KVIE and something new to work on

The KVIE art auction GALA night this past Monday was totally a great evening...took my daughter Jennifer and we had a ball....smoozed with all the artists and art collectors all evening long.....and it was great to see my work with a jurors award ribbon in it...and by the end of the evening I had earned a first place in Contemporary Classics, total surprise to me...$100 award check also.
The Art Auction begins tonight and I have my eye on a few items for me to purchase and my piece will sell along with the others in the gallery on Sunday, 3-3:30...can't wait to see what my piece brings into for the KVIE donations.

I have always loved things in a circle and seems to drift towards this shape in a lot of things I do...I saw a Craft in America series this past Saturday where they talked about Circles of Healing and that struck a cord for me as I feel I'm in a healing stage over my estrangement with my husband since this summer.  So I pulled out all my reference books on shapes and ideas and came up with working up three different circle designs. 

 The first step was creating the design in 1/8 of the circle, then creating a mirror image or 1/4.
Then I went to my trusty scanner and PC..increased the scanned size to fit 11x17 paper, printed four of each section. 

 Taped the sections into halves and then  into whole circles, cutting them all out and taping them
all together.

The end results was three wonderful 32" circles with the total design over the entire piece so I could see what it would look like once pieced together.  Now that I see the total design, I'm probably going to NOT make each 1/8 section and piece it together as I don't like the look of the seam work.  So I'm going to cut the total circle as one piece and then cut the images and shapes as whole as possible and fuse them onto the circle, stitch, then surface design stitch the completed circle.  Along the way I have to figure out how to display the round finished piece, but that will happen along the way.  I can always create a hard surface circle shape and fit it into the back of the piece or half of the shape or something....my head will figure that part out as I work on creating the full circle. 

A new idea, new challenge along with all the other ideas floating around in my head. 
I'm still weaving every day on my new loom and really enjoying it...once warped the weaving goes fast and the play with the yarns is wonderful.
I'm also experimenting with using gourds as a base along with fiber...friend Cindy Lee gave me about five gourds, I'm going to cut them in half and work with the base to see what happens. 

And this morning, I got notice that one of my newest pieces, Walking for Water was accepted into the Art League of Lincoln's exhibit happening in October....fantastic news. 

New Exhibit, New Ideas

 "Map It Out" at Blue Line Gallery....the art is up on the walls and the reception is coming  up this next Saturday, Sept 17....hope folks can come and enjoy.


And I'm working on new ideas for an upcoming exhibit at Blue Line...30x30...thirty pieces of new work 6" c 6" in 30 days....it's a huge challenge, but I do love a good challenge.  Last year I produced thirty pieces in less that thirty days while sewing my daughters wedding dress, a bridesmaid dress and flower girl dress...so I think I can handle it again this year without those extra distractions.

Leaf Pounding....I've worked with this many many years ago, but through about how beautiful it can be when done in a "simple" way....KISS....keep it simple, stupid...I mean, sweetie.  I don't like the word stupid. 

Anyway, this morning I did some practice pounding..leaves onto silk noil....they are now drying and then I"ll enhance them a bit and possible put my sewing machine to work a bit..then I'm going to stretch them onto a solid piece of canvas board to see how they come out and if OK..then I'll submit them as my idea for the upcoming 30x30...You aren't automatically accepted..they do jury your ideas.
Here's some photos I took while doing this exercise:

Leaf pounding goes back a ways in history...American Indians used this technique..of course they didn't have hammers or silk noil, but they did pound leaves for design.

 Peeling the top cotton pieces away from the bottom with the sandwiched pounded leaf in between..you have to flake off the leaf residue, let it dry, iron it and then I'm going to outline it a bit to give it a life.  I might even sew around them or inside..I will wait and see what happens.

I like they way these gave off a different color.

With fall starting to happen, I need to find leaves that cast off different shades of

green, red, gold...perfect time of the year to work on this project.

Marni & Jason

Our gallery put on a social evening for all the members along with celebrating the upcoming marriage of one of our hardest working officers, Jason Branz....we celebrated by having an "Artful Wedding Shower" showering them with hand made/art related gifts for their new home.  The piece above is what I created using one of Jason's favorite images of the two of them...Helps that Jason is a photographer, but it also helped that there were two great people.  I printed this image off onto cotton fabric in black/white and then I colorized the image using colored pencils....Marni's hair was the most fun, even more fun when I started sewing all those curls.  It's all about the sun glasses and the hair in my opinion.  They loved the piece and they are back home working out all the wedding plans for their ceremony that happens the end of this month.  Congratulations to Marni and Jason...

Also finished my first long piece of weaving last night...it's drying out in the back studio where it's warmest.  I also acquired a new loom this past week...my friend Cindy Lee from the gallery offered me one of her older looms,  a 20" rigid heddle floor loom and I took her up on it immediately....this loom rolls the woven piece in front as you weave, where the smaller loom that I start with does not...the older loom weft gets pulled when inside the area where it's kept taunt and I didn't like the look when competed.  Waiting for the warping pegs I ordered (they act as a third hand helper) before I warp the new loom.  Excited as I can move the loom into the living room and I can weave and watch/hear the TV to help pass the time while I weave.  The weaving process is very relaxing..you develop a rhythm and the color designs just knock my socks off.  Really enjoying the learning experience.  I think this is one of those processes where you are always learning.

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.