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Archive for May, 2013

Artists Among Us 2013

Thursday, May 16th, 2013

UndulatiosatAAU

 

It has been a really busy week, juggling all my obligations for the Artists Among Us Show and SDA and keeping things going at home. Tonight, we had a soft opening for the artists and volunteers. The show looks fantastic.

As promised, I got a photo of Undulations at the show. I am getting a lot of positive comments from the other artists — very gratifying. To finish the piece, I cut a piece of felt  18 x 18 inches, the size of a gallery frame that I had. I used some Misty fuse scraps to adhere it to the area of this piece that I wanted to cover the area of the frame. I used some Golden matte medium to adhere the square of felt to the canvas of the frame. I then wrapped the edges of the piece around the frame and stapled it. Looks great. Here is a detail:

undulationsatAAUdetail

 

Here is how my 4 pieces look at the show:

myworkatAAU

Turning the parish hall into an art gallery is quite a feat. Here it is in progress:

settingupaau

 

These are the racks we use for unframed bin art, waiting to be filled and set up around the room.

binartstands

 

Our featured artist is a potter. His work is really wonderful. Here are 3 of the very large urns that he has on display.

chrisbaskinpottery

 

At the artist/volunteer reception, my two co-chairs (Diane and Allan) and I received bouquets of flowers.

3amigos

 

This year we added a room for art made by Young Artists Among Us. These are some awesome prints made by middle schoolers.

youngaau

 

moreyoungaau

 

And, this photo of me with one of the artists is for Mary Beth in Wyoming!

formarybethinwyoming

 

Tomorrow night is our big gala opening reception. I hope to have more photos to share. I plan to have a nice calm day.

Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, May 15th, 2013

ww5-15-13

My Crazy Life

Monday, May 13th, 2013

Xmarks

 

I knew I was entering a nexus of my obligations for May and June. It is here. And, well, really it is not that bad. Only when Word decided not to recognize any of our printers. Or, when the Epson printers wouldn’t feed the card stock for the gallery labels for  Artists Among Us.  Solutions: import the labels into Apple’s Pages software and use Mr. C’s Canon printer.

I did take time out to have dinner with the Portland Peeps. Mr C and Jack put on a nice meal for Stephanie and I. It was a welcome break from my database work for the art show.

I got 4 pieces of work ready for the show. I forgot to photograph Undulations. I will get a photo when I go back to Trinity tomorrow. I have several pieces of felted work that I have beaded and hand stitched. I put 3 of them together in a frame:

rainbowfrippery

 

I titled it Rainbow Frippery. I love this meaning of the word:  something showy, frivolous, or nonessential. I think it fits these pieces. I have others that I mounted on 8 X 10 mat boards, suitable for a frame or shadow box. They are in acid free bags and will be for sale as bin art.

fripperybinart

 

I painted a gallery wrapped frame black for the Cruciform piece.

cruciformsframed

 

And, another piece, that I made last year, got a chartreuse gallery wrapped frame.

Xmarks

 

I spent most of today at Trinity, checking in art and prepping labels.  I got home at 8:30 after stopping at Traders Joe’s where I picked up some chicken, guacamole, fruity salsa, brown rice tortillas and refried black beans. I made myself a delicious gluten/dairy free burrito for dinner with a nice glass of Viognier wine.

I have some repair labels to print and some name tags to finish and then, I have to go back to Trinity to work on the labels for our featured artist who makes gorgeous pottery. He had 60 plus pieces of art that need labels. He is not delivering it until tomorrow. That will all get done in the morning. I am taking the night off!

A Good Day

Thursday, May 9th, 2013

Cruciformfini

The cruciform piece is finished except for the edges. I am thinking of framing it so I am holding off on the final edge finish until I see if that is feasible.

I started adding some beads to the Undulations piece. I found some very organic beads that would integrate well with the piece and not really stand out. However, now that I look at the charcoal beads, I don’t like them so they are coming off and I am going to stick with the dusty pink ones.

undulationbeading

 

Today was a good day because I finally got to hang out with my STASH friends (Second Thursday at Someone’s House). I have missed at least 3 meetings because of my crazy life. I made 3 delicious salads for lunch and some almond bread. It is a non-gluten bread with almond flour, eggs and a bit of honey. It is very dense and moist, but was enjoyed by all. For dessert, I made parfaits in wine glasses, layering fresh berries with Balsamic syrup and culture coconut milk. It was an experiment and very good.

I received this thank you post card in the mail today.

seedpostcard

It is from one of the young fiber artists here in Portland who needed some help funding a residency. I contributed to her Indie request. The postcard is embedded with clover and poppy seeds so it can be planted. I have some room in the center of one of my raised beds behind he house so I am going to plant it there. I’ll let you know how it does. If you click on the photo, you can see the little seed bumps.

When I was shopping yesterday, I saw these lilacs in the flower shop. I brought them home and our home is filled with their aroma. It brings back such good memories of my childhood and the lilac bushes that always signified the coming of summer.

lilacs

I have some busy days coming up as I finish my own work for the Artists Among Us exhibit. I got a good start on name badges tonight. Next, I have to print labels and bar code stickers for all the art. Monday is check in day. The producer of the Quilt Show.com called me today and wanted me to do a segment for the show on my stitching and shrinking project, but they are filming next week-end when Quilt Market is in town and I am too busy to fit into their schedule. They are going to keep me in mind for future shows. She was interested in my 3×3 project, too. Interesting fact, the producer lives here in the Portland area, and she is not a quilter.

 

 

 

Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, May 8th, 2013

ww5-8-13