thelmasmith

Do click on the thumbnail.  This image is much better larger.

I went down to the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory last week. I had not been to theVisitor’s Center in a long time. It was gratifying to walk in and after all these years look up and say, “Oh, those really aren’t too bad.” It’s part of never particularly liking any work when it’s first finished. It’s pleasing to see that the pieces, each specifically dyed for it’s place in each quilt, are still gracefully doing their jobs.

They are getting some morning sun. What I thought was north was in fact east. But driving up the winding mountain road over the foothills into the base camp at 4200 feet leaves one with no known landmark and no way to assess direction. From indoors in the Visitor’s Center one has not sufficient light to designate direction of light even knowing the time of day.

It’s pretty cool, after so many years to revisit work. Yes, they are losing some color due to the light. No, there is absolutely not one thing that can be done about it. Textiles are ephemeral; it’s easier to accept that truth. The subtleties of change are more apparent when one has years between visits.

In the meantime, a lot of quilters come and enjoy. Even the gentleman who runs the gamma ray experimental program has commented on them. They are not accurate astronomy; just an artist’s interpretation.

A request from an old friend sent me to the old slide master files. She remembered a commission I had done in 2002. One of the things it proves is the foolhardiness of keeping backup on Cds. If they aren’t clearly marked you will never find what you are looking for.

Since I keep images in my picture files on an external hard drive to keep the speed of my machine and I’ve changed machines since then it was a challenge. However the artist’s statements were still in the 2004 business files. TMI, I know, you didn’t need to know all that.

These images are commissions that were made in 2002 and before.  They are in private collections.  This is probably the only chance you will get to get a glimpse of them.

Preliminary sketch.

One of the images, backed by textiles that was sent to the gentleman who was handling arrangements for the commission.

The cliffs along the highway, byway, along Patagonia Creek. This is the road from Nogales, through Patagoia to Sonoita. You can see the image in the snapshot and the detail.

The far mountains were too bright; they advanced too far in the picture plain. They were covered with a printed sheer. The lines were then couched to reinforce the shaping while retaining the distance.

This is, by far, my most favorite detail of the whole work. Click the image to enlarge. There is a coatamundi in the lower left corner. The tall agave blossom tell that that particular agave has reached it’s life’s end.

The whole image, All is Right With the World. It is five feet high and eight feet long.

See all those folds in the mountains? Every one of them is a passageway for a traveler who is looking for a way to feed his family. For every traveler who gets through safely and finds a job a village of forty people stay at home, retain their own culture, and survive from the wages that one poor man sends home.

Other things to remember about the Sonoran Desert, it is the wettest, greenest desert on earth. You will see the Patagonia Creek Ford at the lower right. In reality that ford is three miles down the road. It is fed by an artesian spring up in the hills above Sonoita. It has fed this land for eons.

Water in the desert is rarely seen; it is like the force that runs the universe. Seldom seen, yet it’s effects are seen everywhere.

Now, I’ll show you an earlier commission, Desert Icons, that led to the one above.

This is the mountain range I see from my workroom windows. The mountain on the left is Mount Hopkins. It is home to the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory. To the right is Elephant Head. If you look closely you will see his ear and his tusks. These mountains are all volcanic remains.

My favorite detail from Desert Icons, the Harris Hawk. He is about the size of my fist and I have small hands. There are twenty one different pieces of fabric giving him life. His stick nest is appropriate as the sahuaro is the place the hawks nest. It was made by destroying a child’s toy witches broom.

The last, Painted Desert, now in a private collection in France. This piece was the original piecework of the far, rolling, valley in AIRWTW; it was much too bright. It landed in the dustbin. I finally thought, no, it’s much too beautiful to throw away. I cut it and added the brilliant red orange, turned pieces this way and that. The backing was turned in instead of binding the work.

Twenty Second Street is one of the arterial boulevards that runs east/west across Tucson. I saw this sign the other day. The next day I circled back, stopped, put the four way blinkers on the little red roadster. I got a decent image. What’s more is that I got it without being mowed down by dump trucks and semi tractors.

What is wrong with a society that kills off it’s children generation after generation? ? ? It’s nothing new; look at history. Am I stupid or something? I just don’t “get” it.

The bumper sticker on the Toyota says “Amy Goodman for President.” She’s the anchor for Democracy Now. Here’s the link for information on the Karl Rove resignation.

We wonder why the whole teenaged society has adopted the “don’t snitch” policy that was mentioned on 60 Minutes last night. In my opinion, CBS got one thing wrong. This distrust of authority has been fostered by our society. It is not just a phenomenon of the poor or the immigrant societies. The biggest contributor to this fear was summed up in a bumper sticker I saw weeks ago. It addresses the political tripe of “family values.”

Family Values Is Having Your Brother Steal the Election for You.

Uh, huh. Take a look at the Virtual Iraq War Protest. Gerrie, lift these images to add to your collection there.

Wonderful cedar tree trunks; the trunks are actually quite hairy.

The Tougaloo Campus is five hundred acres. The college began in 1869.

The image, is one of the Las Madres with artist, Valarie James, as it was being unpacked at the Tubac Center of the Arts in February, 2006.  It was a portion of the exhibition Changing the World one Thread at a Time.

Still, people are dying. Valarie James has produced one of the most professional and lyrical laments and memorials to this sad process. Las Madres, No Mas Lagrimas YouTube is well used and the subject matter is well served in this short film.

The back story on the journey of Las Madres is on Valarie’s blog.  Fortunately, the monsoon has come to the Sonoran Desert. It brings vicious squall lines, torrents of water, thunder, lightening, and flash floods. It also brings us much needed water, humidity, and a cooling of the intense heats of June and early July. A thunder storm can lower the temperature thirty degrees in a matter of minutes.

Pictured above are Sonji Hunt and Rhonda Blasingame. Do go to Sonji Says for a much more complete description of the class. Rhonda, please contact me; I’m unable to find how to email you.

Among the things I firmly believe is the idea that textile art is not well served by being kept to itself. We use the words art quilt and wonder why no other artists are interested in our work.

I went to the Tougaloo Art Colony in Jackson, Mississippi, last week because the words said art colony. I have never spent a week so joyously.

Ceramicists, painters, enamelers, textile workers, all noted and acclaimed instructors, most who were professors at other institutions came together for a week of very intense study. Very intense study was combined with very intense discussions, meals, trips out here and there.

Adding to the mix of intelligent conversation and hard work was the multi cultural aspect of Tougaloo. Above are Debbie, Sonji half hidden, and Annie from Chicago. Sonji will have much better pictures and more details.

I think this was about the point when we had all painted yards and yards of fabric and were beginning the next step in Sonji’s process.

It was quite interesting; each of us immediately had a recognizable painting style. We were creating layer after layer of painted fabric. Each layer from the big stack related to the painting before it.

Rosalind, our teaching assistant, is backed by Rhonda’s rust dyed works just behind Rosalind and on the left. The bright multi colors to the right are all Sonji’s brought to give us some idea of what and how the process goes along.

Do not be fooled by Rosalind’s seemingly plain pink fabric; when done it was a gorgeous blue fabric with pink underlays.

I’ll be more on my game tomorrow and the next few days. In the last eight weeks I have made fourteen separate flights. The airlines are fourteen for fourteen. Every flight was either delayed, double booked, canceled, delayed for mechanical problems, delayed for lack of crew, or delayed by weather. In spite of the cost of fuel I think next time I will drive.

That means I plan to go back to Tougaloo next Art Colony. It will be an entirely different group of professors. I have no idea what I will sign up for. I do know that I wanted to get my hands in to every medium that was taught next week. I’m hoping they will extend the Art Colony beyond one week

I spent an afternoon the other day doing a lot of research on the Gees Bend women and quilts. Many of my references (below) require membership in the QuiltArt list. Some of the messages I wrote I will reprint here.

“October 6, 2002, please pick up or check the library for the November issue of Conde Nast’s House and Garden. Page 98 is titled Stitches in Time by Barbar Pollack. Shown in four color are Annie Mae Young an her indigo quilt. Also shown is a quilt by Mary Lee Bendolph. A Rachel Carey George quilt, 1938, that is the most subtle and lovely of them all. Netti Young’s Milky Way quilt, and the late Lillie Mae Pettway’s 6′x5′ quilt made in 1965. And last, but certainly not least, Loretta Pettway’s quilt made in 1960.”

My statement, seriously edited to placate the demographics of the QuiltArt list says in part, “Those purchases - - - gave the curators a wealth of opportunity - - - That body of work is unlikely to be reproduced by women in their seventies and eighties so the preservation is a mixed blessing.”

Gwen Magee countered, ” - - - gave the curators “a wealth of opportunity” to take incredibly unfair advantage of extremely poor people who had no idea that they were being “ripped off” and of what their work was worth.”

Naturally, the nature of the QuiltArt list created great uproar. Gwen’s integrity and credentials were despicably questioned. All I could do was give this response, “I want to commend her (Gwen) for the courage I lacked. I deleted a lot of sentences about my own feelings about the article I read.

My strongest emotions were those of anger, shame, and theft;”

Now, with the lawsuits beginning, those emotions of anger, shame, and theft are here again. They are tempered with hope. My wishes are to see the theft of copyright from these women for avarice and monetary gain righted. I certainly hope the attorneys for the women of Gees Bend see too it that punitive damages are requested in very high numbers.

Kyra Hicks blog, Black Threads, clearly examines the current situation. Please, go, read, scroll down, absorb all the unsavory details. Kyra writes of today’s news with dependable accuracy.

If you wish further information I’m adding a long list of hotlinks. Those from his.com are QuiltArt proprietals; you must be a member to access those hotlinks in their archives.
Gee’s Bend Quilters Claim Big Rip-Off
http://www.al.com/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/1181035097167800.xml&coll=3

Tiny URL: http://tinyurl.com/2fho5j

And would you believe, Matt Arnett now has a blog (only one posting):
http://tinwood.blogspot.com/2007/06/attorneys-for-arnett-family-respond-to.html

July 3, 2007, addition:  Matt Arnett now has two postings to his blog (the most recent one is about their press conference the other day. http://tinwood.blogspot.com/

This is an interesting book review:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4081/is_200603/ai_n17184448

> Gee’s Bend: A Fight for Rights - Ben Raines - June 15, 2007
> http://bama.live.advance.net/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/1181899233121920.xml&coll=3&thispage=1
>
> Tiny URL: http://tinyurl.com/39f3kx

http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/1183022217278890.xml&coll=3&thispage=1#continue

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdpOkLdtM50

<http://bama.live.advance.net/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/1181899233121920.xml&coll=3&thispage=1>

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/home/orl-homesquiltart092902sep29,0,5340885.story?coll=orl-shoppinghg-headlinesforthe

http://www.ajc.com/search/content/news/stories/2007/06/17/geesbend0617a.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-December/047382.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043681.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043724.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043776.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043836.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043700.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043702.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043687.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043710.html

As a postscript to this long post, consider the differences between using an image under the fair use clause of the United States Copyright Laws for the purpose of informing and educating the public and the fact that a judge and a court will be examining the use of the copyrighted images of the works of the women of Gees Bend for manufacturing items for the profit of others.

There is not much mystery when I label images correctly.  Amazing what one does when tired.

My apologies to all the people kind enough to comment.  I finally got the comments up on the blog today.  Sionwyn is a clear winner based on the time stamps.  Hello, my friend, it has been many years since we spoke.

I’ve sort of been down for the count.  My body has gone into rebellion mode; it is demanding inordinate amounts of sleep.

I’ve a nice group of unidentified objects.  They are from Longfellow Square in Portland, Maine.  Maybe by tomorrow I’ll get them sized and identified A, B, C, etc.  Then I’ll put them up for study and identification.

Several things today. Do go and see this YouTube video.

This one called Elektro.

This image is compliments of Google.

The following is a request from the National Museum for Women in the Arts. Please take time, make time, to continue each day by voting for this project with the American Express Member’s Project.
URGENT REQUEST to help NMWA:
June 17th is the DEADLINE to RATE our project!
NMWA / American Express Members Project : ID: 04062

WOMEN ARTISTS: NOT IN THE BOOKS? PUT THEM ON-LINE!

The winning American Express Members Project will receive up to $5 million in funding and visibility with millions of people and the media.

Please go to www.membersproject.com for complete details and clear, simple instructions on how to REGISTER and RATE our project (it takes less than ten minutes).

Please register ASAP and give a FIVE STAR RATING to:

Project # 04062: WOMEN ARTISTS: NOT IN THE BOOKS? PUT THEM ON-LINE!
Help us attract funding and gain UNPRECEDENTED visibility for NMWA through a program that American Express estimates could attract 5 million of their cardholders and countless more through media coverage.

The DEADLINE is June 17th, but please REGISTER and RATE us with 5 STARS TODAY, so we stay high on the list, have a greater chance to become known by more people, attract their support and rank in the top 50 project finalists. The Top 50 Projects will be announced July 3rd, the VOTING begins then, and the winning project will be announced August 7th. Please forward this to your friends! Thank you.

Contact:
Howard White, hwhite@nmwa.org 202.783.7983

National Museum of Women in the Arts
1250 New York Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20005
202.783.5000

Let’s see how we can do on identification. The first person who correctly identifies this image will receive a small gift. Please leave your email using DOT and AT to avoid spam. I’ll contact you.