New Exhibit in Louisville

One of my fellow LAFTA (Louisville Area Fiber and Textile Artists) members is having an exhibit with her brother in Louisville. Here are a couple of photos from the exhibit along with the press release. I'm not familiar with the work of Karen's brother, but Karen does some fabulous fiber work. Check out the exhibit if you get a chance.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Louisville, Kentucky, August 10, 2012 – Wayside Christian Mission’s Wayside Expressions Gallery will feature works of art by sibling artists, Karen “Karoda” Davis and Ronald “Upfromsumdirt” Davis, during the month of September. The name of the exhibition is “Unfamiliar Familial.”

The opening reception will be on First Friday, September 7, 2012, from 5 PM to 9 PM. The gallery is located on the first floor of Hotel Louisville, 120 West Broadway Street, Louisville, Kentucky. There is a second reception on the Third Sunday, September 16, 2012, from 2 to 4 PM. The exhibition runs from September 5, 2012 to October 2, 2012.

The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 11 AM to 1:30 PM. The gallery can be opened by appointment by e-mailing Randy Webber (randy.webber@waysidechristianmission.org) or Elmer Lucille Allen (Elmer_lucille_allen@yahoo.com).

This event is free and open to the public.

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Southern Indiana Welcomes Penny Sisto

For any fiber lover close enough, there is an exhibit at the Saint Meinrad Archabbey Library (in southern Indiana) that is not to be missed. "Prayer Banners" is being shown through August 26, 2012. The exhibit features quilts that echo the faith of fiber artist Penny Sisto of Floyds Knobs. Hours: Call 812-357-6401 or 800-987-7311 or visit the Saint Meinrad Library site. If you would like to know more about the art of Penny Sisto, check out her website. Here are just a couple of the beautiful quilts you'll see. (Thank you, Penny, for giving me permission to post these two photos.)

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Work for the Fire Blog

For the month of July, on the And Then We Set It On Fire blog, we worked on a mixed media surface design technique outlined in "Stitch, Cloth, Paper & Paint" by Angie Hughes. I was slow in getting started, but finally got my piece painted today. I haven't decided, yet, whether I will use it "as is" or not. I may do a bit more hand stitching--not sure yet. I'm thinking of cutting it to size, wrapping it around a canvas, and adding a couple more small pieces on top of it. Anyway...here it is after being painted. I used my iPad to take the photo, and I'm not sure why, but the lines that appear to be gold are actually silver. (Please click on this picture to get a better look. You can REALLY see the texture if you do.)

If you'd like to check out the steps I used on this piece, check out Step 1 and Step 2 on the Fire blog.

You also need to check out this month's technique presented by Lisa Kerpoe--sugar resist. She has a great tutorial on making some beautiful one-of-a-kind fabrics. If you leave a comment by August 6, you can win a resist-dyed sample set including 7 pieces of cloth, totaling about 1 yard of fabric. The set includes cotton, silk noil, rayon and silk/cotton. If you would like to enter the drawing, leave a comment on this Fire post.

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I Am SO Over Summer and a Bit of Progress

This is my dogwood tree.

This is just ONE of my dead shrubs.

 

With temperatures in southern Indiana in the triple digits, I don't have much hope for the rest of my landscaping either. The corn crops have all but dried up completely, everyone has brown grass, there is a burn ban, and we are all trying to conserve as much water as possible. My daughter kept my poor potted plants alive while I was on vacation, but some are now (literally) "biting the dust." They just can't survive being baked for days on end. I'm trying to keep the birds fed and watered, but the water heats up VERY quickly. I need to change it several times a day to keep it cool enough for them to drink and bathe. The drought here is VERY serious.

Needless to say, we are all spending lots of time indoors. That gives me some time to work on hand quilting my current piece of work.

 

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A Give Away

I am a resident artist on a blog called "And Then We Set It On Fire." For the month of August, we have a give away. If you are interested, head on over to the post announcing the give away of Lisa Kerpoe's new book, Visual Texture on Fabric. Here is the link--...And Then We Set It On Fire. Hurry, you have to leave a comment before 8 am on July 31. Be sure to head back to the blog in August when Lisa will write a post for us. You also might enjoy following along during the technique of the month--fabric resist.

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Antioch Mosaics at the Baltimore Museum of Art

While I was at the Baltimore Museum of Art with some friends, we discovered the Antioch Mosaics in the atrium court. All I can say is, "WOW, these mosaics are fabulous!" TINY pieces of stone are arranged into magnificent works of art. These works were made in Turkey from the 2nd to the 6th century. Being a Leo, I was immediately drawn to this particular piece called The Striding Lion.

Below is a close up of a couple of sections. Here, you can see the tiny pieces used to create this piece.

Close up of the background and lion's head.

Close up of the peacock in the corner of The Striding Lion mosaic.

I have visions of new quilts using tiny pieces of fabric. Surprisingly, I really like the muted palette of colors in the mosaics. I say "surprisingly" because I generally use a much more bold color scheme.

Some of the mosaics reminded me of traditional quilt patterns.

Many traditional quilt borders are very similar to the borders used in these mosaics.

If you would like to read more about the exhibit at the museum, check out this link--Baltimore Museum of Art. If you like to know more about the Antioch Mosaics in general click this link--Antioch Mosaics.

 

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