Artist Retreat - Thursday & Friday

When Pam and I dubbed this visit an artist retreat, I doubt either of us had an inkling as to how accurate it would be. Once we decided just what it was that we wanted/needed to do, we worked diligently.

We devised a system that made use of all the paint pulled through the screen. It gave us yards of original screen printed fabrics as well as yards of fabrics monoprinted from the excess paint. After finally calling an end to the process last night due to our brains being spent from the pace of the last few days, we starting trying to figure out just how much fabric had been printed.

For myself, it's along the lines of:
5 yards black linen
4 yards white linen
5 yards white silk organza
5 yards white cotton
2 yards black cotton

My silk organza is original screen prints while the rest are monoprints. Pam was using organza and sheers that were 108 inches wide and I don't remember how many yards were printed, but it's around 15 or 20 plus a bit of cotton.

Thursday was a semi-play day. We had lunch with Diane of Diane's Artisan Gallery at a funky little new age sort of southwestern restaurant

where Diane ordered the largest burrito we'd ever seen.

After lunch Pam & I went in search of gifts for my daughters and then ventured over to Diane's.

As lovely as the fiber, jewelry and clay in the gallery are, it was her yarn display that really held my attention. The colors that she weaves with are vibrant and alive and I couldn't resist getting a photo.

Next was a trip to the Spenser Museum on Kansas University's campus to see an exhibit by Kim Jongku entitled Mobile Landscape employing metal filings to create landscapes.

This piece ran the length of the wall and was exquisite.

We weren't sure if the artist intended for viewers to walk through the filings on the floor so we just stood and admired...and watched our feet being projected on the screen above.

As we left the exhibit, I turned for one last view and was struck by the mirror image of the reflection.

After a day of play, it was back to work yesterday. Here's just a sampling of what we did.

I fly home to Connecticut in a few hours. Two boxes of printed fabrics were mailed yesterday...just not enough room in my suitcase. However, there are three pieces too precious to hand over to anyone and they are in my backpack for me to carry home.

I'd like to say I'll rest on the flight, but my creative mind is already at work wondering what comes next with the pieces we created as yardage. Some will be cut into smaller pieces, but a few will remain large...and hopefully I won't screw them up in the process.

Thank you Pam for a lovely week! And thank you to John and Mike for being such understanding husbands. Now...when can we do this again?