Taking Photos

 Because this is hanging on my wall behind my sewing table, I tend to overlook it...strange since it's so large...it's actually 42 x 42 with 30 6X6 pieces attached to a back board...this was my 30 x 30 exhibit pieces from late 2015/early 2016 at Blue Line Arts Gallery.  I'm just now getting around to photographing the piece as a whole and each of the individual pieces.  I submitted it to Cloth/Paper/Scissors along with two other pieces for consideration in their current competition.  Hoping to get one at least accepted.  It's worth the risk and money to put myself out there from time to time.

 This is a pic of my sister Robin and I (pink) with our two neighbors from across the street on Garden Street in Redding, California, where we grew up.  We had a great childhood..did all sorts of things, camped every summer, girl scouts....had a great bunch of friends and we rode bikes, skates all over the place without a fear in the world.  No TV, no cell phones....just  played outdoors all day long during the summer .. coming home for lunch and dinner.  Every day after lunch we'd go to the "plunge" which was a community pool and played for hours in the water...Redding is very hot during the summer months...I have seen it 110 in the shade at Shasta Lake.

This is p ic of my Dad and Mom...dressed up for a Halloween party they attended..not much to do in Redding, but they were members of a "Our Nite Out" club that met every months for dinner, drinks and dancing and they had a great time. 

If nothing else came from working up this piece, I realized quickly that all the situations and things we were exposed to during our childhood were good and wholesome and good natured...we were not influenced by religion or any other type of outside influence, just good judgement and guidance from our parents.

Latest Work - Getting Serious

 6/20/16.....My latest piece of work....."Mask Series: Haitian Masqueraders"  20"h x 32"w

Haitian boys become Pa Wowo-painted, coconut-leaf skirted peasants who personify poverty during Spring Carnival.  Graffiti on the walls:  Tout moun se moun=everyone matters & Del dan pa di zanni = Not all smile are friendly.

I've had these images for a long time...copyright free images taken by Phyllis Galembo for a book titled "Maske"..giving the photographer full credit although copyright free..... printed the images off onto cotton fabric and fused them to the background fabric.  Used yellow pastel to shade in the background fabric and stitched over the entire background and images accenting the red color on the images.  Hard to see the stitching in this photo...have to work on my photography a bit.

I intend to submit this to the upcoming Crocker Kinsley competition juried in later this year for an early 2017 exhibit at Blue Line Arts Gallery in Roseville.  I'm planning on creating and submitting two others, so once I have the backing on this piece and it's wired to hang, I'm diving into something new, unique and different for me.

More Exhibits to add to the Resume

I was notified that I have been selected to show work in two new exhibits coming up this Summer 2016.

Focus on Fiber, National Juried Fiber Arts Show, June 28-July 16 at Sacramento Fine Arts Center.  Accepted into this fiber only exhibit are:  Standing Guard, Old Faithful and Loop t'Loop.  All three that I submitted were accepted.  Juried by Ana Lisa Hedstrom.

Blue Line Arts has another exhibit I submitted to and was accepted:  "Membership Medley" begins 7/11 ending 8/22..."Giraffe in a Blue Box" will be on display. 


2016 has been a great year for me exhibit wise and I couldn't be more pleased with the reception I'm getting with my work.  It has given me the confidence to consider entering the upcoming call for artist for the Crocker-Kingsley Art Competition through Blue Line Arts which exhibits early 2017.  I'm working on my piece to submit and possible a second if I can get myself through this first one.  Very different for me, using pastels on fabric along with collage and loads of shadow stitching on the surface design. 

The Heat Made Me Do IT

This week has been unexpectedly very HOT HOT HOT....up into the 100's and it's not cooling off much in the evenings...which makes it a very short window of opportunity for me to do any work out in my "add on to the back of my house studio".   So, yesterday, I put on my muscles and moved my large red sewing table into my dining room area and I've set myself up for about four/five months of hot weather and getting some work done despite the HOT weather.  I can still use the studio for early morning up to about 11am to cut/fuse and plan, but any serious sewing has to be under cool conditions and indoors is the place to be.  That table is getting heavier and heavier each time I more it...my contractor made me a table to last that is for sure. 

And after taking a short month long ceramics class where we played with building with coils, I really got jazzed again about created sewn vessels...samples of a few I built a while ago..these are fabric...I painted them and embellished them with tissue paper and then decoupaged the outsides so they are hard.  I got some great ideas using the clay coils on some ideas I can do with fabric...so I pulled out my supply of different sized cording and plan to work up a piece to enter into the "Maps" exhibit at Blue Line that I already have submitted to with my "Destination Roseville" (see previous blog). 

I'm really enjoying just doing work that I WANT TO DO and not what I think I have to do to keep my walls up to date at the gallery...because I have such a good inventory I can slack off a bit and do the fun work I've been wanting to do for quite some time.

Plan on changing my wall display at the gallery either tomorrow or next Wednesday...it takes time and I really really really don't like climbing up on the ladder past a certain height, but I'm going to have to do that to make the changes.  I'm dragging my feet, but really need to get in there and do it as I need some off the walls for other exhibits.  Have to make the changes before 11am or after 6pm so that kind of dictates when I can do things...I'm going to put up a retrospective of work that I have created for the gallery over the last four/five years...really mix it up so I'll have about five different types of fiber techniques mixed throughout the wall display...sure hope I sell as my sales this year will definitely dictate whether I continue on in 2017 at this location.