Animal House

Running Deep

I am honored to have 7 pieces of my work featured in the “Animal House” exhibition at Cabarrus Arts Council Galleries June 4 – July 26.

If you live in the area, I invite you to join me at the Art Walk, a huge community event that serves as the official opening reception to the show, next Friday, June 15, from 6-9 p.m. The Concord Downtown Merchants will join with us in having art displayed throughout the downtown area. The Cabarrus Arts Council Galleries are a focal point, and this will be especially true with this show. There are refreshments at several venues and folks take their time looking at art and enjoying the night.  

After the Galleries close at 9 p.m., Modern Film Fest screens an independent movie upstairs in the theater. This event, as the Art Walk, is free and open to the public. The film is “Redneck Roots”.

Psychedelic Peacock (detail)

During the Art Walk, I’ll be demonstrating how I make my work in The Galleries, along with Jennifer McCormick, who does hand-painting blended with X-rays. Please come by and say hello!

Harbinger’s Hope

The group invitational exhibition participants are: Cindy Billingsley, Pam Brewer, Richard Copeland, Lucy V. Dierks, Kim Dills, Melanie Eberhardt, Gene Furr, Laura Gaskin, Marsha Heatwole, Scott Hotaling, Susan Brubaker Knapp, Christine Kosiba, Roger Martin, Jennifer McCormick, Marcia McDade McMann, Terry Ostovar, Karen Poetzinger, Ken Sedberry, Robin Wellner, and Ali Wieboldt.

Up and Away!

EXHIBITION INFO:
The Galleries are open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 
65 Union Street South, Concord, NC
Cabarrus Arts Council
704-920-2787
www.CabarrusArtsCouncil.org

Three great books, lots of chances to win

You may have noticed that I have not blogged in almost a month. I have been totally consumed with helping my father through a difficult move and transition into a retirement center. But I wanted you to know that I will be back eventually, making art and blogging about it. And in the meantime, I am participating in some exciting give-aways. The fun starts Thursday, June 7, and goes through most of July; don’t miss a chance to win.

On June 12, I’ll be blogging about Kay Mackenzie’s new book, Scrap-Appliqué Playground: Turn Quilting Scraps into Fun Appliqué Fabrics, and giving away a copy. All you applique fans out there are going to love this one. Here are the blog stops:
Thursday, June 7 • Stitch This! the Martingale blog, by Jenny Wilding Cardon
Friday, June 8 • Kim Jamieson-Hirst’s Chatterbox Quilts Chitchat
Saturday, June 9 • Sarah Vanderburgh’s Sew Joy Creations
Sunday, June 10 • Maria Hrabovsky’s Maria’s Quilt Scraps
Monday, June 11 • Carrie P.’s A Passion for Appliqué
Tuesday, June 12 • Susan Brubaker Knapp’s Blue Moon River
Wednesday, June 13 • Erin Russek’s One Piece at a Time
Thursday, June 14 • Holly Mabutas’ Sprinkles of Thought
Friday, June 15 • SewCalGal
Saturday, June 16 • Kay Mackenzie, All About Appliqué

On July 6, I’ll be blogging about Sue Bleiweiss’ new book, The Sketchbook Challenge: Techniques, Prompts and Inspiration for Achieving Your Creative Goals. It will be officially released on June 26, and she’s asked the artists featured in the book (including me!) to help celebrate with a blog hop and to give away over $1200 worth of prizes donated by some incredibly generous sponsors.

Starting Tuesday June 26, and continuing through July 10, we’ll be featuring two blogs for you to visit. Each of the blogs will have a post about the book and information about the prizes you can win just for leaving a comment on the post. For more information, check out Sue’s blog post.

Here’s the official blog hop schedule – visit the featured blogs on the days indicated for your chance to enter to win a prize:

June 26: 
Jill Berry
Sue Bleiweiss
June 27:
Violette
Kathyanne White
June 28:
Kathy Sperino
Leslie Tucker Jenison
June 29:
Jamie Fingal
Lynn Krawczyk
July 2:
Jackie Bowcutt
Lyric Kinard
July 3:
Jane Davies
Kim Rae Nugent
July 5:
Carla Sonheim
Carol Sloan
July 6:
Susan Brubaker Knapp
Diana Trout
July 9:
Tracie Lyn Huskamp
Judi Hurwitt
July 10:
Jane LaFazio
Kelli Nina Perkins

On July 10, I’m blogging about Jane Sassaman’s new book, Patchwork Sassaman Style: Recipes for Dazzling Quilts. There are lots of chances to win this book, and Dragon Threads publisher Linda Teufel will be giving away some of Jane’s fabric and patterns, as well. This giveaway is limited to U.S. residents only; sorry! Here’s the schedule:

July 2: artfabrik.blogspot.com
July 3: remnantsfiberculture.blogspot.com
July 5: judyperez.blogspot.com
July 6: sassaman.blogspot.com
July 7: Dragonthreadsopenbook.blogspot.com
July 8: gloriahansen.com/weblog
July 9: 100billionstars.com/blog
July 10: wwwbluemoonriver.blogspot.com
July 11: tallgrassprairiestudio.blogspot.com
July 12: www.craftnectar.com
July 13: sewcalgal.blogspot.com

July 14: twinfibers.blogspot.comJuly 15: www.delrayfabrics.com/blog
July 16: http://www.friestyle.blogspot.com
July 17: patsloan.typepad.com
July 18: jankrentz.com/weblog
July 19: makeitsimpler.blogspot.com
July 20: http://lyrickinard.com/blog/
July 22: janeville.blogspot.com
July 24: nancyzieman.com/blog

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie for Mom

Eleanor Carter Brubaker
1936-2011

In honor of Mother’s Day tomorrow, and in honor of my mom, who was a fabulous cook, I am sharing my recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, and my mom’s classic recipe for pie crust. It makes flaky, soft crust that melts in your mouth, and is a thousand times better than store-bought pie crusts. I have adapted it somewhat – to be prepared in a food processor – to make it easier and faster to prepare, without noticing any change in its character. Why not make a pie today?

Susan’s Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
2-3 cups chopped rhubarb
2-3 cups chopped strawberries
1/4 c. flour
1/4 c. cornstarch OR 5 Tablespoons tapioca
1 cup sugar

Prepare enough dough for a double pie crust. (See Ellie's Pie Crust recipe below for a fabulous hand-made one; store-made crusts can't compare.) Put bottom crust in pie plate. Toss rhubarb and strawberries with flour, thickener and sugar, then place in pie crust. Put top crust on, seal and crimp. Cut five slits in the top.

Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, and then reduce heat to 350 degrees for 40-45 more minutes. Allow to cool before cutting.

Ellie’s Pie Crust

This recipe makes enough for two single pie crusts, or one double and/or lattice crust, with plenty left over to be buttered and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, then baked to make tasty cookies that are wonderful warm from the oven while you wait for your pie.

In a food processor, place:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 t. salt
1 T sugar
1/8 t. baking powder
1 cup vegetable shortening (such as Crisco)

Pulse in the food processor until the shortening is mixed in, and dough is in small chunks. (This is the part I used to do manually with a pastry cutter.)

Prepare a glass of ice water. Sprinkle in, one tablespoonful at a time, 4 to 6 tablespoons of ice water (but no ice!), while pulsing. A ball of dough will form in the food processor when you have added the right amount of water. Do not add any more than 6 tablespoons or your crust will not be flaky!

Place dough in a plastic bag and chill. Use within 24 hours. Roll out to about 1/8" thick on wax paper that has been sprinkled with flour, adding a bit more flour if the rolling pin sticks. Flip dough over onto the pie pan, trim edges a bit, fold under and crimp. Fill and bake. For pies requiring a baked crust, place on the center rack of a 425 degree oven for 10 minutes.

Love you, miss you, Mom!

Fear of faces

I have a fear of faces. Of drawing them in a realistic fashion, that is. I am never pleased with the results I get. Take, for example, the portrait above. I drew it last night from a photo of my mother-in-law as a young girl. It is okay, I guess, but it looks nothing like her. I think the eyes are too big, or the head too small. And the eyes are too high on the head; there needs to be more forehead. The proportions are all wrong. The nose is crooked. The hair is unnatural. And does the shading make her look like she has a five-o’clock shadow? Egads.

I know I need to just buckle down and study the subject, but I never seem to make/take the time. This wouldn’t be much of a problem, except that I have a piece in my head that I want to make, and it has a face in it. I think I need to face my fear.


Years ago, I bought a very good book called The Fundamental of Drawing Portraits: A Practical and Inspirational Course by Barrington Barber. I could work my way through this. 


I’ve been inspired by the approach taken by Lyric Kinard, which she details in a recent post on The Sketchbook Challenge. Basically, she decided to draw a face a day for a year. She showed enormous progress.

And I’ve drooled over the soulful portraits by Pam Carriker. She offers an online course called Pursuing Portraits that I’d love to take. 


If you have taught yourself to draw realistic portraits, what approach have you taken? If you have suggestions, let me know… I think this is a fear I have to face soon.

Quilting “First Green”

I have started quilting a new piece I am calling “First Green.”  I created the leaves by first piecing green and black strips, then cutting these strips on a diagonal, and sewing them to the center vein. I appliqued the leaves to a black background, then cut them out and appliqued them to the blue background. All of these fabrics are batiks, and it is about 24" x 42". 

I will be donating this piece to the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative when it is done. This fabulous organization has raised more than $713,000 for education and research since January 2006. They auction and sell donated quilts, and also sponsor a nationally touring exhibition of quilts about Alzheimer’s. Ami Simms of Flint, Michigan, is the founder and executive director. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting her at International Quilt Festival several times, and she is one amazing woman!

I am having a lot of fun quilting this piece. I started by adding straight lines to indicate the veins on the leaves, and to play up the lines and pump up the graphic quality of this piece. Now I am using different free-motion designs within the veins.

The name of this piece comes from one of my favorite poems by American poet Robert Frost:

Nothing Gold Can Stay

by Robert Frost

Nature’s first green is gold, 

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower

But only so an hour. 

Then leaf subsides to leaf. 

So Eden sank to grief.

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

Uncle Albert’s Reverie

For more than two years, a piece of collaged fabric that I made in Judy Coates Perez’s Mixed Media Painted Fabric class has been pinned to the design wall in my studio. Yesterday, I finally took it down and quilted it!

Here is the whole piece. I haven’t done the facing yet. It will be about 18" x 43".
 

The body part images are copyright-free clip art, printed on paper, and glued down on white cotton fabric with gel medium. The paints are Jacquard Textile Color (the orange and green) and Lumiere (the gold metallic).

The name comes from my great grand uncle, Dr. Albert Philson Brubaker, who was a physiology professor at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Pa., in the late 1800s through the early 1900s. He wrote several books on human physiology that contain illustrations like the ones I used in this piece. 

Dr. Albert Philson Brubaker

 

I’m in “Rituals”

I am honored to announce that my piece “I See the Moon” has been juried into the “Rituals” exhibition curated by Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison. You can see the complete list of participating artists at the Dinner at Eight Artists blog. Each piece measures 24" x 60" in a vertical format. 

“Rituals” will debut July 26-29 at International Quilt Festival – Long Beach, where it will be sponsored by Moore’s Sewing Centers. 

Then it will travel to Houston for International Quilt Market (Oct. 27-29) and International Quilt Festival (Oct. 31-Nov. 4), where it will be sponsored by Havel’s Sewing. 

Thanks so much to these two companies for their help!

October’s retreat is filled

My “Once in a Blue Moon” Fiber Art Retreat this October in Black Mountain, NC, is officially filled. Hooray! That means it is time to start planning the next one. I’ll be working with my friend and retreat coordinator Joyce Mullis in the next few months to pick a date and location, and I’ll keep you posted.

Verhildersum

This afternoon, Lya drove north toward the sea, to a grand old house called Verhildersum. It is surrounded by a moat and big gardens (although there was little blooming this early in the spring).






The gardens have some lovely sculpture.




The inside of the house was open, but is undergoing restoration, and photography is not permitted.













Forget-me-nots:







Before we got to the house, we toured some small roads into the countryside in search of what Lya calls "trees with eyes," which are birch in rows along a country road.

Out and about in Groningen

This afternoon, Lya and I went into Groningen to see the Groningen Museum and visit Lya's favorite cheese shop. I was eager to buy some cheese to bring back; it has all been fantastic, and I think I may have eaten my weight in cheese during my stay. Hope my suitcase won't be overweight! Here are some shots of this wonderful city.



This is the old newspaper building. It has beautiful tile work, and nice windows.



This is the cheese shop. I bought a "young" Dutch cheese, an "old" ( aged one year) Dutch cheese, and one round cheese sealed in wax.



The shop had lovely Easter displays in its windows:







Looks like this guy has an appetite for autos!




Mosaic of men in traditional dress carrying cheeses:






Amazing doors:






This is the entrance to the Groningen museum:


The museum is known for its brightly colored walls, which are changed to complement the current exhibitions.


This exhibit was on fashion designer Azzedine Alaia, one of the last living couturiers.



Wonderful texture!






"Jan Jansz de Stomme" by Meenwertien Fockens, 1645. Detail below:



"Anoniem" by Bouwina Coenders van Helpen, 1630. Detail below.


From the museum's top level:


There was also an exhibit of fashion by the young Dutch designer Iris van Herpen, including this snakelike creation:



And this, which I think is made of heated acrylic that gives the impression of water: