Catching Up

I had the sinking feeling that I hadn't been doing something and then realized I hadn't posted to my blog in ages.............life seems to be so full of issues and crazy that this is the last thing I get to do while I think it's one of the most important. 

"Rainbow Ram" (above)...a quick decision to work this piece up turned out to be a good decision...very pleased with this finished piece and I changed my process a bit, which became challenging but also rewarding in the end.  I treated the beige portion like reverse applique, cutting out sections and backing it with black before fusing it down to the blue background.  The blacking lines you see all over the surface are black stitched lines and in person, they are far more prominent than in this photo.  The horn area is where I spent a load of time to achieve the curved effect and placement of the colors..............I actually created this piece as a black/white drawing and colored it in before cutting the fabric...I don't usually do that, but the horn area needed it because of the curve effect.  Instead of stitching the beige black lines through the beige and blue, I stitched the beige separately and then fused the result to the blue background and then stitched additionally.  It gave me the freedom to manipulate the smaller beige pieces so I could get all those lines just perfect.  But it did cause problems, easily solved when I started stitching the entire surface design as a whole.

This is the piece I finished over the weekend.  Destination Roseville.....Blue Line Gallery is putting on a juried exhibit later this summer, "Map It Up" with the requirement that a map be used somewhere in the piece you create.  I scanned a map into my PC and printed it off into four large section only 100% cotton...pieced the map together.  Then I printed off the people images black/white, colorized then with colored pencils, fused them to the background map, stitched each of the images and then randomly stitched all over the surface design to flatted and give some texture to the overall piece...stretched to stretcher bars 26"w x 16"h and it's complete....The feet of the center woman/green dress are just above the maps indication for Roseville..where Blue Line Gallery lives and where the railroad was and is a big part of this community. 

In the past I have been pressed to create new work for the gallery I'm housed in, but I have changed my attitude about that issue (I don't like that pressure) and because I have such a huge inventory of work...I'm now creating and working on work that I want to create..work for myself, work for exhibits, work that I just have to create no matter what...and if they don't sell, they don't sell..eventually they will find a home.

BIG NEWS:  My pieces, Yosemite, Valley Floor was accepted into the KVIE Art Auction as a donation to help raise funds for our public tv station....besides being a big deal for me, it's a big deal for fiber artists, because fiber has not been a medium they have welcomed in the past.  Knowing that I selected a specific piece of work that I felt represented fine art and fiber art combined and my selection proved to be right on target.  I hope now that this piece will bring some good funding for KVIE in the future. 

On to the next piece.................................L

It's Been Far to Long.........

 It's been far too long that I haven't posted to my blog....this is not good and I'm going to have to much much better in the future.  A lot of stuff has happened since my last post, but most of it is far to personal and not much in the way of being fiber related and that's what my posts are supposed to be about.  The piece above, and yes, it's got glare on it, a new picture will have to happen.  I purchased this frame and liked the size..11 x 42...took what was in the frame out and created this piece using different types of mask ideas....backed on the red/white stripe.  Each mask is my adaptation of a group of masks I found on the internet that where originally made out of clay, painted, sculpted, etc.

Of course once I get them all finished and placed in the mat and then the frame, I found marks on the frame that would prevent me from using that frame for sales purposes, so now I have to either paint over the color on the frame of change frames completely.  Haven't decided which way to go at this point. 

My intent is to do something different and change my focus...getting away from the cute and creating collages with more substance or send a message.  Still have a way to go.

Right this very minute I have a piece of work at the Blue Line Arts Gallery again...this is the third exhibit this year that I've juried into and it's only March.  "Yosemite: Valley Floor" was entered into a photography exhibit titled "West Coast, Best Coast" and I entered it as a stitched photograph with cotton/organza and it was selected. 

And a gallery in Colusa, Ca., has twenty of my pieces of work using photographic images for the months of March and April...a small community, but again it's exposure.

And here is a piece I created for Rio City Cafe exhibit through the Artists' Collaborative Gallery but after a month it was removed because the complained that the customers didn't like eating with an animal watching them....poor excuse, but now I'm entering it into an exhibit in Rancho Cordova in April.  Just need to get my work out out out and hope for some sales sales sales.

"Giraffe in a Blue Box"  by Louise Schiele  2016.

I keep creating new work in hopes that someday my sales will become higher, the demand greater.  Some days I just can't get myself out into the studio, but I must or else shut it down. 

The party is over......

My daughter Jennifer Elaine  married Dan Gannon yesterday in a ceremony at the Holy Cross Catholic Church in West Sacramento...over 300 attended the wedding and it was a fantastic time.  Only a few glitches here and there, but nothing monumental...just fun things to remember.

Dan is a farmer, landscaper, knower of all things out doors and Jenny is kindergarten teacher for Waldorf .........and the entire  Waldorf community showed up for this wedding of two of their favorite people.  Loads of family on both sides, friends from both sides showed for this fantastic event.

Dan's daughter, Frankie was the flower girl and as she announced once dressed "I'm beautiful".....

Grandpa Mike Gannon took loads of pictures and gushed after her all day long.

From the wedding, a small amount of family and wedding party gathered at Jen's home in Tahoe Park, now Dan and Jen's and Frankie's home in Tahoe Park for a mini reception......

They stripped the house of furniture and things and set up this huge dining table for 20 with a harpist playing throughout the meal....Chef Jenni Brewster served a fantastic delicious meal...yummy food for all.  A delightful day for both sides of the family and we met some very nice people along the way.  Jenny and Dan are on their way today to Mendocino for several days of "being alone with each other" before coming back the day before Thanksgiving to set up their house, move Dan and Frankie in before starting back to work and school.  Jen's two sons, August and Jack attended, adding to Jenny's delight and happiness.  It was good that her sons rallied around and supported her in her new life with Dan.

And now Grandma Weezee can get back to her regular life, the wedding dresses are hung in the closet, the flower have wilted and been thrown out, the chef has done the dishes and been paid.....back to more time to devote to hubby, my art, working the gallery, my family....thank you.

30 x 30 complete

I have completed my 30 x 30 piece...it's all ready to hang.  Thirty 6" x 6" fiber pieces in thirty days...actually it took me 18 days of constant work between this project and the wedding dresses I was putting together for my daughters wedding, which happens Nov 21.  ALL are finished...it's amazing what you can do by organizing yourself and buckling down and working hard.  I will be taking individual pics of each of the 30, those I'll post later. The picture above is how it looked prior to being mounted to the 41x41 board that holds the entire selection of 30.  That board will be mounted to the gallery wall and all the 30x30 will look the same except for their content.  Should be a stunning exhibit/show.

The entire piece consists of pictures from my childhold and a few others that have come my way.  Thanks go out to my sisters, Robin, Kim and Claire for supplying me with some of their favorites and they are featured here and there among the photos also.  Our parents saw to it that we had a wide variety of things to do....TV was not present in our home for quite some time, so we played outdoors a lot, played games, skated everywhere, biked everywhere, camped every summer, went to girl scout activities and camps year round....all on a modest budget living in the small community of Redding, California.  I call this piece, "The Good Ole' Days".....it will hang at The Blue Line Gallery on 405 Vernon Street, Roseville, CA from Nov 28 to Jan 9...the reception is Saturday, Dec 19, 6-9pm.

My daughter's wedding dress is complete, the flower girls dress is complete and the dress from hell, the bride's maids dress is finished....sewing on silk chamouse will never happen again in my lifetime...like sewing with air that puckers and slips into every seam you sew only to have to be removed when you find your mistake....I have sewn for years and this dress made me doubt my experience as a sewer...but it's done/complete and never to darken my sewing table again.  It's going to be hard to look at it during the wedding...I will simply divert my eyes to my daughter for sure.

Thank to everyone who gave me the support to handle all of the above.  Louise

Reflection on my Birthday....

Yes, today is my birthday and I've received an abundance of flowers/plants....which is very nice!!!  I love color and I love the flowers...hubby gave me the roses and the Bromlaid plant, my daughter Jenny the cactus display and my friend Malinda in Port Orchard Washington sent me the carnations...we share a birthday, spoke this morning and then the lovely flowers arrived on my doorstep this afternoon...quite a surprise.

Turning "69" is sort of mind bending for me right now....mainly because that means I'm at the end of my 60's and the next number is .......70.     I guess I should get used to the higher numbers because I intend to live many more years and with that means more aging.  Someone said to me "you sure don't look like you are 69"....but when I think about that, I wonder what 69 is supposed to look like at all.  We are who we are and we look a certain way no matter what....I don't drink or smoke and I take an abundance of vitamins and I stay busy in my body and my mind....that's the most I can do to keep myself going at this point in my life.  And yes, I get aches and pains....my hands hurt a lot from arthritis and sometimes my left leg bothers me (had polio as a kid in my left leg) but other than that, I feel very good.

It's all a state of mind over matter.....my mind doesn't matter what age I am, I am who I am and that's the end of that conversation.  So Happy Birthday to me, myself and I and onward into being 69.  I hope this year is clear of health issues for myself and Lynn and our family unit.  

Week One of Five

Week One of Five.......................sewing like a mad woman this week....the above dress image is similar to what I am just completing for my daughters wedding dress.....last night was our last fitting and it was decided that the zipper in the back of the lace should go...so I spent about an hour carefully taking that out of the lace...hard to determine stitch versus lace at times, but I got it out and now I'm going to create a smaller opening without zipper...looking nicer for sure.  Fishing off some seams left naked until the last fitting and the hem on both dresses...the underdress a normal seam, the lace over dress will get scalloped lace added to the bottom and she's all finished.  I also cut out the bodice for the flower girl dress yesterday and will sew that up today/tomorrow and then move on to the skirt and then the first fitting before I put in that zipper.  The maid of honor dress...that's another issue...silk chanteuse with two  under layers...not looking forward to that task.

I got accepted into the Blue Line Gallery 30 x 30 exhibit, which means I have 32 days to create 30 6" x 6" pieces of work......I have been working on getting all the parts/pieces together and I have thirteen of the thirty ready to go under the sewing machine needle this week...my goal is to finish these thirteen by end of this Saturday and I'll start another set on Sunday.  When I'm not at the sewing machine I'm either coloring the remainder of black/white images for the 30x30 or hand work on the wedding dress/other dresses.......................and of course when it rains it pours, acquired two new commissions in the course of all of this and I have a new piece I need to get down to the gallery to hang...........maybe later this week.....

Enough time on the PC for the day....need to get back to the work on the work table.....L

REcpetion Day

This afternoon is my reception at the Artists' Collaborative Gallery in Old Sacramento, sharing with Verena Borton, weaver.....anyone that knows me knows that I hate being the center of attention, that I don't like artist receptions, but I know I need to do them in order to keep the customers happy.  I don't like explaining myself for my art; I don't like hearing the questions "how much time did it take you to create this piece";  I don't like being asked whether I used my own fabrics or store bought fabric..why does it matter, it doesn't alter the finished piece.     I guess I just don't like being asked questions about my work as I feel people are criticizing me instead of praising me.    Must be a character flaw on my part, because I feel that way when asked.  I know, "get over it".  Part of who I am.

I'm right in the middle of creating my daughter Jennifer's wedding dress and once that is finished, I'm on to the bridesmaid dress and flower girl dress.

I'm also hoping to be accepted into the 30x30 exhibit at Blue Line Gallery in Roseville...thirty pieces of work 6" x 6" in thirty days attached to a large board that is hung in the gallery.  I've already printed off about 22 of the images I plan to use but am stuck with not working out the back plan because I don't know the size of the back board...I plan on painting a design on the backboard and that design will also be in the background fabric of each piece, so that when you stand at a distance you see on design, but when you come up close to the full display you see all the different images.  We'll see if I can make this all work with the time constraints and my daughters wedding on Nov 21.  I should be able to create up to ten pieces a week, which I'll need to do to meet this deadline.  I won't know if I've been accepted  until Oct 16....only six days and waiting.    

I know I'm nuts to get involved in all of this, but this is what I thrive on....pressure and creativity and it's good for me right now.