Textile Study Group blog

We are just over  half way through our artists interviews, with another 11  artists to be profiled.  This week we are in conversation with Lois Blackburn.

Lois Blackburn

During this project have you looked at a new way of working? 
Like so much of my work, ‘Blood Sweat and Tears’, was about finding new ways to give voice to difficult or unexplored subjects.  It was also a first for me, blurring the boundaries between my personal work and the work I do with arthur+martha, bringing together my love of quilt making, text and silk painting in one piece.   

 I’ve created a double bed size quilt, covered with paintings of objects I associate with the menopause. It might be a Spanish fan carried with me, prepared for hot flushes, or handfuls of chocolate to counter the drops in Magnesium. Written onto the objects is information garnered from the internet, research and personal accounts. 

 The writing for the project was a big challenge for me, but the thinking, planning, making of the quilt I found a wonderful process. A confidence boaster, a stimulus for new work. I’m a peri-menopausal women, in a household with a hormonal teenager – a recipe for disaster. One way I manage the increased levels of anxiety, stress and unhappiness is through the artwork. For many years, through the work of arthur+martha www.arthur-martha.com

I have seen the positive effects of creativity on other people, on their health and wellbeing. But I have often taken it for granted for myself. This project has helped me benefit from what I share with others through my collaborative practice.

 During the project I wrote a couple of diary accounts, reflecting on my way of working practice, here’s an example from 1^st Feb 2019.
It’s been a hard few weeks, there are things that help- getting out for a walk, Pilates, creativity and chocolate.
I’ve created enough paintings on fabric now to give me a good idea of what it might look like as a double quilt size piece. Right now it’s looking a bit messy. It’s when I have to hold my nerve. I’m at the point when the lack of designing, might bite me on the bum. If I had sat down and worked out a composition on paper I might be better prepared… But right or wrong this way of working continually keeps it fresh for me. My current challenges- creating a composition that works. This is just an eye thing- (one of these days perhaps I should revisit the classic composition devises- maybe my next project) I am lucky enough to recently have room for a design wall. The bits of fabric get moved around, pinned and re-pinned.
I’ve started to cut up the pieces of painting that didn’t work so well- and am thinking about collaging these on other bits that didn’t work, or in gaps, this technique of cutting up and playing a lot- it suits me in its looseness.
The other thing I’m thinking about is how to quilt it. I’m dipping in and out of Pinterest, seeing how other artists are doing it. I’ve done one quilting sample- but rushed in and it went a bit lumpy. Next sample I will properly tack together. I’m trying to not get distracted by emails or the time ticking until the school run. 

What is your favourite part of the creative process?
One of my favourite parts of the creative process is responding to life’s challenges, to tell stories. Using art as a way to release tension, share delight in the world, and to see the positive benefits of health and wellbeing.

In these challenging times of Covid 19, I feel very lucky to have creativity as part of my everyday life and find joy in being able to share some of my work practices with others. I’ve just started a new project, ‘Here Comes the Sun’. I am inviting people from across the globe to make embroidery for a new quilt. Whoever you are, where ever you live, whether you regularly stitch, make art, or haven’t picked up a needle and thread since school, everyone’s welcome. I’m delighted by the response so far, it’s full of potential, full of un-knowns, a bit scary. Being able to quickly turn an idea into a reality, it’s got to be the best part of the creative process for me. If you are interested in joining in, or know of someone else who might, take a look at our website: https://arthur-martha.com/portfolio/here-comes-the-sun/  .

This week Dorothy Tucker’s  short yet insightful  interview  discusses  the  inspiration and processes that inform her textile practice.

Dorothy Tucker

Are the ideas/themes for this project ongoing or are they new?   
The blue sky days we have had over the last few weeks have been beautiful.  I love to paint mainly in watercolour and weather permitting out -of-doors.  I had imagined that this spring and summer I would be out and about painting in lovely locations along the North Norfolk Coast.  But the coronavirus is restricting the possibility of any of us being in the big out doors to the confines of our gardens – if we are lucky enough to have one – and to walks immediately around where we live. During the lock down I have been busy gardening, unpacking boxes of books and filling the bookshelves in our new home. 

In my own work my attention and focus has turned inwards.  I am patching and piecing together scraps from the best parts of an old pair of Levis jeans with suiting fabrics from a sample book, overlaying some areas with fine coloured cottons, working blocks of hand stitching over the patches, and sanding some surfaces away. This is evolving into a series of nine irregular blocks which reference a nine patch quilt. But I do not intend to join the blocks together.  They will remain separated from each other – not touching. 

Stitching by hand is essential to my working practice.  I like the rhythm and feel of a needle and thread going in and out of the cloth, and value the meditative zone it takes me into. The way I am stitching is informed by kantha. In the first week of the lockdown I took up stitching a kantha which I had begun on a recent trip to India. This helped me to slow down and to settle into my workroom again.

The work numbered and pinned onto my workroom walls is on-going, work in progress. It is a development of ideas and working processes which I used to create Orange and Indigo , a flat piece and a folded bundle, recently completed and photographed to be included in my chapter for  INSIGHTS .

As a visual artist was it a challenge to write about your practice?
INSIGHTS  has required me to reflect very deeply on how I work and what my work is about.  Initially I found it  difficult to find connections  between things seemingly  going in several quite different directions with outcomes which did not appear to relate to each other in linear way, Once I had sorted and drilled down far enough it was challenging to articulate what I had I discovered in words.  As a result of working through the project brief I feel rooted and can confidently say : Essentially my work is about light and colour.  The multi-media way processes I use reference textiles such as kantha, Japanese Boro, the Gees Bend Quilters from Alabama, USA.

In my water colour painting I explore light and colour within limited palettes, through mixing incremental amounts of pigments using perhaps just two colours. In these fabric pieces I am working with Orange and Indigo.  Orange is a powerfully radiant colour which I associate with the sun, warmth, abundance and life. As a counterpoint Indigo provides a darkness, and the blue shades of Levis or worn working clothes.

In the nine block series the radiant power and size of the orange square is gradually diminishing, losing its strength until the amount of orange will only suggest a reflection, and then even that will disappear. 

This idea is so deeply disturbing and depressing I hesitate to share it. But if the blocks were presented differently, say with the last block as the first  in a horizontal series row or in the series but in reverse order,  then the work could be read an orange square of colour coming back to life in whatever the new normal is to be.   

It’s time for another revealing interview from TSG member  Mary Sleigh .  Alongside other members, Mary’s work  will feature in our new book and visitors will be able to see all members contributions at  the Insight exhibitions in due course.

We will publish further information about the new publication and exhibition dates so please watch this space.

Mary Sleigh

Are the themes/ideas for this project ongoing or are they new?
My ideas for  INSIGHTS are ongoing themes, developing and moving on from previous work. They also fit in with ideas already agreed for new work in an exhibition to be shown at The Rope Walk in Barton on Humber in September. It’s important to me that I try to keep a focus as there are always so many distractions and other exciting  avenues to explore which are tempting.  I am easily tempted and really don’t need any distractions! The discipline of pursuing an idea helps me to dig deeper and find ways of expressing my ideas in a fresh way.

It’s been enlightening writing about my practice for the forthcoming publication. In looking back, I realise that there is a recurring thread that runs through my work. It’s  about a sense of place and its stories. There is a different emphasis but in essence there is a common theme which reappears in recent past work; Cloth Stories, Peat Lands and  It starts with a Step. Everyone loves a story as I do. There’s  always a story where people have lived and worked and even when nature has taken over, people have left their mark. So, it’s that connection with places and people and unexpected discoveries that keep cropping up. Part of my connection to the land  comes from my fascination in foraging, gathering and sorting, often giving me starting points for my work. I remember as a small girl in the West Indies having all the time in the world to search for treasures precious to me but of no intrinsic value. So, there’s nothing new, as  I realise when looking back. Finding connections with places and people as a theme continues. It’s a thrilling moment when I stumble on  an unexpected  gem while exploring and immersing myself in a place.

What is your favourite part of the  creative process?
It’s rather like a rollercoaster with ups as well as downs. Ideas come  at unexpected times and certainly not when I’m trying hard to come up with an idea. It’s a wonderful moment when an idea pops into my head. It has probably been simmering in the background and something triggers it to come to the surface. Initially in my head, it is marvellous, exciting and achievable.

Then there’s the really difficult bit, the hard graft of developing the idea; at times desperation and then exhilaration and then a sense of direction and purpose – that’s a  great moment.

Surrounded by what seems like chaos and too many possibilities I enjoy the gradual process during sampling, experimenting and handling materials of resolving  a way of working and creating some sense of order. I love this part when once I get stuck in, one thing leads to another.  It’s really satisfying to find solutions to problems and ways that express my ideas as simply as possible.

I enjoy the actual making process and the completed work is often  quite different from the original idea in my head.

As we  try to navigate this uncertain period , we each find our own pathway. For some the extended time has given rise to creative endeavours, for others it may have come with increased stress and anxiety.   As artists our need to learn, share and grow will always  be important, along with being part of a community and  knowing we are not alone on this path.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support and interest in reading our artists interviews.

Janet Edmonds

During  this project have you looked at a new way of working ?
My theme for ‘Insights’ remains largely the same as it has been for many years. I have always collected stones and pebbles and other items carried by the sea onto the beach as it invites thoughts about the processes by which they have arrived in that place and what enabled the erosion of their form and surface. The central focus of my practice is making and building in response to worn and eroded surfaces on dimensional objects, beginning with drawing to familiarise myself with the proportions, dimensions, shape and quality of the object.

I have been working with a fragile skeleton of a small piece of plant material that has inspired a collection of stitched forms, exploring crochet as a different method of construction. I am trying to capture the delicate, fragile nature of the structure with its quiet colour, whilst trying to say something about the unknown journey that brought it to rest on that beach.

Working with a small crochet hook allows me to construct in the round, backwards and forwards, up and down, to create the form. I then have a firm object upon which to add various appendages and surface texture using stitch. I aim to make a form using just thread that will be self supporting without the need to employ strengthening materials.

What is your favourite part of the creative process?
Although I am inspired by the whole process, there are two stages that I really enjoy. Firstly, I like drawing because not only is it a learning process but I like the feel of the pen or pencil in my hand and the sound and feel of the tool on the paper surface. When using ink or paint I like to see the flow of the wet medium reacting to the paper. Whether it is a loose expressive drawing or a detailed observation of an object, I enjoy the discipline of reproducing what I see on a two dimensional surface.

Secondly, I do like to get to the point where I can sit and stitch. Stitching can be a meditative process, when the creative decisions have been made and serious making can begin. The repetitive action of drawing thread through cloth is a deeply satisfying activity and to see a project slowly emerge towards completion is rewarding.