To This Point

Noro Yarn and Jared Flood  is where it began. I have worked with Noro for
years and love to use it because it is never boring in that I am fascinated
with the little dots of color and how they are manipulated in the dyeing and
spinning process. I took some classes with Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton at
the Purl Jam Retreat put on by Mosaic Yarn Shop in Blacksburg Virginia
A few years ago and she has a book on Noro yarn with her patterns.
I took her classes because of Noro.
All the while I was thinking of painting.
I have been a painter for most of my life. I paint on anything that is not tied
down. Porcelain was my main medium for years. I painted small hearts using under-glazes of
my interpretation of masterpieces with the figures
 as rabbits. You might have
seen these in Galleries around the country and in Museum Shops
I did sculptural boxes, as well..
But, when my father passed away something inside of me died.
I began working with fibers.

But, earlier in my life when Kaffe Fassett came out with his first book I found a great interest.
 My best friend Sara taught me how to knit right then and I knitted a huge
triangular shawl from that book. I would tinker with this now and then
but it took many years for it to really take.
All the while, I still worked with painting, porcelain, origami, graphic design,
I studied with Christopher Pane, illustration, back when I was taking classes for
a degree.
I took a summer session at a university on paper making and later I spent
a few summer sessions at Arrowmont where I met Nancy Crow and Yosika Wada.
These influenced my thinking about art and craft.
I stopped showing my work about 15 years ago.
I am now on my way out of my shell.
Sometimes I feel a kindred spirit with Georgia O'Keefe in that I live in a remote
area because I love nature and I need peace to work.
I teach children art/craft that might not have this experience otherwise.
I digressed a little here from my intention.
How I got here.
I continued with  my fascination with color, all the while.
I wanted to do what I do now but I just didn't know what THAT was.
One day, I thought about painting with thread, so I tried it. I found a book, "Freestyle
Machine Embroidery" by Carol Shinn
I got out my new Pfaff machine and started painting with thread. I quickly broke
that machine and found another that works great and is tougher with heavy use.
I enjoy changing colors and layering and layering until I get what I feel.
I showed some work in Charlotte North Carolina a few years ago but that gallery closed.
I have had a computer since the early 1980's. For me it is just a tool.
I taught myself how to use it and it is so easy to do things now. I design using Corel Draw
and Painter.
Now, because of this blog, I am trying to teach myself how to use a digital camera.
Bear with me, on this, I want to take great photographs of my work and my life but I am
very busy painting with thread.
This article is in response to a fellow blogger who tossed the idea of us sharing
HOW WE GOT HERE.

Sometimes I would use a different yarn and do a different design that I
would invent but it was always stripes of one kind
 or another and always about color
the hours  morphed into days and weeks and months all the while
I found I was always thinking about painting. 

I thought about this all the time while I painted

I thought about the push pull affect how color changes color. I considered
background and foreground. I thought about paintings I have seen and
how size and space and light affect a painting. I remembered visiting
The Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas.
I thought about the Van Gogh museum I visited in Amsterdam.
I thought about all of the Vermeer paintings I have seen in my travels
I questioned myself
I wanted to know what IT is to me.

This format is very difficult in that I can not make things move around like I want.
I have spent a lot of time trying to get this right, but at this point, I want to
go and paint with some thread. I will let this stand as it is.