Coronavirus Found time?

When everything was closed and all appointments and meetings were canceled

I thought that I had found some time and how could I put it to use.

Of course, I was going to draw and exercise every day, 

clean out cupboards and shelves, organize my studio and read more.

How have I done these past two weeks? 

My plan did not work as I had expected

This is as far as my drawing has gone, just a start.

I wanted to draw some colorful zinnias

 I did finish one piece for the New Image Artists' upcoming exhibit.

This is a detail of an artwork I titled IMPERFECT INTENTION.

Last month I had started to unravel a sweater and 

used some of the yarn to cover part of another large scissor(s).

Having more birthdays approaching there was a need for more cards.

I am always looking for ways to use bits and pieces of unfinished or experimental work.

Years ago I had tucked striped fabrics just to see what would happen when it was ironed.

These two cards with their embroidered butterflies illustrate one result.

 I remembered spending a lot of time working with cardboard slide frames.

AWAKENING THE OBSOLETE is complete with ten 12 by 12-inch panels.

 Painting some of the frames with stripes and filling other with striped fabric, 

 and, filling frames with tiny drawings or paintings 

were more ways I used the obsolete slide frames.

 I had wanted to develop a new format for notecards. 

Starting with some 8 by 11-inch stationery I added slide frames. 

When folded this card just fit in a standard business envelope.

So a new format for notecards that include tiny bits of art in each frame

In between long bouts on the computer, 

I have been walking in our neighborhood. 

 MacArthur Blvd. with lots of white blossoms

 A small white tree at the corner.

And one yard had many colors along their retaining wall.

Now, the big question, will I get back to drawing?

Will I come up with some more use for 

unfinished and experimental work?

Will I clean a closet?

I do not want to waste this 'found' time.

Too Many Good Times......

It seems I left my blog toward the end of October and then you know how the holidays interfere with writing. But my last ending was in the middle of the World Series and you must all know how that ended. It was a most exciting time for someone who has watched practically every single game for the last, at least 3 years. And, also to understand how very unbelievable all who were long time or good fans could hardly believe it. It really was unbelievable as each game most of us knew it would be lost, so to see so many wins was as I said 'unbelievable'.

Then came Thanksgiving and one granddaughter (theVirginia granddaughters) all are big fans so Alexandria designed a World Series Thanksgiving dinner centerpiece. There were so many things to see it really takes a hundred pictures but there isn't room so just a couple here.

The table seated 15 or so.... 

Hundreds of baseballs in varying sizes used a place cards, also.

The Nats and their WS trophies in three sizes, 

this is Pennsylvania Avenue where the parade took place....

so there was the pink fog sprinkled all over the gray street.

It took studying the whole centerpiece to see all she included.

Then for Christmas I received

 The BOOK

 And for my desk

And for my head.

Please forgive my over abundance of Nats cheering....

There was more going on during the last couple of months.

Christmas followed Thanksgiving.

One day spent at the National Gallery to celebrate Caroline Fogg's birthday.

All the Christmas flowers shown in the atrium, always beautiful.

I chose this year to give some of my art as gifts. 

I spent a lot of time choosing the artwork and then 

writing letters to explain why 

I chose a specific item for each recipient.

Included here are some I gave.

Those above are all colored pencil drawings.

And, to end todays blog

 some of the stitched and embroidered gifts.

That is enough for one day but a lot more

 needs to be written, images, and information, given 

to give this blog a reason to come back to find out more.

I will be back and, much sooner.

Scraps Patchwork Workshop

On Thursday, 11/9/2017 a group of us took a workshop at the 

GWU Textile Museum. 

This workshop and the lecture that followed was in conjunction 

with one of the current exhibits at the museum,

SCRAPS 

 As we walked into the workshop room we were faced with hundreds

 of pieces of beautiful Nuno fabrics. 

Three artists were shown in the Scraps show and 

Reiko Sudo was one as well as being our instructor for the day.

She gave us each one instruction sheet and then we were 

to choose 7 pieces of fabric to create our own scarf.

This is when we would have liked to spend a day just choosing 

from so many beautiful fabrics. We were like children at a candy store.

I wish I could have photographed the long tables full of all our choices.

 I finally had to choose, although I could have spent all day choosing, 

and then began laying out and rearranging my choices on the floor.

 We did have to stop choosing and taking things back and choosing 

different fabrics again and again because we had to sew it in one day.

Pictured below is my table of four sewing or deciding to sew.

 Scissors, and threads were provided and all we had to do was create.

 Several hours later Reiko and a helper

 (wearing a beautiful Nuno fabric jacket)

started laying out each person's scarf. Here they have arranged 

my finished scarf to be photographed

 They did this for everyone.

 Below, you will see the legs of another helper wearing 

an Issey Miyake jeans design. Very unusual seaming 

when you saw them from the back. 

Sorry but I did not get a picture of him.

 My only photo of a group of scarves, but......

Here is Reiko taking pictures of all of the scarves.

In the evening, she had a lecture for the members of the museum.

Reiko Sudo is the director of Nuno in Tokyo and told us of the 

beginnings of the company and showed photos 

of the development through the years. 

Nuno is primarily interested, now, in using everything with no waste. 

Reiko used the outer-most layer of the silk worm (kibiso)

as an example of waste that previously had been thrown away. 

She continued to work with this thrown away material. 

First she made a paper of it, and now it may be used in screens.

Reiko works at developing and using materials so there is no waste. 

She gave us more examples and is an example herself....

we won't forget her and this philosophy.

Self-Portraits, Making Aging Choices

How often do artists think about creating a self-portrait? 

Either we need a photograph of ourselves for publication 

or would like to try a self-portrait in our chosen medium.

For years I have used this photo as it seemed to fit catalog

 requirements and filled the aged or aging look I was going after. 

 I tried variations of my photograph.

It seems you need either a photograph or 

to look in a mirror to create a self-portrait

 Over the years I have collected many magazine pages 

and thought I'd make use of some in a paper self-portrait. 

35 by 30 inches 

 A detail shows paper is glued onto Pellon and then sparely stitched.

Several years ago I had started an alphabet series that may never be finished.

Using my old photograph I repeated it with variations

  creating 9 small quilts. 

These 9 were then stitched onto window screening.

This detail of the center square was created with free-motion machine embroidery

The final piece was titled Variations on 'P' (for portrait)

45 by 39 inches

 A few years ago the New Image Artists decided to have 

a self-portrait themed show.

 I worked on the idea of A Page From My Sketchbook

 Embroidered and quilted, A Page From My Sketchbook is 25 by 23 inches

 I had this artwork juried into Pfaff's Self-Portrait Embroidery Exhibit, 

held in France

 A detail of 'Art of Embroidery, with Apologies to Magritte'

Painted, embroidered and quilted, 25 by 17 inches

 After all the years using the same image for most catalogs and articles 

and although I hate the thought of aging,  

I started thinking that I should use a more up to date photo.

Spencer, our grandson took this picture.

                                                 

 Alexandra, our granddaughter, took this one 

while we were having lunch one day.

Just because I wanted to try a changing look, 

I drew a couple of self-portraits taken from photographs. 

 I'm calling this pair  '35 YEARS'

They are graphite and 12 by 12 inches.

(And, what a difference 35 years makes on a body.) 

Not sure I want to create any current self-portraits.

I still haven't solved the photo I might use for publication, problem, yet.

I may stick to my old  hat and dark glasses image.