"Joy"-a mixed media collage for "ONE"

Each week I have showcased a collage each week leading up to the ONE (One Cause, One Wednesday, One Hundred Collages) event.
Here is the fifth, and final, collage for the event. Each collage utilizes all or part of a "mail art" card, along with elements of fiber.  These pieces are mounted on 8.5 x 11 watercolor paper.

This event takes place ONE day only:  Wednesday, February 16th!

Please mark your calendars and join us for the excitement.

One hundred percent of the funds raised will be donated to the American Cancer Society.

"Highly Prized: Family, Home, & Friends"

This sketchbook page is part of the January theme, "Highly Prized", as part of the Sketchbook Challenge.
It explores working into wet media, as well as screen printing onto paper.  Please click the links to visit the Sketchbook Challenge blog and consider joining us for a new monthly theme.  I have no idea what the theme for February is until it posts on 2/1, and I can't wait!

Quilting Arts TV Episode 705: screenprinting with facial cloths

See my segment in Season 7 of Quilting Arts Television, episode 705:

It frustrates me that our local PBS line-up does not include Quilting Arts TV!  Luckily, anyone who is in the same boat as I am can order the series on dvd.  I got an early copy of the series and started watching them.  I learned how to install a proper "facing finish" on a quilt and it has already come in handy several times!  No matter what your level of experience in surface design or quilt making, there is a wealth of information in each episode.  I recommend it (and not just because I'm in it ;-).

Beautiful words in difficult times

Elizabeth A posted this excerpt on Melanie Testa's blog this morning.  It seems to me that the word illness could be substituted with many others and remain relevant.  I thought the words were so perfect that I am sharing it again here:

When the reverberations of shock subside in you,
May grace come to restore you to balance.
May it shape a new space in your heart
To embrace this illness as a teacher
Who has come to open your life to new worlds.

"It's All Good"-a mixed media collage for "ONE"

Each week I plan to showcase one collage each week leading up to the ONE (One Cause, One Wednesday, One Hundred Collages) event.
Here is the fourth of my five collages. Each collage utilizes all or part of a "mail art" card, along with elements of fiber.  These pieces are mounted on 8.5 x 11 watercolor paper.

This event takes place ONE day only:  Wednesday, February 16th!

Please mark your calendars and join us for the excitement.

One hundred percent of the funds raised will be donated to the American Cancer Society.

Interview for "ONE" on Virginia Spiegel's blog

Please stop by Virginia Spiegel's blog today to read an interview about the "ONE" fundraising event on February 16th, 2011.

Sponsored by Fiberart For A Cause
Would you like to help promote ONE and be entered in a drawing for great prizes?
Zip on over here for ready-to-use blog and Facebook posts,
Tweets, logo to grab, and more.

One Cause - The Fight Against CancerOne Wednesday - February 16, 2011 One Hundred Collages - Created by an all-star team of artists: Natalya Aikens Pamela Allen - Interview Laura Ann Beehler - Interview Liz Berg Pokey Bolton Laura Cater-Woods - Interview Jette Clover Jane Davila Jane Dunnewold Jamie Fingal - Interview Gloria Hansen Leslie Tucker Jenison Lyric Kinard Jeanelle McCall - Interview Linda Teddlie Minton - Interview Karen Stiehl Osborn - Interview BJ Parady - Interview Judy Coates Perez Wen Redmond - Interview Cynthia St. Charles Virginia A. Spiegel Our goal - Raise $8,000 in one day to add to the $205,000 already  donated to the American Cancer Society through Fiberart For A Cause.

Inspiration: negative space

Crepe Myrtles (pruned back for winter)

"Silence"-A mixed media collage for "ONE"

I am showcasing one collage each week leading up to the ONE (One Cause, One Wednesday, One Hundred Collages) event.
Here is the third of my five collages. Each collage utilizes all or part of a "mail art" card, along with elements of fiber.  These pieces are mounted on 8.5 x 11 watercolor paper.

This event takes place ONE day only:  Wednesday, February 16th!

Please mark your calendars and join us for the excitement.

One hundred percent of the funds raised will be donated to the American Cancer Society.

"What You Get"-A mixed media collage for "ONE"

Each week I plan to showcase one collage each week leading up to the ONE (One Cause, One Wednesday, One Hundred Collages) event.
Here is the second of my five collages. Each collage utilizes all or part of a "mail art" card, along with elements of fiber.  These pieces are mounted on 8.5 x 11 watercolor paper.

This event takes place ONE day only:  Wednesday, February 16th!

Please mark your calendars and join us for the excitement.

One hundred percent of the funds raised will be donated to the American Cancer Society.

30 Days/30 Drawings

Here are the 30 drawings, beginning at the top left,

and proceeding left to right to the last drawing on the lower right.

Thank you for joining me on this little adventure.  

Now, I want to decide what to do with them!

I might sew them together and see what happens next....

Floribunda (a little peek)

This is a detail shot of my piece which is part of a larger, collaborative piece.  I had fun doing it because I haven't made a dimensional textile piece in a long time.  This uses a lot of different types of cloth:  silk organza, habotai, cotton, and the base is one of Wendy Richardson's beautiful over-dyed home-dec canvases.  I can't wait to see the large finished piece!  Very exciting!

Wise Words...

The following is an excerpt from an online interview of Laura Cater-Woods for "ONE", taken from Virginia Spiegel's blog:

What advice do you have for artists who are seeking their unique voice or direction in their own artwork?
Do the work. Do a lot of work. Look at art, listen to music, see live performance in areas outside your particular focus. Read. Do more work. Do enough work to make a lot of mistakes. Risk. Play. Sit quietly for a few minutes every days and just watch the light change. Pay attention.

Go make something.

Your voice is always with you. By giving the extraneous stuff a chance to get made and out of your head, your direction and voice will emerge. It is unavoidable.

Truer words were never written.  This is the ongoing mantra at Art Cloth Studios.  Just do the work.  Do it when you are inspired, and especially when you are not.  Something will bubble up.  

Please take a moment and stop over to read Laura's interview.  She never fails to inspire me, especially now.  The fight against cancer was never more personal.

Drawing #30

30 days 30 drawings

"Koi", a mixed-media collage for "ONE"

Following in the steps of Linda Teddlie Minton's plan to showcase one collage each week leading up to the ONE (One Cause, One Wednesday, One Hundred Collages) event I have decided to do the same.
Here is the first of my five collages. Each collage utilizes all or part of a "mail art" card, along with elements of fiber.  These pieces are mounted on 8.5 x 11 watercolor paper.

This event takes place ONE day only:  Wednesday, February 16th!

Please mark your calendars and join us for the excitement.

One hundred percent of the funds raised will be donated to the American Cancer Society.

Drawing 29

stretchy woven pad

Drawing 28

sleepy schnauzer

Happy New Year! The Sketchbook Challenge begins!

SATURDAY, JANUARY 1, 2011

Jill Berry is the very first theme-maker for the

The Sketchbook Challenge
which begins NOW

The theme for January is

HIGHLY PRIZED

These words are inspired by the work of Sister Corita Kent, a nun who made fabulous graphic serigraphs in the 1960s-1970s. Sister Corita was an artist, a social activist, and a grateful person who enthusiastically embraced the gift of each day. You can find out more about her here. Lucky me, my mother was an early fan of Sister Corita, and hung her artwork all over our house. This one is my favorite, it hangs in Mom's living room, where I am right now.

Anything that you consider "Highly Prized" is what you will sketch this month. It could be your dog, child, husband, favorite tea cup, your right hand, whatever you feel this way about. Sit up and take notice, and sketch sketch sketch. Here is my starter page, of my children as babies, books, berries, all "B" things that are highly prized to me.

GO FOR IT!!!!

Along the way, each of us, the artists and guides that have signed up to lead this pack for a year, will be blogging about what we are doing with the theme. I will be adding videos and tutorial on my blog as the month goes along. Now is your chance to learn, practice, appreciate and maybe start that one-day-a-week art habit you have been dreaming about.

January is a month of renewal, and fresh starts, named for Janus,
the Roman god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings, endings and time.
(Thanks to my mom for this tidbit from her Latin class)

HIGHLY PRIZED

Create as many pages in your sketchbook related to this months theme as you like and post photos of them in the Sketchbook Challenge flickr group here or on your own blog if you have one.

How to be eligible for prize drawings:
In order to be eligible for one of this months prizes you must post at least one photo of a sketchbook page related to this months theme to the Sketchbook Challenge Flickr group and you MUST tag one of your photos with the code "jan246". IMPORTANT: PLEASE ONLY TAG ONE OF YOUR PHOTOS with this special code! It is not necessary to tag more than one and it will not increase your chances of winning prizes.

Photos of this months prizes can be found here and information on how to upload photos to flickr can be found here.

Winners will be chosen based on random draw on 1/31/11 and announced on the Sketchbook Challenge blog either on that day or on 2/1/11.

Get all the details on the sketchbook challenge here.

WELCOME TO 2011
The Year of the Sketchbook Challenge!

Drawing 27

glasses and shadows