Journal Quilt Project II: Elements - Earth, Water, Air and Fire

The International Quilt Festival in Houston is opening this week. My entry in the 2008 Journal Quilt Project was accepted, so will be displayed with the others at that show.
We are asked not to show our entries before the show, but now that IQF has opened, it's OK to publish it.

I've been working on a series in which I attempt to use a hand cut rubber stamp to convey an idea or impression when printed on fabric - a very simple idea - rather challenging to execute.

As I thought about the theme - Elements - Earth, Water, Air and Fire - I sketched some lines that might be interesting as a printing block. In doing so, I realized that the same lines could convey each of the elements depending on orientation and color. This particular piece includes only three of the four elements - Fire, Earth, and Water - which is the title of this piece.

My embellishments are meant to continue the idea that where the elements meet - something tangible is created with the two elements. I've stitched stone chips between the fire and earth elements and seashells between the earth and water elements.

I feel very fortunate to have my piece accepted into the exhibit. There were a lot of entries.

Artist Reception

What a thrill to arrive at the gallery Friday afternoon and discover this wonderful arrangement compliments of Phyllis - who participated in my retreat last fall. She and I have been in contact frequently since that time via emails. Thanks Phyllis!

I was very surprised that so many relatives came from far away for our reception. Additionally, one of my cousins invited a group of friends from high school and grade school. Some of these women, I had not seen in 4 decades. It was so much fun catching up with them!

My parents drove down from Coffee Creek - a three hour drive. This was the first time they had been to the gallery since it opened in May.

The wall art includes my art quilts, along with daughter Elizabeth's paintings and daughter Michelle's photographs.

The art on the floor is our standard - pottery, jewelry, glass, paper art - this is the stuff that pays the bills.

Expressionism

"Firestorm V" is part of a new show now hanging in Elements Gallery.

Last week, my mother and I drove up to Whitefish, MT for a visit with my sister, Jackie.

We added a couple of other activities to our agenda, since we were in that part of the state. My mother wanted to get Flathead cherries and so we drove down to Bigfork, where we also stopped in at ARTfusion - a fun little gallery that shows my work. It was a nice opportunity to meet the new owner and have a brief chat.

We were discussing some of the various artists and she said something that has really impacted my feeling about my work. She stated that she thought my work was "Expressionist". At the time, I didn't know exactly what that meant, but when I got home, I googled the term and did some research.

By golly, I think she is right! On one level, it seems so silly to have to define my art, but on the other, it is extremely validating and reassuring. Ever since I have left my career as a School Psychologist, I have felt somewhat disoriented about my identity. It has been a remarkable part of the journey to realize how important it is in our culture (and internally) to have some sort of terms with which to identify what it is that you do. . . .

I have been going through a lot of shifts in the self identity area lately. Suddenly becoming middle aged, a grandmother, self employed, a landlord, and a small business owner (none of these things in my life plan!) , have somehow been harder as I have felt somewhat adrift without an official "career" that I could talk about in sound bites.

Lately, I have looked at other quilt artists work with a jealous eye - wishing that I could work in a more interesting style . . . It has been hard for me to accept the fact that my work is not really abstract. Nor is it realistic. It seems that I always have to include some sort of figures, images from nature or symbolism . . . but beyond that - my visual imagery and techniques cover a broad range. I know I should not have to justify what I am compelled to do, but somehow it seems to be necessary at this point in my life.

How wonderfully refreshing and uplifting to discover that I do indeed have a consistent style when it is put into the context of Expressionism. This has done so much for my self esteem and confidence. Thank you, Kathy!

Geology

I've had four full days in the studio.
I've not had to leave the house for anything - what a luxury!

This has allowed me to focus on the series I am creating for my August gallery opening.

These fabrics have all been hand painted, pieced, and appliqued.
I hope to begin the quilting process today.

Fishermans Fantasy

19 Trout
I have a thing for trout. Have I mentioned this before?
A trout swimming in the water is one of my favorite sights.
I've challenged myself to depict native trout in a pseudo natural environment.
This is the third in my trout series.It is by far my largest attempt. It is 50" wide. I know it is not very likely that this many trout would be traveling so closely together in the natural environment, but it just looked better to me with a lot of trout. Artistic liberty.

Everything in this piece is hand painted - the water, the rocks, the fish.
I stamped the dots on the fishes backs using one of my hand cut stamps.

A layer of sparkly tulle from the give away covers this entire piece. Actually, it is several pieces overlapped to create more interest and dimension. The tulle has the effect of muting all the colors - the water as well as the fish and stones. But the sparkle it adds probably justifies the use of the tulle.

Tulle and Tyvek

This representation of a wildfire started as a piece of 100% cotton - handpainted with Setacolor fabric paints. I laid it out on a flat surface, applied my colors to damp fabric, crumpled it and left it to dry. I was satisfied with the result.

Then I received a gift of a box of tulle from a tulle manufacturer. At that point, I realized I had more tools (no pun intended) for creating depth and realism to the look of flames and smoke.

I used a glittery red tulle for the flames, and a crumpled gray for the smoke.

Using Tyvek to create the trees was almost an afterthought. I used Dharma pigments to color the Tyvek. I like this product because it has a very intense pigmentation and also bonds very well with the slippery plastic surface of the olefin.

This small piece is practice for a much larger one that is intended for the Elements Gallery opening in August.

I am sharing some of the tulle that I received from the manufacturer. Would you like some free tulle? Find out how at the Salvaged Threads Blog.

Into the Woods

Into the Woods
I have been messing around with these two versions the entire week, off and on.
I started out with a really nice golden piece of hand dyed cotton and a similar color of hand dyed cheesecloth.I hoped I could stamp a background that would read woodlands, but I wasn't thrilled with my results, so I overpainted, changing the color completely (and also dulling/muting it quite a bit).
Then, to make the tree bark appear as I wanted, I overpainted and scrunched the cheesecloth so that it dried with stripes.

I have fused these tree trunks to the background fabric, so I am stuck with what you see here.
I didn't want to spend too much more time overthinking it. I felt like I had already done plenty with all my layers of stamping and overpainting.

Now to decide whether either of these is worthy of the time investment for quilting.

I am contemplating hand quilting with embroidery thread, perhaps . . . .

Woods

new work - new approaches.
I am working on a new series. The focus is the five Elements of Fire, Earth, Water, Wood, and Metal. I hope to develop a number of ideas I have for expressing these concepts.

I've not worked with tulle much before. This painted piece has been layered with 10 different colors of tulle cut into rectangles and placed randomly with lots of overlap. Wanting to maintain the transparency, I did not fuse the tulle (as I have in the past).

The subtle shifts in color and shadow don't show up much in the photo. I'm contemplating using paintsticks to create more subtle shadows and light. I'll probably trim and bind it later today. It is about 59" wide.

We have beautiful sunny mild weather today and I think I will set up for fabric painting outside! I'll indulge my muse for the afternoon!