See How Artists are Responding to These Times

 The PHES Gallery in Carlsbad, CA, is putting on a juried show called Artists Respond to the Moment.  I had 2 pieces selected, a sort of matched pair, called MOHS 1 and 2.   I thought they were pretty good representatives of how the world feels to me at this moment.  Cut, dug, sliced - the violence before the correction!  The planet feels like there will be an effort to clean the place up,  purge it of evil, fear and negativity.  We can hope that eventually this will lead to a MUCH healthier physical, intellectual and emotional state for us all.  Yea, photos of my surgery last year...   Viewing not recommended for the squeamish!!

MOHS #1

MOHS #2

Hope to see you at the OPENING July 27!!

Hawaii Here Comes FiberFly!!

 

Aloha Kakou, Deborah Weir of LA based Fiberfly Studios https://fiberfly.blogspot.com/ will do a free, open to the public slide show lecture on Saturday March 15 at Kaimuki Library. In the afternoon she will do a silk dyeing workshop which you can sign up for  https://www.hawaiihandweavers.org/event-6002082 Should be a great learning experience and a lot of fun! Learn Fiber Arts with Us! Classes Donate classes@hawaiihandweavers.org info@hawaiihandweavers.org hawaiihandweavers.org

Panel at Quilts on the Wall Yesterday

The Southern California art quilt group Quilts on the Wall invited me to serve on a panel to discuss my design process.  It was fun and I learned a lot, but I only talked about my quilts with are maybe 1/3 of my art practice, so it was interesting to prep and just focus on my collages, Photoshopping and then having them printed and getting to do the miles of the hand stitching I add.  I confessed to them that I actually don't really know how to "quilt!" 

SOLD!!!

 So thrilled, Middens #1 sold today from the Fiber Art Now exhibit at the Texas Museum of Quilts.  Thanks to everyone who had a hand in the exhibition!  3D layers of accumulated detritus.

HOLES - a new technique

 I wanted to write a bit about holes.  I’m a big fan of openings as they break up the surrounding space and provide a window to what might lie below.  They give both visual and literal texture.   I’ve burned, drilled, punched, ripped, used the multi-needled felting machine, and applied a heat tool to make openings.  Recently, in a course I took with Debbie Lyddon,  I’ve added rings (metal, plastic, etc.) to cleanly outline the holes.  This is a different look from my previous methods.  These openings are stronger, demand to be noticed and appear more intentional.

The first example is a quilt called CONCRETION.  The righthand upper 2/3 has a flap through which I made the holes.  Each window has a different element visible below.  Concrete is a compound of many materials, and I liked the idea of showing some of these in the layer normally not visible.  This piece also has images of holes which are printed and sewn but not actually open as contrast to the literal ones.

HOLEY (H)AIRPLANT is another recent piece that uses holes.  I was thrilled with the piece of canvas I had dyed for the layer below the Lutrador and wanted to make sure that viewers would be able to see it.  So I have stitched the hoops on, cut away the Lutrador and burned any remaining material inside the opening.  I also burned a lot of smaller holes with the heat tool.  I spray painted these outside panels so the hooped holes blend visually to their substrate; then I sewed each panel onto the underlying (dyed) fabric.

So many simple ways of adding depth and interest!

BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS!!

It’s dawned on me lately that I have been making books, lots and lots of books.   They come in a wide range of materials, sizes and shapes.  Fiber: cloth and paper, lots of stitching, of course.  While I have been making the occasional one here and there over the years, this dive into such frequent and varied book-making seems to have started about 3 years ago.    And I don’t see it letting up soon as it’s so much fun.   

You might notice that these books contain no words.  They seem to tell stories, each in its own way, without them.  Some of the techniques I use include: dyeing, stitching, cutting, gluing and burning.  And they are made from paper, metal, wood, canvas, rattan, mixed media elements, and much, much more.   

Represented here are both typically formed books and horizontal, vertical, memorial wall shapes, scrolls, multi-fold and caterpillar books.    There are also free-standing books and those attached to quilts.  I was honored to have Awl’s Well pictured on the catalog cover of the Art Cloth Network’s Unfolding exhibition catalog!   Maybe I’ll open a library…

Portraits of Ghosts

I recently started a new series, Portraits of Ghosts, which deals with the fires which occur more and more frequently in the liminal space between human habitation and wilderness.  I've been taking photos from 2017 on in places like Santa Rosa, CA, where fire raged up to the property line of my family's home.  And in Lahaina, Maui, HI, destroying one of the oldest cities in the US. There are countless more examples of these in every region on the planet.  Here are the first 3 in the series - all the stitching is by hand and I painted Tyvek to add a bit of dimension to the areas that were still ablaze.   

Some End of the Year Catch Up

I figured it would be best to just post these items that I have worked on in the latter part of this year and haven't gotten much "press" yet.   Some fun eye candy!  Contact me if you want more info (FiberFly@icloud.com).

Held Harmless #17

Anthurium

Algae

#11 (There isn't an actual title for this piece)

Between a Rock and...

Portraits of Ghosts

Royal Flush - My Nephew Alex Shirwo's artwork.  I will be adding stitching once it has returned from the printer.