Integration

This is where we live. Just a few 100 yards away from our flat there is a former racing ground which has been converted into a living area. We took a walk on Sunday afternoon, rather: evening. The Canada geese were just having lunch on the green. They are integrated into the park-like surrounding.





During the sunshine hours on our balcony, it had been warm enough to sit outside. Now, temperatures were going down, still reaching about 6° or 43 Fahrenheit in early morning. --


The printed scraps are being integrated into the witch gown. The photos are surrounded with spells and bits from Estonian sagas. One is a lullaby, another says: "If this man was mine, I wouldn't need to eat." The witch chose a young man who is attractive and desired by other women, too. But she holds him in her magic circle. In these spells I used no runes. I wanted the outer edge to be more decorative and less readable. The inscription "ribbons" that run around the pictures are meant to be read, but only those will decypher them who understand Estonian. I know that magic spells are still used today; I do not presume to use them in the sense of making the magic work. But there was a time when I used art as a magic practice to gain power over the desired person. I understood this 30 years ago and gave it up. But when I was young, I was entangled in magic thinking, and I wasn't aware that it is manipulative, moreover it made my own attachment a lot stronger than necessary. When I gave it up, it meant a remarkable loss of power, but seeing it from a Buddhist point of view, I understood that it takes respect and honesty to gain love, not manipulation. Continuously walking on this path, my life improved until I found someone who likes to be enchanted by witchcraft, but consciously and voluntarily. He is my husband now.

-- This posting attracted chinese spam by the yard. Sorry I had to restrict the comment function a bit more which I hate to do.

-- Now something completely different.

Outdoor studio

Under blue sky: The most pleasant place to work at. The kids are still in school, so the backyard is quiet.I cut another stamp and did some printing, looks very conventional:
Again, I made a lino cut from a traditional Estonian pattern and print it on slightly wet cloth. On dry cloth, the paint was not really taken up by the surface. On wet cloth, there is a slight bleeding of dye which actually looks quite interesting like aged or bleached dye. I let it dry now and will add some more painting and printing.










I also cut a foil stencil and use a stencil paint which contains oil. The stenciled shape is almost invisible. The white patterns have strongly resisted the paint which rolled off.







The intention is to fix them on the witch gown as if she had taken traditional clothes as a trophy from those she bewitched, just as she integrated the pictures of the young man in her gown which is all part of her sorcery.
I imagine her as a lady of the woods who lures a young man into unknown pleasures which make him addicted to her.

Well -- experiments don't necessarily work

Print, paint, print. I made the cloth wet and painted with dye. The wet paint runs nicely into the free space between dried print. When this is dry, I'll print or stencil some more light paint on the dark parts. I could stencil some white paint which contains oil and get some batik-like effect... Estonian weaving and knitting typically showed stripes running through the pattern.
I'm not sure if I am so much into printing, but lino-cutting is fun. I should try more. Then I will love printing, too. -- Some artists find coincidence very helpful, I'm still not sure if I prefer serendipity or control.

Now I fixed it to the witch gown and quilted it. Forgot to iron it. Okay, it's not a teen football star's sportswear that needs to be washed every few days.