what the Universe has to offer....

Hello and thank you to those who have emailed me. it feels strange though because there are no names- just the email tag. it adds to the feeling of dissociation of the whole web expereince.
I know by being so "exhibitionist" [is that a good description- it sounds a bit wild for howI would describe myself] anonyminity is part of the game- but I still need to get my head around it.

Just teaching workshops where participants have obviously taken an interest in me and checked me out via my website is always a funny feeling. usually I have been a part of exchanges of information about me... oh well it is a modern world and curiouser and curiouser all the time.

I have just received some good news I will be hanging an exhibition in Paducah next year to conincide with the Quilt Week held there next April- fantastic! i can do my tour in India and hang around for a few weeks in Delhi[ there are lots of opportunities to do volunteer work nd it is a great city] and then fly onto the States. Anyone wnt me to do a workshop- i'll be around Kentucky- just let me know.

I have a few ideas I want to explore but now I have a venue it is time to get my head around what I want to explore in these works.

above are some snaps of what I have been doing . The first one is from a new body of work- the idea actualy came from the line I put on the back cover of my Masters exhibition catalogue, so it feels nice to be using it as a spring board. 'there' is only 'here' in another location.... don't know where I came up with the line but i love it - such a good descritpion of how i feel as a result of travelling.

the coloured one has just come back from touring Japan for two years and so it is almost like meeting it for the first time [ it is for sale by the way...] it is part of my Soulscapes Series and there still feels like i have some things to explore there- but a whole exhibition?

what to do what to do.?

a good morning to you all

Fiona

physical work and satisfaction

I have finally been able to get out of the house and studio and into the back yard.

My boys have helped and I have moved the chickens into their new pen down the back- roof an absolute patchwork of wire mesh and have planted a vegies garden in the old chook [ Australian for chicken] yard
The cockys [parrots] are my girls- they are family antiques [ over 40years old] and passed onto me with the demise of a grandparent and were very interested to watch and comment on all the proceedings.

the point of this ramble? it is so good to do something physical- I have spent the last year and a half at the computer- I have calluses on my knees from the ergonomic chair! and a very fat bum and NO stamina from such a sendintary life style.

now every muscle aches but I feel much friskier in my self- have a vegies garden that will demand my attention- ideas for the studio percoltaing through my soul and due to the physical exhaustion took the time to sit on the front verandah to watch the sun set.

working from home and on my own business and although I consider myself an artist first and foremost to stay out of the starving artist catagory[ with hungry teenage boys this is very important!] I have to consider my passion a business and do all the right things.

They say an artist must suffer for their work- well I think that is where the paper work comes in and the endless correspondence to follow up on opportunities to share my work- still you get to chat to some nice people along the way and really appreciate the creative time so it ain't all bad

Get outside in the fresh air work up a sweat - your creative work will appreciate it!
bye

and the pic

this is the little one i was talking about- sorry the details is a bit poor.

past Uni...

I have just recently finished my Masters of Visual Arts  which in many ways was rather a traumatic affair[ the doing not the finishing].
Some came about I think from an old dog trying to learn new tricks, some was more to do with communication or lack there of it and some to do with the confines of what you can say at an academic level.
I was initially told you can say what ever you like as long as you can back it up. I knew I came from a left field back ground with a strong spiritual basis but thought oh well I can certainly reference things. What I came to feel was there are strong blinkers locked firmly in place and what my final papers reflected was an effort done with only one side acknowledged.

Oh well I was wanting to play on their field and those were the rules. Experience is there to learn from.

I learnt a lot in many odd ways and I am only now starting to appreciate some of it.
The catalogue I produced to go with my final exhibition for Uni finished with this line on the last page ‘there’ is only ‘here’ in another location…
I have started to really love that thought… it opens up so many others.

I have been using some of the clothes used to wrap parcels in India before they are posted as the basis of a series of pieces…

And I is leading on to many more ideas to follow up

The little image here is just a small variation and experiment on the theme- mounted up because I need a few pieces to pop into an exhibition...still I am excited to explore where it will lead

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trust

I am a great believer that if you have a question, you simply need to frame it clearly in your mind and stay observant- the Universe will supply the answer.

this could come in the form of an unexpected email, some thing you overhear someone saying - perhaps not directly to you but definitely directing you the way you need to go.

my artistic work evolves out of this philosphy as well [ perhaps it is a way to cope with the rather unpredictable methods i use] i start off with an idea but don't stay too attached to it... rather ride along with the results as they come out.

i think this is a great philosophy- it works well for me.
at the moment i am trying to plan what i am doing for the next year or so- work wise, where should i live, what i should apply for....
i have a few shoulds in my mind but the indications form the Universe seem to be pointing in another direction and it is a little scary just letting go and going with the flow.

i know it is the best thing to do and will work out bets in the long run but it can be a bit nerve wracking sometimes...


the deatil above is from a piece that has become an example of one of those moments... last year i was wondering what to do with myself.... thinking in a few years i would like an around the world ticket.... and low and behold i on the Foyle Trust Prize for stitched textiles and i have an around the world ticket- i was a bit shocked [ very pleased- don't worry] as it came a few years before i thought i was ready for it....
that is how it goes sometimes...

thanks for listening i feel better about letting go with the 'shoulds' and going ith the flow, now

rust dyeing

From a pot of yuk- amazing colours will emerge.
These were pieces i had painted years ago for a quilt and they weren't right. so i thought they would be great to experiment on.
as the fabric drys in the sun rich rusty colours start to emerge- the small darkest piece on the right is where the others are heading to...
Caustic sode is part of the brew so rubber gloves and great care are necessary- i felt like one of the witches out of Macbeth standing over my cauldren stirring this stuff up.
my friend has coloured me other fabric that i used to make trousers...as i was sewing it it seemed very ' metallic' and the trousers had a distict rustle as i was walking in them that that fabric does not normally have. The Tin man must have ounded like that everyday!
a great experience [ and addictive to my friend who is always searching for new shade, a new pattern] and you feel very brave using things that can eat your hands away very easily!
as you may guess i am not really a chemicals type at all!
home today and back to the studio to sew.....
and ponder- i need to plan what to do next year- always things are so far inadvence- workshops to teach, where to go? i am thinking of applying for a residency Os some where next year- who knows how it will go?

a routine for working

blogger is a funny bugger, i can't seem to control where the images go... it seems you need toput them in in the reverse order you wish them to appear.
just looking through correspondence there are a number of art quilt competitions i would like to try out for.
i like entering things as i literaly drags me out to the studio and says focus!
from there i get tied of focussing on some one else's project and am also warmed up and can flow more easily into my work.
there is so much to do- all these art quilt bits but also an exhibition or two [ wow] and preparation for my around the world ticket and lots of exciting places to visit and people to meet and exchange ideas with [ it is commonally labelled teaching but i always find i learn so much i think of it as an exchange!]
so what is happening in the snaps?- laying out felts and the finished pieces. these i will now stitch into with the machine or by hand... they are just sample size i have some ideas to work through...i love the look of the materials at everystep along the way....
i have not been one to use a journal to record ideas but am increasingly realising its value.
it is easy to stay with what is comfortable if you just work on what comes to the surface of your imagination - where as if you use the journal to jot thigs down as you start to get them you have some memory to snag on to retrive and work back into- your work then eveloves... or so i am thinking.

getting back into work

I like the idea of this blog more than I am making use of it- always seems too much of a bother to connect up and post to it.
It just dawned on me I can just scribble away and post it up as part of my morning routine when I check emails etc…..slow or what!?

Been experimenting with postcards and looking at the work of Hundertwasser. Combining that with memories of India [ always on my mind] I have come up with some bits I am happy with. A simple exercise like this has been good to warm up the studio after being away 2 months as well this seemed so India and Hundertwasser at once. In the Jain temple all the images of the saints or God’s have white glass eyes- very intense and then I found a shop in Udaipur where I could buy them for my statues at home if I wished. They stared at me all the way down the street!


Rust dyeing on the week end- wonderful earthy shades- photos coming.

A girlfriend is keen on it but it has scared me a bit because the caustic soda you need to use can chew off fingers if you are not careful.

What got us started is trying to make an iron black dye-or is it stain- like my Dyer friend in Udaipur does.
He said soak iron with jaggery sugar in water… it seems there is a little more than that and I now have it fermenting to see how that helps it?