BLOG HEADERS 1-5

These are blog headers from my early blogging days. The earlier template was narrow with less options.

Click on titles - from the top:

Cross Collages close-up photos from my website.

Nantucket Color This Nantucket street scene was a favorite of many.

Dye Vats & Marimekko Patchwork on studio wall.

Painted Papers are a staple in my studio. I save even the scraps.

Beach Horizon from a book of coastal collages.

As in the header at the top of this page, the blog title is added once the picture has been sized and imported into the blogger program.

SORTING & STORING

A question from a blog reader:

How do you sort your various colored papers? I see flat boxes in the photo, are these stacked and labeled somewhere in your beautiful studio?

I use cut down cardboard boxes from the supermarket to sort materials, keeping my workspace organized.

If you're interested, these are found at the end of the aisles and hold the cans or jars that came in those boxes. As they empty, they are thrown away.

Currently they've been holding my painted papers, organized by color.

But what about storing the painted papers when they are not in use? I keep it simple.

They come out of the cutdown cardboard boxes and are all stacked in one plastic box. Color on color.

Then back on the shelf along side other boxes, holding all sorts of materials like this box of glossy pictures I use for collage workshops.

MAKING PROGRESS

I think

I paste

19 squares

snowy days &

snowy nights

click on photos to enlarge

previous wintry mix posts

GET OUT THE GLUE

Thursday am

gluing snow on squares

late in the day

yesterday

I love my snow fabrics!

more this morning.

CHOOSING A DIRECTION

I thought the snow squares, that I made this week, were sort of all over the place-design wise. Time to eliminate and concentrate. Choose a basic design I liked and go with it.

Remembering the Happy Houses I did back in October, I decided to pursue what happening design-wise in 2, maybe 3 of the wintry scenes. (winter squares in center photo)

Keep the winter sky the main thing. Keep the blanket of snow the same size in each & play with the colorful houses against the snowy day and night time wintry weather.

People think I shop a lot for fabric. NOT! I rarely if ever run out to the store for fabric. I have plenty! In this case, I've been collecting fabric that looks like snow for a couple years now. Last year I worked quite a bit with the wintry collection when I was making the collages for Waiting For More Snow.

I've had these projects in mind for quite a while. All my snow fabric, drawings, and other related materials have been in a box waiting for this moment since last winter.

GRAY THEN DARK

It was a gray day.

I worked on the snow squares but by 4 pm it was dark & not good for picture taking.

This is a photo of the studio the other day when I was getting ready to start the snow project.

Recently painted papers, fabrics, glue, brush, pasting papers & sewing machine set up. Snow inspired art on the leaning shelves.

It's no longer neat and organized, now that I'm working on the project, dipping into all the materials.

SNOW SQUARES

returning to 6x6 inch snow squares

some started

some cut - not pasted down

where is this going?

I don't know

will just keep making them

the art usually starts taking a direction of it's own

trusting the process

IT'S SNOWING

As predicted, it was snowing when I got up this morning.

Nelson had Waiting For More Snow open to this page by the window.

It's snowing!

click on photo to enlarge

Click here to see the process of creating Waiting For More Snow by Marge Malwitz.

SNOW BOOK IS PUBLISHED

Sent files to Blurb on Friday.

Wednesday it's delivered.

Published:

Waiting For More Snow

Marge Malwitz

Is that service or what?!

Expect to put online in

Share Your Blurb Book.

Will post when.

OK LET'S SHARE THE STORY ROPES

1/5/12 seminar:
Going Cross-Culture with Art

the end of the day • one at a time • sharing their stories • traveling down • touching piece by piece • colors and patterns • telling their stories • never heard

SHOW 'N TELL

1/5/12 seminar:
Going Cross-Culture with Art

coming post:

completed

story-ropes

accordion books

to see all Up from the city

seminar posts -

click on label below:

TODAY IT SNOWED

It did - finally!

With the wintry weather outside, I began to work on more snow inspired work.

Began to paint paper and fabric today.

More layers of color to be added with additional paint and printmaking with rug scraps, sponges & corrugated cardboard.

Feels good to be creating again!

photos:

• sponge painted fabric

• paint table setup

* studio setup

click on photos to enlarge

CUTTING & PASTING

1/5/12 seminar:
Going Cross-Culture with Art

a challenge

a story

their story ?

symbols ?

times of light & dark ?

whatever

4 pages

accordion book

create !

upcoming post-sharing their stories

PARTNERING AT HOME AND OVERSEAS

1/5/12 seminar:
Going Cross-Culture with Art

It's an unusual partnership we have, an artist and a non-artist, collaborating & working so well together.

I've arrived in her part of the world with artwork, mostly quilts, that we've collaborated on & we've treked around sharing them with friends. We've traveled together to the 'back of beyond' to do the story ropes and art presentations with old and new friends.

At home we've been asked to share our combined experiences & know-how with other artists inspired to do the same but not quite sure how to begin. It was like that with our friends up from the city, as I've been sharing in the posts. The group observed there was a natural flowing working relationship between us. It's developed over the years. We've observed from our different working worlds, that it's quite unusual and not the norm.

My friend brought the pink heart along to the seminar. It's an object lesson - about the heart turned to God yet struggling with the old ways. She pulled all kinds of things out of the heart as she had our rapt attention! The heart needs some technical help so I'll be working on it before she uses it again.

photos of us at the seminar

READY TO PUBLISH

Friday am

Sending book off today.

Another image wrap hardback.

4th to publish through Blurb.

On to the next book!

Some limitations in Blurb's BookSmart program. Book spine can only be white.

TACO SOUP & CONVERSATION

1/5/12 seminar:

Going Cross-Culture with Art

A lunch of taco soup & salad was followed by a time of questions & conversation in the living room.

How are they using the arts cross-culturally?

What's been done in the past?

Who is their audience?

How do they connect with people?

After sifting through the conversation, I thought sharing ones own story, was still one of the best ways to connect with people.

Our two projects were all about personal story. We did the story-ropes just before lunch & they'd be creating accordion books that afternoon.

coming up: the heart

FINISHING UP THE SNOW BOOK

Wednesday morning

Working on "Waiting For More Snow" this morning in BookSmart. Here's the title page:

Tackling the cover and another introductory page this morning.

Getting it ready for Blurb. They'll be publishing.

COMING UP......

1/5/12 seminar:

Going Cross-Culture with Art

coming tomorrow:

eating

conversation

& a heart

PIANO KEYS?

1/5/12 seminar:

Going Cross-Culture with Art

It was interesting making time-lines (AKA story-ropes) with young adults.

One of the guys was convinced there would be only three ties on his time-line. After all how much had happened in his life so far?

But then the ideas flowed and his time-line filled in with all different colors and patterns, thoughtfully chosen out of the scrap box, representing special markers in his life so far.

The core fabric he chose reminded him of piano keys. I was expecting to hear about some music in his story.

By the way, his story-rope, as you will see in an upcoming post, turned out great!

photos: making their story-ropes

seminar stories continue in next post

TIMELINES IN FABRIC

coming tomorrow

CHOOSING FABRICS part 3

1/5/12 seminar Going Cross-Culture with Art

After a short break, it was back up to the studio where we went through the how-to of making story ropes.

Simply put this is a story timeline, told with fabrics and other materials. In this case they were challenged to tell their personal journey.

I put out 2 big boxes of scraps, a table top covered with fabrics, plus ribbons, buttons, sequins, yarns, etc.

Look at the guys studying the fabrics, as they rummaged through, choosing specific colors and patterns for their timelines.

"How did it go in other workshops, doing it with guys?" they asked. I had to admit, I had never done it with them before!

Considering this looked to be a new experience for them, working with fabric, they were great sports and did very creative story ropes as you will see ahead !

Next blog post: making the story ropes.

LOOKING AT 7 QUILTS part 2

1/5/12 seminar - Going Cross-Culture with Art

The day of the seminar, began up in the studio.

My friend and I, having traveled together cross-culturally, talked about 7 narrative quilts. Three of the quilts were shown to groups we met with as we traveled together.

Each quilt engages the viewer through the picture story that flows across the face of the quilt.

This first session was about the power of art that tells a story. After talking about the content of each piece, we also told of the audiences we showed each quilt to and their reactions.

Most discussion centered on the two quilts on the work wall, as seen in the photo. The group stood to get a better look while they listened & asked questions.

previous 2 posts picture the other 5 quilts.

next blog post: the group makes story-ropes