The Expressive Stitch

I returned home 2 weeks ago from Quilting by the Lake where I took a course with artist Dorothy Caldwell. The workshop was entitled The Expressive Stitch and was focused on the use of kantha embroidery as used in India.


Dorothy shared her passion for this form of stitching and brought large pieces the size of bed coverings which showed how this type of stitching is used to make what I call "story quilts." I don't think Dorothy used that term but the pieces do tell the stories of the events of day to day life as well as important events in the villages where these women live. Unfortunately, the photos I shot during this class are of such poor quality that I am not going to post but a few. My description of these works is that there are designated women who do the planning and drawing of the work and then the stitching is shared among the group. They take sections of the pieces home and work on them and then assemble the entire work when completed. They are both simple and complex and very charming despite some very serious cultural depictions such as bride burning, widow burning etc.


We were given the assignment of creating a group of 4 images that related to one another using something that was very topical in our lives (forgive me Dorothy...at this point that is my memory of the assignment) I choose to start with a funny little man who sat next to me on my flight to the workshop. He was too big for the seat and smelled bad. I then did his "girlfriend", his dog and his snake.




Stinky, Marcella, Little Pup and Curley Q


In all honesty, I am not sure why we spent so much time on these pieces but something interesting did happen. I am not a writer, but as I continued to work on these images a story began to develop about the relationships between the four characters and I spent several hours yesterday writing a 7, 800 word story about them. Trust me, I have never done that before in my life unless it was an assignment. The relationships were so clear and the story just sort of flowed out. I am going to edit just a bit and send the story to my workshop classmates and Dorothy. I may post here later but I'll have to really think about that.



Wall of Small Works


This is a shot of some of the small pieces done by other members of the group. They do make an interesting group. Wonderful to see all the different images.




Time Lines


The second exercise we worked on was a Time line. I won't reveal what we did or how but the above image is only part of three different time lines done by three different people. The one on the bottom is part of mine. These pieces allowed us to explore more free form ways of using stitching and again, there was a wonderful array of approaches demonstrated.


Dorothy's lecture showing the work of artists who use stitching was fantastic as were the printed materials and artifacts she brought to share. She also spoke with us briefly about her own work and did a private "consultation" with each member of the class who wanted this interaction. The private time I shared with Dorothy was meaningful and insightful.


I personally have been feeling a desire for change in my work brought on by my weekly textile constructions and this workshop has also contributed to new "words" in my art vocabulary. I have completed 2 new WTC's since returning (they will be posted soon) and I used stitching in both. Thank you Dorothy.


This Monday I will be posting images of the Second Stage of Compositional Conversation as well as a mini-profile of Rebecca Howdeshell. Hope to see you then.

Sydney A. Cross: A Passion for Printmaking

Syd Cross in her studio

Syd Cross is one of my closest friends. Our friendship began 28 years ago when she was hired by Clemson University to teach printmaking where she continues teaching today. She has always been passionate about printmaking and dedicated to her students and her work. Syd is also devoted to her cats, is an avid gardener and enthusiastic horsewoman. These subjects often appear in her prints along with topics relating to women, culture, current issues and politics.

Syd's resume is impressive and I don't want to leave anything out. With this in mind, I'm going to present her questions and answer's first and then present a more lengthy bio. I want to thank her for sharing this work with me for my blog as several of these are new as of this week.




SUBTRACTION----Woodcut, 24" x 35"

INTERVIEW

QUESTION: Syd, I have known you for many years and I know that you are very dedicated to your work and are consistent in your efforts. Please share with us something of your studio routine and something about your methodology in the studio at the point you begin a new work.


SYD: There are a couple of ways that I get started in the studio.


Historically, the method I have used most in generating work begins with an ongoing archive of AP wire and magazine photography that I have amassed over the years. I will roll out tracing paper and begin sketching, using those archives as source material. I will composite figures and spaces from this activity. I may sustain this sketching exercise for a few days, which results in a collection of drawings that are often disparate from each other. At this point I usually begin cutting the sketches apart and composing them with one another to find unexpected relationships. In doing this I find themes start to be suggested. The overlapping of the images even when pragmatically stacked to consolidate table space can prompt new meanings that I find intriguing. Another methodology that I have also started exploring is collaging of the actual source material rather than drawing it first. I have found this method inspires a different implementation of process than the hand drawn compositions.


SEQUENCE---Woodcut, 24" x 35"

QUESTION; How did you choose printmaking as your medium?

SYD: Initially, printmaking was attractive to me because I was seduced by the expertise one needed to have command of in order to execute it, particularly lithography---in the mid seventies when I was a student there was a status connected to having this expertise. More importantly, however, printmaking was an extension of drawing, which I loved, but if offered many more possibilities. There is still nothing as wonderful to draw on as a Bavarian Lime stone.



SIFT---Lithograph & Screenprint, 20" x 15"

QUESTION: Your work often appears to tell a story. If that is correct, is it important to you that the viewer interpret the work in a specific way?


SYD: My work is meant to be read, hopefully, in a lot of different ways. If everyone understood the same thing from my pieces or only saw one thing I think I would be disappointed. Having said that, there are specific cues that I insert in the work to prompt a subject for dialogue.




UPDATE---Lithograph & Screenprint, 15" x 20"


QUESTION: With all the constant and immediate communication our society has today, what role does the visual artists have to play?


SYD: I am old fashioned--I don't think the role is much different for artists today. I believe artists serve to show us the questions we should consider asking, make statements about the world around them and even share their vision or version of beauty or the sublime. I also believe that quality of craft is still important no matter how esoteric the conceptual nature of the work may seem.


I do think there is a lot of art that attempts to address 'constant and immediate communication of our society today' or poses questions about it that possesses so little intrinsic visual or artistic investment that it ends up reinforcing the very thing it hopes to critique OR fails to qualify as art.



FAME -- Linoleum Cut, 10" x12"


QUESTION: Please step back in time and tell us whose studios you would like to visit.


SYD: I would love to see the difference between the studio of Bernini and that of Michaelangelo. I would also like to observe the etching studio of Stanley William Hayter, Rembrandt, or Durer.


MARKET-- Lithograph, 9" x 8"


QUESTION: Is there any major project you have in mind that you have not yet attempted?


SYD: Yes. What are they?----that keeps changing. I have whole series of painting and sculptures (believe it or not) that I hope to take on. My biggest challenge is working through a series of work in a timely manner that is productive and intense rather than scattered and stalled as often happens when you teach full time.

GALLERY--- Screenprint, 10" x 8"


RESUME

Sydney A. Cross, received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Northern Arizona University in 1977 and her Masters of Fine Arts from Arizona State University in 1980. She has been teaching printmaking, drawing and design at Clemson University for the past 28 years. Always professionally active, she became the vice president and then President of the Southern Graphics Council (1996-2000), which is the largest printmaking society in North America. In 2000 she was awarded the Provost scholarly Achievement Award and that same year she received the President's Commission on the Status of Women's Outstanding Faculty Award. In 2005 at the SGC conference held in Washington D.C. Sydney was selected to be an Alumni Distinguished Professor at Clemson University.


She has also been awarded residencies at Frans Massareel Graphic Center in Kasterlee, Belgium and the Virginia Center of Creative Arts in Mt. San Angelo, VA. She has given numerous panel presentations at regional, national, and international conferences and symposiums, including the Southeastern College Art Association in Richmond, VA, Print Odyssey conference in Cortona Italy, 2003 National Association for Humanities Conference in Austin, TX., and SGC conferences held in Richmond, VA, Morgantown, WV and Cincinnati, OH.

As an artist she has participated in several important portfolio exchanges, including Suite X, printer's Almanac, Tempe Suite, and Imaages 1990 and Drawn to Stone, a celebration of Two Hundred Years of Lithography. Her work can be found in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Smithsonian Museum, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, Boston Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA, Fogg Art Museum, Aambridge, MA, the Museum of Fine Art, Antwerp, Belgium, and the Library of Congress, Washington, DC. Her work has been exhibited regionally, Nationally and internationally. In addition to solo exhibitions, she has had work included in the 25th Bradley National Print and Drawing Exhibition, Peoria, IL., Parkside National Small Print Exhibition, Kenosha, WI, "Hand Pulled Prints III", Stonemetal Press, San Antonia, TX, "Mixed Media" at the Slidell Cultural Center in Louisiana, Paper in Particular, Columbia College, Columbia, MO, and the Irene Leach Memorial Exhibition, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA.

Thank you Syd for sharing your beautiful work. Terry