Come and see me!!!!!!!

and even buy some art...if not from me, surely you'll find something to your loving and price point at The Good Folk Fest!  Go to www.junkabillyart.com for more info.

I'm sharing a 12'x12' booth with Mary Jo and Bev.  I've ran myself crazy yo-yo-ing about what I was able to do and not do.  Bev has reminded me at least 3 times in the last few weeks that this was all about having fun when we agreed to do this.  I think I'll feel better come Friday...I wanted to complete 3 quilts before then...realistically, if I get 1 completed, (just needs binding) I'll be doing good.  The 2nd one is 1/3 quilted, the 3rd one just finished the design top and layered with batting but no backing yet.  The 3rd one will get lots of embellishment with about 40+ 1/2 inch baby dolls so I'm considering just quilting through the top 2 layers and then fusing a backing on the top.

The 3 can be seen in this really short clip.

Fabric of the Week

Celebrating life

Today was a celebration of life! After 5 days away from the studio due upper respiratory infection...(I quickly got a z-pac) I felt good to go today and was back...didn't do anything taxing...just socialized, had visitors that came with great vibes, and did a little dabbling on fabric...see...

A daughter of a friend I've know since elementary came to hang out with me today in the studio.  She is reviving her craft and art habits after graduating from college and facing a chronic health challenge.  She is a beautiful young woman and I felt honored that she shared her embroidery and jewelry that she makes and was interested in seeing who I make my cloth.  Art can heal and connect people, in turn creating a vibrant community, yes it can!

I should be in bed now, but I'm hyped...I could have just stayed at the studio all night and messed around.  Tomorrow I'm scheduled to be interviewed by a professor from UofL...she is doing a project of African American women artists in the state.  I don't know what to expect but I'm going to have fun!

Fabric of the Week

Just do what you do...

The days are reminding me to pull out the sweaters.  I've yet to rearrange my drawers and closet for the season.  The nights are dipping down into the low 40s/upper 30s...which serves to remind me winter is coming.  I'll be loosing days in the studio when it gets colder and that is a bummer.  I'm wrapping up the last of the fabric marbling and dyeing this week in order to gain focus for the Good Folk Festival I'm doing the first weekend in November.  I'm sharing a booth with Beverly and Mary Jo.  I was fretting for a hot second over what to display but yesterday I let that go and said to myself, "just do what you do".  Why make something special/different but display what I want to be known for, if it doesn't sale, there will be other days and ways.

beaded leaf on canvas, small art

There are a lot of interesting happenings continuing for me (its been an year of challenges met).  In addition to the festival, I'm participating in a small art exhibit and also joining a co-op gallery, both starting the first of November.  I've also made an application to a pilot program for artists through the local SBA.  There is a staff person who is designated to work with artists and she wrote a proposal for this special program that will work with 50 artists. A few years ago I went looking for something similar at the Dept. of Vocational Rehabilitation and just got strange looks.  Happily to say this SBA program is supported through federal funds and is just one small way that federal dollars help to create jobs.  Off the top of my head, I can't recall the deadline for notification.

A few weeks ago I went to a Tai Chi class with my mother and thought it would become a regular weekly thing.  She had a couple of doctors appts. the week after we started and we've not returned.  I can't seem to wake up  and stay up in order to get there for a 9:30 class now.  I hope to start back next week.

Fabric of the week

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Rainy day ponderings

On the drive back home I was rolling over whether the eye trains the hands or the hands train the eye for visual artists.  My approaches vary on how I create and I think the hand and eye are interdependent in informing the image.  September time in the studio has been given to freedom and exploration and play.  As I've experimented with marbling and returned to mark making with thickened dye with no expectations of outcome, images for future quilts begin to form...so in that case, it is the hand that informs the eye.  Other times as with the Oliver Lewis quilts, I see (or hear) something and think, 'how can I form that in a visual', which is the eye informing the hand.  Like a dance, the eye and the hand.

I set-up a new "size" for marbling tomorrow.  And have a cotton scarf under plastic that I stamped with dye on the print table.  The Boku-Undo inks came today that Carolyn Abbott suggested I try.  They float on plain water without the need to mix in the carageenan. There are periods of waiting between steps for the marbling...the fabric has to air dry after soaking in the alum, the size has to sit for 12 hours before it can be used, the marbled fabric has to completely air dry after it has been marbled.   I mixed up some thickened dyes as something I know I do well...sort of a resting spot between in the learning curve of marbling.

marbled fabric