Melodies and Maladies
So my recent absence can be readily explained. I've had a recurrence of symptoms and I'm ripping, stitching, and steaming my way to relief. My problems are my own, which is also a relief.
All frustrations aside, the art of clothing construction is fantastically creative, sensually exhilarating, and emotionally therapeutic. Here is a local artist who knows.
I'm experimenting again in the chem lab I call my life. It's so odd that we human creatures have this added task. The endless creation of changing skins.
posted by jm at 4:54 AM
13 Comments:
I'm glad that you enjoyed the show! It was wonderful to meet you and I love your reference to "changing skins". Here is a great reference to wearable technology and "second skins" - http://www.xslabs.net/theory.html
This is wonderful! I'm so glad to connect with you again and I was entranced by your show. Creative and unique. I also liked the focus and simplicity. I've been thinking about it ever since Friday night.
Electronic textiles. Very very very interesting. Emotions and electrical circuits. I'm an electronic musician so I'm all ears, and now eyes. Art jumping off walls and embracing our bodies. I want to learn more about this, and I'm especially interested in the identity factors. Be sure to e-mail me regarding your next exhibition or those of your colleagues. I also liked the crowd last Friday. This is exciting.
However, I yelled into your dress and got no response!!
There's a lot to cover. Now that I'm getting fully back into my artistic life I'm anxious to circulate and meet new creative people. I was thinking of closing these blogs and starting a local arts one but maybe I can transform this one. My enthusiasm is mounting, but I must keep it in check. Really!
New media art. Just up my street.
JM, it's great to hear your voice again, here and at RU. If you morph your blogs into ones covering media arts, I shall remain a loyal follower even though I am not local.
I too have recently reunited with my lonely sewing machine and resumed my interest in many crafts. Perhaps, it's a positive side effect of hard times--increased creativity at the personal level.
I enjoyed Sarah's 56 days. Thanks for the spotlight on her work.
Ha ha, Kathleen! I think it's all getting local.
That's so interesting about the voice. I suddenly got an acute desire to hear the sound again after so much conversation here.
Sewing is deep for me. It's a wholesome solitary pursuit and spiritual I find. Innocent. And also a tremendous challenge.
I think hard times do increase creativity. They used to out of necessity. Women made all their family's clothing and decorated their cabins in the sparse days. There are opportunities in these times ahead.
I think my lonely machine missed me less than I missed it. It was wiser than I, waiting in stillness for my return. Amazing. Turn it on and there it is. Unchanged. Ready for me.
I'm glad you and yours are reunited.
Sewing knocks me out. After I got the sleeves in the top I'm working on I collapsed and didn't go in there for two days. But I'm back working on the lining. Bemberg rayon. Exquisite to the touch. Cool, smooth, and sweet smelling.
You're probably like most of us who sew lifelong in cycles. Going back is a pleasure after a long absence. The emotional aspect is intriguing. Sarah tracked her relationship with her husband as it was reflected in her daily work. When my loved ones died I went to recover in my sewing room. There's something about our hands stroking these creations of ours so often. An act of affection. Even the seam ripper, which I love!
The sensual feel of fabric is just part of the pleasure, a gift from sewing but not confined to it. The desire to touch fabrics is ever present. The bemberg sounds luscious.
Ah, the seam ripper, it's a wonderful invention I cannot do without!
The challenge, the exhaustion from intense concentration, the frustration over occasional mechanical glitches (I have an old machine), even the mistakes are part of the joy. The process is always unfolding.
I, too, am glad to have returned to sewing--a lifelong cyclical event without a doubt.
What a fabulous turn!
So, so happy to see the life, dazzling and vital here. (love the RU post too)
Touch, sinking fingers in clay, spinning wool and a bit of sewing too have all brought a new peace. Therapy. A different language; touch. Little sewing projects sprouted from buying odd things at the thrift shop and finding new incarnations just waiting. It's an interesting exchange, a few dollars to a good charity for some old clothes that find new life. Salvaging hours of work someone spent to create an old wedding gown and turning the bodice into something that can be paired with jeans, I wonder at the hands who patiently sewed the lace appliques. All this work for one day. No more....
Touch it is Wise 1. You're right as ever. Different language altogether. A rather understated form of dazzling life, but vital just the same.
You know one of my top favorite activities of all time? Getting something from the thrift store and remaking it. I even take them apart stitch by stitch (the loveable seam ripper!), them cut them and put them back together in that new incarnation. I don't know why I love this so. Maybe because the piece has already had previous lives and experience so the new creation is fuller. It has wisdom in the folds.
The combo of wedding dress and jeans is divinity. I'm crazy for jeans with elegant additions.
I'm designing a white satin vest with set-in sleeves and gold trim to be worn with white jeans. I must get cracking! I want to get my fingers in clay, too, before it's over.
One fun thing is going to the thrift store in search of buttons. At half off the already almost nothing prices (every Sat.) sewing is a steal.
I wonder at the hands who patiently sewed the lace appliques. All this work for one day.
Reverence for the moment. Stroking and stretching time. Good way to live.
Btw (Kathleen and all), it was 2 for 1 in the notions dep't at my fabric store the other day so I got a new seam ripper! Those little stitches don't have a chance.
It was interesting. I was in the short-sleeved top rack at the thrift store heading to a lady of a certain age paying strict attention to her task. We continued and came to the inevitable meeting when we have to decide who gives way. (Always me, of course.)
Anyway, she finally looked up and her face beamed.
"What a gorgeous head of hair you have," She exclaimed with joy.
"Thank you," I replied. We went on about our important business.
I got to thinking how good it feels to give genuine pleasure to another and feel it come back. It was so simple. I didn't even do anything. I was born with my beautiful hair. Of course I never abused it with chemicals, dyes, and what-not. I don't do anything to it or with it. People comment often.
But all this effort to please and prove this and that sometimes seems ludicrous to me when just being our natural selves can work wonders. I'd like to apply that ease to much of my creative expression. I think I will. Bank on my assets, added to the hair.
Hello dear jm! Glad to see some new activity here and there, as I have missed your sensible "voice" to cut through the endless hysteria. Whenever I start to worry about things I cannot change, I remember to take the long view. Then I do whatever I can and trust it will be enough to help get us where we're going.
Whatever you choose to do, just don't forget to point the way so we don't miss it! :o)
Joe, the desire for endless hysteria in society is absolutely astonishing. They have yet to learn the pleasures of intermission. It does indicate some creativity, though, so not all is lost.:o)
I've enjoyed backing off and looking at the long view I normally favor. But things are getting a bit disturbing and the confusion is not lessening out there. Some weariness is settling in. Yet I also sense a desire to understand taking shape and even to cut through the delusion if possible. It's a developing need, I hope.
I've emphasized the lack of leadership we're seeing more and more of, and although frightening, it's favorable. Eventually people are going to have to figure it out for themselves rather than follow the deluge of opinion with each event leaving them exhausted and still confused. This encourages me to say nothing but then I get antsy waiting for that eventuality. I'll see what I can do.
It's wonderful to see you.
When I was a child I sat on the floor and patiently deconstructed all of my toys to see how they worked. Then I would put them back together in my fashion. My father was sure I would grow up to become an engineer. One Saturday, when I was 11, I deconstructed my bicycle but after putting it back together I had some screws and washers left over. I rode my bike that entire summer and it never needed those left over parts. LOL!
Which brings me to present day. I have been working with textiles since the 70s - motifs, batik, silkscreen, quilts, hand painted silk, beading and embroidery. I recreate the fabric then I make the garment or art work. I love to buy fabric, cut out the patterns and apply them to another fabric with beading or hand sewing. I also love working with dyes to create my own colors. Making appliques by cutting out the flowers from lace then reapply the cut outs around necklines, sleeves or hemlines or over rich satin. Getting vintage garments from the thrift shops just for the fabrics. I get lost in the deconstruction and recreating of a textile of my own creation. I tried working with leather once but the project is still unfinished. I thought I was alone in this area until I read your posts today.
You are so wonderfully creative. I love the fabric cutting and application to other fabrics. I haven't heard of that and I bet the finished pieces are incredibly rich. I must try it. I'd enjoy the handwork.
I wish I could see your work. Wish that you had a studio in town and I could step in and absorb the sensations.
Deconstructing is just a thing some of us like. Repair people and mechanics tell me they too took things apart as children. My electronics guys take my gear apart in a flash and I'm always amazed they can find all the pieces since they seem to pay no attention to where they put them. Their hands magically grasp them and put it back together. I'm sure there are a few loose screws like you ended up with!
My favorite was an elf I loved dearly. The first time I went into his lively shop, his assistant was at the counter and talk radio was yakking. A voice came out from above, so I looked up and there were two cowboy boots up on the ceiling attached to a couple of skinny legs. He had parts everywhere and happened to be on top retrieving some. Oh I adored him.
This is inspiring.
Simple installation, with least reconstruction Now standards are much higher and the freshly made taste you can experience in Starbucks or Costa can only be achieved using an espresso-capable machine using very fresh coffee. 4 gallon is suitable for area upto 1400 square feet
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