Dallas

I had a great time in Dallas this last weekend, sorry it has taken me a while to get to writing a blog post about it, but the last several days have been pretty hard.

I have felt so scattered lately, I was really happy I managed to remember to bring everything I needed to for my lecture and workshops, but I managed to forget to grab my camera as I went out the door for my first workshop teaching Fiesta Ornaments. I am so thankful to the very talented Carol Morrissey for sharing her pictures with me.

Carol had just come back from teaching in Austin to take my class. There were so many beautiful ornaments.

Judy Krein (above) picked me up at my hotel each morning and on saturday I got to meet Sasha, what an expression, huh? she looks perpetually surprised.

What a fun class!

Day 2 Mixed Media Painted Fabric

Always a pleasure to see Deborah's smiling face. She and I had a fun adventure when we got stuck in traffic for 3 hours after a chemical spill closed the freeway down friday afternoon, but we had a great chat and I enjoyed every minute! Really Deborah, I had a good time :-)

It was fun seeing my friend Tonya Littmann again, she also wrote a blog post about the class.

I love it when people take the basic concept and make it their own.

 I finished my weekend spending the day with my good friends Julie Upshaw, Vickie Hallmark and Frances Alford. It was so good for me to have the opportunity to spend time with some of my closest friends when things have been so hard. I am really grateful for all the kind words and support from everyone, I really appreciate it.

Myth and Mystery Installation Photos

On the easel

On the easel...

Caton- Merchant Gallery Opening Rescheduled

As we have yet another snowstorm approaching on Saturday, the Caton-Merchant opening of "Myth and Mystery" will be rescheduled for Saturday February 13th.
Note the snow date on the postcard.
Mark your calendars and look forward to seeing you there.

Off to Dallas mañana

Today is my daughter Nina's 20th birthday, it is so hard to believe she is now officially out of her teen years. How can that much time have flown by?

I am off to Dallas in the morning to give a lecture and teach a couple workshops with the Dallas Quilt guild. I am looking forward to seeing many great friends and having some good creative art time. I will try to catch up with you on Tuesday.

Gallery Opening at MLK Library

Katie and I grabbed a quick lunch and delivered our the paintings to Caton Merchant yesterday. I haven't seem her new work and I was amazed at how prolific and fantastic it is for someone who works full time. The work will be hung today and I hope to get photos up this week.
It isn't looking good for our opening on Saturday at this point as we have another snow storm in the forecast. If we have to cancel the reception it will be rescheduled for the following Saturday on the 13th, so if you plan to come, stay tuned. I will make the decision by Friday morning.

Last night, Craig and I went to the district to my friend Terry Dixon's opening at the MLK Library.

In celebration of the first day of Black History month, Terry, along with fellow artist Robert Morris, presented work based on Douglas Blackmon's book "Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of African Americans from the Civil War to World War II."
The exhibit is designed to highlight the role of major corporations and local government in denying southern blacks their civil rights through the power of judicial and penal systems.


me and Terry


"Life of Labor"





"Re-enslavement"
(love, love this painting....)

Working through some stuff

I am having a really hard time in my personal life right now which has lead to some sleepless nights. The other night at 2 am, I pulled out a large piece of cotton batting and started pouring lots of diluted red textile paint on it which was left over from a bunch of almost empty paint jars. I hate to throw good paint away, so I poured water in the jars, shook it up and poured it on the batting, spreading it around with a big brush. I dumped some purple and russet on there too, covering a 3 foot by 4 foot piece of batting.

It felt good to just pour out all that paint and spread it around, pouring out my anger and grief. Then I grabbed an almost empty bottle of gold, added some water and put it in a bottle with a small hole and squirted the bottle onto the batting, hoping to add in something uplifting like a bit of gold and goodness that could come out of this. I am trying to be optimistic, as hard as that is right now.

In the morning when all was dry, I freely cut big holes with a rotary cutter in a piece of turquoise hand dyed cotton with Mistyfuse on the back, to represent my external calm that I am trying to maintain, but also my sadness with all that watery blue pouring down.

I chalked in some lines for some stitching on the red batting, then I will do some more linear quilting on the blue.

As I work through this piece, I will work through this transition in my life. I hope that I can transform some very negative feelings into ones of hope and beauty and come out the other side in a better place.