Miriam Badyrka is The Doodler

Embroidery #13

Here is the latest free embroidery doodle in my Books & Needles project. I know the name of this one, but oddly enough, I am not certain which way it ought to be oriented.

Even though I have always twisted and turned my work (this includes paintings, drawings, doodles and even the books) in every direction while working, I have almost always known which way was supposed to be up. My work has always told me which way it wanted to go, but this one ain't talking.

Here it is again, but flipped over. I think it works either way.

In my student days, I was told that it was a sign of a good abstract composition if the work looks good from any direction, but I have never really subscribed to that point of view. I think it is a good exercise to turn work. It gives you a new perspective and fresh eyes, but I still know if the piece is laying on it's side or upside down.

This piece is called The Star Factory. Do stars come from below and float up, or do they come from above and drift away? 

Embroidery #12

Here is the latest embroidery in my Books and Needles Project.

These embroideries are done completely free handed. They are slow motion doodles. By embroidering these doodles, as opposed to drawing them, time stretches out like it would in a dream.

It looks like something you would find if you were looking at a drop of pond water under a microscope. Did you ever do that in science class when you were a kid? It was such a thrill to see that a drop of water was actually teeming with unseen creatures and plant life.

I like this one, it seems joyful, exuberant and full to bursting with life.

Embroidery #10

Here is another one of my Slow Doodles. The doodles are slow because I stitch these, rather than draw them. It slows things to a crawl. Rather like my brain this afternoon.

I call this one Horse Heaven.

But that errant hair in the image? That is canine not than equine. There is probably some feline hair in there too.

I need to get me one of those tapey things, aka  a lint roller, before I take a picture.

Actually, I have one. The thing I have to do is Remember To Use It!

You can see it (and buy it, please) and several other embroideries and even a couple of folded books at Art Over Macleay Park this weekend.

Gallery Hopping, Part 2

Alright! I am actually getting to Part 2 when I said I would. Allow me a moment to be impressed with myself.

The next stop was the Museum of Contemporary Crafts. Because of the embroidery component to my Books & Needles project, I wanted to see the Darrel Morris embroideries. The mere fact that he is male and working within a traditionally female medium makes this work notable, but they are better than that and beyond that.

Darrel Morris grew up in Kentucky and learned crafts from his grandmother while listening to her tell stories. His embroideries reflect both the crafting and storytelling traditions without being overtly traditional themselves.

The embroideries on display are large works, 6 feet or larger. They read like line drawings. There is a kind of jumbled energy to Morris' work. Figures trample all over one another. The intricately stitched line wiggles and vibrates. The works manage to be funny and scary at the same time.

That is what I went to see, but it was walking into Mandy Greer's world that made my jaw drop when I saw it. That is not a typo.  An installation commissioned by the Bellevue Arts Museum, Greer's “Dare alla luce” is a stroll through another dimension. I can't recall another installation that affected me so profoundly. I wanted to climb into it and stay there.

Gallery Hopping, Part 1

Quintana Gallery specializes in indigenous art, old and new. At some point in the intervening years, they have moved from Old Town into the Pearl. I wonder why I had not visited Quintana in years.

My folks collected Inuit soapstone carvings, so I grew up with it. I have a couple of pieces, one badly damaged, and one small carving, that had been theirs in my home. They are not spectacular pieces, but they mean a lot to me anyway.

I have seen enough of this kind of work to know that the gallery had some really exceptional carvings. My favorite was this incredible walrus by  Mathew Saviajuk. This piece is so alive, so full of walrusness. It is easy to forget he is carved in stone, he seems so blubbery. And amazing to imagine that this subtle carving was done with an axe.

I also enjoyed the spirit masks with their concentric circles representing different aspects of the soul, a physical manifestation of unseen worlds. They honor all who make life possible in the Artic, the ancestors and the animals. This is Loon Spirit Mask byJohn Nasoalook Tetpon. It was not one of the pieces that we saw, but it is similar.

The traditional art of the Pacific Northwest has rarely appealed to me in the past, the abstraction used to strike me as too blunt for my taste. But, after so many years here, I have changed my tune. The salmon, bear, whale and thunderbird images that I used to find ugly, must have worked their way into my blood.

Books and Needles Project Update

This white on white is the first of the randomly stitched embroideries that I have been doing. I have been negligent about posting pictures of what I am now referring to as my Books and Needles Project, even though I have been totally absorbed in it since September. 

The embroideries are the opposite of the folded books. Unlike the books which are folded in silence, I embroider with distractions. I do not plan them, there are no sketches or diagrams that I am following. The embroideries are like and unlike doodles.

They are like doodles in that they are unplanned and done with a distraction. But the distraction is deliberate and purposeful. 

To start with, I used the radio or my music for a distraction. Music holds my attention and I tend to stop what I am doing to listen. This doesn't surprise me. I could never study with the music playing, and I find it difficult to do any painting beyond undercoats to music as well. 

This embroidery was done to NPR, because speaking doesn't hold my focus like music. I doodled through lectures so that I could pay attention to what was said. Doodles are a focusing mechanism for me. I have always thought it was weird when people accused me of not paying attention because of all the doodling.

Now I have switched to recorded books. I have two reasons for this. 

The first is that they are books, the same medium as the folded objects, and I like the symmetry of this. The other parallel is historical. Embroidery work was often done while someone else was reading aloud, with the stitcher listening as she worked. 

I will be showing more of this project this month. Maybe writing about it will help me explain why I am compelled to do this. I have never felt the urge to work on anything as forcibly as I do about this. It is as though some outside force is standing over me with a whip and a chair compelling me to work on this.   

Eight Things From Summer 2008

Or, things I have been looking at (and not looking at).

Everybody makes list posts, but me. If you can’t beat ‘em. Join ‘em! Each of these things to be a post all by itself, but I spent my time having fun this summer. So rather than moan about the posts that were never written, because I am unrepentant, here is a list of wonderful things.

1. Manufractured exhibit at Museum of Contemporary Crafts. Just amazing (and a wonderful overview available on the site). Laura Splan, whose work I adore, was the big draw for me. I was thrilled to see her work in person. I loved works by Cat Chow and Devorah Sperber who both work with zippers, spools of thread and other sewing notions, but to completely different ends. The knock out piece of the entire incredible exhibit was by Livia Marin, Ficciones de un uso, 2,214 lipsticks. You read that right: 2,214 lipsticks.

2. Clifford Rainey Retrospective at Bullseye Gallery. A master at his craft, and glass like I have never seen it before. Check out the slideshow from the exhibit.

3. John Dempcy at Augen Gallery. I saw a piece of his in the spring and said I would keep my eye out for his work. How lovely of Augen to host a show in July. Mercury is my favorite piece from this group.

4. Tracy Kendall Wallpaper. Not only beautiful images, but a fun website with music too. What’s not to like? I especially like the Bespoke Stripe display.

5. Paper dresses. Yep, I can never get enough of these. For some reason I find fashion as art more interesting than actual clothes. My husband or daughter have to force me to shop! Lia Griffith (a Portland gal) makes some of the most beautiful paper gowns ever. Check out these beauties
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6. Can you believe these beautiful objects by Kathleen Dustin are actually purses? I would have to find something more far precious and worthy to carry than my wallet, keys, pens, loose change and gum wrappers that’s for sure.

7. Cutting Edge Patterns and Textures by Estel Vilaseca. A book with so much eye candy that it is practically hypnotic.

8. Tribal and Village Rugs: The Definitive Guide to Design, Pattern and Motif by Peter F Stone. The title says it all. Fabulous book!

You might also be surprised at something I have not been looking at: Altered Books.

I am well aware that there are people out there doing amazing things with books. I am just not looking for them, because the idea to do them came to me in a dream. In the dream I was all alone and sitting in total silence folding pages, I think that both the silence and the isolation are a part of what I am doing, so I have to honor it.

Thus, no peeking at anyone else’s altered books. Please, please, stop sending me links (but thank you for thinking about it!). I can't open them. Art can be a harsh mistress.

(Images of Ficciones de un uso by Livia Marin, and Mercury by John Dempcy are from the Museum of Contemporary Crafts and Augen Gallery websites.)

Questions

Here is the latest embroidery based on a block doodle, with some random embroidery doodling added because I wasn't done sewing or something. 

The stitched doodling has started me off on another experiment. The embroidery I am currently working on is a.) white on white and b.) entirely free hand, not based on anything. I am embroidering like I doodle, just letting myself sew whatever the needle comes up with. 

Can this work? The preliminary verdict is yes, but I have just begun to work on this one. 

Why am I not painting? I am spending all my time embroidering and folding books, rather than painting. It is disorienting. I have defined myself as a painter for so many years that it is strange to not be doing it. I am certain that I will be back at it at some point, but, for now, I have to follow the embroidery and book folding through to where ever it is leading.

I have come up with even more questions for myself then I posted yesterday. Now I have 26 questions to ponder while I work. 

Folding Stillness

The folding continues. I started down this path because of a dream.  It baffled me at first. Now, I think I am coming to understand what it means, although I still have no clue why I am compelled to do it. 

They are a type of clock. Each fold represents a passage of time, a breathe taken, a heartbeat. 

A week or so ago, I realized that I breathe deliberately when I am folding a book. Just as one would when meditating or praying. My entire focus is on what I am doing. The folds are markers, a physical remanent  of breaths I took while I was working.

Anyone who knows me well knows that it isn't unusual for me to be totally absorbed in what I am doing to the exclusion of all else. It is the reason that I love to paint. But it is a deliberate act. I feel that painting is the exact opposite of what I do when I doodle. 

Doodling is unconscious, it is like dreaming. Folding, like painting, is an entirely conscious act.

I still have so many questions that I must answer. 

Why does it have to be books? Why not the newspaper or origami paper? Lord knows, I would leap at the chance to buy a bunch of beautiful papers.

Is a stopwatch, or a timer, a better analogy than a clock for the resulting object, because they represent time passed rather than time passing? 

Is it time well spent, or hours wasted?

What are they? Are they still books after they have been folded? Are they sculpture?

Am I destroying or creating when I do it?

Why do I feel like they are related to embroidery? Is the relationship merely the time passed and the patience and persistence required to do them? Do I need to move beyond what I am doing now and somehow combine the two? 

Or are they totally separate ways to manifest the same idea?

Blatant Plug for My Pal

Lindy Gruger Hanson is blogging about her art and travels. 

She is taking some bold new steps, quitting her job and traveling to Costa Rica. 

She has a new t-shirt design at her Cafe Press store. It says, "Breathe In. Exhale. Now Quit work. Do art. "I think it sums up this new chapter in her life nicely. Plus, it's cute.

I can already tell that her blog is going to be fun. This is the first time I have ever seen this gentle person rant about anything. 

I can totally relate to her post about Hoarding Space Mongers. In fact, I 'm sure that I have put my blanket down next to them.