Anchor Art Space: My Residency / Part 8 ... Grand Finale!

Rainforest Curtain (Moss). 40" x 30".

Ink, nails, twine, and paper on board. 2013.

Two additional mixed media works rounded out the body of work I created at Anchor Art Space during my residency, and they were also inspired by my visit to the coastal Washington rainforest in Olympic National Park.

 Rainforest Curtain (Moss), detail.

The curtain has been a strong theme in my recent work, and these pieces are no different. Just about every surface in the rainforest is covered with moss — it carpets the ground and it drips and hangs from nearly every branch on every tree. The piece above is an ode to the beauty of the moss that I fell in love with there.

Rainforest Curtain (Roots). 40" x 30".

Ink, nails, twine, and paper on board. 2013.

Giant trees with big, fat trunks and huge root balls fill the rainforest. When the trees fall over their root balls often come out of the ground leaving big holes in the ground and walls of roots, dirt, and rocks that litter the forest floor. These places offer great hiding places for animals, and fertile soil for ferns and other brush to grow.

Rainforest Curtain (Roots), detail.

This piece is a love letter to the damp earth that sustains and feeds rainforest life. What an amazing experience!

Anchor Art Space: My Residency / Part 7 ... Grand Finale!

 Ocean & Sky. 

Ink on paper with twine and wood.

8' x 4'. 2013.

Also inspired by my trip to the Washington State coast, this curtain reveals an abstract view of the wide open spaces of sky and ocean — they blend together, allowing for an even more compelling sense of expansiveness. The horizontal strips imply, perhaps, a sense of a window, and the curtain enhances that sense of inside (confinement) and outside (freedom).

Washington winters are generally stereotyped as grey and colorless, but when I looked out over the “grey” landscape of sand, sea, and sky, I saw nothing but rich, albeit subtle, color. It is those subtleties of perception that make life so rich and meaningful.

  Ocean & Sky, detail.

The curtain is made of cotton twine that is tied into chain sennet ropes. Most people think these ropes are braids, but the knots are actually a series of loops. I chose to create the curtain from this particular type of knot because of its conceptual depth. The twine, in this configuration, is compressed to about 25% of its original length. When the last knot in the chain is released the entire chain unravels in a matter of seconds. This fits perfectly with my theme — exploring that knife-edge of time between two life chapters, between innocence and knowing, between those game-changing moments that allow us to see our situations from expanded points-of-view.

Ocean & Sky, detail.

Anchor Art Space: My Residency / Part 6 ... Grand Finale!

The wall of Squeeze & Release. 

Gallery view. 2013.

The work in the gallery space tells a story in a clockwise rotation. Starting with The Mantra Curtain in the window, I led the viewer next to a wood panel framed by knots.

Knot Frame (detail). 26" x 26". 

Twine on wood panel. 2013.

The knot, for me, is a strong symbol of the way in which my mind gets tangled up with many different thoughts simultaneously flying in all different directions. Our thoughts frame our experiences, and this work is a reminder of that.

Squeeze & Release. 6' x 2'. 

Burlap, cheesecloth, and twine. 2013.

This figurative piece represents the ways in which we hold tension in our bodies — in my case, the throat and neck. Our stresses can sometimes create illness in the body (see Your Body Speaks Your Mind by Deb Shapiro). After years and years of stuffing my emotions into my throat, I ended up with thyroid cancer. Now healthy, I am working to release my emotions in other ways.

The Waterfall — A Veil. Installation, 10' x 4'. 

Cheesecloth, twine, and wood. 2013.

Many of the pieces in this body of work are inspired by a trip to Washington State’s spectacular coastal rainforest. The symbol of a curtain was forefront in my mind during our trip, so I was able to see them everywhere — especially in a waterfall that cascaded over a cliff onto Third Beach in Olympic National Park.

The piece above cascades over the top of the wall and releases into a pool on the floor. . . perhaps symbolizing the freedom that comes from a sense of “going with the flow.”

The Waterfall, detail.

The Waterfall, detail.

Anchor Art Space: My Residency / Part 5 ... Grand Finale!

 The Mantra Curtain. Installation view. 8 x 8 feet.

I began my work at Anchor Art Space by initiating a curtain of knots in the window. It seems natural to start a series of work based on a curtain theme in the window, don’t you think?

The curtain, to me, represents the knife-edge of time between innocence and knowing. That pivot point — the unveiling of information — can create great havoc and/or great peace in our lives.

 The Mantra Curtain. Knots detail. 8 x 8 feet.

This curtain took about three weeks to complete. I came into the gallery each day and made it a ritual to spend an hour or two tying knots in the window. The physical act of tying the knots became a kind-of mantra practice, a meditation, that allowed my many thoughts to become quiet inside my head. These meditations gave me space to imagine other projects I wanted to create during my stay.

I’m in the process of editing a video depicting my meditation practice — tying all those knots. Please stay tuned for updates; I’ll post the movie soon!

Anchor Art Space: My Residency / Part 4

I learn the most from the things that don’t go the way I plan.

For a while now I’ve had an idea to work with dyes in my twine work, so I decided that my time at Anchor Art Space is as good as any to begin my experiments.

I wanted to create a curtain of twine that hangs into jars of dye, and then allow the dye to wick up the material as time passes. I’m sure anyone familiar with fabrics and dyes probably already knows that cotton needs lots of heat in order for the dye to transfer well. I did not know that at first, but I do now!

The dye did, indeed, wick up the twine — to a point. It dried out far sooner than I had hoped, and it seemed both out of proportion and a mismatch for the curtain I already created.

I learned a lot working on this experiment over the past few days, so I don’t consider the time wasted. I do recognize the need to keep experimenting, perhaps with different twine materials as well as different ways to apply the color. I love learning new things!

Anchor Art Space: My Residency / Part 3

I’ve got six pieces underway (I think) at Anchor Art Space at this point. Now it's just going to be a matter of finishing them all within the next 18 days!

Above are chain sennit ropes I’ve been creating. There will be 22 of them in all, and they will form a curtain that will reveal a mixed media collage on the wall when opened.

 

Above is a semi-circular skeleton for a kind-of veil-style curtain. Below you can see it beginning to come together. It reminds me a little bit of a waterfall, like one we saw on a beach in Olympic National Park last week.