Mosaic Gateway

12"x12" cradled wood panel, digital print on organza, flour paste resist, hand stamped cloth, turquoise beads and machine and hand stitching, painted netting.

The last wood cradled panel with the last intentional look at ancient mosaic imagery. Composing on paper and cloth allows for the adding onto and the cutting away of an image but this 12"x12" structure has kept me aware of my borders and edges... not always comfortable for me. The digital photo of the doorway was a part of a photograph I took years ago and never thought I would find the place for it. I finally used the last of my turquoise beads on this one and the upper cloth was a scrap from my first husbands suit pants. Nothing is safe around me!

New work ahead ... I've been doing a ton of writing, visiting museum sites and reading a few special books. I haven't quite found my direction so I imagine there will be some starts and stops some failed attempts and maybe even happy results ...I just regularly show up at the work table and things begin happening sooner or later. While my focus is in flux, I am gathering this years work into a 2015 calendar/planner.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Desert Brown

1. "Leaving Egypt" 2.  "Morning Oasis"  3. "Nightfall"

These three fabric pieces speak (in brown) of my desert series. Each one has a digital photo on fabric. I've never been to any part of the Middle East but I didn't let that slow down my desert dream. I prefer using my own photos so lets just say it was a challenge! The little one "Leaving Egypt" has a photo of the wetlands outside of San Francisco (my take on the muddy waters of the Red Sea) I added loose threads to express grasses and reeds. The leather X's are from an old purse. The "Morning Oasis" cloth photo is of a special oasis in the Southern California desert region. I've been there but couldn't use my photographs ... next best was to use a photo from an Internet site. The "Nightfall" dark palm studded oasis was a photo I took while watching the PBS documentary "Walking the Bible". I was surprised it came out at all as I've never photographed something on the TV. I'm not generally a big fan of brown but using all the tones and variations of brown helped set the desert mood.
It's always so much fun seeing other artists share their take on a color. Go to Jennifer Coyne Qudeen for a list of sites of "Brown" ... the continued search for Roy G Biv !

Celebrating 100,000!!!

Wow, Yes, I checked and I have had 100,000 pageviews on this blog Yippee!!
Almost every day or night I check my blog, post on my blog, think about posting on my blog, read comments and post comments and the list goes on. This has been a rich experience for me and I feel I've touched and been touched by some pretty wonderful artists doing what I do most days ... making art!
Thank you for visiting this site ... it allows me to complete the creative process last step in putting the work out into the world ... being seen. Thank you for accepting these pieces with open, friendly arms! Onto to the next 100,000!

This small photo of fireworks was taken at an Oakland A's (baseball) night game several years ago and now it's doing double duty as my best blow out celebration here on Blue Sky Dreaming!

"Night Revelry"

6"x6", cradled wood panel, flour paste cotton, embroidery and machine stitching, muslin and painted netting, silver and turquoise beads.

Well this little one is my night following morning of the mosaic series. I'm putting together a calendar/planner and these two will be featured together ... that is if I figure out all the twists and turns in the Blurb planner download? I have discovered working 'small' is neither fast nor easy ...what has been fun is sewing the silver beads and stitching the moon/planet shape. The last of this series (for the second time) is a 12"x12" cradled panel and using the remainder of these square (mosaic) cloths only this last one the squares are on a mottled beige, white and gray painted fabric.

We had rain most of yesterday and for us it is a true gift as we are still on limited water use and hoping for more and  more rain. The birdbath was filled for the first time in a year and I had a few bird bathers stop by...life is good!