Twenty years ago we were married on a cliff called Battleship Rock, the place where Russ proposed to me. It was a hot late June afternoon, and climbing the backside of the cliff in a tux and wedding gown was a challenging affair. It’s also difficult to find a minister who wants to do this sort of thing, but Russ had a friend who also happened to be a gymnastics teacher.

On the cliff we awaited the arrival of assorted family and guest on their poontoon boats, having been given a map and time on the cartoon wedding invitation that we had sent out a few weeks earlier.

Meanwhile, our friends in the Celtic Band played music in the nearby cove, on a handmade raft made of all found materials (an artistic idea, but a little risky considering their delicate instruments.)

Kids who happened to be jumping off the cliff into the water were happy to give us a few moments of quiet for the actual ceremony.

And then, being such a warm day and a little nervous about the whole affair, and just luckily having a blue and borrowed swimsuit on under the wedding dress, we peeled off the wedding garb and leap into what we like to call “a life of art together.”

Then it was back to Big Cedar Lodge, a happy reception, and the best twenty years of my life!

update: The photos in this post may seem a little dull. That’s because all our photo albums got water-soaked during a flood a couple of years ago, and though I’ve tried to restore them, they are not what they were.

We visit the rock where we were married each anniversary, and the landscape and nature there is still just as beautiful and inspiring. It’s great to live in the Ozarks and be able to enjoy the natural beauty that surrounds us here.

Not much art going on this week, other than emails and boxing up stuff for shows. Also thinking about what I’m going to say for a full hour at the Modern Materials opening weekend artist’s talk.

I was going to transport this quilt to the Untitled [Artspace] gallery via space-age technology, but the space-time portal didn’t reveal itself in time. So I had to fall back on FedEx.

FedEx is not a bad second option though. I usually use the second-day delivery, and have always been happy with the ease of computer-generated labels and email confirmation of delivery. The routine is so regular now it’s almost boring — roll it, wrap it with fabric, wrap with plastic, box it, label it, stick a letter in it and ship it.

However, give me a Sharpie and that girl who likes to draw and hasn’t gotten out much lately takes over.  Although I can’t say for sure what that elephant is tossing — a peanut or a caterpillar? (click for a closer look)

However, Mochi, the supreme guardian of all things postal that come and go through the front door seems unimpressed by my wrapping, boxing and excessive taping technique. (By the way, have I ever shown you the impressive stainless steel floor in the lobby that she guards?)

I do however have a nice collection of mid-century cookbooks — many I found when I bought two big boxes of old papers at an auction. They appear to be the entire 1950-60’s Home Economics classroom files of a woman named Frances, and are full of leaflets and brochures about choosing silverware, how to use a deep freeze, bug sprays, dieting, and more.

I love looking at these old cookbooks, finding a lot of humor and inspiration for my work from the drawings and advertising copy in these retro pieces of domestic history.

So Tracy, I hope you won’t mind if I post some of these instead of photos. For some more inspiration from retro graphics, check out my Flickr set here and the Flickr group mid-century illustrated.

Update: I almost forgot to post these, here are some folks who actually did the photos:
Los Angeles is My Beat
Laughing Living and Loving in Austin
A Jen Too Many
Raineworks
and  be sure to check out the hula hoops on
Woolanthropgy

Now after a year of using Twitter (only 140 characters, not words allowed!), or maybe because I’ve decided I’d like to leave some mystery for the viewer, my statements are getting much shorter than the space allowed.

In fact, my statement for Quilt National 2009 was only one sentence long. I’d actually forgotten I’d said it because it’s so core to what I believe that it seems apparent, but was pleased to see it in print. And it also ended up on the back cover of the book.

Sometimes I guess, less is more.

In case you can’t read my quote in the photo, it says, “I believe the true power of art is the ability to transport us to new or unexpected places.”

Between sketching and a real plan to work in fabric from, there are lots of little steps. Rayna said she liked this one.

But Russ said snacks should go closer to the mouth, and rightly so!

Then I got a little toe-happy. I don’t usually draw finger or toe nails, preferring to keep things low maintenance.

That’s why some animators’ characters only have four or three fingers. Less to draw, especially in the old days when they had to hand-draw each cell.

But in the end, I never could get that pose to relate to my other cast of characters.

So moving onto to a pose inspired by Linda, I also decided to call them Cheez Curls, sounds cheesier, don’t you think?

Hey, maybe I should add a little mouse in there somewhere too.

Who? That woman I told you about, the one with a big nose and Eiffel-Tower hair.

I first got wind of the article in this weekend’s Wall Street Journal from folks on the SAQA yahoo list. Those of us who aren’t at the conference and Quilt National opening last night are feeling left out and checking the internet for show gossip.

So that’s a good excuse to go out for a Green Tea Latte, right?  And I found the print version on the news rack at B&N. The photo is really tiny and oddly cropped, but looks pretty swell in the website article and slide show here.

Thanks to Meg Cox, for the nice mention in her article and more info about other quilt shows this summer. I’d never heard about the populist Sisters Oregon one-day outdoor show — that sounds like a crazy fun affair!

Speaking of summer shows, there’s a stellar show curated by Jill Rumoshosky Werner that’s in the works for July 10 - August 27, 2009. It will be at [Artspace] at Untitled gallery, and I’m really impressed that the curator and gallery has decided to feature so much three-dimensional work — at a time when many shows are pulling back from allowing 3-D work.

Jill has done a great job assembling an great group of artists and she’s gone the extra distance to publish a curator’s blog. Scroll down through the blog, and you’ll see posts about each of the artists and why she invited them.

The poster above was published by [Artspace] instead of the usual postcard announcement. I love the way the graphic designer used the colors of Arturo Alonzo Sandoval’s quilt to map out the colors of the text. It folds for mailing (hence the fold-lines in the photo), and I have a few extra, so email me with your address if you’d like one.

Here’s the full press release from the gallery about the show, catalog with introduction by Sandra Sider, and a couple images of work for the show.

One night I woke and sat in semi-darkness, hoping by not turning on the lights, I could fall back asleep. Finally I did, but not before I drew these little yoga doodles. It’s an idea I’m exploring for a new Yoga 101 project called The Cheese Curl pose. Only problem, I have too many ideas and can’t decide which I like best.

But wait there’s more! I guess it’s like cheese curls themselves — you can’t stop at just one.

I’ll tell you a little secret about my quilt that’s going to be in the upcoming Quilt National — I call it a Franken-quilt (as in Frankenstein).

I was trimming it to prepare for the binding (at about four in the morning — a ghastly time to do such a critical task) and I trimmed too much. When I pinned the binding on, I found it would hit the edge of the flower shop at a bad place - yikes!

So I dug the edge out the trash, zig-zagged it back on, and re-trimmed slightly wider. Enough that I could move the binding over a bit and the zig-zagging doesn’t show. So no one knows about the mistake except me, and now you.

Quilt National groups A, B, and C

Dale Anne asked about the coding of the artists listed on the Quilt National 2009 website. The whole show will be on exhibit at the Dairy Barn from May 23 - September 7, 2009. After that, it will travel to The Foundry Art Centre in St. Charles, Missouri — the only other venue that will exhibit the entire show.

After that, the quilts are sorted into three groups called A, B and C.  This way smaller segments of the show can travel to museums and other venues that can’t accomodate the whole show, which is quite large when taken together.

The entire collection will be on exhibit at The Foundry Art Centre from September 25 - October 29, 2009, and I’ve been asked to do an artist’s luncheon talk and then walk the audience through the exhibition on Thursday, October 8.

So if you can’t make to the Dairy Barn in Ohio, come visit the show at the Foundry in Missouri! After that, I think the schedule for the smaller group exhibits is still being planned.

It’s not a PaMdora quilt, because I sort of wanted to see what would happen if I submitted something other than PaMdora — would it be accepted? So I started the new “Wish You Were Hair” series. Another lady did get accepted into the 2009 show. She doesn’t have a name, but she does have an attitude.

PaMdora will be at the QN banquet though, wearing her old “Moth-eaten Sweater.” I did that little quilt for the Art Gallery in a Box IV which will be auctioned at the banquet to raise money for Studio Art Quilt Associates. Here’s the postcard for that:

Taking a peek at the names of the other artists who were accepted and the many other people I know will be at the SAQA conference, I wish I could be there too! The last two were a lot of fun. Here’s my blog posts from the 2007 opening and party next day outside The Dairy Barn.