Flora and Fauna Opening Reception

 It was a very good opening night for my Flora and Fauna exhibit earlier this month at the PA Arts Experience Gallery in Lancaster.  There I am just before the reception started, with Deer and Mayapple and Prickly Sow Thistle on the left, and Fox and Hackberry on the right.  Below is a shot from later in the evening, when the First Friday crowds were in full swing.  Groundhog and Green Bean is on the left.

 Here's a slightly arty shot, with Wood Poppy underneath the staircase, and Skunk Cabbage and Possum in the back.  It's a lovely gallery, and I'm so delighted to have my work displayed there.  The exhibit is up until the end of the month, so stop by if you are in town.

 And now perhaps my favorite shot of the evening....just before closing time a Power Ranger showed up with an entourage.  I'm not sure what their purpose was, assuming they had one, but at one point the Red Ranger seemed mesmerized by my work!

New Work - Fox and Hackberry

Fox and Hackberry is completed!  It will be on my website soon, but I'm happy to share the first look at it here with all my loyal blog readers.  It's 50"h x 66"w, and features cyanotypes on cotton, made from photos I took of a red fox skull, a heliographic hackberry print, and some almost-traditional patchwork.  You can read about the cyanotype process in a previous post here, and see the results below.  I am very happy with how crisp and detailed these prints came out--I spent a lot of time on the photography.

Those wonderful swirly shapes in the center are vintage hand-crocheted doilies, appliqued onto a piece of silk I hand painted:

Here's another detail shot, with skulls and a portion of the hackberry print.  I saw a red fox in my backyard this past winter, running along the edge of the woods where the hackberry trees grow:

Fox and Hackberry is one of the new works in my Flora and Fauna exhibit that just opened at the PA Arts Experience Gallery at 114 N. Prince St., Lancaster, PA.  Here's the front of the exhibit postcard:

And the reverse of the card with all the relevant info.  I will be at the Gallery on 10/1 from 5 - 9 for First Friday, and again on Saturday as part of the Art Walk festivities.  It's going to be great weather and great fun--hope to see you there!

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!