Exhibit News

Last summer I wrote about a piece I had planned to enter into Quilt National. I didn't enter it because it was too big. You can read more about that here. This is the piece, it's 11 feet wide.



I hung it at my solo show in October and had little hope of it being displayed any place else because it's just so big. When filling out the entry form for the Quilt Surface Design International exhibitions, I added it as my afterthought piece. You know, the throw-in because you can enter X number of pieces, so why not enter something just to get your money's worth? Well, I received notification yesterday that it has been chosen to hang at the Columbus Cultural Arts Center starting in May. Graffiti aka "Too Big for Quilt National" will be seen by the Quilt National audience, or at least a lot of them.

I've been getting alot of mail lately. I volunteered to be the collection point for entries for SAQA's A Sense of Humor show. Yesterday the mailman knocked on my door to get a signature for a piece that came all the way from Japan. And he had a bunch more packages. I expect to get lots more today and into next week. Today (correction - yesterday January 30) is the postmark deadline and February 6 is the receipt deadline. It's been interesting to see the different methods people use to send their stuff. Most have come by US Mail, with first class postage ($1.51). Some add a delivery confirmation to that. Some send via Priority Mail, with or without delivery confirmations. Some come by UPS. So far nothing has come via FedEx. Myself, I always go for the cheapest method, especially when it's a postmark deadline. Anyhow, I told the mailman this would continue for a few more days...

Fabric - more soy wax

Thanks for the birthday wishes.

More results from soy wax batik sessions. This design was done using a tjap that I got from DharmaTrading. I always start off with too much wax and my first impressions are a little blobby and then they get more delicate, sort of. The original color on this fabric was green and I painted over it with red. Idaho Beauty asked about the fabric paint I use. I'm not real particular so I use whatever I have available. Mostly it's Setacolor and paint from ProChem (I think they call it textile ink). I dilute it with water until it's about the consistency of milk. I want to be able to spread it easily and not have it change the hand of the fabric. I also always wipe any excess off the wax impressions because the paint will work its way through the wax and into the fabric. This water solubility of the wax is both a plus and a minus.


A combination of odd things from Home Depot and a kitchen utensil were used to make these impressions. The fabric was orange-ish and the paint green-ish.


A kitchen utensil that looks like a sieve with a handle, I would guess it's for scooping solid stuff out of liquids. It's bowl shaped so that I don't get a clear impression, which I like alot. The small grid is a drain cover from the hardware store made out of pvc. You can use any material that will hold heat long enough to keep the wax melted.


And this is the drop cloth that was underneath the fabrics. These always turn out to be so cool!


Yesterday was my family birthday celebration. My daughter made me this Kitty Litter cake and I think it's pretty funny. The brown things are Tootsie Rolls. When they're heated they get pliable and can be shaped. The cake is a combination of white cake and yellow cake and some green food coloring. It involves baking the cake, crumbling it up, and putting it into the (new and unused) pan. And supplying a scoop (also new and unused). The kids thought it was so cool to be eating this gross thing, especially my almost 8 year old grandson. Must have been thought up by the mother of a little boy.



Today I created a Facebook page. I'm not sure whether it will turn out to be a good networking device or a gigantic time sink. Come visit.

What a Day!

Yesterday, of course! I watched the inauguration on TV with friends. Even though DC is only 45 miles away I do not have the fortitude to stand out in 20 degree weather for hours and hours. And with all the reports on the expected traffic and crowds, well, that's why TV was invented. Kudos to all those who went and braved the elements and stood for hours just to be there and be a part of history.

It was a great feeling to be rid of the leadership of the last 8 years. I cannot think of anything the previous administration did that I thought was a good idea. Enough said.

I've been playing with soy wax batik for that past few days. It always takes a bit of warm up to get back into the swing of things and remember all the things that work and don't work. I forgot that metallic paints don't work very well at all, and I think it's because of the opacity. Somehow, opaque paints seem to sit more on the top of the fabric and the paints need to sink in. This piece of fabric had teal blue metallic paint all over it and as you can see, none of it remains. It all came off in the wash.



Which is okay, because it looks better without it. I have some more ready to be laundered and of course there is the drop cloth which is always the most interesting piece.

Wish me Happy Birthday! Today is the day, cold and wintry. I think I was born in the wrong hemisphere, because I would have preferred a summer birthday.

Vote for me please!

This is a blatant plea for votes:


The Baker Artists Awards celebrate Baltimore's artists on the Web with an ongoing exhibition of its diverse artistic practice, and the Mary Sawyer Baker Prize will establish Baltimore’s reputation as a creatively rich and vital place to live with a civic commitment to value its individual artists.
Please take a minute to visit my work on the Baker Artist Awards web site. As a Baltimore artist, I am eligible to win the significant Mary Sawyers Baker Prize or maybe bragging rights as Baltimore’s Choice. Either way, please follow the link and vote for me... and, if you live in Baltimore, you could also Nominate your own work! Now GO sign-up and vote www.bakerartistawards.org

Visit my nomination, register, and cast your vote!

Thanks!

After posting my list of achievements for 2008 I remembered one more, duh. A solo show at the Glenview Mansion Art Gallery in Rockville, MD. It was only last October, you would think that I could have remembered something that only happened two months ago....

And look at what has finally returned home - my journal quilt that has been traveling with "A Page from My Book", the Journal Quilt Project book. I never got the email checking my address and so the Quilts, Inc. people never sent it back. It wasn't until I emailed them to ask where it was that they asked me to verify my address and it showed up a few days later. I'm adding it to the Art For Sale page.

And good news, another purchase order from Artful Home from the Studio Sale.

In Review

Remembering what when on in 2008 is difficult. I can pull up official things like shows and suchlike but other less obvious things sort of fall by the wayside. Probably ought to write this stuff down.

So, the major stuff:
Juried Shows:
Amazing Art Quilts, Staunton, VA
Central Penn Festival of the Arts, Penn State U, State College, PA
Maryland Art Place Critics' Residency, Baltimore, MD
Materials Hard and Soft, Denton, TX
Quilts=Art=Quilts, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn, NY
SAQA Transformations 08
Threadlines, Missouri State Univeristy, Springfield, MO

Group Shows:
New Image: Marymount Hardware, Alexandria, VA
New Image: Rehoboth Art League, Rehoboth, DE
Fiber Artists of Baltimore: Columbia Art Center, Columbia, MD
Acceptance into Quilt National 2009 (I'm going to milk this one for quite a while)

Sales:
2 sales and 1 commission, all through ArtFul Home, maybe I ought to consider putting an ad into one of their publications

Donations:
QSDS Scholarship Auction (sold for $300, thanks, Teri!)
SAQA One Foot Square Auction (sold for $250, thanks, Gerrie!)

Teaching
2 teaching stints and 1 lecture

Award:
Amazing Art Quilts, Juror's choice

Publications:
Critics' Residency Catalog
SAQA Transformations 08 Catalog
SAQA PAM Portfolio

Going over the books for the past year, I figure that it cost approximately $70 per show that I was juried into, this includes entry fees and shipping. Does not include the time spent on photography and preparing entries. I have drastically reduced the number of shows that I enter for several reasons - it's expensive, it doesn't seem to work very well as a venue for sales, and I'm not sure it's worth the effort. If my goal is to sell my work, the money spent might be better spent in some other style, perhaps advertising. And I can explore other methods of getting my work in front of the buying public.

Which leads me right into the reminder to visit my Art for Sale blog. I've put up two different series of works:

	A selection of quilts from the Journal series, which I started as part of the Journal Quilt Project. I've only included a few of the pieces as some of them are better off stored in the closet.
	The Ventanas Series is the starting point for the series I'm currently revisiting. These are the first 5 pieces I did and some became the image sources for thermofax screens.

Happy New Year!