When I first began stitching on cloth, I heard this expression more than once….not everything is a masterpiece! It is quite a humbling statement and one that keeps this artist from taking herself too seriously. It has been however, quite a long time since I have had to repeat this phrase…until today. It all started with […]
Newest Work
on overdoing…
I recently sent out my “quarterly” art newsletter about my work. I say quarterly in quotes because quarterly is the goal. The actuality is more like meh, I don’t feel like doing that today and maybe semi-annually is better! It could be said I do it because people ask me all the time about what […]
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!
Change is coming. It’s in the air. Can you feel it? I can for sure, but not in the way you might imagine! I have been fighting with these two pieces for quite some time. They are about fraternal twins for the Wisdom Gatherers series. Why are these two works troubling me so? One thing I […]
new bed quilt…
Last year about this time I admitted out loud that I should design a new queen bed quilt for our room. The previous one I made 15-16 years ago is terribly thin and faded, although we still snuggle under it with two blankets this time of year. I kind of thought that by saying it […]
resetting priorities…
We recently returned from a fabulous two week vacation to New York, Montreal and points in between. It was exceptionally good timing as I had been pedal to the metal for months making art for new exhibits and causes. Before leaving I submitted entries to four fine art exhibits. The one I was most excited about […]
artivist at work…
I have taken a little heat lately for my creative zest! I was going to say over-exuberance but that is really a judgment call. I seriously do not mind feeling over-exuberant about my work at all. I relish the time when the muse is in the house and ready to get at it. For I […]
making art with plastic…
I have just finished designing three pieces of art embellished with plastic. They are Plastic Ocean 1, Plastic Ocean 2 and Underwater Garden. It has been a long and winding road that led me to the point where I felt it important to make a statement about the massive quantities of plastic in our oceans. I […]
time flies…or not
When last we left our heroine…A few days after my fabulous weekend jaunt to Alaska, I woke up with a bad foot. It was bad in the sense that it really hurt and I couldn’t bear weight. Other than that I knew nothing! I figured I had sprained it somehow, well actually thought I had […]
back at it…
2018 has been hectic thus far… took a short trip, got bad news about a friend’s health, got the flu and battled that for two weeks, followed by nearly three weeks of digestive issues. Now hoping that I am on the mend, I am pondering my next creative steps. I decided to do a no. […]
coming ’round the corner…
Today I photographed no. 23 in the Defining Moments series and put it up on my website. This piece, The Aging Optimist was another that sat in my head for weeks, figuring out how to design it. I had yet another roll of strips made of scraps from which I had started the series and I […]
and they said it wouldn’t last…
Yesterday I finished the wedding dress piece…hurrah! I started Defining Moments 16: Marriage early last year by dismantling my wedding dress. Then I screen-printed our vows to the dress fabric as well as some of the flannel lining. I hand-stitched a strip of lace from the dress, fused on bridesmaid dress fabric in squares of various sizes, free-motion stitched […]
it’s the little things…
One of the things I most enjoy about this series work is I am continually challenged by how to convey my message or tell the story. The piece I have been working on (#16) these past weeks is about our marriage. A couple months ago I began the prep work by dismantling my wedding dress, which my […]
15 down, 10 to go…
I recently finished no. 15 in the Defining Moments series! Now with just ten more to meet our goal I am really feeling the momentum. However, I must pause to whip up some small bags for the arts guild so have pieced the background of no. 16 to inspire me from the wall. The interesting part to […]
great news…
Apparently I did not blog post earlier about this piece and now I have very wonderful news. The Cliff Notes version is Defining Moments 12: No Means NO has been juried into the biennial Quilt National 2017. With just 11% of the entries chosen for the 2017 exhibit it is a highly competitive process to have one’s work […]
and then what happened…
In the month since I last blogged, I completed, but not yet photographed #11 and #12 in the series. Synchronistically the Stanford rape verdict which made the news enraged me again so I decided to go backwards and do a relevant piece and title it the new #11 which will push the aforementioned two to #12 and #13! […]
on getting out of my own way…
I have spent most of this day fighting the voice that tells me I must go downstairs (to the cold basement) and create two new thermofax screens to print cloth for #11. This sense of urgency is based on two things; that #10 is nearly completely stitched and with 15 more to go, time is a […]
on proportion…
The muse is in residence these days while the brain is trying to interfere with ‘maybe now would be a good time to clean out the basement’ or ‘ let’s start the final purge in the living room today.’ The first is illogical and the second impractical. Who wants to spend time in a basement in […]
going places…
I received great news today that one of the pieces from my ongoing collaboration with Marion Coleman was juried into Stories of Migration: Contemporary Artists Interpret Diaspora at the newly renovated Textile Museum in Washington, DC from April 15-September 4, 2016. The jurors Rebecca A.T. Stevens and Lee Talbot, chose my work “Fleeing the City”; one […]
art on the iPad
For the past month I have been engrossed in an online course titled iPad for Artists taught by my colleague Susie Monday. Since I use my iPad for mostly email, social media, reading and games I decided I might like to really learn other things to do with it. I downloaded a bunch of apps for drawing, […]
where i have been…
Holy Smokes…what happened to March?! I can’t believe it has been over a month since I have blogged. To come up to speed, I continue on with the collaborative series, as I am now designing #7 of the twenty five. I am so enjoying this experience and the ever changing challenges of construction, technique, materials, […]
more defining moments…
I continue to be engrossed in a collaborative project which requires 25 large pieces to be designed in three years time. We are now in year two and I just finished my fifth piece. What me worry? Actually I am not worried as the ideas pour out of my head. It’s been more of a matter of […]
tah-dah!
Finally I found time to photograph the latest addition to the Defining Moments collaborative series. This is titled Handcraft Heritage and celebrates the long line of women, from whom I descended, who did handwork. I also incorporated my own handwork, a handwoven silk scarf I wove for my mother and some Nuno felting. It was […]
going backwards…
My daughter, when once asked if she would date an old boyfriend said…life is too short to go backwards! This is really kind of how I feel with my art. Once I finish something I hate to go back and rework it; although I have been known to paint over something about which I was not […]
making progress…
Ever since I got home from the fantastic art retreat at Lake Tahoe I have been challenged to resume the hand-stitching. I don’t quite know why but sense technology may have something to do with it! Why should I sit with needle and thread in hand, stitching away when I could be playing MahJong on […]
back to it…
After a couple harried weeks I am now back to working on the collaboration, with the goal of 25 large pieces in three years. We are now coming upon the 11th month of the first year and I am on piece #4! Yikes, I could just freak out over that but I am having too much fun […]
quick and easy…
After struggles with machine stitching the third piece in the collaborative series, I knew I needed a quick and easy project to recharge my zest for free-motion stitching. I also needed two small pieces for fall exhibits of members’ work at the Petaluma Arts Center and the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. And yet I was […]
finito!
A few days ago I put the finishing touches on the third piece of the 25 piece collaboration. Defining Moments #3: My Folks is about my parents’ early years before my birth. They are both gone now so I was really paying homage to them. This piece was a struggle to design, implement and stitch; a great metaphor for […]
new work…defining moments
I have made several online references lately about a large new series. This is a collaborative project that requires I design 25 large pieces in three years time. We are now in August of the first year! My husband keeps reminding me that the clock is ticking and what pressure I have put on myself, but I […]
against the grain…
I have spent the afternoon re-immersed in a very old lesson. This lesson came over 5 decades ago when I first learned to sew; the lesson of sewing with the grain of the fabric. As a textile artist it is easy to fudge on that some of the time in small unnoticed ways. Today was not one of […]
Earth Stories debut…
It’s been so long that I could not share my work for Earth Stories that the exhibit opened and I forgot all about it until I read Facebook posts this morning! Over a year ago 25 international artists were juried by portfolio into the Earth Stories exhibit at Michigan State University Museum. I was honored to […]
