…during which I was VERY BUSY, completing three works for the Quilt National submission in mid-September.  Results were announced two weeks ago and, alas, none of my works was accepted this year.  This is my third attempt in six years, and this time I started thinking about my submissions WHILE I was viewing the last show – a private biennial juried exhibit, Quilt National is held at the Dairy Barn Art Center in Athens, Ohio, and represents the state of the art quilt.  So, I had invested a lot of time and energy with the goal of GETTING IN THIS YEAR!

After my three pieces were finished and I awaited my professional photo shoot, I took a personal inventory and declared that what I had done was outside my usual operating procedure, I’d never invested this highly in any show or any one event.  I decided I would not do a repeat performance.  If I got in, or if I didn’t, I would never again submit to this venue.  I think that, primarily, right now, my reason is that I want to step outside the insular world of ‘art quilts’ and start to concentrate on getting exposure for my work in the general art world.

I’ve spent the last few weeks licking my chops, analyzing which new direction to take with my work (or not), looking, thinking, meditating and letting things fall naturally in place, just generally getting ready to jump right back on that horse, as my dear Nana, Grace Hall, would have told me were she still here.  The horse MAY be of a different color, not sure yet.  I know I am working on a project that is way outside my usual style, and it is an assemblage (new to me, as well) and that I’m starting to collect odd and ends of vintage textiles that I’ve always coveted but have not previously incorporated into my art.  So…with that….I’ll say a few things about my works that didn’t make the cut this year at Quilt National.

I’m passionate about putting an end to hydro-fracking.  I made a small piece two years ago, probably posted herein, here is another:

NO FRACKING WAY.  Measures almost five feet in each direction.  Cotton, silk, cotton canvas.

Statement:  Big-money’s latest assault on our natural resources – the water supply of millions of our citizens and our tranquil bucolic landscape.  BAN hydroFRACKING NOW!

I’m also passionate about the way our elected officials in Washington have conducted themselves these past almost four years – in a word, DISGRACEFUL!

SHABBY POLITICAL CHIC, 50″ H x 84″ W.  Commercial cotton, cotton diaper, tarlatan, flannel, canvas, ink.

Statement:  Our honorable democratic ideals – torn, tarnished and trampled by a partisan Congress.

And my personal favorite:  REMNANTS, 20″ H x 37″ W.  Commercial cotton scraps, upholstery remnant, discarded jeans, monk’s cloth, antique found walking stick.

Statement:  Ethics, morality and the American way in shreds – remnants of our past glory.

This work felt like it made itself, from remnants and leftovers in my studio after the making of SHABBY POLITICAL CHIC (above).

and a close-up of REMNANTS – 

Photo credits belong to Andy Wainwright.

Final word:  No real regrets, I think this work is artistically strong and I derived a huge amount of personal satisfaction from expressing my disgust at current political events.  I always feel good when I can tear after my usual schtick of cutting and fusing, and it felt good to revert to some long-neglected hand embroidery techniques.  I totally understand the ‘crap shoot’ arena of national exhibits and have not previously let declinations get the better of me; in the future I will plan more judiciously and not let the project or event overtake me.  Famous last words…..

A few weeks ago I made a piece that I thought might be worthy of submission to the “MATERIAL VOICES : An Exhibition of Small Art Quilts,” at the Gray Cat Studio.  The show is curated by Sylvia Einstein and managed by Karen Betancourt, who I always enjoy chatting with when I see her in Lowell.  So, I am very happy to report that my newest work, FLARE, will be in Lowell from August 4 through August 26, and I’ll be in Lowell for two days in August to enjoy the festival and attend the opening of “MATERIAL VOICES” from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 11.

Here is FLARE, it measures 16″ x 16″ and features artist cotton discharge-dyed cloth, the artist being me….

Thanks for looking!

I’ve been having a phenomenally dry DRY spell the last few months, creatively speaking.  My muse is just not inclined to work on the several large pieces that I’ve designed for some pretty important deadlines coming up (I’ll bet you can guess which ones….).  So to keep myself busy in the studio, I have been playing around.  The recent ‘thread’ on the SAQA chat list about iPad covers/carriers enticed me to make one for my iPad2.  

I had fun making it and I like the design and it is SNUG and hopefully protective of my iPad (which won’t fit in with the cover on the front/top, perhaps it will loosen up a bit to allow that eventually…).  I love the print fabric that I didn’t realize I had in my stash, and I’ve been working with solids lately, making Rosalie Dace’s ‘skinny lines’ (I find they are addictive and great ZEN therapy combined with another ZEN meditation, free-motion quilting).  The bag slings over the shoulder in either direction.  Thanks for looking!  

I’ve had some exceptionally good news as of late, so it is time to update my blog….NEWS as of JUNE 6, 2012.

Three (yes, three….again, see Fantastic Fibers 2012 below) of my works have been accepted at the NEW LEGACIES show at the Lincoln Art Center in Fort Collins, Colorado: GENERATION GAP, BROKEN PROMISES, and ALMOST AS ECHO.  I’m particularly happy to have  ‘…ECHO…’ accepted as this will be its debut in a show other than my local guild quilt show.  It is a mixed media work with two front panels permanently attached to a background panel.  It measures 41″ wide X 25″ high.

    and a detail view         

I very much enjoy working in this intuitive style, piecing fabrics, slicing, dicing, re-piecing and then embellishing with paint and thread painting.  I plan to do more more works in this style, and in fact am working on one presently, stay tuned…

My ‘HALLOWED GROUND,’ a memorial to ‘ground zero’ in New York City on 9/11, has been accepted into IQF HOUSTON’s Tactile Architecture exhibit.  Exhibiting in Houston other than through a SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) exhibit is a first for me, I’ve never entered any of my work there before.   I am particularly partial to this work as I actually worked on it for several years (even though it is a small quilt, 27″ w X 25″ h, it was on my design wall for years in various phases), hoping it would find a venue for the ten year anniversary of that infamous day in our history, but there were very few calls for entry to commemorate 9/11 in 2011, so it went nowhere.

  and a detail view  

BREAKING BREAKING NEWS!  I was awarded SECOND PLACE in TEXTILES IN A TUBE 2 show…which includes a MONETARY AWARD!  Another milestone in my artistic journey…..read on, please….

‘IN LIGHT OF…’ is hanging at TEXTILES IN A TUBE at the Riverworks Gallery at Greenville (SC) Technical Collage.  This show was curated by one of my favorite artists in the art quilt loop, Kathleen Loomis.  This is a work originally entitled ‘FLEETING MOMENT’ that was juried into the SAQA A Sense of Time exhibit in 2007.  I always loved how the back of this piece came out and have been trying to find a venue for it as a two-sided piece.  It makes me happy that it found this quirky little exhibit in its second year in South Carolina.

IN LIGHT OF…shown front and back, side by side here:

and a detail  

The guiding theme of TEXTILES IN A TUBE was to require the entire piece including hanging hardware to fit inside a 36″ long X 3″ mailing tube.  This work measures 27″ w X 25″ high and is light as a feather due to its construction – artist discharged cotton lawn on the front, cotton scrim (similar to cheesecloth) on the back and a wool batt in between.  It rolled up perfectly to fit in the mailing tube and will be hung so both sides can be viewed.

And finally, I just received word today that the Lowell Quilt Festival (in Lowell, Massachusetts in early August) is having a special exhibit of ‘BEST OF SHOW’ Guild quilts this year,  so my ‘OH SAY CAN YOU CELL’ may be there this August.  I received five ribbons at my quilt guild, Northern Star Quilter’s Guild in Somers in May, ‘…CELL’ received a blue ribbon in its category and BEST OF SHOW, SMALL (we have two Best of Show awards, for a ‘large’ quilt and a ‘small’ quilt….at 7 feet wide, ‘…CELL’ is not really “small” but I’m not arguing with the judges.  ‘…CELL…’ also received a ribbon for ‘BEST DESIGN’ which pleased me no end.   Please scroll down and visit ‘older posts’ to find photos of  ‘OH SAY CAN YOU CELL’  in my blog.