Recap: Apron Sharing Event

Martha and me wearing our matching vintage aprons.

On Saturday, November 20th, I hosted an Apron Sharing event at the gallery, along with guest artist, Martha C. Hall. We decided to host this as a way to end our exhibit, Two Sides to Every Story. It was a tremendous success! We invited the public to attend, bringing the aprons of their lives.

The idea came about after I gave a lecture on the history of aprons that sparked a flurry of conversation and story-telling. Martha and I realized that people really wanted to talk about their aprons and the people who wore them.

Martha sported both her artist's apron and her woman's work apron, and gave the honor of wearing her dad's dead duck, turkey carving apron to her son, Alex, who attended. I had my husband, Lee's, grandma Fran's aprons on hand, which have been featured in my paintings, plus a stunning pink and grey taffeta vintage apron encrusted with rhinestones given to me by Martha. The aprons spanned the decades, from the Depression and contemporary aprons from Haiti.  

Artist, Martha C. Hall, sharing her dad's turkey carving apron

Martha wrote a blog post last week recalling some of the details of the attendees' aprons. Here are some of her thoughts:

This apron belonged to my dad and was the one he wore at Thanksgiving and  Christmas to carve the turkey. My siblings and I all have such vivid and fond memories of Dad in the "dead duck" apron, so when it arrived in my mailbox via my brother, well, I was extraordinarily excited! I'm happy to have pictures of it on my son and happy to know it's still in the family.

Martha and her son, Alex, a really good sport

There were aprons that belonged to grandmothers, aprons made by a grandfather who was a tailor and did all the family sewing, small aprons meant for children and made by children. Now that I'm fascinated by aprons it's amazing to see how many styles and purposes there are out there. Most aprons are obviously made for work, but there are many more that are so fancy one would never do the cooking in them. They are for dress-up, like serving cocktails to company. It's amazing how the stories about our aprons connect us to our family - and collective - memories. I don't think my fascination is going to end anytime soon. Read the rest of her blog here.

Visitor, Claudia, sharing her apron.

Sara Megletti's mother talking about some not-so-fond memories of her Depression-era apron.

Sara Megletti, owner of PB&J, talks about her Depression-era apron with Karen Balzano and me.

I look forward to more explorations of the apron artistically, thinking about its meaning and various ways to depict it and doing more with aprons at the gallery in the future. If anyone out there is designing and making aprons I would love to consider selling them at TraillWorks. You can get in touch with me via email.

Inside My Studio - Teacups, Aprons, and Hoosiers

Palette table, oil paints, and reference pictures of teacups for an upcoming commission in my studio.

I've been hearing it from Corrie for awhile, "where's news about your own work?" Hmmm, I am working on my own work, but between my husband's new job and traveling responsibilities, caring for my son who is now verging on the fabulous age of two (enough said), and taking care of me (which I'm learning takes precedence over everything), I haven't had much of an opportunity to share what's going on in my own studio! So I'm going to write a few posts in the next week about commissions and pieces that I'm working on.

Towards the end of the summer, I booked three Christmas commissions and am continuing work on one that has been slowly progressing since the beginning of the year. No worries, the client keeps telling me "piano, piano". (She's Italian.) All of them deal with memories, involve food, or food preparation. However, the two I'm featuring today focus solely in the home domain and are related more to food prep and containing food, whereas the other two are about food.

The first commission is a gift from one of my adult students and her two sisters to their mom for Christmas. Her mom has a collection of prized teacups, and was, and still is an apron-wearer. My student actually stole her threadbare, everyday apron, and the lavender gingham and organza seen below, and shot several photos from a variety of angles of three selected teacups.  

We decided on a series of three panels, 10" x 10" each, on which to create an homage to the three teacups, somehow incorporating her aprons. I'm so glad with the selection of teacups that June made, and I found that the lavender and gingham worked so well to tie all three together. After several different sketches, I came up with the one below arranging the teacups in a more dynamic, asymmetrical composition, playing with different points of view, all featured on the organza apron. I still have some things to work out, which I will do once I start painting, but she was thrilled with the overall gist. I'll be starting this painting in November, as I'm still working on preliminary sketches of other commissions.

My client's mothers' apron (lavender gingham trim with organza body). Mom doesn't know I have it!

Teacup

Teacup

Teacup

 

Selected composition for three-paneled painting featuring my client's mother's teacups and apron.

The second commission was begun back in February, but actually was implanted in my studio two and a half years ago when my client brought me her grandmother's sugar bowl in a Styrofoam box and pink gift bag to my grand opening celebration at my old location. She told me her idea then, "Sweet Memories" featuring the sugar bowl. Then stuff happened in her life, and mine, and she's just simply fantastic. I actually hadn't communicated much with her during 2009, and then I moved to 214 Spring and we got in touch again. 

After sitting down over a glass of wine, we came up with the start of a painting that is still evolving and now much closer to inception. Initially, the painting was to simply be the sugar bowl, but after seeing some of my larger works composing many aspects together, my client wanted to include the red Cosco stool I own, and her grandmother's apron. Well, the first round of sketches weren't happening, I was too tied to some of my previous paintings. Then, when we discussed some of the problems, my client suggested adding in her grandmother's Hoosier cabinet. I thought, well, that's just going to add in more complications. Well, it actually enabled me to shift my thinking and come up with a more interesting composition. 

The first sketch shows the Hoosier on the left, with the percolator on the shelf, the sugar bowl on the stool, and a tile floor extending out into a fantasy space with a manikin wearing her grandmother's apron. This goes back to a painting I did in college of my parents where space between the interior and exterior blends together. 

After meeting and reviewing this idea a couple of weeks ago, my client decided, and I think rightfully so, given the proportions of the canvas, that the apron is too much. Now we're moving towards no apron, a window in the background to open up the composition, flooding in light (much like her memories of her grandmother's kitchen), and moving the sugar bowl to a shelf over the window. I still need to work a bit more on the latest sketch before I present it to her, but this is where I'm at now. 
 

My client's stove top percolator and her Grandmother's sugar bowl on a shelf in my studio.

My client's grandmother's Hoosier cabinet.

2nd round of sketches incorporating the Hoosier, percolator, sugar bowl, and apron.

3rd round of sketches adding a window element and moving the sugar bowl to a shelf.

Catch me later this week in my studio with progress on my other two commissions - a visual homage to an eating tour in Italy and a tile design for installation in a client's kitchen / bar area.

More Vintage Apron Strings Painted

       Apron Strings #3, Oil on Canvas, 5" x 7", ©2010 Jennie Traill Schaeffer

$125, unframed

Apron Strings #4, Oil on Canvas, 5" x 7", ©2010 Jennie Traill Schaeffer

$125, unframed

                                                                     

Apron Strings #5, Oil on Canvas, 5" x 7", ©2010 Jennie Traill Schaeffer

$125, unframed

More explorations of the apron, in particular the phrase, "apron strings".The last two pieces were painted on canvas collaged with a batik stripe paper which I kept exposed through the painting, acting as a compositional device. I've been including collage a little bit in a few recent paintings; unlike a blank canvas, the collage dictates somewhat the direction of the painting. Not to say I don't have to think, but there's a foundation that informs where I will end up which is a refreshing, more immediate approach than some of my more planned works. The pink, brown and orange toned paper worked well with the pink tulle and chocolate brown velvet apron that hung in the studio.

National Tie One on Day

Here's something that I think is soooo cool and a great way to re-frame Thanksgiving. It's called National Tie One on Day and the idea is to wrap up a loaf of bread or other baked good in an apron, tucked with a note of encouragement or prayer, and present it to someone you know who is need of support of some kind of spiritual or physical uplift. As a lover of aprons, I stumbled upon EllynAnne Geisel when a friend sent me a link to her exhibition, The Apron Chronicles, since painting some of my husband's grandmother's aprons. National Tie One on Day was Geisel's response to her observation that the day before Thanksgiving, which traditionally was an occasion to celebrate family and prepare a bounty of food to give thanks, was becoming more linked with stress than joy.

I am going to make a point to pick someone to present something to, wrapped in an apron. I've gotten my husband involved and we decided this is something we will do every year with our son as a way to give back and teach him the joy of giving. Now we just need to think about what we're going to bake. Share this with your friends, participate in National Tie One on Day, and have a joyous Thanksgiving!

You can view my paintings which feature or incorporate aprons on my Facebook Page - www.facebook.com/traillworks.

New Painting Available

Blue Topography I
Ceramic Paint on Tile
6" x 6"
©2009 Jennie Traill Schaeffer

unframed with hanging hardware on back

$89