Where I have been/ where I am off to

What a shock to discover it had been 2 months since my last post. In early November I had to go to Florida unexpectedly while my son's body figured out how to settle down on blood pressure medications. As a Mom, let me tell you, it is scary to see your kid hooked up to IVs and monitors in ICU. Fortunately things have settled down and he is respecting his body and treating it with care.

In the mean time I came home and realized we had been living in crisis mode on some level ever since my parents had moved in 2 years ago. The result had been that the partly remodeled kitchen had never been finished. While still not completely done it is now much closer to the ideal. From my chair in the breakfast area I no longer have to look at open cabinets and shelves. It may look great in a restaurant kitchen but in my very full shelves it does not! All the cabinets now are stained and varnished in a cherry finish, have doors and new hardware. The peeling ceiling is now smooth and painted. The 1968 ivy trellis wallpaper is now finally gone and the walls painted a dusty mid-range teal. We still have circa 1968 carpet on our kitchen floor in a "lovely" avocado medallion. As soon as I sell my next piece of artwork the floor will get replaced with a ceramic that mimics slate. It all blends nicely with the granite tile we used for the counter and back splash. The under counter lights have been enjoyed every day as well as the ceramic black sink and copper faucets. Progress! What a great way to start the new year!

In a rampage, I also finally got the upstairs bathroom up to a tolerable state. We still need to re-tile the shower. But no more peeling ceiling or woodwork. Civilized!!!!

I am finishing the piece I started awhile back-- The Energy of Hope. It'll be the image on my annual New Year's Card. Ok... I'm a week behind.

But hope is where I have planted myself this season. For the first time in several years I don't feel hopeless about the direction our country is moving. Even though we hear daily reports of lingering financial crisis ahead I personally believe the worst is over and that brighter days lie ahead. I think that the belt tightening most of us have been doing has been a good practice that is often overlooked with complacency. Never the less, income production MUST occur.

As a possible income source I am sending out a few letters to offer my services as a personal chef-- available to provide a delicious meal as a part of a private dinner party or cook a week's worth of meals for a busy family. While I have no plans to make this a full time gig I am hopeful that it will take some of the financial strain off our household.

Cooking for me has always been a source of creative joy. Over the years I have developed a reputation for putting on spectacular meals. I have resisted "going professional" simply because I haven't wanted to be pulled from creating my art. Now is the time.

This year I am already committed to create lots of new work. My art quilt group is producing a coffin quilt for use by our members. Last one to die gets to keep the quilt!!! Actually it'll probably go to the quilt study center. We all felt like being an artquilter was a major part of who we are. The idea that perhaps that wouldn't be represented at our memorials was not acceptable. None of us are getting any younger and having one "ready to go" seemed like a smart project.

In April our group is having a show at the Springfield Nature Center and I'll be making special piece for that-- I'm thinking Cleome!!!

In last August I have a show in Dallas at Cerulean Gallery and plan to produce quite a few new pieces for that. Then in September is Fiber Focus in St. Louis. I am planning to help produce a regional show of SAQA members work for that.

I have also been invited to create a work for an internationally traveling exhibition of quilts that celebrate various holidays. My father's favorite holiday was the Chinese New Year. He loved all the traditional foods served as well as dragon dances and kites. I'm sure I'll incorporate all those in to the piece somehow.


So here is to prosperity! Here is to new beginnings! All hail the hope for the future.

Lots of new work

This piece is entitled "Freefall" in recognition and/or celebration of both the craziness of the stock market and earmarking the season. These are gingko leaves in motion. The panels on the right have gingko leaves in gold leaf--not foil--leaf.

The leaves on the left side are done as thread lace. Except for some tuille, every bit of those leaves were done with freemotion stitching. Except for a couple of sashing pieces all was hand-dyed silk. I love the rich intensity of colors.

This piece is still in progress. There is more than one layer. The bottom later is noil that has been dyed and painted with stamps and silk screens. The top layer is divided into 2 main sections. The left is dyed and painted silk organza. In addition, I have used gold leaf to add the alchemy symbols and the woven patch. The right side is also silk organza. It is using more of the pieces I dyed last year when I dyed the fabric for the previous piece (Freefall). The sections have not been assembled with batting yet. I have no idea yet how I'll quilt it.

Here you can get a better idea of the layers. All those circles were printed using a few of my dozens of empty spools.

Another detail showing the right side. After last night's election and Obama's speech I am feeling more optimistic about life in general and especially our future as a country. By the way-- the name of this piece is "Energy of Hope".

I have no idea where this piece is going. It is made up of many of my scraps from previous circle quilts. I added a line of multi-colored couched yarn. This, so far, is just pinned to the wall in rows. I am not sure yet whether it'll be vertically oriented or horizonally. I, for sure, have no idea how to quilt it.

So, while I have been in my studio feeling somewhat aimless, I have found all sorts of directions to investigate. If has been fun.

I think I'll go back to celebrating and drinking in that warm glow of hope. I remember that feeling. It has been a while. I liked it a lot.

Jon will be home tomorrow with his CD completed and ready for publication. This is a landmark event in our lives and I expect that forever after our lives will reflect the changes this CD will have wrought.

New work--Reconcilable Differences

This piece was nearly self-created. By that I mean a piece that seemed to know what it wanted to be even before I began. It started several months ago when I was between projects. When I cut my blocks to build my circle blocks I almost always have anywhere from 1-5" strips that are 8" long as leftovers. Consequently I have drawers full of these mostly silk scraps. When I am in my studio without any perceivable direction I will grab these strips in similar colorations and just build long strips. In this case I had over 16 ft of these strips in various shades of brown.
I began by simply hanging four 4 ft strips near each other. Somewhere in there the concept of reconcilable differences popped into my head. ( I seem to have been surrounded lately by people who love each other but can't seem to get along)
The general layout is 4 vertical strips made up of the horizontal strips. Between them are vertical strips printed entirely in circular images. There is a diamond overlaying the whole thing. Inside of the diamond is a melding of imagery- strips and circles. Outside the diamond each vertical strip has quilting that is individual to the strip. Inside the diamond the quilting is an allover looping and semi- floral pattern. Outside the diamond the quilting is jagged straight lines for the odd strips and all circles for the even ones. Outside the diamond there are words--mine, I, me. Inside the diamond are the words our, us, we.

The concept is that when one goes beyond thinking only about oneself then differences begin to disappear and consensus and compromise can be found.

I would love to see this piece end up in a law office or perhaps the office of someone who works to mediate family relationships. The overall size is nearly 4 ft square. These are only my "blog quality" photos. I'll be shoot it again at higher resolution immediately. If you want to see higher res shots-- email me directly.

Dang!!!!! Quilt National anyway!!!

Live Water

Live Water-- detail

Well Gosh Darn!!!! If you know me well you know this is NOT what I have just spit from my mouth. I truly thought this piece had what it took to get selected for Quilt National. The upside is that I can now market the heck out of this piece. Had it been selected it would have been traveling for the next 2 years. Part of the highly restrictive rules of QN is that you can't post the work to anything but your own website. Fear of someone else copying and reposting my work kept me from posting when I completed it. So NOW you can see it in all its glory. This piece finished out at 70" x 105" in three panels. It is a happy piece that takes you to another world. The price is $9750. If you'd like to receive a higer resolution image of this, please email me and I'll get it right off to you. The back side has a similar imagery done in dyes and pigments-- so it could hang against a curtain wall (an interior glass wall) and both sides could work for you.

One of the trickier aspects of making pieces this large is that there are so few venues that will allow pieces of this scale. So my new marketing plan is to send out portfolios to art consultants and architectural firms that have the audience I am seeking.

In the meantime I'll work out my frustration discovering some new avenues with the potato dextrin and see what my next major thing will be. The upside is that my studio is getting a cleaning it hasn't had in over a year.

Good news has also come this week. Barnes Jewish Hospital has selected Burning Leaves to hang in its lobby area. This is a major piece that was most recently shown at William Woods University-- Celebrating Creativity. Thanks to my agent Sandra Kolde. I really appreciate her keeping my work in mind when talking with major accounts. Although I would much rather sell my work outright, leasing provides a foundation that pays my studio rent and frees up my attention for creating.

Now that I am no longer wondering about QN I can get back to wondering if the sky is falling in the stock market. Oh joy!

Recent experiments

I've been spending the month of September playing around. Most of my experimenting has to do with playing around with thickened dyes and silk screen variations. The flashes above were done with freezer paper adhered temporarily to my blank silkscreen. The gingko, yoga gal, and weave were done with my thermofax silkscreens, again using thickened dyes. The pale reddish part was done with the technique of painting thickened dyes onto a silkscreen, letting it dry and then using dye thickener goop to release the color onto the piece.--deconstuctive silkscreening.
This one, as with the previous one, has been built up over several months. This is on a 100% linen that I found for $1/yd on the stack at Walmart. ( I bought the bolt) All except the gloppy streaks were done with thickened dyes and silkscreen. The gloppy was done by simply dripping thickened dyes off the end of a brush.
This is another idea I've been playing with. I had bought a bag similar to this at the Dairy Barn a few years ago. At the time I thought it was a small bag for evening use. As it turned out, it was more of a pocket to wear around your neck. Lately I have been wearing lots of clothes that don't seem to have pockets. That means nowhere to put my phone. So I decided to resurrect this concept using recent colorations. I found a small shop in Hardy, Arkansas that is carrying ( AND SELLING!!!!!) some of my smaller works. I brought them my little pockets-- we're calling them Posh Pockets. At a mere $18 I am hoping they fly off the rack.

I also bought a needle felting machine recently and have been playing around with it. I'm still breaking needles- argh. But it is a fun toy.

My immediate experiments are with Potato Dextrin. I've got several pieces batching right now and expect to receive some more potato dextrim powder in the mail today.

This is the longest I have allowed myself for pure experimenting in ages. While on this jag I am also playing with some disperse dyes, and am delving into the methods Jane Dunnewold and friends have used to laminate imagery and metal leaf to fabrics.

My next major actual project is to do three vertical panels that will have the silhouettes of 3 musicians who were sidemen to my husband's recording sessions. Since he normally plays alone on stage, these will hang as backdrops behind him-- giving the illusion that he is not alone on stage. There will be a stand-up bass, a clarinet or saxaphone, and a lead guitar. Perhaps even a drummer. I am hoping to incorporate some of these new methodoligies into that project. The plan is to use them on the CD cover. It is due out just before Christmas. Time to get cracking!

Stolen work

This was truly a roller coaster day. First the good news-- 2 of my works that I have been trying to get into shows for a while finally made it. My Bass Ackwards Series: Sunflower and Bee Balm were both accepted into the 4 state regional show at the Springfield Art Museum. They'll hang from mid October through mid January.

Now the disappointing news-- my quilt Full Moon/ Low Ceiling has been stolen from the wall of my exhibition at the Gillioz Theater. As it is an ongoing investigation there isn't much I can or should say about it except that it appears to have been stolen by a patron of the restaurant Tonic which is next to the theater and shares a lobby/ bathrooms. I am quite encouraged by the response from both the theater and the police. They are surprisingly optimistic about recovery. When I know more and am allowed to share I'll do so. In the mean time I am posting here so there is a place that can be easily referenced. The size is 49" H x 35" W.

This piece depicts the sky on one of those nights when the moon is very full and the clouds are quite low-- creating an eery mauvy glow.

While I am sad at the piece being out there without a legitimate owner I am hoping that it is an opportunity for it to bring joy to someone along its path. And yes-- I WILL prosecute!!!

But the thief cannot take away the joy I felt while creating this piece. I'll have that forever. This is one of my personal favorites.

In the mean time I am spending September experimenting with various resists. Potato dextrin is my current playmate. I'll post some images in a few days.

recent commission

This commission is one I sent off yesterday to its new home in Chicago. It was commissioned as a reward to herself by a lady who had finally completed her training toward her PhD. It is a prime example of combining my talents with the individual desires of my client. She was in love with my quilt (seen below) Ridgeline:Afterglow. She had seen the work while it hung as the focal point in the restaurant Cafe 37 in West Plains, MO. The size and cost of the bigger piece was overwhelming so we collaborated to come up with a more appropriate work for her circumstances. I had a lot of fun revisiting the sunset as a color element and I have refined my trees. Her love of cypress trees plus my previous use of the looking-up-through-the-trees imagery (in Listening for the Silence) steered us toward this combination. http://www.rebelquilter.com/recent_works.htm to see this work.
I had created Ridgeline: Afterglow in 2003 or 4. Since then I have created over 75 works over 27" in width.

Thanks to my longtime friend Suzanne Fuqua from Dallas I have a new gallery I'll be working with. The Cerulean Gallery in Snyder Plaza has one of the toniest addresses and is adjacent to SMU. I had a nicely successful exhibition last year in Dallas at the MADI Museum and I believe that helped to open the door to my work being embraced by the gallery owner. I look forward to this new relationship. Check out their website www.theceruleangallery.com and Suzanne's at www.suzannespaintings.com.

I am back hard at work on my "Live Water" piece. I have begun the quilting on the center panel. It must be finished by the end of the month. Zoom zoom zoom. My local library hasn't added any new books on Cd recently so I have been listening to my sirius radio. It is a recent addition to my studio and a blessing. My studio is in a hollow so I can only get the strongest local stations-- country. UGH. I love listening to NPR Now as well as the coffee house stations.

Hasta la vista.