Caution: this post is rambly and circuitous and has lots of pretty photos of art I made and also mentions authoritarianism. Let's begin.
These past couple months I have been creating smaller paintings with the purpose of the right size and price point for holiday gifting. It's also been a really lovely way for me to hone in on certain felting skills.
My wet felting skills definitely need practice. What I love about wet-felting is my lack of control and confidence (ok, maybe not the lack of confidence part). With wet-felting, I give up a lot of the precision that I can get mired in, and instead aim for a general essence of mood and color. Even then, it often doesn't quite turn out like I envisioned. But when I click off that precise part of my brain it allows for a little more magic,
In the interest of production for the holidays, I decided to work on a bunch of small pieces at one time. I gathered my inspiration, wool, and bubble wrap and dove in.
Turns out the dog grooming table I bought on the local buy/sell/trade page has a nubby surface perfect for wet felting. I set it up in the middle of my living room (because the kitchen table was already covered), spread some towels under it, and got to work.
In a very brief explanation of the above photos: first I laid down the white roving for the background, then added layers of dyed roving in the general placement of what I wanted. Not shown is the 60-90 minutes of pressing, rubbing and rolling the wool using hot soapy water and a variety of fun tools, such as a pool noodle, bubble wrap and even a foot massager from Goodwill. This process tangles the fibers together to create a sturdy little mat of felt - little canvases on which to needle.
Each canvas was inspired by an island scene I'd photographed. Sometimes it's fairly straight forward, such as simple horizontal swaths of color across a horizon. Other times it's a little more playful, as branches of a tree spread across the sky and leaves take shape.
When I have the gist of the background settled, I head off to my reference photos for the perfect sheep. For these little paintings I don't need a template - I freehand the critters first in shapes, then slowly fill in details and shading.
I have a new friend named George. He and his wife Arlyn bought the local frame shop. George and I have been working together to figure out a simple way to display these small pieces. the goal being to showcase the organic edges of the wool but also provide a classy backdrop and make them easy to display.
George tutored me in the right combination of sanding, inking and buffing squares of wood onto which I could mount the paintings (with hot glue, though I attach a piece of flat felt to the painting first so that I don't have to glue the actual piece).
It happened that I was working on these mounting boards the same time that the presidential election was underway. It felt really good to have something to do with my hands and brain during the uncertainty. When the tenuous optimism gave way to heartbreak, I pressed ahead, not knowing what else to do.
A few of my friends on social media posted black square avatars as an acknowledgment of their grief. If the citizens of the United States have spoken, and half of us believe that we are headed towards righteous and good change, the other half of us desperately fear the worst. Time will tell, and I've struggled with how on earth to move into this new chapter.
I won't apologize for bringing politics into this post -- and I'm disabling comments because my purpose in writing this is not to generate public discussion (though you're welcome to contact me with thoughts). I'm writing about it here because I don't actually know how to separate the consequences of our political climate from daily life and art. Right now, I am writing as a means of adding my strand to the web of support between those for whom national and international events have been devastating.
In light of events and because I'm a nerd who is always looking for metaphor, the black mounting boards I was working on began to feel like the black avatars popping up across social media. I'm not sure how to spell out the narrative of the metaphor without sounding glib, so I'll just post the photos:
There you go.
Without permission but with good intentions, I'd like to share an excerpt from a podcast that has offered a lifeline in my own sea of worry: "Assembly Required" with Stacey Abrams. In the episode titled "Plotting our Way Forward by Looking Back through History," Abrams asks her guest, Heather Cox Richardson, what we can all do as we look down the barrel of the next four years. This is how Heather Cox Richardson responds:
"Bring the best game you have at whatever it is that you are really good at. That kind of contribution to a society, whether its organizing a car wash for the kids at the high school to raise money for a soccer field or whether it's helping people at the nursing home or whether its being a lawyer who can fight immigration cases -- Whatever you are good at - bring that and build a supportive community that makes the best of the people in it. And the work within it that gives them joy is the way that you bring down an authoritarian."
Richardson went on to explain that the divisive tactics of sowing fear and distrust among communities creates the incentive for one to believe the answers that the person who wants to be in charge offers.
Omg this is an art blog and suddenly I'm writing about authoritarianism. But here is the thing. Take a deep breath and read how Richardson sums up her thoughts, because really, it IS about art and truth and beauty and the ways in which we can support each other through these times:
"What has a home here is people doing the best that they can for each other and the best they can for themselves in terms of bringing their talents forward.
Find what is your thing and carry that forward in this moment."
I look forward to continuing in the new year with art, farming, teaching, writing, and doing what I can to enable each member of my community to shine their light. Thank you for being here, and please know I am a steadfast cheerleader in you finding your thing!
Link:
Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams
Episode #14
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