Fiberworks 2008 Award

I had two pieces accepted into Fiberworks 2008 this year and this one, Another Place In Time, won an Award of Merit for $250! The opening reception was June 6th on my birthday so that made a wonderful birthday present. Time Tracks is the other piece that is in the show.

Fiberworks 2008 had 132 pieces entered out of which 68 pieces were accepted so I was thrilled to have work in the show much less win an award. They presented $4000 in awards this year which is outstanding for this type of exhibit.

The show will be on display at the IAO Gallery until June 27th. You can see other photos of Fiberworks on their website. http://www.iaogallery.org/

Working on Fiberworks 2008

I'm a member of the Fiber Artist of Oklahoma and we are gearing up for our annual juried exhibit, Fiberworks. This will be our 30th anniversary! You can read about it and download the prospectus on our website at http://www.fiberartistsok.org/. Our juror this year is Erica Spitzer Rasmussen who is an incredible artist that creates mixed media and handmade paper garments. She has been featured on the pages of FIBERARTS, Surface Design Journal, Hand Papermaking, Craft Arts International and SpinOff Magazines. We have photos of her innovative work on our prospectus.

Erica will be giving a free lecture on June 4th at the Belle Isle Library in OKC that is open to the public. Thursday, June 5th will be Critique Night at the IAO Gallery downtown OKC. The exhibit will be hung and Erica will talk about each piece that she selected for the show. I love Critique Night! Fiberworks is the only juried show that I have entered that has such an event. Friday, June 6th from 6 to 8pm will be the opening reception at the IAO Gallery http://www.iaogallery.org/, 811 N. Broadway, OKC. The exhibit will be on view until June 27th.

It's an execellent show of traditional, contemporary and innovative work primarily made of fiber so if anyone is in the area I hope you will stop and see the exhibit.

Photos of flowers

It's Spring here in Oklahoma City and the azaleas are in full bloom along with the tulips and the blue pansies. I took this photo on the Chesapeake campus at N.W. 63 and Western. Chesapeake has a beautifully landscaped 50-acre campus! It's an energy company that has grown by leaps and bounds and now employees over 1800 people.

On to Landscapes

Now I'm painting landscapes. I've purchased a couple of how-to books so I can learn some new techniques so these aren't original. Carla and I plan to take a field trip soon and do some plein air painting. Right now I don't have the right equipment to paint outside but until then we can take photos and draw sketches.

Fruits and Vegetables

I'm still consumed with oil painting and I'm hoping that I will improve one of these days! I'm still learning but I can see a little improvement.

When I paint still-lifes the fruit and vegetables have to set out until the painting is finished and since I can't paint everyday the produce gets old before I can finish a painting. I know it's a waste of good food but I can't help it! I think of them as my models. Anyway I used the same onion for several paintings and the poor thing started to sprout! I didn't know onions would sprout but it was very cute and interesting to me so I painted it along with a couple of peppers.

Time Tracks is framed

I'm really pleased with Time Tracks. Pirates Alley did the framing and PhotoFactory took the digital image for me.

Too Many .coms now framed

Here is the photo of "Too Many .coms" that PhotoFactory took for me today. This photo shows the mat and frame.

Time Tracks

"Time Tracks" is my latest felted piece. The red background piece is a wool blend felt. The black is felting fabric that was needle punched and then wet felted. The off-white is a piece of wool batt that was needled felted and then wet felted. The 'tracks' are a combination of rovings that were needled felted on a piece of black felt, cut out, and then needle felted on top. Yes, it is thick and I broke three needles in the process of needle felting (I added this comment for my needle felting friends because I could hear the question coming!). The little tracks are hand embroideried with pearl cotton.

All the 'tracks' are going up or forward because that's the direction I'm headed in life. I don't believe in looking back or back-tracking because that would be a waste of time.

Today is my husband's birthday (Happy Birthday, Honey!). We have been married 30 wonderful years.

Still Life with Basket of Pears

I saw this painting pictured in a book and loved it so much I wanted to paint it myself. The original was painted in 1872 by Camille Pissarro and the title is "Still Life: Apples and Pears in a Round Basket". Of course my painting is inferior to the Pissarro painting but I could never afford the orginal and coping it is a way for me to improve my painting techniques.

Once again the photo isn't centered. I guess I'll have to dig out the tripod.

More Magnolia Paintings

Here are two more oil paintings that I have finished. The photo with the yarn and knitting needles isn't centered very well but it's hard to do without a tripod. I have one more painting with the magnolia's. That still life has now been retired and I have moved on to painting fruit and vegetables.