This is the place to view my designs and to learn more about what thought goes into my creative process. I research and find designs inspired from the Craftsman Era of the late 1800's to the early 1900s. Some of the designs I have adapted originated on the walls of early homes to add decor to the room, to define room divisions or merely to express a mood. Some came from designs seen on pottery, woodcraft, glassware, tapestries and even jewelry. Other designs I have adapted were inspired by 19th Century Naturalists, often women, who found their means of expression of the natural elements through painting, writing or botanical illustration. The Art Nouveau style is plainly visible in many of the designs. I also photograph many natural elements in nature and create my designs from those images.
The Background
Organic shapes, embodied by clean, sleek, curved and straight lines, always balanced and elegant, form the essence of Art Nouveau. The preoccupation with sinuous stylistic forms in Nature, especially plants, played a major role in the artistic expression of the Craftsman era. The first forms of expression in the Art Nouveau movement were made in the mid 1800s in England with William Morris as one of the forerunners in fabric design and his writings. The movement spread to Europe and finally to America but lasted a brief 20 years from 1890 to 1910.
Artists and craftsmen were seeing the results of the Industrial Revolution and an increasingly mechanized society. It had become all to easy for a machine or assembly line to reproduce objects that formerly had been hand-wrought with care and thought and love. HEART~ MIND~ SOUL were the embodiment of those craftsmen who wanted a return to craftsmanship, quality, simplicity and nature. All objects had to be of beauty and use. The movement was brought over to America by Elbert Hubbard who founded the Roycroft Studios in East Aurora, New York where craftsmen could live and create their artwork as well as establishing apprenticeships for those who wanted to learn the art from the masters. Hubbard was the Founder of the Arts & Crafts Movement (with a capital A & C).
I find that my beliefs and philosophy on life align closely with those from this movement and that is why I am drawn to this particular art form.
HOW IT'S DONE
"No Joy is Joy Save as it is the Joy of Self-Expression" ~ Elbert Hubbard
Once I have decided on a design , I draw it on a poly/mylar film and I cut out the design in the form of a stencil. Some designs can take up to 3 different plates to complete the color applications. The next step is to cut out the design and then place the plates onto a piece of fabric. Then using a permanent quick drying oil based pigment (Shiva Artstik) I apply the pigments to the fabric with a stiff hog bristle brush ranging in size from 1/4" to 1/2" using a "pouncing" method which embeds the pigment into the fabric. Through many trials I have settled on this media for its color intensity, permanency, ease in mixing and blending and because it does not sit on top of the fabric as acrylics do. Once the piece is completed, it is machine washable and fade resistant.
I have always been asked, "Why don't you just do silk screening?? It's so much easier and quicker."
'Easier and 'quicker' is not my intent. I enjoy the older methods and it allows me much more freedom in color application, tones and shading. For me it is not the end product that drives me so much as the process of making a piece that brings me such satisfaction.
A picture can say a thousand words so I will be posting images of the designs.
I sell my work locally in the Willamette Valley of Oregon now and I will soon be setting up a way for you to order on-line.
