Fox and Hackberry in Progress

I'm making good progress on the work for my new Flora and Fauna series that will debut at the PA Arts Experience this October. First up is "Fox and Hackberry". I started with the red fox skull, and fiddled around with lighting and camera settings until I had the images I wanted, like the shot above looking down on the inside of the top portion of the skull. More fiddling with the digital image produced the transparency, below, that acts like an oversized photo negative for making cyanotype prints.

Here's the print, with the stitching started. I had an idea of how I wanted this piece to look, and as sometimes happens, when I started to actually work on it, my preconceived notions were defenestrated and I started anew in a mad frenzy. What was going to be small and starkly simple ended up quite large and complex.

The top is finished and awaiting layering and quilting, and I'm really happy with it, it's very bright and cheerful. Here's another fox image--look at those canine teeth!

Sue Reno wins Best in Show at Images 2010

Best of Show at Penn State

I arrived at the opening reception for Images 2010 at Penn State last night and discovered to my delight and amazement that White Mulberry was awarded Best of Show! This juried show is open to all art media, so to have a fiber piece take top honors is especially meaningful to me.

The Robeson Gallery is a wonderful space, and the staff takes great care to display all the work to its best advantage. My work was very well lit, and the silks in White Mulberry just glowed.

As the icing on the cake, Plume Poppy received an Honorable Mention. You can see the size and scale of it above; again, such a pleasure to have it properly displayed and lit.

There was a large crowd at the reception (they had great catered food) and I had fun talking to people as I floated around on my cloud nine. My sincere thanks to the juror, Dan Mills, for selecting my work, and to all involved in putting on this exhibit each year. Go see it if you can, there's a wealth of fabulous work displayed.

Willow Valley Exhibit

I just took down an exhibit of 11 of my large art quilts in the Cultural Center Art Gallery at the Willow Valley Retirement Community here in Lancaster County.

The Gallery is an expansive and beautiful space that reflects the ethos of this extensive and impressive community, and was a wonderful - and properly lit- backdrop for my work. I also had the opportunity to give a gallery talk to an enthusiastic group of women involved in the community's quilting club, and a good time was had by all.

My sincere thanks to Jen, the Events Coordinator, for inviting me to exhibit and for making it such a positive experience.

In other exhibit news, I'm headed to Penn State this evening for the opening reception of Images 2010 in the Robeson Gallery; my Plume Poppy will be making its debut in this show, accompanied by White Mulberry. Should be a fun evening!

Back in the Studio

I've had an intensive and productive gardening interlude, consisting mainly of renovating and mulching a 140' long perennial/shrub bed, with bouts of vegetable gardening, planting containers, pruning trees, pulling poison ivy, and so forth and so on. There's some odds and ends to finish up, but for the most part I'm at the point where I can spend the rest of the summer wandering about the yard, beverage in hand, admiring and inspecting and harvesting. And spreading (organic) slug bait.

It's been a refreshing break creatively as well, as I am mentally refreshed, full of ideas and excited about returning to work in the studio. My main focus in the coming months will be on work in my Flora and Fauna series, which will be debuting at the Pennsylvania Arts Experience in Lancaster in October. Towards that goal, I've just made some cyanotype prints, including viburnum leaves, above, and maple leaves, below:

And black currant leaves:

And a heliographic print of hackberry leaves.

More to come, stay tuned!