Cindy Grisdela ~ art quilter

I’ve spent the last several days quilting this piece, which I want to enter into a major show. It’s  more than a little daunting and I was struggling with the quilting motifs because this show is known for accepting only the most cutting edge work. I wanted to do something new and different, but it wasn’t happening. After spending an embarrassingly long time beating my head against that particular wall, I realized that I have to create what is in my head and my heart. The work has to be authentic, or it won’t have any soul. Whether my piece gets into this particular show, or another one, or none at all, isn’t really important.   What is important is that my work comes from my authentic self–then I can send it out into the world with confidence. I can’t create according to someone else’s rules, or worse, my idea of what someone else’s rules might be!

Once I got that straight, it was much easier to finish the quilt. I can’t show the entire piece, which is tentatively titled “Wonky Stripes,” because I still plan to enter it into the show and the work for this show can’t have been shown anywhere else before it’s exhibited there. Maybe it will get in and maybe it won’t, but I’m satisfied with what I’ve done and that’s a good thing!

As I’ve mentioned previously, I have three shows coming up in September and October, in addition to several exhibits I’d like to apply to enter. Getting ready for shows and exhibits means working backward. Let me explain. If I know I want to mount a piece on stretcher bars, like Over the Rainbow, at right, then I have to create it and finish it in enough time to give the framer at least two weeks to do her work. If it needs to be photographed to be entered into an exhibit, then I need to factor in another couple of weeks to set up an appointment with the photographer to take the photos, process them and get them back to me.

I spent the last two weeks working on the pieces that need to be sent to the framer’s and I got them in to her, so she’s working on them. I’ll spend the next two weeks working on the larger pieces that won’t be mounted. I have an appointment with the photographer on Aug. 31, so hopefully the mounted pieces will be finished and the larger quilts will be completed so everything comes together at the end! I’ll keep you posted.

If you’re interested, my framer is Turner Framing and my photographer is Greg Staley . I highly recommend them both!

My shows are the Artsfest 2010 at Annmarie Gardens and Sculpture Park in Solomons, MD on September 18-19, the McLean Project for the Arts MPAartfest in McLean, VA on October 3, and the Great Falls Studios 7th Annual Studio Tour on October 16-17.  In addition, I’ll be having a solo show at Maison du Vin in Great Falls October 19-December 15. Mark your calendars!

Over the Rainbow is a new piece that I had a lot of fun with. I made a fairly large improvisational block for the center using bits and pieces of fabrics that I rearranged until I had a composition I liked. Then I framed the brightly colored center with tilted black and white framing borders. I auditioned quite a few black and white fabrics for the outer border and nothing worked quite right until I came upon that leafy print. It’s almost like a light bulb goes on when I hit the right fabric combination and I just have to be patient until it happens! This piece is mounted on stretcher bars with a solid red background that brings out the brights from the center. It’s 27″h x 24″w.

On a personal note, another quilt that’s been occupying me for much of the summer is this one for my son to take to college. It’s a simple abstract design based on a traditional nine patch. I wasn’t expecting him to want to be involved in the process, but to my surprise he was very interested and wanted to participate in every aspect of the design, from the color choice to the backing fabric to the quilting design. It was like accepting a commission from my son and it was a lot of fun to work with him to design exactly what he wanted. His favorite colors are black and red, and we threw in a little grey and dark blue for contrast. The biggest issue with this quilt was the fact that he wanted it to be quilted with one large red spiral. The quilt was too big for me to be able to do that accurately on my home sewing machine and I wanted very much to do it all myself, so I ended up taking most of the summer to hand quilt the spiral. It was a labor of love and it looks fantastic on the back! The picture isn’t the best, but if you right click on the image you’ll be able to see the stitching lines. He goes to college this weekend and I’m proud to say I finished it last week with over a week to spare! Even the binding is sewn down and it’s ready to go.

I’m pleased to announce I’ll be the guest speaker at the Textile Museum’s Rug and Textile Appreciation morning this Saturday, July 24, 2010 from 10:30 AM-12 PM. I’ll bring lots of quilts to show and talk about how I use color and fabric to create eye-catching designs, like Playing With Crayons at right. I always enjoy giving these talks and sharing my work with a new audience. The museum is located at 2320 S. St., NW in Washington, DC and the program is free and open to the public. For more information about the museum, click on the link above. If you’re in the area on Saturday morning, please stop by, I’d love to see you!

Playing With Crayons is one of my favorite pieces, because it is a great example of my fascination with colors and the way they interact. I had the idea to create diagonal bands of color across the surface of the quilt, so I pulled out as many different fabrics as I could in each of the color families and started making wonky log cabin blocks and putting them up on the design wall. It was so much fun to see the design emerge and  the fabrics “talk” to one another. There must be over 100 different fabrics in this piece and it’s quilted in an allover spiral design, which you can see better if you double-click on the image. Crayons is a bright, cheerful design that makes me smile every time I see it. I hope to be able to revisit this design soon in a more muted color scheme to see how it translates in earth tones. What do you think?

I was in Richmond earlier this week taking my son to his college orientation, and visited the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for an inspiration day.  I’d never been there before, and it was just what I needed to jumpstart my creativity. I  started with the special exhibit “Tiffany: Color and Light,” which was a visual treat, and then moved through the museum to see the other offerings. There were some fine examples of modern painting that really spoke to me, including work by Mark Rothko and Morris Louis. I had my sketchbook with me and whenever an idea struck, I jotted it down so I would have a record for future reference. I have four or five ideas for new work just from this one visit!

I’ve been just showing up in my studio every day this summer and working on several projects, including the color study detail at right, which is my latest. These pieces are great fun, but the progress doesn’t move in a straight line. Often I need to leave the piece for a few days to let the idea percolate in my brain, so I have more than one project in the works and I can switch off between them. For a while, nothing was coming together and I was frustrated, more so because I have a number of shows coming up in the fall and I want to have a good portfolio of new work. But last week, the stars aligned and the inspiration began flowing again–Yippee! I do think that it’s a direct result of persevering and showing up every day that did it–along with a dose of artistic inspiration from the museum.

I’ll be showing my work at the Great Falls Farmer’s Market on Saturday, July 17, from 9 AM – 1 PM. I always enjoy these events–it’s a great opportunity to see old friends and meet new ones, so please stop by and say hello if you’re in the area!

I’m also excited to report that my quilt “Amber Harvest” was chosen as one of two pieces that were put on the Brush Gallery website to advertise the “Art Quilts Lowell 2010″ exhibit. Click on the link and scroll down to the exhibit information for August 11-September 11, 2010.

In honor of summer, I’m working on a new beach scene—tentatively titled “Afternoon at the Beach.” This one has an appliqued adirondack chair in it and I tried a new process to get the image. Although I don’t normally do much applique, I like these beach pieces and they seem to need applique and beads. For this image, I took a picture of an adirondack chair on my back porch and printed it out so I could use it as a guide to draw the simplified image onto interfacing. Then it was a matter of choosing the fabric and using the needle turn method to applique the pieces onto the interfacing. You can see a little bit of the interfacing still showing in the space under the arm on the left. I know it would have been quicker to use a fusible web and eliminate the hand sewing part, but I actually like hand sewing and I don’t care for the stiffness the fusible sometimes adds to the piece. I admire the artistry others get using fusible techniques, but it just doesn’t seem right for my work. I also did a little bit of thread sketching on the back and seat of the chair to add texture. The whole piece is created separately and then appliqued in place onto the design after it’s quilted. That gives me flexibility to move the applique around on the background to find the best place for it to go.

I know you’re thinking that sounds a lot like work and you would be right. That’s one reason I don’t do a lot of applique. But my work is rooted in the traditions of the past, since that’s how I learned my craft–even the contemporary abstract pieces. Fiber art appeals to me because of its tactile nature. I want the work to be dimensional–that’s why I spend so much time on the quilting part. The stitching sinks down into the batting and creates wonderful ridges and lines and shapes in the unstitched areas. Applying the applique and beading to these pieces by hand is all part of the process.

For some reason this photo isn’t as crisp as I would like, but I wanted to share these thoughts and the piece is at the framer’s being mounted onto stretcher bars. When it’s all finished, I’ll show it again.

You can see last year’s beach piece here–it’s called “Sunrise on the Beach” and it has been sold and gone to a new home.

I’ve just been notified that I’ve been juried in as a participating artist in the 2010 Artfest put on by the McLean Project for the Arts. The event will be held Sunday, October 3, 2010 from 10:30 AM – 4:30 PM. I’m very gratified that this is the third year I’ve been accepted to this show. At right is my booth from last year’s Artfest, taken just after I set up before the show opened.  The majority of the pieces shown in this photograph have sold, so I’ll be spending the rest of the summer creating new work!

This event is incredibly well managed by the McLean Project for the Arts and it’s a fun day full of art, artists, music and food. It’s a fine art show, so you’ll find top quality painting, photography and sculpture, in addition to fine artists in ceramics, jewelry and of course, fiber.

Mark your calendars–I hope to see you there in October!

The green fabric is here, my son is graduated from high school and I’m ready to get back to work on this piece. I took a break from the studio for about a week while the graduation festivities went on and we had family in for the celebration, and I think that was a good thing. I have more energy to do the design work now.

Creating these pieces is intriguing for me, because it’s all about the process. There’s no pattern to follow, no instructions to guide me. I have to get with the flow of the process and let the color and design choices I make dictate what comes next. It’s exhausting sometimes and I’m full of doubts about whether I’m on the right track. But ultimately I think this is the path I want to explore right now.

I don’t have a name for this one yet and obviously it’s in the very early stage of design–the green chunks of fabric are just pinned in place and the blocks probably aren’t finished. I really like the curved piece in the central block and I think I need to repeat that shape somewhere else. I got a little stuck on this one before I took my break because I started thinking about how I would quilt it and nothing came to me. While it’s important to think about the quilting while the piece is in progress, it shouldn’t overtake the design. So I’m not going to worry about that until the piecing is finished. I also like the idea of using several different greens in the background to liven up the plain areas–the quilting will be important here. My thought was to expand on the idea I used for Amber Harvest and put three improvisational blocks in the design instead of just one. Perhaps there will be another small block in one of the lower corners as well.

The lesson learned here is important to take breaks every now and again to let the ideas percolate in my head without forcing them. Stay tuned!

This piece, just begun and as yet unnamed, has been in the idea stage for months. I had the idea, I knew what I wanted to do, yet I couldn’t seem to get started on it. Then I read a blog post from a site I visit regularly about productivity. Here’s the link: http://fineartviews.com/blog/19916/how-to-be-more-productive-part-2

Basically the point is that it’s OK to switch between multiple tasks in your life as an artist, because the artist is usually wearing many hats, from creating art, to marketing, to preparing exhibit submissions, to photography or framing, to writing a blog post, and so on–you get the idea. I always felt it was somehow cheating if you didn’t start one task and finish it before starting another, but I’ve discovered that’s not the way I work best.

In order to get started on this piece, I began cutting strips for something completely different. That’s important work to get done, but it’s fairly mindless, so I was free to think about my other project. After being in the studio cutting for a few hours, the idea I really wanted to work on began to crystallize and I was able to put the other work aside to start putting it together. I made the initial improvisational block and it went well, but then something happened.  For a piece like this one, I have a basic idea of what I want to convey, but once I start working a dialogue starts between me and the design that sometimes ends up going off in another direction from my initial plan. When that happens, I need to walk away from it a bit and do something else–like write a blog post, maybe. I realized that I need to make two or three additional improv blocks and that I want to use the green solid as a background, but I don’t have enough of it, so it must be ordered and I’ll have to wait until it arrives to proceed. That’s a good time to take a couple of recently finished small pieces to the framer’s to be mounted on stretcher bars.

So I’ve gotten a start on two new pieces, I’ve written a blog post, and I’ve taken two pieces to the framer’s, all because I was procrastinating on getting started on the first idea.  That’s not a bad set of accomplishments. Thanks to Luann Udell and FineArtViews.com for the inspiration!

What do you do when you’re stuck?

Thanks to all who commented on my last post about creativity and chaos. I think the secret is to just show up in the studio and put something together, even if it’s just “therapy sewing” of random pieces. That’s what I did in the piece at right–its temporary name is Wonky Square.  For the interior, I put together random bits and pieces, some left over from other projects, until I had something I liked. Then I bordered it with black and white triangles. It didn’t seem finished, so I unearthed this great black and white fabric that looks like leafy stripes and put that on the edges. I didn’t have quite enough length for all the borders, which meant I needed to find some corner squares. I spent a very enjoyable, creative day auditioning different fabrics for this piece. It’s such a wonderful feeling when I put a piece up on the wall and it just fits. Of course there are many pieces that don’t survive the trial and error process, but that’s part of the fun and it reminds me why I love doing this so much.

I’m going to quilt this piece and show it at the Great Falls Farmers Market next Saturday. This will be a busy week getting ready for that, but I’m looking forward to it. Today’s a soft, rainy day–perfect for spending hours in the studio.

I got the photos back from my photography session last week and I’ll be sharing the images and posting them to my website this week. I’m having a little trouble coming up with a name for the quilt at right, which is unusual for me. It’s pieced from purchased hand dyed fabric and hand quilted with perle cotton. I really enjoyed the process of making this one–somehow the asymmetrical spikes really speak to me and I like the idea of having the curved borders on only two sides. I can see that I’d like to revisit this concept and see what else I can do with it. I’m not sure if this piece is part of my Color Block series or an entirely new one, so we’ll see where it goes.

Which brings me to thoughts on creativity and chaos. I’m not by nature neat when I’m working on a project, so my studio often looks like a tornado hit it when I’m working. I often have several pieces in process at any one time, so if I get stuck on one, I can move on to another while the ideas percolate in my subconscious. There comes a point, however, when the chaos overtakes the creativity and I can’t think because there are too many piles of fabric and snippets of scraps littering the landscape of my studio. I’ve been spending time the last week or so in between some traveling and family obligations trying to get a handle on the chaos so my creativity can reemerge. And it seems to be working. I’ve got some sketches and some new ideas to try–now I just need to find the time to get started on them! I have several shows and exhibits coming up in the next few months, so I really need to get going on creating this new work. I’m excited by the possibilities, so stay tuned.

What do you do to jumpstart your creativity?