This first post is going to consist of some retroactive blogging. The summer has gone by so quickly! So I'm going to time warp back to June and go forward. (Cue Wayne's World *diddle-dee* sound with fancy finger fluttering.)
Penland School of
Crafts, 2nd Summer Session 2010 June 13th-26th.
I attended the workshop, Pojagi and Beyond with instructor Chunghie Lee. The class and instruction was amazing. We covered a great deal over the course of the two week workshop. I was able to attend this workshop because of the Windgate Fellowship, I wrote about this in my previous (first) post. Thank you again for this opportunity!
I'll start off by giving a little description of pojagi. Pojagi is a traditional Korean wrapping cloth that is pieced together using multiple pieces of fabric. The wrapping cloth can be used for wedding gifts, covering precious objects, or a cover for food. Chunghie Lee taught our class how to construct a traditional pojagi (or chogakpo- pieced pojagi.) From there we went on to experiment, building off of traditional and modern techniques presented in class.
Here is a picture of my studio space in Chunghie Lee's class. there was not time in the two weeks for me to complete an entire pojagi piece, but I did go home with a sketchbook full of ideas and many samples that will certainly be influential in future work.
Some of my sketchbook- many of the pages I filled in the class were of these seam variations- different ways to connect pieces of fabric, each with step by step directions so that I can duplicate the results. Some seams here are traditional, and some were experiments based off of the traditional techniques.
Here is a small pojagi I made using a combination of paper and fabric. Some of the paper included in the sample have drawings of trees on them. I experimented a lot in this class with layering sheer fabrics over paper with ink drawings. I also used several different methods for making the seams similar to the ones in my sketchbook. Some seams are reversed (inside-out).
On the right is a picture of some pieces that I started putting together while at Penland using paper, fabric, string, ink drawings, etc. They are all layered patches that I plan to attach together into a piece once I have them all completed. So this is in progress- more photos later, the collection is still growing.
This is another sample. It is Joonchi, embroidered and drawn onto. Joonchi is a type of Korean paper that has very fabric-like qualities to it. Chunghie's daughter, Jiyoung Chung led the lecture introducing our class to this type of paper making. I loved the texture of this material and the way that it took both ink and thread. This sample inspired me to make a larger Joonchi piece, Garden.
This is Garden, 3 panels of Joonchi paper, each drawn onto at various stages during production, resulting in some images that are more distressed than others. In the end all three panels were completely covered in drawings and select parts of each panel were embroidered into.
Detail of Garden.
Second detail.
Penland was an experience unlike any other I have ever had. To be able to have two weeks dedicated entirely to art, experimenting, learning and the exposure to artwork and a community of artists was just phenomenal. I have to be honest, in years past while working through the undergraduate program at ASU there were many many times I experienced a kind of creative block (I guess this is something like writer's block.) where I struggled to come up with ideas and new things to experiment with. At Penland, maybe it was the air, probably it was the environment, but I left feeling like I had enough ideas to last me months. I would recommend taking a workshop here to any artist- it was such a great experience. Also- the food there is really really good- since getting home I feel like I'm starving and deprived.
Yum.
That is all for this post, I'll leave it at the delicious plate of Penland food. I'll update here with new projects inspired by Penland as I complete them. The next post will be coming soon and covering workshops taken recently at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. In the meantime I'll leave some links if you would like to read more.
The piece, Garden, from this post is going to be up soon at an exhibition curated by Jiyoung Chung for Joonchi, and Chunghie Lee for Pogaji, take a look at their website for the Hands of Korea Exhibition (this is really exciting)
Also- if you are flying soon and coming through the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport, I have a piece there in Terminal 4 level 3 as part of a fiber art show Fiber Art Unraveled: Material and Process It will be up July 3 2010 - February 21 2011. There is a lot of wonderful work there including some by my awesome professors at ASU and also some friends of mine who are really talented artists who you should really go and check out.
