Journal Pages, Thinking in Ovals #2

When Next we meet

will I be calm?

can the sun be out?

long ago you made me watch the stars,

I saw them in your eyes

Namaste.

Journal Pages, Thinking in Ovals

softly your hands touch mine

though your keys

lightly tapping

tapping beauty and thought

into my soul

Namaste.

Shine

 I was inspired to create a holographic image, one of my trade mark processes, from this photograph. It captures the early morning salmon rays on every crystalline covered branch.

.

I divided the image, top bottom, right and left in PhotoShop. On each piece I increased the size of the canvas to create a border for sewing as well as the increasing the size of actual photos.  I wanted it to mirror the holographic section in the center. I printed these on cotton broadcloth.

Next I painted cotton duck in colors that would accent the original photo. 

Shine finished

Shine side

This piece was exhibited for the first time at League of New Hampshire Crafts Sunappe Fair last year in Living with Crafts. It sold! 
more on post WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2010

Leafing, new Media Mix Piece

It's Spring and the leaf buds are ripe to pop when we get some warm weather- inspiring some studio work.

When I prepared for my demo at the New England Quilt Museum, I did some practice leaf printing. 

I love this quick satisfying technique.   (Published the technique in Cloth Paper Scissors this winter.)

Leafing 

Expermenting with a painted stabilizer base, I added prints, thermal fax silkscreen, a digital tree image printed on silk organza, a found object and mediums. I really like adding mediums on my cloth pieces as well as adding paper to my mixed media work. It also protects the completed work.

Leafing detail

Finished off with quilting but leaving the organza loose so the viewer can see beneath it.

And Still I Rise

 Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops,

Weakened by my soulful cries?

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I’ll rise.

                                                            Maya Angelou

Haiku

How does yellow sing? 
With threads of gold and sunlight. 
Stitch a melody. 

Beautiful Haiku from Terry Grant in Portland
www.andsewitgoes.blogspot.com

Chasing Color

Chasing Color has been chosen by Sacred Threads.   

detail
A greater number of quilts were entered this year than were ever received before.  This rally of support for the exhibit convinces us that the show continues to fill a need in the quilting community for a safe venue for our most sacred pieces. Due to limited space we will be able to exhibit only a percentage of those quilts entered into the exhibit.  Each of the quilts has its poignant message and many brought tears to our eyes.

Beneath the Surface Exhibit in Cincinnati

This photograph from the Dinner at Eight Artists blog 
is from Festival in Cincinnati.

Beneath the Surface exhibit was well received and in a prime location - across from SAQA, and next to the Festival theatre.  

My Piece, Shaking the Tree of Imagination, is on the very right.

Book to Feature Fiber Plus show in NYC

FIBER PLUS: Fiber with Mixed Media
My Page for Book featuring the show at the the Blue Door Gallery NYC

this will be my page!

I did a prior post with photos on 4/11.

Mix It Up- Mixed Media Collage

These past few days I have been fixing the final draft of workshop plan, preparing samples, choosing supplies and packing for the upcoming Surface Design Workshop I will be teaching. It’s called Mix It Up- Mixed Media Collage. It's a 4 day workshop covering all sorts of mediums, collage information, my specialty 'Random Serendipity Collage' - all stirred together with with lots of inspiration! 

I found out today that there is ONE spot left and it’s full! Too ExCiTiNg!

Whispers of the Positive

The SDA conference, Confluence will be held this year in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.

More info here.

Come learn, and let it go!

Brimming

Featured on Running with Scissors 

interview here

Three Weird Sisters

excerpt

RWSS: Best advice you’ve ever received?  

WEN: Be yourself. Only you can do what you must do. Come from the very best place in yourself. Honor that. It takes so much energy to try to be like someone else.

RWSS: What do you enjoy most about your work?

WEN: Everything! I am a process person. I enjoy the inspiration, thinking up new ideas, the painting, photography, everything. I do it 24/7. The thing I’ve noticed is the more you practice something, the better you get. Being an artist, you develop and ‘eye’. Now, I sometimes see the most exquisite things in the most common places. Your eye becomes very sensitive and gives you the most wonderful visions!

can you run with scissors?

When I am Among Trees

When I am Among Trees

Mary Oliver (Thirst)

When I am among the trees,

Especially the willows and the honey locust,

Equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,

They give off such hints of gladness.

I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,

In which I have goodness, and discernment,

And never hurry through the world,

            but walk slowly and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves

And call out, “Stay awhile.”

The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,

“and you too have come

Into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled

With light, and to shine.”

Artist Directories

I take the time and it does take time, to add to a variety of artist directories. I just added to another one.
here
What do you think?

Fiber Revolution

Gotta love that name. I have been nominated and accepted into this wonderful and passionate group!
Their link is on the sidebar or here.
Among several projects going on- keeps my head spinning- Is an upcoming show at Morristown Museum, NJ, June -October. More on that!
directions here.

I am including my piece on this post. It is similar but completely different from the piece that will be in Quilt National!!

   Dig-it-al!!  Digital Fiber Constructions

I enjoy photography and the creative processes now afforded by contemporary

Digital technology. My fascination with photography is finding expression by printing        manipulated original photographs directly onto various

substrates, and specially treated natural fibers. Images are printed with an Epson

printer to create unique photographic stitched textural constructions. I call this

work, Digital Fiber.

My new work continues the creative process in Photoshop by changing

the actual image, layering and digitally fusing with photographs of my painted

cloth. When I finish composing an image. I decide on presentation,

such as a whole cloth photo-art quilt, or divided into multiple images as for my latest

work or collaged into mixed media art.

I print the completed photos onto heavy canvas. I either size the work in

Photoshop and print or I print cutting the resulting photo into sections. These

are mounted onto heavy stabilizer, felt, or interfacing. Stitched or quilted, leaving the

edges remain unbound. I seal the edges with gel medium to secure the loose

threads and finish with a touch of accent paint on the edges. I finish the top with a protective UV medium.

Only after all of this is dried, do I assemble the work using a simple bookbinding method, using artist dyed pearl cotton or wax linen threads.

Flown                                                                                                            2011

 Layers peeled back reveal the source, the inspiration, and my mad desire to

capture thoughts, dreams and the beauty of nature.

Each work is individual and a communication between my inner imagination and

later, the viewer.

FIBER PLUS: Fiber with Mixed Media in the 21st Century

I am please to announce my acceptance into FIBER PLUS: Fiber with Mixed Media in the 21st Century invited entries from within the mainland borders of the USA, focusing on materials and modes that included art quilt-constructions with inventive surface design, knitting, crochet, tapestry, weaving, felt making, rug hooking, embroidery, needlepoint, basketry, beading and metal work in scale from the most intimate to ceiling touching This survey of 56 works by 38 artists demonstrates a vibrant diversity of fiber art on the national scene. 

 Blue Door Gallery 

13 Riverdale Avenue, Yonkers, NY 10701

I dreamt I knew a man who was a tree. He described the wonderful lights that he could see.

Digital Fiber

Digital manipulated interpretation of a photograph of rock crevices.

Printed on inkjet prepared cotton satin and silk organza.

Creatively stitched and tied.

19x27 

Juror's statement

The quest was to find artists thinking outside the box; adventurous in their choice of unusual materials, or use of common materials in unexpected forms. Such artists often ground their production in craftsmanship; informed by the almost known at the growing edges of their creative imaginings.

While we all experience the incessant bombardment of visual imagery from “pretty” to “gritty”, the work of these fiber artists invites the participating viewer into other ways of seeing and penetrating the cluttered blur.

The selected artists in FIBER PLUS exemplify this sense of adventure.

detail
Book in the works-    INFO Here

Art and Balance

another thought
Creativity breeds passion but life also happens. Balancing the two is a struggle. I find my art has ebbs and flows but like exercise, if I leave off too long it is difficult to get my swing back. I try to listen to myself more and criticize less. Big lesson!

Out My Window

When I look out my window

every season brings new

vistas for my eyes

I travel on time seeing

fresh and wonderful things

Warm Moments

I chanced to look out the window, then,

letting the smell of my warm tea 

cause me to pause.

Sipping thoughtfully, out of focus, 

I chanced to see the bright yellow school bus

climbing up the hill, quickly running away from my view.

Flashes

of remembered moments,

of children coming up the lane.

Watching it all, my children returning home,

leaving behind the world.

Watching it all again, in my mind's eye,

sipping tea, children grown, nostalgia.

How lucky I am, how grateful for those memories that 

take you back.

circa 1990

Back to warm moments.

Acceptances

 More acceptances- nice word!
I just found out I was accepted in PSAQA Art Quilts Movement- all 3 of my pieces and Handweavers Guild of America 's Small Expressions.

Touch the Soul- HGA's Small Expressions

This comes at a good time. Validating and reaffirming my commitment to the fiber arts. 

Realizing we all have ebb's and flows, like the tides, taking time out is good for the art-soul. But for now, I am busy shifting work around in the galleries that represent me. Adjusting work keeps it fresh for the galleries but is a lot of inventory sorting for me. 
I look forward to the end of it and finishing the dreaded taxes!

Fiber Directions biennial exhibition

The Fiber Directions biennial exhibition is one of the premier events at the Wichita Center for the Arts. The juror and curator for the 2011 exhibition, Jill Rumoshosky Werner, selected 80 artworks showcasing the fascinating and imaginative creativity of the fiber artist. Wichita Center for the Arts http://www.wcfta.com Cormorant's Perch Digital Fiber Digital manipulated interpretations of a single photograph, created by melding the photograph, and painted fabric in photo shop. This is fused digitally and printed with an Epson 2400 on a variety of inkjet prepared fabrics. The digital fiber photographs are mounted on free sections using heavy stabilizer. Segments are creatively stitched and held together with a hand-tied bookbinding method using dyed pearl cotton. Edges and top are sealed with UV medium and paint. 30x47

The Space Between

Dinner at Eight Artists is happy to announce that the following pieces have been accepted into the special exhibit "The Space Between." The exhibit will debut at the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach July 28-31, 2011 and is sponsored by Moore's Sewing Centers. Our plan is to exhibit at Festival in Houston also, after securing a sponsor.

My Work The Trees Are Singing was accepted!

The Space Between 

A pause as we reach for the telephone. The moments between the lines. Negative space in a painting. Uncertainty, and finding your voice. From one place to the other. Birds on a wire, and the distancebetweenfriends...The SpaceBetween thought and action. Thin cracks separating this from that. Lines on a highway, or reading between the lines...The Space Between.

curators

Jamie Fingal
Leslie Tucker Jenison
Dinner at Eight Artists http://dinnerateightartists.blogspot.com/

Trees Are Singing detail- Seek Peek

To see the Artists Profiles from  "Beneath the Surface" click on this link http://dinnerateightartists.blogspot.com/search/label/Artist%20Profiles