Leave of absence

I am going in for hip replacement surgery tomorrow so I will be taking some time off from the blog while I begin recovery! I'll be back in a couple of weeks.

Dots and more dots

Continuing with yetserday's theme - MORE dots. This is in the same location (the Mesa Art Musuem - the outdoor area is concrete  inset with metal dots) enhanced with sun lit dots created by the overhang above the building.

Random dots

Dots, dots, dots. Can you guess what this is a photo of?

Tea flower

Larry just returned from China and brought me a tin of  tea flowers. The are small, dry knobs until you pour the boiling water over them. Then they start to unfurl a little at a time and when they are open they look like a chyrsanthemum flower floating in the water. Very beautiful (and tasty!)

Home again

This is the last picture I took at the workshop this week - a ghostly image of Gay at the ironing board at the end of the gallery hall. The end wall is created by a covering of white cloth so in this photo we are shooting through the cloth into the brighter room behind. I like the soft, shadowy quality of this photo.

I'm feeling blue

For the last several days as we have been doing dye studys in our Mastery Program I have been working with blue dye and cheesecloth. I am getting some interesting effects but one of the women in our group has gotten fabulous effects using gel medium on the cheesecloth. More to explore!

Soy wax

Today we are working with resists -soy wax, flour paste, and glue. This is a detail of a heavily waxed piece of cheesecloth with 3 layers of thickened dye over it. Tomorrow I will iron it out and wash it and see what I really get!

Black and white

One of the students in class created this beautiful piece using cotton cheesecloth, white gel medium, black paint and silver metal leaf. This is a detail.

Shape Shifting

One of the students in class is working with plastic snow fencing as a resist for her fabric painting. Here is a shot of it taken from low and close. Notice how all the oval shapes change from that angle.

Paint play

I am spending this week at Art Cloth Studios in San Antonio talking week three of the Mastery Program. Today we are working on color studies - value, complementary colors, color matching . It seems so simple when you begin and then it rapidly becomes a challenge!

1000 Artisan Textiles

Yesterday I received a copy of the new book, 1000 Artisan Textiles: Contemporary Fiber Art, Quilts and Wearables. There are several peices of my work in the book. It has a wide variety of art work in the book and I am enjoying going through it. It is published by Quarry Books at http://www.quarrybooks.com/.

Early morning sunlight

This morning I walked into the kitchen and the first thing I saw was this. My cornelian cherry branches are blooming and the sunlight from the east was throwing a shadow of them on to the curtain and then the light through the curtain threw a reflection on to the table. Quick, grab the camera. It was a great way to start the day!

Reflections, Glass Walls

I am thinking about adding to my series on Reflections, Glass Walls, so I have been looking at photos of skyscrapers in Chicago that I took a couple of years ago. I had forgotten how interesting the reflected patterns can be!

Chartreuse

Chartreuse willow leaves are appearing everywhere now that we have had so much rain and the beginnings of warmth. The color is intense when contrasted with the dark bark of the tree. There are several weeping willow trees in a row along a road I take and they glow against the gray blue sky.

Long walk detail

This is a detail from a vat dyed piece that is 2 feet x 8 feet long called Long Walk Two. It was done as a monoprint with indigo dye on black rayon using a rubber block as a drawing device. This shows about 8 inches of the entire length. I like the results I am getting from the the monoprinting - the areas where the dye gets thicker discharge in a great way to give you the zig zag edge.

Cool boots

My sister loves all things "cow" so these are her new gardening boots. Hopefully they will be good in the compost heap! Happy Birthday, Cheryl.

Happy Easter

I still love to decorate eggs for Easter! This year I tried to be Martha Stewart with limited success. Most of these eggs were done with strips of electrical tape - something that has been sitting in the tool box for a hundred years, unused. Who knew that it would be perfect for working with the eggs.

Happy Easter everyone!

BIrthday celebration

Yesterday was Larry's 70th birthday (he will groan when he sees that I put that on the blog!) Last night his kids and mine had a great birthday dinner for him.  His son from Texas came in as a surprise and it was a huge hit. Larry's one request was German chocolate cake so I made one with extra frosting - it was so heavy it started to puddle at the bottom of the cake.

Happy Birthday, Larry!

Some things don't change

Some things don't change - this is a drawing I did in kindergarten - I liked pattern, color and shape even then. I came across this while trying to wade through old photos these past few days. I have discovered "shoebox scanning" at Osco - I can scan hundreds of photos on to a CD at the speed of light. I can't feed the machine fast enough! I have been wanting to get all of these photos into a digital format for some time and it always seemed like a daunting task but this process has made it doable.