Photo Friday

The iconic Safari Inn located in Burbank, Ca.

My watercolor sketch of the sign.

HGA’s Convergence® 2012 Long Beach

This past weekend, my friend, Madeleine and I went to the Handweavers Guild of America Convergence Convention in Long Beach, CA.

The art exhibit was so inspiring but I couldn't take any photos. Discharge fabric was very popular technique. There were garments made from unusual material such as rubber and fiber optics. Also, 2 pieces made with used teabags, which I loved.

I was allowed to photography the Longitude Yardage exhibit that was hanging Promenade Lobby.

Photo Friday -

The Burbank Public Library Northwest Branch has an unique sculpture on the front lawn. I couldn't help myself, I took a ton of photos.

The photo below really inspired me. A recent night when I couldn't sleep, I decided to make a quick watercolor sketch.

The artwork below is what came from my 3am art session.

Spoonflower Designs by Gene Brown

A few months ago, I was having a phone conversation with my dear friend and fellow artist, Gene Brown about Spoonflower. He hadn't heard of the website at the time but was intrigue with the concept.

His fabric designs are posted on the Spoonflower website. Check out his amazing textile designs: http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/genebrown

Photo Friday

Last Saturday I made my way down to Olde Towne Santa Ana for the First Saturday Art Walk. My friend and fellow artist, Teresa Shippy, had her fiber art at Avantgarden Gallery located in the Santora Building of the Arts. It was wonderful to see her fiber art being shown with photography and paintings. It was very crowded but I was able to get some photos.

Photo Friday

One of my creative goals for this year is get better acquinted with my camera. It's a great way to train the eye to see design possibilities. Now that this year is half over with, I thought that I better get started. My intention is to post photos every Friday. Let's see how that works out.

On the way home from delivering artwork the other day, I stopped at the Great Heron Gates at Rattlesnake Park, which is part of the Los Angeles River Greenway. It's located at the corner of Fletcher Dr. and Ripple St. The gates were designed by sculpture Brett Goldstone in 1999. 

It was a bit of a challenge due to the overgrown foliage and the time of day. These photos are a starting point where I hope I can progress and revisit at a later time.

Update From My Studio

Lately, I've been experiencing Art ADD  - working on more than one project at a time. 

One of the projects is a woven ground from a previous post. For years now I wanted to use sidewalk cracks as a design element. This woven piece should be a good base for top stitching sidewalk cracks.

I printed an 8 ½ x 11 copy of the sidewalk cracks and drew on the back of the woven paper using transfer paper. Then I went over the lines with black pen so it would be easier for me to see when I was sewing.

I made the basic lines using my sewing machine. Then I decided to work outside my comfort zone and handstitich some of the small open areas with red thread. It's going to take me awhile to finish but I think it's the right technique for this piece. I'll post the finish artwork on a later post.

Happy Father's Day

This is a perfect photo of my dad circa 1970s. He isn't in too many photos because he was the one taking them.

Art Vacation Part 2

I'm finally sorting through all the photos from my vacation. I stay a few days with my friend and fellow artist, Linda Friedman. She graciously emailed me her photos from our time in her studio.

Linda hadn't tried deconstructed screen printing. We decided it would be fun to work on this method when I was at her house. We watched Kerr Grabowski's dvd Deconstructed Screen Printing for fabric and paper and referred back to it throughout the process. Check out Linda's blog for her detailed step by step of the prep leading up to the play date and during the printing process.

We tried 2 different methods of deconstructed screen printing (dsp). The first method was screen printing thicken dyes over a screen that had various materials underneath. The second method was painting thicken dyes directly on the screen with a brush.

The top 2 rows of the fabric below are dsp over a crumbled up paper bag with cut up latex gloves. The first row is using the plain release paste to screen print. The middle row I used thicken yellow and green dye to screen print. The bottom row is my attempt to print using thicken dye that was painted directly on the screen.

I hung up this fabric when I got home to live with it for awhile to decide if I was going to leave it as is or add to it...I decided to add to it.

I cut the fabric to make 2 separate pieces. The top 2 rows of fabric I decided to use a stencil of torn paper to add various stripes. (I have to admit this idea came to me in the middle of the night.) These stripes add more interest to the fabric.

The second piece of fabric didn't print as well as I would have liked. I decided to overdye the whole piece with yellow. Much better.



Not sure what project I will use these fabrics but it's great to have them on hand when inspirations strikes.

The Kindness Chronicles

I arrived home this morning from my vacation. It was wonderful and will write more about that on later posts.

I received an email from a friend and fellow artist, Deborah Stanley, regarding Fountain Valley Patch online newspaper article about The Kindness Chronicles. Deborah along with Jane LaFazio and Lyric Kinard particpate in random acts of kindness on the first Sunday of each month. Even though I'm not part of this group, Deborah mentioned my Graffiti Inspirations blog in this article. That is so nice of her. I consider this mention in the article as a random act of kindness from Deborah. Thank you, Deborah!