Nothing much happening here

I returned to the exercises in Color and Composition...here is the analogous study.  It appears to me that monochromatic and analogous colors are very very close in appearance.  I used a 24 color wheel and to get a more vivid analogous study it would seem that a 6-12 color wheel would have been better.   

In trying to advance through these exercises my biggest aha moment comes in seeing the limits in my fabric stash.  Maybe I'll learn to buy more purposefully to broaden my spectrum.

I can see this pattern enlarged with more expressive fabrics.  In finishing up these last 4 postcards for the Postmarkd Art swap (the deadline is today, sigh~~) I concluded that my love affair with working small has fizzled...I'm really feeling the pull to make a large piece around 6ftx5ft.  I don't have a design in mind yet but fooling with the color studies will keep my hands busy, thus my mind and I've been browsing art books for ideas...Bearden, Matisse, and Van Gogh.

Also, a good friend is "reinventing her space" since she purchased a new condo and has a quilt by an Elizabeth Quebbeman from Indiana that she is selling.  She attempted to search for the artist to see if she wanted to purchase it back, but no luck in locating her...I'll post an image of it in the next week or so if she doesn't move it but if anyone knows of this quilter, please let me know. 

I'm going to miss my friends old place as it was very much like a musuem of the ecletic! My favorite was the original Woolworths sign that hung over the entrance into her dining room that was quickly snatched up by another artist along with a quilt by Penny Sisto.  I'll be sharing photos from time to time because of the uniqueness of her "stuff" that I can't imagine not being with her any longer. 

Too Much Time Online, February Journal Quilt

Sorry about the delay but fatigue set in and I could barely move but finally here is the February Journal Quilt.                                         The title is Too Much Time Online Playing Literati.  Very fitting since February is the month that I discovered the thrill of the game and have become "just a little" obsessive about it.  The first image is scanned and the other 2 were taken with the digital camera.  The camera is dead on colour wise.  In the 2nd image on the right is a self portrait made by tearing construction paper.  It was made over 10 years ago in a workshop. That bugged eyed look I thought reflected me playing Literati, so I scanned it onto June Tailor's Transfer fabric.  The fabric is a little stiff and retained holes in the fabric from sewing.  I switched out my needle to an 11 and the fabric still had the look of being  punctured. A coloured pencil was used to make the eyes bloodshot.  This piece makes me laugh and I really love it.      

Yesterday  I had to run some errands with my youngest son and make some appointments and was so tired and in pain that when I returned home at 5:30 I was in bed by 6 and slept until midnight. Right before dozing off, I opened a surprise package from Jen to find this book in my hands:

A random act of kindness that I am the recipient of...sometimes life is sweet! Thank you Jen :)                                                                                             

Introducing a blog of the art quilter

who I refer to as my guru.  I thought an introduction deserved its own post, although she did reveal to me today when she sent the blog addy that she plays Scrabble daily online. (!!!)  She is a fabulous art quilter and friend, but I've yet to decide just how bad I'll beat her in Scrabble.  In the meantime, check out her blog and say hello.  Art Quilt Works

I did manage to get a little something done

Thanks to everyone who offered support for this online gaming problem I now have.  Just beware of "the woman" who is spreading this around. She recently compared herself to  Jack Nicholson's character from the movie The Shining.  She even found me in a game room this evening and told me that she would try to find me tomorrow.  For a sec, I thought about staying put right through the night to make sure she would find me upon her return...but reason stepped in just before I acted on Valeri's suggestion to break the computer.  I stepped away and went to the sewing machine where my Feb. journal quilt layed waiting for my return to finish it for it's unveiling tomorrow.  I just need to do a little section of quilting and the binding. I even managed to start on March's.

Come back tomorrow for the unveiling.

If I Never Get Another Thing Accomplished...

it will be because of this woman who offered me my first hit  of the yahoo game Literati.  Now I'm stone-faced and bug-eyed because I can't get enough of it.  It started out rather innocently to check it out on a break one afternoon from sewing (just after I vowed to return to a schedule).  Over the course of a few days, my occasional breaks became more and more frequent.  I had all intentions of responding to this woman's request on children's books...but then I found myself thinking it would take too much time away from playing Literati.  My sewing schedule being thrown off is not the only thing thats been effected...get this..."you want me to check your homework now? I'm in the middle of a game" "what d'ya mean theres no food in the fridge? I'm sure you can find some buillion cubes in the back of the cabinet?"  "not tonight, i have a game of Literati going"  Its really baaad...I get online in the early mornings to play and hours later I'm sucking my teeth in anger and frustration at a loosing streak and I realize I didn't brush my teeth.  I've alienated my family, my creativity, and now my personal hygiene is going down.  I need help! and just as soon as I finish this next game I'm going to get it. 

Postcards and Sisterhood

Getting back in the postcard groove to complete a swap with the Postmark'd Art group. The theme is Whats in Your Backyard. My series is called Partridge Meadows.  These are the first 3 of 9 in the making.  The plan is to use various crayons, inks, paints, coloured pencils, markers, etc. to make them.  The bird on the left was made using Neocolour II crayons and the back ground was made using pastel chalks and the chalk was set with a fabric medium...a tip I remembered from reading at Terry's blog.  It can be found in the September archives.

The card on the right was done with all Neocolour II and Tsuneiko Inks using a dry to wet method and is a solid piece of fabric.  The little birdie at the tops is all Neocolour II and will be applicqued to the yellow background. The birdies with the little red afros are the male wood crest partridges...the females don't have the red afros (one never knows when this information will turn out to be useful).

My girlfriend that I made the angel quilt for seemed to be quite moved by it.  I intended on snapping a photo of her receiving it but by that point in the evening the vibe was so ethereal that taking a photo didn't even cross my mind.  We both where in tears and it was such a most glorious evening for me personally to be among such beautiful spirit filled women.  Look upon the faces of sisterhood:

I'm on the far right and my friend that received the quilt is on the far left.  We've been friends for close to 25 years. The woman that snapped the picture for us had come over to our table to see what we where celebrating.  We told her LIFE.  We sat at our table at 8pm and we where the last customers to leave 3 hours later when the restaurant was closing.  It was a very affirming night and I'm thankful to them each and all.

Kinda interesting to me

I did the thread drawing yesterday of Willie Cole.     I added colouring with caran d'arche watercolour crayons to the face and the circle and crawly motifs were cut from a handkercheif someone gave me a souvenir from their trip to Australia.  The face with the sewn on red fabric is a seperate piece with a backing that will be attached to a background. he lighter piece I'm considering for the background...both the red and the yellowish/greenish fabrics are from Mary's (Quiltstudio77) scraps.  This might be Feb. journal quilt but I might make it larger, undecided at this time.  I'm calling it The Iron King.  Willie Cole makes sculptures from discarded irons and also scorches layers of paper and fabric with irons and then takes the scorched images to create totally new images.  You can see a demonstration of him doing that on the link provided 4 posts below this one.

Pulling it together

Saturday I'll have dinner with the friend this was made for, so my attentions this week are dedicated to pulling it together in order to surprise her with it.  The pattern is by Maggie Walker and I used this as a major effort toward developing fmq.  Moreso than the music and a beer, it was the hold with one hand drive with the other that Melody Johnson at Fibermania instructed (blog can be found in sidebar) that really helped me jump a hurdle!  I was really pleased with my scales for the fish :)  I discovered that red thread on orange works well and deep purple thread on black and brown I like.  Madeira metallic thread handled beautifully and never broke once with using 2 programmed stitches at high speed.  Nothing but Bottom Line thread always!!!!!!!!!!  After it is blocked, I'll sqauare it up tomorrow and add some sparse beading, a little colour on the white birdss, a dark blue binding, sleeve and label.   The rest of the day I'll do the Blue Apple in a gray scale and try thread drawing the Willie Cole sketch (see a few entries down).

I'm back to making myself stick to a schedule and hopefully I'll get a original design going soon.  Most of the time one can't wait for a muse, but needs to know how to summon one...afterall, I'm the boss of me!

Beaded Prayers Project

A few years ago I wanted to work on bringing this project to my former workplace but alas it wasn't something that I could get buy in on from the administration.  I was really disappointed.  It was seeing the display of Sonji's bundles that triggered me remembering about The Beaded Prayers Project.  I think the project is still available for touring but the creator, Sonya Clark, no longer facilitates workshops.  To see 2 samples of her work click here.

Stevie Wonder, again!

My sister Deborah had a crush on Stevie Wonder from his first tv appearance and vowed to be his wife...as I sit here and watch him on tv now, I'm wondering why she didn't pursue her childhood dream ;)...isn't he so delicious and I swear my imagination just takes me places about the tactile possibilities of what a blind man can do...and if anyone out there is watching this on ABC and can tell me the first name of the singer whose last name is Stone, I'd appreciate it...this is my 2nd time seeing her sing on tv and the first was with Youssou N'Dour (sp?) and she has some serious vocals.

Outline Drawing of Willie Cole

Yesterday I was watching an interview with sculptor Willie Cole and was struck by how sculptural his own facial features where and drew this outline sketch. It doesn't really capture depth at all but I loved the outline I did and think I'll turn it into a journal quilt or at least practice thread drawing from it.  Here is a link to the tv show and I also found some great links to his works online but I'll leave that for you to do if you want to know more.

Here is my outline:

I'll take this month, yes, and the other 11 also :)

I got this idea from a blog I stumbled across and I thought well enough of it that I'm creating my own suggestions for what to listen, read, or watch for Black History Month:

MOVIES

1. Crash



2. Bamboozled



3. Daughters of the Dust



4. Malcolm X



5. Mississippi Marsala



6. anything by producer Oscar Micheaux



7. The River Niger



8. Blacula



9. The Hurricane



10. Beloved

BOOKS

1. anything by Toni Morrison



2. The Autobiography of Frederick Douglass



3. The Autobiography of Malcolm X



4. Two Thousand Seasons by Ayi Kwei Armah



5. The River Where Blood Is Born Sandra Jackson-Opoku



6. In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens by Alice Walker



7. Corregidora by Gayle Jones



8. The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois



9. Africana: The Enclyclopedia of the African and African American Experience



10. The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton

MUSIC

1. Something Inside So Strong by Labi Saffre



2. We're A Winner by The Impressions



3. Keep On Pushing by Curtis Mayfield



4. Anything by Aretha Franklin



5. Soundtrack to Roots



6. Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now by McFadden & Whitehead



7. Keep Your Head to the Sky by Earth Wind and Fire



8. Revolution by Arrested Development



9. Anything by Gil Scott-Heron



10. Say It Loud by James Brown

And to close out this post, a poem I wrote:

WILLIE PEARL'S ARTIFACTS

I have no memory without these poems.

So, I gather her artifacts and time shifts

Her past into my future: a marriage certificate, gold rim eyeglasses, a black chiffon dress, a pair of earrings, a plate, two tea towels, a photograph of her grandmother, a letter from home.

Light shifts. The candle behind

Reflects on the mirror in front of me and

Her spirit passes through.

Your home was a landmark on the

Twentieth century underground railroad.

Crossing over the Mason Dixon line,

Folks bound for Detroit could

Rest and get a decent meal.

A pot of greens, sliced tomatoes, cornbread,

And sweet tea brings the comfort

That quiets my own desperation.

I have no memory without these poems,

My own offering on the landscape.

I gather them to honor, to create, to know

Meaning in this place. To dignify the freedoms

You never had.

I sojourn further and form shifts: the catfish jumping high turns into an antelope running that turns into a woman singing that turns into a bird flying that turns into the immortal sun.

We are everywhere!

Scraps of African fabric

Handstitched with the breath of God!

We! Us! You and I, hand to hand, eye to eye, soul to soul

Emerging as one dark body over time and place.

(c) Karen Davis, Louisville, KY  2003

 

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