Contemplating 65

2016 was a tumultuous year.

I know; I know -- I write that knowing how trite that sounds on this second-last day of the year.  There were many high and low points for the globe, on which I won't elaborate; that's already been done by pundits, analysts, and most folks on Facebook.

The year held many blessings for me personally, and for my family.

In April, I sold my first large piece at the Lacombe Art Show and Sale

Edging Toward Spring (C) 2015

In May I travelled to Stratford, Ontario to see my first successful entry

into a major SAQA exhibit, My Corner of the World: Canada

and My Corner of the World: International

It's Still About the Sky (C) 2016

In July my son Marty married his lovely Chereena

The Alberta Blanks, July 23, 2016

In October, I had several of my 'minis' and many of my larger works

accepted into the beautiful space at Bonavista Fine Art in Sylvan Lake -- and several have been sold.

That same month, my first solo three-part installation opened

at the Lacombe Memorial Centre.  Up for a month, with a companion book, to date Mark on the Body has raised $456 for Canadian-based research and education about the nature, cause, treatment, cure and prevention of Type 1 Diabetes.

In September, I crossed into my 65th year.

How will I mark 2017?

I've been pondering a different approach to my work, involving more abstraction, "improv" and sampling of "Modern" quilting...both as artwork and utilitarian pieces.  This will influence my minis and my 15 x 15 Group contributions.

I have a hand-stitch project underway, with the working title, "I Shall Wear Purple".

I want to do some serious practicing with my spinning wheel, my embellisher and my "new" treadle sewing machine.

I'm celebrating my 65th Birthday with two trips: first as part of a panel for SAQA Western Canada's first-ever Regional Retreat in Kelowna, B.C., in early May; and second, on a quilting tour to Scotland with friend and SAQA colleague, Mary Wilton, in September.  We are taking sketchbooks and supplies to record what entrances us...with plans for new work inspired by the trip.

Of course, there will always be knitting, making for others, a bit of making pour moi, and the ongoing blessing of relationships inside and outside this blog.

Linking this to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday, and wishing you all a

Happy New Year, Gentle Readers!

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

and never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

and auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my jo,

for auld lang syne,

we'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

- Robert Burns, poet

Braggin' Just a Little

It's Still About the Sky (Detail) - (C) 2016

SAQA has launched a new slide show on it's website...the pieces selected for My Corner of the World: Canada.   

This is in addition to SAQA's practice of producing a slide show for its International (All-SAQA) exhibits, such as the companion exhibit, My Corner of the World.  

For me...I am honoured to have a piece on exhibit with one of my artistic inspirations, Judith (Judy) Martin...and with SAQA Western Canada colleagues Terry Aske, Janet Scruggs, Marie McEachern, Paula Jolly and Jaynie Himsl...Not to mention SAQA 'stars' like Mary Pal, Gunnel Hag and Mardell Rampton...

I hope you'll click the aforementioned links and enjoy...if you can't get to Stratford, Ontario in person between May 21 and the end of August...or just can't wait till the two exhibits get to Your Corner of the World.  :-)

I Think I Finally Believe It

Happy New Year, Gentle Readers!

It's Still About the Sky (C) 2015

I think I finally believe what I've been telling myself -- and others -- these past few years.  I'm a maker, yes, and an artist whose medium is textiles.  Up to now, calling myself an artist, even out loud, has seemed rather...well...presumptuous.  But with the acceptance of It's Still About the Sky as one of the 40 pieces (from 116 entries) selected for SAQA's "My Corner of the World: Canada"* exhibit...that title is fitting a bit better this morning.

So thanks to you, Gentle Readers, for your ongoing support, comments and encouragement...and a special thanks (yes, I e-mailed her) to Elizabeth Barton, whose superb coaching skills, wisdom and depth of art knowledge have moved me farther along that road to 'artist'.

I have a list of things I want to accomplish this year, and the first of these is my first piece for 15 x 15 now that I'm back from my year of study with EB.  I'm spending at least this morning in my "messy room", puddling with printing samples.  Stay tuned!

Linking this up with Nina Marie and her "Off the Wall Friday" for a great start to more art in the New Year.  Have a Happy One, eh?

*MCOTW: Canada, together with the international exhibit, My Corner of the World, will open at the Stratford Perth Museum in London, Ontario, in May of this year.

Giving Birth (or EBMC May: Landscape)

I slept through the arrival of my children who, for medical reasons, were both delivered surgically.

I'm making up for that now by birthing my art work with all the push, pull and pain that goes with labour and delivery.  Very little of the process is easy for me -- notwithstanding that I am 'given' the images for some pieces in their entirety, having only to assemble them according to the Creator's instructions.  :-)

You'd think with all the landscapes I've made that this months EBMC theme, "Landscape", would be easier, but no.  For one thing, having gotten away with creating two 'minis' last month, I determined I would try to produce something larger this time.

My motivation is two-fold:

• First, I want to enter SAQA's Canadian call for entry -- "My Corner of the World" (All SAQA members)* and "My Corner of the World: Canada" (Only Canadian artists)** and there are size requirements that are in the realm of "large" based on my usual work; and
• Second, I have a commission to do a landscape, and my hope is to make it larger than a 'mini'.

So I'm looking on this piece as -- if nothing else -- practice for the Larger Leagues!

Poplars - Charles Beck

If you read my last post, you'll remember that EB had me consider woodcuts as a style.  Woodcuts?!  So...yesterday I spent most of the morning looking at woodcut landscapes and the artists who make them.  Woodcutting is a venerable form of print making, but there are contemporary artists who still do this work.  I was particularly captivated by Charles Beck who, as far as I can tell, is still alive and working in his nineties.

Mr. Beck lives and works in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, a small city not much bigger than Lacombe, Alberta, and -- like my beloved Mirror -- situated in a topography of rolling prairie, woodlands and small lakes.  

Taking some inspiration from his work, and noting EB's feedback, I set to trying to sketch variations on my original sketch.  

More sketches...

A couple of them ended up in crumpled heaps on the sewdio floor.  The rest are stacked on the edge of my cutting table,  By the end of the day yesterday I was exhausted, and rather frustrated at my inability to 'birth' what I "saw" inside of me.

Prairie Spring (C) 2015

I decided to sleep on it.  As I drifted off (I later explained to EB when I sent in the assignment), I had a notion to return to the pieced simplicity of "Prairie Spring", which I did for the  "Line" assignment in March.

But...when I returned to the sewdio this morning, the image of that shed and the field, slough, trees and fencing wouldn't leave me, wouldn't let me distill them into a more linear or abstract form.

I decided to try for a very primitive approach -- as few 'frills and furbelows' as possible...

And I came up with this (working title: "Prairie Primitive":

"Prairie Primitive" (WIP) 2015

Materials: hand-dyed cotton (sky, slough from the same piece); hand-dyed silk (tree tops on left - no trunks yet - and trees on horizon), commercial cottons and batiks.  And those lumps in the left foreground aren't rocks; they're cattle...or will be...

While I await EB's feedback, I'm going to enjoy a quiet evening finishing a murder mystery (may I recommend Steve Burrows' A Siege of Bitterns'?) and catch up with the others over at Nina Marie's "Off-the-Wall Friday".

Tomorrow, if the rain lets up, I'll be helping my Sweet Sis plant her veggie patch over at her Sylvan Lake Sanctuary...

WD's veggie patch - photo from July 2014

Happy Victoria Day!

And if it's raining where you are, pour a cuppa, and enjoy this vignette of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Beck:

*See SAQA Calls for Entry HERE.  You must be a SAQA member to enter.

**See SAQA Regional Calls for Entry HERE.  You must be a Canadian SAQA member to enter.