ART

I keep my small backyard studio door open on warm days, which requires me to staple a makeshift screen curtain to the doorframe to block out the flies and hornets. There’s a bright green plastic swatter, placed on special cup hook near the door. One day, as I was walking out the door, I had to stop for a moment. Where had I seen this green flyswatter before? I had been listening to music in my studio. One of my favorite songs came on: “Angel from Montgomery” by John Prine. Two lines in the song hit home, “There’s flies in the kitchen I can hear ’em there buzzin’.” Suddenly, I was transported back to my grandma’s kitchen, reflecting on her cooking, cleaning, and telling me magical stories. My first four years were spent growing up in her house in West Salem, VA. She always kept her flyswatter on a special cup hook near the kitchen door. She’d tell me to go get the flyswatter when those pesky bugs were getting out of hand. My grandma was a Zen master with her flyswatter!

The quilt was constructed using handstitching, straight-stitched and free-motion machine sewing. The cotton fabric is a teatoned cyanotype from a negative film I printed, using my original photograph.

Catherine Altice is a mixed-media artist. Her studio practice involves painting, drawing, photography, textile arts, and jewelry making. She has also been trained in dance and performance arts. Catherine has an MFA from Northern Vermont University and currently teaches as a Lecturer of Art at Appalachian State University. When she’s not working in her studio, Catherine enjoys being outdoors, either gardening or running along a country road at a slow and steady pace.

www.tinroofstudio.com

Catherine Altice

Todd, NC

The Flyswatter: Flies in the Kitchen

My “Field Notes” series has evolved into a study of texture found in landscape that references time. In “Focus” I am exploring the singular moment when color and depth catches my eye and draws me into a scene. There are distinct elements that give me a sense of time relevance and the texture of purpose that tells the story.

Original surface design by artist; machine quilting. Materials include: rust; Procion MX dyes; cotton fabrics; poly-rayon threads; wool batting.

Arlene L. Blackburn is a textile artist from Union Hall, VA. Her art practice is greatly influenced by her personal history, sense of place, and certainly the researching of her subjects. This love of history and the land informs her approach to creating artwork. There is a natural tie-in to structure, landscape, and the study of “who” inhabited the space. Mark-making is usually incorporated into Arlene’s work to reference the influence of action in a place. Whether it is in her recent “Field Notes,” “Homestead,” or “Piedra Lumbre” series, each stroke and shape of her surface-design technique is full of historical texture and meaning.

www.ArleneBlackburn.com