Groundhog and Green Bean in Progress

 

I am so enjoying working on the Flora and Fauna series.  I've now printed all the images I need, both of the animal bones and the associated plants.  I've got ten of them in the works, all very different aside from the common premise, but I also envision this as an ongoing series.  I find the details of the skulls so interesting; the way the teeth differ according to the diet, and how large the eye sockets are, and way the sinus cavities are arranged.  I like the way the cyanotypes abstract the images just enough to keep them from (hopefully) being off putting to those who imagine themselves squeamish about such things, without losing the essential character of the animal.

I've just finished designing and stitching together the top for "Groundhog and Green Bean".  The photo above is looking down on the inside of the top part of the skull.  There are the two large incisors at the front, then a gap, then a set of molars.  Looks a bit like an alien life form in this view, doesn't it?

Anyone with a garden will appreciate my choice of green bean for the associated flora.  My green beans are now fenced in with chicken wire, so they are safe.  The key is to keep the fencing a bit loose, not taut; they could climb over it if they really wanted to, but the instability is off putting.  The only veggies that are not fenced off are the tomatoes, and after several years of crop failure they are looking good this season; tonight I saw a young adult whistle pig checking them out....we haven't had one in residence, as it were, for a few years, but apparently the battle for supremacy, and tomatoes, is about to begin anew.

Here's a side view of the upper and lower skull and jaw.  Those teeth are one of the reasons--the claws are another--that you don't want to mess around with a cornered and defensive groundhog.  We once had a dog, a German Shepard mix, who had the knack of digging them out of their hole and dispatching them with a single shake, but an inexperienced or dim-witted dog (not to suggest that YOUR dog could possibly be dimwitted) can get seriously injured.  I have a farming neighbor who kept track of the groundhogs his dog killed, and over a ten year span she was at something like 87.  She was a sweet Shepard, good with children, but took her job of protecting the corn fields and her family's livelihood very seriously.

Personally I prefer to co-exist whenever possible with the wildlife that fits into this niche where the suburbs and woods and fields converge; I have that luxury.  I won't trap or shoot or set the dogs on my the latest groundhog, should he/she take up permanent residence. I will curse it roundly, distract it with corn cobs and melon rinds on the compost pile, and hopefully get to work and fence off the tomatoes. 

All of the fabrics in this top are ones I've printed or painted myself, with the exception of that gorgeous gray speckled one in the last photo.  That's a "sugar dye" from the studio of the talented Deb Lacativa, who dyes them for her own use but parts with a few on occasion. 

A quick reminder to anyone attending the Arts Fest at Penn State this week--my "White Mulberry" and "Plume Poppy" are on display at the Robeson Gallery in Images 2010 until the 11th.

Fox and Hackberry in Progress

I'm making good progress on the work for my new Flora and Fauna series that will debut at the PA Arts Experience this October. First up is "Fox and Hackberry". I started with the red fox skull, and fiddled around with lighting and camera settings until I had the images I wanted, like the shot above looking down on the inside of the top portion of the skull. More fiddling with the digital image produced the transparency, below, that acts like an oversized photo negative for making cyanotype prints.

Here's the print, with the stitching started. I had an idea of how I wanted this piece to look, and as sometimes happens, when I started to actually work on it, my preconceived notions were defenestrated and I started anew in a mad frenzy. What was going to be small and starkly simple ended up quite large and complex.

The top is finished and awaiting layering and quilting, and I'm really happy with it, it's very bright and cheerful. Here's another fox image--look at those canine teeth!

Sue Reno wins Best in Show at Images 2010

Best of Show at Penn State

I arrived at the opening reception for Images 2010 at Penn State last night and discovered to my delight and amazement that White Mulberry was awarded Best of Show! This juried show is open to all art media, so to have a fiber piece take top honors is especially meaningful to me.

The Robeson Gallery is a wonderful space, and the staff takes great care to display all the work to its best advantage. My work was very well lit, and the silks in White Mulberry just glowed.

As the icing on the cake, Plume Poppy received an Honorable Mention. You can see the size and scale of it above; again, such a pleasure to have it properly displayed and lit.

There was a large crowd at the reception (they had great catered food) and I had fun talking to people as I floated around on my cloud nine. My sincere thanks to the juror, Dan Mills, for selecting my work, and to all involved in putting on this exhibit each year. Go see it if you can, there's a wealth of fabulous work displayed.

Willow Valley Exhibit

I just took down an exhibit of 11 of my large art quilts in the Cultural Center Art Gallery at the Willow Valley Retirement Community here in Lancaster County.

The Gallery is an expansive and beautiful space that reflects the ethos of this extensive and impressive community, and was a wonderful - and properly lit- backdrop for my work. I also had the opportunity to give a gallery talk to an enthusiastic group of women involved in the community's quilting club, and a good time was had by all.

My sincere thanks to Jen, the Events Coordinator, for inviting me to exhibit and for making it such a positive experience.

In other exhibit news, I'm headed to Penn State this evening for the opening reception of Images 2010 in the Robeson Gallery; my Plume Poppy will be making its debut in this show, accompanied by White Mulberry. Should be a fun evening!

Back in the Studio

I've had an intensive and productive gardening interlude, consisting mainly of renovating and mulching a 140' long perennial/shrub bed, with bouts of vegetable gardening, planting containers, pruning trees, pulling poison ivy, and so forth and so on. There's some odds and ends to finish up, but for the most part I'm at the point where I can spend the rest of the summer wandering about the yard, beverage in hand, admiring and inspecting and harvesting. And spreading (organic) slug bait.

It's been a refreshing break creatively as well, as I am mentally refreshed, full of ideas and excited about returning to work in the studio. My main focus in the coming months will be on work in my Flora and Fauna series, which will be debuting at the Pennsylvania Arts Experience in Lancaster in October. Towards that goal, I've just made some cyanotype prints, including viburnum leaves, above, and maple leaves, below:

And black currant leaves:

And a heliographic print of hackberry leaves.

More to come, stay tuned!

"The Old Bridge" at The National Quilt Museum

I'm very pleased to announce that "The Old Bridge" has been selected for an invitational exhibit, River Quilts, to be held at The National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY. The exhibit will run from December 2010 through March 2011.

This work features the elegant Veterans Memorial Bridge that spans the Susquehanna River, connecting Columbia and Wrightsville. The bridge has a bike/pedestrian lane, and once a year it's closed to traffic for the "Bridge Bust" festival, so in addition to driving across it I've also spent some quality time walking it and admiring both the structure and the views. The photo featured here was taken from the Wrightsville side, looking upriver.

The center panel is a digital print that's been heavily stitched, and it's bordered by my hand-painted fabrics. There's also some hand couched thread and hand beadwork.

I grew up in a house with a direct view of the Susquehanna, and aside from a few years spent wandering, have always lived and hiked nearby. It forms a large part of my internalized view of the natural environment that informs all my work, so I am delighted to have this opportunity to share my vision at this prestigious venue.

Working with Fiber

Here's the type of fiber work I've been doing lately. It's my tomato trellis, executed in Sisal. I suppose I could call it an installation. I bought a humongous spool of sisal twine, 1450 glorious feet of it, and I've been busy tying up shrubs flattened by the heavy snows, corralling wayward clematis, bunching up the ripening daffodil foliage, and many other pleasant tasks made possible by an abundance of good twine. Due to circumstances partly beyond my control, the garden was a bit shaggy and semi-neglected for the past several years, but this spring I am on track to getting it all under control and manicured to the level I prefer. And the asparagus is coming in heavy right now, which really makes life worth living.

So I'm not in the studio a lot at present, but as I'm playing with twine and shoveling mulch I'm doing a lot of deep thinking about my nascent works in progress. This is the type of quality time that is so hard to quantify when asked "how long did that piece take you?" But of course it's the most essential type of engagement in the artwork--I can't make anything until I've figured out what it is I want to express.

I did take some time to make a few prints when the weather was congenial. Here's a detail of locust leaves, that will be part of the Squirrel quilt:

And here's a detail of a garlic mustard print on silk--I am very excited about this one, it's really lovely in person.

I'm waiting for more congenial weather in order to make more prints, it's much too brisk and chilly at present.