Tuesday, April 28, 2009

heart and mind



This is what happenend last night and this morning when I could not sleep. The polin around here this year is at an all time gross level and sleeping just isn't happening. At least some making is. I have always been obsessed with medical illustrations, especially anatomically correct hearts, the cutsy ones you can keep. With the semester being almost finished I have time to work in the studio again, which lead me straight back to the boxes, anatomical drawings and glue, UHU clear glaze glue- my favorite. These are just small "doodles" but I am thinking of making more, lots more. The heart and the mind are rarely in the same place, no matter how much we wish that they would align. In matters of the heart and mind it would be easier if we could put it in a little box and hide it, so that we are less vulnerable, and exposed to the world. Between the anatomy and the idea of time, I think I feel a series comming along. Maybe incorporate some embroidery and larger boxes.









Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Teaching at Chandler



This semester I have been working on my practicum in secondary education, my placement for middle school has been at Chandler. This is a school that is in a rough situation, they have had trouble passing their exams for many years in a row. The school board has decided that it will close down the school at the end of this year. I have been teaching a science class, about art and science, in one lesson. It was a bit of a challenge at first, however, I am pleased with the artwork and the response from the students. The main idea was interdependence within Eco-systems and how when one thing fails so does everything else. More specifically we talked about how water effects power, health, and agriculture. The woven, art part of the course tied in because woven structures are interdependent. If a warp or weft breaks or is not strong, the whole piece has the potential to come apart. The students wrote what Power, Health and Knowledge mean to them on the fabric strips and then wove them.





As you can see we also recycled and took the enviornment into consideration when making. The "looms" were made of clinique gift boxes that were being thrown away at a retail store, and the fabric was leftover from projects I have done in the past. The students got very creative and some of them had more than one warp on their loom. Even the way that they choose to display them was intersting.

spring





Time is going by so quickly that I barely have time to catch my breath sometimes. The photos above have been sitting on my desktop collecting virtual dust waiting to be posted for a week now. I decided to make a fabric swatch book, as a way to catalogue what I have so when I go to a fabric store from now on I will stop buying doubles. I found 7 doubles while putting this book together! The book includes all of my calico prints, I did not include all of the other fabrics I have because those are pretty easy to remember without a sample of a pattern. Sometimes when my mind feels cluttered I find it best to sit and organize something, this was the simple solution last week.