WHAT Women Create - Spring 2022

INSPIRATION FOR YOUR IMAGINATION

Textiles Inspired

by Nature Spring 2022 Display Until June 15, 2022 $16.99 US $17.99 CDN

CREATED BY JO PACKHAM

“The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul.”

—Robert Wylan

CREATOR + EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Jo Packham

DESIGN & EDITORIAL

Managing Editor Kaitlyn Murray Designer Wendy Dunning COPY EDITOR

Toni Fitzgerald CONTRIBUTORS

PUBLISHER

Madavor Media, LLC 35 Braintree Hill Office Park, Suite 101 Braintree, MA 02184 Madavor.com

Sharon Payne Bolton Michele Muska NEWSSTAND CIRCULATION

Weekly Retail Service Thomas Smith Smith@WeeklyRetailService.com Susan Harold SH@WeeklyRetailService.com

From a woman’s soul, through a woman’s eyes, by a woman’s hands.®

HOW TO CONTACT US CUSTOMER SERVICE & SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES

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Please send changes of address to: WHAT WOMEN CREATE—Fulco Inc. PO Box 3000, Denville, NJ 07834-3000 Changes of address must be submitted in writing.

Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: WHAT WOMEN CREATE—Fulco Inc. PO Box 3000, Denville, NJ 07834-3000 What Women Create® (USPS #21640 Spring 2022 issue 21) is published quarterly by Madavor Media, LLC, 35 Braintree Hill Office Park, Suite 101 Braintree, MA 02184. Periodicals postage paid at Boston, MA, and at additional offices.

What Women Create® is a registered trademark of Where Women Create, Inc. and may not be used without permission. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher or Where Women Create Inc. The information contained in this magazine is provided AS IS. Neither Where Women Create, Inc. nor Maldavor Media, LLC, nor the publisher, make any representation or warranty with respect to this magazine or the contents thereof and do hereby disclaim all express and implied warranties to the fullest extent permitted by law. Where Women Create, Inc. and the publisher do not endorse any individuals, companies, products, services, or views featured or advertised in this magazine. ©2022 Where Women Create, Inc. all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the copyright owner.

CONTENTS 4

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FEATURES 18 Nathifa Sligh

Juicy Christians Studio

34 Michele Muska 50 Tamara White

Wing & A Prayer Farm

72 Juliana D. Spahr 138 Paula Cahill

34 50

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IN EVERY ISSUE 6 From My Kitchen Table Judi Morales Meyer

86 In the Gallery

Ruth Buffington and Jim Bremer

100 In the Gallery Cecil Kemperink

118 In the Gallery

Mariko Kusumoto

ON THE COVER

Mariko Kusumoto

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or me, the magic of WHAT WOMEM CREATE is the stories of growing-up, living, and creating their lives that are told by the women we feature on these pages in this magazine. Each of them started someplace different. Each had influences in their lives that were different from one another. Each was inspired by a different reason to create something useful and beautiful from something that was old and unwanted.

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JANE PERKINS JENNIFER LANNE

Each of these women creates in their own medium … and there are endless categories of scavenged junk: all of which fall into the major, unquestionable category of: Pieces of Art.

CLAIRE GUIRAL

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y passion of choice for all things old are buildings that others have abandoned and believe should be condemned and demolished. I am happy in these spaces where the walls have seen much and have their own stories to tell. Where people lived and grew and left. Where the possibilities for tomorrow are endless and unrestrained.

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And some, like Judi Morales Meyer, create wearable steampunk pieces of art from huge collections of donated fabrics. Judi’s is a story of a place and a time that I have never actually seen.

A story that makes me want to have experienced more and different than my growing up in Ogden, Utah, with a very conservative small-town culture.

These are the stories that make me believe in a world that was, is, and will always be, “A Mad Hatter Holiday!”

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JUdI Judi Morales MOrALeS Meyer MEyER Photography by Eli Meyer

lives in Kings Beach, California, a tiny beach town on the North shore of Lake Tahoe. Most of the year, she teaches sewing in her community of makers, artists, and musicians, but during the snowy winter months, Judi hunkers down indoors with piles of old sweaters. That is when the magic happens.

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My Victorian Roots

My First Turning Point

I grew up in the Heritage District of Vallejo, California, a historic maritime community in the San Francisco Bay Area. Surrounded by Victorian homes, our Craftsman had hardwood floors, glass door knobs, and locks with skeleton keys. I love anthropological artifacts and believe they are energetically imprinted by the people who owned them.

I was a theater kid, so my mom made costumes and taught me to sew on her 1949 treadle Singer sewing machine, which I still have. As a teen, I was a chorus girl in a traveling show resembling Lawrence Welk, Broadway, and the Rockettes.

My childhood-bestie and Spirit Animal, Sam, introduced me to counter-culture, punk rock, and indie fashion. He inspired me to celebrate my uniqueness. After years of trying to blend in, I was free to be myself. My fear of judgment diminished, and my confidence grew.

I got serious about sewing when my mom and I took a theatrical costume design class. My first project was making custom-fitted unitards for the Stray Cat Strut number I had choreographed. At 19, I began a costume business out of my apartment. When I joined Arts Benicia, I made funky jewelry out of found objects, vintage buttons, and skeleton keys.

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International Influences At 33, I quit my corporate-retail job in Berkeley to lead surf trips in Mexico, moved to Amsterdam, got married, and became pregnant. For a year, I commuted from Amsterdam to Puerto Vallarta every few weeks, up until my seventh month of pregnancy.

The contrast of colors and textures between Europe and Mexico profoundly influenced my color palette. Europe had centuries-old buildings with beautiful patinas from age and decay, cobblestone, bricks, ancient ironwork, and gray skies. Mexico had brightly painted cinder-block homes with Robinson Crusoe features and the Pacific Ocean in the front yard. That’s when I made friends with blue.

I moved back to Benicia before baby Dexter was born, and for two years after, I worked as a journalist and event coordinator, made jewelry, and practiced Mehndi Body Art with my baby on my hip.

Burning Man

PHOTO BY S.N. JACOBSON/LENSCAP

I returned to Burning Man with 16-month old Dexter. I describe it as a Cirque du Soleil summer camp set in a harsh desert environment. It’s a commerce-free art community, where gifting is the norm, and the attendees make the magic happen.

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I created an interactive camp for families, a sock-monkey workshop in the Kidsville Village.

Kids and adults would stay for hours, hand-sewing a monkey from donated socks, yarn, and buttons, before the term upcycling existed. For many, it was their first time sewing.

Burning Man is like Fashion Week in an alternate universe, with oodles of distinctive styles like Barbarella, furries, fairies, circus, hippy, Mad Max, retro, futuristic, marching band, Viking, khaki-ranger, and Steampunk. Desert camping requires survival gear, so I’m drawn to post-apocalyptic-styles. To finance for our annual trip, I made functional clothing with pockets and clips for gear, and Cinder Garden Designs was born.

After my first marriage ended, I attended alone and joined the Earth Guardians Department, where I met Eli Meyer, an environmentalist, photographer, and maker from Tahoe. We dressed up as leopards, romped, and played, and began our second childhood together. We’ve since married.

After 14 years, I’ve become really good at problem-solving, sometimes by breaking the rules.

The creativity, ingenuity, and generosity of the community nourish my faith in humanity and give me hope for the future.

Yep, I’m Steampunk Steampunk is a fictional genre of cosplay, books, music, and design. It’s retro-futurism, the Victorians’ vision of future technology that never happened, with an ethos of turning old things into new. That is so me! It combines anthropology, upcycling, costumes, and fashion.

I began making upcycled Steampunk clothing for women and men, play clothes for your inner child. I define my style as Urban Steam; funktional (funky + functional) with an Oliver Twist flavor, all made from upcycled textiles, because there are no new fabrics in my fictitious Steampunk world. For a few years, I vended my collection at Bay Area events out of our vintage travel-trailer, Betty Dawn.

PHOTO BY S.N. JACOBSON/LENSCAP

Obtainium Works Obtainium: Upcycled materials that can be easily obtained for free or at minimal cost when compared to their value as raw materials or as manufactured products.

Built by Obtainium Works, the Neverwas Haul art car, a self-propelled three-story drivable Victorian house on wheels, is an icon in the Burning Man, Steampunk, and Maker communities. In 2012, the crew relocated their art car factory to Vallejo, so I invited them to my first event, Steampunk in the Trunk. Eli and I joined the crew that weekend.

We still travel down to Vallejo for annual events; the Obtainium Cup Contraptors Rally, the Mad Hatter Holiday Parade, and the occasional Little Rascals-style theater productions. Of course, I make costumes.

“It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.”

— TOM ROBBINS

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Truckee Roundhouse Makerspace

Why I Upcycle

A week after moving to Tahoe full-time, I became the Textile Shop Lead at the new makerspace.

I designed my dream shop … with all the tools, 8-foot cutting tables, a fleet of machines, sergers, and industrials, plus a huge collection of donated fabric. I manage our resources by creating workshops based on the materials we have, so students rarely have to purchase fabric.

Sewing is becoming a lost art, so I love getting people excited about it. My teaching style is non-intimidating, no-tears learning with radical problem-solving solutions, time-saving tricks, and excellent music. I teach fun project-based workshops, so students learn to sew while making an actual thing. My favorite part is, I ask students how they feel about their sewing skills at the beginning of class and again at the end. It’s amazing to witness their self-empowerment.

Cheap Fast Fashion is a real problem. Over the past 15 years, clothing sales doubled from 100 to 200 billion units a year, according to Earth.org.

Globally, we produce 13 million tons of textile waste annually, 95% of which could be reused or recycled.

I learned my thrift-hunting skills from my mom. Most of my wardrobe is second-hand, which I mod by adding pockets, length, and edging. Thrift stores have an abundance of affordable clothing and home linens. I make bedsheet bloomers, upholstery-sample utility belts, and winter knits from sweaters. For Etsy orders, I make reusable mail pouches out of Trader Joe’s ziplock bags.

Upcycled Hand Sweaters

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When my fibromyalgia pain flairs, I step away from my machine and hand-sew. I make hand, leg, and neck warmers out of lightweight natural fiber and synthetic sweaters with soft textures and rich colors. I buy used cashmere in bulk, called cutters sweaters on eBay. I sped up the process with the use of a serger and now teach it as a 3-hour workshop.

My style is bohemian and whimsical, inspired by the hand-stitched red cloak in the post-apocalyptic film City of Ember. I do hand-stitching and show the serge stitch to emphasize that it’s hand-made.

My Home Studio Our home is less than 800 square feet, cozy for three adults, a Pitty, and two bossy indoor cats. I store my yarn collection suspended from the ceiling, out of claw’s reach. My studio is built around mom’s vintage desk, a 6' × 6' space in our tiny living room. I’ve created storage out of my obtainium wooden boxes and jars. I store large bins of fabric elsewhere and rotate as my projects change.

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My Process

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I sort sweaters into color palettes to create collections. I love natural mountain colors like greens, tans, grays, and blues but try to integrate bright colors, too. I make black and gray things for the color-shy.

With a rotary cutter and ruler, I cut the sweaters into 2" × 8" strips and the cashmere into rectangle liners.

With mixed thread colors on the serger and my cut strips laid before me like crayons in a box, I serge strips together. I marry the piece to the cashmere on the serger, then close them up, leaving a thumbhole opening.

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I use all parts of the sweater. The ribbed edge and curved shoulders become beanies. Leftover strips are made into neck warmers, which are lined with cashmere. For leg warmers, I cut heavy sweaters and handknit scarves into strips. I serge the cut edges and then hand-sew the strips together with yarn.

My Next Act In 2020, Eli left his day job and joined me at Cinder Garden. We’re a wife-husband team, focusing on teaching others how to utilize obtainium in imaginative and unconventional ways. I focus on sewing, home design, gardening, and youth programs. Eli does architectural design, engineering, deconstruction reclamation, and animatronics.

Last December, we built a remote-controlled 8-foot robot out of an old mobility scooter, a bust form, and remnant curtain fabric for the Mad Hatter Parade.

It was Obtainium’s first event since the pandemic began. We hope to grow the robot project into a youth program.

Hopefully, I can inspire others to learn maker skills, break the rules, and make fun things out of Obtainium.

Judi CinderGardenDesigns.com INSTAGRAM: CinderGardenDesigns FACEBOOK: Cinder Garden Designs PINTEREST: CinderGardenDesigns

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Nathifa

SLIGH Photography by Valerie Ott

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Dear Jo,

Na�ifa Sligh is a Michigan-based mixed media artist, stationery designer, and founder of Juicy Christians Studio.

She believes �at we can a� be s�d planters and hope dealers. Using her fai� and �e st�ies of �ose around her as her inspiration, she creates art, stationery, and products to encourage and inspire women, so �ey f�l s�n, heard, and loved.

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I hope this note finds you doing well and in good spirits. I am writing to tell you the story of how I got into designing and creating envelopes. So many people have asked me this question, and I thought I’d answer their questions by sharing my story.

Would you believe this entire situation is the fault of a disgraced warlord and rebel leader? It’s even painful to include him in this story, but to be honest, his greed and insatiable quest for power is the reason I am here, in the States. You see, I am a Liberian who came to the United States during the first Liberian civil war in October of 1991. I think the actual date I arrived was October 11, 1991.

After going through the war, my family had escaped to Ghana, where we lived for about a year.

During that time, my mother eventually went back to Liberia while I remained in Ghana with

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my father, aunt, uncle, and some cousins. My parents weren’t planning on staying in Ghana long term, but they wanted me to continue my education and remain safe, so on one sunny afternoon, my father and uncle boarded me on a plane with a lady I didn’t know and sent me on my way to America.

I’d been to the U.S. before, so I wasn’t overly terrified of the journey. The lady I came with was a guardian of sorts…someone I could tag along with in case anyone tried to pull some shenanigans. I didn’t know her name, and I can’t even remember her face to this day. After we landed at JFK airport in New York, my godparents helped me get to Illinois, where I was going to live with my father’s sister, my aunt Olive. My aunt was a Methodist pastor, so you could call me a pastor’s kid (P.K.), I suppose.

And that is how my life in the U.S. officially began. I was ten years old.

My parents and brother were back in Africa, and I was here wishing like hell that I was with them. To be honest, I don’t even know how many times I cried for my parents or wondered if they even thought of me. When you’re in situations like that where you don’t hear from people, you can feel so easily forgotten. Back in the day, we weren’t lucky enough to have social media, FaceTime, or Facebook Messenger.

Calling people overseas was tricky at best and very expensive. If we were lucky, we could get a calling card with enough minutes for a quick “hello” and “how are things?”

But every once in a while, I would get a letter. An actual letter written by one of my parents addressed to me. I can still see my name written on those envelopes. They were usually sent as a favor to my parents in someone’s suitcase who was coming from Liberia to the States. They would be passed through people’s hands and eventually dropped in the mail somewhere.

But they would find me eventually, and even though they were always in plain white envelopes, those letters were like gold to me. They would arrive creased in the various places they’d been folded and carried so much power.

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henever I received one of them, it was almost like time would stand still as I sought out a quiet place by myself.

There was so much anticipation in those envelopes. So much hope. So many thoughts would race through my head as I held them. They were spaces and moments where I was reminded that I wasn’t forgotten; that I was actually thought about. That I was loved. I’d re-read those letters over and over again, trying to see if I’d missed any expressions and sentiments of love in between. I would look at the loops of my mother’s handwriting as she told me to “listen to my aunt” (that’s Liberian for behave yourself and don’t cause any trouble) or that she’d sent some money for me or

the short strokes of my father’s handwriting as he told me that he loved me. Sometimes, I would cry over those letters, cursing the day the disgraced warlord came and destroyed our beautiful country.

Those letters meant the world to me during those years, and there were so many times afterwards that I craved for more. Over the years, while my aunt moved around the country, I lost so many of those letters. In a plain white envelope, the sweet weight of the words my parents sent me has been lost forever.

Those moments where I imagined them thinking about me and searching for the right words to say are gone forever. As I look back now, I wonder how much more of an impact they would have in my life now if I had the chance to re-read them.

When I became an adult and graduated from college, I started a handmade art studio to create art to encourage and inspire women. As many can attest, women have it hard in this world. We’re bombarded with so much in our daily lives. For me, I just wanted to do something about it; you know, help them see that they were loved. First it was just with handmade jewelry, then it was with art prints, and then I added greeting cards. I started selling my greeting cards at craft shows and regional trade shows around the country and nervously loving every single bit of it. My last trade show was in July of 2019. I had plans to hit up other shows in 2020, but the pandemic put a wrench in all of that.

Then early in 2020, a friend’s mother passed away.

I hadn’t spoken to her in a while, but when I heard the news, I wanted to send her a card to offer my condolences. I remember writing the card out, putting it in the envelope and getting an urge to add a

little something extra to it. Something to make her smile. I could just see the smile on her face when she received it. So, I pulled from my years of mixed media art background and collaged the envelope. There was something about collaging that envelope that settled me in a way. It felt like it was my “thing.” I remembered even praying about it and asking God what was next for me and feeling a whisper saying keep going with the envelopes.

Then, another friend posted that she was dealing with the health issues of a family member. I wanted to encourage her, too, and so I sent a note in a dressed-up envelope. As the pandemic raged, I started to think about the doctors and nurses who were in the trenches trying to help people overcome COVID-19. They had to be encouraged too, so I sent out more notes. And I just keep going. It almost feels like I can’t help it now, and the ideas haven’t stopped coming. I want to test the limits as to what you can do with an envelope.

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Even though I design and sell greeting cards, I feel like everyone should send out notes in a dressed-up envelope. Now, I make envelopes to send out to people who sign up to receive some encouragement and also as a way to say thank you to the people who make a purchase from my shop.

With each decorated envelope I send out, I want the weight of my words and designs to be felt. Words truly matter, and I want to make sure people know that I carefully chose the words to say to them, meticulously designed, created, and curated an envelope from my collection just for them. I want them to know and feel that someone truly thought about them and that they were seen and that their story matters.

All of it is very intentional. That’s what these envelopes have become for me. They are messengers. They carry stories, secrets, ideas, dreams, experiences, curiosities, thoughts, and what-nots. Little captured moments of life, like little seeds of hope. I see envelopes as sacred spaces that have been asked to provide safe passage to so much of the significance that happens in everyday lives. They are the places where conversations travel, where love is eloquently spoken, where hearts are poured out, where hope is freely given, where forces combine, and where fires are maintained. To me, they are a place to remind us that we are loved, remembered, cared for, and worthy.

A place of hope, power, magic, and anticipation. Those white envelopes my parents sent me carried so much for me, and it is my intention that my envelopes carry much to the people who receive them.

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y process for creating envelopes is very organic. I tend to go with the flow, so every envelope is unique. Even if I have an inkling of an idea to tinker with, I find that the challenge of working through a piece to see what it morphs into from start to finish is very exciting.

To start off, I will either create an envelope from scratch by using an envelope punch board, or, if I don’t want to create an envelope, I will typically use a basic kraft one. I like to use either watercolor paper or the Distress line of card stock to create an envelope. The kraft envelopes are a heavier weight of paper than the basic white ones, so that’s why I use those. Basically, I use paper that is going to take my wet mediums well.

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fter I punch out an envelope, I like to add color and create a background. This is the foundation of the envelope, and everything else I do from this point will connect with my background.

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here are a variety of ways to add color and create a background.

My favorite is using Distress spray stains and oxides. I love to mix colors and often find that sometimes more is more. I have learned that when you’re bold with your colors, they make the most unique and exciting backgrounds.

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Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; f� whatever a man sows, �is he wi� also reap. GALATIANS 6:7

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fter I add color, I like to stamp images on the background to add interest. I use waterproof ink on top of my inky background.

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fter my background has dried, I use ephemera, vintage or new, to create a collage. Collages are my go-to, especially when I am short on time. To collage, I layer my pieces until I find a layout I love. My focus is always on what’s going to keep the recipient looking for more. I want them to engage with the piece and keep finding little bits of newness.

I also love to decorate the flap as well! It doesn’t have to be as detailed as the back of the envelope, but I find that adding something to the flap to tie it into the collage creates a cohesive look. After collaging, I like to look for additional ways I can add some more details. This can come in the form of additional stamping, adding smaller pieces of ephemera, or doodling.

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hen I think a piece is complete, I will usually finish it off by distressing the edges to give it a vintage look. After creating an envelope, I like to fill it with a handwritten note, the Encourager’s Manifesto (created by me), and an artsy postcard for the recipient to pass it on to someone else.

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also create a flatlay and photograph each piece because I’ve come to understand the power of honoring your gifts. My flatlays are my way of saying thank you to God for giving me this gift. I don’t see it as bragging or showboating, but more so that I am grateful for what I have

been given. It’s a way to respect my offerings for the day and to open the door for more creativity to flow through me. I believe that the more honor I give to my gifts, however small or abundant they may be, I am telling them and me that they are seen, they matter, and they have an important purpose.

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ost people wonder if the envelopes are mailable, and the answer is yes! To mail my envelopes, I enclose them in a clear cellophane bag, address them and add stamps on the outside of the bag, and send them off to their destination. Simple as that.

Well, that’s it, Jo. Now you know how I started and how I create my envelopes. I truly hope it sparked your interest in creating your own to send out. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share my story. I am deeply honored and grateful. If you or your readers have any questions, please let me know.

Sending you lots of good ch�r from Michigan.

A� �e best, Na�ifa

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Nathifa www.JuicyChristians.com INSTAGRAM: JuicyChristians FACEBOOK: JuicyChristians PINTEREST: JuicyChristians

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Valerie Ott, who lives in Kalamazoo, is a wife, mama, dog owner, and a lover of food. She is excited to wake up every morning because she is doing something she loves. Honestly, she says, “I would work 24 hours a day if I could, but I choose balance with my lovely career. I created this business 13 years ago with a very simple mission, to make people feel beautiful.”

When Valerie was in college, she worked at a traditional photography studio that only had 4 or 5 traditional poses. When the clients would come in to see their photos, she would hear, “I hate my nose,” “Ugh, I look fat,” “I have flat hair.” Hearing the same negative comments over and over again drove her to the point that she hated the studio. So, when she opened her own studio, she promised herself that she would NEVER hear those kinds of comments. Therefore, if you tell Valerie that you hate your nose, she will go on a 10-minute rant about how beautiful you really are, and she will give you permission to see it! While her business has evolved over the last 13 years, her mission has stayed the same: FEEL BEAUTIFUL.

Valerie www.ValerieOtt.com INSTAGRAM: ValerieOttPhoto

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THROUGH THE LENS

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Michele

Muska Photography by Michele Muska

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ometimes things do come full circle, like patchwork jeans! I made them in high school, and it was also my side hustle! Patching and embroidering jeans, shirts, and jackets for myself and for other students. Seeing them on the runway, across the pages of high fashion magazines and on social media is really exciting and a bit nostalgic.

I love that anyone can make these with a few helpful hints, scraps of fabric, and some fun vintage textiles. Oh, and a seam ripper!

MICHELE lives in North Central CT with her husband, Dan, her Snowshoe Siamese kitty named Luna, and Nico the Horse. She’s Mimi to two fun-loving toddlers and loves to garden and stitch things up for the girls. Michele is also a teacher, author, quilter, and stitcher and finds most of her inspiration from nature and the textiles she has collected on her travels. Her son Logan and great-neice Arya are models for the jeans.

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hat started as a blog post for the Oliso website (I am the Director of Content and Community Relations for them) turned into a marathon of making patchwork clothing for myself, family, and friends. Hand stitching plays a big part in much of my work, so I love incorporating it into my patchwork garments. When I go thrifting, I also look for embroidered shirts that I can cut up to use as appliques. Adding a paper-backed fusible web to the back will help it from fraying and looks like you did a lot more work than you really did.

Some of my friends have sent and entrusted me with their worn loved jeans to cut apart and stitch on. It’s kind of a blind faith type of thing since I really don’t take directions of what they want. I have part of them here with me, so I start building the design with things that remind me of them!

However, with that said, I sometimes do have to limit myself and not go overboard. I do want them to wear them, after all.

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Supplies

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veryone has a pair of wellworn jeans or overalls, right? It’s a blank canvas to me.

• Jeans, your own or thrifted • Seam ripper, scissors, common pins, • • • •

needles for 12 wt. thread, jeans needle (14) if you are using a sewing machine Oliso mini project iron Variety of 12 wt. thread or embroidery floss Heat n Bond or another paperbacked fusible web Patches, vintage laces, Kantha quilt squares, hand-printed linens, unusual scraps of fabrics, applique pieces, and orphan quilt blocks

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Instructions

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Take out one seam on each leg of your jeans with your seam ripper.

Jeans often have one French seam, which is more difficult to remove. Pull all remaining threads after the seam is open and press flat.

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2 3 4

Start arranging items on your jean legs. Cut textiles and layer until you achieve the design you are satisfied with. You can always add more later.

Take a photo for placement.

Measure and cut the fusible paperback web about ¼" to ½" smaller than the patch.

With a hot dry iron, press the fusible web, paper side up, onto the backside of your patch. Let cool and remove paper back. You can crack the paper along one edge to peel easier.

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Refer to your placement photo and press one patch onto your jeans/jacket/pillow or tote. The denim is thick, so you may need to hold the iron in place for several seconds. Be careful not to scorch and press from the inside as well. Continue layering.

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Once everything is held in place, you can secure it with hand stitching or on your sewing machine.

Leaving a border around the patches without the fusible web will make it easier to hand stitch.

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You can also add embroidery or Sachiko stitches to your patches prior to adhering the fusible and to the jeans.

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Turn your jeans inside out and sew up the side seam and hem.

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f you are interested in having Michele stitch a pair of your jeans, you can contact her through DM on Instagram or via her website.

Michele www.LolaRae.com INSTAGRAM: MicheleMuska

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Tamara White Photography by Jennifer Bakos

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At Wing & A Prayer Farm, I love to share an escape with you to my village-type setting of farm animals.

There is a farm tucked into a peaceful, verdant acreage in the midst of the south shires of Vermont, between the Hudson River watershed of bordering New York and the aged Green Mountains. Traveling the dirt roads through the small towns leads you to vistas left and right of Grandma Moses country: roly-poly hills, wood clapboard homes, slate rooves, red barns, cow pastures, and old silos. Taking the turn by the brightly painted mailbox with a paintedmetal sheep atop, you’ll pull into a pretty place that has been a haven to creatures great and small for over 35 years.

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I’ve been raising heritage breed flocks of sheep, poultry, alpacas, goats, piggies, and pups since my own children were youngsters, the first 4 Shetland sheep purchased in 2001. When my kids had grown up and moved on to adult pursuits, instead of downsizing my tiny flocks and homestead practices, I took the knowledge I had gained, along with the developed infrastructure, and turned my hobby into a full-blown production farm.

When I take visitors on walking tours, I can’t seem to give a shortened version of any of the stories surrounding us.

“Here is where Princess Peppermint, the American Guinea hog, lives with her duck friends

in our Dye Garden. Oh, have I told you about how she came to us, a small bottle-fed piglet that had a broken jaw? Also, when she was a year old and had pneumonia, and I nursed her with meds and an IV for a week to bring her 107-degree F. temp down to normal … or about that time when she couldn’t get off the front stoop, and we tossed back a couple of craft cocktails to help her loosen up so she wouldn’t be afraid to go down those porch steps to get back to her little hut?”

Now, at about 300 pounds, on short, stocky legs, with her keen snout, she patrols the garden lanes, keeping the weeds at bay and serving as companion to the busy flock of Runner ducks…

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Let’s walk down to the Pond Pasture,

where, in the wintertime, we skate on the shoveled pond, warming our hands and toes next to the woodstove in the small shed with 40+ pairs of hanging skates for holiday parties.

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ext, we trek over to The Big Field that borders the through-road for travelers, many who pause, slowing down to look upon our flocks as they graze during the summer months.

The Middle Pasture is closer to the farm house, where the lambs + ma’ams like to graze before weaning in the later summer. The littles like to race

around and scramble atop the big rocks, then launch off to race again.

Looking North, you will see the row of trees we’ve planted as memorial sentinels over the years for our beloveds that lay to rest: Poncho, Indy, Hayden, India, Hester, ole Cricket, Ruva, Maggie, Thelma, Louise…

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“To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, One clover, and a bee, And revery.

The revery alone will do, If bees are few.”

— EMILY DICKINSON

The Barn has been more recently

added—in 2008—and it is an ark, a hospital, a hive, a hub for living, for creating, for resting, and for passing on into the next realm.

I have ushered in the wee hours of morning in my worn and torn overalls, handspun hats, workgloves, and shirtsleeves to assist ewes in lambing. I’ve knelt on the ground, cradling my senior donkey resting in my lap and comforting him in his last breaths. I have held a ewe in place against the corner of the stall and reached under her to relieve swollen mammary glands and helped latch on her hungry and weak lambs. When you farm, you are responsible to see life in, and you are responsible to see life out. I’ve simply sat on a tipped bucket to think about it all.

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One of my great joys is sharing an educational message.

I’ve hosted groups of children and youth for workshops and agricultural-themed visits. I have held events attended by hundreds of visitors for Open Farm Day, Maker Markets, and Maker Retreats. A one-woman band, I run around and post myself at different venues to share the intricacies of how small farms can fix the earth for the better. You might find me at a display in front of the Dye Garden, where I will demonstrate the magic of modifiers and a kettle of Marigold blossoms.

I might stand in front of “The Park,” the pasture where there are shady trees and daffodils blooming in the springtime, and preach about how conscientious consumerism will save the environment. I will definitely invite you to settle quietly with the sheep and show you how they like to be petted under the chin, not above, as they are prey animals. We will speak in quieter tones because they will be less frightened than if we are loud or move suddenly. This is where all of the stresses of the day simply dissipate. Time stands still when you sit with the flocks.

I had always loved to garden and as a child would tend any patch I was given to bring forth blooms or edibles. I loved Sweet Peas and would grow them on a trellis, and rows of Swiss Chard and Courgettes to harvest and cook for lunches. I could put up tomatoes and bake pies with my eyes closed by the time I was 14 with the bit of homesteading knowledge I had from living on my grandparents’ retired dairy farm as a youth. I learned about raising poultry and a pony, some goats and cows. But the sheep, I came to learn about them as an adult, and caring for animals to the extent that I am able to was also something that was self-taught.

It became a necessity to make my own decisions and implement procedures with expediency as my location is far removed from livestock veterinary care.

So here I am, in my middle years, surrounded by beautiful animals, growing lush gardens, and I have never been more in love in my whole life. I discovered that farming was all of what I had ever been looking for.

It is the way in which I am daily challenged by a variety of elements, or steeped in depths of colors, textures, and designs, how I am fulfilled by the reasonable, gentle nature of the animals I keep, and how I am inspired by such a simple yet complex fiber: Wool.

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I raise animals that turn grass into wool. Wool is an incredible

fiber with properties that run the gamut from thermal regulating, antimicrobial, stain resistant, and flame resistant to having natural UV protection, hypoallergenic, moisture wicking, AND it’s good for the environment.

When I first started to peddle the wool that my flocks grew, I had little knowledge of the processing of fiber and would take my Shetlands’ fleeces to the local mill and let them guide me as to ‘what next.’ The oatmeal or grey shades of blended yarns would come back, and I would wash them, twist them and add a tag, and take them with me to the local farmers’ markets to sell.

Folks would pick up a twist and look at it, turn it in their hands, and then set it down, replacing the wool with a dozen eggs, a home-baked pie, some veggies, or pickles. We would chat a bit, but there were no knitters shopping during those early years.

Year in, year out, the sheep would need shearing, we would bring their fleeces to the mill, and more yarn was added to the stockpile.

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I learned how to dye my yarn using natural materials, and in 2010, I

created an online shop to share the farm’s product with a wider audience.

Slowly, interest developed in what I was making with my beloved flocks’ fiber and my own hands, and I became more invested in marketing and selling enough to help pay the taxes and overhead in keeping these flocks. It wouldn’t be easy, but I thought that I might be able to make it my full-time occupation if I worked really hard.

“We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we pass it on to our children.”

—NATIVE AMERICAN PROVERB

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found that established relationships with local mills went a long way in helping me to become better educated about how to make the best yarns from our many breeds of sheep. Keeping a diverse flock of goats, sheep, and alpacas was most in line with my motivation to support diversity and support rare and heritage breeds, and my bleeding heart, which seemed to find room for any of the rescues that came my way.

Since my flocks’ fleeces were an atypical harvest, different types of wool and mohair from a variety of different breeds and species, I leaned on the experts at the mills to show me what we could make if we blended this with that or if I saved up my fleeces from several clips to create a user-friendly yarn with more fine wool, and so on.

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Natural fibers,

such as wool, harvested humanely and sustainably from small farms such as mine, will not only help with drawing down carbon from the atmosphere and returning it to the earth but assist in slowing down the fashion industry from its fast-tracking the globe to ruin. Fast fashion and overconsumption are

contributors to enormous waste and unethical, inhumane work conditions. Fortunately, reusing, repurposing, and thrifting handmade and conscientiously created garments are enjoying a resurgence on shelves and in catalogs. Making and crafting are helping to educate and support awareness in supporting small businesses and ‘green’ options.

Immersing myself in the agricultural industry and positioning my farm as a supplier in the wool chain was a natural succession, and the learning curve has been gradual enough for me to feel somewhat secure in the business I conduct. This business allows me to, mostly, stay on the farm and explore new designs, colors, and enterprises for putting our small farm’s products in the hands of makers.

Each pause in our farm-tour will find me talking your ear off and giving you the life story of everyone we meet. I am surrounded by richness—the nourishing of the flocks, the nourishing of the earth, good grasses sequestering carbon and cleaning the atmosphere, raising, harvesting, and processing sustainable fiber. Dyeing with flowers and forage from this place … I share about how it has come to be that I am where I am today—the beginning, the middle, and sometimes the ends.

It is a tour about finding what you love and being able to immerse yourself in it, sharing it with the world, knowing that you might be leaving it a little better than when you found it.

Tamara

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www.WingAndAPrayerFarm.com INSTAGRAM: WingAndAPrayerFarm FACEBOOK: WingAndAPrayerFarm PINTEREST: WingAndAPrayerFarm TWITTER: WingAndAPrayerF ETSY: etsy.com/shop/WingAndAPrayerFarm

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THROUGH THE LENS

JENNIFER BAKOS loves to document and capture the special moments in life and loves to create beautiful imagery for businesses of all kinds.

Community and partnerships are so important to her. She grew up in a small town in New Hampshire and has carried the tight-knit, “love thy neighbor” mentality with her throughout her work and life.

She has found this to be part of what makes her job so fun. The relationships she’s built, the places she’s discovered, and all of the fun things she’s learned along the way, and she hopes that shines through her photographs.

She does not discriminate against any race, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, ability, religion, or ancestral origin. All are welcome, and all will be treated equally.

Jennifer www.JennBakosPhoto.com INSTAGRAM: JennBakosPhoto FACEBOOK: JennBakosPhoto

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juliana d. spahr Photography by Stephanie Bland

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Juliana D. Spahr is a scientific illustrator from rural New Hampshire. She creates illustrations for science centers, botanical gardens, nature preserves, and scientific journals. Her work focuses on biodiversity and endangered species and aims to communicate complex scientific research to the general public. Her delicate scientific illustrations merge realism with simplified scientific information.

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NOT MANY PEOPLE CAN PROBABLY SAY THEY FOUND their life’s work at the town garbage dump ... After getting my bachelor’s degree in art history and environmental studies, I was torn between two worlds. As an artist, I didn’t think I had very much to say. Simultaneously, I was afraid to get trapped in the tunnel of hyper-focused scientific research. I felt adrift. One day, I found a human anatomy and physiology textbook abandoned in a pile of recycling at the town dump that changed everything.

Even before college, I was passionate about sharing the beauty and peculiarity of the natural world with people in the hope of inspiring them to conserve the environment.

Since childhood, I have enjoyed painting and drawing in a realistic style, and in my art history training, I was drawn to the exquisite realism of Dutch still life paintings. College showed me that I wanted to help make a positive change in the scientific community, but I didn’t want to stop creating.

I was scared to become an art historian and forget about the side of myself that was so fascinated by science; and yet, a career in the sciences seemed to spell the end of my time for creativity.

The anatomy textbook I stumbled on encouraged me to see the world of medical and scientific illustration as a potential pathway. What if my art could be a platform on which to speak about conservation and biodiversity? I started a drawing project inspired by the textbook. Through this project, I discovered that my interest in the delicate functioning of the human body was as strong as my existing passions for zoology and environmental science.

I began to apply to master’s programs in scientific illustration. Two years later, I graduated from the Maastricht University & Zuyd Hogeschool dual master’s program in medical and scientific illustration. It was a perfect fit for me, featuring an unusually hands-on teaching method, including self-directed human and animal dissections, anatomy classes, and a wonderfully diverse small group of students.

I learned to clearly convey complex scientific information using my own illustrations and design. Using scientific illustration, I could be

painting and creating but in a field I really cared about: art in the service of science.

What are the chances that three years later, I would meet my partner at that same garbage dump? I moved to Buffalo, New York, with him in 2019, where I now create scientific illustrations for science centers, scientific journals, and other agencies, such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. My job mostly consists of drawing digital illustrations for articles in a variety of international scientific research journals ranging in topic from human heart attack prevention to ethics in hunting Scandinavian wildlife.

It is my ultimate goal to create illustrations for popular science magazines such as National Geographic or Nature. In the meantime, I work in my home studio painting watercolor illustrations and designing infographics for clients around the world. Our wonderful beagle rescue dog, Hubert, eases my anxiety and loneliness in these uncertain times. The spare simplicity of my bright, plantpacked studio helps to settle my mind.

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P H OTO B Y D A N I E L U N G I E R

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y absolute favorite illustrations to create are outdoor infographics: the sort that dot the visitor pathways at science centers and botanical gardens. Sharing the fragile and intricate world of living things around us with the general public is my favorite way to utilize scientific illustration. Although scientific illustrations are often used to communicate research among fellow scientists, I believe that these illustrations have a unique ability to inspire regular people to treat our planet with respect, protect endangered species, and be thoughtful about their surroundings. Using realism and eye-catching detail, I try to spark curiosity and engagement in my viewers.

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P H OTO B Y S A R A H C A L L A N

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ONE RECENT PROJECT I HAVE been working on is a series of 12 giant outdoor infographics destined for the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center in New Hampshire. Nearly 100 separate watercolor paintings have gone into the production of these graphics: fish, birds, raspberries, etc. One of the infographics I am creating is a phylogenetic tree (an evolutionary family tree) of bird species.

Each bird on the family tree is hand painted and then brought into the digital infographic layout I designed for them. Although I painted 26 birds for this graphic, I chose to focus here on my painting of the Harpy Eagle (Harpia Harpyja) for several reasons.

First, it is a truly beautiful and majestic eagle, the biggest by weight of any eagle, with talons that can grow twice as long as those of the Bald Eagle! I also wanted to spotlight this species because it’s under threat in its South American homeland. Persecuted over fears that they may attack livestock, shot out of curiosity or fear, and prized for their giant talons, the Harpy Eagle is in a precarious position. Preservation programs that have been attempted have suffered from lack of funding and interest. So here is one soapbox I can perch the Harpy Eagle on for a moment.

In order to create my watercolor illustrations, I begin with background research and image collection. I like to do preliminary research about the species to help me speak with my client more specifically and develop accurate illustrations. Many species that I paint can look different depending on my reference images. As a scientific illustrator, it’s my goal to illustrate an “ideal” of the species. Together, my client and I choose the gender, color morph, and seasonal appearance of the animal in order to portray a perfect specimen.

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or the illustration that I will be painting here, I began by making a folder on my computer of over 30 reference images of Harpy Eagles. Next, I drew multiple sketches of the Eagle; this helps me familiarize myself with the bird’s proportions and decide on an angle for the illustration. Because I have already painted 25 birds for this final graphic, I know that I want the bird to be chest forward, perched, and in profile. I am painting this Eagle larger than I typically would to help display my process.

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compile up to ten images into a Frankenstein “ideal” of the species on my computer and begin to sketch a final version of the bird based on those references. Once I am happy with my sketch, I trace it onto tracing paper for final adjustments. I love the smooth, almost greasy feel of tracing paper under my pencil.

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hen I am satisfied with the tracing paper sketch, I transfer it onto soaked Arches watercolor paper by rubbing the sketched surface down onto the paper with a stylus. This makes a light, ghostly image of my sketch on the paper, so I won’t have any dark or deep pencil lines in my watercolor. Because of this light method of working, I begin with details, as broad washes of color can brush away the graphite dust. I have a tendency to start with faces (despite much scolding in graduate school), and then I move to larger washes over the body and finish with more details. I love to use watercolor washes to shade, convincing the soft feathery tendrils of pigment to represent realistic patterns.

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Harpy Eagle (Harpia Harpyja)

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y palette is always very messy. I prefer this to using paint pans or larger separated palettes. I find that mixing small amounts of pigment to match my references allows for slight variations in color that create more realistic tones in my paintings. Small batch mixing lacks that “out of the tube” look that using too many non-primary tube colors can bring to a painting.

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nce the painting is finished, I scan it and edit it using Adobe Photoshop. There, I adjust exposure, so it looks precisely like my painting and references, and add in the whitest whites and darkest blacks. Even with bright white paper and mars black paint, I cannot quite reach these extremes, so highlights in eyes are added, and pupils or talons are darkened.

One of the biggest challenges in my watercolor and digital painting (which I haven’t learned to combat yet) is detail. I LOVE detail! The more detailed, the better. I often have to reel myself in from getting too minute because it isn’t necessary for the size of the final product.

When I am satisfied with the Photoshop file, I add it to my infographic layout, which I designed in Adobe Illustrator. Creating these didactic layouts is often the most challenging portion of a project.

Finally, when I think the infographic is finished, I have my client look it over. This can mean many small edits before the final version, so I try not to get attached to my original design concept.

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“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”

— ROBERT SWAN, POLAR EXPLORER

WHEN EVERYONE IS CONTENT, my client will have the infographic professionally printed on an outdoor coated wooden panel. This graphic will be found in one of Squam Lakes Natural Science Center’s Bird of Prey houses. It is so wonderful to see my infographics come to life in their “natural habitats.” Here I printed a smaller version so you could see how the graphic will look in its totality, as it’s not installed yet. You’ll have to go to the Science Center to see the final version! Can you spy the Harpy Eagle?!

Juliana www.SciVisuals.com INSTAGRAM: Science_Visuals BEHANCE: ScienceVisuals ETSY: etsy.com/shop/ScienceVisuals

P H OTO B Y J U L I A N A D. S PA H R

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THROUGH THE LENS

Stephanie Bland is a multi-discipline photographer and artist based in Buffalo, NY. Her career focuses mainly on portrait and architectural photography. Stephanie’s work captures vibrant colors, urban and industrial landscapes, and commonplace subjects portrayed in interesting ways. Stephanie’s professional work has included social media content creator, fine art photography, and editorial fashion photography.

Her vision as a professional photographer is to be able to create content in a style that is recognizably her own while also creating a world, a mood, and a lifestyle, all consistent throughout her collection of work.

Stephanie INSTAGRAM: Banished.Planet

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IN THE GALLERY

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Jim Bremer

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BUFFINGTON BREMER STUDIO is a part-

nership between husband-and-wife team RUTH BUFFINGTON and JIM BREMER. Both enjoyed successful careers that allowed for early retirement. Ruth was a Quality Control Supervisor for the Massachusetts Dept. of Transitional Assistance. Jim was the head of Creative Services for Hasbro Games. Most people have a dream about what they would like to do someday; Jim and Ruth are doing it. Their mission is to create unique works of art that incorporate innovative techniques, unconventional materials, and unsurpassed craftsmanship. While they occasionally sell their work, they mainly are interested in sharing it through public shows and social media. They refer to it as a non-profit or, in their words, “the cost of time and materials minimize the potential to make a profit.” For them, at this stage in life, satisfaction and accomplishment are the greater forms of currency.

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One Giant Step Size: 84" × 36"

In 2016, we were invited to participate in a show at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA, near Boston. I came up with a concept that would showcase Ruth’s fashion skills. The centerpiece was a woman stepping through a portal from the past into the future. Ruth created pearlized leather pants, an etched copper bustier, and a bolero jacket made from a crocheted tablecloth. The big “WOW” occurred when Ruth created these overthe-top, bead-embroidered high heel platform shoes. We didn’t know it then, but that was the birth of Shoetopia.

In These Shoes?

These high-heel platform shoes are covered with clock parts, shoe buttons, button hooks, shoehorns, shoe polish cans, subway tokens, typewriter keys, oil lamp parts, and thousands of mostly antique beads that are sewn on by hand. The six-foot-tall figure stood on a platform that elevated it three feet above the floor. This enabled museum goers to get really close to the shoes. A chorus of OMGs and flickering iPhones usually followed.

We worked together for nine months creating five pieces for the New Sole of the Old Machine: Steampunk Brockton Show. We came away from it knowing that we had created a unique style that people responded to.

Regardless how you feel about our work, you probably haven’t seen anything quite like it before. It’s hard to copy because it takes a diverse skill set and considerable patience to execute.

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RUTH

Growing up on the south coast of Oregon with a creative, artistic mother gave me a strong foundation for my current artwork. She taught me a variety of techniques, many of which I continue to develop and use to this day. For a dozen years in the ‘80s and ‘90s, I used the sewing skills she taught me as I professionally created reverse appliqué leather clothing and expanded that into the sale of home goods.

In the last 15 years, I’ve learned bead embroidery, paperclay sculpture of dolls and animals, metal etching, collage with antique documents, and bookmaking, which I learned from fellow artist Sharon Payne Bolton. My favorite projects are the ones that incorporate more than one skill.

Finding someone as talented as my husband, Jim, has continued to challenge me and expand my creative possibilities. I’m aware how rare it is for a couple to share such an intense desire to create art and even more rare to share the processes of creating. I feel fortunate that our skill sets don’t overlap and that we can support each other’s work.

The Highwalker Size: 42" × 22" × 12"

This concept was inspired by houseplants like the sansevieria and the yucca plant. Some test pieces were created out of epoxy clay wrapped around insulated electrical wire. Epoxy clay dries as hard as a rock but is easily shaped with a rasp and is easily sanded. This shoe last is unusually large for a woman, maybe a size 12, and that gives it a real presence. The heel is made from a fire hose nozzle and a billiard ball. The platform sole is covered with embossed clay.

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JIM

I was drawing before I learned to read or write.

Art has always been a key component in how I identify myself. As a child in school, I was average at everything. I went to a small rural parochial school where two or three grades were taught in the same room.

So when the other grade was being taught, the rest of us were supposed to study. To my delight, that same pencil that wrote out arithmetic problems could be put to better use drawing the spaceship that would help me escape to another world. Art was usually the last class of the afternoon, so my day would end on a high note.

I had the good fortune to go to a public high school that had an amazing art program in my hometown of Monett, Missouri. My luck continued when I chose to attend Missouri State University in nearby Springfield. I didn’t know the first thing about picking a college, but I landed in one with a superb art and design program. Art education transported me from rural farm boy to Vice President of a Fortune 500 company where we made games. My career was better than anything I could have imagined as a kid.

Bird Boot Bangle Size: 14" × 8" × 2.5"

Created from a wooden shoe last (a hardwood maple form that leather shoes were made on through the 1970s; today, plastic forms are more commonly used). In addition, a radio dial plate, beaded purse frame, oil lamp parts, antique found objects including clock parts, music box parts, button hook, buttons, and bead embroidery round out the piece.

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SHOETOPIA

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uth and I have chosen many different creative paths in life, both jointly and separately.

Sometimes you have to be on the path for a while before you can know what the opportunity is and that it leads somewhere. We don’t have a blueprint.

In our hometown of East Longmeadow, MA, the town center is built around a traffic rotary where seven streets converge. It sounds messy, but with a little attention and cooperation, everyone gets to where they are going. I think that’s a good analogy of how Shoetopia came to be. It took a convergence of a wide variety of skills to make this happen. Skills were developed over many years while exploring numerous creative paths. Between us, we counted seven in all, including: bead embroidery, sewing fabric and leather, paper collage, metal etching and texturing, woodworking, sculpting with paperclay, and Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.

While we can both point to accomplishments from these various individual skills, it is the combined set that produced this unique body of work.

DETAILS of WALK IN THE CLOUDS

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The upper boot consists of nine sections of quilted and beaded fabric that were lined in leather. To support the panels, a material needed to be sandwiched inside for support, and it needed to be stiff but flexible. The solution was found in a kitchen drawer — a package of thin, plastic cutting board mats. They were easy to cut with scissors, and tiny holes were punched along the outer edge where they could all be stitched together. If no solution exists, invent one.

Approximately 9 years ago, Ruth purchased a wholesale lot of about 200 Larimar cabochons from the Dominican Republic that would today retail for about $2000+.

She made a couple of bracelets using some of them, while the remainder spent years in a flat drawer waiting their fate. Three boots had been completed at this point, and one day, I was looking through her collections for ideas and said, “Why not use these for one spectacular piece.” I thought, “There’s only one other person crazy enough to do something like this, and I’m married to her.” Don’t save the good stuff for that special piece; make everything you do special.

Walk in the Clouds Size: 26" × 6" × 13"

This boot features about 100 Larimar cabochons in a bead-embroidered cluster.

The upper section is a hand-dyed fabric that is quilted with antique steel beads; a painted wood shoe last is complemented by a gilded sole and bronze cast heel.

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When you walk away from a challenge, you deny yourself the satisfaction of accomplishment.

Radio Free Texas Size: 40" × 9" × 14"

Built over a wood riding boot tree, this piece features all-black vintage beads embroidered around brass letters that spell cities in Texas. The silver plate in the center is from a 1930s-era radio dial plate, which is now the home of a little bird disc jockey wearing a cowboy hat. The boot is capped with a metal oil can top and a wire antenna with a Texas star at the end.

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Tortured Ballet Size: 20" × 15" × 6"

A vintage shoe stretcher and ballet shoe were combined with a bead-embroidered bird house.

Frayed fabric wings were added to give the appearance of a tutu.

Recent work has tended to take on a brassy brown and gold color palette. For Tortured Ballet, a white and pink color palette was chosen. White buttons, mother of pearl ornaments, and pearl beads took center stage. While the other pieces are clearly defined as shoes, in this, the shoe is merely a shape in an unconventional assemblage of textures and surfaces. This departure would carry forward into the work that followed.

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e are often asked how we are able to get along with each other and work together so well. I think the biggest reason is because our skills don’t overlap. I have no idea of what to do with a sewing machine. I doubt that I would get past threading the needle. On the other hand, I’m pretty good at Photoshop, and I use it regularly to visualize and plan the pieces we build.

We have to rely on each other to make this work. At the root of all of this is a real love and admiration of each other’s work.

We are both driven to do the best we are capable of and then push a little beyond that. Ruth will not hesitate to take something apart and redo it if she doesn’t like it, and I’m the same way. I’m probably the most vocal critic. Sometimes it’s easier to get along with people if you just praise them and tell them what they want to hear. If you want to be a real professional, though, you have to know how to give and take constructive criticism. I think Ruth and I both buy into the idea that the degree to which you overcome a challenge is proportional to the joy you experience in a successful result. There is nothing better than sharing that experience.

Stiletto Towers Size: 24" × 8" × 12"

This high-heel boot with protruding city towers features a bead-embroidered surface made from clock parts, trinkets, and other found objects. The boot is built over a 1950s-era wooden shoe last. The heel is a brass surveyor's plumb bob. The towers are 1950s-era brass flashlights with gas lamp parts, tire valve covers, oilers, brass finials, and a wood-handled awl.

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This concept features a strong emphasis on leather as the primary material. Wood shoe lasts are easy to find on eBay, but you rarely see a high heel with a sharp pointed toe like this one. The spiked heel was a natural fit.

The towers were inspired by architecture in Barcelona. We had recently found two old metal flashlights at Brimfield Antique Fair, which fit perfectly with some oil lamp parts.

The cylindrical shapes are mounted over wood dowel rods, nested into the wooden structural core.

A structural core has to be created for a boot like this before the surface pieces can be attached. A series of 3/4" plywood ovals were cut and stacked onto two steel rods that mount into the wooden shoe last base. They were coated with a layer of epoxy clay and, when dry, were shaped with rasps and sandpaper. A form is then ready for the surface pieces to be designed. Shapes are drawn and cut from paper tag stock to make the various pieces. The shapes are then attached to the boot core with rubber bands and tape and reworked until they look right. After marking and photographing the mockup, it’s disassembled, and the pieces are used as patterns.

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hy shoes? As the saying goes: “one thing leads to another.” In 2016, there was a call for artists to submit ideas to our local Springfield Art and History Museum for an upcoming Steampunk Show. Ruth was interested, but sketching and proposals are not typically part of her process, and she asked me to help. I worked my entire career in the graphic arts field, where concept sketches and proposals were part of my everyday life. We brainstormed some ideas, and I pieced together a presentation of three fashionrelated pieces highlighted by a steampunk wedding dress. All three made it into the show, and the wedding dress won a prize as the People’s Choice Award. This marked a big leap forward for the intricate combination of bead embroidery and found objects that Ruth had previously only done as jewelry. This was something truly different. Now, this unique combination of elements would embellish and take center stage on a fashion item.

Time to Wed Size: 72" × 30"

The wedding dress is made of custom printed fabric featuring the wedding vows of its creators. It is embellished with antique clock parts and bead embroidery. The crown and veil are copper with a variety of antique clock hands.

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I had never done anything in fashion design but now found myself doing just that. Ruth had done numerous leather jackets and other custom fashion items over the years and won awards for them; now, she was able to take my sketches and turn them into professionally fitted items. The icing on the cake, of course, was the amazing surface design and embellishments that she created to distinguish the work.

While I feel Ruth deserves most of the credit for the outcome, I felt for a while that her work could be more than crafted jewelry and be elevated to works of art. I can’t say that I have doled out a lot of good advice in my time, but in this case, I was spot on. This is what I love about collaboration. Sometimes a second pair of eyes and a few words of encouragement can make big things happen. It works the other way, too. It’s great having Ruth as my personal in-house art consultant.

Dressed for Excess From the discovery of an 1881 wire dress form, this futuristic/retro ‘dress’ evolved. The bodice is bead embroidered using old escutcheons, antique steel beads, watch parts, numbers, and various other found objects. I created wings and a bustle, which were covered with antique documents. The mannequin’s neck is a spindle from the historic New England spinning industry; her head is a wood and iron pulley.

Ruth and Jim www.BBArt.net INSTAGRAM: BuffingtonBremerArt PINTEREST: Buffington Bremer Studio

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Photography by Marja Sterck

IN THE GALLERY

CECIL KEMPERINK

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TO BE CONTINUED | Ceramics and body connected

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I was a curious and sensitive child/ teenager who followed many art and dance classes. After one year at the fashion academy, I switched to visual arts, where the love to explore different materials was encouraged. Here, I discovered and experimented with materials such as wood, metal, textile, clay, bronze, paint, and more. It was a wonderful time for me and my art. After graduation, I started with wheel throwing and here began a deep understanding and eagerness to

CECIL KEMPERINK

lives and works on a beautiful island in the Netherlands, where she creates interactive ceramic sculptures.

Through the soul of her work, Cecil, a visual artist and explorer, challenges you to expand and enrich your senses. With her multi-faceted background in dance and fashion, her sculptures show the connection between her various passions. She investigates ‘space’ and plays with rhythm, form, time, movement, and energy.

Cecil’s work is telling you a story.

Listen, see, feel, experience what happens when the sculptures move ... and enjoy the moment.

SURFING / BEAUTIFUL BODY Ceramics and body connected

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‘talk’ with clay. The wheel, water, and clay provided a lot for me to discover.

I learned about this technique and about myself. The wheel taught me to be in the now, in the present, and the importance and joy of the process.

When you are experimenting, connection is an important part.

My textile education made me knit, weave and crochet with clay. It was fun, but it did not work because of the drying quality of clay. It dried before I could finish.

MOVING MOMENTS Ceramics sculpture

I LOVE TO EXP EX PERIMENT,

something I learned at the Art Academy. When you throw on a wheel, you make a cylinder shape to start your pot. When you have a cylinder and hold a needle 1 cm below the top and the wheel turns, you hold a circle in your hands. And so my circle journey started.

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I HAVE THIS THIS PR PREFE EFER REN ENC CE FOR ROUN ROUND ORGANI ORG ANIC C SHA SHAP PES.

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When the circles came, I started decorating my pots with them. And after that, I wanted to work on a bigger scale. Pots made on the wheel have a limited size. So I decided (after a lot of thinking) to stop with the wheel and to continue with only the circles. First, I made the circles at the wheel, later by hand.

And now I still make them by hand and with an extruder. Every roller is touched by my hands several times. I need to touch them and make them the way I want to. With my fingerprints on them.

The way I work now works very well for me and what I want to create.

I make a part, let it dry, fire in the kiln, and when it is ready, I continue building. So I add new rings to the part that has already been in the kiln. Sometimes, a work goes more than 15 times in the kiln!!! Sometimes even for just one circle. There is no manual, I have to do trial and error. This part of the process, the firing in the kiln, still is very important and is a special happening every time, again and again, even after all these years. But it is also very exciting.

YOU CAN SEE A LOT OF SHORT VIDEOS OF THIS PROCESS ON MY INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT (CECILKEMPERINK) OR WEBSITE (CECILKEMPERINK.NL).

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SCULLPTUR SCU URE ES

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My sculptures are connections between my varied passions: textile, clay, dance, fashion, sculpture, and nature. I work intuitively. The sculpture grows in my hands. The manual process of connecting the circles gives rise to an attentive and labor-intensive process.

My sculptures have many appearances. They are more than 3-dimensional ... with them, you can change the form, hear the sound, and experience the feeling and energy when you touch the work.

The sculptures I create are made of clay and fired in a special Ceramic Electric Kiln. We use solar energy.

Temperatures reach between 1050 and 1300 degrees Celsius. I use different types of clay, smooth or with more structure, or I make my own composition.

Putting the sculptures and part of the sculptures inside the kiln is a scary thing to do: fingers crossed if everything stays okay. When clay is raw, not fired/baked, it is very fragile. I also make sculptures inside the kiln, so I do not have to touch them putting them in the kiln.

The temperatures in the kiln influence the color and texture of the sculpture. Every sculpture asks for her own temperature. The colors are designed and made by me. All-natural colors.

Every piece is one-of-a-kind and completely handmade.

NATURE SERIES Ceramics sculpture

ABOU BOUTT MY TEC TE CHNI HNIQU QUE ES

I compose the clay with variation and gradation in structure, texture, and color. I start with the extruder and continue by hand. I use the kiln many times to fire in the meantime. The work is too delicate to make in one piece. Each work has been in the kiln at least four times. Some works are in the kiln up to 15 times before the last firing at the final temperature. Because of the many times in the kiln (and the drying), I am working on several sculptures at the same time.

The work is very strong despite the fragile looks because of the firm shape of a circle: literally as well as symbolically. Every link wears the symbolism of a circle: conjunction, connection, power, endlessness, an eternally ongoing movement.

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ABOU BOUTT SHOWIN WING G MY WOR WORK K

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How do I show my interactive work to the public? This is something I have thought a lot about.

Photos are very important and something I am always wondering about: Which side, shape of the work am I showing? Is there a best side? Are there more? Which pose? And how do I make sound visible? Can you see the energy of a work on a picture?

I have tried a lot. In this article, you can see a lot of pictures, made by Marja Sterck, once my studio neighbour. Our collaboration has been going on for years and is special: We co-operate and discuss what I want to show as well as what her ideas are.

We both agree on our best project so far being the sculpture ‘to be continued.’ You see me carrying my sculpture as a pieta. With love.

When you watch the video of this largest sculpture that I have made so far, you see the ongoing movements of the tide: Going up … going down, a never-ending rhythm of nature.

SEE THE VIDEO ON YOUTUBE: CECIL KEMPERINK—TO BE CONTINUED.

SOULS / BEAUTIFUL BODY Ceramics and body connected

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I SP SPENT ENT SO M MUC UCH H TIME

thinking about what the best model for my photo shoots would be … until I found out that the model just has to be me. When I show the sculpture, it adds another layer of meaning.

I love to work with a body to show the scale of the sculpture. To make the movements. And to show the interaction with the body: connection between human and sculpture.

The different poses, the movement, the interaction with the body, the sound, different meanings, and perceptions become clear by the pictures, videos, and performances.

One day, I began to realise that dance had become a part of my sculptures.

How special: When I was a teenager, I wanted to become a dancer. Two years in a row, I auditioned for the dance academy, and twice it did not work out the way I hoped for. At that time, my world collapsed … and now I dance and perform with my sculptures. That gives me joy, a very important ‘material’ of my work.

When you watch my sculptures, you can see my multifaceted background in my sculptures. My sculptures are the connection between my various passions: textile, clay, material, touch, fashion, and dance. I began to dance with my sculptures to move them, and at the same time, they moved me. And showed me new sculptures.

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BIG RHYTHM | This piece is an important piece because with this idea, I asked myself: HOW do I move the sculptures? What movement do I make, and how does the sculpture follow ... am I the director or can the sculpture be in charge? How is an exchange possible?

You watch the model breathing, and her breath lets the sculpture move. They really become one.

I am very much inspired by the rhythms of nature: waves, tides, day and night, and also breathing and a heart beating.

WHAT WOMEN CREATE | ISSUE 14

“EVERY TIME AND EVERYWHERE, I EXPERIENCE MOVEMENTS OF NATURE CREATING NEW BEAUTY.”

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ome sculptures have such a different way to express themselves: Each photo looks like showing another work, but it is the same work.

For instance: Reshaping Process. The interaction of sculpture and woman/man opens several layers of consciousness: Each relation reveals new sensations, change of feelings, and a different energy. New perceptions are being shaped, multiple points of view arise; consciousness is in full motion.

RESHAPING PROCESS Ceramic sculpture and project

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ME, I HAVE MY CREATING SOURCE INSIDE OF ME. MAKES ME VERY GRATEFUL. TO CHERISH. EARTH DANCE is a little bit different work: The ceramic rings are crocheted together with cotton. You can see the interaction between model and sculpture.

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have a lot of questions; my ceramic sculptures show me answers and at the same time also new questions. How about apparent contradictions and other facts and feelings: form-formless, fragile-strong, earth (clay)-intuition, sculptureperformance, stone-dance, rhythm, space, energy, time, performing, and intense attention.

I am exploring and connecting.

When I am playing with my sculptures, both the questions and the answers appear not that important anymore; they just are.

CERAMICS IN MOTION ...

MOTION IS A KEY PART OF THE EXPRESSIVENESS OF MY SCULPTURES.

WISHFUL THINKING / BEAUTIFUL BODY Ceramics and body connected

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The movements show the importance of each circle. Every ring is essential and influences the other; they are all connected, they are all one.

Every link wears the symbolism of a circle: conjunction, connection, power, endlessness, an eternally ongoing movement. Every circle is essential: like in a community/society, everyone is needed, to take their own place and explore their own talents.

I am inspired by the rhythms of nature. Every day I see and experience so many changes.

Beautiful drawings are carved with sand by the waves. The beach holds them for a little while before wind and water change their designs. Over and over again. Silhouettes of branches are dancing in the wind. Sometimes stormy and hard to see, sometimes calm and clear. Every time and everywhere, I experience movements creating new beauty.

MY DREAMS I am living my dream.

I hope someday that I can work with a choreographer and beautiful dancers who connect with my sculptures, somewhere on a beach or in a studio. I would love to join them in dancing.

I want to also work and co-operate with artists in other disciplines.

Because of my work, I traveled a lot to visit my exhibitions or to work in wonderful places, such as being an artist in residence in Venice. I would love to continue doing so if it is possible again (due to COVID regulations).

MY WISHES I would love to exhibit in New York at the Guggenheim. To develop my performances and sculptures, work together with other artists, and inspire people with my sculptures.

BE KIND TO YOURSELF AND TO EACH OTHER. WITH LOVE, CECIL KEMPERINK

Cecil CecilKemperink.nl SHOP: www.CecilKemperink-Shop.nl INSTAGRAM: CecilKemperink FACEBOOK: Cecil.Kemperink PINTEREST: CecilKemperink LINKEDIN: CecilKemperink YOUTUBE: CecilKemperink

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MARJA STERCK lives and works in

’s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands. Since her graduation (1988, Academy of Fine Arts, Tilburg), she has worked as a fine artist, using photography for the making of her art. She exhibits internationally in galleries and museums, including The Hague (The Netherlands) and Montpellier (France). Her work is also included in several art collections.

Marja Sterck has a fascination with nature.

Humans, animals, plants, and landscapes have her undivided attention and get her undiminished interest. The fascination with ‘nature’ does not appear out of thin air. With her two siblings as biologists, the interest in plants, humans, and animals is not strange. However, Sterck studies the elements of nature not as a scientist but as an artist. Her devoted attention and appreciation give an extra layer to her art. She is a photographer par excellence. Her photographs are technically and aesthetically perfect. Her technical knowledge and deep understanding of the camera allow her to create freely. She zooms until the grain is a geometric grit which is barely perceptible to the naked eye.

Marja www.MarjaSterck.com INSTAGRAM: MarjaSterck

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THROUGH THE LENS

BIG HUGS is a sculpture in which you can see my love for dance.

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IN THE GALLERY

Mariko

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Kusumoto

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became determined to be a professional artist while still in my early teens, and I attended a high school in Japan that offered an art major with a broad range of studio and liberal arts studies. In junior high school, I attend sewing classes, where I initially experienced the enjoyment of working with fabric. In order to be accepted into an art college, my education was reinforced by attending a rigorous college preparatory “cramming” program (gakushu juku) following my regular school day. My combined studies were intense and highly focused and were bolstered by my discipline.

Mariko Kusumoto, who now lives in Lexington, MA, is the daughter of a Buddhist priest and grew up in a 400-year-old temple in Japan.

The beauty of the landscape and the textures of the aging temple always intrigued the aging artist. She remembers being drawn to “faded paint and wood, stone steps with hollows created by centuries of raindrops dripping off the roof” and the intricacy of the metal and the wooden ornaments that she was tasked with the job of cleaning and polishing.

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While at art college, I received a well-rounded education in a variety of art disciplines, including drawing, painting, printmaking, and metalworking. Shortly after completing my undergraduate studies, I moved to the USA to continue my education, eventually settling here.

Growing up in Japan and living in the USA for 30 years has exposed me to both the western and Japanese aesthetics, which enhanced my curiosity and have broadened my view. I am able to

appreciate all art forms (architecture, graphic design, sculpture, etc.), and I regard them all as one. To me, there is no boundary between the different categories.

When I entered art college in Japan, my major was oil painting. At the beginning of my junior year, I was able to choose between either an oil painting or printmaking major, so I decided to switch to printmaking with a focus on metal-etching.

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etal has been a familiar material to me since I was a child. Growing up in a Buddhist temple that was founded 400 years ago, I was always surrounded by the beauty of nature and ancient things, like the faded paint on wood and stone steps with hollows created by centuries of raindrops dripping off the roof. I was also fascinated by the elaborate metal and wood ornaments made by skilled craftsmen that were throughout the temple; polishing the ornaments in the altars was one of my chores. So I was always interested in metal.

In college, I learned photo-etching techniques, and I found myself more fascinated by the metal than by the images printed on the paper. After I took a small metal sculpture class, I began making three-dimensional metal sculptures using photo-etching techniques. After that, I worked with metal for about 18 years.

Metal construction had been my main focus since 1995, but in 2013, after completing a very involved and technically challenging metal piece, I felt the need to move away from using purely representational imagery. I wanted to do something more abstract and organic and with a different material. The result has been my fabric work.

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abric is the complete opposite of metal. I like the softness and gentle texture of the fabric I use, as well as the atmospheric nature of its translucency. The full potential of what I can do with fabric is still unknown to me. I’m on a journey to explore the endless, unlimited possibilities of this material.

My sculptures begin by my being inspired by nature and the material itself, in addition

to my being motivated by the process. Almost half of my creative time is spent experimenting. During the experimental process, there is sometimes a breathtaking moment. I pay attention to these accidental discoveries, capture those moments, and develop new ideas from that point.

Great ideas often come to me but thinking about ideas and working with the actual materials are very different experiences. I make lots of discoveries while working on pieces that I never would have thought of in advance.

Whenever I’m working on something, it often opens up new doors that drive a piece in a whole new direction, revealing more possibilities. I always feel like the possibilities are endless, and ideas keep expanding.

I already have so many ideas and have discovered so many things that I probably won’t be able to make them all while I’m still alive.

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I’m inspired by and learn from nature directly. For example, one day, I found a very beautiful brain coral at a flea market.

Because I was so fascinated by it, I learned how it was structured and recreated it with fabric. Nature is the best teacher.

I’m interested in sea creatures, plants, the microscopic world, diatom, cells, etc. I’m always fascinated by systematically formed shapes and moved by the wonder of nature.

I especially love sea creatures; they are artwork by themselves, and I’m always blown away by their beauty. Whenever I have the opportunity, I enjoy watching documentary films about the deep ocean. I’m constantly amazed by creatures that I’ve never seen before.

There are so many creatures that haven’t been discovered yet. The ocean is full of mysteries.

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I also enjoy the element of ambiguity that tends to be built into much of my work.

My intention with the fabric pieces is not just to mimic nature or the natural world, but rather to communicate the perceived sensory experience of encountering the subject in nature.

Besides being inspired by nature, I am also inspired by the material itself. Encountering different types of material in daily life is important to me.

Sometimes, I’ll come across a material that I find mesmerizing, and it will draw me in and stir my imagination.

Fabric is one of the most familiar of everyday materials. Even though the word “fabric” sounds straightforward enough, the range of different fabrics is broad, with unique characteristics that can draw out a variety of sensations or emotions. Some fabrics imply the cool feeling of moisture, others have a fluffiness that is comforting; there are fabrics that invoke the mysterious or the ethereal; there are fabrics that inspire tranquility; and some fabrics suggest fragility, subtlety, etc.

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he textile materials that I like to use are synthetic fiber, such as polyester and nylon.

They can memorize shapes when they are heated, and I love that characteristic.

The main difficulty is the softness of fabric. Working with jewelry sizes is not so hard, and I’m able to manipulate the fabric the way I want to most of the time. However, I also make larger-scale fabric sculptures, which is challenging because of the nature of soft material. To retain the shapes, I need to think about how to support them.

I also develop fabric pieces that reflect my strong interest in the material itself. Fabric is inherently the opposite of metal, the material I previously worked with exclusively for many years. I strive to bring out the fabric’s inherent characteristics and beauty. By using a proprietary heat-setting technique, I give it a new identity through reshaping it into three-dimensional forms.

Because I love the translucency of fabric, through working with layers and adding or moving parts, I can create playful, mysterious, and ethereal atmospheres.

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My work reflects various, observable phenomena that stimulate my mind and senses; they can be natural or man-made. I ‘reorganize’ them into a new presentation that can be described as surreal, amusing, graceful, or unexpected. A playful, happy atmosphere pervades my work. I always like to leave some space for the viewer’s imagination; I hope the viewer experiences discovery, surprise, and wonder through my work.

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s a matter of fact, ordinarily, I don’t wear jewelry, but one day I was walking through the crowd at a big art opening event wearing my big brooch.

As people walked by me, so many of them gazed at my brooch and started asking me a lot of questions and showed admiration. I was very much surprised by the power of wearable art.

I often hear from people who purchased my work, “Many people react to the piece, and I get lots of compliments!” My pieces are made out of mostly polyester, but at first glance, sometimes it’s hard to know what the material is and how I created it because of the way I choose and manipulate the materials. My pieces look mysterious sometimes. People often say, “what is it???” and then a conversation begins.

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That convinced me that wearable art is a tool for communication between the wearer, the artist, and the viewers. At the same time, it is also a conversation just between the artist and the wearer. The wearer purchases a piece if the artwork resonates in their heart and, by wearing it, expresses something that is part of them.

In other words, it’s a collaboration between the wearer and artist.

Wearable art can be a device for expressing one’s individuality, character, personality, etc. It also opens up the question of what the wearable art means to the wearer.

By wearing it, the owner is forced to consider what the piece means to them.

Wearable art can affect the wearer’s emotions. I get comments from people saying how my pieces make them feel lighthearted, positive, uplifted, happy, etc. You cannot wear large paintings and sculptures. Because of the smaller scale, there are things that only contemporary jewelry can achieve, and this is an interesting thing about it.

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It’s hard to say who influenced me the most. I’m influenced by many artists from different fields.

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his wide, deep perspective has been reinforced by a solid educational background, providing me with knowledge and understanding of many different kinds of materials. My mind is very flexible, I have discipline, and my creativity is not restricted by any rules.

I think that having my work included in the permanent collections of renowned museums is the most meaningful thing for me as an artist, more than anything else. It is a great honor.

Currently, I’m getting ready for a solo exhibition at the Morikami Museum in Florida, U.S., scheduled for 2023. I will be showing both sculptural and wearable fabric pieces.

Working in a larger scale is a challenge for me, but it may also open up new doors. I believe it will take me in new directions.

Mariko www.MarikoKusumoto.com INSTAGRAM: MarikoKusumoto FACEBOOK: MarikoKusumotoArt

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Paula Cahill Photography by Helena Raju and Karen Mauch

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Paula Cahill is a contemporary abstract artist. She is known for her dark blue paintings composed with a single, continuous line reminiscent of the bioluminescent light that emanates from sea-life at deep, dark depths.

Paula’s award-winning work has been exhibited extensively, and her paintings are included in prestigious private and public collections throughout the United States. She has worked out of her studio at the historic Crane Buildings in the KensingtonFishtown area of Philadelphia since 2013.

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I

create linear abstract oil paintings that are often comprised of a single, luminous line that meanders, changes color, and seamlessly connects back to itself. As I prepare to paint, I mix up to 100 gradients of color derived from my memories of scuba diving among tropical fish on the world’s coral reefs. By repeatedly laying down the colorful gradients one brushstroke at a time, I create radiant, light-filled lines that change color hundreds of times, reflecting a quality reminiscent of the bioluminescence that emanates from sea-life. My work is interactive, inviting the viewer to track a meandering, color-changing path.

It’s ok with me if someone takes in the paintings quickly and interprets each one as a bunch of lines in a variety of colors, but for others who prefer to linger, there is more to see. I know the viewer gets it when I see their necks shift from left to right and their heads bob up and down as they follow the ever-changing line. Once someone realizes they’re looking at a single line, the paintings become a source of contemplation or an experience akin to playing a game. Can you imagine sitting back after dinner and asking your guests how many lines they see in your new painting? Better yet, where does the line begin or end? At this point, I often see the viewer’s eyes twinkle, and they want to know more. Where do the colors come from, and how do I make the paintings? How do I come up with line formations? What did I draw as a child?

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glean ideas and lines from my favorite experiences, memories, and research. Memories of coral reefs and tropical fish, museum visits, linguistics, art history, and geometry are my favorite sources. I start by making small, quick drawings.

Nefertiti, Cleopatra, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, marine organisms, geometry, shorts, and even a pile of octopuses have been among the catalysts for my drawings and paintings. I have made thousands of these quick little drawings. I arrange them on a wall in my studio, and eventually, I am drawn to certain ones that are developed into larger paintings. My paintings range in size from five by seven inches to six by eight feet. For the large-scale works, I use rolls of craft paper to work out the compositions in a larger format before I proceed to the painting.

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nce I am satisfied and relatively certain that I have a general idea of where the painting is going, I can move on to mixing colors. Since I use eighty to one hundred closely mixed gradients for each painting, I devote at least a half day to color mixing before I begin. At this point, I’m excited to begin applying each gradient one brush stroke at a time. This is what allows the eye to move seamlessly from color to color as the line is tracked visually.

I

usually have six to twelve paintings in progress at the same time. I begin by rolling a thin layer of blue paint onto a canvas or wooden panel. Next, I set the linear composition by removing paint to leave a trail of white surface that indicates a formation and placement for the line. At this point, I am still working very freely and quickly.

I often revise the line several times, sometimes completely wiping the surface clean and starting over.

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want the colors to pop, and I strive to follow little rules that I make up for myself and the line. I’m always watching where the color is going so that adjacent and intersecting lines are made of different hues. I usually want the lines to weave over and under each other alternately. I also give the lines pardons, such as allowing them to skip gradients at angles and abrupt turns.

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fter the gradients are applied, the line either travels off the page or connects back to itself seamlessly. Not even I can discern where it began or ended. Once everything seems just right, I look over every weft and square inch of the painting before I make final adjustments and set it aside to dry. Finally, the surface of the painting is varnished, and I sign it on the back. The process is lengthy, usually requiring six to nine weeks for large-scale and intensely lined pieces.

“Wall Diving” OIL ON LINEN, 16 × 20 INCHES, 2021 PHOTO CREDIT: KAREN MAUCH

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eople are surprised when they learn that I was not always an abstract painter, and there was a time when I was embarrassed to admit that I didn’t even draw or paint as a child. With two young parents who worked and struggled to make ends meet, there was little time or money for art supplies and lessons. My occasional experiences with coloring books, resulting in colors outside of the lines, lead me to believe that I was not good at art. Instead, I focused on my schoolwork and water sports.

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I grew up in the Great Lakes region, where I spent my summers swimming and fishing. School was important to me, with French, geometry, and cursive writing my favorite subjects. Eventually, I joined my high school’s Varsity and synchronized swim teams. My first jobs during high school were as a lifeguard and a swim instructor. Given my comfort in and enchantment with water, it was only natural for me to save my money and put it toward scuba certification. I spent a fair amount of my spare time underwater, and scuba diving took me to faraway places like Aruba, Moorea, and Bonaire, where I could dive on colorful reefs and swim with tropical fish. I didn’t know it, but my childhood and young adult experiences would figure prominently in my future career as an artist.

WHAT WOMEN CREATE | ISSUE 14

“Night Diving” OIL ON PANEL, 16 × 20 INCHES, 2019 REFERENCES THE MOVEMENT AND SCALE CHANGES OBSERVED WHILE DIVING PHOTO CREDIT: KAREN MAUCH

“Inquiry” OIL ON CANVAS, 60 × 84 INCHES, 2018 PHOTO CREDIT: KAREN MAUCH

During my undergraduate years at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture and Parsons School of Design, I studied figure painting and realism. After graduation, I pursued an MFA at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where I fully intended to continue my study of the human figure. I was surprised when a professor suggested that I paint a fish to learn how to depict human flesh more skillfully. Other professors also suggested painting fish.

Each week, I bought a whole fish at our local seafood market and painted a still-life or self-portrait with the fish. In between painting sessions, I wrapped

the fish up and kept it in our refrigerator. When my family began to complain about the fish, I decided to buy an aquarium and paint live fish. It wasn’t long until I became more interested in the way the fish were moving than the fish themselves. I began to record their movements with line. My fascination with the fish’s movements coalesced with a growing interest in abstraction.

Soon, surrounded by little pieces of paper with lines that were recordings of fish activities as my muse, I created my first abstract paintings, which were exhibited in my class’s graduate thesis exhibition.

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fter graduation, I continued to make the linear abstract paintings for a while, but being a new abstract painter was like being a kid in a candy store for me, and I wanted to experiment with many different types of abstraction.

That is exactly what I did for about six years. When I decided to get serious about exhibiting my paintings in 2017, I consulted with friends and a gallerist who seemed to concur that I was an art dealer’s nightmare. “You’re all over the place. You’ve got to settle down and try one thing for six months,” one of them advised. That’s when I returned to the lines and decided to infuse them with colors derived from my memories of coral reefs and tropical fish.

Soon after, I debuted the new blue paintings with multi-hued lines in two solo exhibitions. The paintings were received favorably, and since then, the paintings have been acquired for private and public collections throughout the United States. They have also been exhibited in group shows in California and the Northeast. Some of the paintings have helped to raise money for philanthropic causes, and I was able to hold a sale to help fund local food pantries at the beginning of the pandemic. I’m also very fond of the time I have spent with elementary students, college students, and teachers to help them move their own artistic practices forward.

My first dives were filled with color that emanated from the live coral and marine life that I observed at 30 to 130 feet below sea level. When I visited Tahiti, I noticed that the coral was white. I asked the dive master why, and he explained that the coral was bleached white when France tested their atomic bombs in French Polynesia from 1966 to 1996. I felt a deep sadness and a sickness in my stomach. The coral reef, which took thousands of years to grow, was dead.

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It has been estimated that over 50 percent of the world’s reefs are severely damaged and bleached due to pollution, litter, over-fishing, and climate change. Reefs serve a greater purpose than entertainment for divers.

By providing habitat and food for small organisms, they are crucial to the survival of our ecosystem. Finally, I hope the story of my lines will alert people about the state of our reefs and encourage others to take small and large steps every day to protect the environment.

“One-liner” OIL ON CANVAS, 36 × 36 INCHES, 2020 PHOTO CREDIT: KAREN MAUCH

Paula www.PaulaCahill.com/Paula-Cahill/New-Work BLOG: www.PaulaCahill.com/Paula-Cahill/Blog INSTAGRAM: PaulaCahillPainter FACEBOOK: Paula.Cahill.12 LINKEDIN: Paula-Cahill-05160a34

“Don’t think about making art, just get it done.

Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”

—ANDY WARHOL

“Cartouche 2020” OIL ON CANVAS, 48 × 48 INCHES, 2021 PHOTO CREDIT: KAREN MAUCH

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THROUGH THE LENS

Helena Raju is a Ukrainian fashion and conceptual photographer based in Philadelphia, PA. She draws her inspiration from art, music, architecture, and history. After visiting over 50 countries and being exposed to numerous cultures, Helena merged her traveling experience into her photographic approach: “Asia really taught me how to maneuver with color, how to stay simple and minimalistic in creating a complex perspective of each photograph. Europe embraced me with its history and fashion. Africa created a certain mystery and mysticism. South America empowered me with its free spirit and festivity.”

Helena has worked with numerous creatives in the past few years: from fashion designers to artists, from jewelry makers to sculptors. “There is nothing more rewarding than to see your clients succeed and make their dreams come true! Being surrounded by so many talents is truly empowering!”

Helena HelenaRaju.com BLOG: HelenaRaju.com/Blog INSTAGRAM: HelenaRaju

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