Color Field Catch Up

I'm still working on that color fields series. I'm getting ready to quilt #9, but need to get you caught up. So here is #7.  I think you can see the quilting is straight lines.  The bottom also has straight lines going vertically.

Color Fields #7

hand dyed fabrics, 

machine pieced and quilted

32-1/4" x 13-3/4"

© 2011 Lisa Flowers Ross

A Little More Good News

I found out that my artwork was accepted to the Deep Spaces Juried Show.  I made the piece specifically for this show (it had to be a certain size and go with the theme).  I gave you a peek here, but am not sure if I can show you the whole thing just yet.  Details are coming after the long weekend.

Weekend Work

Guess what we're doing this weekend?

Yup, we're painting Anna's room. She wanted to re-do it. So no more blue skies, white clouds and tigers walking through the grass. We're moving on to a teenage room. (Above, the ceiling is completed but the walls are just starting to get primed.)

There are no blue skies outside either, so I guess it is a fine time to paint. It's going to be a long weekend.

Going Public

When I visit other cities, I really enjoy seeing public art. I also enjoy seeing it in my own hometown. If you live in Boise, you've probably noticed the traffic boxes downtown with artwork on them. The one below is by Pat Kilby.

I think this is such a great idea to dress up the necessary, usually mundane, boxes with art. It's fun to discover little works of art on corners of the city. I enjoy seeing them and now I get to enjoy the fact that I will be creating a design for one of these boxes! Yes, I am pleased that I was one of the artists chosen for the next phase of the project.

I may not be able to create the design in fabric, but need to get the specifications to find out. We don't actually install the work on the box. The designs are translated into a vinyl wrap that someone else installs around the box. I'm really interested in getting started with the entire process, as this will be my first public art work.

Color Fields #6

Color Fields #6

hand dyed fabrics, machine pieced, machine quilted

20-1/4 x 21"

© 2011 Lisa Flowers Ross

Hard to see the quilting on this one but there is some variation in line in that middle yellow stripe.  I used a green thread.

Color Fields #5

Color Fields #5

hand dyed fabrics, machine pieced and quilted

11-1/2 x 10-1/2"

© 2011 Lisa Flowers Ross

I didn't work on art much last week because I was getting stuff ready for our garage sale (which never seems to be worth the effort).  But I am still working on the Color Fields series.  Above is #5 which I think is where I left off posting here.  I'm ready to start number nine this week.

Monotype Monday

This past Monday, Amy Nack hosted Monotype Monday at Wingtip Press.  People could come for several hours, either in the morning or evening, to work on monotypes using the Akua ink which we used in the workshop.  Since I had some ideas from doing the workshop, I went in the evening.

I did my printing on fabric again.  I went with a plan and tried my ideas.  They weren't as successful as I had hoped, but I did learn some things.  And I had fun playing again.  Someday I am going to cut up the fabrics and create some pieces to see how it looks and how sewing with the inked fabrics goes.

I used a stencil in this piece.

I ran this piece through the press three times. I like how some parts look "woven".

 This piece is very subtle.

Busy Week

This is Anna's to-do list for this week. It's almost as long as mine. I hope she gets it all done. I think that "sew quilt" might involve me and I don't see it on my list for this week.

We are having a garage sale on Saturday and we have lots of stuff to clean out. Anna is getting ready to re-do her room again. She has a new (used) bed already and paint colors picked out. Still looking for a desk that is on her list. So many things to do . . . .

Note:  My "Leftover 4" post didn't want to publish. But I have it up now, so be sure to scroll down and check out the lovely print.

North Junior High Art Show

Thursday night was the North Junior High Art Show. It occurs once a year and all the art classes show what they have been working on throughout the year. It is fun to see the artwork, especially since the parents never get to see any of it throughout the year. It stays at school (which I guess is a necessity so that they have enough artwork to put on a show at the end of the year. Although I miss the opportunity to discuss with Anna what she is working on and how she likes using the medium.)

The cafeteria gets transformed into a gallery.

Anna stands by one of her artworks (right next to her head).  Her shirt says "smart girls are more fun."  It was an extra credit project we made for math using the quadratic equation, which is what is in the black box. Yep, she uses both the right and left sides of her brain.

More of Anna's work in the bottom right corner.

Leftover Prints 5

This is the last of the Leftovers.  

Well, not really.  I have seven more, but I think a week's worth of Leftovers is enough.

This print is a mezzotint and drypoint engraving done by Cassandra Schiffler entitled Leftovers II.

Leftover Prints 4

This is a print by a local artist, Lisa Cheney-Jorgensen here in Boise.

It is entitled Messengers. The quote on the print says:

"There is a sacredness in tears.

They are not the mark of weakness, but of power.

They are messengers of overwhelming grief

and of unspeakable love."

I think this is a quietly, powerful piece.

Leftover Prints 3

Still hungry for more Leftovers?  

This is a print entitled Insight.  

The signature is hard to decipher but I think it might be Katherine Jones.  

This is a print within a print.

Leftover Prints 2

Once again I put the penny in place so you can get a sense of scale.

This is a print by Lynn Webster called Home.  I believe she is from Idaho.

Leftover Prints

This week I will be serving up some Leftovers for you.  I have had my prints from the exchange for a little while and now I think most everybody else has theirs, too.  I'm going to show you a few of the ones I received.

I put a penny with this so you could get a sense of the scale.  All the Leftovers were suppose to be smaller than 5 x 8".

This is a print by Beverlee McLeod (aka BEJA) from Canada.  It is one of her Vancouver Island miniatures that are hand-painted original etchings.  Some people sent in twelve similar prints while a few others sent in different prints.  Each of Beverlee's prints were different.

First Thursday

Yesterday was First Thursday and the annual Modern Art event. Once again the Treasure Valley Artists' Alliance participated with a collaboration piece. We did not have the same stairwell wall we had last year, but a different wall with the same type of squares. This year the pieces were all self portraits. There were many new ones and some from last year (I just had my one from last year).

We didn't actually go to the event this year.  Although I would have liked to have seen all the rooms, it is usually so very crowded, plus Anna had a lot of homework to do (I wanted to take her).  Maybe next year.

We did take a little bit of time to go to The Cotton Club which is only open to the public on First Thursdays.  In the same building was the Idaho Indie Works shop and they had these fun flowers in the windows.

Foray Again

If you didn't make it to the Foray opening, you can see the tv interview that Melissa Chambers did about the show on the TVAA website.  (Love that piece behind her. wink-wink.)  And you can still go see the show during office hours 9-5p.m.  It will be up through June 2.

Color Fields #4

I have finally started the quilting on Color Fields #4 (5 and 6 are already completed). This piece is so huge (for me) and I think I was putting it off a little because I dislike wrestling large pieces in the machine. But also, I needed to get some other things done before I took the time to work on this. It is going to take a while to complete.

 You can see how big it is laying on the table above with my different thread selections laid out.

 I've just done one section so far. Below you can see a small part of that section.  The stitching is more representational than I would normally chose.  But this is what the piece seemed to need.  Hopefully, as you step back from it, it will become more abstract.

. . . May Flowers!

I looked out my kitchen window one recent morning and loved how the sunlight was shining on our Serviceberry tree. 

It's still too cold to plant outside.  There is still snow on Shaffer Butte.

Akua Prints

On Friday, Melanie repeatedly reminded us that she has been doing these prints for a long time and she was making decisions while demonstrating based on experience.  She told us that our prints may not be very great since we are just learning.  She emphasized that we were learning and playing with the inks to found out how they work and not to expect wonderful pieces.  Therefore, I went in Saturday with no expectations of getting anything usable.

Here is my total output for the day.


Based on the first print of the three color reduction, I was certainly living up to my non-expectations.  That layering process is a bit challenging for my brain. 

Then I moved on to the stencil technique which was what I was most excited about.  We were given the homework assignment to cut out our stencils, so we had them all ready.  Below is my first print.  I like it.

 

 It's easy to do many of these by taking the stencils off after printing them, flipping them over onto another plate (because they pick up some ink from the plate on the back side), doing ghost prints, layering new stencils, etc. etc.  You could go on forever.  I also used a dot stamp on the one above (they look like bubbles) and the bottom of a spool pressed into the ink which created the circles in the bottom left corner.

I did quite of few of these and pulled ghost prints as well.  Not all of them are great but it was fun to play.  I had also brought some fabric to try printing on.  I ironed freezer paper on the back to make it stiff and used it just like the paper.  The print below is on white fabric.  The lower corner is a little light.

What's so exciting about this is I can heat set this and then add stitching or more color if I want and finish it like my other fabric pieces.

I was rolling my colors on a separate plexi palette and Molly said I should print the palette.  So I did print it on fabric.  It is below.  With these piece, I could cut it up and sew it back together with some other fabrics.  Now, I'm really excited about the possibilities of this process with fabric.

The last picture I'm going to show you is a ghost print on paper that I took from the plate with the leftover ink from printing on a piece of fabric.  It is very pastel, but I really like how the colors blended in this one.  I think I can go back into it with some colored pencils or crayons and create just a little more contrast. 

There are so many things you can do with the print once it's printed. You can print over it again, go in with paint, pencils, ink, collage, etc.  Since they are monotypes, they are all one of a kind.  I had a lot of fun doing this workshop.