More Open Studios...

I've got more to talk about for Open Studios. First off, here I am:

This was on Sunday, which explains why I look the way I do. Tired. That's all I have to say - tired. But completely happy.

I feel like a complete dork because I didn't snap any pictures of the other artists while they were working. It really was a whirlwind, it all went by so quickly. Still, its one of those things. When I downloaded the photos off my camera yesterday I smacked myself in the forehead over this one.

Virginia and Judy were much better about it, go check out their blogs to see some of the other ladies. I was really in awe of all of them, so much good stuff flying about.

Most of the time I was working in Open Studios I was sitting at the tables that were up against the classroom area. On Saturday night, Pokey ran her infamous Surviving the Runway class. If you've not seen this one, its really something to behold.

Its a mixed media project challenge in which you are given a pile of supplies and told to make something good out of it. Participants dance for supplies and jump around. The more you hop about, the more stuff you get to use on your project. It is not for the faint of heart. At one point they decided to dance The Hustle. I had a front row seat for this:

The editors of Quilting Arts are right there leading the pack. They did a good job. Women were having so much fun they were practically falling over. They are a merry bunch!

At my first time slot for Open Studios on Friday I had decided to work on the same piece each day and have two other pieces out with their embellishments strewn about to show what I had picked. I thought it would be more interesting to see the path that a piece takes as I work on it rather then having a couple inches done on each one. I chose "Vintage" as the victim for this.

Here it is before I began working on it:



Here it is at the end of the show on Sunday:

Not bad for eight hours of playing with it in between talking with people. Its not done but well on its way. It needs more stitching now and some beads. I don't think it needs any more large elements and I'm fairly happy with it.

I had a realization this weekend. I shouldn't be calling these art quilts. I spent some time Sunday morning before my slot in Open Studios walking around the exhibits looking at all the work. (I took some photos of the ones that really caught my eye and I'm going to share them with you in another post. You've gotta see these things, they totally rock.) There is a big disconnect between what I do and the quilts on exhibit. During the course of chatting with people over the weekend, several referred to my work as collages. And you know what? I think they are right.

I am somehow feeling more in touch with my work now that it has a different label on it. It seems more appropriate to call them stitched textile collages then it does art quilts. It may just be semantics but the primary element to my work is not the stitching/quilting. Its all the mixed media elements and 'collage' seems more fitting.

Its funny that it would take me so long to identify that and that it would take complete strangers tossing the term my way for me to realize it but there it is.

I learned a lot about my art this weekend. And I remembered how much I love it and why I started doing it in the first place. My life over the past few years has been rocky and difficult and it finally is settling down. I'm turning back toward my studio and this weekend really helped me realize I wanted to be there.

Many many thanks to the Quilting Arts/Cloth Paper Scissors crew for inviting me to participate. I had a fantastic time and I can't thank them enough!

Cathy and I stayed a day longer then Mary did so on Mary's last night we went out for a nice meal. The two of them together is really something to behold. I laughed so hard I almost spit my food out. (Of course, they are hysterical to begin with but I had just gulped down a taffy apple martini so I was really giggle snorting. I wonder what the locals thought.)

Here we are at the restaurant:


Thanks guys, I haven't laughed that hard or that long for a really long time.