Happy Birthday to ME!

(Above:  Five of seven, small "In Box" series pieces ... finished, framed, and on their way to the Grovewood Gallery in Asheville, NC.  Click on any image in this blog post to enlarge.)

Today is my fifty-seventh birthday.  I don't feel that old but that doesn't change the number! LOL!  Steve and I are driving to Asheville to deliver my artwork to the Grovewood Gallery.  My sales are up!  The gallery manager knows that my work has been accepted into next November's Philadelphia Museum of Art Fine Craft Show.  It's an honor ... for us both!  I feel ready for a great year ahead ... as if my work in on the verge of really "taking off".  Today is definitely a good day!


(Above:  Six new "Peacock Series" pieces ... finished, framed, and half of them are headed to the Grovewood Gallery.  The other half will remain at Mouse House.  These are the start of the work I'll be making for Philadelphia ... but I'm also doing a solo show at City Art here in Columbia at the same time.  I need LOTS more new work!)

While in Fergus Falls, Minnesota at an art residency program hosted by Springboard for the Arts, I made the six Peacock Feathers.  I also constructed and stitched most of the other work now headed to Asheville.  Yet, there was much to finish.  All the "In Box" pieces needed to be melted and mounted.  Everything needed to be framed.  I've been working on all this ... and more ... trying to "catch up" ... ever since I came home.


(Above:  Four new, large "In Box" series pieces ... headed to the Grovewood Gallery in Asheville.)

Two, new Large Stained Glass Windows are under construction.  I'm stitching on two Grave Rubbing Art Quilts.  I've just finished basting a large abstract art quilt and I'm hard at work finishing up a couple other things started in Minnesota, including ...

(Above:  Covers for Anonymous Ancestors Scrapbook III.)

Anonymous Ancestors Scrapbook III.  Last month in Minnesota, I took apart a vintage scrapbook and made thirty new pages for it.  The pages were made by cutting three large canvases onto which I'd previously collaged all sorts of ephemera ... passport pages, 19th c. cancelled checks, ration stamps, hand-written letters, Western Union telegrams, etc. The original screw-styled binding posts measured one-inch and thus only allowed half the pages to be inserted.  I knew I'd have to make my own covers and find my own binding screws to make another book.  Well ... this week I did it ... using 8-ply mat board and scraps of a vintage, embroidered bedspread.  YES paste is wonderful.  It is acid-free, slow drying (and thus the fabric can be manipulated, repositioned, and moved until it is perfectly placed) and cleans up with soap and water.

(Above:  The end papers attached with YES paste to the insides of the covers.)

YES paste was also used to adhere hand-marbled paper to the interior of the covers.  To make the holes, I used a drill ... carefully aligning them to the holes I'd already punched into the canvas pages and the canvas "spacers".


(Above:  A box of 100 sets of 1" binding posts.)

I couldn't find a smaller quantity of binding posts for any reasonable price.  A box with 100 sets ran just $9 ... and it shipped for another $9.  At least I'll have plenty of binding posts for future projects.


(Above:  The binding post ... in the process of assembling the artist book.)

The photo above shows one of the two binding posts in position while I assembled the book.  It also shows the "spacer" placed between two pages.  A "spacer" is used to keep the book from bulging due to the thickness of the collaging on each page.  (For more about this, please visit my earlier blog post regarding Anonymous Ancestor Scrapbook II.) 


(Above:  Anonymous Scrapbook III, finished.)

It didn't take long to assemble the final book.  From the outside, it looks very much like something from the mid-20th century.

(Above:  Anonymous Ancestors Scrapbook III, open.)

From the inside, it retains the feel of yesteryear ... but with a literary twist.  I'm really pleased with this scrapbook.  It will be in my solo show next September at The University of South Carolina-Beaufort.

(Above:  Fusing the rest of my stash of black-and-white photos onto muslin.)

Even though Anonymous Ancestors Scrapbook III finishes up the work I began in Minnesota, I still have hundreds (if not well over a thousand) anonymous images in my stash.  I had an idea in Minnesota but it required the use of a dry-mount machine.  So, since coming home, I've been fusing all the photos to fabric.  Even the fabric is second-hand (and likely over thirty years old ... a donation from another artist!)

(Above:  Detail of anonymous photos fused to fabric.)

I've done this before when creating my Grid of Photos.  Fusion 4000 is a product in the custom picture framing industry used to fuse fabric to mat board or foam-centered board.  I've used it to fuse photos to fabric instead.

 (Above:  The Grid of Photos.)

Of course, after fusing all these photos to fabric, I have to cut them all out.  I've been doing this every evening while watching television with Steve.

(Above:  Detail of The Grid of Photos.)

I have three pieces in mind.  This time, I don't want to mix the black-and-white images with the colored ones.  So ... I did them separately.  I now have two boxes filled with my "raw materials".  I'll be blogging about this new work as it takes shape in the coming weeks.!

(Above:  The colored images fused to fabric ... and two boxes filled with my "raw materials" ... plus an abstract art quilt in the process of being basted to recycled, black acrylic felt.  Yet ... this is the state of my living room!)

I am linking this blog post to Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Fridays", a site for sharing fiber arts.