This Art Quilt Went “Whee, whee, whee!” All the Way Home.

That last quilt for my solo show is finally done . . . and I’m exhilarated enough to shout “Whee!” Also, I call completing a quilt “taking it home;” hence, the nursery rhyme reference.

The title of the quilt is Messengers, and it is 36″ wide by 44″ long. I’ve worked on it for about 3 years. Everything is hand pieced and hand stitched. The edges have a crocheted binding. The fabric is my own hand painted fabric. After quilting, I keep painting. The first time I painted onto a quilt that I had spent a lot of time stitching, I was really nervous. Now, I’m excited by it. You never know how the quilted surface and the paints and other products you put on it will interact. It’s a kind of “dangerous” serendipity that I’ve never regretted yet. Would you call that an oxymoron?

The saying on the quilt is a quote from Brenda Ueland, a famous writer and teacher of writing:

Think of yourself as an incandescent power, illuminated and perhaps forever talked to by God and his messengers.

This is my write up for the quilt:

The messengers are gathering in prime formation: 2 butterflies, 3 dragonflies, 5 angels, 7 crows, 11 stars. To truly hear their message, you must kill the ego. Egos are wont to kill the messenger when they dislike the message they are receiving, but that is a useless tactic. The message will simply find you another way, through another messenger.

Messengers

As Promised, New Paper Quilts 2

I have to bring all my quilts to the Greenwood Quiltery tomorrow, and I am  still working on one. But here are two more that are ready to go:

Night Garden

Doppelganger

Doppelganger features my daughter-in-law, Katherine, who has been kind enough to pose for pictures, and given me carte blanche for using them in my artwork. She’s another of the lovely and generous women I am fortunate to have in my life! She is the one on top, closest to the two flowers. Her doppelgangers, behind her and below, look similar, but not exact, as most doppelgangers are eerily like us, but have some differences. If we were to find an exact match, it would be very disturbing to our poor ego!

I am in the process of updating my gallery, with the write-up and dimensions of each piece. Please check back to see this information.

As Promised: New Paper Quilts!

I am really excited about the direction my work is taking me. I was going to save the revealing of the following pieces for my solo show, but decided to put them up anyway. “Saving” things is definitely overrated. I call it the Sunday Shoes Syndrome, because as a young girl I had shoes, and whole outfits, that could only be worn on Sundays for church. There were other occasions these Sunday clothes could be worn, but never just for ordinary events. SSS generalizes to ridiculous heights: the dishes you never use, the tea towels and pillow cases (that your mother-in-law hand embroidered and crocheted), the coat that is “too good” for every day, the fabric that is too nice to cut into. Every time I have a recurrence of this syndrome, I remember that quote from Annie Dillard, and grab the best to use first!

Enough said: here are a few pieces I’ve finished lately! There are more coming shortly!

Look

Contemplation 2: This larger version of "Contemplation" is a paper topped quilt.

The Summoning

I love the way this one came together! It includes chinese coins (3) and a clay leaf. My dear neighbor and friend, Wendi, came over to my studio and posed for me. She has graced a number of other pieces:  “Revelation” and “Chocolate Confessions.”

Elena Ray’s Project in Progress

I have written about her before, because gazing at her photo based illustration makes the spirit within me flutter its wings. Elena Ray’s works are evocative, subtle, multi-layered. And she is humble about the amazing way she intertwines her images, tells her stories, suggests and entices, insisting that:

The creative process comes through us, not from us. We are creativity.

She channels creativity so effectively because her ego steps aside. Her arms are perpetually outstretched, ready to receive. Take a look at this, or this. Revel in her entire project in progress. It’s definitely worth your attention.

Thank you for these, Elena.

It reminds me that doing art is not just about the work: the right techniques, mastering color theory, nailing down the principles and elements of design. These are important, of course, but what the artist is becoming as she does the work, what she is mindful of, aware of, awakening to . . . . these are the less tangible, but every bit as real benefits of art making.

Repurposed Art

Cyndi Lavin asked a question this morning on her blog Layers upon Layers (Now BlissTree):

Do you spend time shooting elements for later use too?

I had to leave a comment, which went like this: Oh my, YES! I can hardly take “ordinary” pictures any more. I’m always thinking of line, texture, shape, colour for future artwork. And like Christy (whose work I really like, by the way), I take pictures of my own work in various stages to also use in future work. It’s like the mirror in the mirror, it keeps going on forever. When you “repurpose” your own work, it’s much like a color that looks completely different beside other colors. And you can take any small piece, and produce a whole design out of it, or make different design papers for collage. Thus, any one piece can instigate a myriad of others. It makes creating a series such a fascinating journey!

Design paper from embroidery on a friend's shirt

And Tammy, over at Women, Art, Life, had more of her incredible quotes: they always get my blood flowing a little faster. Read the angel poem she found, by Judith Roche, and I’m sure you’ll be hungry for more. Right now, I feel like painting angels!

New Paper Quilts Are On Their Way!

I am putting the finishing touches on several new paper quilts, which I’ve been working on all at once for my solo show (coming up October 3!). I will be posting the pics very soon.

In the meantime, I discovered an artist named Mai-Liis Chaska Peacock, and she does mixed media assemblage, collage, and art dolls. I am especially taken with her shrines and icon dolls. I found her when I watched The Promise, a video by the amazing Karen Landey of Indie Arts: the DVD Magazine. As I commented on Landey’s site, the video is haunting and dreamlike, evoking emotions of longing and poignancy in the viewer. So lovely!

Life wants to be juicy

“Sometimes the world speaks to us unbidden, if we have the ears to hear it.”

I heard that line on a show called Recreating Eden, on  July 30, 2008. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch the name of the person to attribute it to. But I agree with the gist: it’s all about surprise, being open to surprise and joy, cultivating a willingness to experience them, fully. I am always listening for the messages that the world, or life, is speaking. I will not pretend that I receive full blown “answers.” Directions, indications, would be  more accurate terms for what comes to me; and as I follow, step by step, some answers do unfold in time. JOY, for instance. It is one of the biggest answers I’ve obtained. I am to seek it in all things.

Life wants to be juicy. Our human bodies are 70% water. Around 70% of the earth is covered with ocean.

To my mind, joy is juicy and misery is dry, dry, dry. So go for the juice, insist on being joyful, strive to feel good. A way of taking my own advice is to make art. It’s how I respond to the messages I manage to hear. It’s my way of dialoguing with life.

Amulet bag 2: cotton, embroidered, beaded, with crocheted accents

Closeup of bag under top flap: extra flap with button to prevent loss of valuables

“Music is purposeless play, an affirmation of life, not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we’re living.”  ~John Cage

You are all invited!

Quilts Incarnate: a Solo Show

It’s official!

I will have a solo show in the gallery at Greenwood Quiltery October 3-31, 2008. The opening is on Saturday, October 4th, and I’ll be there from 2 until 4 pm. I named the show Quilts Incarnate, and being a writer and teacher, I felt the need to include a subtitle, explaining what my title meant (sigh). So, are you ready for this? Quilts Incarnate: celebrating the evolvement from conception to manifestation. It will include a range of mixed media art quilts.

I am captivated by that process of conceptualizing, imagining, and where it comes from. A gift from the universe? God? the angels? My own brain? A combination? A mystery? But once that concept has been conceived, ah, then comes that totally absorbing, joyful, crazy, wonderful process of bringing it into manifestation. One could say manifeastation, because it is much like preparing a feast, for the eyes, mind, and spirit. But process doesn’t quite cover it; there are so many! Art processes, in mixed media, cannot be explained in a moment, and then there are all those delicious things happening in your body as you manifest the piece. Hands are working their magic, so many gestures, so many moves, but the whole body is involved. And the mind! The mind is sending off synapses like firecrackers, and the spirit is glowing like a sun, or at least a moon.

As I said, process really isn’t adequate, and evolution provided another word ending in “ion,” which is good in terms of forming a trinity (one of my favorite symbols) but rather awkward to say (All those sh sounds at once probably give away the fact that I’m also a librarian). Hence, I chose evolvement. It’s a word that makes you think, and slow down. E-v  o  l  v  e-ment.

I have now employed three paragraphs to further clarify a title that may already be too long.

My main point is, you are invited! Celebrate with me! Celebrate creativity (which is evolvement from conception to manifestation). Clever, eh? (I’m Canadian). I snuck it in again; snuck it in like a woman with a suitcase-sized handbag who comes down a narrow aisle in an airplane, with the weighty weapon swinging from her shoulder on your side.  

I shall stop and change the subject. In reference to the little bags I used to make, here is an example:

Amulet bag, cotton, embroidered, beaded, crocheted, clay element

Crochet, I say!

I found this pic on Joana Vasconcelos‘ site, and it reminded me, once again, why I love crochet. It is completely adaptable to a myriad of applications. Say, for instance, that you want to cover a piano . . . . Joana is really “out there,” which I admire and enjoy. She lists “piano” on her material list. Hilarious: how many artists get to do that? Below the piano and stool, see her crocheted dining suite. Don’t stand too close to this dynamo, or you may find yourself ensconced in yarn!

Crocheted piano and bench by Joana Vasconcelos

Crocheted suite by Joana Vasconcelos

I have employed crochet in many ways. A few years ago, I made little stitched bags of cotton, joining the fronts and backs with crochet; the strap was crocheted also. For a while I made crocheted neckpieces, which I then embroidered and beaded.

These days, as I am totally enamored with paper quilting, I sometimes use crochet as an edging or even a binding, two of my favorite methods. Crochet is infinitely versatile, as the hook can be inserted anywhere and a stitch begun. I also recently devised a way to use crochet in my hanging devices for my quilts.

For now, I’ll show you a few of those neckpieces:

Crocheted, embroidered, beaded neckpiece with papier mache inclusion

Crocheted, embroidered, beaded neckpiece with papier mache inclusion

Crocheted, embroidered reversible neckpiece, side a

Crocheted, embroidered reversible neckpiece, side b

I also love using crochet in my mixed media art quilts: see Workshops and Presentations for Quilting Meets Crochet!