Summer Swelter, Yet Again

Here I am again facing the trials of summer heat. Still no air conditioner! I have so many UFOs to attack this summer. With a couple of Calls for Entry in my sights, including for the first time for me, Quilt=Art=Quilt at the Schweinfurth Art Center in New York and Art Quilt Elements at the Wayne Art Center in Pennsylvania. I have a plan and so far even with this spring's deviation from the goal list, I am on target.

What set me off of my planned goal list was a call for political art in Threads of Resistance. Feeling as overwhelmed and panicked as I still am about what is happening in my country, I felt a need to try to create a piece in just two months for the exhibit. Organized and run by The Artists Circle, a group of textile artists, Threads of Resistance received over 500 entries. I did not make the cut. I will, however, be traveling to The New England Quilt Museum for the opening on Saturday, July 15, 2017 because I just can't wait to see some of my favorite works up close and personal. For more information about the show go to threadsofresistance.blogspot.com.

This is my entry, which I am very proud of:

SEES NO EVIL

24" x 42"

April, 2017

Beadwork, Andrea Theriault

Photo by Joe Ofria

This was my first dyptic. I chose to do a dyptic because I saw my issue as being a two headed monster of a problem. On the right is a close-up map of the US middle, red states. You can see all the tributaries of the Mississippi River reaching from the right across the piece. The black, gold and silver spots represent oil or gas leaks and the gold beadwork lines represent the network of pipelines that already exist in these states. My daughter, Andrea, actually was a strong influence in some of my creative choices and she did all the beadwork on the second panel. 

With so many leaks already a part of history, why would any administration actively support two more pipelines, the Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines. Which brings me to the left part of the dyptic and what I think is the second aspect of this problem. Someone is refusing to acknowledge or see that pipelines leak and cause havoc. Environmental issues are front and center with me. I am very worried about clean water, air and land being available for the future for all our children and grandchildren. 

You may not like my politics. I only ask as an artist and a citizen of the USA, that I still have the right of free speech in order to air my grievances in the most natural way possible, through my art.

I entered a couple of other calls for exhibits also showing in Lowell this summer. The first is at the Whistler House Museum of Art and is called Contemporary Art Quilts 2017: A Juried Exhibition and will be opening August 5 to September 1, 2017. The Artists Reception is on Saturday, August 5 from 2-4pm. I entered Queen Bee and Lady Feather, neither of which has ever shown. They accepted Queen Bee.

QUEEN BEE SAYS NO TO GMOS

43" x 45 1/2"

2014

Photo by Eric Zhang

Since I didn't have to create a piece for this exhibit, that freed my time to consider creating a piece for another upcoming call also showing in Lowell this summer. This call is named Little Black Dress and is showing at The Brush Gallery & Studios from August 5 to September 16. The Artists Reception will be held on Saturday, August 26. Based on my reflections of the times I have worn this type of dress, it is more like a pictorial memoir than my usual art quilts. I used two of my former "little black dresses" as some of the textiles for this piece. The blue in the title refers to the tall bearded irises that my mother grew for years and painted so well towards the end of her life. My mother's influence permeates this piece, culminating in the third and last dress being the one I wore to my mother's funeral.

MEMOIRS IN BLACK & BLUE

39" x 39"

June, 2017

I stretched my usual technique style a bit with this one using not only fabric which was printed with my own linoleum cut, but I incorporated the actual dress tissue-paper patterns, dresses and used a photo transfer onto silk fabric for the first time. This emotional piece may be the beginning of a new series, but with all that I have on my plate I won't be able to continue the series until next year. Memoirs was accepted into the exhibit at the Brush so both Queen Bee and Memoirs will be showing in Lowell, MA late this summer.

Moving on to what I am working with right now, Apollo will be finished by mid-July. I have been working on it in fits and starts between the other pieces this spring. I am not far from completion. I will put up some pictures of the process in my next post. Also on deck for later this summer is A Child's Eye in which I must create a 3 foot wide drawing of a wicker settee by using discharge medium on fabric outside on my deck. Fresh air and good weather are a requirement for discharging.

Sideways view of a thistle growing in the median near where I used to work. This photo is my primary source for the drawings of the thistles used in Apollo.

My first drawing of the wicker settee in A Child's Eye. I have since had to redraw the entire settee. Because it is so big, this is going to take a long time to draw out with a thin brush on fabric over my light box. 

Time to turn in for the night. Tomorrow is another busy day in the studio!

A Whale of a New Year

And so it goes, the years flow from one to another. Here we are in 2017 and that means it's time to assess and project all the actions in the studio.

It was a rejection from Quilt National. Expected, so I dusted myself off and entered Lady Feather and two others into SAQA's Layered Voices. That was a rejection as well. With over 500 entries each to this SAQA exhibit and the H2Oh call, my chances were better at Quilt National. I am rethinking my strategy towards entering all-SAQA exhibits. I will no longer go out of my way to create a piece for a SAQA themed show. If I have one done or if one of the ones I was planning on doing fits into their theme, good to go. If not, it won't be happening.

So this year, I am aiming at something a bit different.

I have a big goal of finishing up some UFOs this year. Needless to say, like so many of us, I have a huge pile of them. I also made a goal list for the business of art and for refurbishing parts of my studio. The later will hinge on my ability to make some money at this. First priority acquisition for my studio is an air conditioning system. Needless to say I have to sell a lot of art for that! Wish me luck!  

Some new things in the studio came as presents from Santa hubs. I have wanted to start using the Inktense pencils for a while to give depth to the fabrics I choose. So I am happy to say I dove right in with my first "new" project of the year. Each year since 2013 I have developed one of my Nature's Portrait Series with past personalities being Queen Bee, Mariposa, Empress of the Pines and last year, Lady Feather. 2017 is the year of the ocean for me. Meet Balena.

Balena is the Italian word for "whale." I have taken on a different approach to this year's personality by realizing that each character I create needs depth of understanding, not for the viewer, but from me. I really have to know who she is. So I have begun writing in journals about Balena. She is a 15 years old mermaid, a Pisces, a loner with a sharp intellect due to her voracious appetite for learning and inner curiosity. "Often quiet, she has a bond with a blue whale who always ends up showing up when she thinks about him." This is how my journal goes. It's storytelling. And I am indulging this practice in order to get a better feel for how to portray this character. 

I also am forcing myself to do several drawings before choosing which will become my major piece for the year. Some of these are Balena plays chess with the octopus (he's winning), Balena has lunch in a kelp forest, Balena hitches a ride with a dolphin. The above drawing is Balena with the whale, my first fully completed drawing.

I also decided to create sample pieces so that I get a full idea of how my techniques are working and to see if I want to make any changes to my drawings. I made a small sample to test the Inktense pencils and to get a feel for color and shading. 

And then I decided to push it a bit and see how the whale which is behind Balena would look alone. I actually completed this piece to stand alone and entered it into a show in Yachats, OR to which it was accepted. The show runs March 10-12, 2017 in Yachats Commons. My first acceptance of the year is Giant below.

GIANT

34' X 43"

January, 2017

So I am doing a dance between new work and finishing older concepts begun at various times. Here are some of the ones I hope to pull off finishing this coming year:

 ...the mountains behind the butterflies in Apollo

 ...the buildings behind the morning glory wicker bench

...and the drawing of A Child's Eye

...a portrait of love between a woman and her cat

...in Medonja Saves His Girl 

...the other mermaids in Beyond the Deep

These four are big projects partially begun. I don't have to reinvent the wheel, but there is a lot of work to do to complete even one of them. I have been plugging away at Apollo a little bit daily as I have also been drawing Balena. Once Apollo is complete, I will move to more samples of the Balena series, perhaps an octopus study next.

This is a heavy load of work to attempt. As I step down as a SAQA Rep for MA/RI in March, I am expecting a reclusive and steady diet of STUDIO-time all year long. Whoopee, just what the doctor ordered or should I say just what Queen Bee ordered.

Dog Days

Here we are again, 80 degrees and rising in the studio! While I often have much to do in the summer, it is awfully hard to work in this heat. One of these years I have to get air conditioning installed in the studio.

It's been a busy spring. After it's premier at the Fuller Craft Museum the SAQA MA/RI exhibit "Art as Quilt" opened at Highfield Hall, a mansion and museum/gallery in Falmouth, MA on Cape Cod. As curator of the show, I got to bring the work down to Falmouth, help hang it and recently take it down to bring it all home. 

This was such a successful exhibit for the SAQA artists in MA, RI and CT. Six pieces sold while at Highfield Hall, so there are six very happy artists. The opening in Falmouth was on May 1 and the place was just packed.

Our second show, "Currents" was juried in May as well and my piece, Reunion, was accepted into that exhibit which opens at the Brush Art Gallery & Studios in Lowell, MA on August 7.

right: the crowd at the opening of "Art as Quilt" and Sue Polansky and Carol Vinick in front of their work

Co-Curator, Sue Bleiweiss has been working on the exhibit catalog which will be available soon through Amazon. Twenty-five pieces by fifteen artists were juried in. I am enjoying the process of curating shows and am looking forward to planning more in the future. It really is exciting to see so many amazing works of art come together in a show. 




On the homefront, I have set goals for entering calls for 2016. My first attempt was a rejection but as I mentioned Reunion was accepted into "Currents" this summer. I have two all SAQA big shows in my sights as well as a couple of others. They are all coming due from September through the end of November. I also have targeted a couple which come up in the first months of 2017.

The first call to come up is called "Layered Voices" and the deadline is September 30. I am working on a piece with butterflies and thistle. The butterflies are the Alpine Apollo butterfly, which is the rarest butterfly on earth and a partial lacewing, white butterfly with black and red spots. Organza is providing me the lacy wings. 

The shot to the right approximates the look I am trying to achieve with the background, which is a landscape of an Alpine grassland valley. My drawing is almost finished, the fabric sandwich is ready so I should be sewing this one soon.

Lady Feather has begun as well. I like working more than one piece at a time. I started with the background, which is a fantastic piece of blue and white from Carol Eaton. So fantastic that I didn't want to waste any. So I drew on tissue an outline of where the background would go, cut it out and fused it to plain muslin. 

 

Below is the fabric background stitched with a "windy" texture. My next move is to flesh out Lady Feather herself onto a piece of muslin and then to work her nest of a "bad hair day". 

I have been making her feather necklace bit by bit. The feathers are made in relief, sewn, turned, hand pieced together and then stitched.

Above they are sewn and ready for quilting.

And then the ribs of the feather are created with quilting.

You will be seeing more of this one as I continue working it. Apollo will remain undercover for a bit as I am making it specifically for a call for entry. I may decide to give you a shot or two of the background stitching as it comes together. But the butterflies will remain a secret surprise.

My last bit of news is that I am published! I have an article in "Art Quilting Studio's" June 2016 issue. Queen Bee Says No to GMOs, Mariposa and Empress of the Pines are featured in an article I wrote called "Nature's Portraits: Tapping into Imagination." I must say I am over the moon excited. I was just in a JoAnn's shopping the other day and I looked through the magazine section and found the issue I'm in. 

Well that catches me up for a bit. I am busy, busy, busy. I have taken on so many projects at once and they all have to be done by fall and winter so I may not be writing much. So tomorrow is another day with the heat, a fan and a sewing machine.

Summer in the Studio

The month of July flew by as summer months usually do, however, this one was one very hot laborious day after another as I completed a large quilt for entry into a call. Empress of the Pines finished out at 43" x 55". She was photographed on Thursday the 30th by Joe Ofria, a fantastic professional photographer in Groton, MA. Friday morning she was entered nervously into the Visions Art Museum Interpretations exhibition. As with most large shows, this one must remain unviewed unless rejected from the show.

A luna moth was an image unused on the Empress

So I decided to use it on a small piece using the leftovers from the large quilt to create a new piece.

One of the things I ended up doing for Empress was creating some designs on fabric with discharge fluid and a hand cut linoleum block using a frond of white pine cut off the tree out front. I drew in the discharged area with green marker and created the fabric I just could not find anywhere. You will see some of the leftover fabric pine on my small piece.

This detail shows the many colors in the fabrics used to create the tree trunk and my bubbles and strings stitching which holds all the fused pieces in place, but only loosely. Some of the edges of the fabrics are pulling up a bit giving the trunk "bark" texture.

Luna

11" x 14"

August, 2015

Commercial fabrics, batiks, hand-dyes, discharged fabric, and silk doupioni fused and machine stitched.

So that is my new small piece, inspired by Empress of the Pines.

I have come to the realization that even though I live in an area which is one of the most moderate temperatures in the country right now, I need air conditioning in the studio. My window filled, south exposure studio rises 10 degrees above the rest of the house on any given sunny day. I am now headlong, in the dog days of August, plunged into another large quilt for a call for entry deadline at the end of September. Wish me luck. I have a lot of tiny pieces on this one.

Looking Back to Forge Ahead

Here we go again, lol. I am embarking on a summer, fall and winter full of creativity in my studio. I came back from the SAQA Convention in Portland feeling pumped. I took a look at my exhibition goals for the year again and gave them a tweeking. I have dropped two calls for entry out of my 'wish list' and added three more to it. In order to apply to those calls for entry, I need to get cracking and make 4, yes that's four, new major quilts. All of them are in the range of 40" x 50" with one of them being only slightly smaller. 

The first one I tackled needs to be completed and photographed by the end of September. I have been waiting for the right time for this one and I have two exhibitions that it could fit well into. It is an image of my son sitting on a wicker settee that has an enormous morning glory vine woven through it as he waters the roots with a watering can. A city skyline of dark ominous buildings with smoke stacks rise behind it. It is a story of youth and hope for the nurturance of the natural world despite the overwhelming expanse of a growing technological society.

The photo above is a process shot of the last area of my drawing, which is the architecture in the background. You can see that to avoid confusion with a very detailed drawing I have color coded areas with green and yellow sharpies. I will be showing many process shots here as I get going creating this piece in four distinct parts. The first is to create the background which will have the buildings and the foreground. I will quilt all of this before going to my next step. I will be drawing the wicker settee with discharge onto a lovely deep blue hand dye as the second step. Once the settee is complete I will fuse it to the background and then as a third step, add the leaves and morning glories. They will get stitched before continuing to the last step. The fourth step will be to create Peter, my son, by fusing him onto a light pre-fused muslin. Once he is complete I will fuse him onto the quilt in just the right spot and stitch him down. Simple steps, lots of time and work!

As I was getting in the frame of mind for this piece, I have been thinking about it's meaning and I have been drawn backwards in time to think about Peter and his ideals when he was the age in the picture. There was another quilt made at that time by Peter, 17 of his classmates and myself, which we called the "I Have A Dream" quilt.

Some of the children involved in making "I Have A Dream". Peter is at the lower left.

This photo was taken thirteen years ago, back when I volunteered at my kids' elementary school as a visiting artist teacher. We made several community quilts but I refused to let them just do patchwork. We translated their drawings into art quilts. It was magical seeing all those light bulbs going on at the same time. These kids were around 11 years of age when they did their drawings and learned to fuse and stitch.

For this project I knew we would never be able to work a piece as large as we had planned, so we broke it up into sections and pairs of two children had to work together to create a single drawing that spoke to both of them. They were asked how they interpreted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous speech and what it meant to them. Then they drew their images separately. We paired like minded kids together and then they had to fuse their drawings together into one cohesive drawing. Two of the children actually got the fun task of drawing Dr. King in the center two segments.

Peter drew a prison which was being knocked down by a wrecking ball because the society he dreamed of had no need for prisons, and his partner drew an organic marketplace full of healthy food. They dreamed of a massive area to grow and sell healthy food.

There was my son knocking down buildings we didn't need to build a farmer's market with his friend. He was 11 when he did this. He is now 24. He is still something of an idealist who wants nothing more than to fall off the grid and live in a remote spot fully dependent only on himself. The reality is that he is working a bar in an establishment in Florida for the tourist trade. But I have to admire where this young man's head is and has been for almost all his life. 

Peter and his finished segment

So I am letting the spirit of a young man who wants to see the natural world honored and cared for in a nurturing way be the spirit of this new quilt of mine. All the kids whose dreams of a wonderful world in which to live, who let their dreams spill into that fantastic quilt so many years ago, are inspiring me as I work.

Stay tuned for the fabric choices for the background coming up soon.

Fiberlandia

Welcome to Portland, Oregon! I took a trip out to attend SAQA's yearly Convention, leaving April 28th and returning to Rhode Island May 4th. This was my view from room 1558 on the 15th floor of the Doubletree Hilton. I nearly got myself in the door and met up with Co-Rep Sue Bleiweiss and Lyric Kinard for lunch in the Lloyd Center. 

 

This statue carved from marble is a stack of coins and had poetry and words carved all around the outside of the coins having to do with wealth, money and prosperity. Interesting central piece for the entrance to a mall. Inside this typical mall our first sight was a window full of frilly prom gowns. Hilarious. They also have an indoor skating rink in this mall, rather progressive!

We rested after a very light lunch and then got back together for a bus trip to Toro Bravo, a Spanish restaurant specializing in tapas. 11 of us set out and had the best time sharing our food and getting to know each other. I was overjoyed and a little star struck sitting next to Rosalie Dace from South Africa. It was a fantastic way to start the weekend and the bacon wrapped dates were heavenly.

The following day started off with business. The Reps meeting had us busy for a while. After we took a quick jaunt by Max, the transit system, to Powell Books which is a 5 story book store. Joined by Teresa Duryea Wong from Texas, Sue and I perused the arts level of the store. We found her new book on the shelves and she signed them for the store.

Several dollars less and with a few heavy bags we walked back to catch the Max. Along the way a few things caught our eye. I had to take a picture of this 'carpets' sign which was completely retro from the '60s and spinning round to reveal 'rugs' on the back side.

After drooling over beautiful artisan wares in 'The Real Mother Goose', we caught the train just in time to shop some more at the SAQA vendor marketplace where I did some real damage with the gorgeous hand dyed cottons made by Carol Eaton of CT.

The next day, Friday was business all day for me. It started with a lecture and panel discussion with the SAQA international members as they gave us an idea of how things run in other countries. Pictured is Hsin-Chen Lin with her daughter as interpreter and her quilt in front of her. There is a major show in Taiwan next year sponsored by SAQA and I think I will enter pieces into it. There is also another show coming up in Canada, first SAQA show there ever, and I will also be creating a piece to enter for this show.

After attending two wonderful break out sessions with Sue Reno and Lyric Kinard, I started to prepare for the SAQA Maker Space. Run by Kate Themel of CT, it was a fun evening event filled with learning and creating experiences. I was there doing my demo on how fabric markers and pens can enhance a design. Thanks have to go to three companies who provided pens for me to demo with, Tsukineko, Sakura and Jacquard. As you can see by the 1st photo to the right, I was drawing a crowd all night. Thanks to Elizabeth Bamberger of Portland, I had a light box to do demos on and for members to use.

These are my 3 demo pieces which I used to demonstrate the use of pens and markers. 

We all had such a blast and boy was I tired by the end of the night. That did not stop a few of 
us from having a glass of one of Portland's many vineyard wines at the bar while we discussed what was coming up next in our studios.

After lectures/panels in the morning, Sue 
and I set out for our tour day. We started by taking in the orchid show in the exhibition center of the Hilton. Wow, there were some eye popping plants on display, many with big blue and red ribbons.

This one kind of looks like a monkey's face. I just loved all 
the purple spots.






We then took in a SAQA Oregon Regional exhibition called Exploring Layers. It was a well put together show with plenty of eye candy. Seeing quilts always makes me want to get into the studio and work, work, work!

Rift Valley

Laura Jaszkowski, Eugene, OR

After a long day touring around Portland, we took a rest and got ourselves ready for the Spotlight Auction and Banquet. 

I got out my best outfit, along with my turquoise squash blossom and headed downstairs to find the hall brimming with people and a scrumptious buffet set up.

I had made a piece for the Spotlight Auction called Tiny Dancers, pictured on the far left of the photo of artwork for sale. It sold to Kat Larrea of Alaska. Woohoo my piece is going to Alaska! 

This is the one I was lucky enough to 
purchase with a little hovering to ensure no one stole it from me. My spotlight! by Phyllis Cullen from HI is now the second of Phyllis' pieces to grace my studio. I just love my little froggies!

Sheila Finzer 

Sunday morning was the wrap up of the weekend. A panel of Oregon artists gave us an overview of how they work. Very inspiring!

And then....I had the ultimate pleasure of meeting up with a high school 'bestie', Teenamarie Callahan who I last saw at her wedding as she and her new husband left to start their life in the Pacific Northwest. Our screeching and whooping in the lobby of the Hilton alerted everyone that something special was happening. Teenamarie and I spent the day catching up in a way that emails just can't touch. With the backdrop of Multnomah Falls, two best friends found each other again.

On the plane ride home, in the early hours of the morning, as I took in the beauty of Mt St Helens, Mt Hood and the Columbia River, I found myself smiling with gratitude for the events which had just transpired during the past 5 days. New and old friends, inspiring work, educational experiences, all wrapped into one wonderful conference. 

Now....I get to transform that inspiration in my studio.