My Studio Assistant

I'm not someone who likes to involve others in my work, but Julie seems to know exactly when she is needed. When I left the room to get some books to weigh down those bulbous branches of the orange leaf, Miss Julie had already taken care of it.

This is the work, after my assistant deemed it ready to sew, of course. It is aptly named "RAMSHACKLE (Revised)" because it is "Ramshackle", revised. It measures about 58"W x 75" H, so it got narrower than the original and longer. I amputated the left side following the "Quilts: Another Dimension" exhibit and have been repositioning the bits and pieces since then. I thought perhaps I'd never be satisfied. Oddly enough, I found a strange little sketch I'd done for it while at a lecture in the very museum it will be hung in during August. Coincidence?

And where is my assistant right now, you ask? Sitting next to me, with one paw on the computer making sure I spell her name right.

Making the "Corseted Landscape"

Posting two days in a row? You must all wonder what's up? Luckily, the stars and planets have aligned and I had a week off (back to work tomorrow), I'm in a good mood and I actually have something to write about. Hence...two posts, two days. This is a stretched canvas that measures 4ft W x 6ft H. The painting was made to cut up into the circular elements that went into my latest work called "CORSETED LANDSCAPE". As I always seem to note, I have a tendency to fall in love with the paintings as they are developing, unless I stop myself midway and reinforce "it's for the fabric construction, Sonji...this is not a painting!" BTW, that haze you see on the surface is a wash of gold metallic paint. It doesn't translate well.

Even in relaying this information to you, my fine readers, I feel that emotional surge tugging in my chest and a vice grip in my head..."I am a painting, Sonji. Proceed in a traditional fashion. You won't regret it. Go back from whence your little artistic brain came." But, I know in the end, I would be less than satisfied if I just kept painting away. The dimension and manipulation of the fabric is how I can make my images come to life. The physicality matters. I might need to get that talking thing in my head taken care of though. Hmmm.

And trust me, it was a sincere and vicious struggle to get all this under the machine arm. The brunt of the fabric is very plastic to the touch because I used artist acrylics instead of the watery craft acrylics. I'm not complaining (well, technically I am complaining), because as with all these works the painted surface is uber important and that tough hand is necessary. Hey, don't you think that some intrepid choreographer would become quite the success if they simply watched those of us who create large fabric works push and pull ourselves and our work? I always laugh audibly if I have to start using my left leg in order to balance part of a piece or to brace it on a chair and move the chair around with my foot. It is an odd dance. I know many of you do it as well. These detail shots show the incising, strip piecing (pieced prior to painting in 3 sections, which were then sewn together) and layering that create the visual "corset" reference. Both sides are painted. The non-viewed side is a copper/brown/gray surface. I refer to it as "non-viewed" because my original intention was to have it function as a two-sided work, but for whatever reason, it didn't go that way. I think I developed a primary obsession with the gray side. When Trish Williams came to visit, she thought it could still go that direction, but the way that I continued to construct it leads me to prefer the wall relief version and instead devote my energy to creating an obsessively coiled hand embroidered surface. The thought of it finished delights me. The thought of doing it ...not so much.

"CORSETED LANDSCAPE" measures about 54"W x 73"H and has a depth of around 6 to 8 inches off the wall, depending on how the wind is blowing. Just imagine a wave of coiled black embroidery across the lower third of the corset. Beautiful. Now, imagine doing it. Uh...still beautiful? Now, I actually went over and tried to jab that frickin' needle through that canvas (awl and pliers in hand) and I have to admit that I'm not exactly married to the idea of the embroidery. Maybe on the next one. Hmmm. Commitment issues.

"BROKEN LANDSCAPE", "BLUE LANDSCAPE" and "CORSETED LANDSCAPE" are all part of that visual comment I am making on the destruction and control human beings force upon nature. A corset binds a figure in order to enforce a particular set of beauty/sexual/social standards. It is physically harmful, if not emotionally and psychologically harmful as well. But one can recover from these assaults, just like the environment does when chemicals, burning and cutting attack it, desiring control and conformation to "make it better". The beauty of nature, is that nothing can really make it conform. It will react and always overwhelm the human hand that slaps it. The imposition of our desires is virtually meaningless, in the long run. I'm so deep (and slightly depressing...how did that happen?)...good thing these are making their physical debut at a museum. Just the thought put into them alone is worth wine and cheese and wall space.

Marion Coleman documents BREAK at PI

Marion Coleman, textile and mixed media artist in Castro Valley, CA, is the curator for the exhibition "BREAK: Rhythmized Textiles from the African Diaspora" on view at Pi Gallery in Kansas City, MO (until June 29) was kind enough to send me some images from her visit there at the start of the exhibit. The esteemed Marion Coleman (center) is flanked by Anita Knox (who is also a curator and assistant director of The Kansas African American Museum, in Wichita, KS) and Anita Carse. Sheer Delight, by Montgomery.

African Burial Ground by Valerie Goodwin.

Alice Beasley's work.

A sculpture by Anita Knox.

My work.

Another of my pieces (left) and Marla's (center) and Anita Knox's piece (right).

Thanks to Marion for sending me these images.

Broken Landscape

There was "Blue Landscape" , so one would think this would be called "Red Landscape"...but no. Its proper name is "Broken Landscape". It measures about 88" H x 64"W. I had to recover my design wall in order to get a picture of it because it just kept getting bigger than all my designated areas. It has the surface area of me with my arms outstretched top to bottom and side to side. Maybe it is me. I am a broken landscape. Hmmm.My goal is to emphasize the importance of the painted surface in this newer work. Also, the theme of landscape and natural and manipulated circumstances are of incredible interest to me. The idea of humans believing that nature can actually be controlled and all the efforts taken to do so. Hmmm.

The same structural theme applies to "Blue Landscape", the piece I completed before this one. Methodology: I paint a large canvas and view it as solely a painting, only about itself, in the constructs of my intention. Then, around halfway through, I start manipulating the surface knowing that I am going to cut it up and build an environment that is based on a particular theme, like formalized and tamed landscape or the invasiveness and destruction humans perceive as nature running its own course.

The detail shots demonstrate how the overwhelming color is red, but it travels the spectrum of cool blue/red to warm/orange red...subtle and limited, but also vast in possibilities. I have always been a big fan of limiting color use, but pushing what you are using to the max. Painting 201, eons ago, with Tom Uttech.

An important aside, check out the latest work of Trish Williams, who has discovered that she really does love the hand of the painted surface. She is challenging herself to make "sculpted" surfaces and they are looking uber-delish. I am hoping that if all works out, I will get to see these face-to-face when she travels to Appleton, WI for a presentation next week.

Work for "BREAK" at the PI GALLERY in Kansas City, MO

Oh, how I wish I could attend this year's Surface Design Conference. The exhibits taking place all over Kansas City, associated with the conference, seem especially intriguing this time around. Alas, only my work will be there. Thanks to all the people who sent me emails and rang me up regarding my work being on the cover of the Spring SDA Newsletter, along with the uber talented Alice Beasley and El Anatsui (his website is being redesigned so there isn't any work on it which is why I gave you this marvy link). The image on the front page of my website is the one on the newsletter cover, full color baby. I tell you, that piece is getting a lot of play this year. It will also be in the newsletter for The Wisconsin Museum of Art (where I will be having a solo exhibit in August...hurrah!).

I just finished this piece and it will be installed at Pi Gallery along with Stilt House V (the image at the bottom of this post). Marion Coleman and Wini McQueen curated the exhibit. I know that Marion is going to be in KC during the conference, so if you too are there (I'm not above envy although I'm working on it) look for her beautiful self and congratulate her on her fabulousness. If I'm not mistaken, there are 13 artists exhibiting in "Break: Rhythmized Textiles from the African Diaspora".
The Deception of the Formal Landscape, measures 35"W x 60"H

Detail of the bundles in the center of the piece.

Stilt House V, measures 50"H x 30"W x 6"D

And my dears, I am totally going to braaaaaaaaaaaaaggity-bragbrag about being one of the artists featured in an article by Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi in the Japanese magazine. "Patchwork Quilt Tsushin Magazine, April 2009". The other featured artists are Marion Coleman, Gwen Aqui, Viola Burley Leak, Adreinne Cruz, Marlene Seabrook, Carolyn Crump, Rosalind Thomas, Cookie Washington, The Lovely Valerie White (I only refer to her this way), and Denise Campbell. Can I read it? No, the text is in Japanese, but hey, if a picture is worth a thousand words, surely it will all translate.