Have I ever told you how much I love abstract art work? I must have mentioned it from time to time (grin). Anyway, last night I watched a video that I 'rented' from here. The video was "Acrylic Abstract Painting: The Evolving Image - Virginia Cobb". It amazed me as to how similiar my acrylic painting techniques are to hers...although Virginia is much more accomplished than me. I was inspired but instead of painting (it was late and I didn't want to clear off the paint table!) I grabbed a piece of breakdown printed cloth, some scraps and started the piece above. Nothing is stitched yet...but it will be.

This is a piece of silk cloth with dyed with breakdown printing, silk screening and overdyeing. Do you see the egg? It's about 20x20" so a nice larger size. I think I'm going leave it as a whole cloth piece and add stitching and enhancements.

Process

Here are some photos of wip's (work in progress) of some deconstruction screen printing I did this morning.

This is dye print paste painted on a screen.
This shows the first pull that was done on cotton.

This is the second pull that was done on silk.

And this is the third pull done on another piece of silk. All three are now cooking by the woodstove.

Was able to get some dyeing/printing done yesterday. I do like how these came out. I call the top piece 'tunnel', the middle piece 'path' and the bottom piece 'door'....a traveling theme....

And another.....I tell you nothing takes dye like silk!

Deconstructive screen printed cloth. I'm now well on the way to ruining 2 sinks with dye stains (perhaps a purchase of Ajax with bleach would be good - in the industrial size can). I ask you....can altered counter tops be far behind?

I have been so busy this past week getting many pieces ready for the Danforth Museum of Art gift shop (yes, they want more) I haven't had time to blog post. This piece is cloth that I deconstructive screen printed and am now hand stitching. I was going to add more layers of dye but there was something about the simple nature of the first printing that made me leave it be. I really admire artists that are able to render their visions in works that are clean in design. Of course I also admire artists whose work is so filled with detail and stuff going on that it draws you in to keep looking and looking. Heck, I am an 'art harlot'...I love it all....

This isn't stitched together yet and I want to add some other fabrics but...so far....I like where this is going.

With a big thank you to Rayna I'm having a bit of success with deconstructive screen printing. This piece started with a layer of red print paste that was imprinted on a screen with the use antique wooden textile blocks then, after the print pasted screen was dry, I used soda ash paste to push it through the screen to transfer the dye onto the fabric. Then I wrapped the fabric in plastic and let it cook in the sun until completely dry. Next step was to rinse and wash the fabric.

While this first layer was 'cooking' I prepared the next screen by imprinting golden brown print paste onto the screen creating images with the use of commercial stamps. After the print paste dyed on this screen I printed it over the first layer of the red printed fabric.

Many steps but well worth the effort and once you're comfortable with the process you'll realize how easy it is to do and how it can be done in segments over the course of a day, a week or a month.

Pumpkins and Wings

The top piece is a pastel painting I did last night in the kitchen with the wood stove burning and homemade applesauce cooking on the stove - really! Appropo, don't you think?

The bottom piece is a sample of some deconstructive screen printing I did over the weekend. I love this image.

Sunday

Winds of Change is completed. After adding a bit more hand stitching I mounted it on a metallic, very light bronze/gold colored matboard. Now on to further experimentation with deconstructive screen printing.

Musings

The autumn is just flying by. I'm finding little time to do anything other than grab a few seconds in the middle of the day, go outside and dream of having more spare minutes to enjoy the beautiful sun, organic smells and crisp air. It's a bittersweet time of year with all its endings and beginnings. I find myself curiously sad but at the same time invigorated.

This past weekend I spent time dyeing with print paste, messing around with deconstructive printing and mixing up lots of dye baths. I think this scarve still needs one more plunge - probably into a nice deep red.