ARTEAST at the Villa Marie Winery

Here are a few pics from the Vino Room.  There were so many scarves I had to spread some out on a table while the rest hung on two racks.  The top photo shows a selection on the center rack with the orange velvet one a real standout.  The brilliant color was a surprise to me--so different from the silk satin rust marks.  To the right of the scarves in the background are two of my smaller wall hangings.  

I had to get creative with my big silks as I could not use the walls.  My friend Bob (who builds my wall brackets and lends me rusty things) and I collaborated on a design for gigantic banner hangers.  They are 8 feet tall and can be taken apart for transport.  Each can hold works back to back if needed.  My friends from St. Louis give you a sense of the scale.  The piece they are looking at is Chicken Scratch which won BEST OF SHOW at Fiber Nine last fall at Prairie State College in Chicago Heights, Illinois.  It is rust dyed silk organza layered over black raw silk, 55 inches wide.

Last is a view from the other direction.  Alison Reeves makes jewelry.  That's her table on the right.  In the distance is the watercolor display booth belonging to Jerie Artz and Arvilla Friar.  The whole space was really quite beautiful and I thank Judy Wiemann and the staff of Villa Marie Winery for providing us with the venue. 

New work

Besides preparing for ARTEAST weekend which is over now, I created a piece for the ARTEAST Small Works Group Exhibit which continues through November 15 at the Jacoby Arts Center in Alton, Illinois.  100 ARTEAST participants have work in the show. 

Twitter #54, July 1927: "Etta had company this evening"
Mixed media collage--rust dyed and composted fabric, found fabric, found paper, thread

I usually have to force myself to work small but this piece came together easily when I rediscovered a tiny diary I bought at an antique store in Pocahontas a couple years ago stashed in one of my bins of found objects.  Written the same year my parents were married, the words are cramped, sometimes unreadable.  I realized as I attempted to decipher the handwriting that the author recorded some pretty mundane thoughts day to day which led me to compare the entries to twittering.  Methinks I miss making collages so when I get past my current deadlines, I'd like to make use of more pages from this little gem of a diary.

The Snarky Twins make their debut at ARTEAST

Shibori rust dyed scarf detail.  100% silk satin.

The actual scarf is about 72 inches long--this is an 8x10 

direct scan near the bottom.  Shibori is Japanese for

shaped resist dyeing--the only difference is that I do 

not make a dye bath.  My imagery comes from direct 

contact with rust objects.  More about that in a later 

post.

I've rust dyed 50 scarves!  I surprised myself with the 

number.  That's the most I've made in one summer.

Most of them are in the shibori method--

and all will be for sale at ARTEAST this weekend.

I'll be exhibiting at Villa Marie Winery in Maryville, Illinois.

Maps to 50 venues can be found at the ARTEAST website.

Come see me on the lower level in the Vino Room.  I'm 

sharing the space with 3 other artists -- Jerie Artz and her 

mother Arvilla Friar who are great watercolorists, and 

Alison Reeves who makes fabulous jewelry.

Along with scarves, I will have some of my huge silk hangings

and also some smaller quilted felted collages. 

This is my first post on my brand new blog.  I'll add more 

as soon as I can and introduce you to the art I make.

BTW, can you see the Snarky Twins?