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Wild Fire
Wild fires are consuming our forests and dry grass lands faster and more frequently every summer. Here on the west coast they are starting earlier in the year with the sky overcast with smoke for weeks on end even if the fire is many miles away. This is the new normal for the world and is a terrible legacy for future generations.
This started with a piece of canvas onto which I stitched various pieces of cotton fabrics of different types. This is then dyed creating a varied surface as the dye acts differently on each fabric. Other similarly treated fabrics are added as the flames only using silks. The firefighters were fragmented in the flames as they were emersed in the fire. The night sky is made from layers of netting, some of it with glitter on it. Added detail in the flames is created using Paint Stik stenciling. This finished piece was then quilted onto a black background at an angle for dramatic affect.
The Light on the Other Side
size 34″w x 31h
After 16 months of masking and spacing and staying apart, like began to come together again. The sun began to shine a bit brighter; people smiles without a mask to hide it; you could smell food on the street. It seemed that there was light on the other side of the pandemic. Of course we now know that this can be fleeting but it was nice to see it and know that it is possible and it will happen again. Maybe when we all get vaccinated we can make it a permanent way of life again.
I started with a large piece of natural heavy canvas onto which I stitched wide strips of old damask table cloth before dying it all in avocados fiber reactive dye. For further surface design I masked off the damask and spray painted the canvas part after laying raffia over it. Next I printed grape leaves on the painted surface. I love to save the tangles of thread that come off fabric when it is washed and that was attached in hunks up
Going to Roost
size 28″w x 29″h
The huge old elm I see from the kitchen window is home to robins, magpies and chickadees. The community is huge especially in the evening when everyone is headed home for the night.
The blue dyed background is composed of many pieces of fabric from many dye baths. Some are shibori some are indigo and are from my stash. After being well stitched the leafless tree limbs were added and the birds arrived. The year was early but they settled in to rest.
Gothic Cistern
size 19w x 16h
I had taken this picture in 2000 while visiting in Seville Spain with my daughter. It was somewhere inside the Re’al Alcazar but neither of us can place it anymore. All I remember was that it still had water in it and it was a very cool and tranquil relief from the summer heat. I loved the gentile curves of the arches and always wanted to capture them in a piece of my art.
This piece is mostly colored with Paint Stik over hand dyed fabrics. There are only 4 pieces of fabric in the piece. Three pieces are the forward parts of the arches and the forth is the water and surrounding background. Because the arch fabrics are hand dyed they are already mottled but by using freezer paper masking and Paint Stik I was able to add more controlled shadowing to each arch. All of these were attached to the background using fuseable webbing and stitching the edges. More Paint Stik created the water, the last arch and the reflections. When finished it was backed and quilted.
Pomegranate Parts
size 23″w x 19″h
Nothing is much more fun then picking juicy seeds one by one or a mouthful at a time from a pomegranate. The color is gemlike, the flavor timeless and the intricacy of the fruit’s construction is amazing to deconstruct. Who wouldn’t photograph one?
This piece started, as many of this years pieces has, with one of my canvas pieces that was dyed before an idea came to me. I have many pieces hanging in the studio waiting to see what they want to be. This one was way to loud for a background so I rolled Decolorant on it and let it dry. When ironed the color will bleach out of the fabric controlled by the amount of heat you apply. When you get the desired affect you wash out the remaining bleach and the fabric is safe to work on again. The only fabrics added where the white of the membrane and the dark gray of the shadows. The rest of the design was done using Paint Stik. Some of it was stenciled on with freezer paper as the resist while in other areas I either used the sticks directly or brushed it on. When that is dry it is heat set and becomes permanent. The finished piece was machine quilted.
Charles Crossing the Vltava in Prague
size 25″w x 20″h
I remember finding out that my daughter lived only 3 hours from Prague and I said we had to go. She lives in Bavaria in Germany so we made last minute hotel reservations and we all packed into the car and drove there. While there are no borders now that all of these countries are in the EU, the boundaries are very obvious. The quality of the road deteriorates as does the look of the buildings as you cross the invisible line between Germany and the Czech Republic.
Part of Prague has been upgraded for the tourists. Everything has been painted and looks very nice. This is the Charles Bridge which crosses the Vltava river not far below the palace. The bridge is painted a sunny yellow. The buildings in the area are painted in many bright colors. To your left, on the other side of the bridge, you can see the heavy influence of decades of Soviet influence.
Extreme Silence
size 25″w x 46″h
My friend Barb took this photo while hiking up at Pete Lake. Since my ability to walk is quite limited I will not be able to take this hike and can only imaging how clean and crisp that air must smell and how silent it is. What a pretty place to sit and watch nature.
I am always experimenting with new techniques. This is another one in which I used more Shiva Paint Stik. I appliqued the mountains, trees and rocks and used one large piece of hand dyed blue fabric the looked like the ripples in the lake. I wanted to have the reflections in the lake be transparent and decided to do them all with the Paint Stiks. I use small stiff brushes intended for stenciling to rub the Paint Stik on the fabric which gives me quite a bit of control over the paint. When it has cured I stitch over it as I do the rest of the piece.
