I have three vessels in the FRCQ Website Portfolio

Front Range Contemporary Quilters is a wonderful group of amazing artists.  Fresh ideas, local and international lecturers and workshops keep us all engaged and on our toes.  Members come from the north and south on the front range, mountains and plains.  We have members join our monthly meetings from Laramie and  often visitors from thousands of miles away.

Each year members are asked to submit up to three pieces made within the current calendar year to be juried and placed on the website, www.artquilters.org,  for the next twelve months. 

Please take a few minutes to enjoy the art posted this year.  I am so happy to have three fabric vessels in the display.  The home page has most of the pieces.  Two of my vessels are there and can be clicked on for a full view.  Many are repeated and my third vessel is featured under the 'Gallery' tab.

I have made many friends in the group and have benefitted from their talent, sharing of experiences, techniques and support.

Word for 2017 - Discipline

No - not the 'spare the rod and spoil the child' kind of discipline.

The 'keep on the straight and narrow' kind.  Keep to a schedule.  Make a plan and stick to it.
Don't find excuses.  Plow through.  and so on......

I chose the word in December.  It is the end of January and I am just now putting the idea on paper and committing to it via this post.  It has taken me almost a month to get the show on the road.

But I have been moving forward this week.  Now I have to remember during the rest of the year how good it feels to be accomplishing!

Have I committed heresy?

What will people think?

What do I think?

I have an affinity to silk.-----many people do.  In the textile world, silk is the queen. There is a silk for every technique.  It can be sheer, opaque, smooth, textured, neutral, colored brilliantly or with reserved elegance, frayed, clean cut, and dozens of other properties.

But what if I mutilate it?  take away it's hand? kill a quality that others find so wonderful?

Have I done wrong?  Or have I used this precious textile in a new way for a new idea?  Will I be condemned because I have sacrificed one attribute to enhance another?  I want to freeze it into position!  I want to change it's texture yet enhance it!  I want to use it because this piece of raw silk will work for me in this piece as no other fabric can.  So I will  destroy properties that so many love to create something new and perfect for me and my creativity and expression.

There is a dilemma facing textile artists who wish to change traditional textiles into something different.  Glue Grandma's crochet, cut up Aunt Mary's table linens, quilt Mom's hankies.  There is respect for the original, fabric, hand work, memories in the use, and joy of owning a family piece or a collector's find.  Where is it dishonor to re-use? When does re-use or modify become destroy or exhibit loss of appreciation for the item?

Will I weep over the loss of this white raw silk when I go through my stash? No.

Will I be energized looking at my finished piece?  I hope so.

Or would society or fellow textile buffs be unhappy if I collage my grandfather's watercolor onto masonite?

Perhaps society is not ready to cut up tradition  or change the familiar into the unexpected.

This fabric vessel was skinned with white raw silk.  I patted the gel gloss onto the fabric to maintain the bumpy texture of the fabric.  I like it.


Sumac by Margaret Adele Parker---

40 West Arts Showcase.

I am so pleased to be a part of 40 West Arts.

Three of my vessels and several pieces of wall art are going to be in the November Members' Showcase. Nov. 4-19th, 2016.  Reception: Friday, Nov. 4th, 5-8p.m.

This is "Prairie Grasses".  Hand painted cotton and pen drawing.  I have had an attachment to the prairie since I was a child and my godmother and parents worked to keep the Big Bluestem from disappearing in Illinois. The Illinois Prairie Path was created and is still used regularly in the suburbs of Chicago, accommodating bicycles, horses and walkers.

 

Prairie Edge

 

This basket shape is nice for coffee tables.  It is made entirely from fabric.  The exterior skin and interior lining are hand painted and finished with a gloss top coat.  Note the beaded top edge.

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

Prairie Earth is the smallest diameter piece I have made.  Detail of the hand painted fabric.

 

 

We hung the show this morning and there are wonderful pieces by ten  area artists in photography, mixed media, oil, acrylic and collage. The reception is Friday, November 4th, from 5-8 p.m.

 

Here are my wall pieces.

 

 

Skyline Shadows, a 3-deimensional fabric rendition of the Denver skyline.

 

Leaf, printed, pieced and hung on an acrylic painting.

 

Thermal Run Off Series #6

Mixed media, cotton, upholstery fabric, painted misty fuse and beads on a black cotton stretched canvas.

 

Art Circuit

 

Recycled tech pieces mounted on commercial cotton stretched canvas with raised beading.

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

Handweavers' Guild of Boulder 2016 Sale

I am so please to have had three vessels chosen to be in the Handweavers' Guild of Boulder 2016 sale and showcase.

While I am no longer weaving or spinning,  I have always been involved in textiles.  Mixed media options have allowed me to combine fabric and acrylic products in producing fabric vessels that sometimes have the look of other materials such as wood, leather or ceramics.

These vessels are entirely made from fabric and embellished with a variety of techniques and finished and/or glazed with acrylic products.

The Handweavers Guild of Boulder is a long established guild that has broadened its base of techniques to include beading, felting and quilting.

I am very happy to have my vessels showcased during their sale week Nov. 2-6, 2016. Here are details from these vessels.

I am a Maker

I am a Maker

I was asked about my intention concerning the fabric vessels I have been creating this past year or so.  My answer was that I hoped to share them with an audience.  Like so many "Things" and "Ideas" close to a person's heart, sharing the joy, experience, idea, passion is part of creation.

The question of INTENTION is important.  I am creating because I want to create. I want to experiment.  I want to play.  I want to express.  But what is my intention?  To bury my product in the closet?  To clutter my counter tops with fabric pots and baskets? My intention is to have them seen. My intention is to continue this creative path, improving and enjoying the process, and sharing them.

Entering shows, approaching galleries, placing my vessels in public view requires me to introduce my work and myself into the world of art and craft.

 I need to choose words to describe myself.  That  requires a choice of label to use on business cards, artist statements, etc..

I am  creative.  I have been encouraged to call myself an artist, but I am not totally comfortable with that title.  I have worked hard to develop the vessels I now make.  I am serious about their form and style and what they bring to an audience.  They are my own creations. My patterns, inspirations, My techniques.  I hope to MAKE many more.

I am a Maker.

I will let the viewer decide if they are art or craft, interesting or not, to be viewed for more than 30 seconds, to be purchased or chosen or passed by.

They are mine.  I am happy to have made them.

Indian Summer

October 8, 2016 - We have had our first hard freeze and the weather is gorgeous!  Indian summer is here.  It is a perfect day to be outside painting fabric.

I have three yards of white cotton.  It will soon become sand, rocks and canyons to celebrate the west where I live.

How great is this?!