Let's get moving

I have decided to start a blog to track my journey as a fiber artist.  I hand-dye, weave, sew, spin (slightly), embroider, knit, crochet, needle felt, and also paint, sculpt and try just about every kind of craft that comes along in one form or another.  My path was set early by my mother, a truly terrific cross-stitcher and embroiderer, and also my grandmother who taught me to crochet as a child.  My mom also saw to it that I started art lessons as a youngster at the local art museum.  So she was my first role model as an artist, though she might be surprised to hear me say it.  My theme is color - its movement through fiber of all types, paintings too, and how it moves me.

The beginning of the current leg of my journey was a trip I took last year - parts of the trip took us to Highlands NC and to Washington, DC.  In Highlands, I went to the wonderful Bascom Museum, where they had a show about Helen Frankenthaler and the Color Field Painters.  The show invaded and possessed me, and I left with the germ of intention to learn to hand-dye fabric in a painterly way, that I would make into clothes so that I could wear paintings.  So that is where I am today.  From Highlands we went to Washington, DC, or as I like to think of it, Museum City.  I was very influenced by the Mary McFadden show at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and by lots of other pieces I saw in the National Gallery, etc.  

OF course after the trip I immediately had the huge detour of learning to weave, and working for months to earn the money for my new loom, (a Schacht 8-harness Baby Wolf) and I know that the weaving will be a permanent part of my life, but right now the hot months are upon me, and it is time to take advantage of the heat for dyeing.  Done.

So I am spending my days dyeing on the porch on my little plastic-sheet covered card table.  I am looking for a more expansive situation where I can spread out to dye larger yardage... the game is afoot.  But right now I am trying different things, different materials, and different styles.  I am at the BEGINNING.  In the fullest sense of the word, I have barely begun, but I do have several new hand-dyed shirts.  And the plans for oh so many more.  My plan is basically to make myself an entire new wardrobe over time, so that I can wear things that express me as a woman and as an artist.  So many other artists inspire and teach me through their blogs, that I thought I should give back as well.  There.  My mission is out there for all to see.  Done and Done.