crows

Vignettes and Textile Art

I have a solo show coming up that I will be hanging at the local hospital on the 30th, and I've yet to create a single piece for that show.  Nope instead I've been working on other projects, ideas I just can't seem to get out of my head.


It's no lie, I've been struggling with what I want to say, what I want others to see, how I see the world, and this ties into my brand, licensing, and a whole nuther ball of wax.

So today, as I was cleaning my sewing table in desperate search for a needle I lost in hopes that the fur kids wouldn't find it with their feet, somehow the idea of 'vignettes' crept into my mind.  So I wrote the word down and once I was done clearing my table, no I didn't find the needle, I got onto Google and looked up the definition of vignette.

Vignette in the literary world usually refers to a small impressionistic scene.  Vignette in the visual arts world in a nutshell means that the edges fade into the background.

Corn No. 51

With the exception of election years and natural disasters Iowa pretty much has mastered the ability to fade into the background, maybe this is why the 'coasters' refer to this part of the US as fly over country???


In Memory of Corn No. 1

So now I'm contemplating the concept of a vignette and how this relates to the prairie and plains states and to fiber and textiles in general.  And then I started digging through old photos I've taken of this great state, and of artwork I've already created and now see that I may have been creating vignettes all along.  Sometimes it takes the artist way longer to see, than it does their audience, what they have been saying all along, sounds counter intuitive but it is what it is.


Queen Anne's Crow No. 2 detail

 So I'm off to to do some more thinking, and possible some digital collage making tonight so that I can start printing fabric and paper first thing in the morning. The next eight days will be a flurry of creativity and most importantly stitching!

Birds


Thanks to the 60 Day Bird Journal Challenge I'm back to drawing birds, and right now I'm in an art bird frame of mind!  Here is my half duck half water bird I'm working on this afternoon.

Tonight's activities include clearing my drawing and drafting tables so that I can start working on my crow panels once again.  It's snowing here today so it seems like the perfect day to focus exclusively on my studio.

I have a solo show coming up this spring and I have yet to decide what I will put in the show, this is code for I haven't started yet and I haven't a clue!  It'll be fiber art of some sort, 2D for the most part, and may involve more crows, and corn of course, and maybe some Queen Anne's lace???

WIP Crows Follies


Crows Follies No's. 1 thru 14

There is nothing like seeing them laid out like this to make one realize what needs to be done, fixed, changed, etc.!  I'll have to have John make two new raised panel frames for me to replace No's 11 and 12 as these two do NOT go with this particular series color wise.  The good news is is I'll have him make more than two new frames for a new series in the blue tones.

Off to add more paint and ink to these panels.

And then Magic Happens


My mom's beloved tea pot.  I was talking with my cousin Monica about tea cups and mom's tea pot came up. I'm not sure if it's a Royal whatever or not, I just know that it was very well loved.

And she loved crows as well...



Then the wheels have started churning.  More later from the design studio...

ETA:  I found the pattern name it's Royal Alberts Forget me Not Rose pattern and was part of their flower of the month collection.  There appears to be two tea pot styles with this pattern and this is the later, and probably less expensive, style/shape.  The gold trim is in rough shape on this one due to too many trips through the dishwasher.

Queens Crows


I'm spending some time updating my website this week, creating new pages, adding back in some collections so on and so forth.  Now that I've had some time away from this particular body of work Queens Crows, I'm thinking of going back into it and pushing the panels to see what else I can gain from this series.

My stencil film finally arrived now I get to play with my Silhouette Cameo hopefully creating a new series of crow stencils for my Crows Follies series.

60 Day Crow Challenge


It was suggested that I should start a 60 day challenge since I couldn't find one that was theme specific (thank you Jody Lund) I will be drawing Crows and Ravens (Corvus sp.). 

How many of you would like to participate with me in a 60 day bird/crow challenge, this means one bird/crow a day for 60 days.

The birds/crows can be drawn, painted, stitched, sculpted (if you are so inclined), digitally manipulated OR you can write about birds/crows everyday for 60 days.  Interested?

If I get 10 or more peeps interested I will start a facebook group for the challenge.  I will be starting tomorrow as I am getting ready for an Open Studio Tour, October 4th, and want to have some fresh birds to offer up for the tour.

Solo Show at the Sanford Museum and Planetarium


The wall!!! I have a variety of styles per say in this show, Mixed Media Fiber in the form of the niches, Paint in the form of the acrylic painted panel frames, and Encaustic in the form of the smaller encaustic paintings.  The theme is Queen Anne's Lace and Crows, so there is some consistency.


This is the only close up photo that didn't end up blurry, I will have to take new photos when we go up in a month to take the show down!

Stop by and check out my show, be sure to sign in and let me know you stopped by!!! My show runs the month of May at the Sanford Museum and Planetarium in Cherokee, Iowa!

Getting There


It's the journey, not the destination!


In Progress and now with more paint.  I need to make up the glaze for the left hand side of each panel, and then I can start adding the queen anne's lace and crows to the right hand panels.  I may change the color of panel No. 6 add more pinks and yellows.


Bonus I found these six narrow panels while looking for another small sample panel, stay tuned!

Queen Anne's Lace No 4 & No 8 in Progress


No. 8 on the left and No. 4 on the right, both of which are upside down.  I love the orchid interior that's framed with the gold metallic paint.  I will create a panel for No. 8 this evening.


Also on my desk Queen Anne's Lace No's 4-6 which I'm hating at the moment, but will continue to push until I'm in love with them.  Acrylic paint on baltic birch raised panel frames 8x8x2 inches.

WIP Queen Anne's Crows No0 1


I have to admit while I really like the half and half harlequin coloring of this particular niche it's really rocking in metallic gold paint!  I need to add a second coat of paint and then when it's dry enough buff on some metallic black gold wax.


I will add purple to the back of niche (inside) and I think it's pretty much done.

Some Bird Art


Little medallions with featuring Black Birds in Tree, alcohol inks to the left, shiva paintstiks to the right (prussian blue)


Experimenting with copic markers and gelli pens on scrap booking paper.  Barely noticeable at the bottom are three of the washi tapes I purchased last weekend.  This will probably end up as the cover for my "new to me" journal.  Crow is from my Three Crows Stencil.

More birds to come, I'm working on a major project (all new work for an upcoming solo show) the big reveal will happen and soon, until then here's my latest samples to see how the various mediums work with the stencils.

Creating a Strategic Objectives Journal for 2014


Am working through Lisa Sonora Beam's "Creative Entreprenure" book again, last time was 2008/09, and am now just creating my Strategic Objectives Journal.  I have to say this has been a lot of fun this time around, it especially helps that I now understand most of what she discusses, this due to five years of reading and researching how to run a business. (Raven Stencil available soon!!!)


And what would a journal be if I didn't personalize it with my own artwork?  Blackbirds in Tree from StencilGirl Products stencil with FolkArt Indigo paint for the first layer of this journal section.  I found these old manilla folders in hubs office, when I say old we're talking 30-40 years old here, and am repurposing them for my new journal. 


How I dealt with the uneven edge of the manilla folder, I simply placed a piece of old reciept journal paper under the folder edge. 


The journal paper freshly stencilled.  I'll add more layers to this piece of paper and glue it inside of the journal somewhere.  More later, I have more birds to paint now that the first layer has dried, while I think about my objectives.