May's theme for our Art Chick's group is:  ferns!  Luckily, May is the month when ferns of all types and sizes unfurl from the warming soil and spring forth as swords of many ilks and greens!  I took a photo walk in my garden recently, and decided that I'd change the gorgeous verdant leaves to black and white.  This art piece was created with fern fronds as a monoprint/sunprint, using thinned black Setacolor transparent paint on PFD white fabric.  I then thread-sketched over the negative prints of the ferns themselves, and added outline quilting to hint at the movement of the ferns in the breezes that blow through our Pacific Northwest on a fairly constant basis.  So, black + white or in living color, these ferns are an annual sign that spring has sprung and summer is not far behind.

Painting With Paint and Thread

April's theme word for my art quilt small group is 'button.'  Wanting to think 'out of the button box', I decided to try painting a button, then highlighting it with thread-painting and quilting.  Where to start?  With a button, a very large button image!  Since this is a 12 x 12 inch piece of PFD cotton fabric, I had a lot of room for this fantasy button.  So, on a very rainy and dark day in Western Washington last week, with lightning and thunder accompanying my brushing, I created a very yellow/chartreuse button that I plan to thread-paint.  I took a follow-up trip to the fabric store for matching thread, and now I'm ready to try this new technique.  Results will follow in a posting in the next few days!

April 16, 2013
Drawn To Leaves
Last year I purchased a Quilting Arts workshop DVD by Catherine Nicholls titled "Drawn to Pen and Ink."  On it she explained how to display an image onto fabric via light box [or window], and then outline/transfer it in tiny dots, plus using dots to create shadows and veins.  Catherine inspired me to use her drawing technique in this 12 x 12 inch piece - outlining the veins, shadows, and shape of photograph I took of a maple leaf I found in my yard last fall. 

I used a piece of my own hand-painted turquoise and brown cotton on which to place the leaf, plus hand-dyed turquoise silk for the inset squares which were stamped with gold paint.  Everything was machine-quilted. 

Among my goals for my studio work this year is to use new techniques in my small studies, and to use at least one small study as the inspiration for a larger work.    

A New Artful Year Ahead

Dec. 29, 2012          A New Year On The Horizon

2013 approaches, with wonderful time spent at artmaking during the many months since my last post!

Two highlights:  taking a weeklong workshop from Jane Dunnewold at the Coupeville Art Center/Pacific Northwest Art School on Whidbey Island during the summer of 2012, and earlier in the year joining a small group of Arty Chick friends to explore new techniques and travel to fun destinations to stimulate creativity [Vancouver, BC in the late fall of 2012].

The piece I've photographed above is one of our small group "challenges" in the 12 x 12" size with the theme 'purple.'  It's white silk first crackle-painted with flour/water, over painted with black textile paint, dyed purple, screened through a thermofax to create the 'constellation', applied with gold leaf and finally cut into pieces and reassembled!  Thanks to Jane, I was able to accomplish creating this piece with the multitude of new techniques. 

I've just set about creating a new website where I can market some small art pieces.  It's currently in the beginning stages, but please visit www.artquiltartist.com to see what I'm up to!  And, stay tuned as the new year brings my new projects into view.

A New Day, A New Year, A New Camera!

It's time:  for a fresh look at a new year, and a new way to look at art - through my new digital camera!  My daughter, Lise, presented me with a new Nikon yesterday - in hopes that I soon would be taking lots of photos of lots of new art work [among other subjects].  Stay tuned - the newest and best is about to come!

This week I completed another small quilt exercise.  I began by deciding to use some of my Japanese fabrics that have sat for too long on my 'stash' shelves.  I decided that if I don't cut into them, someone else will after I'm gone.  No fair.  They're mine.  So I cut.

Out of it all came "Nara Nine-Patch", machine-pieced and -quilted 'in the ditch.'  In the photograph, the negative space became positive, which I find interesting. I've always wanted to go to Nara, Japan.  My mom did decades ago, and came home with stories of temples and ruins of great beauty.  It's a VERY old city, about to celebrate its 1300th birthday!  UNESCO has designated it a world historic site, a treasure.  My 12" x 12" piece is a little treasured bit in my personal world, made with fabric perhaps as only old as 3/1300ths as the city for which it's named. And, I remember my mom when reflecting on Nara.

Monocerotis and Me

June 4, 2010

                                                                                      
Two days ago, I felt the urge to create something, anything. I hied myself into my art areas to seek inspiration. I had no particular project in mind. After some mining of stacks of papers and fabric and supplies and "stuff", I came upon the photo printed on fabric that you see in the little work pictured below, finished yesterday. The picture inspired me instantly to do something with it. Two days from birth to life for my piece.  [Completion came so quickly because this work is small - only 10 1/2 inches square.] Since it's not a very large piece, I was able to hand quilt it. This is satisfying to me in a whole different way than machine-quilting a larger piece.

Millions of light years away in our Milky Way galaxy of millions upon millions of stars and planets and comets et al, the star Monocerotis V838 [in the constellation Monoceros] put on a light show of beyond-spectacular proportions. Visit the Hubble Space Telescope websites for a retrospective of its photographs. Monocerotis was a true shape-shifter!  http://www.hubblesite.org/  http://www.hubble.nasa.gov/  http://www.spacetelescope.org/ 

Many months ago, I printed on cotton fabric a photograph of Monocerotis at work, one of the many that the brilliant, tax-payer-sponsored and -financed Hubble space telescope has captured of this particular star's death agonies since about 2002. This image was taken by permission, copyright-free from the Hubble site. You and I fund Hubble, so it's working for us every day! Per their requirements, I have advised Hubble that I'm using their photo in this way.

So, in two earth days, thanks to millions of light years of space image transport captured by Hubble, you can see a bit of our universe's history, a light show from God.

I'm going to put this up for sale on my Etsy website, http://www.artquiltartist.etsy.com/  and the possibility also exists I may donate it to the annual fund-raising auction of Studio Art Quilt Associates http://www.saqa.com/ by July 1st.

SAQA is a non-profit, educational organization for art quilt artists of all mediums. Visit their website in September to see all of the donated work.  The auction starts on Monday, September 20th.  You can pick up a piece of original work by fiber artists from famous [definitely not me!] to just-emerging [probably my category] and support a worthy art organization at the same time.




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