Developing Landscapes

Last summer I went a bit crazy taking photographs of landscapes with and without architecture. I amassed quite a few that I found to be perfect for possible quilts. After spending some time playing with Photoshop I ended up with several folders full of possible quilt subjects. I began creating a few earlier this year and just finished one as my entry to the SAQA Regional call for entry, Currents.

My first small sample piece became my donation to SAQA's Spotlight Auction this March in Philadelphia. It began with a photo I manipulated in Photoshop and then a black and white adaption of that photo.

I used a new tool to create my drawing. My LED light pad from Huion is 18" x 14" and has adjustable brightness. Once my photo was enlarged to the size I wanted it, all I had to do was trace the areas I wanted onto paper.

Because this piece was so small, I found myself using my tiny thread scissors to cut my fabric pieces. I also used my exacto knife to cut pieces and to cut reverse appliqué areas out of the top layers as I built from dark under layers up to the lightest.

The finished piece is called Surf's Up and was sold during the Spotlight Auction. 

My next piece was taken from a photo  I took last spring of Multnoma Falls in Portland, Oregon. After taking the black and white photo to my local print shop, I enlarged it to 20" square and used this enlargement as my guide drawing directly onto the print with a marking pen.

I used the same techniques to cut and fuse the pieces in this latest piece as I did  with the previous one. While I love the look that this work is producing, the tiny pieces are wrecking havoc on my eyes. I don't know how long I can continue to do work with pieces this small. 

REUNION

25 1/2" x 25 1/2" 

Completed April, 2016 

Commercial cotton batiks, fabrics & hand-dyes; fused and machine quilted

I have another one of these begun which is taken from  a photo of the marsh areas in Eastham, MA on Cape Cod. It is a bit bigger and will finish off between 30 and 32 inches square. It's about a third of the way done  and I should be able to complete it before summer's end while I begin work on Lady Feather, my next in the series of fantasy inspired nature women. 

Here's some of what's coming:

 

Springtime in Philly

So I am sitting here in relative quiet and it's late at night. A train has derailed this morning throwing myself and several others into a panic about how to get home. This morning I woke in Philadelphia; tonight I am in my own bed in Smithfield. Last night I marveled at crashing thunder up in a twenty-third floor window with patterns of gust driven rain on pavement below as the temperatures fell at home sending a white blanket to cover my daffodils.

Life seems a bit unsettled as if on the cusp of change.

 

Detail, Fun House

Kerri M. Green

Art Quilt Elements 2016

It is always a whirlwind of laughter and serious consideration, warm embraces, introductions filled with the support of those who really get you. Wrapped in the warm cocoon of the safety of 150 like-minded artists, how can one not feel nurtured and fully alive with possibility.

And there is so much input into the human computer; flashes of brilliance, benefits of experience, knowledge and wisdom. The creative expressions of so many laid at our feet all shiny and wonderful beckoning us to pick up some cloth and stitch. It's all so amazing and sometimes overwhelming.

Detail,  Linear B

Kathleen Loomis

Art Quilt Elements, 2016

Tomorrow morning I will wake up and fall into the studio with a cup of coffee and I will be cutting, ironing and stitching as I always do. Only one thing will be different, renewed - my resolve to be the artist I was born to be. It is the change I spoke of that is in the air, the one that drives me to see clearer, dream bigger, work longer.

It was a grand time. Thank you Philly. Thank you SAQA for another wonderful Convention. And thank you friends, old and new for the pleasure of your company, the provocative discussions, the emotional connections and the sheer joy of playing amongst friends for a few sweet spring days.