Does Life Ever Settle Down?

     Is it a good thing if life settles down? I'm not sure that it is. Then, it might get too boring. I've neglected my blog lately because I got called back to my home town suddenly for not such a good thing that I won't go into here. Life got interrupted (or maybe I should say plans got interrupted).  But in the process, old relationships got refreshed and renewed and old places got revisited. So, in the end, the trip was a blessing.
     When I got back home, I had a birthday. My husband usually never knows what to get me for gifts so I started a wish list on Amazon to make it easier for him. I started the list a long time ago and forgot about it so when I unwrapped the gifts, I was genuinely surprised. He got my this travel sized water color kit which is perfect for my Tuesdays when I get together with friends in the coffee shop or parks to sketch and paint. It is also perfect for on airplanes. Koi Watercolors and Brush

Watercolor set with Opus playing with brush

The brush unscrews to fill with water so that you don't need to carry water with you. And the plastic palette can be attached to the top, bottom, left, or right side. Pretty Cool!

The box 

And then, for inspiration, he also gave me this wonderful book written by Martha Sielman. Masters: Art Quilts Volume 1 (I already have Volume 2).

Wonderful book

     Once home, I met with my group ArtsEtc and showed them the small quilt I had begun but didn't know how to finish. The group consensus was that the figure of the girl wasn't showing up enough and to fix that I needed to mask the dark blue rectangle a little. Also, I needed to add some more blue to the right and frame it in blue. Here it is, with the changes. I put a white sheer on top of the blue rectangle, sewed on blue edges, and added a small blue rectangle to the right. I also painted the girl to make her darker. Then I added batting and made a pillowcase finish. Now I need to do some hand quilting to finish it off.

before

The Puppeteer

So the ups and downs of life keep us on our toes. The downs tend to dampen the creative spirit and make us wonder why but by wondering and questioning I think it leads us to new pathways and discoveries and new adventures. It's a good thing to not settle down... at least not for me.
I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find other art quilt blogs. Please make comments on their posts so that they know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.

Artful Weekend

     I had a fantastic weekend of art and friends. My quilt Beach Walk is in the juried show Florida in Fabric at the Ruth Funk Gallery in Melbourne, Florida. It was juried by Martha Sielman, the Executive Director of SAQA. So my friends and I, (they were also in the show) booked a hotel near the gallery and we attended the opening reception Friday evening. What a lovely evening it was. So well attended, too. The very impressive docents circulated asking us lots of questions about our intents and our processes. We connected and reconnected with the many Florida artists who came to the event. Afterwards, we went out to dinner and discovered a marvelous part of Melbourne we didn't know existed before. In the morning, we had a great discussion about how to take get to the next level with our art as we had coffee in the garden at our hotel and then we visited a gallery and a museum.
     In the afternoon, we went back to Ruth Funk for the Gallery Walk with Martha Sielman and she walked from piece to piece and spoke about each one. Unless the artist was present (and most were). The artists each spoke about her own piece. That meant I had to speak in front of about 50 people about mine. It actually felt good to do that. It was the first time I've ever done something like that. I explained about how I chose to add lines to the sun to mimic the lines in the grasses and the shell and how I chose  to paint the patterns in the fabric to mimic patterns I would see in water as I walk on the beach. Here's a photo of Beach Walk, although you seen it before if you follow regularly.

Beach Walk

     After the Walk and Talk, we had a SAQA meeting where we had a show and tell and I took my piece that I made about a hole in a screen door. I made it for a call for entry and it didn't get accepted. Of course, I was disappointed for a few hours after the rejection notice, but then I realized that I still was very happy with the quilt. I'm going to keep trying to get it displayed somewhere. I've shown it around at several meetings and I know I'm not going to submit it to one of those shows where you can't have shown it before so you get to see it here and I've put it on my website, too.
     I was sitting in a restaurant in Panama in a tiny one-street town. The street was a dirt road with horses, pick-up trucks, pedestrians, and the occasional car. They only served one type of meal; fried chicken, beans, and rice. I was sitting at my table looking at the screen door that had a hole in it watching the flies going in and out and suddenly I realized what a beautiful hole it was. So I got up and took a photo of the hole. I knew that one day I would use it in my art somehow.

Screen Door With A View

Please visit my website ReginaBDunn.com to see my artist statement and detail photos that go with it. It's in the gallery of newer works. I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can visit other art quilt blogs. Please make comments on their posts to let them know you stopped by.