Sewing bee - stitch like nobody is watching

I am bad (or maybe it is a good thing) about hyper focusing on a subject. The subject of the moment is the plight of the bumble bee amidst the use of man made chemicals. Taking a break from my studio and catching up with my dearest friends. We had a beach based sewing 🐝.

Knowing my friends would not enjoy a beach weekend of me hyper focusing and preaching to them about how we need to do what we can to protect the bees intestinal flora from glysophate a sewing bee was a super fun solution. We stitched and caught up for hours on end breaking only to play canasta and sip a beverage or two. I see these ladies only once a year so there is a lot to catch up on.  My friends are all super supportive of my art and they are up on the latest problems for the bees intestinal flora. 

I provided pashmina scarves (in everyone’s favorite colors) and coordinating threads. We stitched cactus and bees that pollinate them. We are all from El Paso so cactus was a natural for us. 

Bag to keep our work in, (we all have bags from years past) embroidery thread, a few ball point sewing needles, tiny scissors, pencil or disappearing ink pen, embroidery hoops, and  images of bees and cactus. 

We were getting away from the pressures of everyday life so the idea was stitch like nobody is watching, no judging. No stitch is a bad stitch, and the beauty is in the imperfections. No one wants a scarf that looks machine made. 

Below are images of my pashmina bee/cactus scarf as the work progressed. I will let my friends post their own work and hopefully spread a little 🐝♥️ to their other friends. 

saguaro cactus

Prickly pear cactus 

ocotillo cactus 

yucca cactus 

mark making with thread 

barrel cactus 

this guy ended up rather large. 

scarf w stitching 

finished? I am not sure but the trip is. 

Looking at this photo I must give a tip for wearing a scarf and taking photos- pull scarf up around your neck - 🤪 aging is 👎🏻 On your neck but it comes with knowledge and that is 👍. 

If anyone would like to host a sewing bee and talk about ways to save the bees give me a shout. I am happy to send you images of bees to stitch and help out in anyway I can. 

Artspace111: 6th Annual Regional Juried Exhibition

 As an artist, I know how important it is to get your work into exhibitions. With the Texas art scene being extremely competitive, having work accepted into a beautifully juried exhibit is an honor and privilege to be appreciated. It also takes a fair amount of luck, time and it can be costly. That said I am extremely happy that I recently got lucky, “Portrait of My Cousin” was accepted into the regional Juried exhibition at Artspace 111 in Ft. Worth. The exhibit was Juried by Hilde Nelson, the Curatorial Assistant for Contemporary Art at the Dallas Museum of Art. When there is an exhibition I am interested in before I apply I always research the juror. Hilde sounds like a very interesting curator. Here is her description as described in the call.  “Her work primarily concerns contemporary art at the intersection of memory, belonging, and political visibility. She has contributed to publications and exhibitions for solo presentations of Günther Förg and Jonas Wood, as well as the recent exhibition America Will Be!: Surveying the Contemporary Landscape, an installation of the museum’s permanent contemporary collection.”

I hope to get to meet her. 

 PORTRAIT OF MY COUSIN

48” X 28” X 28”

steel, hydro stone, wire cloth, wire mesh, and baling wire

photo by Nash Baker

Portrait of My Cousin was inspired by a long exposure photograph of my cousin, Arkansas Symphony Concert Master Andrew Irvin, that captured time and movement as he played his violin. I applied the same concept of capturing time and movement in photography to abstract sculpture. The piece is physically very light and hangs from a piece of monofilament connected by a swivel from an acrylic hanger. With one light source the piece cast shadows onto the wall. The air movement in the room causes the sculpture to slowly turn changing the viewer’s perspective. The turning movement causes the 3D sculpture and 2D shadows to disappear into each other and reappear at a different perspective. This creates the abstraction of time, movement and sound energy as the Concert Master plays. The gentle movement can be as hypnotic as a beautifully executed sonata.

It is extremely generous of Artspace 111 to take the  time and trouble to host the Annual Juried regional exhibition.  :) 

Pollinators live in the ground

We all see bees, hornets, and wasps in nests, but most bees and many pollinators live in the ground. That is another reason that it just makes good sense to be very selective with what additives you put on your lawn, garden or crops. I had no idea bees lived in the ground until I started my Impact body of work. Yesterday on my walk I saw this wasp fluttering around in the grass. I hope the homeowner uses inputs that will not hurt the wasp intestinal flora. Wasps are also pollinators but they are not as effective as fuzzy bumble bees. 

Glyphosate #12 (working title) kinetic sculpture -

Editing bee parts and adding botanical elements. 

Glyphosate #10 (working title) kinetic sculpture - another floral add

Glyphosate #7 (working title) kinetic sculpture - adding some details

In order to help the large abstract shapes read as botanical or floral shapes I have added some smaller botanical shapes and vines. I think they help. 

hopefully this flower is abstracted enough but not too much. 

Here is another  

Glyphosate #6 (working title) kinetic sculpture - hydro stone

Regarding the title today I am loving “impact” as a title, I will discuss more on that in another post.

On this day I made abstract botanical inspired  shapes out of a variety of materials. Then I whipped up some hydro stone and put a coat on the largest shape. The next day I started arranging the pieces into a kinetic composition. 

botanical inspired small pieces. 

the large piece covered in hydro stone 

Above I am starting to connect the pieces.  

Glyphosate #5 (working title) kinetic sculpture - flower and 2 bees

I have not added the legs and wings to the 2nd bee. All the bees do not need legs and wings???????? 

When I add the hydro stone it will be easier to discriminate between the bees and the flowers.  

Below are two different compositions using the flower and the two bees. 

Glyphosate #4 (working title) kinetic sculpture - a flower

checking out shapes that hopefully read as floral. 

Glyphosate (working title) mobile #1 - new body of work.

This summer I will be focused on building a body of work that addresses the impact that pesticides have on the bumble bees and honey bees.

“Why conserve

rusty patched bumble bees?

As pollinators, rusty patched bumble bees contribute to our food security and the healthy functioning of our ecosystems. Bumble bees are keystone species in most ecosystems, necessary not only for native wildflower reproduction, but also for creating seeds and fruits that feed wildlife as diverse as songbirds and grizzly bears.

Bumble bees are among the most important pollinators of crops such as blueberries, cranberries, and clover and almost the only insect pollinators of tomatoes. Bumble bees are more effective pollinators than honey bees for some crops because of their ability to “buzz pollinate.” The economic value of pollination services provided by native insects (mostly bees) is estimated at $3 billion per year in the United States.”

 https://www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered/insects/rpbb/factsheetrpbb.html 

 Below is a still image  of a 4D/mobile piece I started last week.

A dead bee without legs and very big broken wings. 

Here is a photo of the shadow.  The sculpture is photobombing on the right. 

Glyphosate (working title) mobile #2 + legs

shadow and sculpture 

Glyphosate lenticular- trying to get it right

 I printed a lenticular from my three mono-prints of a dead bee. I decided to loop the images. That was a mistake when it comes to creating imagery that speaks to extinction. There is no loop and no second chance. With that in mind, I am trying for proof #2 with out a loop of image number 2.

I think this will work 🐝 

Glyphosate mobile - New work -

I might call this collapse and disorder.

I started a new shadow/mobile to be part of my Glyphosate series. Last week I started the wings.   

Above I am started the wings with some leftover pieces from “Bringing Home The Bacon”  held together with new wire. 

a wing and its shadow 

Before I left for the day I threw together a body to slap on the wings and see what the shadows look like.  

I am considering the title “collapse and disorder” for this piece.

I will probably add some hexagon shapes to the sculpture. Which made me wonder why are honeycombs hexagon in shape. Guess what I found?  

Roots #5 after the pour- patina

breaking out the handle 

I coved the piece in liver of sulfur and now it is time to add the green moss.  

adding the moss green patina 

one of the three new pieces added to strengthen the support and spread the load weight. 

I thought I was ready to plan the faux bois handle, but while thinking through the process, it became evident that the root pieces supporting the structure are too small. I am concerned that under the weight of the concrete, they will bend. My solution is to add new pieces that are thicker to spread out the load.

I thought that it would be simple to add the patina to the new support pieces - wrong! It looks like I charred the new pieces. When things go wrong, it can be so frustrating.  

Sandblasted and ready for Patina application #2.  

The patina recipe I am using.  

A tip from David Delgado at Legacy fine art Foundry -  After the  birch wood Casey have some ferric ready and add a wash of ferric before the cupric nitrate mixture. This will help keep it green and not cupric blue. 

birchwood Casey ✅

cupric nitrate 

Just in time for earth day

Glyphosate - bumblebees on the endangered sources list

With Earth Day in mind I would like to remind gardeners to not use Roundup. The chemical Glyphosate impacts the bee’s intestinal flora causing it’s immune system to be weakened. With bees on the decline we can not compromise their immune systems. 

https://www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered/insects/rpbb/

Glyphosate 44” X 30” watercolor monotype 

Hurricane Harvey - Heroes LIVEstock

In my original body of work “Harvey Heroes” the installation. I paid specific attention to selecting images for inspiration from all ethnic backgrounds. During the Hurricane Harvey flood rescue, racial, political gender and religious tensions were washed away. They were not part of the conversation, we were one people. That was the silver lining of Hurricane Harvey, that was what raised our Texas spirit above the flood line. Seeing people of all backgrounds helping each other made me proud to be from Houston. In the installation piece the process I use to get the abstract fluidity marks, dilutes the diversity of skin tones. I feel this process addresses skin tones as Harvey did. The work is very abstract and does not show the details that might define a particular ethnic background, again the spirit of Harvey.

 The exhibition opening was pushed back 30 days, with the extra time I decided to add a few LIVEstock pieces. There were not a lot of images from Harvey of livestock rescues on social media so I created a few of my own.

I regretted I had not made  a buffalo calf rescue piece. Saving the buffalo is my thing. Not long after making the decision to make a buffalo rescue piece I saw an image posted on Instagram of a black cowboy wearing a white hat. Immediately I thought how cool it would be to have a black cowboy rescue a buffalo calf. A white hat would separate a darker skin tone from my murky floodwater background, plus my new 44” X 30” paper and plate would help show more skin tone characteristics than the 22” X 30” pieces that compose the installation.. When I told Curtis what I was planning he, immediately, reminded me of the Buffalo Soldiers. He suggested I visit the Buffalo Museum to make sure it would be acceptable during today’s sensitive times to reference Buffalo Soldiers. The people at the museum were very busy so I did not bother them. I did consulted with one of my friends, artist Romeo Robinson; he liked the idea.

This piece has multiple layers of meaning. It brings attention to the importance of tending to animals in rural environments when floods occur. It brings attention to saving the buffalo from extinction and it addresses regenerative agriculture. Most importantly, it is an opportunity to celebrate and acknowledge the brave men who served our country in the military; the Buffalo Soldiers. They were given the name Buffalo Soldiers by the Native Americans, because the Buffalo Soldiers were as tough, fierce and brown as the American buffalo. They were admirable Americans. They deserve accommodations. While at the buffalo Soldier Museum I learned that the US government has never given the Buffalo Soldiers any accommodations for their service. They fought in the Civil War and WWI, This piece celebrates heroes on a multiple of levels. 

The piece below, the African-American cowboy is rescuing a buffalo calf. The white cowboy hat and white shirt separate the black skin on his face from the chaotic weather in the background.

I made one monotype and two ghost monotypes. See below.

I hope you like them.  

ArtHouston -After Harvey

by Sabine Casparie 

 It took me awhile to get a copy of the 2019 ArtHouston magazine. I could not be more grateful to Sabine Casparie for including me in her article. 

Heritage- impressions

Turning challenging circumstances into opportunities.  

The human ability to start over.  

understanding the hardship and struggles of another people. 

Resilience and having a dream and perusing that dream.

Molding and changing a dream until we reach our dreams.   

lifes struggles  

dedication and passion  

a connection to the earth

compassion that drives us

courage to carve your own path  

quiet strength

laugh lines 

hope for a better life through hard work  

Heritage- a new piece

In the fall of 2018 I started this piece to add to my Heritage series of sculptures.  As a teen, I shaped hats in my father's western wear store and I began to understand that old hats are reflections of their owners, that they keep a bit of the spirit of the person who wore them. When I start a piece I am often thinking about a specific individual and a  challenge they're facing. While working on this piece I had a conversation with a friend about his career. This friend is very very passionate about his profession and has an admirable work ethic. His work situation has been frustrating for several years. There was not a way he could remedy the situation. In the end he turned  challenging circumstances into a new opportunity. He took the leap and carved a new path.

Initially, when I broke the piece out of the shell I was disappointed that there were so many spots that did not pour. The texture is exactly what I wanted, well worn and full of passion and character.

A little frustrated but keeping an open mind, I set it on my utility room counter. I like to set pieces I am working on there so I can glance at them quickly as I go about my household tasks. This allows me to think and rethink my next step with the piece.

I walked by it and glanced over quickly and it hit me, those patches that did not pour could resemble the new path that my friend carved. Is it possible this piece took on bit of the spirit of my friend and his circumstances?

The next step with this piece is to do the metal chasing. Once the metal work is done I need to make a decision regarding the cool spots. Do I want to patch the cool spots or leave it as is.

I will have to ponder that.

It is still sitting in my utility room. I do love the shadows. ????????????  

Hurricane Harvey Heroes- LIVEstock- “bringing home the bacon” The inspiration?

He is one big pig, the beloved family pet that had to be hoisted upstairs to save him from drowning in the flood waters of Harvey. The idea of saving a pig was inspired by a YouTube video posted by a young family in Conroe, Texas. I hope you see in the figure not only the strength it takes to lift up a frightened squirming pig but also the determination that the figure has not to let the family’s favorite pet parish. The pig twist and turns  while straining his back legs straight out trying to reach the ground. 

photo by Nash Baker 

Bringing home the bacon

66” X 42” 60”

Steel, stainless steel lath, plaster, hydro stone, wire mesh, screen and cloth, and baling wire. 

the next pig post -  why a pig?