Mother Courage for the Sojourner Truth Gallery Exhibit

My latest project was to design two dolls for an exhibit for Black History Month for the Sojourner Truth Gallery in Sacramento. The concept was to choose two paintings from two African American Artists Charles White and Charles Alston and to recreate a work of art of our own inspired by their work. The exhibit will debut at the Sojourner Truth Gallery, 2251 Florin Rd., Sacramento CA, on February 1st and then reopen at the Brickhouse Art Gallery on February 17th and run until March 16th.

I am a doll artist so I thought it would be interesting to take the subject of a two dimensional painting and recreate it in a three dimensional soft sculpture. It was kind of like working in reverses since most painters paint three dimensional objects and turn them into two dimensional paintings.

I chose Charles White's "Mother Courage" because she makes me think of working women from the past. When I was a little girl I used to see these ladies all waiting at the bus stop ready to leave their own homes to go and take care of someone else's home. My mother got up five days a week and caught the bus rain or shine and went to work. She put in long and hard hours. I was inspired by my mother because she made the decision to change her life so that she didn't have to clean other people's houses and went back to school and got her degree and became a nutritionist.

This is my "three dimensional" interpretation of "Mother Courage".

 
 

F is for...

F is for my one of my other loves and that's fabric art. I love using printed fabrics to make quilts or taking plain white cotton muslin and painting my own patterns and designs. When I'm not making art dolls I make art quilts. These are a few of my quilted and fabric painted art pieces.

The Moon Watcher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

  Dreams Caught on the Wind

 

 





 

Kente Block Quilt

 

 

 

Fire On The Mountain





 

 

Looking Back

 

 

Talkin' To The Moon

 

 

 

Monterey Sunset

Sisters Under The Moon

E is for...

 

 

 

 

 

I don't have any dolls with names that begin with E so I will make this post simple and academic by using some defininitions used in textile art.

ELEMENTS of art: the basic components or tools of visual communication; include line, space, shape/form, value, color, and texture.

EMBROIDERY: decorating fabric with stitches.

EMPHASIS: the principle of design that is concerned with dominance; the development of a main idea or center of interest (focal point).

Sorry, this is kind of a boring post. I promise I'll do better tomorrow.

Good night.

Mermaids

I finally got my artwork off to the gallery in South Carolina. I finished three pieces, two dolls and a wall hanging. I've already introduced my two mermaid dolls Malika and Adilah. They are on their way to the City Gallery at Waterfront Park in Charleston, South Carolina via their magic coach courtesy of UPS.

The third piece that the gallery accepted is a wall hanging I did called "The Rescue".

I used textile pants by Jacquard to paint the background.

I wanted the sky to be at sunrise when the sun is just emerging from the horizon and the colors are shades of pink and coral and the night sky begins to disappear and the day time sky begins to show itself.

The rocks, the mermaid and her rescue were cut from the pattern that I drew and quilted and appliqued to the background.









I love to use glass beads to add shine and texture to my quilts. I cut out some fish from a piece of fabric that I found and appliqued them with the glass beads.

I used more glass beads on the mermaid's tail and beads and shells around the rocks.

"B" is for "Boss", "Brickhouse Gallery", "Batik" and "Charles Bibbs"

"B" is for "boss". This week I have a whole new appreciation for what my boss does every day. I covered for her while she was out of town. I have always admired her work ethic and her commitment to her business. The business is a very large antique store that also contains a large art gallery that displays the work of local artists. Our building holds approximately a half acre of art and merchandise. I've only been covering for her for a week, she's in the store 7 days a week, every week for 8 to 10 hours a day. I don't know how she does it.

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"B" is for the "Brickhouse" Gallery. I am grateful to them for giving some of my artwork a good home. It's a great place that nurtures both old and new artists.

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"B" is also for "batik", one of my favorite forms of fabric art. One of my favorite artists is Paul Nzalamba from Uganda. His watercolor images and batiks are an inspiration for me. Some of my African Ancestor Dolls are designed with his paintings in mind.

I love his work and was happy to find one of his framed prints in the store I work for. Can't wait to share it here when I bring it home.

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These are some of my batik pieces.

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 "B" is also for Charles Bibbs. Another favorite artist who I get my inspiration from. Sacramento was lucky enough to sponsor Mr. Bibbs and an exhibit of his work at the Evolve Gallery

I was so disappointed because I had to work all day and I didn't get to meet the artist but I was able to take my time and view the exhibit. His work is beautiful. His colors, details and patterns inspire me.

This one was my favorite piece.

The Brickhouse Gallery Quilt Show

I am proud to be a part of the Brickhouse Gallery's first annual quilt show. I entered the two pieces shown in the middle of this photograph. The top piece is called "Plum Blossoms"

and the bottom one is called "Moon Watcher".

I was very humbled to be among so many extremely talented quilters. These artists are very serious quilters who devote their creative spirits and many long, long hours to these extraordinary works of art.

I am happy to share some of their work with you here.

If you are in the Sacramento area, this show runs until February 29th.

The Brickhouse Gallery

2837 36th Street

Sacramento CA 95817

Thursday & Friday 12:00pm to 6:00pm

Saturday 12:00pm to 7:00pm

Twelve Yards of Muslin: Project 1

Here is my first finished project out of my "twelve yards of muslin."
I decided to make a fabric art piece. I used the plain white muslin and fabric paints and pens to create the background.




My hairdryer is my favorite tool when I use paint. I always want to get my projects done quickly and this saves drying time between the painted layers.

The white muslin is a perfect blank canvas so that it can become anything.

I made a pattern for the design I wanted to applique into the piece.

Next I pulled out embroidery thread...

...and lots of colored glass beads...

I used beads to add some detail...

...and make the piece come to life.

I used embroidery thread to hand quilt the background...

...and the finished piece is called

"Talkin' To The Moon".

This is not the first time I've created this piece. I designed it for the first time about 18 years ago. It was so popular that I sold it immediately at a craft show I was selling at.

I love my first finished project out of the twelve yards and I've already started the next one. Can't wait to share it here with you.