Artist Kathleen Kendall

In February I have a show with artist, Kathleen Kendall, who also works with mythology. Today, I went over to her place and spent a few hours over coffee in her studio talking about all things art and life. I really enjoy getting together with her and feel a real affinity for her and the work she does. (oh, plus, she gets cool points for sending me home with a bag of veggies from her garden.....)



c Kathleen Kendall "Figure X"

Self portrait in progress....

I cleaned up edges today and delicate transitions, softening things up a bit.... still not settled on the neck down, but I have a few ideas. This has been more fun than I thought it would be since I don't enjoy painting people like I do animals.

I envisioned the portrait being about me as a testimony to God's glory as revealed in His creation. I feel it is well confirmed by now that this creation, nature specifically, is my life's artistic work.

Surviving the Runway 60's style "The Movie"

For those of you who have never made it to International Quilt Festival, here's your chance to see what you are missing Saturday night in Make it University, and for those of you who have, enjoy and see you in Houston!

Part 1 Feeling groovy


Part 2 I got you babe


Part 3 The Winners!


Thanks Nina for being a great videographer!

On the Easel

So far, the story is that our giant friend has found a sad sight.....

Surviving the Runway 60's style

The 1st place winner of 50 spools of Aurifil thread.
2nd place winner, Pokey, 3rd place and 1st.

The Runners up.
Jamie and Leslie, dig those groovy pom poms man.
The Make it University Mod Squad.
Jamie Fingal, me, Leslie Tucker Jenison, Pokey, Melly Mells Testa, Jane LaFazio.

Tomorrow I will post some video of Surviving the Runway. Now I am doing massive catch up from being away for almost 2 weeks.

Mourning Dove

5" x 7" oil on panel

Today's painting: On the Easel

Tomorrow, I will wrap this painting up. The paint needs to set a bit and then I can go forward. Still working on a title.

I finished the small goldfinch painting as well. I have about three more of these small ones to do and a few larger works to have my committed inventory for the November show.
When I write it all out and consider the paintings I have on hand, all my stressing has been for naught....

I feel so contemplative lately with little need to write much more.....

International Quilt Festival Long Beach

What an awesome show! On Friday, I drove to Long beach and was amazed by the crowds at the show, both friday and saturday morning they opened the doors 15 minutes early. The vendor aisles were crowded with eager shoppers, there was definitely a more optimistic feeling here than I felt last Spring at the Chicago show.

Here are a few of the people who were doing open studios friday:
Beryl Taylor
Jane LaFazio
Leslie Tucker Jenison
Jamie Fingal
Melanie Testa and Pokey Bolton co-taught a workshop using stencils with various kinds of media.
In the afternoon I taught my fanciful felted fruits workshop.After my workshop I went to the SAQA/Art Quilt reception for wine and cheese and hang with my peeps. It is so wonderful to reconnect with long time friends at festival. After the reception ended we were in need of some real food and an ever growing group of fellow art quilt enthusiasts 15 of us in all (many of them from Temecula) went out to dinner.
Photo provided by Carol Niles, thanks Carol!

Here's Melly and Pokey.

On the Easel

Why is it that after a vacation I need a vacation day to recuperate? Laundry, cleaning....stuff.
This is how I left the painting on Thursday. I really feel good about it....I have a small goldfinch painting that needs finishing touches, as well. These two will be the first priority of the week.

A Day in the Fabric District Followed by Pupusas

Today we drove to downtown Los Angeles to go to the fabric district, block after block filled with stores of fabrics, willing to wheel and deal.

There were fabrics of all kinds and shops filled floor to ceiling with notions and dressmakers forms.




One shop was filled with fake fur, much to Nina's delight who has been buying extra long fur on the internet for much higher prices to make wigs for her ball jointed dolls. I think she is going to need to start a business to use all the lovely fur she bought. Look at that pink and white one!

Look at all these designer cotton prints for $5 a yard!
We finished the day by stopping at another of our favorite restaurants, El Buen Gusto, for El Salvadoran pupusas, pickled spicy cabbage, refried beans, fried plantains and cream, yummmm...

Make It University apron 60's style

To follow along with the theme of Surviving the Runway ’60s Style: The Ultimate Creative Challenge with Cloth Paper Scissors, several of us Make it University artists decided to make aprons to wear while working Open Studios and teaching our workshops. So if you see this mellow yellow apron you will know its me.

Custom Mino HD Videocamera

I recently bought a tiny HD video camera from Flip Video on Amazon. The really cool part about this besides the pocket size of the camera was that I could custom design it by uploading an image of my quilt. I also bought a nice little hard case that can clip onto a belt loop.

On the Easel: Egret painting......

I spent most of the afternoon touching up the egret and painting our hero, the blue hummingbird....Tuesday, I will finish her and begin placing the "seeds of doubt" where they need to be. What is all this? In short, she tells the egret the key to overcoming the seeds of doubt....

Los Angeles...

Isn't one of the best parts about traveling the food? Eating all those favorites you have been missing while away. We started out on friday having Zankou chicken, our favorite fast food; Middle-Eastern spit roasted chicken with hummus, tomatoes, pita bread, garlic sauce and bright pink pickled turnips, YUMMM! This is the restaurant we miss most since we moved to Chicago, it's healthy fast food!

Our next great meal was Armenian marinated grilled beef, chicken, eggplant, whole tomatoes, peppers, rice and lahvash.

Today we headed to another old favorite, Señior Fish where we had ceviche tostadas, carnitas and chicken tacos washed down with large cold horchatas.

I am really enjoying being away from home because there are always too many things to do and I never really relax.
This morning I thoroughly enjoyed having a cup of tea, in a cup that I made years ago and had forgotten about, reading a good book on my Kindle (Olive Kitteridge) while sitting on my mother in laws patio. This is my view from the sofa

and this is what I listen too.

Believe it or not, these are standard pet shop gold fish that are usually sold 2 for a dollar. My kids won these 3 fish at a carnival in little glass bowls about 5 years ago. Since they have had plenty of space to swim around in they have grown to be about 10 inches long.

Make it University Samples

I modified the design of the Metal Magic project somewhat for the workshop in Long Beach, making the kits with a piece of white cotton fabric (on right) for making the image transfer. I thought some people may prefer that look to the canvas, but I am bringing squares of canvas for people to use instead if they like that better. I also have reduced the size of the grungeboard, I like the proportion of that backing better than the larger version done in the previous workshop. If you are going to IQF Long Beach stop by MIU and say hi.

Felted Fruits Workshop is Friday at 4:30pm
Open Studios at 10:15 Saturday morning
Metal Magic 4pm Saturday
followed by the not to be missed Surviving the Runway

New Painting on the Easel

It always feels amazing to start a new painting. I have had this idea for sometime. My left brain is firing away at the prospect of all those wrinkles, though, and I have to remind myself to squint. A little rusty on my water painting technique, but I will catch on.....
"Phobetor" is about done with only a few finishing touches left and hopes for a sunny day and assistant to photograph.

I had a deep tissue massage last night and and am able to paint a bit longer today....hopefully, with massage and stretching I can get this occupational irritation under control.

Great weekend to everyone......

The Power of the Internet!

I have resolution to my problem with Earthlink! An employee from Earthlink saw my Twitter post and contacted me on Monday. He told me that it seemed like I had a valid problem and forwarded my info onto their Executive Escalations group and asked for my contact info. I got a call the next day and we discussed my issue. He saw nothing in my file showing a cancellation of our phone line in Los Angeles in 2005, so he said he would do some investigating and get back to me. I am happy to say I had a message on my phone today stating that everything has checked out and I will be getting reimbursed for $1900! YAY!!!!! That will really help pay some bills this month.

The kids and I are off to Los Angeles tomorrow to visit family and friends and then next weekend, I will drive down to Long Beach for Quilt Festival.

Today's Painting

I primed three canvas' today.

I have a lot of refining to do here and am certain that my neck is not that long. Also working on a great "Tracey Clarke" idea to finish up. It is a wonderful thing to paint even for a few hours...

Food as Art

After a rather depressing week wrestling with back issues, I did manage a few hours of painting Monday. Today I went for an eye exam and had my eyes dilated, so no painting today. I don't believe in accidents and I am considering, as I lay on an ice pack, what God is communicating to me with such an obstacle at such a busy time in my art life. This strange slowing down of everything.....Amazing how tied together body, mind and spirit are for me. If I struggle in one area, I do in all.

SO....my art today is my dinner. Marinated grilled veggies from the local farmer's market and wild caught salmon with teriyaki pan sauce. Buy local; support local farming, people.



..hope to catch up with all my art family's blogs soon....look forward to seeing what you each have been creating.

My Artomatic guest book has quickly become a prized possession. Here is a limerick from it for "Ovis Nectarus" from an anonymous observer:

"The one L lama is a priest,
the two L llama is a beast,
And I'll bet my silk pajama
You'll never see a three L lllama."

Oh and above that someone wrote:

"The butterflies are killing the llama!!!"

Garfield Conservatory

On Saturday, I took my son to his origami society meeting at Garfield Conservatory here in Chicago and decided to take a walk around the botanical gardens and green houses.










Many of the plants look like things you typically see in yards and gardens in California, so even though there were many pretty plants there were not that many that looked particularly exotic to me, except for in the Fern room.

It was so humid, warm and incredibly green. I love curled fern fronds, the spiral form is just so beautiful.


I love these, doesn't it look like there are little stitches on each side of the veins?
The coy pond was beautiful with a waterfall and Dale Chihuly lily pads.




I tried to get a good picture of the large coy who kept sucking gulps of air, but the reflection from the greenhouse skylights kept obliterating the fish in most of my photos.


These palm tree stems were so vibrantly orange.