Some of my favorite organizational tools

January 4, 2009

Usually I take a stab at re-organization at various times throughout the year, not just at the New Year. But this seems like a good time to mention my favorites. (Sorry PC users, but I think these are all mac-only programs. Although I still use a desktop PC, my main laptop is a Mac.)

• OmniFocus - fluid to-do list and multi-step project organizer. After a brief love affair with hand-written lists, I’ve gone back to computer listing again because it’s easier to manage a complicated schedule.

• MacJournal - for odd sorts of short lists, ideas, and reference material I can’t figure where else to put. I’m using it to write this blog post until it’s ready to be published.

• Bento - just got the upgrade to version 2 of this program. It’s an elegant little personal database program that has nice templates you can use right away, or easily customize. I’m planning on improving the database of my artwork I started last year. Tracking where the art is, when it’s coming home, and where it’s supposed to be going next is getting more complicated, and I could save time by not having to go to several sources to find the answers to these questions.

Above drawing is from the car wash — although those auto-magic places seem to take a long time because it’s one of few sunny warm days in winter and everyone in town is there — if you’re trying to draw something happening, seems like only seconds. Even though I’ve been sick (this whole year so far!) still trying to do the drawings.

Filed Under drawings, technology | 3 Comments

Happy New Year’s, with some resolutions

January 1, 2009

sketch from Gong Fu Teahouse

Last year I chose three words to define my new year. Now I can’t even find them on my blog (know I did a post about it) and can’t remember them either. Well, that worked well didn’t it?

This year decided to go back to some simple new years resolutions:

1. Not to interrupt people when they are talking. (bad habit of mine, I think, when I get excited about a conversation)
2. Send more thank you notes and letters (not the email kind, the real kind)
3. Draw daily. (even if it’s just a simple sketch)

I know the third will be hard. Maybe I could combine 2 and 3 sometimes for more efficiency. Also I had the idea to set up a repeating event on my iCal program to email myself these resolutions once a week. Otherwise I will forget them by February.

May add some more later, but I think resolutions are different than goals. Resolutions seem to me to be more about creating and reinforcing habits, whereas goal-setting seems like a whole different process. I may not be able to keep them everyday, but hoping to do it enough that they become a habit.

Filed Under drawings | 9 Comments

Scouting East Village in DesMoines

December 31, 2008

First day of the trip, the big event was making a pineapple, peanut, marshmallow salad for bonobo chimpanzees at this place, but that’s a long story for another day. Second day was filled largely with exploring Des Moines historic East Village.

Not that we were looking for it. My SIL got the family to meet at Boomers, a diner that supposely Obama once ate at, and then following a trail of interesting shops led us to other fun places.

Smash - a screen shop that makes cool unique t-shirts. Pure Paper - lots of cute paper and recyled books and gifts. Several places like Ephemera I honestly had to do window shopping because they were closed for the holidays.

But mostly sampling teas at Gong Fu Tea, a teahouse with 130 teas. By the time we left East Village, it was dark (that’s a single star over the back of buildings, not a speck on my camera lens), and onto searching for Indian food and mean game of Bingo.

Filed Under journeys | 1 Comment

Iowa sunset

December 28, 2008

Lots of ice on the trees as we drove north yesterday. I got a little car sick in the back seat looking backwards to take this photo of the sun setting across icy fields.

Filed Under journeys | 3 Comments

Belated Season’s Greeting

December 27, 2008

Hoping everyone has been having a happy and peaceful holiday season. We’ve driven and shared two family Christmas’s so far, packing and leaving for a third this morning. (this one also also has a mix of some Hanukkah folks. Looks like we’ll be driving into a wintery mix — what nice term for ice and sleet!

Good thing about driving so much is it’s giving my foot a rest, and maybe my stress injury from standing and climbing ladders all December will have time to heal. January and February will be filled with more of the same, PLUS getting ready for another show to hang at the end of next month.

I’ll be working in style with my new laptop bag - the bag is actually red and orange, a good match for my orange suitcase and purse. Next to it is my new 50 mm camera lens, thank you Russ! Can’t wait to get back to work after the holidays.

Filed Under uncategorized | 3 Comments

What is humor?

December 13, 2008

What is humor? I been thinking about this question since I was asked to juror the show for SAQA called “Sense of Humor” (see last post for more details.)

I’m not going look in some dictionary and give you the definition, I don’t even know what a real definition is — I just have my own personal definition: humor is thinking outside of the box. And here’s another one: creativity is thinking outside of the box.

What was it they told us in algebra? When A=B and C=B, then A=C. You do the math. Anyway, that’s just my own take on things.

The above photo was taken at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art last October at this event on my blog. The artist: Jeroen Nelemas. The art is not the man in the photo, it’s the installation made of grass, astroturf and metal grid called “Six Feet Above.” When you climb the steps, then turn around and look out, this is what you see looking out from “Six Feet Above” to the biggest exhibition space at the center.

The thing below is another artwork by Keith Lemley called “Hovercraft.” Also not as it appears at first glance. You have to experience it. Here’s the directions. And here’s me doing my Silver Surfer impression — it really does float and move around, but not recommended after a glass of wine at the opening. Or maybe that’s when it’s best.

That thing hanging behind me is another installation by Vanessa Tomczak and Carl Bajanda. The little gizmo at the bottom very slowly unknits the long white hanging scarf(?), you can see the pile of unknitted yarn at the bottom.

Here’s some details. Click to make big.

I loved this show and my whole experience at the UICA. Just curious, does anyone else think this stuff is funny?

Filed Under Inspiration, journeys, mixed media, other artists | 2 Comments

Call for entries: A Sense of Humor

December 4, 2008

I’ve been asked to be juror for a exhibition called Sense of Humor, sponsored by SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) that will be shown in a gallery space at the International Quilt Festival in Houston next October and will published in one of SAQA’s handsome catalogs. The postmark deadline is January 30, 2009.

You may submit up to 3 entries measuring H=26″-60″ and W=26″-30″, completed since Jan. 2007, and fitting the SAQA definition of an art quilt: a contemporary artwork exploring and expressing aesthetic concerns common to the whole range of visual arts: painting, printmaking, photography, graphic design, assemblage and sculpture, which retains, through materials or technique, a clear relationship to the folk art quilt from which it descends.

You must also be a member of SAQA, an organization to devoted to promoting art quilts, but there are many benefits to membership beyond just a few exhibits. They have conferences, publish portfolios, have an on-line wiki university, and probably more stuff I’m forgetting to take advantage of. You can get the prospectus off the membership “call for entries” page.

I’m not sure why the size restrictions for the show, now that I think of it, I don’t even have anything that fits this size. Of course I didn’t for the New Focus exhibit curated by Kim Ritter and Judy Dales that is going up in the Coos Art Museum in Oregon later this month — so I made something. You can see “Surprise!” at the top of this post, just shipped it off late last night. So glad the main Fed Ex office is only two blocks from my studio.

Filed Under exhibitions, quilts | 8 Comments

It’s all about energy

November 21, 2008

Lately it seems that the word-making part of my brain has gone on early holiday. Or maybe it’s honing so many short tweets has hampered my ability to string together a paragraph. Oh well, less words, more room for photos? Not really true on the web, but here’s the photos:

View of my studio as I was working on the Wish You Were Hair series of quilts. These are quilt tops pinned to design boards just before quilting. Wish I could retake this with my new auto-timer photography trick and run into the photo, but the moment has passed.

For backings, I use batiks that seem to carry the same colors and theme as the front — for one reason because as I roll up the quilts to sew on them for hours and hours, I can enjoy the fabric. I try to keep good psychic energy going throughout the making process, and continuity of color is one of the ways. If I get in a bad mood or have trouble while working, I try to leave for a while or change the music, or change my thinking. I want nothing but good energy to go into my work. Stitch patterns are like handwriting - you can sense the emotion driving the writer.

Since I haven’t gotten these on the website yet, you may not have seen the finished quilt - “St. Louis - Wish You Were Hair.” Kind of my nostalgic look at being a kid in St. Louis and remembering trips to the Gateway Arch by the river, and eating at the only floating McDonald’s on a river boat (now gone.)

Speaking of energy, here’s an alternative — riverboat driven by flower power. Notice the swoopy loops of stitching in the background. Today I’m going to focus on getting some more photos of background patterns, so it may be another day of evaporated words.

Filed Under process, quilts, studio | 14 Comments

Vintage postcards for inspiration

November 19, 2008

Lately I’ve been busy with some projects that I’ve had no extra energy to blog… but tonight am writing several entries that I will post over the next few days.

Earlier this summer I was working on a series called “Wish You Were Hair,” a series of world monuments transformed into humorous hair styles. You can see the progression of some of these drawings and quilts here and here.

This is an old wire clip stand in my office that holds some vintage postcards that inspired this series.

Sometimes I just like to look at old things, things that have been places I’ve never been and belonged to people I never knew — it gives me a sense of traveling beyond and out of myself and my small place in the world. It’s different than just reading magazines or stories on the internet, because these objects seem to hold lingering traces of their past. And it’s good exercise for the imagination.

Filed Under Inspiration | 7 Comments

Wired at Sunset

November 18, 2008

Here’s the flip side to a photo I posted in October — Wired at Sunrise. This is sunset in the opposite direction looking from our studio. Evangel University is across the street and the sun is setting just behind Evangel’s bell tower that plays short melodies on the hour. After I downloaded the photo, I saw it was like a little poem… You can just see a cell tower behind the bell tower.

Filed Under photography, studio | 1 Comment

Interesting mail from the Netherlands

November 7, 2008

Got this in the mail the other day from the Fries Museum in the Netherlands. It’s the exhibition card for the “Quilts Kunstmet een Q” exhibtion that opens November 15, where I will have two quilts “Skating on Thin Ice” and “Blue Christmas.” Not your typical quilt exhibit show card is it? Wish I could read the Dutch writing on the back.

When the editors of Handwerken Zonder Grenzen learned my work would be in the Fries Museum exhibition, they had an arts and culture writer from Holland interview me last summer for this article. It’s in the Oct-Nov. issue, and just got my copy. Can’t read it either, but the photos are nice. When I translate the website on Google, looks like the title of the article is “Comic Strips of Fabric” which I thought was pretty funny.

In other news, working on my photos to contribute to Ricë Freeman-Zachery’s next book titled Creative Time and Space: Making Room for Making Art. And although I submitted a portfolio to my alma mater a couple of years ago, just found out that I have a solo show coming up there in February. So better get back to work…

Filed Under exhibitions | 9 Comments

Missouri is a swing state

November 4, 2008

Couldn’t resist drawing this dream I had about Missouri last night. I’m glad I voted today, feel like I’m helping make history.

Missouri is called a bellweather state, it’s voted for all the presidents except one since 1904. Recently Obama pulled ahead in the polls, so hoping that is a good sign. Voting here will closing in less than an hour — waiting for good news!

Update: Missouri is still too close to call. With a difference of only 6000 votes, provisional ballots still have to be counted, which officials say could take up to two weeks. Anyway it looks like the state will go red, even though Obama has won both the popular and electoral votes.

Filed Under drawings | 5 Comments

Wired at Sunrise

October 30, 2008

Lately more often than not, I wake up really early. When that happens, I workout and do some yoga, get breakfast and coffee, and head to the studio. I actually enjoy the quiet time before sunrise. This is the sun rising on the edge of the street headed east in front of our studio.

Filed Under Inspiration, studio | 7 Comments

“Quilts - Art with a Q” at the Fries Museum

October 24, 2008

Quilting the ice is what I was most worried about. I finally decided that I that I wanted a swirly, skatey pattern, and was thinking about how ice skates leave those white scratches in the ice that get covered over and over.

What was that term that Jason Pollen used for layers and layers of drawing marks made on top of each other, like on an old chalkboard menu where yesterday’s image is ghosted behind? Can’t remember, oh well.

The skating marks slowly transform from swirly to crackly at the bottom, where PaMdora’s skate blade precariously balances. Not sure how successful that was, but it was an interesting experiment.

Here’s the finished quilt, Skating On Thin Ice — it’s 42″ x 61″. Today I have to ship it off to The Netherlands along with another winter-themed quilt for a November-March exhibition at the Fries Museum. For a couple of weeks now, I’ve been stressing about how to do the shipping, but this morning got it worked out with the museum register. She was very nice, and told me that some of the hundreds of quilts — both traditional and contemporary — were already arriving at the museum.

Filed Under exhibitions, process, quilts | 17 Comments

Little swatches

October 22, 2008

Usually I think that once the quilt top has been designed and cut out and pieced together, it’s all downhill. Not in a bad way, but a sort of you-did-the-work-and-climbed-the-hill-and-now-you’re-on-top-and-ready-to-sail-down-on-your-sled/bike/snowboard-squealing-weeee kind of downhill. Mostly it’s like that, mostly it’s easy, fun and satisfying. But there are usually a few places that require some tough choices, a bit of nail-biting, and a lot of faith.

For those, I make test swatches to try out new ideas or stitch designs and threads to see how they interact with the patterns and colors of the fabric. But then when it comes to the real deal, it’s still a performance that requires practice, attitude, and spontaneity.

Filed Under process, quilts | 4 Comments

keep looking »

Some of my favorite organizational tools

Happy New Year’s, with some resolutions

Scouting East Village in DesMoines

Iowa sunset

Belated Season’s Greeting

What is humor?

Call for entries: A Sense of Humor

It’s all about energy

Vintage postcards for inspiration

Wired at Sunset

Interesting mail from the Netherlands

Missouri is a swing state

Wired at Sunrise

“Quilts - Art with a Q” at the Fries Museum

Little swatches

PaMdora's Box

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