Spring for Art!

The last two days have been a flurry of activity as I have been designing the hanging of Associated Artists Spring for Art. Mark your calendars for this Friday, May 29 beginning at 7:00 and join us for our spring fundraising evening of fabulous food, wine, music, and of course ART. Lots of it...over 100 amazing pieces! Tickets are available in advance by calling the gallery or may be purchased at the door.

Here's a little sneak peek...one of my entries, "Fire Tree" which is needle and steam felted wool, soy silk and Angelina fibers, hand beaded and stitched to canvas.

Arts in Education - the final workshop

My last workshop for the Arts in Education program of Associated Artists was held at Southeast Middle School, where we did Positive/Negative surface designs on fabric. Positive, by adding to the surface with fabric paints, and negative by taking away from the fabric with discharging. It was a small group, but we had fun and I had creative kids who did a great job!

I have really enjoyed presenting these workshops. Having art in the public schools is very important to me and I'm glad I got to be a part of this Arts Council grant program.

Angelina Art

This fun little piece was made by Wanda Norman, who took my Awesome Angelina class at Sew Original in Winston-Salem, NC. It is titled "The Midnight Sun." Nice Job Wanda!

I will be teaching the class again at Sewingly Yours in Lewisville, NC on June 20 from 1-3. It is a fun, no machine required, hands-on class.

More Arts in Education

Recently I was invited to present another workshop as part of the Arts in Education program through Associated Artists. This time I went to Glenn High School in Kernersville, NC and as usual I was very impressed with the work I saw hanging in the classroom, and equally so with what the students did with their fusible expanded square designs. Take a look at these...

Aren't they terrific!? I had a great time...those kids are so creative!

Channeling Rayna

Today was my turn to facilitate the monthly meeting/workshop for the Beecassos, my local art quilt group and we did gelatin monoprinting, inspired by Rayna Gillman and her book Create Your Own Hand-printed Cloth (it's one of the best books I've purchased, and you can get your very own signed copy from her site, so go over there and get one!) We had sooo much FUN!

Why gelatin, you might ask? Well, you know how much fun it is to eat...it's even MORE fun to play with it! Pure JOY. I could spend days printing this way...

slime green...wonder who did that one? :-)

We used all kinds of things to create patterns and texture. I gathered lots of different leaves from my yard...long leaf pine, maple, oak, strawberry, dandelion, ferns, and I even realized after years of battling this noxious weed mess that I can't get rid of - don't know what it is, that it actually has perfect leaves for printing! I did stop short of using the poison ivy I found (reminder to self, go spray that!). We also used pool noodles, thread spools, straw, netting, bubble wrap, a potato masher, a spatula, foam stamps...lots of stuff. Did I mention how much FUN we had??

Rayna, wish you could have been with us in person!

Autism and Art

I just received this in the mail today:



I trust I will be forgiven for any copyright violations by scanning this postcard...you see, Zac is my nephew. From a very early age, even when he was still mostly non-verbal his artistic gift was evident. For a long time he would only draw on a white board, but with patient guidance from his teacher he moved to paper in the form of spiral bound blank pages. The first time my sister-in-law showed me his drawings I was blown away. He understood perspective and scale without ever having been taught it at an age where stick figures would have been the expected norm for any child. In particular I remember a series of drawings, each of the same scene, but as you turned the page in his book each scene would be as if you had walked further and further into the drawing. It was amazing.

I am glad he has been able to continue developing his artistic abilities. I think they far outweigh any autistic limitations. How cool that his work was chosen for the postcard for World Autism Awareness Day!

I am so proud of him.

PAQA South

I'm exhausted and energized, all at the same time!

Friday was the opening reception for ArtQuilts:transitions and day one of the PAQA South Spring Conference, held at the Durham Arts Council in Durham, NC. The day began with a visit to the Somerhill Gallery which has, among other fine things, an exquisite offering of art glass. From there we went to the Golden Belt art studios, which is part of a green renovation of old textile mill buildings that have been converted into live/work spaces. Way cool...makes me want to move to Durham! These are some of the studio spaces...

After lunch we all headed over to the DAC for the first workshop by Doug Kenyon on copyright law. This has been a hot topic on the QuiltArt list for some time now and in the wider art community as well. In addition to practicing intellectual property law Doug also teaches at NC State University School of Design.

Next was Elizabeth A. Taylor, CPA on record keeping, business management tips, and IRS compliance information for artists. Elizabeth has 30 years of experience in this and presented a lot of good information. Then is was time for the opening of the exhibit!

This was a big weekend in Durham for art...Friday night was Third Friday and Saturday and Sunday were the days for Art Walk, a city wide art event. Attendance at the DAC was tremendous...close to 300 on Friday night alone! Our own Deborah Langsam was interviewed for a TV appearance...

I was honored to have my piece hanging beside Nancy Cook's three pieces from her Seed Play series...they are amazing! It was great to spend time with the artists who were there and also to see in person some pieces that I had seen previously on the web. This is one of the best art quilt exhibits I've seen and these photos are just a snippet of what's there. If you are anywhere within a reasonable, or even unreasonable, travel distance, it will be worth your while to go! Good crowd, press coverage, beautiful gallery space...it was a terrific event. The day finished with dinner at Taverna Nikos....YUM!!

Here are Karen Lee Carter, Lyric Kinard, and Janine LeBlanc strolling through the plaza on the way to dinner. There were lots of people out and about, and even though I felt completely 'touristy' I couldn't help but snap this photo...the Brightleaf Square plaza space was full of great energy...an inviting space to hang out and enjoy the evening! Durham is definitely a city worth spending time in.

Saturday morning started with a casual show and tell time. There is such a diversity of inspiring work in this group! Everything from painterly realistic to interpretive to abstract...and one of the most unusual recycled materials used in a great piece by Ann Flaherty (hop over to her site and ask her about it!)

There were two more presentations, the first by juror Susan Brandeis on 'Tools for Creativity'...I was busy taking notes and sketching out ideas for an upcoming project, as things she said sparked new ideas. The second talk was by Janine LeBlanc on 'Digitizing Imagery' where I realized I have many things that need to be corrected in the way I store and upload my images! A timely lecture too, as my camera flash has died and it is time to start looking for a replacement.

All in all a tremendously fun weekend!

As I neared home I couldn't help but notice this unusual cloud formation...like a giant eye in the sky watching over my safe return. Inspiration for a new quilt? I think so!