studio afternoon

Ahhhhh - happiness. Another drizzly day and an afternoon in the studio. Five of us were there today - and in between working, we had a chance to vent about the disgusting political situation in this country. Frightening! And it doesn't look hopeful, even with the next election.

But on to happier things. Last night, I decided to print a dry thickened dye screen that has been sitting here for several months. This morning, I steamed and washed the fabric before I left for the studio. I wish I could remember what color dye I used because I would love to duplicate the result. But no such luck, of course. I'll have to be content with a one-off. Here are a couple of details: notice how the dye has broken down into a couple of different colors. You just never know what it is going to do. I played "can this fabric be saved?" with a few pieces that needed more work, and I discovered another way to print with wax which pleased me very much. Tomorrow I shall have to experiment some more with it. In fact, I think I may not wait till tomorrow. I'm on a roll - so think I'll go downstairs and play a little bit tonight.

Now that I'm back to work, I am feeling much less grouchy. Last night my caller ID said that our homeowners insurance company was calling. In a completely unusual move, I picked up the phone. You know how you get these nuisance calls where the person says "Hello, Ms. Yockenfloss, this is so-and-so from Company X - how are YOU tonight?" I HATE that. But last night, I asked "are you a real person or a computer?" and the guy cracked up laughing. Well, I had my answer, didn't I? We had a perfectly pleasant conversation and he ended by saying he hoped everybody else he was going to call was as pleasant as I was. Trust me, it was an aberration. I don't know what got into me. A day in the studio, maybe??

so today, I went to the studio

It was hot. I sweltered and it was not a pretty picture. However, I did accomplish something in the couple of hours I was there. Obsessesed with my woods, I am trying a variety of methods for developing images. I screened this image onto printmaking paper and was happy with the resulting two prints. The dye was fugitive on fabric, as it was last week: either the dye paste is too old or the soda ash paste is too weak. Whatever. I am tempted to stick with paper for now.
At lunchtime, one of the other artists and I visited Susan Lisbin, who is a painter, sculptor, and printmaker. We admired her live/work space and had not only a delicious lunch, but had a chance to look at more of her work than we had seen before. I came away inspired and for the first time, thought about taking a painting class. Just for the heck of it, I took out my oil pastels and oilsticks and played around with a canvas when I got back to the studio. And yes,I need a class. But thinking and doing are two different things, so we'll see. This image is square, but I must have cropped it when I took the photo.

That was today's adventure. I may or may not go to the studio tomorrow: depends on the weather, but if I go in the morning it should be okay.

I have been on a reading binge. It has been so long since I was at the library that my card had expired. Really. I took out two huge piles of detective fiction: Swedish noir, Italian, and British. I've already read 3 of the 7 books and it feels so good to escape.

Our weekend in Bethesda was pleasant. The weather was lovely - not the usual oppressive D.C. humid heat. I visited with Dominie Nash for an hour on Saturday morning at her home. I just didn't have time to go to her studio but we'll save that for next time.

play day at the museum

One Monday a month our Studio Six group meets at the Newark Museum and we make a mess in the print studio. Today, Randy Keenan, who makes the most to-die-for collages and artist's books, joined us. The museum has a Thermofax,so she was able to make some screens and was in Thermofax heaven. We all normally do our own processes - Judy Langille screens fabric. Here she is, working on no doubt what will be another prize winner.
Judy has been in Quilt National, the Sedgwick, and now -- Visions. Rachel Cochran works with discharge paste. Last time, her fabric discharged to an amazing shade of BLUE!
Today, we did unpredictable screen printing. Great process, which uses thickened dyes. Here is Rachel's screen before she printed. And here she is, afterwards, putting the next layer on the fabric.
Diane and I were busy with wax and with our cameras, but I did make some screened fabric as a demo. Don't know yet what the next step will be with this one.
It will sit for a while, since I have to finish my batik fabric. More, tomorrow.