2016 is a year of color!

First and upfront, some exciting news!

My Unity Mandala has been accepted into the Maryland Federation of Art's Fiber Options show this summer!  The exhibition runs from July 14th to August 6th in Annapolis, MD.  I am humbled and thrilled to be included in this exclusive show, not to mention beyond excited to (hopefully) meet one of my absolute favorite fiber artists,  Elaine Longtemps.  She does brilliant work with powerful messages. 

A few other quilts this winter:

Thread Art free motion mandala close up. 

This was a FUN piece!!  I made about a million 1" English Paper Piecing hexagons all in patriotic fabrics last year and FINALLY I got to quilt them!  Appliqued to a solid background fabric and the quilting makes it a bit 3-dimensional. 

 

Shortly after the last blog post, I ripped my thumb tendons and partially dislocated the joint - taking quilting out of the picture for a few weeks.  

Which ended up being a blessing in disguise!

Not being able to handle heavy layers and a machine opened up the creative juices for other art and it has been really fun!  Gelli printing, mono printing, cutting stencils, watercolors and acrylics, art journal-ling, fiber arts, even book illustrations.  It's been a fantastic year!  

All are made with original, hand cut stencils.  All the above are acrylic on 140lb paper.  Several of the above were made to be backgrounds for other art pieces or art journals.  Just layer by layer by layer...

(I might have a small obsession with feathers and birds and wings... call it a series!) 

These are the same process but on a cotton/linen blend fabric.  My next experiment will be quilting with them.

These were part of an artists grant proposal I put together this spring, Dissection of a Modern Quilt.  More in the series and more to come.

I've also had the opportunity to do lots of research and work for some First Nation artists in Manitoba, British Columbia, North Dakota and New York.  While I'm not able to share those pieces just yet (soon, very soon!!) I have been greatly inspired and have been trying my own art in the Pacific Northwest Tribal style.  It is a beautiful, rich art style and I am deeply in love.

Original ink, Ravens in Love

I LOVELOVELOVE the texture of acrylic!

Acrylic mono-print of Tribal Mask by artist Eric Schweig

 

All this work has been so much fun that it doesn't even feel like work!

"I have conquered the Studio!"

But it's messy and I often end up looking like:

And I usually crash like this with the Pooch:

Coming up soon:
-Etsy Shoppe
-Summer Folk Art Festival
-Girls Camp Art Counselor
-Art Journal Classes
-Hopeful Grant Emissary acceptance (CROSS YO' FINGERS!!)
-Book Publications  (Say WHA??)

Be well, love life, make art and be happy.  Thanks for stoppin' by!

Mood: Spunky
Music: "Sunset in July" by 311..