Ikie and I have really been really working on the fish collaboration, producing a good many “offspring” for the larger models. We have several variations on the theme, and new ideas keep popping up all the time. Who knows where it will end!

The Trout is an interesting new fish in our growing collection. He (or perhaps she) is constructed entirely of paper, with printed lettering, a quantity of paint added, and many stitches applied with a heavy thread. I’m sure that you will note the catchy outfit.

The Red Herring is done in fabric and painted. Because it is in the fabric medium, I am in the process of doing something a bit different with it. We have yet another fish which is done with paint on fabric with more appliquéd to it. Another second Red Herring sports a totally different color.

Experimenting with art quilt, stitching and mounting on canvas. The background fabric was left over from a design class I took some time ago. After purchasing a new sewing machine, I decided to see what it would do. Another  project on my list was to mount a piece of quilt art on canvas. This was the perfect opportunity to put both ideas to the test. Mounting the artwork on canvas is great, but I discovered that the piece must be small like those included below. Here are two sets from my left over design class.

This work will be displayed at the Mel’s Frame Shop at 1007 SW Morrison in downtown Portland, Oregon for the month of March, 2013. Stop in and take a look.

Just thought I would keep you posted on the progress of the joint art quilt project with Ikie. I have taken photos of the very big fish and tried to put them together. The colors are not the same in each section but I put them together anyway. This will give you some idea of the size. The stitching on the fish was a very difficult task but I got it done.

The two pieces of green fabric are ones I sun dyed. On one I put the biker. Ikie painted the border on the biker with paint and pens. On the other piece, Ikie painted a fish. Now they are back in my studio and I will have do do something with them.

We are still experimenting on how do deal with our ideas. We are making progress, so stay tuned.

The Art collaboration with Ikie continues with some results on the combined process of fabric and printing.

The first tests have been somewhat successful. The fish, which is to be a trout at some point, is just a test case, blending paper with fabric. I used the outline of Ikie’s painting for the fish. More to come on this one.

The red running shoe was our first experiment, and needed some improvements on the technique and ink used in printing. The black running shoe was successful, but we still need to work on the ink.

I would like to introduce my friend Ikie Nolan Kressel, a fellow artist who has proposed a challenge to combine my fiber art and her printing expertise. We both have a great deal to learn from each other, and I will keep you posted on our progress.

It took a trip to Vietnam to meet my neighbor Shirley.  Each of us traveled to Ho Chi Minh City to participate in an international women’s exhibit. We have found some common ground for our work, Shirley as fabric artist and me as printmaker. Brainstorming and collaboration has been inspiring and fun. We are currently working from a series I did for a show at Guardino Gallery (NE Alberta Street, Portland, OR  http://www.guardinogallery.com), the theme of which is, ” What Matters”. Often it’s those simple things, e.g., my Running Shoe, the Biscotti, for my lunch and the Rainbow Trout I painted on a door which hangs on our houseboat.

From those linoleum cuts, Shirley has taken off and done beautiful work, transforming them into fabric art. We’re still in the experimental phase of these works, but will keep you posted as we progress.

Below are three pictures we are working on in different forms. There are two linoleum cuts and a painting.

Linoleum cuts are Biscotti on left and Running Shoe on right. The painting Trout below.

This is a new concept in art quilt placemats for kids. The design is based on art quilt placemats I have made for some time, which feature flowers, fruit and vegetables. I decided to make one for our granddaughter so she could learn to set the table herself. It is a bit smaller, and a bit more playful, but quite similar to the ones used by mom and dad.

The use of recycled plastic to create flowers, and apply them art quilts is a new concept for me. I have recently been experimenting with a number of fused layers of plastic bags. When fused they can be cut into any shape desired. I chose to make flowers, and used strips of photo film for leaves. The plastic provides some interesting possibilities which I hope to explore. The background fabric for this project is a linen from Korea. It is very coarse and gives an interesting texture and look.

Sorry, I have not posted much this summer as I have been very busy with travels and house guests.  Now that summer is almost over I look forward to getting back in the studio. I have many things that have inspired me over the past few months and I look forward to putting those ideas in my artwork. I will be posting the progress on my blog.

Here are some of the women artists at the exhibition Her Presents in Color X, their work, the Farewell party, and just some interesting pictures at the event. The Farewell Party was held at an artists colony Kylong. (http://kylong.com/). I am sorry it is not in English, but the pictures are great, just scroll down to see.

My work at the exhibition

Many of the artists at the farewell party.

View from Artist Colony

Artist Colony and Farewell Party

Artist Colony and Farewell Party

Nice-ending to Farewell Party

The conference Her Presence in Color X featured more than just the exhibition. There was a seminar at HCMC Fine Art University, in which each country’s representative presented their take on the theme, “Women’s Art – a New Direction in Global Culture”.  Lan-Mei Cheng representing Shanghai spoke on New Culture and Women Artists ; Professor Una Kim of Portland, Oregon offered, Post-Modernism and Women Artists in the US; The Status and Roles of Women Artists in the Global Art,  was presented by Professor Nam Hee Park, from Korea; Professor Vinh Quang Thi Nguyen from Vietnam spoke on Women Artists Now: and Nasaa Bayanjargal from Mongolia offered Crossing Borders and Bridging Identities: The Role of Mongolian Women Artists and Consciousness.  And there were many more, providing a fascination look at how women see art and there future in a variety of countries.

Sign outside the seminar building

Another feature of the conference was a painting day where each artist was given two ceramic plates to paint, which were subsequently fired and finished. It was amazing what the artists came up with. The
Gallery is worth a visit.

Artists painting plates

Artists painting plates

Artists painting plates

Finished plates

Finished plates

Finished plates

We were also taken across town to a gallery of HCMC Fine Art Association (http://vxartnews.com/2012/06/lacquer-masters-in-town/) showing a collection of wonderful lacquer painting art. Before arriving, I imagined we were to be shown articles of lacquered furniture, but alas, I found a truly unique and beautiful art form! Pictures built up beneath layers of lacquer, with amazing depth. I’d never seen anything like it before. For an interesting site about lacquer that explains its history in Vietnam.

Lacquer painting

Lacquer painting

More to continue later.

Hope On The Desert 35.25” x 38” is now a completed art quilt inspired from a trip to Tucson. A Little splashes of green on a landscape dominated by shades of brown go a long way. Water has become a more worrisome topic recently, with disastrous quantities in some places, and drastic shortages in others. One hopes that balance returns.
The quilt is pieced, appliquéd and machine quilted. I applied paint and used over dyed fabric as well.

A rewarding experience at SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Association) and SDA (Surface Design Association) Conference in Philadelphia.

Identity: Context and Reflection was a joint conference of Studio Art Quilt Association and Surface
design Association. This conference had a profound influence on me. It inspired me, and influenced my thinking about fiber and quilt art. There were several lecture by museum curators and collectors.

My favorite was a talk by the three jurors, Elizabeth Barton, David Revere McFadden and Sandra Sider, of Art Quilt Elements 2012. They explained how they juried the show, and how they came to their final selections. They stressed how very important it was to have good photos when entering work in juried shows. Also, discussed importance of having good contrast, movement and texture in your work, which must show in the photos.

After the lecture, we moved on to the show, which was a great deal more interesting after hearing how and why the jurors selected the work, and finally picked the winners. We could then better understand how difficult it is to jury a show. Art Quilt Elements 2012 will be on display until May 13 at the Wayne Art Center (http://www.wayneart.org/).

Bruce Pepich, Executive Director and Curator of Collections, Racine Art Museum was the keynote speaker. He spoke on art work as a form of communication, and how the art quilt and fiber art is being accepted in major museums, a trend that is taking place today in the US and around the world.

The closing speaker was Bruce Hoffman, an independent curator and writer. His topic was, “Identity: Context and Reflection,” focusing on a presentation called, “A Sense of Place,” shown at the Philadelphia Art Alliance. He told us the history of Fiber Philadelphia, and how it has grown in the past ten years.

We spent one day going around Philadelphia seeing, seeing as many of the exhibitions as we could cram in in one day. And naturally, took in a few of the many historic venues that the city has to offer.

The conference was a great success, and we learned a great deal. I look forward to the conference next year in Santa Fe. If you would like to have a more in depth look at the conference, visit the SAQA site.

I would like to share some of the great fiber art and quilt art pieces I saw while visiting Fiber Philadelphia a few weeks ago. Here are some of my favorite artists and shows.

Art Quilt Elements is one of the shows that I liked best. The book,Art Quilt Elements, is very well done and offers interesting comments on each piece of work. Some of my favorites are listed below:

Barbara Schneider, Woodstock, IL. Her beautiful work entitled, Leaf Fall, Fragments is available for viewing on her web site.

Christine Hager-Braum, Durham, North Carolina.  More Than Just The Sun: Northern Red Oak a very Interesting use of fabric.

Dianne Firth, Canberra, Australia. Red Stones #2 was my very favorite. Unfortunately, there are no photos of this piece that show how it looks as the lighting changes to shadows.

Kristin La Flamme, Waipahu, Hawaii.  The War Sucks piece just made me think, and I really liked the freedom in her use of fabrics and paint.

Other artists and shows which I think are worth talking a look at are:

Amy Orr  She works with plastic cards – credit, hotel, gift, etc. – and builds wonderful mosaic-like compositions. Much of her work is beaded into cloth, with broken slivers of identity permeating the surface. You can donate cards, and she will put them to good use.

Jason Pollen, whose work 48 Prophets comprised individual pieces, mounted together to form one image. The pieces were made of linen and silk on canvas, thread, pigment and graphite. Each 10.5″ square portrait of a person, was sold separately.

At Mending=Art take a look and see how the humble art of mending is used by these artists as an art form.

Pae White   A fascinating installation!

Mark Bradford and Jennifer Setinkamp at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia.

I thought I would share something a little personal and a rewarding experience. The making of this art quilt was interesting and somehow freed me up. It also made me forget about what was going on in my body and get on with life.

The idea for this quilt came to me as I was recovering from a pacemaker implant. Looking at the printout featuring the patterns of my arrhythmic heartbeat, I decided the stuttering lines would translate well into cloth and thread.

The roses are get-well present to my recovering heart. The cheesecloth, wax paper, some paint appliqué and paper give the piece a greeting card quality.

Broken Heart

I thought it was time to share what I was doing. This cactus art quilt is just in the beginning of it’s journey to being completed. I plan to resize and move the cactus plants around to make it a better composition. This has been a slow process since the pictures I took in the high desert. I am still considering adding some other elements such as line drawing of baskets. This is something I have done on the other recent quilts such as Portland Through Runners’ Eyes.

I have just added some new art placemats to the gallery so take a look. Below is just one of the exciting examples.

One of my pieces has been juried into SAQA Oregon’s show, Oregon: State of Diversity II. I am very pleased and excited to be part of this event. The show will travel throughout the state during 2012 and 2013. SAQA Oregon has had a wonderful response to the first exhibit, and they expect that will translate to more viewers and more venues for the current collection. I look forward to seeing the show, and will post locations and presentation dates as the information becomes available.  The exhibit will debut at “Stitches in Bloom” in Silverton at the Oregon Garden in January 2012, and will travel through 2013.

After taking part in the Susan G. Komen, Race for the Cure in Portland this past summer, I decided to make another art quilt featuring runners. So far, I have the back completed. I collected number placards from several participants (some pink, to recognize “survivors,” with those in white ones for “supporters”). I also included my own. The top for the quilt featuring runners is now in progress.

The Fairy Candle art quilt was inspired by a class I attended with Jane Sassaman on Abstracting from Nature. It has been an interesting project, and I look forward to doing more with this process. The design comes from a picture of a skunk cabbage that I took some time ago. I really like the process, and am quite pleased with the results.

My Night Riders art quilt is  experimental, using black batting for the background. The texture gives it an interesting look.

Now that summer is over and things have started to slow down, I have been able to focus on some “work-in-progress” that have been in progress for too long.  I am still working with bikers and runners, and look forward to doing more on theme.