Joyce Makes Art

06:21 pm: Traitor

I feel a little bit like a traitor doing this, but I'm seriously thinking about moving my blog to a different site. I am not much of a techno-geek, and the new site that I'm "test driving" makes it easier for me to do some of the customization I have been wanting to do for the last several months.

Take a look:

http://joycevance.typepad.com/

and let me know what you think.

09:08 am: The Hat

As I was on the way out the door for a week long business trip, I learned that the 15 year old needed a hat for camping. I took a quick look at the Ann Budd basic hat pattern (I confess -- this was so last minute that I had to scribble it onto a business card) and I grabbed some filatura di crosa 127 print I had been fortunate enough to score on sale the previous week. I knitted the hat everywhere. On the plane ride. At dinner the first night (which, given the amount of wine we drank, undoubtedly accounts for the extra 20 stitches that suddenly appeared that night), at dinner every night, even in a few meetings, although I was unusually circumspect in this regard. I managed to finish it on the last leg of my flight home, although the fact that I couldn't get my bag out from overhead meant I had to weave in all the lose ends using a size 1 dpn instead of my needle. Here it is, on the head of the predictably surly child, who claimed it was purple and he would have preferred something store bought. But, of course, I've been around long enough to know he HAD to say that.



I was also overjoyed to have an order of peace fleece yarn awaiting me upon arrival. Ollie was equally happy about it. He insisted that these skeins were his new floaties for the swimming pool.



Tags: knitting

09:16 pm: I have to write an artist's statement

i have foolishly convinced myself to submit some of my collage pieces for a very low-key local show, which is all well and good, but it seems that i have to have an artist's statement to send along with them. this is NOT fun, even though my sweet friend vicki emailed me hers and some great sites to look at. but, no matter what i write, it either sounds pompous or just plain silly. i essentially write for a living, but legal writing is most definitely not a skill that translates to writing like this. the worst problem is that the honest statement goes something like, vance is a self-taught collage artist who flits from interest to interest as new techniques catch her eye, while retaining her old favorites. she creates quirky, sometimes succesful work. she know her work is succesful because her daughter tells her when she likes it.

i don't think that one is going to work, though.

07:53 pm: What do you knit with your first precious handspun yarn?


This really has been a dilemna for me. Such beautiful yarn with colors that wind through the yarn like the breeze through the trees. I have been searching for the perfect pattern forever. I was inspired by the Yarn Harlot's newest book and decided to make a simple hat for my youngest son. And it may well end up as a hat, but it's so pretty just on it's own that I may keep it as lucky charm or a lovey for myself.



Tags: knitting

09:02 pm: A New Journal

This is sort of a new thing for me.



Tags: collage art

09:05 pm: More Knitting
My camera has been wonky, which has made it hard to upload new knitting photos, but hopefully, it's back to normal.

And just in time, because, after months of knitting on tiny needles, IT is done. It is the baby blanket for my niece who is due in early June. The blanket that survived a near disaster with a venti cup of hot coffee. The blanket that I knit at my oldest son's fall concert, my middle two children's Advent concert, through endless ballet classes, and finally, on the airplane (both directions) to Artiscape, only to learn I had done the edging wrong and had to frog, frog, frog, and redo it. I ended up with about 10 inches of yarn to spare.

I really hope that they will consider all the obvious mistakes and the faint odor of coffee that surrounds the blanket to be indicia of its heirloom qualities. It is far from perfect, but it is sort of sweet and nice and has the feeling of something a child might latch on to and carry around for years until its worn and gray and its mother is going to SCREAM IN HORROR IF SHE CAN'T MANAGE TO PRY IT OUT OF SOMEONE'S HANDS AND GIVE IT A GOOD WASHING. So I hope that they're going to like it.



Tags: knitting

02:44 pm: Weekend Art
More art from the weekend.



This is more "me time" art. I'm in that wonderful non-judgmenental place where I get to experiment and I don't have to worry too much about the details. Someone recently said to me, "I'm an artist. My job is to make art, not to critique it." Yea. That.

And knitting coming soon.

Tags: collage art

02:29 pm: Collage Work


This weekend I am playing around with some new things. Just playing. Nothing more. This one is called "Emerge."

10:19 pm: This is not a real entry
I'm only typing so I can see if my new userpic works. I've been inspired by all of my art sistahs work in photoshop and wanted to play a little bit with graphics tonight. This userpic is the result.

03:59 pm: The Knitting Is Taking Over

On Sunday my son, the fifteen year old one, told me, "Mom, the Knitting -- it's taking over." He said this after I casually handed the woman in the starbucks drive through the money for our drinks and then drove on through the line, without the drinks, but with my knitting in my hands, saying "honey, I think I'll just pull over her and knit a few more rows before we go home."

He's worried. Very, very worried. It's a good thing to know I still have a few tricks up my sleeves where he's concerned.

10:38 am: Melody, Measure, and Her Memory
This is one of three in a series of small pieces I did for my dear friend Karen's Art Journal.



She is a singer, so I knew from the beginning I wanted to incorporate a musical theme. I had printed out the image of the man (he's a transparency) for something else, but he seemed so perfect, and I started to see a little story in my mind about a woman named Melody and her love affair in Vienna. I won't tell you anymore. I like ambiguity. The three pieces are called Melody, Measure, and her Memory.

09:24 am: Sara at Mantofev
I don't know if you buy any of your art supplies from Sara at Mantofev, but I heard about her in a zine a couple years back and really love getting stuff from her. She is having a very cool raffle right now -- lots of great art, knitting, art supplies, knitting supplies, you get the idea. http://www.dantesalvatierra.org/raffle/. The reason is a serious one. Her husband Dante has just had surgery to remove a brain tumor and all of their expenses were not covered by their insurance. So please consider visiting Sara's raffle. But do not bid on the Claudine Hellmuth and Lynne Perella pieces, because they are mine ;-)

07:45 pm: Lest you think I have been ignoring you, (yes, you, you know who you are) my camera has been having issues, but my little fingers have been busy at work.

So here, for the record, is a non-pictorial update.

Finally, at long last, and inspired by the Yarn Harlot's new book, I am using that first precious skein of handspun I did last fall to make a hat for Ollie. He knows it is for him and seems quite taken with the process, sitting in my lap and helping me move the needles. I suspect he will be my real knitter.

Also, having ripped the damn fluffy ribbon border to shreds, I am now ready to redo and finish the baby blanket for my niece, who is due in about a month now. The fact that the instructions were just totally retarded really hacked me off. There I was, happilly knitting away on the airplane -- one of the few times in my life I have ever been able to knit in undisturbed bliss since having children -- and it was all just so I could rip it out while the sweet lady at my LYS clucked sympathetically.

I am also about ready to do the neck on the back piece of my Patagonia cotton sweater which I have got to photograph and share with you all because the yarn is to die for. And, I'm especially excited because my friend Chris gave me some stitch markers at Artiscape and I will get to use them in it. Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?

Ok, I lied. I will share one picture -- a bad scan, since I am sans camera. I worked in Beth's circle journal today and this is the little tag I did as part of her sign in. His name is "King Create."

04:45 pm: What do you knit in Alabama in the summer?
You knit this:



It is even more fun in real life than it is scanned. The little pom poms of color escape haphazardly from the knit stitches and are just way too much fun. I was actually smart enough to know this yarn (Filatura Di Crosa Baby, Pom Pom) would knit up so cool, but I had to take a detour to the yarn shop yesterday (due to a horrible, awful problem in the final moments of knitting the baby blanket from hell) and saw a really cute little baby hoodie made out of this yarn. I'm going to do a cool cropped sweater for Ellie -- sort of Anthropologie or Free People style -- and make a special button for the closing out of silver clay (will this justify the $600 kiln I'm now eyeing? I don't suppose so. Must resist, must resist.) I want to do something funky with three quarter-length sleeves, but haven't figured that part out yet.

08:32 pm: What I Came Home To.......


Do you ever wonder if you live simultaneously in alternate dimensions? In case you're wondering, here is what I mean.

I came home from Artiscape to this



*Sigh* Isn't it impossibly beautiful? And it smells heavenly.

But, I also came home to this



It seems that one of my cats, Dragon, really missed me and wanted to bring me a little love offering to celebrate my return. She separated the head and offered it at a different time so I could really feel all the love.

There is more. Tonight is the first night of Passover. For the first time, we used a child friendly Haggadah (the book used to retell the story of the holiday) and it talked about the traditional four types of sons and how you teach each type about Passover. For the simple son, it suggested letting him enjoy the holiday table and absorb it through his senses. But I think Ollie took it just a little bit too far.

10:21 pm: The Last Day of Artiscape
Artiscape is all over. We had a last, wonderful, slightly martinied dinner, and then it was off to pack (and giggle when Andi put the fishnet shopping bag over her head). I have a couple of quick last pictures. Joanne and I took a wonderful class in precious metal clay today. It was LOVE at first sight. This stuff is way too cool. I have one picture of the first two pieces that I made.



And, here is a picture of Joanne hard at work on her beautiful piece with a wonderful scrolling bale.

11:48 pm: The Most Talented Group of Women
I would be remiss if I didn't tell you how unbelievably talented each of the women I've spent time with here at Artiscape is. There is Chris, who can do anything from beadwork (she taught me to knit on wire tonight!)to beautiful illuminated calligraphy. Judy, whose first ever art doll was an incredible work of art. Kathy, who taught felting in the bathroom (pictures below) tonight. Catherine, whose beautiful collage, the muse, is one of the most inspiring pieces I've ever seen. Beth, who has the gift of putting a collage together just exactly "right" while being the nicest person you could ever imagine working next to, and on an on. Jan and Andi are two of the sweetest, funniest people I have ever met. Shirley and Karen make beautiful art and are enormously giving people. Joanne is a beautiful soul who seems capable of conquering every new art challenge someone puts in front of us. Santa uses color in the most incredible and intuitive way. Angela flits from place to place making friends everywhere. Darya, the first of my art sistahs that I ever met in person will always be special to me for that reason -- and I love seeing everything she makes. And, of course, Jean, who I met for the first time at the airport in Columbus, when I walked off the plane and saw her holding a sign that said "DIVA JOYCE." It is amazing to see everyone's art!

This first picture is Karen O. in Jonathon Talbot's class. I really liked this class and although I'm used to working with a lot more texture, his approach was fascinating.


This photograph shows two of the new lovers of felt cult, spawned by Kathy who brought some beautiful deep green merino along and proceeded to efficiently teach felting in a way that captivated and fascinated everyone in the room.


Last photo is a work in progress--I still need to wash the background and finish the design work, but I wanted to post this so I could look at it for a while and obsess over the details before I finished it. I flunked calligraphy and had to resort to rubber stamping, but did some wonderful wash work and have a whole pile of pieces to be sewn into small collages when I get home. This class appealed to me enormously and built on the direction I have been going on my own for sometime now.

09:50 pm: Artiscape! Artiscape! Artiscape!

This is just a quick check in from Artiscape in Columbus, Ohio. It's turning out to be a fabulous retreat! Just a couple of quick highlights:

The view from the balcony of the wonderful room Karen O. and I are sharing.


All the divas gathered before dinner.


Some of the papers we made in the class on traditional acrylic marbling.


Andi, having a wonderful time skimming her carrageen solution and Angela with out wonderful teacher Peggy.


We are all exhausted and very happy. More tomorrow.

08:09 pm: Multi-tasking
Isn't it incredible how women can multi-task? Take my business trip this week. I had to go to Atlanta. One of the younger guys in my division had to go too. He was nervous about his upcoming argument in court and wanted to have the time to talk about it in detail. So, voila, the perfect business trip was born. He drove, we talked about his case. It was a fairly long drive too--about two and a half hours. It is longer leaving Atlanta where there is so much friggin' traffic due to road construction that you are convinced you have died and gone to hell. But I digress. The point here is this: we were in a car for close to six hours when all was said and done. Do you have any idea how much you can knit towards a baby blanket for your new niece who is due imminently in that period of time? All I can say is that I am one happy chick. Court went well and the blanket is, at long, long last, very close to being done.

10:44 am: Indulge Me
One last set of pictures. It photographed much better with the sun up.

Here is the outside



And here, a bit better of an idea of the inside, with my art sitting on top of a stack of paper and fabric that is waiting for the artists to play on. The bells and crystals still don't photograph well, but you get a better idea of the color play. My favorite thing about this journal is that the bells on the inside of the cover make a beautiful sound when you pick it up.