Friday Fragments Flowing Faithfully

I am currently following a wonderful Whispering Hearts with the wonderful Jude Hill and below are some of the works I am doing and influenced by the fabulous work that she does. I know that mine seem a lot different then hers but she is an inspiring and thought provoking woman. You can see the work of many of her students here.

Yes there is a cross in my heart. Thats about all that needs to be said. I think this one will evolve.
I have been looking in the mailbox every day this week hoping for a pkg. from a wonderful textile artist Arlee. I am pretty sure that I found her blog from Jude Hills blog Spirit Cloth. Arlee has taken some online courses with Jude. I was so excited to get the book because it was an eco dyeing book. So I opened the envelope and took out the book and then opened the front of the book and was shocked to see two beautiful pieces of fabric tucked just inside. I have to say I was very overwhelmed by finding these in the book and I just can't express to you how overwhelmed i was. I was gasping .. oooooooooo..... and to see the stitches and the work and the dyeing and I just kept saying .. ooooooo haha .. I wasn't expecting to have these and my reaction was even surprising to me. I just couldn't get over that she had stitched the cloth and put together these lovely fabrics to stitch on. It was an amazingly powerful feeling of gratitude and blissful blessing. I know I am gushing about this but honestly I was so impressed and delighted to have these cloths not to mention the  fabulous book. So please pop over to Arlee's blog and see the wonderful things she's doing there. No doubt she is already well known to most of the followers of Jude.
So ... tonight I am going to read the book and gaze at my new pieces of a loveliness as I go off to sleep tonight. Thanks Arlee... love everything!!

Monday Mounds of Making

On top the long field of blue images is of my stitching results while taking a whispering hearts online class. I am learning many things and enjoying the interactions with all the people that follow the sewing blog and participate in the class. Lots of inspiration there.

It seems that I am always doing something and it never seems to be just one thing continually just many of several things. haha. I just can't seem to focus on doing one subject matter or media.

So what I am showing here under the sewing are some photos of a church birdhouse. Every year a local non-profit group called Homes for Hope does a fund raiser to help house people. They ask local artists to decorate/paint the birdhouses. This year I took two birdhouses, one church and one house. I thought I'd post the results of my efforts. I added the trees because I am still loving the drawing of trees. I also painted some jewels on the steeple just because I could. I'd been looking at some books on jewelry antiquities. I thought they were beautiful so I just added them to my church. Inside I wrote out a poem that I found in an old piece of sheet music and because I just thought it was beautiful. And I painted it all with gesso inside and then covered it all over with walnut ink and then in clear mat medium. Also the imagery inside on the ceiling of the church came from another piece of sheet music. Sometimes the illustrations and borders on them are quite elaborate. I'll post the other bird house tomorrow. Oh and with this church birdhouse I also donated a framed tree painting of mine.

Saturday Rays Rust a Rising

Well today finally the weather has warmed a bit and there is some sunshine which I am so grateful for. I am tired of the rainy dreary days as much as we may need the rain. Before the week of raininess I decided to take a cloth that I have worked on for some six months and had pretty much left outside for that entire time. I had tried just leaving this cloth on some rusted metal thinking that it would over time add rust to the cloth with only water or the elements being involved. I would periodically go and check on it and nothing much would happen/change. So I decided to do something in the south we call Hep It. haha .. I decided recently to go ahead and add vinegar to the mix and to wrap it in some plastic so as not to have the moisture evaporate so quickly. I did this before the rain and it's been raining for a little over a week here so thats how long it's been. I have gone out a few times in the dreariness to turn the package over just to let things change up a bit. Today was the unveiling, unwrapping the revealing of the treasure. Thats what it always feels like to me. Ofcourse I was delighted with the results. Rich tones of rusty reddish browns and areas where I have added something to act as a resist and not .. i know that seems obscure but hey .. it's exciting. I took a huge quantity of photos of this cloth and it's not small its about 8 feet x 10 feet. What I am struck by is that several of the photos of portions of the cloth are so interesting to me that they stand on their own as small works. I'm not quite sure what to do with them yet but I'm posting a few of them here to see if any of you lurkers that stop by will have anything to say of them. I love the texture and the effect. I am so amazed and yet reminded yet again how there is so much beauty in this form of degradation. That is what I get out of this. A reminder of words written by a friend that said "break my heart beautiful" and my friend that wrote a book on forgiveness that "nothing is more whole than a broken heart." Which all of this reminds me of.. this isn't broken cloth but it is a breaking down of fibers and an addition of metal that is breaking down infusing itself onto the cloth in a way that I am compelled to look and stair long stairs at. Below are some of the areas that were the most interesting to me of cropped portions of photos of this cloth of rust.

Thursday Through Way

A new addiction is budding in me. I have read about using copper as mordant and I recently purchased a piece of copper for fifty cents at a nearby thrift store. I cut it apart and placed a piece of vinegar soaked cloth on top of this ring on a piece of paper hoping to catch some of the color onto the paper. It's sitting on a metal cookie sheet so I got a double dip of color rust and copper onto the paper but I was most amazed with is the beauty of the green from the copper. It is so bright and beautiful and then I can't go with out being reminded that this is created due to degradation. Which then reminds me of earlier posts on the beauty in brokenness. I suppose that the real awareness is that I am growing older every day and as I muddle through the difficulties and joys of life I am aware of how my body is breaking down. I fell the other day on the way into a thrift store. What was remarkable was that a young man near by that was doing construction work ran over and asked if I was ok. This rather surprised me and I didnt respond right away but he still stood there. He just kept asking over and over if I was ok. He asked if I hurt my hip and I said no I hit my knee and I rolled up onto the knees and steadied myself to make the ascension to an upright position haha ... and he said "you got it?" I said I will take your hand thank you. And with that he offered me his hand and I pulled myself with his help up. I straightened my clothes as I was telling him thank you so much for coming over and even asking about me and he was walking away telling me .. no problem, just glad your ok. And suddenly I thought how silly to have tripped over a curb and am I really just getting old and absentminded? The main thought was I'M OLD! I'm really not that old but I am a grandma. So a lot of time has passed. I don't think that we go around thinking about the passing of time every day but just when milestones or events happen that sort of cause us to think about it. I survived with nothing broken a slight bruise to the knee and one elbow and more bruise to my mind knowing that life will bring me more frailties as i age but with it hopefully more wisdom and acceptance and with that peace and serenity. No I'm not giving into old age, I went out and purchased a bike to get myself into some better shape so if I should fall it won't be with a lot of weight behind it. And a push mower YEAH!!! to have a reliable method of trimming the grass when I can't or don't wish to fix my gas powered mower. ANd this will also give me more exercise. And in between I will continue to play with dye's and fabric and drawing trees or little girls, dogs or what ever else is my fancy. I will forever be creator artist remaker of things that make me happy. For me I am grateful to care less and less what others think and to make my own way what ever way that is. Today there is much beauty in degraded copper, there is so much more yet to explore. I will share what I can of those travels. Blessed day to all you who stop to look.

Tuesday Twisted Telling

This is a photo of a tree painting that I did last year but never photographed. I totally love the look of the walnut stained paper. It's an early morning mistiness that feels sort of dream like. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a dream and I wonder when I'm going to wake up.

I woke up early this morning and fell back asleep. I woke up very upset that this very large and apparently very talented bug could not be contained in jar. Funny I have been thinking about this dream throughout the morning trying to understand what it means to me and just as I have typed this here I had a thought. I've always considered dreams to be all aspects of myself and when I referred to the bug as creative I thought maybe I am the bug. Strong and persistent and refusing to be held under a glass jar. But there I was trying with all my might to put the bug inside and he was at times bug and at times interesting little creature. But what woke me up was that I was most upset that I couldn't get it in there and bug was going to get out. I was afraid of what it might do when I really don't know if it was bad or not. Either way .. maybe more insight just posting it here .. I am also always trying to experiment. I really do enjoy playing with rust and stain and bleach. An interesting combination of things. Also I have a dilema. I am trying to clear out a few things that I have been storing in my kitchen. I can just bag them up and take them to the thrift store. I promised myself and a friend that I would do this today so that I would perhaps be more motivated to follow through. But as I look at all again I think of something that I can do with the fabric.. yes most of it is fabric or cloths of some kind. I certainly don't "need" any of it but .. i seem to want to do something with everything. Maybe I will be go back to something I said I would do last year and document it and maybe some how that will justify keeping it. haha .. all crazy things I tell myself. I have no attachment to the things just a feeling that I "might" use it for something creative. Well... I'll try it again and see what happens. Here are two experiments that I have ... I had these two great shapes of cardboard that were inside of some cheap frames that I recently bought and wanted to paint something on them. I wanted to see how some of the white on white would translate a bit bigger. Here they are;

I am mostly interested in how the color shows through the white paint. Something about this intrigues me. The one on the left is not really anatomically correct but I wasn't worried so much about it but I guess there is this part of me that still wants some level of perfection ... aaaccckkkk.... sometimes I can throw out that thinking and make whatever.

Anyway .. my Tuesday moment of messages.I feel scattered today...

Also I'm frustrated thinking that I like to do so many different types of creating and I just find I am so critical of myself for not picking one area. Maybe I should have called this my Tuesday Day of Dilemas. ...

Monday Mind Mining

Well can't give you a good reason why I just can't seem to get here every single day. I certainly have the time. There is just this part of me that wants to pour the words in here and just say whats on my brain but .. then you can't take it back. I don't think it matters that much but mining my mind can sometimes dig up some pretty strange things, thoughts, ideas or words. I am always wanting to share my feelings but then I guess in some ways it's like sharing paintings or sewings or writings .. you can either comment or not. I think I just want to say the words so they'll leave my mind mining less cluttered or messy from all the feelings that seem to want to stick to the inside of my heart. Maybe thats it .. just obscure the thoughts or feelings in really silly rhymes or just paint them or shoot them with a camera. Maybe some day I'll just figure it out and let it be what it needs to be.

I can't seem to pin down one single theme of work. I struggle with this notion that I should focus on one or maybe even just two different things to create as an artist. I love to paint different subject matter or with different mediums. I enjoy doing things with cloth and texture and discharge and dye. Sewing and stitching and writing stories.

I sometimes really just get out of the box in my former mindset and do some things that I would have never done. So here is a painting that I did on the top of some discharged fabric. This really excited me because I can't seem to stop looking at it. I never know why these things occur or if they are just my very own personal fascination with texture and the way that I can use paint. I am thinking a series of these would be very interesting.

Tuesday Today is a New Day

Well it's been a while since I have posted. I got sick with a bad cold and I just didnt have the energy and sometimes inertia slows and momentum fails .. and the pendulem swings back the other way .. so I've been out for a while. I have however still been creating while laying around. I can't go long with out creating something .. I have too .. I just do. Lately, I have been obsessing over white and white dots.
I like the look on her face and just stylized her hair .. anyway .. i enjoyed doing this.












The baby on the right .. just wanted to have the white on white look .. it was an experiment. It looks better in real life then in the photo.

And below are more white on antique paper. I love that shade of yellowish brown as the ground for painting images.

And I still can't go with out using the walnut ink. I've been doing these too.

So that's all I got right now .... I've missed posting. I have other things that I've been doing. I'm hoping the momentum will start me moving more into posting. It gives me some proof that I am doing something with my time. Thanks for looking.