Signature Style

"A signature style is about consumerism, not art. It makes life easier for those who are selling, buying or writing about the artist's work."

Raya in the Tech Talk Forum at forum.artistsnetwork.com

What do you think? Is there truth to this or is Raya simply rationalizing? Read her full comment here.

Tackling More Unfinished Business

I'm spending some time this week playing with fabric postcards again. Remember my intention from January, to work through the "unfinished business" on my work table and design walls? I have not gotten as far along on that as I would have hoped, what with adding two new challenges to my calendar and preparing a body of work for the Artwalk Exhibit, although I must admit some of those were unfinished business. Of course, there were many other distractions along the way - life happening, you know. Here it is less than three months to the end of the year, so I'd better get with it!

Of course, part of the problem is my creed of "Let no leftover go unused." As soon as one quilt is finished, I'm left with bits and pieces that I want to do something with. I'm getting better at not just adding them to the pile, but addressing them straight away. You'll recognize here leftover fabric from the Bishop's Close pieces plus more triangles jockeying around. The other two are extras I'd cut from a novelty print back when I was making Easter postcards. They were all layered with batting ready to quilt, so why not finish them now?

Green Tomato Relish

It started with someone else's bounty - a big tote of green tomatoes being given away. I controlled myself and only took enough for a half batch of green tomato relish (plus a few extras to ripen on the window sill). Luckily, the green and red peppers were on sale and I already had the onion.


A good day for canning, this. Cold and raining, and no immediate quilting deadlines to make me feel guilty.


Oops! I don't think this is how I'm supposed to add a little color to the relish. It made things challenging.


And the results - far more relish than I really need, but with it on hand, I will think harder about menus that will help use it up. I was thrilled to find these 12-ounce jelly jars - didn't know they made this size. Pints are really a bit too big as slowly as I will be dipping into an open jar (and there were none in the stores), half-pints a little small. These will work well for jelly too.

"Jockeying in the Queue"

"Jockeying in the Queue"
12" x 16"
2009 Sheila Mahanke Barnes

It's time again for June & I to exchange original works for the other to be inspired by. My offering is another in my "jockeying" series which is using up triangle shapes trimmed off during the making of another quilt. You saw me start to play with this idea here.


My background is a cotton sunprinted with ferns and I've stabilized it by fusing Decor Bond to the wrong side. On the left you can see I've fuse the triangles to scraps of Wonder Under and they are ready to be trimmed. I've place my paper window frame delineating our agreed upon dimensions over the fabric to help me with placement.


I played with the arrangement over several days. This is the hard part for me - attaining what I feel is a balanced and interesting placement of the triangles. I really liked the way these rust and tan triangles looked against the blue/green background so limited my triangles to those two colors, succeeding in using every one left. Once I was happy with the arrangement, I used the little iron to tack them in place before moving the whole thing to the ironing board for fusing.


And then it was time for the inevitable auditioning of threads. The colors a bit off here, but basically, I was trying out reddish/brown variegated cottons.

I nearly got stuck at this stage as I often do. I want the thread to show, but not take over and often just draping the thread over the top doesn't read the same as it will in the actual stitch. I also waffled about whether I wanted batting in this piece. It will be framed (confession: the photo at the top shows it in a photo shopped frame), and frankly, I didn't think I wanted any dimensional texture.


In the end, I opted for no batting, and chose the less bold of two threads I was considering. I'm still wondering if that was a mistake. My original intention for "quilting" lines was to stitch about a 1/2 inch away from the top and bottom silhouette of the line of triangles, but in draping the threads, I fell in love with the curves forming in the angles. I truly would not have thought to do that on my own. And so when I ran across this bit of wisdom from Randel Plowman of A Collage A Day fame, I could only nod in agreement:

"It's all about accidents. You can't control it. If you try to control it, going into the process knowing what you want, you'll never be happy."

Well, that explains a lot...

.

Kaleidoscope Effect

One of my favorite effects to play with in Corel Paint Shop Pro is the kaleidoscope. I choose a picture, open up the effect and start running through randomized settings, letting the program adjust the 8 different modifiers that create the kaleidoscopic manipulations. Click on the picture below for a full size view of this screen capture of my program in progress. The little cube that looks like dice under the preview window is the randomizing button.


The results vary widely and sometimes with little recognizable connection to the original design source. All kaleidoscopes here started with the photo of my nephew and cousin AC.




I've done this enough now that certain results are recognizable, regardless of what photo I start with.



That is why I was puzzled when I kept coming up with such similar patterns as I worked with the photo of my nephew and cousin AC.




I realized that because I wasn't paying attention, I'd stumbled upon a different way to use the effects Normally, I keep hitting the random button until I see something I like and hit "ok." I then save a copy, undo the effect, and start again. This time, I'd saved a copy, but forgotten to undo the effect before beginning again, so the effect was now working off the last effect. This gave me ever more intricate designs with less and less of the green and red of the original picture as I continued saving a copy without undoing the previous edit. Very interesting. Here are some more variations showing the increasing intricacy (click for larger views):

"Imagine This" Virtual Tour

Last night was the opening reception for the POAC Exhibit "Imagine This." It was well attended and as always, I loved getting direct feedback on my work. They found this little space between door and window on the second level for my Bishop's Close art quilts. I printed up a brief explanation of their inspiration along with June's painting, and many were entranced by the story. One woman stopped in her tracks and said, "I've been there!" She admitted it had been 15 years, but she used to live in Portland and thought I'd gotten the feel of the place. Cool!


Before the reception, I quickly took some pictures of some of the other art in the exhibit. All media were represented, included jewelry and sculpture so there was something for everyone. Above is the color version of the artwork used on the promotional postcard. It is silk batik by Carolyn Doe. She is a master of this technique.


I particularly like this multi-panel painting by Betty Billups called "Last of Sandpoint." It is a stretch of Sand Creek as it flows through town that is being transformed by a highway project. Gone now are those cottonwoods and the thick rope generations of kids used to swing out over the water. She hit upon the idea of painting in panels after finishing a large mural and realizing she'd need a truck to transport it. This was one of my favorites.


Another favorite was the work of Stephanie Bozich. I thought this was acrylic, but it is oil She leaves no brushstrokes or texture whatsoever on the canvas. Very powerful pieces.


On the left is work by Bonnie Shields called "Plan Your Work." She is well know for her humorous art. On the right is digital renderings by Stephen Wylie.


These photographs are by Nancy Russell.


The papier mache artists never fail to amaze and amuse me. My apologies for not getting the artist's name. I didn't quit catch the encaustic work on the right, but it was lovely.

The rest of my pictures include a variety of mediums that show how wide ranging the art and subject matter of this exhibit is. Well, worth seeing.

Enjoying Extended Summer Weather

Oh, it was WAY too nice to stay inside today. I think we broke a record with our 86 degree high, and if it weren't for a few splashy trees like the one above, one would have no clue it was officially autumn.


So rather than head for the studio, I headed for the car. I've been meaning to take some pictures in a certain area of town, and today seemed a good day to do it. This iconic landmark is perhaps the tallest building in Sandpoint and can be seen from several miles away. Difficult to get a clean shot of it what with all the power lines draping around it. It has made its way into many a local artist's work.


Then there's this tipsy garage. It's been leaning to left ever since I arrived here and probably is not in danger of toppling over any time soon.


On the way back to the car, I noticed this tree. With all those 90 degree angles, it was as if the tree had thrown up its hands over something.


Once home, I watered the garden and picked more plums and a few tomatoes. Mmmm...fried green tomatoes.


Then I took my lunch out onto the porch and read a bit, but I was too antsy to while away the afternoon being unproductive. While it is not starting something new as I thought I might today, it is something I haven't picked up in awhile. This is the first rendition of Azalea Mosaic which was my "sit outside with the dog" project of last summer. I made good progress and it allowed me to stay outside enjoying the warm weather.

Tackling the Plums

Remember my baskets of plums from last week? I managed to ignore them until today. Surprisingly few had spoiled in the interim. I made up a batch of plum chutney, 5 half-pints worth, and as long as the canning pot was out, I stuffed the rest into jars, poured hot water/sugar mixture over them and processed them in a hot water bath for 20 minutes. That's nine pints, fewer than I canned last year, but enough as far as I'm concerned. Looking forward to getting back in the studio tomorrow, perchance to work on something new.

"Imagine This" Opening Reception

I delivered the 2 Bishop's Close art quilts today that will be in this "Imagine This" exhibit. A lot of art was already hung by the time I got there and all I can say is "Wow!" If you're in the area, I hope you will stop by.

Bishop's Close From Afar

"Bishop's Close From Afar"
copyright 2009 Sheila Mahanke Barnes

After fits and starts, distractions and diversions, I have finished my second textile piece inspired by June Underwood's challenge painting, "Sunbreaks at Bishop's Close". It breaks two of my rules - being a somewhat predictable response given a play-on-words title - but I love it anyway. And it's really not like my usual work. I don't think this necessarily represents a new direction, but it has been a bit of fresh air to work on.


I promised a bit of blow-by-blow recapping of my process complete with pictures, but I managed to delete the majority of them from the camera before they got downloaded to the computer. You'll just have to have good imaginations while I explain a few of the techniques I employed. I started with June's painting above right, the photo above left taken at Eagle Rock Gardens at Bishop's Close (is this where June did her plein air painting?) and my rough drawing, which I finalized and darkened with a Sharpie. (You can see the beginnings of this idea - a quick sketch on a transparency centered over a print out of the fabric - here.) I taped that master to the patio door window, and moved the second piece of tissue sunprinted fabric over it until the colors fell in the best places of the design. Taped over the master with the light coming through, now I could trace my design directly on it with pencil. Then I added the "water" using a machine reverse applique technique. The batik was placed right side up under the painted fabric and pinned along the pencil lines. I stitched along those lines, then carefully cut away the top layer close to the stitching to reveal the blue batik.

I was pretty sure that just quilting the lines of the trees and bushes would not give me a heavy enough line, and that I would need to stabilize the top before satin stitching along the raw edges of the reverse applique so I ironed Sulky Totally Stable to the back of the entire top. Once the satin stitching was done, I trimmed away the excess batik from the back, set my machine for free motion embroidery and stitched in the trees and bushes using a zig zag setting. and moving the fabric side to side. The outlines of the bench were done with a straight stitch with the feed dogs up - I know, but I wasn't secure enough about sewing straight lines free motion.


And then it was time to remove the stabilizer, layer and quilt. I went back over each of the embroidered lines and added the shading to the bench. The water got the usual wavy lines mixed with jagged ones emulating leaves floating on the surface as in the photograph.


My absolute favorite part of the quilting is this bridge. I spotted it in the background of that photo above and thought it would add some depth as well as mystery to the design. The bench, admittedly a bit quirky in its angling, was incorporated after spotting benches in other pictures of the Close. I'd told June at one point that I wanted to get across the meditative aspect of these gardens, and the bench is my way of inviting the viewer to sit a spell and contemplate.


After steaming and marking the outer edge of the quilt, I applied binding as I did to Bishop's Close Meditations. (see this post) I'm treating these as companion pieces and I wanted the same fabric to bind them both for consistency sake, even though a dark binding would have set this off perfectly while being too much for Meditations. My compromise was to couch a navy decorative braid along the binding to create a faux piping. The special braiding foot was a great help.


Of course, I didn't come to this decision easily. I laid the two quilts out together and considered how the second one would look without the faux piping. Okay, but ever so much better when the braid was laid along the binding. So the real question was, do I add the same to Meditations? Yes, I really had to, which actually improved it a lot, I think. It's binding was already turned and sewn to the back, so it was harder to couch the braid evenly right next to the binding. Definitely do the couching before turning the binding to the back.

"Bishop's Close Meditations"
copyright 2009 Sheila Mahanke Barnes

Here is "Bishop's Close Meditations" in its revised state (see this post for specifics of its development). Both Bishop's Close quilts and June's painting are 16 x 12 inches. As always, clicking on any picture will open a larger version showing more detail.