Deadlines..

..have a way of sneaking up on you. Awhile ago I decided to look for mixed media shows to enter instead of strictly quilt venues. When I found TOXIC COLOR" at Exit-a gallery space in Cleveland Ohio, I felt like the organizers had been peeking into my studio. My colors have been on a berserk for some time. Additionally, this gallery has had exhibitions of fiber art in recent history including weaving and collage work. So yesterday morning I discovered that the deadline for entry had about 18 hours to go. Fortunately, this gallery was ready and willing to deal with electronic entries, even electronic payments with PayPal. Five shots for 25.00 dollars was worth the concerted effort of getting this entry page put together before noon. I haven't posted pictures of this piece before and had to come up quickly with the title "Macrophage Cotillion" (hoping I spelled it right). Coming up with titles on short notice is unsettling although I don't think there's a law saying I can't change the title until they get the wallcards printed.

California Cannibalism

Now that title's bound to draw some weird traffic but sadly, that's what's happened out in Benecia, CA in the barn owl box that I watch on the cam (see side bar). When Frieda laid 7 eggs I knew that bad things were going to happen. As the first chicks hatched and grew, the last to hatch got weaker and tastier looking. All I saw was the diminishing headcount. We are down to four. Talk about Survivors! I still haven't recovered from seeing the TX brood go all natural last spring when the Mum checked out a chick that died from the heat and then ate it in one gulp! Nature's way, I know but it's so hard to NOT anthropomorphize the critters. These chicks are a long way from cute but I can't help it.

New look and new sound

I finally caved in and upgraded to the new blogger Minima template. They still let you tinker around under the hood so my blog is not out of danger yet. Y'all are going to have to deal with my new earworm on the sidebar for a while. If I can't get this song out of my head why should you? I can live without the video but it's a package deal. The saving grace is that the young woman in the video is actually his wife. He was on Oprah the other day performing this little ditty and the women in the audience were oozing down the aisles.

WIP

Cleared up the cutlets, packed the crew off to work, turned on the game and had this painted up by the 6th inning. It's good to get back to work a bit each night. I was definitely done hand-sewing on it. Now I have to leave it laying on the kitchen floor overnight to dry . Could be some interesting cat criticisms by morning.

Audrey & Peg

This is my friend Peg and her houseguest Audrey. Peg normally doesn't name her livestock beyond "Leg'O" or "Barbie-Q" but Audrey is going to get to grow up and and experience the joys of motherhood, Peg hopes, including feeding her own lambs and not leaving it to Peg and a bottle!

more new things

Sewing sleeves on two new pieces entitles me to take another new wholecloth dyepainting out of the pile and put it up on the wall for consideration. I may be doing some discharging and/or painting to this one to bring out some value changes but not too much. I sure don't want to screw it up. Another large piece, ummm, 40x58 I think. I do know I'm going to be scrounging to build backs for this set and scrambling for coupons to get a break on more batting. Below is something I started based on the table-mopper that I made down in Florida. Someone in this blogring (help me out here readers) posted about having a craving for some texture not to long ago and I was inspired to dig up a set of spotty looking fabrics and make them dance. The huge Frankenstein hand stitching is because the baseball season has started. Someone's Mum would say "It keeps me finger outta me nose."

New work.

Thanks for the concern Peg. It's probably a lack of FIBER! Finally some progress. This is a crummy picture but I'll have to sleeve it before I can get a good shot outside. I put the pedal to the metal this morning about 7:30 and, with a break for a little yard work, got the stitching finished after the game. Don't know what to call it yet but it's big, 60"x39", and by a miracle of serendipity, the backing fabric is the exact same color as the lavender I dye-painted on the front. I started this at Focus On Fiber last month and have been stalling like mad about finishing it. Why? Didn't want to screw it up. This was the first time I ever sketched out how I wanted the stitching to go before sitting down at the machine.

Once upon a time I had something to say...

From 2005 "In response to Gabrielle's question "What drives you to create....to make art...to show your inner self or just play?" I offer this. The manipulation of light and texture until that silent, inner bell tolls is an act of anticipation that feeds a need for making order of these elements according to the inner eye. The hope that this personal order will have a degree of universal appeal drives one to hold up the finished work and say "Behold - a piece of what makes me unique". This hope is a secondary type of anticipation often tinged with fear. Those lucky, brave or smart enough to skip this second anticipation will reap the best of what a creative drive can give us. Total self-satisfaction." At the moment, the bell is silent, the eye is blind and I have no feelings about it.

While you aren't watching

Voodoo and Jinx are almost the same age having come into our household within a month of each other almost nine years ago. Daily, we have to break up noisy arguments that stem from Voodoo trying to make an impression on the ladies, never mind that he hasn't had the goods to deliver since he was old enough for the operation. THIS is what I came upon last night. I though Jinx was going to ask me for a cigarette.

Road Trip

My brother and his family arrived at a local hotel some time in the night on their way south to Orlando. Today it will be my privilege and delight to escort them to the Jewel of Atlanta - the Georgia Aquarium. I have been dreaming of cuttlefish for days now.

Rant

What ever happened to "sticks and stones..." or "consider the source..." or "whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger"? Whatever became of having some backbone, personal responsibility and dignity? When did we become a nation of whining children curling up with our thumbs stuck in our mouths the first time someone calls us a bad name? The over reaction of those who would take offense at the lippings of a has-been, brain-addled, idiot (have I made my position clear?) radio commentator is as pitiable as the comments that provoked them. His excuse? A lifetime of cultural backwardness barely tempered by the rules and regulations of the FCC. Their excuse? Someone please explain to me how these young warrior women have come this far on life's path without ever having been exposed to the stupidity of bigotry, racism and sexism in the United States of Advertising. Sadly, I don't believe it for a minute. By giving him a moment's notice beyond withering silence they have succumbed to the folly of political correctness. I am sick to death of it. Say what you mean, stand by what you say and suffer the consequences. If you offend, apologize sincerely and learn from your mistake. To the offended I say take dignity in being gracious and for heavens sake, toughen up. Just wait until real life gets a hold of you.

Travelers

I have two pieces to get ready for the PAQA South Markings exhibit so I spent the evening sewing on a sleeve and eyeballing them up close. I kept thinking what a marvelous groove I was in at the time each of those was stitched. Kodamas I started life as a disappointing dye piece which I later discharged with a brush for the first time. There was no room on the table so I did the work flat on the deck and you can see the wood grain. I also discovered not to use a good brush for discharging - I set mine aside and came back to find it eaten up to whiskers. Skin Keeps Us In was a challenge that went on for weeks. The base fabric was an antique cotton damask tablecloth that got caught up in a very strange dye pattern after I had done some metallic freckling with acrylic paint.It was so unstable that once I decided to use it, I had to stabilize it with something and I made the mistake of falling in love with that deep umber hand dye. Not wanting to obscure it completely, I started cutting holes in the damask in the more boring places to let the brown come through. I started adding hand painted, hand dyed and commercial elements from my Favorites basket and soon this thing had hundreds of pins in it just to keep it's shape. Each element was probably moved and re-pinned a dozen times. After a long time I decided to let chaos rule just under the surface. Again, the piece was quilted in a trance to some distant music.

Other People's Cool Stuff (since I'm fresh out)

Here I am hanging out with the Kat Krew feeling sorry for myself and being spectacularly unproductive. It's not good when you Stumble around on the web when you should be doing other stuff unless you come across sites like this one
My fiber work all started with a surplus of used materials and the burning need to make something new from it all.

Opening Day

"PLAY BALL, Already!" I've made the decision to hand quilt that big pieced top I brought back from FOF07. Can't imagine what influenced me....

(click and shop!) I spent the morning ironing and taking pictures of some of the new hand dyed pieces that I did down in Florida. If you decide you want any of these pieces, please email me first to make sure I haven't run wild and chopped up or otherwise mutilated the piece you were craving. I folded them up and put them away but not too far away. heh heh heh...

Peapods From Mars?

Are these not marvelous? They are the cut-off ends of ...I don't know what to call them. Jan Thompson has been working with polymer clay and these conglomerates are the starting place leftovers. There has to be a better name but who cares what to call something this strange and wonderful. They make me think of Karen Kamenetzky's quilts.

Note to Self from Katz

...the raspy voice on the phone said "And don't come home without it." Click.

Feebleminded Shepherd

So here I am once again in charge of a whole flock of headless sheep. That's a poor analogy but the ones that come first reveal the most, I guess. After the dyefest on Saturday I now have at least a dozen starts, some wonderful and clamoring to be worked, others (like this one, 40somethingx60something monster) with their necks in a noose and their feet on a block of ice. Well, that's a bit harsh but you get the picture. I'll be working it first out of guilt - it used to be a beautiful blue/green undersea dream until I brutalized it with discharging. The very first piece I ever sold, "Parking Magik" was so unresponsive and balky at first I very nearly fed it into an industrial shredder at the office one night when I was stymied with the whole thing. That seems to be the way of things. Ugly ducklings really do grow up to be pterodactyls.

Amazing Stuff

Another artist stumbled upon - Hollis Heichemer - these paintings seethe and simmer with incredible energy. I have to find out more. She has been particularly gracious in inviting us into her process with these progress pages.

L'ville Frankenstein Dyeworx '07 debut

I lied. I told myself I was going to let these poach in their own juices overnight but the suspense was killing me. So was the heat. It looks like we are going to dispense with Spring and jump right into Summer. These were pieces of Testfabrics 400M that I soaked in soda ash solution down in Fl last week. I ran out of time and energy down there so I just dried and folded them. This is the first time I have painted directly on the readied fabric, no alginate. After I was finished with each one, I sprayed it good with more soda ash "just in case of what" I won't ever think about again - the washout produced almost zero runoff except a little errant turquoise. Better shots once stuff is dried and ironed.