Process: drudgery and inspiration

First, the drdugery--getting ready for the Midsummer Arts Faire in a couple of weeks. This involves figuring out how to present a lot of my smaller pieces--in other words, making them look 'like art.' I know, I know, they are 'art', but there's still some resistance to fiber pieces being seen as 'fine art'. I'm doing my part to change that.

So I have these small (4" square) pieces that I want to present. I had been thinking of matting them:



(The shot is more than a little keystoned, but I was in a hurry.) But now I'm leaning towards mounting them on gallery wrapped canvas:



I decided I liked them best on the canvas that was just slightly bigger, painted black. So I went to Dick Blick, bought some and a bottle of artist grade acrylic liquid paint--big improvement over craft paint, only needs one coat--and the result is this currently drying:



The bigger ones are for other, larger pieces. I'm going to put hangers on the back, and am attaching the fiber piece to the canvas with double sided carpet tape. I first tried this a couple of years ago with some pieces that are not for sale, and it's still holding on good. So especially for the small ones, where it would be very hard to sew the piece on, I think this is an acceptable solution.

Now for the inspiration part. I walked today through Sculpture in the Park in nearby St. Charles, Illinois. I think they have this every year. Very cool. Here are a couple of my favorites:



This is C.B. Spine by Todd Willing (I think this is him.) Here's a closeup, love the rust:



And this piece, Nice Pear, by Ray Kobald:



The pear is the classic object for artists to try--but somehow this bronze seems to be a fresh take on the subject.

St. Charles seems to have a real appreciation for sculpture. There are several in their downtown area, and permanent ones installed in many of their parks--including this snapper turtle in Mount St. Mary's park:



The show is free and open until the end of summer. If you can, stop by and see it. Oh,and come see me at the Faire in a couple of weeks.

That is all.