Another Time – Lost in Customs

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Graceland Under African Skies lo res

This is a digital image from a scanned slide. Earlier this week Richard Norman, a book binder who moved from the UK to France several years ago posted two entries on facebook of Paul Simon performing in Africa in the late eighties. They both were songs from his still inspiring album, Graceland. Besides having me humming along as I listened, they reminded me of the Graceland coats I made shortly after the album was released.

I bought the music, came home put it on the player and found out just how easy it can be to be caught up in his lyrics and rhythms. I promptly went to the closest fabric shop and decided to find cloth that could work for the scenes he describes in the music. Primarily two pieces, Under African Skies and Boy in the Bubble (which may have a different title, but that is what I called it).

I asked the sales clerk if she had cloth that felt like an elephant, a Masai warrior or could be a lion, it had to say Africa! After buying bits of each cloth that I thought would work and several yards of off white osnaberg cloth which is like a muslin, I came home only to realize that I had no pattern for what I wanted to do, no coat pattern.

So I folded the cloth in half, selvages on each side and laid down in the center with my shoulders on the fold. With the right hand I pinned along where I thought a sleeve should be by keeping my left arm extended. Then a couple of pins a ways out from my hip. The rest of the length could be figured out after I got back up. Once that side was cut out (both layers for front and back) I folded over that side to make a pattern to cut the other side. Flattened it back to where it was and cut up the top layer to make the opening and scooped out a bit of neck. I repeated this again with a small striped muslin for the liner of the coat.

All I had to do next was place the outer coat on the mannequin, turn up the music, lay out some National Geographics and start cutting and pinning. It was the most fun afternoon. Shortly afterwards I heated up some blue dye in a pot on the stove, shoved the shoulder area in to give myself the “African Sky”. Later I embroidered the “stars of the southern hemisphere.”

Once the outer layer met my expectations (which I kept pretty simple) I matched it up with the lining and added a layer of filler between. To finish it took just edging the front opening and hemming up the cuffs and bottom.

Then I made another:

Graceland Boy in the Bubble 1988 lo res

More dyed shoulders for the Boy in the Bubble. Had to have a place for that “distant constellation.” And doing the bomb in the baby carriage was interesting to say the least. It was one of the last pieces that my mother helped me stitch on before she died. I think she thought I was nuts. I loved these pieces.

I even wore one to a national quilt conference in Houston, Texas of all places. I just wanted to be in the audience with it on. It was swelteringly hot!

I was also active at basket making conferences at this time and some of us who taught had to do a talk to the attendees. I took my boom box so I could play the two pieces of music when I showed the slides. Not only that but I had shaped little rounds of black paper into fortune cookies with a curled quote about art making sticking out. The audience was to help themselves to one of these from my African basket on the way out. In all honesty I did receive some strange looks but I loved what I was doing and just wanted to share the enthusiasm.

Later on after moving myself and my coats to North Carolina, I decided to mail some of my art to wear on to Australia. There they were more likely to wear it than in my more conservative crowd. The first box arrived fine and donned the chairs in the dining room for years there in that most hospitable house.

The next box that contained these coats among other costumes did not fair so well. I received word that I had insured them too high and they were being held hostage in customs for a fee, $65, I think. I emailed customs there and apologized for my error and begged them to please release them. And I actually thought it worked.

After two stays at their home I realized that the coats I had sent a few years before were not there. They only could have went the way of the unclaimed at customs and met some sort of demise. But I would like to think that somewhere over there a customs inspector’s spouse puts them on when she plays Paul Simon’s Graceland album and dances around with all the pleasure I put into them.

And This Utterly Familiar Thing

Posted on by Sandy Webster

landscape 3

I am returning for a bit to “the things I used to do.” Mainly it is the graduate work on a series of books about the men of Brasstown and my relationship within the group on a daily basis. I made a file box and then the books, all had to be black and white and all had to in some way reflect my favorite quote from Thomas Wolfe. Above is one of several simple Carolina moon landscapes in tapestry. Each previous page had a window into the next bit of stitch and weave.

Below is the progression of a variation on the old practice of changing collars. I will show the last page first as it has Thomas Wolfe’s quote in total. The entire book was shaped like collars.

turning collars last pageturning collars title pageturning collars

turning collars page 1turning collars page 2turning collars page 3

turning collars page 4turning collars page 5turning collars page 6

There are several books in the file box. Here is another with marks made from things found around their common work space.

marks

And here is our separate places of “work”.

where we worked

I used black and white photography back then because I had access to dark room equipment or sent the film off to be developed. This process is so much easier now with iphone and photo programs.

tunnel book

A tunnel book of what the men and I would see every day….the common things.

men at work

good woman

And their clothes and rags collected and used to represent our common presence on a daily basis. I think this one is my favorite of all of the books. It is a book I could open and feel their very existence through the cloth. My time with them is represented by the passing through of the black stitching.

our clothes

our clothes last page

Funny how this format of the accordion book returns when I am telling a story.

The other day I was working on an idea I had about taking the decades of your life and placing the pieces that represent best that time. So lets say birth to ten years of age, then teen years, twentys, you get the idea. It was a strange and sometimes discomforting process. I chose eighteen inch squares of cloth of varying materials that felt right for that time of my life. Then proceeded to select bits of fabric, pieces of wallpapers, images, etc. A total of eight pages are somewhat finished as far as the selections and placements go, but now have to be stitched….lots of stitching. I want them to look and act like the very old scrap books we used to have. The soft pages folding over to the left and showing the marks of what held you together for the next phase of your life.

My friend, Patti, and I thought it would be a good class to teach because I do so much with teaching memory vessels. It simply won’t work. There is way too much that you need to have at hand and it is such a personal story. I won’t even get to the stitching part until later in the winter when holding cloth with needle and thread comes easier for me.

But to close off this return to the familiar, here are two of the “quilts” I made about the men with their cloth and my stitching. I used their tools to ink up and make marks and wrote a bit about them in places. The final image is a small bit of practice on type setting I made using my small wood block and type at the Women’s Studio Workshop in upstate New York during my time with the men…maybe 1998.

patriarch quilt 2

Patriarch quilt 1

the familiar

This is the decade of the fifties page. There is a few collected objects on it as well as cloth and papers. It is the time of going back to college and then graduate school and how that opened new ways of seeing for me, new ways of understanding the importance of the familiar.

I will come back to this as I proceed on the scrap book. But for now this is just a small return to the things I used to do based on a discovery in a fabric box.

 

 

Let’s Take That “Creative” Thinking to Another Place

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Picture1 at 600

Since my last blog about being “schooled” in creativity, I did a bit more research into how instructors are sharing their abilities with the public. And did you know there are restaurants where a person can partake of “one of America’s latest trends.”  It is often referred to as “Creative Social Art”. A group comes together at a location to experience painting and drinking wine. The sessions last between two and three hours and often happen in a place that serves refreshments/food.

One site online even suggested that any one could become “the hostess with the mostess.” All you need to do is bring in some friends, furnish the paints, brushes and canvas and maybe even the instructor if you can’t take on the responsibility of assisting your students to a finished painting. Either they bring their own wine or it is furnished at an additional fee. You are hosting your own painting party. Catchy names for these events include, Fear no Easel, Paint and Sip, Wine and Design, and a favorite, Creativity Uncorked! Note that all of these events involve wine. There is no other alcoholic beverage used to enhance the experience.

The key here is to stress that no artistic ability is necessary. Everyone is gathering to have fun while experiencing the motions required to get a painting done in a set amount of time. It does not matter that almost all the paintings look the same. What matters is that the result be a happy person who has made a painting more or less all by themselves. And maybe, just maybe will try this at home, unsupervised.

But this is what stands out to me. Almost without fail these “learning to paint” encounters consist primarily of female participants. What about those guys? How to they get involved in Creative Social Art? And then I hit on the answer. Beer.

We need to take it to them. Men already in attendance. Men already being sociable. In the pub. In the tavern.

So, being completely caught up in those catchy titles for “Creativity Time”, I thought of the following for those in a bar who would prefer not to watch a ball game.

Let’s Paint with Pints and Points.

There was help on this one. My friend, Patti, suggested darts in a bar with small balloons partially filled with paint. Others would be filled with water to keep things blending and dripping. The instructor we will call him, just needs to get the scene ready with a plastic sheet on the floor and the canvas fixed to a wall with filled balloons pinned in place. After a determined time the scores of hits are talleyed and the one with the most points is allowed to turn the canvas any direction he wishes. More creative drips and colors later, the time is up and the winner takes his new painting home. Believe me if patrons can find themselves involved in karaoke, they can do this. They can do this and learn about color and gesture at the same time. Sort of a social Jackson Pollock approach to abstract expressionism. I would do this in a pub in a nano second.

And how about a more intimate group adventure into social creativity. This one takes place sitting side by side at the bar and is called:

Portraiture with Beers and Smears

If the patron wants to play along, he asks for the 7 x 9 inch piece of paper and the paint. It could be a very limited palette presented in shot glasses. There are no brushes because this is going to be learning the art of finger painting. Each of  them attempts to do a portrait of the bartender or each other with gentle blending and shading – all done using just his fingers. The cocktail napkin is for wiping away unwanted marks and his fingers before reaching into the bar snacks bowl. I have tried this after one Bloody Mary and before drinking down this nice dark beer…..and here it is! So pleased, I signed it!

bar finger painting

I think that both of these pub/bar/tavern creativity courses might have a better chance of being a hit in Australia. Down under there is more of a spirit of adventure when they come together in their social groups. At one point in time they even tossed dwarves about in outback pubs when their gum boots came up missing. (I read about this in a book titled, The Greater Nowheres, by a couple of young adventurers working for National Geographic.

But anyone could take these ideas and turn them into cash. Get the ball rolling and get those students hooked on getting in touch with their creativity. I heard about a woman who actually has a following of people who for a whole week she can talk into sitting in the grass and communing with Nature. Evidently they can’t do this at home….it takes instruction. And I really don’t blame them if they live around here. Our grass right now is full of those nasty chiggers. No one is sitting there. I’m getting side tracked here, sorry.  Back on topic.

I am still thinking about a title for my own workshop on creativity using the dot to dot method that struck my fancy last week. “Wine and Line” is the best so far. No paint necessary. Just a handout showing dots with numbers and a pencil with an eraser. I want to start out slowly and hopefully drag my students through long deliberate steps to creativity.

There is just one more idea I need to put forth. Our son, Patrick, has warmed to this whole concept of taking creativity classes on the road and for a short time only he will be offering a workshop titled, Creatively Caffeinated. These classes will be at the average cost of most Creativity with Sustenance events and be held in coffee shops. Offered in the greater Detroit area for limited time and only $47.50 per head the students can gather not only around their computers and iphones but a paint by number assignment sheet with a brush and brown watercolor. The pictured pile of coffee beans are to be painted according to a numbered system for light roast, medium  roast, and dark roast. Just coordinate the color with its number. Easy and fun to do with the guarantee of a finished painting in no more than two hours.

Creatively Caffeinated

We could now consider this subject of social creativity classes closed…..at least for now.

 

A Creativity Course – Just Follow Along

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Is it just me or is there an absolute abundance of instructional materials on being creative. Didn’t people just figure this out alone, working with the materials and techniques they were familiar with? Didn’t they simply say to themselves, “Today I am going to try something different, just to see if it will work.” Since when did we need to gather together in workshops or follow along in a book taking it one step at a time?

I think it might be a bit like the growing popularity of “adult coloring books”. When I first heard that phrase I thought the subject matter within the covers was perhaps naughty pictures. But I actually have been told that they are like children’s coloring books, just smaller areas to color in. The expectation is still staying within the lines and they are themed. Not like super heroes or Sesame Street, but butterflies, flowers, etc. This seems like a rich territory to subvert into something else, mass produce them and make a bundle. Let me think on that.

But for now I am remembering the dot to dot books. Remember, always start at “1” and follow the sequence to the end, and WOW something appears. And at age five, you drew it all by yourself. So I thought I would try it sixty-seven years later.

Here is my numbered dot drawing:

blog dot to dot

Of course sometimes some small features need to be added  to the drawing because a kid would not know how to do this themselves. Bet you can’t even guess what this will be when the dots are connected.

 

 

blog unicorn

A unicorn! How fun is that!

But if we take it a bit further and question the sequence, we can go off on our own. In a creativity course you may not be encouraged to do this until day four or somewhere half way through the book.

Within five minutes after I made this drawing up, I wanted to see if I could find a dragon just by connecting dots in random order. I made my lines where I wanted to and then ended up with the following.

blog howling cat head

A cat with an antennae on her head in mid yowl.

blog catterpillar pointing

Or turned to the left, a pointing caterpillar, again with an antennae.

blog rabbit hiding

Turned another way it’s a rabbit hiding in the grass. Does he, too, have an antennae?

blog grasshopper landing

And my personal favorite, an action shot of a grasshopper in mid somersault.

 

And all that with just one trip through violating the order of numbers.

If I was a quilter, I could cut all these shapes and stitch them together, and repeat them in blocks big enough to get me qualified for entry into Quilt National. Why not?

A basket maker, and I would definitely do the rabbit in willow. Do it large for some yard art. It could be done in the round or simply a flat piece. Oooooh, maybe a series running along the edge of the garden.

The yowling cat calls out to be a clay sculpted pitcher where you can pour the whatever out of that open mouth. All you’d have to do is increase the volume by making his neck longer. You may need to take off the antennae. (Artistic License).

But you can already see the possibilities here. I think I can do a book with this. The unicorn alone is rich with only one interpretation turned four ways. I think I will try another configuration. A dragon could still appear.

But what if I did another dot to dot, another smile and eyeball for clues of course. It is endless. And it could add a fun addition to the plethora of creative thinking books out there. A workshop with students struggling with where to draw that next line once they finished staying on course. I am warming even more to this idea as I write. At the very least it is going to be a handout at the next workshop. The only addition I think it needs is for the learner to be told to collect four phrases from a romance novel written before 1984 to be put into a poem about how the image they have created is relevant to an old flame.

I like it.