Edith Underdal

Time marches on at an increasing rate and already it is October and autumn ” A season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness”, however, this day does not remind me of the poem by Keats. Once again it is raining so much so that the drains are coping badly with the amount. We talked with our son Olav who has the opposite problem, fire because they could use some water in California. They had to evacuate but hope to get home again today. I cannot imagine how it must be to see ones home go up in flames or to experience the violence of a raging fire of this magnitude. Olav lives in Annaheim Hills, his house did not get hit, and not in the worst hit areas which are north of San Fransisko.
I have had a really exciting time in my studio combining heavy printing paper, linen/cotton and DSP. It was almost as if I took off and everything just turned out as I had planned. It is alwaysbest to be prepared and this gave me a real good chance which I would not have had, had I not had a piece of fabric ready stretched out for printing when I made this screen or these screens. The figure is roughly torn printing paper and when I lifted the screen to turn it for the drying process the paper was just too heavy to hold. It fell but it just looked too good to waste so I took a monoprint from it. This meant that I had to make a second screen for the background. The monoprint/DSP is to the left as you look at the screen. In the end I had this fantastic paper figure so I machine sewed it onto the printed fabric. I respond to a shadowy effect, which gives a feeling of mystery and movement. I am reading/listening to the Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin so I am well into the fantasy world. 
So I stayed there for the next print which I have named   “Hobbits in my Backyard” I drew them roughly on the printing paper and have left the pencil lines on a couple of the figures just to give that extra momentum to the whole.                                                                                            There is one impression not on these photos and that is the difference in the expression between the effect of the pro-reactive dye on the fabric and the paper. The dye is in the fabric but it shines on the paper.

I  went to town here truly inspired by this fantasy world rising out of some quagmire of flames and mud or maybe the womb. The combination of the paper figures and machine stitching adds to the movement out of the ” solid frame” in the corner in an upward drift out to infinity. I am constantly amazed at how long one can go with a given technique, sometimes successfully and sometimes not but in my last session I feel that I was successful bringing more body to the ghost figures that often are a part of my prints.                                      I spent last week in Bødker Gården in Køge. 

These photos were only taken  as documentation but it does show that the tomatoe root can be hung! Three of the people whose names are on the piece came to visit and I am really proud to mention Joy Mogensen who is mayoress of Roskilde. That she took the time out of her busy calender up to our approaching lacal elections says a lot about the type of individual she is. Roskild should be proud of their mayor!  Sold one small print is all.                                                                                                  Off for a weekend in Aberdeenshire visiting my family. I hope to goodness that the weather is better than here!!