This is what “Big Boucherouite” looked like yesterday afternoon when I sat down to hook. Some of you may have seen it on Instagram. Clearly, the race was on. Actually, the race had been on since Sunday when I hooked for a good seven hours.
Okay, maybe not “just like that,” but the “Big Boucherouite” is hooked. Finally. After about three and a half months of hooking approximately three hours per day. My arthritic hands are not particularly pleased with me at the moment, and I haven’t even told them about the next part: hemming. Putting needle and thread into hooked bed sheets and t-shirts isn’t the most fun thing one can do. I’ll give the hands a week or two off before we start to sew.
“Big Boucherouite” is hooked completely from old bed sheets and t-shirts. This is recycled (fiber) art at its best. 🙂
“Big Boucherouite” all hooked up. There’s a LOT of hemming to be done there. Don’t anyone expect to see this bad boy in the Etsy shop for a while.
In the meantime I have to finish my friendship rug – the entire background which does include words (I know, I know!). At least hooking wool is more gentle on the paws than hooking cotton. The friendship rug has to be completed by Albuquerque’s Fiber Arts Fiesta just like “Big Boucherouite.” In fact, all nine of the guild‘s friendship rugs constitute a special exhibit. If you can make it, Fiesta is May 30, 31 and June 1 at Expo here in Albuquerque.
Tynan was not to be denied. He feels it’s his job to present the rugs. And pick up a treat for his troubles…
Fellow hookers, I’ve spent an incredible amount of time hooking the background of one BIG rug; the friendship rug isn’t as large, but it ain’t small either. I’ve been dreaming of other rugs I want/need to start. Ideas to get me through this next background before I can start something new?
Who would’ve thunk that a t-shirt artist would be featured in a nearby gallery? Thanks to friend and guild-mate Nancy, I thunk thought it and was able to see the exhibit before it closes come March 23. Thanks so much, Nancy!
If you’re interested in fiber art at all and are near Santa Fe before March 23, I urge you to take an hour or so and head to form & concept, a gallery you can easily find on South Guadalupe Street in the Railyard District. Warning: You’re gonna love the gallery and will need more time.
The t-shirt artist in question is Nika Feldman. BTW, she not only considers herself to be a fiber artist, but a rag picker as well. Bless her heart; I know where she’s coming from. (Have you seen my rugs hooked out of recycled t-shirts? Bed sheets?) I had a great time looking at the various pieces, which are made of recycled t-shirts, pop tabs, and embroidery (which she’s very good at).
Here is an example of one of Feldman’s t-shirt pieces: “Hooded Cape.” (Photo courtesy of form & concept Gallery.) Yes, it’s comprised of nothing but old t-shirts, pull tabs, and stitchery!
While Feldman calls t-shirts the most ubiquitous – and cheapest – universal clothing made by Western culture, and that’s true, I’m not sure that I agree with her that the shirts are always recognizable even when cut up and taken apart. I know that I regularly have to tell folks that many of my rugs are hooked from old t-shirts. And the disbelief that they mouth. Granted, my strips are looped; some of hers hang free. Still, given what Feldman does with hers… The embellishments, especially when one sees her prowess with a needle and thread, are fantastic.
I fully concur with her message and only wish that I could state what I’m trying to do with my own art so succinctly:
The message…she said, has to do with modern North America’s mass production systems.
“It’s disposability, it’s like how we can make life more convenient, and more convenient, and more convenient?” she said of the narratives that this continent’s clothing conveys. “It comes at an unsustainable cost to the Earth.”
Fast fashion that often falls apart – have you ever wondered why that trendy tank top developed a hole after only one wash? – is a big part of the fashion industry’s unsustainability. That and our culture’s fickle fashion sense are why Feldman and I can both find so many t-shirts to use in our artwork. Savers, Goodwill, friends and relatives can supply us with all we need.
The pieces in the exhibit are “garment-like” rather than actual garments. This, according to Feldman, allows us to look deeper at them and to see them as art rather than just wearable fashion to be purchased and then put on. (For how long?) Indeed, she spent time in the fashion industry earlier in her career(s). I find that an interesting idea especially since my own goal when hooking a rug with t-shirts and other recycled materials is that it also be usable – as a rug, a table runner, or what-have-you. Regardless, I very much enjoyed looking at Feldman’s art, and I encourage you to make a run to Santa Fe before it disappears.
The exhibit by Nike Feldman is called Spirits in the Material World. It’s at form & concept on South Guadalupe in Santa Fe till March 23.
“I was so into fiber, because of its comforting and protective qualities, but at the same time it is a medium associated with struggle and women’s work,” she says. “Then I got into the whole concept of felt, because it’s incredibly strong but it presents in this soft, vulnerable way.” The artist’s mastery of the medium and her emotional language-building express the deeply personal in a way that holds broader relevance to humanity, voicing ideas about growth, human connection and personhood.
“Big Boucherouite” here. Yes, you read that right. I AM the large rug that she’s currerntly hooking. Constantly. At least it feels that way. I hardly ever get alone time. Anyway, as she’s still working on me day and night, I decided to provide a few notes regarding where she’s at in this project.
See what I mean about the dog? Oh, and that idea of strategic photography?
She’s been watching a LOT of television during the day. I tried to tell her to get some books on tape, but she goes on and on about having to get through a NOVAback-up, that she’s got to free-up space on the DVR. Fine. Her husband, of course, insists on watching them with her, though I’ve noticed that he tends to use them to catch up on his sleep.
NOVA sounds nice and erudite, sure, but that wasn’t on till midnight last night. No, that would be…Ice Castles. Yes, the Robby Benson movie from 1978, when she was 13. Apparently, she even read the book back then. It was on some TV station for lost movies. Some movies should remain lost…
She does take some breaks. It seems to be rather necessary. Hooking so much woven fabric is taking a toll on the joints. As is sitting under me. I’m rather heavy at this point. I tell her to do some yoga. Does she listen to me? Sometimes.
She’s still going on and on about not having enough orange sheets to fill my background, that she had to breakdown and use t-shirts. Who gives a damn? That they’re used textiles being recycled to a higher purpose – me! – it’s fine. That’s the Boucherouite spirit.
Her dog keeps sitting on me determined to earn a snack. Someone needs to tell him that she’s barely taking any photographs of me. I deserve a BIG REVEAL and not until I’m properly hooked and hemmed.
Lastly, regarding actually finishing me in order to enter me into Albuquerque’s Fiber Arts Fiesta by the March 1 deadline, let’s hear it for the idea of STRATEGIC PHOTOGRAPHY. And you all make sure that your submissions are in by sometime Friday too.
Look for my debut on Instagram and Facebook in the near future, and I’ll see you May 30 and 31 and June 1 at Fiber Fiesta!
Author Tynan here. You know, I’ll be 11 this year, and I’ve only recently been allowed the pleasure of hotel beds. This one belongs to my friend Nan. She took the photo while I was spending a little time with her Friday evening. I look gooood. Tucson was terrific!
Tuscon was terrific! The idiots sidelined me less than usual; even better, I was allowed into happy hour at the hotel! And they had a popcorn machine! One of my ladies Mary R. brought doggie bagels for me too. And Nan babysat me for a while Friday night while the idiots went for some food. (They did NOT bring any back for me. 🙁 )
Because the mistress is rushed this week getting her rugs ready to take up to the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center (EVFAC to you and me), and typing is difficult for me given my lack of thumbs, this is an abbreviated post. She insists that next week, I’ll be able to tell you all about our Arizona road trip. Okay, and the Old Pueblo Rug Hookers’ hook-in too.But I was allowed to post a couple of photos to whet your whistles.
Again, just to make you eager for my post next week, here’s one of the mistress and me up on Mount Lemmon in Tucson. What a view. And there was snow!
This week’s TINY VIEW of “What’s on the frame.” Yep, she’s finally starting to fill in some of the “Big Boucherouite.” It’s looking pretty cool.
She’s insisting that I suggest strongly that you make your own road trip up to Españolastarting Saturday. The scenery’s beautiful up in that part of the state what with the snow on the mountains and all. There’s New Mexican food there at El Paragua. Oh, and don’t forget to see her “window” at EVFAC. Don’t forget too – she’ll be teaching a 4-hour introductory rug hooking class on Saturday, February 16. We hope to see you! (As if they’ll let me in.)
Snow on Albuquerque’s Sandia Mountains! Our tiny bit over here on the west side of town melted early this morning.
So, we move from Massachusetts to New Mexico for the weather. At least that was one reason. Today (tomorrow by the time I post this) it was 60 degrees back home in Franklin. And the sun was shining. In Albuquerque it started out at about 46 and went downhill from there. It’s 33 now. Rain and then, yes, then snow. Sure, it was only showers and it melted off the fake grass pretty quickly, but still. Damn El Niño.
Meet Leah the Red Tailed Hawk. We did. She’s not a sandhill crane, but she was absolutely magnificent. After a rescue, she couldn’t be released back into the wild because she’d lost an eye.
Saturday, though, like most here, was a beautiful fall day. The trees have been changing, the sky’s a deep blue, and the sandhill cranes have returned to their winter playground. Tom and I headed off to Albuquerque’s Open Space Visitor Center – just down the road from our new house! – to attend the Return of the Sandhill Crane Celebration. There were presentations, talks, viewings and…art!
I knew they had gallery space at the visitor center, but I hadn’t realized that there were fiber artists represented in the current exhibit. It’s called “PARCH” and promo materials described the show as:
…through fiber, ceramic, and paint, six local artists masterfully express their unique relationship with water in the desert.
“Fracture,” a quilt by Betty Busby was on display at the PARCH art exhibit in Albuquerque. One word: intricacy. Okay, and fabulous too.
Betty Busby is a quilt artist who had two pieces in the exhibit. Even Tom was moved by the detail and the work involved not to mention the representations themselves.
Joshua Willis’s “Blue Circle” also appeared in the PARCH show.
Joshua Willis was another artist with work in the gallery.
Unfortunately, the sandhill cranes were no-shows while Tom and I were visiting the center. We did manage to visit with experts on the birds which was good as I learned that the bird the dog and I had been hearing on our morning walks in the Bosque (forest along the Rio Grande) was none other than a…sandhill crane!
Clearly, it’s got a distinctive call. In fact, the guy told me – and I’m dating myself and him here – that they used the crane’s call on the old 1960’s Johnny Quest cartoon to stand in for a pterodactyl’s cry. And believe you me, it sounds like a dinosaur.
But we saw other things. Check out the carving in one of the outdoor spaces. Unfortunately, I couldn’t determine the artist.
Carving close-up.
It was another great day in our newly adopted city where there are plenty of art and critters to be seen most every day. There’s certainly no lack of inspiration for hooking, painting, writing, or whatever art anyone might be practicing.One of my goals in moving here is to get my ass out the door to explore everything the area has to offer especially now that I have some time.
Raising a family, working full-time always makes it hard to visit and easy to overlook the special attractions and places in one’s community. Do you go out of your way to see these things? Where do you find your inspirations? What’s your “sandhill crane,” as it were?
