CATCHING UP......FOR NOW

It's like they say in that commercial for life insurance or something: "Life comes at you fast!" Whether you buy what they're selling or not, you gotta give 'em that! In the past many weeks that I've neglected to keep up with this blog, I've been busy having a life, which in turn, has kept me from having a blog. I have been making artwork, yes indeedy, and I have also, with the help of my husband, made a baby. She was born almost four weeks ago, and obviously life will never be the same.....Which was the plan.

I don't tend to write much about my personal life here, as Magpie Makes Art is supposed to be about my work as an artist. I mean really, if I wanted my private life to be a matter of public record I'd be in Hollywood trying to be an actress instead of a textile artist on the southern Washington coast. That said, I will say for the record that the baby girl is easily the best, most beautiful thing I will ever make. It's a little overwhelming that she actually came out of me.

Enough of that. Besides making a human being, I've also finished several pieces since I last checked in, two of them being baby blankets, but that's beside the point. Below is a piece I made for the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts annual auction.....It's called "Luau Quilt", and it's made with commercial cottons and vintage Hawaiian fabric. It took forever to make, and so of course didn't sell. The powers that be believe one of my mixed media pieces would have easily sold, and I'm sure they're right. People don't value traditional crafts as much as mixed media, or "Fine Craft". I guess because they've seen their grandmother knitting or quilting or some such thing, they think it's common place and easy. But if something is constructed in the same way while made out of something people normally throw away, then it's art and to be taken seriously! (sigh) I can't complain. I am very grateful people respond so well the the funky stuff, and I was able to give the Luau Quilt to my mother in law, who is either a fabulous actress, or actually really likes it.

LOVE THE QUILT, LOVE THE QUILTING NOT SO MUCH

Okay, I have been working......Really! And while I seem to be up to only 2 posts a month so far in this New Year of the Golden Pig, you gotta admit it's a vast improvement over late 2006, with a blog every 7 weeks or so. Am I right? Okay, no more excuses.

So I've been working away on quilt tops for this show in September, and so far I've got four done and at least 3 more under way.....Plus a quilt I have to finish for another bloody art auction/donation, plus other stuff I shouldn't be working on because they're gifts for myself or friends and while gifts for friends are way too much fun, I'm supposed to be a grown up and focus on the task at hand. And gifts for myself....Really, who has time for that?



I LOVE designing quilts. I love the making part of art. I love going through all the fabric scraps or candy wrappers or whatever I'm making a quilt out of at the moment, and putting them together. I've never liked jigsaw puzzles, but this kind of puzzle I like. It's so exciting because anything goes with a quilt, whereas with a jigsaw puzzle, it's the same every time and the pictures are boring. So everything's perfect, right? I love making quilts, so I make quilts and the world's a happy place. But here's the rub: I don't like quilting. If you're not up on quilt construction, sewing bits of fabric together to make the top is called "piecing", and sewing the top, the batting (the fluffy stuff in between that keeps you warm) and the back together is called quilting. Piecing is the design part, the FUN part in my humble opinion, and quilting is the tedious finishing work that shows what a fine craftsperson you are. It can really make or break this thing you've been working for countless hours, and it always stresses me out. That's why I've got four quilt tops done and no finished quilts. I've been having all this fun, and now it's time to "Nut Up!" as someone I know likes to say, and get quilting. I feel like I've been banished to a dark cave with a needle and thread and when I emerge I'll be wrinkled and old, like someone in a Grimm's fairytale. The pathetic thing is I've banished myself, so who am I to complain?

WHAT'S UP

Alright, I've got work up in three different places right now, so here the skinny:

"The 5th of July" is on display in the Hoffman Gallery at Oregon College of Arts and Crafts (Portland, OR) right now for their alumni show, and will be up through February 22nd.



I also have a piece in "Shelters: 100 Artists" at Mary Lou Zeek Gallery in Salem, OR. That show opened February 6th and runs through March 3rd. I don't have a photo of it, but thier web site does: www.zeekgallery.com

And I have three framed quilts from the Letter Series up at Shoalwater Cove Gallery, in Ilwaco, WA. They will be up until I switch them out for something else, I guess.

So, if you are visiting any of these locals in the near future you can pop in and have a look-see. Thanks for checkin' in.

TWO YES, ONE NO

I just had to turn down a show! It was a really good opportunity, too. It wasn't a request for a donation to an charity auction where no one cares about who I am, they just want stuff as cheap as possible.....Where the only thing worse than having to donate a very nice piece that will be auctioned off for a fraction of what it should sell for, to an organization that will not think of you twice until this time next year when they want more free stuff, is if no one wants it at all and it gets shipped back to you...A sad, rejected little something. Or worse, being the featured artist at a shop in a tourist town (I'm not making this up) and being obliged to stand next to the display of your work at the back of the shop. Right next to the keg. So of course all the stoned snow boarders coming in for a free beer feel obliged to talk to you to cover up the fact that they're only in there for (could it be true?) the free beer. I remember it well. Made me feel so special.

This wasn't like that. It was a real show in a real gallery and I was obliged to say "Sorry, no can do."

See, the thing is, I actually have two other shows lined up about the same time this other shining opportunity would have occured, and there's just no way I could do it. But the gallery curator was very nice about it, and said maybe I could do a show there in 2009, and I said "absolutely!" So we'll see. Now I'll have to spend the next two years emailing her images of new work so she doesn't forget who I am. Such is life.

So one of these shows I'm working on is all quilts.......Made of fabric. Now some of you who aren't that familiar with magpie tendencies will say "big deal girlie. What gives?" But up until this show in September I will have only ever shown mixed media quilts that have been made of things like wine foils and old letters and clothing labels and the like. I realize maybe I'm moving in the opposite direction from a lot of folks, putting the wacky mixed media on hold to do something people are more familiar with, but I don't care. I love making quilts and I'm excited to show mine. Here are two I'm working on:





These two are both silk, and I'm calling the pink one "Posh Baby", and haven't decided on a name for the other. Any suggestions?

NEW YEAR, NEW ME......HOPEFULLY

Okay, I knew it had been a while since I got it together enough to post a new entry (and as usual, I've got all sorts of excuses!), but now that I'm finally getting after it I realize it's literally been MONTHS-!! That's just bad. Bad, bad, bad.

So, fresh start and all that, right? Right.



Over Christmas my husband, my dog Jake, and I stopped off in San Francisco to visit the ever fabulous and talented fiber artist Heidi Paul (check out her web site link), and also made time to see the Gee's Bend Show at the De Young Museum. Even if I didn't love quilts so much, and I truly do, I will take any excuse to to go to the De Young because it's such a beautiful building. So, it was the best of all worlds: Being in a wonderful city with my best friend, looking a quilts that are miraculously getting the attention they deserve, in an amazing building that makes me feel like sometimes people have thier priorities straight. It was a good time.

CHRISTMAS SCRATCH

So, I haven't finished the aforementioned commission and I have no grown up excuses. The grown up in me says that if I finish it, it wouldn't be hanging over me.....But the kid in me says, "Look at all the fun things to do instead!! Like making scarves to sell at Holiday Sales!".



I have to admit, it's hard to be firm with the kid and stitch away on a commission that I think is going well (but I'm kind of over) when there are all these yummy fabrics around calling out to me. Of course there's the excuse of making a little Christmas scratch, too. Tis the season to make a little money selling your wares, right?

MATERIAL UPDATE

Time does fly, and my stupid camera is still broken, but concerned bird lovers have informed me that if I don't keep up on my posts, photo's or not, people will get bored and never check in....So, here we go!

I've been commissioned by some wonderful people to make one to three small framed pieces for a room in their house that's newly renovated. Whenever I do a commission that's for a specific place in someone's home, I always feel like I'm in school again and have just been told the parameters of the next assignment. While I do not miss being a student, I like the problem solving commissions present. This particular job is for people who are very organized and neat, and while their home is very comfortable, there's a feeling of formality about everything. There's a clarity to how their home is arranged, and no funky but charming hodge podge of objects around (like my house). The newly renovated room I'm dealing with has a bit of a Japanese feel (they used to live in Japan), and a clear color scheme: Mossy green and beige the color of coffee with too much cream.

So, I drove into Portland and bought a bunch of different origami paper, and have been stitching away. My clients have also given me a bunch of hand painted chopstick wrappers to work with, and a pile of handmade paper that they're sure they'll never use. I'm currently working on three different pieces, and they can choose between them when I'm done. They are all pieced and hand quilted, and a bit more restrained than most of my work. I'll work on the camera thing and see if I can't get some images up soon.