4th Annual Artist Retreat - And the winner is....

All the names...28 of them this time!...were put in a bowl a little while ago (read: after we returned from a delicious dinner at Pachamama's where I ate far too much)

and Pam had the honor of drawing the name of the person to receive my rust tea book.

Hey Bridgette Guerzon Mills! Guess what...Pam drew your name. Congratulations! 

4th Annual Artist Retreat - Wednesday

Wednesday began as usual - coffee with Pam and her husband, chatting while watching the squirrels

and rabbits as they foraged for their breakfast and played in the grasses. Then it was downstairs to the studio where I spent half the day enjoying observing how Pam's what ifs came to life.

Pam has been the epitome of tolerance concerning my camera/photography addiction. Only once has she scowled in my direction and that was yesterday when I started to video her sewing...and she knew it. Those clicks of the camera dial gave me away. The scowl was honored and the camera was switched off video...this time, that is. Shhhh....don't tell Pam.

 Finally, it was time for me to set about measuring

 
and trimming

before starting to machine stitch my own what if.

Many thanks to all for lovely comments regarding my 400th post! The hat is becoming quite filled with names. Good luck in the drawing tomorrow night!

400

Most times when I travel these days, a blank book of Khadi paper and a few rusty washers accompany me so that the bags from tea enjoyed on the trip can be used to create a rust tea book. That's my art travel habit/ritual and a book has been in the works this week using Pam's and my used tea bags.

We're not sure what that thing is that I've been using as a paper weight, but given how incredibly solid and heavy it is, we're calling it kryptonite. Truly, not even Superman could destroy this.

The rusting is centered on every 3rd or 4th spread so that the empty pages may be filled later on.

The tea bags, above is my favorite, are gorgeous and ideas for their use are flitting around my creative mind...whispering among themselves to see which they think is best.

Wondering just why this post is titled 400? Well....yesterday's post about the 4th annual artist retreat was my 400th blog post. Can you believe it? That makes this one number 401. And that calls for a celebratory give away, don't you think? I do. Now...can you guess what the prize is? Yes! My rust tea book from this week.

I must warn you that this will be a quick give away. It is Wednesday morning here in Oz as this post is composed. If you'd care to throw your name in the hat, so to speak, please leave a comment on this post or on the link to this post on my Facebook artist page by 7 pm US Central Time (that's one hour earlier than New York City time if that helps) on Friday, May 31. Pam will do the honors of drawing the winning name. I'll take the book back home and dress it up a bit, maybe even include a surprise or two before sending it off to the winner.

Many thanks to you, dear readers, for finding and following my little, mostly rusty, blog! You make it enjoyable, offer friendship and connect me to the whole wide whirled. For that, I give thanks.

Good luck!

4th Annual Artist Retreat - It's not all black & white

Last week, when Pam and I discussed what we wanted to work on during this year's retreat, she threw out the idea of simply what if-ing all week. The more this idea was pondered, the more appealing it became. So, despite the 2 boxes of rusted fabrics and equal number of denim/indigo that were sent ahead, it's been a week of black and white for me...sort of.

Do you remember these?

 

The black and white abstracts are actually my Christmas cards sitting on the worktable near a window that catches the afternoon sun. The cards nearly didn't get finished and sent out because of the fun of playing with light and shadows. Translating the photos into fabric has been on my one day list since December.

So...yesterday was spent sewing black and white cotton together in hopes of creating a similar effect. 

This morning found me wanting to stamp a story a some mono printed fabric I'd brought along. Out came the new stamp set so recently purchased. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be a set of numbers! (which had totally slipped my mind when it was packed) 

Not a problem. I quickly wrote out the alphabet and assigned each a number, then happily stamped away. 

Once the ink was dry, it was hand torn and stitched. 

Then hand torn again.

And what has Pam been doing all this time, you might be wondering. Well...

She's been drawing circles

and lines.

Measuring,

 cutting,

sewing,

painting and

collaging. And we've 3 more days to play. Wonder what we'll do tomorrow?

4th Annual Artist Retreat - An Errant Line - Cynthia Schira

Part 2 of An Errant Line: Ann Hamilton / Cynthia Schira on exhibition at the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas until August 11 this year. 

Through the gates, you get a teasing glance at Cynthia Schira's portion of exhibition. After being overwhelmed and delighted by Ann Hamilton's work, I took a moment to rest before stepping through the gates.

Taking that final step was a spiritual experience of sorts. One step transported me from a world of muted colors, of ethereal photographs of elaborately dressed and mysterious people, of other-worldliness into...well...nirvana.

Where Hamilton had laid creche figures on an obsolete scanner, Schira's installation features sheer, woven, and mesh fabrics. It includes a monumental "word" cloth and ETYMON, woven on a computer-controlled Jacquard loom at the Oriole Mill, abstracted from selections obtained from the Spencer's online collection database.* 

Schira divided her exhibition into Making, Showing and Saving. I started to organize my photos to reflect that, but chose to leave them in the order taken. Enjoy!

*from the SMA Ann Hamilton / Cynthia Schira an errant line brochure