Garden Update

Haven't been able to get to doing too much of my own art the last week and a half, due to getting ready for school.  Last week Tuesday, I greeted 150 some students and this next week I get another 32.  Our 6th graders get PE one week, then alternate with an elective the following week.  So I have a total of 180 students to teach, grade projects, consult with their parents, etc., but only see and teach 150 daily.  I still really enjoy teaching art to kids and love how excited they get when they create something, but it is exhausting and always a little difficult getting back into the routine after a relaxing summer.

Last June, I built a raised garden bed and posted the pictures here, so am showing you what it looks like today.

  There are tomato plants on the left side and large sunflowers dwarfing the basil plants below.  I liked how my shadow superimposed on the plants in this photo. Below is another view of the box.

Here is one of three pomegranates from a tree given to me by my friend Gail.  

Painted Fabrics ala Mickey Lawler

Sorry I haven't been able to update my blog in almost two weeks.  Have been incredibly busy with getting the elementary Art Docent Program revved up for this next year and trying to get my classroom ready to go for next Tuesday when the little middle school darlings arrive.

But last Wednesday, I took a break from all thing school related and painted some fabric, ala Mickey Lawler style, http://www.skydyes.com/  Her book, Skydyes is fabulous.  It's been out forever and has wonderful, easy to follow instructions and tips on painting beautiful fabrics.

So here's a few I did.

Above is the front, where I applied the paint and below is the the back side of it.

In the picture above,  you can really see the contrast  between the front and back.  This is something you don't really get much of when you dye fabrics, because the dyes permeates the fabric much more, whereas the paint sits on top of the fabric, with the excess showing slightly on the reverse, similar to commercially silkscreened fabrics.

And another.

And another.  This was lots of fun and very improvisational, which is the way I like to work.

New York Beauties at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles

Last week, on a little mini-vacation, I had a chance to visit the  wonderful San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles http://sjquiltmuseum.org/ where they had a great show of New York Beauties.  There are about thirty quilts from 1850 to present day, in so many different variations of this versatile block.  Last year our guild block of the month chairperson, Rana, chose this block in some interesting variations and members made some wonderful quilts.  If you get a chance, get up there and visit.  The exhibit goes through October 27th.  Visit their website for more info.  Here are some pics.

New Pieced Quilt Top

This quilt was not an easy one for me, but I did enjoy the process a lot.  Sometimes when I am creating, there is a direct line, a clear vision of where I want to go and how to get there.  This time, I felt like I was floundering a lot.  I created a lot of  small blocks using innovative piecing techniques, like cutting and inserting, strip piecing, skinny lines, etc.  I could make a lot of those blocks.  It truly is very fun, creative play.  Here's what I came up with.   I plan on doing some stitching or drawing to bring out the details in the negative areas at the top of the weeds.  They are just a little too nebulous in their shapes right now and I want them to be more defined, not so 'blob-like.'  Let me know what you think.

Starting a New Art Quilt

Last week I started to cut and piece together a new quilt using some hand-dyed and silkscreened fabrics made some time ago.

The focus fabric in the center was low immersion dyed, then thickened dye was screened over dried weeds on part of the fabric.  The lower, swirly part of the fabric, was made with a screen with a dried Elmers glue design. I plan on doing some detailed drawing of the weeds inside the negative areas, either with machine quilting or a fabric markers.  I'm enjoying doing innovative, improvisational piecing with fun commercial and hand-made fabrics.

Here's a picture of  my design wall, where I audition different fabrics prior to cutting and piece them.  I'm using different color combinations than I usually use, but am enjoying the challenge.

  Here are a couple other screened blocks I hope to incorporate into the art quilt somewhere.  We'll see.

Art Museum Visit

My husband and I got away this last weekend for a short trip to San Jose.  We really enjoyed seeing the exhibits at the San Jose Art Museum.  There was hardly anyone there during our visit, which meant you could get up close up to the artwork and look for as long as you desired.  Although I love to go to the big shows in San Francisco and Los Angeles, I really don't like moving with a throng of people and feeling rushed to look quickly at a masterpiece and move on. It was a really delightful experience.  One  exhibit we enjoyed seeing was by  Hung Lui, http://www.kelliu.com/  It was pretty incredible.  She was born in China in the 40's and lived through Mao's Cultural Revolution, which provides a lot of inspiration for her work. A few of her pieces were video paintings that just have to be experienced in person.  A still picture would not do it justice.

Hung Lui, Profile II, 1998, oil paint

Hung Liu painting her mural installation for "Questions from the Sky"

Visit https://www.facebook.com/SanJoseMuseumofArt/timeline?filter=1 to see more of her work and Annie Liebovitz's work and others.

Annie Leibovitz's Photo of Niagara Falls. 

 Her exhibit, "Pilgrimage" features fabulous photos of places and objects belonging to a rather eclectic group of people, including Darwin, Elvis, Emily Dickinson, etc.  The photographs give you a unique glimpse into their lives. 

This is Leibovitz's photo of a blouse of Emily Dickinson's

Each of her photos are wonderful  displays of texture and values.

Hope you can enjoy these exhibits in person or if not, by visiting the links above.

Itajime over Arashi

This is the story of the evolution of one piece of complex cloth.  Here it is after it's first treatment, which was arashi (wrapped around PVC pipe with string, squished down and dye applied).  I liked it, but wanted it to have more depth.

Stage 2:    Discharged dye using arashi method and bleach/water mix.  I left it in too long and it removed more than I wanted.

Stage 3- Wrapped fabric with string tightly and applied dye, still not what I was looking for.

Final Stage - (I think)

This time I used itajime techniques as you can see in the upper picture.  I accordion folded the fabric, clamping ceramic coasters and wooden sticks on either side and then squirted on the dyes.  What do you think?