September-November 2010

There has been a few important things that I have been involved in over the last several months, including working on my National Board Certification. It is an intense and extremely time consuming process. That being said, my updates will be sporadic in the next 6 months as I focus on getting through the writing process involved with passing it.

Here is the chart I made for it:

In September, I put together an exhibit of the show, The Unspoken Truth About Color: A Dialogue in Art Quilts About Racism at The Facing Race Conference in Chicago. The exhibit includes 27 diverse artists from around the county that contributed 31 pieces to the show.

 Here is the entrance to the "gallery"

  We used cheap easels and foam core to display the pieces

 Here I am with my two pieces

 Carol Beck came up all the way from North Carolina to help, she stayed in the gallery the whole time, speaking to everyone who came in. Here she is with here piece.

 She shared the personal stories behind the pieces

as well as educated attendees about racism and art quilting.

 The space was well lit and often filled with people.
The public response to the show was incredible.
Many had strong emotional responses to the pieces
and thanked us for sharing such a powerful show at the conference.

 Here we are with our conference organizer, Donna Hernandez,

an amazing woman and new friend.

This exhibit will travel with the Mancuso Quilt Festival in 2011

and also be at The ARC Gallery and Educational Foundation

in Chicago April 27 – May 22, 2011.

Opening reception will be on Friday, April 29, 2011 from 6 to 9 p.m

in conjunction with the YWCA’s National Day of Commitment to Eliminate Racism.

In October I had my first public show as part of The Ravenswood Art Walk, where over 300 artists and businesses participated in the 9th Annual Tour of Arts & Industry in the Ravenswood Corridor in Chicago. This self-guided tour of open studios, galleries and spaces along the historic Ravenswood Corridor

is the annual kick off to the 15th Annual Chicago Artists Month.

I was assigned 34 feet of wonderful wall space in one of the participating buildings.

 You can read about many of these pieces in old blog posts.
I greatly enjoyed having the opportunity to share my work with the public
and experience first hand people's reactions to my work, which was all good.
Many were interested in the medium since fiber work is not usually well represented at shows
like this. I enjoyed sharing my process and techniques with interested viewers.

 Dancers below, inspired by a friend's wedding and how fun it was to dance.
Yes piece below is a third in a series called, I am Am I

 The Belly Dancers that I started in November of last year
when I saw them perform at the Ravenswood Art Walk.

 I was thrilled to finish them in time for this year's Ravenswood Art Walk.

I hope to find some time between NBC writing to make some new pieces,

if I do I will post about them. 

How a Belly Dancer Triptych is Created

It starts with a moment that moves you,

and the thought, I have to make this into a quilt

You take your poor quality pictures and crop,

edit, play with color and value to come up with 3 images of the dancers

Posterize them to accentuate the values in Elements

Make them black and white

Do it again

And again

Print them to desired quilt size, tape together, you like it

but, realize it is not enough

Print color posterized on 8.5” x 11” paper

Print original photos in color on 8.5” x 11”
and think...

Use a light box to trace each figure from original picture on clear plastic,

then trace in the values using the posterized pictures

Scan clear design, print to desired quilt size, and tape together

Print on white 8.5” x 11” paper

Color in with colored pencils, old school style, to figure out colors and values

Spend a lot of time figuring out the right fabrics for values

Trace onto tracing paper

Tweak some values and number on template, flip

Get to work with Wonder Under, trace, press, cut, assemble,

press to hold, repeat, repeat, repeat…

Realize, this is going to take a long time,

but know it will totally be worth it in the end

This is just the beginning.

Ravenswood Walk 2009, Belly Dancers

One of our next stops was a large exhibit of pieces from all the artists participating in the walk. We were fortunate enough to catch a belly dance performance. I was absolutely mesmerized by them. I definitely see a belly dancer piece in my near future, they were so beautiful, colorful and lively. For more information about classes and performances check out, http://www.jezebelly.com/
These pictures do not do their beauty justice.