Jennifer Libby Fay

Sugar

jlfay — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 23:14:23 +0000

I’ve been a big fan of James Lipton’s Inside the Actors Studio for years. I especially like the questions he asks every guest at the end of each show. If he were to ask me today, “Jennifer, what is your favorite word?” I would have to say…sugar

Sugar Skull

Sugar Skull Coffee • Onyx Coffee Lab • Springdale, Arkansas •
©2013 Jennifer Libby Fay

I found this delightful coffee blend, my new favorite, at the Onyx Coffee Lab in Springdale, Arkansas. Jonathan and Amber Perrodin of Perrodin Supply Company (check out their fabulous handcrafted artist panels and other supplies) recommended we meet there to talk about the hanging system he’s building for my Northwest Arkansas Community College installation. It takes special consideration to hang three 50 foot fabric ribbons from a drop ceiling, but Jonathan was full of fantastic ideas. I am looking forward to seeing what he devises.

Sugar Man

A friend of mine brought over the movie, Searching for Sugar Man, one night (it’s available on Netflix) a couple of weeks ago and I’m still thinking about it, still listening to the music, still wondering how every little thing that had to happen, happened so that the story could come true. It’s a fantastic movie, the best kind. If you do watch it, I’d love to know what you think. I am putting the trailer here, but I have to tell you, it’s a bit of a spoiler, and I saw the film without knowing the story, which may be the best way, or maybe it doesn’t matter?

Sugar Up

This piece, Sugar Up, is all about love, as in, “I’m going to sugar you up!” —meaning smother you with kisses. Hey, it’s February and that means we can all use a little extra sugar so be sure to give some to the ones you love.

What is your favorite word?

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Do Your Work

jlfay — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 18:09:00 +0000

Monday was a difficult day. Overwhelmed by the events of last Friday in Sandy Hook, I struggled to write a blog post about the project I’m working on for Northwest Arkansas Community College. It was the heartbreaking photograph I saw of twenty-six paper angels atop a hillside that drove me outside for a walk. The Northern California coast, where I am visiting for a few weeks, was at its winter best, the sky heavy with grey clouds, hillsides velvet green and the damp muddiness that comes from weeks of intermittent rain.

Feeling disconnected and out of sorts, I decided to make this a “windfall walk”. I learned about windfall walks a couple of years ago from the textile artist, India Flint at a Surface Design Association conference. India, a natural dyer, walks, somewhat aimlessly, looking for plant material that has fallen to the ground and collects it for use in her work. While India’s work and mine are very, very different—she uses what she gathers to dye the cloth, I use what I find to make marks on and inform my work—thinking of this walking and gathering as an event is very useful to me. Often I think of windfall in the larger sense: what can I gather from what the world presents to me today? Sometimes I collect only photographs, or my thoughts.

Lining the trail is a stand of eucalyptus trees. California and the eucalyptus tree have a rather unhappy history. Imported from Australia in the 1850’s they were supposed to be a quick growing supply of wood for construction and railroad ties. Unfortunately, it turned out that the young growth of the tree was unsuitable to any use other than a wind block, but by the time that was discovered many trees had already been planted. In the San Francisco Bay Area they are an ubiquitous part of the landscape.

Eucalyptus may not have lived up to its potential in industry, and I’ve read that some ecologists think of them as invasive pests, but they do have at least one redeeming quality if you are a textile artist: the leaves make an excellent natural dye.

As I walked along the path thinking about Eucalyptus trees and unfulfilled potential, I noticed at my feet little round shapes with x’s in them. Eucalyptus seed pods…hmm…perhaps two redeeming qualities…like a good windfall walker, I gathered some up and took them into the studio with me.

I have the good fortune to work with my friend Dotti Day in her studio while I’m here. Dotti works primarily in silk and creates whole cloth art pieces. She is also quite knowledgeable about shibori, here, let me distract you with a detail of one of her gorgeous Arashi shibori scarves.

Isn’t it beautiful?

This past week Dotti has been teaching me about foil application techniques and graciously allowing me access to her vast stash of tools and supplies. First she showed me how to apply special glue made to work with the foil sheets. That worked fine.

Then she brought out the secret weapon 007 glue powder. That was pretty fun.

Next we talked about the method of using a Thermofax screen to apply the glue. “It’s easy enough to make a screen,” she said, “you just need to have an image, in black and white, of what you want to print.” Sounds simple enough. To create my image I washed and dried the Eucalyptus seed pods I’d gathered, cut a small piece of felt, dropped some black ink onto it to create a stamp pad and printed a variety of the pod heads in a pleasing manner on a piece of paper. After it dried, I scanned the image into the computer, made the blacks blacker, the whites whiter, and printed it out on the laser printer. Dotti fired up her trusty old Thermofax machine and created a screen for me, then showed me how to mount it into a frame and tape it off.

With the screen mounted it was time to print the glue onto fabric and iron on the foil. I choose for this experiment a piece of cloth I had in my stash and randomly printed my design a couple of times. Then I applied a bronze foil over most of the design then went back and applied some gold foil to add depth.

I am very pleased with the results and can see great potential for using this technique in my work. Dotti generously gave me some rolls of foil to take back to my studio so I can continue to experiment.

What started as a melancholy wander through the rain turned into a productive day in the studio, proving once again the wise words of the Tao Te Ching…
Do your work, then step back. 
The only path to serenity.

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‘Tis the Season…

jlfay — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 23:06:00 +0000

’Tis the season…for giving parties, giving presents and giving thanks. Personally, anything that involves sparkly lights is okay with me. I am especially thrilled to be participating in the East Prospect 2 Exhibition: Art for the Holidays happening Thursday, December 6th from 5- 8pm and Saturday, December 8th from 11am to 4pm at 545 East Prospect in Fayetteville, Arkansas, not only because I am in awe of the work of all the visual artists involved but also because Craig Colorusso, who brought his amazing Sun Boxes to the summer east prospect show, is back with a Cube Music installation. (I’ve been told the lights do not sparkle, but glow with the music, which sounds wonderful.) I will be showing some of my textile paintings and I’ve got a new batch of scarves perfect for gift giving or holiday party wear.

My scarves are also available in my new Etsy shop, if you’d like to take a look. I’ve been experimenting with some new dying techniques and things have gotten wildly colorful—perfect to brighten up those dreary winter days. And, as always, if you are interested in giving a gift of my art for the holidays, or any time, please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions you might have. I am happy to ship anywhere in the world.

More exciting news, I’ve been invited to participate in the Snowflake Salon: biennial invitation 2012 at the Art Bridge Club of Center City, 1616 Walnut Street, Fourteenth Floor, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The exhibition runs from December 14th to February 8th 2013, and there’s a reception Friday, December 14, from 5 – 8 pm. If you are in Philadelphia I would love for you to stop by and let me know how it all looks. I may have to figure out a way to get there myself…

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Folding Cloth

jlfay — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 16:32:00 +0000

I love getting to the Thunder Mountain Studio* early in the morning. Lisa and I have been chatting on the drive here but we are silent as we enter and get to work opening the windows and doors, she does the left side of the room, I take the right. We step out onto the covered porch area on the side of the building and prepare the tables and electrical cords for the two heat presses. Together we carry the heavy machines to their places, one, two, three, lift, and flip the switches on.

Returning inside we organize the classroom and materials for the day, Lisa reviewing her lesson plan and samples while I clear my table and mix up some new dye colors. Misty rain falls outside, called a wet soft in Ireland, Lisa told me on the way here. It looks a bit like Ireland out there—luscious, green and wet.

Yesterday afternoon Lisa demonstrated a couple of Shibori dyeing techniques. Shibori is a Japanese word for a method of dyeing cloth by binding, stitching, folding or twisting it. The folds, stitches, etc. create tight places (resists) that restrict the flow of dye and create lovely patterns. If you ever tie-dyed a tee shirt then you’ve done shibori. On the one hand, an artist could spend a life-time studying Shibori techniques and never learn it all. On the other, it is an extremely accessible technique that produces great results. (Admit it, you loved that tee shirt.)

Itajime (pronounced eeta-gee-may) Shibori is the folding kind. Last night I made a few sample bundles, which hopefully are dry now and can be set as soon as the presses warm up.

I’m thrilled with the results of my experiments and decide to make more. This time I use these wooden blocks to form the resist.

One of the many benefits of attending a workshop is the chance to experiment with something new in a safe environment—I’m not trying to make Art here, I’m learning, I’m practicing. This is good for me—I can tell my inner perfectionist to wait outside (in the rain!) and while I’m not sure how I will incorporate this process into my work when I get back to the studio, I don’t need to know all the answers today. I can relax and enjoy what develops.

The breeze blows, the rain falls, I fold cloth.

*This is Part Two in a series about my experience at Peters Valley Craft Center attending Lisa Grey’s workshop, Disperse Dyes: Reinventing the Wheel. Part One can be found here.

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Peters Valley • Day One

jlfay — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 20:43:00 +0000

I should be concentrating on what workshop instructor, Lisa Grey, is saying about mixing dye, but all I can think about are the ticks. Yes, ticks, as in Deer Ticks, the kind that carry Lyme’s disease. I am in New Jersey at Peters Valley Craft Center attending a workshop called, Disperse Dyes: Reinventing the Wheel. I’m here at Lisa’s invitation as her guest and also because this is what I do. I make art using Disperse Dyes, a class of dyes specially formulated to work in tandem with synthetic fabrics to produce vivid, detailed and exciting results. Lisa and I are among a handful of professional artists using these dyes, which are employed primarily and extensively in industry. I’ve taken many classes from Lisa, been her workshop assistant, and over the years we have become good friends, but still, I’m not paying attention to her. I keep thinking of the ticks. How many do you suppose there are between here and the car?

Tick Talk

This being the first morning of the five day workshop we started with an orientation lecture from Fran, temporary assistant and knower of all things Peters Valley. She brought up the ticks, or maybe I asked about them, and said we should take precautions, like tucking your pant legs into your socks, wearing light colored clothing and bug spray containing DEET, as well as checking yourself every night for the tiny, pinhead size beasts. Don’t worry, she said, the local medical center is well aware of the situation and ready to treat anyone who develops symptoms (a bullseye rash, fever, nausea). I take a deep breath in an attempt to remain calm, but unfortunately the discussion doesn’t end there. It seems everyone has their favorite Lyme’s Disease story: someone’s roommate had it three times in one summer, a friend got it five years ago and still hasn’t recovered. It goes on, each person sharing until we get to, “my friend used to teach classes here, she and her husband came every summer. One year he contracted Lyme’s Disease, they tried to treat it but he died. She’s coming here to have lunch with me today, so please don’t mention it, you know, while she’s here.”

Making Art Makes a Difference

At that moment Lisa calls the class to order and begins instructing us how to mix the dyes. She demonstrates the proper technique of using the enclosed and ventilated dye booth, the scale, dye to water ratio…she knows there are beginners in the class so she is careful, explaining each step as she goes. After she finishes mixing the first color she says, “Okay, now everyone will get a chance to mix a color, Jennifer, would you like to do the next one?” I look up, startled by the sound of my name, and Lisa smiles at me. “Of course,” I say, “I’d be happy to.” All thoughts of ticks, illness and death fly away from my brain as I move toward the dye box. A sense of peace invades. I can do this. Five luxurious days of making art lie ahead. I’m ready. I’ll worry about finding someone to carry me to the car later.

Day One

We mixed a bright yellow and a buttercup, orange, red, flame scarlet, turquoise, blue, cool black and navy. Of course, one could make an orange from mixing red and yellow, turquoise from blue and yellow, but these colors are sold already mixed in the dye powder form.

Each batch of the same color dye can vary due to things like temperature, water composition, and mixing conditions so dye stock colors should be tested first thing—it makes mixing easier if you know where you are starting. Here, the work table is set with dyes, thickener, water and tools. You can see the grass parking lot I was worried about in the background.

Our first day Lisa covered each work table with a different surface: cloth, newspaper, heavy yellow paper, and a length of white kraft paper. We each mixed a color, any color, no testing, everybody just guessed, and selected a brush or mark making tool. We circled the tables one at a time making marks as we went. These papers and cloth may become elements used in future compositions.

After our collaborative exercises, we worked on our own, mixing colors we will work with the next couple of days and experimenting with the different markmaking tools available. I especially love the circular marks made by an antique whisk one of the participants brought. I need to find one for myself!

At the end of the day I can hardly remember my anxiety from this morning. I am awed by this beautiful sunset as I trudge across the grass to the car—tired, fulfilled and unworried about ticks, or anything else, for that matter. Once again, art has rescued me and nature has redeemed herself.

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