Making Fire

12"x18",cotton printed cloth, muslin, tea stained cloth, stamped cloth, machine stitching, silver threads and gold leaf, cut images, cloth pen and fashion trim.

This piece above is part of a two piece series... 'Constellation of Clouds' in the previous post is the other half. This one representing pillars of fire. I stayed with just cutting shapes with scissors and machine stitching...a challenge for sure. I look forward to return to my needle, thimble and thread.
 Both are 'maps' for the ancient desert traveler. For me these two have been a lesson in trust which is really good to have when making art!

Rescue in Red

This began as a connection to the color 'red' and I started off with a glue resist using black on red cloth with an addition of bronze foil. Everything went wrong when I applied a cream like texture that was supposed to dry clear. Oh no! I soaked, I scrubbed and when dry I added gold leaf (second photo) and although pretty in colors, I had lost my way in purpose and composition. Out came the scissors and cutting away, adding fabrics until I had lost one circle but at least I had a surface to begin again. I've titled the piece "Tower Markings" and the circle shape (to me) feels like an ancient compass or maybe a star map. I added stamped fabric for leaves and some free sewing with the sewing machine as well as some loved stitches. I'm not against giving up on a piece but this one is only the second in my series on color and seemed in the beginning to have captured my heart...just couldn't give up! Need I mention the 42 other ideas I had and some I tried? The journal writing coming to terms with a pretty crappy cloth? Need I mention the calming myself, reconnecting to my personal memories of the color red or the many times I just didn't reconnect with the color red? Several days and nights went into this red journey and now I'm just fine with all that didn't go my way and all that did fit into this finished piece. Ready to start another color...a few more efforts in color to see if this is the way I want to continue.

Going for Gold

My three choices for GOLD on the Roy G Biv day. I love working with gold...gold leaf, gold paint, gold threads and even gold beads. For more gold finds check out Jennifer for names and sites. The first piece is mostly paint with some handmade stamps and the last two are fabric pieces. The second one is titled 'Ancient Gate' and is loaded with gold paint on fabric and papers. The last is 'Temple of Leaves' and is topped off with gold leaf. Enjoy the search!

Temple of Leaves

12"x13", muslin, cotton, hand printing, gold leaf, machine and hand embroidery, loose ties on four corners.
This is the first of my just play around and explore time. I began with some poorly printed leaves and over printed with a blue green paint. Some leaves are machine stitched over but most are hand embroidery using a mixture of different colored threads. Fun creating a temple with gold leaf and gold paint. While I was busy with this, I had some fellows paint my kitchen! Now I'm starting on a sorta grid pattern and I have some other fellows coming to clean up this little overgrown yard. Spring is moving along nicely!

RED + Nine

This is a re-post of my first post way, way back to March 3rd, 2008. I did this to honor "Search for Roy G Biv" day. On the third Thursday of each month, I'll be posting (along with other artists) a photo representing the color (red) for this month. All this began for me over at the blog: Jennifer Coyne Qudeen ... check it out!!

These 9 little canvas pieces represent some of my first steps in combining fabric with paint and other media. I remember using an assortment of paint rags, silk, organza and paper ... machine stitching it all together in a random circular fashion. The fabric pieces were glued to canvas and colored stones, wire, paint and gold leaf were added. The Human and Divine was my inspiration as I was enjoying the idea of what each one of us might look like as bits of beauty in a star-like swirling shape.

Excavation of Ganymede

15"x15", acrylic, oil pastel, gold leaf and collage.
Ganymede is one of the four large moons of the many moons of Jupiter and the first one I thought I'd explore. There is the dark side of the moon, the unseen and excavation would be a great idea. Some photographs show long grooves on the surface very much like giant raked areas so there is plenty of mystery. I added the bird  sitting on the scaffolding because the mythical God Jupiter/Zeus is famous for disguise!

A trip to Carmel is in my near future and I have no plans for excavation there beyond placing my toes in the sand. If it rains...I'll need to step up the shopping and or coffee/bakery stops!

Happy New Year of the Dragon!