In Which I Admit to an Art Error!

 

See? You can barely read that! That was a big problem and my first "mistake". The colors and textures were fine, but the text disappeared into the surrounding fabric... and this is after I pain-stakingly double stitched it onto the larger piece.

So I pain-stakingly undid all those double stitches and mounted it on a darker piece of nifty, pseudo- marbelized fabric and laboriously re-stitched it back onto the larger piece (which reads, by the way, "Uh Oh... Kleptocracy".)

See how effective this addition of an under color was? See how the text pops and you can easily read it? See how I made a big mistake? No, I didn't see it either until I hung the entire panel on my wall and... holy cow?!!! How could I have not seen that? I reversed "uh" and "oh" and came up with a piece of gibberish. Second mistake! (*1)

So I (for the millionth time) pain-stakingly unstitched the words, replaced to top layer as the edges were now seriously fraying, and re-sewed it on. Looks great now!

Here's the entire, correctly spelled piece: 

 Not sure why this piece seems to want to photograph really darkly... could be all we've had is dark, rainy days for what seems like weeks! And this piece looks tiny but it's actually quite large; probably six feet tall and eight wide. I'm still working on hemming all the edges- which is a cinch as the material is thin and silky. (Not like the other piece I'm working on which is like three layers of pseudo ostrich leather and forces me to punch holes in my poor bloody fingers every three seconds!!!) Interestingly, this piece also weighs a ton as there's beading on top of all that fabric. And hidden underneath is a section of ugly old table cloth, acting as an unseen support as the thin silky, Versace-inspired background fabric is very thin and would never support all the work on top. My work is starting to require structural support...

I guess the upside of the chilly rainy weather is that it drove me back inside and got me to finish up several in -process works. A couple of (fully vaccinated) friends have visited and it's refreshing to be able to admit them to my studio and show off what I've been up to Lo! these many quarantined months. Enough work for a good sized show...

 

(*1) And we all remember a previous art mistake. I was beading images of my credit cards and accidentally omitted the "P" in "American Express". But that one turned out happily, and the mistake remained and made the piece unimaginably more charming. Wish I could find that image to demonstrate but it's on a flash drive somewhere...

Work in Progress

(I am not a happy woman as I type this as some fucking glitch of editing deleted my entire post and I am attempting to type this all again and recapture my witty and effervescent tone!!)
Ahem! I was writing that I have actually had time- in between the seasonal hysteria of gardening for myself and a friend and working and delivering a piece of Bob's sculpture to Vermont- to begin a new piece. Maybe gardening is slowing down a bit as most things have been planted and it's a matter of tweaking and weeding and fertilizing. My studio calls!
I hope the picture above gives some idea of my direction. The piece is about five feet wide and the back ground fabric is this great swirly, opulent yet sleazy pattern; over the top! (As is typical, I bought that fabric because I liked it and didn't have a clue as to what I'd use it on. When I started to design this piece, the fabric was shouting at me to use it.)
Here's a detail:

Fabulous, isn't it? Baroque twirly crenelations with leopard inlays- who thinks this stuff up? The top third of that picture is the fabric I'll use for the medallion area, where my text will go. It's this sort of spongey lacey gold and silver concoction; it's all so sweet it makes your teeth hurt. The text is going to be that aqua shiny fabric seen laying on top in the top picture. The sales woman at the fabric store said, "Oh! That's so pretty! What are you making?" "Trouble!" I responded. They always ask; I think they are required to. As previously mentioned, one store I go to greets me with, "It's the WTF lady!" I guess that's better than being called the "Star Fucker" after another notorious creation of mine.)
So I could be coy and not tell you what the text on this piece is going to say. But seeing as how I'm still experimenting with what the text is actually going to look like it may take a while, so I'll just go ahead and print it.
It started with my repeatedly hearing the word "kleptocracy". Here's Wikipedia's definition:

Kleptocracy is a government with corrupt leaders that use their power to exploit the people and natural resources of their own territory in order to extend their personal wealth and political powers.

(Obviously comes from the same root as "kleptomania". Let's face it, we now most certainly live in a kleptocracy!) Anyway, it had a certain ring to it and I played with "kultural kleptocracy" and a few other variants but I wasn't entirely convinced. And then it came to me- as my ideas often do!- while on my morning walk: "Uh-oh! Kleptocracy!" That was perfect. Sorta silly yet punchy and there's a hint of a warning in the "uh-oh".* I'm not sure when I'll get into my studio next for a extended work on the piece session, but you can be sure I'm exploring fonts and typefaces in my dreams!

* That phrase comes pulled up from the deepest dank depths of my childhood mind hole. See if you remember it. Bob got the reference right away and I was delighted.

(Verbatim) Good Press!

Hey! This a really great article written by Susan Dunne. It's in the "CT now" part of the Hartford Courant. I like seeing my name in print. (And who doesn't?) I excerpted the parts about me...

Rita Valley is many things: a wage slave, a bottom feeder, a loser. She admits this.
"I don't make my living off my art. People ask me if I sell everything in my show. I say no, that's not why I do it," Valley says. "I see that look on their face, 'What a loser.' So I say fine, I'm a beautiful loser."
Valley, of Southbury, puts these phrases at the center of off-kilter tapestries. Several of her pieces are on show now at Real Art Ways in Hartford.
Her mix of materials is odd: silk with pleather, plaid with pictoral, accented by fringe, chains, streamers and other doodads.
"I like materials that are alternately beautiful and repulsive. It's beautiful but also kind of pushing you away," she says. "If they were just pretty, they wouldn't be interesting."
Her bleak phrases are not melancholy but humorously ironic. "I've never done a piece saying, 'Have a nice day.' I'm really repulsed by overly positive, knee-jerk modern philosophies," she says. "When someone says, 'Everything's just great, be happy,' I think, 'Really, come on.'"

"Loser" is one of Rita Valley's tapestries on show at Real Art Ways. (Rita Valley)

WAGE SLAVE, DISTRACTED DRIVING and SURFACE WORK are at Real Art Ways, 56 Arbor St. in Hartford, until Sept. 11. realartways.org