2nd Annual African American Women's Exhibit @ the Kentucky African American Heritage Center.

Flyer for upcoming exhibit and reception! <----click

Throwback to 2009.

pages from an journal from 2009-10.  I made a slide show which you can see here on YouTube.

Some of these ideas were used to create at least 3 quilts.

Creating with Intent

Last night I cleaned up this image and tweeked it a bit.  This is not the cleaned up copy.

I'm going to attempt to blog the development of this piece and my thought processes around how it will come to fruition.  The notes I made in the margins are as follows:

• skin tones: raw umber/burnt sienna or paynes grey.
• consider the decayed urban church screened in the background or as the background
• bottom 1/3 in diamonds or hexagons-pieced-consider blue/white commercial fabrics, all different
• consider yellow-orange heart behind them, engulfing them which could give the opportunity to play with highlights, but I liked the flat appearance of the study.
• heart would have some metallic in it and/or reflective bead embellishment
• blackbirds/sparrows present one season in the town Sula and Nel lived in
• figure/male with bell, rope tied around waist connected to bell, if used, subdue image as not to compete.
• ear smaller, heads larger.
• could attempt a more complicated background in collage Romare Bearden style to suggest a village of people, if used, images fused in cubism....people combined with birds and masks and houses
• take a look at the sketch for Milkman's Journey and consider the layout for the background or merge the 2 images into one quilt....really want a quilt for each novel but the 2 sketches work well together, but could be too busy for my personal aesthetics as would the collaged background.

These are thoughts I contemplated as I looked at the outline and asked myself "where do I go next with this?". 

I was going to use a projector but I remembered the glass got broken last Spring.  So, my next step is to take the image to Kinko's and enlarge it.  I know I could do it on my printer but I do not want to tape the pages together.  

The Fruits of My Labor

Yesterday I woke energized which made it easy to get down to the studio.  I spent 4 hours, 3 of which I was dedicated to practicing drawing using the book Mixed Media Portraits by Pam Carricker.  My goal was to work on proportions and shading.  Today I spent 2 more hours.  Here are the process images I snapped.

I reworked the nose/mouth alignment at least five times.  I started out trying to give her a double chin, but couldn't render it.  (note: examine more closely my own chin for help)  The last image I warmed up in Picasa. The ear on the left needs to be darker and the highlights in the eyes do not satisfy me but I am mostly content with the shading.  

I posted this study on my blog before, I think.  It is loosely inspired by the novel Sula by Toni Morrison and the title is We Were Girls Together.  It was painted, quilted and mounted on a wood frame.  The finished size was around 18"x12".  I did another outline for what will be a larger quilt which is what you see above the quilt.  Not sure if I will drawn the image again directly on cloth or clean this outline up and use a projector to get the image on cloth.  I will paint it but the background will be partially pieced like a traditional quilt.

This morning while I was gulping, (sip, me, really??) my coffee and eating an orange I recalled me telling my granddaughter when she was a year younger, (she is 5 now) that an apple tree was going to grow in her stomach because she had swallowed a seed.  She immediately teared up and was building up to hysterics and I had to convince her that I was kiddling....she was uncertain and looked at me like "why would my Nana play about a thing like that".  When I was young and was told the same about swallowing orange seeds I thought it would be fun to have a tree growing in my stomach and kept eating them.  That is the kind of family I come from where Grandparents and Uncles convince a child that it is really possible to grow trees in your stomach by eating the seeds of fruit.

Color Group Therapy

Happy 2016!  We made it!  I am looking forward to a year of self discovery.  How about you?

Today I felt  like some color therapy and headed to the basement only to be joined by my grandchildren some minutes later.  So it was a group color session.

On my birthday I had a glass of champagne...my first taste of alcohol in over a year.  I turned double nickels, but sadly to report, that one glass made me drowsy and I went to bed shortly after.  I'm working up to a bourbon on the rocks...or at least that is what I'm telling myself.  I feel anew and I'm getting to know myself once again.  Maybe the new me will forego alcohol all together.  But I'm going to try the bourbon sometime soon before I decide.

Update...

Radiation has ended!  I had 3 intense weeks of and was left with severe burns.  A wound care specialist was called in.  I guess it goes without saying, but my studio time was delayed. But like I said, IT HAS ENDED and I'm moving on!  I marked my time of returning to "artist" by setting up a booth at the Good Folk Festival the weekend of November 20-22.

I shared the booth with 2 other artists.  I wasn't prepared but I displayed what I had and enjoyed the responses I received and the variety of art work from across the region by other artists.   Also, I met face to face with some local art buds that I'm connected with on Facebook.

I am back in the studio but not creating art...Moriah, my daughter, wanted to make bird ornaments to hang on the Christmas tree.  I pulled out the baby Janome and turned it on and sewed!  She gave me the incentive (or shove) and we are having a good time.  She doesn't really sew so she needed some help.

going around those curves is tricky

She selected all the fabrics and going through them with her had me giddy.  

These two pieces above where dropped off for an exhibit coming up in January at The Kentucky African American Heritage Center.  The day I dropped these off I also picked up 3 other pieces from A Day of the Dead Art Exhibit.  So, "slow but sure" is and has been my motto for a long while.

Once Again with Joy!

YES! YES! YES!  The new studio setup is functional!

I'm not even sure what to say here...life...life...shaking my head.  We began moving into this house back in January.  Life hasn't been typical, but what is typical really?  Living is process and this year has been devoted to the process of healing fro cancer; two rounds of chemo, at least 5 hospital stays for lung inections, lumpectomy, and now I'm winding it to a close with radiation.

I encircled myself with a few close friends on and off line and family.  I had some mighty prayer warriors and continue to have on both sides of the ocean.  My focus has solely been keeping my joy and my concentration has been limited, unable to read for long or process deeply beyond what was immediately before me.  Here is my  reading lists:  Butterfly Blessings by E. Conwill-Majozo; Cell-Level Healing: The Bridge from Soul to Cell by J. Whiteley Hawkes; Holy Bible; God Bless the Child by T. Morrison; and a scattering of poems.  My hands go up in surrender and praise to God.

Creating anything has only come to me in dreams.  I've done NOTHING all year until a few days ago.  I started methodically working through Mixed Media Potraits by P. Carriker

Today I got as far as turning on Yahnome (a new nickname for my sewing machine, Yah Know Me which is also a Janome.)  Working on my nerves to actually get started.  In closing, (imagine Don Cornelius as me)  Peace, Love, and Joy (Soul is a given, winking at ya!)

Home based studio

It took a long while for the water proofing and walls to be restored on the basement but last week it was finished. Now all that is left is for me to get the studio out of storage. The first available I can rent a truck and get someone to help Ade to move it all is the first Saturday in May....I live in Louisville and that is a major party weekend (week) due to Derby, so if that is not possible, I'm looking at mid-May. So we shall see, we shall see.  Oh, the name change to my blog represents the new arrangement and set-up.  Hopefully Facebook will cooperate and eventually let me change the name to my page.

A Strip of Fabric is A Line in the Story

The previous post was going to be the last post until late Winter/early Spring....but I want to share and I want this to be apart of my blog.  The last project I completed in the studio was dyeing strips of fabrics for a community art project.  Stephanie Brown is the Educational Coordinator at The Little Loomhouse.  We were studio neighbors at Mellwood for 2 years before she moved her studio over to the Hope Mills Bldg.  Stephanie pulled the partners together to make the collaboration happen.

The strips I dyed are sent to a variety of organizations around town and people write their stories on the strips and returned to the Loom House for cataloging before going to fit a loom set up a Kentucky Musueum of Art and Craft (KMAC).  You can read more about it HERE on KMAC's website..

Please stop by tomorrow and write your story cloth....

A Change is Gonna Come....

I started this blog November 4, 2004.  This was my first entry>>>>>here.  Yesterday I closed down my studio.  Five years.  Five years.  When I first moved in it was with dear dear dear Sistah-friend Estella who provided me the courage to take the leap.  We shared the space for maybe nine months and we called it The Beauty of Holiness.  I flew solo for a few months until I shared the space with another artist, Amy Dingman...then for 3 years I was in the studio by myself and the space (long before) had begun to change into a real working chaotic space and the name changed to The Chitlin' Circuit.

We packed and hauled (shout out to Ade, my youngest son, for being the glue that made it possible to do so much in such a short amount of time).  I have no regrets about closing it down even though I will miss the interaction with fellow artists and visitors.  It hit me when it was over...watching everything that I had packed into the space, not just materially, but seeing all that I had going on, I realized once again how much spirit and Spirit was in it for me.  The tears poured for a few hours. Ade didn't know what to think and Peter as always, was gracious about what he half-way comprehends.  I didn't bother to attempt to articulate.  The flushing was a good thing.

Our goal was to be moved (our living space) by the end of October...that didn't happen...we moved the goal forward to the end of January.  I finished the commission to dye the fabric strips just in the nick of time and everything is in storage. Also, on my way out I stopped by Kore and learned my good friend Bev had sold one of her high-end paintings.  It had been at the gallery since her solo show in May.  Affirmations magnified!

I'm going to spend the season drawing and reading and taking a break from blogging until I set things back up in the Spring.  Until then, Peace, Blessings, Love

Still Here

I had to put thought into how to even write a blog entry.  I'm a month out from this blog's anniversary.  I'll be here even when no one comes...sort like the woman living alone in the woods, but I'm not that nature friendly to be living in the woods...maybe like the woman living in the basement apartment.

Mama, age 85 and her Great Granddaughter, age 4

My creative making has experienced a boat load of interruptions this year.  Considering how it grounds me and centers me, there has been a lot of groping through the light and the dark this year.  I feel it on my skin.  I've done my best to be adaptable, nurture and hold on to faith, and just be without over thinking which I've have a tendency to do...and by God's Grace, I'm standing and holding my own.

view into the studio window

We were anticipating moving by the end of October, which included my studio as well.  So far, nothing has fit our needs.  The plan is (God stop laughing), as I was saying, the plan is for this to be a last move.  So it needs to "fit", otherwise whats the point.  My studio is in disarray and my strong inclination is to let go of household "stuff" and simplify simplify simplify.  But Peter and I cannot see eye to eye on what is or is not "practical".  Like beauty, its all in the eye of the beholder.  But this is the least of my concerns.

An exhibit deadline is fast approaching making me aware of just how little I have completed this year.  I'm not going to meet it. The photos below were taken by Mr. Bud Dorsey, The Urban Photographer here in the city.  This was the opening reception and panel discussion held in September at the Kentucky African American Heritage Center for a group exhibit.  I have 4 pieces in the show.  It is one of the hallmarks for this year.

Still Here by Langston Hughes

Been scared and battered.

My hopes the wind done scattered.

Snow has friz me,

Sun has baked me,

Looks like between 'em they done

Tried to make me

Stop laughin', stop lovin', stop livin'--

But I don't care!

I'm still here!