League of New Hampshire Crafts Fair

This is a very old but excellent quality Crafts Fair!
I'll be there the first 4 days, August 7-10 in Booth 616.

more info here- http://www.nhcrafts.org/craftsmens_fair/fair_home.html
My Booth!

My prayers are my Art

Art is praising the Earth.

My heart expands and tips over,

This food for my soul.

Art is my religion.

This is what rejoins my heart to

my body.

Rising, Rising, Rising-

like ocean waves,

This welcome tide.

Art Quilts Lowell 2010

ART QUILTS LOWELL 2010 AT THE BRUSH GALLERY & ARTISTS STUDIOS, LOWELL, MASS. 

AN OVERVIEW OF THE FINEST ART QUILTS BEING PRODUCED BY ARTISTS FROM ACROSS THE UNITED STATES.



Exhibition Features Contemporary Quilts by Artists Throughout the United States


LOWELL, Mass. (June 30, 2010) – Sophisticated art and handmade tradition fuse seamlessly as art quilters from across the United States showcase their work at The Brush Gallery & Artists Studios,256 Market St., Lowell, Mass., Aug 10 to Sept 11, 2010.  The exhibition is a venue of the 2010 Lowell Quilt Festival


Moving from beds to the walls of collectors, galleries and museums, art quilts have beautifully and forever blurred the boundaries between art and craft. Art quilters are modern alchemists who transform functional domestic textiles into objects of exquisite depth and intensity.


Rather than create their quilts from set patterns, art quilters typically design from interpretive experiences, imagery and concepts. This approach makes for work that draws upon techniques and traditions of the past, but with a very contemporary and original result. 


New Hampshire artist, Wen Redmond is know for innovative treatments of fiber, is exhibiting a new piece called Swamp Edge.This is an example of her series in Digital Fiber, which uses a photograph of nearby swamp, and layers her painted fabric in photo shop and is fused digitally. She prints with an Epson 2400 onto cotton canvas and mounted the photograph in free sections onto black felt and creatively stitched. The piece is held together with hand tied dyed pearl cotton and sealed with medium and paint. 38x23

The exhibition is free to the public and will showcase the delicate art quilting techniques of painting, dyeing, stamping, piecing, collage, printing, appliqué and other textile processes. 

The quilts of the exhibition were selected from among many striking entries by jurors Jeanne Williamson Ostroff and Linda Levin. 
The artists included in this exhibition are from all over the United States.

The Brush Gallery & Artists Studios
256 Market St., Lowell, MA 01852
978-459-7819
information@thebrush.org
www.thebrush.org

Hours:
Tues-Sat 11am-4pm, Sun 12pm-4pm

Flow

“I go to my table

Filled with my thoughts and

My cloth palette.

Cutting through the fabric,

Layers in my mind.

Foundation-

Opening me,

Spirit finds me-

Flow Begins!

Standing back,

I see a new thing-

                                                                   Collaboration!”

I use this poem as an introduction to my workshop "Piecing in the Flow", a curved piecing technique. I first was introduced to this technique by Nancy Crow. I learned to do it and then down the years, changed it to meet the way I work. One of my first pieces using this technique was called " Stepping Into Crow's Feet". It also addressed the changes that come with aging.

I don't use this technique as much anymore but flow is very important to my work. The best work comes when you step out of the way, work and respond to the work. The act of act is a dialogue, a communication with your inner core. I make art because I must, my medium is fiber.

Layered Collage, an Innovation?

 The start

OK, Nothing is ever new. I'll be sailing along making my art and come up with an idea and think Yes! This is ever so cool!  ONLY later to read in some book or magazine and find

out others have done this very thing. We are a talented and inventive group of artists.

    Here's my recent 'invention'  From the bottom up, layer backing, batting, collage materials and dyed or painted org. Stitch. Done! 

Anything can be collage material! These will be visible just under the organza. You can use scraps, thread, candy wrappings, tea bags, old digital print outs, old book- anything. And the best part is, you will look at everything with new eyes. 


Add a golden circle.

Hmmm,

Are those 5 figures?

Finished!

I like to leave the organza edges raw. I like the look of the wonky, free edges.

Quotes, Poems and Remembering

I love to read short inspirational quotes. They return one's senses to the real reality and core of one's being. Different quotes will hit you in different places and at different levels each time you read them. I have journaled for years and feel this is a way of honoring one's inner self and keeping in 'touch'. This is part of my process of art making. The two go hand and hand. "Remember Wen" is a quip from an old song but also a personal mantra for remembering to do just this.

SO- "In the photo by the bed, my mother is perpetually smiling on me. I guess I have forgiven us both although sometimes in the night my dreams will take me back to the sadness and

I have to wake up and forgive us again." Sue Monk Kidd

Sue is one of my favorite authors, I first read her book, Dance of the Dissident Daughter and later, When the Heart Waits, before I read her fiction, both of those books were exacting right for that time in my life.

and

"I said to my soul, be still and wait...So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing." T.S.Eliot

Deconstructed Digital Imagery

OK, I'm washing out my thermal fax silkscreen after using it-

usually I squeegee out remaining paint onto a cloth whilst, ( don't cha love that word!),

spraying with water- a good start for another piece of art

cloth.

I was in a hurry and therefore was soaping it up to wash out in the sink.

AND it look goreous! The bubbles were so textural and the colors melted

together so beautifully that I ran to get my camera and shot some pix!!

I do take photo's of work in process, sometimes thats just the element I need and I can print it out or make a silkscreen- etc!!

AND to enjoy here with you all.

Geez, do I have a screw loose or have you all had similar moments that just

disappeared down

the

drain?