blue line gallery - Juried into the Fabricated Exhibit

Just wanted you to know that I have had three pieces juried into the blue line gallery - Fabricated Exhibit.  Yes three of them.  Pumpkins, Birch Tree Sunlight, and Nuggets.  It is very exciting.  A friend, Susie, had three of her gorgeous dolls accepted.  I am proud to show along side her work.
The show is July 9th to August 3rd, at 405 Vernon Street, Ste.100, Roseville.  Phone is 916 434 7368.  The Artist Reception is on July 16 at 7:00 - 9:00 PM.  Hope you can drop by. 

I have been working on two pieces.  One is a whole cloth with my Sharpie colors and the second is a MAQ Challenge.  The Sharpie is coming along but need to add embellishments to create a line for your eye to follow.  The MAQ Challenge is for the five of us to create from the same pictures, then each will be cut into five pieces and exchanged.  The artists will then re-join them how ever they want.  We will see what happens.  I just love the sunflower so far.  The reveal will be in Oct.



 

Two for One - or the Tale of Two Landscapes

Here is something a little new.  Suzanne (friend that creates Glass Art) gave me a beautiful glass tree, and earlier she let me play in her studio where I made a black/purple stick tree.  The question was how to use them.  I kept thinking of wool roving and felting so out came the boxes of roving and then the fun began.  Using a pizza pan as a template I cut two 12" black felt circles.  The different colors of wool were used like paint but it was too bold.  Remembering a  felting class, I mixed the wool - blue and steel blue for sky, brown and white for distant hills of snow.  Some wool  is "raw", which means there are still twigs and unknown brown stuff.  Sounds weird but it makes great snow.  Some greenish brown yarn made the furrowed hills.  This was getting to be a lot of fun but then the hard technical stuff came up.  Like how do I attach the felt circles to the felt board, how do I make sure the trees are both going in the right direction, and finally how do I attach the trees.  In the end everything worked out.  My new plan is to make round design using my favorite fabric - Quilter's Lame'.  I have ordered two more round  and square base.  Hope you like it.... do you have any suggestions for a name?

Lincoln Hills Art Association Winner

Seed - Tree - Home

This is a new and exciting group that my friend Suzanne encouraged (?) me to joined.  President Bill Szabo issued a Art Challenge for 2011 with the theme of "Pastel Colors".  Art was divided between two categories - Fine Art and All Other Art Forms.  The piece above qualified for the Other Category.  Membership voted for the winners and I received $$ for the Other Art Form Category!  How great is that!  I promptly went out and bought more Quilter's Lame' fabric.  Thank you to all the members for their votes.
While I am a new member, this looks to be a great group (aren't they all in Lincoln Hills!).  I have already met lots of fun people with a passion for their art.  This group has two shows planned - One at Mina's Coffee House  June 11 - Sept 9; and Umpqua Bank (date to be added soon).  So plan to swing by these great establishments to see the art and enjoy their service.

About the Art - Tree and birds were created using Sun Printing technique - an easy way to start your fabric dying exploration.  Other fabric was dyed using fiber reactive dyes with Elmer's Glue resist.  Flying Geese were paper pieced.  I used free motion quilting to get the flow of birds and wind and a "nest" for the seed pods at the bottom.  Beading was added and sheer fabric was cut into leaf shapes and added to the tree.  The piece flowed together until the tree and leaves.  That was pondered over for several years!  Finally as the deadline approached, an idea came to me - add little sheer leaves that would appear to float over the tree and ground.  Sometimes it takes awhile for inspiration to hit!

West Coast Wonders-I'm in

Got the good news last Monday that my Johnny Appleseed in Sebastopol has been accepted into the West Coast Wonders Special Exhibit 2011. It will tour the major quilt shows starting with Long Beach. It will be in Houston for both the market and show andbI will get to see it there. This is really exciting and I hope you get to see one of the shows. I'll add a photo soon.

Leaves of Costa Rica

Leaves of Costa Rica

Detail

You might think you remember Leaves from before, but look again.  The first piece had holes in the design and balance and background seemed too big.  At least it looked that way to me.... kept feeling something was just not right.  So I cropped the left edge, added three new leaves with more embellishments, and nudged a few leaves in new directions.  I also now call it Leaves of Costa Rica.  Their forests are dense and I did wonder what was hidden behind.
Hope you like it and don't forget to comment. 

Side comment.  The other day someone asked how long it took me to make my wall art.  Well, I had to ponder that one.  I figured that he was trying to judge if my work was worth the prices I was asking.  The answer was that if a piece goes together quickly - the design just flows and ideas come easily - that would take less time.  But them I pointed out that the quick flow was often what made that art piece the most successful.   Beautiful art is art no matter if it takes a day or twenty.  If I struggle, the piece often feels not just right and I can work it to death or just set it aside and hope that everything makes sense later.  I'm sure this is true in any area- cooking, golf swings, gardening, or being a friend.  If it flows it works. 

Artisans in the Lodge

Here is a chance for you to see my work up close and personal!  On this upcoming Sunday (May 15), 9 to 3 at the Orchard Creek Lodge in Lincoln Hills Lincoln Ca, there will be an art sale with approx. 30 vendors!  I will have 10 pieces with special LH Discount prices.  There will be a variety of art work - paintings, ceramics, fused glass, pottery, metal art, photography and more.  Hope you can come for a visit.

Wooly Wooly Challenge

 

One Wooly -  MAQ Challenge

The first MAQ Challenge of the year was revealed this Wednesday.  The theme I chose was Wooly Wooly and since there was no further explanation, I could pretty much pick my own direction.  The center of this piece was originally an idea I had for the Davis Artery - 8" by 8" Small and Great exhibit but it just did not work.  So at a later date, I added the gold  metal mesh, black squares and punched it up with beads and gold.  It is so much fun to have a project without a due date or definition that allows me to just play.  Things would be laying on my table and I would just enjoy thinking of what I could do with the piece.  I am very pleased with it.  The name is a bit odd but since I only had the one piece of wool felt..... I called it "One Wooly".