Four New Pieces

It Takes a Village

 Finally got around to taking pictures of some of my new pieces.  Still obsessing about Africa and three of these are certainly so inspired.  it Takes A Village is composed of linens and cottons on a linen background.  Each square is assembled with fusing and hand sewing, and each is embellished with a bone bead.  The finished piece is 21.5 x 29". 

The Gathering is also linens and cottons.  Some of the squares were fused to strips.  Each strip was hand sewn and several of the strips are embellished with various beads.  The piece is 18.5 x 25".

Desert Jewels is composed of 28 1" hand beaded medallions sewn on linen. 

The inspiration for Down Canyon came from southwestern canyon formations.  It is also composed of linens and cottons and each square is embellished with tiny pieces of coral and agate.  it is 25" x 25".

Desert Jewels






               

      The Gathering

 



 





I finally got my March project photographed.  Have to confess, I haven't even started on April yet.  But I have been busy -- see below.  March was my dream for some sunshine.  The detail in this fabric reminded me of rock drawings of sun.   I have again placed a beaded "ancient" in the piece.  I have beaded some of the suns and painted others.  The canvas is painted green to match the fabric and printed gold suns on the canvas from suns I carved on Speedy-Carve blocks.  The paint is Jacquard Lumiere Copper and Gold.





African Inspired Art Quilts

These art quilts were inspired by Africa and african prints.  I have used commercially printed cotton, linen, and some silk.  The pieces are attached by fusing and hand sewing.  They are embellished with beads including glass, bone, shell, and coconut shell. 

I am still learning about formatting so they appear a bit disjointed.



Connections







Tribal Rhythm







In the Wind



Tribes



February Bead Journal Piece

I finally got my February piece photographed, although I wasn't able to achieve the actual color.  The main coloring is more of a teal than the photo shows.  I stuck with my theme of ancient native art, again using rock art found in the southwest as inspiration.  The teal is again outside of my color comfort zone.  The cold February winds inspired the "lazy stiches" in the design. 

Art Quilts

I am still trying to figure out how to format posts on this blog, so these are not arranged very well. Still, I wanted to post some of the art quilts I had photographed for the spring juried shows. I am using a mix of natural fabrics: cotton, linen and silk. Embellishments include paint which I apply by brush and with stamps that I have designed and made, beads, found objects, yarns -- just about anything that I can attach to the fabric. I use both machine and hand quilting.

Zebras

I love the black and white of zebras and decided to see if I could do it. I studied pictures of Zebras only to find the black has shades of gray and the white, shades of gray and tan. Here's what I came up with. The piece is about 6 1/2" x 6 1/2". I had it professionally framed.

Masks

I have always been intrigued with masks. In this piece, I wanted to explore color a bit. I started this piece with an antique frame 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" and the beading itself is 4 1/2 x 7 3/4".

Wild Woman of the Woods

Finally got around to putting in some of my work and would love to have your comments.

The face-bead in this piece reminded me of the NW Coast Canadian First Nation tribes legend, “The Wild Woman of the Woods,” or Dzunuk’wa. According to the legend, she is a dark and hairy ogress with supernatural powers. Her almost blind eyes are large and sunken and she is usually portrayed making her wild call (“Uh, huu, uu, uu”) with her open mouth and thick red puckered lips.

Reminiscent of Hansel and Gretel, it is said that if children foolishly wander into the forest, the Wild Woman will capture them, take them to her remote house in the woods, and eat them. The Wild Woman has long, wild hair and wears a large basket on her back which contains the children that she caught. She is not considered very bright and usually the children are able to outsmart her in escaping.

The native masks that represent Wild Woman of the Woods are dark and ominous -- usually black with thick red lips and strings of black hair hanging down in her face. The face bead strongly resembles the traditional facial features of those masks. I wanted my Wild Woman to be less dark, so I concentrated on the wild hair and the leaves and the greens of the woods. I started with the antique frame and made the piece to fit it.

January Bead Journal

Here is January's piece for the Bead Journal Project. I finished it well within January, but just got the photograph back yesterday. I started the piece with a blue fabric that spoke to me of the January winter days. It was a stretch for me as I usually lean to earth colors for my art.

Southwestern rock art depicting the "ancients" or "ghosts" was my inspiration for the beaded figure. I made several stamps of figures and mixed a metallic silver blue paint to stamp them on the fabric to enhance the ghost feeling. The piece is quilted, and mounted on an 8" x 8" x 1.5" stretched canvas I painted to compliment the piece.

I have been working on pieces for juried show applications. All the shows I want to do are in the late summer and fall; the juries for those shows are all within the next few weeks. I've had individual pieces for the juries professionally photographed, but one of the shows also requires a photograph of the artist's "body of work." I have been struggling to get enough pieces for that photo while still working my "pesky day job," but only three more days of work, and I am officially retired!

January 9, 2011

I have already started on the 2011 Bead Journal Project. In fact, my January piece is completed except for framing. I am making 6.5" x 6.5" mini art quilts. Each will draw inspiration from ancient native design or myth. I may incorporate paint, yarns, found objects as I work -- after all, my personal goal from this project is to explore and push myself. Of course, beads will be the predominant element. Each mini quilt will be framed on an 8" x 8" stretched canvas that I will paint to complement the mini quilt.