My own Yellow Brick Road

The season has quickly turned from spring to summer and I am setting off on a journey to some old and some new places. July this year is quite a busy month for me but luckily I end it up right in my own back yard... at the Long Beach Quilt Festival. I have one quilt that will be on exhibit there. It is part of the special juried exhibit of Quilts on the Wall: Fiber Artists. The piece pictured here is the one I made specifically for this showing of quilt art depicting Journeys.

I hope you like it, and even better I hope you have an opportunity to see it in person.

The Journey Mythos: Yellow Brick Road

Following the Line...

Oh, what one can find while wandering camera in hand on a sunny Sunday in June. These photos were amongst those taken recently and have been enticing me to take a second or third look and go off to create some line studies. What do you think? See anything interesting...hmmm

Book Signing Party

It was almost like the last day of high-school when you went around signing everyone's book, except for the initial questions - are you in the book? what page? That and we didn't have any champagne being served at my high-school. It was a lot of fun and I'm pleased to share some pictures from the day. I've added the names & links to their intros that appeared on the blog earlier this year.David - Trish - Stacy

Joanell - Jeanette - Muna

Cynthia - Val

Cindy- Analee

Aragorn - Dawn - Angelique

Meet Fiber Artist Jeanette Kelly

Jeanette is an incredible person and artist. Her time has truly come to share herself through her artwork with others, and I am happy to be here to watch her come into her own. Learning technology as it is used to promote ourselves as artists is one of her current goals, and I wasn't sure that she was going to make it, but she did. Jeanette is the last of this little series of quilt artists that have pieces in my new book....

Now, in her own words:

I work in fiber because of the aesthetic appeal to the senses. The textures and patterns, when combined with color, merge into a medium of both tactile and visual pleasure. I love the fabrication process whether dyeing, silkscreening, piecing or appliqueing, using silks, wool and cottons or even paper.

Originally I was drawn to the human form and worked exclusively in the areas of art clothing and jewelry. In the past few years I have focused on art quilts and have recently returned to my love of dimensional pieces. Whether fabric figures or my newest passion fabric vessels..it's all about the fiber and color.

My inspiration comes from both visual and internal reactions to experiences. Sometimes I am inspired by my photographs or sketches, writings or ideas, and sometimes tactile or visual contact with the materials. The resulting work can range from representational to abstractions.

I value the feelings and insight viewers bring to my work, although their interpretation may not match my original inspiration, the importance lies in their having created personal connection and meaning.

Meet Quilt Artist Muna Elias

I was introduced to Muna during a Quilts on the Wall meeting. She was brought by several other members who 'car pool' from around the San Diego area. That first day Muna shared some of her wearable pieces. It was a wild day, Muna's energy and excitement for life show up in all her work, and I am certainly grateful for having met-- and being able to get to know Muna better all the time!

In her own words:
I LOVE to create!! I can remember somewhere around the age of 4 years old I would take my mom’s dish towels and cut them up and make new fashionable, out of the ordinary outfits for all my dolls. My mom realized after a few years that this was not a phase and started signing me up for every needle art class she could find. I loved it all. Knitting crocheting, weaving, hand embroidery, quilting, ribbon work…if you can think of it, I have tried it and enjoy it.

I am a process artist, meaning I most enjoy trying and creating different and unique techniques to achieve a specific end look in my art. I look at objects and scenery and visualize in my mind the necessary processes to capture that look. Wherever it is possible, I incorporate non traditional material and in non traditional ways. I enjoy working with fibers such as yarn and thread and I will use them as a surface embellishment or an edging to finish my quilts. Most of my work starts off as a whole cloth in either white or black and I layer color on top of color and even discharge color after I just dyed it on the fabric. The sole purpose of doing this is to get a specific look. Surface embellishments with metal, fibers, paint, paper, dyes, and most important to me is lots and lots of thread work; all come together to achieve the desired look I envision.

I try to create some kind of art work daily. I have realized that when I do so regularly, I really am a much happier Mom, wife, boss, friend, PERSON…. So I just do it!!

I have lots of little ones (seven to be exact) who help me in my daily creating of art. They are an inspiration to my art. Some of my art work is a direct result of conversation, sayings or phrases we have in our house. The children help me to see all the colors in our garden and the bugs crawling on the trees. Walking in our house and finding each of the children working on different mixed media art work is common. One may be beading a purse, one may be working on knitting a scarf, or one might be weaving on the loom. My success in creating art work is that we get to create all together.

(photo credit - Jason Lanier)

And the Winner IS!

I hope everyone had a great time over the holiday weekend... I'm kind of feeling like I need a weekend after my weekend. BUT -- I wanted to announce the winner of the ARTFELT kit.... the last of the Trail-Marker Give-Aways is..... Eileen - from Central/Washington!!!

It is now June and in just a week or so my new book, Exploring Embellishments will be out. As promised, I will be drawing names for several signed/copies from everyone that participated in the 12-Week long Trail-Marker Give-Away. The drawing will take place during my booksigning party on June 12th!

Many of the guest quilt artists will also be there - do if you're around SoCal then... mark your calendar and come join the fun!

I really hope that you have a chance to see the book and join in the fun -- finding & fabricating embellishments! ~Rose