Another solo show....

An update from Debbie

Last Friday was definitely "Davidson Day." Nancy was in Davidson, NC being feted at a reception for her show at the Wooden Stone Gallery. And I was on North Davidson Street in Charlotte (also known as "NoDa") enjoying the mid-August gallery crawl that included my solo show at Beet Contemporary Craft and Functional Art Gallery.

Beet is a lovely space featuring an eclectic and a wonderfully beautiful mix of jewelry, glass, ceramics, wood, metal, and fiber arts.

And owner Nancy Neely is incredibly generous in inviting artists to mount month-long shows in the middle room of the gallery.

There was a good crowd on Friday night -- with folks wandering in and out of the galleries, munching on snacks and relaxing with a little wine.

The show's title, "Stitched: An Artquilt Journey," probably says it all. It's a sampling of quilts (and styles) that I've been doing over the past few years.

There's a wall (and then some) of abstracts:





(I've got some new abstracts as part of the show...I'll plan to report on them in another post....)

There's also a wall of "urban images:"

These fiber pieces feature photos of some iconic Charlotte (NC) hangouts.

The hangouts are gathering places that cross color and class lines -- where bankers mix with bikers and lawyers share a beer with construction workers.

The images that have been transferred to fabric and made up into quilts (either free hanging, or framed)

And finally, there's a wall of photomosaic quilts (I'm "posing" in this one -- hot, sweaty and a bit pooped after helping to hang the show):




The newest photomosaics are the first two in the picture -- They're titled "Out of the Mouths of Babes." (one is "Tomato Lips" and the other is "Grape Lips" --- guess which one is which....)

I've been thinking about these quilts for a while (and probably working on them even longer).

As you can see... from a distance, the image is of a pair of lips


























A close-up view shows that the quilt is actually made up of small 1/2 x 1/2" photos of women...from Jane Austen to Miss Piggy to Benazir Bhutto to Babe Zacharias (one of the first female golf pros).

(This photo shows a section of the unquilted surface)

















On the back of the quilt is a photo key/index that shows each woman, some information about her, and a quote attributed to her.

Because I got to be "Queen of the World" (or at least "Queen Quiltmaker") while making the quilt, I picked the women and quotes that appealed to me -- because they were poignant, thought-provoking, inspiring, or just plain funny. It's been an interesting journey.

I'll end this entry with a small sampling of some of my favorites:

"When I sing, I don't want them to see that my face is black. I don't want them to see that my face is white. I want them to see my soul. And that is colorless."
Marian Anderson - 1st African American Metropolitan Opera singer and star.

"A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water."
Eleanor Roosevelt - Humanitarian, American 1st Lady

"I would be the most content if my children grew up to the be kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves."
Anna Quindlen - Writer, Journalist

"My doctors told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother."
Althea Gibson - Athlete (track)

"It's not enough just to swing at the ball. You've got to loosen your girdle and let 'er fly."
Babe Zacharias - Athlete (golf)

Cheers to all,

Debbie

A stretch to realism - from janet's studio

The Fiber Art Options group meet today, and I had to miss the meeting. It made me sad that I didn't have a chance to visit with the group and share about all of our new work. So here is my August update.

A friend once said that I went to food markets like other people went to museums - it is true. Whenever I go to a new city I have to scope out the food markets, of course in Seattle and all over the US but also in France, Italy, Mexico, Spain, and Japan. Sometimes this makes the people I travel with crazy - why spend a half day looking at lettuce, cheese, and olives, why in deed, but we always have a great time and learn about new foods and customs.

Last week I went to the farmer's market near my house with the camera and took a bunch of photos and brought back a few bags full of avocados, tomatoes, carrots, radishes, mushrooms etc. I love to arrange still life compositions on the wooden cutting boards and bowls that live on my kitchen island - these give me inspiration to chop, saute, and cook - but these images rarely find their way into my fiber art.

The past few months I have been sewing almost exclusively on paper. Most recently, I have been playing around quite a bit with sewn paper collages using handmade papers that I stain with watercolors and dyes. The paper gets torn up, arranged, repainted, and then machine sewn to a heavy paper foundation. Quick and fun to do. I had planned to spend some time in the studio working on collages when I decided to use one of the still life photos from the farmers market as inspiration. Here is the first veggie still life.

Feed back anyone?? (be kind - I don't do art that are supposed to look "like" things as a rule)

Fall classes

Susan and Janet are teaching online classes on Joggles.com in November. For details, click on the red “Classes” button in the sidebar on the right-hand side of this blog, or click here to go directly to that post.


House Rules by Susan Brubaker Knapp


Embellished Travel Journal by Janet A. Lasher

PJ's Latest Orchid Piece

I chose this yellow orchid from my array of orchid photos primarily because I knew I had several yellow and green fabrics in the stash to use in Ruth McDowell style piecing. Here's the photo with pattern lines added (using Quilt Assistant software ... see http://www.cosman.nl/software_en.html).

And here is my progress so far. The piecing is more tedious that I had hoped, so this may be my last piece in this style!

-PJ-

Soy Wax Fabrics

A few weeks ago I had another go at soy wax (1st foray was in Janet's workshop). This time though I decided to play with layers.

I had some dye left over from a recent dye day and needed to use them up. After soaking the PDF in soda ash and letting it dry I stamped my first layer of soy wax with a foam leaf stamp and painted the fabric with chartreuse dye.


After 2 more layers of soy wax and dye painting I ended up with the dark green layer at right.

The last thing I wanted to do was to create a crackle effect. I did this by painting the whole piece of fabric with soy wax, letting it set up, scrunched the whole thing into a ball (see below),

then painted with Havana Brown dye and left it to dry.


I like the effect the crackle produced and will definitely try that process again.


The extra crackling you see was due to not believing the dye would reach the fabric under the thick layer of soy wax and scrunching the fabric a second time. Still, a great piece that I definitely will be using soon.

Here are 2 more fabrics from that soy wax layers session....




~ K. Grace Howes

Nancy’s work installed at Wooden Stone Gallery

from Nancy G. Cook

Don and I spent Thursday morning at Wooden Stone Gallery in Davidson NC installing my work as their Featured Artist for August. Wooden Stone is one of my favorite galleries featuring usable art. We have been shopping at the gallery for years and have found lots of work that we loved and brought home. It is a real thrill to be their featured artist for August.

Here are some photos from the installation. I Love the warm gold walls and how well all the art looks on them.


This photo shows two of my pieces, Mimosa Dancing and Sourwood Festoons, over some really interesting hand crafted furniture.


The photo above gives the display of five of my wall pieces and shows some of the smaller pieces available as well. Two of my newest pieces are on the wall here. The upper right piece was Best of Show – Small at the Charlotte Quilters’ Guild Show in 2009 which was another first and a great honor.


I love the combination of wall pieces with the pottery in this display. It really shows how well different art mediums work together.

There is a Meet and Greet the Artist scheduled for Friday, Aug. 21, 2009 from 6-9 p.m. If you are close by, I hope to meet you there.

An Update from Linda

Have been working on the blue orchid quilt for our orchid project. Still have a long way to go but colors have been chosen. Orchids and leaves will be very three dimensional (hopefully).

I decided to take a break from orchids and play with my felting machine to create "Undercurrents". I used my soy wax batik fabric from Janet's class, enhanced with silk and wool roving and highlighted with Shiva oil paint sticks and heavy quilting.

I am very excited for I leave tomorrow morning for Fall River, Massachusetts to take a Kerr Grabowski Screen Printing class. Will post details later. -Linda-

Post from Nancy

Thought it would be fun to share progress on my two latest pieces. I Have been working hard to get ready for 2 shows, details will come later. One opens in Davidson, NC next Thursday. One opens in Chapel Hill, NC Sunday Labor Day Weekend.

The first piece is Late Summer Dawn, featuring the wonderful crepe myrtle seed pods. Here are the threads initially pulled for quilting and a detail of the piece.

Aren’t the seed pods wonderful and equally as interesting as their fluffy flowers (flowers not shown)?

The next piece is of a little evergreen ground cover found at our local shopping center. As best I can figure it, it is a form of juniper. The bluish forms are not berries, but a young form of a seed cone. Seeds and fruit forms are endlessly fascinating to me and are continuing to feed my creativity. If anyone recognizes the genus, please let me know. Enjoy!

Do you like the un-quilted forms in the background? Let me know what you think, please.

Nancy

Nancy's Latest

Hi, I am so proud I could pop!! My husband launched a website created by Holly Knott that features his art made on gourd strata. If you enjoy sculptural work, check it out. http://donfaires.com. This piece is called Ta Nish and is a 5 foot high rattle/walking stick.

I promise to keep my future blog updates fiber related, but could not resist sharing his good news. He has always supported my art and work, so seems only fair to share my pride in his.

-- Nancy --

A newcomer's entry...

from Deborah Langsam

As a "newbie" to Fiber Art Options (not to mention blogging...), a post on a new venture seemed apropos...

It all started with a bag of rice purchased at a local East-Indian grocery store in Charlotte. The rice - which was wonderful - was gone and I was left with an illustrated fabric bag: colorful and a bit funky.

.

I couldn't bear to toss it out. So with a nod to traditional flour/feed sack quilting, frugality (courtesy of Depression-era parents), and eco-friendliness, it is evolving into a beaded wall-hanging.


My initial thought was to mount it, complete with handle, on a background -- perhaps even stuffing it to give it the 3 dimensionality of a bag still being used for it's original intent. I haven't shut the door on that possibility. Since the bag is illustrated on front and back, a second lovely lady - this one including handle - still waits for me.

For now, however, I've taken a different route. I cut out the central motif and appliqued it onto a background of red, green, and black; I'm beading it for a more "Bollywood" effect. What you see below are pictures of the partially finished project...

Of course, the problem with beading is to figure out when to stop...and now I'm tempted to cover everything with beads (which also means beads appearing singly, in pairs, and in little groups on nearly every surface of the house...the bead explosion). What started out as "quick" project has, predictably, taken on a life of it's own.

As far as titles...there are two that are currently in the running:

"Recycling is the Mother of Invention"
"Bollywood Rice"

I'll keep you posted on progress...I'm glad to be on board.

Debbie

Susan’s first orchid piece

This is the start of a new piece I am working on for Fiber Art Options’ group exhibition. All the pieces will feature orchids. We are hoping to turn this into a travelling exhibition when we finish early next year.

Several of us in the group took hundreds of orchid photos at several locations, and shared them with the group. Together, we picked this photo to use as inspiration or a jumping-off point for each of us to create one 12x18" piece:



I chose to zoom in tight on the amazing color and pattern on the orchid’s petals. I started by cropping a photo that showed the petals from a more straight-on angle on my computer, then sizing it to the required 12x18", printing it out on paper, and putting it on my light board. A piece of white Kona Cotton fabric went on top, and then I lightly traced the lines (using very soft lead in a mechanical pencil) from the photo onto the fabric.

Next, I taped it to my kitchen countertop (which is ancient laminate and can be easily scrubbed clean) and painted with Jacquard Textile Color, brushing the lines in with thick paint, and then with a brush loaded with lots of water to create the bleeding out and blotchiness. I used the same hot pink color on everything, but watered down in some spots, except for the tiniest bit of yellow on the edge of the lip.

The open areas will be another color, something dark. I’m very eager to get this under my sewing machine needle and thread paint it!

I have always loved orchids for their exotic looks. They seema curious mix of exquisite beauty and delicacy and something darker, more dangerous. Don’t the mouth parts look like they could open up and chomp you? (Well, maybe I watched “Little Shop of Horrors” too many times!) But I stopped having them in my house after a beloved cat ate some of the bark chips that they grow in, and developed Histoplasmosis, an infection caused by the fungus Histoplasma capsulatum that can live in decaying plant matter. By the time we discovered what was wrong, it was too late, and I had to have him put down.

When I work on a piece based on something in the natural world, I usually do some research on it, so I can understand it better. It makes the whole creative process more meaningful. According to a great website called Beautiful Orchids, the orchid family has 35,000 species and 60,000 registered hybrids, and has “far more diversity and specialized pollination methods than any other flowering plant.” Vanilla is made from the seed pods of one variety.

– Susan Brubaker Knapp

ArtQuiltTransitions is now in Cary NC

The ArtQuiltTransitions traveling show has moved to Cary, NC at the Page Walker Arts & History Center. Here are three of my pieces in the show. The one on the left won Juror’s Choice from Susan Brandeis. What an incredible thrill for her to like my work. She is such a wonderful quilter and instructor. To see my post with more photos from this show’s opening in April, click here.

Page-Walker Arts & History Center
119 Ambassador Loop, Cary, NC 27512
Tel: 919-460-4963
Thursday, June 25 - Saturday, August 22, 2009

– Nancy G. Cook

Classes

Here’s a schedule of current and upcoming classes taught by members of Fiber Art Options:


House Rules
with Susan Brubaker Knapp
Online at Joggles.com
Starts Nov. 3; $50 for five lessons.


Embellished Travel Journal and Memory Book
with Janet Lasher
Online at Joggles.com
Starts Nov. 12; $38 for three lessons.

Fiber Art Options welcomes two new members

Last month, Fiber Art Options brought two new members into the group: K. Grace Howes and Deborah Michael Langsam. You can read more about them in the posts that follow this one. Welcome, y’all! – Susan

Deborah Michael Langsam

“Circuitous” might be the word to describe Deborah’s path to art. The colors, shapes, and textures of fungal spores led her to a doctorate in botany from Duke University and a career as a biologist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. After twenty two years her attraction to the visual and tactile took a different turn … this time in the direction of textiles.

Working now as “Barking Dog Fiber Art,” Deborah creates contemporary wall-hangings and fiber art wearables. Her wall-hangings combine traditional quilting techniques and fabrics with an array of unique materials — photo transfers, beads, and found objects — to form original contemporary designs that play with color, texture, and light. Many of her pieces incorporate urban images and some of her most recent works draw on these images to form fabric mosaics and landscapes.

“Fiber art marries two of my passions … science and art,” says Deborah. “At the core, science and art projects are pretty similar: you usually need a little precision, a bunch of trial-and-error experimentation, and then a whole lot of creative problem-solving. And just as in science - where there’s always a story behind a discovery – there’s also always a story behind the fabric and stitching.”

In addition to private collections across the country, Deborah’s work can be found at Maddi’s Gallery and at Beet Contemporary Crafts & Functional Art (both in Charlotte, NC). The proceeds from Barking Dog Fiber Art are donated to SupportWorks, a non-profit charity in Charlotte, NC that helps people find and form support groups and research medical information.

E-MAIL: dmlangsa@uncc.edu


Havdalah I (2007) 20" x 20"


Tikkun Olam II (2006) 15" x 44"


Under the Watchful Eye of Queen Charlotte (2009) 28" x 46"


Under the Watchful Eye of Queen Charlotte detail (2009) 28" x 46"


Me'irah's Quilt: Study of Torah is Equal to Them All (2007) 33" x 22"


Driving Up to the Penguin (2008) 25" x 58"


I Wish I Had a River (2007) 15" x 39"


I Wish I Had a River detail

K. Grace Howes

“I have always been fascinated by fabric – it’s texture, its versatility, its ability to be manipulated and still be a tactile piece of woven material.”

K. Grace Howes has worked with fiber for most of her life, first making garments for clients in her native Bahamas then, with a family move to North Carolina, shifting her focus to quilts. This shift in how she worked with fabric eventually evolved into the fiber art pieces she now produces.

Grace’s work is a process of exploration whereby she creates pieces that are mostly abstract in nature using colour and form in a non-representational way. As she describes it “I play endlessly with line and shape, letting a piece speak to me as I try to map out its formation.”

These days you can find Grace in her studio making quilted artworks, playing with paper and fabric to produce her handmade journals and sketchbooks or up to her elbows dyeing or adding surface design to fabric.

With her fascination for colour, deeply rooted in her cultural history, and a connection and adherence to her own spiritual authenticity, Grace’s journey in art making is a never ending process.

WEBSITE: www.redbarn-studios.com
BLOG: http://www.redbarn-studios.com/blog/
ETSY: www.redbarnstudios.etsy.com
E-MAIL: grace@redbarn-studios.com


Red Moon (2009) 17-1/2" x 19"


Mother Love (2008) 29" x 25"


GreenPiece (2008) 10" x 9"


The Place to Be (2007) 11" x 9"


Breathe (2009) journal

What next?

I think I am almost done with the embroidery on this piece. I have really enjoyed working on it, and it was the perfect thing for me to take to the beach last week; very portable and small. I have decided to call it “Petri Dish Promenade,” because the circles are starting to look more and more like the circular petri dishes used to cultivate bacteria in the lab. Now I have to decide how I am going to finish this piece. I'm considering a frame of pieced hand-dyed fabrics.

The entire piece is shown above, and a detail shot is below. You can see more info and detail photos on my blog here.