While She Naps

1 of 6 drab birds

Whew!  It has been a few days since I've posted here.  Roxanne is currently attending two summer camps at once, Charlie is away on a business trip, we are embarking on a major landscape construction project to transform our backyard into usable space, and my mom is in town.  And our babysitter is away this week.  So all of this means very little time to sit down to the sewing machine. 

That's okay, though.  When I do have time, I am making slow progress on creating a new series of six small birds, all in drab colors, for the Teeny Tiny Art Show at Three Graces Gallery in Portsmouth. This show takes place at the same time as the Enormous Tiny Art Show at Nahcotta, also in Portsmouth.  The opening is Friday night, September 5, and I am planning to go.  Seems I go to New Hampshire a lot!

 

This is the first of six birds.  Each piece has to be 10" x 10" or smaller and at first this constraint had me so paralyzed.  I don't know why because in the end very few of my birds ever exceed this size.  Finally  I settled down and figured out what to make.

looped lark in red

We had a great time at the opening at artstream on Friday night, despite a really scary and trying drive up there through much traffic and torrential rain!  It was so nice to see Susan again and to meet many women artists from blogland in person at long last.  I do love the internet for connecting me with you all.

Here are some pictures from the evening:

 
Me and Lisa Congdon!  She is just as excellent as you've imagined.

And Charlie meeting Lisa Solomon.  The show was amazing to see in person.  It was striking to see Lisa C.'s work hung in such as different way than it usually is - spread out horizontally along big wide gallery walls.  And then juxtaposed with Lisa S.'s subtle and careful compositions. Wow.  Well worth the stressful drive for sure.

I finished this red looped lark today

and she is currently listed in my shop, along with some older work that has just recently come back to me including one of my very favorite mixed media pieces, The City.

I'm still thinking and drawing and thinking some more about what to make for the Teeny Tiny Art Show.  Hmmm.

hi

Just a quick post today. I am excited that my birds arrived safely in Seattle and are now listed on Bluebottle Art Gallery's website!  I feel so honored to be listed there, along with so many awesome folks including the amazing Eleanor Grosch.

Also this week I am working with Kim, my web designer and the owner of the lovely Three Graces Gallery in Portsmouth, to update my website.  Hopefully a whole slew of images of my latest work will be added soon.  I am going to be part of this show in September at Three Graces and have just begun making the first in a series of six pieces for it. Lots of fun! And I'm hoping to attend the opening, too. I love Portsmouth.

Speaking of openings, we are leaving tomorrow afternoon for an hour and a half drive to Rochester, NH, to attend Lisa and Lisa's opening at artstream.  Lisa Congdon has been an amazing source of inspiration and encouragement for me, as I know she is for many of us out here, and I cannot wait to finally meet her.  And Jennifer Judd-McGee tells me she is coming, too!  It's going to be a great night. 

small owl!

I made a very small (only 7" tall!) version of my owl soft sculpture.  This little fellow is here in the studio now, hanging out with small sewing notions and feeling rather antsy as other, larger birds, peer down at him.  I find him rather endearing, though. 

As usual, he has a wire armature and his legs are covered with torn strips of fabric.  And the looped wings again, of course.  He is now listed in my Etsy shop.

looped lark

This small series is now complete and I will ship three birds to Blue Bottle Art Gallery and Boutique early next week.  The final one is this looped lark.

Here she is from another angle so that you can see her open beak.

And a detail of the loops and stitching on the wings.

I'm satisfied that these three bird - the owl, rooster and lark - have a unified look, but distinct personalities.  If you live in Seattle I hope you will check them out in person, in the boutique, in a few weeks.

We are off to swim with some friends at the JCC this afternoon.  Have a great weekend!

A Rooster

The second piece for Blue Bottle Art Gallery.  This rooster is more pink and deep red than the previous orangey one.  Deep red is my favorite color and it always makes me happy to pick red fabrics and sew with red thread. I have one more bird to make in this little series and then away they go to Seattle. 

owl (in grey)

I hope you had a great 4th of July.  It was a bit on the cold and cloudy side here, but we still enjoyed the parade in Needham, hosted a cookout and attended another. Here we are trying to stay warm and dry while admiring the floats going by.

It was a nice long weekend. 

I finished this owl tonight. It is the first in a small series of new birds I am making for Blue Bottle in Seattle.  These will be available in their boutique once the series is complete.

I'm very excited that Lisa Congdon will be visiting this coast in only a few weeks.  We have booked a babysitter and are really looking forward to attending her opening, with Lisa Solomon, at artstream on July 18!  Yeah!

a poultry scene!

It has taken a little while, but I've finally finished my poultry scene - three hens, three eggs and, of course, the snarky rooster.  Thank you to Charlie for helping me see that the hens should not only have smaller combs and waddles than the rooster, but also lighter colored plummage.  I love these four birds posed together.  What are they discussing? Clearly something about those eggs.  This set of soft sculptures will be for an upcoming show. In fact I'm a bit deluged with work again.  Three upcoming shows and a new gallery to send work to.  Very exciting stuff!

In other news, I recently found two very nice dance costumes at the dump and we have been treated to many an interpretive dance around here.

And we have decided to do some upgrades to our computer at long last.  We installed a gig of memory last week, all by ourselves without blowing anything up.  Editing photos has become so much less annoying now that it doesn't take forever. Next comes an updated operating system and iLife. If only Typepad would get their act together and let us type at a normal pace when posting here I might like my computer again.

chicken

I was inspried by the new loop feathers idea to make a chicken.  Whenever we go to Drumlin Farm I always admire the fluffy, feathery top hat chickens in their hen house.

I really like the open beak on this bird.  I'm hoping to do some more with open beaks. It seems to me that they are really alive when their beaks are in action.

We had a delightful afternoon yesterday picking strawberries at our CSA farm.  Stella was totally covered with dripping strawberry juice, eating them right in the field.  We got there after a torrential summer rainstorm and it was so beautiful and peaceful at the farm.

Today we are going to Morses Pond for some swimming, some sandcastle building, and some hoping for the jingle of the ice cream truck.

inspiration

As always, there are so many beautiful things being made and shown on Flickr every day.  I thought it would be nice on this chilly, overcast day in Boston to post a mosaic of a few of my most recent favorites.  Enjoy.

 

1. let`s go down!, 2. nature table, 3. totem fabric, 4. Untitled, 5. aw23, 6. awe30, 7. Citroën 2CV, 8. Morty CU, 9. Crested gecko terrarium, 10. veggies, 11. sepia pirate, 12. Plush aquarium #1, 13. Exhibition at Jimmy's Skate + Street, 14. Untitled, 15. Jellies, 16. 3 battle cuffs, 17. who is peeking out?, 18. Chorus Gals (C365: day 27), 19. aw7, 20. scarfed