Here I am in front of my quilt entitled “McMansions.” The quilt was part of a special exhibit put on by the Quilts on the Wall art quilters. The theme was “A Slice of California,” and all the quilts had to be the same dimensions.
Today’s Ventura County Star contains an article written about me and my art quilts. It can be viewed at
http://venturacountystar.com/news/2008/jan/04/quilter-departs-from-tradition-in-her-textile/
This article was to help publicize the Fiber Pathways II show at the VIVA gallery, but unfortunately, came too late for that.
My hope is that we get the word out about art quilts and textile arts.
Our Los Angeles Fiber Artists show at the Sherman Oaks, CA Valley Institute of Visual Arts (VIVA) gallery opened on November 21. We had a very successful opening reception on the 24th and look forward to two more open houses, on December 6 and 8. There are twelve of us showing work this year at “Fiber Pathways II: Fiber Art in the 21st Century.” The show is open to the public Weds-Sunday, with at least two of the artists in attendance each day.
The gallery visitors are encouraging about our work and enjoy seeing textile art as a change to usual gallery offerings. I’ve had a great time meeting interesting people and even making new friends.
Here is a photo of my wall. I tell people we rotate like playing volleyball: in 2005, I was in the front room. This year I’m on the back wall!
Last Thursday I flew from Burbank up to San Jose and back the same day to see the Pacific International Quilt Show. It’s a good show and worth flight up to see it. My favorite quilts were the exhibits, especially the futuristic display. In this one, I was pleased to see small quilts and tops displayed on canvas stretcher bars and painted canvasses.
I was taken by surprise to find out that my “To the Ladies of Gee’s Bend” quilt was on display at the show! It is part of a traveling exhibit that sprang from the juried “She Made Her Mark Too.” I had wondered where it was these days. Last time I heard, it was on display in San Pedro. Here I am with my quilt:
Last Sunday was my third class teaching how to make fabric holograms. There were three students, who all were able to take their holograms home finished. They did a great job, as you can see from the photos below.
The wedding is over, and I’m back to quilting. The chupah was beautiful and I received many compliments on it. With the help of my older son, I tied the corners with Christmas ribbon to the steel garden poles used to support the chupah. The chupah fell during the rehearsal, and there was no way I was going to have it fall during the ceremony!
Yesterday I joined the journal quilt workshop at Quilters’ Studio in Newbury Park, California. We will meet each month for four months. This month’s demonstration by Eileen Alber was on Shiva paintsticks. I had a large supply of paintsticks that I had never used, so this demo came in handy. And…since I had something to journal about (the wedding), it seemed a natural to journal the belly dancer who had all of us up and dancing at the Moroccan restaurant where the wedding was held. Now she’s not anatomically correct, but I never intended for her to be!
Here are my first three attempts at deconstructed screenprinting, Kerr Grabowski-style. I followed the instructions on her video to make these prints. Now I want to use them as a basis for more surface design.
This print was made by printing over torn strips of newspaper with a screen that had been painted and dried with turquoise and sun yellow print paste. If you look at it sideways, it looks like tree trunks and their reflections.
This print was made by painting the screen with camel and sun yellow print paste and leaving it to dry while it was sitting on popped bubble wrap. Then it was printed with clear print paste.
This screen was painted with mixing red and sun yellow and left to dry with a muffin tin (actually a paint mixing tin) on top of the screen. I like this one best.
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Last night I taught the second of two scheduled hologram photo classes at Quilters’ Studio. Despite a contrary printer, we managed to complete the holograms shown below:
My daughter, Jen, is getting married in September. Instead of a new quilt, they asked me to make a chupah for their wedding. The wedding will be held in a Moroccan restaurant in Los Angeles, so I found some beautiful red and gold tapestry for the background and am appliquing silk gold and green rings on top. All I need now are suggestions as to how to support it on four poles! Any suggestions will be welcomed…
