Review of Kim Jongku's work at the Spencer Museum through June 25th: SPELLING OUT A LANDSCAPE, written by Maria Creyts
On the exhibit at the Kemper at the Crossroads through June 19th: CONCERNS OF MEN, written by Maria Creyts
On an exhibit at the Nerman Museum through May 16th: BORN TO KNOW A SUBURBAN U.S.A., written by Maria Creyts
the world is my… pearl
My personally-fashioned attire for the Coney Island Mermaid Parade celebrating the opening of the swimming season in 2004 included a considerably oversized pearl necklace and a long green satin skirt taken in at the sides for a hip- and thigh-hugging effect, hem hiked up in front and rear center and flipped out, tail-like, to the right and left sides. On top I wore a nude colored tank top with life-sized, convincing-looking starfishes assembled from gold trim, one stitched on over each bosom.
For Kansas City’s 2010 Mardigras the giant pearls made an encore appearance, and girlfriends fawned over them.
When musing about work to be included in an all-girls art show, I thought of pearls, a really long rope of them, ones intended for later use as a central prop for a still life to be photographed… Looking at other colors in my studio, it seemed they needed to be a pearly sort of azure. Blue spheres are like worlds, and these many pearl worlds have seas painted on in chrome blue fingernail polish. A girlfriend pointed out that good strands of pearls are knotted, so for the full effect a knot was added after each pearl was threaded onto the rope of them that finally amounted to twenty-two feet or so.
The world is my oyster: the world is where I seek fortune.
The world is my… pearl.
I can hold worlds within my world to be precious and awe all admiringly.
Maria Creyts, MFA
April 2010
My personally-fashioned attire for the Coney Island Mermaid Parade celebrating the opening of the swimming season in 2004 included a considerably oversized pearl necklace and a long green satin skirt taken in at the sides for a hip- and thigh-hugging effect, hem hiked up in front and rear center and flipped out, tail-like, to the right and left sides. On top I wore a nude colored tank top with life-sized, convincing-looking starfishes assembled from gold trim, one stitched on over each bosom.
For Kansas City’s 2010 Mardigras the giant pearls made an encore appearance, and girlfriends fawned over them.
When musing about work to be included in an all-girls art show, I thought of pearls, a really long rope of them, ones intended for later use as a central prop for a still life to be photographed… Looking at other colors in my studio, it seemed they needed to be a pearly sort of azure. Blue spheres are like worlds, and these many pearl worlds have seas painted on in chrome blue fingernail polish. A girlfriend pointed out that good strands of pearls are knotted, so for the full effect a knot was added after each pearl was threaded onto the rope of them that finally amounted to twenty-two feet or so.
The world is my oyster: the world is where I seek fortune.
The world is my… pearl.
I can hold worlds within my world to be precious and awe all admiringly.
Maria Creyts, MFA
April 2010
raggedy rose
On a few occasions, I have been invited to Wayside, the cottage home of a design historian and author of the catalog raisonne of Frederick Sandys, a somewhat obscure Pre-Raphaelite painter. Situated on the Canterbury Road in Kent in the south of England, the home’s gardens flower profusely in the warmer months; many of the plantings are roses. In the back garden, I have wondered at mauve cabbage roses, their violet tone a strange rose color. In the front garden, twining over a split rail fence are climbing roses possessed of only single rings of petals.
The mistress once made me the gift of a pretty paper-bound book, an artfully produced listing of English rosebushes available for sale, I think it was. Thumbing through, I appreciated that many roses pictured were the sort with one row of petals circling a central clump of fringy stamens, a sort I knew only from the beach back home in the States.
The design of raggedy rose is like this.
When fabric-shopping last Thanksgiving with my sister-in-law, a quilter raised in Appalachia, we came upon bolts of reduced silks. I purchased a length of a powder blue and white woven wavy design, and later crafted it into the petal row for raggedy rose using a construction method adapted from a manual my sister-in-law, “Mrs. Creyts,” recommended to me.
Recently, an art broker visiting my studio queried, why fabric ?
To me, fabric offers a ready palette of pattern and color. I could hunt for patterned papers and make pasted collages… yet the supply of fabrics is greater, more varied, and texture is an added bonus. With fabric, I can construct. In elementary school, book reports were my favorite assignment as I could make papier mache sculptures to go along with any storyline (looking back, I realize I got quite carried away !). Fashioning things in three dimensions has always been a part of what I do.
The formal structural language for fabric is one I am acquainting myself with: corded shirring, shell hems and ruffles, darted and curve-cut flounces, smocked tucks, box pleats… In most every case I adapt the standard method to suit atypical purposes.
raggedy rose’s cluster of stamens is made with slashed tucks and the fringed wide wale corduroy and hound’s tooth check were washed and dried in the laundromat, making them look raggy. To better fit my long format, the rose face is wide and ovoid in a way that calls the fabric face of Raggedy Ann to mind. Broad ribbons of brilliant and toned-down greens were sewn face to face with one satin and one dull side out to approximate the varying color and sheen on the front and back of leaves. Loosely suggesting foliage, the sweeping doubled up ribbon looks something like leafy designs piped in frosting from a pastry bag.
Maria Creyts, MFA
April 2010
On a few occasions, I have been invited to Wayside, the cottage home of a design historian and author of the catalog raisonne of Frederick Sandys, a somewhat obscure Pre-Raphaelite painter. Situated on the Canterbury Road in Kent in the south of England, the home’s gardens flower profusely in the warmer months; many of the plantings are roses. In the back garden, I have wondered at mauve cabbage roses, their violet tone a strange rose color. In the front garden, twining over a split rail fence are climbing roses possessed of only single rings of petals.
The mistress once made me the gift of a pretty paper-bound book, an artfully produced listing of English rosebushes available for sale, I think it was. Thumbing through, I appreciated that many roses pictured were the sort with one row of petals circling a central clump of fringy stamens, a sort I knew only from the beach back home in the States.
The design of raggedy rose is like this.
When fabric-shopping last Thanksgiving with my sister-in-law, a quilter raised in Appalachia, we came upon bolts of reduced silks. I purchased a length of a powder blue and white woven wavy design, and later crafted it into the petal row for raggedy rose using a construction method adapted from a manual my sister-in-law, “Mrs. Creyts,” recommended to me.
Recently, an art broker visiting my studio queried, why fabric ?
To me, fabric offers a ready palette of pattern and color. I could hunt for patterned papers and make pasted collages… yet the supply of fabrics is greater, more varied, and texture is an added bonus. With fabric, I can construct. In elementary school, book reports were my favorite assignment as I could make papier mache sculptures to go along with any storyline (looking back, I realize I got quite carried away !). Fashioning things in three dimensions has always been a part of what I do.
The formal structural language for fabric is one I am acquainting myself with: corded shirring, shell hems and ruffles, darted and curve-cut flounces, smocked tucks, box pleats… In most every case I adapt the standard method to suit atypical purposes.
raggedy rose’s cluster of stamens is made with slashed tucks and the fringed wide wale corduroy and hound’s tooth check were washed and dried in the laundromat, making them look raggy. To better fit my long format, the rose face is wide and ovoid in a way that calls the fabric face of Raggedy Ann to mind. Broad ribbons of brilliant and toned-down greens were sewn face to face with one satin and one dull side out to approximate the varying color and sheen on the front and back of leaves. Loosely suggesting foliage, the sweeping doubled up ribbon looks something like leafy designs piped in frosting from a pastry bag.
Maria Creyts, MFA
April 2010
RIPE drawings
These five round drawings are included in a risque show of (mostly) curtained drawings, many of which are "X" or "R" - rated. The invitational exhibit, RIPE, is the project of an ambitious younger artist, Mikal Shapiro; in the past we have worked on other projects with one another ~
Because I was already thinking along the lines of drawing Missouri wildflowers for use with embroidery projects, I followed that direction and went with the potentially sexy theme of pollination -- in response to a call for erotic drawings noting that open interpretation of the theme was welcome.
Sketches were scanned and then adjusted in Illustrator, and each composition was printed digitally on art quality photo paper.
In my childhood I was sent to a crafts class and while the teachers busied themselves getting everything ready, I fashioned a bumble bee out of pipe cleaners. When they saw it, they asked where I had found it. My sister suggests that perhaps I could have taught that class !
Years later I am making bees from wire yet... in the case of each drawing in this suite, a tiny sculptural element, a bee, hovers over one of the blooms.
Maria Creyts, MFA
February 2010
These five round drawings are included in a risque show of (mostly) curtained drawings, many of which are "X" or "R" - rated. The invitational exhibit, RIPE, is the project of an ambitious younger artist, Mikal Shapiro; in the past we have worked on other projects with one another ~
Because I was already thinking along the lines of drawing Missouri wildflowers for use with embroidery projects, I followed that direction and went with the potentially sexy theme of pollination -- in response to a call for erotic drawings noting that open interpretation of the theme was welcome.
Sketches were scanned and then adjusted in Illustrator, and each composition was printed digitally on art quality photo paper.
In my childhood I was sent to a crafts class and while the teachers busied themselves getting everything ready, I fashioned a bumble bee out of pipe cleaners. When they saw it, they asked where I had found it. My sister suggests that perhaps I could have taught that class !
Years later I am making bees from wire yet... in the case of each drawing in this suite, a tiny sculptural element, a bee, hovers over one of the blooms.
Maria Creyts, MFA
February 2010
about batiks collected by Ann Dunham, written by Maria Creyts
BATIKS OF FAME, Collection offers cultural insight to "textured soul of Java"
BATIKS OF FAME, Collection offers cultural insight to "textured soul of Java"
naranja canela, presented in diptych format at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center in Kansas City in March 2010, is an archival inkjet print project.
Each half is 17" x 42," framed. The photos' color is saturated, and the resolution is exceedingly good for work on this scale.
The image depicts an elaborate pinned & sewn still life. Multiple photo images were stitched together digitally and then the panoramic photo's ends were manipulated so that the image (approximately 6 feet) can repeat seamlessly. Later, after the photo was mounted, the top and bottom edges were trimmed with a chisel -- following the ruffles' edges. The image is raised within a deep frame, resulting in a shadow box effect.
River-like, a blue satin ribbon edged in black and white twists across a broad horizontal swathe of fiery hunter's orange, every one of its turns echoed exaggeratedly by the transparent chiffon flounces that flank it. At a glance, protruding pleats of silk appear to be black and blue, yet a closer look reveals them to be chocolate and blue. These pleats create a depth in the central zone in the way daffodil flower's tall corona surrounds its very center. In the spicy pattern of outer ruffles sewn from an African wax print, a cinnamon color prevails. The title, naranja canela, ("orange cinnamon" in Spanish) relates color to flavor. As a child, one of my favorite dishes was orange-cinnamon chicken.
I also muse on a dire, dramatic scene in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown where one woman hauls a character by the name of Canela over a balcony rail to safety, and on the zest of interior decorating Spanish-style seen in that movie's sets. Cinnamon can be the name of a woman... or an artwork.
In naranja canela one peers into a piquant color realm predominated by blaze orange and possessed of frenzied urgency through animated, suggested movement. The combined effects of heightened color and churning composition are stabilized by the work's flowing linear format, led along by an unfurling ribbon.
Maria Creyts, MFA
March 2010
Each half is 17" x 42," framed. The photos' color is saturated, and the resolution is exceedingly good for work on this scale.
The image depicts an elaborate pinned & sewn still life. Multiple photo images were stitched together digitally and then the panoramic photo's ends were manipulated so that the image (approximately 6 feet) can repeat seamlessly. Later, after the photo was mounted, the top and bottom edges were trimmed with a chisel -- following the ruffles' edges. The image is raised within a deep frame, resulting in a shadow box effect.
River-like, a blue satin ribbon edged in black and white twists across a broad horizontal swathe of fiery hunter's orange, every one of its turns echoed exaggeratedly by the transparent chiffon flounces that flank it. At a glance, protruding pleats of silk appear to be black and blue, yet a closer look reveals them to be chocolate and blue. These pleats create a depth in the central zone in the way daffodil flower's tall corona surrounds its very center. In the spicy pattern of outer ruffles sewn from an African wax print, a cinnamon color prevails. The title, naranja canela, ("orange cinnamon" in Spanish) relates color to flavor. As a child, one of my favorite dishes was orange-cinnamon chicken.
I also muse on a dire, dramatic scene in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown where one woman hauls a character by the name of Canela over a balcony rail to safety, and on the zest of interior decorating Spanish-style seen in that movie's sets. Cinnamon can be the name of a woman... or an artwork.
In naranja canela one peers into a piquant color realm predominated by blaze orange and possessed of frenzied urgency through animated, suggested movement. The combined effects of heightened color and churning composition are stabilized by the work's flowing linear format, led along by an unfurling ribbon.
Maria Creyts, MFA
March 2010
review of an installation by Holly Swangstu, written by Maria Creyts
BRIGHTNESS, WARMTH ENVELOPING
BRIGHTNESS, WARMTH ENVELOPING
About photo-friezes for Frilling
With my photo-friezes, assembled, elaborate still lifes present sumptuous detail with vibrant pattern and context or contrast of origins and purpose. New and specialized photography technology is used to achieve high resolution and saturated color that are extraordinary for photographic prints of this scale.
In Golden Locks against Tropic Nightshade pattern there is a color theory event where semi-sheer pink cloth is seen over a “wax print” fabric skirt with a thicket-like pattern: the pink mutes the raucous orange & indigo complements without disguising them entirely. This wax print was made by a Dutch company expressly for the African market.
Recently I read something about black women being bothered when white women flip their hair. According to one source, the gesture is seen to signify “look at my beautiful hair ! ”
The white-blond doll hair festoon here is juxtaposed against the bold African pattern -- two differing sensibilities for beauty are coupled in one image. A rainbow glow hovers low, underscoring the mysterious loveliness.
Among my girlhood dolls, there was a Dutch-girl with white-blond hair…
In the composition, the ric-rac trim might stand for the sea that ties Holland to Africa, and also Indonesia from where the batiks that inspire today’s fabrics were originally exported.
Maria Creyts, MFA
September 2009 (revised February 2010)
With my photo-friezes, assembled, elaborate still lifes present sumptuous detail with vibrant pattern and context or contrast of origins and purpose. New and specialized photography technology is used to achieve high resolution and saturated color that are extraordinary for photographic prints of this scale.
In Golden Locks against Tropic Nightshade pattern there is a color theory event where semi-sheer pink cloth is seen over a “wax print” fabric skirt with a thicket-like pattern: the pink mutes the raucous orange & indigo complements without disguising them entirely. This wax print was made by a Dutch company expressly for the African market.
Recently I read something about black women being bothered when white women flip their hair. According to one source, the gesture is seen to signify “look at my beautiful hair ! ”
The white-blond doll hair festoon here is juxtaposed against the bold African pattern -- two differing sensibilities for beauty are coupled in one image. A rainbow glow hovers low, underscoring the mysterious loveliness.
Among my girlhood dolls, there was a Dutch-girl with white-blond hair…
In the composition, the ric-rac trim might stand for the sea that ties Holland to Africa, and also Indonesia from where the batiks that inspire today’s fabrics were originally exported.
Maria Creyts, MFA
September 2009 (revised February 2010)
News
Ms. Creyts is now a member of the Kansas City ArtsAlive Board of Directors.
On October 2nd, 2009, she presented artist's lecture at Whitworth University.
She was recently awarded a Travel Grant for study of Oaxacan textile designs in Mexico at Museo Textil de Oaxaca from Art Institute of Pittsburgh.
Ms. Creyts is now a member of the Kansas City ArtsAlive Board of Directors.
On October 2nd, 2009, she presented artist's lecture at Whitworth University.
She was recently awarded a Travel Grant for study of Oaxacan textile designs in Mexico at Museo Textil de Oaxaca from Art Institute of Pittsburgh.
ArtSounds ~ Little Tokoyo (say "Toe-KOI-yo")
October 13, 2009, 7:30pm
Epperson Auditorium, Kansas City Art Institute
This will be about a Brigadoon-like place called Tokoyo.
The original title of Lafcadio Hearn's story is "The Dream of Akinosuke."
from footnotes:
"...According to circumstances [Tokoyo] may signify any unknown country, -- or that undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns, -- or that Fairyland of far-eastern fable, the Realm of Horai... The original phrase, Tokoyo no Kokuo, might be rendered here as 'the Ruler of Horai' or 'the King of Fairyland.'"
Here is the still life for "Gertrude's Beauty" (see "images," please)
...that includes a cut-out photo of the large Polyphemus Moth Gertrude Ferguson discovered. In San Francisco recently, I saw an exhibition in a Geary Street gallery of trompe l'oeil paintings of -- fields of grass. Within the hour, I was shopping at Britex Fabrics (4 floors!) and left with …a remnant of vinyl patterned with a photo of green grass. That worked its way into this little still life. It's as though the moth's alighted on cloth-covered lawn furniture, and we look down on the astonishing visitor. Perhaps you know my interest in fabrics?? I love that houndstooth check seen through cut lace. The Polyphemus Moth has transparent wingspots that bear some similarity to lace like this that you can peek through, so the lace and moth share more than a tawny color. Gertrude has provided articles on a young Beatrix Potter making scientific discoveries about lichen and Jean Stratton-Porter climbing ladders in the swamp to photo baby vultures. We love nature and were interested to learn that this moth lives less than a week (as a moth). It’s raison d’etre is reproducing; it can’t eat, its mouthparts don’t function. It seems this particular one was frightened to death before it could successfully lay eggs when it chanced to fly into Gertrude’s home. The painting itself is in acrylic, its pickled frame is one I designed from handrail moulding. If you’re in the area, I hope you’ll stop at the NAP and have a looksee.
Maria Creyts, MFA
May 2009
...that includes a cut-out photo of the large Polyphemus Moth Gertrude Ferguson discovered. In San Francisco recently, I saw an exhibition in a Geary Street gallery of trompe l'oeil paintings of -- fields of grass. Within the hour, I was shopping at Britex Fabrics (4 floors!) and left with …a remnant of vinyl patterned with a photo of green grass. That worked its way into this little still life. It's as though the moth's alighted on cloth-covered lawn furniture, and we look down on the astonishing visitor. Perhaps you know my interest in fabrics?? I love that houndstooth check seen through cut lace. The Polyphemus Moth has transparent wingspots that bear some similarity to lace like this that you can peek through, so the lace and moth share more than a tawny color. Gertrude has provided articles on a young Beatrix Potter making scientific discoveries about lichen and Jean Stratton-Porter climbing ladders in the swamp to photo baby vultures. We love nature and were interested to learn that this moth lives less than a week (as a moth). It’s raison d’etre is reproducing; it can’t eat, its mouthparts don’t function. It seems this particular one was frightened to death before it could successfully lay eggs when it chanced to fly into Gertrude’s home. The painting itself is in acrylic, its pickled frame is one I designed from handrail moulding. If you’re in the area, I hope you’ll stop at the NAP and have a looksee.
Maria Creyts, MFA
May 2009
Dressed-up Hearts
As my plane was getting ready to deboard in Philadelphia, I called Kiara to see about nosing around in her girls’ closets for subjects. When finally I arrived at my parents’ late in the day after riding through evening-before-Thanksgiving traffic (for an hour more than the usual journey)… my sister showed up with her daughters -- and two arms full of their best dresses: she had brought them to me ! Lovely clothing confections commanding a certain reverence, my nieces’ dresses are indicators of their primary status as sweethearts. The sum of the dresses was so big in diameter, owing to plentiful petticoats, that they had to be stowed away in the spare room upstairs while the bustle of Thanksgiving festivities got underway.
The assortment of fancy dresses was narrowed down to four, and I decided to carry the dresses on to my plane homeward in an oversized shopping bag so they wouldn’t be crushed in a suitcase ~ Kalea and Savannah were at my parents’ again on the afternoon when I was getting ready to go.
With fond delight for the best of their little girl clothes, they cried “oh, the baby dress” when I showed one of my choices – the chiffon one of palest pink with satin ribbon bows and edging that Savannah once wore as a flower girl at my brother’s wedding in Houston. Then 2 ½, she preceded the bride down the aisle alongside a little ring bearer with carrot-red hair.
Of one of the cotton print Easter dresses Kalea lovingly exclaimed, “my lil’ blue dress!” This one’s delicate pattern recalls cobalt blue on porcelain. Bow in the back, mini-double ruffles at the waist and hem… its bell effect is achieved thanks to a lace edged, tulle-fortified underskirt. Seeing the flamingo colored dress with layered flared and ruffled skirts, Savannah called out, “the lil’ salsa dress!” This dress performs nicely when dances involve twirling, I learned.
Last we regarded a creamy satin sleeveless dress with pearls sewn around the neckline. A scallop-edged and rose embroidered organza outer layer plus a double-ruffled crinoline underneath help to produce a doll effect; the dress’ label reads “muneca” (Spanish for doll). Savannah wore it on December 31st in 2006 -- for the occasion of her baptism. One recent Sunday, Kalea was dressed in it. After church there was a fair; despite this finest attire, mother’s permission was granted for jumping around in the inflated Moonwalk.
High resolution digital photos of the girls’ dresses were made in Kansas City. Using a pen tablet with Photoshop CS4, I selected the dresses from the photo images. Different cut-out images of the dresses were then arranged behind heart-shaped masks I designed in Illustrator with the help of the Pen Tool -- a sort of pulleys and levers system used for achieving taut lines and edges.
The resulting works, “Dressed-up Hearts,” reveal common themes in my work: design riding over undulating form, translucency in layers of color and pattern, a fascination over detail and function in clothes and textiles, and emphasis on shape with format. Here, there is also an idea of items of clothing as tangible repositories for memories. Savannah and Kalea are gymnasts, soccer players, and smart about their studies. Their world doesn’t focus on dresses, yet their dresses do hold memories of special occasions (and Moonwalks?) for them and others who were present.
Maria Creyts, MFA
February 2009
As my plane was getting ready to deboard in Philadelphia, I called Kiara to see about nosing around in her girls’ closets for subjects. When finally I arrived at my parents’ late in the day after riding through evening-before-Thanksgiving traffic (for an hour more than the usual journey)… my sister showed up with her daughters -- and two arms full of their best dresses: she had brought them to me ! Lovely clothing confections commanding a certain reverence, my nieces’ dresses are indicators of their primary status as sweethearts. The sum of the dresses was so big in diameter, owing to plentiful petticoats, that they had to be stowed away in the spare room upstairs while the bustle of Thanksgiving festivities got underway.
The assortment of fancy dresses was narrowed down to four, and I decided to carry the dresses on to my plane homeward in an oversized shopping bag so they wouldn’t be crushed in a suitcase ~ Kalea and Savannah were at my parents’ again on the afternoon when I was getting ready to go.
With fond delight for the best of their little girl clothes, they cried “oh, the baby dress” when I showed one of my choices – the chiffon one of palest pink with satin ribbon bows and edging that Savannah once wore as a flower girl at my brother’s wedding in Houston. Then 2 ½, she preceded the bride down the aisle alongside a little ring bearer with carrot-red hair.
Of one of the cotton print Easter dresses Kalea lovingly exclaimed, “my lil’ blue dress!” This one’s delicate pattern recalls cobalt blue on porcelain. Bow in the back, mini-double ruffles at the waist and hem… its bell effect is achieved thanks to a lace edged, tulle-fortified underskirt. Seeing the flamingo colored dress with layered flared and ruffled skirts, Savannah called out, “the lil’ salsa dress!” This dress performs nicely when dances involve twirling, I learned.
Last we regarded a creamy satin sleeveless dress with pearls sewn around the neckline. A scallop-edged and rose embroidered organza outer layer plus a double-ruffled crinoline underneath help to produce a doll effect; the dress’ label reads “muneca” (Spanish for doll). Savannah wore it on December 31st in 2006 -- for the occasion of her baptism. One recent Sunday, Kalea was dressed in it. After church there was a fair; despite this finest attire, mother’s permission was granted for jumping around in the inflated Moonwalk.
High resolution digital photos of the girls’ dresses were made in Kansas City. Using a pen tablet with Photoshop CS4, I selected the dresses from the photo images. Different cut-out images of the dresses were then arranged behind heart-shaped masks I designed in Illustrator with the help of the Pen Tool -- a sort of pulleys and levers system used for achieving taut lines and edges.
The resulting works, “Dressed-up Hearts,” reveal common themes in my work: design riding over undulating form, translucency in layers of color and pattern, a fascination over detail and function in clothes and textiles, and emphasis on shape with format. Here, there is also an idea of items of clothing as tangible repositories for memories. Savannah and Kalea are gymnasts, soccer players, and smart about their studies. Their world doesn’t focus on dresses, yet their dresses do hold memories of special occasions (and Moonwalks?) for them and others who were present.
Maria Creyts, MFA
February 2009
photo friezes at lacey: on view at Pi gallery through November 29th
Maybe it’s because the lace fabric I work with comes in lengths of five or six yards that I find myself thinking of images that are yards in length… After musing about frieze formats for a while, I presented a 16’ x 32” digital photo mural earlier this year at an exhibit at Avila University, Kansas City. That first piece was 1:1. To make it, I assembled a still life that stretched for sixteen feet and worked with photographer/filmmaker Richard Welnowski to shoot and print four 4’ panels. It’s lovely to have modular work -– the panels can be shown as a continuous image, rearranged, shown in pairs, or displayed individually.
Yet, I have yearned for a skinnier stripe of design that wraps an interior space… Continuing to make forays toward a vision in my mind’s eye, three photo friezes were realized for the lacey exhibit: Home Deco, Anima, and Bessie Mae/Bésame. In this case, still lifes were smaller in scale and the friezes are approximately twice their size. My supply of visual ideas spurred Welnowski to respond with technical expertise necessary for the quality of photography and printing sought.
As a member of the Full Time Faculty of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, I typically teach designers, often I have sections that are full of interior designers. Banter in my online classrooms often takes a home deco’ direction. My mother, also an artist, decorates. On the occasion of a first family vacation to Disneyworld, she discovered that she and Minnie Mouse share the same taste: Minnie’s kitchen was papered in the very same pattern as hers, a pizza parlor stained glass lamp with a fruity motif identical to that in mom’s kitchen hung over Minnie’s kitchen table, and then there was the matching black and white checkered floor… Reflecting on this comic coincidence, I sewed a few frilly elements together for the 80 inch Home Deco photo frieze. While the result is a wonder to look at, it is also nearly silly (more on silly side than the décor of Minnie’s Disneyworld kitchen or my mom’s on Museum Road).
I listen to audio books while working in my studio. On Halloween, I “read” Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The next day I began work on 80 inch long Anima, a cerise-colored still life with a horizontal row of hooks and eyes reminiscent of a corset that’s strained and on the verge of bursting open.
The ten foot red and white vertical frieze, Bessie Mae/Bésame is more formal in its concept, and for that it has a certain alliance with paintings shown in lacey. Like the paintings, a spectacle of formal arrangement of layers of fabric is central to the work. Net, lace, braid, and pleated red and white tulle were arranged over a candy stripe fabric with a result that seems both prim and alluring. The name Bessie Mae can be intended as a double entendre, the Spanish bésame translates to “kiss me.”
Maria Creyts, MFA
November 2008
Maybe it’s because the lace fabric I work with comes in lengths of five or six yards that I find myself thinking of images that are yards in length… After musing about frieze formats for a while, I presented a 16’ x 32” digital photo mural earlier this year at an exhibit at Avila University, Kansas City. That first piece was 1:1. To make it, I assembled a still life that stretched for sixteen feet and worked with photographer/filmmaker Richard Welnowski to shoot and print four 4’ panels. It’s lovely to have modular work -– the panels can be shown as a continuous image, rearranged, shown in pairs, or displayed individually.
Yet, I have yearned for a skinnier stripe of design that wraps an interior space… Continuing to make forays toward a vision in my mind’s eye, three photo friezes were realized for the lacey exhibit: Home Deco, Anima, and Bessie Mae/Bésame. In this case, still lifes were smaller in scale and the friezes are approximately twice their size. My supply of visual ideas spurred Welnowski to respond with technical expertise necessary for the quality of photography and printing sought.
As a member of the Full Time Faculty of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, I typically teach designers, often I have sections that are full of interior designers. Banter in my online classrooms often takes a home deco’ direction. My mother, also an artist, decorates. On the occasion of a first family vacation to Disneyworld, she discovered that she and Minnie Mouse share the same taste: Minnie’s kitchen was papered in the very same pattern as hers, a pizza parlor stained glass lamp with a fruity motif identical to that in mom’s kitchen hung over Minnie’s kitchen table, and then there was the matching black and white checkered floor… Reflecting on this comic coincidence, I sewed a few frilly elements together for the 80 inch Home Deco photo frieze. While the result is a wonder to look at, it is also nearly silly (more on silly side than the décor of Minnie’s Disneyworld kitchen or my mom’s on Museum Road).
I listen to audio books while working in my studio. On Halloween, I “read” Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The next day I began work on 80 inch long Anima, a cerise-colored still life with a horizontal row of hooks and eyes reminiscent of a corset that’s strained and on the verge of bursting open.
The ten foot red and white vertical frieze, Bessie Mae/Bésame is more formal in its concept, and for that it has a certain alliance with paintings shown in lacey. Like the paintings, a spectacle of formal arrangement of layers of fabric is central to the work. Net, lace, braid, and pleated red and white tulle were arranged over a candy stripe fabric with a result that seems both prim and alluring. The name Bessie Mae can be intended as a double entendre, the Spanish bésame translates to “kiss me.”
Maria Creyts, MFA
November 2008
Making Precious
I pull out my tattered London Mini A-Zed atlas to recall that the shop where I found the lace for Precious is on the Walworth Road. The Saturday when I was choosing fabric there I observed a patterned silk kerchief on a wig head, arranged in a gravity-defying swirl with the help of starch and a few straight pins hidden in the creases. My attention was next drawn to a length of pink and bright blue voile on display, some yards of cloth with an exaggerated floral repeat (a piece that is still very much the apple of my eye today). Completing the purchase was a task as my credit card was declined; I had to find a payphone and place an international call affirming that it was me making the purchase. At last I was departing… when in swept a woman clad in gold aso oke and lace, gleaming like a sun. Across the street outside, I waited with my camera. When she emerged her ensemble was complete for she now wore the magnificently sculpted kerchief. Agreeing to a photo, she explained that she was on her way to a wedding.
The shape of Precious is derived from a sewing pattern. When setting up a still life, I build a large viewfinder, a cut-out matching the shape for the new painting. Arranging the material is akin to transforming a kerchief into a fancy ladies’ head tie: pins and starch are the means for working the undulating folds of pattern. The painting process takes time, and to clear my mind from the day’s cares I usually listen to books while working. I happened upon the #1 Lady Detective series at the public library. Set in Botswana and written by Alexander McCall Smith, a Scotsman and lawyer, the series’ protagonist is Mma (Madam) Ramotswe -- whose first name is Precious.
Maria Creyts, MFA
November 2008
I pull out my tattered London Mini A-Zed atlas to recall that the shop where I found the lace for Precious is on the Walworth Road. The Saturday when I was choosing fabric there I observed a patterned silk kerchief on a wig head, arranged in a gravity-defying swirl with the help of starch and a few straight pins hidden in the creases. My attention was next drawn to a length of pink and bright blue voile on display, some yards of cloth with an exaggerated floral repeat (a piece that is still very much the apple of my eye today). Completing the purchase was a task as my credit card was declined; I had to find a payphone and place an international call affirming that it was me making the purchase. At last I was departing… when in swept a woman clad in gold aso oke and lace, gleaming like a sun. Across the street outside, I waited with my camera. When she emerged her ensemble was complete for she now wore the magnificently sculpted kerchief. Agreeing to a photo, she explained that she was on her way to a wedding.
The shape of Precious is derived from a sewing pattern. When setting up a still life, I build a large viewfinder, a cut-out matching the shape for the new painting. Arranging the material is akin to transforming a kerchief into a fancy ladies’ head tie: pins and starch are the means for working the undulating folds of pattern. The painting process takes time, and to clear my mind from the day’s cares I usually listen to books while working. I happened upon the #1 Lady Detective series at the public library. Set in Botswana and written by Alexander McCall Smith, a Scotsman and lawyer, the series’ protagonist is Mma (Madam) Ramotswe -- whose first name is Precious.
Maria Creyts, MFA
November 2008
Shopping for inspiration: Abeja
Finding fabrics suited to my painting projects in the US has been a challenge. In summer 2007 I participated in a workshop with Yoruba adire & batik artist Gasali Adeyemo who had learned his craft from Nike Davies in Oshogbo, Nigeria. He introduced me to textiles dealer Victoria Scott who advised me to try Baltimore… When on the east coast last fall for a three person exhibit at University of New Haven, I made an excursion to Baltimore to collect a large painting of mine; I had a short list of shops where I might find African textiles. Starting at an expansive, dimly lit African gallery, I purchased batik and aso oke (cloth pieced from strip weaving, often with openwork that makes it lace-like). Continuing on my quest for the colorful Swiss voile made to suit African tastes, I visited an array of places… yet my lead came from the girl tending a sandwich shop counter. She got her boss who called his wife; I was given a couple of addresses. Arriving late in the afternoon, it was past dusk when I made my way out with two beautiful lengths of lace. The shop shelves had been lined with hundreds of brightly colored laces -- all in 6 yard lengths, enough for an ensemble. The proprietress, wearing a head-tie, refused to permit photography. At such shops my credit card is usually declined until I phone in… (is this because of the large bill or is the Nigerian shop suspect?)
The shape of Abeja comes from an oval in the design of the fabric it portrays. The sheer black fabric is studded with tiny rhinestones and areas encircled by heavy embroidery are cut out by hand. T-pins, clothes pins, spray starch, and cushions were used to prop and cinch the fabric into arrangement.
I first saw such fabrics in the costume of expatriate West Africans living in my South London neighborhood; self presentation is a matter of pride with Ghanaians and Nigerians there, and such garb would be worn to church and for special occasions. A Puerto Rican student explained to me that the same fabrics are popular among people of African descent in Puerto Rico. Abeja’s black and yellow stripes call to mind a “bee”: “abeja” in Spanish… which is similar in spelling to Abuja, a Nigerian city.
Maria Creyts, MFA
November 2008
Finding fabrics suited to my painting projects in the US has been a challenge. In summer 2007 I participated in a workshop with Yoruba adire & batik artist Gasali Adeyemo who had learned his craft from Nike Davies in Oshogbo, Nigeria. He introduced me to textiles dealer Victoria Scott who advised me to try Baltimore… When on the east coast last fall for a three person exhibit at University of New Haven, I made an excursion to Baltimore to collect a large painting of mine; I had a short list of shops where I might find African textiles. Starting at an expansive, dimly lit African gallery, I purchased batik and aso oke (cloth pieced from strip weaving, often with openwork that makes it lace-like). Continuing on my quest for the colorful Swiss voile made to suit African tastes, I visited an array of places… yet my lead came from the girl tending a sandwich shop counter. She got her boss who called his wife; I was given a couple of addresses. Arriving late in the afternoon, it was past dusk when I made my way out with two beautiful lengths of lace. The shop shelves had been lined with hundreds of brightly colored laces -- all in 6 yard lengths, enough for an ensemble. The proprietress, wearing a head-tie, refused to permit photography. At such shops my credit card is usually declined until I phone in… (is this because of the large bill or is the Nigerian shop suspect?)
The shape of Abeja comes from an oval in the design of the fabric it portrays. The sheer black fabric is studded with tiny rhinestones and areas encircled by heavy embroidery are cut out by hand. T-pins, clothes pins, spray starch, and cushions were used to prop and cinch the fabric into arrangement.
I first saw such fabrics in the costume of expatriate West Africans living in my South London neighborhood; self presentation is a matter of pride with Ghanaians and Nigerians there, and such garb would be worn to church and for special occasions. A Puerto Rican student explained to me that the same fabrics are popular among people of African descent in Puerto Rico. Abeja’s black and yellow stripes call to mind a “bee”: “abeja” in Spanish… which is similar in spelling to Abuja, a Nigerian city.
Maria Creyts, MFA
November 2008
“Lace is my word for beauty… love… and hope. I speak the word lace and everything else is clear… I was claimed long ago as a child by lace. My mother wore a lace collar, which allowed her head to emerge like a swan from the water.”
Sheila Fugard
In her short story, Lace, Sheila Fugard fixes lace as a guiding ideal in the life of a widow remembering how she lost her five year old boy one winter on the barren South African Karoo.
The author moved with her family from England to South Africa as a child in 1940. Later she and her husband, playwright Athol Fugard, worked in experimental theatre with amateur black actors -- a pursuit for which Athol was forced either to leave South Africa on an exit visa or give up his passport (he chose the latter). While prevented from attending the New York showing of Athol's popular play, Boesman and Lina, the couple was enabled to travel again after a petition signed by 4000 resulted in the return of Athol's passport.
Sheila Fugard
In her short story, Lace, Sheila Fugard fixes lace as a guiding ideal in the life of a widow remembering how she lost her five year old boy one winter on the barren South African Karoo.
The author moved with her family from England to South Africa as a child in 1940. Later she and her husband, playwright Athol Fugard, worked in experimental theatre with amateur black actors -- a pursuit for which Athol was forced either to leave South Africa on an exit visa or give up his passport (he chose the latter). While prevented from attending the New York showing of Athol's popular play, Boesman and Lina, the couple was enabled to travel again after a petition signed by 4000 resulted in the return of Athol's passport.
In "Color Buckle", colored, silkscreened rice paper sheets are "buckled" into their "frame" that's silk-screened onto heavy paper. The buckle is large and calls to mind big buckles such as those on pilgrim shoes and hats; the work was made in November ~
The silkscreened compositions were created in two ways. Fabric trim was scanned and then copied and pasted together in Photoshop to create a configuration. From the computer, this was printed on heavy vellum. The resulting translucent page was used to shoot a screen stencil. In a more direct approach, lengths of lace were arranged and affixed to acetate with spray glue, and then screens were shot directly from the lace compositions. This direct approach wouldn't work with the trim… which has a strong black and white design but is entirely opaque.
Additional pages of lace pattern were printed onto rice papers with screens shot directly from lace, photogram style.
I'm interested in semi-transparent patterns and layers, often these have cut-outs to reveal the pattern below fully in small areas.
Looking at paper targets from the shooting range shown me by a friend who's a marksman, I immediately saw those pages in relation to 2D art on paper. Often, I have perforated silkscreen prints with a punch that happens to be just about the size of a bullet hole.
"Reveries of a Sleeper w/ Ill-at-Ease Mind" is a first essay at incorporating targets into work. Sections with bullet holes were cut from hot red target papers and collaged onto the back side of a perforated two-color silkscreen print so they are visible through
perforations; a page of bright red lace pattern silkscreened on rice paper is fastened behind – this has the effect of down-playing the appearance of the bullet holes and may also suggest violence or rivulets of blood.
The format of the print is like a lace-covered bed pillow. I think of it as having absorbed nightmares and the "un-rest" of an ill-at-ease sleeper. Around the edges butterfly wings are fixed to the print – they suggest both nature and violence. I collected them from the
leftovers of meals of my pet Praying Mantis over the summer; Praying Mantises eat their prey live, and their dining habits are unsettling to witness.
Of course the conscience of a murderer should be ill-at-ease, yet I also think of being ill-at-ease about our impact on nature ~ which should cause one to lose sleep. For example, inaction means there are aggregations of floating plastic trash in the sea – one of these located between California & Hawaii is twice the size of Texas.
Maria Creyts, MFA
November 2007
interview with Katie Creyts
Katie Creyts is an Assistant Professor and heads up 3D art at Whitworth University. Recently, she was interviewed for the school paper,
The Whitworthian. Here is an excerpt.
"Most influential person in your life:
Creyts' most influential person is her older sister, Maria, also an artist.
'Her work as an artist kind of opened up how to do it for me, not just in the mechanics but how to be dauntless,' Creyts said."
Katie Creyts is an Assistant Professor and heads up 3D art at Whitworth University. Recently, she was interviewed for the school paper,
The Whitworthian. Here is an excerpt.
"Most influential person in your life:
Creyts' most influential person is her older sister, Maria, also an artist.
'Her work as an artist kind of opened up how to do it for me, not just in the mechanics but how to be dauntless,' Creyts said."
Katie's solo show at the Arlington Arts Center, Virginia, was reviewed in the June 2009 issue of "Sculpture Magazine."
