The first quilt for a bed

Well, I finally finished the quilt for my daughter a la "Gee's Bend". It is machine quilted and you ain't gonna get a close up of the stitching as there are places that don't look so hot. But what the hey, I'm learning and my daughter is thrilled. I told her she better love, love, LOVE it as I don't know how many more of these I can crank out. I would like to make one for all the kids but will have to find a more comfortable way of quilting. I love the colors in this and worked very intuitively (probably obvious) as I really know nothing about how it "should" be done and really don't care. My grandson wants one made from blue jeans so I guess I will be collecting old jeans for a while. I think it would be a great thing to send him off to college with...good thing I have a couple of years to make it.

Another quilt

Well, yesterday I bit the bullet and put two quilts in a local juried show. I have no idea what will happen but will find out tomorrow. The juror teaches graphic arts so who knows what he will go for. This has been a big learning curve for me...3 down and 3 to go with binding. It is really tough trying to get the binding printed and straight but I'm learning all along. On this one I tried using some multi-colored thread on her turban to indicate the wonderful fabric this woman uses. I took this from a sketch of her I did at meeting of local artists.

I am open to suggestions on how to use this medium better. I'm tempted to applique and turn to a different sort of art quilt but for now I am content to keep transfering my contour drawings.

I am already missing my drawing class. I get so rusty in the summer and am determined not to let that happen this year and to keep drawing and keeping a sketch book with me at all time.

Oh dear, I've been tagged

Okay....7 secrets that you may not know about me...hmmmmm.....
1. I am a retired art therapist and marriage and family therapist.

2. I lived in Perth, Western Australia while teaching art therapy at Edith Cowan University...the first art therapy program in the country. I've taught everything from 3 yr olds to graduate courses and am still teaching workshops. I retired from teaching art therapy grad courses at the U of H/Clear Lake about 5 years ago.

3. I play BeJeweled 2 on my computer late at night or when I can't sleep.

4. I was a potter for 15 years before becoming a therapist.

5. I can't believe I'm seventy. Only my body tells me so.

6. I love chocolate and coffee, not just love, I mean REALLY LOVE.

7. I've been married to the same man all my life. I love him, too...most days.

A new quilt

Here is the latest contour drawing converted into a small quilt (2' x 3'). I debated over whether to bind it or not. To bind it puts it into the craft category and perhaps out of fine art. Some artist friends suggested I leave the threads and frayed edges showing. But I went for the binding with the title, "First cup, no talk," on it. I am really having fun enlarging these drawings and putting them to fabric. Must be something about giving them texture. All those years of working in clay seems to still be an influence...always seeking texture.

I find it difficult to photograph black & white work.

Charcoal drawing

Charcoal drawing from my life drawing class on 26" x 40" Stonehenge. Assignment was to create a large portrait from a photo. This came from a tiny photo in an old National Geographic. I love working this large, feels so freeing.

Quilt close-up

This is a close-up of the quilt. All quilting was done by machine with black quilting thread.

Henry is quilted

This started out as a drawing of a model from my life drawing class on some twill fabric with some conte and marker. I added some acrylic ink set by heat, then washed out the conte. It is about 4' by 5' and backed with muslin. This is my first quilt so a big learning experience. I'm not sure I'm through with it. I wanted to add some references to language on it. My aging husband is having some short term memory loss and frequently struggles for language. These symbols represent those word and thoughts that are floating out there beyond reach. The whole project was fun to do and I think there will be more to follow this one.

Another version of a Mayan waiter

Okay, I think I'm improving. At least I seem to be headed in the direction that I want. Who cares whether it meets anyone else's criteria. I love to draw with pen and ink and my goal in learning watercolor is to splash some color into my ink drawings a la Danny Gregory. So there you go and there I am...critique welcome!

Watercolor, arrrggghhh!

Oh deary me. It has been a long time since I posted on this blog and for good reason. I just haven't created anything I felt worth posting and still don't but decided what the hey! this is my life and process. I am trying to learn watercolor and finding it damn hard. It is a different way of thinking...all this transparency stuff and thinking light to dark. AND a whole new vocabulary of pigments and stuff. So here is my Guatemalan lady with her amazing head gear and heavily embroidered blouse. Poor thing...she is really much more interesting than you would surmise from this painting. I'm just having a hard time learning the pigment to water ratio and so I keep layering. By the time I'm through layering it looks tired and overworked. Arrrgggghh! This was our assignment last week and today we got another Mayan face to work on. I get a little bored with trying to match the skin color and just want to draw him again throwing some wild purple on him. Is it just me that feels this way? It is all just so controlled...I am used to slinging acrylics on with abandon.

The Wrinkle Fairy

Well, while I was sleeping, the Wrinkle Fairy came and laid another couple on me. See, right there, at the corners of my mouth racing past my chin? Good grief. My little fat cheeks have slid down my face into little pouches surrounded by wrinkles. This aging business ain't for sissies. Who is that old woman?

At this rate my boobs will be at my knees and my chins at my waist line before long. I don't look very happy about it, do I? I have discovered a new reason, however, to smile. Those little lines just march right up hill and join the crowd around the eyes. Much more acceptable around the eyes, I think.

And I really don't have a black eye, just some dark circles from this darn bronchitis. Plus I got a little carried away with cerulean blue...oh well.

Another look at the shoe shrine

Well, I just can't seem to leave this one alone. I think it is finally complete. Here is a view of the interior of the patina finish shoe shrine. I have no idea what it means but I just had to add the reptiles and the arms reaching out from the interior. It was fun working with this finish but I may have over done it...hard to find the balance of continuity vs. the unexpected. Would love some comments.....

A day of shrines and the muse

Wow...what a great day. Here at last is my first shoe shrine. I have been saving this pair of red high heels with the idea of creating shrines a la Michael deMeng. So today I went to a friend's shrine workshop loaded with stuff ready for the muse to strike. And strike she did. The shoe was first covered in Liquid Nails so that the surface would be textured and would receive paint easily. It took longer than I would have thought for the Liquid Nails to dry but finally it was ready to play with.

I used a copper patina mix for the first time and it really works. So cool. I'm all set to move on to the other shoe now.
I also created a male figure shrine from a clear plastic toy which I had been harboring forever...have no idea why I hesitated. I am pleased with both and it just felt so good to spend the day playing with all this "stuff".

Cough, sneeze, wheez, blow!

I have no idea if these meets any of the EDM challenges but it certainly is what is currently my Every Day Matter, darn it.
One of those lovely winter bronchial things has settled in for what seems like forever. Now on the second round of heavy duty antibiotics I plan on being hale and hearty by next weekend.

In the meantime, send chicken soup. 

Challenge - something sweet

The Christmas candy on the table at my son's house was so tempting. I love peppermints and now I'm wearing them. Aiiiyayaiiii! Now we are back home and I have a sore throat and bronchitis. Where are those peppermints when I need them? 

Sketches from another waiting room

This old lady is sketched by another old lady as we wait in the doctor's office. She has the most interesting face when I finally got a frontal view as she came out. I would loved to have drawn her again but at last it was my turn to go in. Her hair was in a braid that she had pulled up and clasped on top of her head. I may attempt to go after this with some water color a la Casey in EDM. 

Challenge 93, an egg carton

When really looking at the egg carton on my counter top, I was amazed at how dark the shadows were. I've always played with these cardboard cartons and think they are much more fun than the styrofoam...shows the criteria by which I buy eggs. This was fun in spite of how I struggle to learn watercolor. 

Challenge 92, a brown bag

Here is my drawing of a brown paper bag. Shadows are always a challenge for me and yet they are always present so I can't ignore them. I like this subject just for that reason. I think I shall try turning the bag and doing this again and again. 

Challenge 85, a store in my neighborhood

This quaint little building houses antiques and funky stuff and is part of several businesses in the oldest part of my small city. Seabrook used to be a sleepy little fishing village and the place where wealthy Houstonians came by train in the summers to fish and sail. It borders a channel that runs from Galveston Bay to Clear Lake (which is no longer very clear but is still pretty and home to many marinas). We felt it ironic that we should end up living here in Seabrook as my husband used to visit his aunt and uncle here in the summertime. His uncle was the minister of the small Methodist church.
As a result of the location of Johnson Space Center on Clear Lake, the whole area has mushroomed and now has high rise condominiums springing up along the main thoroughfare which ends up where this cute little shop sits about a block from the bay. Down the street is a Bed & Breakfast in the old parsonage. 

Challenge 41, a local landmark

This strange little building is actually in the shape of a triangel and is no more than 12' in any direction. It has been a Seabrook landmark for over 50 years and sits at the main intersection of our small city at the edge of Galveston Bay.
It began as "Curly's Corner", a bait shop and when we moved to the area over 40 years ago, it sold crab traps, crab nets, shrimp bait, and Coca-Colas out of an old metal cooler. I remember seeing straw hats and old-fashioned bonnets hanging around the small doorway. At that time Seabrook was a quaint fishing village lining the entrance to Clear Lake from Galveston Bay. Shrimp boats lined up along the wharves and Houstonians came down to buy shrimp off the boats. I paid 50 cents a pound for shrimp.
About 15 years ago or more a local lawyer bought the small property surrounded by Highway and Nasa Rd 1 and hired an imaginative architect to design an office from the standing structure. It is such a fun building to look it. The side away from the viewer in the sketch is mostly glass with some mosaic tile work to one side. So "Curly's Corner" has been preserved with imagination and is fully functional as a law office. I haven't never been inside but hope one day to get the view from the inside out. There is room only for one car to park by the entrance. Notice the amazing iron railing in the shape of dolphins. 

This unusual street light was outside of Starbuck's as my grandaughter and I sipped our drinks and sketched last Saturday. It was just one of those rare lovely glimpses of fall and we so enjoyed sitting at an outside table. A young man was getting a voice lesson next to us and singing French opera....a very new experience for my young grandaughter and I rather enjoyed it. Evidently he and his voice coach meet regularly there...it probably annoys some but I thought it added to our experience. 

Challenge 86

Once again I became more aware of images that I see every day but usually don't absorb. But goodness, there is such a wide variety of traffic signs I think I could fill pages and pages. 

I had a wonderful Saturday morning with my grandaughter starting with an exhibit of things built from Legos at our local library and then an hour of sketching at our local Starbuck's. The dog was a lively pet on a leash at a table next to us but bounced around so much that we just tried to capture its head. The cup was filled with my usual SF Hazelnut Breve Latte. My grandaughter loves the EDMs and is trying a few of them. This weekend we plan to develop her own blog so that she can share her drawings with her dad. We had so much fun! 

Challenge 66

A fire hydrant. Some fire hydrants in our neighborhood are actually yellow and blue....but I picked a more traditional one near my house. It was pretty interesting to really look at one. I love the way these EDMs make you really, really look at something you usually ignore. 

"My lunch" Challenge

Today's lunch: apple, grapes and cheese. Ink and watercolor in Raffine. Another EDM done. Now to see about dinner. And then on to "Dancing with the Stars", one of the three TV shows I watch weekly. Such fun.  

Challenge 84, Bread

Yay, back to working on Challenges at last. Of course I just had to have a Bear Claw from Panera to draw. It was just difficult to leave it alone long enough to find my watercolors. Well actually I plead guilty to having a bite before applying a brush.
This was a treat to myself after a Physical Therapy session....hard work deserves a treat, right? 

Walking, walking, walking---Yippeeee!

Looky here! Walking. No cane, all gain. At last. I still wobble a little here and there but I can even drive! Wow! Things are definitely lookin up. Now to get pain free. That will come but in the meantime thank goodness for pain meds.

At last I can carry a glass of iced tea to a chair. It tis the little things that one can really appreciate after this kind of experience.  

Another view from the hospital...Mrs. Martin

My sketch of Mrs. Martin Mrs, Martin is a tiny, frail little woman with huge blue eyes under enormous glasses who was rolled into the dining hall of the hospital for meals and I was fortunate enough to meet her and dine with her on occasion. She wore this incredible look of innocence matched always with a rather impish smile. She reminded me of Yoda from Star Wars. One had the feeling that she had just found herself in a wonderful dream in the midst of a big party where she was the guest of honor. She may have a touch of Alzheimer's, thus the look of waking up in a whole new world hourly but I loved being near her and in her energy.
One day her daughter, son, grandaughter and great-grandaughter and great grandson joined us for dinner. She was delighted with all the attention and her adorable great grandson about 2 years old wore the same look of innocence in his matching blue,blue eyes. And we all enjoyed her very precocious 6 yr old great grandaughter. 

Another sketch from the hospital stay. The tech who saw it (gorgeous Anthony with the dark eyes and pony tail---not all of me was numb) said I must have been really really bored to resort to drawing my bedside potty. He was right! 

Here is a postcard I made a few weeks ago as part of a project with my Artist's Way group. We've been sending postcards to folks who are ill or having difficulties. I also send out some through Postcard X, a fun website for exchanging PCs. 

Another sketch from the hospital. Why the OTs wouldn't just let me draw inside of making omelettes in a plastic bag is beyond me. It wasn't until my last day that I demanded my sketch book. At that point I didn't care whether I made them mad. Sweet ladies but glued to their job descriptions. Sketching beats dominoes in my book any day in rehab. 

Home at last

Well, hi there. Home at last. Yep, it was 2 weeks ago last Tuesday that I went under the knife and after 6 days in the Surgical center and 10 days in the rehab hospital, I am a very happy camper to be home again and sleeping in my own bed. I will try to spare you most of the gory details but I had a complication with the epidural and had to have a blood patch to fix the leak. That was an eiry experience as the OR was closed down on Saturday morning as they wheeled my bed through the dark and empty bays toward a table all lit up...I would have sworn I was in some kind of weird movie and Freddie Krueger was going to be waiting at the end. But thanks to two fabulous anesthesiologists I am all fixed up and was sent on to the rehab hospital.

Reminder: if you can help it, never schedule surgery before a holiday weekend. Minimal staff does not add to your comfort zone. Labor Day all the patients were wheeled into Physical Therapy (hereafter known fondly as PT) at once and it was a major downer for me. I looked around the room and thought "OMG, how did I get here? I have crossed over into the land of the aged and infirmed. Holy cow!" We all got in a big line and wheeled our wheel chairs around the gym to music...now try to get this picture...a parade of wheel chairs. Lovely. That was our Occupational Therapy for the day followed by more group fun with Physical Therapy.
By the next day my attitude had changed 180 degrees and I became just simply so very grateful that I was not struggling to gain movement in a limb following a stroke, or that I had not been in a terrible auto accident. I had just had a wonderful knee replacement by one of the best doctors ever and I was soon going to be much better.

Because Medicare requires 1 hour of Occupational Therapy each day that you are in a rehab hospital, I had to do some really dumb stuff. At 8 one morning six of us were lined up at table in the kitchen doing Chopping 101 on onions, green peppers, tomatoes, ham and mushrooms on paper plates, all with rubber gloves of course. We each put our name on a Ziplock freezer bag, cracked two eggs into the bag, squished them around, added ham, etc and cheese followed by more squishing. The preacher next to me and I got so good at it, we made a bunch for the staff. These bags were all dropped into a big pot of boiling water for 13 minutes and out came omelettes. They just rolled right out of the bags ready to pop into a tortilla. Seemed like an awful lot of trouble and waiting to make an omelette but it was kinda fun.

Talk about meeting some interesting folk, I have never met so many people with missing teeth, not just one or two. It is a terrible mark on our health coverage that it seems that much of our population can't afford dental care. All patients were encouraged to eat in the dining hall which is an effort at 7:00 am when your roommate has kept you up all night. I finally got to where I could tuck my sketch book under my arm while I pushed my walker around. I will share more drawings later.
The rehab doc was great and when I came in, I was greeted with an icy orange mega vitamin drink. A hospital that gives vitamins? Wow!!
I am doing so great...at least a couple of weeks ahead of where I was with the last knee. I go to outpatient PT 3 days a week and had a pedicure yesterday thanks to dear daughter who has delivered chocolate as well...she knows her mama.
I want to thank everyone, especially my husband, for all their incredible support. I had many folk come to visit so I never felt lost or lonely; beautiful flowers and cards; lots of prayers; and some wonderful nurses and therapists. I am so, so grateful to everyone and to the technology that is available. This knee is even better than the last one.
Thank you, Universe. I believed and you delivered.