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

  

 

Reflections from 2020

 With the close of 2020, I reflect about friends and family, things accomplished, places not visited, life that once was and especially the news and the inequity challenges facing our nation (USA).  The collective pandemic has changed the world as we have known it. The change hopefully is toward better days for all.  

 While my world became smaller with less face to face contact it became larger with varied opportunities to engage via technology. Those include zoom meetings, on-line classes from different parts of the world, virtual museum art venues and lots of podcast from various sources ... science, political, spiritual, art making, and literature.

Experiences explored in the year 2020 ...

On-line classes and meetings and presentations ... Fiona Duthie - explorations in felt, Mel Beach - modern quilter, SAQA Regional zoom meetings, Modern Quilt Guild Meetings (Local Las Vegas), Art Quilts Etc. (Desert Quilters of Las Vegas), Textile Talks ... Weekly presentations and discussions from a collective of fiber art organizations.

Images from 2020 say it best ...

Accolades of pieces published:

 

SAQA Journal 2020

Kelp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SAQA Journal Quarterly - 2020

Madonna

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cards / Small projects that help ignite creative inspirations:

Scraps and Mesh

Wine tins on eco-dyed paper

Commercial Fabrics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mono Prints:

Cotton and Fabric paint

 


 

Cotton and Paint

From the Garden:

Persimmons for Jam

Roma Tomatoes

Critters

 

 

 

 

 

Hikes:

Red Rock - Las Vegas, NV

Hilltop Ventura, CA

Projects Re-Started and Completed:

Finally pieced

Laundry bag - mended with hand stitch

Ceramic piece - backing of fiber added

Wishing you and yours a safe, sane, healthy, and creative New Year in 2021 !!!