More Images from Balboa Park

These are the images I saw looking through this interesting piece of art work in Balboa Park.

I placed my camera eye over the lens of the kaleidoscope to get this photo

This is cropped from a larger photo.

As is this one.

More Images from Balboa Park

Images from the Spanish Arts Center in Balboa Park.

From outside the potter's shop.

I love the way they paint the cement.

From the court yard of sculpture.

Everywhere I go I take images of texture.

And doors.

And always my shadow.

Images from Balboa Park

Dragons are fun!

Sydney riding dragon. You notice this girl has her own style.

Mingei International Museum of San Diego. We saw a craft exhibit here. Almost no fiber. I was very disappointed. The few fiber pieces they had were either clothing or sheets of fabric. No quilts!

Love this place more images tomorrow

Reception at the Clemson Art Center

Last week a reception was held for the first Clemson Artist Guild Members art show at the Art Center. There was an amazing number of guest that evening. The top award went to Matt Kogol for his sculpture "Fractured". Matt was awarded a check and a one-man exhibit at the museum in Sept.

The bar was set up just inside the door and was the cause of much congestion but once you worked your way through you had a good chance to get into the gallery.

The Art Center is located in an old renovated elementary school. The space has been put to really good use, this is where banquets and receptions are held.

My piece "Spirit of the Kiva II" is just inside the door.

I didn't do a good job of photographing this piece, the lights are reflected in the glass.

My husband, Kermit also had work in this show. He creates beautiful piece from wood.

Another piece of fiber art. This one is knitted.

The piece on the left was created by Patricia Staab and she took home a third place award for the necklace.

The show will be up until March 8, 2012. If you find yourself in the area stop in and have a look.

It's Finished

Well I've finally finished the thread painting of my granddaughter, Hannah. Once I started working on this piece I just couldn't quit. I have this thing about getting obsessed with what I'm working on and have to keep at it until it's finished.

Unfortunately, I left something else three-quarters finished. Oh well, it will be next on my list.

I decided about three weeks ago that I was going to try my hand at thread painting a portrait. I have some beautiful photos of one of my granddaughters and decided that this would be my subject.

Once I got started I just had to keep going until I had the piece thread painted. I finished yesterday. I am headed out tomorrow to visit my son's family in San Diego and I just wanted this finished before I left.

I have some thought on how I am going to finish the piece but that will have to wait until I return.

Feb, Hi-Fiber Meeting

HiFiber met last Thursday for our regular meeting. Marge Edie, Donna Barnhill and Dianne Gjelsvik have been working on a logo for our group.

We thank them for their time spent creating this elegant design.

Penny brought a bag that her sister, Linda made. Linda used one of the feed sacks that Penny brought us last month. We all thought that using the red fabric with the chicken emblem was a cute idea.

I brought several pieces that I've been working on for show & tell.

Miss Lena Horn

When this piece is finished it will be in an exhibit at The Clemson Art Center. The exhibit is celebrating Jazz. Clemson is sponsoring a Jazz Festival in May and the exhibit is to be part of the festival.

I also brought a piece I've been working on that is my first attempt at thread-painting a portrait.

I brought it because our program for this month was thread-painting presented by Heidi Wolko. She has been making some amazing pieces using thread-painting as the main element in her quilts.

Heidi, drew Judy Rapelje's name last year for our portrait challenge. Heidi did a wonderful job capturing her.

Here Heidi is showing us the print that she is going to use as a demo. Heidi, recommend quite a few books to us about thread-painting. Some of them were, "Thread Painting Made Easy: by Terry White, "Freestyle Machine Embroidery" by Carol Shinn, and "Thread Magic" by Ellen Anne Eddy.

The June/July 2011 issue of "Quilting Arts" magazine was devoted to making portraits. One of the articles was written by Jennifer Day and it was on thread-painting a portrait. Heidi attributes her success to this article.

This piece by Heidi is totally thread-painted.

This wonderful piece by Heidi, is titled "May Day, May Day, Going, Going, Gone".
A closeup of this piece is below.

Heidi, gave an interesting demo and says that thread-painting is very addictive. I'll agree to that.

Happy Birthday Ann

A portrait of my good friend Ann Hanewald for her ?????????birthday.

FFFC

I decided that the piece I posted yesterday needed to be cropped. To much interference and other stuff to look at when I wanted attention to be on the face.

Fast Friday Fabric Challenge Feb.

The challenge for FFFC this month is Let's Play! Kathy Lichtendahl was the hostess. The following tells about the challenge.

This month I am asking everyone to reach way back in their psyche to tap the
memories of childhood. The idea is to create a piece of artwork that recalls
your early days - to you at least - and possibly to the viewer as well. The
subject can be something or someplace concrete that brings back memories of
being a child or it can be a more abstract creation based on a recalled
smell or sound or fleeting impression.

The finished piece may be depicted in a childlike manner or it may be
channeled through the adult you that exists today. Try not to over think the
process. The goal is to create a design based on a feeling of being a small
person at that certain place and time in your life.

Many artists spend their entire careers trying to re-create the sense of
wonder and newness experienced as a child. Some well known examples are the
following:

Please enlarge this photo so that you can see the face well.

I spent a lot of time thinking about this challenge and thinking I didn't have time to get it done. I have been learning so much about PhotoShop Elements and am having such a good time that I decided I would see if I could get one my ideas to work in PhotoShop Elements.

One of my most vivid memories of my childhood was laying in the yard under a tree and looking for faces in the clouds.

I have quite a large stash of sky photos so I looked in that folder and decided on the photo above.

I loved the light that was shining behind the cloud, it just glowed.

The next photo I looked for was a face that really spoke to me. This is a photo I took of my granddaughter, Ellington. It was Christmas and she had gotten this Lite-Brite as a gift. She decided that she wanted to make a self-portrait. We turned the lights off so that she had a side light. I thought this turned out beautifully. I've always loved the way her eyes look in this photo.

I dropped-out the background and most of her hair. After I placed the face in the sky photo I decided it needed a bit more adjusting so I dropped out a bit more of the left side of her face.

In PSE you can move the image around, so I auditioned the face until I found just the right placement. I printed the results on an 11 x 14 piece of cotton sateen. Quilting will have to come later.

All comments are welcome

OKay So I Lied

Try as I might to go into my studio in the morning and start quilting I just had to start working on Hannah again. I had made a plan for the week to quilt in the morning and thread paint in the afternoon. I went to my studio with the idea that I was going to quilt but once I entered the room Hannah called "work on me Nana". She's my first born grand child and I just had to pull her out and thread paint.

This is slow work, I'm here to tell you, but I am happy with what I've done so far. I'm not quite sure that I'm stitching in the right direction but I think by following the contour of her face I'm Okay.

I did work on the quilting in the afternoon so I'm not totally ignoring other work. I took a day off today. Went to my massage therapist and when she started working on my neck and shoulders said "What in the world have you been doing". I think she knew.