Canoe Launch Day

Time to dust off our canoe and put in for the season! Here's images of our maiden voyage this season.

Spring on The Des Plaines River Trail

The Importance of Kindness by George Saunders

This book is adapted from George Saunder's commencement speech.

Riparian Zone Process: Update 2

Samples on the studio wall

In the Riparian Zone and in art, edges matter. For example in natural riparian zones, trees shade the stream edges controlling water temperature so young fish and invertebrates have just the right environment to develop.  Healthy soils that border the streams and rivers help support billions of microbes that are the foundation of life.

How will I transition this project from drawings to textiles? You can see planning sketches HERE and the first post about the process of transitioning from sketch to textile HERE.

In art, edges matter too.

Attaching my embroidery hoop with small "C" clamps allows me to embroidery 2 handed.

Smooth edges convey a feeling of order and structure. 

My trusty thimble helps to cut down on the blood letting involved in hand stitching.

Fuzzy edges express more natural processes found in nature.   Our rivers, lakes and streams are completely bound up in human endeavors and engineering so for Riparian Zone, I want to express this connection between the build environment and  natural processes.

My washing machine creates this wonderful disordered edge.

My inspiration for edges comes from a reproduction from  J.M.W.Turner's painting  "The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to Her Last Berth to Be Broken Up".Turner uses soft and hard edges to direct our view to the two boats but the turbulent clouds in the background hint at the monumental changes wrought by the replacement of wind power by steam power in England's navy.

Grids, grids and more grids = expression of city maps.More next week on doings in the studio!

Star-Crossed Galaxies

A Science Friday video captured predictive models of what happens when 2 galaxies collide.