Plymouth Design: Second Banner in Progress

Now the second long piece of silk is being painted. This one goes a bit faster since I know how the first one went and which colors worked well.

Plymouth Design: The Unfurling at Ferry Terminal

The first banner is done!!! I unfurled it, all thirty feet, and brought it a couple blocks away to the Bellingham Ferry Terminal, where the Alaska Ferry docks every Friday. It's the tallest spot I could think of. I hung the banner over the balcony and still could only see 2/3rds of it at a time. But it looks good. The colors seem to work well together and it has the unity I desire.




It's interesting working on a piece when you can't see the whole thing at one time until it's done. Takes some faith, and maybe a bit of magic and mystery.Mostly faith I guess. The magic and mystery happen because of the faith.

Plymouth Design: First Panel Progress

Things are going well. Takes some time to feel out where the piece wants to go, so the first couple days of painting felt exploratory. Now I know where it wants to go, and where I want it to go, so we can work out some compromises together, the piece and I.







Tomorrow I will have to post you some pictures of the caterpillar and crysalis at the beginning of the piece. That part's all rolled up right now, stored under the frame.

Plymoth Design: Loading the Silk

Now it's time to reload the large silk pieces onto the 10 foot by 55 inch frame. This frame has rollers on each side, so I can roll the rest of the 30 feet of silk onto it and just work on 10 feet at a time. This way the piece will fit into my small attic studio.



I've already had both pieces of silk on this frame when I transfered the design, which was on large pieces of tracing paper, to the silk. I placed the tracing paper under the silk so could see the dark lines through the silk. I used a resist called gutta to trace the lines onto the silk.



If you look carefully at these two photos you can see the gutta lines on the white silk.

Plymouth Design: Background Colors

I had been working with the idea that the background color should be a simple solid gold, so that the butterflies would take center stage. But these two paintings will be 30 feet long by 55 inches wide, and a solid color over such a large area seems a waste of a large opportunity for excitement (or conversely a great opportunity for boredom!)

I chose a color pallet of gold, yellow-green, blue, purple and brick red and made some quick tests on scarf blanks. I can get a spring green, summer leaf green, olive green and dark values from this pallet. The outcome is that the main anchor color will be green rather than gold, with some areas of jewel-like colors but most colors will be mixed with gold which will dampen down the intensity of the color.
The challenge will be to keep the background quiet enough to enhance the design, rather than take attention away. One key will be to change colors on a very large scale, every 3-10 feet.

Plymouth Design: Color Trials

Now comes the fun part: playing with color and making dye experiments.



Here they all are in my studio.




Two versions of the same detail

Plymouth Design: Coming Together

Now I felt I had enough real experience, both with the people of Plymouth Church, and with the symbols I had chosen, to make a meaningful design. I used a combination of labyrinth and Celtic knots found on the Internet and from books in the library, and several butterfly field guides, especially Bob Pyle's, and my own experience with butterflies since I was little. I also reflected back to time spent walking the Chartres-style labyrinth in the "baseball field" at Holden Village over the 10 years we lived there and through all the seasons.





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Mysterious Beginnings: What to do with a Muse?

Seems that when a muse calls, the muse also opens up a path. I was graciously offered a space in a butterfly field class at North Cascades Institute (ncascades.org), taught by nationally known and respected butterfly scientist and author Robert Michael Pyle. We spent two days hunting butterflies with his trusty net named Martha and his very kind wife. I left the class with real material and much better first-hand knowledge of butterflies to put into the Plymouth design.

Mysterious Beginnings: Plymouth Silk Painting Project

Presently I am working on two large silk paintings to hang in Plymouth Congregational UCC Church, Seattle WA. http://pcucc.squarespace.com/Plymouth has a church community heritage of social justice in Seattle that dates back to the late 1800s, and is the second oldest congregation in Seattle. It is surrounded by skyscrapers full of busy financial offices and important businesses.


The space inside is very tall. In fact the church inside feels more like a cathedral than a typical church building. The architect designed the sanctuary to look like a jewel box, especially at night, when light can shine out of the narrow columns of stained glass windows between the 30 foot panels.

In designing silk paintings for this church I've decided to take a cue from the building itself and mimic the panels between the windows in shape and size. So my silk panels will be 30 feet by 5 feet, and hang in front of the sanctuary on each side of the nave.

I have been working with the congregation over a long period of time, getting to know who they are and where they are going in order to design something meaningful and appropriate for them. What I discovered is that they are in a time of great transition, with intentions of re-igniting their life as a socially active worshiping community that serves the diverse peoples and needs of Seattle.

The design I have chosen to develop for Plymouth uses the symbol of the butterfly to represent metamorphosis, the labyrinth for the journey, and the celtic knot to represent the interrelationship of all. This idea did come mysteriously, as some do. I believe the Spirit, or at least a muse was involved. The images landed on top of my desk as I was cleaning out a file and by the power of their interaction I knew something was afoot in the upstairs department. To the left you can see what the muse left on my desk.

I'll catch you up to where I am now on the project, and keep you posted on my progress.
Kristen

Student Work from Grunewald Guild 2008

The following are pictures of student work from the Grunewald Guild 5-day silk painting workshop I taught in the summer of 2008. We had a full, rich and wonderful class.