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

 

Take a look at what Cheryl

at Violet Patch has been up to: click here

Franciscan Friars, Blue Apple, Scraps, and Scrabble

Before and after. I like the before better and thought about doing a larger version.  I'm not very fond of the scrapbook like quilts but wanted to see if I could make one I liked.  I'll give this one a C-.  It is about 9"x14" I guess.  The photo image was printed on cotton, bubble jet treated, and ran through the printer with freezer paper backing.  The photos where taken at Mt. Saint Francis, 400 acres and a handful of Franciscan friars that tend the grounds.  This is where I go to reflect, recenter, refocus, and drink wine.  On the grounds is the Mary Anderson Center for the Arts (MACA). The picture of the house at the top right is MACA.  It has 6 bedrooms for artists stays.  Behind the house slopes down a hill to a lake which I can no longer walk back up :(. But it can be seen from the huge windows of the bedrooms on the backside.  A little walk from the house are several barns that have been converted into artist studios and the lower right image is the Calving Barn that houses 4 studios and a loft that runs the length of the barn.  This is where I go dye fabrics.  This place has had a major role in my creative life, my manna, and it is a blessing that it is so close to me.

Another before and after.  Blue Apple, journal size, top, quilted, close-up, back. This is from the exercise on monochromatic colour from C&C.  I see more monochromatic work in my future.  I also used this quilt to practice fmq.  I tried the suggestion that Melody gave about using one hand to drive with and the other to hold and when I do that I have more control and like my stitches better. The problems I have are that I spontaneously revert back to being a 2 handed driver AND I can't hold a design in my mind. Yesterday I unquilted 84,000 (metaphorically speaking to say it was a heck of a lot) stitches on a quilt for a girlfriend.  This quilt begs for circles and curves so I can't take the easy route out but going straight or jagged. 

Also, an idea came to me while looking at the back of the Blue Apple of quilting a whole cloth and then using paints, inks, pencils, etc to colour it.  One I'll have to try soon...but for now I've got to go prepare for today's Scrabble match.  But before I go, let me leave you with a yummy bag of scraps picture, courtesy of Mary at QuiltStudio 77!  I told her that another quilter's scraps is another's yardage! I couldn't believe the size of her scraps! Thank you Mary! 

Form, Not Function Exhibit at the Carnegie Museum for Art & History

This is the 3rd year for this exhibit and it keeps getting better!!!  The curators did a wonderful job of hanging the show that allows for viewers to move through gently with smooth transitions of colour from piece to piece. For me that means I linger longer in front of each piece.  I made my 2nd visit yesterday and was there 2 hours each visit viewing the 50 quilts that make up the show. 

The most experimental piece was Homeless by Judy Zoelzer Levine.  The quilt was mounted on a metal grid and incorporated barb wire across the surface with the most recognizable shape from a distance being a female figure.  Closer up the images of fire and military force reinforce the message of this quilt and I became teary eyed while thinking of women I've known who have fled violence both from war, poverty, and intimate violence. 

My personal favorite (and I had many but this stood out for me) was Danny's Turtles by Diane Bielak.  I loved the colours, the ribbons floating above the surface, the embellishments.

Since photos weren't allowed I've searched online to provide images of some of the quilts that spoke to me in the exhibit:  Crumblling Walls 4 by Cathy Shanahan ; Grid by Tricia McKellar ; Drawing the Line Somewhere by Deidre C. Adams (2nd thumbnail at the top of the page) ; Opening #5 by Marina Kamenskaya .  The best of show went to Cascading Boxes by Lesley Riley.

Kudos to 3 of the bloggers in the AQ ring who are in this exhibit: Tommy Fitzsimmons' Pickets #13 selected as the Juror's Choice Award and Lisa Call's Structures #45 was selected for Award of Merit and Cathy Kleeman's Sun Days.  I'm throwing rose petals your way. :)

One quilt that I wish I could have found online to share here is another one that had me in awe for its beauty was Moon Set by Bob Adams.  It was a whole cloth lunar image that had intense rich jewel tones. 

I noticed that most of the quilts did not have the dense quilting lines that I recall from the past 2 years and it seemed like a lot of the quilts in this exhibit emphasized linear/grid/square/rectangular patterns versus circular/curvaceous lines and shapes.  I really don't know what that means but it was something I noticed. 

While I was there yesterday I noticed a steady stream of visitors there to see the show just as it was last week when I went.  I hope in future exhibits there will be catalogs.  This show definitely deserves one!

One week after this exhibit ends in March, a solo show of quilts will go up entitled: Threads of Strength and Fortitude: Penny Sisto's Slavery Series.  She captures haunting images of women and children in her quilts like none other! Its like she has captured the actual ghost (Elle you would probably love them) in the quilt...not the image of ghost, but the actual ghost itself.  I do love her work but don't know if I would want one hanging in my house.  Its like the eyes in the painting that follow you around the room...but with her art, I always get a sense of having a presence just over my shoulder, softly, gently lingering and wanting something.  A link to her website is in my side bar under Quilt Artists.

YOU MAY TALK ABOUT ME ALL YOU WANT!

BUT I STILL REIGN QUEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (maniacal laughter in YOUR face!)

I would think that after all this time of proving myself worthy to reign on this throne that the peasants would become complacent and resign themselves to my destiny....buttttt ohhhhh no, they grow even more rebellious with each rotation of the sun. Those too cowardly (my partner and my children) to attempt a match with me can be heard from their sooted corners cheering for whatever jester attempts to sit before me!

Now I will concede that my reign has been a difficult one for them to live under but all the poking and proding I've given them toward improving their lot in life has been miscontrued as braggadocios.  I admit I am not a humble Queen, for the joys of wearing the royal robe and just the site of my welcoming throne sends rushing waves from my toes to the top of my crown.  But I tire sometimes of the lonliness of it all and dream of a worthy opponent to rise from the ashes.  Alas, it has yet to happen, although one comes close, he still has a long road ahead and has spurned my offer at tutelage. Ah, the suffering of the lowly does break my heart so.  And to think he got whupped on his birthday, so sad he must be.

WIP (whupping in progress) followed by WC (whupping completed): 

Upfromsumdirt, my brother, and I had another marathon day at Scrabble this past Saturday.  We have scheduled for another such ass whupping marathon day this coming Thursday. 

Here he is at my computer.  He eschews the chair, any chair, for a preference for this position while he surfs.  This doesn't appear remotely comfortable to me but reminds me of a classical pianist from Ghana I saw in concert decades ago who sat on a Ashanti stool at the piano...a very low Ashanti stool that aligned the area between his chest and chin with the keyboard.

                                Upfromsumdirt is such a prolific poet and here he is in deep thought summoning his muse and out came the line "will you get that damn camera out of my face".  Such energy and drive in that line alone, don'cha think?

No Risk, January JQ2006

(Photo sequence, l-r: front, back, close-up)

There was absolutely no risk involved in this piece. No emotional attachment. I didn't even take the leap to practice free motion quilting.  The only point was to place the lines and shapes against the white background in a manner that pleased me.  Easy.  This was a piece I salvaged (I like salvaging) from the C&C exercises.  The closest I came to being creatively invested was deciding on what colour thread...it was a choice between purple, even considered a hot pink, a metallic red or blue. After the thread was selected and the piece quilted, I was bored looking at it, so I posed the question, what could I do to make it just a little bit interesting?  Remember I do love to salvage.  I thought of couching but I wanted to keep the high contrast and couching would have reduced the contrast.  So this is where the beading came in. 

The completed quilt reminds me of nothing, absolutely nothing and I had to resist the cliche to name it, so I call it No Risk instead of...nope, I will not even say. 

The lines/shapes are fused and the binding is fused.  My favorite element is the largest 3 squares at the top with the red beads.

I did get practice with squaring up. It lays very very flat.  I love to bead so I think a good beading book for quilts is in order.  I don't tie off very good or at least not in a way that I feel my beads are secure.

Test

My morning coffee

I haven't had coffee yet. Instead I had a cup of abstract fabric play to shake off the mental sluggishness!  Can't say it worked just like coffee but it gave me a little pick me up.  Here is my morning perk work:    

I used the solids I purchased for the exercises in C&C which I've yet to do the next batch.  Look for those over the weekend along with my January JQ2006 which I completed last night. 

Also, I went to see the Form, Not Function exhibit and all I can say is WOW! This is the 3rd year for this show and it just keeps getting better and better.  I'll write more about it over the weekend as well.  I'll be making several trips over to see it in attempts to drag my non-quilting family and friends to see it. Peace.