Pictures from ICONIC exhibition, part 2

Last week I shared photos of every tapestry (and one mixed-media piece) in the My Real Name is Mary series currently on view in my show at Southeast Fiber Arts Alliance (SEFAA).  The show is up through Tuesday, March 13.  I know I've been droning on about this show for awhile--and I promise I'll change the subject next week!--but I want to present proper images of the finished pieces for those of you who can't get to the show in person. 

There is another series in this show in addition to the Mary series, entitled Book of Hours.  It's loosely inspired by illuminated manuscripts, of which Books of Hours are one category.  These books were hand-lettered and decorated prayer books, medieval devotionals.   I absolutely love their sheer lush decorative-ness:  the intensely patterned text in the center, often "illuminated" with gold, and the contrasting margins of either empty space, or more decorative patterning.

I have mentioned before that I'm intrigued that we can't decipher the meanings in these texts anymore, at least not unless we can read medieval Latin.  I wondered if I could produce in tapestry a kind of contemporary illuminated manuscript that uses the same compositional strategies and that combine text (or the suggestion of text) and pattern.  In most cases these pieces developed out of collages I created and then translated into weaving

We've all heard the phrase red letter day.  Did you know that it came from books of hours?  They often contained a church calendar listing all the holy days and feast days, and those days were written in red.

Here are the Book of Hours tapestries, starting with the most recent.

Red Letter Night (c) Molly Elkind 2018
35" x 26"
Photo courtesy Sam Elkind

Red Letter Day (c) Molly Elkind 2016
35" x 26" 
Photo courtesy Sam Elkind 

I am thrilled to report that the piece below, Annunciation, sold at the opening!

Annunciation (c) Molly Elkind 2016
8" x 10"
Photo courtesy Sam Elkind 

Huh? (c) Molly Elkind 2016
8" x 10" 
Photo courtesy Sam Elkind

Red (T)his  (c) Molly Elkind 2016
8" x 10" 
Photo courtesy Sam Elkind

Some who know me are shocked to discover that I really do mean WTF below.  I made it in response to the massacre at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

WTF  (c) Molly Elkind 2016
8" x 10" 
Photo courtesy Sam Elkind

All of these pieces, and most of the Mary series tapestries, are for sale.  Contact me for information.

ICONIC: work in progress, and a show!

These days the term of highest praise is iconic.  Something (or someone) that is the latest, hippest, purest exemplar of its type is iconic.  The online Urban Dictionary offers this:

Similar to "classic," iconic is generally restricted to more recent, highly original, influential, or unique, works of art, artists, or performers. As such they are now well-established and widely celebrated in popular culture.

"Oedipus Rex" is a classic, but the original "Planet of the Apes" is truly iconic.

Unfortunately, like every over-used word, it will soon cease to mean anything.   Epic, anyone? Awesome? 

Overused or not, ICONIC is the working title of my 2018 show of tapestries.  Save the date:  the opening will be Sunday, February 25, 2018.  The show will run February 15-March 13 at Southeast Fiber Arts Alliance (SEFAA) in Atlanta. 

Lest it sound presumptuous to describe my own work as iconic, let me explain.  I've been obsessed for the past few years with a particular icon, the one pictured below, of Mary the mother of Jesus.  This is an icon in the original sense, a painting of a religious figure intended to enhance prayer and spiritual devotion.  For me, this image has sparked a whole series of tapestries exploring the meaning and influence of the mythic figure of Mary. 

Mary, detail of 6th c. encaustic icon at Sta. Maria della Francesca church, Rome

I am nearing the completion of this series now, having begun the seventh and final piece recently.  Here's my progress so far on Mary (yes).

Molly Elkind, Mary (Yes), handwoven tapestry in progress, (c) 2017

And recently I cut off the loom my largest, and most personal, piece in the series, called Mary (the anxiety of influence).   

Molly Elkind, Mary (the anxiety of influence), handwoven tapestry, (c) 2017

You can see photos and read about some of the other pieces in the series here and here.

Related to this series is another series I'm working on, loosely based on medieval illuminated manuscripts.  These texts were packed with meaning for their original readers, serving as prayer books.  Nowadays most of us cannot read the text, and we appreciate them purely for their decorative qualities, and perhaps for the insight they offer into a different world and time.

I find these manuscripts fascinating for the layout of the pages--those margins, either empty or packed with intricate decoration!  That profusion of pattern!  That beautifully lettered text, which contains some kind of sacred meaning, out of reach for most of us today.  The way the patterns, pictures and words are interwoven into one unified surface fascinates me.   

In my tapestry series I am experimenting with compositions that explore margins and centers, and with combinations of text, or text-like patterns, and abstract imagery.  Red Letter Day is part of this series.  I am starting a companion piece, tentatively titled Red Letter Night--it will have a dark background.

Molly Elkind, Red Letter Day, handwoven tapestry, (c) 2016

Here's a peek at the collage and some sampling I've done for Red Letter Night. 

And I have several small pieces in the series as well.  Here's one:

Molly Elkind, Huh?, handwoven tapestry (c) 2016

An icon provides an occasion and the means for contemplation, for meditation, a chance to forget oneself and one's daily life for a few moments and enter another deeper or higher reality. . . . Rather like what we have come to expect artwork to offer us.

What is iconic for you?

Margins and borders

Artists, have you ever stepped back and looked at the whole range of your work, and noticed something, a common thread or theme, that you hadn't been aware of before?

Today I'm thinking out loud about a trend I've noticed in my own work.  Lately I've been purging my studio, pulling out old work and deciding what to do with it, and I've noticed a persistent habit or feature in my compositions that I wasn't fully aware of until now.  I seem to have a thing for margins and borders.

(c) Molly Elkind, Freud's Diagnosis, hand embroidery, c. 1995.
cotton.  12" x 12"

I did this embroidery as a surface design class assignment at the University of Louisville.  The dense stitching distorted the cotton ground, so I decided to exploit the mistake by stitching an off-kilter frame around the piece.  I still love the quotation, attributed to Freud:  "Constant needlework is one of the factors that rendered women particularly prone to hysteria because daydreaming over embroidery induced dispositional hypnoid states."  

(c) Molly Elkind, Out of My Hands, hand embroidery, 1998
cotton.  12" x 12"

This embroidery was inspired by Amish quilts.  As I worked I imagined what might result if those masterful quilters could break free of their carefully circumscribed lives and 20-stitches-per-inch standards, stitching irregular shapes that break the confines of the square and disrupt traditional patterns. 

Here's one of my first self-designed quilts.  It may be hard to make out in the photo below, but I chose to quilt the border with an irregular zigzag line, perhaps echoing the off-kilter log cabin frames around each flower, rather than a traditional feather or other curvilinear motif.   

(c) Molly Elkind, Applique Flowers, quilt, hand applique and quilting, machine piecing, 1993.
cotton, 35" x 29"

Here's another early quilt, in which the border comes and goes, like a lost-and-found line in drawing. I borrowed this idea from master quilter Ruth McDowell.

 (c) Molly Elkind, Cardinals, quilt, hand and machine pieced, appliqued and quilted. c. 1995
cotton.  54" x 70" 

Below are two pieces from my Ways of Looking at Dodd Creek series of small mixed media quilt/collages.  In this one I definitely see the wide border around a central image that continues to interest me today.  

(c) Molly Elkind, Ways of Looking at Dodd Creek #5, 2007.
Mixed media, 22" x 18" 

And in this piece, I couldn't resist adding a binding in an unexpected color.

(c) Molly Elkind, Ways of Looking at Dodd Creek #6, 2008.
Mixed media, 14" x 14"

So, what does all this have to do with anything?  I've been working on two series of tapestries for the past few years.  One series, inspired by an icon of the Virgin Mary, I've posted about fairly often, most recently here and here.  (It looks like I might need to do an update on these soon!)

The other series is inspired by the format, composition and colors of medieval illuminated manuscripts.  I love the way these manuscripts combine text and image in a gorgeous whole, a patterned, brilliantly colored, decorative surface that carries meaning. . .meaning that most of us can't decipher anymore.

Hours of Etienne Chevalier,
160 x 115 mm, c. 1420, Visitation,
illuminated by the Master of the Boucicaut Hours
British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts

I especially like the way some manuscript pages leave spacious margins around an area of dense text in the center of the page.  Sometimes these margins are filled with decorative patterns, sometimes not.  My tapestry Red Letter Day explored this composition in an abstract way.

(c) Molly Elkind, Red Letter Day, handwoven tapestry, 2016.
cotton, wool, synthetic.  35.5" x 26"

I'm going to continue to play with this theme as I work on more tapestries inspired by centers and margins.  

Hey, all you artists and makers out there!  Have you ever pulled out your work and looked at the whole range of it?  Did you discover anything surprising? 

Fiber innovations at Convergence exhibits

One of the best parts of attending a conference like Convergence is seeing what other fiber artists are doing.  There were several exhibits associated with the event, and I was honored to be in two of them!  As always I was struck by the variety of expressions possible in fiber, and by the sheer inventiveness of other artists.

The work of teachers at the conference was on display in a show called Gathering by Waters.  There were many pieces I really liked.  It is hard to choose which ones to share with you, but  here are a few:

Marcia Weiss, Water Lily, warp ikat, linen

I love the simple abstracted design and the gorgeous color of this ikat.  The blurred, watery edges of the shapes perfectly suit the subject and allude to the dyeing process involved.

Kathleen Zasuwa, Ancient Grafitti:  Lines to Letters, 8-shaft undulating twill, cotton, wool, silk,
metallic threads, patinated copper cut into strips

I love how Zasuwa used copper strips in combination with a traditional weave structure to make an enigmatic diptych.  I wonder how she kept the cut copper edges from cutting the other threads?

Another artist also used metallic threads to make an affecting image: 

Louise Lemieux Berube, Flower #1, Jacquard weaving with pigments,
Tencel, stainless steel, copper, linen, wool

detail, Berube, Flower #1

This piece made me smile.

Hollie Meltzer, Lossy Format #1, crocheted "pixels," cotton floss, thread, poly organza backing

detail, Hollie Meltzer, Lossy Format #1

I just think it's terribly witty and maybe a little crazy to crochet approximately a billion tiny (about 1/2" diameter) circles to render a classical image in a pixelated format.  It feels very contemporary.  "Lossy format" indeed!

Hollie Meltzer did another pixelated face in a very different technique: 

Hollie Meltzer, Blow-Up, reverse applique, machine and hand stitching,
poly organza, cotton fabric, poly and cotton thread 

detail, Hollie Meltzer, Blow-Up

Where's the reverse applique?  The top layer of white poly organza is selectively cut away within the stitched grid to reveal gray fabric underneath.  Many of these gray squares are then hand-stitched with varying densities of dark line to make further value changes which in turn create the very blurred, pixelated image.

Sarah Warren, Long Night over the Canyon, Navajo wedge weave, cotton warp and hand-dyed wool weft

detail, Sarah Warren, Long Night over the Canyon, Navajo wedge weave, cotton warp and hand-dyed wool weft

I'd never seen wedge weave used to portray a landscape,  It seems like the perfect union of subject matter and technique to me, capturing the colors and stark landscape of the southwest.

Molly Elkind, Red Letter Day, tapestry, cotton, wool.
I'm honored to be in good company, next to a tapestry by Ruth Manning! 

I saw two other shows as well; those will have to wait for my next post.  The American Tapestry Alliance (ATA) had its very popular unjuried small format (under 10" in any direction) show. Tapestry Unlimited, at the downtown Milwaukee public library.  And  HGA's biennial Small Expressions exhibit of fiber pieces was at the fabulous Milwaukee Museum of Art.

Milwaukee or bust!

Convergence, the biennial conference of the Handweavers Guild of America, is just around the corner and I am in full-on class preparation mode.

I'll be teaching two one-day workshops:  Fabric Painting 3 Ways and Art Journaling to Kickstart Creativity.  These are both classes I've taught before, but for the past few weeks I've been re-doing the exercises and activities, tweaking the lesson plans and handouts, and ordering supplies, lots of supplies.  While the Fabric Painting class is full, there's still room in Art Journaling and you can still register for it.  We'll be exploring how to use a sketchbook--as a mood board, a diary, a lab, a playground, a tool for capturing and exploring ideas and emotions.  We'll also practice using some basic elements of art such as line, shape and color to convey those ideas and emotions.

a few samples of activities in Art Journaling

I've put a bow on the lesson plans and handouts, so those are ready to photocopy and assemble into folders for students.  Nearly all the supplies are in hand, and it's time to start figuring how to pack them.  Thank goodness Southwest Airlines offers 2 free bags per person, and thank goodness my helpmeet Sam is going along.  I figure three suitcases of supplies and one of clothing between the two of us ought to work.  (And I'll have lots of empty space on the way home for anything I buy in the Vendors Hall.  Yay!  I notice there's a Navajo rug auction on Friday night.  Hmmmm.)

suitcase o' paints

additional supplies for Fabric Painting and Art Journaling 

Today I shipped off my tapestry Red Letter Day to hang in the Leaders' exhibit, called Gathering by Waters.  I am humbled to have work hanging in what will be very accomplished company.

Red Letter Day (c) Molly Elkind 2016

This is not my first Convergence, but it is my first one as a class leader and I can't wait.  The hardest thing will be fitting in everything I want to do into the few days we'll be there--see the exhibits and the fashion show, meet with my fellow tapestry weavers at ATA's events, shopping at the Vendors Hall (did I mention that?), and visiting the fantastic Milwaukee Art Museum.

I know it will be an all-you-can-eat buffet of all things artistic and textilic.  Yum.

Red Letter Day

I promised after sharing my cutting off party that after I took care of all the warp and weft ends I'd post a proper photograph of my latest tapestry.  Here it is. 

Red Letter Day (c) 2016  by Molly Elkind

This has been in the works for longer than I care to admit, but I can say I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.  It's a faithful representation of what I had intended to do.  This is the first piece in what I hope will be a series inspired by illuminated manuscripts and medieval books of hours.  I am interested in the composition of those densely decorated pages, the contrast between areas of empty space and intricate lettering and patterns, and the sense that they contain sacred but nearly unintelligible meanings.   

One thing I wanted to learn in the process of making this piece is whether I enjoy working large (until now my tapestries have been more or less one foot square).   And I do!  I am deep into designing my next piece in the Mary series, which will be even larger than this.  I can't wait. 

a cutting-off party

So, in the tapestry world it's a thing to have a "cutting-off" party to celebrate the completion of a work that's been in the works for many months (or years).  I decided to have one to mark the cutting off from the loom of the largest piece I've done to date, and the first piece I've done on my "big" vertical Varpapuu loom.  Now "big" is a relative term, both regarding tapestries (mine is roughly 37" x 26") and looms (mine is 48" wide).  Not as big as some, but still, something to celebrate.  This piece had been on the loom for nearly a year. 

I invited a few dear and good-humored friends to come over for prosecco and cake Tuesday night.  Here are some scenes from the festivities (thanks to DH Sam for his photography):

Friends listen as John and I do the math to calculate the hours spent on the piece: 156, so far.

Marilyn and I tell the saga of how we drove to Florida, disassembled the loom (not without some difficulty), and put it in the trunk of my Camry to drive home

Do I dare?

scissors meet warp

cutting off the cartoon sewn to the back.  Harry is unimpressed.  

pulling the tapestry off

a partial view

next step:  cleaning up all those weft tails on the back

I'm going to wait until I have it all cleaned up and the edges finished before I take a formal portrait to share with you.  I will say that I am pleased overall with how it turned out.  I certainly learned a lot.  And I like working big!