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Archive for April, 2010

Something Different

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

Here is a sneak peek at the piece I am working on to commemorate 15 years of the Quilt Art list. It was nice to go down to the studio and work on something rather brainless and fun!

I spent most of the day with 5 marvelous women from the Columbia Fiberarts Guild. The Guild has a huge number of slides covering the years of 1966 – 2000. They were gathering dust and were in danger of getting lost in someones attic. We decided that we should pull slides from each year that would represent the work being done. It was so much fun looking at the photos of everything from macrame to fantastic wearable art.

The slides had been catalogued by category. The first thing we did was to sort them by year. Here you can see some of the worker bees and the piles of slides.

We finished sorting and pulling slides for every year. I am so happy to have this finished. They will now be sent to Costco to be burned to DVDs.

I want to thank every one who left a comment about my PAM debacle. I want to make it clear that the embarrassment title was completely tongue in cheek. I was not embarrassed, only quite confused.

Having had some private conversations with people I really respect, I now feel that it was a good thing that I got denied. I do not need this. It is an extra expense without much cache considering the number of artists and the lack of any continuity of the work that is represented.

I am in a really good place with the pace and growth of my work. I just want to be in my studio making stuff.

How Embarassing

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

This is the body of work that I submitted to SAQA for my application to become  Professional Artist Member. I was denied. I was told that even thought I had “strong work.” my portfolio was not cohesive.

I waited quite awhile before I made the application because I wanted to have a cohesive portfolio. In my artist statement, I said that a big part of my work is creating original cloth from which I create abstract landscapes. I don’t know how to be more cohesive than this. I am open to suggestions, but I will not go through this again.

I also waited to apply until I had fulfilled many of the suggestions for PAM membership — having a solo show, work in national juried shows, work shown in museums, etc. I think I had fulfilled just about all of them. There are many PAMs who did not have to go through this process. They could just pay the extra membership and become one. Now, there is a glut of PAMs and so they are being very selective.

So, I am feeling as if I had the wind knocked out of me. I will get over it, but I wish I had not put myself through this.

Note: I feel compelled to explain my title. I felt embarrassed because so many friends had told me I was a shoe in and I believed it.

Do or Dye

Monday, April 5th, 2010

Well, I did both. I presided over a marathon and extremely productive guild board meeting. This afternoon, I did a base dyeing on 4 scarves with watered down Colorhue dyes. Tonight, I added the shibori effects. This one was folded and dipped in black.

This one was folded and dipped in black, but I obviously was not as precise with my folding!!

The other two were pole wrapped and squirted with dye. Click on the photo and you can see the detail a bit better.

I had an epiphany this afternoon while watching the Dr. Oz show. It was about the DNA diet.

A now famous study conducted at Stanford University looked at the long-term effects of weight loss using a few different diets assigned at random. Results showed that some participants lost weight on one type of diet, such as low-fat, while others did not. The study then tested participants’ DNA for 3 specific gene variations and found that those using the best diet for their DNA lost as much as 2 ½ times more weight than those not using their best DNA diet.

Dr. Oz explained the 3 different diets and the profiles that fit with each. I now know why I could not lose weight on Weight Watchers. I fit the profile for a low carb diet. The only other times in  my life when I have lost weight and kept it off were low carb diets. I am going to give the low carb diet a try. It means weaning myself off the grains that I love so much. I can only have them in moderate amounts. I think I can do this. But, first, I have to finish me See’s Candy Divinity Fudge Egg. I am having a slice a day. One more to go.

Meeting My Deadlines

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

I am feeling so much better, but a little tired. Maybe because I have been moving at a pretty good clip to meet my deadlines. I have a very busy week.

I finished Kimono III and you can see it attached to a bamboo hanging rod. I attached the other two to rods, also.

Today, the family came for dinner. I made roast salmon on a bed of potatoes, peas and parsnips. Steph made delicious brioche and lovely arugula salad.

When Steph was a little girl, if her birthday occurred near Easter, I made her a bunny cake.

I thought it would be fun to make her one again this year. It is a more adult version — coconut pound cake with dark chocolate frosting and toasted coconut garnish.

He is a little scary looking, but he tasted delicious!!

Tomorrow, I have guild board meeting in the morning. Then, I have to finish all my work for the Japanese Garden show. I want to dye some scarves and perhaps make some postcards. Everything has to be delivered on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I have a committee here at my house all day, working on selecting slides from the guild slide library that will represent a retrospective of guild activities and work. These will be digitized and the rest will be donated for study or thrown out. Slides are now obsolete!!

We won’t have STASH this week because Gale is in Arizona visiting her sister and Terry is working for the census and Beth is over at her beach house. It is Terry’s birthday tomorrow and I was hoping to celebrate, but we will have to wait until next week.

I hope you had a lovely holiday!

It’s a Miracle!

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

I spent most of the day feeling achy and mopey, even Aleve made no difference. All of a sudden, this evening, I felt better. I went to the studio and quilted Kimono III. I did much closer quilting than I did on the other two. I used a metallic red in close quilting lines. I love how it looks for this piece.

Here is another detail.

I am doing a plain black satin stitch edge. I am happy to have this done. I still want to dye up some scarves and make a few fabric postcards.

Thank you everyone for your good wished whilst I was moping around.

I am going to do Easter dinner. I think I will do roasted salmon and veggies. I am making a birthday cake for Steph, since we didn’t have a chance to do that this week.

We are supposed to have wild, wet and windy weather for the next few days so it will not seem very Eastery. But, we will make the best of it. There will be chocolate!!

Hope you all will have a lovely holiday week-end, whatever you are celebrating.