Balancing Act

Stacking rocks in Creede Colorado

It's been almost a year since my last post and nearing two years since being catapulted into the sudden and unexpected realm of widowhood.  The loss of my husband was preceded two days before by the passing of my father and had me grieving the absence of the two most influential men in my life.  This and standing in as a caretaker for my sweet sister/friend of more than 20 years as she battles the same diagnosis my Phil received (just a week following his diagnosis), has kept me very focused on the journey that is life.  In all this I am grateful for my spiritual practice in A Course In Miracles and the teachings of those who assist me in awakening from the daily trances we call life rather than getting snagged and pulled under by them.

My work has sustained me and the journey into life anew has been filled with many gifts and insights.  On the studio front much has happened, not the least of which was the loss of almost all my blog images.  Fortunately the text portions remained and I have only to upload the associated imagery.  This glitch however has given me the opportunity to rethink the blog-sphere and how I want to use it. Instead of different blogs for different media, I have decided to create one space for sharing my work in textiles, painting, and sculpture.  This will take quite a bit of cutting and pasting...and more than a bit of editing, but I hope to have it done this week.  My poetry and prose blog will remain in tact at www.susanstorey.blogspot.com.

I am happy to report that my life has filled with wonderful new experiences and several months ago a very special someone came along to share it all with.  A fellow artist, he and I have found a lifestyle that embraces the lives we created before meeting, while supporting the one ahead we intend to nurture together.  From time to time I'll post some of his studio work just to lend a glimpse into the fascinating realm I am privileged to live in  each and every day.

My own work continues to evolve as does my creative process within the series of  paintings I have shared thus far. Hopefully I'll get some new work posted soon. To all those who have embraced me in the last two years with prayers and extensions of kindness I love and thank you so very much.  My life has been filled with a depth of understanding and compassion that only times of loss can usher in.  My friends and family have been truly a Godsend! I love you all.

The quilt below was a group project that I worked on just before Phil learned of his illness. My proposal to the group of this subject matter was perhaps a foreshadowing of the balancing act my life was about to become. The top photo is reflective of a full circle journey, stacking real rocks in Creede Colorado on what would have been our 22nd wedding anniversary. 

Pretty Little Mini-Quilts book

When Lark Books invited me to submit work for two publications, both entitled Pretty Little Mini Quilts, I selected three from my American Family Album series.  Since many of the quilts in that series are larger than required for this book, I went to my 'Snapshot' section of that series. I based these little gems on two non-professional style photographs; the old photo-booth style pics or snapshots taken by family or friends.  I love the 'posed' nature within these otherwise casual moments.  Lark chose the piece entitled 'Portrait of Velma'.  An avid quilter before she lost the majority of her eyesight, Velma was my fathers mother.  I was especially thrilled that this was their choice.  Commemorating a loved one in these little art-quilts portrays the subject beyond the image in the photo; the personality and idiosyncrasies truly come through. And while all my pictorial art-quilts do this in some way or another, these little ones offer a type of fine-focus aspect that larger more complex works don't invite.  Measuring 12" wide by 17" in length and heavily embellished with beading, embroidery and of course quilting, I loved doing these so much that a new series has emerged.  Entitled 'Snapshots' this work eventually moved beyond my own family photos and commissioned works, now including any found snapshots that captivate my imagination.  Only one problem....so many photos, so little time! :)

Affordable and whimsical, if you are new to commissioning art work, or new to art-quilts, these are often a good place to engage the process. My 'Snapshot' art-quilts are so popular in fact that I now offer gift certificates for those wanting to introduce friends and family to this wonderful unexpected art form. In my next blog post I'll feature a few more from my last American Family Album exhibit....  just to share the fun of these tiny textile treasures.

Something A Little Fishy

Tsukineko Ink on pale Batik fabric,

here is the work at the drawing stage.

From the drawing board....literately!  Since drawing is my first love, bringing my sketches to life in hand drawn art-quilts is always fun.  I wanted to post a few 'before' pictures to share the drawing part of the process before I move to the quilting stage. This drawing was done with blue Tsukineko ink on a piece of pale cotton batik fabric and measures 40" wide by 18" tall. I have a bit more painting to do, but only deepening blue of the border. A few other colors will be added in the quilting and embellishment, but for the most part this will be a monochromatic piece resembling a carved relief.

When I began painting this piece all I had worked out was the woman and fish.  I drew those onto paper first, then transferred them to the fabric with a pencil. Because I prefer to work intuitively rather than have everything planned out, the rest of the image evolved from my imagination as I painted around these central figures. Above is a detail photo.  The background will recede a bit more because I plan to quilt it with dark thread.  This will allow the figures to be featured even more, and they will be quilted with lighter threads.  I'll be posting the finished piece as soon as I have it's done

BELOW:

The quilting completed and the facing applied, I have chosen the title, 'Something A Little Fishy' for this title of this new piece.  As you can see I made a few changes to the right side of the drawing before quilting.  I felt that darkening the right border to match the left  helped balance the piece better.  A bit of beading and embroidery will finish it off. But first...a few detail images to give you a better look at the free motion quilting....

The finished piece and detail images.

The Bee Holder

The Bee Holder, art-quilt 30.5"x30.5"
This piece was purchased by the University of Houston and
hangs in the University of Houston Women's Resource Center.

Picasso meets Klimt was the initial inspiration behind the imagery of this art-quilt. However, as the work evolved I began to receive symbolic nudges.  Thinking about beauty being in the eye of the beholder, the phrase 'bee holder' flashed into my mind and I was off to research symbolism associated with the bee.  I learned that just one of the many associations was 'right use of creativity and imagination'.  That did it!  I adjusted my pattern to include two arms wrapped around the woman's knees rather than one, and placed a vintage bee stickpin between her thumb and fore finger.  The orange hair, which was part of the original design, fit perfectly with the representation of creativity as orange is the color of the chakra associated with creativity.

Update:  Purchased by U of Houston in the fall of 2013!!!

Journey Women

Journey Women,(aka Blue Lady) 12"x30" art-quilt

It was great fun designing and executing this piece and it has proved to be the jumping off point for several works in this style that feature women as the main subject. Upon completion I intuitively heard the name of my closest friend. Then I saw how much the figure resembled her.  Synchronistically, the flower symbolism also represented her family.  Therefore it seemed only fitting that this piece hang in her home.

Deep In The Heart

 Deep In The Heart, this entire piece was created using only one fabric, manipulated with ink and fused to the dark black background.

Homesick for the star studded country sky that eludes me in the city, I was inspired to bring the feel into my studio.   The title is a nod to the song lyrics "The stars at night are big and bright deep in the heart of Texas."  However, no matter how many photos I take they just don't convey the feel of this art-quilt in person.  The realism of the tree bark was achieved by shading a single print fabric that I cut into this interesting twisted branch.  A handful of multifaceted crystals are scattered among tiny silver seed beads to suggest the stars in the night sky.  They twinkle and gleam as it is viewed from different areas and that adds such a dimension of interest and fun.  This 3-D quality creates quite an illusion when viewed in person.  This piece has inspired a nature/woodlands series that I am considering exploring in the next year or so.

Strange Folk

 Flutter-by, art-quilt  19"x37"

In my last post I introduced caricature as a way of also manipulating the photos I work with.  But because the subject of that post was more about incorporating my love of writing into my art-quilt pieces, I wanted to write a bit about the caricature process itself. 

Using portrait photos of very real people, I digitally stretch and pull them into exaggerated versions of themselves.  I then paint and enhance them digitally before printing the images on fabric.  Once printed, I use a variety of inks or paints to further enhance the image if necessary.  On the piece above I appliqued the pink cheek on the face from a piece of hand dyed fabric.  In a whimsical, fairy type piece like this one, a normally proportioned human face just wouldn't have worked. As with all my work, I plug in intuitively and let the image tell me what it needs.   The butterfly in her hand is three dimensional, as are a few scattered along the surface, and seem to have landed upon the art-quilt.  Designed specifically for a feeling of enchantment, my only regret is that I didn't make the hand as disproportionate as the face. I feel this would have made the whole piece feel a bit more cohesive.  Still the piece is a favorite among those that buy my prints.

Entitled, Friendship, art-quilt 22"x35"

While we're on the topic of 'Strange Folk' I need to share my latest piece (above).  Again this one incorporates my love of writing and use of text within my art-quilts. I had a great time designing these two beings.  On the larger figure only the face is digitally rendered and printed on fabric.  The rest of her is drawn and pieced from separate pieces of fabric.  The small figure however, was digitally designed from head to toe.  Only the tiny heart she holds in her hand was added as applique.

More Words About Words

Meet the women of the A-ha Studio.  These are whimsical 17"x17" art-quilts that incorporate words and imagery. In previous posts I touched upon my passion for writing. Word-play is as much a part of my creative voice as is the imagery I like to express.  This is evident in my a series entitled Women of the A-ha Studio.  Creating caricatures from both vintage and modern portrait photographs, I have given these women not only a unique presence but an introspective voice to match.

Many of the perspectives these pieces depict come from my own journey as well as my background in counseling.  I think the ability to look upon our life with humor and gratitude for lessons learned is the evidence of true personal growth.  My hope is that the characters in this series reflect the same.  As wit mixes with a bit of wisdom, my goal is to lend a perspective of hope and humility to our sometimes all-to-human condition.

 Planned as an ongoing series, here are just six of the pieces I have recently finished.  Some of these hang independently, while others are grouped into one piece. Yet even those connected in a group manner will be finished separately, each portrayal bound with their own 'limits and boundaries'.  Having facilitated individual as well as 'group sessions' in my work with women's issues I feel these pieces lend themselves wonderfully to mimicking that dynamic.

Anyone working in the addiction recovery arena will relate to most of the messages conveyed in this work.  I have a great affection for both the colleagues and clients I have met in my life that remain dedicated to a quality of life beyond sobriety or co-dependence.  This series is my nod to that work and that choice.  Recovering individuals are among some of the strongest people I have ever had the privilege of knowing, and I truly enjoy creatively celebrating their courage and tenacity.  I also know that sometimes what is obvious to others is often unrecognizable to the person living in the midst of dysfunction.  To those, perhaps one or more of these will offer a bit of enlightenment in a non-threatening context.

Words are just symbols, pointing, as imagery does, to those places inside ourselves beyond words and images.  I believe they are the mile markers on a journey waking us to higher and higher states of consciousness.  My artwork is simply a contribution to that cause.

Photo Reference Art-Quilting

Sometimes photos are only used in my work as references.  In the case of this art-quilt I came across a photo of my sister sitting in her garden proudly displaying a basket of her roses.  I loved the pose and knew I wanted to paint it.  This piece was hand painted on white cotton fabric then bordered with batiks and turned over to Connie Hudson for quilting.  Connie is an incredible long arm quilter and I wouldn't even begin to quilt a piece as large as this one on my sewing machine.  While there are women who do, I am not that gifted!

This center panel of this piece was drawn and colored in with colored pencils and also painted with diluted fabric paint.  The butterfly's on the border were appliques on.  When my dad saw this piece he claimed it immediately.  It hangs in my parents spacious den softening a massive brick wall that well supports the largest quilt I have created to date....(or ever plan to create ever again!)

Another photo reference piece is one where I painted my three grand kids peeking out from a tent fashioned from sheets and blankets draped over the dining table.  While this was drawn from three different photos of the kids, and there never was a tent, I thought it made an interesting composition.  I used black Tsukineko ink on white cotton fabric to draw/paint this image.  And while that was years ago I have yet to quilt the piece.  Not everything I begin holds my attention long enough to get finished.  But I think part of listening to where an image wants to go also includes stopping when the inspiration wains. Seeing if I could draw the grand kids this detailed on fabric was the challenge for me.  Quilting it just wasn't as important.  My first two photo reference pieces were created the first year I got into art-quilting.  They were also the first pieces I ever submitted into the Houston International Quilt Festival.  Accepted as finalists these pieces were of celebrities whose influence or commentary greatly affected my generation.

 Fifteen Minutes, art-quilt.

Entitled Fifteen Minutes, this portrait of Andy Warhol and the smaller portraits within this piece of Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor, done in Warhol's style, speaks to his famous prophecy about everyone finding their own fifteen minutes of fame.  With 'reality TV' now flooding the airways and the rise of 'celebrity status' without the  once necessary talent that Liz and Marilyn brought to their craft, it seems Andy got it right. 

This as well as another piece, simply entitled, The Beatles, were done with India ink, allowed to set for 24 hours, then ironed washed and ironed again before piecing and quilting. Both were jurried into the IQA festival as finalists and ushered me into the quilt-art world.

While it was fun drawing these, they were a big part of my learning curve in the quilting department.  I came to art-quilting from an art background...not a quilting one.  So my quilting skills were very lacking at the time.  The extremely simple stitches on these pieces prove that I have indeed come a long way since these early days.

Photos will always be a part of my figurative art-quilts in one way or another.  But when it comes to drawing or painting portraits I have discovered that I prefer not to quilt them. A drawing of my daughter in the style of the drawing of my grand kids, (above) toured internationally a few years back and now hangs above her bed.  It was my first published piece and I'm glad that she has it among her keepsakes.  But equally glad to have discovered the way I prefer to use photos in my work today.  As in my American Family Album series, or the whimsical commentaries that evolve from digitally manipulated photos.  (Look for more of those from me in future posts.)

Words and Images

 Fifty Years On , art-quilt 22"x36"

Philboy, art-quilt

31"x45"

While I think it's fair to say I became an artist with my first set of finger paints, I know that my love of writing was born as a young girl when I wrote my first poem.  Writing is as much a part of my creative life as imagery will ever be.  That is probably why I am happiest when I find a way to combine the two.  When commissioning a family piece think about combining words and imagery.  Because I spend a lot of time with talking with those clients wanting to tell a family story with their photographs, I am able to assist with phrases or words that might be relevant to the piece.  But just as often words, phrases or some times commentaries (as in the above piece) come to me while I am working on the imagery.  To the left is a childhood photo of my husband Phil that I fell in love with it the first time I saw it.  When I got into art quilting, and more specifically following my American Family Album series, I knew I wanted to do a piece based around this photo.  As I worked to restore and digitally alter the tiny black and white snapshot his grandmother had taken of him outside their New England home, the stories I had heard of his childhood reverberated inside me.  Happy, sad, proud and shameful stories, not unlike those most of us know, surfaced in my memory.  Phil had overcome much in his young life and as he got older he dedicated his life to the betterment of others. The phrase in this art-quilt reads: "Who we become is indelibly written upon the slate of our childhood."  These words filled my mind as I worked, and I knew they belonged in the design.  I also knew that the message conveyed a deeper truth than met the eye.... that no matter the circumstances we are born into, choice in the way they shape our lives is always ours.

Another commission piece I worked on was for a friend whose daughter was going off to college.  The mother wanted her to realize that the most important thing was where the journey, not the degree, would take her.  Filled with imagery and a phrase that kept this awareness in her daughters mind, this piece hung in her room until she graduated and now serves as a continued reminder from her mom for the rest of her life.  

The piece above was done to commemorate my fiftieth birthday.  Along with a childhood photo and expansive imagery I incorporated a favorite quote from Carl Jung, whose work was a huge influence on my life.  It reads, "Who looks outside dreams. Who looks inside awakens."  The inner journey has always been most important to me and because I have spent so much time in introspective work I like to express those discoveries in a lot of my artwork.  In a future post I'll share some whimsical ways I do this and introduce a completely different way that I use photo imagery in my art-quilts.

Commissioned Art-quilts

Commissioned art-quilt for Samantha Schuli

A 20 year career as a visual artist, I am mostly self-taught.  I began early on with drawing and painting, and briefly studied oil, watercolor, and pastel with a few classes here and there.  Later I played around a bit with acrylic and mixed media.  An amateur photographer since my teens, the digital age ushered in Photoshop and I was hooked from the start.  Leaving the traditional darkroom behind, I began to incorporate digital and mixed media in my artwork.  And while I had been brought up learning to sew, I never really equated sewing with art.  However that changed several years ago when I discovered the wild and wonderful world of art-quilts.  Here I was able to bring all my previous skills and a variety of media to this beautiful, tactile expression. Sewing brought something else to my work that I appreciate perhaps more than any other aspect; a connection to the grandmother that taught me to sew....and to make my very first quilt.

I still take time out to just draw, or paint.  My fascination with the evolution of my Winged Things series is a testament to the fact that painting is simply in my blood!  I even do a sculpture series using a blend of poly clays.  My original glass beads and pendants are also incorporated into some of my design work.  And while I make these pieces available in a variety of exhibits, I would have to say that art-quilting is the primary medium for my commission work. It just seems to provide a perfect arena for telling the family stories that beg to be creatively conveyed. So, while many of my Family Album commissioned pieces are considered "finished works" in and of themselves before I print them on fabric to be quilted and embellished, my clients have yet to prefer the 'before' imagery to the wonderfully textural art-quilt that emerges.  Then there are the commissioned art-quilts that have no reference to family or photos.  These are so much fun because the client has seen my work and  simply asks for my interpretation of a theme or idea they have.  This is reflected in the above photo of a commission piece I was asked to do on the subject of cactus and succulents.  Painting and art-quilting go hand in hand when it comes to my preference in creative expression.  I enjoy the ability to switch between the two or incorporate them both into my work.

Never At A Loss With Found Photo's

 Masques Optional. art-quilt 36x36

Beachwalk, artquilt, 24"x36"

In the last post I promised to offer a bit about my process, so here are some of my 'found photo' art-quilts and a bit about how I created the imagery.  The first art-quilt I created from a found photo was one I called Masques Optional.  A commentary on the option to explore the persona's we wear, and instead live out of what lies behind them.  An amateur photographer since my high school days, I began to manipulate photos the moment I was introduced to the dark room.  Playing with double exposures and "trick" photography captivated me.  One of my first pieces was a photo of my brother playing cards with himself as his opponent.  Given this fascination, you can imagine how my work was influenced once Photoshop hit the market.  I think that is why so much of my representational textile art begins with a photo I can't resist.  I always have a camera with me, and my kids will tell you that around our house the word "cheese" has little to do with food.

The Three Man Fish Band; Practicing Their Scales, art-quilt 30"x33"

When digital artists began to play with surrealism I was even more enthralled.  But with art-quilts, tiny little details within pictorial work can get lost.  So, while occasionally I create digital pieces that I know I'll never quilt, my found photo art quilts tend to only share one or two obviously altered images. The piece to the right entitled The Three Man Fish Band; Practicing Their Scales is a perfect example.  After digitally altering the colors I replaced the violinists instrument with a fish.  Then I did a bit of work to the background and printed three fabric pieces of the same image.  After piecing these together I began to paint them with fabric paint for added texture and depth. I then added inner and outer borders of batik fabric before quilting and embellishing.  This piece remained in my collection until my son decided it was his!  I still enjoy its whimsical nature.

Thread Painting

 Mermaid this is a detail photo of the larger 37"x42" art-quilt

In one of my posts I touched on my hand drawn quilts so I thought in this post I would expand on that a bit by covering my one and only thread painted piece.  While this remains a favorite among family, friends, and gets a lot of attention when exhibited, I am quite sure I will never do another in this style.  Not that it wasn't fun....but anything creative I try for the first time is fun.  That doesn't mean I want to keep doing it.  I think I just like to know what skills are in my repertoire. Trying new stuff shows me that.  I also think stretching oneself creatively is part of an artists work.  This piece was that for me at the time I attempted it.  The imagery was drawn entirely from my imagination on batik fabric with a dark, green/black mixture I made from Tsukineko inks. All of the other coloring was done with thread and beading. This was my first art-quilt to be published in an international magazine and that was fun.  Not as hard as it looks....If you can draw, color, and sew thread-painting just might be your 'thing'!

'Snapshot' Art-quilts

As promised earlier, here's a collage of a few more from my 'Snapshot' series.  Four of these were inspired by 'found' photos, and two from my own old family pics.  Each measures 12"x17", though I have cropped them here to display as a group for the blog.  The great thing about commissioning these little pieces is that once done, they make great art-prints. Often family members come together to commission my art-quilts, and then purchase multiple art-prints of the finished work.  This is not only a great way to share your commission but appreciated as unique gifts.  Many of my studio art-quilts are sold as art-prints.  I'll share more about that in my next post as well as some larger pieces that I have designed around other found photos.

La mia Famiglia

 House of Maffei, art-quilt 28"x36"

Entitled  Italian Laundry

With modern as well as vintage photos referenced in my figurative work, I am fortunate to be surrounded by friends that travel quite a bit.  I often ask them to snap photographs that I can then manipulate for use in my artwork in a variety of ways.  The art-quilt entitled Italian Laundry, is a perfect example of doing just that.  When I was working on my American Family Album series I wanted to focus on our immigration from Italy in a couple of pieces.  Because my research for the series continuously resulted in lost tales and interesting stories, the old adage about hanging out ones dirty laundry kept creeping into my consciousness.  When I heard that a friend was traveling to Italy I specifically asked for photos referencing this subject.  I remember her surprise to find laundry hanging out in such a fashion everywhere she went.  From the poorest areas to the more affluent, she was not at a loss for subject matter.  This piece truly served as a grounding element for the entire series.

Interestingly enough she also snapped a picture of a street sign bearing the family name that, through the immigration process, had been manipulated and eventually lost to us.  Somewhere along the way, without an Irish ancestor in the bunch, Murphy had replace Maffei!  Only three generations later and no one had even questioned this obvious Irish name in the midst of our obvious Italian heritage.  When I began my research for this series I found old letters and photos in Italian apparently belonging to my great grandfather, along with his seaman book that recorded his entry from port to port.  I watched his name gradually change spelling from Maffei to Murphy as the years charted his travels.  The art-quilt to the right is my attempt to at least creatively restore our family name.  Among the imagery of laundry and an antique map of Italy rests a vintage photograph of my grandfather with his father and uncle, who I was to learn were seamen from Genoa.  Thanks to Nikki Vick for the wonderful images of laundry and the thoughtfulness to also snap a picture of the street sign bearing our long lost surname.

These family pieces still hang in my home and serve as inspiration for the commission pieces I offer others who also want to tell their own American Family Album story.

American Family Album series

Victor and /Frances, art-quilt, 28"x36"

Two more pieces from my American Family Album series..... In my previous blog post the little boy in the art-quilt entitled Maffei, is depicted above, all grown up.  When I consult with clients commissioning their own family art-quiilts I always make sure they are passionate about the imagery.  Often people bring me the highest quality photo they have of their subject, thinking this will work best for my creative process.  But believe me, I'd rather work with a less perfect snapshot and have the artwork truly speak to the heart.  My expertise in digital restoration can go a long way to helping those old photos.  And besides....it's art, much of the beauty is in the patina!  Personally, I love this photograph of my grandparents!  It was snapped prior to their simple wedding in Galveston, Texas, where they lived and raised their family.  My grandmother had been a very young widow with a small daughter.  Because of this she could truly relate to my own years as a single parent and we became very close, even living together for a time several years after my grandfather died.  I loved hearing her stories of their meeting and courtship.  My grandpa was wonderfully crazy about my grandmother and it showed!  I know that my idea of what constitutes 'a happy couple' comes from spending so much time around the two of them. My husband Phil is so like my grandpa in that way. When out of the blue he complements me for the tiniest things, I smile and think of my grandparents marriage.  Phil simply adores me...and I thank my grandparents for modeling that kind of love so that I could recognize it when it came my way.

My mother, portrayed in the next art-quilt, was the couples third and last child.  The central image in this piece was taken from a black and white engagement photo that always sat on her dresser along side a Navy photo of my father.  In the digital process of manipulating the central photo for printing on fabric, I purposefully chose odd, somewhat subtle hues of lavender, gray and green. Remember, this is art, have fun with the colors.  In commission pieces my clients have to trust where I take the imagery for the finished piece.  While I consult extensively with my clients before beginning, the photos speak very loudly to me during the creative process!   The ability to listen to where I am being guided by the work is central to my work, and I believe it is what makes my pieces so compelling.

Depicting my mother 'through the years' was my way of documenting the milestones in her life; childhood, confirmation, graduation, marriage and the last photo, from her seventieth birthday which was celebrated at the time I made this piece for my series.  There are a lot of creative ways to do this, but I wanted the central image to stand out prominently, so I chose a very simple straightforward approach with this art-quilt.  This piece is amazing in person and always receives rave reviews when exhibited.  Those wonderful 1950's style photos are so striking...but then so was my mom, so I know much of the excitement about this piece is because the subject is so captivating.  Recently I edited a video of my parents young years and each time my dad watched he would announce to anyone in the room "how beautiful my wife" was.  Indeed.

My hope is that these posts reviewing the American Family Album series helps those considering their own family commissions.  But I truly love it when someone shows up with nothing more than a stack of photos and treasured memories they want creatively conveyed. My best advise is this, don't over-think the commission.  Often the best part of my job is to assist clients through the process of coming up with the story that simply wants to unfold.  Personally I believe that it is those in the photos that primarily guide the creative process..... whether they are ever physically with me or not!  :)

Here's a few more from the series....

Art-Quilts

Dana Friis-Hanson, former director of  both the Houston and Austin Museums of Art,
pictured above left at the Quattro Gallery's Eye of the Needle II art-quilt show in Austin

I think the best way to begin this blog is to offer up a bit of info on art-quilts for those unfamiliar with this unique art-form.  Art-quilts are not the heavy, wonderful, hand-pieced blankets topping the mattresses at granny's house.  They are the bright, subtle, whimsical or serious pieces of fiber art that's rapidly gaining interest for both collectors and artisans around the world.  When it comes to art-quilts there are as many styles as there are artists.  Art-quilts range from traditionally pieced, appliqued, and quilted, to hand painted, or digitally generated fabrics that are often heavily quilted and embellished.  These fantastic works of art are finding their place in galleries, museums, private and corporate collections.  The photo above is from one of my own gallery shows here in Austin.  That's Dana Friis-Hanson above, taking in some of my work, when he served as director of the Austin Museum of Art.  Respecting his vast knowledge of art, when he took me aside to comment on the "whimsical and unexpected sophistication" of my work, needless to say I was speechless with delight. Below are more pics from the show.