Nike's Advice III and other work

(Above:  Nike's Advice III, framed. 34" x 42". Assorted paint, oil pastels, and ink on unprimed canvas with self-guided, free-motion stitching.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

During the annual spring art crawl, Artista Vista 2016, I painted over hundred feet of canvas with the public.  My friends Barry Wheeler and John Allen created a video of the experience.  (CLICK HERE for the one-minute, time-lapse of the experience.  It is a blast!)  For over a year, I did nothing with the fabric.  Now, I'm really enjoying stitching some of it. 

 (Above:  Nike's Advice III, framed and hanging beside my mat cutter and small Seal dry-mount press at Mouse House, my business.)

The first two pieces had three layers:  the painted canvas (top), recycled industrial packaging felt (middle), and blank canvas (bottom ... more from the same, original bolt of fabric).  These first two were finished without a frame.  The edges were simply button-hole stitched. Yet, I wondered if I really needed the packaging felt.  There was only one way to find out ... TRY IT.

(Nike's Advice III, detail.)
  
Nike's Advice III is the result.  Although I have the next piece under my sewing machine and it has the felt layer, I'm now wondering about using a larger piece of the canvas on the back ... and stretching the finished work around wooden stretcher bars.  One thing always seems to lead to the next!

 (Nike's Advice III, detail.)

I'm very pleased with the finished work and hung it at Mouse House, the limited custom picture framing shop I own with my husband Steve.

 (Nike's Advice III, detail.)

Yet I wasn't pleased until making the decision to cut off approximately 6" from the right side and 3" off the bottom.  This fabric was painted without much thought to composition, color, or even having any edges.  The bolt was simply suspended from the ceiling.  It flowed down onto two folding tables.  As the fabric was covered, I pulled more fabric down and continued painting.  Even though I thought I cut a nice arrangement, it needed a little trimming.

 (Above:  Nike's Advice IV.  10 1/2" x 10 1/2". $40.)

I took the parts I trimmed away and made two little pieces.  It was fun to work with the scraps, cut them, and make a new arrangement.

 (Above:  Nike's Advice V.  9 1/4" x 15 1/4". $50.)

These two little pieces were shrink wrapped and thrown into a print bin. 

 (Above:  Relic XCV.  Unframed 6" x 5".  Framed: 11" x 12".  $100.)

Every time I conduct one of my "HOT" workshops, I finish the demonstration piece.  I figure that I'm hired not just for a "workshop" piece but as a working artist.  I ought to be making art.  So, that's what I do.  This is the piece from last week's workshop in Fairhope.  The one I stitched in Mobile never made it home.  It was sold to one of the participants!  That really makes me happy because it means that I am succeeding in my desire to "teach like an artist" not just as someone going over a lesson plan!

(Above:  Window CXLVII.  Framed: 15 1/2" x 12 1/2".)

Before I left for the two workshops in Alabama, a friend commissioned me to create a special piece for her mother's birthday.  She selected a design from one of my earlier Lancet Windows ... but just the top half.  Happily, she picked it up today.  Commissions are always very special too!