After the idea, Before the Construction

February 19, 2023

The very, very, very, beginning of a new art quilt or a series of quilts is like a flash. Almost like something out of the corner of the eye. I don’t always know how these start. I might read a word that sticks in my brain. Or I see a shape or a color. Or I remember an event. And the wheels of “I think there’s an artwork in that” begin to turn.

The next step is the sketching – very rough. Just recording the concept.

Then, generally, I draw it over and over to put together concept with composition.

Then . . . I’m ready to start some thinking about logistics. Size. What fabrics I need to create. What photos might be involved. Beginning ideas about a palette.

That’s where I am in the studio this week.

The project is the first of what I hope will be a series of incorporating some still life objects into large quilts, which will also contain elements of memory and dream images that are a more familiar vocabulary to me.

I have a first sketch.

This will have the suggestion of a traditional still life. The elements will be in the foreground, in front of a window and sky and limbs beyond the window. But I am not composing it as a strictly representational scene. There will be other elements and it will be divided up a it.

I took this into Photoshop to get an idea of what size the parts would be. This allowed me to get my paper laser copies enlarged and printed to transfer at final size. Here are the photos transferred to fabric.

I taped together some big sheets of paper and drew the composition final size on my easel. (It’s about 40”W)

And I’ve started creating some of the fabrics I’ll want, using the stencils of leaves I created recently.

I sponged a pale mustard gold onto the background. (Cadmium yellow + Burnt umber.) Then I stenciled the middle layer in a green made by taking my base mustard mix and adding a tad of blue. Then I added a third layer using the same stencils, rearranged so they would hit in different patterns, in the color for the middle layer made a little darker with black.

When it was done, I decided to have two versions of this – one that maintained the mustard background, and one with a light blue wash over the whole surface to enhance to greens.

That’s as far as I’ve gotten on this project. I’ll write more as I get more done.

I’ve created some smaller framed versions of the still life concept recently. It’s how I worked out some of the ideas. If you’d like to see them, they are on my website HERE.

. . . .

Don’t forget – for folks near Central Florida, our DeLand-area studio tour is just two weeks away. It will be a wonderful event. Please stop by and say hi. I’m at Stop #2. Click on image below for maps and artist information. www.ArtsTours.org

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading.
I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

BLOG POSTS - once a week: Mostly about what I am creating in the studio. If you would enjoy receiving blog posts by e-mail, please subscribe here: I post and send by e-mail each Sunday evening. BLOGS-BY-EMAIL

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: Mostly news of exhibits and my way of introducing new work. You’ll get FIRST LOOKS at new artwork and members-only discounts. You’ll hear from me about once a month. NEWSLETTER

A walk through the studio

February 12, 2023

Sunday morning. Cool and calm.

I have read some poetry. (Mary Oliver today.) Enoyed my first coffee.

How about a stroll into the studio to see what’s going on?

(I walked through once, on my way to the driveway for the paper. A few things caught my eye. Now I’ll look a bit more intentionally.)

Out through the door. This is the scenic laundry room I pass through from our living room to the studio.

There on the worktable.

Some stencils I cut yesterday, and one I have drawn but not cut yet. I am interested in how those shapes will go together, and overprint. Future discoveries.

There on my easel is a piece I just completed. Time for you to go up on the storage rack. It’s been a pleasure visiting with you, my old friend.

There on my sewing table one of the framed collages I created lately

I made a few of these and introduced them on my website. I did not sell as many as I had hoped. (Shoot!) But I like these a lot and it is pleasing for me to look at them.

Here are the very beginnings of some paper collages. I love these neutral color monotype backgrounds. (Collaging onto 140#watercolor paper, taped to a board while working.) From this point, anything can happen!

And, there outside my studio door, an inquisitive squirrel in the birdbath.

(You’ll just have to trust me on this one. He was there just before I shot the picture and I scared him away. I am confident he and a number of his bird friends will be back for a number of visits today to entertain me.)

And here am I. In this place, open to what the day will bring.

. . . . . . . . . .

In case I’ve piqued your interest, you can learn more on my website about:

The new collages in black box frames COLLAGES

The quilt from my easel, “Neither Up Nor Down”

I am counting down days and preparing for the Art Studio Tour here in the DeLand area. It’s March 4-5. I hope some readers will be able to attend.

Find the map and information on all the artists at www.ArtsTours.org

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading.
I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

BLOG POSTS - once a week: Mostly about what I am creating in the studio. If you would enjoy receiving blog posts by e-mail, please subscribe here: I post and send by e-mail each Sunday evening. BLOGS-BY-EMAIL

Inside a Child’s World

February 5, 2023

Children live in a world in which reality and imagination overlap.

At certain ages, they don’t know the difference between real and make believe. (In the kindergarten class in which I volunteer, this is an important reading concept. Is this story real, or is this story pretend?)

Later, even after children understand that real and pretend are different, they willingly enter pretend for the joy of it. Or because it offers a safer place to be.

This is one of two quilts I rediscovered and updated recently. “Saying the Magic Words.”

Creating this work allowed me to take some of my own flights of imagination. I loved filling the houses with playful patterns and colors.

I was pleased with the strong, simple composition and color contrasts

Mostly, it’s my hope that the viewer will be drawn to the child. What is the child imagining? What is the child’s hope? Can the viewer remember having those feelings and hopes?

Last week I wrote about another quilt from my series exploring a child’s journey, “Neither Up Nor Down.” It wasn’t ready last week. Now it’s complete; here’s a picture.

I hope that the works I create based on journey and stories provide you the opportunity for thoughtful remembrance.

Remember pretending. Remember hoping. Remember being a child.

More information about these quilts is on my website HERE

. . . . .

Countdown to ARTIST STUDIO TOUR in my hometown, DeLand, Florida. It’s one of my favorite events of the year. If you live within driving distance of DeLand, I hope you’ll make a day of it. There are 23 artists to visit in this area. DeLand has a great downtown with good restaurants. Each destination is within a few miles of one other.

My studio is on the tour and I look forward to welcoming visitors. I enjoy conversations with visitors, and showing where and how I work, and offering original artwork for sale - as well as some BARGAINS!

For a map and list of studios to visit, go to ArtsTours.org

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading.
I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Memory Shadows

January 29, 2023

Envision a summer evening. You are a kid in the back yard playing badminton just before it turns dark. There are fireflies. It is hot. Other kids are there too. A great visual story.

Memories such as these are rich material for artmaking. Our memories of the details will grow as we create the work, and our attachment to the scene can be strong. This image could become a great artwork.

But what if your goal was not to depict the scene itself but the feeling of it? Were you happily in the embrace of the people there? Were you an outsider? Was anything about the scene disappointing? Frightening?

That kind of memory – not so much a visual depiction, but the capturing of a memory shadow, is also interesting. As I have created a series of work focused on the journey of a young girl, that’s where I am drawn.

I rediscovered two of my quilts from the journey series this week. (They were on a shelf in a stack of quilts. I needed to get to one at the bottom of the stack. Which entailed taking all the ones above it off and then back on to the shelf. That’s how I rediscovered these two.)

It’s been a wonderful re-immersion into the experience of creating them. In each case, the work was first created several years ago then set aside. Each quilt was important to me and contained a lot that pleased me. And each had one or more elements that just did not fulfill my hope for the work and I considered it unsuccessful.

So, I have been bringing them back to life. (I’ll write about one quilt this week and the second one next week.)

This is a detail of Neither Up Nor Down.

This is one part of the quilt that pleased me. Faces are always a challenge. And, creating a face that does not have distinct features, but just the suggestion of a person and an emotion, is just as challenging as rendering a likeness. I wanted this girl to be depicted off to the edge of the quilt, in the shadows. It’s the fact that I still feel connected to this little girl that’s inspiring me to recreate the work.

To fix what had not been successful, I had to cover up some elements. Then I had to bring other elements forward. And then integrate them back together. The surface of this quilt is created with collage, painting and drawing. I used those techniques to accomplish the changes.

The girl is in a dream setting – not an actual place – with just the suggestion of a stairway behind her. She wears her Sunday School dress and Mary Jane shoes. I remembered being young, sitting on the steps from our living room to the bedrooms upstairs, and listening to the sounds of the house. It sometimes felt like floating – being neither up nor down.

I ended up adding a lot of stitching to the new version of this quilt. This is not easy for me to do on a work this large that’s already assembled. But I made it.

This work is now 95% done – just a little stitching and drawing left to do. I’ll post the a good photo of the finished quilt here next week when I also write about the second quilt recreated.

Meanwhile… Just a word about series. I first created Neither Up Nor Down as part of a series of works following the journey of a young girl. At about the same time, I created a work depicting the in-between stage of a girl who is older; I perceive her to be in her young teens. This is Neither Here Nor There

If you are interested in seeing this one evolve, you can watch a video I created about it and posted on YouTube. (It’s less than 2 minutes.) It focuses on my involvement with the work as I created it, and I think captures the dreaminess of the experience.

WATCH HERE

See you next week.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Work -- Ideas -- in progress

January 22, 2023

This week in the studio has felt very much like a work in progress.

Not just that I have some things I’m working on that aren’t done. But because the works are part of a bigger picture and it’s one that has not all unfolded yet.

I am keeping in the back of my mind my hope to create some new large works this year that take ideas I’ve developed for some time and add to those ideas, or take them in some new direction.

And I know I am interested in the concept of incorporating images of tangible objects: bottles, jars, vessels.

But I’m still working it all out.

So this week I’ve been working on some small “samplers.” I’m collaging onto canvas with a raw edge, and I’ll be float-mounting these in a shadow box style wooden frame.

Here are the beginnings.

Each collage has a photo transfer on fabric, and one or more glass vessels depicted, and some other fabric. I monoprinted the glass vessels on sheer polyester. I did stitching on all of them this morning.

Aside from the idea development, some other things I am experiencing/learning:

MULTIPLES: When I work on small pieces, I like to have a number of them in the works at one time. I’m not necessarily prescribing this as a rule for others, I just know it suits my working temperament.

PRESENTATION: When I work on small pieces I like to present them in a finished frame of some sort. I don’t do this with large quilts, which I like to see presented hanging on the wall as-is. For me, small pieces get lost without a frame presentation.

PREPARATION: I am oh-so-grateful-more-than-I-can-say-grateful for the investment of time I have put into printing methods that I can pull out of my tool box when I need them.

Each of these little works includes some screen printing. I have a small quantity of images that I like, return to, and mix together in different ways. They are now part of my working vocabulary. And the time I invested in printing each image onto a piece of clear vinyl was invaluable. (That’s what I have in my hand in the top of the picture above. The tree limb, printed on a sheet of clear, provides me with a method of visually composing the small collage. I can see through the vinyl. Then, I lay the printing screen right on top, lining it up by eye. It’s how I can see where the image will print.)

IDEAS EVOLVE: And I am learning again how ideas work. They grow. They change. They may be set aside for a bit. If meaningful, they will come back. I have used images of glass bottles, tree limbs and landscape photos in various ways in my work over years. I don’t always use all these elements. But my experience with each becomes part of my thinking as I re-address an idea I have worked with before. They come together in familiar ways – and they come together in new ways.

That’s it for now. We’ll see where all this goes.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Composing with real objects

January 15, 2023

This was a weekend of quiet, undirected composition experimenting – in the simple camaraderie of fellow artmakers. (aka art buddies.)

I am still in the beginning stage of thinking through some new elements and a slightly new course for work in 2023. This weekend I assembled some physical objects I could move around a page as a way to stir up ideas and see what might show promise.

(My workspace on Saturday was the monthly meeting of my local artmaking group, ArtsEtc, a group of diverse artists who have met together pretty regularly for over twenty years. I have been part of the group for about half that time.)

I assembled my supplies:

A large sketchpad of low-quality newsprint. No guilt if I ruin some pages.
Oil pastels for quick sketching.
My trusted right-angle rule for drawing borders and straight lines.

“Stuff” to move around – cardstock stencils I have returned to many times over the years. Images of bottles. Jars. Trees.

Also in my backpack I brought invisible “stuff”: My internal vision of photos I know I would like to use: windows. Water reflections. Tree branches against a sky. I did not have the actual photo transfers done to bring with me. So, when I designated an area where they would go, I drew the equivalent of a shorthand notation that might not mean anything to anyone but me. A few squiggly blue lines mean the photo of water.

So, from the beginning, this process will involve both what I can physically see and rearrange and what I imagine.

For the first sketch I began by placing some elements and moving them around.

Once I have the elements on the page, I trace around them with the oil pastels just to get the shapes. Then I remove the objects I was tracing. I take a look and ask questions:

Does this positioning of things seem interesting? Where will it be light and where will it be dark? Where will I want solids, where will I want patterns? How will things overlap? When they overlap, will the top layer block out part of what’s behind or will it be transparent?

So, one of the sketches developed like this.

Over the course of several hours of working at my table, with occasional breaks for chatting and looking at other artist’s projects, I did six of these little sketches.

Over the next few days I’ll see if anything suggested something I actually want to develop or if I discard these and try something new. (If so, even the ones I discard will have had purpose. Sometimes an unsuccessful beginning points the way to what needed to change.)

As you can see from pictures of the sketches, these are just beginnings. (I am not concerned yet with actual colors. I’m just going for contrast.) But they help me get to the next steps.

Lessons for artmakers: I like developing compositions by moving around actual things. It’s hands-on and involves you in the work. I have also done this kind of experimenting in PhotoShop, but it does not feel the same.

Your objects may not be cut-out shapes of card stock. You may be interested in leaves. Or actual 3-d things that you trace to get forms. All Ok. And there is nothing magic about oil pastels. I use them because it’s what I have and I like the feel of them. Colored pencils or markers or even paint would work too.

Lessons for art-lovers who do not create your own work: When you see a finished piece that really speaks to you, it can be interesting to look into it like a historian. How did the artist get to the finished product? What preliminary steps were involved? Looking into art this way can prove meaningful.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading.
I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Thinking about “Things” and Words

January 8, 2023

I love these dishes. My daughter made them for me when she was working on her MFA in ceramics. I use them every day.

I was holding one of these today, thinking about the simple comfort of pleasing shapes and useful objects. I live a pretty simple life and I am not very attached to or interested in acquiring “things.”

At the same time, simple objects can be very meaningful.

I have a blue glass bottle I like very much.

I have several favorite coffee cups.

I have a favorite blanket.

These things are on my mind as I am letting ideas cook about where I want to take my body of work this coming year. I have been creating works dealing with a girl’s journey for several years. And I have created works with images drawing on memory and dreams – tree shapes, water and windows.

Now I feel I want continue to draw on memory images, but to also to say something about landing places. Where the journey brings us.

I don’t’ know yet how I will incorporate simple daily objects into this narrative. But the idea will evolve.

And I would also like to find a way to incorporate some words. Especially some poetry. (I find the incorporation of text into works very challenging. I have seen some textile works using words that are elegant and poignant. I have also seen some that are, well, tacky.)

Some recent beautiful words I have discovered:

“Listen. Be still.
Be as deep as the dark
from which you came.
Where we are is home:
”

— Kathleen Norris, from “In Praise of Darkness”

When I look back through my old sketchbooks and notebooks, it’s interesting to me that what may seem like a whole new idea may have appeared in different forms in other works.

Simple Objects. . . I made this art quilt, “Just Enough,” to give voice to the beauty to be found in simple objects.

Words. . . In this storytelling art quilt, “Caving Away Beneath Us. Again,” I used text as the background of the whole image. I wrote on yards of fabric which then became the sky and the fabric used to depict the young girl.

“Caving Away Beneath Us. Again” is on my website **HERE**

If you are looking for direction in your work, it can be helpful to look at what you have created before and see what was in it that spoke to you. Do you want to do more of the same? Add to those ideas?

Or maybe you will launch in a new direction.

One of the many wonderful things about artmaking… there are so many possibilities!

. . . . . . . . .

To readers who in the DeLand area, I invite you to an exhibit that will be in DeLand City Hall City Commission chambers. The theme is “Contrasts,” works created by members of ArtsEtc. This is a small surface design group that has been meeting and creating together for over twenty years. All of us look forward to showing our work together.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading.
I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Neutral Thoughts (and not so neutral thoughts)

January 1, 2023

This week I’m in a neutral zone.

I’m in the early stages of a work that will be a figure study. I’ve started with the background and I am working my way to the foreground.

From the beginning, I was not positive how I wanted this to work. But I had a vision of a surface that had the visual interest of hand printed fabric with lots of patterns and texture that would – at the same time – function like a simple photographer’s background in a portrait.

I began with painting fabric. I worked on three sections of yardage (about one and a half yards each) that were similar, but different. One was a yellow-base neutral, one was more cream, and one was built from white and burnt umber.

My next step was to figure where on the finished piece each section would land, with special attention to what will go behind the figure. (I don’t want her to disappear in the patterns!) All of that is still in the works.

In the meantime, I’ve rediscovered that there are some wonderful characteristics of neutrals to incorporate into a finished piece.

First – they give you some place to go

In the picture above I’ve masked off some sections and I am rolling on a very transparent wash of burnt sienna. Now, the fabric as-is will be next to the fabric-as-is-plus-sienna. That neutral base created a good surface for overprinting.

Second – Stitched sections of neutral patterns become a whole new surface.

I like the way this simple linear pattern of stitching connects these side-by-side sections so they function as a single unit.

This particular palette feels mostly new to me; it is not a frequent color decision for me. I looked back through some of my completed works to see if I had used it before. I found two works where I had started in a similar way. (Interestingly, both of these are also figurative storytelling works.)

This is “Neither Here Nor There.”

This is “From the Place Where we Landed”

In both of these, the neutral background was paired with sections of deep, intense color.

And that, I think, is what’s most interesting about working in a neutral palette.

The neutrals provide a place for the story or the focal point to take the spotlight. Rather than taking the spotlight themselves, the neutral portions will allow something else to step to the center of attention. Then, later, the viewer can wander through the neutrals and discover what they have to offer.

If you would like to learn more about the two works shown, they are on my website. Click to see more:

NEITHER HERE NOR THERE

FROM THE PLACE WHERE WE LANDED

And now for a not-so-neutral thought: What’s good for composition may not be good for life. In my life as a human being and a citizen, I hope that in this new year I am not neutral. I would prefer to be fierce and passionate and intensely interested in events and involved as much as I am able.

My hope for you for 2023
is to find things NOT to be neutral about and jump in!

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Inspirations

December 25, 2022

I’ve enjoyed the slow pace of Christmas in our household. We cut a tree in the National Forest, decorated it leisurely, ate a little more than usual, and generally felt like we were on vacation.

(Except for a few runs to the grocery store – where we and a million of our closest friends were in a Mad Max quest for a parking space. And then for a cart!)

But yesterday I had some quiet time in my studio, just looking around. I am beginning to turn the wheels of thought on new projects for the new year.

So, looking around, I counted and noted some simple things that I find inspiring. These things help me get moving.

INTERESTING SHAPES

This clump of grasses and roots hangs where I can see it all the time. I have used it a number of times for monoprinting, and it always yields surprises.

MIXING MY OWN COLORS

The process of creating a full range of colors from a limited palette of base colors just gets me going. I stir the colors together on the mixing palette and begin to envision how they will print on fabric.

TOOLS EASILY IN REACH

My stencils hang on the wall just an arm’s reach from my worktable. My paints are now arranged on a little shelf right next to them. I don’t have to unpack or rearrange things to jump into a project.

COMPLEMENTARY COLORS

There is probably no single learning experience I value more than the time I have spent experimenting with complementary colors. Paint them next to each other. Paint them together to make brown. With one color dominant, mix in just a tad of its complement to watch it de-intensify and become more neutral. Mix them together in varying amounts then add white. Aaaahhhh! Beautiful greys.

The orange-purple overprinting above makes each color intense in a way neither would be alone.

EASY CLEANUP

This wonderful set-up, a utility cart plus a garden hose right outside my studio, permits me freedom to dirty up my brushes and my hands and other mark-making tools. Clean-up is just a few steps away.

SEEING COMPLETED ARTWORK

This is a newly-finished canvas triptych “They Built Their House of Twigs.” It is on the wall behind my sewing table. I look at it all the time. I tried some experimental ways of working in this piece. Seeing it completed helps me to relive the experiments and to evaluate how they worked. And to consider what to try next!

READING POETRY

This reading spot is not actually in my studio but in my living room. It is part of my day. I am learning more all the time how the rhythms and patterns of words relate to the rhythms and patterns of visual artmaking. Starting the day with poetry reading has become a well-loved habit.

If there are little things you can do to make your workspace or your work habits easier, do those things. If there are little things you can put in your everyday line of vision to stir thought and ideas, do those things.

Find inspiration in being attentive and alert. It doesn’t require huge lightning bolt experiences or revelations to become inspired to create.

My hope for all the artmakers reading is that you will find some new small things to do to enhance your experience of creating.

And to all who are kind enough to follow along in this blog journey: I wish you Happy Holidays. And peace to all.

If you would like to learn more about the piece featured as an orange-purple complement example, it’s on my website: A DIFFERENT LIGHT REMEMBERED.

If you would like to learn more about the triptych shown hanging in my studio, it is on my website: THEY BUILT THEIR HOUSE OF TWIGS.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Edges – Crisp or Squishy

December 18, 2022

Recently I’ve been working on a project that required a really nice, crisp painted edge to define a piece of architecture. I was pleased with how it turned out.

It’s a nice lesson on using a different kind of stencil: freezer paper.

I use stencils all the time. My stencils are my studio friends. They appear and reappear in my works as elements in my visual vocabulary.

But this application was different. I had no need for a re-useable stencil. And I needed a clean line. And I was going to paint on flat fabric that had not yet been stitched or appliqued. Perfect criteria for freezer paper.

I drew the pattern right on the freezer paper. (Dull side of the paper facing up.) Because it’s thin, freezer paper is easy to cut. You can use it for intricate shapes.

After it’s cut you iron it on. The shiny side of the freezer paper goes against the fabric. I confess that I have no idea why this sticks. (I did not believe it when an art friend first told me to try freezer paper.) But something in that waxy side of the paper makes it adhere to fabric by ironing, then lift off easily afterwards. It’s as if it were invented for this purpose and not wrapping food.

Now paint. For this application I used a sponge paint roller. You could also use a brush or a sponge depending on the effect you want.

After the paint is dry – just peel off the freezer paper. If you have not been too heavy handed with the paint application, you should have nice crisp edges without paint seeping under the stencil edge.

Another project used stencils in a completely different way.

This stencil is an old friend. We’ve been through a lot together. I cut it by hand from the box that packaged a pan of Stouffer’s macaroni and cheese. Frozen food cartons and similar food packaging make great stencils. The cardboard is thin, and the waxy coating on one side gives it some strength.

But – even though it’s thin as far as cardboard goes, this stencil is much thicker than a sheet of freezer paper. If I stencil very carefully and back off on the paint, I can get a clean edge. But, generally I use this one for a much looser, expressive edge.

The technical name for this is a squishy edge. (Or if it’s not, it should be.)

In the lower left corner is the fabric I printed with this stencil onto a sheer fabric. I used a wet natural sponge and let the edges be carefree. Then I cut out the shapes loosely and collaged it as a unit into the quilt.

Here’s another use of the same stencil from a different part of the quilt.

I enjoy mixing organic shapes with geometric, and mixing hand-cut shapes with photographic images, and also repeating a shape block on various parts of a quilt.

If you enjoy surface design on fabric, there is hardly a tool more versatile than a stencil. Used in repetition, or with variations of a hue overlapping, they can… sorry. I got too enthusiastic. More for another blog post.

The quilt featuring the capitol is not yet ready for its world debut. The quilt featuring the squishy edge shapes is “There by Water Will I Build My Home,” a triptych on canvas. It’s on my website HERE.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading.
I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

See what you Get. And Then. . .

December 11, 2022

I have now created and collected quite a stack of writing journals.

Meeting with a weekly writing group for several years, I have lots of words on pages. All are ten-minute reactions to prompts, written completely without planning, word after word till the bell rings. Then we share.

As you might guess, this kind of working together is forging very good friendships. The priceless by-product.

As for the words themselves, I am now at a stage in which I am opening the books and reading through them again to rediscover what I wrote.

Some of it surprises me; I have no memory of writing those things.

Some of it offers a little emotional gut-punch; I remember the writing and the events that inspired it.

I am discovering a few gems. A very small percentage. It seems to take a lot of writing like this to get to ideas and phrases that are worth noting. My hope is to sift and refine what I discover to be the groundwork for poetry, or some other kind of writing.

This same process occurs in my artmaking. I have now created and collected quite a stack of cast-aside printed papers and collages.

I spent time going through some this week as part of a much-needed studio cleaning spree.

As with my writing, I discovered quite a range of creating. Some of it makes me ask, ”What in the world was I thinking!” Some of it makes me say, “Hmmm, this has possibilities.” Some of it makes me think I could cut the works up and recycle the parts into something new. Some I will just flip over to use the back.

None of this would be possible without the first step: create something.

Allow me to encourage you: get a pen and a book. Or get some paint, some fabric, some medium and mark-making tools and create an image. You will like some of it. You will not like a lot of it.

This is, I believe, the only way to develop work that eventually pleases you.

And, just as working in a group yields friendships and bonds of encouragement, working alone in your studio builds confidence and connections to your inner creative impulses. Also priceless!

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: Mostly news of exhibits and my way of introducing new work. You’ll get FIRST LOOKS at new artwork and members-only discounts.You’ll hear from me about once a month. NEWSLETTER

Within the artwork - a journey

November 27, 2022

Interesting artwork gives the viewer someplace to go.

The images may trigger memories or imagination; then the journey will take place inside the viewer.

The images may be created in the picture plane in such a way that there is a journey to be taken within the artwork itself. The artist can take the viewer from the point of entry around the composition to whatever is most important.

It’s exciting (and sometimes powerful!) when a piece of artwork can stir up both kinds of journeys.

Last weekend at the Fall Festival of the Arts DeLand I included this art quilt in my display, so I had a lot of time to look at it closely, and to listen to people who were experiencing it for the first time.

At first glance this composition is both static and flat. The houses are child-like and two dimensional, and they are pushed right up to the foreground. Where can you go from there?

In this work, the answer is to go inside, to look through and to look beyond.

I began this work with the background, stenciling the trees by sponging the paint loose and wet. It creates a sense of distance.

Then I built houses filled with images that portray depth.

Water

Objects seen through windows

Semi-transparent house shapes, in front and behind.

Then, just as you are being drawn into the layers, the boarded-up window says “Stop.”

The viewer almost needs to take a step backwards.

And that’s what the work is about.

My hope in creating this quilt was to create a visual metaphor for memories of home. They are deep. Complex. Varied. Interesting. Arresting. Overlapping. And sometimes obscured.

I’ve been thinking about how a viewer moves in and through an artwork as I’m developing ideas for what I might concentrate on in the studio in the months ahead. I have some ideas cooking.

As the ideas evolve, I want to keep in mind the importance of the viewer’s journey.

. . . . .

If you would like more information about the quilt “Sometimes You Can’t see In,” it’s on my website HERE.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

From the Streets

November 20, 2022

It begins the first time a creative child shows artwork to Mom: “Look what I made!” thrilled when it gets taped to the refrigerator. The creative soul finds meaning in showing what’s been created to others.

Saturday morning the streets of my downtown were filled with clanks and clunks of tent poles being assembled into displays. Most artists worked from muscle memory at that point – a requirement when it is not yet light.

The tent city is erected. Artists hang or arrange their work. By the time even the early bird shoppers arrive, an art festival exists.

My display at the Fall Festival of the Arts DeLand

I enjoy every part of showing at this Festival, held in my hometown an easy ten minutes from my home.

I had experimented with some new construction methods, triptychs with a raw-edge canvas backing. Would people respond well? (Grateful – yes!)

I had created a number of smaller pieces for the Festival. Would that work yield sales? (Grateful – yes!)

I put together a body of work that I believe creates a cohesive statement of artmaking methods and content. Would the judges consider it worthy? (Grateful – yes! I received an Award of Merit.)

Mostly a day of showing at a festival is a day of conversations and storytelling. I have learned how to describe my work in a very few short sentences for those unfamiliar with what I do or textile work generally. (The marketing phrase for this is “the elevator speech,” the answer you would provide on an elevator to the query, “What do you do?” It’s an important skill.)

I had lots of great conversations with other artmakers interested in technical issues.

And the behind-the-scenes with other artists, the friendships formed quickly with those who will be your neighbor for the weekend, are always meaningful. I was between a very fine painter and a very fine printmaker.

After day two comes breakdown. Clank clank as tent poles come down. Re-pack the car. Mental inventory making sure everything is in place. Then, during the short drive home comes the first deep breath. Done! Begin to unwind. Now I think it’s time tz z zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Shhhh. Don’t wake the artist. Before nodding off, Bobbi wrote: If you would like to look more closely at one of the new raw-edge canvas pieces, you can find it on my website HERE

(I’ll get the second one up on my website this week.)

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading.
I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Creating artwork. Showing artwork.

November 13, 2022

This has been the week of tropical storm Nicole. Our part of the state received nothing more than a few rainy windy days. But it was enough for many activities to be cancelled. For me, hunkering down = studio time.

I have one portion of my brain focused on the Fall Festival of the Arts in downtown DeLand, one week from today. Time for showing.

But, this weekend I am finishing up some last-minute smaller projects. Time for creating.

Here’s what I’ve been looking at today:

The results of lots of color-mixing. I may only mix a few spoonfuls of color at a time, but there’s usually paint leftover. I put plastic wrap over the palette (a Styrofoam plate) hoping to save it for the next day when I might need just a pinch more of that color. (I know this tabletop will not win me any good housekeeping awards! In the middle of projects, this is just how it looks.)

Silkscreens washed out and drying. I had some productive fast-n-furious screen printing sessions this afternoon.

A few collages-in-progress on my worktable. These are monotype printed thin papers collaged to watercolor paper, with screen printing as part of the composition.

Now, sitting here at my computer to write is a welcomed change of pace in the day. I can begin to shift to the longer-term project: showing the artwork.

I only do a few in-person events each year. They provide a chance to meet lots of folks in person, show my work, and talk about it.

As I do the work of gathering and packing my display parts this week, I hope to provide my brain some space to remember the purpose of all this artmaking.

Why do I spend time in the studio?
What are the things that interest me?
What do I hope a viewer will see?
What questions will be raised?
How do the ideas that interest me mesh with my ways of creating?

My experience from talking with festival-goers is that people are really interested in what the art means. They enjoy hearing the stories behind the work and inserting their own stories and experiences in them too.

Within the family of artists, when we get together we frequently focus on the “how-to” part of artmaking. What brand paint? How do you achieve that effect? And that’s all OK.

Talking to people who are not artists, however, is the chance to remember and explain the “why” part of artmaking.

In addition to the smaller works I’ve been finishing this week, I’ll have some larger quilts and textile collages to show.

You are invited! If you are near central Florida, I hope you will visit downtown DeLand Saturday and Sunday November 19-20 to experience our fabulous art festival. I’m in booth 133. Come by and say hi.

For those further away, I appreciate your notes and well-wishes.

Cheers.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Finding Meaning in the Small

November 6, 2022

Yesterday my morning on our porch included delightful, unexpected interruptions.

A batch of new birds, tiny wren-like splashes of activity – were in the branches of the ligustrum that’s right up next to the porch screen. I could hear the whisper of their movements. I could see them only briefly. They flew in, they hopped about, and they were gone.

There had been a brief rain before sunrise. Their movements created a short-lived waterfall of collected water from leaves down onto the branches below them.

I wonder sometimes why I enjoy birds so much. Aside from the obvious reasons (Birdsong. Color. Flashes of movement. The way they tilt their heads) I think they spark in me the sense of pretend I had when I was a child.

I enjoyed pretending I was the little animal and that I lived in the tree. I wondered what it would be like. I enjoyed imagining the transformations – how what appears as a small twig to me from my human perspective would be a much larger object to a little bird. How big a berry would seem!

I enjoyed the idea of being hidden.

So, here I am, all grown up and with a studio and time to create, still enjoying the world of birds.

When I screen printed this tree in parts, it allowed me to mix it up a little. All the parts don’t fit together just neatly. And I blended black with luscious phthalo blue.

This is part of the pretend experience. A tree and some birds are recognizable forms, but I have not created them to be realistic – not like a photograph, or an Audubon illustration.

This environment is not scary, but it is complex. There are a lot of parts. This helps to emphasize that the birds are little. Little innocents in a complex world.

I realize as I write this evening that I may be drawn to this kind of image tonight as a way to escape the reality of what’s coming this week. I am dreading our midterm elections. I will do the right grownup things. I have followed issues and candidates, I have given to the ones I support, and I will support the process as a designated poll watcher. I voted. This environment, however actually is scary. Scary and complex.

So, if your emotional life is in any way in the same place, I invite you to enter the world of the small creatures, hop about largely hidden by branches and twigs and – for a short while – live in pretend.

This blog post did not go quite where I expected. But I guess this is what was inside waiting to be written. Thanks for reading.

The collage depicted in this post is “Where We have Been All Along.” It’s on my website. For more information, click HERE.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Returning to an idea

October 30, 2022

I began this morning as I generally do. The first one awake. Coffee and some good poetry books on our screened porch. Enjoying the cool air. Waiting for the hummingbird.

I had my poetry writing journal – as I usually do – but writing does not always occur. This morning, though, some words I had written a week ago in my writing group were ready to turn into a new thing.

Responding to the prompt “taillights” I had written a memory prose piece that I thought had some nice elements and the possibility of becoming a poem. (In my writing group we just draw a prompt and then write flat out for ten minutes. No planning. No revising. We get what we get. It’s a way to unearth ideas.)

The taillights concept has stayed in the back of my mind. I have turned the words over and around as I have been working on other things.

The ideas have had time to cook. So, this morning they came together for me.

I have a good poem first draft. Now I’ll revise and refine. (And maybe let it cook some more.)

Later today in the studio I experienced something similar with a large quilt I had put aside for about ten days. I was not frustrated when I set it aside. I just had other projects with more pressing deadlines. I have been looking forward to pulling the pieces out of their storage spot and getting them back on the easel.

Today was that day.

This work will be a three-panel exploration of a home near water. “There by water I will build my home.”

It combines several things that interest me.

First – home. I have explored home and what it means as a part of one’s journey in many different ways over several years. Some of the works are storytelling. Some are more conceptual.

Second – landscapes that combine photo reality with other kinds of fabric surface design. So far in this work, I have transferred images of rippling water in a pond and tree limbs against a sky and the architectural detail of a wooden window. I like all the parts.

Returning to this work today – having taken some time away from it – has been a gift. I believe the finished piece will be better for the “cooking” time.

Here’s where I am as of today. What’s already completed contains the hard part: Lots of stitching for quilting and construction. What will come next will be more pleasing work: deepening the surface and adding layers.

Ideas can benefit from a bit of time. Interior work may still be happening even when the project has been physically put away for a while.

Todays’ realizations were nice affirmations and reminders.

. . . . .

Fall Festival of the Arts DeLand is only a few weeks away. I always enjoy exhibiting in my hometown Festival. It’s a great quality event—if you are nearby I hope you’ll make a point to attend. See me in booth 133.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Design and Collage – Some Ideas and Tips

October 23, 2022

In between some larger projects in the studio, I made time this week for a few small paper collages.

This was really just for me. The larger projects have been hard and time-consuming. I needed some small collage therapy.

As always I enjoyed the process. And, I remembered some good methods and practices to share with you.

PRACTICE AND PREP ALWAYS PAYS OFF!

Here’s the very beginning of a collage-in progress. Well, I say it’s the beginning, but it’s not. Over the past few weeks I made some time to prepare a batch of collaged papers in colors and textures I am interested in using. (Printed as monotypes on my gelatin plate; thin tissue paper.)

Now, when I’m inspired to begin the design and assembly, the papers are waiting for me.

I created papers that are mostly neutral. I have learned to fight my basic instinct to begin with strong colors. (Always tempting - because they are just so wonderful!) But, when those go down first, there’s no place left to go. Here, I have one intense section – the deep blue – and two faded, neutral sections. Now I can build on these.

NEW DESIGN TOOL – SEE-THROUGH SILKSCREENED TEMPLATES

Another investment in prep I made recently: transparent vinyl templates. In the picture above, I am holding a piece of vinyl that I screen printed with one of the screens I use from time to time. This is such a GREAT way to work out designs. I can move the vinyl all around, combine it with others, rotate it, or flip it to print mirror image. Fast, visual designing.

The brown trees in this picture are the pieces of vinyl I have laid down on the collage to test that pattern and placement. Yes. I want to print that and I want to print it there.

The black branches are now screen printed directly onto the collage-in-progress. I can feel pretty confident about how it will look by using the see-through pieces.

STEP BACK TO SEE THE BIG PICTURE

These paper artworks will be presented in a black mat. I keep one of the mats handy so I can check the composition in the mat regularly as I work. Seeing the piece in its final frame makes a big difference.

However you plan to present a work, try to think about that size, border color, and straightness as you work. Otherwise it’s easy to get absorbed in the details and paint yourself into a corner.

CIRCLES AND ANGLES

The circles in this picture are embroidery hoops. I purchased a whole set of about a dozen in all sizes for just a few dollars at a thrift store. So useful! As with the vinyl pieces, I can design fast and visually just by moving them around to find the right spot and the right size. I sometimes also use the hoop as a painting guide and stencil.

Angles – In the picture above, I have my backing board propped up on an angle on my work table. (I generally use gallon containers of paint for this purpose.) It’s important, once you reach the designing stage, that you look at work-in-progress at the correct angle.

That’s why painters stand at their easels. That’s why quilt artists pin thing up on a vertical design wall to check on work as it evolves.

Standing at my worktable, if my work is flat and my head is on an angle looking down, I am perceiving a distortion. Just a bit of angle solves the problem.

KILLING FLATNESS

I will be adding a few little birds to these collaged works. I cut them out of printed muslin to be collaged into place. But, against the delicate printed tissue paper, these little pieces of fabric looked dull and lifeless. I decided to add just a tad of hand painted acrylic as a wash to create some depth and interest. I think they are much more appealing now.

Doing this work on a piece BEFORE incorporating it into the artwork allows me to be freer with experimenting. If I mess it up, all I’ve ruined is a little fabric scrap. I can make another one.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little visit to the studio with works-in-progress.

. . . . . . .

Just a reminder – If you are in Central Florida I hope you’ll come visit this wonderful, juried Festival in my hometown. I’ll be exhibiting. Please stop by and say hi.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

How She Got There

October 16, 2022

Sometimes the sense of movement comes within a single work of art.

Sometimes there can be a sense of movement over time, from one work to the next.

I am interested in the concept of journey. I enjoy exploring the ideas of beginning in one place and ending in another.

I’m pleased that three of my works will be included in a Miami-wide textile event “Threading the City.” These works will exhibit at the Mexican Consulate in Miami from late October, 2022 – January, 2023.

My works deal with inner journeys. They will be part of an exhibit focusing on migrant experiences.

The biplane traverses two panels of the triptych. The girl on the wing is in a precarious place, with danger lurking in the water below. The girl is semi-transparent and simplified… a dream?

What is she doing out there on the wing? Where is she going? Is she adventurous? Is she trying to get away?

One can look at her and think either, “Go girl!” or “Get down from there you’ll be killed!”

This work depicts a journey that – for now – is on hold. “Adrift.” Again the girl is perched on the edge.

I drew the girl in this one this one with more detail.

The ocean is vast and complex. It’s a simple composition: a small boat on a big sea.

Finally the girl is on land, looking back at the journey she has travelled.

She is small and the ocean is large.

Her simplified, paper-doll-like rendering speaks to her innocence.

We don’t know whether or not this was a journey she wanted to take.

It is interesting to me to see these three works together. I created them at different times over the course of several years, not intending that they work together. When I create in an intentional series, it is my hope that the ideas from one work to the next will speak to each other. But, in this case, the related ideas are more like evidence of ideas and concepts that are just part of what I think about.

So – however I got there – here I am.

If you would like more information about these works – and other storytelling works – you can find them on my website in the gallery of Journeys and stories; HERE

. . . . . . . . .

MARK YOUR CALENDAR: NOVEMBER 19-20
Downtown DeLand, Florida – my home town!
If you are near Central Florida, I encourage you to visit this great event of about 175 juried artists. I’ll be exhibiting in booth 133. Stop by and say “hi!”

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Building Color on Color

October 9, 2022

Color is wonderful.

Color on color can be even wonderfuller! (That’s a word. I’m sure of it.)

I had two different color adventures this week. One was a fix of something printed before on paper that I did not like. The second was a create-from-scratch color build on fabric.

First, the color rescue on paper

These are some paper sheets I printed a few months ago. I can’t remember what project I created them for. I only know that once they were done I didn’t like them at all. (And – wouldn’t you know – I had printed a BUNCH of them.) I just don’t like baby blue. And I had mixed up a baby blue (cerulean plus white) so that it would overprint the darker blue background. To me, the leaves are just pasty looking. I can’t think of a way I would ever want to use these sheets.

Time to overprint.

Here’s my set up ready to over print. I’ve mixed a blue color that has a lot more teal in it. (Phthalo blue plus raw sienna.) I’ll re-print my papers as monotypes on the gelatin plate. The teal color will very slightly alter the background blue color and will kill the pastiness in the leaves

Inking up the plate. (Vocabulary note: I actually print with acrylic paints, not printing inks. But, I always learned to use the word “ink” as a verb when it means putting the printing material on the plate. So I say “inking up” even though I’m “painting up.”)

Here’s the paper with the pasty leaves ready to be pressed into the teal color.

The result. The shape of the leaves is still visible, but much more muted. And I have killed the baby blue!

Project two: building up color from scratch on cotton fabric.

This is a piece of fabric about 40” square. I do not use a lot of red, but I have a project that will need a nice red splash and so I wanted it to be interesting. What pleases me about this piece is the richness of the red hues. I combined unlike reds together on the palette: cadmium red (which has a red-orange base) and alizarin crimson (a magenta base) plus just a tad or pre-mixed pink. I thought the colors might fight each other. Instead I think they enhanced each other.

I enjoyed playing with some positive-negative shapes with stencils. All of the images on this fabric were created either with stencils or by overprinting textures that I placed beneath the fabric before painting.

So… What to do with colorful fabrics and paper? For someone who enjoys the process of the surface design as much as I do, sometimes, I need to remind myself, “Oh yeah. It’s to be incorporated into art!” Otherwise, I can just fall in love with making fabric.

Here are a few of my small collages pieces that use layers of printed fabric or layers of printed paper.

“**Within the Harboring Silence**.” on my website.. Learn more **HERE**

“**Through All of its Worlds**” on my website Learn more **HERE**

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

After the Storm

October 2, 2022

This storm experience has been strange for us.

The day before Hurricane Ian hit, the weather was unusually beautiful. It was hard to believe the stories of big winds churning the Gulf.

Then it hit land, and we saw stories of folks in the southwest part of Florida just slammed. Then it came through our part of Florida. LOTS of rain. Wind pounding the windows through the night. But…

It is with a sincerely grateful heart I look about our town and see little more than downed limbs. Most people have power. We did not lose power at all.

The big limb that fell in our yard fell in the exact spot where our car normally parks, and we had moved it. And as we worked outdoors the next day trying to cut it up with a way-too-small saw, a neighbor we had never met came by with a chain saw and a truck and helped us clear out the driveway. They had just been out driving to see who might need help.

And here, today, another day just blindingly beautiful.

Life is precarious.

Life is precious.

Life is capricious.

I can hardly imagine the day today of those who are not able to get back to their homes at all, or who are picking through sodden remains of where they lived.

It could have been us.

So, I’m just checking in, still processing the immensity of it all.

I was in the studio working away during much of the storm and will be back to sharing the art journey next week.

Best wishes to all.
Bobbi