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I have spent much of today stitching the lutradur leaves to the quilt, one at a time and reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.
As I stitched, I thought about Aspens and Birches as themes in art work. My friend who has been sending me links to birch and aspen work said she is just seeing them a lot lately.
She said she had even seen them on a bag for sale at Target. I couldn’t capture the image, but it is this one, painted by my daughter, Lisa, and licensed for this wallet and for a bag on sale at Target. She paints birches. I make aspens out of fabric.
There is also a new set of stationary from Chronicle Books with her tree paintings. I love these:
I have been using aspens in my work since my first Art Quilt Tahoe workshop with Sue Benner. I took that class in 2004, I think, and took another class in 2005 and did this piece:
My friend Teri Springer owns this. The other piece, much more abstract, is owned by Sally Morris, a friend from California.
In 2006, I started painting organza and creating simple aspen landscapes.
I see my recent work as expanding the aspen pieces into grander landscapes on a scale that I had not known I could accomplish until now. Perhaps the progression of my work has now thrown me smack in the middle of the au courant, seen every where, image of the day. I did not see it coming.
It is hot here in Portland. I am just happy that I have my fairly cool basement studio where I can happily work on my art.
One of my friends who also loves trees and is doing similar work, and is also seeing lots of others doing trees, says “It’s not *what* it is, it’s *how* it is. Your trees are unique to you, so keep on keeping on!
It may just be that you working on something makes you notice it more around you and you start seeing it everywhere. Or maybe not.
I still love the piece, one of your earliest I believe. I paired it with two small pieces done by Kim Butterworth from my mini group and EBHQ. They play nicely. I should send you a picture. BTW, I am jealous of your warm weather. We finally hit a high of 84 today, but the nichts are still down between 54-57. Seems like the weatherman has lost his map. I think we’ll have summer in October and November this year.
Hi Gerrie,
I had to share a fairly recent piece of mine, using birches as my subject. It is woven. I painted on paintable wallpaper first with acrylics and cut it into strips to weave them back into the painting.
http://ebiswas.zenfolio.com/p396889493/h351376d4#h351376d4
A close-up…
http://ebiswas.zenfolio.com/p396889493/h3e31f75f#h3e31f75f
Loved your blog and your work,
Boisali
p.s. You might remember me as the Michigan rep for SDA until recently….
You do what you want to do. It doesn’t matter how many other people are doing it too, or for how long. That’s the advantage to being your own boss of the studio! 🙂
PS, I like the green leaves best where a bit of the trees are showing through.
I really really really love these!
As long as I’ve known you, you have had a love affair going with the Aspens. I love what you’re doing with the lutradur!
How are you liking the book? We’ve finished the trilogy and seen the first two movies, in Swedish with subtitles. I love hearing Swedish as it reminds me so much of my childhood!
Stay cool!
xo