Explorations in Mixed Media at Good Hope

Lest you think that all I do is attend the many festivities around the island, I have been spending a fair amount of time in the studio continuing my adventures in mixed media.

For the 25^th Annual Caribbean Fine Art Exhibit at Good Hope School this year I composed a visual Lullaby to the Sea.  A love poem with sunrises

Stormy seas

Brilliant Sunsets

And mysterious moons.

The artist reception is tonight, Friday, February 17, 2012 at 7 p.m. in The Good Hope School’s Campus Center.  The exhibit is open Saturday and Sunday, February 18-19, 2012 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. and Monday, February 20 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.  Admission is complimentary throughout the weekend. 

Fish Portraits at Good Hope

I love fish faces in their colorful diversity and breadth of expression. For a few years now I’ve wanted to explore those faces, handpick a few unforgettable ones from the multitudes and see where my creativity might take me. I spent the past few months doing just that, and my creativity took me on a detour from my usual art quilts into the world of mixed media.

I began my subjects sewing a fabric collage and embellishing with free-motion stitching, as in quilting. Then I fastened the collage onto a canvas.  I looked around my studio and threw at the canvas all manner of beads, sequins, dried flowers, plastic ferns and any other embellishment that wanted to come along and become part of a three-dimensional coral reef for my fabric fish to call home. Acrylic paints, gesso, gel media and glitter found their way onto the canvas too.   The result?
(You can click on each photo for a larger view)

Big Eyes

 Tasty Bites

Curious Faces

 Coral Gardens

I’ll be exhibiting my Fish Portrait Series this weekend at the 24th Annual Caribbean Fine Art Exhibit at The Good Hope School here on St. Croix. Friday, February 18th is the Opening Reception ($30/ticket at the door) with free-flowing Veuve Cliquot champagne. Entrance is free the rest of the weekend.
Here's a link for more info:http://www.ghsvi.org/cfae.htm.
If you’re on island, please come by and check it out!



Artful Prayer Flag for Inspiration

Perhaps only artists pray for inspiration. I know I do. And so this is how I'd like to start the new year, by hanging here my prayer flag to dance in warm breezes welcoming new ideas and fresh creative adventures. I'm hanging it for me and for you, that your new year be full of inspiration.

You can click on the flag for a larger view.  And for the curious, this is how it was made...

Artful Prayer Flags and Mindful Meditation Gardens

Watching a string of Buddhist prayer flags flutter in the wind gave me the idea of creating my own prayer flags. And then I met JoAnn Jones who makes Mindful Meditation Gardens from bamboo containers, and I thought, wouldn't it be awesome to have a joint exhibit? And so the exhibit Artful Prayer Flags and Mindful Meditation Gardens was born.

If you're on island on Saturday, October 30, stop by the Fort in Frederiksted. We'll be there from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm at the Opening Reception. The exhibit runs until December 1.

Meanwhile, my studio is rocking with creativity as I explore the idea of prayer as form. Here's the scene: