Author: earmstrong8

A retired educator with past studies in creative arts, biology, ecology and education. Now pursuing a passion for fibre arts and outdoor activities.
I am inspired by the everyday beauty I see in the natural environment. When not outdoors, I can usually be found in my home studio where I play with photography, print making, fabric dyeing, hand sewing and free-motion stitching. I use these varied techniques in concert to interpret the magnificence of nature into tangible fibre art.

Golf Upset

I know I usually post about everyday beauty, but this adventure can’t go untold.

I’m back to golf this summer. After having taken a couple of seasons off, I decided to give it another go and I’ve joined a foursome in a local ladies’ league. It is a small, friendly group and we four have all agreed that we are just out for fun, nothing competitive.

Competitiveness and ambition aren’t the same thing are they? I think there is a possibility that we each have a streak of ambition. Of course, I can only really speak for myself.

Last week, I had a pretty good game, so this week it was only natural that I would want to improve, right? Plus, this week the ‘game of the week’ was best score on a secret hole. How fun! That would take the pressure off trying to perform on any particular hole. In my secret analytic mind, I figured the chosen hole must be number five.

Five is the longest and trickiest hole. A par 5, it starts off high, has bit of a dog leg, is flanked on the left side by sand traps and on the right by a very long marsh. Easy enough though, with a plan. Keep it centered, drive to the corner of the leg, then straight up the fairway to the green. Don’t even think of the water or the sand.

My drive went a little left, but otherwise pretty much as planned. Donna was in trouble though. Her ball had hit the very edge of the right-hand marsh, hard to tell at a distance if it was just in or just out of the water. She was safely off to the side searching in the reeds, so I decided to take my second shot. Somehow, and I’m not sure exactly how, my ball flew right, skimmed her leg, and landed at about the same spot as hers, but definitely in the water.

I went over, to apologize for the close call, and to help look for the balls. As I was leaning into the soggy edge of the wetland, I saw movement in my periphery. It was one of those eerie moments when time both slows down and speeds up. The movement was a cart slowly rolling toward us. The movement picked up speed. By the time I realized that the bag was purple, and mine, it was hitting a ridge at the edge of the marsh. As Newton’s law of movement will have it, even though the wheels had come to a stop, the weight of the clubs continued, ass-over-tea-kettle as my mother would have said, and the whole works catapulted forward landing upside down in what I then determined by the odor of close proximity, was more of a swamp.

OMG! How could that have just happened? I was in shock, and I took a minute to pick out the two balls I had spotted in the shallows. Terri, the first to snap back to reality yelled, “never mind the balls, your clubs are sinking!” Yes, the bottom of the golf bag was just above the surface, detached from the cart, which was also completely upside down. They had come unfastened in the crash. Both were sinking fast. I leaned helplessly toward them, but they were beyond my reach. “Wait!”, yelled Donna, “don’t go in! Someone, give me a pole!” Pole, nine iron, whatever, by thinking quickly, she was able to hook the strap of the bag and pull it toward us. As soon as it was close enough, I eased it out, carefully keeping it prone so I wouldn’t dump its contents aka, my clubs! With the bag, and what looked like most of the clubs back on dry land, my attention turned to the cart which by now was almost fully submerged. Hmm, how deep could this be?? As I eased into ankle-depth muck and grabbed the edge, trying to pull it to safety, I saw first my water bottle, then my visor, then a purple club handle bob to the surface.

My efforts oscillated back and forth between the floating objects and the sinking cart, but all were just beyond my reach. Donna, still on the scene, and thinking more clearly said, “here, let me hold on to you”. Yes Donna, who is approximately 10 inches shorter, and about 100 lbs smaller than me, was holding on very securely to my skirt. Just to be clear, at this point, if I went in, we were definitely both going in. That is teamwork though, and we did it. All bobbing paraphernalia and the cart were successfully pulled on shore.

Meanwhile, Terri had been on deck to hand over poles as needed, but Jackie had been rendered helpless with laughter.

I reloaded my bag on the cart, noted that yes, the brake had been on, verified that our snacks were safe in their waterproof pouch and fished my phone out of its not-so waterproof pocket.

We let the next team play through while we collected ourselves.

It was only later that I realized that while all the distraction was underway, a deer fly had slipped up my shorts and bitten the cheek of my butt—but that is a whole other story.

One thing is certain. At least I’m pretty sure. I am not going to have the lowest score on hole five.

PS Sorry, there is no video footage for verification

Year of the Beaver

By now you know that I am Inspired by Everyday Beauty. Each summer, there seems to be one animal that takes first place for number of sightings on my trail walks, cycling adventures and kayak outings.

In previous years, we have had the ‘year of the rabbit’ when our property was inundated with small and friendly bunnies;

‘the year of the turtle’ when every kayak ride was sure to happen upon turtles basking in the sunshine;

and ‘the year of the snake’ when I spotted water snakes from the dock, garter snakes in the grass, brown snakes on the trails, black snakes on the shores and even a green snake on the trail.

It looks like this year is shaping up to be the year of the beaver. Beavers are usually very shy and illusive creatures. We often see signs of their visits, pointed stumps left on the shoreline and in the swampy areas or piles of limbs built up into dams, but we rarely see the actual beaver.

About seven or eight years ago, we had one right on our lakeshore, and I was able to get lots of good closeup pictures as he methodically munched through our small shrubs and saplings. This was a onetime event though and I hadn’t seen one since.

Admittedly, I have been keeping an eye out this year for a beaver sighting, hoping to get some good pictures for a friend. Maybe I’m channeling mother nature. Or, maybe I am just seeing more of what I am looking for.

Last Friday, we went for a beautiful cycle ride along the local trail. We stopped for a rest at a waterfall and I spotted two abandoned beaver dams at the base of the stream. These dams had been partially removed, likely by the village authorities as they were no doubt causing flooding in the park.

As I was kneeling to get a ground level picture of the dam, something big swooped above my head. I lifted my camera lens and started shooting without even focusing and got a beautiful picture of a great blue heron in flight. I had been so intent on the beaver dam, I completely overlooked a heron on the stream bank!

Look closely or you’ll miss the heron in flight (centre trees)

On Sunday, what was forecast as a sunny afternoon turned out to be cool and overcast, with a bit of wind kicking up some waves. I opted for a long walk rather than a kayak tour of the lake.

While doing the half-way turn around at the municipal park, a woman sitting by the lake called out to me, “Do you know much about snakes?” “Well, not really, but if it was black and in the water, it was likely a water snake!” I was lured in for a look and we both got out our phones and started googling, red, water, snake, Ontario….no images matched what she had seen. We were focusing on our phones, and as an aside, she said, “…I just saw the weirdest thing, there were bubbles in the water and then, I heard funny noises. Could it have been beavers?” I was doubtful. Mid-day, parkland, not much in the way of surrounding saplings or streams.

Then I heard it. A funny mewling sound, kind of like a cross between kittens and puppies crying, and it was coming from the reeds.

*Two heads in the water, and adult beaver and its kit*

I inched closer and closer to the sound and spotted something dark, with little hand-like paws, munching away on the grasses. It was in fact two beavers! One larger, likely the mother and one very young kit. They were well hidden and seemed not to notice me. They seemed to be communicating with both burbling out their little chorus and mother was prodding the young one to swim out of the reeds.

*Admittedly, this looks a little like Loch Ness, but I assure you it is an adult beaver!*

I wasn’t able to get a clear photo so I decided to catch the action with video.

Watch as the adult beaver guides its kit to safely hide under the dock

The mother started nudging and corralling the little one to swim to toward the floating dock. Every time the baby fell behind a bit, she turned to scoop it along. They disappeared under the dock and then the adult came back out and returned to the reeds. As it swam, I could make out its square, blunt head, and I could see its hind legs doing a rapid flutter kick. When it reached the shore, I realized there was a second little one that I hadn’t seen. The routine was repeated as this one was also marshaled to safety.

By now we observers had been joined by another woman and her young granddaughter and it was likely our presence that was spurring the beaver to move her kits to a more secluded safety spot. I decided to back off and continue my walk, content that I had just witnessed a rare and thrilling site.

Try, try again!

On an early summer morning I sit on the dock watching. The sun rises over the distant woods and their reflection lights up the calm and quiet lake. Onshore, the wind begins to stir, and the waves become active, signaling it is time to start a new day.

One of my goals for 2024 is to have a piece of work accepted into a juried exhibition. It’s a great learning experience that drives home the old adage ‘If at first you don’t succeed….’

Preparing to enter a call isn’t as fun as creating art, but if you want to get your work seen and enjoyed by others there are skills to be mastered. I give myself regular pep talks and remind myself that if I want to get into an exhibition I have to submit entries!

I dipped my toe into the juried exhibition waters by responding to a couple of calls for Virtual Exhibitions–shows that exhibit worldwide through virtual galleries. These calls are a little less daunting as they usually don’t have specific size restrictions, and they don’t require shipping an accepted piece to the exhibit site.

Those early submissions gave me my first bitter taste of rejection, but they also gave me the courage to enter other exhibits. I have now moved forward to calls for on-site exhibits at various local and international venues.

There is no denying how disheartening it is when a piece is not accepted for an exhibition. It is never easy to get a rejection, but there are always lessons to be learned. It helps to keep focused on the positive. I think back to the enjoyment of creating the piece and I add some questions to my pep talk: Did I enjoy making the piece? Do I like the piece? Did I learn anything along the way? Could I make a better submission next time? As long as all of those answers come back yes, then I will keep on trying!

Someone said, “if you keep doing what you have always done, you will keep getting the same result”...or something along those lines. So, I’ve been digging for answers on how to improve my chance of success in the exhibition world. While continuing to develop and improve my creative work, I will also need to learn as much as I can about the submission process and improve those skills.

When debriefing with friends and seeking counsel from fellow artists and mentors, I am told repeatedly that rejection may have little to do with the quality or beauty of the actual piece. Not only do all of the technical components of the submission matter, there is also an element of luck! There are tales of pieces being rejected by several exhibitions then going on to win prizes. Reportedly, even well established artists still suffer rejection from time to time. The message seems to be unanimous: don’t give up, keep up the determination, and keep on trying!

Here are some of the tips I have gleaned so far.

Theme: Understand it

Every call for exhibition has a theme. Although themes typically can have a wide interpretation, they are not vague. Make sure you understand the exact definition of the words given as the theme — they weren’t chosen lightly. Give the theme a lot of thought, make sure you understand it and that you consider it in the current context.

When I first started to think about the themes, I thought I had to create a piece to fit the theme and I struggled. Through experience, I know that when I try to create a piece to ‘fit’ a specific call or request, I overthink things and inevitably the piece starts to look forced.

What seems to work better for me is first creating a piece of work and then thinking about how it might fit into a theme.

Artist’s Statement: Pin it to the theme

My art tends to fall somewhere between realism and abstract — closer to realism. Most often pieces are created as interpretations of things I have found in natural settings. I am after all ‘Inspired by Everyday Beauty’, What perplexed me was seeing exhibited pieces that were definitely very abstract fitting into exhibit themes.

The key seems to be the artist’s interpretation. In an exhibit, or submission to a call, the artist’s only shot at explaining their piece is through the artist’s statement. The statement is the opportunity to pin the piece to the theme.

I need to master the art of writing about my art. The required artist’s statement usually allows only 100-200 words to describe the piece. It is important to use these precious words not only to describe the art, but to engage the viewer, and that may best be done by evoking some emotion. What moved you to create the piece? How does the piece depict your intension?

There are lots of resources to be found on google, but also start to read and pay attention to artist statements you see in shows and in virtual galleries. Take note of style, voice and vocabulary.

A great resource I’ve found is Art-Write: The Writing Guide for Visual Artists, by Vicki Krohn Ambrose.

Photos: Aim for perfection

Most calls for exhibits require electronic applications accompanied by one or two photos of the work. Consider that the photos you submit are your only chance to make a visual impression on the curators. Make sure your photos are top quality to give your piece its best chance. Your submission will be one of hundreds they receive. You don’t want your piece discarded in the first sort because of a poor quality photo! The call will give specific requirements for the quality of the photos, but also make sure that they are focused, evenly cropped and squared up, and that the lighting has kept the colours true to life. Keep in mind that in many cases, if successful, your photo will be used for promotion, print or even display (in the case of virtual exhibits).

Curators: Get to know them

Often, curators choose only 30 to 40 pieces from a very large pool of submissions. The curators are putting together a comprehensive show and the chosen pieces must gel visually, conceptually, and spatially. This is where there is an element of luck. You have no real idea what the overall picture of the exhibit will look like. Let’s face it, the curators themselves may not know until they see the pieces they receive. You can up the odds on your luck by doing a little research. Check out the curators: take a look at their past shows; take a look at their work to get a sense of their style; consider the venue; and consider the audience. I am not saying to do this and then cater your work to the curator, but the more you know about the curator, the more you will understand the suitability of your piece for this particular show, at this particular time.

I cannot yet tell you what it feels like when a submission is accepted, but I’m going to keep on trying and you can be sure I will let you know as soon as it happens!

This blog was written in light of many enriching conversations with my mentor Irene Koroluk (irenekoroluk.com). I am grateful for her guidance.

Dye With Love

As you know, last summer I became captivated with the Magic of eco dying. At Summer camp I had lots of fun playing around with old cotton fabric and different leaves and flowers that I had gathered on my walks. You also know that I like Creating with purpose.

I decided the next step was to try printing on paper.

I had a few dry runs. Or, I should say wet runs. My first attempts to press leaves between rust-water soaked papers resulted in a bit of a soggy blur. I’ll spare you pictures of that mess!

Through practice, I discovered a few tricks:

use a good quality paper–I used cold press water colour paper
wet the leaves rather than the paper
separate all the leaf layers with parchment paper to avoid bleed through
stack the papers and press them very tightly between two ceramic tiles
steam (i.e. not immersed in water) for 90 minutes
cool completely before unwrapping to peek at the creations

I used six 8″ x 10″ pieces of paper folded in half with leaves in between every layer and every layer separated with parchment paper.

If you are following the math, that means I ended up being able to make a three-section journal, each section with two nested sheets. Folding the sheets in the middle means each section has 8 printed sides and the whole journal is 24 pages.

Some of the parchment papers were too beautiful to discard. I added a few into the journal for secret note space and textural variety.

The original intention was for words to be added free form throughout the journal, but I knew that it might be difficult to dive in and start to write on the flora imprinted pages. I added some lines for encouragement and to give sections for guiding script. I added dyed lined paper, and also stitched in some black lines. I remembered how as a child I had loved running our old Singer treadle machine with no thread over paper pretending to sew. This seemed like a fun idea to add texture and the suggestion of lines.

Next of course, I had to figure out how to bind the whole thing together. A a quick google search lead to directions on how to bind a book with waxed thread.

*Three sections bound with waxed thread*

After binding, there were a few long ends on my threads, which once braided were too nice to cut, so I added some wild turkey feathers, foraged on a summer walk, to serve a book marks.

My dear friend Martha in her retirement is focusing on a love of the written word and expressing herself through poetry. What better reason to create a special journal in which she can scribe beautiful words. This journal was definitely a project of dyeing with love.

*The final poetry journal dyed with love*

A Room of My Own

It was many years ago that I heard of Virginia Woolfe’s Room of One’s Own, but I recall that even then, when I had neither the funds nor the room to be creative, I thought it a brilliant idea.

I feel as though finally, I have arrived.

After a full renovation of our house, a process that spanned over ten years as my husband lovingly made our house a home, the final piece was an upstairs atelier for me!

As you know, since retirement I have plunged into creative pursuits of all kinds and creativity needs space! Not just for an afternoon, but sometimes for more lengthy periods as projects evolve and “mijote” as the French say. It may be possible that my husband tired of my work areas spreading throughout the living room, the kitchen, the dining room, the basement, and occasionally the bedroom. But, whatever the impetus he came up with the great idea to build me a room of my own–an atelier where I could have all my bits and pieces at hand, and keep all my bits and pieces somewhat contained!

I love it! Once and for all I have almost all my ‘stuff’ together in a workable space. There is room for a big design board to post and plan works in progress; my new sewing machine fits into my old 1913 Singer machine table; a workbench gives space for drawing and printing and painting; an in-wall ironing board allows for quick pressing and doubles as an alternate work surface; lots of shelves house books and papers and supplies; and a big reclaimed glass cabinet stores a good chunk of my fabric stash.

The laminate floor works well for spotting rogue pins and quick sweeps, with a couple of sheepskin rugs for cozier footing when needed. The roman blinds can be pulled right up for maximum light. The sliding pocket door closes off the nearby washroom (read water supply), and opens up for more light and heat when needed.

The light is optimal: two big north east windows providing natural light are supplemented with a bar LED light for drearier days and night work, and a desk lamp for closer hand work.

The space is small, but efficient (8′ x12′) and everything is within reach. I’ve been spending winter days holed up in my atelier happily working away on projects, listening to CBC radio and gazing out at the neighbourhood.

That my friends, is the explanation for not having posted a blog in a while…I’ve been too busy playing and creating in the room that is my own.

Fabric Collage Play

Sorry to say I’ve fallen behind in my blogging, but I’ve been very busy having fun! In November, I attended a Fabric Collage workshop at the Kingston Seniors’ Centre https://seniorskingston.ca/ and it has given me a fun new obsession. The workshop was presented by Linda Coulter, a local fibre artist who specializes in collage https://www.lindacoultertextileart.com/

Fabric collage seems to be a perfect combination for me. You can use every scrap and piece of fabric, thread or bobble that you already have in your stash; you can have a lot of fun cutting and laying out pieces to build your design from either your imagination or your favourite photos; and, after tacking everything together, you can secure and ‘paint’ the piece with lots of hand sewing.

At the workshop, we each chose a prepared bundle of fabrics that provided a foundation or ‘ground’ fabric and a mix of cotton in compatible colours, different scales and different values. Who doesn’t love to get a little bundle of fabrics? Let the fun begin!

Linda provided a great balance of instruction, guidance and freedom to appeal to participants ranging from debutants to those more experienced with design and fabric construction. The introductory lesson was a good refresher for me to consider pattern, scale, colour value, movement, light/dark and focal point.

My bundle had an overall warm-toned assortment of yellows and oranges that are not my usual preferred colour palette, but I decided to roll with it and experiment. I used my bundle of fabrics for inspiration and began to lay out a base that would show some depth. I used a variety of scales to create a foreground and background. The instructor had brought a mountain of other fabrics from her stash and we were encouraged to hunt for any bits that we needed for our design. This was pure, unfiltered fun.

While cutting, layering, and adjusting our collages we kept stepping back to view the design from different angles for overall effect. This is very useful to know when to add or take away pieces, to achieve balance, movement, and a focal point. Once satisfied, the next step was to pin and baste all of the pieces onto the ground fabric. Not to worry though, basting can be removed, and pieces could still be shuffled around or changed at any point (the benefit of not using any glue)!

That is as far as we got in the short workshop. We bundled up our work to take home where, as Linda advised, we let it sit for a bit looking at it from different angles and distances before finalizing it. Then my favorite part, the hand sewing. I love to hold the fabric in my hands and add stitching with coloured threads to adhere the pieces to the collage, and to highlight any detail. To me, this is a bit like mess-free painting that can always be picked out and changed to correct mistakes.

*Baste and pin all the pieces to the ground fabric*

I did try not to make a landscape, but it seemed to migrate in that direction. It’s reminiscent of a forest gone to swamp land, as I see so often on my country walks in the countryside north of Kingston. My focal point–as is very plain to see–was the gorgeous bright flower cut from a larger fabric piece. Have I mentioned how much I love flowers? If you look closely while out in nature, no matter how bleak a landscape may seem from a distance, there is almost always at least one flower to be found. In this piece, I flipped the narrative–as one can do in collage–by making the swampland retreat to the background allowing the larger-than-life flower to dominate. I finished the piece with a border of muted, moss-coloured faux suede to tie into the imagined landscape and highlight the brightness of the flower.

Having tried my first collage guided by fabrics and imagination, I decided to try the next one using a favorite photo for inspiration. You know I love flowers… I chose this photo of a dandelion gone to seed because of the beautiful texture of the seed globe. As it turns out, you will see that the dandelion becomes my oversize focal point and I take great liberty in imagining the background setting in which it can be found. Maybe there is a theme developing here of letting flowers shine in their environments…

It was time to dive into my stash and choose fabrics that would create the background and setting for a dandelion star. I was intrigued with how I might show the texture of the fluffy seeds and considered using strands of white mohair, but decided to keep with cotton thread and stitch technique to avoid letting the piece become too busy. I used a variety of scale and pattern all in the same bright palette, to build a pastural scene fading off to woodlands, hills and sky. It was great fun to experiment with the adhering stitches, varying style and colour to alternately blend into or define the background.

**Imagine lying in a field looking up at this beautiful dandelion surrounded by pastures, woods and hills beyond.**

Fair to say I am now hooked on fabric collage and will add it into my long list of other fibre-based obsessions. I can’t wait to create more using my photos, fabrics I print and dye, hand sewing and free-motion machine stitching….if only there were more time in a day!