What my art means to me

My art is more than art quilts, or any of the other things that I create, it's an emotional journey filled with pleasant memories. I have always wanted to be an artist, even before I understood what the word 'art' meant. As a child I remember the warm satisfying feelings that I would get every time I did something creative, it was a way of escaping into my own little world. I was pretty much a loner so art became my companion. As an adult that satisfying feeling has only intensified, and I am still pretty much a loner, but I have been working on that aspect of 'me' for a few years now. LOL I know that my creative ability is of divine inspiration, because I dream art, I feel art, I get excited when I am around art and artsy people, and through my creations I reveal my internal world.

When I create specifically for someone other than myself, I want to hear their story or their vision of the art that they want. Through that process I can get an emotional feeling of what it is that they really want. I try to marry their ideas with my creativity to better be able to create a one of a kind art quilt just for them.




30 years of Storytelling





Dr. Eugene Redmond's memory

Above are two quilts that I created, When I made '30 years of storytelling' I interviewed 3 women in the Storytelling group to find out how they wanted to tell their story. Once I layed out the design concept, I met with the 3 of them again and did not move forward until each were pleased with the direction the quilt was going.

In the secon quilt, Dr. Redmond brought four bags of clothing that he had been holding on for some time (they were clean) and he wanted a memory quilt that emcompassed 40 years of his life.  He was quite pleased





Just a quick update

It has been a while since I posted, but that doesn't mean I haven't been creating.  I don't spend a whole lot of time on the computer except for checking daily my emails. But creatively I have been working on a dream of mind, creating community public art with some of the youth in the community. Above is the image of one of eight concrete benches in the community park near my home that will soon get and uplift. Right now they are quite bland but the dream is to create mosaic designs for each bench. The goal is to have organizations or individuals adopt a bench which will allow me the ability to purchase mosaic materials. 

Here are images of two  benches that  have been adopted and created during this summer. I worked with 55 children ages 5-12 years of age to created these designs.  

                                               

Something New

                                                                                                           

Visit the following link to see some of the art quilts that are in the 'Ties that Bind' exhibit which is a part of the Innovations in Textile event. The exhibit is at the Sheldon arts galleries in St. Louis, Mo. http://vimeo.com/29075618  Although I brought the textile group 'Fiber Coalition' to the gallery directors attention, which I am a member of, I chose not to create an art quilt for the exhibit..  I wanted to play around a little bit and do something a little different and unexpected of me, so I created three hats which you can see below. You can only see a hint of them in the video.


 For the last couple of years I have been creating pieces with fabric remnants that I have available, the only thing that I have purchased is threads.  The hats, which I no longer wore were floating from one space to another, so I decided to finally utilize them in a creative way. I created a muslin pattern of the shape of the hat and then did a fabric collage over the muslin.  The first hat is titled 'Patch Work' and each hat shows two views, the second hat is titled ' Safari', and the third hat is titled 'Musical Topper'  It was a fun gesture and I love the outcome. 

                                                                                                             

                                                                                                                                                                                         

 

 



All about the music, not just hearing it but feeling it deep, deep, deep