Franklin Art Festival 2015

I am involved with the FAF festival again this year, and am putting thoughts together of a piece to enter into it when call for entries start around July. This annual exhibition usually runs about August/September. Although I didn't put a weaving in last year I had been looking at korowai, and submitted a knitted interpretation shown here. 

The cuff at the top was knitted with fine copper wire, fishing nylon, and fine rayon yarn. Although wholly unruly to knit, this combination of materials gave a very random and sturdy hanging edge for the hanging of the piece. The body of the work was knitted into garter and purl stitch, barely definable, squares using silk ribbon. Feathers were used to adorn the cuff and cord.

MY NEW JOB

I have just joined the Pollok Arts Co-op which is a small gallery selling art and craft on the Awhitu Peninsula south of Auckland on the Manukau Heads. There are six members and we sell our own and other artists work. Yay to be art focused again after a year and a half of 60hour weeks working for the machine. For the time being I am blissfully living in paradise.

Pollok Co-op

Tapestry Design

                                                      Egyptian retro pile carpet sampler.

Photoshopping 

                                                            Final Tapestry Design 

Work In Progress

I have just begun working part-time again. As I don't have a rich husband, or wife either for that matter, I sometimes have to do this, not only in order to pay the bills, but more importantly, to keep my studio space going. 

This part-time work is not in the least bit art related, but it does have some relevance to my on-going long term goal and commitment to one day be able to use my weaving skills and looms to help a community group out there to have a voice, communal focus or small income sometime in the future. Weaving is a wonderful medium for bringing people together on all sorts of levels and has such a diverse heritage for so many different peoples and cultures.

I was recently advised that if I was wanting to get more sales of my tapestries, maybe  I should focus more on producing less provocative or political pieces, drop a bit of the edge to the work so to speak. 

My new series of works are no larger than 30x30cm. I better not give up the part-time work though, not with all these off-shore drilling permits and mining rights going on at the mo.

Commission for Funky Chicken

Funky Chicken Commission Book Cover
www.funkybooks.com.au

Chook on the loom

It's been ages since I posted onto my blog so here is a bit of what I've been up to over the last few months. This is my brothers boutique kids book which he self-published last year, and a pic of me half way through weaving the illustration on the cover of the book.

Funky Books donates a percentage of it's profits towards the children's charity Just 4 Kids Inc. and Chris and his partner Nadia have been putting loads of energy into trying to make kids lives a bit more Funky for them. They tour schools and libraries promoting funky-ness for kids.

Funky Chicken, off the loom and steam pressed.

The design was way away from themes I have dealt with before, and the wild weft was radical to weave  at times. I believe they are going to use this weaving as a prize for a school library competition as part of the books promotion. It was a pretty funky piece to weave, and I was releived to get it done in time for my trip over to Australia in June/July.

Detail of the weft in the tail and wing

I took it over with me rolled up and bought some high-grade canvas to stretch over the frame my dad and I had built for it.. Once stretched, primed and painted, the weaving was ironed and steamed, and an  acid-free iron-on backing was attached to the work to stabilize it for sewing onto the frame. The exposed canvas area has cotton chook prints sewn around the border. as does the title and signature.

Funky Chicken sewn onto canvas

 All in all, a crazy little guy to weave. Had heaps of fun with this piece. Set at 10 epi it took longer than I thought so my next piece is set at 6epi to speed things up a bit.

Referencing Tales, Myths & Legends

Fairy tales & legends connect the past and present. I feel I can relate to the closeted life of Rapunzeland, that sense of entrapment and the oppressing obligation of having to live according to societal rules. And the traditional story of Nanook will always be over-shadowed by lines from Frank Zappa. 

In Search of Nanook

Woven at 11 e.p.i. on a cotton warp, using hemp, cotton, wool and rayon. These two weavings were woven as a twin-set pair. These two works are reminiscent of my 1960's childhood, where fact and fantasy were forever blurred. Reality and authoritative norms were full of contradictions. In my smallness, joining lifes dots together seemed an impossible task.

Rapunzel Gets a Life

Tapestry Weaving/Mixed Media

Hand-woven Tapestry on Pen & Paper.

Integrating small works with other mediums to create a different format will probably never go down well with the tapestry purists out there. However there is always an sense of adventure in pushing ones artistic licence to take folk out of their comfort zones from time to time. These works have the double horror of being presented behind glass.

                                   

                                                        "Un-armed and Dangerous"

                                                    

      

                                                              "Ghia's New Skiivvy"

You can see more of my work at    http://www.facebook.com/warpedartanddesign