Weekly Project: The End

The end of the year means the end of my weekly stitching project.  I did end up with 52 squares, but wasn't very good about doing them every week.  The last one I posted was #45, here are the rest to get caught up.

 Weekly Square #46

 Weekly Square #47

 Weekly Square #48

 Weekly Square #49

 Weekly Square #50

 Weekly Square #51

Weekly Square #52

Here is a review of all of them, even though it is hard to see them.

Holiday Recovery

Once the workers were finished installing new windows and painting the outside of the house, and Frank and Anna returned late on the 23rd (really very early morning on the 24th), we had a nice quiet Christmas holiday.

If you know me, or have read my blog for awhile, you might have guessed I'm a type A personality.  I always have a list of things to do.  Christmas day is the one day of the year when I really allow myself to do nothing and not feel guilty about it.  I still do stuff like work on a puzzle, read, or whatever.  But it is not something that is on a to-do list or that I know needs to be done.  I don't worry about checking email or posting something online.  It is really great.  I need to add more days like it throughout the year.

This holiday, I have let myself have a few days of guilt-free relaxation.  It seems easier to do when Frank and Anna are home and also just "hanging out," even if we aren't necessarily doing things together.  Today, Frank has gone off to ski, Anna is at a friend's house and it is time to get back into the swing of things.

What do you do to transition from the holidays back to the non-holiday activities?  For me, I will look at that to-do list (there is always a list!).  I will review my year of art/business and see if I met my goals and start thinking about new goals for next year.

This exercise is a good way for me to reflect on what's occurred throughout the past year (in all areas) and prepare for a new year.

Please share any tricks you have for transitioning.

A Christmas visitor.

Christmas at the Capitol

Saturday was the day for another get together of the local Urban Sketchers.  The meeting place was the capitol building here in Boise.

The building really is beautiful and it was decked out for Christmas.

It was nice that there were benches and other chairs available to sit on since I did not bring one with me.  I only did a few sketches as I spent time wandering around and taking pictures.

Theresa Burkes sketching.

In this first sketch, what I liked about the scene was all the repetition of elements.  The repetition of columns, round lights, floors and decorative elements.  In my mind, I am abstracting this down to even more simple lines and shapes than I have here.

I decided to draw this because of the doors inside the doors, inside the doors, inside the columns.  

There are actually three sets of doors here.  The second set doesn't look like doors because I was seeing the edge of it.  I took a picture so you could see what I was looking at.  You can also see I was selective in what I drew.  The more I do this, the more it reminds me that I don't have to draw things exactly as I see them.  As the artist, I get to pick and choose what I include.

Foray IV

On the opening night of the Treasure Valley Artists' Alliance's exhibition, Foray IV, it was snowy and icy here.  I, like many other people, did not want to drive in the conditions and did not attend.  I heard it was a quiet gathering.  Because of that, they decided to have a re-opening a couple of weeks ago.  The weather was unseasonably warm and I did go to that one.

Foray IV is the annual, no theme exhibition of the group.  It is at the Boise State Public Radio offices in the Yanke building on Park Center Blvd.  and will be open during office hours through Jan. 30th.

Here are just a few of the artworks.

Houseghost IV by Michael Chambers

(There are some reflections on this piece since it is under glass.)

Dark Matter Phoenix by Mo Mapes

Ethnic Dress by Shirley McCarter

(made with paper)

Mount Rundle by Heather Hainsworth

(There are some reflections on this piece since it is under glass.)

Stockholm Seaside by Dennis Hayzlett

Shady Acres Sunset by Toby Davis

Serene Waters by Laurie Gibbons

photograph

And my artwork, Vertical Nature VI, is also in the exhibition.

If you need a break from holiday activities, you might stop by and take a look.  Remember it is only open during office hours.

Give & Get Holiday Sale Review

This past weekend I participated in a pop-up shop event at Door #3.  Door #3 is a new artist studio cooperative in Garden City.  Even though I am not part of the cooperative (since I have a studio at home),  I was invited to set up a table.

As I mentioned previously, Reham Aarti of Mosaic Essential is the brainchild behind getting the studio cooperative up and going and this was one of its first events.  Reham is a mosaic artist and also had it set up so people could mosaic a picture frame or ornament at the event.

Here is a picture of the space, which is like a warehouse.  I set up my table just behind the working table on the right.  You can see my sewing machine and some of my artworks on the wall.

I brought mostly smaller artworks and some older works.  Here is my little set up.

This is not a professional install of artwork.  I just randomly hung the work. That little sign in the middle says that part of my sales will be donated to Charity:Water.  One of the by-laws of the co-operative is that the artists donate at least 10% of their sales at an event to a charity.  We all got to chose our own.

Here is the mosaic stuff all ready to go.  Big buckets of small, colorful objects.  Makes me want to run my hands through them.

And this was the view from my spot, watching people make mosaics.  

I brought my sewing machine for a couple of reasons.  One was so I would have something to work on and the other was to demonstrate free-motion stitching if anyone was interested in seeing what I do.

I was doing some free-motion stitching on a piece and a young boy who had finished his mosaic came over to watch.  He stood a little ways a way.  I said, "Come closer and I will show you what I'm doing."  He was very interested.  Then he asked if he could press the foot petal for me.  I let him. Then he asked if he could try it.  I said yes and took out what I was working on and found another demo piece that he could use.  He sat down and started stitching.  

Eventually, some of the other kids came over, too.  They also wanted to try it and sometimes one was pressing the foot pedal while the other moved the fabric.  It went on for quite a while.  By the time the first young boy was getting ready to leave, he told me he was going to ask Santa for a sewing machine.

Give & Get Holiday Sale

This Saturday I will be participating in a "pop-up" holiday sale.  I'll be popping up a small table or two to sell some of my smaller artworks.  I also am planning to bring my sewing machine to be able to work on something and show people how I do free-motion stitching.

The brainchild of this event is my friend, Reham Aarti.  You might remember that Reham and I were the featured artists together at Silvercreek Art in November.  Reham creates mosaics.  She has been working at her house but wanted to have a separate studio.  So she organized a new artists studio cooperative in a warehouse space in Garden City.  I think there are 5-10 artists that will have their studio in the space.

Here is what it looked like a few weeks ago.  It will be transformed for the holiday sale!

The studio artists and others, like me, will set up shop for one day only.  All the artists will donate a portion of their sales to a charity of their choice.  My charity is Charity:Water.  I created a press release for the event and sent it out to the local papers.  The Idaho Statesman posted about it on their website.

People will also be able to make a mosaic ornament ($8) or picture frame ($25) with Reham.  The group is also collecting outerwear for refugees at the event (which will be given to the International Rescue Committee - Boise.  The Livestrong Artist-in-Residence Cancer group will also have arts and crafts available to help raise money for their program.

I think it will be a good time.  Hope you can stop by, if you are in the neighborhood.  The address is 413 E. 37th St. in Garden City.  Look for Door #3.

Foliaris VII

I was looking back through my posts and realized that I haven't actually shown you Foliaris VII.  It was in some of the gallery pictures, but those didn't have the best lighting.  So here it is in all it's glory.

Foliaris VII

hand dyed fabrics, machine pieced, free-motion stitching

37" x 31"

©Lisa Flowers Ross

Available for purchase

November was my month to be one of the featured artists at Silvercreek Art gallery.  This was up for that exhibition and it is one of a few pieces still up at Silvercreek Art this month in the group area.

Detail of stitching

Saguaro National Park

While in Arizona, we also did a hike in Saguaro National Park.  Here are a few pictures from that.

Frank and Anna. 

Lunch break.

I don't know why the top of this cactus looked this way, but I liked the lines and shapes.  It was the only one we saw like this.

We didn't see this butterfly in the park, but I wanted to include here.  There were a bunch of them flying around this plant near one of the places we were shopping.

SAQA Arizona

I am a member of the international organization, Studio Art Quilt Associates.  Since it is a large organization, there are smaller regional groups.  Our region is Idaho and Montana.  Before our trip to Tucson, I found out the Arizona group was having a regional juried exhibition in Tucson at the Jewish Community Center.

I looked up the address and we were able to find it.  The center is very large and the exhibition was in one part of it.  There was also an outdoor sculpture garden where they have an annual juried exhibition.

The title of the exhibition was Journeys.  Here are some of the pieces.  Unfortunately, the walls they were displayed on had some colored type of fabric material which didn't always set off the artwork to its best advantage, but it was really great they had a space to show their work in.  They also had a few awards.

The Healing Power of Water

Barb Wills

Honorable Mention Award

Land of the Giants

Betty Hahn

First Place

The materials/techniques were not listed on the labels.  But I think this one above was painted or printed on the fabric.

Yukon: Larger than Life

Peggie Thomas

Honorable Mention

Night Train to Chiang Mai

Janet Windsor

Best of Show

Sunset - Arizona - Summer 2013

Frances Murphy

"Is it" A-Z Botanical Journey

Denise Currier

Honorable Mention

I thought the background on this piece was amazing.  There are lots of hand stitches but there is also some machine stitching on top, which I have not seen before.  I think the piece would have been much stronger without the busy borders. I think they distract from the image. 

Goat Lady and Time Travelers

Kathleen Sharp

3rd Place

I am not usually attracted to figurative pieces or pastel colors, but there is something about this piece that I like.  I think it seems mysterious and very different than any other art quilts I have seen. The overall texture also unifies the entire work.

I am glad we were able to see the exhibition.  It is always nice to see artwork in person.