Art for Healing

@artist01, @becsbuddy Thank you, Becky for ‘walking’ our group over here! It’s fun that there are so many artists and quilters on board! I’d love to see your doggie quilt and Sue’s watercolor landscape. I’ve only done one critter with fabric and that was of a horse head for an equine rescue auction. Fun and challenging. I hope it raised a lot of money for them. My leanings are toward mixed media and art quilts. Though I’ve also done several house pictures for friends.

One of my friends, who is a serious traditional quilter, got me started a few years ago in that direction. To her shock and amusement, I registered for one of her classes. I taught sewing classes at the time but never had officially quilted. (I taught unconventional uses of sewing machines so traditional quilting was a little too confining for me.) She told me straight up that this might be too much for me because: I needed to follow directions, I needed to measure things and pieces had to fit exactly. Pfffft. I got this!! Hahahah I did!!! I fooled her and myself!! In fact I just finished another queen sized quilt, December 31st, as a victory quilt. My return to sewing after 2 years of recovery, being able to do a large project with the knowledge I’d live long enough to complete it! 😂

@artist01, Laurie, I enjoyed the story of your moniker! You’ve certainly had a long and rewarding career as an artist! Your humble beginnings led you on a wonderful path to your art! You must be incredibly talented to have your paintings in so many galleries. What is your favorite subject area? I see your medium is acrylics. Do you still paint? I hope so, art truly is healing and creates a wonderful diversion from the present.
You asked about my story. My sister was always considered ‘the artist in the family’ because she was masterful with capturing people, landscapes, etc. Stick figures were a challenge for me. My leanings are all things fabric and fibers. Having learned to sew at a very young age, my love of fabrics and textures developed early. A few years ago, a friend introduced me to sketching/watercolor. She assured me that taking her class would open my eyes to the world of watercolor. Another shock when I realized that I could draw recognizable objects!! Now, Watercolor ON my fabrics. 😉. Photography, paper making, crazy quilting, handmade books/journals are all areas of interest and often combined.

When I was younger, I felt that to be an artist involved only painting. It wasn’t until years later I recognized that art, no matter the medium, is a visceral expression of who we are. Lori.

@becsbuddy Love this pic of Poppy! Are you doing the portrait in black and white? Some thread painting on the fabrics? Can’t wait to see this in progress!!

Ooh, I see a loosely woven black & white tweed for the face - randomly unraveled.
And maybe a textured or fuzzy white for the lighter parts...
Sue

In 2019, I taught a sun dying class to my sewing guild group. A follow-on for 2020 was of course cancelled. Last week I won some Shibori dyed dish towels in my Master Gardener on-line auction. When I met the maker, we agreed to a summer meetup to exchange lessons. I have always been amazed at the number of artists in that group as well.

Here is the interpretation of my friend's watercolor - this is just the background. All the thread painting is left to do - but I'm in MN and the thread is in TX. It will be exhibited in the local gallery in TX in January 2023 side-by-side with the original, which is the same size.
Sue

How beautiful! Saw a documentary on Shibori dyeing art form.

As I was reading about the artistic endeavors of everyone, my mind went to "what is art? how do you define it?" Mr. Google responded by spitting out so many replies to that musing! I believe art can be an creative use of any medium, even words! So, there is the "art" of telling a story, and the medium can be a book, poem, or 3D tactile object [pottery, quilt, etc.] This broadens my thoughts and inspires me to do more with my fabric.

@becsbuddy I see doing some thread painting on that quilt so you can get details down. https://www.clothpaperscissors.com/blog/how-to-make-easy-pet-portraits/ might give you some pointers. And this is a great site: https://www.2dognightdesign.com/

Here is the smallest piecing i have done. Each square is 3" finished, done in a pineapple design.
Ginger

@sueinmn oh, oh! I’d love to see it when you’re finished! Gorgeous!

Wow, beautiful, Ginger! There are so many kinds of art.

Poppy is adorable. Can't wait to see her in a quilt!

@becsbuddy . Hi Becky. I have some questions.
. How does one post a picture/painting on to Mayo Clinic Connect?
. Also, is there an easier way to start a post with your recipient's moniker than by the arduous method of typing the entire thing, checking that person's post to be sure we got it right, then re-typing with the correction?
. One more query, is there an efficient way to check daily postings without checking into each of our relevant categories and surfing through them?
Many thanks 😊
Laurie