photography – Sticks-a-GoGo

“The mimesis of amateurism began around 1966; that is, at the last moment of the “Eastman era” of amateur photography, at the moment when Nikon and Polaroid were revolutionizing it. The mimesis takes place at the threshold of a new technological situation, one in which the image-producing capacity of the average citizen was about to make a quantum leap. It is thus, historically speaking, really the last moment of “amateur photography” as such, as a social category established and maintained by custom and technique.

The above-referenced quote was taken from an essay written by Canadian artist, Jeff Wall, “Marks of Indifference”: Aspects of Photography in, or as, Conceptual Art, reinforced my definition about images captured using a cellphone camera as art, taken by a photographer.

This image was taken while sitting under a tree. I mentally placed the image in my mind, and voila, I snapped the photograph. Various technological options were used to manipulate the photo. The cellphone photograph was used to create a narrative on fabric. This piece is from the sticks-a-gogo Art Cloth Bokeh Collection: Landscape found in my store spoonflower.com/profiles/sticks-a-gogo_art_cloth

Sew was an experiment using the Adobe Photoshop Camera App.

Two Designs for The New Year

Here at sticks-a-gogo Art Cloth, we begin the New Year with two new fabric designs. Beginning with Absinthe, an advertisement on the side of a building in Prague advertising Bohemian-style or Czech-style absinthe.

Succulents, captures raindrops on plants outside our office space window.

Today, I captured an image with my cellphone, soon to be another sticks-a-gogo Art Cloth fabric design.

©Mary Lou Fall 2022

These and many more designs can be found at http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/sticks-a-gogo_art_cloth

Bokeh Collection

In short, Boke is a Japanese photographic technique that produces an aesthetic quality of blurring. “In 1997, the English spelling bokeh was popularized under the direction of Mike Johnston of Photo Techniques Magazine.” Wikipedia

I am excited to introduce the Bokeh Collection to the line of sticks-a-gogo Art Cloth.

©Mary Lou Fall 2021- Bokeh Collection: Here and There

©Mary Lou Fall 2021 – Bokeh Collection: Sunflower

©Mary Lou Fall 2021 – Bokeh Collection: Golden Leaves

View my Bokeh Collection http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/sticks-a-gogo_art_cloth

A Photograph

Mobile Photography is the future of the art form. Discrete intimate and always accessible to capture a moment. – David S. McNamara

Photographs are said to preserve a moment in time, chronicle a piece of history, and refer to the ephemeral. Does the act of photo manipulation rewrite the history documented in the original photograph? I don’t use photos as a memory aid, but as a way to manipulate color, patterns and shape. I decided to co-mingle technology with textiles producing sticks-a-gogo Art Cloth.

For the last two years, I’ve produced images for surface design on fabric. Below are two examples, showing the original image and the resulting surface element.

Looking for Something

Over and over, I keep asking myself the same question, “What am I good at?” Of course, this question does not refer to me as a person, but as an artist. I’m an accomplished knitter publishing free patterns on Ravelry. Out of necessity, I learned how to sew my first garment when I was eight years old, and currently I’m enrolled in the Fashion Program at Canada College located in Redwood City, California. Later in life, I studied Art History at the University of California, Berkeley. Fulfilling a life-long dream, and being the first in my family to graduate from college was bittersweet. But, “What am I good at?”

As a young girl, I enjoyed taking pictures with my father’s Kodak Instamatic Camera with plastic flash cubes. When my father started using the Polaroid Camera with the peel-apart color prints, I was hooked. I carried a Polaroid Pocket Camera everywhere I went. A few years back, I began experimenting with Holga plastic cameras. The journey which began with “red eyes,” instant color prints along with the double-exposure capability using 120 film, prepared me for the boundless creative options of the cellphone camera.

How could I take advantage of the beautiful art images I captured with my cellphone camera? In a world with digital prints on fabric, why not put my images on fabric? Better yet, why not sew with fabric which created a digital narrative of what I “see” as interesting.

These photos were sent to me by Virginia. Along with sticks-a-gogo Art Cloth, Virginia used the Yuya Dress pattern by Damar Studio. It is so gratifying to see my digital narrative take on a new meaning.

I began this post with a question, and I’ve found the answer. For a view of my digital textile images, visit http://spoonflower.com/profiles/sticks-a-gogo_art_cloth

The Many Images of Art Cloth

Creating digital textile images via contemporary digital printing technology empowers me to make my own art cloth designs. Looking through the lens of my cellphone along with a gentle click of the finger, I am able to create a narrative of places, people and things I find interesting.

The ability to bring my vision to “life” from start to finish elevates my importance as a designer and a consumer. Utilizing new skills, which by the way, I’ve been taking classes using Photoshop Elements, supports my desire to create something special, a timeless unique piece of artwork. A symbiotic relationship develops between me and the image, I am emotionally attached to the cloth because it describes who I am.