Out in the World, Part 2

The Giggles are out in the world again. This time at the Gardner Ale House, www.gardnerale.com/

Giggles are on display from May 11 through June 22 with a reception on Sunday, May 17 from 3-5pm.


This picture has three new pieces. I am loving them, especially the middle piece. It is called 'Your Turn'. Reminds me of a game board. The piece on the right, 'Escaping' is employing some of the techniques of the larger pieces I am working on. Bleaching, attaching other fibers etc. What fun.

As I venture to put this work out into the world more and more I searched for a way to really connect to the community they are displayed in. To that end I have decided wherever the Giggles go I will be donating ten percent of the sales to that community's food pantry. Recipient of ten percent of Gardner Ale House sales is the Gardner CAC, http://www.gardnercac.org/home.html .

More on the larger pieces next time. Also, getting ready to submit an exhibition proposal to a gallery, been a long time since I was on the submitting end. Thankful I have had the opportunities to be on the reading end of things. I should ace it, right? Pressssssure.

Out Into the World

Giggles are getting out of the studio and going to Greenfield. I will be there as Laughing Fibers-Linda Ruel Flynn. I am happy to be re-connecting with old friends. Extremely talented potter Lydia Grey, see her work at www.lydiagrey.com, invited me to participate in the Greenfield Green Fair, www.greenfieldgreenfair. com with other artisans to promote their work as well as buying local when needing a gift, home decor, clothing etc. If you are in the Pioneer Valley this weekend, come check it out. Lets see how it goes.

In Process

I really like sharing pieces that are in process. Glimpsing the unfinished, the unresolved. Here are couple of pictures of my most recent piece. I am continuing with the mapping series. I am enjoying the whole cloth approach to these pieces. Painting on the fabric, cutting, applying stitching, inserting imagery. Creating a map of our everchanging landscapes.

We Can Use This Map

We Can Use This Map, copyright Linda Ruel Flynn, 2009.
(Please do not use this image without permission. It is not nice. Just ask.)

This is the piece I sent off to the Surface Design Members' Exhibit in Kansas City, MO. I began a series of 'whole cloth' quilts that are grounded in daily news reports of loss of land mass, polluted water, displaced species etc. I began to think about the need for our own maps. What would we use to guide ourselves when the cartographers can't keep up with the ever changing landscape? This piece is a glimpse of what the other quilts look and feel like. A map made by an amateur cartographer, used by a community, folded, torn, changed on a whim. It is a tool. I take great inspiration from the American slave quilts used as maps and communications during the underground railroad.

The argument to just keep going

I am going to channel asparagus energy from now on. I bought asparagus about five days ago. Recut the ends, like you are supposed to, put the bunch in a couple inches of water until we were ready to eat it. Well, it is growing. Check out the asparagus sprouts. Now I feel like I can't eat it. It is growing. Now, I don't have any trouble going out to the garden and cutting whatever I want for dinner. Somehow this is different. It just doesn't want to go gently into that good night of sauteed leeks and garlic. At the same time, those new shoots are probably going to be mighty tender.

So the next time you think-that is it, I give up, think of the asparagus.

Going Bigger

New Work
The last pieces were small, 3 and 4 inches square. This piece is 12" square. This piece incorporates a new technique I have been using. Painting on fusible webbing. It has rocked my world. As always photography is a stumbling block for me (so thanks to Jim dear for taking pics) Just wanted to show some new work. Some topics I will be talking about soon...oblique strategies and the surface-not necessarily at the same time. Absolutely Fabulous.

Getting Back in the Studio

...or at least the frame of mind to be back in the studio. Transitions are sometimes hard to navigate. I never seem to have trouble going from working to being home, cooking, throwing myself into family life. It is taking myself from home, and all its coziness, to go back to work. Even though I love the work. It is taking the step to the unknown. Maybe I should look into cultural rituals that mark transition. Like the African American tradition of jumping over the broomstick at the wedding. The Jewish wedding tradition of stepping on a glass wrapped in fabric. What's my ritual?

So to get back I am looking the last thing I finished (finished is relative here) before the holidays. I resolved the design from a previous post.
I did a lot of moving around, serious editing and minimal "quilting". I am starting to not even think of these as quilts so much as fabric assemblages. Now that I type that let's not go down the label path. ick. As my good friend Kathleen says, "It is what it is." How true.



I like it. I am fascinated with the bits and pieces falling about. Patterning and what happens between the elements.

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I had to stop on my way home this morning. Waiting for my turn while the chipper took care of the many fallen trees around here from previous ice storm. I looked out the window and couldn't resist the lines in the road, the cracking and patterning. Took out my camera and here it is. I will be playing with this later. We see what we are drawn to.

Happy New Year.