Seamless Skin

...And Still I Rise

Update

How good it feels to write a new blog post!!!!  How good it feels that Spring is here!!!!  

Louisville is #3 in the nation for the worse pollen count.  It wrecked a little bit of havoc on my lungs in spite of the emotional uplift the warmer temps gave me.  I just kept yo-yoing with chest crud until I had a brief 4 day stay in the hospital.  In between feeling good/feeling bad I kept plugging along on the boats...

Happy to report the hand embroidery is done and it is ready for quilting...but here is my plan...to continue on to the next quilt(s) and then sometime in mid summer go hog wild, (bat crazy, mad cow) with quilting all the tops.  This year's goal is all about production (don't get too excited...I work slow even when I'm fast).  My goal was to have the "boats" completed by the end of Feb. and it didn't happen until mid-March.  

You may recall me mentioning that my sewing construction studio is in storage due to my mother moving into senior housing.  For months I considered renting a 2nd Mellwood studio to set it up once the storage contract ends.  I turned over the idea of sharing a 2nd space, subleasing, etc.  It was my anxiety talking over not having my design board, fabrics, sewing desk that holds my main machine, etc. accessible.  I spent the first part of this week clearing the studio to make room for at least my sewing desk and to begin the next quilt with the attitude of "making do equals can do". Peter and Ade will haul through the storage unit and pull it out and deliver it this weekend.

Yesterday I actually sat down to begin the preliminary studies for the next piece.  Two of the three studies I finished...one is a thread sketch, this one using tsukineko inks.

The next one will be raw edge applique.  While doing them, the question in the back of my mind is "how can I make the imagery more abstract and still capture the event?".  It  will be a Kentucky Derby quilt.

Blog Love

I don't remember how I stumbled into Karen Walrond's blog and website, Chookooloonks.  I think maybe her book, The Beauty of Different, kept coming up on Amazon's recommendations.  She offers an on-line magazine workshop that offers gratitude prompts with photography prompts called Gratitude 2012.  Karen is an award winning, jet setting photography whose blog exudes kindness, humor, and beauty.  I enrolled in the workshop yesterday.  It is 5 dollars a month and 40% of the fee she donates to Kiva.  

Also, yesterday I discovered the website (thanks to Pinterest) and blog of fiber artist Diane Melms.  I've always wanted to improve my photo-documentation by showing the process involved in completing a piece from start to finish.  I think I'm too wordy to be as succinct as Diane or as succinct and poignant as blogger Judy Martin, another blogger I enjoy reading.  

Wrap-up

Time for a change.  I've been with Typepad now since I first began blogging back in '04.  This is a fee based blog and I'm at the lowest level.  In order for me to customize I would have to jump up to the next fee level and that ain't happening.  Blogspot offers customization and it is free.  My hold-up is anticipating the learning curve (the headache) of moving content.  This will be a goal for April.

Tonight is F.A.T. Trolley Hop.  I will not be having Open Studios but will be around with Carter, my 3 y.o. grandson and Anaya my 2 y.o. granddaughter for a few hours (at least this is the plan) visiting the other studios and galleries at Mellwood.  

 

500 pencils on the wall, take 1 down, pass it around, 499....

click image to go to website

By the start of fall...I'll have all 500 pencils!  I read about the 500 pencils some years ago on the QuiltArt email list.  It took me months of hemming and hawning but I broke down and ordered the 25 pencil/month plan.  By the start of autumn I should have all 500!  It was the collection of 500 colours which is alluring.  I would love to collect 500 solid colour fat quarters of fabric the same way!

My lungs have been junky, necessitating the need for a course of steroids and anti-biotics...with the dropped in temps, I haven't been to The Chitlin' Circuit in over a week...with only 1 trek out to test improvement in my lung capacity.  Surprisingly, I've kept the anxiety in check over losing time but have kept myself close to the hearth and entertained with pinterests, facebooking, blog and e-book reading.  Since getting the Kindle Fire, my book reading is back on!  I've read more books in a month then I did all of last year that were non-art making related!  And now that my library offers e-books, there is less threat to my budget.  My current author crush is Tayari Jones and it is my book review blog thats getting most of my action now.  

My two favorite boards on pininterest are DIY crafts and Food.  I've spent the last couple of weeks cooking dishes I found there...I tried recipes for thai noodles, brussel sprouts, zuchini boats, chicken salad, quinoa patties.  This cake is cooling now...but it is from Allrecipes.com, my go to food site.

apple cake

One of my studio neighbors has hosted Pinterest workshops which is "lets get together and make something we find on pinterest".  I haven't attended any but how clever an idea!  

 

 

 

We made it babee! The grace of another year!

This will be my 3rd year in a row to give "learning curves" (reading and following exercises with daily accountability) another attempt.  In previous years I maintained a seperate blog page to share my schedule with any blog visitors who might have been interested in joining me, but then the page tab was haunting me after I abandoned the practice so I deleted it).

The 1st year I thought diversity would be the key to make "learning curves" fun.  The 2nd year I thought a central focus would be the key and I had 4 books all related to digital art.  This year, year number 3, I'm going to limit it to 2 books and keep the digital focus.  I'll decide on which 2 books by Friday, but I'm leaning toward Gloria Hansen's Digital Essentials and Lura Schwarz Smith's Digital Quilting.  

As far as "distractions" I'm adding the Strathmore free workshops to the mix and when I take a notion, the Sketchbook challenge.  I will not be taking any major workshops this year although Jane LaFazio will be coming to the area in the spring and I'm tempted but I do not want to rearrange my plans to accomodate the change in budget.  As it relates to the previous post, my goal is to obtain a larger space at Mellwood or a 2nd smaller space.  The idea space right behind me has once again come open but I'm not ready to take it.  

There are other books I'm working through but I'm not sharing the activities just yet...mainly because the pace depends on how often I get into the studio during the cold weather and they are not imperative as my other goals around creating and finishing a minimum of 5 new large for me quilts along with small-to-medium size pieces prior to Sept. 2013.

My word for last year was jubilation...the experiences that gave me jubilation after they were done and over...namely my mother's surgery last spring and her move...alongside those events, the time spent with Claire and Leslie and seeing my 2nd Quilt National exhibit at the opening weekend with my good friend Bev and the day I spent with sistah-friends Penny in her studio and wooded retreat and Valerie on a day the Lord held us together.  

My drive word this year will be tenacity!   

I'm a convert...

I'm good, I'm very good!  Peter has been on vacation for most of December.  It is wonderful to see him so relaxed and not carrying around work all the time, even though work does make life sweet most days.  

We've been enjoying coffee together in the mornings, and grandkids, watching tv, and listening to music.  I'm actually looking forward to him being able to retire if the "creek don't rise".  

The other thing I've been doing is reading like a mad woman! Thanks to the Kindle Fire Peter gifted me.  Some months ago I downloaded Kindle for the PC...it was okay and I like reading between surfing, but still was somewhat lukewarm on getting a reader, etc.  The best thing I enjoy is the back lighting which doesn't require lamp light for reading in the dark.  The 2nd best thing I enjoy is not buying a hard copy book of  books that will not get a 2nd read from me...there are some books that are real treasures to me, but there are some that once I've closed the book, it is over!  Not all reference books require physical space, even if they are art related.  This morning I downloaded Digital Art Wonderland and I just finished reading a book on African American Rootwork and Sacred Symbols of the Dogon.  Although informative, (Sacred Symbols was not quite what I expected), I was reading them to inform some visual ideas I had...somethings struck, most didn't right now...but 1. I didn't pay full price and 2. neither book will occupy space in what is already very limited space and 3.  multiple titles are portable.  So I'm a convert to book readers.

Its been about 2 weeks since I've been in the studio.  I did bring a study piece home to work out some hand embroidery on the "boats".  It boiled down to "yeap, the thread work and colour choices make the boats pop even more which translates to 'gonna take me more time to finish'.  

I'm considering trapunto, which I've never attempted, to make the boats stand out more.  The embroidery will only be through the top layer.  The blue section will be quilted by machine. Each boat is around 3 inces across...the actual top has about 150 boats.  This is what I'll be working on when I stay home from the studio (i.e. too damn cold).  

No further revelations have come to me about this piece in addition to it being my response to Troy Davis' execution.  

My love affair with a book

How excited have you ever gotten over the purchase (when you actually walk into a book store and buy it) or arrival (ordered from Amazon or some other online seller) of a new book?  

Months ago I pre-ordered this book:

          El Anatsui/When I Last Wrote to You About Africa (isn't the cover so damn gorgeous!!!!)

and it arrived yesterday.  After washing my hands and sanitizing them, I flipped through and read passages and looked at some of the art work, but for me to really sit down to read this book, I must first create a ceremony that goes like this...

                I'm home alone, (no human sounds at all).  I'm sitting in the comfy chair, the blinds                 are open and the day is bright.  I'm wearing my favorite frumpy clothes and I'm                 drinking tea or wine depending on the time of day.  One of my journals is close by to                 capture thoughts as I read and meditate on ideas and images.  I'm in no rush to do                 anything...laundry is done, dinner prepared, and I'm not answering the telephone.

Do I need to tell you how often I have days like this?  It will be awhile before I can savor this book...but I feel like the woman in the Kohler commercials who pulls a faucet out of her hand bag and says "design a kitchen around this".  I want a day designed around this book.

 

When keepin' it real goes right!

Its been a busy exciting and overwhelming week so far.  I'm still riding on cloud nine from hearing one of the best journalist of our time...Amy Goodman!

 She was here for the annual ACLU fund-raising dinner and my daughter said Al Sharpton spoke at St. Stephen Church on Sunday...and Julia Butterfly Hill was here yesterday at Bellarmine University.  When I first heard a radio story on Hill when she was still up in Luna, the tree, I was on my way to work and had to pull over to the side of the road because the story, the dedication and the sacrifice, moved me to ball like a baby.  The other time a radio story had this effect on me was listening to Regina Carter cuts from her cd Paganini: After the Dream.  I didn't hear Sharpton or Hill but the fact all 3 dynamos where in the city so close together, puts some jazzy joy in my heart.

I'm going to hang 3 pieces (Cilium 2, Crowbonics: The Scroll, Crowbonics: The Prayer) in a pop-up group exhibit on Friday for trolley hop and then for the month of November I'll have about 8-10 pieces at the Iroquois branch library.  This coincides with the release of poet Makalani Bandele's debut publication, Hellfightin' (Mud Man, my brother, did the cover).  Bandele will be doing a reading at the branch and myself and one other artist will be present to talk about our art forms afterwards.  I don't know the details really, so I'm rolling with the flow for the most part.  

Wishing you peace and joy, beloved...

Indigo: In Search of the Color that Seduced the World by Catherine E. McKinley

Kweli recommended this book to me by way of Facebook.  Being a fabric designer herself she was really provoked to think deeper about the state of contemporary fabric production of African fabrics and the history behind it.  I downloaded the book to my laptop but I should have trusted her judgement and purchased a hard copy of the book, because now for 14 bucks I have it on my computer but for 3 dollars more I could have had the hard copy and after reading it, I wished I had.   Not realizing my assumption before hand, I thought the book would be an informative straight forward historical read, but it was much more than that...it documents one American woman's obsession with Indigo and the reason she is trying to discover why.  On a Fulbright Scholarship she journeys through West Africa looking for authentic Indigo production and use, but the cloth, not being in vogue compared to its past, is elusive.  Her adventure is told in antedotes which helps the book move ratherly quickly, but there are times I wanted more details of the story and wanted to get to know more about her feelings in relation to the people and places she visited.  But it is the search for Indigo that compels the story and the human relationships and geography take a back drop.

When I get taken with a book like I am with this one, I go off on a google search to find out more about the author and ended up requesting a FB connection only to find out she has a friend here in Louisville who I consider a good art-friend and has visited here before.   So I'm hoping there will be a chance to meet her and hear more of her stories sometime in the distant future.

McKinley's book led me to order In the Shadow of Slavery: Africa's Botanical legacy in the Atlantic World by Judith A. Carney and Richard Nicholas Rosomoff.  I started it last night and I tell ya it starts my mind spinning because I'm wondering if I can create a narrative in cloth around the crows, the faces I've sketched (the old woman who can be seen in older posts below), and botany...so my immediate challenge is to get centered and just listen for a bit.

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Yesterday I started a do-over, from scratch...hand-painting with fabric and acryllic paint mixed with Golden 900 vs using thickened dye like I used on the first start.  Its fairly large and detailed for me and I just hope I can meet a mid-November deadline for a regional fine art show.

Remember when I said I was in the studio the day after Davis' murder by the state of Georgia and had the intent of doing one thing and then I heard this phrase in my head?  The phrase was, These are the Boats Carrying Us to Heaven.  I decided to put aside my intent and explore what this could mean.  As a result I have over 200 small "boats" to paint with distinct markings on cotton with a working size of 5 feet by 4 feet.  I would like to hand quilt it as the piece has a RAW art vibe on it.  But no way would I make a November deadline if I decide to hand quilt it.  

Also, yesterday, in preparation to attempt meeting another deadline I sent a completed quilt into surgery.  I wasn't happy with one side but did love the surface...so I removed the facing and, today will attempt to square it up better.

Tuonane baadaye (See you later in Kiswahili)

Meeting deadlines

okay, I have at least 3 coming up...one in October, one in November, and one in January.  I'm infamous for missing them because I can't work as fast as my head finishes a piece and secondly, because I don't hold to a strong dictate of what I'm going to do when in the studio.  Like last week, I had every intent of picking something back up when I arrived.  The world was feeling different for me the day after Davis' execution.   Also, I was in the middle of reading a enthralling travel book on a woman's journey to West Africa in search of Indigo and it's meaning, Indigo: In Search of the Color that Seduced the World by Catherine E. McKinley.   It was both of these I believe that came to bear on a change of plans.

Now what I had observed about myself that day was I was moving slower and quietly both physically and mentally. Shortly after I arrived at the studio a certain phrase came to me and held me spell bound and I chose to follow it in cloth and ended up starting a whole new piece, and thus far, I'm very pleased with it.  The size is large, for me, and I'm wondering if I can have it ready for one of the looming deadlines...maybe I should change deadline to lifeline...meeting it could mean a whole new life for a piece of art.  

This week I played around with video taping in the studio...I think I need one of those twisty style tripods.  So far my camera man (youngest son) hasn't been convinced of all the exciting things that I do while at Mellwood and hasn't jumped at the chance to film me.   I mean what 20 year man wouldn't want to party like this!?

 

 dye painted cloth wrapped in newspaper waiting to be steamed

It was a smoky black indigo day...

Yesterday was a really looonnnnnnngggg day...I was out for over 12 hours straight.  After taking my oldest grandson, Adrian, to his school bus, I kept going and a headed to the studio, (by 1:00 I was ready for a nap and thought about my comfy chair which I miss).  I worked on trying to redeem my bruised ego from last week's disappointments.  I started 3 new cloths and reached the point were I was ready to steam them before going any further.   Here they are wrapped in newspaper with the ones I did last week and forming a sculpture in the window...

While I was there Petra called me to remind me of a presentation at The Filson Historical Society that started at 6 which I thought was going to be on Thursday.  My shirt was filled with dye stains. Petra lives close to Mellwood and the presentation was also not far away.  Petra agreed to loan me a shirt to keep me from having to go all the way home.  So I stayed at Mellwood until 5 and headed to the presentation...Two Centuries of Black Louisville: A Photographic History.  These 3 authors are powerhouses alone in their respective fields and the book represents 15-20 years of research on their individual efforts and 5 years of working on the book collectively.  

After the presentation Petra treated me to dinner at Smoketown USA.  A place I kept promising myself to go to but have never tried, mainly because it is not in a high visibility area.  But the food was good, the joint was crowded for a Tuesday night, and the back room is a yard sale room where you can purchase other people's junk that you don't need.  Cool.  

I'm not sure if I'm going to the studio today...the spirit is willing but the body is weak.  I might just stay home and curl up with my laptop to read a downloaded book, Indigo: In Search of the Color that Seduced the World, by Catherine E. McKinley.  

 

So, What Do You Do?

Have you ever gone back and randomly read your old blog post?  I did. The majorest (yeah I know its not a word) difference is I no longer share as much of my day to day thinking and doings and, also, I almost never discuss my family and friends unless we merge in some way on the art making trip.   I don't know from reading my blog that you would know I've been partnered to the same fine man for 25 years, that I have 3 grown ass adult children and 3 intelligent grand-children, or that I worked as a social worker for 21 years...you know, all that social-demographic identifiers that people use for introductions and getting to know one another.  Whenever I found myself at a social gathering of strangers and was asked the question, "so what do you do?", my standard response was "in relation to what?".  I believe that a better intro would be to ask someone what they think about something you care deeply about.  For example, "what do you think about mountain top removal?".  Even if I don't have a clue, I can say in honesty that I don't know enough about the issue and then here we have a teachable/learnable moment.  I tend to remember people who have taught me something more than by what profession they hold.  Before I got around to finding out what you did for a living, I would know how you spend your precious time in tending to the heart and soul of you...if that happens to coincide with what you do for a living, then I know its going to be a great conversation because you'd be one of the very fortunate employed people who happen to spend the majority of their time engaged in their passion.    I'd like to know first, what you dream about, what gifts are you holding on to until the "perfect" time comes for you to use them before I know about your job and what zip code you live in.   

I had no clue that the above was even on my mind until I started typing.  What I came here to write about was my participation in 2 online visual journal projects.  One is sponsored by Strathmore Journals and the other is The Sketchbook Challenge working alongside 16 groovy (I love it when I can use that word) artists.

Although both are about visual journaling, they are two different pieces of fruit in the same bowl.  Here are the 2 pages I started for the Strathmore workshop taught by Pam Carriker.

I plan to add more colour when I can get out to get my watercolours.  (Woke up yesterday with a soar sore throat and upper chest inflammation, on another antibiotic and back to staying in).  Pam's workshop is about recycling your own art work for journaling.  The woman's face I sketched some years ago and the red paper came out of a LAFTA workshop by Debbie Levine on making Paste Papers.

This is my 2nd one in process. This is all paper but the border was a remnant from Penny Sisto's  tepee that she replaced.  It had been painted and what not, but the actual fabric disappeared into thin air some years ago and all I have is the image I had scanned. 

The Sketchbook Challenge is assigned a monthly theme for participants to sketch as often as they wish for the entire month on the theme.  January's is HIGHLY PRIZED.  I spent a day thinking (really over thinking it) until I realized  I don't have to go all esoteric on the subject and just sketch something I place some value on.  When that light bulb came on I went to the kitchen cabinet and gathered my 4 favorite cups for drinking coffee, tea, and hot cocoa.  Here is the first one that came from Korea in a Ya-Ya exchange with a female solider close to 9 or 10 years ago.  I don't remember her name or her Ya-ya name but I adore the tea cup with the lid.

Here is my sketch...

My goal was to focus on lines.  Ade thought I should do the shadow so I added it for the 2nd sketch.  I bet you'd like to see the actual cup, uh?  I'm going to do all the 4 cups and then I'll get photos of the real cups up later.

Peace,

Embracing the Season

In attempts to embrace the changing season I'm changing my routine to reduce my going in and out as much...appointing days to dedicate to learning and being in either the studio or workshops.  Warmer temps encourages me to work more fluidly than the colder temps. The colder temps encourage to stay put and focus even more.       

I'm re-committing to Learning Curves, my self-directed education program.  There is a tab at the top of the blog if you want to see which books I'm using.

I'm listening to Charlie Rose and noted panel discussing the works of Romare Bearden...here is the link...

 Romare Bearden

Also, would anyone like to have this book?  It is a small booklet of 31 pages with about 10 or so different projects like cell phone covers, basket liners, book covers, etc.  No drawing, just the first to want it in the comments will get it.

I'm one of 1.6 million!

My goals for October:

1. 50 postcards for JD Green's cd release event.

2. Retake photos for Form Not Function, cd and application

3. Complete quilts (binding and sleeves)

4. Flyers (see #2 below)

5. Start a portfolio cd

Thanks it...Here is how it went on last months goals:

1. Have 25 postcards and 25 fiber brooches ready for sale by Sept. 9th.  scrapped the brooches but did the postcards

1a. backing, sealed, on placards, etc.  related to above

1b. on cards, take 5 to retailers.  decided against it due to dropping prices on postcards and discovered there wasn't a need, postcards sold very well.

2. Flyers on renting space by hr/intro to dye in lobby and Mellwood/LAFTA email list.

3. Make up price list  completed

4. Complete applications for 2 exhibits  (still working it out)

4a. 2 pieces quilted and completed  (1 piece used for postcards, still working on it)

4b. Ade to photographed  (need to retake them)

5. Begin putting together a cd portfolio.  (still working on it) 

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Yesterday I read Kyra Hicks' new booklet, a true gem!  It is packed, I mean packed with information for such a small book.  It goes a long way, I mean really long way, in filling the gap in quilting resources and information.  I intentionally left it at the studio for fear that I'd start searching out the online resources and sites, close to 300, and would never ever get up from the computer all in the name of fun and expanding my brain.  There are six original applique blocks by Francine Haskins included and I thought how fun it would be to make them and send images to both Kyra and Francine.  Even though I can't handle making them now because my plate is full and I work so slow as it is, I do intend to make them within the coming year.  Also, for someone whose head is as thick as mine when it comes to statistics, Kyra writes with such transparency on the topic and takes a layperson's tone toward presenting the info that I found myself really interested in something that would normally make my eyes go wide trying to understand.  I had to pinch myself to make sure it was me!  Thank you Kyra for being so kind for the thick-headed among us when it comes to numerical data.  

 

 

I wonder if Beauford ever heard the whoosh?

Since the end of July I've been on a creative high but yesterday in The Basement Workshop it just wasn't happening.  I forced myself to finish quilting a "practice" piece that bottomed out when I attempted to add another layer of painting after I finished quilting it.  It is somewhat of an abstracted landscape.  I brought it home with me to continue pondering to see if it can be saved...even though it is a practice piece for free-motion quilting, it still was discouraging to have ucked it up in the last stages.  I could hear the flushing of my time going right down the commode.   Of course logically I know that even the failures are investments toward skill, but emotionally I heard that long whooshing sound when all felt in vain. Here is a sectional view of where it went all wrong-

Actually, I know it can be redeemed, it's just going to push me harder to wrap my head around colour control and painting technique.

Weather wise we are catching a big break this week.  Cooler temperatures and low humidity.  I'm staying home today but will enjoy the weather from the balcony.  Will try to finish the bio on the artist Beauford Delaney.  Peace,

Can I Get Cute?

It was so humid today I didn't even want to walk across the parking lot to go to the studio today.  My substitutes were to drop in at my favorite quilt shop to see the quilt exhibit by quilter's who are men...I wish I had taken my camera in because I would have showed you a quilted scupture that made me laugh...I can't recall his name but this dude LOVED LOVED LOVED bead embellishing!  His work had such a strong sense of play and fun to it!  There is group of art quilters that meet once a month and he is one of the members.  His work tickled me so much that I'm feeling compelled to attend the next meeting just to meet him and let him know.

The other substitute for applying myself toward quilting was to move my sewing table around in the Basement.  I've been caught up with thinking about a "cute" space due to being under the influence of My Desert Cottage's 2nd Annual Blog Party called Where Bloggers Create.  I've looked at about 10 studio spaces from the blog list party and mostly they were cottage/vintage/cute and lo and behold I'm riding down Bardstown Road today (not while looking at the website though) and bam, what do I spy but a vintage looking body form and just briefly tapped the breaks when I my voice emerged and said "thats not you" keep moving.  Thank God for voices, eh! 

At the moment, I'm washing out dyed fabrics that have been sitting in the car for a few days.  I used Linda Johansen's Fabric Dyer's Dictionary as a reference.  Even though I did not use the exact dyes she did, I'm pretty satisfied with her formulas she offers for colour mixing.  Here I was messing around with creating greens...

Speaking of green, I seem to have 3 times as much green fabrics then any other colour! I always thought it was purples/blues but after really sorting through, purples and reds are the least in my humble stash.  After greens, comes blues, warm yellows, and oranges.  Also, of late I've been vibing with a turquoise acryllic by Liquitex...Turquoise says summer to me and so far everything I've put it on, it becomes the pizzazz, the pop!  Juanita always says "a little bit of yellow goes a long way", but I'm thinking Liquitex's turquoise is the new yellow.

Also, another new find I discovered from a blog of a member, Pat, of the local calligraphy guild is this gem for writing, Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen.  It writes well on fabric and I'm going to use it in the next Crowbonics piece.  I picked up on in silver and tried it on a gray fabric.  Pat shows more examples of how she used her pen here.

My studio/basement time continues to be hit and miss, catch it where and when I can.  Tomorrow my mother and I have a meeting at the nursing home...he has reached a "plateau" with his physical therapy which translates into end of insurance coverage...we're in the midst of applying for Medicaid which I'm preparing for this nursing center to say they have limited number of beds available.  He has adjusted very well at this facility and the staff have been great and treat him well.  He has kept a positive attitude and his humor has returned. When my head hits the pillow it will be with prayer that it all works out for the good of both him and my mother.

Peace,

Kicking off the great purge with a give-a-way!!!!! Come out and play!

The great purge is on!!!!!!!!  This will be my first purge of quilting books which I've been buying as regular as groceries for 6-7 years.  I've reached a point where I know what I will and will not pursue.  As much as I love pictorial quilts, the likelihood that I will ever feel compelled to create them is slim.  When I began this journey I wanted to know how to do it all and I wanted to do it all quite well!  I invested in books in a variety of artistic styles.  Since then, specifically the last 3 years, I moved toward defining my style as an art quilter.  I know that what I do with cloth when I'm at my best as an artist is a direct emotional response/release to living.  Abstract marks/stitches/shapes feels more freeing to me than trying to convey in pictorials.  Doing Crowbonics: The Scroll was the deciding piece that said to me...let what doesn't fit me, go. 

In celebration, I'm hosting a give-a-way!!! This is a great book for starters to dyeing...uncomplicated and a fun approach. And a oh so cute pair of rubber gloves (size M) that have never been used (didn't fit my hands).  Release your inner gigabytes and leave me a comment telling me how quilting helps define or impacts your identity or life.  Everyone who comments on this post will be entered for the book and gloves and a name will be drawn on Sunday. 

Look for a new tab at the top of my blog for the books that I'll be selling sometime soon.  I'll also list on Amazon.  Thanks for hanging out here at Seamless Skin ;)

 

Cion, a novel by Zakes Mda

 I finished this last night and because of quilts being one of the central themes in the novel, I'm recommending it as a STRANGELY ENTERTAINING read.  You can read my thoughts on the book at my book blog, My Eyes Have Seen the Coming of the Word.  The top 3 posts discuss the book. 

Zakes Mda teaches at Ohio University right in Athens and cleverly interweaves the history, quilting and otherwise, into the novel.  Please let me know if you read it by leaving a comment at either blog or via email. 

Peace,

Kicking off the year!

Well la ti da, looka here, looka here...this cold fluffy stuff that is so pretty to look at but whose reality is a bit harsh finally found us...the frigid temps wasn't enough, it had to go and snow! Its only a few inches but, still, ya know how I feel about the season that shall not be named. 

But I was not daunted! No, beloved, I managed to keep myself distracted and warm and worked my plan in spite of it all! 

FME Exercises (Shinn) 

VL (Dunnewold, Benn, Morgan)

 
MM (Fritz)  

What I've committed to doing this time around with my outlined curriculum (see previous post) is to stick with the exercises, ride them out so to speak, go a little further with them, versus rushing through them in order to get to the "fun" part.  For example, take the expanded shape exercises (middle image above). Instead of doing 10-20 of them and then moving to the next exercise, I'm going to overlap the exercises and continue to do the previous exercises while moving to the next one.  This will add some "depth" to what I do instead of moving through fast.  Afterall, the purchase of books is a serious investment and it doesn't make sense to keep adding to my shelves without really getting the benefit from them.  I'm even abandoning my approach to keep my books in pristine condition.  Why? For What?  No, this time I'm highlighting, making notes in the margins...really pushing myself to engage with the efforts that each author has made. 

Other happenings this week was finding 4 painted whole cloths that was my first intended series.  I didn't even remember doing them until I saw them and one of them just might become the background for the Audubon piece.  How sweet it is to look at something with new eyes, eh!? 

And another fresh discovery for this week is observing very little dye wash-out with acid dyes on silk which leads me to the conclusion that most of the dye adhers to the cloth.  Here are the scarves waiting for a 2nd layer of something...I'm thinking of some hand writing, any ideas for me?

Looking at these colours, I must have Spring on my mind :)

 Peace,

Happy Kuumba Birthday New Year's Ramblings

Last night I was feeling a tad bit sad at the prospects of growing a year older...really came on as a result of thinking about grief I've experienced over decisions made by my children and wondering what we could have done differently.  Two years ago I tried to pour all that grief into a quilt which I named Prayers of The Mother.  I found myself marking time by my hopes and prayers for them.  I appliqued ankhs on it to represent life giving and sustaining faith, hash marks to measure time, the eyes of my 3 children to convey vision and 3 Ethiopian crosses to mark an ancient faith and prayers by millions of mothers from the beginning of civilization. 

This morning, yeah, this morning hope and fun arrived to greet me and life is what it is and I'm thrilled to be here and apart of it!  Can I get an amen?!  It has always tickled me that my birthday falls on the day of Kuumba, the day to reflect on Creativity:

Kuumba (Creativity)
To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

The first half of '09 saw me exercising this principle in my small way in The Basement Workshop. My process of making art was alive and even through the detours I could see myself moving closer to the expression of my head and heart and becoming more soulful.  The flood did refocus my energies away from actually making quilts but out of it I gained a 2nd studio space and have fallen in love with machine needle felting.  All good, all good...but its time.  In spite of this season showing up my physical limitatons, I'm not willing to just sit and wait it out til spring. 

This is my plan. starting Monday...I'm going to re-introduce discipline to my approach.  A return to treating some of my time as if I'm taking college courses.  I've selected 5 books, each representing a class, and I'm going to work through them by assigning them a day or days of the week.  I've selected:

1. Finding Your Own Visual Language (Dunnewold, Benn, Morgan) M,W

2. Freetyle Machine Embroidery (Shinn) Tu

3. Image Transfer Workhop (McElroy, Wilson) W

4. Mindful Meandering (Fritz) Th

5. I'd Rather Be in the Studio (Stansfield) (gonna give it another go) W, F

I will create a new journal to track samples and studies and will also write accountability into Seamless Skin as I go.  My semester, of sorts, begins this coming Monday.  Not all my time on the assigned days will be devoted to the books, but approximately 1-2 hours and then another 1-2 hours of on at least 3 of the days while its cold to whatever I'm drawn to do.

The other topic I've found myself thinking about is John James Audubon, yes, that Audubon.  I've been invited to create a quilt commemorating him/his work.  Two trains of thought...the first one after reading about him, I became intrigued about his mother...Audubon was born in what is now Haiti to a properous plantation owner.  His birth mother gave birth to 2 children fathered by the plantation owner...John James  was the oldest and a girl who is also not given much mention. 

His birth mother died or was killed (depending on which article you read) after an African slave revolt.  His mother's name was Jeanne Rabine. (Jean was also John James' first name prior to being baptised and taken in by the wife of his father).  She is referred to as a French servant, Creole servant, French Creole servant...racially mixed. mulatto, etc.  One article I read speculated that she more than likely came from Louisiana (prior to the territory becoming part of the U.S.A) and was a French-African Creole.  Very few of the articles even mention her by name but give a respectable documentation of his father.  Audubon ended up in the U.S. and a land owner by way of his father's direction in keeping him out of Napolean's military even in spite of his status as an officer. 

Wondering more about his mother, Jeanne Rabine, I thought this would make a beautiful piece of fiction...not beautiful as in sanguine, okay?!  But in a way to give a voice to the voiceless, beautiful in a way to write this particular woman back in history, into the dialogue. 

A few months ago when I was at Penny Sisto's playing with the way she creates images, a headless female figure came to me (you can see it a few post down...its the one I lost and never found...is that a riff on invisibility?!)  I wondered if it was Audubon's mother coming through.

The other train of thought I had for the upcoming exhibit was to do something with Crows.  I hope to neve forget the NPR story some months ago about Crow research finding out that Crows can recognize human faces and can communicate to other Crows about their pissivity with a person who affronts them, and will continue to harrass that person, and are not easily fooled if that said person tries to disguise themselves.  LOVE IT!!!! 

This is my Happy Kuumba Birthday New Year's Ramblings...as always Peace,

 

.

 

Digging The View...

The View from the Studio Door by Ted Orland 

Maybe its a stretch to call what i do a review since I mostly like to write about how a book impacts me but so be it.  This book spoke much more to me than Art & Fear which I didn't relate to much. The View goes a long way in helping me keep grounded and I predict it will be one that I'll return to quite often.

What I did during the mid-40 degree F heatwave

Ade and Peter are on vacation and I've been more home bound and hanging out with them eating ginger snaps and watching movies and lounging and running about.  Peter takes the whole month  or most of December off and this vacation has been sweet and low key just the way I love them. 

Yesterday I did take advantage of warmer temperatures (mid-40F) and head to my Mellwood Studio.  I worked on felting the scarf and Peter hung my curtains there before he and Ade went on their merry way and left me to my own devices. 

The scarf has a long way to go as I want to kick back the way the colour is laid out all wild-like with a little bit of order with the next layer of wool or yarns or cheesecloth or organza or...

The colours are more grayed in this image then they appear off camera.  A hot magentas and rich violets are the actual colours.

The Mellwood Studio is coming along and by spring it should be more work ready.  Peter hung the curtains for me yesterday and it makes it a tad bit more homey since there are windows all the way around except for my direct neighbor who has peg board up on his side.  I'm trying to come up with low labor way to cover up the peg board...I'm leaning toward decorative paper on those windows. 

Three of my quilts and framed poetry by Estella soften the pegboard but I'm thinking a light coloured decorative paper would bring some light into the space and not distract from what ever is displayed in front of the window.  The back corner is my "working" and storage area.

Estella has more framed poetry and her books in the window.  I like to watch the people who stop to actually read the poems. 

The African panels belong to her also and came back with her from various central African countries a few years back.  You can see one on the back window in the photo above and the other 3 in the photo below.  The panels are for sale but I'm not sure how much.  If you're interested, just email me and I'll find out.  On the shelves below  the window is an exhibit of Memory Boxes by Henrietta Box Brown (email me if you get this one ;) )  and they juxtapose an historical memory with one contemporary. 

And this quilt, lord, this quilt was started some 14 years ago and it still is unfinished...its a quotation quilt.  I released it from its unfinished project bag and hung it over my quilt frame for inspiration.  It was started for a birthday gift and the intended receiver has seen many birthdays come and go and its still not complete.  I want to hand quilt it. 

My muscles and joints have not let up in pain since mid November.  In addition to reading to keep my mind off of the pain (I really need to review here The View from the Studio Door by Ted Orland, digging this! and Screen Printing by Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan...outstanding!) I'm perpetually giving praise for the blessing of being able to create art in my life as a triumph over the pain...keep on keeping on and have a wonderful Kwanzaa and Holidays!

Peace