Work in Progress – In Dreams I Learned to Swim, Update 2

While I was working on the needlefelted center panel, I was also devising the prints that would make up the supporting quilt.  I gathered a lot of bits and pieces and glued them onto mat board to make collagraph plates. 

My main focus for the plates was to capture the movement of the Susquehanna River through the surrounding landscape of wooded hills and farmland.

Next I layered the felted panel with batting and a thin backing, and did a lot of freemotion quilting on it, to add further definition and movement.  On top of that I added some wisps of Angelina fiber and felted them down, to add shimmer where appropriate.  And here is the back at this point.

New Work in Progress – In Dreams I Learned to Swim

 
I’ve got a new addition to my River Series.  It began, once again, as an adventure in needlefelting.  The center portion of the panel is comprised of lots of wool roving, along with slivers and scraps of wool and silk. 
Surrounding the river are segments of silk and wool fabrics, some of which I’ve had for a long time.  I was stalled and had this hanging on the design wall for weeks, until I hacked out the pink silk print from an old skirt, and then the whole design came alive. The bits of purple print were cut from a silk scarf I brought back from India in the 70’s.  It felt good to have found just the right moment and project to finally use it.  After the fabrics were laid down and felted to the base, I added more roving and couched threads to add definition.
Above is the view of the back of the panel at this stage, which is always interesting.

More to come.  And as always, thanks for reading and commenting.

Jack in the Pulpit Acceptance at AQS Grand Rapids

I am happy to announce that Jack in the Pulpit has been accepted for the AQS Quiltweek exhibit in Grand Rapids, Michigan,  August 12 ‐ 15, 2015, at DeVos Place Convention Center.

This large and intricate art quilt was previously at the AQS Quiltweek in Lancaster, PA, where it won an award.  See my previous blog post here.
I’m grateful to the AQS organization and the individuals involved in making my work, and the art form at large, so accessible to the public.

Update - Jack in the Pulpit won a third place award in its category at this event.

Kousa Dogwood – Work in Progress Update 3

I’ve been experimenting again with Jacquard Solar Fast as a printmaking medium.  I worked with it last year, making prints of my Kousa dogwood.  (You can read about it here.)  A few months ago I got a new supply of the product (see disclaimer below), and have been waiting until the weather and the garden were both cooperative to try it out.
 
In this set of pictures I’m working with the color Red, which comes out of the bottle as a medium pink tone.  It’s a new formulation, and does not have the ammonia odor of the product I used last year—in fact, it had no discernible odor at all.  I used a sponge brush to spread it on pfd (prepared for dyeing) cotton broadcloth.  I arranged a flowering branch from my Kousa on it, and held it in place with a few strategic small pins.

Above is the print as it was being exposed to sunlight, under a sheet of glass.  It was a bright, sunny day, and I used an exposure of about 15 minutes, which worked out well.  I used too much product, probably because I am accustomed to slathering a certain amount of paint when I make heliographic prints, and had a bit of condensation form under the glass.  The resultant minor splotchiness in the solid areas of the print bothers me not a jot, as I feel like the variation adds interest.  As I continued to make more prints I used less product, followed the instructions (ahem) and blotted away any excess.
Above is the print after exposure, after removing the branch, and before washing.  Solar Fast needs to be washed out completely, so that the areas that were not masked do not develop color later.  Directions for all of this can be found on the Jacquard website.  Below is the finished print.  I’m very happy with it.
Here is a similar print made with the color Purple.  All of the colors I’ve tried have been just excellent, very rich and vibrant.  The other aspect I really appreciate about Solar Fast is the ability to feather it out around the edges.  I really like the effect and anticipate leaving some of the brush work visible when I later crop and stitch the print. I had a fun afternoon of printmaking, and am thinking about other ways to use this process and this product.  I hope to bump this Kousa quilt up a bit further in the queue awaiting my attention.  The prints are wonderful and deserve to be showcased.

Disclaimer:  A Jacquard representative contacted me and generously offered to supply me with some samples of Solar Fast to experiment with.  I accepted the offer, with no strings attached.  Aside from the product I received no compensation, and my experiments and opinions are my own. 

In Dreams I Learned to Swim acceptance for Art of the State

I am very happy to announce that my latest work, In Dreams I Learned to Swim, has been accepted for Art of the State: Pennsylvania 2015.

This is a prestigious all media exhibit held at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, in Harrisburg.  There were 128 works accepted from over 1600 entries, an acceptance rate of about 8%.  I've had work in previous exhibits—In 2013 my Silk Mill #3 won the purchase award—but some years my entry has been declined, so I am thrilled to be included this time around.  The quality of the exhibit is always very high.

The opening reception is on June 28th, and the exhibit runs through September 13th.

I’m also delighted because the gallery space in the Museum is excellent; spacious, well designed, and well lit.  This is a very large quilt, so I am limited in finding suitable venues, and the museum is ideal for its display.

As to the quilt itself, unusually for me, I don’t yet have it online.  My personal life has been very full lately—all good!—and this is one of the tasks that slipped through the cracks.  It’s a quilt with a good story, both in its conception and it’s execution.  So rather than reveal it now, I’m going to post it as a work-in-progress as I usually do.  For today I will leave you with this detail shot:



It’s part of my ongoing series The River.

As always, thanks for reading and commenting, and stay tuned for the story behind In Dreams I Learned to Swim.

Skunk and Garlic Mustard in Process and Product: Quilting Redefined

I am delighted that a piece from my Flora and Fauna series, Skunk and Garlic Mustard, is included in an invitational exhibit opening tomorrow evening, 3/6/15, at the Sunshine Art+Design Gallery in Lancaster, PA.

The exhibit is curated by Tim Roda, Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, and gallery owner Annie Kerekgyarto.  Here’s the intriguing statement about the concept:

“As contemporary art continually becomes more interdisciplinary, fine art and craft are beginning to overlap.   We wanted to choose a topic to examine this overlap, and felt that Quilting would be perfect for many reasons.  Although quilting is recognized worldwide, Lancaster County's history and appreciation of Amish quilting runs deep.  The American Quilt Society's Quilt Show and Contest is held one block away from Sunshine Art+Design each year, so hosting our exhibition in March was very important to us.  Our vision or goal for the show is to create a conversation amongst the new and old guard while also developing and fostering a larger conversation within the local art community.   

The exhibition will include seasoned artists both locally (Jerome Hershey, Heidi Lietzke, Sue Reno, Joe Hicks, Salina Almanzar, Jessie Gray, Jason Herr and more) and regionally known(Catherine O'Connell, Kristen Morgin, Laura Alexander, Helen O'Leary and more).  We hope Quilting Redefined will become a yearly exhibition, with the goal of continuing to broaden the definition and expectation of art, craft and quilting.  We looked for artists who went a step further than their originally planned design, making intuitive decisions while using a similar process. Additionally, we looked for work that was directly confronting the ideal of a traditional quilt. We do recognize that we left out many traditional quilts. This was intentional, out of respect for the American Quilt Convention.  With the wealth of traditional quilts on display up the street March 11-14th, we wanted to offer a different perspective."

To me, one of the interesting aspects here is that I also have work in the AQS show, Jack in the Pulpit.  Read about it here. I feel like this is a golden age for fiber artists, we have so many opportunities and venues to display our work!  The gallery is one block down from the convention center where the AQS show is held, so it is easily accessible if you are planning on coming to Lancaster.  The exhibits runs through 3/28/15.

Follow the gallery on
Instagram:  @sunshineartdesign
Twitter: @sunshineartlanc
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sunartdesign

New Work – Ice Jam

I am very pleased to reveal my latest work, Ice Jam.  It’s my distillation of many visits to the Susquehanna River in the depths of winter, when multiple freeze/thaw cycles have transformed it into a jumble of slabs and chunks of ice.  The ice piles up on the islands and spills out onto the riverbanks.
The center panel of this work is needlefelted, with silk and wool fabric and fibers.  It is stitched and extensively hand beaded with semi-precious stones and seed beads. (All the pictures enlarge when clicked.) The surrounding and supporting quilt is made from collagraph prints onto cotton, along with strips of patchwork.
The finished work is 43”high by 52” wide.
I’m happy with the way all the elements of Ice Jam came together.  It’s very evocative of the experience of visiting the river on a bitterly cold day—a bit surreal and potential treacherous!

To track back the evolution of this work, and see the pictures that inspired it, click on Ice Jam on the sidebar, or go here.

Thanks for following along, and comments are always welcome.

I just noticed that this is post #500.  I don't do it for the numbers, but it still seems significant.  I'm happy so many of you have been along for the journey.

Work in Progress – Ice Jam, Update 4

Bitter cold, various types of frozen precipitation,  and intense winds are shaping my experience of the world this month.  The Susquehanna River has frozen over, once again transforming the landscape.  It’s a good time to be in the studio, with the warmth of the coal fire, and finish up with Ice Jam.
I finalized the design and pieced together the supporting quilt, using the collagraph prints and strips of patchwork.  The center portion is plain fabric, as it will be covered by the needlefelted river center panel. 

It’s definitely coming together at this point.  The background quilt is being layered and stitched, and the center panel is getting lots of handbeadwork.  Stay tuned for the reveal!

To see the evolution of this work in progress, and pictures of the Susquehanna River ice that inspired it, click on Ice Jam in the sidebar, or go here.