African Festival of the Arts-Chicago

Greetings All,
This weekend I will be at the African Festival of the Art. Billed as Chicago's largest neighborhood festival, this 19th anniversary celebration of the African influence in America features three music stages, ethnic cuisine, and a marketplace with more than 300 vendors. Shop for fine art, jewelry, clothing, health and skin care products, hand-woven fabrics and textiles and more. Also features a beer and wine garden, short films, author discussions, drumming and dance workshops, internet access and more. Stacey Brown (below) is the featured visual artists this year. I have several of Stacey's piece in my collection and just love his work. Do check out is website.

The Nubian Quilters invite you to “ come and stitch with us!” The African-American quilting tradition is centuries-old, dating back to the American colonial period. Further, enslaved Africans brought with them techniques of piecing, appliqué and embroidery. The contemporary quilts of today can be categorized as art as textile artist evolve the quilt making tradition. Come join us at the quilting pavilion to learn traditional and contemporary techniques of quilt design. Let's keep the tradition alive!

We have made a quilt for the past 7 or 8 years and this year we will be going on without one of our own Phyllis Martin who passed last year, but we have added Gwen McGee-Boyd. We will be missing another friend this year. Sherlynn (below left with friends) has had a stroke and want be at the fest and will be missed, but we will keep her in our prayers and our hearts.

So if you are in the Chicago-land area this coming weekend and you can get to Washington Park on the south side of town stop by the fest and look us up. We will be in the tent with the quilts blowing in the air.

Latest Obama piece.

Greetings All,

I finished another piece this past week and it's along the theme of my other "Obama" quilt. I got to thinking how he has changed the thoughts of many about who can become president of the United States and I call it that an "Icon Of Change". I used up the last of my red/white/blue fabrics I had so that's the end of the series. The quilting is done in the same type of style, just the applique is slightly different. I use an image of a tee-shirt that I saw that has art work by Shepard Fairey. I love his work and tried contacting him, buy I've gotten no reply. I am pleased with the way it turned out and please let me know what you think

Seaway Bank Art Fair/Vending

Greeting All,

Well I have recovered from vending this past weekend and I am learning that I can't keep this up much longer by myself. It's just to much work for me alone. I do manage to get help while I'm at these events, but not when I get home or when I'm packing to leave from home. Sales were low and that didn't make things the greatest, but I did meet some wonderful peoples as usual and I have definitely decided that I am going to take some art classes with Gerald Sanders. I love Gerald's work for years (right) and I hope to add him to my collection. I didn't know he taught until this pass weekend. He had several of his students with him in his booth working on several different types of art (paint, pencil, and charcoal). All ages and male/female. He even convinced one of my friends who claim she can't draw a straight line to want to take his class.

I was also next to another artist who's work I fell in love with and had never met before, Eddie Hudson. Mr Hudson works mainly with charcoal and ball point pen to the likes of which I have never seen. I'm sorry to say that I don't have any images of Eddie or his work, but he has several paintings of some Masai that I must added to my collection. I also ran into an old acquaintance, Robert Carr. Bob and I go way back to the days before children. We use to do fashion shows and club sets together. We didn't know that each other had other artistic talents and were both impressed with each other. Bob is also one of Gerald Sanders former students. This is his work at the left of Stevie Wonder.

I also met a wonderful young woman named April D. Preyar who is just unbelievable to me. She is a criminal attorney and has a website titled "Beat Your Case Now". I hope/pray that I never need her services as a lawyer. But she also writes " sassy, smart, edgy" poetry and illustrates her own book covers. "Preyar earned her law degree from George Washington University Law School. She graduated with her undergraduate degree in English and Spanish from Duke University". All of this I found just fascinating and I read her book "That Girl!" (right) while I sat in my booth. This is her 2nd literary effort. I am always delighted by the people that I meet when I'm out vending.

There is one more old acquaintance I made contact with this weekend and that's Marian Hayes and she introduced me to April. Marian is an artist who is into writing, music, dance, drama, and quilting. Below is a picture she took of Teresa Scott, April Preyar, and myself in front of my booth. Teresa is one of those friends that has been a friend for years and I love her like a sister who just came out hang out with me and made my day. She also bought me a great cat fish dinner that was lip smacking good and large enought to share with two other people. Teresa's granddaughter wants to be a writer and April might become her mentor.

I did sell several packets of my note cards and two autograph copies of "Threads of Faith" and a wall hanging called "Tropical-II" (below right). One of those copies of TOF went to another of those great girl friends that support, encourage, and nurture you long life's way and I grateful that they are in my life. Elanda Shannon is that friend and she is also the chairperson for this year annual "Needles and Threads Quilters Guild" quilt show so go to their website and check out the show info.

Monthly PAQA meeting

Greetings All,

Yesterday Gwen McGee-Boyd and I went to the monthly meeting of PAQA. We both came away so inspired and full of new thoughts. I love this group and all of its years of experience in the fiber art/quilting world. I got a chance to see Gwen's collaboration piece "Good" and I forgot to take a picture of it so I will have to post later. I did bring my half "Evil" (right) and I got several great ideas on how to enhance it more. I also got some good info about "Quilting by the Lake" and will try to attend next year for 3 to 5 days. My life is not full with a full time employment at this point, but it is full with great art and I'm loving that. It help to keep me sane. I did get a chance to see many other wonderful works by PAQA members. JoAnn Deck had some of her great hand dyed/painted fabrics there, Lois Jarvis with her awesome Rust-Tex fabrics, kits, etc. and I saw more many quilts. Sharon Malec even had some of her wool felted pieces that were just fabulous. Next month, September 17, 2008 I will do my first trunk show/ lecture at the "North Shore Quilter Guild" in Milwaukee, Wis.. This is due to the thoughtfulness of Judy Zoelzer Levine of PAQA fame, she asked me last year if I had thought of doing this and I said yes so here we go. I hope/pray that this will be the beginning of a new part of life for me and I'm so very excited. So if you are in the area do come out, say hello and give me your honest opinions. Also check out Darcy Berg's Obama piece that she did for PAQA political challenge that was called by Michele Hardman.

Seaway Bank 25th Annual Art Fair

Greetings All,

I will be out this weekend vending at the 25th Annual Art Fair at the Seaway Bank. I did this event many years ago when it first started and had stopped then two year ago I started again and remembered why I liked it. It's a community event and I love it because it gives me the opportunity to show my work to young people that I may not get the chance to meet and for me community is like hanging out with family. So if you are in the area do stop by my booth and say hello. I will be at 87th Street and Langley Ave in Chicago, IL from 11 am until 6 pm.

SWAQ monthly meeting

Greetings,

SWAQ monthly meeting was did not happen today. I was at a lost and had to fill that time, so I completed another in my series of "metallic" pieces. Sliver is my favorite metal and it's the color of my new pieces. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did in creating it. Not a piece of cotton was used and I added some "Tyvek" that I was painted and left over from another piece. I painted some fabric and the canvass with Jacquard Lumiere paint in the color Pewter . I love these soft sculpted quilted piece sewn to the canvas. I have several other canvass so I know there is more to come.

SWAQ-monthly meeting

Greetings,

Last week I completed one small piece titled "Keep On Running"(left). It was made with a Guinea Brocade that had been embroider, vintage fabric from the 70s, chocolate brown Kona/mottled cotton and buttons. I'm stressed and I have deiced that I will try to make a piece a week. I made quite a few when my dad was sick last year and it helps to keep my mind off of the issues. This week I worked on my challenge piece for the SWAQ called "Evil". Gwen McGee Boyd has the other half "Good". This is the first time that Gwen and I have collaborated on a piece.

I also finished another small work in the same spirit of "Keep On Running" and it's call "Run On"(right). I used the same template, but reverse the direction of the runner and I used a different type of background. I also allowed the runner to be off the page so to speak by placing it off of the background.