Manhattan Skyline for AIDS Quilt for Ron Sharkey

Our Fiber Art Fusion group is making an AIDS Quilt panel. Our group is doing Ron Sharkey, an actor best known for his role as Sonny Steelgrave in the TV series Wiseguy. He was a Broadway actor and also did many movies and television shows. This is the middle section of the 3'x6' vertical panel I am doing for him. It is supposed to be the Manhattan skyline and the top portion's building-lines will be cut out once it is attached to the other piece. The bottom section has theatre and movie icons and the Golden Globe award he won for his performance in The Idolmaker. The top portion are like search light/sun rays and his name will be put there. The bottom will have the names of his movies listed. Both Sharon and Ginny have done an amazing job. We're not finished yet but getting there.

Knock, knock. Who's there? Your paintings...

Thinking that these "swirls" paintings on silk were just a phase I went through after my mother's death, lately they have been calling to me. But I have no clue where to go with them and wait for it to become clear. And one of these, the one with the yellow curling line going across the center horizontally, calls to me more than the others. It reminds me of when I was around 2-3, I'd close my eyes to go to sleep and see a mass of grey snakes moving, moving, and there would always be one white snake in the center, like the yellow line.

The past week and a half it has been difficult to find the time to work. And I stepped on some Chinese hooks that went into my foot about 1/2", gave myself a deep cut on my finger after accidentally hitting the brand new rotary blade against it, and somehow managed to stick a heavy duty pushpin into my thumb deep enough it took some effort to pull it out. It is time to stop, rest, and regroup my energies. And get a tetanus shot.

No art....stuff needs to be done

It's difficult to go a day or more without painting, doing something creative. But things that need to be done need to be done. So here's a collage painting I did a while back. It is a collage of silk pieces, acrylic paint, and textured medium on canvas. A small 12" x 24" painting.

Silk dyed peony pillow

I don't know why but I've suddenly started doing peonies. Maybe it's because the peony plant I had for several years seems like it's not going to come out of the ground this year due to my neglect. I saw some at the plant nursery, was tempted to get one, but decided I should wait until I read up on how to care for one first. This was a fun little pillow to silk dye paint, and a "happy" one. Seems like I had been doing some darker colors and needed to do some brighter colors, such as the wisteria kimono jacket. Maybe I need to lay off the black dye for a bit.

The yellow large silk crepe de chine scarf work in progress has peonies, also. This time the background was dyed a brilliant yellow (for some reason--who knows why I paint certain colors. It's usually what mood or feeling I'm in at the moment.) and the subsequent colors I put on the silk mix with the yellow dye. At this point I'm not sure if I'll fill in more of the background or not. You can faintly see more leaves that have been drawn with gutta resist. It's another bright "happy" scarf.

Wisteria silk dyed kimono

This is the back view of the silk dyed wisteria kimono. It's done on crepe de chine, outlined with gutta, dyed and steam set. These larger silk fabric pieces required new PVC pipe frames to be made and moving around furniture to make room for the frames. During the process, although time consuming, it was just fun to dye the silk and I couldn't wait to finish the four pieces of fabric that make up this garment. I sewed and lined it with purchased silk habotai in a light bronze-ish color. Tinfix acid silk dye was used for this piece. To my eyes, the Tinfix dyes seem to be more brilliant than the Jacquard dyes even though Tinfix requires at least 3 hours of steaming. (Jacquard requires much less). I am looking forward to creating more wearable art garments of the silk dyed type in the near future, but first, I think I'll get rid of some more furniture to make room for the frames. As of now, the dining room and dining table is not for eating anymore, and I may have to take over the carport which I use for wax resist. The deck already gets used for background dyeing.

Wisteria silk dyed kimono

Here's a peek at the completed kimono jacket.