Well it's done. Penelope is unveiled! I spoke last post of playdates and how loosening up is so good for the art. It is not, however, good for the office. I tell you, people, if my normal process is messy, mixed media has taken the mess exponential. I am adrift in a sea of buttons, thread, fabric, metallic paint, water-based oil paint, scissors, newspaper, a drill (?!) and wood. Ouch. I SWEAR that after this blog post I will clean my office. I have no choice. I teach tomorrow, and if I don't I'll never be able to find my stuff!
So I also wanted to talk about being open, and how the universe- God- however you call that loud voice that directs you- puts you on a path when you're open that you never expected. For example, I went to a quilt show. Now, I have never been exactly the quilty type. Not that I don't appreciate quilts, they have just not really ever been on my radar. Then I experienced a really weird sequence of events that ended me up at the Road To California quilt show with some amazing women.
First signpost was Judy Coates- Perez's blog- www.judycoatesperez.com. Check out the Making of the Eight Cups. I was google-searching images about a year ago for an illustration I was working on and came upon this piece. I was blown away- I thought she was an illustrator but she is a quilter. The kind of work she does is the kind of work I see being done in Photoshop right now, lots of texture and layering. She does it in a tactile way though, and I was really intrigued. She paints, stamps metal, draws, layers and sews. I am not a good collager, so I have been looking at her work as a source of inspiration. Then...next signpost- I needed vacuum cleaner bags last week. I went to my local Sew-Vac store and went in the Sew side as opposed to the Vac side. Oooooh. Pretty fabric! I stopped to admire it, and was greeted by the sweetest quilt shop woman you will ever meet. By the time I had the vacuum bags I was signed up for a quilting class. Final signpost, I had to assist at a funeral at my church the next day, and one of the women who was helping me told me she was going to a quilt show. I found out that Judy Coates- Perez- this woman whose blog I've been following- was going to be there. It was settled. They let me tag along to Ontario.
I took a bunch of pictures because I was so blown away by what I saw. I love stories, and so many of these quilts told stories. There were also amazing quilts made the traditional way as well and the genius was in the color choices and the meticulous crafting. But the quilts I took pictures of were all different from this. The three quilts I am posting here are:
Midtown A by K. Velis Turan of Earlton, NY
Bird's Eye View: New York Avenue, Beach Haven, Long Island Beach by Sherry Davis Kleinman of Pacific Palisades, CA
Climbing to Higher Ground by Rodi S Ludlum of Oak Park, CA
I am really enjoying being back in touch with sewing skills, with fabric, with wood. I don't know where all of this will lead and I don't know if it matters anyway. Creativity flows where it's allowed to. Now to clean my office...
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