"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!