2009 Mixed Media Collage exhibit

I entered three pieces in the Mixed Media Collage Exhibit sponsored by the Oklahoma Watermedia Association and all three were accepted! The opening reception will be Sunday, July 5 from 2 - 5pm at the Norick Art Center, 1600 N.W. 26th St, Oklahoma City located on the Oklahoma City University campus. (I supplied the link to the OWA's website but it's a shame they don't keep their website updated so it's not very interesting.)

The three pieces that I had accepted are Time In Space, Time Marches On, and Time Tracks. I like to include information like this on my blog because I have a tendency not to keep a list of pieces that have been accepted into an exhibit. You can't enter a piece that has been accepted before and since I couldn't remember what was in the Mixed Media exhibits in 2007 & 2008 it was helpful to find it on my blog. That's just one good reason to have a blog and keep it updated!

Annual Potluck Dinner

June 20th on Saturday night was the Fiber Artists of Oklahoma (FAO) annual potluck dinner meeting. This year Sue Moss Sullivan invited FAO members to her vacation cabin in Chandler and it was a treat! She has a beautiful log cabin in the woods with a nice pond and it was such a relaxing place to hang out and enjoy everyone's company. We have some excellent cooks in the group so in my opinion we always have the very best potluck dinners in the world! In the photo above Elia, Kate, and Janie are in line to fill their plates. Below is Shirley, Sue, Dorothy, and Stephanie on the porch while Shirley is conducting the meeting.

FIBERWORKS 2009 Opening Reception

Saturday night was the Opening Reception of Fiberworks 2009. The Juror's Lecture was before the opening this year so that increased the attendance of that event. I enjoyed Jiseon Lee Isbara's presentation and talk about the progress of her work. We had a good crowd and great food so the opening was a success.

The first photo is of me and Dawne talking about one of my pieces in the show.

The second photo was taken during the awards ceremony. Karen, on the left, is getting ready to present the awards. The juror, Jiseon, is standing on the right of Karen.

The third photo is a shot of the middle of the gallery during the reception.

The fourth photo is the food table. Our caterer's provided a great spread!

The Begginings of Fiberworks 2009

This has been a busy week! I've been helping with the Fiberworks 2009 exhibit which involved a ton of work.....but it's worth all the sore muscles. We accepted entries on Saturday and Monday. Stephanie laid out all the entries on Tuesday so they would be ready for the juror on Wednesday. These photos were taken Wednesday after the artwork had been chosen for the show. Eight of us worked all day yesterday to hang the show.....that's why I have sore muscles today.

I had two pieces selected by the juror for the show so I'm thrilled! I can't begin to tell you how much work goes into producing this exhibit. Fiber Artists of Oklahoma, the group that produces Fiberworks, is a small group and they do an amazing job every year (this is the 31st year!).

Abstract Challenge - Crowd

I've mentioned before that I'm a member of an online Yahoo group called Abstract Challenge. The word for the challenge this month is 'Crowd' so instead of making a little 8"x8" quilt (which is what I'm supposed to do) I painted an 8" x 10" canvas. I like the design so I think I will try to translate it into a felt piece in the near future. This should be a fun project. I'll make the felted piece much larger than 8" x 10" and try to keep the same colors and overall feeling.

Orange Hill Country

I'm calling this painting "Orange Hill Country" for lack of a better name. I've noticed that I've been using orange a lot in my paintings and don't know why. I don't particularly like that color yet it ends up on my pallet so go figure.

Still Searching For My Voice

I'm still searching for my 'voice' ......my 'style' of painting. I haven't found it yet but I'm working on it and that's the only way to do it. I found that out when I started quilting back in the early '90's. Anyway, these are two of my newest oil paintings that will end up in my unforgotten pile of work....never to see the light of day! Right now they are still hanging around my studio because they aren't dry enough to throw in the pile, lol! The painting with the green city and weird telephone poles is 12" x 12" and the pink landscape is 11" x 14". Wow, that's a pink painting, why on earth did I use that color? Oh well, I had fun.

I'm the Co-Chair for Fiberworks again this year so this is a busy time! This is a copy of the invitation that we mailed on the 20th. Carla, my 'painting buddy', is also a graphic designer by trade so she designed all of the promotional material for Fiberworks. I have my three pieces ready to enter next weekend so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that at least one of them will be accepted by the juror. This is always a wonderful exhibit so I encourage anyone within driving distance to Oklahoma City to see it. It will be on display from June 12th to July 3rd at the IAO Gallery, 811 N. Broadway, OKC. http://www.iaogallery.org/ If you live in Oklahoma and want to enter the show the prospectus is available on FAO's website http://www.fiberartistsok.org/ You can also see photos of the Fiberworks 2008 exhibit and read the newsletters....I just happen to be the Newsletter Editor for FAO also.

I graduated from Chandler High School in 1969....I can't believe it but that was 40 years ago! I attended some of the alumni festivities this past weekend. These photos were taken by Alylene's husband Steve so I copied them from her FaceBook page. We met at Vernon's house on Friday night to eat and work on the class float for the Alumni Parade that takes place the next day on Saturday morning. Most of the anniversary classes participate in the Alumni Parade by decorating a 'float' for the class to ride in down Main Street. Vernon had an old dump truck so that's what we rode in for the parade. What fun!

Story Time and Ancient Sanctuary

I took my latest felted pieces to PhotoFactory today and had them photographed. They have photographed all my work for at least 8 years and have always done a good job but to my dismay they will be closing their doors the end of this month! I'm so disappointed....I'm sure their employees that will be losing their jobs are more disappointed than I but I will miss them. I'll have to learn how to photograph my work or find an alternative. You can look at these photos and then look at the ones I took (the ones I uploaded last week) and see a huge difference.....I think I better start looking for another photographer, lol!