Opening tonight!

Jacoby Arts Center 6th Annual Juried Exhibition opens tonight -- July 9 -- with a reception from 5-8 pm.  The show runs through August 8, 2010.  One of my small pieces, Organic Bailout, was selected for the show.  

This piece features both rusted and composted silks along with a piece of rusted vintage dishtowel fabric that had been my mother's.  I did a lot of free motion quilting and embroidery on this piece which measures only 11 x 8.5 inches.  

For those you in the area who plan to attend the opening at JAC, you can gallery hop over to By Design.  Lillian Bates has turned part of her fiber arts and wearable boutique into a full fledged gallery.  Her first show opens tonight too with a reception from 5 to 8 pm.  The show is called Varied Perspectives.


Lillian features my scarves, t-shirts, tights and other wearables in her boutique.

Rusty bits fresh off the press

Another hour or so and I might have had to kiss this silk good bye--at least for wearing.  I nearly forgot to unwrap the goodies.  Humidity was high and the results are strong.  Silk satin is difficult to photograph--too much shine--and the scarves never want to lay very flat, so I threw these on the scanner and just did details.  All but the last one will be at the EAC gift shop soon.

                                                                           

Pocket Square

I've spent a good deal of time lately in the garden getting the tomatoes and other veggies in the ground as well as planting flowers.  I just made a list of all the shows I have on the calendar this summer and fall and scared myself silly tonight!  Thought I would post some scans of scarves to prove I've actually been working in the studio too.  This is a detail of a pocket square 17" on a side before rusting.  It was done in the shibori method.  Quite a bizarre design isn't it?  More new work to see in the next post.

Promises, Promises

Here's a detail of a new piece I finished today--a collage of composted and rusted fabrics with free motion machine stitching that reminds me of the ongoing oil spill off the coast of Louisiana.

The title is Promises, Promises. 

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. 

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?