had a nest of baby rabbits under my red maple tree, and this is my response to and remembrance of the experience. The rabbits ran free; my skulls are all found objects or ethically sourced. 
Rabbit and Maple, by Sue Reno, detail 3
Rabbit and Maple, detail 3
 I took macro photos of the rabbit skull, altered them, printed them on transparencies, and made cyanotype prints from the images. I made a cyanotype print directly from a branch of the maple tree.
Rabbit and Maple, by Sue Reno, detail 4
Rabbit and Maple, detail 4
 I include vintage needlework as a tribute to and acknowledgment of my female ancestors who used needlework as a primary means of expression in an milieu  where they had limited options. Here, I used some exquisitely well embroidered flower blocks. I talked about their provenance previously in this post.  The patchwork I framed these blocks with encompasses my collection of personal and family dressmaking fabrics dating back to the 1940's, so in a sense they also qualify as vintage.
Rabbit and Maple, by Sue Reno, detail 5
Rabbit and Maple, detail 5
This quilt spent an unusually long time as a work-in-progress. I made the rabbit skull prints in 2010; I assembled the quilt top in 2013. I tentatively started and stopped work on the quilting several times before pushing myself to get it done this February. In part I was distracted by other ideas and deadlines, and in part I was intimidated by the size of the piece and the complexity of the quilting I wanted to do. (I don't have a longarm machine, this was all done on my domestic Janome.) But now that I have the luxury of hindsight, I think I have also been working through what this series means to me. I started it all in a lather of excitement, and have enjoyed each project, but have struggled a bit to verbally express what is driving me. The long hours spent laboring over this one gave me some time for reflection, and I am increasingly content to let the visuals of the work speak for themselves. Take from it what you will, and enjoy.

You can track this back by clicking Rabbit and Maple in the right sidebar, or click here.http://suereno.blogspot.com/search/label/Rabbit%20and%20Maple

If you are new here, welcome! 
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March 6, 2018

Experiments in wet cyanotype - part 17


Wet cyanotype_Sue Reno_Image 263
 I spent most of February with my shoulder to the wheel, doing the quilting on a huge art quilt (more on that soon). I reached the point where the creative part was done, and I was doing hours of important but repetitive fill work, and I got bored. Time for a wet cyanotype break! 

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 The weather has been been wildly variable here in my part of Pennsylvania, and some very warm days brought out the first of the snowdrops. I set up a few flowers on treated cotton sateen, along with big root geranium leaves (they are true perennials that overwinter with some green leaves).  I also set up a panel with an evergreen Christmas fern frond and two huechera leaves on silk noil I had treated. The silk has a lot of sericin that makes the uptake of the chemicals uneven and variable.
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 The day, which had started out sunny and warm, quickly deteriorated, and when I brought the prints in, the un-rinsed versions were only mildly promising:
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 When rinsed and finished, the snowdrop print was fairly subdued:
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 The fern on silk was a bit more interesting.  These are experiments, and I learn something every time, and even a print that may not end up as a solo act has potential for patchwork. So while I was not ecstatic about these they were still fun to do.
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 A few days later, looking to procrastinate on my quilting, I set up some more prints for exposure. I had five of the sweetgum leaves I had preserved with glycerin in the fall left to use.  I was out of treated sateen fabric, but a rummage around produced some more of the commercially treated muslin I used this past summer 
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 For this round I was back at my old tricks with a spray of diluted pink textile paint, and another of diluted washing soda to drive the chemical reactions.
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 The last sweetgum leaf, paired with a Christmas fern:
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 And finally, two smaller panels, one with another attempt at a snowdrop:
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 And one with more geranium leaves and alpine strawberry leaves.
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 These were off to a good start with lots of sunshine and heat, but there was snow in the forecast, so I covered the panels with clear plastic and left them out. Here's what I woke up to the next morning:
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 Things were looking pretty fancy under all that snow:
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 Here are the un-rinsed prints, with lots of good splotching and color variations:
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 Here are the finished prints. The pink tones are from the textile paint, all the rest are from the breakdown of the cyanotype chemicals. These give me such a thrill!
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 I managed to capture some of the delicacy of the snowdrop blossom here. Flowers are tricky with this process, but the combination of sun and freezing temperatures worked out well this time.
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 These last two I layered, quilted, and sent off as my donation to the SAQA Spotlight Auction for the up coming conference. I hope they bring the winning bidder(s) some of the same joy I had in making them.
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Wet cyanotype_Sue Reno_Image 289
 If you are new here, welcome! I've been detailing and documenting my experiments with wet cyanotype in great detail; you can read it in reverse chronological order by clicking the Wet Cyanotype tab in the top header, or click here.

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