A Wonderful Vintage Find

I often embroider vintage beads and buttons into my paintings, and I was thrilled to come across some incredibly gorgeous antique glass buttons from Germany last week.  The seller (on eBay, one of my best sources for vintage materials from around the world) recently bought out the entire remaining inventory of a defunct button factory that was owned by a Czech German button maker.  The buttons were produced between 1947 and the 1960s; the factory closed in 1969.  All of the buttons are exquisite, but I was particularly excited to find some nine-pointed stars in different colors:

Vintage buttons with nine-pointed stars

I am always on the lookout for nine-pointed brooches, doilies, beaded medallions, buttons, etc. to use in my pieces, because the number nine holds significance for me.  The nine-pointed star is often used as a symbol of completeness and perfection in the Bahá’í Faith because nine is both the highest single digit and the numerical value of the word “Bahá” in Arabic, which means “glory” or “splendor”.  All Bahá’í temples have nine sides for this reason.  Here is an aerial photo of the amazing Bahá’í Lotus Temple in New Delhi, India—I dream of visiting it one day!

Bahá’í Lotus Temple in New Delhi, India

A relatively large beaded painting of mine called “Victorian Collaboration” has a nine-pointed star in the center.  I collaged an antique silk table runner with exquisitely embroidered roses and yellow fringe onto the canvas and painted a green-gold over its cream background in order to harmonize it with the canvas.  I also added silk fabric transfers of photographs of roses and architectural details that I took at the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois—this beautiful spiritual place is a historic Chicago landmark and also the location of my wedding.  “Victorian Collaboration” is special to me because it is the first large-scale beaded painting I created; I spent 180 hours on this 36″ x 48” canvas.  I also love the fact that I was able to rescue and highlight a beautiful piece of Victorian-era needlework; I wish I knew something about its original creator, whom I consider my Victorian “collaborator”!

Victorian Collaboration

Portland Open Studios

Artwork in the studio

I had a wonderful opportunity to invite many art-loving guests into my home over the course of two weekends this October.  For the first time, I applied to be one of the artists featured as a part of Portland Open Studios, which is an annual self-guided tour to visit the studios of nearly 100 artists throughout the Portland metro area.  I was so pleased to be accepted, and my experience definitely resonated with the mission statement of the event, which strives to “offer a unique and inspiring way of experiencing the creative process: interacting with local artists at work within the context of their studios.”

One of my creative new friends!

A busy corner of the studio

While I love having a wonderful home studio space to work in, working as an artist can be a solitary pursuit.  My main purpose in participating in this event was to have an opportunity to meet and connect with other local people who are passionate about art and the creative process.  Over the course of the two weekends, during which I opened my studio from 10-5 on Saturday and Sunday, nearly 200 individuals came into my studio and interacted with my work–I felt so honored and inspired!  It felt deeply meaningful to be able to engage with others about the themes of my work: elevating the status of women, honoring and purposefully bringing together diverse needlework and design motifs of cultures around the world, and creating harmony and beauty out of bits and pieces.

More wonderful friends stopping by

Cards and pillows greeting visitors

Some of my most rewarding interactions were conversations that either inspired others to unleash their own creativity or to find a way to honor heirloom textiles they have in their homes.  Several guests expressed interest in taking classes, so while I have only taught my techniques on a more informal basis up to this point, I am now considering offering some Saturday workshops to help others recycle some of their own family textiles.  A great many visitors told me that they have pieces of vintage lace, doilies, or lovely embroidery languishing in drawers; I was honored when one couple asked if I would create a piece for them in honor of their 30th wedding anniversary, with the possible incorporation of some of their family textiles in it.

“Honoring the Fashioner” on display

I am also excited at the prospect of creating ongoing relationships with other artists and creative souls whom I met during the tour.  There are so many talented individuals living in this area, and I have already received lots of helpful and generous feedback from many of them.  While I was somewhat worn out by the end of the second weekend, I am now recovered enough to be excited by all the followup there is to be done–meeting other artists in their studios, offering classes to interested friends, and creating artwork in response to requests.  I will definitely try to recreate this worthwhile experience in the future, and I would encourage others to take advantage of the wonderful opportunity to experience creativity that Portland Open Studios offers to our community every October!

Friends in Taiwan

A couple of weeks ago, I was happy to receive an email from friends who recently moved back to Taiwan after living in Portland for a year.  Roger and Lily brought their daughters Vickie and Angela to live here while Roger received specialized training in eye surgery at OHSU from a mutual friend, and we were fortunate to get to know them during that period.  We had several opportunities to talk about the importance of bringing beauty and spirit into the world through the arts, and they gave me very insightful feedback about my work.  As a mark of their friendship and support, they asked me if they could purchase a painting of mine that had caught their eye, and of course I was honored at the idea of my work going to live with them in Taiwan!  Here is their family standing with the piece before we packaged it up to go on the plane:

Our good friends the Bee Family.

Here is a detail of the piece, which consists of a delicate vintage Chinese silk painting mounted onto a canvas and embellished with stencilling and collaged fabrics.  It was such a charming little painting that I was moved to rescue it from the old, spotted silk that it was mounted on and honor it by creating a painted background that would complement and frame it for the viewer.

Detail

In Roger’s email, he told us that they chose to put it in the middle hallway of the home so they could see it from anywhere.  I am truly honored to have my painting “living” in the home of such lovely people, and it is very exciting to have a piece of mine in a collection 6000 miles away!

A new home in Taiwan!

Road Trip Reflections

My family and I returned a few weeks ago from an amazing 26-day road trip from Portland, OR to Chicago!  We hit six different national parks along the way–Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in Moab, Utah; Wind Cave and Badlands National Parks in South Dakota; and portions of Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, primarily in Montana.

Silhouettes of my family and other tourists at Arches National Park.

We also had the opportunity to see other inspiring sites along the way–Mt. Rushmore was definitely a highlight, and I personally found visits to the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, IL, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO and the Art Institute of Chicago very meaningful.  I took many hundreds of photographs of both the exquisite natural beauty in the parks and some of my favorite architectural details and paintings as I visited these historic places, and I thought I would share a few of my favorites here.

Detail of the exquisite, lacy architecture of the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois.

The overall artistic theme I was struck by on this trip is the power of light, particularly in the case of extreme contrasts between light and dark.  The most powerful example of this was in Wind Cave National Park, which is an amazing place that I had never heard of prior to this trip.  American Indians of the area have known about the opening to Wind Cave and the winds that move in and out of it for centuries, and it is a sacred place for many tribes, as it seems to be breathing, like a Great Spirit.  I was blown away by a rare cave formation called “boxwork”; the dry conditions in the cave allow this unusual, extremely complex and delicate formation to survive.

Example of boxwork

I was also thrilled by the eerie underground “landscapes” that were created by shadows thrown by the cave’s sophisticated lighting system, which was modernized a few years ago.  I was not the only tourist compulsively snapping pictures, as every twist and turn brought an incredible new visual experience.

Wind Cave National Park

I can only imagine navigating that cave aided only by a candle in a bucket, as the first explorers did; at one point, our guide turned off all the lights so that we could experience total darkness–a rare experience!  The many intrepid souls who created this national treasure–the Wind Cave area has been protected since 1903, when it became our eighth national park–left an exciting work of art to future generations.  The art lesson I took from the caves was the incredible power of a light source to both reveal hidden treasures and to create drama.

Illuminated area of the cave

More striking cave formations

We spent a couple of nights in Kansas City along the way, and I enjoyed a wonderful afternoon at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art there.  There was a great exhibit of contemporary Mexican Art that included several masterpieces by Frieda Kahlo and Diego Rivera, and there was also this interesting piece by contemporary Mexican artist Betsabeé Romero, who carves intricate designs in used tires and then rolls them in fine sand to create ephemeral works of art.

Betsabeé Romero

She believes that “the car is, by far, the object that attracts the greatest aesthetic attention among people of all ages and social classes”–an interesting thought!

Intricate tire designs

Here is a detail of a gorgeous, large painting at the same museum: it was intended to be the right-hand segment of a set of three in one of Monet’s “Water Lilies” tryptychs. I love the abstractness of these late pieces of his; because of their unusual scale, elimination of any spatial context and increasingly bold brushwork, they have sometimes been described as precursors of Abstract Expressionism.  The use of color is absolutely masterful!

Monet detail

Another highlight of this summer’s trip was visiting the Art Institute of Chicago, where I had the pleasure of earning my BFA in 1998.  I was reminded of a formative and hugely popular Monet Exhibit that I saw as a student there in 1995 when I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a special exhibit on Impressionism and Fashion.

My old home!

There were exquisite displays of Impressionist masterpieces from many different museums, juxtaposed with antique dresses and accessories identical to those worn by models in the paintings.  I couldn’t take photos inside, unlike in the rest of the museum, but I did buy the marvelous exhibition catalogue, and I also took pictures of many pieces in the museum’s permanent collection.  Here are a few of my favorites, which really highlight how the Impressionist movement was about a whole new way of seeing, of expressing solid objects as energy and light.

Detail of Van Gogh’s “Grapes, Lemons, Pears and Apples,” 1887

Detail of Van Gogh’s “Fishing in Spring, the Pont de Clichy (Asnières),” 1887

In 1884, Monet stayed for nearly three months in Bordighera, a town on the Italian Riviera close to the border of Italy and France.  In a letter to sculptor Auguste Rodin describing his efforts to translate into paint the brilliant Mediterranean light, Monet declared he was “fencing, wrestling, with the sun.”

Detail of Monet’s “Bordighera,” 1884

I’ll end this post with a few of my favorite architectural details from the Art Institute’s collection–I was always inspired by the wonderful ornamentation in the Chicago Stock Exchange room, and I remember sketching these elevator grilles  as a student.

By Adler and Sullivan, from the Chicago Stock Exchange, 1893-94

I love this “Elevator Enclosure Grille from the Rookery Building, 1907” by Frank Lloyd Wright.

People rode in some fancy elevators back in the day!

One last ornate elevator grille, from the Manhattan Building, 1889-91, by Jenney and Mundie

Monoprints

I just finished another session of classes with the wonderful Portland-area artist Marcy Baker.  I’ve loved exploring a new medium, and I’ve found that I really enjoy the process of creating monoprints.

      

With my beaded canvases, I will often go through many layers and choices of colors at different stages, sometimes making radical changes even after many hours of work have already been invested in the piece.   With monoprints, all the preparation has to be done ahead of time–preparing stencils, choosing ink combinations, etc.–and then the work is printed in one step.  As you can see from the two pieces above, you can re-use a stencil that you like (in this case, changing from a horizontal to a vertical orientation) but change colors and use other patterns/stencils to create a different effect or feeling.

      

Taking a class in a new medium not only provides an opportunity to learn and to try to apply your artistic sensibilities in a new way, but it also provides the chance to meet other talented artists from the area and to build a sense of community.  I know many artists can feel a sense of isolation after spending so many hours alone in the studio.  These classes have been a great way to connect with lots of other talented and interesting people.

      

An Amazing Woman

About a month ago, I discovered an amazing book about an amazing woman.

Awakening Creativity: Dandelion School Blossoms is about the wonderful Chinese artist Lily Yeh, who has spent many years working with struggling children in inner-city Philadelphia, Rwanda, and China.  Lily shows others how to use the arts to heal their own hearts and their communities as she works with them to beautify their environments.

The artist and social activist Lily Yeh

Here is what the book is about in a nutshell:

“Internationally beloved artist and social pioneer, Lily Yeh, engages middle-school students, their teachers, and local elders in converting a barren factory space in Beijing, China, into the Dandelion School’s colorful, mosaic-covered youthscape.”

I was immediately grabbed by the extremely well-written foreword by Robert Shetterly, who summed up a service-oriented approach to creating art that resonates deeply with me: “Lily Yeh has rejected the model of artist vying with artist for gallery space and recognition.  Instead she uses her talents to elicit art from distressed, depressed, and broken people in order to re-build community.  Her art is for communal self-esteem and hope, for affirmation of the spirit rather than for commodity.  It’s art born from a democratic and grassroots aesthetic and consciousness, the place where all real healing and change must begin.  Accountable art.”

I was moved to tears as I read about Lily’s work in a village of survivors of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.  Robert Shetterly described it like this: “It’s one thing to decry injustice, to expose trauma, to write a report that tells a true history.  It’s another to witness a small Chinese-American woman, with an iron will, a bag of paint brushes, profound compassion, and unshakable belief that damaged people can heal themselves with their own art, come into a terribly depressed situation and begin to fix it–beginning with the irrepressible spirit of orphaned children.  The children, in a sense, give re-birth to the adults, to adult hope and adult responsibility.  After the art comes co-operative work, the will to heal, the will to start over.”

An incredible and inspiring book

I know that I will revisit this book again and again for inspiration–I was so amazed by Lily’s ability to inspire so many people to work together in harmony, gradually transforming a cold, sterile environment into a warm and welcoming one.  The students helped create exquisite mosaics all over the school, and they also were inspired to paint and to write poetry.  I love the Dandelion School’s “Declaration of Creativity,” too:

Every location is a place for creativity.

Every day is a time for creativity.

Every human being is a person capable of creativity.

Let us strive head-on,

Even with two steps forward and one step backward.

While reading this wonderful book, I was reminded of a beautiful quote from the Bahá’í Faith about the purpose of art:

“Art, crafts and sciences uplift the world of being, and are conducive to its exaltation.  Knowledge is as wings to man’s life, and a ladder for his ascent.  Its acquisition is incumbent upon everyone.  The knowledge of such sciences, however, should be acquired as can profit the peoples of the earth, and not those which begin with words and end with words…”–Bahá’u’lláh

Far from seeking her own personal glory, or creating art that is simply meant to get attention or garner fame, Lily strives to create beauty in the world and to uplift souls.  From the end of the book’s foreword:  “William Sloane Coffin said, ‘The highest form of spirituality is justice.’ Lily’s art is in the pursuit of justice, and it raises everyone’s spirit.  Her art insists on accountability–the artist to the community and then the community to itself.”

If you are interested in learning more about Lily Yeh’s work and art, you can visit barefootartists.org.

A Fun Challenge

Recently, I gave myself a fun creative challenge, in response to a special exhibition opportunity at the Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts this coming June. The Artist’s Vision Juried Show has a special twist in honor of the 50th anniversary of the festival this year: all works must be on 24”x 24” wood panels, and the name of the show is “50 Squared.”

Homage to Needlework: Trompe l’oeil #1
Dimensions: 24″ x 24″

Each artist could submit up to three pieces to the juried exhibit, so I decided to make a series of three paintings that would combine elements of some of my favorite textiles from different cultures. Normally, I work with acrylic paint and beads on canvas, stitching beads and fabrics onto my collaged pieces in order to pay homage to the laborious stitching of anonymous women of the past. Because of this special exhibit’s parameter of working on rigid wood panels, I couldn’t sew fabrics and beads onto my pieces, and I struggled to find a way to “collaborate” with these women by adding my own stitching.

I began by painting collages of intricate traditional textile designs onto the wooden panels with acrylic paint, and I enhanced my designs with a few repurposed pieces of vintage textiles. At some point in the process it hit me that I could paint tiny “stitches” in the backgrounds of my designs, so I did–thousands of them! I’m excited by the way in which the three pieces blur fabric and paint; even closeup, it’s not easy to tell what is painted and what is a recycled piece of stitched fabric. For this reason, I am calling them my “trompe l’oeil” series.

“Homage to Needlework: Trompe l’oeil #1” was inspired by the central medallion from an embroidered suzani from Uzbekistan. I love suzanis, which are embroidered tribal textiles traditionally made by central Asian brides for their weddings; they have a celebratory, energetic feel with their suns and vine motifs. I also drew on an antique Hawaiian quilt design, which radiates into the four corners and is enhanced with embroidered flowers from a vintage table runner. Lastly, I cut a vintage handkerchief with a border of hand-crocheted lace into four pieces and adhered it onto the canvas, painting the background a different color. The piece was harmonized and energized with the addition of hundreds of small painted “stitches.” This one may be my favorite; I love the complex color palette and the vibrating presence of the pale blue stitches on the deep forest green background.

Homage to Needlework: Trompe l’oeil #2
Dimensions: 24″ x 24″

“Homage to Needlework: Trompe l’oeil #2” also pays homage to suzanis (“suzan” is the Persian word for needle) by featuring four “sun” motifs around a central painted medallion that was inspired by an antique Persian Kashmir shawl. I cut out four cross-stitched floral motifs from a vintage tablecloth that I found at a recent antique fair to enhance the centers of the painted suns, and I recycled cross-stitched rose motifs from a Victorian Dutch embroidered pillow cover for the four corners, painting them to harmonize with the background. The hardest part of the piece was painting the four pale pink doily motifs on each side of the painting; I had to use a very tiny brush.  Even from a short distance it’s hard to tell that they aren’t actually real doilies. This piece also required the most tiny painted stitches for its background, and by the end my hand was very cramped!

Homage to Needlework: Trompe l’oeil #3
Dimensions: 24″ x 24″

“Homage to Needlework: Trompe l’oeil #3” features a piece of beautiful lace that my mother-in-law brought me from Belgium for its central medallion. I cut out small pieces from it in order to paint a fern design in each of the six golden petals. The design is an African Adinkra symbol that stands for endurance and resourcefulness; I love both the interesting pattern and the meaning, which I feel is relevant to much of “woman’s work.” I also rescued four gorgeous embroidered silk flowers from a very old textile remnant; I adhered them onto the panel on the diagonal to lend a radiating energy to the piece. The “lace” butterflies in the corners are actually painted copies of a motif from an antique lace pillow cover that I purchased on eBay. Once again, there is an intricate painted suzani pattern, which I adapted from a Turkish pillow and embellished with gold and many luminous washes of paint. This piece is the one that inspired me to incorporate the background “stitching;” once I saw what an interesting dimension it added, I used the technique in the other two, as well.

Each piece ended up taking over 60 hours to execute–more than I had estimated–so the three paintings together took up the vast majority of my studio time for 2 1/2 months. I had hoped that one of the pieces would be accepted, so I was thrilled to learn yesterday that all three of them were juried into the exhibit! If you are in the Lake Oswego area, mark the weekend of June 21-23 on your calendar and come enjoy the festival–it’s always a fun and inspiring event!

Renewal Springs From Woman

Renewal Springs From Woman
Dimensions: 48″ x 48″

A new year, a new artistic endeavor… a blog! I’m hoping this space serves not only as an opportunity for me to keep a record of my pieces and the spirit and thought behind them, but also as a place for me to share information about other artists and projects that inspire me.

I thought I would begin by sharing some thoughts about the most ambitious beaded painting I have created so far; it is called “Renewal Springs from Woman,” and it took me almost 350 hours to complete!

My goal with “Renewal Springs From Woman” was to create an abundant and light-filled piece that empowers and honors the life-giving female spirit. In making it, I also sought to challenge the false dichotomy between “art” and “craft” that exists in the modern art world. The laborious beadwork echoes the Victorian sentiment that the painstaking, delicate and refined nature of embroidery and the decorative arts make them suitably “feminine,” but by placing embroidery within the context of a large-scale painting on a canvas, I hope to help it escape the restraints once laid upon female artists in the name of modesty and womanliness. While the creative abilities of previous generations of women were often unsung, their access to the art world mostly limited to making “decorative” arts for the home, my goal is validate and collaborate with them by recycling their lovingly made doilies and lace into paintings, where their “women’s work” can be newly appreciated for its unique beauty.

Top center detail

A friend had given me some exquisite floral lace, which I carefully cut into four pieces and painted a pale yellow before adhering it onto the canvas, and I used a vintage handkerchief with a delicate butterfly design for the center. It was important to me to use fabrics passed down to me by my maternal grandmother, since this piece honors the creativity of generations of women. Pieces of her handmade draperies became four large butterflies, which symbolize women in each corner of the world. From all directions, they are giving birth to pure souls, who begin their lives in the world of nature and ultimately travel throughout heavenly realms.

Corner detail

Nature is symbolized by each corner’s beaded butterflies and abundant ferns, which I collected on a hike near my home and used to make a detailed, symmetrical drawing. This was then painstakingly transferred onto the canvas and painted with several transparent layers of paint to create a luminous effect. The pearls in the center of the canvas surround a Persian carpet motif symbolizing woman, which in turn encompasses a carved mandala from India that features a tiny nine-pointed star. I also used carved flower and butterfly beads from China and Costa Rica, Victorian-era metal buttons, and vintage European earrings and beads to create this intricate beaded painting. The strong diamond-within-a-square composition is reminiscent of the bold Amish quilts that I have long been inspired by, but the elaborate flora and fauna echo the aesthetic of Persian carpets; therefore, the overall effect is a cross between art forms of East and West. In this painting, as in all of my recent work, I am striving to bring together artifacts from many cultures as I create harmonious, balanced pieces that draw equally on the traditions of painting and embroidery.