Big Blue is Done!

I have finally finished my big blue quilt.  It is about 7.5 feet across and almost 5 feet high.  I am really happy with this piece.  It is square but I haven't edited it to fix that part since this is not a finished photo anyway as my thread file is in the picture!

It feels good to have this done.  I really like the layers I have and am already thinking about the next one which I should be able to start next week....

A Leap of Faith

 I have been steadily working on my blue quilt.  It is 4 x 8 feet and is very heavily quilted with orange thread.  I felt that it needed more so I took some red-orange dupioni silk and fused it, creating circles.

 

You can see how heavily quilted this is.....

 

 And a couple of other circles....there are a couple of circles stitched only also in the quilting.

 I added some negative leaf shapes in the stitching and also added red-orange silk leaf shapes.

Well, I lived with it overnight and then returned today after thinking about it and I had shown it to three very good friends to get their feelings about the piece.  It needed more so I decided that I would add painted circles but I would apply the paint with a small nozzeled squeeze bottle.  It took me a while to get the red-orange color just right and then to get the mixture smooth enough and of the right consistency to evenly come out of the squeeze bottle.

And then the leap of faith...the entire quilt was finished with the quilting and now I was about to use paint to add more circles....I had to trust in my vision and just go for it and hope that all worked out just find.

They add an additional texture and continue the circle motif further around on the piece.  I like the way the paint has gone on and it should dry with a raised surface.  This is all on top of the quilting.

So tomorrow is the moment of truth when it goes back up on the design wall after the paint has completely dried and then I can step back and see if I am satisfied or not...

Catching up and thoughts on art quilts

I have been slowly working away on the blue quilt but I was away for over a week as I went to the Nebraska State Quilt Guild Convention in Kearney.  I was teaching three classes there and had a great time.  It takes a couple of days to get ready to go, including shipping three boxes of surface design things and ordering some more to have shipped directly there, getting everything packed, etc.  One day is spent getting there and resting up, then the next three days were busy teaching. Then, on Sunday early I flew out of Kearney, headed back to Denver and then on to Oakland and home.  As I get older it takes longer and longer to get over the jet lag, even if it is only two hours worth.  Going from East to West seems to always be harder.

I haven't been able to spend much time in the studio this week as the week was taken up with various family things....taking my dad out to the exchange to get his cigarettes, babysitting a couple of times, sleeping, unpacking, etc. 

When I did get down there, I was doing some sewing on the blue quilt but also doing some picking out of sewing because I wasn't happy with the way a couple of things were going.  Still have picking out of stitches to do.

But then, I looked down at the floor and saw an orange piece of thread under the wheel of my chair. I tried to pull it out but it was stuck so I turned the chair upside down and started cutting and pulling thread out from the five rollers of the chair and this is what I got:

There was  a large piece of tulle caught under there also.  I had to really work at it for some time and there is still thread in the rollers....

But, I also wanted to share some thoughts about the "rules" of art quilting versus the "rules" of traditional quilts.

I talked about this in my design class in Nebraska...there are many reasons why certain rules exist in the world of traditional quilting...for instance, seam allowances are pressed to the side and not open, because quilts used to be pieced together by hand stitching so there was only one thread and pressing the seam open would put too much stress on the thread.  So when we begin to machine quilt we just followed the same rule...Edges must be straight, piecing correctly done, corners matching, etc....you know what I mean.

Then art quilting began as a new direction in quilting.  For many years art quilts were judged and compared to traditional quilts and the expectations were the same of both...stitched mitered corners is one that always gets me....why they need to be stitched I have never understood. But judges mark the piece off if it hasn't been done.

In my class one of my students was telling me about trying to make art quilts and that she pieces or appliques everything.  I suggested she might want to fuse and she was somewhat horrified, feeling that fusing might be cheating.  Thus began my discussion about the difference between art "quilts" and traditional quilts.

Art quilts are made for the wall, not to cuddle up under, to fondle or to keep you warm. They will not be washed.  Thus, many of the rule of traditional quilting just aren't necessary.

Use any method you want to attach fabric or anything else you want to put on your art....staple, fuse, pierce, skewer, hand sew, machine sew, glue, whatever you need to do to help you create your artistic statement. Put your heart in to what you are doing and let your voice come out.  You do not need to always use bindings....facings work if you want a finished edge, straight stitching along the edge to keep it all together works, zig zagging the edges works, satin stitching the edges works, putting a hand running stitch along the edge works.  Mounting your work on paper is great, or on canvas stretched on stretcher bars or other fabric, hanging with a sleeve, mounting on plastic, mounting on a panel, what ever works to show off your work in the best manner for the style of work you have created. The work doesn't need to have three layers...how about just two?  or one?  oh, but then that becomes something else....fiber art or textile art.

The "rules" we do need to pay attention to are those of composition and design.  The elements of design help us to describe what is happening and to understand why it is happening....not working out the way you want? Turn to the elements and principles of design to try to figure it out. Let your voice be heard.  Say what you want to say in a manner that will be convey what you want your audience to hear. Interact with the audience, after all, art does not exist in a vacuum but needs to be responded to, to have a dialog with others, to convey your message, to cause people to stop and look and look again. The eye needs to move around the piece and find surprises and interesting little intersections along with places to pause and relax.

We also need to understand the difference between a "study", a "sketch" and a finished piece of work.  Many times I have seen what I would call a study hung as a finished piece of art.  I think the UK patchwork people fully understand the difference and keep many studies and sketches in their sketch books rather than showing them...a study which looks closely at a part of something, seeking to understand how it is all put together rather than creating a piece of art. A sketch is a quicker little jotting down of what has been seen and is not a fully finished piece of art. That doesn't mean that sketches aren't great but they are what they are. Rough, thoughts on going, unfinished, searching for understanding of the subject.  The finished piece should show all of that...

I have found that so many people in the "art quilting" world have come to art quilts via quilting.  They have a good understanding of putting it all together but not necessarily the understanding of how art is put together. I have seen work that artists in other mediums have done with fabrics, trying to make an "art quilt".  They get the art part but not the craftsmanship of the quilting or putting it all together. I read several art magazines each month and keep an eye on what is showing in galleries across the country and over seas....every once in a while fiber slips in but it is always called a painting...I have seen some stitched, gessoed and painted and hung on the wall with nails nailed through the piece but they are indeed art and the way they were put together is all a part of what makes them.  They are judged by art standards and not quilt standards.

If we want to be taken seriously in the art world, we need to leave the comfort of the quilting world and enter art shows....work can easily be entered as mixed media or textiles or fiber.  Some shows are exclusive to watercolors, or paintings or sculpture, where this work might not fit although I have questions about watercolors on fabric as opposed to paper....unless the rules specifically say it must be on paper....then we need to apply for that show.  But don't expect to get any judges' comments back because that doesn't happen in the art world. On the other hand, they won't care if you have stitched down the miter on your binding corner either!

So tomorrow it is back to problem solving on my blue piece and a week spent in the studio....what fun!

Three days in a row....will wonders never cease?

Well, started out the day with my artful journaling group at church and then went out to lunch with my good friend Carol.

By 1 pm I was at the studio, got the quilt pinned (with straight pins) and on to George's table.

 

You can see the the quilt fits nicely on the table and working with George is a dream.  There is no problem in doing a piece this size....I just have to roll it up and frankly, this piece is much easier than many of my others because it is just one layer or fabric (with seams), batting and backing. Usually I have multiple layers of fabric fused and painted fabrics which all makes the thing heavy and stiff to quilt.  But this is easy.  So started out making three circles, which I had to pick out half of one because I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. Then I started doing the heavy stitching 1/4" apart with sort of straight lines inside the circle.  I am doing this with orange thread.

And, just as I was really getting in to the swing of things, my husband called to say the planning department had our garage and studio plans okayed and we could pick them up.   Well, there went the studio time and off I went to pick up my husband and check book and then down to the county offices to hand out another $2000 for permits and fees....now we can actually start!  This has been in the planning for five years and it has taken us about 3.5 years to get it all through the planning department. We will be adding an oversize garage (we already have a 2 car one) so that we can park our RV in the garage.  The bonus is that over half of the space above the garage part will be my new studio.  This means, given time, I will be able to do all my work at home with ready water access and a washer and dryer in the studio (it is already in my home studio) and be able to work at night, or day, in my jammies or fully dressed in something nice.  I can pop in to add another layer of paint to something, come and go and work much more in my own rhythm...

Tomorrow is not a studio day, it is the grandson's day...so it is off to the zoo so we can be sure to see the lions, the spiders and all the other insects....Back in studio on Saturday! My husband can start getting the bids for the foundation and garage floor...my, how fun that will be!

My goodness but I am back again....

Will wonders never cease?  I spent a full day in the studio.  Arrived, and studied the blue strips hanging on the design wall.  I wanted to be finished with stitching strips....I love to work in a collage method and doing the sewing of 60" strips gets a little tiresome....

But, the piece wants to be bigger so bigger it got! It is now about 60 x 92" or something like that....

 

The only problem of doing something that big is having enough fabric around to do the backing in the same size.  Most of the time I dye about one yard of fabric and then end up cutting out parts of it....I dug deep into one of my bins and came out with enough fabric to piece the backing

 

Got that all sewn up and then ironed which was a major chore as it was hot in my studio and my ironing table is only 24 x 48" and my floors get really dirty.  Lots of road dirt and dirt off the overhead rail lines outside my studio create a problem....no matter how often I sweep!

So, once ironed and the big table cleared off, I lay out the backing, pulled down the big roll of cotton batting and plopped it down.  The trick is to get the batting cut to the right size and then layers correctly onto the backing without any wrinkles....of course, working by myself gets a little challenging to get things straight....couldn't pull anything but had to life gently into the air and let it float down....and then got the top on  

 

I had hoped, before coming in today, that I would get to the sewing part but that just didn't happen.  Had too much other sewing to do on the front and the back.  Ah well, it gives me more time to think about what it is that I am going to do.

Lest you think that I just make up everything as I go, let me assure you that I have been thinking about this piece for some time.

I love the work Deidre Adams but until I had actually seen her work in person, I had no sense on the depth of her work and the complexity. Of course, she stitches a number of various pieces of fabric together, frequently using a zigzag stitch and then paints the work.  There are layers of paint. At places you can see the original fabrics which add even more depth. But as much as I admire her work and would love to create work like hers, if I did it wouldn't be my work.  The problem is that her technique is so much a part of her voice in the creation of her work.

 So the feeling that I would like to paint a quilted piece will have to remain just that. Lately I have been doing work that is very heavily quilted and calls for further surface design.  I have one piece that I have painted a few of the circles in that have been stitched and I like the effect.

However, I have another idea of what to do once the quilting is done....

well, you just have to wait....

 

I keep disappearing!

I just can't seem to keep this blog going regularly! I so admire those that can, who offer words of wisdom on a daily basis, show you daily what they have accomplished, share their thoughts, etc...but sometimes I feel others really don't want to hear all my anguish and questions about my work, the times when it is all in my head and there is nothing ready to show yet, or the many other artists whose work I have been discovering on the web and all that stuff. Besides, I don't like to show very much what is in process.

But today I thought I would show you some process on a piece and the progress as I go. I am not quite sure how this will turn out but I am experimenting with several things to see what happens...so join the journey with me.

 

I have pulled out a pile of various blues that I dyed some time ago. And then the unplanned fun begins. I tear strips that are 60 inches long, one at a time and sew them, one next to another. Each time I take the time to iron the strip before sewing, and then carefully ironing the piece that I have just sewn, tear another strip and keep on going.

 

At one point I tear out a narrow piece of painted fabric which has a lot of red circles on it.  Of course, with just a narrow strip you don't see the circles but the small lines show up. This also introduces yellow and red into this monochomatic piece.

And this is where I stopped last night. I think I am going to add more pieces when I get back down to my studio.  I do have a plan in my head for all of this but you will just have to wait and see what happens with it....


And, in the meantime, here is my piece for Deep Spaces which will be opening soon. I will give you the dates and places a little later.

 Deep Space: My View

 

Deep Space: My view detail

so it is off to the studio I go.....see you later!

What's been going on

I have been really busy. And I have been loving every minute of it!


Open Studios is coming up this weekend, June 4 and 5 and the next weekend, June 11 and 12. All days will be from 11 am to 6 pm at my studio in Oakland, CA at 4401 San Leandro St., just off of High St. and I880. Come on over!
So, I have been really busy!  I have done a couple of fabric collages with my new fabrics but have decided that a number of them need another layer so I will be doing some screening on to them to create more complexity.

I have also been playing with the creation of paper fabric and have had a blast. I have made about 12 sheets of this stuff in different colors with different papers. My long standing habit of collecting old books that are falling apart is now paying off as I use the pages in my new paper fabric. I have pages from a technical Chinese dictionary, lots of books on construction and the various aspects of it, and who knows what else, including receipts and old ledger pages and written letters of various ages. They are finding their way into my paper fabric.

I will be selling these at my open studio as my small ticket items, along with matted collages in both paper and fabrics, quilted fabric collages both stretched on stretcher bars and not and what ever else I can come up with!


So I am sharing some of the cards with you now.  They are really cool, if I do say so myself.  The colors on the cards include metallics and pearlized paints which don't scan very well and become very vibrant.

What I like about these is that they can be sent to someone as a card and then they can be framed in a 5 x 7" frame!  Instant art in a card.

And I thought I would share this little clip of my "installation art" at my studio in case you missed it on facebook. It is very short but I was fascinated and watched this happen for a long time before I decided to film it.  The music in the background is Peter Lanz  and Paul Speer in Desert Vision. I love listening to their music.

Some of my fabrics

After working about 2 or 3 weeks, I now have a collection of various fabrics to work with. I have spent the day today working with several of them but since nothing is ready to share I thought I would share some of them with you!

This stack is all misty-fused!

A painted piece of fabric that has been silk screened with paint

A stack of monoprinted fabrics all misty-fused

The stack that needs to be misty-fused

and another stack that has been Misty-fused

One of the painted pieces

and another one

and another one

It is such fun but it takes a lot of time. I use various methods of applying paint from printing, to thin painting, and scrunching up and wiping down the print table

 Before I started doing the putting together work on the red stole I just finished, I looked at my work table and decided that I needed a new cover because this one was just too grungy...not that anything comes off of it but it had holes where I had cut into it, etc. So a new cover went on but I have saved the old one and it is still on the table so when I want to get sloppy I still have it there. But I do have another 4 x 8' table in the back part of the studio where I have taken up my printing and fabrics painting.
                                                              
    

 One of the greatest new additions to my studio has been a really comfortable chair...now I stay down there all day and don't leave because I am tired of standing or need to just sit and think for a while since now I have a place to do it.

Life doesn't get much better!  Oh yeah, it would be better if I had a deep sink in my portion of the studio instead of having to go around the corner to my studio mate's studio and use the itty bitty tiny little corner sink......one day!

Time goes by too fast

I can't believe how time races by.  I am behind in posting and have finally gotten around to uploading some photos of work I have been doing.

One of the greatest joys I have is the creation of liturgical work.  When I joined All Saints Episcopal Church in San Leandro about 9 years ago, I had no idea that my art and my spirituality would come together with such fulfillment.

This has been my spiritual home for all the past years and I have received so much support, especially from the rector, Fr. Rob Droste. He is also an artist and is very gifted in a number of ways, but most certainly in his ability to help us find our relationship with God and Jesus.  In thanksgiving, I created a six panel set about the creation.  This led to much more work, including a commission  for a wonderful alter frontal and later a chasuble, stole, and veil for the chalice. I have continued to do a great deal of work for this church, as my gift to the church.

Three and a half years ago, I was asked to be on the vocational committee to work with a good friend, John Trubina, on his journey to  becoming a deacon for the Episcopal Church.  That journey as been a very interesting one, watching John become even more committed to serving the Lord.  His graduation from the School of Deacons occurred a week ago and my gift to him was his red stole for ordination. I thought I would share this with you. As I was doing the stitching on the front, I find myself mentally chanting a mantra that serves me well "for thy glory, Lord God" and this is my prayer when ever I wam working on liturgical work.

So, first I painted a piece of silk. I was not completely happy with it as the red was wonderful but the paler areas appeared far too pink. So I over dyed the piece with two different colors of red. The painted area created a very different texture that the dyed area.  I then cut all the pieces and proceeded to do satin stitching in three different rayon threads to add more interest and texture. This photo is a part of the piece, which hangs diagonally across John's body and has the longer part of the sash going down the front and also the back. This is a special stole, made specifically for his ordination which will be in two weeks.  I am quite pleased with this.

I have a commission to create a stole in the green colors for another deacon (who is already ordained and serving our Bishop) and need to finish the chasuble for my priest at All Saints which will go with a veil and stole I have already completed.

I have also been quite busy painting fabrics which are now ready for the silkscreening part. My studio became a busy place as I painted fabric, hung it up, ran out of hanging space, ironed it, repainted it, hung it up and continue the process for four days.  It has been great fun just experimenting with different paints to see what I like the best and different colors and various ways of adding paint to fabric. And just as I was about to upload pictures I had taken, I can't find them on my computer. Ah well, those will have to wait.

But I have been doing a few pieces doing handwork. These include some of my painted fabrics plus ephemera I have collected and are stitched on to watercolor paper.  I have several more in process.

Oh well, time to get back to the studio....I have much to do, especially since open studios is coming up the first two weekends of June! 

and life goes on

When I began to take a career in art seriously, after my retirement, I was very intent on all of the business end of things. I had an art management program which was great, a photographer who did my work, a lab that made all the slide duplicates, piles of stamps, an assistant to do the form filling out and slide replacements and fabric folding, listings coming out regularly to check out for appropriate places to enter, quilts coming and going.

But then little things began to happen that just seemed to make everything more difficult.  Two years ago I switched back to a Mac but my art management program no longer worked on this platform.  Things were supposed to be transferable and I tried to set up a program in Bento but I just couldn't get the hang of it. And then the data would not transfer. I have finally found another art management program that works on May but I still cannot transfer the older work to the newer platform.  I have let my website slide somewhat because, without the art management program, I have no place to keep all the information about a piece of art work in one place...you know, size, price, medium, etc. Also, suddenly the way I had been storing my photos no longer worked when I started using iPhoto.  So I tried another photo program, Aperture, but it seemed far more complicated.

I know enough about computers to get around fairly well but when I decide I want to do something with a program, I just get lost. Something that should not take very long seems to end up taking forever...like getting my art work into the new program. I end up just frustrated and giving up. I still can't get my laptop, ipad and iphone all synched together...and sharing data like contacts and calendar....can't live with them and can't live without them.

Watching younger artists pursuing their careers with energy and on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, websites, and lots of other social networking means just makes me tired watching it all. Oh, I have a facebook page but I got too confused using it. And I have a Twitter account that I have never used. And I am on Facebook but don't have a fan page or whatever it is. I "like" most people.

So, I flounder with all the data.

But the studio is very comfortable, except when it is too hot or too cold. I think I am going to have to invest in some insulation on my own since the company that owns the building doesn't do anything like that...there is something about freezing in one's studio that is fine when one is young but not so much fun later in life. And all the little heaters don't seem to put out any heat...either is all comes at my feet of it goes up to the ceiling 12 feet above my head.

Ah, but I have entered a show and am waiting to hear if the work is accepted. It is the Deep Spaces show and the art work much bet 18 x 45". Not only did I create a piece just for this show, but I actually was able to get a decent photograph of it and did the on line entry...wow, that is pretty good!

so, I will give you a photo of my piece for this show...if it is accepted. It is called Deep Spaces, my view. It is based on many photographs from the Hubble which I have put together in my own way.

It has been created using fabrics from another dyer who gets the most wonderful saturated pieces. I Misty fused everything, cut it all up into smallish shapes about 1 to 1 1/2 inches in size and then worked the colors. The bottom part, although dark, is very rich and the orange just glows.  Unfortunately, a photo does not do it justice.

Back to the creation of a red stole for a good friend who will become an ordained deacon shortly...it is my graduation gift to him after four years of school...he graduates this Sunday so I need to get it all finished tomorrow.

and I continue

I found myself really in a quandary between doing the kinds of work I like to do and listening to all those in the know.  The messages about having "one body of work" was coming to me from all sides. I like to work in both geometric formats which are really design exercises for me and then I also like to work in a very organic manner. I enjoy working in both ways. I guess the organic work flows out from me whereas the more geometric work tends to be more from the head. I like to make pleasing pieces, I love to explore how color relates to another color, I love line and being able to manipulate it in various ways.

So, I needed to get a portfolio out to art consultants and galleries in order to carry on with my professionalism. But all of a sudden, I had serious doubts about what I was doing. People I know and respect were very encouraging and saw nothing wrong in the way I worked but I fell victim to all the "talking heads" in the art world who counseled that it was necessary to stick to one style and if one did other types of work, keep it to ones self. So instead, I found myself stuck. Both feet stuck firmly in the quicksand. I really began to feel that I needed a mentor but had no idea who to turn to.

And, of course, doing nothing got me no where....

On the positive side, I have continued to make work consistantly  and I have done some good work. I have gone back and forth between the geometric and the organic styles and have enjoyed what I was doing although I was not getting it out.

About the best I could do was to participate in an collage swap that Karen Stiehl Osbourne did and to contribute collages to Virginia Spiegel's ACS fundraiser.

The doubts continued for the past two years. Questions of if my work was really good or not....was I just fooling myself....was I a pretend artist...who was I...what was my voice....etc., etc.

Now during the past two years I landed a job in Switzerland and taught there for five days and enjoyed the company of several of my Swiss on line students. And then I spent a week by myself in Lyon, France. It was during that time that I slowed completely down. I sat at the cafe and just watched people, when I missed my bus, I just waited two hours for the next one, watching the people. I was able to get away from myself and just absorb all that was around me. What a gift that was. But when I returned, things were still drifting for me.

I can't tell you what has happened but I have felt a great burden lifting from my shoulders. At 63 I should be able to just do my work and not worry about trying to please anyone (I haven't before) or to try to make sense of what my voice is, etc.

For the past two weeks I have been working hard in my studio and have been creating a much more welcoming place for myself. I now have a second 4 x 8' table, and just got a used leather recliner with a small side table. I can't tell you how much I have been appreciating that chair during the past week. Most of the work I do, except for machine quilting, is done standing up. My knees  are bad so after a while I can barely stand. Today I worked for a couple of hours, sat down and read for a little while (about art), worked some more and then sat down and did hand embroidery on new work that I have been doing.  Hand work....me....hard to believe but I have been finding that since the work I do is not precise that I can have fun with it. 

So, what kind of work do I really like to do? I have been giving this a great deal of thought. What I have come to realize is that the Japanese esthetic is very important to me and I had not realized how much of that I had absorbed from my time in Japan. I like things that are asymmetrical. I like clean lines. I love organic lines. I love something that is understated. I enjoy minimalism. I enjoy the expressions created by the movements of lines. I love the act of making art. I love the various processes that I engage in. I love the problem solving involved in designing art work. I love to work by myself and enjoy spending entire days by myself.

Ah, but then I need to come up for air and socialize with others, especially other artists.

I belong to a small critique group with some very special artists: Alice Beasley, Claudia Comay and Robin Cowley. All are very good artists and we have been very supportive of each other. This has been important to me and it is with them that I am able to discuss concerns that I see in the art quilting world. The art quilt world is so very different from the art world.  We are going through growing pains and since so many of us came to this type of work through quilting rather than art, many have a lot to learn about art...but that is an entire other topic for discussion.

Enough for tonight....my thoughts are still coming and I appreciate being able to put them out there and am open to any feedback....

where am I?

When I was a teenager, I had dreams of becoming a professional artist. By the end of high school, I had already taken two years of art at high school, a summer session at the Honolulu Academy of Art, and had studied sumi-e while I lived in Japan. My mother was an artist but I don't have many memories of her involvement in the arts except for her years of being a student in sumi-e.  She eventually received her teaching certification and taught for many years. She had done a lot of oil painting before we first moved to Japan and that is when, in 1954, that she began to pursue the Japanese art form. I took lessons with her for a while but found that the very studied use of brush strokes was not really to my liking.

Early on, a lot of my work was abstract. I made the decision to go to Trinity University in San Antonio, TX to study art. A wonderful school...smallish...about 2200 students and an outstanding liberal arts program. The arts complex included art studios, music studios, and our big theater which housed several smaller theaters also. It was a fun place. Students in the arts frequently crossed disciplines. I took drama lessons, drama students took art lessons and music students took art lessons. A very creative place to be.

After my sophomore year, my father retired in Berkeley, CA and was working for the University of California. Since he was employed there, I could attend with minimum expenses so I transferred. I was excited, this was a big school (22,000+) with a large art department. I learned how to weld there and really enjoyed taking metal sculpture classes. But I found that I just did not fit it.  I am not quite sure why, perhaps because I lived at home and attended school, it was hard to meet other students and develop relationships as I had while living in the dorms at Trinity. I also found that I was not sure how I was going to make a living with art. I fancied architecture but really didn't have the math for that field, considered interior design and passed on that, was too snooty to consider teaching for a living (you know, those who can, do, and those who can't, teach) and, although I was selling my work and going to various art fairs around the area, I figured I should consider something else.

So I went in to Social Welfare, which was actually a good fit for me and a year after graduation finally found a job in the probation department where I remained for the next 30 years until I retired in 1999. During all of that time, while working full time, being involved in Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts (big time) and teaching at work, I was able to become involved in quilting. I started machine quilting early in my life of quilting, when it really was not the thing to do.  Years later, I was teaching machine quilting to those who turned up their noses as my work....ah well, life is interesting!

When I retired, I finally had the time to begin my art full time. During the last year of my employment, my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. She lasted just two months after I retired. I was glad that I was retired in the later stages of her cancer as I was able to spend a great deal of time with her and to support my father. Several months after her death, I made the decision to return to art on a full time, professional basis...that is, an artist who works at selling their work.

I began creating work all the time. Once I had enough work on hand, I began entering quilt shows and also art shows. I was doing well. I hired a high schooler  to be my assistant and kept her busy filling out show entry forms, filing returned slides, labeling slides, etc. to help keep me organized. She also kept my data base up to date for me. I was busy. I had begun to teach, although I had decided that being a studio artist was more important to me than being a teacher. But I enjoyed the teaching and it helped with my income.

 I was doing well. IRS was very happy.  I even made a profit!

But I found that I was pushing all the time. Making work, finishing it off, doing all the work my assistant had done as she grew up and went off to college.  I was getting tired. It just seemed to be too much to enter several shows a month and to keep track of everything.  So I stepped back and that was two years ago.

Burn out on the career had hit. So for the past two years I have not entered any shows, not even my own guild shows. I haven't been sending out work, I haven't followed through on my goals to obtain further gallery representation after the gallery I was with closed, and I had not really connected with any art consultants although several had sold my work for me before.

So, where did that past two years go?

enough for tonight....I will continue with the update and the move forward.

It's Time ONE

One Cause, One Wednesday, One Hundred Collages
One Cause – The Fight Against Cancer.

One Wednesday – February 16, 2011.

One Hundred Collages – Created for this event by an all-star team of artists: Natalya Aikens, Pamela Allen, Laura Ann Beehler, Liz Berg, Pokey Bolton, Laura Cater-Woods, Jette Clover, Jane Davila, Jane Dunnewold, Jamie Fingal, Gloria Hansen, Leslie Tucker Jenison, Lyric Kinard, Jeanelle McCall, Linda Teddlie Minton, Karen Stiehl Osborn, BJ Parady, Judy Perez, Wen Redmond, Cynthia St. Charles, Virginia A. Spiegel

The goal – Raise $8,000 for the American Cancer Society in just one day. More details and a preview of artwork:http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/ONEFundraiserPreview.html 

Fiberart For A Cause has already donated over $205,000 to the American Cancer Society through the generosity of fiber artists and their patrons.

Featured Artist on Virginia Spiegle's blog

I am the featured artist today for ONE!  on Virginia Spiegle's blog...take a look and keep Feb. 16 on your calendar for your opportunity to purchase wonderful art work all for a good cause...The American Cancer Society.


Take a look at my interview!

New Work finished

Well, I finally got the right staples in the right stapler....I must say that the pneumatic stapler does a much better job. The electric stapler only gets the 1/2 inch staples in half way. Which means that I have to use the hammer to hammer them further in and sometimes they go really wonky and get smashed down rather than neatly hammered down.  Well, until the weather is nicer and the big compressor is fixed, this will have to do.

I have decided that this is a really nice way of doing the mounting of my work on stretched canvas. This time I tried something different and it really worked well. I cut out the canvas with enough to overlap the back by two inches. Then I centered my art work onto the canvas, gently pinned it down, and then machine stitched it to the canvas. The I could center from the back side of the canvas since it has a stitched line outlining the artwork and stretch the canvas onto the stretcher bars.  Works neatly and quickly without having to do hand stitching. So now I just have to attach the D rings and wire them. I found a source of plastic covered wire so there is no bare wire showing.

So, continuing in the circles motif, here we have three of the five....

 Circles 7

 Circles 6

Circles 8

These are each about 10 x 12 inches and mounted on 14 x 18 " stretched canvas.

I have the hardest time getting my pictures straight on so they look squared. These really are squared and I tried to straighten them up but it just doesn't work.

Well, I guess things will need to go to the photographers....

Some Days can just be Frustrating

I decided that I wanted to attach my new collages onto black canvas stretched around stretcher bars.
Easy, I thought.

A couple of years ago when I first started doing this, my dear husband got me a stapler...my hand is not strong enough to use the regular staple guns so he went out on a quest for me...to find a stapler that I could use and that would work well.

He brought home an electric one but the staples didn't go all the way in to the stretcher bars. So then he kept on looking and finally brought home an air stapler...one that uses compressed air to fire the staple. It is really cool and shoots out these wicked looking staples.

I can use it at home on the back porch because the huge air compressor is outside and I have a long hose to connect the stapler to the air compressor.

However, it is rainy and cold outside and I have the perfect set up at my studio for doing this...the fabric, a place to cut the fabric, the sewing machine, the stretcher bars, a big, high table to work on, etc. Plus it doesn't rain inside...it may get cold but if I am moving around it isn't too bad.

So last week I decided to stop by Home Depot and get an electric stapler.  Found a good one and got a couple of boxes of staples that the person told me would fit the stapler.

It was in my trunk and before I could get it out, my husband saw it and got upset that I had purchased a stapler without discussing it with him....well, he still had the original electric stapler from before. It is a Stanley but I needed staples. So I went off to the Ace Hardware to get them and came home with a couple of boxes of staples that seemed to work. However, when I got down to the studio, they just jammed in the stapler.  So I pulled out the stapler that was still in my trunk and loaded it with the staples that were supposed to fit it....nope, just spat out staples two at a time...

So, I have one piece of fabric with the collage sewn one and two staples holding it to the stretcher bars.
Decided that I just could not face Home Depot to take the staples back today to exchange them so will do so tomorrow.

And I had so hoped to get these five collages done...finished, wired and everything....ughhhhhhh!

This seems to be the way things have been going for me. Something that shouldn't take very long seems to take way too much time!

Ah well, tomorrow is another day.

Getting Little done

While I was away for a week, I came down with a horrific head cold and had a very sore throat and lots of coughing. For the first time in many years, I simply gave in to the cold, for about the full 10 days that it takes, slept, napped, drugged myself up with decongestants, and played games on the computer since I wasn't able to do much else.

But now I am feeling much better and am ready to tackle the art world. What has happened though, which happens to me any time I am away from the studio for any length of time, is that I become overwhelmed with ideas.

Of course, when I go back to the studio, there are always things in progress to some point or other. But then, while I have been away, I start getting new ideas, which I wake up with in the morning, or fall asleep with at night or just dream up during the day. Sometimes I wish I could shut my brain off.

I did the 5 collages for ONE and have started doing some along the same vein but larger for myself. These are done on upholstery fabric, have various items in them, including circles cut out of other fabrics, vintage linens and silk screening. They have a minimal amount of stitching in them.

So on my mind has been the question of how to display them...I thought about matting them, ready for framing and then thought about mounting them on rigid board, and then decided that they would really look best sewn to a piece of fabric that is then stretched onto stretcher bars....I will tell you, storing these babies is not as easy as storing regular quilts! I can't pile them up on the bed and they are not beginning to take up lots of room on my new storage shelving....oh well, I guess that is what the shelving is for.

But, to backtrack some, on the 15th I had to get my Sketchbook Project sketchbook mailed out which I had finally finished the night before. The entire project moves along and you can see a progression in my work as I did the book over 6 months' time.

So, here are a few pages from my sketchbook project....this page has lines on the left made with graphite and the lines on the right are stamped using cardboard.

On these pages I started making a grid with an ink pen and then began coloring it it with multiple glazes.

On two pages that I painted and over painted, I just made lines with my ink pen....very similar to a lot of stuff I have been doing in my fiber work lately.

And more lines, similar again to the fiber work machine stitching I have been doing a lot of....

So, today is Thursday and tomorrow I am back in the studio, having spent a day this week doing clean up and organizing. I purchased a new electric stapler so I can more easily staple fabric to stretcher bars, so that is one thing to do, I need to trim up a couple of quilts and get facing on them, mount the new collages of the new stretched fabric. and then I am ready to figure out how to displace my felt pieces...those may also go onto stretched canvas...and then, I can open the sketchbooks and really look at all the ideas I have been jotting down....