Archive for April, 2015

this and that…

Sunday, April 26th, 2015

glorious NM clouds make for fantastic sunsets

Last week I traveled with a friend for a mixed media art class in Santa Fe, NM. Anyone who knows me well knows I am a total NM junkie. It takes little to convince me to go to NM, and this my 14th trip was no exception. This time I spent no time in galleries, the cooking school or on the plaza, however.

All my time was consumed with art-making, eating and sleeping. With possibly 100 great restaurants in Santa Fe, we chose repeats at our favorites! And with preparation I was able to consume everything I loved including an entire week of green chile and blue corn anything.

green please!

We also crammed in two errands, one to see the SAQA NM region’s Cultural Red exhibit at the capitol roundhouse and the other a visit to our favorite indian jewelry trading post, the Santa Fe Exchange. It was delightful!

We studied with Betty Busby whose work I have been in awe of for a long while. I bought a piece of her work in 2011 from the SAQA auction and having it hang in my office is such a treat, and daily reminder of all that is possible to explore in this medium. Spending the week with Betty really demystified her work for me and made me appreciate even more its detail and intricacy. Additionally she is such a generous soul and funny person so it was overall a great experience. As I was fully ‘in the moment’ I was also able to appreciate the art immersion, the relaxation and the gift of time away.

painted leaves

We painted non-wovens, such as these leaves and the outline of an aged cactus, which strangely looks a bit like a totem.

old cactus sketch cut in fabric

We also painted several pieces of silk under/over textured mat surfaces…

painted silk over plastic mat

 

And used Shiva paint sticks to create patterns on previously painted fabrics.

Now that I am back I am picking up where I left off on the collaboration as well as enjoying an online class titled iPad for Artists which reminds me I best get started…

 

Posted in color, patterns, playing, shapes, surface design, textures, travel, Uncategorized | No Comments »

where i have been…

Friday, April 3rd, 2015

spring comes to Prosser, WA

Holy Smokes…what happened to March?! I can’t believe it has been over a month since I have blogged.

To come up to speed, I continue on with the collaborative series, as I am now designing #7 of the twenty five. I am so enjoying this experience and the ever changing challenges of construction, technique, materials, etc.

Meanwhile I sold all my small scrap purses at the arts guild, so a brief interruption of the series for production sewing. This is something that often challenges me. I never want to do production line anything and yet these sweet small bags pay my rent there, so for now it is worth the tradeoff. If I end up sewing a dozen a month, it will not be worth it however! Each one is a design challenge and allows me to use up most scraps of my self-designed cloth.

scrap bags

Last week we interrupted this program with an impromptu road trip to eastern Washington for a memorial service.

along the Columbia River Gorge, OR

Mt. Shasta, CA at 70 mph

We jumped in the car because it seemed the most expeditious way to get there and although we spent more time driving than we were actually there, we saw some gorgeous nature along the way. We also explored the small town and I stumbled across this incredible tree in an art shop. It was constructed from plastic water bottles that had been painted by someone with far more patience than I.

painted plastic bottle tree

Fortunately I was never far from sushi. This beauty was from a grocery store…and it was yummy! So now back at home and back to work!

car picnic: sushi

Posted in color, gallery, new work, patterns, photography, shapes, travel | No Comments »