Tag: sun

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no time to read?

No Direction Known – Mixed media/collage/acrylic

I miss blogging and mentioned it to someone the other day. They said no one wants to read blogs anymore. I am pretty sure that isn’t true. Authors still write books and people read them and they even make it to the best sellers list and have them adapted to film at times. Not everyone is completely addicted to TikTok or Insta. My friend Claudia has been blogging and I have been a subscriber for years–since I moved to the UK 3 years I have gotten emails of her blog posts and enjoyed them. It made me feel great to see her working and all the thoughts she had about the process and the art.

Making a commitment to blog has happened–I will do it. Soon I will have consistent wifi for the first time in 3 years. I am really looking forward to it and finding new friends that read, write and make art. Live and blogging is a beautiful thing!

The art above is made from old magazines and paper that I alter and collage and then paint. It is one of the processes I love and helps me offset some of my carbon footprint. It helps keep the magazines out of the landfill. I started it about 3-4 years ago and haven’t shared much of the work. I was waiting for the right time, this must be the right time.

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Found. In my hand. 

Lately I’ve been admiring reverse appliqué and thought it might work for a piece of fiber art I am planning.
You see this piece of fiber art exists loosely in my mind, it sort of has a little film attached to it that I play often. The colors change. The fabrics change. But the foundation of the work is essentially the same. It consists of many modular pieces that are similar in size and hue. The black square below is an example.

 

reverse applique batik example

I’m eager to get the work started and get the film in my head into real world action. This Saturday past I started playing with reverse appliqué sewing. After several pieces were finished the results were different than expected.

About midnight – my creative witching moment happened. Cleaning up the perle cottons and re-organizing threads, dropping scissors into their cases, needles neatly arranged in the drawer…I passed by the stack of recently completed art quilt studies.

recently completed Pennsylvania farmland art quilts

The studies are of my beloved Pennsylvania farmlands which are rapidly disappearing.
New housing and commercial structures are chowing down the land for 3 solid meals daily.

I know this land. Its of my people, my youth, my later adulthood. I’ve come back to the gentle hills that my grandfather held in reverence.

No reference photos are needed. I’ve walked the dusty dirt roads by the farms with my dogs, rode my horses through the brown-green-gold fields, tilled the ground with my hands to plant native species and cut flower gardens. Moonlit nights resplendent with fireflies, moths and bats while seated behind the farmhouse in the deep of night are treasured moments for me.

As I passed by the studies I saw the round shape I have been slow stitching for weeks.

dark of the new moon

 

The familiar round moons or suns  are exactly what I’ve been planning but I couldn’t know that. Instead of the reverse appliqué, this embroidered style that has been my meditative practice for weeks is it!

The search over, the technique was in my hands all along.

sunny hillside

 

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