Blog Hop! Art Quilt Portfolio

Have you been following the blog hop celebrating the release of the second volume of Art Quilt Portfolio: People and Portraits?! Isn't it fun to see what everyone has to share about this amazing collection? I'm thrilled to join in.

As I was thinking about the artists in the book and the process of creating figures in art quilting, I was also perusing art quilts donated to the 2013 SAQA Auction. When I came across this piece, I immediately recognized it as Leni Wiener's work! I had just read her chapter in the book the night before.

Peaceful, 12x12"

SAQA Auction 2013

I was so drawn to this piece that I wanted to include a short interview with Leni in my post for the blog hop AND give you an opportunity to see this lovely small art quilt! Here's Leni!

Leni, I loved reading your chapter in Art Quilt Portfolio: People and Portraits and looking through all the images of your work in the book. When I saw your quilt in the 2013 SAQA Auction, Peaceful, I immediately recognized it as your work. Can you share a bit of the story behind this quilt?

Coming home from Houston I was in the airport waiting for my flight and there were only a few people at the gate.  Across from me was a Tibetan monk who had fallen asleep in his seat.  I carry my camera with me all the time and very carefully slipped it out of my pocket and snapped a picture.  I love to capture un-extraordinary moments in the lives of strangers—those moments that are so identifiable to us all.

I'd also love to hear a bit about the process of creating "Peaceful."

I always start with a photo because all the information I need is right there for me; I don’t have to figure out the perspective, the proportions or where the light and shadow would be.  Taking the photo into Adobe Photoshop and applying a cutout filter reduces the image into manageable masses of color.  I print the resulting “pattern” in the full size of the finished piece.  Fabrics are assigned, paying close attention to value.  Then I use freezer paper to cut out each piece and lay it in place like a puzzle.

In the book, you mention that you consider your work "to be a form of storytelling." Are there artists that you particularly enjoy and consider to be great storytellers? Either in art quilting or other art forms?

There are a lot, in fact I have dozens of folders on my computer containing images by inspirational artists in every medium.  In the quilting world I am intrigued and inspired by several artists, just to name a few off the top of my head I would say Joan Sowada, Deidre Scherer, and Jenny Bowker.  Each is able to capture something that invites the viewer to look closer and think about the image.  When the image suggests a story but doesn’t fill in all the blanks it allows the viewer to bring their own experience to the piece—engaging and involving them in a way that brings them into the work.

Care to share with us what is currently on your design wall? Is it fair to assume it involves "people and portraits?"

Actually, here is a big surprise, on my design wall right now are turtles and tortoises for the upcoming SAQA show, Earth Stories.  My original plan was to make a large piece as part of a series I have been working on which features people in Grand Central Station in NYC during different times of the day.  Rush (in the “people and portraits” book) is one from that series.  But watching TV one night, I saw a story about the Turtle Conservancy.  There was a plowshare tortoise in the story and I instantly knew which fabric I had that would do him justice.  So I changed my approach and am working on a piece that is 72” square all about turtles and tortoises.  Kind of a nice vacation from the norm.  When it is finished, I am back to people!

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Thanks so much for stopping by my blog on the blog hop. Be sure to check out the all the other artists sharing thoughts, interviews and giveaways throughout June!

June 3rd – Lark Kick Off! http://www.larkcrafts.com
June 5th – Sarah Ann Smith –  http://www.sarahannsmith.com/weblog
June 6th – Maria Elkins – http://mariaelkins.com
June 7th – Laura Wasilowski –  http://artfabrik.blogspot.com
June 9th – Katherine McNeese –  http://blueheronquilts2.blogspot.com/
June 10th – Cheryl Sleboda –  http://blog.muppin.com 
June 11th – Linda McLaughlin –  http://notesfromstudiob.blogspot.com/
June 12th – Kathy Nida –  http://Kathynida.com
June 13th – Marilyn H. Wall –  http://www.marilynhwall.blogspot.com
June 14th – Janice Paine Dawes – http://thedistoriatedquilter.blogspot.com/
June 16th – Pamela Price Klebaum –  http://pamprice.blogspot.com
June 17th – Deborah Boschert –  http://DeborahsJournal.blogspot.com
June 18th – Lisa Chin –  http://somethingcleveraboutnothing.blogspot.com/
June 19th – Sue Bleiweiss –  http://www.suebleiweiss.com/blog
June 20th – Leni Wiener – http://www.leniwiener.com
June 24th – Cheryl Lynch –  http://www.CherylLynchQuilts.blogspot.com
June 25th – Lesley Riley – http://ArtistSuccess.com
June 26th – Stephanie Forsyth -  http://thefibernation.blogspot.com  
June 30th – Pat Kumich – http://patkumicich.blogspot.com

End of the School Year

Today is the last day of school! What a great year it's been. Do you mind if I share some pictures of my fabulous children? Here's Claire sometime in about first grade.

And here is Claire at the end of eighth grade. She has finished middle school and is ready to take high school by storm!

Here we are at her academic award ceremony. She received the Presidential Academic Achievement Award. We're so proud of her!

Here is Benjamin's kindergarten school picture.

And here is his fifth grade school picture. Elementary school is over and he is ready to begin the adventure of middle school.

I attended Benjamin's promotion ceremony this morning. He was chosen, out of all the fifth graders, to be one of the two student emcees of the event. It was super fun. He was also awarded the Presidential Academic Achievement Award. We're very proud. Sadly, Jeff was out of town for both these events.

Amazingly, Benjamin's face seems to be mostly clean in this picture. Surprising since he ate seven powered sugar donuts after the ceremony.

Excited!

I just got news that this quilt, Haze and Hope, will be a part of the International Quilt Association special exhibit Tactile Architecture 2013.

The exhibit will premier at Festival in Houston in October and travel to the other IQA shows in Cincinnati, Chicago and Long Beach. Since I'm moving back to TX, I have definite plans to attend the show. I'm really looking forward to it.

Here's a detail shot of one of my favorite sections of the quilt. I was perplexed by what to put in that wide strip of magenta. I decided to free-motion-quilt a variety of wacky looking botanical shapes and I love how it turned out.

I love the Tactile Architecture special exhibit. They have it every year. The first year I went to Festival in Houston in 2007, I was particularly taken with the theme, variety and inspiring pieces in this particular exhibit. My friend Lu said to me, "You could totally have a piece in this show!"

So the next year, I entered and was accepted! This piece is titled Construction: Concrete and Stone.

I was honored to be in Tactile Architecture again in 2010 with this piece, Framing Flourish.

So, that's my little mini-Tactile Architecture collection. I am so eager to see the other quilts in the 2013 exhibit! I'll have to wait until October.

Reading/Not Reading

I started reading a new book a couple of days ago. It was The Red House by Mark Haddon who also wrote The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night --- which I loved. Curious Incident has a very unique format and narrative pattern. The characters are interesting and unexpected. I was looking for something similar from The Red House. In the first page or so I realized I needed to make myself a family-tree list of characters to reference as I read. That's fine. The format was complicated. It felt a bit like solving a puzzle while reading. I like puzzles! The characters began to take shape and the puzzle of a plot became more complicated.  Clues about grief, loss and dysfunction began peeking through.

It's a busy time for my family right now. We're moving in less than two months and even though we've moved twelve times, it's always overwhelming. There are lots of year-end activities for Claire and Benjamin. Jeff is preparing for a big trip with some midshipmen. I think we're all feeling a mix of anxiety and excitement about all of this. Sometimes more excited, sometimes more overwhelmed. 

This afternoon I needed a little break from house and family stuff, so I sat down to read a chapter of The Red House. I was enjoying bit, but I was feeling tense figuring it out and absorbing the characters troubles. It seems obvious now, but this book was the wrong choice for this particular moment in my life. I've got real life puzzles to figure out. Guiding a teen and a preteen through this move (and just regular day-to-day stuff) is enough drama. I'm not up for fictional drama.

I think I'm going to switch to Maria de la Santos new book Falling Together. I've read her other books and enjoyed them. If you have recommendations for light but thoughtful books especially laugh-out-loud books, I would love to hear them.

I'll go back to The Red House someday when life is less complicated. (???)

Glimpse

I am thrilled to share my latest, largest art quilt with you.

Glimpse, 60x24

On a bus ride in Chicago, I caught a quick view of a bright, red, bare branch. The color, the lines and the mood made such an impression. Inspired by train and bus rides in cities and county sides around the world, I combined images from memories that stuck with me, even though I saw them for only a fleeting moment.

I am also thrilled that it will be included in the upcoming Dinner At Eight special exhibit, An Exquisite Moment. My "exquisite moment" was that fleeting moment of inspiration and beauty as seen through the window of a bus or train. The exhibit will premier at the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach this summer and continue to the IQF shows in Houston and Cincinnati.

The quilt includes a windmill and suggestion of a midwestern grassy prairie. The windmill was created with a freezer paper stencil and acrylic paint.

There are also bits of newspaper and magazine pages suggesting the trash and newsstands along the streets of a city.

I created sheer overlays of tulle using enlarged lines of handwriting... suggesting graffiti or overheard bits of conversation.

I painted the background grid by wrapping a used paper towel roll with wavy lines of string, dabbing the string with paint and rolling the tube across the fabric before adding more paint and re-rolling to cover the entire background.

Gray triangles mimic reflections in windows.

This quilt is a departure for me. It has a bit of a hazy, dark feeling, I think. Sometimes it's good to explore images and feelings that are gritty and uncomfortable. But, there are always bits of brightness... maybe just a glimpse.

Drink, Food, Food, Floss

Just a few snapshots from the last week or so.

Delicious mocha from a local coffee shop. No picture of the lovely chat I shared with a friend or the quilt she brought for show and tell.

Tomato and mozzarella sandwich on ciabatta from our very most favorite bakery/sandwich shop.

Wonderful cake from book club. I'm going to miss them too!

Embroidery floss for kits for my upcoming workshops. I really enjoy putting together color coordinated kits. I know the students are going to create some great stuff. 

SAQA Auction Donation

Once again, I am happy to donate a small art quilt quilt for the Studio Art Quilt Associates auction. You can read about my donations from previous years here and here and here.

My 2013 donation is titled Rocks, Rivers and Rooftops.

It's 12x12" -- as are all the auction donation quilts. You can view them on the SAQA website and on the auction Pinterest board. Plus, mark your calendar for the auction running September 9 to 27.

Here's a detail.

It includes lots of my favorite images and techniques --- the houses, the hand embroidery, handwriting as surface design, a painted stenciled twig and the arch over the top of the suggested landscape. Rocks too! They pop up in my work every now and then. You can see two examples in this post.

Ok... now here's the back story about this auction quilt.

About three years ago, I made a quilt specifically to enter in SAQA's Sense of Adventure juried exhibit. My inspiration was the amazing zip line adventure we had while visiting the island of Antigua, especially the cool tree house structures and platforms through out the rain forest.  You can see the quilt and some detail shots here. It was not accepted into that exhibit and I was never very happy with it. So...

Yep. I chopped out a corner, ripped some stuff off, added some pieces and some new stitching and finished the edges.

So much better! Was it hard? Nope. It might have been tough a couple of years ago. But this quilt has just been sitting in a pile getting uglier and uglier. I was READY to cut it up. Now I'm eager to cut it up some more and salvage some more small pieces. I actually really like that red plant with the one tall stalk. Stay tuned!