Natural and Medicinal Dye Workshop with Porfirio Gutierrez

 Like a dream, the day arrived in southern California, Ventura to be exact, when we gathered to begin our journey into the magic of creating color using natural medicinal dye plants. We met at Maestro Porfirio Gutierrez's studio. The following four days immersed us in the dye processes and cultural significance of Zapotec medicinal plants.  In the workshop we explored three elements used for medicine and for dyes; Yashi (common English name: mule fat), cochineal insects and pericon.

Through work, stories, and laughter shared, the group became a community onto our selves.  A shout out to Botanical Colors for hosting the workshop, to Maestro Porfirio Gutierrez and family for inviting us into to their lives, and to fellow participants for openly sharing their unique selves and diverse skill sets.  The culmination our time together was a Zapotec healing ceremony given by a healer on sacred ground in Ojai, CA.  

The four day workshop/retreat gave me new knowledge. I took away a thankful heart, more hope for our future, and a better understanding to our connection to nature and to each other.  "There is no them. There is only us." - Adia Millett ~ artist.

Steel Vat - Cochineal

Iron Vat - Ashi

Stainless Steel Vat - Ahsi

Wool yarn dyed

Traditional Weavings - Maestro Porfirio Gutierrez

Ventura Studio - Maestro Porfirio Gutierrez

 

Healing Ceremony ~ Ojai, CA

Maestro Porfirio Gutierrez's studio in Ventura, CA is open by appointment.  It is worth a visit.  There you can see more of his creative work.

Art Work Still Traveling in the New Year ~ 2022

 

 Happy New Year ... I wonder how accurate this sentiment fits the year 2022. I wonder where we find ourselves collectively in the world of health, politics and general well being. My hope is for more face time with friends and family, more safe travels, more garden experiments, more walks in nature, more shared creative moments. 

News in the new year includes the continued showing of my piece, Enso 2, now in a very cool Virtual Gallery at the Sanchez Art Center website. Web address: https://www.sanchezartcentervirtualgalleries.org/works Enso 2 link is on line. This collection of works is being shown in person in the Sanchez Art Center East Gallery, Pacifica, CA from January 21 to February 13, 2022.

From Barbara Kibbe, Chair, Regional Exhibitions Committee SAQA Northern California/Northern Nevada:

"A very fun feature of the website is that when one is in the virtual gallery, click the "more info" below each artwork. That pulls up additional info about each work. AND, by clicking "room" to the right under each image, one can see what the piece would look like up on an imaginary wall in a number of different (generic) settings."

 

Closer to home I continue to find solace in working with fabric and growing new plants in the garden.  

One completed piece which is entered into this year's Desert Quilters quilt show is called Steps.  It is made using commercial cottons, is machine pieced and hand quilted with #8 size cotton embroidery thread.  The challenge was to create a different hand sewn designs for each block, non of which were pre-planned.  

 

While Steps is a more traditional piece than I usually create, I totally enjoyed designing the block inspired by a vintage woven textile.  Hand stitching was equally fun ... exploring how stitch patterns create defining lines and textures in each block.

Step - back side

Steps - 40 by 48 inches - 2021

Steps - detail of hand stitch

A self selected challenge for 2021 was to use up vintage kimono fabrics and stitch an improvisational block a day for thirty days.  As construction progressed contemporary cottons were included. Thirty six inch completed blocks did not make enough to constitute much of anything.  So more blocks were made and added to the original thirty blocks. Incorporating a different size, the 12 inch block, balanced the quilt design.  Overall, I am happy with the results.

Bento Box - 60 by 84

Bento Box - Detail of six inch blocks

 

I hope this post finds you healthy and happy and always creative! Sending out all my best wishes in the New Year!

Summer Daze 2021 ... two Exhibitons

 Thank goodness life is back to a new normal.  In pursuit of creating art, the lack of social connections seem to have had an effect on productivity, not always in a positive way.  Still, I stay connected through podcasts, webinars, gardening and out door exercise with like minded souls. 

In these times of soft openings, the honor of showing work is a blessing.  My piece, Enzo II, is currently on exhibit at the California Heritage Museum in Santa Monica.  I am more than pleased to be included in this contemporary show of 62 selected quilts from SAQA - Studio Art Quilt Associates. The artists represented are from California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah states.

 

 

Enzo II ~ 2016 / 36 by 34 inches

Enzo II is constructed from hand dyed fabrics, eco printed cottons and silks, pieced, raw edge appliqued, painted, machine and hand stitched.
The piece is inspired by the Japanese term enso, meaning "circular form." It  is a circle that is hand drawn in one or two uninhibited brushstrokes to express a moment when the mind is free to let the body create.
In the summer of 2016, I was staying in the Sierra Nevada foothills at a friend's cabin.  Inspired by the quiet and the peace of the place, I painted the outer circle to reflect the minor movements of the inner circles.  Painting was freeing and intuitive, a moment when time stood still, an act of freedom.

Exhibition dates: June 23 through September 19, 2021.  Museum Hours: Wednesday through Sunday, 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Stitching California: Fiber Artists Interpret the State’s People, Life, and Land asks textile artists to explore and reflect on the diversity, illusions, realities, and hopes that define — or at least help us better understand — the richness and contradictions of the Golden State. California is a large and complicated creature, where dreams are formed and sometimes realized, and where homelessness, want, and xenophobia are all too prevalent.
Madonna continues to travel throughout the state of California in the Stitching California exhibition and is currently at Museum on Main in Pleasanton, California until August 14, 2021.

Madonna ~ 2018

Well, stay cool, stay safe, stay healthy and stay creative.

Learning Something New: Creating a Siddi Quilt

Creating brings hope and healing. Inspiration comes from tending a summer garden, taking an on-line class, walking out of doors, listening to podcasts and books on tape, meeting with kindred souls on zoom, particpating in free on-line webinars, and learning about the world I live in.

Here's my list of favorites:

1. Trying different plants in the garden, planting dye seeds, Navajo Sun Flowers and Indigo plants.
2. Participating in on-line interactive workshops such as Siddi Quilts with Sujata Shah.
3. Taking three mile walks through Cotton Wood Park, Summerlin, Las Vegas, NV.
4. Listening to pocasts; two favories are Berne Brown and LeVar Burton Reads.
5. Finding interesting books on tape; my latest listen; "I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness", author Austin Channing Brown. 
6. Attending SAQA Regional Meetings, Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild meetings, and monthly Art Quilts, Etc meetings.
7. Watching Webinars/videos; two favorites are; Botanical Colors (Feedback Fridays), and Textile Talks.

All these activities keep me connected to things I love and engaged in making. This month I took a class with Sujata Shan..  She shared techniques and gave a brief history about the makers of the Indian Siddi quilts and their traditions. Working from the outside to the inside, each piece of cloth was hand sewn with a running stitch.  I used a milners #1 needle and aurilfil size #12 thread.

Finished quilt; 20 x 20 inches

 Sometime in a more recent past, I was given a pineapple motif panel that was partially complete.  I finished it by adding diaginal siduku lines and cross stitch.  Adding a border to the panel a pillow cover was made.  It was fun to complete something that started out plain and developed into a functional piece.

Pineapple Pillow Cover

 

Detail - Varigated cotton

Go gently ... go safely, go create !

Submissions to Martha Sielman's Bird Book

Good morning world.  Almost to the very last minute deadline, I entered three pieces for a Bird Book Martha Sielman's is creating.  Knowing Martha's background in art textiles, the book will be an exciting array of birds and creative techniques. Look for publication in 2023.  The pieces I entered are work completed earlier in my artistic ventures.  Different techniques were explored and applied.

1. Bird - Embroidery on paper

1. Material used in the making of Bird are 8 and 12 weight embroidery threads on enco dyed parchment paper.  The paper was stabilized with light weight fusible interfacing making a surface that survived a heavy stitch without being torn by the threads or the large needle.

2. Raven's Wing was sewn using free motion and machine stitches.  The background, behind the raven is a printed and photo transferred feather.

3. Eco printed water color paper serves as the background for Raven. I saw the outline of a raven in the print and followed that for the hand stitched raven image.

2. Raven's Wing

 

3. Raven on Eco print