We, Together Keep Watch

Michael is making a wood panel frame that this will be permanently attached.  This piece was inspired by Sula by Toni Morrison and is a study for a larger piece that I will start on next week (if the creek don't rise and the winds don't blow). 

I named this small piece (16"x10") We, Together Keep Watch.  It speaks to the friendships and connections of women and knowing ways of some women. 

 

 



a scarf for my Beloved.

This will be a scarf for Peter when its complete.

 

 

I'm reading Beloved...Sixo is holding my intrigue.  At some point he decides there is no future in speaking English.  And I'm trying to SEE Sixo, a man the color of Indigo with a red tongue, muscular in my mind, moving against the horizon of a September sunset.

 

Last week I began quilting the Sula study.  I used a variety of thread weights and types.  King Tut looked the best. At some point I considered the overall look with some finer threads sinking into the fabric, coarser threads sitting above the fabric and some laying close to the surface...the visual diversity could perhaps serve as metaphor for the community of inhabitants within the novel.

 



Woman proposes, God disposes....

This describes Monday and Tuesday of this week.  This week resembles nothing! Nothing! NOTHING!! like I had planned.  Crochet is the prayer I offer through my hands. Teaching Anaya Lift Every Voice and Sing is faith I'm practicing.

No Honeymoon for Uneena, She Has More Jewelry to Create!

The other event that added to the dynamics of my weekend was the Meet the Artist Reception at Kore for member Uneena Jackson.  It was Uneena's first exhibit showcasing jewelry she designed with "love" in mind for wedding parties.  She went all out with a wedding cake and her niece wore a wedding gown and modeled some of the necklaces during the evening and music teacher and student Chris Mudd played the keyboards setting a melodious backdrop. 

 

 

Spikes and Pearls Necklace by Uneena Jackson

I was kept pretty busy writing sales receipts and running the square which doesn't like me very much.  I had to keep asking Don or Uneena to run it as it seems to go the first or second time when they do it. 

Her exhibit will last through the end of February.  For the next week I'm certain she will be busy creating new pieces to replace what was sold, so if any Mellwoodians see her around gabbing...send her back to her studio...but I must admit, the woman does create well under pressure! Congrats Uneena!

Ohhhh What a Night (hearing The Dells sing that line in my head)

For me it was an intense and busy weekend.  Friday was the day I had been anticipating since December and although I had to push it in the back of my mind in order to handle the day to day with my grandchildren and my mother, it indeed did come and I was ready.

It was the reception for the 20th Annual African American Art Exhibit (with a free catalog) held at Actors Theatre of Louisville each year.  The art/artists is a good mix of Louisville artists and artists across the country with about 4,000 in award monies. 

The receptions at the theatre are always held on First Friday Trolley Hops and right before a play opens its doors, so the attendance is always good.  The art is hung in ground floor and mezzanine lobbies with a jazz band and open bar.  The awards are presented in the atrium of the first floor (which isn't built for sound and hearing in a crowd is difficult).  BUT I did manage to hear my name called for one of the merit awards given.  I didn't know my piece had received that until I got there and saw the ribbon hanging.  The show went up the first week in January and will come down at the end of this week.  I'll return to view the exhibit when there is no foot traffic to hinder really looking.

Here are some of the photos from the night:

 Crowbonics: The Prayer, Jeffery and Susan Callen Merit Award

mezzanine lobby

love and I standing in front of XX, my other quilt in the exhibit.

 

The advice I received from Kevin Cole, the juror, was to work larger. Advice Juanita gave me years ago.

'

Mo and Anaya

(Anaya had interpretive dance moves going on with the jazz at the reception)



Keep Swinging

Here it is the first week into February and I've not committed to goals for 2014 for the Chitlin' Circuit Studio. I've ruled out taking any major workshops this year even though Dorothy Caldwell and Jane Dunnewold will be giving workshops here locally.  I know, I know.  How fabulous...but it is not showing up cowrie shells, or tea leaves.

My focus is getting through winter and I must recognize that I'm doing better than previous winters.  My granddaughter is back in the hospital and has been there this time since Monday of last week.  She is 3 and quite spirited and mature for what she is experiencing.  The medical team is quite encouraged by her energy for the pulmonary diagnosis she has.  I'm encouraged and can't wait til she is well.  In March we're, well she, will start ballet.

Back to this goal-setting.  The first quilt study inspired by the novel Sula is prepared for quilting -

the heads have since been painted in.

I'm not sure I will do a study for each one...the next one up is The Bluest Eye.  What I'm hoping for this series is to teach myself to narrow the focus of the techniques I use.  But to recognize my own growth to this point, the idea to do these quilts came to me way back, like in '06 or '07, but didn't feel at that time I had the skill and confidence to go beyond just thinking about it.  I'm now at the point where my confidence is not intimidated by attempting it and I hope to learn something about myself at the end of this year.  My goal is to have 3 or 4 finished.

I will continue with this series as my main focus for "making" but will have other works going on between these quilts.

For my learning curve, my focus is doing Zentangles.  I've been looking at the zentangles and quilt lines of Nysha Nelson for awhile now and thought I've finally get down to trying them myself for the purpose of broadening my free-motion quilting ideas.

this is Day 1, working through the book One Zentangle A Day (6 weeks total)

My reading material will be continuing to read and re-read books on art and marketing to assist with the co-op gallery (current book is New Market for Artists which focuses on online markets) and do 1 day a week for gallery coverage.  I'm also, re-reading the novels of Morrison (Beloved is the current book) and will begin reading through the books that I have from the David Driskell Series (started the one on Keith Morrison last week).

And lastly, in light of missing a recent deadline for a juried exhibit, I want to submit to 4 shows (yet to be identified) this year.

In the words of Hank Aaron, I'm going to "just keep swinging".

Peace,