Sea States

 

Recently, I heard blue water sailors discussing sea states. I was intrigued by the term and investigated the Beaufort scale. I love the idea of the sea having a recognized state of being. Water movements, air movements and waves in varying degrees of calm and violence. A beautiful and ancient metaphor for our psychological states, based our own continuously shifting conditions. 

 Katia Mokeyeva and I have a shared exhibition at Timeless Textiles in Newcastle, Australia in March 2016. In our conversations around this exhibition, Sea States presented it self as the perfect theme. We both live and create on the Pacific Ocean, but in very different coastal environments. Our collaborative felt collection will be exhibited on another part of the Pacific. A clear artistic narrative developed out of this geographic triangle; one that explores this common relationship with the sea, and its states of being. Sea states refer to the overall condition of a large body of water—with respect to wind, swell and current—at a particular moment and location. Each sea state offers a beautiful metaphor for our own personal, overall condition, and an excellent platform for exploration in surface design through feltmaking. It's a very exciting project. 

 And it has to start somewhere! For me the long process of building a new exhibition collection begins with this dress. A transition piece from the SHIFT exhibition 2015 to the Sea State exhibition 2016. 

   

A long dark steely grey layout...itself like a great sea swell. The darkness is so atmospheric...like a wintery sea, under overcast skies.

  
Texture is absolutely key to this piece, so to add more dimension I shibori dyed some of the silk organza that would become the wave forms. 

 

The beauty in creating work for exhibition is the opportunity to take time, and work with complex surfaces, in ways that are hard to justify with more everyday felt works. 

 

Slowly and gradually, I built up the wave forms. Each one requires gentle and patient hand work to create the connections of the organza waves to the felt base. This slow time is perfect for thinking/sinking/diving deeply into the theme. What it means for this piece and where I might go with it in the next work.  

 The finished shift dress has many layers; transparencies through overlapping crests high above the surface. 

 

Rachel is my most wonderful model. She is always calm and elegant, impossible to fluster. She keeps her internal sea state at about 1! 

What you don't often see in any of our photo shoots is what is happening on the edges. This photo shoot included a family picnic at the beach....and while Rachel settled into her demure sea state beautifully, there was a lot of action around her....Sea state here is a perfect metaphor for how we hold ourselves as parents...our internal composition while surrounded by blustery winds and strong currents! 

 

The uncropped pictures. I just had to share these with you...this is real life! The ebb to the flow in the thoughtful, reflective felting time in the studio!

  

The dress holds upright the dimensional scupltural forms. They wash over and around the dress like a great wave....And then, once underwater, the wave forms take on a whole new aquatic life...like waving bull kelp... 

 "Kelp’s survival depends on flexibility and extensibility. Each alga can grow up to 20 to 45 m (22 to 49 yd) long and consists of a holdfast, stipe, float, and fronds. The holdfast uses a flexible network of root-like haptera or anchors to attach the kelp to the ocean floor. By being flexible, the haptera allow the kelp’s base to rotate slightly, thus providing some protection from the high torque created by waves." (Biomimicry Guild Report) 

We all need this kind of anchor, and flexibility. 


 

Now, whenever I look out at the water, I try and determine the current sea state. A new way of viewing a familiar environment. I would say this dress has a sea state of 3. There are much more wild conditions to come .....

    

Propagation: a SHIFT dress

 In the creation of Propagation, I build up layers of strata using my shadow felting techniques. This layering adds visual depth, emphasized by the dark line crevices. Cracks in our soil that allow for opportunity. Seed forms rise up above the surface, each with their own colour, pattern and potentiality. Repeating, but never the same. There is some awkwardness in the composition, echoing our own experience as we stretch into personal growth.

 Adding extra dimension to the dress was important to emphasize the potential of breaking through our own crusts and also the delicacy of balance required to inhabit this new and tenuous space. I took these pictures years ago...and held them, waiting for the right time...Propagation is the dress that brings to life the inspiration they provided.



The single leaf carried by a tall, narrow stem... a floating island anchored to the forest floor.



This is my drawing for this dress. It is not complicated...a simple sketch with some notes that outline my direction....This is how I start every piece I make. The gestalt is captured, so even if it takes a year or more to actually come to life, as this piece did, it is easy to slip back into the thought process and chose design elements that will build into the imagined whole.

 

The layers in this piece are built up slowly, like the composition and textures of soil... Soil, as formally defined in the Soil Science Society of America Glossary of Soil Science Terms, is:

1. The unconsolidated mineral or organic material on the immediate surface of the earth that serves as a natural medium for the growth of land plants.
2. The unconsolidated mineral or organic matter on the surface of the earth that has been subjected to and shows effects of genetic and environmental factors of: climate (including water and temperature effects), and macro- and microorganisms, conditioned by relief, acting on parent material over a period of time.

There are many, many layers in this piece....each one laid out with awareness of how it will be affected by the previous one, and also impact the next layers.

 

Propagation is a part of the SHIFT exhibition, a shared exhibition with my sculptural dresses and Barbra Edwards' striking abstract oil paintings. It was a shocking and delightful surprise to see these two pieces together for the first time at the gallery. We don't work off one another, but have similar palettes, and use of form and line. We often don't see one anothers new work, until we meet at the gallery for installation. These two pieces together just astound me.... Strong connections like the black lines, the red pods, the striated yellow at the bottom...the pebble like patterns in grey in the centre of Barbra's work and on my projected seeds....these were amazing revelations in connection....


Barbra and I gave artists talks discussing the inspiration of our work, and the connections that exist between our work, for the opening of this exhibition at the Seymour Art Gallery in North Vancouver. We only see one another 3-4 times a year, and it is always a pleasure- and deepening of resonant links...

 

The shadow felting techniques I use in the construction of this piece, are some of those I will be teaching later this year in Australia:
 October 31-November 1 Shadow Felting
 Canberra Region Feltmakers, Australia (FULL)

November 7-8 Shadow Felting
 FeltWearAble, Melbourne, Australia

 November 13-15 Shadow Felting
 Bunbury Feltmakers, Western Australia (FULL)

These classes are mostly full, but there are spaces in the FeltWearAble class in Melbourne. This is a shorter, 1.5 day class, covering the techniques in an accessible timeframe. I appreciate having the opportunity to deepen these techniques through my own work, and also to share them in these classes. The workshops are always evolving and exciting for me to present!

Warm wishes,
Fiona

SHIFT travels to Vancouver

‘SHIFT’ includes oil paintings by visual artist Barbra Edwards and sculptural feltmaking by fibre artist Fiona Duthie. Both artists use local, natural materials and subject matter in their work with a focus on texture, layers, and colour relationships. Although the artists feel a deep artistic connection, their works are produced autonomously in their respective studios on separate Gulf Islands. In bringing their pieces together, the artists invite the viewer to draw connections between the works and notice their mutual perspectives.

Barbra Edwards’ paintings use dialogue between form and line to interpret her view of the environment on a cellular level. She explores sense of place and how each of us sees things from our own perspective. Edwards cites the natural environment as a major influence on her artwork, and her new series is textured, with vibrant colours surrounded by calm, atmospheric space. She lives and paints on Pender Island.

Fiona Duthie‘s sculptural felt garments employ geological surfaces created through fabric manipulation, stratified textiles and mapping imagery to explore biography and individual perspective. There is a sense of movement in each piece, inferring a geographical, emotional or mental shift. Fiona Duthie is an internationally recognized feltmaker known for her dynamic sculptural clothing and fibre artwork. Felting since 1996, Duthie has a full-time studio practice based on Salt Spring Island.

July 8 – August 8, 2015 Artist talks: Sunday July 12, 2 p.m. Reception: Sunday July 12, 3 p.m.

Seymour Art Gallery 

www.seymourartgallery.com

North Vancouver, BC