May Gallery Exhibition Postponed

I forgot to mention in my last post that the show I was supposed to have this month at The Artist's Shop in Missoula, MT has been cancelled---actually rescheduled for May, 2021.  I orginally was making work around the theme of "All About Trees" and I have 7 finished pieces (except for the chore of sleeves, rods, and labels!).  It remains to be seen what the 2021 show will feature, but I likely will have a new theme and new direction for that work. I now have that completed work that I can show at my galleries or enter into shows so I don't mind.  I would rather wait until the world is in a better place to display my work!

Please visit The Artist's Shop when it becomes possible to do so, as I always have work on display there as a consignment artist.  I also frequently have work hanging at River's Mist Gallery & Gifts in Stevensville, MT.  Right now those are my only venues, but I will likely be entering some national level shows and am gearing up to write and try to get published another magazine article. 

So please do keep up with my activities here and on my Fiber Into Art by Heidi Facebook page where I am frequently posting work in progress, finished pieces, and anything related to my Fiber Into Art life!

May Day

"Blue Marble and Stone"

Today is a beautiful sunny day with floaty clouds, the apple trees in my yard are budding, bugs are buzzing, and the creek is high and rushing. Our yard borders Three Mile Creek on the back side and most every Spring when the days start to get warm the waters rise and start eating away the banks and creeping up into the neighbors yard. Only one year that we have lived here did I ever feel threatened by it as it rose so high I thought it was going to come over the high bank on our property and move toward our house. This year I don’t think that will be an issue as it has been a gradual melting of snow in the valleys and unless we get a downpouring deluge of rain, the creek bed will likely be able to handle the melting mountain snows. Crossing my fingers.

"Goldfinch Summer"

As I look out my windows throughout the day I see birds busy gathering mouthfuls of grasses and carting them off to wherever they are building their nests, others feeding madly on the cracked corn and sunflower seeds we put out for them, and still others are singing and chortling at each other from the tops of trees and fenceposts. With the aforementioned creek in the back, we get ducks, herons, red-winged blackbirds and kingfishers winging through our yard and since we are very near the wildlife refuge we get other birds winging over the yard---geese, Sandhill cranes, eagles, osprey, hawks, owls, vultures, and many varieties of songbirds. On the ground are pheasant and quail quickly scooting from the cover of trees and tall grasses to check out our feeders and occasionally calling loudly to their friends. I love all the spring activity and growing things.

"Capture The Sunrise"

May is my favorite month in Montana and it is almost always a good one. There might be some rain, and some cool nights, but in general the days are beautiful and the sounds and smells of spring are welcome and comforting after a long weary winter. It doesn’t hurt that my birthday is in May—I always loved that it was. When I worked a regular job I would often take my birthday off and go somewhere fun all by myself, like the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago or out into the woods of Western Montana to look for roadside wild asparagus or the first morel mushrooms. It was always a calming, pleasant time and I remember the leisure and joy of those days still.

"Blackberries and Dandelions"

In times like these odd ones we are in now with the Covid virus and social distancing, I especially appreciate the fact that I live where I am surrounded by wildness, beauty, nature. Right now, as a matter of fact, I look out my studio window to the willows and cottonwoods by the creek and see that the tiny yellow-green leaves are just starting to come out but the architectural structure of the tree branches is still visible and the early evening sunlight is making for a lovely landscape. In a couple months I won’t be able to see the trunks and branches, only lots of fluttering leaves. As the seasons change I enjoy all the nuances of each one and that is what truly inspires me in my studio when I am creating art.

My art is abstract, but very reflective of the elements, colors and shapes found in nature. When you look at a truly abstract composition, like a collage of scraps with no recognizable shape to them, how is it that it can evoke a memory or tell a story of being in a place surrounded by or interacting with nature? Somehow my memories, experiences and life lived in awe of what nature is about comes through in each piece that I create. It is there—my mother told me so. It is in the weave of the cloth, the stitch of the thread, the depth of the color, and the curves and angles of the lines. Inherent in my work is appreciation and reverence for the gift that is nature. Flora, fauna, landscape, microcosm, light and shadow. It is all so good, and it inspires me. I am a lucky girl.

"Adrift On The Current"

"Sunny Disposition" - Me according to my mom.

NOTE:  These are all older pieces that I am rather fond of, and most of them are sold.  Stay tuned for my next post which will be about my new work and where I might go from here...

"The Branch"

Hello Fellow Fiber Lovers!
I am returning to my blog as way of recording my art path and sharing that path with others.  I have decided that in order to get myself to sit down and write I should try to post more regularly on my Blog and maybe I will come up with some useful ideas for magazine articles or classes in the process.  Or maybe it will just be a good practice for organizing my thoughts and ideas.  I hope you will visit again to see what I have to say--and show you!

We are currently experiencing social isolation and self quarantine due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus.  It doesn't change too much of my lifestyle on a daily basis since I work at home and create art.  It does however mean that I don't get my usual monthly doses of social interaction with like-minded fiber loving individuals in the various local groups I belong to--two guilds, three fiber art groups, and one art group.  Hopefully that will change in the next couple of months, but until then I have been participating in Zoom on-line meetings and enjoying that style of interaction.  

Detail of "The Branch" - Stamped trees, embroidery

The biggest news I have right now is that as a result of this virus my solo exhibition scheduled for May has been cancelled at The Artist's Shop in Missoula.  They don't know when they will re-open, but it is sure they will not hold an opening reception that month which is important to the success of a show.  I have rescheduled that show for May of 2021 and look forward to sharing whatever body of work I come up with for that one.  In the meantime, the current work I have created is now available for sharing and selling.  The theme was to be "All About Trees" and I have 7 finished pieces as well as "mental commitments" to several other pieces.  I look forward to sharing them all since I have only been sharing snippets of them on Facebook and Instagram.  I have showed the backs with the intricate quilting as well as in-process and detail images of the fronts.  Now I will be sharing more of each of these pieces over the next few weeks and look forward to talking about them and maybe having an opportunity to display them at other venues or shows this year.  

I live in the Bitterroot Valley of Western Montana and we are surrounded by the Rocky Mountains and wilderness.  Trees are integral to many landscapes, but here they seem so much a part of our lives and how we interact with the landscape.  I love to walk through the woods when the sun is low and see the light filtering through the Ponderosa Pine trees and highlighting the undergrowth.  In the winter or after a rainfall that light sparkles and dances, but even on a calm dry morning or evening those rays of sun create lovely shadows and highlight the peacefulness of the forest.  It is something I remember fondly when I am at home in my studio or in the city dealing with traffic.  A memory that creates a mood or recreates a feeling.  This is what I capture in my art and hope that people who view and buy my art can share and appreciate. 

Trees have so many different shapes, they have leaves or needles or flowers or fruit.  They have beautiful and varied types of bark, architectural and organic branches, and they house and shelter animals of many different kinds.  I love how some rise so tall and proud, some sway and flutter in the breeze, some change color over the seasons, and some even in death are beautiful and powerful.  Trees have nests and cavities for protection and procreation, provide food for woodpeckers and other bug-seeking animals, have perches for many types of birds and animals to view prey or survey the landscape, and produce fruit and nuts for animals and humans to enjoy.  Not to mention the oxygen they produce which gives life to the planet.  The humble tree.  

Please come back for my salute to trees as I share my most recent work with you!