Crowded House

Crowded House
72" x 72"

Crowded House - detail

Earth Stories is opening today at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles.  I feel quite proud to have a piece in this exhibit and of all the wonderful places that it is being shown!  Earth Stories runs from Nov 6, 2015 to Feb 28, 2016. 

SAQA's exhibit: Earth Stories
There are many stories of hope across the globe. Both individuals and small groups are working on projects that, when added together, make a positive impact on increasing the quality of life on this planet. Earth Stories celebrates the stories of people or projects that enhance the planet, make a significant difference in restoring and/or protecting the environment, increase sustainability and otherwise improve the earth we all occupy.

Now Showing

Now Showing

My quilt, Crowded House, is showing June 19 - September 6, 2015 at the Kennedy Museum of Art.  This lovely venue is in Ohio and right down the street from the Dairy Barn and Quilt National.  And, while my work was not selected to be in Quilt National this time around, it's nice to know that it is close by! This was my crazy project about counting all the stuff in my house, inspired by the Story of Stuff.  What do you think?  Too much?

Earth Stories

Earth Stories

The Studio Art Quilt Associates show, Earth Stories, opens today at the University of Central Missouri Gallery of Art and Design, Warrensburg, Missouri, January 19 - February 28, 2015. There are many stories of hope across the globe. Both individuals and small groups are working on projects that, when added together, make a positive impact on increasing the quality of life on this planet. Earth Stories celebrates the stories of people or projects that enhance the planet, make a significant difference in restoring and/or protecting the environment, increase sustainability and otherwise improve the earth we all occupy.

Crowded House

 Inspired by Annie Lennox at The Story of Stuff, I created my pieces for the exhibit to start a dialogue about over-consumerism. On a personal level, I have too much stuff.  I am in conflict because I value a simple lifestyle, so I decided to count all the objects in my house. It took me 6 months. The larger piece is called Crowded House, and is a testimony to too much stuff, as it spills out of the confines of the edges of my house. And it has the Number...the ginormous number of objects in my house.

Crowded House - detail

The second piece is called Manufactured Demand.  The smaller piece is a tribute to a few of the many brands of bottled water and the trash resulting from it.   And as the title implies, advertising has convinced us that we need bottled water...in order to make a profit, at the expense of wasting huge amounts of petroleum, both in making the bottles for the water and transporting it to all the grocery stores, often for a resource that comes to us mostly free right out of our taps.

Manufactured Demand

To see more of my project, use the link "Earth Stories" in the sidebar under "Labels", or go here.

Crowded House

Crowded House
72" x 72"
for Earth Stories
Premiere at Michigan State University Museum, May 11 - November 30, 2014
I am so honored to be a part of this very meaningful exhibit!  Here is a photo of the completed piece.  You can see the floor plan of my house. AND...my final count.

This is yet another example of how the tiny photo on a webpage simply does not do justice to the work.  Sorry about that!

Artist Statement: 

I am inspired by Annie Leonard from the Story of Stuff (see www.storyofstuff.org). She explains things with animated cartoons in a way that makes sense to me, the average consumer. And she points out how our massive consumerism is not only bad for the economy, it is bad for the planet. I love the way she simplifies the complex systems of manufacturing, marketing, consumers, the economy, and the environment in a way that highlights the problems and points to the solutions.

On a personal level, I have too much stuff. I spend too much time organizing it, or looking for it, or trying to get rid of it. And I am responsible for all of it. I am, however, influenced by my culture and the advertising that surrounds me. I am in conflict because I value a simple lifestyle and yet I have too much stuff. As a measure of the problem, I decided to count all the objects in my house. It took me 6 months. Absolutely the worst project I have EVER dreamed up! The larger piece is called Crowded House, and is a testimony to too much stuff, as it spills out of the confines of the edges of my house. And it has the Number, the humiliating and nauseating Number. The smaller piece is a tribute to a few of the brands of bottled water and the trash resulting from it.

And for the smaller piece:

Manufactured Demand

12" x 14" x 2"

I am unable to attend the opening, but after seeing all the works in the catalog, I sincerely wish that I could.   The collection is simply amazing!

Earth Stories, Part Five

Earth Stories, Part Five

One last counting story.  I decided to count the attic.  I had boxes and boxes of teaching curriculum stored up there, along with a number of other things... But, I didn't get to it until summer.  And the summers in Texas are really hot, and even hotter in the attic.  The heat was so intense, I was only able to count for about 10 minutes before I had to escape to air conditioning.  And then it took hours to recover from it.  I drank water while I was there, but it didn't help much.  So, I am sure that my number is artificially low. For example, instead of counting all the papers, I counted how many files of papers.  A lot of unused items came out of the attic and on to recycling, or donation.  I am pretty sure the heat is destroying most of what is up there anyway.  In retrospect, I wish I had done the attic first, in the cooler months.

On to making the quilt. I was planning to make a floor plan of my house, and then use tally marks to represent the number of objects.  It would be fun to color code, either by location or type of object.  I also thought it would be really interesting to see how many objects were made from non-renewable resources vs. renewable resources, but I didn't collect that information during the count.  Then as I thought about what the quilt would look like, if it were me, I would be super curious about what all those tally marks would actually represent.  That's when I decided to tell my viewers what was in my house.  That's when the project went to a mostly text image.  It was also an incredibly uncomfortable experience to share that information, which is partly the reason I decided to push my comfort levels and just do it.

We were required to make two quilts.  One was 72" x 72".  The other was 12" x 14" in a vertical format.  I started on the big one first. I pieced together two pieces of white fabric to make the correct size, and then drew lines lightly with pencil every 1" across the entire surface:

I also made a very small sample.  I used it to test different pens for writing on fabric and different paints and inks.  I found a pen that both worked well and did not run or fade with water.  I also tried a number of writing styles and decided on the scale of my work.  I measured how many letters I wrote on average just to get an idea of how many words I would be writing.
Here's a photo of a section of the large piece hanging on my design wall.  It shows the beginnings, with just the lines.

Then I made a long list of words on my computer.  I listed things from memory for each room and then when back later and added in words for things that I didn't remember.  In this way I came up with a list long enough to fill the space on the quilt (and slightly more).  I ironed freezer paper to the back and taped it to a table and started drawing the letters.

I wanted my words to all run together, like all the objects in the house.  But, I also wanted to be able to read them easily.  So, I decided to paint the first letter of every word with red fabric paint.  I thought it added a nice touch of symbolism, as in 'red ink', to refer to the financial implications of buying so much stuff...

Then I found an old blueprint of my house, and enlarged it by a factor of 4.  I drew in lines behind the words and filled in with blue paint.

Next, I added in giant block numbers at the bottom, the total number for the count....which I will not reveal yet.  After the show opens at the first venue, I will be able to post full sized photos of my piece, so we shall have to wait for that!

Then, to finish up, I quilted it.  I quilted in straight lines on top of the pencil lines I had drawn previously.  Then I used a simple white facing to finish the edges, a hanging tube and a label on the back.  All done!

For the smaller quilt I used the same technique, but a slightly different concept.  I worked with my original inspiration of Manufactured Demand, from the Story of Stuff.  I focused on the issue of bottled water.  It is an incredible tale of needless waste (no judgment here! ha!).  You can see the video here. And, I am pleased to say that the city of San Francisco has passed a law to ban the sale of bottled water.  Yay for small steps!  For the quilt, I listed lots of water brands, and then put a message behind the words, and added a small embellishment.  For now, here's a close up of the small quilt..

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope that I have not needlessly bored you will my tales of counting!

Earth Stories, Part Four

Earth Stories, Part Four


The exhibit catalog/book came in the mail yesterday.  The photos and stories are so inspiring!  I feel so honored to be a part of this amazing project!

Earth Stories, cover by Marion Coleman

Our first venue is: Michigan State University Museum, Lansing, Michigan.  
Dates are: May 11- November 30, 2014.

It reminds me that I still need to finish my blog about my project.  Not only was the project difficult to do, especially the counting, it is also hard to write about.


Journal entry from 28 April, 2013
"The tedious nature of this task grows ever more so.  I find myself resisting the count, guilty of my over consumerism.  Perhaps if I avoid it, it won't be real?  Yesterday, I find my focus and method of counting changing significantly.  I have shifted from 'what' to 'where'.  I count objects in a drawer instead of organizing the objects by type and counting.  It is easier and faster."

Journal entry from May, 2013
"The counting is a big time suck.  However, not that bad as I thought it would be.  Definitely an emotional voyage, one that I was not prepared for.  It takes me back to the better days when the kids played with toys and created things-clever things that I could see.  And that time is gone now, and I am left with piles of useless toys.  Memories of the past feel exaggerated, both positive and negative."

I am curious as the count grows.  Would it be interesting to count or list the things that I actually use on a daily basis? (because none of the stuff below would make it...)
Counting the garage:

Counting the garage is much like counting my daughter's room.  It is hard to jump in to the piles of stuff and chaos.  I leave a wake of cleanliness and order behind me as the garbage and recycling bins fill.  It also creates a pile of donated items, better to give stuff away while it can still be useful to someone.

Counting LEGO's.  Yes, I counted the individual pieces.

Where have the days gone when LEGO was about building bricks?  Now LEGO is about LOTS of very specialized shaped pieces, that the toy cannot be built without, and 80 pages of instructions ... really?
And we BUY it...sigh.

I finish the count in early June.  It gives me about 3 months to make the quilt.  Photos are due on Sept 1, 2013.
Spoiler alert.
Yes, I finished on time!  :)
Next blog post....the quilt.

Earth Stories, Part Three

Earth Stories, Part Three

Excerpt from my journal....
"I have a record collection of 310 records and no system set up to play them.  It is in the closet along with the records.  And if I could, would I choose to listen to the old songs?  Apparently not because I am drawn towards the new songs on my iPod or the radio.  But still...I keep the records, memories of my previous life.  The real question is WHY is it so important to keep those old memories?  There is something inexplicitly comforting in knowing that they are there, but I can't find the logic of it.  Split between logic and heart, once again."

I can say that knowing how hard it is to get rid of Stuff, helps me accumulate less new Stuff in the present time.

Back to less thinking and more counting.  Bleah.
I finished my bedroom.  2420.  Seriously??  I am having a bit of a panic attack.  My room is not cluttered.  I have a bed, 2 side tables, and 2 chests with drawers for clothes (and apparently a lot of other stuff).  This number does not include my closet.  Sigh.  How can there be so many objects in my room?  And if this is how many objects in a relatively simple, and clean, and uncluttered room, what about the closets, and my studio, and the garage, and the kids' rooms?  I am starting to wonder if my final number will be a million?

Along my counting journey, I have run across another artist, Todd McLellan.  He has a series called "things come apart".   It is art made from an object taken apart and all the pieces laid out in a beautiful assemblage of the thing.... like this bicycle.

His art is beautiful and inspiring.  Click the link in his name and see his other works.  The chain saw is pretty cool too!  And it reaffirms my counting rules.  I do not want to count all the pieces used to make up a single object.  But some one, some where, had to make each one of these pieces to make a bicycle...

And then there is 42-year-old photographer Juan Kingzhun, who spent about 10 years, trying to drive around 33 Chinese provinces to take a pictures of a poor families with all their belongings on the background.  It is all about perspective, isn't it?  I never felt affluent before.  Even with all my stuff, I admit there are times when I worry that I won't have enough money when I need it.  I find these photos both comforting and disturbing.  How can they get by with so little? Why do I think I need so much? Although, honestly, I don't usually think about it.  I usually acquire lots of things because I am NOT thinking about it.

 Back to counting and counting and counting.  It takes days, weeks, and months.  There is something disturbing about that too.  

Thanks for stopping by.  At some point, there really will be an art quilt that springs from all this misery.

Earth Stories, Part Two

Earth Stories, Part Two
A Performance Piece?

Last year as I started the counting process, I actually thought I would finish counting during the Christmas holidays.  Didn't happen.  I did start however.  See Part One here.

And, with the amount of work involved in counting all the stuff, I slowly began to realize that there was going to be a lot more time and energy involved in gathering information for this piece than actually making the piece, and significantly so.  Does this qualify as a performance piece?  Well, maybe if you could see the performance?  And, no, I didn't take any videos.  It wasn't pretty.  In fact it was messy.

a glimpse into a dresser drawer in my bedroom

First, I had to decide HOW to count all the stuff.  It would have been easy to have a team come in, and go through each room at the same time and count it all.  I have participated in inventory counts when I was young; this is how it is done.  Close the store, all the employees come in, and we count and write down the numbers.  But we were living in our "store".  And the kids move things from one room to another...all the time.  And the "count" is constantly changing, as we use things up, throw them away, and buy more stuff, and buy more stuff.  It is complicated to just think about it.

So, I set about to make some helpful counting strategies, and I accepted that my count would never be accurate or even possibly valid.  It's because of the flow.  The flow of objects coming in and out would make it impossible to know at any given time exactly how many objects I had.  Unless I hired that massive team of robots, which I didn't not have funding for....  I would have to accept that my NUMBER would be, or could be, close to the truth, but never perfect.

This was also a liberating thought, because it means that I can make some helpful guidelines or rules for the counting.  And though some of my rules might seem arbitrary, and well, maybe they are, it doesn't really matter.  They needed to serve me and my purpose for doing this.  You may even disagree with my rules, which is okay for me.

First, I bought a ton of post-it notes.  I decided NOT to count the post-its.  As I counted a room, I wrote the name of the object on the post-it, and how many of them that there were.  Example:  shoes, 15.  Now you may be asking the next question (because I was too).  Do I count individual shoes? or pairs of shoes?  I decided that if things came in pairs or sets, it would count as one object.  Like earrings, there are some that have backs on them.  technically that would be 4 pieces for one pair of earrings.  I counted it as one object.  However, if the objects were missing pieces, or their other half, I counted them as one object.  So 1 sock, counts the same as 1 pair of socks.
 
After writing on a post-it note, I would stick it to a vertical surface in that room, typically a window or glass door, because it stuck so well there.  If I found another pair of shoes, I could put a tally mark on the previous post-it that had shoes on it.  In this way I would work across a room, and know what had counted and what had not been counted yet.

Unfortunately, this got increasingly cumbersome.  Who would of thought?  As I progressed through a room, the number of post-its was growing to a very large number.  It was hard to find the post-it that had "shoes" on it.  Or "pencils".  Apparently there are pencils in every room and every draw and under every piece of furniture in my house.  I don't know why.  Maybe it's the cats? 

Regardless, my system got slower and slower.  I even tried drawing pictures to represent the objects, thinking that searching for a visual might be quicker than searching for the abstracted word.  It didn't help.And so, even though I could leave a room at any point in my count, and at any time, I began to resist wanting to start back up again.  I made it about half way through my house with this system before I changed it, and it took me 4 months.  The last 2 months, I got much more efficient at my counting skills, and it wasn't quite as bad.

Earth Stories

Earth Stories

Last year, about this time, (maybe, a tad earlier?), I got the news that my proposal had been accepted for Earth Stories, an exhibit by SAQA.  Normally, when I enter my work into a juried show, I am so excited to find out that it got in!  This time was different.  I was selected based on my past work, and I would be making something entirely new for this exhibit.  There is a certain amount of stress and pressure to live up to expectations and I felt anxiety. 

The theme of the show was to make a work that celebrates some one or some project that is making a positive difference on the earth.  I selected Annie Leonard who put together a website and animated videos called The Story of Stuff.

I made an art quilt in 2011 based on one of her videos and I called it Planned Obsolescence.  Here is a photo of that little quilt.  It is currently on exhibit at the Gallery at the J, Austin, TX.  You can read the story about this quilt here.

Back to the Earth Stories project... I was visiting Annie's website (www.storyofstuff.org), and saw a new video!  It is the Story of Bottled Water.  A new concept emerges....manufactured demand.
It tells of the role of advertising to make consumers believe that they need items.  I don't believe there are any real villains here.  Someone creates a novel idea, they want to sell it, advertisers help them, and the consumer buys it, and if they like it, they will keep buying it.

The only thing is that sometimes I feel like I am drowning in too much stuff.  I feel resentful about the amount of time it takes to put stuff away, or get rid of old stuff, or find some lost item in all the stuff that is neatly stuffed into little pockets of space, drawers and closets.  I started to wonder how much stuff do I have?  And, do I really want to know?  I fear the answer.  And I fear the process of finding out the answer.

I wondered how much 'manufactured demand' plays in my consumer habits.  So I launched into Phase one of a whole new game plan, count all the stuff.  And then I would use the information to create an art quilt for this project.  And, I am curious that if I actually know how much stuff I have, will it influence my buying habits?  And, I have, on more than one occasion, regretted submitting this proposal. This has been yet another example of wishing the creative muse would just be quiet so that I could do fun stuff instead.  Because counting all my stuff....was not fun.  Not even close to it.  And, almost every one that I told about the project thought I was nuts.  This didn't help.

Meanwhile, I thought I would share my project with you. Now.  During this holiday season.  It is a perfect time to consider the intention behind the frenzied determination to get and give more stuff.  And, I LOVE Christmas, but now that the year has passed, and I finished counting all my stuff, and I know how much stuff I have, I really don't want any more of it.  I have emerged from the piles of stuff, a changed person.  It was transformative.
My perfect Christmas?  More time with the people I love.  Real.  Simple.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season!

p.s.  I hope you will continue to visit, as I continue to blog about my Earth Stories project.