Remembering Moma

My mother-in-law has been central to my life for many years, but last year, at age 99, she died.  She was full of grace to the very last as she had decided, with the help of hospice, to take herself off her heart medications.  Within days she died peacefully and in her own way.  She worked most of her life as a registered nurse and at the same time, taking care of my husband's brother who was born with a brain tumor.  He lived with cognitive and physical limitations until his death at age 27.  His caregiver for all those years had been my mother-in -law.

A few weeks before she died we had taken a photograph of her arm and hand.  A hand that had done so much in life.  This piece, The Last Letter, is inspired by that photograph and by a life fully lived.  I was close to this special woman, but there will always be many questions that will never be answered.

The pieces is made from white cotton and stuffed and then painted with gesso and mounted on a frame. The piece is now in the collection of a friend who has a website ReimagineAging.org

Resurrection

It is time to bring this blog back to life.  For lots of reasons that are not worth discussion, my blog has been dormant. The reason I started a blog in the first place was to have a place to document my work both for myself and my friends. So my goal now is to do a little catch-up and get some of my work posted.

My more recent work has been in the area of "art for healing." A couple of pieces focused on breast cancer and a piece on care-taking.

The piece below titled Left to Right - one sister's journey, follows one woman on the right who discovers a lump, has a mastectomy (middle figure) and heals so that she eventually becomes happily pregnant.  This piece was exhibited at the Dragonfly Gallery in Austin and also juried into the 2012 Fiber Artists of San Antonio annual exhibit.

Volusia Wrapped in Fiber

I am thrilled to bits that the two pieces I submitted to this SAQA/SDA show have been accepted by juror Pamela Allen.

"Folded Fire" will hang in the Gateway Center for the Arts, in DeBary, Florida, from February 15, through April 6, 2011. 

"Sonia" (wisdom), is a memorial piece for my Chilean friend, who died far too young, from pancreatic cancer.  Boxing up "Sonia" and sending her from Texas to Florida will be quite emotional, but what a wonderful way to keep her ALIVE!!!  "Sonia" will hang in the Rose Room Gallery in the Peabody Auditorium in Daytona Beach, from March 10 through April 27, 2011.

This image shows some detail of Folded Fire.  Each piece is folded into three, cut, folded and strung together.  The piece extends for 12 1/2 feet.

Folded Fire

F

Folded Fire was conceived from pop-up art and born from these early days of mine studying surface design.  The fabric, Kona cotton,  is stiffened and cut and folded in ways that negative space becomes much of the design. Folded Fire was accepted by the Fiber Artists of San Antonio for their 2010 show at the Gallery Nord.

One of my first pieces of hand-dyed fabric

This is a small piece of the yard of my hand-dyed fabric. I am now experimenting with a paper print for some three- dimentional work.  Still very much on sabatical and not sure where I am going --

Time For Recharge

Currently, I am learning to dye fabric. It is time for a self-imposed sabbatical focused on dyeing techniques and color. I usually find inspiration in quiet places and so I have cleared my plate of as many deadlines as feels right. Four pieces have been turned in for the Art in Fiber Show, at the Copper Shade Tree Gallery, in Round Top, Texas. The show opens on February 5 and runs through March 7, 2010. Also, I am helping to coordinate an exhibit, To Be Touched, at an assisted living facility in Austin, Tx.