Archive for March, 2012

abstract landscape class…

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012

This past weekend I took an abstract landscape class with Patty Hawkins. I have long admired her work and knew I wanted to study with her. While it is always good to meet other artists and hear about their perspective on life and art I don’t take as many workshops as I once did as I have pretty much found my way.

Yet workshops challenge me in unexpected ways! I have a fabulous studio custom made to my specs. I don’t share it with anyone or anything. For me to work in a small shared space with all sorts of distractions is a challenge but one well worth it this time.

I have lousy depth perception when it comes to making art so my many attempts at horizons have often been curved…the world is round, no? So it was a great delight to consider abstract ways of constructing the landscape.

I chose this photo of Lake MacDonald in Glacier National Park for my starting inspiration. I am not going to include the fisher-person and boat as the leafy branches provide enough interest for me.

This is a black/white/gray fabric prototype of the photo.

I have completed the forest and one of the mountains in the background using a Hundertwasser mosaic technique. I am next creating more mountains as I am leaving the dreaded water reflection to last. If I can conquer my reflection anxiety then I have a lifetime of fabulous images from which to work!

Because I cannot work in a totally cluttered area I spent this morning finishing up some things in progress. I finished sewing a stack of embroidered linens together to paint and made cloth storage bags for the new recently finished works. Now my studio is free of that clutter and ready for me to create new clutter as I press on (pun intended) with this new work. Stay tuned…

Posted in new work, playing | 1 Comment »

new work…

Thursday, March 22nd, 2012

Since I finished the massive documentation project I decided it was time to re-immerse in some art making. And so these are two new pieces Currents #19 and Currents #20. I continue to be fascinated with the curved line and now have entered the twenties with this series. This same curved line has also worked itself into two other series running concurrently Keeping Up Appearances and Upheaval.

The curved line has really come to represent my work. And it happened only when I got out of my own way and noticed that any doodle I made always had a curved line within it.

More than a decade ago when I began this work I thought those who worked in a series were boring, lacked imagination, and had only one idea which they were going to make until they died! As I became more artistically astute I became aware of identity and cohesion when making art. As I entered more shows and processed entries for others I began to see a pattern of artists whose work all identifies as their own.

In January I had the honor of being a juror for an art quilt exhibit and again it came through so loud and clear about having one’s voice; making work that looks like it came from the same hand.

It has been a lifelong pattern for me that anything that peeves me generally ends up being something from which I am to learn. Lesson learned: I plan to continue to design more curved line work as it inspires me. It is a metaphor for the lifeline, always in flux, always in movement, always changing.

The accent piece in Currents #20 was a well worn dishtowel, found in my father’s kitchen, with the word ARTICHOKE printed underneath what else? an artichoke! I dyed, screen-printed and inserted with some incredible soy wax batik. No doubt that artichoke towel was one of a series someone designed and sold to a kitchen store in years gone by. There’s that lifeline again…

 

 

Posted in new work, surface design, textures | 2 Comments »

keeping track…

Thursday, March 15th, 2012

My friend Franki Kohler suggested I maintain a daily log of all I accomplish in a day’s time. She said I accomplish more than just about anyone she knows and yet so often I feel as if I waste so much time. This is in reality a WASP upbringing hangover about being idle..rest being akin to lazy.

So yesterday I began the list. I was gone from 8:20 am-4:10 pm. I then ‘relaxed’ by completing five tasks on the computer before making dinner!

Today I was up early (for me) and in the pool swimming by 8 am. It’s not yet noon and I have accomplished two marketing tasks as well as read two newspapers.

I think now it is going to be quite entertaining to maintain this list and who knows? It may eventually be fodder for new work!

Off to the studio I go…for more accomplishments. Thanks Franki!

Posted in documentation, time management, Uncategorized, wisdom | 1 Comment »

dancin’ shoes…

Wednesday, March 14th, 2012

Last week when I felt lack of gym motivation I decided to do the stairs as cardio. I had not been down more than a few stairs since my total knee replacement five months ago so I figured it was time to try the 13 stairs. I went down and back with ease. So after a couple more rounds I was winded and called it a day.

Suddenly I realized… if I can get downstairs I can also get back to painting stuff. I emphasize stuff because it is my personal pet peeve all the people who refer to one’s artwork as stuff. I really like your stuff they say. Gad, I hate that! I digress.

But I wrote stuff because I paint all sorts of things including shoes! So yesterday I went down and painted two pairs of red converse. It is kind of humorous actually about having two pairs of red which needed paint.

The first pair is from 2006 when I slipped wearing these shoes in the rain and broke my wrist. It was the first time I had worn them and I did not put them on again for 5 years feeling the jinx. Last year I decided if I painted them I might wear them. So I masked them off and painted them brown. They came out okay but looking too giraffe for my taste so into the back of the closet they went again unworn and deserted. I decided to add more paint, so I masked again and yesterday added silver and then brass and voila…new dancing shoes.

The second pair I bought at the outlets last year for $11 with the intention of painting as black/white/red plaid and far too conservative for me. So I masked off and painted with brass metallic. And of course not until I completely pulled all the tape off today I can see that like the giraffe before them, they need more paint!

After the paint was dry I tossed them into the new high efficiency dryer for a few minutes to officially heat set the paint and the dryer turned itself off because of the unbalanced load. I do ponder how I will be rinsing my hand-dyes now with the high-efficiency washer that uses about 1 cup of water to wash the laundry.

Dance on…

Posted in knee surgery, new work, surface design | 1 Comment »

the Liebster Blog Award…

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012
I have been awarded with Liebster Blog Award by Kal an artist on the other side of the pond at Kalona Creativity. This award is given to bloggers who inspire you and have less than 200 followers. The Liebster Award takes it’s name from the German word meaning Beloved, Dearest or Favorite. After some reluctance, I am honored to receive it!!! Thank you Kal!

 

As part of the tradition it is passed along to 5 bloggers that have
motivated and inspired.
To accept the award you must:
1. Link back to the person who gave it to you and thank them
2. Post the award to your blog
3. Give the award to 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers
that you appreciate and value.
4. Leave a comment on the 5 blogs to let them know that they have been offered this award.

Now for my 5…

Connie Rose gorgeous hand-dyed fabrics and profound thinking

Louise Schiele art and life at 65 mph

Cathy Kleeman gorgeous art and always entertaining chat

Franki Kohler nearly daily posts on interesting artsy subjects

Helen Moreda a quilter who starting painting and never looked back

 

and two to grow on…

Elizabeth Barton has far more than 200 readers but LOVE her work and her wisdom

Rayna Gillman also has a bazillion readers but offers so much real life time experience and great art

Thank you Kal and to my annointed 7 for inspiring me!

 

Posted in blog award, Uncategorized, wisdom | 2 Comments »

documenting my work, part deux…

Saturday, March 3rd, 2012

Just the other day I thought I had finished documenting my work. I noted I had made 150 quilts in 12 years. I have spent bits of the past few days rounding up images of baby quilts. Today in the middle of acupuncture I recalled a small portfolio I made of my very early work. It contained 4″x6″ photos and I was sure it was still somewhere in my studio. I came home, found it and ay-yi-yi discovered about 20 more quilts. So I scanned those images and documented those and now at last count I have 184 . This includes the four kid quilts for which I am seeking images, and two of my own. One of these was donated to the San Jose Quilt & Textile Museum auction about 7-8 years ago. I remember the title and the squabble that ensued when the woman who purchased it for a song marked it up ten fold and listed for sale on her website! That was my introduction to free enterprise. The other piece I believe was cut up but I can’t find anything anywhere on it.

I am not going to lose sleep over it though. I have well-documented the work that counts, through spreadsheets, photos, a hard-copy portfolio and my website and now the super-duper documentation binder.

Dare I say I am finished with this task?!

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documenting my work…

Thursday, March 1st, 2012

Last year while teaching at a Denver conference I also had the opportunity to listen to some incredible speakers. One of these was Nancy Bavor quilt appraiser, lecturer and curator. She spoke about documenting one’s work for historical purposes.

In a private conversation later she really encouraged me to do so, especially for my Tall Girl Series: A Body of Work. She said that this body of work carries so much meaning that I should record for posterity, beyond the Blurb book, the exhibit and the PowerPoint.

So I came home, wrote it on my to-do list and never looked at it again…until this week when I read an article she wrote on the same subject and that was the kick I needed to tackle this awesome task. I am now finished and can report the following.

It was SO worth it!!! All of my contemporary work is well-organized but go back a few years and I had files all over the computer…files of original images, copies of original images, and hi res images, folders on the PC and on the external drive. Images of very early work were filed under some obscure folder, spreadsheets here and there. Now everything is in one file on the PC, the external drive and a hard-copy 2″ binder.

I filed my work chronologically by year while not in exact order of production within said year. I filed the Tall Girl Series in its own divider within 2006, the year I started the project . I made an alpha cross-reference list so all work can be found if only the title is known. And I made a CD for hard-copy binder to be updated as needed.

What shocked me is I have taken photographs of nearly everything I have sewn with the exception of several baby quilts: Jad in Seattle, Cooper, Myles and Sophia here, Rose in Seattle, Stella and Julia in MSP. Figuring I would never use them in my portfolio I didn’t bother! Ishould be able to round those up. And I did not have photos of three pieces I donated to charity although if I ferret through old tax returns I could probably flesh them out. Oh now that’s another fun project for another day….not.

All in all I have designed and sewn 174 quilts in 12 years. I guess I need not feel guilty when I take a day off! It feels awesome to have completed this daunting task.

Posted in documentation, photography, time management | 2 Comments »