Museum of Glass in Tacoma

We were able to include some sightseeing in our trip to Seattle.
This was John's first visit to the area.
We stayed with Joe's sister, Rochelle in Puyallup. Wednesday was rainy, so we stayed in the neighborhood and went to Tacoma.
First stop was the Museum of Glass in downtown Tacoma.

The approach to the museum included some spectacular outdoor art glass installations.

Glenn St. Charles 98th Birthday Party

Joe's father, Glenn St. Charles turned 98 on December 15.
We flew into Seattle to celebrate this important occasion with him.
This is the first time Breckin (9 months) and Glenn have met.

We enjoyed visting with family members from the area, who gathered at Glenn's home.

left to right: Glenn St. Charles, Erin St. Charles holding Breckin Ingram and John St. Charles.

Greg Jahn Pottery

I mentioned a while back that I visited an Open Studio artist to replenish my mug supply.

Well, I finally have some pictures.

I especially love Greg's porcelain mugs because they are so very thin.

I just do not like drinking from a cup with thick sides!

I guess you could say I am a bit of a collector . . . I probably have 15 or so of Greg's mugs and I love them all! (I do have my favorites, though!)

Visual Journal - Another page

Visual Journal Entry #5

This is one of my favorites so far. Can you identify the face in the photo? I tried to make certain he would not be recognizable.

Visual Journal Entry #4

Visual Journal Entry #3

This one is kind of silly.
Please recognize that my visual journal pages are not intended as
"works of art".
Rather, they are a creative outlet and expressive opportunity.
I am trying not to over think. Playing it loose and not spending too much time.
I am working very intuitively.
I am also trying to flex my artistic muscles and develop some of my (perceived by me) weaknesses. Primarily - I am working on the development of a focal point.
I tend to create works with a lot of repetition, balance, and rhythm - often lacking a focal point.

Notice the borders on this piece - cut from the sewn, dyed, painted, and printed paper from this entry.

Visual Journal Entry #2

This page reflects upon the 3 months of construction labor I have been involved with - constructing an addition to my daughter's new home.

I wrote my entry with a gold pen that smeared when I sealed the page with collage sealer.
I am learning lots!

Visual Journal Entry #1

I've decided I will begin a routine of visual journaling.
My plan is to work first thing each morning in my visual journal.

I have really been enjoying it. The opportunity to begin the day with a quiet meditation in my studio is a most welcome reprieve in these cold dark winter months. It is usually dark when I get up, so this is something to look forward to each day.

Quilting a Village

Here is what I am stitching on these days - probably my final piece in this series of Glue Gel / painted villages. This one was also block printed and is quite large - probably 5 feet square. It has been waiting a long time for quilting, but I have procrastinated because I knew it would be a big chore.

So, I have it all set up and try to work on it an hour or two each day. I will finish it eventually at that rate. In the meantime, I am not getting much else done in the way of textile art. Right now, I am finding myself drawn to other mediums.

Paper Work Continued

This piece was painted with a pink wash, then printed using a hand carved printing block with green acrylic paint. I really love this piece as it is and I am reluctant to cut it up or do anything further with it. I don't want to screen print on it. I might stitch on it a bit more . . . and it might end up mounted on mat board or something, but until I decide - it hangs in my studio.

I worked with the large sheet of dyed paper in a manner fairly similar to what I do with fabric. Layers. This piece is screen printed with Thermofax screens I made from wildflower photos I took during our East Rosebud hike last summer.

Paper Work

I keep a box in my studio, where I drop every piece of used paper that passes through my hands (except that destined for the garbage). Mostly, I keep old lists, old emails or Internet information I may have printed out, etc. There are a lot of quilt show entry forms, prospectus, etc. . . . . even a few rejection letters that end up in this box.

I decided to try cutting them up into quarters, then sewing them back together randomly. This created a very large sheet of paper for me to work with.

Kind of fun.

I made it the size of my print table, since this space is already protected and therefore a safe place for me to splash some old MX dye and watercolors around.

I really like the look so far.

Cairns V

This piece in the "Cairns" series contains rock chips collected at Earthquake Lake last summer.

I wanted to create some pieces that could be mounted on a 16 x 20" canvas.

I painted this canvas, then screen printed it to echo the printing on the art quilt.

I am going to have to do a bit more with it, as I am not satisfied with the way the canvas looks. I feel like it overpowers the art quilt. I want to do something to minimize it so the quilt is the centerpiece.

Your thoughts?

Cairns IV

The Cairns series has been popular and I have enjoyed working with the imagery.

I am really happy to have new petroglyph images - from Legend Rock - to add as I continue this series.

This piece is 12" square.

Paper Collage

More Collages

Yellowstone Art Museum Silent Auction

Yesterday was the Live Small Works Auction at Yellowstone Art Museum here in Billings.

They have a small works auction as a winter fundraiser, held during the December Downtown Artwalk / Christmas Stroll.

I took a piece in for the auction - I guess I dropped it off back in September.

I stopped by the museum yesterday afternoon to see the other work in the auction and to take a photo of mine.

I looked and looked but could not find it!

I noticed that some pieces were no longer hanging, however, with "SOLD" signs hanging instead.

After quite a bit of searching, I did finally discover that my piece already sold for full price and apparently the buyer took it with them!

I searched my photo archives and apparently I did not photograph the piece before taking it to the museum! That is pretty unusual - I rarely let anything out of my studio without taking a picture of it first! So sorry - I do not have a photo of it to share.

Nevertheless, I am pleased that it sold at full price BEFORE the actual auction! That is encouraging.

Instead of bidding on any of the YAM small works myself, I headed over to the open studio of my favorite local potter, Greg Jahn. I picked up several mugs (my favorite and I needed to replace my broken ones) and a big beautiful bowl!

Isn't this terrific? It was a splurge for me, but I love the colors and patterning and could not resist!

Self Portrait

I am calling these self portraits since I have used photos of myself as the foundation for each of the characters.

I am not terribly thrilled with these, but they were a good challenge.

Collage - Be Happy!

This piece was done on a 9 x 12 piece of watercolor paper. I used scrap paper and family photos to create this piece. This was scanned and I don't like the colors - very dulled down. I may need to try a different approach.

I am thinking I may try to create paper art on a regular basis for 2010. Maybe using junk mail and recycling. Weekly? Monthly?

The biggest issue is establishing a place to set up a permanent workspace. I am currently using my fabric printing station. This may be a fair exchange, as I do not print daily, but I would like to try working on paper daily - at least through the winter months.

Collage Experimentation

Although I have not done a lot in the studio the past few months on account of family distractions, I have tried to make time for random spurts of create activity.

I've been feeling a bit restless with regard to my textile art work and have been feeling the impulse to explore other mediums.

This week, I messed around a bit with collage. I've used my hand printed papers and magazines for my collage thus far. I did several. More tomorrow.