Fall Arms

This marks the final installation of the arms that I sewed. For every season in 2016, I installed the arms in the forest behind the house I grew up in. I started with winter and ended with fall, which is what the above pictures are from. For the final season, I decided to attach the arms to a large piece of avocado dyed fabric I had dyed in summer. As it stands, this is my favorite configuration of the arms, attached to the fabric. Subsequently, fall is my favorite season of the year. The light and landscape is at its best for me. 

Winter: http://aprogression.blogspot.com/2016/02/lines-in-snow.html

Spring: http://aprogression.blogspot.com/2016/05/springtime.html

Summer: http://aprogression.blogspot.com/2016/09/grounded-for-summer.html

Garter Stitch

It's been awhile now that I've wanted to learn how to knit. Last month I watched this beginner knitting video made by Wool and the Gang  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8scF8cgm0E and finally started knitting using a basic garter stitch. A garter stitch is a basic pattern created by knitting every row, versus purling every row. "When making a knit stitch, the yarn is held at the back of the fabric. The needle is inserted into the stitch from front to back, and left to right. This is referred to as inserting the needle “knitwise.” When making a purl stitch, the yarn is held at the front of the fabric. The needle is inserted into the stitch from back to front, from right to left. This is called inserting the needle “purlwise.”"

The first scarf I started was with some thin purple yarn. However, I noticed as I stitched more and more rows my scarf was steadily getting wider and wider. After researching beginner knitting mistakes, I realized that I was knitting in such a way that I was adding an extra stitch in each row. Also, my stitches were so tight that I could barely get my needle through to continue knitting. I started on another scarf, in another thicker, tan yarn. I loosened myself up and didn't add any extra stitches. What I enjoy most about knitting is the fact that I can work in short bursts when I have time and that the materials it takes to knit are extremely portable. The process moves along quickly.

Goddess Epona

Epona was a Celtic protector of horses, ponies, mules, donkeys, and dogs. She was the only pagan goddess adopted by the Romans, who prayed to her to protect their cavalry during the 1-3rd centuries AD. They even dedicated a day to her worship on December 18. She is also believed to be a symbol of fertility, referred to as the 'great mare,' and is shown with cornucopias. Though there are no remnants of her cult worship in larger cities in former Gaulish territories, she is believed to have been beloved in rural areas where horses and the other animals she protected were essential to daily life. Sometimes she is depicted holding a set of keys, thus symbolizing her association with being a guide to the afterlife. Three birds are sometimes also shown, further indicating that she was worshiped as a spiritual messenger. She also was associated with roses. Some scholars believe that she was a predecessor to the goddess Rhiannon.

Gracie

Experiments With Poppies

 
This summer I decided that I wanted to grow poppies after finding this site http://www.alchemy-works.com/eschscholzia_californica.html . The information presented and the plants/oils/seeds being sold blew my mind! I decided that poppy was a good plant to grow because of its significance to Native American Indian tribes in the Western United States. It has taken me a little too long to make this post, but in late July I dyed some muslin with poppy dye. Because it was difficult for me to amass a large amount of poppy petals without them going bad (even kept in the refrigerator) it wasn't a very strong dye, nor was it large. I only dyed some very small bits of muslin. At any rate, the results were interesting not for their color-an almost imperceptible light brown- but because the poppy petals stuck to the fabric and adhered to it while drying. I found this to be very beautiful, even after the petals faded from their orangey red to brown.

Grounded for Summer

Little Stitches

Natural Dye Weekend.

Raw silk that I dip dyed in indigo dye made from leaves of indigo plants being grown in the garden of  Louise Wheatley. Louise worked with Olivia Fite from O'Herbals to give a natural dye class using medicinal herbs from her garden. My picture above was taken the weekend of the class that I participated in. 

Drawing Progress

 

 

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

Alphabetized  list of victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Saturday March 25, 1911.
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/triangle/trianglevictims2.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire

The Museum of Extraordinary Things

"...Perhaps this was her rightful fate, to be eaten alive by a fierce beast, a proper penance for her crimes. She closed her eyes and tried to still her heart. If her life was over, so be it. She would be nothing but glimmering bones scattered beneath the brambles, and the strands of her hair would be taken by sparrows to use in their nests.
     The wolf stood in a hollow, eyeing her, but she must have appeared worthless, for it shifted back into the woods." p. 33, The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman.

More Avocado

This marks my second batch of avocado dye. Still not using any mordant-my same recipe from last time, but with maybe five or six more pits.  This time I left the pits in while the fabric soaked, and it has seemed to create these sort of marks and clouds. Another thing I did differently was after taking the fabric out of the dye bath and hanging it to dry, I soaked it in a mixture of half vinegar half water to set it. I left it in there for two nights. The pic below was snapped after removing it from the vinegar mixture and while it was drying.

Textiles Curatorial Internship at the Baltimore Museum of Art

I am so lucky to be able to say that I was chosen to be the summer and fall Textiles Curatorial Intern at the Baltimore Museum of Art. I will be working for the Textiles Curator Anita Jones. I went into the museum two weeks ago to watch the install of their latest exhibit Kimono and Obi: Romantic Echoes From Japan's Golden Age . I could not have asked for a more incredible exhibit to come in on.

Photo Courtesy of the BMA:Kimono Furisode 1912-1989, Taisho (1912-1926) or Showa (1926-1989). Japan. Gift of Mrs. D.M. Cheston, Baltimore 1990.113

In Progress

Detail shots of a drawing in progress. 

Autobiography of a Geisha

" In fact, at that very moment I was walking toward the event that would determine the rest of my life: I was to be sold as a geisha. Yet even if I had not been sold as a geisha, for someone like me, there could never be any road to happiness.

Even now it fills me with anger: I want to rage against the miserable lives we lead, those of us who are born into this world as blots of sin because of a parent's irresponsibility; I want to cry out that a life like mine must never be repeated. No matter how deep in disgrace, a human being is human, after all. The human spirit wanders ceaselessly in search of light; and if it finds a light of some sort, it strives somehow to get near it, struggling, writhing in anguish. Yet even as it writhes in anguish, it is drowned before it reaches the light. If you have the heart of a human being and you become the parent of a human being, then even if it exhausts every bit of your energy, until that child can walk alone I want you to do your duty as a parent."

p. 18, Autobiography of a Geisha by Sayo Masuda

This book made such an impact on me. I highly recommend reading it. 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/70048.Autobiography_of_a_Geisha

Nkisi Nkondi

 A Nkisi Nkondi power figure is a magical charm in the shape of a person or animal created and used in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Nkisi is loosely translated as 'spirit' but is represented by a container that, through substances in the vessel, can summon and bring supernatural forces into the physical realm. The plural form is minkisi. The Nkisi Nkondi can act as oath holders or to resolve verbal disputes called mambu. They are carved and activated by a nganga, a spiritual specialist, and are activated using prayers, chants, etc. They are recognized by being in either the shape of a human or animal, with lots of insertions of nails, pegs, sharp metal pieces, or other sharp objects. Bilongo, medicinal combinations, are sometimes kept in the head but mostly in the stomach of the figure where they are protected by either a piece of glass or mirror. The glass or mirror is considered a portal to the otherworld and spirits can look out through their world to ours. Seeds and white soil deposits found near cemeteries summon the spirits to enlist their help. The insertions are put in by the nganga, and the different materials used represent the severity of the offense. If an oath is broken or something happens to one of the participants, then the nkisi nkondi is activated to either offer divine protection or to carry out some sort of destruction.  https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-africa/central-africa/democratic-republic-of-the-congo/a/nkisi-nkondi Pictures above are from a case containing Nkisi Nkondi power figures in the Baltimore Museum of Art.

I was invited by my former professor, artist and mentor Laura Mongiovi to be a part of The Nkisi Project curated by Sarah Rockett , Tammi Brazee, and Peter Yumi. Myself and 66 other artists created our own version of a Nkisi Nkondi power figure representative of our community. It could be no larger than 1 square foot. We were also asked to include a one sentence statement of what we would like manifested with our object. Pictured below is my contribution. The pink fabric is some of the avocado dyed fabric I included in an earlier post. My one sentence statement was:Through the insertion of pins into the pillow, the ability for a person to explore, travel, and connect with others is enacted. 

I am so thankful that Laura, who was both a participant this year and in earlier installations, thought to invite me. And that Sarah accepted! The show is currently on view at 965 Gallery at the Center for Visual Arts in Denver, CO.

Springtime

Splendor in the Grass

I've re-installed my arms from this project http://www.ameliaeldridge.com/#/tracks-in-the-snow/ .

The pictured arms are in the same woods as the previous install. A mere four months makes such a difference in the landscape. I plan on installing these same arms in both the summer and fall, changing their location and arrangements with the season.

Julie d'Aubigny

                                 I've recently finished reading Goddess by Kelly Gardiner

It is based on the life of Julie d'Aubigny (or Mademoiselle Maupin or La Maupin or Julie-Emilie de Maupin. There are different names recorded for her). Julie was born around 1673 and died in 1707 in a convent. She has no known grave. She was a famous swordsman or swordswoman and Opera singer. She had a famously androgynous appearance, wore breeches, and had high profile relationships with both men and women. Here is a link to Kelly Gardiner's page where she details more of her findings on Julie's incredible life https://kellygardiner.com/fiction/books/goddess/the-real-life-of-julie-daubigny/ 

Kelly's Research blog for Goddess: http://kellygardiner.tumblr.com/

The fictional account of Julie from Six Drawings Illustrating Theophile Gautier's Romance Mademoiselle de Maupin by Aubrey Beardsley, 1898

An anonymous print ca.1700 titled Mademoiselle de Maupin de l'Opera

I'd like to maybe do some sort of ode to her life. I have thought of doing something similar for Anne Boleyn, another favorite woman of mine from history. 

Avocado Dye

Recently I made an avocado dye bath. I used a very simple recipe that I found here https://ruthsinger.com/2013/10/01/natural-dye-avocado/ . I didn't use any skins, though I had intended to but I left them too long and they got too moldy. I instead just cut up 4 avocado pits. I simmered the pits and water for about an hour, and then added muslin pieces of varying thickness. I then simmered the fabric for an hour and left them to soak over night before hanging them on the line to dry. I've not yet set the color, but plan on using a 1/2 cup vinegar and 1/2 cup water mixture to set some of the fabric.

After simmering for two hours, this is what the pits looked like. 

Trixie made a cameo appearance in this one with Xingxing. 

I then dyed another group of fabric in the remaining bath and left it for two nights. This batch came out much lighter, I guess something happened with the heat of the stove to intensify the color of the first batch. I am glad I used as many pits as I did, I would like to get deeper colors next time. Maybe add more pits and simmer for longer. I'd also like to try some different fabrics. 

Shetland Ponies

Women of the Shetland Islands with Shetland Ponies-ca. 1900

The Shetland pony is a breed of pony originating in the Shetland Isles, a subarctic chain of islands off the northeast coast of mainland Scotland. It is believed that the pony has been on the island for over 2000 years, small horses having been brought over during the Bronze Age. It is then suggested that these ponies were later crossed with stock ponies and Celtic ponies imported by settlers. Due to the harsh climate of the islands, the ponies developed into extremely hardy animals. "No place in Shetland is further than four miles from the sea and it is legendary during the worst winters lack of grazing on the scathold would drive some ponies to forage for seaweed along the shores." http://www.shetlandponystudbooksociety.co.uk/about-the-breed The smallest ponies were able to survive the climate, and the breed ranges in size from 7 hands to 11 hands maximum. They are extremely strong, and are considered the strongest horse breed in comparison to their size. They were used for hauling coal, peet, carts, and for ploughing. During the industrial revolution the ponies were imported to England and even to the United States to haul coal from the mines after a la was enacted in 1847 to prohibit children from going into the mines. Their lives were very short in these conditions. The American Shetland pony was developed after being imported to the country. These ponies are noted for being taller and finer. Today the ponies are used for various types of activities, including races.

Ploughing on the Shetland Islands

Pit pony in Virginia

Shetland pony races 

Finished Bag

I finished my scrap bag. I didn't get the best documentation photos of the bag, but I did get some better photographs of my dress.

My cat Xingxing is my best helper. My accomplice in the woods.

I haven't carried the bag yet, but it does feel a bit awkward. I am happy with its large size though, so it remains to be seen how I will feel about carrying it for a long period of time. I am happy with how the dyed pieces look, and it as a prototype in general.

Experiments in hanging.

The dress and apron were made out of old cotton fabric that my mom found when she was cleaning out my grandparents apartment in 2014. My grandfather was moving into an assisted living home at the time, so there was a lot of organizing and cleaning to be done. My grandmother passed in January of 2010. She was an avid and very talented seamstress and made clothing for my mother when she was growing up. The fabric itself is so beautiful. It is stained from years of being folded up and in and out of positions in the sun. There are even markings that my grandmother made in black. Almost a year ago I was in Joanne's Fabrics on a whim and decided to get a pattern for a dirndl, the German traditional attire for women. It seemed fitting when I got home and thought about the dress that I use my grandmother's fabric. So its taken me this long to complete the dress...so it goes I guess. Anyway, I took some liberties in the design removed flowers around the neckline of the bodice and the strings to make the bodice tighter. There is also a shirt that is supposed to go under it. Part of the dress is machine sewn and part of it is hand sewn. I went through a lot of different scenarios in my mind for what to do with the dress (or should I say shell mockup of the dress. I still do want to make a dirndl with the pattern) but ultimately there was too much thinking and not enough action, so I had to go outside and take some photos. My grandmother was German. Her family came over from Bavaria, where dirndls are mostly worn, before the Civil War and settled in Iowa. They made uniforms for the Union Army during the Civil War. In her later years my grandmother was very involved with genealogy and her German heritage,thus it felt relevant to use her fabric for my dirndl. Plus, I have always just felt particularly drawn to having a dirndl! I don't know if it has to do with the age of my grandmother's fabric, but the way light hits it just seems so special to me. In the middle of making the dress I read portions of the English translation of the uncensored folk and fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. I linked the book in "The Horse and His Boy" post. So I am interested in the fairy tale, witch in the woods idea. I think every good witch has a faithful cat as a sidekick, so Xingxing fits right into my fantasy! The flannel shirt was given to me last October. The woods I am a part of are behind my mother's house, where I am living to save money while I go back to school. I used to think they were haunted, wild, and magical when I was a little girl.

Cover Art

My drawing from the series, "Shadow People" made it to the cover of a book! My friend Keith asked to use the image for the cover of his new book, I, Dagger, out now on Empty City Press .

This series was inspired by my first experience with sleep paralysis in June of 2012. At the time I was feeling lost and stifled personally. I woke up one night to what looked to be a black figure in a hat trying to strangle me and a swirling of black shapes/spirits in my room. My breathing was heavily restricted, as though the figure was succeeding in its task to strangle me--thus an incubus and succubus being depicted standing on one's chest. I kept repeating in my head "go away please. go away." Eventually the figure disappeared along with the swirling shapes. This happening profoundly affected me, and caused me to create these drawings. I think they probably took me maybe two hours total. After researching the phenomenon, I found that people reported seeing this same shape/figure. He is known as the 'hat man.' A hag or man with nails in his head have also been reported. These figures seem to be sometimes grouped into a larger phenomenon known as Shadow People, black figures and shapes seen out of the corner of one's eye. Shadow People are not limited to being seen at night, like those figures attributed to sleep paralysis. My experience with sleep paralysis and my hat man caused me to look back to my childhood. I have a memory of seeing a black figure of a man wearing a hat coming around the hall corner the first time I stayed at home alone at night when I was 10. I was incredibly anxious about being in the house-and I very much believed in spirits and ghosts, I have from a young age without question. I felt totally convinced someone was coming around the corner and called out my brothers name. A tall black figure of a man wearing a hat rounded the corner and then disappeared before I could totally look. I also from time to time when I was younger would see black figures out of the corner of my eye. Either way, to get through, I attributed my early experiences to tricks of the eye and anxiety because I was (and still am to an extent) uncomfortable with the idea of communicating with ghosts. But my later experiences caused me to revisit them. Who knows ultimately what happened when I was 10 or waking from my sleep at 22, maybe there really was an interdimensional being present who likes to wear a hat, or it was anxiety and my mind playing tricks on me. Either way, it was a pretty pivotal experience.  To learn more about sleep paralysis and other related expereinces  here is a video done by my friend Emerald Wilkins of The Diamond Net :http://www.thediamondnet.org/sleep-paralysis-and-obe

I highly recommend Emerald's other videos as well, she is a powerful and interesting person

Depiction of an incubus

Tote Bag Pieces

Pieces coming together for my tote bag. This is the scrap piece project I wrote about not too long ago. The dyed pieces have sumi ink on them.