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!

Introspection

I am getting used to rejection. Entering calls for entry creates thick skin. Even if you have some successes the ones that don't end up getting picked up for shows can definitely have an impact on the way you view your work, like it or not.

Empress of the Pines was completed last summer and entered into the Visions Interpretations call for entry but was not accepted. So with different jurors I entered it again along with Queen Bee Says No to GMO's into Visions Breakout. Neither was accepted. Visions is a tough nut to crack but as it has been my one steady goal to have a piece accepted into a Visions biennial exhibit throughout my learning process since 1995 I am not stopping here.

As I go forward to my next work in this series, Lady Feather, I am looking to the things I think were successful and the things I think may have failed in both of these works in a critical way. To the right is my cougar. I see him as the greater success of this piece. His colors are well integrated; his eyes are the strong focal point and they do not disappoint. Colors are balanced and the yellow makes him pop.

Another thing that I think worked was my treatment of the tree bark. Using so many colors within the bark really gave it life especially when looking at it closely.

But on the whole there are some issues I might have changed now that I have lived with her for a bit. While I worked very hard at creating her skin fabric, I think I forgot that like the cougar she needed two things, contrast and a strong focal point in her face - her eyes. I will work on facial features with Lady Feather much more intensely, perhaps using thread painting or my markers to help define and enrich her gaze especially since it will be limited and defined by the owl mask. 

Looking also at Queen Bee who I consider to be a more successful piece in terms of the flow of composition and the blending of colors, I can see issues now that I did not see before. The violet piece which composes her neck shadow is too harsh a contrast. It needed more value changes leading up to the darkness far right. Instead of two value grades in this area, it would have been better with four or five. The shadow did not continue to her shoulder either which is a real faux pas.

Going forward I have chosen a grouping of fabrics designated as the flesh tones for Lady Feather. There is a great range from almost white to deep dark burgundy. I need to focus on developing a gradual progression of value through using smaller layers of color in any given area.

As for those quilts already completed, well, they are what they are. My art will change and grow as my skill increases and hopefully newer pieces will be more impervious to criticism, even from myself. Taking what I have learned from the Empress and the Queen, I will continue drawing these characters over and over again and working them in fabric. I will also keep entering calls like Visions.

The drawing for Lady Feather is finally completed and blown up to full size. I have searched out her fabrics comprising a color palette all her own from amongst my stash and I have purchased some to accent the ones I have. In typical fashion for me, I am still looking for the right background fabric. I seem to be forever working on creating the perfect background fabrics. More on how Feather comes to life in future posts. 

Goodbye 2014

I know that we are halfway through January, but it's been a busy end of year. I'm just getting around to reflecting. As I try to wrap up work on two decent sized quilts this month, I am thinking about how I pushed through the month of December half in a daze. From mid November through the end of the year, we have 4 birthdays, one of which is Riley's. The three holidays are enough in and of themselves! I'm tired.

On a personal level, I started 2014 with surgery and recovery. It was a tough start. Tony lost his Mom in the spring and my dear cousin, Jeff passed this fall. Tony's business took the hit of three of his clients shutting down for good. We buried our cat, Maddie out under the trees this year too. Our son Peter moved permanently to Florida, the first child to move far away. Quite a few of our plans went awry this past year and there were plenty of sad, difficult and teary moments. I must say, I am not sorry to see the year gone! 

However many challenges we faced, there were some bright spots for me, a lot of them tied to my studio. I became a SAQA Co Rep in early summer, working with Sue Bleiweiss to set in place two upcoming exhibitions in our region. Even with time constraints, I completed 5 pieces in 2014. Mariposa showed with the Butterflies and Their Kin exhibit in Texas in the spring and continued on to other venues. Nancy's Garden showed at the Whistler Museum this summer. I got a new addition to my studio, an HQ16, which has made the world of difference in my quilting.

There are still three, black furry, mischievous little elves (kittens) in my studio space. Blue, Bing and Teensy are now 9 months old and still wrecking my workspace daily. Left by their feral mommy, they are now part of the family. I got my first rejection letter this year with Queen Bee but she is so awesome I don't half mind. I am working with a mentor this coming year in the hopes that I will learn some business skills. The program was set 

up by the SAQA MA/RI region. In the latter part of the year I focused on setting goals and doing some much needed paperwork.

The last few projects of the year began with a blast from my past. I did much of my learning how to sew and construct as a teen making dolls. I thought it was time to get back into it, so I made Mary Lennox from The Secret Garden for my granddaughter Riley's Christmas present.

She came out pretty cute if I do say so myself!

After Christmas I returned to a UFO that I wanted to complete. I had done most of the hard part with the markers already. All it needed was some stitch work and a border. Below is the completed Monumental.

MONUMENTAL

20" x 27"

December, 2014

Commercial fabrics & batiks, silk background; fused & machine stitched; overdrawn with fabric markers

$750.00

I got some great Christmas gifts this year. One of which was markers and a sketchbook. It's tiny so I can complete my sketches quickly and move on to my stitching. I hope to use this sketchbook as a precursor to a body of work called, "In the Garden".

So goodbye to 2014. Hold on to your hat 'cause here comes 2015 with a huge bang!

The dragon and the wolf are calling my name. They are both neck and neck, as I work in a frenzy to get them done and photographed by January 31. Wish me luck! (Progress and pictures will be coming soon)

New Additions

 QUEEN BEE SAYS 'NO' TO GMOS

45" x 43 1/2"

September, 2014

Commercial fabrics, batiks, silks, hand-dyes, beads;

Fused and machine stitched and quilted

After many months of work, Queen Bee is finally finished. She was finished in time to make the "Food For Thought" call for entry for SAQA but I have received word that she was not accepted into this exhibit. She will be offered as an entry into the first show which comes along that suits her. I truly enjoyed every minute of working on Bee and especially loved working on seeing the bees come to life.

Left and below are my details of this vibrant piece. 

I was very lucky this summer to acquire a few new additions to my workspace which have made life both easier and more difficult.

Kittens!

Four tiny kittens were found under our deck off the studio. My bleeding heart just could not leave them to the coyotes, so I scooped them into the one room in the house that did not already have a cat in it....my studio. Because they come from a feral mom, I have to make sure that they aren't carrying a fatal disease to my other cats. They are about 5 months old now. Ready to be tested, fixed and assimilated. Casey went to a new home right away but I still have one female who needs adopting. The two mischievous males will stay with me.

This is my new baby, a Handi Quilter Sweet 16. It was used gently and the table wings were lovingly devised by the previous owner's handy husband. Runs like a dream and look at the neck. It is not 6" like my Bernina but a whopping 16". I'm in heaven.

However, nothing is easy. The cord running from the computer to the machine became an instant issue. The kittens loved the tent I made for them with fabric to cover the machine and chewed through that cord. IN TWO DAYS! It took me over a week to get a replacement cord to the tune of $39.00 and three kittens got a very stern finger wagging.

Now after every use I disconnect the computer, wrap it in bubble wrap and store it in a drawer. An old box from my daughter's exercise equipment is just the right size to cover the machine and keep curious kittens out. They are having the best time shredding the box. 

Another new purchase was necessary for two reasons: the first was to prevent fading for my blue and green stash which was kept in the open on shelves; the second was to keep the kittens out of it. I found an old black cupboard in an antique shop close by and it was on sale. It is deep and has three shelves but more importantly, it has doors and like my armoire, I can shut the light and the cats out. 

The shelves were put to use housing all my art books some of which were actually still in boxes with no functional place to land. Now not only do they have a nice neat place to be but I can access them easily when I need some information or inspiration. 

From August 20 to September 20 my piece called "Nancy's Garden" was hanging at the Whistler House & Museum in Lowell. This was the first exhibition I have been able to attend the open house.   

Just a sampling of how amazingly colorful and beautiful the show was.

As I had mentioned in a prior post, this spring I became involved in the SAQA MA/RI Regional exhibition committee. I worked pretty hard along with Sue Bleiweiss and decided that I would become a Co-Rep along with Sue and Maryann Gallaher. So I am now a Co-Rep for SAQA and we have so many things going on in our region. Two exhibitions are planned, a regional trunk show is being assembled, the 25th Anniversary Trunk Show is coming to our November meeting, we have a new regional portfolio printed, we have begun a mentorship program and we are doing outreach and workshop planning for 2015 and 2016. To read about all that is going on in MA/RI you can access info from our blog at: http://ma-ri-saqa.blogspot.com.

After a small pod meeting in September, Rhode Island members Barbara Chojnacki, Carol Kaufman and I took a selfie at a quilt show in Wakefield, RI. Not only will the SAQA 25th Anniversary Trunk Show be traveling to Amherst, MA for our quarterly meeting November 15, but it will be traveling to Westerly for a meeting of the Ninegret Quilt Guild on January 13. I will be speaking at this meeting both about SAQA and about my own process.

At our SAQA quarterly meeting in September, two demos were given by Vicki Jensen, owner of Pro Chem & Dye in Fall River followed by a hands-on afternoon. Vats of indigo were set up for shibori dyeing and a table was set up for experimenting with gelli printing.

It really was an enjoyable afternoon and we were able to take home our experiments to use in our own projects. The next meeting will take place at the UU Society of Amherst, 121 North Pleasant St. in Amherst, MA from 10am to 2pm There will be demos on simple silk screen methods by Cheryl Rezendes and a demo on the cradle board technique for mounting quilts by Jeanne Marklin. If you live west of Worcester, this will be a fantastic meeting as well.

Sue Bleiweiss was the originator of our SAQA regional mentorship program. I decided to be a mentor to one person who needs help developing their voice and also to be someone's protegee for the business end of being an artist. My blog posts will be getting more regular and will morph a bit into offering my readers something besides a journal of my ramblings. My next post will be about setting goals.

So along those lines, some goals I have been setting and trying to keep for a couple of years have had to do with creating more artwork, getting it out into exhibitions and building that all important body of work. Continuing along those lines I have plans for four or more new quilts to be completed within the next six months.

I have been working and reworking this one for so many years. It is finally time to finish this thing. "Peter and the Wolf" is getting stitched. In the picture to the right you can see two wolves. The wolf on the far right puckered terribly because I stitched it to muslin without adding batting or stabilizer. Dumb move on my part. So I redid him and he is already adhered to the background and almost completely stitched. Pictures to follow in another post.

The next quilt I will be taking on is my large flying dragon. Originally worked for a really large quilt, "Crazy Eights" has been redrawn and resized to a more manageable size. This one will be created within my style but I am pushing the envelope a bit with some unusual and fun designer silks and I will be experimenting with relief work a bit.

Both these pieces have to be completed and photographed for the SAQA show "Wild Fabrications" call for entry by January 31, 2015.

This is just the very beginning of a drawing of a piece I am doing for the exhibition "Art As Quilt" at the Fuller Craft Museum. The name on this one is "Empress of the Pines". Behind her I will do another drawing of tree trunks with light passing through and that will be her background. Her hair is white pine needles. Her dress which I have only begun to embellish is full of pine cones which blend into bark. Curling behind her to the front will be a fawn at the bottom of the imagery. Her colors will be ochres, browns, rich greens, golds and coppers with just a touch of red violet. Another in the series of nature royalty, the Empress will be constructed similarly to Mariposa and Queen Bee.

So that brings you up to date in my world. I will be posting more shots of these three quilts as I begin to cut fabrics and stitch. And there are a couple more that will be coming into light very soon.

Progress on Queen Bee

"Queen Bee" has been on my worktable and work board all through this summer. I have the intention of entering her into a call for entry in January. PAQA-South, (Professional Art Quilters Alliance-South) has an exhibition call coming up called Art Quilts whimsy, April 23 - June 22, 2014, Page-Walker Arts & History Center, Cary, NC. Even though I take "Queen Bee" pretty seriously, she fits the definition of 'whimsy' quite easily. So here I am pushing to get another quilt done for a deadline. I really am my own worst enemy!

So progress? The first thing I did was blow her up to size. She should finish out with her border at exactly 60" x 60". I want her square and cannot exceed 60". We'll see what happens when I get to the border. After blowing her up, I redrew areas that needed tweaking with a sharpie marker.

I decided to do things a bit differently with this piece so the first thing I started on was the lilies. I drew them with fabric markers onto fusible backed muslin, paper still attached and fused my colored petals onto the muslin. 

This will allow me the opportunity to adjust things a tad on the board by moving each of the flowers where I wish them to land. As I satin stitch the flowers onto the background all the raw edges will be covered. I cut each flower carefully down around the edges. Now I can move the whole flower around.

There are two groups of lilies in the quilt, a red-orange and a yellow-orange. Here is a look at the yellow-orange one. I moved on to doing her bee skep hair which has a primary fabric of a honeycomb. Below you can see how her beehive came to life.

Sometimes things just drop into your lap. The three shots of hand-dyes are all from the same piece of intense and exquisite hand-dyed cotton. 

When I was in Lowell for the Quilt Festival, I spent my last half hour looking quickly at the vendors. Some buttons to my left caught my eye and as I passed a booth to get to the buttons this piece stopped me in my tracks. 

Without hesitation, or even knowing it's price, I grabbed hold of it and bought it on the spot. It is perfect! I would like to mention that it comes from a dyer in Florida, Gabriele Bullard. Her pieces were amazing and I am trying to get another piece as we speak. Her website is not up yet but she gave me her card with her email, fabrilish@gmail.com. If you don't dye your own and you need something spectacular, I highly recommend getting in touch with her. As difficult as you can imagine it was for me to cut this piece, it had to be cut and has become Bee's gorgeous skin.

The first piece I cut was the most important. Her face and neck had to be from just the right area with a mix of pink, peach and yellow.

Here you can see that I defined her neck with some of the lavender areas of the same fabric. The addition of her aqua eye brings her to life. 

Add to that her already created beehive and my black and white drawing is beginning to pop off the paper.

I continued creating her skin areas, her arms and hands. You can begin to see what I mean when I said that this fabric was perfect. I added shadow areas to both arms and the hands to help give them dimension.

I had chosen a print for the background and a batik for her dress and had it all in place with the edges basted and on my workwall for quite a while. After living with it for a while, I realized that I hated it. So I went to my silk cache and chose 5 beauties to become my background. I drew a swirly background on my cartoon with a colored marker and started in. All my silks are kept folded in my large armoire. Getting the folds to come out is brutal. They really should be kept on a roll, but I just don't have the space.

I created pattern pieces with tissue so that I could butt each shade up to one another. They were backed with fusible and ironed to the deep blue shantung which I had the most of.

You can see how invaluable Super Mario is to the whole process. I wanted some difference and movement so there are 5 shades of blue and green making up the background.

Having the background ironed in place, I pinned it to my workboard and started pinning each of the fabric colored muslin pieces in place. Bee's eye pops even more with the teal background next to her.

You can see that the dress pieces are missing from the mix. I am currently working on redrawing the honeycomb on Bee's bodice. Not easy making honeycomb move with the curvature of her body. Once I get the drawing right, I will use my window light box idea to draw it out on my choice of fabric with fabric markers.

You can see in this one how the more violet areas of the fabric were used to provide shadow in the arm. Her honey pot and the honey are next.

I worked for a long time trying to get the right amount of fluid movement in her hand. She will be supporting a bee with her index finger. Bees, of course, go on last.

And here is the placement, so far, of the lilies around her face. Stems and leaves will slide under them, creating the look of a garden.

So that is where I left off with the Queen. Just a few more key areas to design, and cut and then I can iron the finished composition into place and start sewing everything into place. I see a solid two months work left here.

But then I realized that the counterpart to "Queen Bee", "Mariposa" the butterfly princess, has a perfect outlet for a call for entry in Texas.  Butterflies and Their Beautiful Kin is an upcoming exhibition at the Texas Quilt Museum with a deadline to enter of November 15, 2013 (which is coming up rather fast - "can she do it?", you say). The exhibition will premier in June of 2014 and travel until 2017. If I want to enter this I need to move my butt. So I started my redraw of "Mariposa" last night.

Far from complete, "Mariposa" has a large neck ruffle made of butterfly wings. More of a portrait than "Queen Bee", there will not be as much going on in the background. Her hair has, of course, remained styled into a chrysalis.

Her eyes are now open and intent on the butterflies that will be flying around her left hand. This piece will come in at 40" or above and will be square as well as "Queen Bee".













Well, I best stop fooling around with this computer and get to work! You will be seeing next how Bee's dress is shaping up and how Mariposa is beginning.