Taxidermy & Tattoos

After I saw this sign yesterday, I had to return with a camera. I often see crazy things that tickle my funny bone, but this ranks really high on my bizzaro-meter. I'm not sure if the tattoos are for the animals being taxidermied or the people who bring them in, but it's definitely a sign for a single establishment (a small brick house that's been converted to commercial property.)

I can't image tattooing a fish, but maybe a mammal. But then you'd have to shave it...hmmm.....Oh just the phrase "Nature's Image" gets my poetic juices flowing, but even more inspiring is the idea that there's a gallery too!

The only thing I can see missing is a $7.95 all-you-can-eat buffet. Then you could get bare with your bear, both get stuffed, and get tattoos. One stop does it all! I wish I had the courage to go inside.

Empty Spools

I was wondering why I was collecting all the old wooden spools that I find at auctions, and now I've found one good reason.

They are great for winding on this hand-dyed thread I bought from Laura Wasilowski when she was in town. I always wondered what people did with all that thread she sells. She has several different weights, #3 is good for hand embrodiery, #8 for bobbin work (which I don't like to do), and this is #12 which you can machine stitch with a top stitch or quilting needle.

I still couldn't figure it out until she told me to wind the #12 on an empty spool, and finally the light bulb went off! It's tricky to do though, without ending up with a whole mess of knots.

I've been trying to figure out how to quilt my kokeshi dolls because the background is lots of little pieces instead of one solid. So I've been experimenting with stitching a pattern over many pieces, something that's new for me. It's fun and I like the effect I'm getting with Laura's varigated threads.

Those Crazy Vikings!

Well, good news has arrived. PaMdora is off to join the Vikings in her new role in the Husqvarna Viking Exhibit that will travel to Houston, Chicago, and some place in France. I'm not even sure if she knows how to use a sword or sing opera.

Just kidding, opera has nothing to do with the Husqvarna Exhibit. In truth, she will be hanging on a wall somewhere in a quilt called The Robbery in the Lingerie Boutique that you may have seen me working on earlier this year. After I sent in my entry, I started to think that there was no way it would be accepted. I thought maybe they were only looking for pretty or beautiful quilts, but I guess those Vikings have a sense of humor too!

I can't post a photo of the finished quilt until the exhibit opens in November, but I must thank you for all your comments and puns that helped inspire me in writing my 75 word artist's statement I had to submit with the entry. It actually became a mini news release that fit the action-packed story in the quilt very well. So thanks again.

On another note, don't you think PaMdora looks good in costume? It's always a challenge to work with her peculiar anatomy, but maybe I should make up some more costumes for her. Reminds me of this artist I saw on Myra's blog who has made a paper doll game that is very fun. I wish I knew how to make an internet game like that for you, but I don't so I may have to make one in a quilt version.

Do You Collect Trash in Your Purse?

Liz's post about collecting things off the street reminded me of an artist that I find fascinating. Candy Jernigan who lived and died too young in New York in the 90's collected all kinds of "evidence" of her life -- food, trash, bottle labels, dead bugs... She arranged all this stuff in journals and collages that weren't at all pretty, but they were beautiful in an abstract, painterly way.

Her journals impressed me so much that for several months after I read "Evidence," I went around picking up all sorts of trash and odd and interesting things I found on the streets. I still have boxes of stuff that I collected on one trip to Mexico.

Now days I see lots of artists and not-artists using tags and other ephemera in assemblages, but with Candy, I think she was an original. With a nod to the granddaddy of assemblage Joseph Cornell of course, but she put her own spin on it all and today you can see the effects with artists like Sarah Lugg (boy I didn't realize until just now how much she has turned her art into an industry-yeck!) and the stuff you see in magazines like Sommerset Studio.

The "Evidence" book is a finely-produced art book with pages that fold out to show the really big work, but of course in this sneak peek Amazon doesn't really show you the good stuff inside. Just gives you a little taste.

“In 1980, as I set out on my first trip to Europe, I decided to make a book that would contain any and all physical proof that I had been there: ticket stubs, postcards, restaurant receipts, airplane and bus and railroad ephemera. On successive trips, these collections grew to include food smears, hotel keys, found litter, local news, pop tops, rocks, weather notations, leaves, bags of dirt--anything that would add information about a moment or a place, so that the viewer could make a new picture from the remnants. Objects emerged for me as ‘icons’ for particular cities and these objects became the material for EVIDENCE.” Candy Jernigan

To Blog or Not to Blog...

that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler to open one's soul to the vast reaches of the internet, or bury one's inner thoughts within the dry leaves of a private journal. Okay, I admit it, I'm faking. Although I was an English major, I don't remember a speck of Shakespeare.

And I'm also faking that I have such contemplative thoughts about blogging. The real reason I haven't posted anything for two weeks is nothing so profound. The truth is, I've been playing hookey.

I've always been pretty good at that. At my preppy high school, I figured out that the person who legally got out of class most frequently was the yearbook and newspaper photographer. So I bought a camera, got someone to teach me how to develop film and prints, and then talked my way onto the staff.

I admire all of you who have the discipline to work every day, a little at a time. I try to do that too, and sometimes I'm more successful than others. But my true nature is to piddle around and then at the last minute work incredibly hard towards a deadline. So it's kind of inevitable that there's usually a let-down or a tad bit of depression after a goal is reached.

I sensed that June was talking about the same kind of thing in her description of what she felt after Quilt National. A sense of loss of a goal that has been driving you for a long time. Like "what do I do now?"

Oh, I still have lots of ideas. Just not too much motivation.

Instead, I've been doing lots of things normal people do. Watching some movies, reading some books, shopping, spending time with my increasingly growing extended family, planting some flowers, trying to remember how to cook.

I think it's okay to take some time off. Maybe the creative spirit needs to rest sometimes. Or even hibernate. Someday soon, it'll wake up and come out of its sleepy cave, a bit shaggy-looking, grouchy, and hungry.

As a matter of fact, I did get a haircut today, and I'm not sure if it was the hair-cutting or the fact that I grabbed an old sketchbook on the way out of the door, intending to draw while I waited for the super-blackish-purplish color to soak into my hair and hopefully not the skin around my ears, that made me start to feel creative again. Instead of drawing, I was surprised to find and fascinated to read through old journal entries and drawings I did a couple of years ago.

It was interesting to remember things I was doing, thinking back then, but also reaffirming and exciting to see that things that I had imagined and sketched were indeed happening today. Okay, so maybe it's time to wake up and get back to work.

But please excuse me if I hit the snooze button just a few more times...

A Really Big Pattern

I've finally gotten around to posting some photos from our sculpture adventures after Quilt National on our blog for RuBert Studios, but I couldn't resist putting these here. I'm help Rob and True Fisher assemble a huge pattern for a sculpture installation in a hospital lobby. Rob Fisher is a friend who does installations like this one in the Philadelphia International Airport.

Can you image making art this big? I was a little in my element, because I usually make patterns for quilt, but not this big! It gave me real aspirations. The installation was complicated, and Russ took great photos of the process that you can see here.

This installation was done at night after the hospital closed, so we could still accomplish the main purpose of the trip, to take some photos and do some maintenance on the sculpture Russ installed in April.

There are always kids at the site, and we found out that they affectionately call the sculpture "The Hersey Kiss" and "The Funion" because it looks like an onion, but it's fun.