Old Tights into a Sculpture

By the end of winter this year I had a lot of well worn, ratty looking tights. My desire to recycle these well loved clothing items into an art project yielded the above sculpture. I would love to do this on a really large scale- cover the walls and ceiling of a room, for example.

Sculpture: Fabric and Light

This piece, titled Weave, is about 4' wide by 5'. It is a simple weave of strips of fabric of varying textures and patterns such as black lace, yellow block printed cotton, floral upholstery fabric, and magenta netting. All fabric is from a box of scraps and left overs I have accumulated over a semester of sewing projects. I am particularly fond of the tension created by the sterile blue of the LED lights and the warm domesticity of the fabrics I chose.


Nan is meant to hang from the ceiling so that the bottom of the piece hangs at about knee height. When installed properly (and not the hallway of my house in Providence) is becomes figurative- it is about the size of a large person and feels almost like a ghost floating in the room. I have incorporated cut out appliques, spray paint stencils, acrylic painting, and various sewing techniques to achieve a highly decorative effect. I was particularly careful to think about how light from within the sculpture affects the installation space. Both the amoeba-shaped light pattern on the floor and the leaf-shaped light patches shining through the black lace cut outs are essential elements of the sculpture. The slight draft created by a person walking past the sculpture is also an important element in that it changes the form of the light reflections on the floor and the walls.

Scrap Quilt

This is one of two quilts I created from recycled clothes. All the patches in the center are from cut up skirts or blouses. There are several swatches I got from Liberty when I was in London. This shot shows the quilt in the grass at my favorite farm back home- Tulmeadow. The natural 7pm summer light gave me the best picture I have gotten yet.

Paintings

These are some of the paintings I did for my painting class last fall. As the semester progressed I moved on to more sculptural projects, so these paintings represent the first half of the fall semester. I still have a lot to learn about photographing my artwork and the colors are really all wrong, even after some doctoring in Photoshop. But it is at least a sense of what I was painting. Love the Providence architecture!

Architecture Prints

One of my strongest sources of inspiration in Providence was the architecture. There are so many beautiful old houses with interesting architectural detailing and fantastic paint colors all over the little New England city. I loved walking the streets and taking in the shingles, door knockers, windows, door frames, lighting fixtures, and wrought iron gates that made the houses so extraordinary.

The following series of prints are all inspired by the houses on the East Side of Providence. After taking a roll or two of pictures and making sketches of my favorite homes, I went into the studio and cut designs into several dozen small (8 X 8 inches) linoleum blocks. The focus of my lino block designs was architectural embellishment; I drew from the textures, patterns, and shapes of the decorative pieces adorning these charming East Side houses.

Once the designing and cutting was done, I inked each block with a lighter color and printed a small series for every block. I then returned to the lino blocks to subtract more material before inking again and printing the second color on top of the first. Thus I have two colors per print.

Below you will see an example of each print. The images that appear here have been cropped, but when printed on paper they have an inch of white border all around them. Approximate size of each print is 8 X 8 inches.

Painted Furniture

Floral Desk- with recycled house paint colors

Bar Stool Inspired by Indian Patterns


Trunk Inspired by Indian Patterns


Tea Shelf




I still love painting furniture, although I would say the peak of my passion for this craft happened at around age 17. I look for old shelves, chairs, or tables in stores such as Salvation Army which often sell very cheap wooden pieces begging to be refinished. The bar stool and trunk are painted with simple house paint and some acrylic paint (for smaller detail areas) and covered over with polyurethane. The Tea Shelf is painted with house paint, and then decoupaged with decorative wrapping paper.

Photographs

Morocco: A Tagine


Morocco: Laden Bike


Charleston: King Street


Richmond: Last Call


19th Street: And I Don't Feel Bad About It


Chinatown: Wish Me Luck, Pigeons


Strokestown: Cow Flowers


Scotland: Tea Towel Van


Charleston: Librarian


San Francisco: Peeling Paint


Providence: The Light and The Colors


Providence: The Bridge

Tote Bags

This is a bag I made for my best friend Colleen (show modeling it in Charleston, SC). I have known Colleen since we were dramatic 13 year old girls. She is a constant inspiration to me. Though we have very different styles and fashion aesthetics, we always seem to work well off of one another. I created this bag for her last summer while she was living with me in Providence. It is something I might not wear myself, but it is very Colleen, and I love it.


I made this bag for my friend Reem this May. The black and white fabric is upholstery weight, with a black cotton lining with a subtle floral print (not shown). I like the strange little lace trim. Its an embellishment I am happy with.

Bags

These bags are intended to be multi purpose. They could serve as cosmetics bags for traveling, or maybe as a pouch to hold wallet/phone/keys in an oversized shoulder bag. I produced about 10 bags in this series.
Each bag is quilted on both sides, which holds the outer fabric, quilted inner layer, and lining together. I used a free form quilting method- drawing various organic patterns with the sewing machine. No quilting pattern is repeated, although I made an effort to have both sides of one bag relate to eachother in line and form.