It’s a collaboration, done by myself and five other artists. Our group was one of three and we worked under the expert direction and with the support of arlee barr through a Yahoo group. The artists are Paula Phillips of Massachusetts, Betty Donahue of Alabama, Anne Marie Desaulniers of Ontario, Carol Taylor of Wales and Nellie Durand of Michigan.

This project is based on the concept of Exquisite Corpses which is a round robin collaboration where each area is covered up before going to the next person. There are only minor hints given as to how it should be done and no one knows what the finished product will be like until the end when it’s all uncovered! This can and has been done not only with visual arts but also writing.

In this round, we were instructed to draw an overall design on a piece of fabric and then to visually divide the piece into six parts.

Most people did this as a grid but I am not a fan of straight lines, so I did free-form divisions. (I now know that the lines should be basted by hand as the machine stitching leaves indelible holes! I did mine on a deep green fabric and asked that some of the background show through. We were only allowed to give minimal hints with colour preferences. I asked for saturated, vivid colours plus metallic bronze and gold with no white. We could send along tiny bits of fabric (no more than 2X2 inches) or thread that the others could incorporate if they were so moved. In mine, you’ll see a teal coloured fabric on several of the areas.

Once the design was done, the originator chose one of the sections and filled it in with stitching, fabric collage, beading, embroidery, whatever our textile-style is. After finishing each section we basted a piece of covering fabric over it—front and back—so that the next person would only see what was left of the overall design, not our interpretation of it. We then sent it to the next artist on our list and waited to receive one from the person before us on the list. And so on and so on until we got ours back.

This began in June and ended—for me—when I received my EC back from the last person two days ago. Uncovering all those delights was like a second Christmas. Very fun!

My section (centre)

Anne Marie Desaulniers
(bottom)

Anne Marie did ‘thread painting’ along with gorgeous machine quilting and lots of details

Betty Donahue
(right bottom)

Betty added appliqued flowers and her own machine-embroidered butterfly

Carol Taylor
(top right)

Carol did a complex layering of tissue paper, gesso, paint, embroidery and applique. The leaves are fabric and the stems were embroidered and then painted.

Paula Phillips
(top left)

Paula included dramatic metallic flowers and detailed beading (including a dragonfly!).

Nellie Durand
(left bottom)
Nellie’s techinque is called Ortwork. Bits and pieces are layered under netting and then machine quilted.

As you can see, the work-woman-ship here is outstanding. Each is different stylistically but the whole really works. As the originator, there is an understanding that we can do whatever we like to the end product to integrate each section and make the overall design work. I have a few minor things I want to do but the amazing thing is that they are minor. As a whole, this piece has such impact and is so fun and rich!

I loved doing this project so much that I’ve signed up for the next one—due to start in a couple of weeks. I found that it did many things for me. One of my goals last year was to get away from my computer. This project gave me a reason and an excuse to do that. Each section is small and therefore do-able! and there’s a deadline. I also like that there are guidelines but only minor ones so that you have a lot of freedom to do what you like. Since getting my EC back, I’m still learning from seeing up-close the techniques that the others used. I’ll definitely be trying some of them out for the next round.

The most excruciating part of it is that we can’t post any photos of any of it until it’s done. For that reason, I’ll be posting lots of photos of the last one. Next you’ll see the sections I did for my group and, hopefully, their end products as well.

Here’s the link to the group’s blog: Exquisite Corpse Textiles

I’m brimming with ideas and creative urgency. I know I can’t/won’t get it all done but while things are percolating, I want to get some of it down.

I began a short story yesterday. It’s an idea that came to me over the holidays which, in and of itself, is something to celebrate! (getting an idea while busy doing lots of non-writing activities!)

While driving to and from Maine (and a wonderful Christmas with my younger son and gorgeous granddaughter!) I thought and thought and thought about it. Thinking about a story and writing it are two different things. But I’ve also learned that thinking it through is most advantageous. I believe that in the past I’ve sometimes been too eager to begin too soon. I’m still a bit uncertain about the unfolding of this tale, but nonetheless, I’ve begun and am excited about it.

I’ve signed up for a second round of Exquisite Corpse! Yay. That’s all I can say: yay!

I’m thinking of writing and illustrating some books for Cadi, my three and a half year old granddaughter. Um. Perhaps I should change that to A book.
Having been involved in the process of online publishing (see Third Person Press) makes me realize that I can do this for her, for myself and for very little money. And who knows where that might lead. Children’s books were an interest a long time ago and one that I studied and worked at for a long time. It would be good to get back to it. I have several ideas in the percolator.

A book about the house we live in. This has been an idea since we moved here. The house is old, we know a lot of the history of it and it’s interesting! I’ve been approached by a friend/historian/writer about it. He is doing a book about an old house on the island that has been in his wife’s family for many many years and has two houses other than mine that he’d like to see a book on. In other words, a series.

I’ve been thinking about it and know that my style of book would be completely different from a historian’s. But here’s what I’m thinking of including: some of my *artsy* photos of details of the house and yard, short personal essays, historical essays, and historical fiction, maybe a poem or two, maybe drawings and perhaps some transcripts of interviews with a woman named Georgie who grew up in the house. That sounds long but I think I would have to be extremely selective. Some of the fictional parts are necessary because 1) I write fiction and 2) there are gaps in our historical knowledge of the house and 3) filling in those gaps with conjecture would make the project fun to write and more fun to read!

So we’ll just have to see about that. It’s a huge project and I have no idea if my vision of it would be acceptable for this particular series of books. But it’s a definite maybe.

Then there’s that unfinished novel from last November…….

This must be done: I have two stories that are CLOSE to being ready to send out to possible publishers. I must do quick revisions, maybe give them to someone to review and get them out!

See other stories about and photos of our old house
Putting on a new roof: http://nancywaldman.net/2007/07/25/the-up-side-of-outside/
The White Lilac Fact/Fairy Tale: http://nancywaldman.net/2007/06/20/of-things-dreamed-of/
Near-by Fires and what I learned about what’s most important: http://nancywaldman.net/2007/05/17/weather-or-not/

I got away from blogging and even writing for The PCQ last year. I do not feel apologetic about it however. That’s because 2008 was one of the most successfully creative and full of my life.

One of the reasons for this is collaboration. Two of the projects that took a lot of my time were done with other creative people…some local and others far-flung.

The local one was the time-consuming and totally exciting collaboration between myself and fellow writers, Sherry Ramsey and Julie Serroul. Under the auspices of our Third Person Press, we spent untold hours reading, editing, talking about, re-editing, and polishing fourteen stories for our first release: Undercurrents. The process was enriching on many different levels. Most importantly: our friendship and respect for one another was deepened. Secondly, I learned so much not only about editing but also about writing. I felt that I was immersed in the short story for the year and it was good. I learned how difficult it is to write an excellent story! There are many pitfalls. But I also renewed my experience that with diligence, these are problems that can be corrected and good stories will rise up out of those pits.

The book was launched very successfully at the beginning of December. The promotional part of this project has been the hardest for all of us. We’re writers, not promoters! But we did it and are learning about that—as with all of this—as we go. Sales through December were way in excess of what we expected and we hope to continue to sell books through the year and beyond. See the previous post for a promotional video that Sherry put together.

Oh and I must mention that my two partners were kind enough to let me do the cover design! It was SO fun and a lot of people have commented on how much they like it. We don’t necessarily want people to judge our book by its cover but we don’t really mind if they buy it because of it! Again, I learned so much from doing it.

Further good news is that we enjoyed the process enough that we’re talking about the next one. JUST talking!

In addition to writing and revising (at least 12 times) a story for the anthology, I also wrote two others, entered a Writer’s Federation contest (no, I didn’t win anything but I was happy to get something sent off!) and began a YA novel that I—so far—love.

The other creative collaboration was a fiber art round robin done under the direction of arlee barr. This was the second round (I didn’t participate in the first) of an Exquisite Corpse project. Each person drew a design on a piece of fabric and divided it into six sections. We ‘filled in’ one section with fabric artistry and then covered it up and sent it to the next person on our list (Hi Anne Marie in Ontario!). They did the same and so on and so on until each one finally came back to the originator. Then we each got/get to uncover all the artistry and see what the results are!

I have yet to get mine…but I understand it’s in the mail (Hi Carol in Wales!) Ones I’ve seen so far have been amazing and beautiful. But again, more importantly, the process has been so good for me. I’ve never done anything like this, though I’ve always loved fabric, fiber art and have done many many kinds over the years. For me, it meant getting away from the computer and doing art. Each piece is small and doable and there’s a deadline which means I couldn’t let it go or get too busy. It was perfect! Thank you arlee and all the members of my group for a perfectly delightful creative endeavour. I loved it no matter what the end product looks like. And speaking of that, it’s been a bit excruciating not to be able to post photos of the work as I’ve done it! More posts will follow with the work and links to the other artist’s sites. Here’s arlee’s exquisite corpse blog.

Here’s one of my piece before I sent it to anyone else: