going big, bigger and BIG!

portion of Iron Spine/Urban Edge installation is being weather tested!

The first month of the new year is only half way done, but my calendar is already filled with plans for the start of 2019.

First on my agenda is ArtShow:Bedford starting January 25th. It's a wonderful, small show in the picturesque town of Bedford NY, now in its 46th year. All proceeds from the show go to local charities supporting a wide range of services. 

In March I am delighted to be participating in Fiber Now: Artists on the Cutting Edge presented by the Rye Arts Center in Rye, NY. In conjunction with the exhibit I will be teaching a Stitching+Embroidery workshop on March 21st and 28th. As part of the exhibit I've also been invited to create a large installation −more than 15 feet across− on the front lawn of the center. The installation will help raise public awareness of plastic pollution crisis we’re facing, while enabling me to repurpose plastic into my art. I believe this installation for the Rye Arts Center is a perfect fit for my art practice. 

At the moment I am rifling through my stash and pulling out the biggest, sturdiest pieces of plastic that I have to start assembling the substrate. I’m conducting weathering tests for the plastic and my stitching. I took a portion of the Iron Spine/Urban Edge installation and hung it on my deck to see how it holds up to the wind and weather for the next month or two. This experiment will inform some of the design and construction choices I’ll have to make going forward.

pattern for the installation to be is laid out on the floor taking up all the space!

another shot of the weather test from Iron Spine/Urban Edge

a tree grows in Armonk

Wow! Sometimes that's the only word that can be uttered. My reason for the word in this case, is that I am amazed and grateful that so many people loved to participate in a hands on community art project!

I was delighted to organize a collaborative art piece created with reclaimed and repurposed materials at the Armonk Outdoor Art Show. Thank you to the Friends of the Library, who collected materials and provided the space, thank you to the volunteers to helped visitors to the Armonk Outdoor Art Show participate in the project AND thank you to those visitors who took the time to stitch on or glue on a piece of plastic and help our tree grow!

We're hoping to schedule a stitching day at the North Castle Public Library in Armonk in the near future, so that interested collaborators can come help me put finishing touches on this artwork.

Meanwhile please enjoy the photos from the project and stay tuned for further developments!

This is how our tree looked on Saturday morning at the beginning of its journey.

By Sunday morning it was well into its transformation!

And here it is by the end of the day Sunday! Wow!

The following are pictures taken by our talented photographer Ilene Africk, of all the hands which made the art!

THANK YOU!!

stitched paint strokes

Usually I stitch with a plan in mind. Meaning that I have seen in my minds eye what I want to achieve and I am stitching towards that vision. But sometimes.... just for the fun of it I want to stitch with no plan. Just meandering and enjoying the process, the colors and the texture that is being created.

For inspiration I'll pull out a picture and use my stitches to interpret that picture. I don't mean exactly, just the feeling of it. Like a moody autumnal landscape for example. I'll concentrate on the color, the direction of the vegetation.... This exercise is lots of fun to do with painting by famous artists. I'll open up a big heavy art book or print an image from the internet and try to capture the feeling of it with my stitches.

So where am I leading with all this? Well... I am trying to entice you to take a vacation with me. Yes. a vacation. In Ticino, that's in Switzerland. In August. I know it seems so far way, August and Switzerland. But August will be here in a blink of an eye and Switzerland is just a hop, skip and a jump away!

a detail of a Klimt

my stitchy interpretation

Picasso is fun to play with

fun to choose the fabrics and the stitches

Rothko's serenity is interpreted well in silk

simple is best

that's the hotel!

and that's the scenery!

So? Come stitch some paint strokes with me and enjoy the end of summer in Ticino!

jump with me!

I'm excited to announce that I'll be participating once again as an artist in Creative JumpStart (CJS) 2017, run for the 6^th time by Nathalie Kalbach. If you're not familiar with CJS, it's a one-of-a-kind online event to kick your creativity into high gear in January 2017. 

Learn techniques, discover new materials, and connect with other artists and crafters. 

Throughout January participants get access to 27 downloadable videos from 27 featured artists. I'm proud to be one of those artists, called “JumpStarters.” 

Head on over to Nathalie's site to sign up and for more details.

You get 27 videos for just $40 (USD) if you sign up before November 30th, 11:59 pm (EST), 2016. Afterwards it will be $45 until December 31st, 2016 before it goes to its normal sale price of $50. 

So what are you waiting for? Sign up here! 
PS Here's tiny teaser of my project...shhhh....

jumpstarting!

I'm excited to announce that I'll be participating as an artist in Creative JumpStart (CJS) 2016, run for the 5th time by Nathalie Kalbach. If you're not familiar with CJS, it's a one-of-a-kind online event to kick your creativity into high gear in January 2016.

Learn techniques, discover new materials, and connect with artists and crafters. There is SO much cool stuff to learn!

Throughout January participants get 25 downloadable videos from 24 featured artists. I'm proud to be one of those artists, called “JumpStarters.” See for yourself:

Head on over to Nathalie's site to sign up and for more details:

http://nathaliesstudio.com/cjs

You get 25 videos for just $45 (USD) for a limited time if you sign up before December 31, 2015 at 11:59pm (EST)! But wait – it gets better: as my valued reader, you’ll get $5 extra off today. Just use this coupon code during checkout: cjs2016
*This is a limited offer valid from 10:00am Dec 4, 2015 to 11:59pm EST on Dec 11, 2015.

So what are you waiting for? Sign up here nathaliesstudio.com/cjs, and apply the coupon code during check out process. Thanks!!
I cannot wait for you to see my video, I had so much fun making it!

I'm back!

An extended, unintended break happened here. Preparing to teach and then teaching and then spring break are all to blame.... I have been trying to ease myself back into the studio routine despite the school break and now I'm going to try to ease myself back into the blogging routine. And a report on my latest teaching gig is the fodder!

Last week for the very first time I taught a workshop at the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops. It was also the first time I taught a workshop for more than two days! Five whole days actually! I have been teaching a workshop based on my use of Photoshop for art quilts for several years now, so it was a real treat to develop it into a longer version. And lucky me, there were only two students, so I got to tweak everything to their needs and figure out how to space the lesson plan best. Of course it will work differently with more students next time, but I have everything in place now.

Due to the luxury of time and space, my students were able to really spend the time developing their ideas and figuring out how Photoshop will aid them best. Here are a few pictures of our art filled days below...

Alison and her THREE! design walls

she got to play with pictures of Paris and NYC

Alison created a very moody work in sheers from pictures of the World Trade Center Memorial and was working on figuring out how to put together pictures of columns from WTC into an artwork

her work space was very busy!

here she is working tiny tiny hand stitches into her haunting slurry wall from WTC

Jane's design wall was very ethereal and magical, she played with pictures of her CitraSolv experiments and her own pen sketches

She created a mixed media work using metal sheets and sketches manipulated in Photoshop and printed on fabric

Jane even free-motion stitched for the very first time and really put the pedal to the metal! Oh and she hand stitched also.

This another finished artwork of hers that incorporated printed paper, dryer sheets and free motion machine stitching

layers of printed dryer sheets get the free motion treatment on her sketched work that was printed on cotton voile

We had a fabulous five day retreat with our lovely hosts Kim and Mark LaPolla. Oh and the food was delish! Thank you!

I got to do a bit of art too in the teachers sketchbook! and in case you're wondering... it's not easy to machine stitch a page while it's still in the notebook....

friday in the studio

So much going on this week and next..... here's a short and sweet version of what is happening in the studio:

Lots of hand stitching on the companion piece to Iron Spine

Many more X's to go on the roof of the latest home portrait

Playing with TAP for a detail on a piece that I have been stitching on for a long time

Finishing up a few samples for an Easter Egg Felting workshop next Saturday

Preparing for the FIVE day workshop at Hudson River Valley Art workshops

and finally something for moi! I'm nuno felting a piece of snowdyed silk for a sweater...

So as you see I have quite a few balls up in the air, good thing I work well under pressure! Hope to share some finished work soon.

thinking.....

I've been preparing for my upcoming workshop at Hudson River Valley Art Workshops. And as I was going down my check list, I decided to take a peek at my page on their website. One of the images that is being used to promote the workshop is right below and is one of my favorite old pieces.

St. Pete Lace 1 © Natalya Aikens

It struck me though, that my ways of using Photoshop for my art has changed dramatically in last couple of years. And come to think of it so has my way of using vintage linens and recycled ephemera. So I took a little tour of my portfolio, and then my research and work in progress files, and pulled out a few things to share here.

Some of you might remember this piece below. It's my pride and joy, especially since it made it into QN'13. I used Photoshop to help create it. Doesn't look anything like the image above, does it?

The City © Natalya Aikens

Yet I used vintage linens, paper and dryer sheets, just like in St. Pete Lace 1. Of course I also added plastic and oil paint sticks to the materials list here. In my archives I found the Photoshopped image of the very beginnings of this piece.

photoshopped collage

I used this image as my guide for constructing the final piece. It'll be one of the things I'll be discussing in the workshop. Collage is such an integral part of what I do and Photoshop is my number one tool in the tool box.

Recently I participated as one the invited artists in The 100 fundraiser organized by Virginia Spiegel. The artwork I created for this event relied heavily on Photoshop too.

Fire Escape Abstraction © Natalya Aikens

No vintage linens here, but just paper and two dryer sheets. No machine stitching either. Yes on the hand stitching though! This one relied on Photoshop in a completely different way than The City. While Photoshop helped me create the guide for The City, in Fire Escape Abstraction, Photoshop helped me create color and line. Of course the printer was important here too. Below is how this piece started.

a plain old NYC fire escape

I am so looking forward to sharing how I use Photoshop in my art. There is just so much to it! And all of it is very intuitive despite looking scary sometimes. 

some vintage linens from my stash

I'm also looking forward to collaging the Photoshopped images with the fabrics, vintage or not, that the workshop participants will bring. Maybe even recycled ephemera too! The best part of teaching a workshop for me, is seeing what my students come up with. I love when they learn how to use a new tool to create their artwork. And how that new tool helps them create in new ways. 

And because this workshop is five full days, we'll get to spend time machine stitching and hand stitching! I've never before had an opportunity to have the time to delve in so deeply into a workshop like this. Can you tell I'm excited? ;)

To sign up for the workshop go here. To read my interview on the InnSane blog go here.

Come play with me!!

keeping secrets

Yup. I've been keeping secrets! But I'm done and ready to spill!

I'm excited to announce that I'll be participating as an artist in Creative JumpStart (CJS) 2015, run by Nathalie Kalbach. If you're not familiar with CJS, it's a one-of-a-kind online event to fire up your creativity in Jan 2015.

Learn techniques, discover new materials, and connect with artists and crafters.

Creative JumpStart 2015 Trailer from Nathalie Kalbach on Vimeo.

Throughout January participants get 25 videos from 23 featured artists. I'm proud to be one of those artists, called “JumpStarters.” See for yourself:
Head on over to Nathalie's site to sign up and for more details.
You get 25 videos for just $25 (USD).

But wait – it gets better: if you sign up today you’ll get $5 off. Just use this coupon code during checkout: cybercjs
*This is a limited offer valid from 9:00 am Dec 1, 2014 to 8:59 am EST on Dec 2, 2014.

So what are you waiting for? Sign up here, and apply the coupon code during check out process.
CJS 2015 is proudly sponsored by Liquitex.