fire escape love story

I love fire escapes. There. I've said it. Wait. I may have said it before. Well it's true. I do love them. Let me count the ways. I love their graphic lines, their rusty or sleek texture, their negative space, the layers upon layers of straight lines, the angles.

research...

research...

 I love interpreting them in stitch. Large, small and medium.

detail of Iron Spine 4 (snow dyed pine thread on plastic)

detail of Iron Spine: Hot in the City ( embroidery thread on plastic and thread snips)

Iron Spine xs2 (variegated thread on plastic)

details of Urban Towers (embroidery thread on plastic and fabric over repurposed containers)

detail of Green News ( thread over newspaper and plastic)

And extra large of course.

in progress Iron Spine 6XL

in progress Iron Spine 6XL

Quilt National visit redux

It's nearly a month since I have returned from a whirlwind trip to Athens, Ohio for the opening weekend of Quilt National 2017. What a fun weekend it was! My friend Gail was my copilot as we let Waze guide us along the roads of NJ, PA, MD, WV and OH. The routes were all very scenic, but we had no time to stop for pictures, we had a destination to get to!

I have to say that as much as it was a thrill to see my art hanging in this prestigious exhibit, it was even more of a thrill to commune with all the artists who were there!

There's nothing better than hanging out with fellow creative souls. Sharing ideas, techniques, trials and tribulations and just basking in each others company. I was delighted to meet all the artists that I could, and wished every single one could have attended!

Here's the gallery view with my piece, Iron Spine 5XL hanging between work by Paula Kovarik and Kit Vincent, and then followed by Amy Meissner and Kerri Green

Here's moi talking about my work.... apparently I talk with my hands....

The powers that be took videos of the two minute talks that each artist gave about their work and when those videos become available I will gladly share where they can be seen. I always find public speaking rather nerve-wracking, but I was told that I spoke well and made sense. What more could I ask for?

Upon my return home, there was a lovely surprise in the mail - SDA magazine wrote a bit about the exhibit and used my art to illustrate it! So cool!

I'm still reliving bits and pieces of conversations that took place. So much to consider and enjoy remembering!

slow art

Happy New Year! Wishing you all lots of love, peace and creativity this year!

I wanted to share the progress of my current XL artwork. I started it sometime in November, and if you follow me on Instagram and Facebook, you may have seen a few posts about it. It's truly slow art... it's quite large (for me) and is all hand-stitched so far. Thus the time factor. I am working on it in bits and pieces and sometime spurts of time. I take breaks to work on other art, some faster more immediately gratifying art. But I am really enjoying the pace of it.

This piece is a continuation of the experiment that I started last year with this piece. It's coming back soon from a photoshoot with Quilt National, and I cannot wait to see how it works with this new piece.

So here's how it's been coming along...

I cut out a very large paper stencil of a fire escape and traced in thread

audio books are great to listen to when I do this type of work, podcasts are great also

it started to look like this

the base is a very old linen bed sheet from my family, it might have even been used a drop cloth once as there are white paint splotches on it. I spent some quality time mending all the worn spots.

this is what it looked like when the stencil outline was done

then I started pinning bits and pieces of vintage lace to it

I intend to cut away some of the lace after it's stitched down

this is what it looked like at the beginning of the process. The idea behind all the lace layers is that I want it to resemble/represent a wall behind the fire escape

just lace didn't work, so the fabric scraps came out to play

this started looking better!

and better!

somehow it took on a spring like feeling... I don't think it'll stay...

this is when I got done layering my scraps and lace. Now I have to stitch it all down and cut away the excess so that the fire escape can be seen again

it's off the wall and on my dining room table, and I'm auditioning threads. Not only will they need to keep it all together for me, but they'll need to add color and texture

Stay tuned! I am trying to stick to working on it for at least an hour a day. I have lots of other projects that I have to be working on, but I don't want this to stagnate. Or keep taking up my dining room table....

city love affair again

This one took a while.... too many distractions.. too many new experiments... but I still loved it, so I finally finished it.

Presenting City Love Affair 4. My grandmothers vintage linen towel, a lot of vintage lace from oh so many sources, a TAP transfer, machine stitching and hand stitching. A portrait of a beautiful building belonging to a school I never went to, but might have if I had stayed in Russia.

sky and roof

not so little round window

lampwork

details details

City Love Affair 4 © Natalya Aikens 2016

So different from the rest of the work I am doing right now, but yet such a part of me still.

XL

I just scrolled back through my blog entries to see when was the last time I mentioned about this large piece that I have been working on.... February! Geez, how time flies... I thought that perhaps I have mentioned it since, not here, but I did on Instagram.

Perhaps I wrote about it so few times because the progress on it has not only been slow (hand-stitching!) and also in fits and starts. Weeks went by between bursts of activity as I pondered where to take it next. I layered imagery of my beloved fire escapes one at a time, slowly, in what turned out to be a slightly abstracted composition.

Late last night I took the last few stitches and declared it finished. Haven't taken any official pictures yet, I intend to do so next week, so meanwhile here is a whole slew of closeups! Presenting a peek at Iron Spine 5XL.

It measures 77"x 51". The base is an old linen sheet that has served my family so well that it's threadbare in spots. ( I have a few more of those rescued for future stitching.) It has layers upon layers of repurposed plastic bags stitched to it by hand, a few dryer sheets, and some vintage lace. I've used a variety of threads: rayon, linen, cotton and paper pine which was snow-dyed eons ago.

Believe it or not, I cannot wait to get started on the next threadbare sheet..... I think I know exactly what I want to do to it!

Hanging with Horace

I have the pleasure of exhibiting my art in a lovely historic house which used to belong to Horace Greeley, who was the former editor to the New York Tribune among his other accomplishments. This exhibit is part of a town wide endeavor by the Northern Westchester Artists Guild. It'll be up the entire month of June, so please do pay a visit if you're in the neighborhood.

I am considering myself very lucky to have this exhibit venue as my architecturally inspired pieces are a perfect fit. I have hung most of my City Love Affair series in the two story home. The City Love Affair is my affair with St. Petersburg, Russia, and the romantic architecture fits right in here.

Here a few pictures of my pieces spread out among the historical displays on the first floor:

Upstairs is a whole lovely blue gallery which is now filled with all the large pieces in this series. It is like having a little retrospective!

Hopefully I'll see some pictures from the opening reception soon, but meanwhile here's the artist in situ..