Graduation

The graduation ceremony for Anna's High School was this past Tuesday.  Both sets of grandparents and a great uncle were here to witness the event.  Of course, lots of pictures were in order!

 Anna and Grandma Peggy

Frank, Uncle Bob, Grandpa Flowers, Grandma Flowers, me, Anna, Grandma Ross, Grandpa Ross

The ceremony went smoothly.  Frank and I were discussing what we remember about our own high school graduation.  I don't remember much about it.  How about you?  Do you remember your high school graduation?

The Graduate

Today is the day and it is time to get out the embarrassing pictures!  Anna, our little sweetie (who is now a lovely young lady), is graduating from high school today!  We are so very proud of her and relieved the high school days are over.

She will be attending Northern Arizona University in the fall and plans to study Astro-biology.  I know we will miss her but I am also excited for her in this next adventure in her life.  I know I have not prepared her well in the art of picking up after herself and other domestic duties that she will have to deal with at college (as I am not a good role model for that).  But I hope I have prepared her with the knowledge that she can always speak her mind, ask for help when she needs it and will always be loved.

1999 - Getting a head start

2003 

2004 - Look! No hands in France.

2005 - Cheese!

2007 - Belgium

2010

2012 - Scotland

2014 - Idaho Scholar and Aerospace program

2015 - Prom

Congratulations, Anna!

Photo credit: Anne Cirillo

Field Study Series

Field Study is one of my more recent series that I have been working on.  The inspiration for the series came from a field outside of Ketchum (you can read more about in this post). Still "riffing" off that same field, I created Field Study (K2) and Field Study (K3).

Field Study (K2)

fabrics hand dyed by artist, machine pieced, free-motion stitching

38" x 29-1/2"

©2015 Lisa Flowers Ross

(Available for purchase)

Detail of free-motion stitching

Field Study (K2) definitely is further afield from the field (ha!).  In Field Study (K3), the abstraction is not as extreme and looks the most like a field of any in the series.  Although the goal is not to make it look like a field.  The goal is to make pieces inspired by fields.

Field Study (K3)

fabrics hand dyed by artist, machine pieced and stitched

29-1/4" x 30-1/4"

©Lisa Flowers Ross

(Available for purchase)

I plan to continue with this series using different fields for inspiration.

Foliaris IX

It's been quite a while since I've shown you some new artwork I've made.  The year has gone by quickly already and I only have a handful of artworks to show for it.  I hope that changes during the rest of the year.

I wanted to share the latest piece I just finished and shipped off for the Studio Art Quilt Associates online Benefit Auction that will start September 18th.   They have already started putting the images online so you can take a look at those people that plan ahead and get things done. But be sure to check back again throughout the summer as I'm sure there will be some artists, like me, that will be sending their artwork in close to the June 1st deadline.

Foliaris IX

fabrics hand dyed by the artist, fused appliqué, machine stitching

12" x 12"

©2015 Lisa Flowers Ross

Available through the SAQA Benefit Auction

This is the ninth piece in the Foliaris series which focuses on the shapes and lines of leaves with an emphasis on the edges or the veins within the leaf.  

I had drawn a little thumbnail sketch of this in my sketchbook and had planned to make a large version.  But trying to come up with something for the donation piece and a deadline looming, I decided to use it to make this small piece.  The artwork is fused and the machine stitching was kept very simple by just outlining the pieces.  To me, this makes it look/feel more like a drawing. It would be nice to explore this a bit more sometime.

I might still make this as a larger piece, as well, and if I did I would add a lot more stitching to create texture in the leaves.

Spring Awakening

The Treasure Valley Artists' Alliance has another exhibition up entitled, Spring Awakening.  At it's usual location in the Boise State Public Radio Offices, plants seemed to be a popular item for the Spring theme.

Here's a sneak peek.

At the opening.  Large work by Melissa Chambers.

Betty Hayzlett's Spring Arrives in foreground, my Spring Blocks #9 and Spring Blocks #8 in background.

The exhibition is up through July 17th during regular business hours at 220 E. Park Center Blvd.

Japanese Gardens

I just wanted to share a few pictures with you from the Portland Japanese Gardens.  I enjoyed spending some time there on my trip.

The color of these pink flowers was intense, especially against the lime green leaves!

Since I didn't have my husband and daughter to keep up with, it was a pleasure to take as much time as I wanted wandering around the gardens, taking photos and making some sketches.  This is one of them.

Art Around Portland

I'm not done with Portland yet.  There is lots of art to be found in Portland.

The glass piece was one in an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Craft.  I took this picture because it also had the drawing of the piece.  A panel member in one of the discussions at the SAQA conference had said that she finally realized that she didn't have to do a completed sketch in gouache, as one of her professors had done, before actually starting a piece.  This reminded me of her story.

Composition in Circles/Black and Composition in Circles/White by Christy Matson

North Light by Chris Kelly at the Augen Gallery 

The above photo is just a detail of a photograph by Ben Buswell at the UpFor gallery.  It catches the light and glitters because he made a bunch of scratches in the paper, like the detail below.  It was under glass so hard to photograph without reflections.  You really have to see them in person.

I enjoyed visiting the galleries in the Pearl district and seeing the public art around town. I didn't have time to make it to the Portland Art Museum.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there!

At the SAQA conference I met lots of people, many of whom are mothers.  Many who have to juggle the duties of motherhood with time in the studio to create, both of which are the most fulfilling of pursuits.

Here are some of the wonderful people I met at the conference.  I was very excited to finally meet my virtual friend, Terry Grant (on the right), in 3-D, as well as Gerrie Congdon.  Both live in the Portland area.

Photo credit: Deidre Adams

It was great to meet new people, too, like SAQA Board Member Lisa Walton.

Debi Bright (TX), Teresa Wong (TX), Kathleen Probst (ID), Catherine Beard (OR) and Linda McLaughlin (ID)

Kathleen and I spent a wonderful afternoon with Cindy Grisdela (VA) and Lisa Kijak (CA) visiting art galleries with a quick trip to Powell's Bookstore.

Photo credit: Cindy Grisdela

Del Thomas (CA), Lisa Walton (Australia), Kate Oszko (Australia) in Ana Lisa Hedstrom's workshop.

There were many more people I met, but I don't have photos of them all.  What a wonderful group. 

SAQA Fiberlandia Part 2

The Studio Art Quilt Associate conference was filled with speeches, breakout sessions, panels and activities.

Namita Gupta Wiggers, director and co-founder of Critical Craft Forum and former curator at the Museum of Contemporary Craft, gave a wonderfully thought-provoking speech in regards to our fabric medium.  Maria Shell, art quilter, encouraged us to seek out funding opportunities.

There were breakout sessions on various topics as well as discussion panels.  The photo below is of the student fiber artists panel.

It was interesting to see the students artworks.  Most were very conceptual in their work. In addition, there was an international artist panel, as well as a local, Oregonian artist panel.  Here Sidnee Snell shows her work.

And there was a silent auction of donated works.  I did not get my act together to make one in time. Lots of great pieces were up for bidding and we were told that over $14,000 was raised.

Here are just a few of the pieces that I liked. The photos aren't great because they were all wrapped in plastic and the lighting was kind of dim.

 At the Market by Terry Grant

 Staccato III by Hope Wilmarth

Glee by Diane Melms

None of these came home with me.

SAQA Fiberlandia

I am not the best person for posting things in "real time."  It is more of an "after the fact" kind of thing for me.  Last week and this past weekend, I was in Portland, Oregon for the Studio Art Quilt Associates National Conference, Fiberlandia.

Some people were taking pictures with their phone and posting right away on Facebook and other platforms.  It was fun to see that, but for me, I like to take pictures with my camera.  Then, that requires loading them onto the computer after the fact.  Really, I am just not as attached to technology as most people are these days.

It was great to meet so many like minded people from all over the world.  As a regional representative, the conference started a day earlier for me with an all day meeting with all the SAQA representatives from all over the world.  It was good to hear other regions' success stories and that some of the other regions have some of the same challenges as I do.

Desiree Vaughn (Regional Rep Coordinator), Betty Busby, and Bill Reker (Traveling Exhibition/Shipping coordinator)

As most people were arriving on the day we had the rep meeting, there was an "Ice breaker" event in the evening led by Lyric Kinard.  A small project was involved, but the event was more about moving around and meeting people.

SAQA members working on the project.

Here I am with my portrait buddy Lisa Walton, Vice President of the Board, who is from Australia. The project involved moving around to different tables while working on it.  For the final project, we made a fabric portrait of our partner and gave it to them.

There were quite a few of us named Lisa at the conference.  At one point, there were about four of us traveling together on the MAX light rail!