Journal Quilt

This is my first journal quilt that approximates the smaller size for these pieces. It was made as the first exercise in Lily Kerns' Quilt University class on Journal Quilts.

I was trying to express the idea of inner space and outer space by using some of the same elements inside and outside the head.

Space IS the final frontier, and that includes the space inside of us!

The white dots are cut from a home-made brocade skirt I found at a thrift store. Both front and back of the fabric are showing as I fused the right side of some and the wrong side of others.

Other materials/techniques are broderie anglaise, metallic fabric and yarn couched using Super Solvy.




IN OTHER NEWS >>>>

Perhaps because of the helpful telephone coaching I received from Quinn McDonald last week, perhaps because I was out and about interacting more with people than I had for a while, perhaps because the class started and I was looking forward to it, but last week I clocked in an impressive 43 hours and 15 minutes of work, both the bread and butter kind and the fun and creative kind!

Mandala Musings

This is "Enuff on my plate," created for the Mavericks Mandala challenge that we did after Nancy Green presented a workshop on mandalas and how to interpret them. It was one of the first pieces I exhibited, in 2007.

Although it's 25" square, it's really a journal quilt because my whole family is in it. Perhaps the class I'm about to take at www.quiltuniversity.com will enable me to make works on a smaller scale.

Yesterday I was reading Katie Pasquini's 1983 book Mandala for contemporary quilt designs and other mediums. What struck me was how she created beautiful vibrant pieces, yet individually many of those fabrics would be the ones left over after a quilt guild garage sale! Not "uglies" per se, just boring calicoes.

Today we have so many amazing fabrics in glorious colours that were unthought of even 25 years ago. Yet the curious thing is that many art quilters make very little use of commercial fabrics. Curious, isn't it?


PROGRESS REPORT: Did 27 hours of work last week.

Personality Quiz

This is a fun quiz that will tell you what font you are.

www.pbs.org/independentlens/helvetica/quiz.html

I turned out to be Times New Roman, "a class act all round" according to the website!

More on baraka

which is luck or blessings, things that happen at opportune times.

I found Kay Greenlees' book Creating Sketchbooks for Embroiderers and Textile Artists left in our apartment laundry room. What are the odds! Here's a link to the page:


http://www.anovabooks.com/products/product.asp?catid=8&subcatid=114&id=453#

Batsford Books have been going since 1843 and I remember them from my childhood. A lot of the textile books are tied into the City and Guilds courses, and this book is written somewhat from that perspective.

Other recent blessings:

• a perfectly good set of everyday dishes, saving not just money but lugging them home from the store on the bus
• a t-shirt with a slogan on that can be collaged into an art quilt
• dining room chairs that would otherwise have gone to the landfill
• store credit for the Beacon thrift store @ Quadra and Hillside - this gives me permission to pop in from time to time and indulge in collecting textiles. I found a sheer printed scarf (see the photo!) that will make a great layer in a quilt and a home-made brocade skirt which I've deconstructed for a wall hanging.

Progress with work/creation

My total hours for last week was 27 hours and 10 minutes.

Trading Fabric

Yesterday we went to Sidney and I took the opportunity to unload more of my ancient stash at Fabric Traders -- the website is www.fabrictraders.ca

You get store credit in exchange for what you bring in, good for up to a year. Of course that is like those packets of chocolate cookies that say "Best before July 27, 2012 at 7:54 p.m." Does anyone ever put it to the test?

I used my whole credit yesterday and these are two of the fabrics I picked. The one on the right has a thin line of gold in the black, which doesn't show up too well on the scan. BUT if you click for an enlarged image it does show up. I also found a heavy cotton with rattan print, one with a tiny pattern like a parquet floor in soft yellow, blue, and red, and a fat quarter with teddy bears on it.

The bears will be going into a flapbook I'm working on for my grandson. Everything else has a geometric/woven/baskety look to it. This was a huge look in the late 70's and I think it's coming back.

And it's satisfying to think that some of the old, old stuff is gone. Some was conversation prints of the "What was I thinking?" sort, others were calico prints and paisleys. I like paisley but I think I've looked at those particular fabrics for too long, and it's not really in line with what I'm doing now.

Meet Mr. Kitty

This is a tiny (about 5 -1/2" each way)
hand puppet for my grandson, about to turn the big 01!

It's felted wool dyed in Color Hues. The features are inked on with a trust Pigma pen. Not only is it fast, it also poses no choking hazards.

I win a doorcrasher prize!

Well, not exactly, I didn't camp out in front of a store all night or anything, but Quinn McDonald was offering five free creativity coaching sessions and I was one of the lucky first five to respond.

Her page is at http://quinncreative.com

and her newsletters are always a good read.

Will post more about baraka a.k.a. fairy godmother later

Work on Display @ Discovery Cafe

Works on display at Discovery Cafe, 6 Discovery Street, Victoria (how's that for a cool address!)

They will be up for another week or so. The staff were so friendly and helpful and did all the climbing on ladders, thankfully sparing me, thanks Kathleen!

Clockwise from top left: Hundertwasser Light, Purple Millenium, and Ballerina, my newest piece. The bottom is intentionally not parallel with the top, this is not just the angle of the photo.

Marbling - quick and dirty

This is a piece of silk I marbled in a Color Hues session at Satin Moon. Color Hues is a new dye product developed by a Seattle woman. It dyes protein based fabrics, i.e. silk and wool but not cotton (although my dyeing t-shirt kept some splashes!) It is very easy to use and the fabric seems to suck the colour out of the water, unlike Procion dyes where you can rinse and rinse and see wonderful bright colour running down the drain. Also no need to heat set and no powdery chemicals so safer to use in a home setting.

Does blogging about being productive count as BEING productive? If so I could add a half hour onto my time for today.

1. Day one: 4 hours 15 minutes
2. Day two: (today) 5 hours 40 minutes

And spent more time painting color swatches for my next piece - yesterday I used EZ-TintZ and watercolor crayon pencils to get close to what I thought I wanted to do, and today I took that swatch to Michael's to buy acrylics in the colors I picked. Still need to get freezer paper and get a template enlarged -- the printer here won't take a big enough piece of paper so I'll have to go to Staples I guess.

Resolution / Time Management

Taking stock of last year, which in some ways seems like an amnesiac blur, I decided that my slogan/watchword for 2009 is to be

The Time Is Now!!!

and I had what seems like a flash of inspiration, to define productivity as work/art and aim at 8 productive hours per day. Deadlines will doubtless continue to define which takes precedence at any given moment, as well as that annoying need to eat and finance my art habit, but hopefully this will take away the guilt about doing art and help me define it to myself as a serious pursuit.

The photo shows fabric discharged with a powerful fresh bleach pen, from the workshop.

Dyeing Workshop

No longer having a place at home where I can be messy (and I am!) I took a workshop at Satin Moon with Susan Purney Marks where we had days to dye fabrics and permission to be experimental.

Resolution even though it's not New Year

woah Nelly!

I can't believe it's been so long since I blogged, and a lot has happened personally and artistically.

Now I've relocated I need to post more pix of my work.

My resolutions ought to give me pause too, because needless to say I didn't keep up with them ... just showing up and doing SOMETHING is so important and I need to stay focused and not be sidetracked and constrained by circumstances or things will never get done.

Inspired by Hundertwasser

This is stiffened fabric that was used as a stencil for monoprinting with Lumiere paints. Behind the cut outs is a small fabric collage with Lumiere paint brayered onto commercial fabric with a sheer fabric appliqueed on with metallic thread. To the right is the same sheer fabric with journaling text on it in Fabrico marker, with no backing fabric.

The irregular rows of squares and funky colors makes me think of Hundertwasser. Here is an image of the Hundertwasser House in Vienna.

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/H/hundertwasser/hundertwasser_house.jpg.html




This is a scanned close up view which better shows that there is text on the sheer fabric behind the window.

The journaling is the transformative aspect of this piece. I still need to trim around the edges and somehow make them more finished.

Everything in the Garden

A wall hanging work in progress using fusible web (YAY for Steam-A-Seam 2!), assorted commercial fabrics, and Fabrico marker for the faces on the masks.

When in Thailand in Chiang Mai, I ventured out alone to the market area where the fabric shops are and that's where I found the hibiscus print. The blue body is a lightning design -- it works even better than I thought it would. The blue head is from a tiny scrap of commercial fabric. The rest of it doesn't look like faces, just abstract marks, but every time I looked at the bit I used here, I could only see a face.

One figure is frozen, static, unchanging, the other is alive and amazing transformations are taking place within her. Yet both hold the same mask ready to use.

Force Field

Force Field is my second contribution to the challenge. It's fused applique, regular applique, and acrylic paint on fusible web.

The symbolism is an exploration in progress -- EIP

Doesn't that sound better than work in Progress!

The wedjet eye is a symbol that has been with me for years. Before we moved across the continent from central Canada to the SW US I had an image of a wedjet carved into a wooden picnic table that came to me while I was having acupuncture treatment.

The dots and bright colors remind me of Mexican folk art. I usually stay away from natural/neutral tones but this batik is so beautiful that I bought a pack of fat quarters last time I was at JoAnne's.

Up to now I have not used human figures much in my art -- I sense this may change. The force field around the main figure resembles a Picasso-style head in profile, this was unintended but I could see it even before I fused the paint onto the fabric.

One down, 99 to go!

My first mixed media piece for the challenge. It's a door hanger, one side says

DISCOVER POSITIVE ENERGY

and the reverse says

RECHARGE YOUR BATTERIES

RELAX!

I hope to set a positive tone for this challenge and use the appropriate side of the hanger as needed.

Wooden door hanger, acrylic paints, commercial stickers and tag, oil pastels.

Did not buy anything for this one (the hanger has been hanging around for about 3 years!) and it's Wednesday today, not that that matters, but now I have until Sunday to create my next piece.

The 100 Challenge

I'm an avid reader of Astarte Mega-Zine and also one who loves a challenge.

See www.myartself.com or read Stacey's 100 Art Dolls Challenge article in the Feb issue (#5) of Astarte, which is published online.

Taking the important aspects, I'm challenging myself to create 100 mixed media pieces, giving myself the time frame of 1 year + 1 month + 1 day.

That's 366+30+1 = 397 days, or 1 piece every 4 days. I need to pick two days in the week that are the "check" days, to either have created a piece by or get on with it and create something. Sunday is a good day and perhaps I should make Wednesday the other one. Hmm, tomorrow is Wednesday.

The important thing too is to reflect on the healing and transformative aspects of the art, not to fling into production mode.

I'm starting to know what art feels like when it truly comes from within as opposed to being a technique, a doodle, a whim, a clever concept.

OTOH I need to let go of my perfectionism or the time will go by with very little started and even less "finished."

Countdown! Is there a counter I can put on here to count down to March 6, 2009? And hopefully to note how many pieces there are to go.

Like Stacey and Arrigo, I'm all in favor of using the stash and recycled materials WHERE POSSIBLE. i.e. I'm not going to turn that into a fetish, but I have plenty of materials of all kinds. Although I will probably end up buying Tyvek at some point. Perhaps that will be my birthday present to myself, or to celebrate some other occasion.

Visual Journaling in Movie

I'm one of those frugal people who waits for movies to come out on video, and in pre-Netflix days I would even wait for them to go off the new releases list so they would be even less expensive.

So it was that I watched The Manchurian Candidate the other night. I'm talking about the 2004 version, not the 1963(?) original with Lawrence Harvey and Angela Lansbury. Two things struck me:

one - it avoids the "obvious" enemy and still seems plausible
two - the visual journaling shown where one of the characters is trying to come to terms with being brainwashed

There! I've said what I wanted to say without giving away any surprises.

Am I the only one to notice?

Okay, so how do you use the scissors if you don't already have scissors to cut the plastic loop that's holding them all together?

typoGenerator

This is the program that generates "posters" by taking your text, matching it to images found through Google Images, and randomly generating typography and colors and background.



typoGenerator

This should take you to the program and to the piece I just created, "whatever it takes" which is a hopefully inspirational phrase I put into a paper poster this morning which is taped to my wall. But it needs work, as in art or color, to be finished.