Month: February 2011 | Crazy for Fiber

February 2011
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28

Archive for February, 2011

Checking In

Friday, February 18th, 2011

I have been busy, busy. I spent most of yesterday with my STASH friends at Terry Grant‘s home. She made a really delicious lunch and we enjoyed chatting and sharing our work and the BOOK!

I have also been busy with my Photoshop Elements class homework. We have been learning to work in layers and layer masks and adding texture, etc. I am posting some of my photos that I have altered.

I am also working on the piece for the juried invitational show. I am trying to recreate some of Portland’s bridges. I don’t really work in a realistic way so I have been drawing them and cutting them out, but not to exact specifications, just a resemblance. It is a bit tedious. I am cutting them from lutradur which I am going to paint in colors that are not the bridge colors – how boring would that be. But, it is work that I can’t show much of until the jurying is over.

Earlier this week, I had the good luck of acquiring a collage by Wen Redmond in Virginia Spiegel’s American Cancer Society fundraiser.

Have a great week-end.

Posted in My creations, photography, workshop | 4 Comments »

Messing Around

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

I finished my landscape for the next Twelve x Twelve reveal. Check that off the list!

Last night, I met Terry Grant for an early dinner and then we went to a High Fiber Diet meeting. We had a very interesting discussion about what makes a quilt art, finishing work for a show — sleeves, labels, etc. We also discussed the need to mount professional shows which means it sometimes does not seem fair because a lot of work does not make the cut.

I took a few copies our our new book and sold four of them. I have a link to buy an autographed copy in the menu on the right. Click on that and it will take you to a page and then to Paypal. I plan to include a piece of mini art with each book that is purchased.

That photo up there is one of the activities in a book that the STASH group is working through, Mess: the manual of accidents and mistakes.

It is a wonderfully silly book. I have been way behind the others in the group and I did not want to show up tomorrow without something to show for it. For the exercise at the top, we were to slather the page with glue and drop small slivers of paper and let them land where ever.

For this page, we were to drizzle something sticky, such as glue or honey and then pour a powdery substance on it and blow or shake off the excess. Mine is glue and cocoa powder.

For this, we had to drop some ink or other color liquid and let it roll around the paper or do an ink blot. I did the latter.

This page has pomegranate juice poured from 5 feet above the page.

For me, this was just plain fun. I think it is a great way to loosen up and get rid of your inhibitions. I really had fun.

I am working on a big piece for a juried invitational show. I have the batting cut. I am working on creating some of Portland’s bridges on lutradur, which I will paint, once they are cut. Can’t say too much about this.

So, tomorrow, I am off for some fun with my STASH friends.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, Just for Fun, Quilting Friends | 1 Comment »

Look! Our Book!

Monday, February 14th, 2011

I was about to give up that the UPS guy would bring my author copies today. About 5:10 pm, Scooter started barking. He hears much better than Mr C and I. Mr C went out the front door and came back in with my box of 5 author copies. Sorry for the weird photo. It was taken with my Macbook Photobooth cam.

The book is really gorgeous — just chock full of beautiful photos of our quilts and our own personal stories. If you want an autographed copy from me, I will be setting up a buy now button as soon as I have some time and know how.

The Lark blog is doing Twelve Days of Twelves. I was the featured artist today. Be sure to follow along. They may have a give away of our book at the end.

At breakfast, I found this lovely plant in a pot that Mr C knew I would love. He was right!!

I have my sage/blue/brown piece done except for sewing down the facings. Here is a sneak peek of the work in progress.

Today, I started a mini-Photoshop Elements class. I am totally self taught in Photoshop and Illustrator, meaning, I don’t know much, at all!!

Here is my first project — a cropped photo with text — color matched to the stem of the daisy!

I have to tell you that listening to Stephanie talk about her photography job in Savannah was such a thrill for me. She had fun, learned a lot and was very successful. Now, they wait for the client to make some decisions. Soon, I can tell you the name of the client.

Lisa says she can die now because she was mentioned in the NY Times magazine yesterday. Click here to read about her. My kids continue to amaze me.

I haven’t shown you a photo of the lovable, Scooter, lately. Here he is, sacked out in the tv room. He lies right at my feet. Sometimes, I forget he is there and trip over him. Such a sweetie.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, Holidays, My Brilliant Daughters, Scooter, workshop | 10 Comments »

Art Crush February

Friday, February 11th, 2011

I think it was June Underwood who introduced me to the art of Helen Frankenthaler. She is a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work in six decades she has spanned several generations of abstract painters while continuing to produce vital and ever-changing new work. I love the bold colors that she incorporates in her paintings. I was reminded of her work when I saw a listing for an exhibition of her work in the New York Times, today. The exhibit is titled, East and Beyond and is at Knoedler & Company.

She is described as the doyenne of color field painting. Color Field is about the tension created by overlapping and interacting areas of flat color. These areas of color can be amorphous or clearly geometric. This tension is the “action” or the content. It’s more subtle and cerebral than Action Painting. (think Jackson Pollack)

Here is a photo from the exhibit:

These photos are Brother Angel on the left and Tattoo. The Times article said the following about these paintings:

Two of the most striking paintings achieve a supreme balance between East and West, and less and more. These are the exquisitely Minimalist “Brother Angel” and “Tattoo,” both from 1983, in which wavering monochrome fields of cream and pale red are inflected with little dabs and scraps of color that seem to be on the verge of sinking from view, like flower petals on a watery surface. Daringly Whistlerian and indisputably modernist, they whet the appetite for a fuller account of Ms. Frankenthaler’s long, resolutely focused career.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of her work and hearing a bit about Helen Frankenthaler. She was born in 1928 and still is alive and painting.

I had a good time working on my landscape for the sage/blue/brown challenge. I made a lot of progress today. I think I can finish it tomorrow and move on to my next exciting work which is top secret. I will not be able to reveal much.

If you like hearing about my daughter, Lisa, there is a great article about her scheduled for the San Francisco Chronicle Style Maker section, this week-end.

We are all excited to have Steph come home from her photography adventure in Savannah, GA, tomorrow. So proud of my brilliant daughters. Hope you will have a great week-end.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, Art Cloth, My Brilliant Daughters | 4 Comments »

A Clean Slate

Thursday, February 10th, 2011

I love my print table cloth. I finally got everything put away from my print table and my ironing/design table today. I washed the coverings. As I was putting this back on the print table, it made me smile. I had to take a photo.

I have been creatively frozen, and I know it was because of the mess in my studio. I went down early this morning and went to work. It did not take that long once I got going. While I was cleaning, I was also grabbing fabrics for the sage/blue/brown colorplay challenge. I thought I would need to go shopping for some fabric. Instead, I carefully went through my stash.

I added these to my pile of fabrics.