NOTES

color 
on pages
in pigments
in dyes
in jars
on yards of thread
 
been reading Shaker 
manuscripts account books
and journals of work performed
 
been looking at collected
colors in jars
 
been working on a new book
project needing a rainbow of
threads
 

I SAY: Women Artists and the Words They Use
February 7 - March 7, 2025, The Hotchkiss School

Fern Apfel, Lesley Dill, Louise Eastman and the Victory Garden Collective, Madge Evers, Guerillia Girls, Jenny Holzer, Brece Honeycutt, Corita Kent, Melanie Mowinski, Leslie Roberts, Linda Stein, Tiny Pricks Project and historical objects. Curated by Joan Baldwin, Curator of Special Collections. 

justest war, charcoal, graphite, tea, earth, pastel watercolor on paper, 50″ x 40″

“The worst peace is better than the justest war…….”

mending
 
a wellworn language
stray bits of sock yarn
scatter shot stitches
holding for now
beloved trousers
mended
 
these darned socks won my heart
a shared language
mended by Carmelite nuns
from Sheila Hicks’ collection
 
[Hicks image from ‘Sheila Hicks Weaving as Metaphor, 2006]
 
seek out Katrina Rodabaugh for her upcoming class ’On the Mend’

reds of cochineal and crimson
yellows of bark gold brown yellow green
greens invisible olive pea and myrtle
blues Prussian deep royal slate
drabs red sandy silver sage salmon and dove
purples crimson deep marron logwood lavender
browns fast damson fawn olive and claret
greys bark liver dark smoke batwings and doves

sending new year’s rainbows
joy and radiance for 2025
and thanks for your presence here

[studio doodle | work in progress for 2025 project
dye book from Harvard Shaker community]

setting the table
for new structures
for projects and places
and paper and poems
with color and watercolor
and natural dyes

moon circles orbs spray


—The Sun and the Moon, Jean Picart le Doux 
—A Thousand Wildflowers, Dom Robert
—Color Rhythms or Panelf F, Sonia Delaunay
—Seven Seas, Kiki Smith



details from Tapestries in Wall Power! Modern French Tapestry from the Mailer national, Paris at The Clark

gathering gold—

glistening glittering mica chips
dandelion rainbow strands
molten orange M initialed
pleated dress of worship & work
golden orbed dawn
palest lemon goldenrod tuft
waves frozen, seedhead
mighty morning orb

drab drab drab 

reddish drab
sandy drab
silver drab
sage drab
salmon drab
dove drab
beaver drab
glove drab


reading old dye books
the name tells all

"Imagine. Colours of the past, escaping from the pages of old dye and pattern books. Persian blue, Raven, dainty blue, pomegranate flower, spiny lobster, winesoup, dove breast, golden wax, grass green, green sand, rotten olive, modest plum, agate...finding their way to streets of our cities, enlivening all we wear, all allied to dissipate the bleakness of the times."

From Dominique Cardon's introduction to 'The Dyer's Handbook Memoirs on Dyeing by a French Gentleman-Clothier in the Age of Enlightenment' 
[Oxbow Books, 2016, pgs xi-xii]

+technicolor additions to Edward Deming Andrews text about dyes used by the Shakers at Watervliet 

working on  prototype for
an upcoming project
 
thanks Josef Albers
“Why colored paper instead
of pigment and paint”
 
-paper provides innumerable colors
-sources are easily accessible
   (HTSI magazine)
--makes an inexpensive paper ‘palette’
-unnecessary mess, quick easy juxtaposition
--no spoiled or paint mixing failures
--no big equipment, but paste and cutter
--no drying time
--ease of solving problems
 
[from Josef Albers, ‘Interaction of Color:
50th Anniversary Collection,’ Yale University Press
2013, pgs. 6-7]

looking for brightneess
in rainbows and revision structures
on hand knit shawls dyed with goldenrod,
gathered at wasteplaces
stitched into circles emanating sunlight

Miriam Cantor-Stone and I are thrilled to have our collaboration, meetinghouse, published in Early American Literature.

Thanks to Moonbow for inviting us to make this collaboration.  
Thanks to Shaker Heritage Society for giving artists support and the space to do so.
Thanks to Early American Literature -- it has been a true pleasure to work with all of you. 

And a podcast to follow -- with interviews and performance excerpts.  

“Color is space.” 
Ethel  Adnan


“Color is an essential part of construction.”
Elizabeth Burns-Meyer


.madder .cochineal.goldenrod.indigo.logwood

[‘The Beauty of Light:  Interviews with Ethel Adnan,’ Etel Adnan & Laure Adler translated by Ethan Mitchell, Nightboat Books]

[Burns-Meyer from ‘The Book of Colour Concepts,’ Alexandra Loske and Sarah Lowengard, Taschen Books]