Review: The Natural World – By Martha Sielman

Graced by the cover art of Barbara Barrick McKie,  Art Quilt Portfolio: The Natural World titles this latest work by Martha Sielman and delights us with 192 pages of eye candy.  Included are 19 featured artists with “photos of their quilts as well as essays about their creative process and signature techniques”. These artists each receive 4-6 pages dedicated to their work and processes. Featured artists are:  Katherine K. Allen, Melanie Kane Brewer, Betty Busby, Paula Chung, Nancy G. Cook, Sally Dillon, Ginny Eckley, Patricia Gould, Annie Helmericks-Louder, Ruth B. McDowell, Barbara Barrick McKie, Annemieke Mein, Karen Illman Miller, Dottie Moore, Dominie Nash, Elaine Quehl, Ginny Smith, Judith Trager, and Cassandra Williams.  Special gallery sections spotlight images of work from other talented members of the art quilt community.  A collection of work around the theme of “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”, a poem by Wallace Stevens of the same name, is featured.  I found the work inspired by this poem to be  interesting commentary on the theme as some of the pieces did not feature black birds or any birds at all!

One of the featured artists is Katherine K. Allen from Florida.  I  was able to see her “Eventide”  in person in January as that particular work was accepted into Form Not Function 2012.  Her process is very unique and aims to capture the essence of the natural world as she uses collected live grasses, and leaves, etc. as stencils.  Dominie Nash is another artist I admire  and I have particularly enjoyed her abstract still life work.  This book includes her recent series based on leaves.

I do love the depth of exploration that Martha does of each  artists’ working process and thoughts.  I  wish some of the other works could have been featured in a larger format, but evidently this book was not aimed at full size presentation.

I don’t know how others go about it, but whenever I get a new book or magazine, I go through all the pictures first.  Later, I will start to read the articles and biographies.  This one is no different as I am now starting to carefully read and take notes from each artist.

Purchase Art Quilt Portfolio: The Natural World here  at the SAQA website.

Masters: Art Quilts Vol. 2

Martha Sielman’s second volume of the Masters: Art Quilts published by Lark Crafts is definitely 400 pages of eye candy,  a colorful, visually stimulating treat to the art of 40 contemporary  artists working in textiles.  Sielman features work, not only from the United States, but from across the globe, including Switzerland, Australia, Hungary, France, So. Africa, the Netherlands, Canada, Israel, Russia, Japan, Norway, and England.  I love this global selection, as well as her exploration of the career and personal backgrounds of each artist and how this contributes to the way they work.  This background provides a rich supplement to the amazing art featured in the book.  There are ample selections of each artist’s work, with 5 to 10 pages of full page photographs  devoted to each.  I feel that I have seen a good representation of the artists.

There are many familiar (to me) artists featured: Paula Nadelstern,  Laura Wasilowski, Nelda Warkentin, Jane Dunnewold, and Linda MacDonald. Others are totally unknown to me, but their addition to this catalog greatly enrich my visual experience with every page.

Sielman’s choice of artists who work in a broad range of styles and techniques contributes to the appeal of the book.   Some are personal histories providing a view into worlds unknown to most, such as  Carolyn Crump’s portraitures which feel very much like linocuts because of the black outlines she uses.  Dutch quilter Miriam Pet-Jacobs uses commentary with messages both obvious and elusive.  I love Netherland’s resident Leslie Gabrielse’s combination of collage and realistic figures.  He states that he is “very drawn to commercial fabrics…fascinated by the variety of motifs and textures they have to offer.”  Pamela Fitzsimons’ work is based on the Australian landscape, creating lines, colors, and patterns reminiscent of the country.   Dirkje van der Horst-Beetsma creates landscapes based on her native province in the Netherlands which are made up of several sections laced together with unusual materials such as zippers or inner tubes. Izabella Baykova’s depictions of Russian cityscapes and fairy tales are renditions of views from her St. Petersburg apartment and folk stories using layers of sheer silk and paint. I find her work to be amazingly intricate. Daniela Dancelli’s abstract work, using a combination of different textiles along with plastic, laminated newsprint, and found objects, incorporates strong colors, bold marks and handwritten letters into her symbolic pieces.

This volume is a must-have addition to any serious textile artist’s library.  It will be kept in my home alongside Volume 1 and studied over and over again.  Martha Sielman’s curating has provided an invaluable service to the textile art community.

For those interested in supporting the arts, Masters: Art Quilts Vol. 2 can be purchased through SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Association).  Lark is donating the full $24.95 amount to SAQA.

Sketchbook Cover

Got a collage going that just isn’t working for ya’?  Make a sketchbook cover out of it!  I haven’t been sketching much lately, but my sketchbook got a new jacket today.

Visual Journal-ing

I got the idea to decorate the front of my visual journal from someone else who is doing the online workshop at Strathmore.  Of course, I couldn’t just do it with paper…I had to use some cloth too…this cloth is rusted cloth and the rest is paper. I really loved her color scheme of browns, tans and red, so I worked off of that also.

Now as to what is inside…I have yet to finish Week #3′s instructions and Week #4 is where we are now.  I will get it finished this week!  And post it then.  As for the Sketchbook Project I signed up…I have gotten as far as collaging some newsprint to the page.  My plan is to do a sketch over that and then paint it.  This has been percolating for some time…and January is almost over.  A new theme will be announced for February. January has been a busy month, but I almost have my tax paperwork finished and will get it to the cpa early for once!

Life In August

I’m such a slacker on this blog!  I really didn’t have much of anything interesting to report.  I have been getting ready to teach and vend, so have not been making any art, that’s for sure.  I have some new products to sell and the class I taught last weekend was machine quilting.  What’s there to say about that?

I do have a sample that I quilted with my Featherweight machine.  That might be interesting to see.

A complaint I have about stitching this way on the Featherweight, and it may be a problem unique only to mine and not to other machines, is that when the needle goes down in the hole a second time, a pretty noticeable knot appears (at least with black thread on white cloth).  But I made the sample to show my class that it is possible to do this on a Featherweight.

I love Kathy Sandbach’s books on machine quilting.  The one I used for the class was Show Me How To Machine Quilt.  She has developed a method of creating unique continuous line designs in stitch for quilts with diagrams showing how to start and continue. It’s a great book especially if you are looking to go beyond stippling and other filler designs. I have some left over from the class.  They are $16.95 plus shipping.  They are not up on the website yet.

Another piece of news:  I now have Rayna Gillman’s book for sale on my website!  See here.

Well, I guess that’s all for today…hopefully it won’t be so long between posts this time!

Seeing…Where It All Begins

I have been reading Betty Edwards’ book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, as I have mentioned in previous posts. She says that learning to draw is not so much about drawing, but about seeing. She writes extensively about how to turn off the left brain dominance and make a shift to the right brain creative mode. The exercises in the book are there to help make this happen. I find it interesting how one can start to “see” things even when they are not expecting it.

For instance, my husband and I made a trip home for the 4th of July. I was talking on the phone when he pulled into the parking lot of the Dairy Queen in McLeansboro. I thought he had to use the restroom and he never said anything to me as he exited the car. While I was waiting, I began to “see” the side of a building in front of me. I think my mind made the shift to the right brain. Wow! There were some awesome markings. I got my camera out and started snapping pictures. I found watermarks and pitmarks on the building. I just kept shooting anything I thought I might find interesting, because you just never know.

Here are the markings that caught my attention:

This building with the blue doors also intrigued me, so I took a few pics of it too.

I think it’s time to get a new Thermofax screen order ready. I am loving buildings.

For most of my adult life, I have been a bit of a photography bug. Perhaps that’s why I went to x-ray school…to take pictures! But I’ve traded all that in now for a more artistic and interesting picture-taking experience. I love my digital camera.

Tuesday This ‘N That…

The holiday is over.  I didn’t get to do my usual ritual since we left town to go visit with families.  My usual 4th of July celebration consists of reading an old American history book and remembering the sacrifices of those who rebelled against an oppressive government, so that a new way of life, a new freedom of expression and of living, could be established in our country, the United States.  I marvel at their bravery and wonder, if called upon, could I do the same?  Considering the history of our country is something I feel I need to do at least once a year, and usually my husband is working on the holiday, so that affords me the time to do it.

But this year we went home, since my sister was coming in from Texas.  We spent a day with his family and a day with mine before driving home on Saturday evening.  I took some things to work on and think about and my sketchbook, in case there were any idle moments.  I have been reading the book by Betty Edwards, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and had not really tried any of the exercises yet.  So, on Friday night, I set my mother-in-law’s salt and pepper shakers in front of me and proceeded to do some almost blind  contour drawing.  I  see the possibilities of using these drawings for abstract work.  I highly recommend this book.

Today I have been outside in my “wet studio” (patio) screening and stamping silk scarves with dye paint for a different look.  I am planning and looking forward to a productive week!

New Reading Material…

I ordered some back issues of the Surface Design Journal.  Yummmmmm………  They arrived very quickly.  You can order back issues here.

New Books…

I’ve been reading! A few weeks ago I ordered some new art books. Art Against the Odds, From Slave Quilts to Prison Paintings by Susan Goldman Rubin is an interesting short study (actually I think it’s a children’s book) of the work of artists in concentrations camps and the Japanese internment camps in WWII, quilts made by slaves, and art made by patients battling mental illness. It is very interesting. I also purchased Betty Edwards’ Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, so far quite stimulating. In her book, she mentions another book called The Right Way to Draw by Kimon Nicolaides, which I also happened to order at the same time. I haven’t read it yet. Yesterday I was at the dentist’s office with Betty’s book while I was waiting. I was reading her description of what happens when the right brain is dominant and the left brain is turned off…wow, that’s exactly what it’s like in what I call “the zone”! I know you all know what that is!