New year explorations

drawing, Exhibits, techniques

The year started with a lot of exploration, and I want to share some interesting paths.

I’ve started a new year with a new focus on drawing. I’ve always been drawing but I’m now putting in order past work and dedicating more time to new work. The more I review past drawing, the more I wish to do new ones.

I’m reading a book by the graphic designer and philosopher Riccardo Falcinelli, Visus, and I learn that: my recent growing work is much line based and contour based, which is a technique consolidated in modern times by cartoon and comics; we use to be drawing what we want to be in contact with, and I like to be in front of nature, landscape and abstraction.

I’ve recently visited the gallery of contemporary art Naturae and I discovered the artist Macoto Murayama, who invented the term “botech”: botanical drawing expressed with the extreme of capabilities of nowadays technology, as a way to reveal microscopical beauties but also the way we think. Being myself sensitive to microscopy, technology and art, his work looks to me as a game changer.

I’ve read the book Wild textiles by Alice Fox, and her capability to use found objects and natural supplies changed my way of looking at my everyday material sources and even the apple peel and biscuit wrap are not the same under my eyes now.

I found a lot of inspiration… and we’re just at the beginning of the year!

The cult of ink

drawing

What is drawing?

Joe Cunningham said to me (during a mentoring session with him, which I had the pleasure to attend): “Drawing is a direct connection to the mind”.

My first drawings, at primary school, included roses from the home garden of my class mate Sara. This Summer I was in Oslo, in Norway, and I visited Vigeland park. The smell of roses I found there made me wish to draw roses again, as in the innocence of childhood.

I once displayed a drawing gallery “en plein air”, thanks to the arrangement of my friends Serena and Andrea, who made a concert in a natural reserve, in the Cona island, near river Isonzo.

I had the honor to illustrate Andrea and Serena’s CD “Laila”: it was a wonderful joint creativity experience, one of my best memories related to drawing.

I recently started drawing again.
Rivers, obviously.

Drawing is part of my identity.

At high school, I enrolled to specialisation on maths and drawing, both with pleasure. When the moment came to select university faculty, I had in mind options of architecture and engineering. I chose engineering. I am a full-time engineer, since more than 20 years: I am a microscopist, and I have a professional relationship with images, including technical drawings.

I decided to create a dedicated social profile for my activity related to drawing: @the_cult_of_ink.

I will collect there my drawing works, which have not been shown much in the past but, in reality, they are many. You will find the following themes: botany, architecture, cityscapes, dreamscapes, the magical presence of animals, technical drawing, texture, abstraction and maps.

I invite you to join me in this new journey, and to dream.

Design with a friend – part 4

collaborations, improv process, techniques

I compared my past photos of scraps and seeds (exercise on composition) and my past quilts. And I discovered that I have some recurrent composition preferences.

So, I started to wonder. Do I repeat myself?

Thus, I checked my backlog of photos.
I found at least 15 composition types, here below are shown the most evident types.

This reassured me: maybe I’m not repeating myself too much.

Thanks to the quilting friends who sent me a small white envelope with their quilting scraps. One day I received two letters in the same afternoon, by Linda @flourishingpalms and Gigi @gigi.v13. It’s wonderful to be connected in this way even if we are overseas.

The two images below use a rotational symmetry and echoing of a shape, that was created by somebody else: in this case a shape from a small piece received by Ally Ryde. I didn’t choose on purpose to use this format of composition: it was spontaneous, at the beginning; but now, in retrospect, I find interesting to discover that I was influenced by somebody else’s shape.

These scraps will be valuable for me, to continue exercising on composition types. Maybe I can find more ways to fill the space. It’s impossible for me to totally repeat myself, if the scraps I’m using are different, because they are your scraps and not my scraps.

So, with your input, I’m safe!

Design with a friend – part 3

collaborations, improv process

My series of photos with scraps and seeds, is a way to exercise on composition.

In the past years I had the impression that my exploration, on quilt composition types, was very slow. I manage to finish one, or only a few, quilts per year. I felt this completion rate as a problem, respect to the need to learn.

On the design wall, at work in progress phase, I can try different composition options: that’s the beauty of doing quilts improvisationally. But I also need to see the finalised effect on a completed quilt. And this requires months.

Now, by making compositions with photos, I can potentially see a finished composition every day. I hope that, with this photographic practice, my experience with compositions will evolve.

For example, by comparing my past photos and past quilts, I discovered that I have some recurrent composition preferences.

One of my favorite types of image, evidently, is an image including the presence of a flow. Like the one I used in the quilt Sealights (shown at QuiltCon in 2022).

Another type is a composition containing rotational symmetry. Like the one I used in the quilt Night lights, shown at QuiltCon in 2024. It was a funny discovery to find these compositional solutions again in my photos, not made on purpose, but reappearing when checked in retrospect.

I invited quilting friends to send me a small white envelope with quilting scraps. The fragments should be small, such as the seeds and berries that may become included in the picture.

Thanks to Carla @falcolupo, who sent me some remainders from her quilting and sewing work. It was so special to have the opportunity to keep in my hands the same material she was recently working with. A warm effect: from digital to real!

Here below you can see a photo composition I made with her sewing scraps. For the first time I felt the inspiration to use plenty of different seeds and berries, instead of only one or two types maximum. The variety of her stitches influenced me! This initiative “Design with a friend” shows how can we influence each other with our creative examples, even with small pieces. Would you like to join?

Design with a friend – part 2

collaborations, improv process, techniques

A few months ago, I started a series of photos with scraps and seeds, simply as an occasion to feel better in short time, thanks to the beauty of nature and fabric colors in my hands, and the ease of photography.
Later it became something more.
It clearly resulted as a way to exercise on composition.

Seeds on a table are like scraps on a design wall.

The feeling of improv quilting, appearing when you try casually the positioning of fabric scraps, came to me in the same way, when I tried different versions of compositions with seeds on the photo set.
Adjusting different quilt compositions may be slow and time consuming. I have a limited design wall space: to give room to new work in progress, I needed to add a new layer of batting on top of the previous quilting work!

On the contrary, photo composition are quicker to be made. By the way, if you use fresh vegetables, you must be quick. Sometimes I have only a few days available to manipulate seed buds, because they transform quickly. I picked the ones in the picture here below from a public garden bush, named pittosporum tobira. One day, these green buds opened and revealed the red seeds inside: It was a surprise! I took a picture of them, together with the red fabric I was using for my quilt in progress. The paper fragments in this composition are from Ally @allyryde.

An additional meaning of making photo compositions came when I realized that I could use them as an occasion of connecting with quilting friends, to continue the idea started embedding the paper pieces received by Ally, together with more quilting friends.

In these days I discussed with Linda @flourishingpalms  and Lenny @modernstitchwitch about the tools we use to keep connected with each other.  Most of the times we chat on the socials, and very rarely we can meet face to face, thanks to a flight overseas. Since the social platforms can be changed unilaterally, we shall not be fully dependent on them: it’s better to put alternatives in place. In that sense, I’m trying to use multiple channels as networking tools, to ensure I can keep connected with people, whatever happens with one of those channels: so I try to use also e-mail and on-line meetings.

For the playtime “design with a friend” I invite you to send me a small white envelope with your quilting scraps; then, I will try to make new photo compositions with them, to send you back a small photo print. Let’s make best use also of post offices!

Design with a friend – part 1

collaborations, improv process

This week I had the opportunity to talk to the group Beyond Borders, part of the Modern Quilt Guild, about the way I make my quilts and I design with scraps.

I’m a scrap saver, I allow scraps guide my improv and I use scraps as one of the elements of quilt composition. How did this quilt,  River gone green, come about?

This quilt was made with remainders of earlier work.
The green fields were non-used remainders from this work below: “Open air” (at the moment part of the SAQA global exhibition Abstraction: textural elements). A hint of the green area, inside “Open air”, remained: down at right.
Scraps can be used to trace lines on the design wall: you can see here, how I used scraps while composing “Open Air”.

In this period, when I didn’t have time for sewing, I thought that I can still use scraps… for photos! Like I did 20 years ago in my first photo gallery: Flowers, fruits and embroidery.

Recently I started to make photo composition with scraps received from a friend. In the picture below you can see how I used paper and fabric scraps. The piece of paper was from Ally Ryde, design teacher. Thank you, Ally, for giving me these small pieces, that became the start of something new!

I would like to continue in this way: to keep connected with quilting friends, receiving scraps (fabric, paper, small reminders from work in progress) and using them to exercise in making compositions. The name for this photo series will be: “design with a friend”. After having received a postal letter with tiny pieces, I can send back a postcard with the photo I’ve made.
Would you like to join?

Participation to Camouflage quilt show

Exhibits, improv process

“Spot the dot”, my last quilt finish, has been selected to be part of “Camouflage”. Juried by Lorraine Roy, it’s an exhibition celebrating the wonder of wildlife and the artistry of concealment, inspired by a theme submitted by SAQA Member Leilani Purvis.

 “Spot the dot” will be on display, at the International Quilt Festival, Houston Texas, since October 31, 2024. Additional venues are Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson, Arizona (July 19th – September 28, 2025); Detroit Zoo, Royal Oak, Michigan (November 2025 – February 2026); exhibition will travel through December 2027.

I now have five works travelling with SAQA shows. Thanks to SAQA international nonprofit organisation, whose mission is to promote art quilts, for the organisation of many initiatives and opportunities.

This is the story of “Spot the dot”.

How would you behave, if you had a mixed identity, such as the one of a black and white dot (pardon, a black and white button) appearing in this quilt?

Would you act like the black dots, who are wandering around, exploring opportunities, searching for a gate to break free? Or you’d rather look for safety, hiding within the crowd, pressed inside a box, among the other buttons that look quite similar you?

Ok, let’s take another point of view. Let’s join the observer, who can easily spot the dot. Human brain is wired to connect the dots and to go straight to the point. So… what’s the point of treasure hunt? To find ‘em all! Until the last point.

Play the game and search for a “point”!

When creatives connect

collaborations, techniques

I’ve had the special opportunity to be in contact with Lynn Woll, founder of Create Whimsy, for an interview.

She allowed me to talk about all the creative media I use. This arrived in the very right moment: her questions helped me to clarify my thoughts of these days. For example, Lynn asked me:

“You are a full-time engineer and have a variety of interests outside of work. How do you keep all the balls in the air?”

When I read this question, I started to laugh and weep at the same time… it looked as if the question hit the nail.

During the current year, indeed, my work-life balance has changed, such that I could not schedule my free time as easily as before.

Changes of life can surprise you with unexpected twists, which may, some days, overcome your coping skills. Complex and super busy periods strongly force your capability to adapt. The interesting thing is that stretching skills acts on the brain in a very powerful way. Fertile land is prepared for future creations, that will become interpretation for the plenty of things that you have learnt, while passing across difficulties.

Just in the days of Lynn’s contact, I was starting a new photography stream, which was acting as a valuable strategy to cope with stress: it made me feel much better. It’s impossible to have a photo UFO, because one photo is taken in one second! I took the habit of setting collected seeds and textile supplies in a way that gave me visual emotions. Then, the photo-finish of the day was made!

I have used different creative media depending on the period of my life and the work-life balance. I decide which medium I want to work on, based on the amount of time that I have: quilting is for long projects, drawing is for average spare time; photography is available even if I have a few-minutes-only break.

In the picture below, a set of natural treasures collected during a walk, part of my creative supplies.

I invite you to read the interview on createwhimsy/spotlight-paola-machetta and to check also other featured makers: I’ve found plenty of inspiration on Create Whimsy. Thanks Lynn!

Little hiding dot

Exhibits, techniques

A few weeks ago, I told myself: “I want to build something new”. I was in a park, I collected seeds from the trees. Autumn had started, it was the period when trees created ball shaped seed collections.

I approached the start of a new season, together with small things. Such as, shapes from fabric (that I’ve used in my quilts) and shapes from Nature. I started a new photo series, based on small treasures from nature and fabric scraps from quilts.

If I connect the dots of what happened in the last months, I find that my last quilt finish was made with dotted fabrics, and my first photo-composition playtime was made with that same dotted fabric and round seeds.

“Spot the dot” is the title of my last quilt finish, where I played with dots and their travelling around. It will be on display soon, at the International Quilt Festival, Houston Texas: October 31 – November 3, 2024. It has been selected to be part of the SAQA show “Camouflage”, juried by Lorraine Roy: an exhibition celebrating the wonder of wildlife and the artistry of concealment, inspired by a theme submitted by SAQA Member Leilani Purvis.

I’ve just received the catalogue of the SAQA show “Camouflage”.

In a future article, I will tell the story of this quilt.

Quilts connect with drawing

collaborations, Exhibits

My work “Open air” will be part of the “SAQA Global Exhibition Abstraction: Textural Elements”, opening in a few days at Max Berk Textile Collection, Palatinate Museum, Heidelberg, Germany, on September 15, 2024.
I described its story in an earlier blog post, at this link.

“Open air” is one of my quilts more connected with drawing, since it is mainly based on the use of line.

What is drawing?

Joe Cunningham said to me (during a mentoring session with him, which I had the pleasure to attend): “Drawing is a direct connection to the mind”.

My first drawings, at primary school, included roses from the home garden of my class mate Sara. Last month I was in Oslo, in Norway, and I visited Vigeland park. The smell of roses I found there made me wish to draw roses again, as in the innocence of childhood.

I once displayed a drawing gallery “en plein air”, thanks to the arrangement of my friends Serena and Andrea, who made a concert in a natural reserve, in the Cona island, near river Isonzo. During that evening, they played, among their own music, also the song by their friend Ares Movio, which talks about childhood innocence too. You can hear it in the following video.

I had the honor to illustrate Andrea and Serena’s CD “Laila”: it was a wonderful joint creativity experience, one of my best memories related to drawing.

I recently started drawing again.
Rivers, obviously.