The Road to California

Spirit of the Kiva

Ravishing

Just found out both of these works were juried into The Road to California show. Excited.

Linked to www.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

One Door Closes while another Door Opens

 A is for Aubrey

The highly sought-after email that begins with Congratulations, came this week from IQA Houston.  Needless to say I was elated and excited.  As far as I know the technique I used to achieve this portrait is a new one for fiber art. That makes it really exciting for me.

Spirit of the Kiva

I had entered two pieces this year so I had two emails from IQA.  When I opened the second one my heart stood still.  It did not begin with a Congratulations!

This piece had meant so much to me.  Obviously, juriers don't take that into consideration, nor should they.  They are looking for a lot of things in a piece and the time spent in the initial juriering process is short.  I have to keep this in mind and tell myself that this is a good piece.  It just wasn't the right one for these juriers.

I was very upset with myself for being so disappointed when, in fact, I had a piece chosen for the show.  I should be elated.


The next morning I opened my email and there was an invitation from Allen Coleman, director of the Pickens Museum of Art, asking me if I was interested in having my art work included in Connecting Concept & Medium: Fiber Art in South Carolina.

Another door just opened.  This exhibit will be hanging Sept 7, 2013-Nov 14,2014  and will include all types of fiber art. The Cherokee Indian Nation had a great presence in our area of SC years ago.  Haygood Mill, under the direction of the Pickens Museum, is the site of American Indian petroglyphs. How appropriate is that?

Am I still disappointed, yes a little but it's been made much easier with Allen's invitation to be in this exhibit. 

This post is connecting to www.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

Quilt National Entry Part Two

This is a continuation of my discussion on the making of Doors to the Past.   When I first printed the image I had thoughts of adding something around or to the side of the image.  However, the more I looked at the printed piece the more I wanted to keep it within  the confines that existed.
Having made that decision I had to decide where I was going to take the piece.  The shadows intrigued me.  I was puzzled as to why my shadow disappeared and wanted to explore that further.  At first I isolated my shadow, I guess I was determined to be in the piece, but I was much happier with the image of my husband.  I also really liked the aura that appeared around the archway. 

After I isolated the shadow image of my husband I placed it in various positions within the larger image.  A few of the images I tried.

This is the final image I decided on, I can't really say why except that it pleased me.  While working on the piece I spent time wondering how many people had passed through these doors.  Perhaps the eerie feeling that I experienced when my image appeared as a white spot at the top of the arches inspired the rest of the design.   I really enjoy going back over a piece like this an exploreing the whys and hows of the creation.  I hope you enjoyed it as well.

Quilt National Entry

Doors to the Past

This was my entry into Quilt National this year.  This was the first year I felt that I had a piece that might be considered for this prestigious show.

Quilt National is held every other year at the Dairy Barn in Athens, OH.   Many say that this is the mother of all fiber art shows.

You really have to plan and commit yourself and the piece of art that you are making to enter in QN.  One of the foremost rules in their entry form is that the art can not be posted on your blog/internet etc.  Nor can it have been entered into any other show or seen within a 100 mile radius of your home before entering into QN.  This takes quite a commitment.  Most artist who chose to enter this exhibit feels that this is worthwhile. 

I took the plunge this year and decided that I might have a small chance.  I didn't!  There were over 800 entries and only 86 were juried into the show.  Of course, I'm disappointed but not surprised.  I'm glad I entered and I will most likely enter again.  After all nothing ventured nothing gained.

 Now that I have that out of the way I want to tell you how I came up with the above design and how Doors to the Past evolved.

The photo show here was taken in New Mexico.  I can't really remember where but the thing that caught my attention was how the doors/arches opened one after the other.  I also loved the light that came through after the second doorway.

I've been doing a lot of merging photos in PSE and decided to play with this photo as my background.

 I also take lots of shadow photos of myself and my husband when we are out hiking or site seeing.  This photo was taken in a creek in the Smoky Mountains.  The stones are moss covered and the sky is reflected in the water.

 This was the final image.  As you can see my shadow disappeared with the exception of the light at the upper part of the archway.  Things started feeling a little eerie here.

As I looked at the image I began seeing images.  The design that emerged at the lower left looked to me as if it might be half of the Comedy Mask.  Because of this I decided to mirror image the design./

 This was the image that emerged after the mirror imaging.  This has turned into a much longer post than I had planned so I am stopping at this point and will elaborate on this more later this week.

Off to Teach

I'm off to J. C. Campbell Folk School tomorrow to teach for a week.  Hopefully I will have a little time to post if not I'll have lots to talk about when I get back.


The view from the back deck of Keith House at JCC.

Two Exhibits this Weekend: Art Quilts Lowell 2012: Music and Taiwan International Quilt Exhibition

The Music Maker



The quilt is showing this weekend at Art Quilts Lowell 2012:Music.  It will be hanging at The Brush Gallery & Artists' Studios from Sept 9-12.

Wish I could be there.

The Everchanging River

Opens in Taiwan Aug. 11-Sept. 9, 2012.  This exhibit has been very successful.

When we put this together we couldn't have dreamed that it would end up in Taiwan or at the Museum of Quilts in Paducah, Kentucky.

When it arrives back in this county it will be retired after four very successful years traveling.

My contribution to this exhibit is Colman, Venice of France.  It is the piece in the center.

Art Quilts Lowell 2012: Music

The MusicMaker: Uncle Dave

I found out today that The MusicMaker was accepted in Art Quilts Lowell 2012:Music at the Brush Gallery & Artist Studio.

The exhibit will be open August 9 - September 13, 2012.  A reception will be held Aug 11.  The exhibit was juror-ed by Karey Bresenhan co-founder of the International Quilt Festival.  How cool is that?

I met Uncle Dave Sturgell about twenty-five years ago when I interview him for an article for Bluegrass Magazine.  My husband went with me to the interview and we ended up staying the whole day.  He and his wife offered to make tomato sandwiches for us for lunch.  He spent the day telling me about all the beautiful instruments he had made.  One of his pride and joys was a guitar made for Johnny Cash.

Uncle Dave couldn't read a note of music but could play the most beautiful music ever.  My husband took the photograph that I used for my inspiration for this piece.  I included that photo on the book shelves.

I also found out today that my friend Bonnie Outllette had two pieces accepted, Bette and Elvis. Aren't these fun?

Elvis by Bonnie Ouellette

Bette by Bonnie Ouellette