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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| I thought about this all the time while I painted |
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| 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. |
