Resist Art: Batik!

Galaxy

2010-06-05T12:26:00.003-04:00

2010-03-21T17:51:00.001-04:00

This piece measures 6x6ft and the largest Watershed I've ever contemplated. It used about 3 bricks of wax, 2-3lbs of newsprint to get the wax out and 3 hours of back breaking ironing! Like the other Watersheds, the chemical was mixed with the fabric separate from the dye, which was sprinkled on the fabric directly. There was a prototype which is not completely rejected - might hang it in my stairway. This piece is a commission for my brother's family. It's a bit exciting to have managed the size of this puppy - it was hard work but I'm delighted with the results. And I have a 2x10ft piece of fabric left which can only lead to more batik!

Black and Bleached

2009-12-14T13:52:00.003-05:00

Here, the base fabric is 100% black cotton which is first waxed, then bleached to a peach colour with about 80% bleach, and then dyed twice to produce the red and blue colours. The inspiration is from the piece that received lots of accolades at the World Batik Conference. People either loved or hated the piece there and that is good - any emotional response is excellent imho!

2009-10-27T13:41:00.000-04:00

A Celtic series

2009-10-19T14:42:00.003-04:00

I enjoy these challenges. Everything you see has been outlined in hot melted wax and then the dye is applied to the remaining threads. The symbols probably have some meaning and if you know what they are, I'd love to know! Enjoy!

There is no cage 10-13

2009-09-17T15:41:00.002-04:00

Tail end of this project with new gold dye in one. The green one turns in on itself as we all do upon occasions!

There is no cage 9

2009-09-01T17:11:00.003-04:00

The lines in this one are almost perfect. Patience and a steady hand doth straight lines make! It reminds me of my new tree in the backyard, compliments of the City.

There is no cage

2009-08-27T16:33:00.003-04:00

More in the same vein. I seem to be on a roll and I'm going through wax like no one's business. Gonna have to start getting into the bee business I think!

There is no cage

2009-08-26T21:46:00.005-04:00

Back to precision work after my run of large things. This has been fun - trying to make lines interesting. Some of these images are in progress using tape and wax as resist.

The wall of contemplation August 2009

2009-08-16T15:58:00.001-04:00

Cross

2009-08-16T15:56:00.004-04:00

Same series, image in the middle. 4.5' x 3.5'

3.5 feet by 3.5 feet Untitled

2009-08-12T20:33:00.004-04:00

I've never had a series without a name or obvious influence. This feels like some of my most original work and perhaps that is why it remains nameless. It's more pure. The first image posted today is detail of the larger piece. The camera didn't pick up as much red as is visible in the real thing. Maybe new pictures tomorrow with a different camera. My stupid Nikon is giving me all kinds of problems...

2009-07-09T20:26:00.001-04:00

Untitled from July, 2009

2009-07-09T20:06:00.002-04:00

Love

2009-04-16T21:17:00.002-04:00

Love is in my aftertaste
as sorrow softly dies.

Caves

2009-02-18T18:58:00.003-05:00

Joan Snyder was born in New Jersey in 1940 in a lower middle class family. Her work has placed under various umbrellas - Abstract Expressionism, Neo-Expressionism and Feminist Art. I've been a huge Abstract Expressionism fan for years and drew upon some of her work to lead me down the road of these Caves. The white and black one (from which the title came) are similar except for the original fabric. Bleach is used to lighten the black where it is not waxed and then colour is possible. The black one reminds me of cave drawings and I must paddle up to the walls at Bon Echo Provincial Park and check out the real thing sometime!

Watershed again

2009-02-14T12:09:00.003-05:00

These Watersheds, an extension of an older series, are much darker woth more colour than before. And after a few attempts, I finally got the wax to the mix that works well here - a little more paraffin than usual in the bees wax container.

Productivity over the years

2009-02-14T11:47:00.004-05:00

Here are a few older works. The tree (1985), the 14 women from Montreal (2000 there abouts), and tumbling (about 2003).

Creature 5 and the Fingerprint

2009-01-24T11:18:00.003-05:00

Creature 5 is new and the Fingerprint, one of two created, was done a few years ago. The Creature took about 10 hours and the Fingerprint, 17.

Another Creature Chaos

2009-01-18T18:36:00.002-05:00

I'm sure this is no different from all humans - where we wish life was straight forward and without too much change or chaos. But therein lies an enormous amount of learning and excitement. These creatures represent the order of old computer punch cards (1950's - 60's) verses the disorder (chaos) of life, the lower sections of these batiks. I draw specifically from some work situations I've been in where a little bit of order might have gone a long way, but alas, chaos ensues. Dissociation...

Creature Chaos

2009-01-17T21:14:00.003-05:00

Hopefully it`s self-explanatory!

2008-12-13T10:29:00.002-05:00

Another of the Drum series. There's also one behind the seasonal Abias balsamea recently situated in the living room and emitting the nicest aroma...

2008-12-13T10:27:00.001-05:00

My favourite of the Drums series, which is still ongoing I think. Here it is framed.

2008-12-13T10:26:00.000-05:00

A piece that was sold in Toronto a couple of years ago to my dear friends Kate and Maggie - so I can visit it!

2008-12-13T10:24:00.002-05:00

I get ambitious now and again and research the history of houses in the neighbourhood at the City Archives and wax the text. This is one from Sorauren Ave, Parkdale in Toronto, where I printed the text on fabric and waxed it. Others I actually batik the text, a labour intensive, letter by letter process...

CE2

2008-12-09T22:02:00.002-05:00

I just never know what is in store for me. This one danced with bleach and I was welcomed to some warm, delightful colours.

The Cutting Edge

2008-12-05T19:58:00.003-05:00

Clean newsprint comes but in a flurry. Seems dozens of people moved in late November and have offered their packing paper for free on Craigslist. I have acquired, through recycling, an enormous amount. Now if I could just recycle that which becomes saturated with wax.

Anyway, "The Cutting Edge". Frustration expressed in a complex world. The edge is actually blue, not green

Drying fabric

2008-11-30T15:42:00.001-05:00

I'm re-working an abstract series (I know... where are the pictures!) and in doing so, needed to dry some work to go at it again. It occurred to me to hang the blow dryer on a stool in front of the hanging fabric and let it do it's thing. I'm saving a ton of time with three pieces on the go. Why I've never thought about this before...

Rumi quote

2008-11-17T17:05:00.000-05:00

I am happy
when I am sad
I am together
when fallen apart
like earth
when I am silent
I have thunder
hidden inside

-- Translation by Nader Khalili
"Rumi, Dancing the Flame"
Cal-Earth Press, 2001

Visiting canine

2008-10-12T09:02:00.002-04:00

It's pretty funny here this weekend. Luna is visiting (a plump black lab cross) and we are having little sing songs! She growls, Hudson the Husky howls, Sedona barks and Melo (though de-barked) does as well. Makes watching the television near impossible! Luna looks like she is wearing a large fuzzy black winter coat and all she really needs is a brooch and a pill box hat to complete the picture! They have all adjusted to our guest and are getting along great - how can they not - Luna is lovely!

Sufism and acting from the heart

2008-10-10T17:00:00.000-04:00

don't think too much
put yourself to sleep
thinking is a veil on the face of the moon
your heart is like the moon
don't cover it with thought
cast your thinking on the water

-- Translation by Nader Khalili
Rumi, Dancing the Flame
Cal-Earth Press, 2001

2008-10-05T21:06:00.000-04:00

Typeset letters

2008-10-04T18:15:00.000-04:00

At risk of burning all my digits, I'm playing with the immersion of lead letters in hot parafin wax and transferring the results to fabric. Not that I have anything in particular to say, it's just satisfying. I'm also playing with waxing newspaper texts and transferring that to cotton on the verso. To date, it requires waxing to bring out the some version of faded text on the right side, and there is bleeding of the wax on the newsprint in that motion. Making something obscure evades me at present - perhaps my dyes are too dark. I saw this technique in Amman, Jordan and bought the wax sticks there.

I need to return to poetry.

On the floor of the bunk above me in Athens

2008-09-25T14:27:00.000-04:00

In the temple of my breast,
At the summit of the triangle of my heart,
The horse which is my mind
flies like the wind...

Milarepa (c. 1052-c. 1135) Tibetan Poet.

Grey

2008-09-21T16:30:00.001-04:00

I've been playing with some grey dye (as opposed to faded black dye) and the results are pewter-like. But very cold. Mixed it with an olive green (wrong palate) and a grass green and turquoise which worked a little better. My current series reflects the beat of a drum, usually 6 dots with a woven texture behind them, but occasionally more or fewer beats. I guess like with every series, it comes to an end and I have a little more waxing to do before I finish this off. It's felt like an energetic collection and I'm very pleased with the border effects and some of the colour combinations. I'm learning to work with my favourite colours - those are the pieces I really enjoy and tend to keep.

Woad

2008-09-16T23:29:00.000-04:00

Fellow batiker Robin Paris (www.robinparis.com) is growing woad to extract it's vibrant blue dye and that is the first time I had ever heard of the stuff (earlier this week). Woad is pronounced to rhyme with road. Woad (or glastum) is the common name of the flowering plant Isatis tinctoria in the family Brassicaceae. It is commonly called dyer's woad and it is occasionally known as Asp of Jerusalem. In Europe, woad was the only source for blue dye available until trade routes began bringing indigo from the far east. Woad seeds have, however, been discovered as far back as the Neolithic age, c10,000 BC.

So it was a coincidence this evening that I stumbled upon a description of the process the plant undergoes to extract the dye on the TV program World's Worst Jobs! Turns out it produces such a stench that those in the dyeing trade were banished to outside the town walls during the Tudor period (from 1485 to 1603). As for the process, wet wool is immersed in the boiling woad (and that was a process in and of itself where the PH had to be just right) and when the wool is retrieved, the blue magically appears as it mixes with oxygen in the air. The colour is astonishing! And as fabrics from those eras have survived, the dye proves to be hardy. I wonder if my chemically reactive Procion MX dyes will last as long. The woad process was a pioneer in the use of chemicals in the dyeing industry. I'm not exactly going to rush out and start a crop however - I'll wait for Robin to report her experience! I like living where I live and do not relish being banned from Hintonburg!

Resist... Art... Batik...

2008-09-12T17:36:00.000-04:00

A little play on words. Batik uses hot wax (resist) to prevent additional colours from permeating the image (batik art) you are building on or in the fabric (or the chosen medium). One then applies more hot wax on the most recent colour you want to keep, and then add new colours and so on. Southeast Asia gave us this medium and it is the national art form of Indonesia. Modern batik artists venture forth with the techniques offered by our foremothers and present new and creative ideas to extend this into the future.

Is it art? Is it a craft? Should we disguise it in submissions to galleries? Batik conjures up ideas of elephants and tie-dye and can be too easily dismissed without in depth examination me thinks. I promote my work as "batik" followed by "fibre or textile art". It's not the medium so much as the creative expression that should be considered regardless of the procedure used to generate the image or resulting contemplation.