CAMERON ANNE MASON

I feel fortunate to be able to combine my love of festivals, like the Oregon Country Fair and Burning Man, with my more formal studio work. For the last three years my family has been a part of Ambience crew at OCF, creating a “living room” call Yew Are Here where fair goers can relax for a while. I bring painted silk banners and lanterns, rugs, pillows, and a few games and create a welcoming and beautiful little chill spot. At night we light the lanterns and it becomes a magical oasis all night long.

Tian Qing, Eden, and Vida transform into fairies.

Here are some photos from the Foster/White show. The gallery did a great job hanging  and lighting it. I find in making and showing art there are many steps to letting go of your work, much like in raising children. I find I hold the pieces so close during the making, the first step is letting go is getting the work photographed. It allows you to see the images for the first time through someone else’s eyes. Another step removed is to see it displayed, and then the final letting go is having the work go to a collector. I love it when purchasers send me a photo of how they display the work. It’s a chance to see it go full circle.

My work shown through part of Paul Vexler's sculpture.

I’m now officially represented by Foster/White Gallery. A new adventure.

2010 is off to a great start. MadArt Redux at Foster White opens on February 4th, I’ve got a piece in a group show of Pratt instructors at City Hall in March, a piece in a group show for the Contemporary Quilt Arts Association at the Convention Center that opens in February (I think), and I just got asked to be in a group show in Rio de Janeiro. Not to brag but not bad for January 6th!

These days I’m just sewing every day. It’s dark, it’s cold, and the deadlines are fast approaching. Above you see my palette for drawing with stitch.

Here’s the second of five pieces I’m currently working on. Here it is held together with binder clips (I love binder clips!) so that I can check out the shape before I sew it together. In the detail you can see  a dyed silk cocoon in the open space.

And here’s the piece partially assembled. Once finished, it’s off to the photographer!

The work for the Foster White show is coming along. Although the show isn’t until February, I need to have all the work finished by the end of December! I’m on track but it has definitely been a push. Good thing I’m motivated by deadlines. I’ve got two pieces finished, and three in progress. My plan is get in the groove and have time to whip three more small free standing pieces done before the end of the year. Here are shots from the first piece in progress.

piece taking shape

detail with stitching

In this work the figure is used to explore that which is seen and that which is kept close to the skin. The Waitress, the Mother, the Lover, all of these roles play a part in a woman’s life, fragmentary and coexisting. The intentional siting of this work in Ann Marie Lingerie places the installation in context and displays what is often hidden, the dreams and inner support that are only hinted at on the surface.

My artwork is informed by the exploration of surface design on fabric. I am largely self-taught, experimenting in my studio to find successful methods. The fabric for this installation was created through breakdown printing, a silk-screen process that changes with each print. Patterning, forming, and stitching complete the pieces that form the installation.

I was invited to be a part of MadArt, a window art project in Madison Park that opened on September 13th. The project matched artists with local businesses to install art in their windows for three weeks. I asked to be matched with Ann Marie Lingerie, a store that sells high end lingerie, because the body of work I visualized was about the figure, women’s roles, and working with form and transparency.

I was partially inspired for this body of work by obtaining three large-scale, used silk screens from the estate sale of Su Job, a local fiber artist and friend who died of cancer this year. I’d also been wanting to push the limits of how large I could go with my 3-d fiber forms.

I used the technique of break down printing along with my own twist, using freezer paper as a resist for the image area. This technique gave me the soft and abstracted imagery I was looking for. In working with the female form, I used the most convenient model around, myself. I turned photos into silhouettes which I attached temporarily to the silk screens. I wanted to add more texture to the screens and, looking around the studio, was thrilled to find my stash of doilies. Just the thing to add texture and keep the theme of women’s work and roles.

Next hurdle, space to print. I can’t fit an eight foot print space in my studio. So I printed the fabrics outdoors on improvised tables with the help of my studio-mate Pam on a beautiful June day. When we started printing I was surprised to find that, even though I had cleaned the screens of Su’s imagery before starting, her patterns were ghosting through. At first I was upset because I hadn’t planned on that element, but once I relaxed I found that her work added immensely to the texture and density of the designs. I like to think of the fabric as a unintended collaboration with a woman whose work I admired and respected.

Once the fabrics were printed and my installation space was finalized I was able to design the installation and start work on the forms. I designed and worked on the forms using my usual technique (see previous blog post). The challenge was just how big could I go without using additional support. Well, the largest form was my size (approx. 61 inches tall) and was self-supporting. I did end up using some fiberfill stuffing in the bottom of it to help it hold its form.

This year was my third trip to Burning Man, the alternative arts festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. One of the precepts of the event is that there are “no spectators” and I’ve wanted to bring some of my work to share. It is a challenging environment for fiber art, very dusty and windy. My previous attempts to bring my work there have been foiled by the strong winds.

This year my idea was to bring something interactive that could come out when the weather was relatively calm. Thus the creation of the looong piece of fabric. What I found was that there was no “relative calm” to be found on the playa. We took the fabric out twice, each time in the morning before the winds really picked up. And, although we had a good time playing with it on the playa, I still don’t feel that I’ve found the perfect way to bring my art to the playa. Maybe next year!

Earth Form Five, detail

My work is informed by my exploration of surface design on fabric. I begin with white or black natural fiber cloth which I then dye, discharge, print, paint, and resist. I find these processes endlessly rewarding and I enjoy the challenge of finding the correct solution for each piece. Patterning, forming, and finally stitching bring each work to completion.

This body of work is inspired by the landscape that surrounds us and the touch of human hands upon it. These influences, nature and civilization, and the passage of time overlap and intertwine in the pieces represented here. The titles, numbered instead of named in most cases, allow the viewer to make his or her own association of the work to the natural world.

The Earth Forms are a direct response to my experience of nature. The cracked strata of sedimentary rock in a cliff face, the whorl in a piece of driftwood, the line of color in a beach pebble, the force of a mushroom as it bursts from the forest floor: all these details come into sharp focus in the light of our gray winter days. Each form is a document of the passage of time.

The Artifacts interpret these natural forms and textures through the lens of culture. Shield, basket, urn, or offering, each one is marked by an ancient civilization, an imagined series of Rosetta Stones discovered by an archaeologist’s assistant.

Breakup is a response to the quickly disappearing polar ice fields. The heavy hand of global warming is our civilization’s signature on the land in the coming age.

The Seen/Unseen panels were displayed in Fall 2008 as part of a larger installation for Sound Transit’s Start on Broadway. They panels represent civilization degraded over time, architectural details abstracted and crumbling. Crows fly past, one of few representatives of wildlife in our urban lives. These images which are symbolic of transformation are so pervasive that they are seen, yet unseen.

Breakup