"Fantastic Foliage" Exhibit Invitation

My exhibit "Fantastic Foliage" is opening this Saturday, September, 4th, at the Jonal Gallery in Columbia, PA, with a reception from 5-9 p.m.  If you live in the area or are traveling through, I hope you will be able to stop in and join us.  It's a beautiful gallery space in a restored historic building, and I'm excited to have the opportunity to display my work there.  I will also be giving an informal lecture/gallery talk on Thursday, Sept. 16th, and will be present for the closing reception on the 24th.

The focus of the exhibit, as the name suggests, is on work featuring leaves, drawn from my ongoing series "The Woods" and "The Garden".  Shown above is "Royal Paulownia", with ginormous life-sized leaves, patchwork including silks from Mysore in India, hand embroidery, hand beading, and all kinds of texture that photographs can't quite capture.  Here's a detail shot that comes close:

New Work--Groundhog and Green Bean

I've just finished "Groundhog and Green Bean", one of the works in my new Flora and Fauna series.  You're getting a first look at it here, as it's not on my website yet.  The cyanotype prints on cotton are from photographs I took of a groundhog skull that was found in the woods locally.  The lace along the left and bottom is vintage hand crocheted lace that I painted, from a pillowcase found at the flea market.  All of the fabrics in this one, with the exception of the wonderful gray hand-dye at the bottom, are ones I painted or printed.  The finished dimensions are 46"high x 50"wide. 

Above is the view  looking up into the top portion of the skull, with the molars, the eye sockets, and the two large incisors. I think it looks a bit like an alien life form.   Below is the side view of the two parts of the skull.  It doesn't seem like there's a lot of room for the brain, but groundhogs are very clever in their fashion.  I've  been telling people about my work, and shown the work in progress to a few, and I am delighted that it seems to spark in everyone a desire to tell me about their groundhog encounters and experiences.  I think this is going to be a really fun series to exhibit.

And here is the green bean portion of the piece.  I am pleased to report that the adolescent groundhog I spotted in the yard previously seems to have moved on to greener pastures, or at least pastures further from my neighbor's dogs, and my vegetable garden, knock wood, has been spared for the present.

I've actually taken a bit of time to relax and enjoy the summer this year--imagine that!-- but I'm gearing back up again and will be stitching away rather intensely in the coming weeks to ready more work for the debut of the Flora and Fauna series in October.