Summer in to the Fall

Much has happened in the last couple of months,

Here is a brief list.

Two works were selected to go into the Art in Embassies program.

SIX BIRDS, each panel is 8 by 8 inches.

These panels were machine embroidered after a bird watching tour

I took through the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains 

of California and Nevada

The second piece chosen is WING CHAIRS, Nine 8 by 8 inch panels.

These two artworks are now in the Embassy of Montenegro.

The SDA (Surface Design Ass) always has a member's show

during their conventions.  

The requirement this year was a 10 by 10 inch square

Since I am interested in using up rather than tossing away,

I took my embroidered butterfly and added it to a piece I had cut up. 

The result is titled LOST IN A MAZE

Barbara Smith visited in October and wanted to go to the Hirshhorn.

We both wanted to see the huge Mark Bradford art

 that covered the walls of the entire circle on the third floor.

Layers of paper, many inches thick, were cut and torn away

  uncovering colors and more in irregular rows.

Above, two details from  Mark Bradford's PICKETT'S CHARGE

In one small room behind Pickett's Charge

 is a small show titled DIALOGUE of elegant paintings by

Lee Ufan 

During October our New Image Artists had a show at the 

Artists and Makers Gallery in Rockville

Our show was titled FOOTNOTES 2019. 

We each created one or more pieces that were 12 by 12 inches.

We could choose to work in any way we wished.

I cut up a work of large collaged fabric piece that I had never finished,

creating two pieces, I call ORDERLY CHAOS 1 and 2.

This 12 by 12 is LEAVES OF FALL.

Originally I had created only leaves 

 using a different technique for each leaf

For this show, I added the butterfly and bee.

Toward the end of October was Dominie Nash's big birthday.

For her birthday lunch, I decided to make a 

centerpiece showing many of her artworks.

Verena Levin added the branches to her lunch table 

and also made a delicious birthday cake.

During this summer, and the last couple of summers as well, I watched 

almost every baseball game played by our Nationals.

It has been very exciting seeing them do so well and go so far as the World Series.

So I am holding my breath to see .....

the end.

Current New, September 2017

Summer's end was so busy with life that I have not written since 

the painted cookies experience.

However, there are now several exhibits that have been opening 

or are beginning to have receptions.

At the BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown, Maryland 

there is a wonderful show by Andrea Uravitch titled Land, Sea, and Air.

Accompanying her show are the New Image artists.

The following are the art works I have in this exhibit 

that began September 16 and will continue until October 28, 2017

A SEASONAL SPECTRUM is 21 inches high by 55.5 inches wide.

 In this detail you can see an embroidered couple of images of my hands

holding and stitching a tree. This was to represent natures studio, but

mine always has a cup of coffee and perhaps something to eat.

 A CLASSICAL PALETTE is 31 inches high by 41 inches wide 

 Again I have an embroidered hand painting the leaves of nature 

for the fall season. 

There are some painted branches on the background and 

the leaves are all embroidered.

 Part of this exhibit had a hall full of 12 by 12 inch works 

by all of us (New Image members) that accompanied this show.

Mine is titled ALONE AT LAKE ARROWHEAD,

embroidery on a painted background.

On Saturday, September 23, 2017 there will be the reception for our

New Image Artists exhibit of new work 

at the Virginia Quilt Museum in Harrisonburg, Virginia. 

The reception begins at 11 AM and will continue until 4 PM.

My two artworks in the show are:

CONVERSATIONS, 30 inches high by 40 inches wide.

 This has layers of embroidered images to give us a look at 

conversations among couples. Conversations seems to be leaving our 

time, voices and vocabularies and being replaced by Texting.

On the black(green)board in the classroom it says,

"No Cell Phones, No Instant Messaging, No Texting, No E-mails" 

Many of the people I sketched and then embroidered are members 

of the Fogg family. Also included are my husband, our son, and me.

My largest new artwork, SATIRICAL STILLNESS below,

 I reviewed on this blog while I was in the process of creating it.

It is 40 inches high by 51 inches wide. 

As I mentioned at the time, I was trying to get away 

from the realistic embroidery work I had been doing for several years.

Well, I tried and managed to make a lot of flat flowers and leaves.

 However some realism crept in, but I left out shading, 

keeping all the images flat.

I still am enamored by all the Dutch and Flemish still-life masterpieces

This is my reference to those artists who always had 

many bugs and insect crawling around

on their gorgeously painted flowers and fruit. 

SATIRICAL STILLNESS used many different kinds of fabric, 

pieced together and then embroidered. 

The leaves were all sewn down on the center vein 

and then left to extend away from the background.

This exhibit at the Virginia Quilt Museum will continue 

until December 16, 2017

Visions Art Museum, C2C, New Image Artists, Barbara Lee Smith, and Jazz exhibits, San Diego.

Continuing a review of the current shows at Visions Art Museum.

The night of the reception I took a few pictures. 

Below is the entrance to the Coast To Coast show.

Work in the C2C show is by The New Image Artists 

and the California Fibers group.

Guests wandering around the art work.

One area of the shop.

Coming in the front door you are greeted with 

view of art and craft work available in the shop.

A view looking forward to the entrance.

Barbara Lee Smith is having a show in one of the rooms 

of the museum. Above on the left is Marshland Reflections 

and on the right, Mountain and Grasses.

Left is Salt Edge at 40 by 65 inches

and on the right, South Jetty Fog at 30 inches square.

Marshland Remembered and Marshland Morning.

Barbara's work does not photograph well. These two 

pieces appear darker in color both here and in the catalog.

 

Mt personal favorite of this show is a two part piece 

titled Mountain and Grasses, 25 by 50 inches.

Day Break is 72 by 48 inches.

Barbara drew large crowds exclaiming about 

the beauty of her work and wondering about the 

process that goes into her atmospheric landscapes.

Another show going on at the same time is called Jazz. 

Almost all of these small quilts were sold at the opening reception.

From San Diego we drove up the coast to L.A.

(a view from the old Marine Land site in Palos Verdes).

And then home to this.

Life seems to be a study of contrasts…….