Out of the Woods for the SAQA Benefit Auction

Out of the Woods

 I have been a lucky participant in four SAQA Global Exhibitions, including Light the World which will open in France this autumn. So I am very happy to once again contribute a 12" x 12" quilt for the SAQA Benefit Auction, the proceeds of which help to fund the exhibitions. The auction begins on September 10th, and I will be sure to post updates and reminders. I very seldom make work in this size, so this is a great opportunity to begin or add to a collection.

This began with a red mulberry leaf, a nice substantial leaf, that I collected in the fall of 2020 and pressed. This spring, on the equinox, I used to make one of my experimental wet cyanotype/solarfast prints on cotton. You can read about that process here. I then layered the print and stitched it heavily where the leaf veins would be, and added pebble stitching all around it. On the corners I added some of the hexagons I have been obsessively hand stitching in preparation for my JWST artwork. The final touch was to paint some transparent iridescence on the leaf.

As to the title, here's my statement: It’s been a long, strange path through the wilderness of the unknown, but now we can see our way clear again. The question remains: are we out of the woods? What will our new normal look like? I choose to be optimistic.

New JWST artwork in progress

I'm excited to be working on new artwork to commemorate the upcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope! The long-awaited launch will be this fall, and once the telescope is deployed and operational it will open up a world of wonder and amazing scientific discovery.

I began with the basic and beautiful hexagon shape, that makes up the mirror and coincidentally is a mainstay of traditional quiltmaking. I pieced small silk hexagons into the configuration that I will further embellish to represent the telescope's mirror. I also basted and prepped a whole bunch of larger cloth hexagons, which I clipped together in sets to prep them for hand stitching.

Hand stitching these into 7 hexagon groups, traditionally used as "flowers", is very time intensive and requires meticulously small and precisely placed stitches. It's enjoyable, though, in a meditative way, and after a few weeks of focused stitching I had accumulated this big bowl of hexagons. They will be further combined and stitched as the design progresses.

I also stocked up on some yardage of luscious black silk noil, a rainbow of wool/rayon felts, and some heavier pure wool cutouts. I have some serious galaxy-making to do! 
 

Luminosity

Here is the first JWST quilt I made in 2016, Luminosity, 60" x 74",  following the James Webb Space Telescope Artist Event that I was privileged to be a part of at NASA Goddard Space Center. You can see it on my website at: https://suereno.com/luminosity You can see all the artwork in the original project at: https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/features/jwstArt/ And you can read all about my visit, tour, and the creation of the work (in reverse chronological order) here on my blog my clicking the JWST link in the header, or go here:  http://suereno.blogspot.com/search/label/James%20Webb%20Space%20Telescope

There is LOTS more to come, please stay tuned and follow along on this journey with me!

Experiments in wet cyanotype - part 64

 

After a bit of a hiatus, I am starting up with the wet cyanotype/solarfast botanical printmaking. I always try to mark the solstices and equinoxes with some acknowledgment of the occasion, and this time I chose a big print on cotton sateen. 

Depsite, or perhaps because of, a cold snowy winter, my garden is doing very well this June. It's coming up on two years since I moved here, and all the work of weeding, rejuvenation, and making new beds is finally starting to pay off. For this panel I used a center leaf of ligularia 'Desdemona', some wood poppy leaves, brunnera, and chinese ginger. The center was coated with the cyanotype chemicals, and the edges with various colors of Solarfast. I put it out around 5 in the afternoon, left it out overnight, and brought it around lunchtime the next day.

Considering I am ever so slightly out of practice, I am very pleased with how it turned out, and I am excited about the printmaking possibilities that lie ahead for the rest of the summer.

At the last minute before exposure I spooned on some soap bubbles, and some of them kept their form long enougn to show up in the print. Success!

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