Happy Holidays/Piece of the Week

Greetings,

Happy holidays to all. I've finished a tee-shirt quilt, a legacy quilt for the a first grandchild and piece for the "Whisper Challenge" that was called by our regional representatives Clairan Ferrono of SAQA. I am truly looking forward to seeing the end results.

Last weekend I also hosted an open-house and at the end of the final day I spent a delightful time with a wonderful friend/collector Patric McCoy who the founder/president of "Diaspora Rhythms" and a artist I have admire for some time, Paul S. Benjamin (above). I ended up doing a trunk show of my work and sharing the stories of each piece. Paul talked about an artist that I was not aware of Sam Gilliam (below center) and I spent an hour the next day just looking at Sam's work along with Paul's.

My piece of the week is the last piece (below) for the Westside HIV/AIDS Regional Planning Council. This has been a great learning experience for me working with this project and one that I will never forget. I chose to do my landscape type of piece with some photo transfers that I altered and then over painted. I also added some striped pieced section. The fabrics all came from PAQA members who were having some give aways at our monthly meeting. So I would like to thank Michele Hardman, Frieda Anderson, Judy Zoelzer Levine, and I also had some fabric that was given to the project by the "Garfield Park Alliance". I would like to thank all that had something to do with the completions of these quilts and most of all WHARP for the opportunity to be their coordinator for the project.

Edna J. Patterson-Petty

Greetings All,

SAQA member Edna J. Patterson-Petty got a call before Thanksgiving that sent her into a creative frenzy. She was asked to be one of 44 quilters to make a quilt to mark the inauguration of Barack Obama. Check out this wonderful article about Edna and her work.
http://www.bnd.com/news/local/story/575997.html

There will be another exhibition in honor of President Obama: A Celebration in Art Quilts

Location: Montgomery College Cafritz Art Center, 150 King St., SilverSpring, MD

Dates: February 9 - March 5, 2009.

Opening Reception: Friday, February13th. Call Center for exact time of reception. Regular Gallery Hours M-F, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Gallery Phone: 240.567.1368

This show, organized by Susan Walen, is an exhibit of artquilts created by an all-volunteer, grass-roots, multi-ethnic group of fiber artists from all across the United States and as far away as Australia. Our work is in tribute to our new President, in gratitude for the hope and inspiration he has brought us. We present these art quilts to celebrate this moment in our country's history

Quilts for Obama

Greetings All,

I'm still here. I have been busy and under the weather at the same time. I have been working on a tee-shirt quilt and it's given me the blues. I had to take the whole quilt a part. This is not a good thing and it's some thing that I hate too do (taking it a part). Also this dose not allow me to be my most creative self, but it pays the bills. On the other side of thing. I created two new "Obama" pieces. I know that the election is over, but these were for a special exhibit "Quilts for Obama: Celebrating the Inauguration of our 44th President".

An exhibit of 44 Artquilts curated by Roland Freeman. January 11 through January 31, 2009, at The Historical Society of Washington, D.C., 801 K Street, NW at Mount Vernon Square, Washington DC 20001. The exhibit opens Sunday afternoon, January 11, 2009, at 2:00 p.m.. The exhibit is in the Small-Alper Gallery, at the top of the stairway on the second floor. The Historical Society is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10:00 am - 5:00 p.m. If you or anyone you know is coming for the Inaugural weekend, January17th-20th, please keep in mind that there will be several inaugural activities going on in the Historical Society building during those four days. This is a simple schedule of what that weekend will look like at the Historical Society building: Saturday the 17th and Sunday the 18th: you will be able to see the exhibit during the normal opening hours. Monday the19th: they are normally closed. This is also the day in Washington when we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday, so it is a federal holiday.Tuesday the 20th: Inauguration day, the building will be closed.

"Change" (above) is the piece that got accepted and the construction inspiration comes from artist Sonji Hunt. I'm a fan of her work and had been trying small pieces. This was my first larger scale piece (30 inches by 30 inches). I love the abstractness of the piece and this was my second effort. The first piece I did (The Making of a President-below) is more traditional to me in it's construction. A whole cloth quilted background with appliques of states that were places that are the making of president Obama (Honolulu, Illinois, Kansas, and Kenya). I also applied a lone figure of a man to represent the president elect.

Greeting/Happy Holiday/The Piece of the Week.

Greetings All,

Since I last posted I've had a birthday (58), been to Atlanta and it was cold (37 degrees) and when I left home (Chicago) it was cold (35 degrees). I also have been working hard on several pieces that I'm going to submit for exhibitions and think that I should not show them in total until I've heard from the committees. The images below are from one that I did for a mermaid exhibition and I have finally finished it last week all but the lable.

The piece below, "Gate-1" is my piece of the week. I was inspired by another gate piece that I created from some of my hand dyed and then painted fabric. I fused to peltex both sides and I love the feel of the fabric. I like the stablity and the quiltablity. I'm preparing for an open house this weekend. All the stores are having 3-day events and so is "Hand Works". I hope/pray that you all will have a safe/great/wonderful holiday.

SOFA/Piece of the week.

Greetings All,

The piece of this week is the sister piece to the "Landscape of Change" (right) piece that I created. I had a busy week and didn't get the chance to do much. I went to SOFA on Thursday night with my friend Judy Coasts Perez and we had a blast. So much great at to see. One of my favorite artist was there Woodrow Nash (below) and I was just in awe by seeing some of his new works.

I also fell in love with fiber artist Barbara lee-Smith (below right) I thought was just lovely and Karen Halt (left/center) had these little dresses that were painted, dipped in bees wax and then in resin were just darling. She also had done framed paintings that were done to match the theme of the dresses.

I also saw in person some of Twiga (below) great jewelry which I have only seen in books I love her use of big, bold beads and color. I returned to SOFA on Saturday and volunteered at the SAQA (studio art quilt associates) booth. I'm a new member and wanted to get out and meet some of the members. I saw Casey Puetz (below right) whom I know from PAQA ( Professional Art Quilt Alliance), Desiree Vaughn (below left)and other wonderful artist of both PAQA and SAQA. We were next to Fiber Arts magazine booth. Sunday Judy Coates Perez , her children and I went to brunch hosted by Prism and Function + Art Galleries in the Fulton Market District. Prism is all about contemporary glass and Function is about everything else. This was a art fill week/week end and my head is bursting with new ideas,

Yes We Did!

Greetings All,

Last night was a night of history as we all know by now. I was at home alone watching and then my children called one by one to talk about what they were watching on CNN and how they wish that they were here in Chicago with me and the masses. They both know that I'm not a big crowd lover so I would not be at Grant Park, but I would be watching as they were. I work when I get stress and I started on Saturday a small piece in honor of the ending of this election process (right-Landscape of Change-I) and I finished it after I went to vote on yesterday. I could not do the early voting being born in 1950 and I had to do it on the historical date. It was amazing standing in line with those that were there for the 1st time, those who brought there children and grandchildren and those that were much more mature than I and did not want to do an absentee ballot as they had done in the past because they too wanted to be a part of the history. The mood was just unbelievable all day long and the ending was just as awesome. Now the hard work begins and those of us that are of faith we must continue to keep prayerful for our president, nation and the world. Yes We Did!

Green Pastures/The piece of the week.

Greetings All,

This week has been a slow week. I've caught another cold from those wonderful little darlings at the day care center where I work out of. So I've not been feeling 100 %. I did another re-make of an older piece. "Green Pastures" has be made over twice now. I was thinking about a question I was asked last Saturday about how long dose it take you to make a piece? This question bugs me. I wonder if people ask painter or sculptors how long it takes them to create a piece? This piece has been in the making for three years and now it's finally finished I think.