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

It’s all about energy

Vintage postcards for inspiration

Wired at Sunset

Interesting mail from the Netherlands

Missouri is a swing state

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