Gimme Shelter

The symbolism of home and shelter is very significant to me right now. I am on the cusp of a major life transition, and home, as I am sure I will have some form of shelter as I go through this, is a bit ambiguous right now.

My marriage of more than 20 years came to an end a few years ago and because of the bad economy I remained in Chicago with my (now adult) kids, unable to sell our loft. I am in the process of negotiating a short sale and crossing my fingers it all goes through, which will allow me to move back to California in the next month or two.

I made this house for Kathy York's curated exhibit the Artists Village about a year after my initial split. My house incorporates floral/plant imagery for growth, bees for hard work, a heart for healing and love, 

roots for staying grounded and figuring out where to plant myself and even a couple of female nudes to represent rediscovering what it meant to be a single woman again.

My finished house is about 10 inches tall.

This was the house that started it all, The Cicada House is about 20" tall and 6" wide. The fabric is layered with printed paper imagery and multiple layers of transparant and metallic textile paint, then fused to heavy weight interfacing and quilted. The panels were stitched together and the roof and windows were embellished with embossed metal trim.

I enjoyed making the cicada house so much I needed to explore the house construction further with a couple water themed houses which were featured in a two part tutorial in Cloth Paper Scissors magazine March and May 2008.

I've also done a series of houses with stitched painted imagery with embossed metal stitched to them that I like to think of as personal altars. Bees and hives are symbolic of industry and craft, so I like to have them in my work.

This house series was painted and quilted fabric stitched to painted and hand stitched lutradur with embossed metal stitched to it, sewn to copper screen.


I know there will be more symbolic houses incorporated into my art in the future as a I transition to a new life living in Northern California as a single woman, with kids embarking on adulthood while I explore new forms of shelter.

International Quilt Festival Long Beach: Day 1

It was really great being back in Southern California, such a nice break from Chicago's humidity and I love catching up with so many friends here.

My first class at festival was Mixed Media Painted Fabric, we had a cavernous room to spread out and work in.

I really enjoy this class because, each person uses the technique of combining printed paper images with paint and fabric, then creating an overall secondary painted image using multiple layers of paint and paper.

The final work is something unique which will become even more interesting when it is stitched with quilted designs, adding finer details and visual dimension with thread work.

I always have so much fun meeting adventurous women like these who are willing to push the envelope and do something a little different in my classes.

Mixed Media Painted Fabric with the Rose City Quilters

The Rose City Quilters of Palmerston North booked me to come to New Zealand to give a lecture at their Quilt show, judge their quilt challenge (yikes, that was out of my comfort zone, not that giving a lecture is but at least I have done that a few times) and give a workshop.

These courageous gals pushed themselves out of the box to do some crazy painting with printed paper images and multiple layers of paint. Ignoring the composition of adhered printed images but looking for interesting visual textures in paint, color and image to capture imagery in a secondary composition painted on top of the previous layer of paint is not necessarily an easy way to work. It is contrary to ones usual mode of creating imagery, but it is fun and it is always a surprise to see what happens in the process.

Tea time! Breaking for tea each morning was my favorite ritual in New Zealand and I think we should adopt it in this country, maybe we would all be a little less stressed.

Sue, took to this method like a duck to water, what glorious color!

I wish I could have stayed to see the results after everyone went home and quilted their fabric. The stitched details add so much interest to the final piece.

Thank you Rose City Quilters for such an amazing opportunity!!!!!

Dallas

I had a great time in Dallas this last weekend, sorry it has taken me a while to get to writing a blog post about it, but the last several days have been pretty hard.

I have felt so scattered lately, I was really happy I managed to remember to bring everything I needed to for my lecture and workshops, but I managed to forget to grab my camera as I went out the door for my first workshop teaching Fiesta Ornaments. I am so thankful to the very talented Carol Morrissey for sharing her pictures with me.

Carol had just come back from teaching in Austin to take my class. There were so many beautiful ornaments.

Judy Krein (above) picked me up at my hotel each morning and on saturday I got to meet Sasha, what an expression, huh? she looks perpetually surprised.

What a fun class!

Day 2 Mixed Media Painted Fabric

Always a pleasure to see Deborah's smiling face. She and I had a fun adventure when we got stuck in traffic for 3 hours after a chemical spill closed the freeway down friday afternoon, but we had a great chat and I enjoyed every minute! Really Deborah, I had a good time :-)

It was fun seeing my friend Tonya Littmann again, she also wrote a blog post about the class.

I love it when people take the basic concept and make it their own.

 I finished my weekend spending the day with my good friends Julie Upshaw, Vickie Hallmark and Frances Alford. It was so good for me to have the opportunity to spend time with some of my closest friends when things have been so hard. I am really grateful for all the kind words and support from everyone, I really appreciate it.