6 posts tagged “art”
While many of you may be living through the heat and humidity of July (Unless you are in some parts of the Northeast- a cool, damp summer), Christmas may be the last thing on your mind, but at Artfire, there are many shops celebrating Christmas in July with many different sales and promotions.
Pop on over and check out all the great shops! Here are a couple of shops that caught my eye...
The First Shop I found is Tilt Creations, A shop full of beautiful Bags and Clutches in all sizes and styles. From July 15th through the 24th She will be offering 15% off all non-clearance items.
Another shop I found while wandering Artfire, with items I REALLY love is Deirdre Ryan Photography.... Her items are 20% off during the promotion.
Now that I have spent way too much time wandering the web again, I will end this post. It's easy to get distracted when find great artists to check out, especially when they deal with fabric or flowers.
Don't forget, my Artfire Shop also has a great sale going on!
I have finished my first 3 days of my class at QSDS here in Ohio. I have been trying to pace myself so I have enough energy at the end of the week to keep creating. This has been a great escape for me from the worries of home, etc. I have painted a few more pieces of canvas and muslin as well as auditioning ideas on my wall, and contemplating the photos of what I have done that are hung there, too. Of course, one piece that began to form needed another color of fabric that I don't have with me.... Since the fabrics I wanted to coordinate with are painted pieces, I needed to paint another to intentionally go with what I have. My camera is in the classroom right now, so no photos today... next post...
As for more thoughts on art, I receive an email update from a blog called Inspire! by Linda M. The newest post asks if we are letting our passion lead us, or if we are allowing other things to do the leading. She directes us to this post about following our passion at the LifeDev blog (there are also other great posts on this blog, too). I found it very interesting and need to think about it much more in relation to my artwork. I believe I have been allowing other things than my passions to lead my art and as a result have not felt I have been doing my best (when I have done anything at all). My passion for gardening, flowers and nature are what inspire my work, but life seems to interfere much more than I would like.
Lots to ponder while at class today....
Finally I have a couple more finished little art quilts to show! The cold is now just hanging on in it's final stages, and I spent some couch time with my beads.
Here is a close-up shot, showing the beads in the flower center better.
The Dogwoods are blooming already this year... much earlier than normal, so I hope to find a few days to try to get more photos of their beautiful blooms. The Snow glories have already faded, but I can enjoy them any time through my photos.
No new photos from the gardens.... It's been a bit gloomy and wet to be doing much outdoors.
A few more tiny treasures popped up in my gardens this week. I was kept away from the gardens most of the week by a nasty cold my son shared with me, but I did get a few photos while trying to pull some of the fast growing weeds during a couple short trips outdoors.
More tiny treasures in the gardens. These are wild violets in one of my rock gardens. They may find themselves in one of my "On the Rocks" series of art quilts. The feathery foliage in the background is from Queen Ann's Lace plants that are probably not going to be allowed to stay there. They will be great to use for sunprints, so I will probably press them to use later.
Again I have found that there are many little treasures just waiting to be found if I just take a bit of time to really look for them. I just hope I can keep the weeds from covering them all up.
Well, only for a few days, but it was great!! I spent the end of last week and the weekend at my quilt guild's quilt retreat. It was so great to escape from life, and I actually found a bit more creativity creeping back!
Here are a few more photos from my gardens that may find themselves in a quilt in the future. I took most of these photos after I got back home from my escape.
Now I'm off to finishing those quilts shown at the beginning of this post.... It feels good to finally get back to my machine!
Where has the time gone??? Time really has flown since I have been working at the greenhouses again. Grand opening is May 10th, and the new owners and I are totally frazzled. So much still to do. I am also going to ring in May in 2 different ways this year. In addition to helping with the greenhouses, I am escaping this coming weekend to vend for the first time at a quilt show. I am not sure how things will go, but it will also be an escape from the greenhouses that I need right now. (I'm leaving lots of list of things to do, remember, etc.- kind of scary).
The other new way to ring in May for me, is that I am participating in Virginia Spiegel's "Collage Mania" to benefit cancer research. Three of my collages were accepted and will be available for sale Monday May 5th and Tuesday, May 6th. You can access the page they are on from here: Link to "Collage Mania"
The link will take you to the page where my collages are available. Below are photos of them that I posted earlier.
I began with the catalog photo of the flowers, washed with a light coat of iridescent paint and backed it with a piece of my handmade paper with lots of gold glitter in it. I placed these over a collaged background of fabric paper, sunprinted fabric, and colored card stock. Pastel was rubbed over the printed word foxglove that was cut apart. Eyelash yarn was stitched on, and the botanical name, Digitalis written on with dye pen. The 5"x7" collage was edged with a nubby, hairy yarn, and mounted to 8"x10" bristol, ready for framing.
Here is a closeup of a corner of the collage.
My mom loves colors in the orange and apricot ranges, so this one is dedicated to her, a 7+ year breast cancer survivor.
Here is the second one- "R is for Rosa" (botanical name for Rose- not someone I know). Another flower photo, this time with a handmade paper I made with flecks of gold, silver glitter, and deep blue tissue paper. The background of this is also a collage of painted fabric, fabric paper, and commercial fabrics. "Rosa" was written with pastel, on a silver flecked fabric, and "silk" leaves were stitched on, accenting the veins, using yarn as the stem. Eyelash yarn, butterflies stamped with gold paint, and a dye pen accented organza butterfly, add to the composition. The blue flowers in the photo called for the addition of the ribbon border, tied in a bow, around the appx. 5"x7" collage that is attached to the 8"x10" bristol with bright blue eyelets.
A closeup of a corner, showing a butterfly, and some leaf detail.
This collage is dedicated in memory of my aunt, who was only 13 years older than me, and died of colon cancer at only 46 yrs. old- my age, now.
Here is a closeup showing a gold butterfly and some of the stitching. The word Aster is also stitched along the left side.
This collage reminds me of, and is dedicated to my grandmother who is a 10+ year breast cancer survivor, 94 years old, and still living on her own.
Making these collages was very different from what I usually do, but I enjoyed the processes a lot. I will be making more papers, and painting more fabrics after life slows down after the spring rush. I will be selling these at my new Etsy Store- Andrus Gardens Fibers. Here is a Link to Original Post that shows other collages I made at the same time, and some of the treasures I found while looking for items to use.
Here is another link to the "Collage Mania" page my collages are listed on. There are many more from other artists as well, so shop for art with the proceeds going to a great cause. You can go to page one of the collage list for information about purchasing the collages.
