OSilas Gallery Opening Reception

I'm one of those people who has been creative my whole life but is still reluctant to call myself an artist.  But Thursday night at the opening of the "Summer ARTiculated" show at the OSilas Gallery, they gave me this nametag to wear, and I finally felt like one!  The room was buzzing with conversation when we arrived and we began to work our way down to where my piece was hung at the far end of the room.  Once we got there, a complete stranger noticed my nametag and stopped to ask me about my piece, how I created it, what were my underlying ideas.  What a trip!

It was suspended from the ceiling and I have to admit, it really made quite an impact floating there at the end of the room. I was very pleased and humbled at the same time.

I also felt a bit overwhelmed to be included in a group of such accomplished artists.  There was a great variety of styles and media, from oils and acrylics...

to paper collage, sculpture, photography and other fiber art, and each one was impressive.  Unfortunately, my daughters were in possession of the camera, and I did not get shots of any of the pieces I found most remarkable, nor was I able to spend time noting each artist and the names of the pieces (shame on me, I know!)!  For a complete list of participating artists, please click here.

But I did note the name of the artist who created these interesting bowl sculptures.  Her name is Xia Gao and these are part of her "Binary World" collection.  Each one was made up of numbers connected together with simple metal links.  The total effect was stunning.

She also did these pieces that were made entirely of straight pins inserted into the canvas.  As you can see in the photos, she created light and shadow with the intricate placement of the many pins.  The lower photo shows a close-up of the portrait.  Amazing!

My friends Vivien Zepf and Natalya Aikens had work accepted also, but alas, no photos!  If you live in the New York area, it's worth a trip to Concordia College to see the show, which will be up until August 10th.

Made it! For Real!

I just found out that "Mother Nature"s Summer Tunic" was juried into the "Summer ARTiculated" show at the OSilas Gallery!  Only my second ever juried acceptance, so I'm thrilled!  So happy I pushed myself to submit something!

Made it (Sort of...)

I made the deadline for the "Summer ARTiculated" show at the OSilas Galllery at Concordia College, although not with a new piece.  Even though I wanted to create something new, I found myself unable to push myself and went with "Mother Nature's Summer Tunic," from last year's FANE kimono challenge, and the "Sea Horse Trio," the totem from the challenge in 2012.  Here are the photos I submitted:

I'm glad that at least I made the effort to submit; As Wayne Gretsky once said, "You always miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

ArtQuilt Gallery Show

Yesterday, FANE took a field trip into NYC to visit our show at the ArtQuilt Gallery on W. 25th Street.  The kimono-inspired quilts looked so colorful, unusual, and compelling from the street, we couldn't wait to get inside and get a closer look!

The show was hung beautifully, with most pieces on the walls and some on stands on the floor.  Each one was given ample space so viewers could admire the workmanship and details.   Most people remarked on how varied they were in color and construction, despite them all being the same basic shape and size.  They are as individual as the artists who created them!

Below are some more group shots...

... and one of my own!  It was difficult for me to get a good photo of this at home, because I don't have an adequate place to hang and light it, so I had to get a good shot here.

The City Quilter is also a great fabric shop, so when we were finished photographing and congratulating each other, we had time to look around at all the beautiful eye candy!

So much gorgeous color and texture everywhere!

So many fun things to touch and admire!

Of course, I couldn't completely resist temptation and did go home with a few swatches of hand-dyed wool fabric from this display, in beautiful fall colors.

Ten of us enjoyed a late lunch together afterwards.  It was great to get out and celebrate together!  If you're in the NY area, don't miss the show, which runs through the end of August.

Jane D'Avila, Fran Osinoff, Joyce Sullivan, and Carolyn Spiegel

FANE takes Manhattan!

The kimono-inspired pieces my FiberartsNorthEast (FANE) group created last spring are on display this month at the City Quilter gallery in Manhattan!  (The above photo was taken when they were displayed at the Northern Star Quilter's Guild Show in early May.)  The show opened this week and will run through the 31st.  Many of the group members (myself included) will be meeting at the City Quilter on Saturday to see the show and celebrate our New York debut.  You can read a little online blurb about it here or click here for the link to the City Quilter's website (http://artquiltgallerynyc.com).    Go FANE! 

Kimono-Inspired Fiber Art

At the NSQG World of Quilts show this weekend, my FANE group exhibited our Kimono-inspired fiber art in one of the classrooms.  As you can see, they looked stunning displayed together in a group, with stands designed by Jane Davila and constructed by several group members last week.  While they all had the basic T-shape of a kimono, some were simple dyed or painted rectangles of fabric, while others included stitching, piecing, quilting and/or embellishments.  Once again, each one was unique and reflected the individual interpretation of the artist.  It was fun to wander around between them and listen to others as they commented on certain individual pieces and the collection as a whole.  They really made quite an impact!

These three are by Vivien Zepf, Carole Hoffman, and Cecelia Leiseroff.

This African-inspired piece by Donna Chambers was really stunning.

The three below are by Andrea Schedletsky, Natalya Aikens, and Norma Schlager.  Norma dyed her fabrics using shibori techniques and plans to use the central piece as a table runner after the show ends!

The two above are by Barbara Drillick and Barbara Sferra - beautiful!

Mine was one of the first that caught your eye entering the room.  Once again, I was pleased with the upbeat color combination, texture, and movement of the piece.  I got many favorable comments from other group members; it's always nice to get a bit of positive reinforcement!

Below is one of my favorites by Nike Cutsumpas.  It's very soft and simple, but also crisp, clean and elegant.

Here are a couple more shots with art by Joanne Lubchenko, Carolyn Spiegel, Joyce Sullivan, and Nancy Mirman.  We are looking for another venue to exhibit these again sometime in the near future.

Indoor Pursuits

Although we had some nice spring weather earlier in the week, today has been wet, windy, and just plain unpleasant - a perfect day for satisfying indoor tasks like baking, finishing up old projects, tidying up all around, and maybe starting some new projects!

After doing a bit of cleaning upstairs, I headed downstairs to make the final stitches and adjustments to my kimono.  Both sleeves are done as you can see, and I added the final embellishments, like the carved tree frog and shiny fish tail, below.  It's bright, colorful, and interesting to look at, so I hope we can find a suitable spot to hang it after the display the first weekend in May (see previous post).

Before I did all that, I got it in my head to do a little baking.  Before Easter, I bought some hot cross buns in the grocery store that looked delicious but were sadly dry and stale (I actually brought them back, they were so bad!).  Every once in a while, I love a fresh baked sweet roll, so I decided to try a recipe I found in the back of the 7th Yada Yada Prayer Group book.  This recipe calls for raisins and cinnamon and they smelled delicious every step of the way.  Here they are fresh out of the oven:

They went nicely with my light lunch!  The recipe calls for a light glaze, which I didn't put on, but the buns could actually use a bit more sweetness, so maybe I'll mix up the glaze and put it on the remaining buns in the traditional cross shape.

While I was eating, I took a few moments to admire the little "fairy garden" I started yesterday.  I had that shallow wooden container lying around and have been meaning to fill it with some moss, tiny plants, interesting rocks, and whatever else I could come up with.  While I was out in the backyard with Cassie yesterday, I came across a patch of those cute little wild violets already in bloom.  I dug up a couple and nestled them in with some moss and another low-growing plant.  I'll have to see if I have time to make some cute mushrooms or a little gnome out of polymer clay, or maybe some little garden structures out of bark or craft sticks.  If you want to see some other great fairy garden ideas, just type those words into google images - there are many wonderful, creative, inspiring, fun samples posted on the web!

 After lunch, I went back downstairs and completely cleaned up my worktable!  I was able to put away all the fabrics I used for the kimono, cleaned and oiled my sewing machine, wiped my sewing table clean of loose threads, dust, and cat dander, and vacuumed everything completely!  It felt great to get it all tidied up and ready for the next project.

Speaking of the next project, I received my next bracelet in the round-robin swap.  This is the final bracelet with a bird theme (it is getting a little boring), and the colors for this one are blue and pearl with silver findings.  It will go back to Peggy Krzyzewski, one of the co-authors of Making Mixed-Media Art Charms and Jewelry  and leaders of the yahoo artcharms group.  Through the group, I've come to know Peggy is extremely talented, experienced, knowledgeable, and generous with her time and talents, so I want this charm to be special for her.

I've worked within a bird theme before, so I already had a few things in my stash that I could play around with, and one of them was the silver-tone wing on the right below.  For some reason, the phrase "a wing and a prayer" kept going through my head, so I decided to try making a small charm with a prayer on it.  I took a page from an old church missalette I swiped years ago and mod-podged it onto a piece of heavy weight watercolor paper, then layered tissue paper over that.  I stamped with a music stamp and silver ink on that, then cut it out, added the eyelet, and coated the whole thing with Mod Podge Dimensional Magic, which protects it and gives it that nice shine.  Together with the wing and the little egg-shaped pearl, it will make a nice addition to her bracelet.  But I also had some shrink-film birds I had printed with our inkject printer, so I decided to coat that with the Dimensional Magic as well, and see which charm I like better.  The reverse side says "bluebird of happiness," as you can see below.  Maybe I'll add a little beaded dangle to it and send them both...

I haven't been swapping charms as much since last summer - too many other things going on I guess, but when the latest swap theme came up, I thought I'd join in again - it's "the mermaid and her treasures" - right up my alley!  I have lots of stuff in my stash already that would work for this theme, but I remembered early this morning that I saved these old stamps from a kit the girls had.  I thought I remembered a mermaid in there, and I was right!  This swap requires 26 charms, so I always look for ways to make them inexpensively and repetitively.  A stamp would be a good way to go.  She looks a little bit childlike (or childish), definitely styled for kids, so I'm not sure if I'll use them, but here are the charms I made, below.  These do not have to be finished until the first week in May, so I have time to play around with some other ideas before I decide.  I can even make several different designs if I want, all 26 don't have to be the same.

The rain has almost stopped so maybe I'll run out to the mailbox and see if the latest issue of Cloth Paper Scissors is here - it's supposed to have a bird theme this month!  Have a nice weekend, everyone!

Kimono Progress

Here's an updated photo of my not-quite-finished, nature-inspired kimono.  In this photo, it's draped over my design board; this is the front of the piece and there's a back that looks about the same.  It still needs a little tweaking here and there (and another sleeve) but for the most part, I'm happy with the color transitions, texture and movement of it.    I think I'm going to call it "Prana (life-force): Mother Nature's Robe."  I was trying to capture the miracle of life emanating from sunlight, transformed with water in plants during photosynthesis, and supporting all life.  Below is a close-up showing a snake hiding in the foliage...

and a yellow feather (to represent birds) towards the top which mixes in with the sunny fabrics.

Here is the dragonfly, perched on what would be the right shoulder.  I plan on hiding a fish tail in the sleeve fabrics on the other side.  I have a small carved frog I'll stitch onto one of the green strips, which will complete the representation of insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds and fish.  Maybe I can suggest mammals somehow too...

It was fun working with such happy colors from my stash and putting them together like a puzzle into the design.   This kimono will be part of a special display at the Northern Star Quilter's Guild's annual show the first weekend in May.  Other FANE group members shared theirs last night at our monthly meeting, and they are all spectacular - it's sure to be a fabulous show, so if you're local, mark your calendars!