Check out Creative Time and Space

Rice Freeman-Zachery does a review of her wonderful book and talks about a project she is starting on her blog to help you be ready to be more creative in 2011.

The UnValentine Party

Last night a group of friends came over for an artist play date that of course also had a menu of yummy food and drink, because we need to feed our tummies as well as our souls.

The majority of us belong to the broken hearts club right now, but our newbie Sara who I met through my online class and happens to live about a mile away from me, is our beacon of hope, being that she is the only one of us in a loving relationship right now.

 For our project of the evening, we made healing hearts a la Alisa Burke.

I happened to have some red painted fabric that I had screen printed an anatomical heart onto a year ago, that seemed perfect to make my heart from. I wrote words of loss and grief on the front that I machine and hand stitched then on the back I wrote words of healing and renewal.

Nina made a couple fabric hearts too.

We decided on a Cuban theme for our menu this time, Trish made fantastic empanadas.

 

I made Cuban style black beans

  

and pork marinated overnight in fruit juices, garlic and olive oil and simmered all day in a slow cooker.

  

Yumm....

  

Sara made cream filled chocolate cookies, that were like the worlds best Oreos on steroids and a tray of red velvet cupcakes. She definitely has an open invitation to join us anytime!

  

We had lots of sharing, ranting and laughing. It was good for the soul, I am blessed to have such wonderful supportive friends in my life; at home, abroad and online, I honor you all for lifting me up, making me laugh and being there.

  

Happy Valentines Day!

The Woman in Orange

Who is this amazing looking woman in orange making such a striking figure at festival? Well it is none other than Ricë Freeman-Zachery the author of Creative Time and Space a wonderful new book that I am thrilled to have been included in.

We finally ran into each other Saturday night at the end of Surviving the Runway.

Group art making in the wee hours

On Wednesday Leslie and Jamie ran to Texas Art Supply and picked up some fun after hours art supplies, which included a two yard piece of primed canvas, various sponge and paint brushes and acrylic paints. After dinner we gathered in their room in our jammies and started painting. No theme, just put some color down and go, while we talked and laughed, giddy from long activity filled days, lack of sleep and enjoying seeing each other again after way too many months (or a year for some) apart.

Leslie Tucker Jenison

Jamie Fingal

Rachel Perris and Frances Holiday Alford

Saturday I brought all my leftover paint from my classes, hoping to lighten my load. The canvas has progressed since I took this photo, we still have to decide what to do next. I am sure there will be more to come with this project...

Ooh, I'm so excited, look what came in the mail!

I placed a pre-order for Creative Time and Space by Ricë Freeman-Zachery from Amazon, and it arrived this afternoon, just in time for me to get in some good airport reading tomorrow. Yay!
This book is so cool, please forgive the bad/fuzzy photos, the sun is going down and I am anxious to give you a look, since I won't have time to post good photos tomorrow.
This book is sure to please every kind of creative soul, there are mixed media, textile, doll, sculpture, painter and jewelry artists represented here.

Cool montage using samples from everyone's work in this image.
Photos of beautiful art work on every page.
Look, there's me and PaMdora aka Pam RuBert on facing pages.
Gorgeous studio shots
Wonderful tips and ideas from all the artists, including one of my favorite sages Judy Wise.
This book is gorgeous, I can hardly wait to sit down and start reading.

Coming soon to a book store near you!

Ricë Freeman-Zachery who wrote Living the Creative Life: Ideas and Inspiration from Working Artists has written a new book that is due to come out very soon called Creative Time and Space. This is what the editorial review says about the book:

"With a fresh approach and an A-list group of contributing artists, Creative Time and Space embraces the idea that making time and space is at the core of creativity. It is not just about managing your time or setting up a studio space, it is about your mindset and about making room in your life for your craft. Enjoy active sidebars alongside photos of the work and workspaces of the featured artists, as they speak with refreshing candor about how they carve out creative time and space in their own lives."

I am thrilled and honored to have been chosen by Ricë to participate in this amazing book with an incredible list of artists who work in a variety of media. Ricë asked wonderful interview questions that really had me digging deep and thinking about how I work, live, make art, the choices I make and priorities I set in order to find the time and space to create. I really look forward to reading about how everyone else answered Ricë's questions. This is sure to be a great read for all of us who love creating. Be sure and click on the book above to see the preview, you might want to pre-order a copy now, it is sure to be another must have for the bookshelf from Ricë.

The beautiful math that links coral, crochet and hyperbolic geometry

Another fabulous Ted talk. I have a fascination with many scientific and mathematical ideas, although many times I have a hard time grasping the full concepts, none the less when there is an overlap of scientific and artistic ideas it so interesting. I am probably especially drawn to these kind of things because my dad was a Naval engineer and my mom is a research scientist. In my teens and early 20's, my mom worked at an aquaculture lab in Northern California and I spent a lot of time peering into salt water tanks filled with creatures from the Pacific. My favorite thing to do was help feed the baby lobsters and see them swim somersaults in their little cubicles.

The Tale of How

You need to visit the site of the Blackheart Gang to see a wonderful short film "The Tale of How" created by 3 talented artists pooling their time in a true labor of love. The animation is fantastic, you can watch the making of "The Tale of How" to see how they achieved the amazing illusion of depth in the film. This is the description of the film on the site:

Nine months of part time work gave birth to The Blackheart Gang’s acclaimed short film called, The Tale of How. The Tale of How is the second part of a trilogy of works called the Dodo Trilogy. It is to later be flanked by The Tale of Then and The Tale of When. The Dodo Trilogy, in turn, fits into a much greater work called, The Household.In the The Tale of How we meet a giant octopus with a tree growing in his head, the terror of the Indian ocean , OTTO THE MONSTER! His lonley past time is to devour the innocent dodo’s who lived on his head. We then see the dodo’s unite and with the help of a little white mouse, we saw them escape the clutches of the terrible be-tentacled tyrant and sail off into the sunset on their mother the tree.

Vid Cast of Trish Williams

My talented friend Trish Williams was interviewed by Bonnie McCaffery when she was in Chicago for the International Quilt Festival.

Go see this great interview with lots of images and descriptions of Trish's quilts.

Maira Kalman

Another Ted talk worth watching (although I think they are all fabulous and am trying to watch them all) is this one by Maira Kalman. I love the way she paints and tells a story.
We read all her children's books when my kids were little. Sayonara, Mrs. Kackleman had to be one of our all time favorites. This description from From Publishers Weekly describes the book perfectly.

While watching a performance of The Mikado , Alexander suggests to his older sister Lulu that perhaps they should visit Japan. Lulu, eager to avoid her piano lesson and her teacher, the dreaded Mrs. Kackleman, is only too happy to agree. The two arrive in Tokyo (without parents, you understand), and are bundled off in a red taxi driven by a gloved man with "sharp black hair." Images of houses and people, food and customs jumble together in a wild stream-of-consciousness travelogue that springs from the minds and lips of the irrepressible brother and sister. A man sitting on a park bench and a frog in a kimono reciting a haiku are as riveting as a visit to a Japanese school or communal bath house. The book is studded with many gems from the mouths of Lulu and Alexander, like the poem dedicated to their guide: "Hey Hiroko, are you loco? Would you like a cup of cocoa?"


Kalman's Latest book The Principles of Uncertainty began as a year long blog for the New York Times. I own this book but I was thrilled to find the whole blog with all the paintings here on the New York Times website they way they were originally posted.

Artist Profile on Layers Upon Layers: Mixed Media Art

Check out a cool blog called Layers Upon Layers. Each week Cyndi does an interview with a different artist, this week she featured me! There are always interesting techniques, artist profiles and links to other cool stuff on this blog. Thanks Cyndi!

Do you know about this book?

Living the Creative Life: Ideas and Inspiration from Working Artists
by Rice Freeman-Zachery

(you can click on it to look inside)

This is a really fun book, I love the fact Rice has brought together artists from many different media (including several artists we textile people know and love). This is the description from Amazon:

In Living the Creative Life, author Rice Freeman-Zachery has compiled answers to these questions and more from 15 successful artists in a variety of mediums--from assemblage to fiber arts, beading to mixed-media collage. Creativity is different for everyone, and these artists share their insights on the muse (if you believe in her), keeping a sketchbook (or not), and prioritizing your art, whether you aspire to create solely for your own pleasure or to become a full-time artist.

* Try your hand at creative jumpstarts straight from the pros.
* Glimpse the artists' innermost thoughts and works in progress as you peruse pages from their journals and notebooks.
* Share textile artist Sas Colby's triumph over creative block during an exotic art retreat.
* Learn how internationally acclaimed artist James Michael Starr uses experience from his former "day job" to fuel his creation today.
* Explore the work of Michael deMeng, Claudine Hellmuth, Melissa Zink and the other artists right alongside their insights.

No crafter or artist should live the creative life without Living the Creative Life! The inspiration is contagious.

Rice was recently invited by Google to give a talk on her book in their authors @google series. This is an excellent talk and gives you a real taste of what the book is like.

Amy Tan: Where does creativity hide?

Have you ever watched the fantastic videos from the TED conferences? There are some really great lectures on a variety of topics on the TED website. I just listened to about a dozen fascinating lectures while painting. Here is a great lecture on Creativity by Amy Tan (The Joy Luck Club), I think it is fascinating learning about the sources of different artist's creativity. The description for her lecture is:

Novelist Amy Tan digs deep into the creative process, journeying through her childhood and family history and into the worlds of physics and chance, looking for hints of where her own creativity comes from. It's a wild ride with a surprise ending.

It is only 20 minutes, if you have time take a look.

Nina's first free motion stitching

I gave my daughter Nina a short lesson on free-motion quilting yesterday. I gave her a quick demo (about 2 minutes) explaining about coordinating the speed of the foot pedal while moving the fabric. I asked her to write her name and follow a wiggly line and then start seeing what she could do with the stitching.Before long she was drawing bones, veins, a tree, a squid, a heart, an eye and skull. She is not really interested in making quilts, but she really likes sewing and making things. I did not tell her any of the “rules” about quilting, just let her play and see if she could control the needle and draw. For her first time free-motion stitching I am pretty impressed.

A little experimenting

Sorry about the soft focus on the photo. I spent some time playing with Cretacolor aquastics the other day. These oil based water soluble crayons color beautifully. They are creamy smooth and vibrant, the color literally glowed on the dark blue fabric. The interesting thing about these is that you can color one color solidly on top of another and then scratch away the surface to reveal the color beneath. This technique is called sgraffito. The downside to these crayons- they are NOT fixable. I tried letting them sit for 24 hours and heat setting them with an iron and they were still water soluble. So they are probably not well suited to fiber art because of the delicacy of the surface. I think these are best to use only on paper.

Next I tried the Neocolor crayons, these were as vibrant, and smooth as the Cretacolors but they are not water soluble. They are a wax based crayon, that held up well to the iron. On white fabric I noticed no difference in the color vibrancy. On dark blue it did loose a little of the brightness as the wax melted into the dark fabric somewhat, but it still looked good. So I think I would try these for possible work on fabric, although I have not sewn on it yet, I love the way it looks.

This was another experiment to see if the Neocolors might act as a resist, like batik, by drawing on the fabric and painting over it. There was a little bleeding but it doesn't bother me too much, I like the playful quality of it. So I think it is a good medium to use with paint.

It's almost here!

The first annual Quilting Arts Gifts magazine is soon to hit the shelves at a store near you or you can order your copy here.

I have two projects in this special issue, an advent calendar and ornaments that are little painted quilts with embossed metal frames. The stocking on the cover was made by Beryl Taylor, it is so gorgeous. I saw it at the studios in Cleveland when I was shooting my segment for Quilting Arts TV.

Fantastic Lecture on Creativity

Sir Ken Robinson is author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative, and a leading expert on innovation and human resources. In this talk, he makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it.

Click on the picture of him in the sidebar on the right to see the lecture that took place at the 2006 TED (Technology Entertainment Design) conference.