Artistic Communications

This morning, I finished watching the documentary "Béla Fleck: Throw Down Your Heart." I'm learning to play the banjo (albeit slowly!) and love coming across documentaries about this amazing instrument.



Béla took his banjo across (back to) Africa to meet with and play with musicians of the different regions of the country. It amazed me how music connected him so immediately with people that often did not share a verbal language with him. As soon as the instruments would begin, everyone would seem so much at ease and so happy.

I can't help but think to myself what an amazing additional benefit that musicians have as artists. Often times their art form allows them great opportunities to connect to other humans, allowing the music to bond them to complete strangers, even if it is only for the duration of one throwdown. I find myself slight envious of this social aspect of music. Being a studio artist is most often (from my experience) a fairly solitary process.

Perhaps sharing art here more will bring about more connections with other artists?

For now, I will listen to the soundtrack for the documentary and work in my sketchbook and be happy for Béla and his experience in Africa. Enjoy this poorly sketched banjo - proof that not all sketches have to be "good". Sometimes, you just have to "throw it down" to get yourself moving on to grander things!



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Location:Edgebrook Pl,Eden Prairie,United States

Stuck

I have been working on a piece this week, a continuation of exploring the shoreline. Quilting is finished (I think...), and I have added the felting I planned on. A surprise was adding some angelina fibers to the roving, to get more depth and and water-like appearance.

I do like it so far, but at the moment I'm stuck. I have it hanging on the design wall to look at often as I go about the room. I don't feel yet that it's done. It isn't fully "saying" what I want it to. Something is missing...though I am not sure what that is yet. Hopefully as it hangs something will come to me? 

Despite the fact that there is so much cottonwood fluff in the air, I am going to brave going outside and head to a local lake. In need of firsthand photos and sketches of the shorelines to continue my explorations!

Perhaps I will see something that will work with the "Stuck" piece?

Putting in the Time: Part 1

It is often very difficult for us to admit to ourselves when we have gone wrong. Sometimes, it takes a long time to admit it, change our course and start moving in the right direction. I'm no different than anyone else in this respect.

I went to school for graphic design in 2001. I had been in school for less than two weeks when 9/11 occurred. It was disastrous to the advertising industry. From my prospective the nation went paranoid, and hasn't returned as of yet to a state of normalcy. Of course, at the time I was much younger (I need a moment to digest that I now consider 25 to be young) and didn't realize what was going on while I was in school.

It was a bit of a shock to me when I graduated with a 4.0, to see that I was competing against people with ten times or more the experience I had (zero), and who were willing to work for far less than they deserved in an entry level position, just because they needed any job they could find. It was also a shock when I realized that even though I am generally a competitive person by nature - this was more than I could handle. The advertising world is cut throat, and I'm just not cold blooded enough apparently.

I never did get a job in the advertising business.

Throughout all of this, I was making quilts - traditional quilts! I remember, not long after I realized that I had wasted disgusting amounts of money on a career degree that wasn't for me, I needed to create. I didn't have a studio. I didn't have a decent sewing machine. I didn't know fusibles existed. But, I had an idea, and needed to get it out in fabric.

It's called "Tree Guardian", and while I am still proud of my first fiber art piece - it's embarrassingly technically flawed! To my credit, all of the pieces are hand appliqued, and not horribly either. (I didn't know about fusible yet, remember?)

I didn't know it at the time, but the machine I had, I would come to find out would NEVER work for quilting. It was a $60 machine, and the tension to this day is still awful even on a straight stitch. This caused me so much frustration at the time that I often wanted to quit - but I kept plugging away. It wasn't until I bought my used Bernina 1260 several years later, that I realized I wasn't as bad of a quilter as the backs of my pieces would have you believe! (Relief!)

Looking as this quilt now I know that I have grown and learned many things. I know now that quilting must be evenly spaced, and no large gaps left to sag. I'm better with tension (mostly due to decent machines most likely, but still!)

Sometimes it is good to look at older pieces, to see how far we have come. It's also good, to remind us that we probably still have a ways to go, and may have become complacent.......

I've learned that you should not have this much open space in a quilt or it sags.

I have learned that you can work with the fabric for quilt design.

Again, you can't have huge open spaces!

This is the tension that the $60 machine nearly ALWAYS had. So frustrating, and I am very thankful that I now have a Bernina 1260 and a Bernina 820 to quilt on!

....stop back in tomorrow for part two of Putting In The Time...

Feeling Great!

Last night was the Minnesota Contemporary Quilters meeting, and our guest was Nancy Kazlauckas the author of Thread Calligraphy! She and her husband Jim are just nice people, with a good amount of wit! I had the pleasure of having dinner with them before the meeting, and they are just good people!

While I was at the meeting (before it started) I checked my email and found an awesome email! The North East Minneapolis Arts Association, that hosts and does all of the publicity and planning for the Art-A-Whirl art crawl in may, sent me an email. They are using one of my pieces in their ad for the silent auction this year! I am SO excited! It will be a full color, full page ad in the directory, and they plan to use it for posters and postcards too! Wahoooo!

I went into the studio on Sunday, to work on my Quilt With A Sense of Humor - the guild challenge this year. I actually ended up leaving with the quilting done!

Here's a couple snapshots of the "Dali Llama":



"Dali Llama" is done with wool felt (this was sold fairly cheap in the same section that the acrylic craft felt is in), wool yarn, and roving that has been needle punched into the felt. He is 37" x 47" of cuteness!

I went in yesterday, and before I started quilting, I did what everyone should do, but we sometimes for get to! I took out my bobbin casing to clean out the lint, as you can see, it's been awhile! It sewed even better after taking the bunny out!



Then I got to work quilting this, as soon as I have the binding turned and add some paintsticking, I'll post final pictures:



I will be going back into the studio today most like, the next goal is about 10 sets of 12" quilted block, and I think it's 4 sets of approximate 20" blocks quilted. (Not all in one day of course..but over the next week or so.) I think it will be more efficient if I make all the blocks first, then quilt all of them at the same time - ya know how you get into that "zone" when you're quilting and it seems to fly by? I'm hoping to invoke that phenomenon!

The quicker I can get my pieces done for the sale, the sooner I can start to plan my classes that I want to teach there this summer. I want to teach, but am terrified! Luckily, with the size of my studio, these will be intimate classes. I think surface design classes will be kept to 10-12 people at most. And any classes requiring a machine, probably only 8, 10 max. I think it might actually be nice, because if you're teaching a group of 20-30 people, it's much to hard to make sure that EVERYONE is getting it, and doing okay.

The question is, will I get any students to sign up and come? Eeek!

Nope

The Ikea event had a lot more people than I was expect - it was very crowded and very WARM! Unfortunately, I did not win. :( Nor did my quilt sell - though my quilt was not the only quilt to not sell by any means.

I will post pictures later today of the Ikea event, as hubby is still asleep as of 6am. Leave it to a cold/illness to mess up my sleeping schedule for a bit. Ahh well.

Despite being sick, I managed to get these pieces done this week:

I got the binding turned on this one:



And I was able to piece and quilt this one:

The two outer borders on this piece, are actually the same batik fabric cut widthwise and the other lengthwise. The center is a paintstick rubbing from a stamp that Norma Riehm carved. The binding on this one is already turned as well!

Fairly productive week despite being diseased!

My schedule is becoming more and more tight leading up to Art-A-Whirl, as I have a mini-vacation for a wedding in the middle, and now will always have hours at my temp job. This will mean trying to put out at least one small piece (unquilted) every one to two days. I will hold back on the quilting on them, until I have a bunch saved up to do on the longarm in one show.

Goodbye nights and weekends!

My new commercial frame should be arriving in the next week or so. I can't wait! The loading on the commercial frame is much easier and simple.

I have several paintstick pieces left I can create from. But I am also trying to decide how many larger pieces I should have available for sale at Art-A-Whirl. I need to decide quickly, as I need time to get them done and bound! Opinions?

Now, off to do some sketching!

Back In the Saddle Again

Went to the studio today, and rinsed the soy out of the remaining batiks I started. Then I got to play!

The first image, is a piece I started today. The yellow batik with with circles is the batik I did, the rest are from Bold Over Batiks. I think the main part is done, next I will quilt it, then I plan on quite a bit of embellishments.



Here is another piece I started playing with today. The four center squares are just painted with Jacquard paints. The outer border is a batik I picked up last week. I'm not sure what else I am going to do with this piece, or if I'll even continue with it. I'm not certain how much I like it right now.



This is a piece of fabric that I got as part of the IMQA fabric challenge for this year. Due date is March 27th, and I still don't know what I'm going to do for it yet. :) It will be my first entry into the show, and I am pretty sure my long arm quilting isn't quite up to snuff yet to be an actual contender, but I think it will be fun to have it show there anyway.



Not sure what I'm working on tomorrow. Probably a little bit of cleaning up - I have stuff laying all over right now! And I do have a red batik piece I did I maybe put together with some of the Bold Over Batiks I have.

If anyone has any ideas for that blue and white piece I have started, I'm listening! :)

Have a great night, and a great day tomorrow.

Went to Barnes and Noble last night, and found a couple of books that have TONS of inspiration for quilts, they are both about castles and palaces around the world. The ornamentation in them are amazing!

It's very easy to see looking at some of just the floor patterns, where the traditional quilts patterns came from. The aristocrats didn't build their castles on their own, the carpenters and peasants did, and their wives no doubt, made quilts.

I also found an older used book on women and the surrealist movement. I actually picked it up because the front cover is one of Frida's "self portrait with monkey" pieces. Only got to read a few pages before I went to sleep, but so far it seems interesting. It wasn't until I saw that book, that I gave thought to the fact that the only female artists I really know about are Frida, and O'Keeffe.

I'm not saying they don't exist. What I am saying, is that in my art classes in high school, we didn't even talk about Frida or O'Keeffe, let alone any other females artists. Van Gogh, Picasso, Rembrandt, Da Vinci, Matisse, but no female artist. I have to wonder..did I have sexist teachers?

One thing that I find absolutely wonderful right now, is the quilting world. Although she is having some growing pains, the quilting world is opening up an entirely new medium for women to be recognized in. It may be a slow process, but it is happening. The Houston show had a record attendence this year - and ya know what? I don't think they were all quilters! This means to some degree, the art of quilt making is being recognized in the "outside world". And for the first time in history, we are starting to have "big names" in our community. Alex Anderson, Ricky Tims, Carol Bryer Fallert. (I'll be the first to admit that I one day want to have my name be recognizable by the quilt industry.)

I am so excited about the direction that this art form is going in. And I am so pleased that a predominately female genre is doing so well!

I did some fabric dye painting awhile back:






Quilting on my longarm has been going great. But trying to come up with new pieces ideas is so excruciating right now. I am so sick of winter right now...being in Minnesota, all I have seen for four months is shades of grey outside. I miss grass, and leaves, and the birds that leave us in the winter, open water that is frozen into an oversized ice cube. I miss the SMELLS! It's amazing how lacking in smells winter is. No dirt smell, no flower smell, no fresh cut grass smell! Ugh!!!

Off to try and come up with ideas despite my winter depression! lol