Biophilia: Threads of Natural Wonder

 

My latest piece, Octopus Play, will be hanging soon in the show titled, Biophillia: Threads of Natural Wonder. The Chehalem Cultural Center in Newberg, Oregon will premier the show starting March 5, 2024. The Artists' Reception will be on March 15, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM. They have agreed to keep the show up for three months so there is plenty of time to get into the gallery for a viewing.

The short definition of biophillia is the love of life and all things living. It also encompasses the human response to our environment. Architects have been starting to incorporate the concept into their designs to make interior spaces feel less enclosed, with more natural light and materials that suggest the outside being brought inside.

There are 40 artists included in the show, all from the Oregon region of Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA). Our juror was Sue Benner, an internationally known art quilter with a profound connection to nature in both her art and photography. A catalog of all 40 images will be available. Our graphic designer, Lisa Lauch, came up with a stunning logo for us that perfectly captures the feeling of this show. 

 

I have enjoyed being on the committee, as a co-curator, for this show. I especially enjoyed making my piece, which was a method I had not really explored before. The background is a whole cloth ombre but the octopus and the crab are hand-painted using acrylic paint thinned with textile medium. I had taken a workshop from Susan Brubaker Knapp using this technique, which is her favorite way to work. I have used thickened dye to do the same in the past. Using the paint was easier but it does create a slight "plasticy" feel to the cloth. I haven't decided if the trade-off in ease is better than the more natural feel of cotton painted with dye.

I searched for images on the internet for the tentacles and the crab and then used Photoshop Elements to move and rotate each one. Quilting the background took WAY longer than I anticipated. The horizontal lines out at the edges were added out of desperation once I realized how long (and physically demanding) the inner loops were going to take to complete. It turned out to be a perfect decision because those lines keep the viewer's focus on the center of the quilt. And, it makes the curving lines feel like water moving as the octopus moves. The bubbles were added to further keep the viewer's eye on the center action. In the end, this might be one of my most favorite pieces I have made.
 

Emergence book project

Every other year the Oregon region of SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) organizes a traveling show. It is open to members of our local region and is always juried. In 2020 when it was time to start on the new show for 2021-2023, covid was rampant. Our committee members met on Zoom and pondered what to do since many galleries were closed. We decided to do a book instead. 

Our goal was to have members juried in on the strength of their previous work. The chosen artists would create a new piece to be featured in the book since we weren't sure we would be able to secure any gallery venues. Each artist would have 6 pages in the book following their progress through their design process and the making of their art quilt. We produced a book with 21 artists featured. It is Emergence: Fiber Art from Concept to Stitch. It is available on Amazon in hard cover or as an eBook.

Here is an example of my first page in the book talking about my inspiration and a montage of a few of the other pages

 

Ultimately, we did get the show shown in several venues which have now passed but the book is still available for anyone curious about how an individual goes about designing and making their art quilt.

The pieces that I made for the book sold at one of the last venues. It was called The Marsh. Although not obvious from a distance, I used a number of fabrics with animals, amphibians or insects in the print. There are also a few secret stitched creatures just as a surprise if the viewer comes in for close detail. I wanted to show that even spaces that look uninhabited to our eye are actually teeming with rich biodiversity and deserve our respect.

 

 

Kelp Forest has sold!

 

 Kelp Forest did not make the cover of Quilting Arts magazine but it did have a feature inside. It went on to the International Quilt and Fiber Festival in Everett, Washington where it sold. I will miss having it to enjoy once in a while but the reality is we can't keep everything we make. I have too many old pieces rolled up in plastic and under the bed. 

 One way I have found to repurpose some of them is to cut them up. SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) has a couple of online fund-raising auctions every year. I make a window frame to the requested size and move it around the quilt until I find a spot that looks good. It needs to have some composition and balance and look like it was always intended to be smaller. Since, like many artists, my style has changed over time, I wouldn't probably ever hang these pieces in a show. (I hope no one ever asks for a retrospective show, though) Here's an example of one I cut up this year. It has many more potential spots for cutting. The original was called Paint the Town, done for a red-themed show..  The cut out
I titled Stalctite. I added some beads and stitching.

 

I have been busy in the studio lately, but not creating. We put new carpet and composite flooring in the room.  It is a wool carpet with a lovely pad so my feet will be happy when I stand at my cutting table designing new work. Now to put only the valuable stuff back in and not the junk!

 

Once in awhile a person just needs to take the leap! Quilting Arts magazine had a contest inviting readers to submit their art quilts for a chance to be on the cover of the magazine. I have never entered anything to one of the magazine's call for artwork but this one was too hard to pass up. I sent several images and this one, "Kelp Forest" was chosen as one of seven finalists.

In the end, it was not chosen as the cover. Kate Themel's "As You Set Out" was the chosen artwork for the Summer 2023 issue. However, this piece, and the other finalists, are all featured inside the magazine. It has been great fun, and quite an honor, to be involved in this project.

 Here are a few detail shots of my quilt which was made using commercial and hand-dyed cottons, one of which is a beautiful blue Japanese ombre sateen. The background kelp fronds are done with an ombre silk chiffon. The stitching is all free-motion by machine. I also embellished it with a few glass beads.

 

 

More inspiration, Oregon+

As promised in the last post, I have completed a piece inspired by the photograph of the flower seed fields taken near Silverton, Oregon.  I called it The Flower Seed Grower.  Below is the original photo in case you missed it in the previous post. The size of this piece is 12" by 12".  I find that this is a very saleable size to offer in galleries.  I did a little more thread painting than usual in the flower fields.

I also made another 12" by 12" piece at the same time.  Once again, I found inspiration in one of my photos from Ebey's Prairie on Whidbey Island in Washington State.  I added some Queen Anne's lace flowers to change things up a little bit.  Everyone seems to enjoy any of these scenes with the barbed wire in the foreground.  It must be the contrast of hard with soft, both in the colors and the organic background. I titled this one (what else?) Prairie V.

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I hope these little scenes bring you the sense of peace and timelessness that I feel when I am looking at inspiration photos and in the making of them.

Oregon Inspiration

 Spring is a beautiful time in Oregon. In addition to all the blooms in people's yards the farmlands come to life as well. A common sight here are fields full of plants being grown specifically for seed. Of course, in order to have seed there must be flowers. Sometimes there are huge swaths of color covering many acres. One of those seed crops is the mustard plant which looks somewhat like the color of processed mustard. It is hard to take your eyes off these fields when lit up by the sun. I had to make a  piece like this when a friend sent me a picture she took along the roadside a couple of years ago.  

This piece is only 8" by 11" and was made for a benefit auction at the SAQA conference in San Antonio in April. I'm happy to say that it raised $175 for this great organization.

Since the original was a little dark I tweaked it in Photoshop in order to get a truer look.  Here is the edited photo which became the quilted piece.

  

This Spring she sent me some new photos that could become an even more exciting piece.  We decided it is a field of California poppies in front of a field of erysimum, also known as wallflower.  Such a stunning combination!  I wonder if the farmer planned it that way?  I can't wait to make this one up. Hard to believe but I might even have fabric in these colors already in my stash!

 

Deception Pass: Where Are We Headed?

Once again inspiration came from a previous visit to Whidbey Island just off the coast of Washington State. The only connection from the mainland to the island is to cross the Deception Pass bridge.  It is actually built as two spans and rises about 180 feet above the water. Above is an image of the bridge taken from Wikipedia and below is my art quilt.

I happened to be there on a sunny, but chilly, September day when the fog was wrapping around the bridge in a fascinating way as it moved inland from Puget Sound. 

Eventually, it did cover the bridge entirely making for an eerie atmosphere as cars and bridge walkers disappeared into the mist. It is the following picture that I have had in my head for some time as a possible design to explore.

 

When a call to artists went out for a regional SAQA show titled Bridge I knew I had my inspiration hanging in the back of my mind.  Deception Pass: Where Are We Headed? is the result.  I struggled with this one quite a while because the value changes had to be fairly strong in a short distance, in this case 32", but not make huge jumps or it wouldn't "flow". Here is a detail shot of the stitching.

And, just for fun, here's a look at it upside down!  I almost like it better this way but then it wouldn't be the Deception Pass bridge anymore! What do you think?

 

Continuing Ispiration

I know I have shown this picture of Ebey's prairie, located on Whidbey Island in the State of Washington, before but I am surprised by how many times I have come back to it for inspiration.  Mostly I have greatly simplified the image as in this 8 x 8 inch piece titled Prairie III.

Most recently, I decided to really delve into more of the details of the photo. I knew perspective would be critical so the angles of the field lines would be crucial.  I might tweak these a bit if I did it over again but this newest work seems to have captured the feeling of spaciousness that I get from looking at the original photo.  This is now my fourth piece that has come from just this one picture, Prairie IV.

 

Here is a detail image.  I have found that I really love stitching the foreground grasses with their grace and illusion of movement from the breeze.  One lucky break was the blue sky fabric. I had only one small piece left of this and it had lighter areas that ran vertical to way I needed to lay the piece.  Normally I would have wanted the light are to run horizontally but somehow this vertical "stripe" matched up perfectly with the open view to the distant ocean.  I had not enough fabric to move it right or left and still fit into my 12 x 12 inch space.  Sometimes there is inspiration and sometimes there is sheer luck!

Earthly Treasures show

The show that I and three other artist friends, Terry Grant, Mary Goodson and Chris Brown, have been working toward is finally here. Earthy Treasures was our chosen title since we each are inspired so closely by our Pacific Northwest environment.  Twigs Gallery is part of the Stitchin' Post quilt shop in charming Sisters, Oregon.  This is where the popular Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show is held every year.  

The artists reception for our show is on July 22 and runs through August 25.  I know we have been all working steadily, since at least the first of the year, so it is a nice feeling of accomplishment to have everything hung and ready in the gallery.  Here are a couple of pieces that I produced for the show and the inspiration photo following. All but one of these are 12" by 12" in size.

 

Morning Light 

The photo for this was taken driving on Interstate 5 early one morning.  I just took a quick shot through the rainy car window. It is amazing what phone cameras can capture.

 

High Mountain Pass

 This picture was taken at a rest stop at the top of the Santiam Pass in the Fall.  A forest fire burned a very large part of this area a few years ago leaving many charred trees. Some of them are now being bleached by constant exposure to the sun and harsh winter weather.  It creates quite an amazing scene of contrasts especially when the vine maple turns fiery red and orange. Mt. Washington is on the horizon.

Here are two more pieces made for this show. I hope to see some friends there!

 Crackle

 

Prairie III

 

Weekend Wonders

I had the pleasure of traveling to the southern part of Oregon this last weekend to see two excellent art quilt shows.  Both involve artists that are members of Studio Art Quilt Associates.  The first show was in Medford at the Rogue Gallery.  It is a juried show put up by the members of the Oregon and Southern Washington region of SAQA.  The show is titled Blending Poetry and Cloth.  Each piece is the artist's response to a poem or inspirational quote.  Although the individual poems were not included on the wall tags there is a catalog that shows the title of the related poem.  There are 45 quilts in the show so there was a lot to enjoy.  Here are some views of the gallery and the quilts.

Although there are any wonderful quilts in the show, Mandy Miller's piece Georgia Does Midtown is one of my favorites.  It is pictured here on the far right.  It was inspired by the poem "Chicago" by Carl Sandberg.  It has such great depth and movement. 

Another very dynamic quilt is by Anne Daughtry A Painted Ship done after "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.I think you can see the texture and dimension Anne archived with her choice of fabrics.

I am pleased to say the my piece, Rolling In, was also chosen to be a part of the exhibit.  Mine was inspired by the poem "The Voice of the Rain" by Walt Whitman.

I was also very pleased and proud that the gallery chose this piece to show a portion of on their postcard and as THE image for their listing of the show on the their 2016 schedule of shows.  For as long as I have worked at my craft, it feels good to be finding my voice and earning some recognition.

The second show was the juried international SAQA show Concrete & Grassland at the Grant Pass Museum of Art.  Photography was limited at this venue so I just snuck a quickie of my quilt in the show, Rift Valley.  It was a satisfying way to spend the weekend with others of similar passion.