This past week....and I think I hate the new blogger templates!

This post is supposed to be my update for the past busy week. I inadvertently clicked a few buttons on blogger and ended up with a new template that I don't like, don't understand, and isn't being very cooperative with uploading the many images that I thought I would be sharing this evening. Three hours have passed. PLEASE HELP!  I can't figure out the placement on the screen and am having to typing EVERYTHING in the "Edit HTML" settings.  How can I get everything to align on the left?  I've click "publish" about twenty-five time over the past three hours.   I'm sure this new system is "great"....if I only understood how it worked.

Above and below are just two of the over 24 images I saved from an incredible exhibition in Charleston called Call and Response: Africa to America/The Art of Nick Cave and Phyllis Galembo. It's at the Halsey Institute. It was truly fascinating and totally obsessive in the best possible way.  I planned on posting about 24 images on another blog.....PLEASE tell me how to do this.  I've tried four times and only captured one image each time despite waiting FOREVER and seeing thumbnails that indicated that the image were uploaded.  Believe me....the show was fantastic and I'd love to share it!



















The image below is from my solo show at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios last February. I didn't take the photo. I friend, Ashleigh Burke, took it with her incredible wide-angle lens. I didn't look at her images until very recently......just because I've been so busy working toward the show with the Decision Portrait Series scheduled for this fall. I'm glad I waiting because her photos have inspired me to keep plugging away with the free motion machine embroidery on the chiffon banners. The banners in the photo have collected epitaphs. The banners I'm currently stitching are filled with "decisions".....like....."Should I wear the red shirt or the blue one?" and "Am I too drunk to drive" and "Where should I scatter my mother's ashes" and "Should I sleep with my boss" and "Do I believe in God", etc. I'm planning on having forty-eight banners. Thus far, I have sixteen complete.....and three months to go!


















The photos below are from this past Monday. There was a cancellation at Camp Wonder Hands, a one week camp in South Carolina for deaf and hard-of-hearing students, K- 12. They were in need of a morning art instruction. I filled in and had a most illuminating experience. By the way, I do have a lady sharing her decision to become a sign language interpreter for the Decision Portrait Series. The kids were great and very, very creative!



(Above and below: Photos from last Monday's morning at Camp Wonder Hands, a week long camp for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. Click on images to enlarge.)



(Above and below: More photos from Camp Wonder Hands. Click on images to enlarge.)




























(Above, full image and below, detail: In Box LXVII. Free motion machine embroidery and soldering. Framed: 35" x 23". Click on image to enlarge.)

I took a break from my Decision Portrait Series in order to create another "In Box" series piece for the Grovewood Gallery in Asheville. This is a fabulous place....and they are wonderfully selling my work....even one of my large faux-stained glass fiber pieces. Thus, they needed new work and I was only too happy to create more!





















And now for another DECISION PORTRAIT!  This is BUCKLE UP! 

























(Above:  Buckle Up, Decision Portrait.  Stitched words:  Saved by the belt.  Xylene photo transfer on tea-stained muslin.  Unframed 25" x 19"; framed 31" x 25".  Hand beaded and stitched.  Click on image to enlarge.)

 I've completed several new Decision Portraits. Every time I finish one I write to the person (people) who shared the decision. This gives each participant the opportunity to see the work before it is posted and to make suggestions about the statement that will accompany it on the Internet. I've actually got a "back log" of portraits waiting to be shared because I thought it was a good idea to only post every other day. Now, however, I accidentally okayed a new blogger template that I don't understand. It isn't uploading all my photos. It will not allow me to type while the images are being attached. I can't seem to understand the new spacing. The entire look of my blog is different. I don't think I like it. If anyone understands how this new thing works....PLEASE HELP ME. I've been trying to post for over three hours and am FRUSTRATED.

Yet, I've manage to get this new piece available. It is important. Please let me know what you think of the work and of the "new look" to my blog.  So here is the statement:

In thirty-one states and the District of Columbia, there is a "primary" seat belt law.  This means that a law enforcement officer can stop and ticket a driver without any other traffic offense taking place.  In eighteen other states there is a "secondary" seat belt law.  This means that the police officer may issue a ticket for not wearing a seat belt only when there is another citable traffic infraction. New Hampshire alone has no such law (except for children under 18....and then, it's a law too!)  I got this information HERE.

Above:  Buckle Up, detail.  Click on image to enlarge.)

Still, lots of people don't buckle up.  Steven Hewitt did.  It saved his life.  This talented artist has some permanent bodily damage but is able to continue making wonderful art and enjoying his fabulously artistic family.  Check out their website.....and BUCKLE UP.  It's a good decision to make!