Gaya Wrap

I wanted to play with color.

And rich textures.

A celebration of nature.

Happy tassels.

My Gaya Wrap.

I could wear it myself.

But her heart belonged to Gaya.

And she was happiest with the trees.

Happy Earth Day!

Good Hope Art Exhibit

Last month I showed five pieces at the Twenty-Third Annual Caribbean Fine Art Exhibit at The Good Hope School here on St. Croix. Here is the result of many hours contemplating fabric, color, texture, form, and overall feel. These pieces represent to me a tribute to the inspired life, where it isn't so much about the final product, but about those hours surrendering to the creative spirit.

Marlena (41"x55"). She's the big version of the little quilt I made last summer.

Detail:

Coral Confetti (27"x27"). This guy took me a year to figure out. I'm happy with the results, and so is the patron who bought it.
Detail:

Slow Tide at Sunset (17"x37"). This one also sold at the Exhibit.

Detail:

Fantastic Fish 3 (22"x16.5"). Part of the Fantastic Fish series begun last year.
Detail:

Fantastic Fish 4 (20"X17"). Ditto.

Detail:

Nora's Guest Book

This morning my friend and neighbor Nora called and asked me to create a quilted notebook for use as a guest book at Villa Santa Cruz, her seaside villa here in Salt River.

Fortunately, my day was already going to be spent in the studio. So, I put aside my latest incarnation of Marlena the mermaid and began work on her project.

I knew exactly what kind of cover I would make. It'd be a water scene with a poem about the sea. The poem is an excerpt that I found online. On the label I gave credit to the author. Here's how it turned out:



And this is the front of it when the book is closed:



This is my second cover in this theme. It's a fun project and I'd like to make more to sell. The quandary at the moment is how much to charge for it in the general market. It takes a good 3 hours to construct.

Summer Travels and the Muse

This past July our travels took us to my native Colombia. We enjoyed a family reunion at Villa Clara, my sister's farm near Ibague.



I was captivated by the magnificent beauty of the Andes Mountains surrounding us.



In August we returned to one of our favorite playgrounds on this beautiful planet. We chartered a boat out of St. Thomas and made the rounds through the British Virgin Islands.



While some of us snorkeled the pristine waters, our crew mates Brooke and John preferred diving for deeper treasures. Here they brought up a gorgeous starfish for a quick visit to the surface.



Being on water for seven days recharged my creative batteries. I sat on the boat admiring the beauty and I got to imagining a mermaid named Marlena. I could see her amid the coral, playing hide and seek with the schools of angelfish and blue tang. She came home with me and followed me right into the studio. She's here for an extended stay.



You can click on Marlena or any of the photos for a close-up view.

Anatomy of a Sun

For me, the sun is a frequent subject of contemplation. In my artistic endeavors I sometimes ponder how to portray on fabric this magnificent source of light, how to capture the energy of this titan that is indispensable and hazardous all at once; giver and taker; the rightful subject of mysticism throughout the ages.

The ancients have personified the sun as a king with a shining crown and as a deity riding a chariot across the sky. My favorite characterization of the sun comes from Hindu religious literature, in which the sun is considered a visible form of God that we can see every day.

I'm working on a small sun quilt. Here's my attempt at capturing the sun using a simple fabric collage. The quilting of it will come later.

A Creative Winter

It's Winter season here on St. Croix--yes, we do have "winter" in the tropics! Day time temperatures drop to the lower F80's, evenings get down to the F70's and we complain of "chills" and wear long pants and long sleeves and avoid the water when we go to the beach. In fact, the weather is perfect to be ensconced in the studio, which is what I've been doing the past couple of months.

So Winter has kept me quite busy in a wonderfully creative way. Here's a recap of my doings so far:

In early December I was a vendor at Starving Artists Day at the Whim Museum, a great place to sell and shop for Christmas gifts.

Some of my creations were totes:

Satchels
Purses
Journal Covers
Bookmarks


And now my art is permanently available at the Whim Museum Store.

I also participated in the Botanical Garden's Christmas Spoken Here festival in Mid December.

After Christmas I switched gears and began preparations for the Good Hope Fine Art Exhibit, which took place this past weekend.

Here's a close-up of the pieces that I exhibited:

Seahorse Under the Moon

Turtle Magic

Whale Rain

Poseidon's Reef

Whale Across the Water

Fantastic Fish 1


Fantastic Fish 2

The first sale and crowd favorite at Good Hope was Whale Rain, corroborating my desire to create a whole series of whale quilts. Fantastic Fish 2 was also quite popular and also sold. The other pieces will now go on sale through my website, which is about to undergo a much-needed update.

Overall, it's been a great creative season and I'm energized to continue this level of creativity throughout the year.

Public Reaction at Good Hope Exhibit

The Good Hope Caribbean Fine Arts Exhibit ran this past weekend. I was happy to be an exhibiting artist, and even happier when I sold four of my six pieces on display. During the opening reception on Friday evening I had the pleasure to see the public's reaction to my work. Laboring alone in the studio, it's hard to guess what will be liked, and to my surprise, the crowd favorite was Tile Fish, a piece that was a pure play thing for me. I should know by now: play brings joy, and joy brings radiance to what we do.

My favorite part of the exhibit was the educational program on Friday morning. Over 250 public school students of all ages took guided tours. I was one of the artists in attendance, ready to answer questions and discuss our art. The kids were shown the many ways artists see and interpret the world, the many media available for expression, the many subjects that inspire art.

The high-schoolers postured with expressions of boredom and apathy. But usually a kid would hang back and ask privately one or two questions out of hearing range of the others. At the other end of the spectrum, the second graders were full of interest and fascination. One over-excited group responded with gasps and wow's worthy of a circus performance. One boy said to me, "I have three dollars. Can I buy something here?" Upon hearing this, a second kid said, "I have five dollars!" At that moment I really wished I had something tangible to gift these wonderful boys because their awe at seeing my work was simply priceless.

New Year, New Studio

After some heart wrenching deliberation, I decided to give up my studio at La Grande Princesse in favor of a home studio, one to which I go on a dime. Bob made a floor plan of our one-bedroom apartment to see if it would be feasible to move my 4' X 8' work table into a nook in our living room.
We discovered that it was possible if we got rid of our unused futon. We did, and I moved into that nook by the window, and in the process we rearranged our furniture such that the apartment actually looks more spacious!

The table fit perfectly, my fabrics fit under the table, and a couple of book cases were employed to house my quilting paraphernalia. We put up a design wall (foam covered with felt, nailed in place under a 1" X 3" board), and voila! Instant studio!

Oh, and I get a fabulous view to boot!