ACCEPTED!

Just yesterday I found out that my artwork "When Life Hands You Lemons" was accepted by the Linus Gallery for their Fork and Knife exhibition. YEAH!! You can see this piece and read about its inspiration and process at this link to a previous blog post -- When Life Hands You Lemons

For this exhibition, they were looking for art that evokes the many emotions and experiences related to or that are sparked by food.  Textures, colors, shapes, and even scents can be represented in artwork and can create an intriguing palette. If you would like to see the slideshow of all the accepted artists for this exhibition, you can click here.

Finished!

And here is the finished piece! The binding was a bit of a challenge on this small piece but I still like the way it turned out!  Because to me the "bubbled" organza piece looks a bit like green grapes and the beads remind me of the posts that vineyards train the grapevines to....I'm entitling this piece.....

Sour Grapes

So now for the question....will I be doing more intuitive design.  Yep!  I had a blast with this one. Just the freedom to let a scrap inspire me and finding other bits to go along with it.  I think I'm hooked.

Work In Progress

I had recently heard the phrase - intuitive design

The concept intrigued me.  Probably because so much of what I'm working on now is challenge/theme/series driven.  The idea of just sitting down and going for it without a pre-conceived destination sounded like something I would enjoy.

So I did it....am doing it.  I was the blessed recipient of some painted silk scraps from a dear friend who got them from an artist she knows who paints silk.  I was inspired by a piece of silk velvet painted purple (no surprise there!) Now what to do with it.  I had done a piece of molded polyester organza for an experiment with that technique on the ...And Then We Set It On Fire blog.  I liked the outcome but hadn't any idea what to do with it. I love texture so besides color I decided to play with texture on this piece.  I made some melted Tyvek beads to go with it, grabbed some fancy Lutrador from another friend in the Netherlands (I love this stuff and haven't found it here in the US) zapped it with my heat gun.  Got out some contrasting embroidery floss and just started laying it out and seeing where it went.  Tried not to put TOO much overthinking into it.

This is where I am so far. It is a small piece, just 8" X 11". The size was dictated by the silk velvet scrap.  Not happy yet with the placement of the beads so those will be moving.  Had to put it on hold while I dealt with some deadlines for other pieces but now that I have a breather...I plan to pick it up again this weekend.

If you get a chance...drop on over to Nina Marie's Off theWall Friday!! You'll find some wonderful blogs to visit and become inspired!!  Here is the link to her blog:  http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.nl/

Ancient Cactus

In one of the groups my theme for 2013 is Up Close and Personal. I am using 6 of the most favorite macro shots I've taken and making them into art quilts. I'll be posting the completed art along with the original inspirational photograph.

And here is the first. The photo was taken on a trip to Texas. We were walking along and saw this scarred and beaten very old cactus. I got a very close up shot of a few of the leaves. I've always loved this photo and the resiliance portrayed. An old cactus, well worn over time, yet still growing. An inspiration worthy of an art quilt I think.

ANCIENT  CACTUS

original photograph

I used simple quilting so as not to detract from the scars on the leaves. All the scars are reverse appliqued.On the largest scar, I pleated the light gray fabric before doing the reverse applique on the black for the deeper cut (see below).  I even let the fabric pucker as I stitched it because I felt it enhanced the age of the cactus.  The "thorns" are hand embroidered. All the fabrics are my own hand dyed cottons.

Ancient Cactus - detail