Tag Archives: Studio Place Arts

Embroidery Deep Dive

I fell down an interesting embroidery-related rabbit hole while reading the book Fabric of a Nation (recommended in my last post). It reminded me how interconnected a practice can become over time. While most of the works included in the book are quilts, one is an embroidered bedcover made by Marguerite Zorach as a commission in 1925-28. I still can’t get over how contemporary her stitched patterns and marks appear.

Bedcover detail, ©Marguerite Zorach, 1925-28, wool embroidered on linen

If you aren’t familiar with her, Marguerite Zorach (1887-1968) was a painter and textile artist who was married to the sculptor/painter/printmaker William Zorach. I’ve been aware of her for what seems like forever because she was a Maine artist, but I’m embarrassed to say I never took the time to learn about her work. Rather, I was much more tuned-in to her artist/illustrator daughter, Dahlov Ipcar, who created vividly colorful images of animals within lushly stylized flora. They were, as you might imagine, very appealing to a young person.

October ©Dahlov Ipcar, 32 x 43 in., oil on linen

However, seeing Zorach’s embroidered bedcover and finding other examples of her work on the web all these years later, I’m only now realizing just how much I’ve missed by not learning about her sooner. In hindsight, I’m devastated to see that I missed the Farnsworth Museum’s 2017-18 exhibit “Marguerite Zorach — An Art-Filled Life”. C’est la vie.

Family Supper ©Marguerite Zorach, 1922?, Embroidery

Trained as a painter at the turn of the 20th century, like many of us, Zorach turned to the needle in order to maintain and balance a creative practice alongside motherhood. She was prolific, with her resulting textile pieces similar to her fauvist paintings in both color and imagery. These modernist textiles were very well-received, earning her wide recognition and a crucial means toward supporting their family financially. Yet, while her work helped to break down barriers between art and craft, critics still considered embroidery “lesser”, so in time her work fell out of favor in an early instance of the seemingly immortal Art vs Craft divide rearing its head.

I’ve been playing around with embroidery since I was 10-ish or so, continuing through high school and only moving away from it in college when formal art studies took center stage. After our first child was born though, I gravitated to making art quilts as a more child-friendly medium than the pastels and paint I had been working with pre-pregnancy. From the very beginning, embroidery was an important enhancement to each quilted piece.

Celebrating the Stitch

Unfortunately, at that time I was ignorant of the richly stitched legacy that artists like Zorach had laid out more than a half century earlier. There were, however, plenty of contemporary artists to learn from and to follow. Barbara Lee Smith’s seminal book Celebrating the Stitch, Contemporary Embroidery of North America was a benchmark for me as I forged a path forward with stitch.

At the end of January I showed you the beginning of my invitational eclipse piece. Many hours and stitches later it’s finished. I can’t get enough of the embroidery’s texture as it catches the light.

All these years later I consider embroidery a versatile mainstay of my work. Given time, it’s no surprise that any artist’s practice circles back over itself, re-incorporating much of what was picked up along the way. My current pieces include embroidery on cloth, as well as stitching paired with painting on paper. You can see examples of both in two shows opening this month:

Up & Down, In & Out: Embroidery and its Kin
Studio Place Arts
March 13 – April 20, 2024
Artist Social: Saturday, March 16 4:30-6pm

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Solar Eclipse
The Highland Center for the Arts
March 23 – April 21, 2024
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 23 5:30-7pm

One last note: when we visited the MFA, Boston in January, I was beyond thrilled to come across a piece by Renie Breskin Adams, whose densely embroidered work initially caught my eye in Smith’s book. It was the first time I’d seen her art in the flesh.

Being able to study this piece up close was like finally meeting an old friend/mentor in person. And now that I know about Zorach’s history and her pieces in the MFA’s collection, I can look forward to seeking them out too, to learn and to pay homage on a future visit.

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My three pieces in this show: Left: Poseidon’s Garden ©2016, Dye, discharge and embroidery on silk, 26″H x 22″W Upper Right: Mussel Memory ©2022, Stitched-resist dye and embroidery on silk, 12″H x 16″W Lower Right: Caught Red-Handed ©2019, Stitched-resist dye and embroidery on silk, 18″H x 24″W

If you can get beyond the mud on your road, there’s no better way to brighten up a drizzly, gray March day than with a healthy dose of color and the warm tactile beauty of this fiber art exhibition. There are only 10 days left for “Trichromancy”, which closes on March 16th.
Chandler Center for the Arts Gallery, Randolph, VT

That Time Again

A sneak peak at what I’m currently working on…

If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, you know that sooner or later a book post is bound to roll around again. I love reading (obviously) or just living for a while in the world of pictures. But I also get a charge out of discussing books, listening to podcasts about them, learning more about the author’s backstory, what s/he had in mind when writing, and ultimately sharing the titles of those I just can’t keep to myself.

So for this first post of 2023, here are three books I received this Christmas that I hope might brighten your new year as much as they are brightening mine.

David Hockney A Yorkshire Sketchbook

No words, only pictures. A sweet little book of the English countryside through the eyes of one of my favorite artists. It touches on a few of the art-y things that get my pulse revved up: loose watercolor work, organic pattern, and the geometry of divided space.

Inhabiting the Negative Space, Jenny Odell

What a fabulous jumping-off point this book is for approaching the new year! Very short and to the point, it was Odell’s 2020 virtual commencement address to the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Within its pages she pushes back against our current tendency toward incessant productivity, looking instead to periods of inactivity as vitally important for generating ideas. Frankly, I needed a reminder that time spent in reflection and contemplation is valuable, and that mind-space is a necessary ingredient for sowing the seeds of insight and is crucial to creative work.

Drawing for Illustration, Martin Salisbury

Suggested by illustrator Lucia Leyfield (another book recommender!) in her newsletter, this reference book is wise, informative, and discusses aspects of drawing that I find so enjoyable. Very inspirational.

And, because I can’t resist: my latest happy discovery is artist Sandi Hester. Her irrepressibly joyful personality spills into her informative Youtube art videos and her work. The world is so darn serious these days — she just makes me smile for so many reasons.
Below is a video where she talks about her favorite art books. We share some overlaps, but I also learned about a handful of new-to-me artists. Maybe you will too.

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Finally, for those of you near enough to make the trek, I’ll be part of the upcoming exhibition “Transformations: Material Environment, Us”, which opens at Studio Place Arts Third Floor Gallery on January 25th.

Join us for the Artist Social on Saturday January 28 from 3:30-5pm. Please also note that on Friday, February 3rd at noon there will be a panel discussion moderated by Leslie Roth with 3 of the participating artists: Jane Quimby, Heather Ritchie and Dianne Shullenberger.
Hope to see you at either or both events!

The work isn’t over once the brush and needle are set down. Framing is just another step in the process and I think this floating approach is a good way to go with these stitched paintings. This piece, “House on Fire”, will be part of the upcoming “Transformations” exhibit.

Step-By-Step

The snow is back!! — meaning both productive studio time and the bonus of excellent natural light.
As far as my latest post-Roe piece goes, all experiments have been set aside and I’m jumping in with both feet. Here’s a step-by-step guide to the process so far. There are still some ideas to pull together.

First, the figures and letters are laid out.

Next, a layer of masking fluid was added to protect some of the lettering from paint, while other letters are partially stitched.

Everyone is always curious about the back side. This shows areas that have been completed, along with pre-poked holes that are ready for stitches.

With the first layer of stitching complete, the individual portraits begin. The cotton thread that I’m using absorbs the paint but, as the brush flows over them, the raised stitches also tend to repel paint on the paper next to them. This adds an unexpected but welcome visual element to the textural effect.

With the 2nd portrait finished, things are beginning to materialize.

As I work on these I’ve begun to notice an interesting pattern. About halfway through each face, I reach a point where it seems as though the image is failing miserably. But I’m learning that it’s a lack of definition rather than a series of missteps. Not being shy about adding details and forceful darks gets things back on track.

I expect to finish the paintings in the next day or two, and then will tackle the 2nd layer of stitching. Stay tuned for my next post, or keep an eye on my Instagram account, to see how things pan out.

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It’s that time of year.
Studio Place Arts in Barre has just opened its holiday show “Celebrate!” (follow this link for a sneak peek) exhibiting the work of more than 70 member artists. I encourage you to come take a look and to get a leap on your artful holiday shopping. It’s a great way to support both local artists and a vibrant community art center.
I am exhibiting 3 wall pieces and 3 of my Sheltering-in-Place house sculptures.

Exhibit dates are November 9 – December 28, 2022
Maybe I’ll see you at the Art Social this weekend: Saturday, November 19 from 4:30 – 6pm! Many other artists will be there too, as well as a cello performance by Michael Close.
Masks are required.

Face Value

Not to be too overly dramatic, but I long ago reached the point during this pandemic where any in-person human interaction has become the highlight of my week. Over these past couple of years I’ve come to appreciate my trips to the post office, the library and the grocery store in ways I never would have thought possible.

Dignity ©2022 Elizabeth Fram, Ink on paper, 11 x 8.5 inches My hardcover Daler-Rowney Classic sketchbook takes ink and pencil equally well. The 8.5 x 11 size is big enough to stretch out upon without feeling unwieldy. It’s a trusty workhorse.

So I’m not exaggerating when I say it was absolutely wonderful this past Saturday to attend the Artist Social at Studio Place Arts for the Face It exhibition. Plenty of (masked) people turned out and it was so fun, not only to chat with folks I haven’t seen other than on Zoom since last summer, but to even meet a few people for the first time as well. The lift I got from it has lasted all week.
On top of that, the previous Monday I attended my first life drawing session since March of 2020. Things are definitely looking up!

In chatting with the executive director of SPA when I dropped off my work for the show, she mentioned how she felt the time had definitely come for an exhibit of portraits. She went on to say that she’d chosen the subject selfishly because she knew that working in the midst of them would be both comforting and normalizing.

It was a brilliant idea and, frankly, her reasoning is largely why I continue to draw, paint and stitch faces. Even though I often don’t know my subject, I still get a sense of human connection from studying and trying to execute something as personal and unique as facial features. Taking the time to really see someone else is something we’ve all missed, and I hope we won’t take the ability to do so for granted once the masks finally come off.

Face It closes on March 5th. Check out the Seven Days review to whet your appetite for a visit before the show ends.

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Speaking of connection – are you familiar with the word “pareidolia”?
It’s the formal term for the tendency to perceive shapes or an image out of randomness, such as seeing something in a cloud formation.

Lisette ©2022 Elizabeth Fram, Watercolor and graphite on paper, 12 x 9 inches I started experimenting with Strathmore Toned Mixed Media paper last year. It’s been a whole different learning curve to begin with a background that is medium-toned, rather than stark white. It comes in 3 colors – this is the tan. With a vellum surface that is akin to hot-press, it allows for erasures without damage. It is heavy enough that it doesn’t need to be stretched and doesn’t buckle from layers of washes – at least with the amount of water I use. It’s acid free and 30% post-consumer fiber; again, a good workhorse and convenient for traveling out of the studio. It’s what I brought with me to life drawing last week.

This brief article refers to it specifically as seeing faces in everyday objects, tagging the occurrence as an instinctual evolutionary hold-over geared toward protecting us from danger. I don’t know about that; I’ve always thought the images I tend to notice had more to do with my imagination compensating for boring moments.

But lately I seem to conjure more faces (as opposed to other images), which I attribute to all the portrait work I’ve been doing, figuring that I’ve become more finely attuned to the physical characteristics of the human face. Evolutionary phenomenon or not, it makes life a bit more interesting, don’t you think?

Work in Progress ©2022 Elizabeth Fram, Stitched-resist dye and embroidery on silk Slowly but surely this piece is coming along. This week has been all about working with the hair. It needs more color, so I still have a way to go – plus, I haven’t even started with her shoulders. I’m having a bit of a love-hate affair with the background pattern & color. In the long run I think it will elevate the piece, but it has surely made the process more challenging.

White-on-White

It felt great this past week to get back to my embroidery frame and to begin a new stitched portrait. I had been casting around in the studio wondering who or what would be my next subject when, as so often happens, the answer appeared out of nowhere.

I start each piece by drawing the image directly on the silk. For those of you who are interested in such things, this is by far the best water soluble pen I have ever used. Other brands tend to dry out very quickly, but this one is going strong after almost a year. Part of this may be because the top snaps on quite tightly.

In an email from one of the many art organizations that regularly add to my inbox, I stumbled upon one artist’s brilliant observation in response to a general request for favorite art business lessons from 2021: what you create is “just the beginning”. On the surface that sounds so basic it’s almost silly, but when you stop to think about it, it’s pure gold.

This past week I have been making my way through the initial stage of the process: stitching the image with white silk thread on un-dyed raw silk. I tend to keep adding guidelines with the erasable pen as I go along. They act as a directional guide for the stitches, helping me to better describe the form I’m trying to represent.

She went on to clarify what a game-changer it was to realize that each piece she makes isn’t necessarily a one-off, merely to be archived, but rather just the first step in a continuum that builds upon itself.

In other words, pretty much everything we make creates a foothold for something else that will come later. In this instance, it was like a lightening bolt to realize that my quest for a subject was right here in my studio. I have a stack of pre-covid life drawings to pull from for this and maybe other portraits.

A variation in stitches distinguishes the hair from the facial features.

Whether sourcing drawings in my sketchbook, a particular stitch or dyeing technique used in the past, or some novel approach to layering various media together, every piece I make contributes something to my “toolbox” that I can reference in the future.

With the blue ink removed, the piece becomes a study in textures. The sheen of the silk thread is an important element that allows those textures to stand out. The next step will be to overlap the image with a dyed pattern. Come back in 2 weeks to see the progression.

The bottom line is none of the work we make exists in isolation, in fact, we just keep adding to our limitless creative bank accounts. And the beauty of that fact is they are always available to draw from when needed.

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Opening this week at Studio Place Arts: A world of portraits by 30 different artists, including yours truly.

Face It
January 26 – March 5, 2022
Studio Place Arts
201 N. Main Street
Barre, VT 05641

Gallery Hours: Wed – Fri: 11:30am – 5pm, Sat:11:30am – 4pm
Art Social: Saturday, February 19, 3:30 – 5pm (masks required) …..Hope to see you there!

Face To Face

January tends to feel more expansive than any other month of the year and thus seems much more open to opportunity. December’s stepped-up pace and the additional chores brought on by the holidays are now behind us, and long snowy days make sticking close to the studio even more attractive than usual. With that in mind, I decided to take an online class this month that revolves around drawing faces. 30 Faces/30 Days, offered by Sktchy, has been a series of daily video lessons from various artists, touching on such subjects as “Capturing Facial Proportions” and “Energizing Your Lines.”

“Drawing Blind”, one lesson encouraged taking the time to do one – or several – blind contours as a way to warm up before tackling a drawing. It’s such a great exercise that always results in something unique.

©2020 Elizabeth Fram, 10 x 6.5 inches, Graphite and colored pencil on paper. This is the more formal rendition of the same image as the contour above. While I’m not a big proponent of drawing from a photograph, it was necessary for the class and I’ve come to realize there is still much that can be learned from the process.

I’m glad I took the leap. What you see here are a sampling of my results.
Each lesson contained some unexpected, helpful nugget, so that as the month ends I feel I’ve reaped plenty of fresh info to keep in the back of my mind, not just during future life-drawing sessions, but when drawing in general. And who knows how it may surface in my textile work. Probably the most fruitful aspect overall has been the push for regular practice.

Thinking along this same general theme, the one element of the impeachment trial that I’ve actually enjoyed has been seeing Art Lien’s sketches of the trial itself. The Senate chamber has been swept clean of all cameras other than the one trained on whoever is speaking. Lien, (who usually covers the Supreme Court — no cameras allowed there either) and two other artists were allowed in to give us a chance to see what’s happening around the edges.

Lien’s drawings are so much more descriptive than TV. His watchful eye captures personality and individual quirks that we might otherwise never see: the sock-less Senator Burr, the press corps literally sitting on the edges of their seats, Senator Portman’s illegal cell phone, and Mitt Romney’s bottle of chocolate milk that had to be quickly decanted into a glass.

For anyone interested in the art of sketching, it’s fascinating to see the depth of information Lien’s deceptively simple lines portray. His work underscores one of the things I love so much about the practice of drawing — by really looking, you catch and solidify details that bring back the richness of an experience long after it has ended.

The January 14th Debate gave me a taste of how hard Art Lien’s job really is. Even though I wasn’t seeing the candidates in person, the fact that they were moving added more life than is possible with a still photo. It was an advantage that they each kept returning to the same general position as they talked to the moderators or the camera. These sketches each took several rounds of answers before I could capture the general essence of what I wanted.

Lien is not the only sketch artist in the room. Read this article for a deeper dive into the weeds about the artists covering the trial, including some discussion on the materials they use, etc.

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If you happen to be nearby and need a reprieve from the snow and ice, check out the show Botanical Blitz (up through March 7) at Studio Place Arts, 201 N Main St. Barre, VT. It is a vibrant and colorful oasis inspired by plants, animals, and insects – a visual respite from the depth of winter. Read Mary Gow’s review in the Rutland Herald for a taste of what is on view.

In Praise of Brevity

One of the side benefits of writing these weekly posts has been gaining a more thorough appreciation for and understanding of the art of editing, not just in writing but across the board.

Jonathan Shahn, Seated Figure, 1978, pencil on paper, 17 x 14 inches The emotion in this fluent drawing by sculptor Jonathan Shahn thrums with a quiet strength.

What I’m learning through regular writing, and now in my life drawing sessions, is what a steep hill there is to climb in figuring out how to get the full measure of a message across while trying to remain concise. I have a hearty respect for those who seem to have a talent, whether innate or through hard work, for distilling their thoughts into neatly succinct points, granting us access to a deep well of ideas with a minimum of lines, either written or drawn.

The art of haiku skewers the heart of a universal idea or feeling with such accuracy that one might consider it something of a miracle in a handful of syllables.

The snow is melting
and the village is flooded
with children
~Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827)

I’m sure it won’t surprise you that I was thinking about and inspired by Shahn’s and Issa’s editorial abilities as I drew this week.

On Another Note__________________________________________________________________________________________

If you are near to central Vermont, treat yourself to a visit to Studio Place Arts in Barre to see the current shows. In the main floor gallery Pleased to Meet You! is a wonderful mixture of works that bring fantastical, imaginative creatures to life while providing a welcome break from reality. Hannah Morris’ The Feast of Fools, collaged paintings and soft sculptures in the Third Floor gallery, “explore the intersection of the sublime, the absurd, and the mundane in recognizable moments and places”.
Both exhibits run from March 27 – May 12, 2018.

I walked away from my afternoon visit at SPA uplifted by how successfully it models the best of what a community art space can be: galleries, studios with accessible artists, and an executive director who actively engages and educates visitors without being intrusive. If you can, go see for yourself.