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Holographic Memories and More – Wen Redmond

on February 28, 2014 in Artist Profile, In the Studio, Quilt National Artist, Quilts

By Wen Redmond

Unhinged by Wen Redmond

I make art because I must. Urges to create must be followed.

I have worked in fiber in one form or another for over 30 years. My work continues to change and grow as I explore processes, techniques, and presentations. As a result, I have created several signature techniques such as Holographic Images, Digital Fiber, Textured Photographs and Serendipity Collage.

I am passionate about my work. It is biographical and reflective, a working meditation. As I work, it becomes a collaborative process with spirit or my higher self, that mind-boggling principle of the universe. This process has been called ‘flow’. When you are in this state of mind, the intuitive is tapped and the work can become more than the sum of its parts.

I am a photographer and a textile artist. Merging the two arts has allowed me to push the medium of textiles to see what it can do, to stretch its perception as valid art medium.

Discovering new processes

My fabric starts out white and I dye, paint, print, digitalize and go mad with color to create the look I want. Often I use my photographs in this process. I use transparent silk organza and combine prints in mixed media compositions. When I print with a digital printer I use inkjet-prepared organza to ensure it will not fade or run. My Epson printer is set up with Ultra Chrome inks which are archival, waterproof, and fade resistant for at least 200 years.

The 3D effect of layering an organza print over the transfer print in Unhinged.

One day after printing silk organza, I was peeling the organza photograph off the carrier sheet and noticed the ink left on the carrier sheet had a duplicate image, somewhat like a shadow. When I layered the organza print with the secondary image it created a 3D effect. After some experimentation I found that the key to attaining the 3D look is to retain a small amount of space between the two images. If the organza image is placed flat on the same image, it merges. If the second image is placed too far from the first, the back image is lost completely.

Wen Redmond adding artist bars to the back of an organza print.

I discovered 3/4” artist bars, used for stretching canvas; leave the exact space required for this dimensional image effect. My technique requires printing two identical photos, one on transparent silk organza and one for a transfer. The transfer is applied inside the backing, so the combined image of the top transparent organza photo and the transfer photo create the final 3D effect or what I have termed Holographic Images.

Normally I sew the organza photo into fabric borders so the wooden artist bars aren’t visible when mounted. I love creating my own fabrics for the borders. These include dyed, painted, stamped, and thermal fax photo silkscreens.

Workshops explore various techniques

I share my fabric painting techniques in my workshop Holographic Memories and More. The workshop covers many paints and painting techniques, including sun printing. I encourage painting several different pieces for the borders to find fabric that best compliments the final holographic picture. Students have the freedom to embrace their inner spirit, their artistic voice. The validation the student obtains is sometimes a surprise to them and a gift to me. The privilege of teaching is stimulating and rewarding to me.

Wen Redmond, a mixed media/fiber artist, living in Strafford, New Hampshire. Redmond’s technique was first published in Quilting Arts magazine, 2007. She has appeared on Quilting Arts TV and has a DVD, Holographic Memories, and Textured Photographs available through Interweave Publishing. Her website is www.wenredmond.com and blog is fiberartgoddess.blogspot.com

Upcoming Workshops

Quilt Surface Design Symposium 2014
May 26- June 8
Columbus, OH

Hudson River Valley Art Workshops
Dec 4-7
Greenville, NY

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Charlotte Ziebarth learns persistence pays

on October 25, 2013 in Artist Profile, Quilt National Artist, Quilts

I have entered Quilt National nine times over the 20 years I have been making quilts. Eight of those times I did not get in.

In 2013, the judges selected my piece, Reverberations: Yellowstone Waters for the show. I can’t tell you how excited I was. I am honored to be in the company of so many fine quilt artists, friends, and previous teachers and authors. In addition, winning the Hillary Morrow Fletcher Persistence Pays Award truly does show other artists that there is a reason to keep trying to be accepted in major quilt exhibitions.

Charlotte Ziebarth speaks at the opening of Quilt National 2013 in Athens, OH

Reverberations: Yellowstone Waters is composed of slightly manipulated photos I took of geyser pools in Yellowstone National Park. This quilt is part of my water series–images of various kinds of water, reflections in water, still water, flowing water, water marks. While it looks swimming pool cool the geyser pool is actually very hot. I like that visual/psychological duality. We usually think of that shade of turquoise as being cool and refreshing, yet I can still feel/remember the heat intensity of that steamy geyser walk. It shows there are no hard rules about the psychological meaning of specific colors.

Digital tools broaden my fiber work

Detail of Reverberations: Yellowstone Waters by Charlotte Ziebarth

I print my images on charmeuse silk. It feels good to work with and it takes the ink colors strongly and reflects them back to the viewer in an intense way. After transferring the images to fabric in this piece, I embroidered and emphasized water rings, floating objects and bubbles with stitching. Repetition is always a part of my art work, and repeating blocks of the same image is very much in the quilt tradition.

My enthusiasm for combining digital art and photography with cloth and stitching has not abated over the 12 years that I have been exploring the possibilities. I have learned so much since my first attempts to put my nature photographs on cloth in 2001. In 2008 I wrote a book, Artistic Photo Quilts, available in print or ebook from Amazon.com, since then my work has become more abstract. I like close up views of the natural and the man made world. Focusing in on the details captures the essence of the experience and gives me a feeling of discovering and exploring aspects we often don’t take the time to see.

The computer/printer combination has proved to be a fabulous tool for fiber artists. In Quilt National 2013 there are at least 23 artists using digital tools in some way, several of them prize winners and with purchase options. For a tool that wasn’t widely available 25 years ago we have come a long way. We all use these tools in different ways. I was overwhelmed to see these gorgeous and thought provoking layered textiles in person in Athens.

Currently I am working on more constructed work which involves layering with Photoshop as well as actual physical layering of the cloth to achieve a less photographic look and a more “imagined” result. My quilt entitled Messages in the Stones, has recently been shown at SAQA’s Text messages exhibit in Houston.

Charlotte Ziebarth

Although Charlotte has a background teaching academic psychology, she has worked with art and cloth all her life as a dyer, tapestry weaver, clothing designer, knitter, and quilter. After many years working principally as a weaver she fell in love with digital art possibilities and presently concentrates on creating digital imagery printed on fabric and assembled into quilt art.

When not working at her computer or in her sunny quilting studio, she can be found reading, knitting, listening to opera, hiking in the mountains with her camera, or trying to tame her messy, leafy garden. Her experience as an artist-in-residence in Rocky Mountain National Park remains a strong influence. She was born in Chicago and raised in the Midwest. She has lived with her husband, Ken, in Boulder, Colorado for more than thirty-five years.

See more of Charlotte’s work at CharlotteZiebarth.com