Columns

It must have been the Temple of Hera and the massive columns enclosing her domain that inspired these last pieces for VECTOR to be installed tomorrow…
A banner of silk organza falling loosely around a column of watercolor paper 50 in. tall. To be hung on the wall with tiny binder clip.

Another larger paper column draped with silk. This one still has some loose ends in the design sphere–how will the silk be draped, how will it be attached to the column? And, will the column stand on the floor? Here is a closeup of the layered pattern, dragon-y:

Temple of Hera

Might sound silly to say that I find what comes through this photo of the ruins of the Temple of Hera to be awesome–and I mean the terrifying aspect of awesome. Is it the massive stone binding the space? Indra Kagis McEwen: "The emphasis was on the unbound, the animated state: the chains that bound the cult statue [xoana] harnessed a fearful, excessive, super-natural life only in order to better disclose its presence." Shivers.
[Socrates' Ancestor: An Essay on Architectural Beginnings, pp. 5-6; photo Serge Moulinier in Tzonis & Giannisi's Classical Greek Architecture: the Construction of the Modern, p. 187]

Polyphony

This from Robert Bringhurst: "Polyphony, in short, is singing more than one song, playing more than one tune, telling more than one story, at once. It is music that insists on multiplicity – instead of uniformity on the one side or chaos on the other." [Everywhere Being Is Dancing]
With this as an introduction, we tried polyphonic vector practice today–each of us singing our own tune, together. Here are two:

This one, above, done by three of us on a modest size piece of ragged silk chiffon .
This one, below, done by five of us, on a tiny square of muslin.

More silk

Invitation

Deadline approaches

Another layered piece, silk organza over paper, under consideration for the VECTOR show–deadline coming up fast. The show gets hung on the 26th, installation style. Still stitching rolled hems for these long banners. Could play with silk for a long time. Order more? Not sure just yet. Will lay out everything on Tuesday & see where I am.

Close-up

This is a close-up of the zig-zag of a rolled hem. Pull the thread and it will neatly roll over itself. Very satisfying stitch to make, perfect for this house-bound snow day. Borrowed husband's Canon Powershot for the this photo–am impressed by the clarity. It sees way more than I do. If I had the camera's view, I could pick up just one thread as the instructions advise. Figure I have 12' per panel x 5 panels = 60' of rolled hems. Back to it.

Crooked River

A photo of the Cuyahoga River in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Photo courtesy Wikipedia.

NRDC, Natural Resources Defense Council, sent an alert yesterday that Newt Gingrich is launching an attack on the EPA and the Clean Water Act. Had to take action, after all, I'm from Summit County, Ohio; the Cuyahoga River runs through my town, runs through Cuyahoga Falls, the town next door where my mother grew up. You might remember the story of a river catching fire. That was the Cuyahoga, on its way through Cleveland. It was 1969, June 23. That fire actually saved the Cuyahoga's life because a horrified and scandalized citizenry demanded that the environment and the waters of this country be protected: the EPA and the Clean Water Act resulted from the Cuyahoga's misfortune.
Speaker of the House, John Boehner, pal of Newt Gingrich, is from Ohio. I reminded Representative Boehner in an email that Ohio, pre-EPA, was the poster child for water pollution in this country. I'll post his response.

Silk organza–again

Finally set ink to silk organza, 5 pieces, each 6' long. Favorite tool was a small piece of burlap with straggling threads–ravelings in the language of my Ohio childhood. Love that word!

Here's another one. This time the tool is a crumpled potato chip bag. Shake the silk while the ink is wet; splatters the ink, creates fantastic (as in weird) shapes.

The silk in both photos is folded on itself, love the effect and will try to develop a way to show the pieces to take advantage of that transparency. Have thought of using the silk to wrap a white box, use several layers. Might have to order more silk. However, there is still the silk gauze with the tea staining on the ends & middle…