Author Archives: Sheba

Playing Favorites: fields of dreams

Creating a gallery of my favorites has been quite fun. Looking through my own work over the years and fitting these themes has really shown me the diversity of my own work. Next up is Playing Favorites: fields of dreams, which I think can be translated to work that shows nature or landscapes of some type. Of course when he put together this series of posts, I think he gathered a lot of art from a lot of different people then put them into these catagories. I don’t think he expected to have an individual artist find art to fit each theme. But I like the challenge, so I plug along here.

Earthfin Rip July 2006

Media:  Fabric Collage Dimensions:  14″ x 14″ Date of Work:  07/2006

Night Sky Wanderer is a RIP for the EBSQ 2006 Ripped Off Show. It is inspired by a pyrography called Workin’ On Wings to Fly by Lisa J. Rough. I was really drawn to the powerful woman and the birch trees. It has a sense of strength and peace. I tried to capture that same feeling in my version of it. This piece is all fabric collage using applique’ and quilting techniques. It is embellished with buttons, ribbon, trim, beads and handmade yarn.

Jesus Christ Pose

Jesus Christ Pose, originally uploaded by Charger’s Mommy.

Media:  fabric collage
Dimensions:  22″x22″
Date of Work:  07/2008

This is created for the EBSQ Annual Ripped Show 2008. I have been doing a lot of mandala-like art recently, so I was drawn to Tina’s “Dali and the Eye of God” piece. I translated it into fabric applique. It is quilted and embellished with lace, ribbon and a variety of fabrics including silk, cotton, and rayon. I named it after a soundgarden song that kept going though my head whenever I would work on it. Starting August 1st you can vote for your favorites at EBSQ. 

christlikeposeWIP
Here is a little Work in Progress Step-by-step snapshot. I still need to finish a bit of quilting and make the hanging tabs…but my machine decided to go AWOL on me, so I will be running it into the shop tomorrow.

This piece did double challenge duty. In addition to being for the EBSQ ripped show it is one of my 5 mandalas for Jen’s July Challenge. This one will be for the Aether/void/spirit/heavens catagory, since it is spirtual in nature.

What I did on my Summer Vacation



purple doll quilt, originally uploaded by Charger’s Mommy.

My youngest neice loves the baby crib quilt I made for her when she was born and she loves purple as much as me. I thought she would enjoy making a doll quilt with me. I had her pick and layout fabric scraps. Then I spent most of the vacation hand sewing the mini quilt. I hope she enjoys it.

Art/Not Terminal and Art Communities

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(photo from my first solo show at A/NT in 1994…
girl in red dress in the center is me.)

This funky artist run gallery gave me my start in the art world. It was the first place I showed my work and the first place I sold work, even my first solo show. It continues to amaze me that it is still running. I know if I lived closer I would still participate. I was treasurer and even president of the board for a few years. I was also the gallery zine editor and publisher for a few years. It was and is still a great community that is eclectic and supportive of newcomers. It rarely gets any press so I was excited to hear that it got some nice props from the Seattle PI this week.. even if it is just in their blog. (after all blogs really are where the real news is these days.)

Artist communities are a great way to get support. These days there are many online communities (like EBSQ) but they can never completely take the place of face to face communities. My friend Amy participates in one closer to me… one in which I keep telling myself that I need to get involved.

In what artist communities do you participate? Online or face to face, which do you prefer?

Playing Favorites: abstraction

Continuing with Seth’s Playing Favorites series I first pick my least favorite to contrast with my favorite.

~not~ my favorite

Abstract art is harder than you might think. I know that I thought that it was pretty easy. You know those paintings that you see and thing “my kid could do that” but then I had to make an abstract painting for an EBSQ Challenge. After creating this painting, I had a much better appreciation for people that primarily create in the abstract. Seth features some pretty good work here, so check out what the experts choose. Playing Favorites: abstraction 

Since then I realised that when I stick to collage, I am not so bad at abstract art. Although I noticed I do tend to stick with the monochromatic theme. The piece below is a combination of papers, fabrics and ribbons sewn together in big random sheets. It was then trimmed to book page size and reassembled in blocks. It is both random and organized, which is what I think makes up a good abstract piece. Of course I can’t resist getting in some text pieces.

recycledsin.jpg

Sinful

Playing Favorites: journal entry

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Playing Favorites: journal entry

Visual Journals… now that is something I need to do more of. It seems that since I have been blogging, and writing online, I have done less journal writing on paper. This page is probably from 2003. I like the thoughts and reflections, as much as the images that I put together along with the meaning that they both hold for me. The word interesting has a lot of both positive and negative meaning for me, so it is very weighted. But I find myself using it a lot with my students… when I am not sure I can come up with something positive and constructive to say, it slips out.

Playing Favorites: the library


The Library, originally uploaded by v_stamey. The library I WISH I had….

Next to faces, I think words or text in art is one of my favorite subject. But I think that is for another entry, this is about BOOKS! which is just as good. I love books! I love reading them, collecting them, altering them and making them. I have taken classes on book binding, participated in Altered Book round robins and tip-in swaps. I have even taught and shared the art of altered books with my students. I dream of having a house where I have a room that is JUST for books. I picture it as one of those turret round multi-story rooms with a ladder to reach higher levels of books.

So anyways… here is my pick for Seth’s Playing Favorites: the library.

lovebookCV.jpg

This is a mixed media book that I made inspired by DJ Pettitt. I bought a kit from her that included some images, transparent and white papers and fabrics along with a mini instruction booklet on how to do image transfers. I was later able to take a class from her at ArtFiber Fest in 2006.

As much as I love to make paper books, I am more interested now in making fabric books and journals. You are sure to see some of these in the near future!

Playing Favorites: face to face

Continuing Seth’s game of selecting and describing our favorite creations, we come to the face to face catagory. Showing work in a variety of mediums, the thing they all have in common is the subject of a face. Picking a favorite will be tough for me, as I have done many faces, both in fabric and paper. In fact, I did an entire series called, “Saving Face”

dramaqueen

Inspiration/ Meaning: These pieces were created as part of the Saving Face series. I wanted to focus on the personality and emotional expression of the face. This piece was made as I struggled with removing personal drama from my life.
Creation: Mixed Media Paper & Glass Collage; This piece was created with layers of handmade papers, sewing patterns, and book pages applied to glass. Created in 2002.
Size: 39” H x 29” W including window frame

This one is called, “The Drama Queen” actually I think it originally had a longer title, something about the demise of the drama queen went without notice or something about basically begging for attention in all the wrong ways and for all all the wrong reasons, but more cleverly worded. My titles have often been long, poems or stories even. Sometimes I even come up with the title first and work my way towards that in my art. This one, and all of the ones in this series, started from photographs that I took of some friends and family. I purposefully had them make dramatic emotional faces.

Thinking about this really makes me want to get back to this series! hmmmm… food for thought.

Playing Favorites: Assemblege

In Seth’s second set of questions it looks like he asked artists to pick out their favorite art peices (that they have created) within a number of different categories. He says to “Imagine a museum filled with the work of all your favorite artists working in all your favorite artistic mediums. Now imagine that every piece of artwork has been hand chosen by each artist as their absolute favorites. Then imagine that printed by each piece of art is an explanation written by the artist detailing their selection.”  So with that, here is My Playing Favorites. First up: Assemblage (click to see other artist’s favorite picks, some VERY cool art is represented here.)

Artfest: Michael DeMeng Class

I haven’t done a ton of assemblege so I think my favorite is my most recent. This was created in Michael DeMeng’s class at artfest 2008 and I talk more in detail about the experience here.