The Pleasures of Pattern Design

Here are a few books off my reading pile that I want to share with you. William Justema's The Pleasures of Pattern (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1982) has been a source of inspiration for a long time. Newer additions to my design library include Lesley Jackson's Twentieth-Century Pattern Design; Textile & Wallpaper Pioneers (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002)

and Digital Textile Design by Melanie Bowles and Ceri Isaac (London: Lawrence King Publishing Ltd., 2009).

This last book brings textile design into the digital age with tutorials on the use of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. So far I have not felt a need for Illustrator. There is still so much for me to learn about Photoshop!

Diffuse Glow

Today I'm working towards completing a set of 15 designs so I can proof my Spoonflower fabrics. I'm having so much fun I can't believe it. This example started by cleaning the sort pile on the dryer. I had a little scrap of color chips coated in acrylic medium that was torn from one of my notebooks. It was too cute to throw away so I put it on the scanner and look what happened:

Once the basic unit above was repeated, I decided that I didn't like the brown chip so I changed it to gray. Then I jazzed it up a little with one of my favorite Photopshop devices, the Spiral Brush:

Here's more of it repeated smaller:

The finishing touch was to apply something called "Diffuse Glow" which toned the thing down. I like the softer look as well as the "tea-washed" background color.

Beyond Perfect

Initially I was excited by Perfect Square (Yellow) No. 1 pictured above because it was my first application of "Cutout" in Photoshop. You can see how the character of the original drawing was transformed by enlarging the example below:


After discovering how nicely Perfect Square (Yellow) No.2 reacted when half-brick repeated, I decided that my first version, application of "Cutout" not withstanding, was boring and set out to improve on it. The attempt to retrofit the original design became a lesson in how not to make a successful pattern, and demonstrated how much I still have to learn to become truly proficient in photoshop.

I have since decided that the success of Perfect Square (Yellow) No.2 is due, to a large extent, to its asymmetrical nature. But I made the choice to mess about with No. 1 by attacking it at the center:

Sensing a problem, I carried the project forward by partially obscuring the big misty blue blob in the center and repeated like so:

I was stuck. So I decided to invert the colors in an attempt to achieve novelty. (If you've seen my Spoonflower shop banner you will realize I have traveled this road before! )

At this point I had completely worked myself into the proverbial corner. My one last resort to save the project was to bump up the orange:

The more I consider this exercise of pattern design for fabric, the more I realize how exponentially explosive the possibilities can become. I have a whole Tumblr full of images to play around with, and I can cull through my digital collage posts on this site for more inspiration. Plus my collage activities now have a new focus.

New Year Inspiration: The Perfect Square

The new year has begun with a satisfying new tangent for me: fabric design at Spoonflower. Pattern has obsessed me off and on throughout my life. I dabbled in batik, silk screening and quilting in the 80's before getting involved with beads, jewelry making, and collage. Now the combination of design manipulation in Photoshop with the print-on-demand capabilities of Spoonflower is making me fall in love with pattern all over again.

There are a few publicly viewable designs in my Spoonflower shop but you need to click on designs not for sale to view them. Once I get a dozen or so uploaded that please me I will order swatches to proof them and then make them available to the public. The one called Perfect Square (Yellow) No. 2 is my favorite so far.

It started last June as a marker drawing which is shown above. I scanned it into photoshop where I created an eight-inch square design by repeating the graphic in two sizes on a gridded yellow background.

The options for layout in Spoonflower include basic repeat, half-drop,

half-brick,

and mirrored. I like the half-brick repeat the best so that is what I have specified to be printed on Spoonflower.

AnitaNH Designs at Spoonflower

I have just opened a Spoonflower fabric shop! I have been talking about using my drawings as fabric designs for a while and I finally got the ball rolling. I have added a couple of designs just to see how the system works. I have to order a swatch of each of the designs to proof them before they can be offered for sale. 15 designs printed at once are much more cost effective than one at a time so I need to work up more designs. You can check my progress here:

Old Gold Visits New Mexico

I've recently discovered the Prelinger Archives, now a new Reference Link in the sidebar, and I blogged about it on The Temporary Blog yesterday. I've been browsing their Subject Heading list every time I get a spare moment. It's a fascinating collection of video material.

I just found an interesting one called Pueblo Heritage (1950) presented by the P. Lorillard Company, the manufacturer of Old Gold Cigarettes:

In gratitude to the people who gave tobacco to the world, the P. Lorillard Company presents this film, one in a series on the American Indian, as a public service.

Now I'll admit to enjoying the images of the Zuni and Acoma pottery, as well as the marvelous sterling silver jewelry. But the turquoise and silver covered wagon (at 07:08) containing Old Gold cigarettes is a serious Madison Avenue plug.

I was reminded of their advertisement in a 1951 Saturday Evening Post which I had written about here in an earlier post. The incredible tag line reads: No medical war whoops from Old Gold... We're tobacco men... not medicine men! Smoke OLD GOLD for a TREAT instead of a TREATMENT!

I even found a copy on Ebay going for $10.99.

Conflict of Interest Cross

This is from my sketchbook from late October, early November.

On November 23rd I noted a few lines from a book I found at the library on the $1 Shelf: Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I saw myself in the first one.

I discovered that my obsession for having each thing in the right place, each subject at the right time, each word in the right style, was not the well-deserved reward of an ordered mind but just the opposite: a complete system of pretense invented by me to hide the disorder of my nature.

This one I attributed to someone else:

I appear generous in order to conceal my meanness.

And then this one was me in spades!

I am conciliatory in order not to succumb to my repressed rage.

I checked into the exact meaning of "conciliatory" and read "bringing about harmony; propitiating." And when I checked into "propitiating" I read "gain favor by appeasement; atoning sacrifice."

Holy cow--the story of my life!!

Disordered Interior Geometries

The photography of Francesca Woodman (1958-1981) is on display at San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art. I remember including some black and white images of her work in a simultaneous slide show titled "Symbolist Photography" that I produced in the late 80's for a Photo Archives course I was taking at Simmons GSLIS. I have not given much thought to her work since, until reading this morning's post at Cafe Selavy.

Her work is as engaging as her life was tragic. Some belittle her art ( John Henshall for the New Statesman -- this one is saddening right down to the comments ) while others have contributed in a more positive way to a meaningful understanding of it. Peter Davison, poetry editor for the Atlantic, suggests: "Francesca Woodman's work presents femaleness without satire or an agenda," in his insightful article Girl, Seeming to Disappear.

The Long Exposure of Francesca Woodman by Elizabeth Gumport on the New York Review of Books blog (which makes mention of Woodman's use of Surrealist motifs) was another good find, as were the selections of 21 images posted on this blog and 13 more on this tumblr. But what finally convinced me to write about Francesca Woodman today was the discovery, via Gumport's article, of the photographer's altered book, published in 1980, titled "Some Disordered Interior Geometries."

I didn't find a copy of the book on Amazon, nor was one available through any of the other used book sellers that I frequent. However, I discovered Alison Dunhill's article "Dialogues with Diagrams: Francesca Woodman's Book, Some Disordered Interior Geometries" for Rebus, an online journal of art history and theory (Issue 2, Autumn 2008, .pdf file here). It is illustrated with several two-page spreads in addition to an image of the altered cover of the Italian geometry text, Esercizi Graduati di Geometria, which forms the base for Woodman's photos and annotations. According to Dunhill, this was one of five photographic books that Woodman created using a found object in this manner.

New Worlds of Surrealism

I saw the advertisement in Art News this month for the show titled Surrealism: New Worlds at the Weinstein Gallery in San Francisco. It is running December 10, 2011 to January 28, 2012. I'm particularly fond of this fantastic collage painting by Victor Brauner.

The roster of artists also includes: William Baziotes, Alexander Calder, Leonora Carrington, Salvador Dali, Oscar Dominguez, Enrico Donati, Marcel Duchamp, Jimmy Ernst, Max Ernst, Leonor Fini, David Hare, Marcel Jean, Gerome Kamrowski, Andre Mason, Roberto Matta, Joan Miro, Gordon Onslow Ford, Wolfgang Paalen, Hurt Seligmann, Stella Snead, and Yves Tanguy.

I also like this one by Gerome Kamrowski.

Patti Smith: An Illuminated Apprentice

While compiling my fourth Play List on The Temporary Blog last night I re-discovered the music of Patti Smith. This seems fitting as I have recently read her book, Just Kids, which was recommended to me last spring by Mrs. Neutron.

Funny how you can come to appreciate things later in life that you blithley overlooked at a younger age. Check out this 1978 interview with Tom Snyder where Patti says: "I'm more materialistic about my soul than I am about objects."

Until the End of the World never made the list, but it should have.

Animation & Cool Photosets

I found a nice example of vintage animation via the blog Stickers and Stuff. Titled Magic Highway USA, it is amazing to see how creative the predictions were. The idea of a road surface that would melt snow and evaporate rain would be a great alternative to the frost heaves and snow banks that are in my immediate future!

I just added the photostream (found via Letterology) of Piet Schreuders to my Flickr list. Some amazing images there, including the one displayed at the top of this post.

There is nothing of note happening collage-wise as my entire existence has been swallowed up by The Roof, but I will leave you with these: Howlin' Wolf performing Dust My Broom at the 1966 Newport Jazz Festival, Walt Disney's Oscar winning history of music titled Toot Whistle, Plunk And Boom and an animation set to Cab Calloway's Saint James Infirmary.

Artists of the Month

My friend Sharon Lee and I have a show this month at the Gafney Library in Sanbornville, New Hampshire. We're having a reception to meet the artists on Thursday October 20th from 5:00 to 7:00 pm so stop in and say hello if you get a chance.

Art Group leader Peter Abate curated the show and did a fantastic job. I am always amazed to see my work hanging outside of my crowded little gallery. And it displays well with Sharon's work, which is frequently composed on a grid similar to mine.

More information on The Art Group blog.

The Total Woman Show

Here I am with Cheryl Webb Scott and her wonderful crew on the set of The Total Woman show last week. You can see a bit of my collage titled "Do Not Adjust" in the background. I was interviewed about my collage art for a cable television segment and I'm looking forward to seeing the episode which I hope to share with you once I receive a copy on DVD.

I Feel Like a Star

Yesterday my friend Sharon drove me to Stoneham, Massachusetts where I was interviewed about my collage work for a cable television show called The Total Woman Show. Everyone on the staff was so wonderful that I was not nervous one bit and the producer, Cheryl Webb Scott, made me feel perfectly at ease on camera!

I spoke with my friends Karen and Yola just prior to making the trip South and they both voiced the opinion that they sensed in me a new optimism. In thinking back this morning, I think they are right. Here are a couple of cross designs from my sketchbook that seem to foreshadow that.

From the back the second drawing has a slightly softer quality. Repeated I think it would make a nice scarf.