The complex surface pattern of this piece was composed using sequences of random integers. The structure and order of the blocks is interrupted by a simple zig-zag weft kasuri pattern dyed with indigo.
Noise 1204 is the first in an ongoing series of weaving exploring the application of random integers produced by atmospheric noise.
For more about this work and other images of work in progress visit my studio blog.
I am currently weaving a large cloth panel in silk and hemp. The weft threads have been dyed with indigo in a gradation from light to dark and are woven in a taquete structure.
The blocks you see on the surface of the cloth are determined by a sequences of random integers applied during both the threading and tie up. The kasuri pattern in the threads (determined by the width of my hand + the width of my index finger) disrupts the block pattern overlaying its own subtle zig-zag across the width of the panel.
In this work I am exploring the idea that cloth may act as a kind of archive or document. Still trying to find the words around this concept, but feel that the information that is held within the threads is not specific or referential. Instead meaning is applied during a perceptual process in which someone may apprehend pattern or perceive wholeness based on our shared and intimate knowledge of cloth.
For more of this work and other images from my studio visit Mackenzie Frère Studio or www.mackenziefrere.com
I remember one of my teachers telling me that Fibre was the easiest and most low-tech of studios to set up ourselves when we were done school and needed a space to work. I have found this to be true.
My workspace varies with each project I take on. I have a felting table under a covered deck that accommodates most of my felting needs (Yes, I do felt out there even in the winter! The only thing that stops me is when the water on the wool is actually freezing as I am working)
I enjoy the natural light, fresh air and the sounds of a nearby creek and bird sanctuary as I work. If I need more space to felt a larger piece, I can use the deck floor to lay out my work or the living room floor at my mom’s house is very spacious and she lets me rearrange her furniture as needed. I usually sew in my spare bedroom, but have recently moved to my living room where I can work by a large window to enjoy sunshine and Spring unfolding.
My lovely husband is very understanding and fibre friendly, carefully stepping over and around pins, scissors, mannequins and felt scraps that sometimes take over the entire living room area-what a keeper! I always mix my own custom colours so I have a two burner hot plate that I keep outside on the deck for my dye pots. Lately
I have been working more with natural colours of wool and silk, like the beautiful grey wool and silk /yak hair combination I am laying out in the photo. I have been felting and drafting for 12 years and I am graduating from ACAD this Spring. I live and work in Nelson, BC.
Contact Seathra Bell (please use “artclothtext” in the subject line)
Kristofer Kelly working at home
Have you been enjoying Studio Practice? Have something to share from your studio? Please consider submitting your images and text today. Images of work in progress and process shots are encouraged. Please include some text describing your practice and/or your current project. Send all materials to info@mackenziefrere.com
I look forward to hearing from you!
Parallax is a series of small hand woven baskets, made from a metal frame and wool yarn. These are twined loosely, and placed in a salt solution. The way the salt grows cannot be controlled. I could add other substances such as dyes or other matter, changing the structure of the crystal, but it will grow on the surface in different ways.
The salt grows in crystalline forms on the wool, creating geometric structures across the mouth, or around the sides. The salt means that one cannot lift the basket without harming themselves, or the basket, and that one cannot place anything inside it either. This is a metaphor for illness, especially cancers, which originates as a natural process of the body. It is cell growth gone out of our control. These cells can damage nearby tissue, and spread throughout the body. The baskets represent the body and its functions. The salt represents a process which, on its own, is useful and necessary but unchecked can harm, impair or otherwise be a detriment.
Parallax is an intensely personal exploration of illness for me. It looks at something I have had to watch from the outside and allows me to analyze my emotional reaction from a step removed. I use it as a way of learning about and come to terms with my emotions.
Visit Tracy Sutherland’s blog.
Want to share something from your studio? Your colleagues want to hear from you! Images of work in progress, tools and process are encouraged. Email your images, text and links to info@mackenziefrere.com.
Karen Thiessem | Ohne Titel 1 | paper, acrylic, thread, nails, & textiles on board | 12 units, installed 53 cm x 71.5 cm x 2 cm
The collage series marks a significant shift in my artistic practice. Since 2005 I have been introducing new materials, techniques, and formats into my work.
Karen Thiessem | Ohne Titel 1 (detail)
Paper, pixels, and acrylics have been rubbing shoulders with textiles, needles, and thread and the results are a textile and collage hybrid, often in a modular format.
Karen Thiessen | Ohne Titel 2 | paper, acrylic, textiles, thread, & ceramics (by Tara Lynne Franco) on board | nine units, installed 50 cm x 50 cm x 3 cm
Karen Thiessen | Ohne Titel 2 (detail)
See more of Karen’s work on her website, or her blog “Day In Day Out”
All images by Jim Thiessen
Want to share something from your studio? Your colleagues want to hear from you! Images of work in progress, tools and process are encouraged. Email your images, text and links to info@mackenziefrere.com.
Louisa Jensen sketching with Aberdeen
Recently my husband James and I started a new venture – Rabbet. The goal is to create fun, affordable artworks for the home.
Most of the pieces start with sketching and painting. My studio has a large table where I do a lot of my collage and painting. More importantly, it has a door, in order to keep everything away from the little hands of my 5 year old daughter, Kaili. If I’m just sketching I tend to move around the house, with the sun (along with our cat Aberdeen). Generally I draw with no end product in mind.
I prefer to work in a style that is childish, naive, playful and fun. Although, I feel these pieces can be appreciated by adults as well as children.
After we’re happy with the drawings, they are often scanned into the computer, and colour is added, changes are made. Some of the artwork is done entirely on the computer. The final product is printed & mounted on to plexiglass, then cut to a custom shape at a local printing shop. We then polish the piece and add the mounting hardware by hand.
To view more work by Rabbet visit www.rabbet.ca
Want to share something from your studio? Your colleagues want to hear from you! Images of work in progress, tools and process are encouraged. Email your images, text and links to info@mackenziefrere.com.
I am not sure if I want to admit that as a 45-year-old artist I do not currently have a full-fledged studio. I live between the States, Eastern Europe, and a farmhouse undergoing restoration in Italy, and consequently my environmental fiber projects are delicately stretched between all three locales.
I am also a mother of three year old twin boys who I care for full-time, and given that they are very much a part of my daily creative practice, the studio realm for now is more about being inclusive rather than exclusive with one’s definitions of time and space.
A few years ago I decided that I might be more effective as an environmental fiber artist if I let go of the idea of working in a designated studio day in and day out, and instead set up an annual calendar of site-specific projects and residencies that allowed me to work in, on, and with the land. As part of this new strategy I also began working more with fiber, as it is a material that allows me flexibility in transport, installation, and playful nomadic investigations. I also love that there are many sustainable design components to using fiber, vegetation, and recycled finds unearthed at a project’s site.
All of my environmental installation projects are temporary, so I also need to be able to work lightly and adaptively at a designated locale. This is specifically true when I am in Eastern Europe, where my home is open to non-stop interactions with my family and community. It is also a common practice in homes here in Bulgaria to have rooms that are multi-purpose, that is, a dining room, living room, or personal study easily and efficiently transform into a bedroom for several people come nightfall.
There may soon come a day when I might cloister myself inside the snug sanctuary of a studio once again for the benefits of uninterrupted blocks of work, but for now the ecology of home and my natural environs provide a dialogue that is full of texture and organic happenings that have expanded my previous ideas about solitude, the ability to focus, and overall artistic productivity.
View more of Abigail Doan’s work HERE or visit her blog HERE
Want to share something from your studio? Your colleagues want to hear from you! Images of work in progress, tools and process are encouraged. Email your images, text and links to info@mackenziefrere.com.
Heather Huston | The Future in Retrospect (detail)
“I have traditionally made two-dimensional (or shallowly dimensional) works using a variety of printmaking methods but have recently become interested in how 2-D imagery can interfere with dimensional space. This interest led to the creation of a body of work that I spent the summer of 2010 constructing and yelling at.
Third house in progress
The entire process was fraught with peril, not the least of which was the need for power tools to cut and shape the wood and trim. I also taught myself to solder with the help of YouTube videos. After being lulled by experts explaining the process, I excitedly unpacked my new soldering iron, plugged it in, and proceeded to corrode it beyond usability in about twenty minutes.
Two houses in progress
But, after much painting, sanding, patching, cutting, measuring soldering, printing and one studio move I have four miniature houses in a variety of states of completion (from finished, to partially assembled).
Moving part detail
This body of work was a way for me to push my art into new areas and challenge myself in a way that I often encourage my students to do by exploring processes and imagery that are outside of what’s comfortable and familiar. Though these are by no means pushing any boundaries when it comes to electronic or kinetic art, they did push my work and myself into new areas and new possibilities for conceptual exploration.” – Heather Huston
Heather Huston | The Future in Retrospect
Visit Heather Huston’s BLOG
Want to share something from your studio? Email your images, text and links to info@mackenziefrere.com