An Artful Wedding Shower

Our gallery, Artists'  Collaborative Gallery in Old Sac, has an annual member get together and it's happening this coming Thursday, Sept 1 and along with the gathering, we're giving our long time member, Jason Branz and his bride to be, Marni Singer, an "Artful Wedding Shower".   Those who want to participate can create art as their gift to Marni and Jason for their new home that they have just purchased and will start living together in as husband/wife.     Knowing the Jason is all about photography, I asked him to give me his favorite photo of the two of them, but not to ask what I was going to do with it...as if he didn't know.  Anyway, it's all about Marni's hair and the fact that they were on the beach (sunglasses)....and that's what they got.  Great fun putting it together and it turned out great...nice a soft color. 

My newest adventure is learning to weaving.  Purchased three small rigid heddle looms for myself, my daughter and her step daughter, Frankie who is 8...and this is what we have been doing this summer...learning to weave.  And we've learned a lot with all of our mistakes and screw up, but we're still all still working on something.  The Beka loom we got is your basic loom and the most difficult part for me has been the problem of keeping the warp tight...there is no roller at the front of the loom, just a tight bar and it just doesn't give the tightness needed when wefting the thread/yarn from right to left without some trouble.  Above is my current sample...warped in two colors and I'm wefting with red chanelle and two gold threads every so often and it's interested the design that is forming.  That's what is so much fun about weaving....you actually think it's going to turn out one way, but it ends up completely different that you planned...I'm sure over time I will be more able to determine the outcome, but I somewhat like not really knowing as I like the element of surprise.
I had a gallery friend mention she had a rigid heddle 20" loom on a floor stand that she will sell me and I'm definitely taking her up on that offer....it's the perfect size and it has the roller in the front and the back for a more secure warp and that was the one thing I wanted to accomplish with my next loom purchase.  Good things happen when you just wait.

Personal Life:  Coming along fairly well with living alone again.  Of course there are those times when I experience loneliness,  but I work through it and it's going fairly well.  Two of my sisters in law stayed with me four about three weeks while one was having chemo treatment and that was like one long slumber party, but they have left for home in Oregon and now I am on my own.  I've had my kitchen flooring changed, having a chair recovered as it was falling apart, had a security system installed,.....taking care of all those things around the house that need to be accomplished to settle in for a long winter season...as if it's hard or anything..rain, but definitely no snow in our area.  Anyway, I'm keeping busy with my art work (have four projects working on my table), learning to weave, managing the art gallery (actually worked the customer desk last week), reading, cleaning the house once in a while, working in the garden, bowling with my friends and much more....keeping my chin up and making my way in this crazy mixed up world.  The way I look at myself at this point in my life...I don't have a terminal disease, I am healthy at 69 years of age, I have a nice home with a good roof over my head, I can afford to live a nice life, I can financially care for my estranged husband in another facility with no contact and I don't feel one bit of guilt or sorry for myself in any way....life does go on day by day and I intend to live each day to it's fullest. 

What I've been doing recently.....

 Recently finished commission piece...Carl and Reggie.....celebrating their first wedding anniversary in October so Reggie had me work up this piece for them...turned out great.....and he loves it.

 "Destination Rosville" was accepted into the Map It Out exhibit coming up at the Blue Line Arts Gallery....so happy this made it in and I'm hoping for a quick sale.

 "Yosemite Valley Floor"...was accepted into the 2016 KVIE Art Auction and I just found out I received a "jurors award" and it will be featured at the upcoming Gala Party in Sept and featured on TV as an award winner...who would have thought.

And this is a pieces I just finished...."Morning Walk for Water"  20"h x 30"....colorized the background fabric with oil pastels, colorized the women and gourds using colored pencils, fused to background and then I stitched each image and gourds and then shadow stitched the complete background....loads of thread on this one for sure.

I've got a long list to create on my "to do list" but wanted to complete the one above for myself before I started in on production pieces for other venues.

And while I'm doing all of this, I'm teaching myself how to weave, which I'm finding to be quite fun....starting with a small lap loom and hope to graduate up to a larger one every so often until I'm working the large floor looms my sister is working on....my daughter Jennifer and her step-daughter Frankie also have looms and we gather once a week and work together on our projects.

My sister in law Ilene is staying with me this week while she takes chemo treatment for her cancer.  I'm more than happy to help her out even thought I'm no longer with her brother...we can still be friends no matter what happens.  Feeling more rested and seem to be getting back to being just "me" and not someones care giver.

Time does heal!!!!

Carl & Reggie

Just finished this commission piece for these two newlyweds...married 2015 October and Reggie commissioned this for Carl for an anniversary gift...I finished early...I hate to be late on anything.

Now that this is finished, I can now concentrate on some newer ideas and get out of my "make things for gallery rut"....definitely want to work up some new work for some upcoming exhibits here in Sacramento.

My personal life has turned upside down again...husband is now living in Board & Care and I am a single lady again.  Living alone is different, but peaceful and I don't have to wait on someone 24/7.  Working at changing my life to being my life again instead of care giving full time.  Huge change and it's going to take a while for me to adjust.  At least I have a very full and active life.  Slowing down would mean this ageing thing is catching up to me and I refuse to allow that to happen.

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.