One of a Kind Show

I am taking a short break from the quilt to go to the One of a Kind Show with Laura and Frieda today. It's becoming some what of a tradition, this year our friend Trish is joining us. We are going to see Jane Sassaman's exhibit at the Metcap Bank first and then on to the show where I will be sure to stop at Susan Hinckley's booth to say hello. I will post pictures on saturday of our antics.

Today's Painting

This particular painting has been hanging around unfinished for a long time. It is one of the few paintings that I was wrong on for the original idea. Usually, a painting ends up almost exactly like the original vision. This one had at least four different transitions of idea and many, many countless hours of painting and repainting.

It also has been to source of hours of frustration, despair and doubt since I began so long ago. At least one thing I have learned from it is persistence in the presence of pain.

Having loved this baboon from the moment I saw him and I knew somewhere in that image was a character to be created and a story to unfold. The last few days he has become a beacon of creative energy. I am so grateful for that gift today.

Now....what would he sitting on?..........

Trial and Error

I am now quilting the grass, while delaying my decision about what to do about the little deer.

My initial thoughts on quilting the grass was to use three shades of green; light yellow green for the lower half, a leafy green for the mid section and darker green for the darkest part of the grass along the top edge and quilting between the painted blades, but then, I was not sure exactly how to do it.

I started with the leaf green and quilted around each paint stroke defining it like a blade of grass. I did not like the way it looked at all. It seemed messy and the green thread looked too dark. So I changed threads to the lighter green and started working in another area making my lines continuous from one plant to the next, carefully stitching along the previously quilted outlines of the plants to get to the next blade.

I am happy with how this looks, I have also decided to only use the two lighter greens and skip the dark one. Now I have lots of thread snipping to do from the first grass quilting attempt.

I am really torn about quilting the little deer. I am thinking about either stuffing it a little bit with trapunto and not quilting it, so it really contrasts with its surroundings or quilt it with some big flower power style floral motifs. I have been debating this point since I began the quilting and was hoping I would come to a decision by the time I have to do it. I guess I have 24 hours or less left.

I think I may need to go back and do a little more quilting in the scroll designs in the sky, I would like to leave them fairly simple, but I don't want them to look buckled or bumpy. So I need to quilt them just enough to lay smooth.

I know all the "rules" about having quilting that is consistent across the quilt surface so that it hangs right, etc., but I think it is also nice to see the contrast in textures with different types of quilting, especially when its use or lack of use works conceptually with the design. Hold your torches please, I am not a big fan of the trend toward excessive infinitesimal all over quilting.

Scared!

I have to tell you, I was so scared to start quilting the big deer. I was having a hard time trying to decide what was the best way to tackle it, so I put it off as long as I could. The issue I struggled with was trying to figure out the best way to do make him look kind of furry and not obscure the painted hairs. In the paintings, the deer appear very shaggy, so I stitched around the painted hairs using the direction of the strokes as my guide for the quilting.

I used two different brown Superior Bottom Line threads, a light brown for the cheek, chest and belly and dark brown for the rest. Bottom line is very thin, I used this specifically because I wanted the quilted texture, but I did not want the thread itself to stand out too much. I used a basic stipple quilting stitch on his antlers to make them appear more like they have a short velvety texture.

Self Portrait

The portrait. I keep thinking it is done (like the baboon painting....which, I worked on today) but I began to think about what it says about me...being a self portrait. My love for animals and the fact that they are the subjects of my painting coupled with my strong feelings concerning their welfare, I decided on baby mice. They are to me are the most helpless of creatures. Every dream I have has a animal in it and most usually the appearance is that of young or baby animals.

In my own life, I constantly walk a line of joy and pain, as I am sure many of you do. There are moments when we see the triumph of mercy, kindness and goodness, in my fellow humans and then there are great periods of darkness when it seems all the earth is filled up with the pain and misery we inflicted on our fellow creatures human and animal.

The weight of innocence lost or destroyed is a heavy, heavy one.

I painted in the mouse nest and then went back after meditating more and made the hole in the concrete....like they are in the wall.

Quilted hills

I quilted the hills with a simple contour quilting line. I chose to use that design for several reasons; one because I want the hills to be a simpler pattern than the foreground imagery, also if I quilt the grass area vertically I like the contrast of the horizontal line and lastly with time being an issue, I didn't want to do anything too complex.

For the sky I am quilting between the scroll work, filling in the white space with a contour design. I think it gives a sense of movement to the sky, I am about 1/3 of the way done with it.

Good Times

Did you grow up in the 70's like I did? CHIPS, the Dukes of Hazard, the Love Boat...Good Times?
Remember that J.J, played by Jimmy Walker, was a young aspiring painter? Do you know that the amazing neo-mannerist paintings used on the set and credits were created by Ernie Barnes, the football player turned painter? I didn't realize he passed away this past Spring.
Here is his website and here is a CNN video tribute.



c. Ernie Barnes
"Sugar Shack" (used in the intro of "Good Times")