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Fiber Fieldtrip Arrowmont

August 19, 2016 by Heather Filed Under: Art & Design, Handmade, Inspiration & Education, Museums & Galleries, Textiles & Pattern 1 Comment

Last week I took a Fiber Fieldtrip to Arrowmont…for an entirely necessary week of learning new creative skills in weaving and spinning. It was pretty incredible and began with my arrival to the smoky mountains after a few summer thunderstorms. I delighted in stopping on the overlooks and gazing at the storms, lightening and lingering clouds in the valley’s.

Fiber Fieldtrip Arrowmont

I live by the sea and I drink it up every chance I get but the mountains literally call to me.

There are times I long to be up high, breathing the less humid air and seeing for miles, feeling the solid earth beneath me. Fiber Fieldtrip Arrowmont

Arriving in Gatlinburg, I ignored all the touristy nonsense and made a beeline to the campus, both isolated from town and right in the midst of it! I’ll just say that once I got there, I didn’t set foot off campus. My entire existence pretty much revolved around three locations, my room-where I slept, our studio-where I spent about 12 hrs a day (in bliss) and the dining room-for 3 great meals a day.Double Glory

Morning Glories greeted us each day before breakfast!

Moon over Arrowmont The moon and sunsets greeted us each evenings along with slides from the teachers, resident artists and

others artists at Arrowmont. Sadly there were too many clouds for gazing upon the perseids meteor shower.Arrowmont Sunset

There were totems and animal totems (no photo of the black bear-sorry!)

Arrowmont Totems

Not having to worry about making or getting food was one of the highlights of my week! To say we were well fed is an understatement.

Fiber Fieldtrip Arrowmont Fiber Fieldtrip Arrowmont

Class began with our teacher, Lynn Pollard, leading us in a mindful meditation on making paper yarn (called Shifu) out of traditional Japanese mulberry paper. The process included slicing the paper, dampening it, rolling it and finally spinning it. Once we learned the traditional process we were invited to explore variations using other materials. Though I enjoyed learning the traditional way, I went with every intention of learning how to spin and weave with the vintage nautical charts that I’ve been indigo dyeing for a few years. We had an indigo vat set up in the classroom and quickly became the “popular kids” with many other classes visiting us.

Making Paper Yarn at Arrowmont

No Slide Found In Slider.

I didn’t get great photo’s of the spinning process but lets just say that I didn’t want to like it as much as I did. I’ve managed to be a fiber artist for 20 years without spinning and swore I didn’t need to learn another fiber craft skill. Just not possible I guess, I do love to learn new things and this class was an excellent example of traditional and non traditional materials and process. I came home and put a warp on my loom right away to get back to weaving! I’ll be exploring the possibilities of paper yarn in my future weaving’s and can’t wait to share them soon.

Finally I want to share a few highlights from the Instructor exhibit. I’ve even interviewed some of these instructors and have my sights on a few more! What you don’t see here are works by the Artist in Residence, but don’t worry…I’ve interviewed all of them and will be sharing their work and studio’s this fall!

2016 Arrowmont Instructor Exhibition

No Slide Found In Slider.

There are so many incredible talented artists and teachers that have been ‘Cultivating your Capacity to be Creative‘ at Arrowmont and beyond! The most important take away (besides re-learning Lynn’s “Right way to warp a loom!”, hemstitching and spinning) is how important it is for me to cultivate my own creative capacity and this means setting aside time, both at home and away for creating and making, regardless of what the outcome is!

My ride home was leisurely and I spent the day exploring and soaking in the Smoky and Appalachian mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina.

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Spun from my roots

March 29, 2016 by Heather Filed Under: Art, Art & Design, Inspiration & Education, Museums & Galleries 1 Comment

What do textiles have to do with Organizing? Well nothing really on the surface but textiles are a part of the tapestry of who I am both creatively and professionally. I’m also fascinated by how many recycled textiles, other “found objects” and collections of “stuff” are making their way into the fine art world. I’m not sure if this is merely a trend or a theme that is communicating something about our relationship with “our stuff” as a culture. On my recent trip to NYC I found a tremendous amount of inspiration and specifically sought out exhibits that included textiles in one way or another.

My first stop was at Museum of Art and Design aka MAD where in the main stairwell a site specific installation of woven fabric had been threaded through the architectural elements of the building. It kind of reminded me of yarn bombing but on a more sophisticated interior scale…like huge dramatic drapes.

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In addition to Museum, MAD is an educational resource for children and adults. They have an artist residency program including open studio times for artists and workshops all overlooking their location on Columbus Circle. Boy would I love to sit at that loom and weave while overlooking the hustle and bustle of the city!PHOTO_20160318_123336 PHOTO_20160318_123518

Closing this Saturday is the exhibit Ebony G. Patterson: Dead Treez which was rich in layers of textures, found objects, recycled textiles and meaning. I’m a little obsessed with how textiles and recycled materials are making their way into fine art these days and this is one of the reason’s I really wanted to see this exhibit.

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My next stop was the National Academy Museum, nestled between the Guggenheim and Cooper Hewitt. This was my first visit to this museum and school. I found myself drawn to exhibits at locations that favored the promotion of art through education, a coincidence perhaps but my mind is nothing if not curious to continue learning! I sought out this specific exhibit of Miriam Shapiro after her recent passing last year. She’s an epic, visionary artist who happened to work with textiles-once thread of her multi faceted life’s work.  Below is one of my favorite pieces in the show, one of her “femmage” works that includes scraps of fabric.PHOTO_20160318_155230

And finally, the exhibit Beauty-Cooper Hewitt Triennial. I almost skipped this museum (although it’s one of my favorites) because I didn’t think I would have time. I’m so glad I didn’t since they recently re-opened after a major remodel. This expansive exhibit explores various themes of Beauty in multi- disciplinary works of art and design. One of my favorite aspects of the renovation is their use of technology. Along with each ticket sold, visitors are given a large stylist pen to “collect” images and text from throughout the exhibit. When they return home they can log into their specific user account (save your ticket!) and learn more about each piece of interest. I love that you feel like you are bringing home a little piece of the exhibit and there’s less pressure try to read all the exhibit info while visiting.  PHOTO_20160318_162800 PHOTO_20160318_162910 PHOTO_20160318_165027 PHOTO_20160318_170711 PHOTO_20160318_170737

Over the weekend I hung out in Brooklyn and took a trip to see the Textile Arts Center. I’ve been wanting to visit this “maker-space” for several years now and am envious of such a wonderful resource for learning about all things textiles! This is the place to go if you live in NY and want to learn about textiles in your spare time…a great way to find out if you really like something before investing too fully into a lot of expensive equipment (space is a premium and having a floor loom in NY would be a luxury for some!). PHOTO_20160320_171837 PHOTO_20160320_172217 PHOTO_20160320_172651 PHOTO_20160320_172719 PHOTO_20160320_172728

Friday Fieldtrip::East Coast Adventures Part I

July 31, 2015 by Heather Filed Under: Inspiration & Education, Museums & Galleries, Photography Leave a Comment

I spent the better part of late June and early July in the car and adventuring up and down along the east coast (PA>MD>SC>FL>GA). I spent a grand total of 64 hrs at home over a four week period! The adventures began outside of Philly with a long weekend packed with family fun! In 3 days we had a memorial service for my husband’s late and wonderful grandmother, followed tby a cousins family reunion and we rounded the weekend out with a celebration of my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary! When we left Charleston temps were in the triple digits and for the duration of our trip to PA & MD it was in the 70, what a relief from the heat! Fun times were had by all, despite pouring rain and the intensity of so much family for a sustained period. We had a lot of laughs, reconnecting with family we don’t get to see often and meeting new members of the family.  We took in a Phillies game (die hard fans can’t be stopped) and we ate our way through hoagies and cheese steaks. On our final day in PA we took a trip to Longwood Gardens, long on my list of places to visit and I was not disappointed.

Longwood Gardens

No Slide Found In Slider.

The rest of my east coast adventures included a visit to see my family in MD, where we spent the 4th of July, a trip to FL to help my grandparents prepare for a move and a trip to GA for a business symposium.  While I was in Atlanta I had a chance to visit two incredible fiber art exhibits which I’ll share with you on the next Friday Fieldtrip.  I have an album of even more pictures from Longwood here if you care to spend a bit more time looking at details of this spectacular garden. It was a long day of walking and there was so much visual stimulation I left feeling completely inspired and filled up by natures beauty.  I find I often need to escape and recharge someplace tranquil following being surrounded by lots of people, no matter how much  I may love them!   What do you do to recharge after intense time around a lot of people, or does that fill you up? What are some of your favorite “Field Trips” or vacation plans?

In the Studio with Hollis Hamonds

June 12, 2014 by Heather Filed Under: Art, In the Studio, Inspiration & Education, Museums & Galleries, Organize, Systems & Techniques

Thanks for joining me today for another artist studio Sneak Peek.  There have been some fantastic creative events and exhibitions here in Charleston over the past month or so and we just wrapped up Spoleto festival which is always a favorite for locals and tourists.  One of the great exhibits on display right now at Redux Studio’s is the work of Texas artist Hollis Hammonds::Worthless Matter.  I knew after reading an article or two about her work that I had to see the exhibit and was really hoping she would agree to this interview and she did, yeah for all of us!  Here is a short blurb from straight from Hollis’ bio page and this pretty much makes it clear why I was fascinated by her work and how her experiences have shaped it.

“Exploring consumerist culture through evidence of accumulation, hoarding and collecting, piles of rubble permeate the works of Hollis Hammonds. Growing up in semi-rural Kentucky, the youngest child of depression era parents, her surroundings were those of cold war stockpiling, nick-knack collections, and junk-yard recycling. After surviving a house fire in her teens, piles of burnt keepsakes created a lasting impression on her, of the impermanence and worthlessness of superficial possessions.” 

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HKPS::What age did you suspect or know you were an artist?

HH::Not sure, but I always drew from a very young age, in church, on the bus, in school. I was told in the 5th grade that I had talent. I guess I was particularly good at drawing horses that year. I didn’t have any formal art classes though until high school. I think I was always an artist, although as an undergraduate I loathed the term, finding it pretentious and seeing it as something that was possibly unattainable. It has only been in the last few years that I’ve become comfortable with the title of artist.

HKPS::What mediums do you work with?

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HH::I use all types of media, but favor drawing over all other forms of art making. I’ve used traditional drawing media like charcoal, ink, pen, graphite, litho crayon on substrates like paper, canvas, vinyl fabric, and Mylar. I also have used hand cut strips of wood veneer to create wall drawings and installations.  Although the works I make using wood veneer are 3-dimensional, I still conceptually think of them as drawing with line.

HKPS::Where do you make your art, how big is your studio and how long have you been in this space?

HH::I have a studio in Austin, Texas. It is modest, 4 white walls, concrete floor, 400 sq. ft. I moved into this space in June 2013, and hope to stay there for a while. It is a neutral space that’s usually organized. I enjoy the white walls as a buffer for my usually complex work.

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HKPS::When you began working in this space did you plan any systems for the overall set up or did you let things evolve organically?  How did past studio spaces or systems influence this space?

HH::This studio was a fresh start for me. I hadn’t had an official studio, outside of my home, since I moved to Austin in 2007. So it was a clean slate, and I knew that I needed 3 things: solid worktables, 2 chairs, and a shelving unit. It was that simple. After a few hours at IKEA I was all set. I have rearranged these few items several times since I moved in, added a few items, including a donated desk and rolling cart. My creative work tends to determine the layout of the space. If I’m making a large installation on the wall then my tables move to the center of the space, and if I need to make a suspended piece in the center of the room then my furniture migrates back toward the walls. I like to keep it minimal, simple, easily moveable and adaptable.

HKPS::Do you consider yourself to be an organized person?

HH::I would say somewhat. I do make a lot of piles, that I tend to deal with much later. I like to sort things, grouping similar things together. You can see this in my drawings as well. I like those see-thru plastic organizers where I can sort all of my tools and materials.

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HKPS::Have you ever worked with another artist or gallery?  If so did you learn any systems for organizing?

HH::Yes, but not really.

HKPS:: How or where else have you learn your organizing habits and systems?

HH::Probably all of my organizational habits came from my parents. My father saved everything, and organized those things by type, size, and usefulness. In the pantry were piles of plastic and paper bags filled with other like bags. In the basement of our home there was an entire walk-in closet-sized room filled with empty plastic milk and juice jugs, and 2-liter soda pop bottles. Outside, he had filled an entire shed with rusty metal tools, chains, thousands of rusty nails, nuts, bolts & screws, all sorted and in their place. It was overwhelming, since every usable space became filled over time, yet organized. It was clear that there was a system in everything he did and in everything he saved/recycled. In that world, nothing was new. Everything had a past and future purpose, even if those were completely different. Every piece of old trash or junk was a treasure to my father.

My mother on the other hand valued new and officially collectible items, designer dolls, Lilliput houses, and ceramic figurines. Each of these items was grouped with their own kind, adorning shelves and the tops of cabinets. She had a box filled with greeting cards, organized by holiday, type, age, boy, girl, and so on. Several closets in our house were stocked with gifts for birthdays and holidays to come, often wrapped in advance and labeled for whomever they were destined. The inside of the house, was just as filled as my father’s shed of metal treasures.

Organized chaos. That’s what I grew up in.

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HKPS::What types of schedules, systems, tools or processes do you use to help maintain organization in your studio?   Would you like to share any tips?

HH::Honestly, I purposely keep it simple. The less stuff you have in the studio, the fewer things you have to manage, and the more productive you can be. My advice is to cleanup and pack-up when each project is completed. I do like to document my work as soon as it is finished, and digital photo files are edited and organized as quickly as possible, so that the packing process may begin. Packing may entail rolling a large drawing on a tube, wrapping a framed piece in bubble wrap, or simply moving work from the working space to a temporary display space. That might be a tip… having multiple zones in the studio… working, storing, works in progress, and displaying. These zones sometimes run into each other, but it helps keep the overall studio in order, and satisfies my need to see progress, as projects move from one zone, or step in the process to another.

HKPS::What kinds of materials/tools do you find challenging to keep organized or locate when you need to use them?

HH::It is always the miscellaneous items that disappear when you most need them. I mainly use plastic storage containers, and I have one medium size bin for miscellaneous tools and large bin for miscellaneous larger items, like glue, tape, and twine.

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HKPS:: How many projects are you usually working on at once?  Is this due to space constraints, creative process, organizing systems or other influences?

HH::I would say that I always have at least 2 projects going on at any time. I like to be able to switch back and forth between varying tasks, which make more efficient use of my time. For instance, I’m currently laminating paper and canvas to Masonite, working on a marker drawing on vinyl, tweaking a pen drawing on Mylar, with a pile of small oil paintings that also need my attention. While one thing is drying you can tend to another, or if you get tired or bored with one project, you can easily pick up something else to work on. Being organized and having the projects I’m working on visible or easily accessible is really important when juggling several things.

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HKPS::How often do you purge, clean or de-clutter your supply stash and space due to space or other constraints?

HH::At home our general rule is if you buy something, like a new pair of shoes, then an old pair needs to go in the donation pile. At the studio it’s different since sometimes you need to collect a pile of furniture or materials for an upcoming project. So, sometimes the studio can seem cluttered. I do a massive re-organization and cleaning probably once a year, for a major studio tour event, and smaller cleanings randomly for curator visits and open studios. I don’t clean and put away my tools daily, but do always do so before I begin a new major project.

HKPS::Please describe how creative cycles of organization or dis-organization affect your creative process?  Are there certain phases of projects that are more or less organized?

HH::I think that I need the white walls of the studio to be able to work. Clutter, the kind I grew up surrounded by as a child would definitely keep me from being productive. It’s funny when you look at my work, since it looks like the work of a hoarder. My studio is the opposite, a sanctuary of sorts for creating art.

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HKPS:: How much thought do you give to your artistic body of work in terms of historic value and the overall legacy you will leave behind?  How do you store/archive your work or records?

HH::I never cared much about archival quality and longevity in my own work until recently. I was interested in all things fragile, ephemeral and fleeting, and so chose materials and practices that were sometimes impermanent. These days I do care, and hope my work will stand the test of time. I do also document everything through digital photography. I keep all of my original files, edit and save large versions, and small versions for web. I keep an inventory list that I update regularly. I reference my list all of the time, for title, size, date, and value information. I also note where the work is now, who owns it, what exhibits or publications it has been featured in, and so on. You can buy a program for this, but I just made my own system using a table in Microsoft Word. I also keep my website up to date, and use social media more and more these days. I have several ongoing series/bodies of work, and I tend to title things as part of that series. I sign and date each piece on the back… I can’t stand signatures on the fronts of paintings. I do believe that we need to archive our work as best we can, through preserving the physical pieces, but also through digital archives.

My greatest wish is that through seeing how other artist work we can learn from one another.  There is no ONE correct system or way of organizing.  There are as many creative systems as their creative makers!  My aim is to highlight these unique makers in each interview.   I was thrilled to be invited to see inside the studio of Hollis and thanks to her for providing all the excellent photo’s that illustrate how her studios space is arranged and organized, as well as how organizing affects her creative process.  Please check out her work over at her website and visit Redux Studio if you are in Charleston to see Worthless Matter while it’s still open-until June 28th.  As for this series, please check back here or better yet, sign up for my emails on the top left of any page so you don’t’ miss any of the amazing artists in the near future ‘Inside the Studio’!

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* Inside the Artist Studio was my brainchild in 2011. There are a lot of popular studio features on the web and in magazines but I’m specifically interested in showing how organizational process influences the artists studio work. These photo’s are not styled and are typical of how the artists working studio looks.  I request that each artist leave their space as it would be on a daily basis (just like I ask my clients).  This series is meant to highlight how artist REALLY work rather than showing STYLED shots (popular in home and organizing magazines and blogs).  I’m sure just like me, you are fascinated by the “behind the scenes” sneak peek into these artists working lives!

Hollis Hamonds Installation Art

Friday Field Trip::Textile Museum Green

July 15, 2011 by Heather Filed Under: Inspiration & Education, Museums & Galleries Leave a Comment

I saved a few field trips up for you for my time away.  I hope they keep you coming back and you find them just a little interesting.  Back in June (which was not that long ago, boy time is flying this year!) I went to see the Green exhibit at The Textile Museum.  If you have been following my blog over the last couple years or if you happened to read my old blog you know that the Textile museum is probably my favorite museum.  It is a little hidden jem in DC, not far from Dupont and nestled in a row of Embassy housing.  I love going there and upon arriving at the street of the museum I feel transported to a more serene place, it’s almost gentile and reminds me a bit of Savannah or Charleston.  In the midst of the city here is this small treasure that’s quite and peaceful.  I wish that more people knew about the museum but I’m also glad that for now it stands in a hidden corner of the city.

The current exhibit is all about Green: The Color and the Cause:: re-purposing of materials (textiles) for textile art.   For someone who is a huge fan of the museum you might think I’d follow the rules but I’m a bit of a rule breaker when it comes to taking photo’s…so here are a few.  I don’t have a lot of details but the online catalog is quite extensive and you can find additional information about the artists and the cause here.  These are just to whet your appetite…Enjoy:)

I do apologize, some of these photo’s are not the greatest but that’s what happens when you are sneaking around behind the back of the guards trying to get a few shots.  I hope these peak enough interest for you to visit the online catalog or better yet, the show in person.  There were a tremendous number of contemporary entries and a slide show that shows the work of all of these talented textile artists.

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