Stage Four of Compositonal Conversation is Complete!

Textile artist Shelly Baird has completed her contribution to the Conversation, and due to a minor change in schedule, has sent the piece on to me. PLEASE go and read her fascinating journey with our textile baby over at Terry Jarrard-Dimond's Sutdio 24-7 Blog, and give her some comment love for her gorgeous additions!

Memory Makers Magazine

Autumn themed mixed media collage & tutorial
I made for the current issue of Memory Makers magazine.

عمرو دياب يعلن الحرب على سيد ابو حفيظة والكابوس

امهل الفنان عمرو دياب قناة موجة كوميدي 4 ايام تنتهي يوم الاثنين القادم لوقف بث برنامج الكابوس الذي يحكي قصة حياة سيد ابو حفيظة بشكل هزلي وهو يشابه كثيرا برنامج الحلم الخاص بقصة حياة عمرو دياب، وقد هدد عمرو باللجوء للقضاء في حال استمرار عرض برنامج الكابوس على القناة.

وقد قال حسام لطفي المحامي الخاص بعمرو دياب ان عمرو قد وافق على البرنامج من قبل وبكن بشرط ان لا ينتهك ذلك حقوق الشركة المنتجة لبرنامج الحلم وهذا ما لم يحدث بل استفزهم ايضا قول مخرج برنامج الكابوس انه ليس هناك شبه بين برنامجه وبرنامج الحلم !

وكان الفنان اكرم حسني المؤدي لشخصية سيد ابو حفيظة قد ارسل اعلن لعمرو دياب عدم نيته الاساءة لشخصية عمرو دياب في برنامجه، لا هو ولا احد من افراد اسرته، الامر الذي ادى بعمرو دياب الى مباركة العمل والموافقة عليه مبدئيا.

Parts 2 & 3

It took me 15 minutes just to color the birdie
so I divided the video in two parts.
Next video will show the detailing of the feathers with acrylic ink.
More information on the materials I used to make this can be found here.

American Craft Council

I am a newly minted member of the American Craft Council! My membership card arrived in the mail today along with the magazine. Yummy.

Mid-Week Fun

Guess what I did today? No, go ahead, betcha can't! NOPE! I beaded. No, really, I did. But before I show you where all these lovely doo-dads went, let me show you where I started at the beginning of the week.

Still utterly captivated by the texture I'm getting when I stitch a quilt with strips of torn fabric and then dye it, I have also been experimenting with using one or two larger pieces of plain white fabric and stitching them in very tight pleats across the top of a quilt sandwich. The idea is that when the piece is complete, I will rip open the pleats, dye the quilt as usual, and let the dyeing/washing process create my beloved thread schmutz.

That's been working well and has produced this mini-quilt, which I showed you in a previous post.



But I got tired of just stitching from one side of the quilt to the other. I wanted to keep things linear- as per the client's instructions- but I also itched to liven things up a little bit. Recently when stitching a sampler quilt I began free-motion quilting a square spiral and was fascinated with the texture it gave the quilt when squares were placed side-by-side in a row. Wanting to explore this shape more, I created three more test quilts.

As usual, (except where noted) I began with a fully finished, pillowtop-turned quilt sandwich consisting of all white cotton fabric, batting and thread.

The first quilt was tiny, only about 5" x 5", and actually incorporated red rayon thread rather than white to prevent it from changing color. I laid a solid piece of white fabric onto the quilt top and sewed my spiral. I wanted to give Dye-Na_Flow a chance in these experiments, so once the piece was stitched, I painted it in three colors.



Once the paint dried, I heat set it with an iron (a necessary step with Dye-Na-Flow if you're going to launder it!), used sharp little embroidery scissors to cut between the stitch lines, and washed it out just as if I had dyed it- in hot water with a little Synthrapol. Then I tossed it into the dryer and let it run for about 30 minutes.

As you can see, the fraying effect was greatly reduced by the acrylic in the Dye-Na-Flow, but I kind of liked it despite the way it wants to give you a migraine if you study it for more than 60 seconds. Or less.

Still I wasn't ready to give up on the Zen feelings I was grooving on while stitching a square spiral, so I stitched two more little pieces. These I constructed like the one above except that I used white thread and Procion MX dyes to colorize them.




I am severely underwhelmed. However, since I had the dyes out, anyway, and since I had some lovely amethyst left over from my last gradation, I thought I'd give this little orphan, (remember him?)...


... another spin in the dye baths. And holy cow. I fell in love with it when it came out of the dryer this morning. So it got beaded (click to see a larger view, it's better up close)!



This piece has now been dyed twice and laundered three separate times, which has forced the development of intensely tangled and complex thread schmutz. Most of the beads I added were my own dyed and painted fabric, Tyvek, and paper beads, but some of them are commercial beads, too.




Like I said a few posts ago- this is how a series starts!

Happy Creating!

قائمة المنتخب : استبعاد شيكابالا وعمرو زكي وضم بركات ودودي الجباس

قرر حسن شحاتة المدير الفني لمنتخب مصر ضم اللاعب "دودي الجباس" المحترف بنادي "ليرس" البلجيكي لاول مرة الى صفوف منتخب مصر الاول لكرة القدم، واللاعب دودي الجباس كان مهاجم فريق النادي المصري قبل بداية مشوار احترافه في بجيكا وقد ظهر بمستوى طيب في الموسم الماضي من الدوري الممتاز.

وقد قرر ايضا حسن شحاتة الاستغناء عن كل من شيكابالا وعمرو زكي في مفاجاة لتشكيل المنتخب قبل مباراة رواندا الهامة في روندا في اطار تصفيات كاس العالم 2010.

كما قرر المدير الفني لمنتخب مصر ضم اللاعب محمد بركات الذي يبدو اان المياه عادت لمجاريها بين كلا الطرفين.

والاتي قائمة المنتخب كاملة لمباراة رواندا يوم 5 سبتمبر :
عصام الحضرى ( الاسماعيلي)
محمود ابو السعود زكي ( المنصورة )
الهاني سليمان ( الاتحاد السكندري ).
خط الدفاع: هاني سعيد ( الزمالك )
وائل جمعة ( الاهلي )
محمود فتح الله ( الزمالك )
احمد سعيد أوكا ( حرس الحدود )
احمد المحمدي (انبي )
احمد فتحي (الاهلي )
سيد معوض (الاهلي )
احمد كمال ( حرس الحدود )
.خط الوسط: محمد شوقي (ميدلسبره - انجلترا )، محمد شعبان (بتروجيت )، حسني عبد ربه ( اهلي دبي )، عبد العزيز توفيق (انبي ) ، احمد حسن (الاهلى) ، محمد بركات ( الاهلي )
خط الهجوم: محمد ابو تريكة ( الاهلي )، احمد عيد عبد الملك ( حرس الحدود )، احمد رؤوف (انبي )، سيد حمدى (بتروجيت )، احمد سلامة ( حرس الحدود )، دودي الجباس ( ليرس – بلجيكا ).

Me on video Part One

Part 1 of the video I filmed today
coloring the background of the flying birdie.
The next installment will be the actual coloring of the bird.
And finally a Part 3 with the detailing with white acrylic ink.
Music: "The Fisherman" by Leo Kottke & "Beyond this Moment" by Patrick O'Hearn
Hope you enjoy!

3rd Installment of Compositional Conversation

The third artist to participate in Compositional Conversation, Beth Carney, has completed her contribution to our mutual conversation and has passed the piece on to the fourth artist in the rotation, Shelly Baird.

Please go see photos of our progress, and read about Beth's journey with our infant textile art piece. You can also send her some comment love if you're inspired to do so (I certainly was!) over on the blog of Terry Jarrard-Dimond, the artist-originator of this amazing project.

For those who might be keeping count, I'm 6th in line to converse with the work. This is exciting!

Happy Creating!

نانسي عجرم ضيفة على اوبرا وينفري

تستضيف الاعلامية الامريكية اوبرا وينفري يوم 26 اغسطس الجاري الفنانة اللبنانية نانسي عجرم في حوار في اشهر البرامج الامريكية الاجتماعية على الاطلاق "اوبرا وينفري شو" وذلك في مقابلة مدتها 12 دقيقة.

واللقاء يعتقد انه سيتم على شكل فيديو كونفرانس لان نانسي لا تستطيع ترك ابنتها ميلا والسفر الى امريكا.
وتستضيف اوبار نانسي عجرم بوصفها امرأة احدثت تغيرا في الشرق الاوسط وفي المجتمع العربي وبوصفها احدى اشهر الفنانات.
كما يعتقد ان صندوق اليونيسيف التابع للامم المتحدة قد اختار الفنانة نانسي عجرم كسفيرة له بالشرق الاوسط ولم تعلن ذلك نانسي بشكل رسمي برغم استعدادها لتولي ذلك المنصب.

الجدير بالذكر ان اوبرا تعد من اثرى اثرياء العالم بدخل سنوي يقدر بـ 200 مليون دولار وذلك بسبب شهرة برنامجها في المجتمع الامريكي، برنامج اوبار وينفري يتم عرضه على شاشة MBC 4 ولكن احيانا تكون حلقات قديمة ولا يعرف حتى الان ميعاد العرض على شاشة mbc4 لكن اغلب الاعتقاد انه سيكون في نفس اليوم 26 اغسطس.

Money

How do artists make a living?
Besides the selected few who actually make a living from their work, how can an artist afford to be an artist?
The bottom line is: should art pay for itself? Should it be efficient in an economic sense?
Most practicing artists either have money from their day jobs, or from their families.
The funny thing is: the first group seem heroic, and the second - fakes.
Why? Why is there so much resentment towards people who decide to spend the money they have on doing something they love?
Is it because we, as the public, feel betrayed, as if they stopped playing the game with their audience? After all, if they don't care about (our, or government - which comes out to the same) money, aren't we left aside?
(What's wrong with being left aside? Hm. Of course, this modernist idea can come in handy. But I've been writing about it elsewhere.)
Come think of it - would we feel it wrong for a rich person to buy an expensive car? A big house? So why do we want him to feel guilty for spending the money into something we might actually appreciate? It turns art into a hobby, you say? So what?

Below, completely unrelated (at least not that I know), is the work of Paulo Ventura.

My Creative Space (And a short bio)

When I started this blog a couple of months ago, I posted a little "Hello, I'm new to the neighborhood," thing but I never really introduced myself. I think it might be time to do so.

I have no formal art training. I've never been to art school, though I desperately hope one day to spend a few years in England getting a cities & guilds credit in textiles.

I've always been a crafter, the daughter and granddaughter of crafters, but I didn't start making art full time until my own daughter went off to a private boarding school for her last three years of high school. Looking around at old, beat-up furniture and plain while walls, I decided it was time to get serious and revamp my space.

I refurbished a few furniture pieces, built some new ones, and painted large canvases for the walls. That exercise not only created a preliminary studio space, but it also lit a fire in me to explore paints further than I ever had.

Since that time, years gone by now, I've taken multiple classes online and in person, trying to educate myself about art and in particular, the kind of art I want to create. The gaps in my knowledge were tremendous and I've slowly been whittling away at those gaps over time.

Two years ago, as a passionate paper artist who became sick to death of making beautiful art and then having to encase it frames behind glass, I looked to quilting as a way to not only expand my art, but get me out of the "box" that framing all of my work had gotten me into. I wanted to make textural art pieces that could be handled without damage and could could hang right out there in the open without suffering overly from their environment. And I could finally create pieces of any size and shape without the deep concern of how in the world to frame it!

So that's me, now... learning to create new art, after having already spent years creating art. How lucky can one woman be?

انفصال مي عز الدين و محمد زيدان

تاكد رسميا خبر انفصال لاعب المنتخب المصري محمد زيدان عن خطيبته الفنانة الشابة مي عز الدين وذلك بعد ان اعلنا خطوبتهما في شهر مايو الماضي، بعد وجود علاقات اسرية طيبة تربط العائلتين.

وكان اللاعب قد تغيب عن عدد من التدريبات المهمة للمنتخب الوطني مما ادى الى عدم اشراكه في مباراة غينيا ومن ثم استبعاده من قائمة المنتخب.

وكانت قد اثيرت بعض الشائعات ان فتاة من الوسط الفني هي السبب في الانفصال حيث اقنعت اللاعب محمد زيدان ان مي تحب تامر حسني!

وعن الانفصال المفاجئ تجنب الاثنين الاحاديث التفصيلية ولم تبدي مي عز الدين اي تصريح سوى : "الانفصال تم لأن كل شيء قسمة ونصيب".

وكانت تربط كل من محمد ومي علاقة حب قوية حيث اهدى زيدان هدفيه في مباراة البرازيل اليها كما اعلنت انها تشجعه بقوة وظهرت في بعض الصور مرتدية قميص رقم 9 وهو قميص زيدان مع منتخب مصر تعبيرا عن تشجيعها له.

يذكر ان فور اعلان خطوبتهما رسميا تزايدت التعليقات من زوار مواقع الانترنت حول الموضوع والكل اتفق ان واحد منهما لا يستحق الاخر ولكن الكل اختلف من منهم كذلك، فبعض المعلقين على الخبر في عدة مواقع رأوا ان زيدان يستحق من هي افضل من مي عز الدين وراى البعض الاخر ان مي على قدر اكبر من الشهرة والجماهيرية، مما يمكن ان يكون شكل تهديدا لعلاقتهما ايضا.

مواعيد برامج نجوم اف ام في رمضان 2009

جدول برامج "نجوم اف ام" خلال شهر رمضان المبارك 2009:

1. بدري عال"فودافون" الساعة 9.
2. كنا بنهزر معاك الساعة 12.15.
3. ميعاد ستات البيوت مع وصفة سهلة الساعة 12.30.
4. عيشها بشكل تانى الساعة 1 ظهراً.
5. قصة كبيرة مع يسري الفخرانى الساعة 3.05.
6. فزورة وفانوس الساعة 3.10 ويستمر مدة 10 دقائق.
7. مسلسل احترس وقوف متكرر مع هانى رمزى الساعة 3.30.
8. حاجة تفطر وينطلق مراسلين نجوم اف ام الساعة 4.05.
9. قصص الانبياء مع احمد يونس الساعة 4.15.
10. باب الخلق مع الاعلامى الكبير محمود سعد الساعة 4.30.
11. مسلسل طنط دولت فتح الباب الساعة 4.45 وشخصيات جديدة.
12. برنامج كل شمعة منورة مع الاعلامى الكبير عمرو اديب الساعة 5.
13. مسلسل قلقاسة فى وكالة ناسا مع احمد عز الساعة 5.15.
14. برنامج العسيلى على الراديو مع المذيع الكبير احمد العسيلى الساعة 5.45.
15. برنامج ابواب الجنة مع الشيخ خالد الجندى الساعة 6.15 بعد الافطار.
16. مسلسل دولت الساعة 6.30.
17. اجمد سبعة الساعة سبعة فى ميعاده المعتاد الساعة 7.
18. صراع فى المحطة الساعة 9.
19. برنامج الضيف مع اسامة منير الساعة 10 الى الساعة 12.
20. عشها بشكل تاني النصف التاني الساعة 12.
21. منى المراغى وقعدة سحور الساعة واحدة الى الثانية.
22. عالقهوة الساعة حتى اذان الفجر 2.
23. كل جمعة وسبت الساعة 1 برنامج مسلسلاتى.
24. برنامج "عيلة واحدة" مع حسام عصام الساعة 9 كل جمعة وسبت.
25. مشمشية نجوم اف ام من الجمعة والسبت الساعة 1.
26. نهودة مع ايهاب صالح من الساعة 1 كل جمعة وسبت واستضافة نجوم الغناء.

Transparent games continued

Now that there is no essence, we ask: how is it to see through you? What sort of filter are you?
Now that there is no common subject, no us, we say: what is this sum of subject and object?
Now that the body is not enough, and that it stops us as ridiculously as ever, we say: what is so common about this object? What is it about it that is so transparent, and what does this absence, this oppressive absence, taste like when accepted?

The paintings are by Johan Schaefer, the photos - Khristian Mendoza.

سرقة قناة نايل سينما !

في واحدة من أغرب حوادث السرقة، وتنم عن قدر كبير من المنافسة على الفوز بالمشاهدين في شهر رمضان المبارك، تم اقتحام مقر مكتب قناة نايل سينما وسرقة محتوياته التي كانت تشمل مواد من المقرر عرضها في شهر رمضان المبارك.

وقد اصدر اللواء أسعد حمدي قرار بتجهيز كافة شرائط المراقبة الموضوع داخل قطاع القنوات المتخصصة وتحديدا قناة نايل سينما تمهيدا لتفريغها ومراقبة الوجوه التي ترددت على مكت القناة يوم الثلثاء 18 اغسطس وهو يوم وقوع الجريمة.

ومن ضمن المحتويات المسروقة 70 اسطوانة مدمجة عليها بروموهات القناة التي كان من المنتظر عرضها في شهر رمضان المبارك، بالاضافة الى 5 حلقات من برنامج الجريئة من تقديم ايناس الدغيدي و10 حلقات من برنامج الدور دورك تقديم خالد الحمزاوي، ذلك بالاضافة الى قرص تخزين صلب "هارد ديسك" يحتوي على ارشيف ما انتجته القناة منذ انشائها.

هذا وان دل على شئ يدل على تهافت اصحاب القنوات على الفوز باكبر قدر من وقت المشاهدين للفوز باكبر قدر من الاعلانات والمكاسب المادية والاموال، في شهر يفترض ان يوهب الوقت للعبادة والاموال التي يتهافتوا عليا ان توهب للفقراء !

Free

This little birdie is my current project. I'm thinking of filming myself
putting some color on it tomorrow if there is good light.

Interesting News!

Cloth, Paper, Scissors just contacted me about the outline I'd sent them a couple of months ago. They want to read the article I wrote and see photos of my art! Fingers crossed for me, please!

تامر حسني يدعو لشيرين بالخير

في اول رد فعل له على الهجوم العنيف الذي شنته شيرين عبد الوهاب عليه وعلى جمهوره، صرح الفنان تامر حسني انه يدعو لشيرين الخير، وينصحها بالتركيز في عملها لتعود للنجاح مرة اخرى.

وقال تامر :

أعتقد أن هناك من يحاول الإيقاع بيننا، وأتمنى ألا تسمح شيرين بذلك، وأن تركز في عملها لكي تعود ناجحة كبدايتها، خاصةً أنها تشهد هذه الفترة تراجعاً ملحوظاً منذ ولادة إبنتها مريم

وكانت ازمة تامر وشيرين قد بدات عندما اعلنت شيرين انها لا تسمع البومات تامر ولا وجه للمقارنة بينه وبين عمرو دياب وانه يستاجر المعجبات ولذا لا تستطيع عمر دويتو معه في الفترة الحالية وذلك في اتصال هاتفي باذاعة موزاييك إف إم التونسية.

وقد قال تامر انه على ما يبدو هناك من يحاول الايقاع بينهما، كما اشار انه قام بالاتصال بشيرين اثناء اداءه مناسك العمرة مخبرا اياها انه يدعوا لها بالخير.

تعليق المحرر :
هو تامر راح عمرة امتى؟
مش يا جدعان تامر اليومين اللي فاتوا بيجيب انفلونزا خنازير من لبنان وبيوزعها فمارينا؟؟ يبقى راح عمرة امتى والتاشيرات ممنوعة؟
هو المفروض كان يقول : وانا فالعمرة وانا ببوس ايد ماما وبصرف ع الفقراء وببني جامع وبالف اغنية لضحايا فلسطين شيرين بعتت كلمني شكرا، قمت اتصلت انا عشان انا بتصل باللي بيبعت كلمني وقلتلها انا بدعيلك.

اذاعة القران الكريم من السعودية

اسمع اذاعة القران الكريم من السعودية مباشرة
بث مباشر اونلاين
لاذاعة القران الكريم من المملكة العربية السعودية

Other Stuff

This fabric started in blueberry dye. No, really. I found some blueberries in the freezer, boiled them down and drained off the juice, and then poured it over this fabric, which was stuffed into a little container with some random fabric scraps that wanted to be blue, too.



I let the fabric batch for three days, turning the container every few hours. When I took it out and rinsed it, it smelled awful- obviously the blueberry juice was going bad and had turned a brownish color. Since I couldn't use the fabric smelling as badly as it did, I tossed it in the washing machine and ran it through a gentle cycle. What came out of the machine was a gunmetal gray I really wasn't satisfied with.

I had juice left over , so I soaked the fabric again for 24 hours. The result wasn't much more pronounced than after the first batching, and since I was dyeing in blues anyway yesterday, I threw this fabric and the scraps into the bath, and what you see above was the result.

I'm pleased.

In order to go not into textile overload, I still splash paint and glue around on a regular basis. This stretched canvas background emerged last week and now awaits a focal point.


While I had the lighting equipment out, I went ahead and photographed this piece, called Jumping Woman, which I did shortly after President Obama won his election. I was overjoyed with his victory, and this piece was the result.


Like the background above, it was also done on a stretched canvas frame and contains fibers, fabrics and painted papers. I also created a fiber figure with her arms raised high in joy, and painted paper/fun foam "buttons", which were adhered along the bottom. It has a couple of beads I made from painted foil candy wrappers that were then melted and formed into bead shapes.


So, another week is off and running... or flying...


Ready, set, create!

The Week In Blues

I recognize this obsessiveness, this need to experiment with one technique, push its limits and see what it can do, what you can do to force it to behave in a manner you prescribe. This is how a series starts.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I've been "researching" a commissioned textile piece by creating small versions of the final piece and seeing what happens to them when I do various evil, arty things to them.

The client wants a large textile art piece for a master bedroom. She has a specific color scheme in mind and she wants something modern and unusual.

What I have settled on- and hope the client will approve of- is a pillowcase-turned, fully finished quilt top to which I'm sewing strips of fabric in a tight, somewhat irregular pattern. I'm constructing the piece using all white cotton materials so that it can be low-immersion dyed later. The purpose of using strips of torn fabric and dyeing after the piece is constructed rather than before is because I want to celebrate the thread schmutz that always occurs during the dyeing/washing process. I want the edges to fray and tangle and make a lovely, chaotic mess. This, I believe, helps to offset the linear pattern created by the long strips of stitched fabric.

The first test of this technique resulted in this piece,


... which I've mounted on a painted canvas donated to a worthy cause. I love the way this textile turned out, but I believe it to be too soft and feminine for my client, who is drawn, as I am, to more edgy work.

So I sewed two more test pieces, hoping for more chaotic schmutz movement and more appropriate colors for her home.

The first little piece was stitched, as usual, with white cotton materials but rather than dyeing it, I painted it liberally with three colors of Dye-Na-Flow and then turned it upside down to dry.



Dye-Na-Flow is not a dye, it's a thin fabric paint, and as such, it doesn't bond with the fibers the way dye does. It sits on the surface, which means that any irregularity in the textile- folds, creases, wrinkles, fringe- will collect higher amounts of pigment than a smooth surface would. Turning the piece upside down encouraged the paint to migrate into the fringe at the top of the piece and color them more intensely than the rest of the piece. It worked, but not to the extent I was hoping.

The second little piece got low-immersion dyed and then dried in the dryer, which is not something I usually do with my hand-dyeds. I got thread schmutz galore.



I'll take both pieces to my client in September and let her decide if she wants something like this in her home.

Happy creating!

After the Party

The duporet bujany (translating as something like "ass-rocker") was found at poor design. Poor is the author of several clever designs, the most known being the "peg" pendrive. The design is funny, unfortunately as the owner of one such peg I am less enthusiastic about its practicality.
I prefer when he creates poor objects in all honesty - like this "uncovering lamp".

Plexiglas object which gives no light but at least it does not shut off light either. Additionally, it can serve as a stand for a classical lamp with a clamp changing it in a traditional bedside lamp.

Or take this spike:
Perfect for hangovers.

Winner!

WOW! Thank you so much
for participating in this giveaway
and for all the nice comments!!!
I had a wonderful time reading all of them.

The winner is:
KIKI
from Thessaloniki, Greece!

Congratulations!
Please email me with you mailing address.

The illustration above was made
using some of my own
hand carved eraser stamps.
If you can't find the big carving blocks
where you live don't fret,
there are many things you can do
with small erasers!

Compositional Conversation off and running!

The second artist, Rebecca Howdeshell, participating in the cooperative textile project I'm involved in, Compositional Conversation, has finished her work on the quilt top and sent it on to the next artist. Read about her experience with our textile piece here!

Keeping up the party spirit

• the paintings are by Jeff Soto.
• the chair for partying till you drop is by Sebastian Brajkovic.
• and the look-what-I-found-upon-returning-to-the-hotel-room photo was taken by the great Cormac Hanley (an interview with him is here, although I must add that his admiration for Michael Mann goes strongly against my conclusions after seeing his last film)