Mutability

Documentation exhibition

2010-10-01T06:28:00.001-07:00

Documentation exhibition
Originally uploaded by arlee

Hand of the Father

2010-06-02T13:52:00.000-07:00

My father died on May 9th. I was already working on this piece, but it seems to have become part of a story about him, and our relationship. It was not always a happy one, but a long time ago, my 9 year old self did love him.

news from the too many irons in the fire blogger

2010-05-26T12:00:00.000-07:00

At the risk of sounding very scattered, please pop over to my new blog at WordPress. The old one at squarespace will disappear in September of this year. I have already moved some posts there and have been keeping it as the current blog.

New additions to the The Artist's Body series are happening--my latest blog entry is the start of a brand new work. I thought i had finished with this exploration, but have come to realize that a life long fascination doesn't just end. I still have more to "say" and will continue the story.

The beginning of the new piece is here, and today's work is here.

I will also have some fantastic news to share with you towards the end of June--but that will probably be on the new blog, rather than here, except for a note :)

FyberSpace Shop

2010-01-20T16:22:00.001-08:00

Now open, and almost ready for business: FyyyyyyyyyyyyyberSpace!!!! At the moment i have a "coming soon" that is nearing completion, and hope to add more as i can. Please spread the word. The first piece has an "introductory" price, a steal actually for the amount of work done, just for *you*, my first buyer :}

shadowbox heart

2009-11-19T16:41:00.000-08:00

Remembrance Day Poppies

2009-11-11T09:15:00.000-08:00

I felt compelled this year to remember and honour with some stitching.

For those who fought and died, for those who fought and came home, for those who survived everywhere and simply went on with life.

Frankenstitch!!!!!!!

2009-11-04T12:26:00.001-08:00

The learning curve was quite steep, but this ol' Dogette has learned some new tricks! If you read my main blog, albedo, you can see a bit of how Beautiful Bones was stitched, in this video i made this morning.

hearts and flowers

2009-10-27T16:09:00.001-07:00

study for new work

heart in the sun

2009-10-25T09:49:00.001-07:00

My Heart Has A History

2009-10-21T13:08:00.001-07:00

heart and skin

2009-09-16T17:19:00.001-07:00

Both works in progress

Beautiful Bones, published

2009-09-02T16:36:00.000-07:00

ghostwriting

2009-08-26T16:13:00.001-07:00

a ghost had sat, wherever ghosts sit,

in the dark and fust and silence, and silently

embroidered old letters

words

looked like they had run in the rain ---------

and patched and beaded holes, burnt and torn and worn,

she he? pulled beads from old trousseaus and

unstrung beads

unravelled threads with no form left, a whisper of the silk,

a memory of shine still in the twilight

sussuration of bone needle and tiny mouseclick stitch

Take another little piece of my heart now, Baby--

2009-08-19T15:37:00.000-07:00

--you know you've got it if it makes you feeell goo ood..

This one's going to take a while........

Beautiful Bones reprise

2009-08-19T15:33:00.001-07:00

CPS surprise revealed

2009-08-17T18:42:00.000-07:00

Go see Cloth Paper Scissors' current table of contents. :}
Beautiful Bones is in there!!!

heads up

2009-08-15T09:26:00.001-07:00

Used for my head in the third round of the Exquisite Corpse Textiles Project:

announcement soon!

2009-07-12T08:58:00.001-07:00

Some great news about this piece!

Better photo of it too when it's back in my possession!

Sigh.....

2009-07-12T08:46:00.000-07:00

Brain Pan didn't make it into the competetion i sent it to--and at the risk of sounding egotistic, i'm sure it would have, if i had labelled the images correctly WITH MY NAME. Don't know WHY i didn't do this properly...........

OOPs, and i mean if i had conformed to proper submission "labeling" i would more likely have made it in---my name isn't that important yet :}

Brain Pan, update

2009-05-23T18:10:00.000-07:00

I am still waiting to hear back if Brain Pan was chosen for a major exhibition. When and if it does, i will be able to post the photos of the finished piece in its entirety. And if it doesn't, well, i'll still post them:}

Two pieces completed!

2009-05-23T17:47:00.000-07:00

One went from this:

to this:

Hoodoo Sky, the Hoodoo series. One of my favourite areas in Alberta is Horseshoe Canyon and Drumheller, where the landscape is raw and untouched. For me, it is a very feminine area, earth bound and magical. The rock formations are called Hoodoos, and dominate the physical and emotional aspects of my attraction to them.

Hand dyed and hand painted cottons, acrylic roving and machine stitch, hand embroidery and beading, 23x23", April-May of 2009 in the making.
(And i just noticed that either the original fabric photo got flipped or i worked on the reverse side of it when executing all the stitching and beading :})

The other went through many transformations in its background, from these:

to this:

Beautiful Bones, from/for the "Artist's Body" series. Hand dyed cotton, machine embroidery, hand embroidery and beading, 23x20", March-May/09 . A play on the phrase "she had beautiful bone structure"--what if our bones were beautiful?

I am very pleased with these, and am submitting them for a major competition.

newback1a

2009-04-09T18:22:00.001-07:00

newback1a
Originally uploaded by arlee

"Baby XX80XY" done

2009-03-27T14:07:00.000-07:00

I'm quite surprised at what a delight it was to use these fabrics, especially the hand dyed "shop towel". It took the stitching by hand like a dream, retains its soft character yet doesn't flop, and doesn't feel stiff in heavier embellished areas.

The finished piece is 12" across and 16" long. A freshener for my pallete/palate, so i can go back to bones and hearts!

Baby 80 in progress

2009-03-25T17:53:00.000-07:00

Frankenbitch

2009-03-20T16:44:00.000-07:00

I'm totally in love with this piece, now that i put colour back in it, and have started adding stitch and beading. My fingers are so sore though from pulling a big needle loaded with 3-6 strands of embroidery floss, that even pliers aren't helping. Time for a rest--or work on something else :}

bone machinations 2

2009-03-03T17:56:00.000-08:00

My lovely and talented model, Joanne:

Bone machinations

2009-03-03T14:13:00.001-08:00

Brain Pan

2009-02-27T07:20:00.000-08:00

View of the sides of the three dimensional form, ready to be stitched into configuration:

The inside/bottom of the 3d form:

The original drawing:

"Cache", Cyber Fyber piece for invitational show

2009-01-10T17:43:00.000-08:00

last teaser for Cyber Fyber

2008-12-08T19:07:00.001-08:00

last teaser for Cyber Fyber
Originally uploaded by arlee

better shots :}

2008-11-19T09:10:00.001-08:00

Almost done

2008-11-18T20:52:00.001-08:00

I need to figure out an edge treatment and then this will be done! I'd like to preserve the rawness and the fraying but am not sure yet how i will do that, and still be able to enclose and hide the back.

Face base

2008-11-11T14:47:00.000-08:00

Not in browns like the original sketch, which means i will have to masculinize somehow the features.

Hand painting on previously dyed cotton.

face series

2008-11-07T21:35:00.000-08:00

The preliminary sketches. "Found" images within paint dabbles on paper, and on paper with paint adhered dryer sheet--lovely texture :}

exploded rorschach pomengranate done

2008-10-29T15:32:00.000-07:00

The first Mutability piece DONE!

I will be replacing these shots with colour corrected ones tomorrow--the light is bad today and for some reason focused on the texture rather than the whole shebang of colour, stitch and wrinkle.

sloooowly getting there----neurons firing!

2008-10-28T17:43:00.001-07:00

Not much left to be done on this one! I'm using a lot of the buttonhole picot stitch and like the way it can twist and be overlaid on the previous bar.

neurons

2008-10-28T17:26:00.000-07:00

neurons
Originally uploaded by arlee

The start of the Neurons piece. Magic marker on purple heavy weight paper.

pomengranate studies from life

2008-10-19T14:26:00.001-07:00

Pomengranate in process

2008-10-14T07:42:00.000-07:00

From sketch to mixed media study. I used 4 layers of rough brown newsprint, painted and markered the pomengranate, added two sections of Chinese newspaper, varathaned it with Diamond Gloss oil base, then started adding hand stitch.

I had to sand down some of the Varathane as it was too glossy. The feel of this paper became raggy again after all the handling, though certain areas retain a certain plasticity because of the varathane. Coating it with this product initially gave it more "hand" so that it could be moved as i stitched without tearing or fragmentation. Most areas did not absorb all the way through, so the layering was preserved and apparent in the cut through areas.

The next stage will be to cut (apart? more holes?) then add machine stitching of some sort to integrate the piece and "finish" the edges.

pomengranate

2008-10-14T07:40:00.001-07:00

pomengranate
Originally uploaded by arlee

Rorschach Exploded Pomengranate!
Coloured pencil, oil pastel, dye, metallic and regular marker on newsprint. Finding the image that is there.

Coming soon

2008-10-12T11:51:00.000-07:00

Neurons, pomengranates, synapses, magnolia pods and more. From sketch to stitch.