my name is jeanne morrison, and i’m a process artist – i’m interested in the process of making art, and sharing what i learn about how to make art, rather than selling art, or being known to the art world, or any of those career activities expected of artists. i could teach and do workshops, but that would mean spending precious time and energy not working on my own art. indeed i have taught. and i’ve taught workshops, and shown my work in art exhibitions, and attended art residencies, and had gallery representation. i’ve sold most of what i’ve made over the years, amd my paintings hang in private collections around the world.
but these days i do my art for myself, whatever i’m interested in or whatever comes up that’s interesting. i’ve been exploring the beauty of encaustic painting in the last few years, and working on a series of fabric projects. last winter i did a series of surface design on sculpture for a public art project, and next year will bring more opportunities to make public art. my current obsession is an ambitious long fiction project that i will be writing and jim will be illustrating..
thirty-five years ago i started with watercolor on paper, fifteen years ago i took up oil paints. i picked up dye on fabric ten years ago, and for only the last five years have i been playing with the magic of wax. my method is to work in series, because it’s a learning curve every time i change media, and i try to get it right at least once before moving on.
for me, art is about getting different colors to stick to various things; things that can then be made into other things.
Making Art with Fabric 
Thanks for giving me some hope re: making my own cold wax. I have been a painter and am now interested in encaustics, but found the fumes impossible to deal with at home. I have just purchased some Dorland’s and am very interested in working with it more, but my initial attempts seem exciting. However, I do not know if I can achieve that luminosity of fused encaustics…we’ll see! In the meantime, might you be more precise as to what citrus oil you use? Thanks so much, your work is quite beautiful!
dorlands will give you the same fume problem. you can use dorlands unfused, of course, and there’s a whole school of encaustic that doesn’t fuse (tho you won’t hear about them). the orange oil i use i get from several sources, because i’m still looking around. you want to use orange solvent – orange oil. there are a variety of manufacturers, and a range of grades, and there are several ways to make it, so you should do your own research. but i found someplace that sells orange oil made from orange peel (not from corn), food grade so it’s as pure as they can make it. my studio smells like oranges and i’m constantly hungry.
these guys sell an orange solvent that i like: http://www.realmilkpaint.com/citrus.html. if you ventilate your area well enough, the fumes shouldn’t be a problem. it may take some strong fans and blowers, but you should be able to fuse your wax without having your eyes sting or getting naseous from the fumes. good luck!
I would love for you to check out a little site I put together for creative minds, called Social Muze! I think you would make a great addition! :) If you wana take a peak, you can access it through the Creative Playground tab on my blog. Hope to see you there!
Kellie
[…] Jeanne Morrison – Our neighbor and very talented Fabric Artist […]
Re: sodium alginate as a water-based resist and your recipe. If I were to paint this onto silk and let it dry, and then apply dyes directly to the fabric, would they dye/bond or does this mixture work fully as a resist? I want to hand paint silk fabric without the white resist lines …
well, if you want to paint over the resist lines, it’ll take. kind of. sodium alginate makes good resist lines. they weaken fast, if you do too many passes and get too close with the brush, or if you violate the line with dye. but you can always go over them to reinforce them if you need to. i don’t much like white resist lines, especially when i’m doing landscapes, and i’ve found i can paint the resist with dye. it’ll flow into the scarf if you put too much on, of course. and there’s always dyeing the resist, which i haven’t done but should work just fine.
sugar syrup can also be painted, or used as noflow.
Hi Jeanne,
I came upon your Dolphin blog while researching information about our fiberglass “Cow” from “Cows on Parade”. my mother-in-law purchased one of the Cows from Kansas City’s Cow on Parade back in late 1990s. They were downsizing house and needed someone to take the cow, so my partner and I had it brought here to Atlanta to reside in our back yard. We have had it repainted, but now we need to get it clear -coated. Do you know of any companies that will clear coat fiberglass sculptures?
Thank you,
Erich
dear erich,
when we did the turtles, the folks at the sandy springs society took them to an auto painter and had auto topcoat put on them. the acquarium, on the other hand, neglected to give them a top coat, and their sculptures have deteriorated. when i fixed the mckenney’s dolphin, i left them with instructions to get spray polyurethane auto topcoat and do it themselves, since they were professionals and knew all about these things anyway. try the auto detailers and other companies that mess with car finishes; they should be able to help.
hi Jeanne.. I hope you can help me with this.. I bought a beautiful 16mm crepe silk fabric, digitally printed.. and I really want to use the silk for my printing as I didnt want to use it for anything.. is there anyway I can remove the print on the silk and colour the background black or navy blue so i can start using it for silk painting.. will really appreciate your feedback.. Serina
well, that’s a good one. check paula burch’s all about silk dyeing site. you might try thiox, used as discharge paste or color remover. that might well work. don’t use regular bleach. good luck.