Works in Progress

Strange, I haven't posted much lately because I haven't finished much lately. Yet, I'm working....working hard. I've written exhibition proposals and burned CDs of images to accompany them...preparing packets that I hope will be looked at for just a few moments before form letters of rejection are sent. I've been told that a rejection is still an opportunity to have one's art viewed by curators and gallery owners....so it's worth it. I'm embracing this idea.

Anyway, I'm working toward the solo exhibition that I do have coming up, the "Blues Chapel" in Pickens next summer. I'm preparing pages from the late 19th century Bible that will become Blues Bible. The volume is four inches deep...four inches of pages. Yikes! Fortunately, my plan will create quick thick pages and thus not over thousand or so spreads!

I've been painting the removed pages blue...for the past four days. Yesterday I started applying fabric with WonderUnder (Bond-a-Web) to the folds and zig-zagging them for additional security. My "test" page included lots of GAC 100, polymer emulsion...which I use for collaging. The results are sturdy, can be bound as single spread signatures, look good, and keep the fabric from peeling up with the additional moisture of the acrylic medium. PLUS, each page is nicely thick. In the meantime, I've begun "hunting and gathering" for source material to fill the pages and started a MicroSoft document of reference notes too.

Another piece for the exhibition is also being stitched. I must be thinking "big" right now because this piece has more than five times the number of square inches than the others in the "Elements" series. I really didn't think about posting a photo "in process" until reading SammyStuff last night. I have so admired her beaded blocks...they are incredible. She recently posted her September block "in process". It was wonderful to get this glimpse while decisions are still to be made, and now I am anxious to see how it is finished.

Then, I remembered so many other projects that I enjoyed watching as they unfolded on my screen over days and weeks and months. Like, Carol's torso and Emmy's Sumptuous Surfaces and Julaine's banner and Kate's quilted cats and so many of Arlee's magnificent creations and too many others to remember right this minute. Anyway, I figured I'd share this embroidery while in process.

I used heat transfer paints to "color" the background and a heat transfer crayon to set the design (which I "blurred" near the bird but this won't show in the end!). Now, I'm stitching with lots of thick blue yarns and threads. Stitching and stitching and stitching. I've got three evenings so far on it...and many more to go!