Sunday, December 18, 2011

I'll miss you, Sweet Tess

 Tess

 When we rescued Tess 10-12 years ago, she came to us bald, except for her head -- she looked more like a lizard than a parrot. She had a broken claw and wing. She had been abandoned in an apartment when her owner skipped out on the rent. I don't know how long she was without food or heat before the landlord found her. She was one tough old bird to survive the horrible things that were done to her. 
It was almost two years before she let us hold her and then, when she finally realized that we really could be trusted, she turned into a big ole snuggle baby. She loved nothing more than crawling up under my husbands sweatshirt and cuddling him while she got her rubbins'.  She loved chicken and veggies and apples and bananas and chewing up the wooden playpen that my husband rebuilt for her every few weeks. She did great sound effects and said hello in both of our voices and make kissy noises and whistled the chicken song. She always gave a thank-you clicking sound when she got treats. She often shared the table with us at meal time and had to taste everyone's food to make sure she wasn't missing anything.
This morning I shared an orange and a cookie with her and she was happy, as usual. This evening, I came home and she was at the bottom of her cage, with no strength to stand.  I held her and tried to give her some warmth and nourishment and in a short time I felt her very last heart beat on the palm of my hand and then she was gone.

 Waiting for belly rubbins' from her favorite guy

 With her comrades, Biscuit and Coco

Birds must go to heaven, right? 
I mean...you always see them hovering around with angels in art...

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Excuses

Where have I been?
Nowhere, really.
I've been  busy -- sorta.
Not much gardening this year. Six weeks of rain, then six weeks of temps in the 90's. Bleh.
Not much biking -- same reasons. Bleh.
Daughter and grandkids still living here... More bleh
Bought a trailer so I can take the Dog on bike rides -- he loves it!  Hopefully we'll have some dry weather this fall.
I made a little bedroom into a small gym. Bike, rowing machine, treadmill, free weights and weight bench. Slowly getting back into that groove.

My desktop crashed and burned, but the Geek Squad was able to save most everything. Bought a refurbished tower.
Laptop appears to be suffering from some other fatal computer crap.  More bleh.

Lots of studio organizing going on here. 
I have dyed tons of fabric. I played with resists after reading  Lisa Kerpoe's terrific series of articles in QA about Resists From The Kitchen. Lots of fun -- my favorite is the mashed potaoes.
Been making lots of new screens, did some more deconstructed screen printing,  gelatin plate printing, made a bunch of small foundation-pieced wall hangings. Been painting fabric, making stamps, doing some lino-cut and woodcut prints. Started some oil paintings for next a solo show I'm doing next summer.
Took tons of photos.
Played with the Dog...um...a lot.

Can't even imagine life before Bugsy...



What I haven't done is blog.
I've wanted to.  but I like pictures when I post and getting photos blog-ready on this new/used computer is a pain in my patootie.
So I'll try and 'get over it' and get back to posting, coz I really have lots to show you.   : )

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

And the winners are...

In all the fuss over the new sweetest pooch in the world (yes, I'll admit it, I'm totally over the top with this dog), I forgot to make the announcement!
There are two winners (just coz  I'm soooo happy this week)...

Ann and Norma!  Yay!!

So please email me at artgoose@yahoo.com and send me your snail mail and I'll get you fabric out to you ASAP!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

My new studio companion!

I adopted a 2 year old Bichon Frise last night. From the moment we got home, he has become my little white shadow.
Sweetest. Dog. Ever.

 Look -- he likes fabric -- he's perfect!

 He seriously need some grooming...

But look at that sweet face!!! 

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Snow, some ice and still more snow. And a give-away

If you live near the Great Lakes, you know about the "Lake Effect".  (Always said in awe and written with caps)
It has to do with the humid air over the unfrozen lakes causing crazy amounts of snow in winter. (Think Buffalo, New York)
"They" said on the news a couple of week ago that there would be no more 'lake effect' snow, because the lake (Lake Erie) was frozen. 'They" lied.
a) the lake was not frozen over (I drove to the shore and checked)
b) it's snowed almost every day since they said there wouldn't be any more snow.
c) and then it snowed some more.

So I've been doing a crazy amount of snow dyeing.
Hey, I couldn't get out of the driveway for a week -- what's a girl to do?
I've snow-dyed over 150 yards since the first of the year and I'm out of pfd fabric.
So, until I get more fabric to dye, I'm going to do a give-away.
Go to the New Fabric page (see the tabs at the top of the page ), leave a comment here, by Friday, telling me the number of your favorite piece and you will be in a drawing to win it.

Please make sure that I can reach you -- the last time I did this, I never could get a hold of one of the winners and had to draw another name.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

When life gives you snow...

Snow dye!




































Another batch of new fabric (see New Fabric tab above), from 69 up.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Well, this can't be good...

From Weatherbug -- black on a weather map seems extra scary!

Monday, January 17, 2011

Photo Monday

Spent some time in the Metropark yesterday. We really are blessed with an amazing parks system in Cleveland!

Water carving it's way

Berea escarpment

From 60-70 feet above the river

Water falling

Lots of tracks -- favorite watering hole?

River dance (tilt you head -- you'll see it)

She stood about 10 feet from me

Keeping an eye on me while I snapped a dozen pics

Here she dropped down to the river but was still watching me

Under a bridge

We saw an 8 point buck and these were some of his little harem.

TJay walking on the river...made me nervous

Massive ice heaves already pushed up on the boat ramp near the lake. This is about 2 feet thick

Friday, January 14, 2011

Magic and Luminescence

There has been a discussion going on at the QuiltArt list about snow-dyed and low water immersion dyed fabrics.
Of course every one's tastes and opinions are different.  I like and use both methods. LWI is fine. Parfait dyeing is pretty interesting, but snow dyeing? Since I first tried it last year, it has become something purely magical for me. 
MAGICAL -- that's best word to describe the excitement I feel when doing this method of dyeing. 
At every stage it's interesting and the surprises that I find after the first rinse and again after washing are splendid. It's always a little bit of a let-down coming out of the dryer, even though I know that pressing is going to reveal what the fabric has finally come to be.
The part that is the the most beautiful part for me is when I find the light that seems to come from within the fabric itself, peeking out between layers of color making parts of the cloth absolutely glowing! It appears luminescent to me.

I found a wonderful definition of luminescence as used in reference to art last week -- about how and why certain colors appear to glow when they are next to colors that are grayed down. I can't find it now, but I kind of like the following more scientific definition too, in thinking about the way the snow dyed fabrics appear to me.


luminescence -- Process by which an excited material emits light in a process not caused solely by a rise in temperature... The colour, or wavelength, of the light emitted is determined by the material, while the intensity depends on both the material and the input energy....

Adj.1.luminescent - emitting light not caused by heat

Luminescence is caused by the movement of electrons within a substance from more energetic states to less energetic states. There are many types of luminescence, including chemiluminescence, produced by certain chemical reactions, chiefly oxidations, at low temperatures; electroluminescence, produced by electric discharges, which may appear when silk or fur is stroked or when adhesive surfaces are separated; and triboluminescence, produced by rubbing or crushing crystals..

Cool, eh? 
I always have loved the way Edward Hopper  made the light work for him to convey a mood. That's kind how I think of things when I paint on paper or canvas and that's what some of this cloth looks like to me on .
I see things in it. 
Faces, feathers, flora, fauna.
Like this:







All of these photos are from this one piece of cloth:

The whole cloth
Can you see the glow?

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Silly little birds and dyeing again

I found these at World Market while I was Christmas shopping.
I saw them a year ago too and I've thought about them several times, regretting that I hadn't bought them. I never do that.
I didn't make that mistake 2 years in a row!   : )

They make me silly-happy.
These will be my lucky birds!

 Also making me happy -- more SNOW for dyeing!!

2011 Sketchbook Challenge

Since I've fallen out of the practice of sketching lately, I decided to follow along with the Sketchbook Challenge. When I went digging for a  sketchbook, they were all full, so I picked up a new one to start fresh. I found a really nice 9 x12 wire-bound Canson  XL Mix Media pad. Good texture and heavy enough for watercolor or acrylic. But the cover was ugly.

There -- I fixed it
While I was working out what I wanted to do for the first month's them, Highly Prized,  I finally played with the Caran d'Ache Neocolor II set that I bought last year. I'm kicking myself for waiting so long to try these (it was my intention to use them on fabric). Water soluble wax pastels. They totally rock!!


Just to see what all the fuss is about this "new" form of doodling.  I tried a few of these in a little 6 x 6 pad i also grabbed. I suspect doing these is a little like crack with a micron pen...   I mean it's kind of fun and all, but it's a little addictive and I think I don't need another way to waste time. 
If I want Zen, I'll go practice my yoga.
Well, maybe just a little tiny pad and pen by the bed.
In case I can't sleep...
This one cracks me up and makes me happy

Monday, January 10, 2011

Photo Monday

This year I'll be posting scenic photos on Mondays.
Hope you enjoy them!

 Last week...
Note the green grass and cavorting squirrel and sunshine...
Well that didn't last long.

This past weekend it snowed again and early Saturday morning I took my camera for a walk before most of the plows and salt trucks sullied the pretty snow. It was cold and absolutely beautiful.

Great textures
 The sun trying to break through
 Lots of nests in all the naked trees
 You lookin' at me?
 Fluffy
 The snow in the quince looked like cotton balls
 Another evergreen
 And another -- looks like a weeping one
 Loved this tree and its golden berries
 Obviously not tasty to the birds!
 Bits of blue peeking through the clouds
 I got scolded by this raven and his pals
Nice lines
Blood red berries

Now off to put some of that snow to work on dyeing fabric!