Homage ll

11"x11", unfinished, gold leaf, gold thread, embroidery, assorted beads, suede, silk, solar  prints.
The life and work of the ancient scribe fascinates me. The practice of botanical illustrations all the way back to Egyptian times also fascinates me. Add together with my love of biblical archeology and the line-up for exploring subjects is endless. This piece of the first of a homage to the everyday celebration of harvesting well loved fruit. This first being the "fig". Today it is still a beloved fruit in Turkey as well as surrounding countries.
My first experience of meeting the fig was visiting the yard of our Portuguese neighbors. Their yard was large with a massive palm tree and in the back portion was a small square yard surrounded by hedges. In the center was my first glimpse of a Fig tree loaded with fruit with overripe fruit on the dirt below. I had never tasted a fig and was encouraged by the grandmother to try and when I did and smiled...well...I found myself returning home with a generous bag full of the beautiful black/purple fruit!! No English words necessary just smiles and a  generous heart!
Pomegranate might be my next fruit to compliment this piece.
Solar printing is slow going. Some fault in the hours of sunshine, some in my limited photo shop skills and some due to my son visiting. I'll regroup and begin again!

Juno Calling

These are the three of the many moons of Jupiter. They are mixed media pieces using wide variety of materials. The series began around 2012 and I so enjoyed taking a look at our planets, moons and stars in our solar system. I created these relying on my art making skills, science info and mythology! With the REAL exploration going on I can't help smiling about my take on these moons and what information will be coming back on the real discoveries! The titles beginning at the top "Excavation of Ganymede". "Collisto's Heart" and last "Oceans Europa".

Orchard Memories

9"x12", tea stained cloth, solar print cloth, machine and hand stitching, beads and twine.
A small collage of assorted solar prints. The tree and branches are painted and printed in the sun and the olive leaves are placed on wet solar paint and placed in the sun for printing. This is the second cloth piece using my experiments to create memories. I lived for several years in an agricultural area and the back roads led through miles of working orchards. The news spoke of the rains effect on the cherries, the bees related to almonds and reporting the walnut harvesting was big news. Ships from all over the world would dock in our port to pick up walnuts which was rather interesting to see the different flags

The sun has all but disappeared these past few days which can be typical for the summer. We have morning fog ...late afternoon low clouds and then the fog rolls back in the evening. They are promising more sunshine in the next couple of days and I will begin my experiments again.