Collage in Progress

I was out of town last week in Florida for the Art Cloth Network's annual meeting and am now happily back in the studio. This piece, as yet unnamed, is developing well: paper and fabric and MANY interesting oddments. I have bent, yes, bent, about a dozen needles working on it as some of the paper is VERY metallic and thick. I'm now using a three inch needle and a giant thimble! Oh the challenges of art!!! It is a foggy day so my pix required a flash even though they were taken outdoors so the metallic appears a bit more reflective than is ideal. Looking for sunshine tomorrow.

Sea Grass Lamination

This piece was just accepted into the Palos Verdes Library exhibit which will be up from Nov. 12-New Year's Eve. The opening event is from 5-7 on Saturday, Nov. 12; please come by if you are in the area. It is a really fun event!

Yet another in the Violent Winds series

This piece is called Etesian after the winds that sweep south out of northern Europe into the Aegean. It started with a yard of cotton I dyed in the bright reds and oranges. I then added more, smaller, hand dyed shiboriied lengths to create the ground fabric. I had the blue screen printed yardage I'd done about a year ago and spent a long time at the design wall ripping it up and auditioning it onto the base. Then I built a couple of screens with the wonky "donuts" and did the printing to unify the piece. I thought it was visually quite flat in spite of the bright colors so cut out, hand stitched and quilted all those individual donuts. Still not content, I brought in the expert eyes of my artist friend Cynthia Catlin and we mulled and auditioned various things. I settled on the black spirals which add visual depth.

Tapestry Weaving

I have been quite focused on weaving over the last couple of months. The big Glimakra floor loom is set up in my Studio Annex in San Pedro along with my painting supplies. A great big length of multicolored wool fabric is progressing nicely on it. Meanwhile, here at FiberFly Studios my assistant Jessica (age 11) and I have been working away on a new tapestry. It is a large and complicated design which will take several years to complete. We started with the whole process - designing, getting the cartoon copied to size, ordering the yarn from Australia, warping and weaving over the summer. Doesn't look like much so far, but stay tuned!

Terrain

This is a painting I made last year which mimics the earth's surface as it is built upon plaster cloth and acoustical spray for dimension. It is gilded on top of much of the paint. It has been recently "rehomed." I wish it and its new owners the best!

Oroshi

Another one of the earth's violent winds - this one in Japan. Laminated paint (really) and lots of shiboried bits and other hand dyes plus some soluble media to tie it all together.

Harem

Not really sure of the title for this yet. Any ideas? It is for the Art Cloth Network's 2012 challenge. Maybe I'll actually get to show my piece this year . . .

Closer Than You Think

This piece is in honor of one of my favorite artists: Chuck Close, who has AMAZING skills as an artist, works in modules just like traditional quilt makers do, and has overcome a disability which would have grounded almost anyone else! Called Closer Than You Think it is now featured in the Summer edition of the SAQA Journal, page 22.

Rusty Pillons in the San Francisco Bay

Last year when I was at the Surface Design Association/Studio Art Quilt Associates joint meeting in San Francisco I spotted this amazing retaining wall near the hotel. It is above the waterline in this shot but clearly has experienced the ebb and flow of tides over the years. The first image is my (somewhat tweaked) photo. The second and third are pix of a painting I did in my beginning acrylics class a the Palos Verdes Art Center this summer. It's kind of primitive but looks a bit brighter in "person." Was fun to work on.

A free digital slideshow by Smilebox

Deep Spaces

Isn't this a pretty announcement for the show? The details are in the column to the right. I have a piece of art cloth in the exhibit - not much opportunity to show hand dyed cloth so this is much appreciated! Most of the rest of the exhibit seems to be art quilts. Let me know if you get to any of the venues.

Another in my series focusing on violent winds

This piece is called Viento Zonda and represents the winds out of the Andes in South American. The border is not finished; it will be larger, made of the art cloth on which it is sitting in these pix. All of these fabrics were dyed, shiboriied, soy wax resisted, laminated, printed and/or otherwise created by me.

Inspired by Rothko

We spent some time last weekend at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art which has rearranged almost everything as a result of its two new buildings and the extra space they provide.* Nonetheless, I managed to find my favs - the 20th century Americans, the Abstract Expressionists. So it's not surprising that the very first piece I make afterwards shows the influence of Mark Rothko. This is just a start, will develop it more over the next day or two then stitch.

*The BAD news - They have eliminated the costume and textile gallery!!

Lamination Demo on July 30

I will be demoing the process of laminating images on paper to fabric which has been dyed or otherwise colored. I will show various ways in which water soluble media can be used to visually integrate the two materials. Please attend The Sampler session on Saturday, July 30 from 6:30-8 at the International Quilt Festival in Ballroom B on the second floor of the long Beach Convention Center. Tix are available at the door.

This is a great (and useful) technique and the session will be really fun!!

The pieces shown here are titled: Red/Orange Flow, Detritus Takes Root, Aquatic Trails and Urban Target

Xmas Morning

Got the quilt top done and am now quilting away. Here's a close up so you can see how the bicycle track was finally done and how it looks on the snowy background.

Coalescence II

I just had reason to revisit this piece and thought I'd post it for all to enjoy. This is a detail of a quilt done entirely on the embellisher (dry felting machine). There is no thread at all. This is a flexible way to work and nothing visually breaks up the blending as thread sometimes does.

Bicycle Tire Tracks

I've been experimenting with the bike track to run through the snow in Christmas Morning. I did several sketches of the tires on my husband's bikes. Then I tried three different approaches with felt, paint transfer, stitching and burning to create a fairly realistic image. Here are a couple of samples. I chose the surface I liked best (the upper one) and have decided to do much less burning away of the felt. I'm also going to add a couple of tiny bits of color just to spice it up. It's really important to do a lot of experimentation to be sure that many approaches are considered. These two are fair but not 100% what I want. Should have it by the end of the day!

Harmattan I

Yesterday we were in Carlsbad, California, for the opening of an exhibit of art quilts by Southern California SAQA members. I was happy to have my quilt, Harmattan I, the first in the Violent Winds series, juried in and to see so many friends and their great work as well! Stop by this month if you are in the area. It also feels wonderful to be back in the art groove after almost two months of traveling, being under the weather and then a massive computer disaster - pix of work over the last 7 months lost forever. Tan, rested and FOCUSED!!

Let It Snow!!

In a most unseasonable manner I am working on a piece about winter called Christmas Morning. I have just gotten the ground fabric designed to be as varied and reflective as snow - something with which we are NOT intimately familiar here in Southern California near the beach! The photo doesn't really capture the sparkliness of the whites, but it does glisten.

Amazing Tapestry

The Bjorn Jorg Museum in Silkeborg, Denmark, features paintings and these tapestries (there are dozens) done from his "cartoons."

Faborg Castle - Disney's Inspiration

Off to Europe

We'll be all over Denmark and then a side trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, till mid June. Looking forward to visual stimulation! Even with the new iPhone I don't expect to be posting (or checking email). Being disconnected sounds more vacation-like!

Lava Flow

Another Contemporary Embroidery. This one represents the creation of the earth's surface where the lava meets the sea. It took MANY iterations to get the result I wanted but I think this now tells the story.

Gates of Hell

For a Quilts on the Wall challenge I've begun working on a piece about Cerberus, the guardian of the Gates of Hell. This is the finished ground cloth. Let's see where it goes from here...

Happy Birthday Susan!

This lamination is a card I did from a design on paper my friend Susan Willen made. I applied it to some fabrics I'd dyed and printed then drew on it to enhance the forms.