Look What I Got

Sometimes the mail man brings the most wonderful gifts. I have a friend, June Underwood, who took a fit of cleaning and tidying and emptying.

She mentioned that a few samples of Japanese fabrics were among the orphans. Being an upright person (snicker) I volunteered. I now have four pieces. Thought you might like to see just one. It's a dark and rainy day in the Sonoran Desert so this bright flower is a treat.

The Mulligrub Blues

The Mulligrub Blues is finished. Week after month sitting in doctors offices, x-ray offices, hospital waiting rooms. I finally finished the hand work on the binding and the sleeves last week.

This is just a very quick digital documentation snap. I wanted to be able to see the stitching on the black. Hard to capture with an overhead, interrogation, light.

When it comes back from the professional photographer's I'll drop it on the scanner and we will try again. And, yes, I know that I need to take the cellophane tape roller to the thing, again. I, too, can see the cat hair on the detail.

I worked most all day, today, sitting in a hospital recovery room with DH. He is fine, the angiogram did not show any problems. So I have accumulated a four inch line of pins in my canvas carry bag. Just barely scratched the surface of the hand applique work on that one. Have no idea what it should be called. I'll let you know when I get more done.

Oops

Café Olé, ©2006, Judith Harmony.

I suppose you, like me, have weeks when things get brought in and added to the pile. Two or three weeks ago I picked up most of The Blues from a gallery manager.

She, brilliantly I must say, had arranged a multi artist exhibition at a corporate headquarters. The largest hallways, one leading to the Conference Room and the other leading from the front door to the Cafeteria featured a diverse display of textile art.

So, back to some one else's work. I carried in a roll of quilts with the inserts and the wrappers piled on top. I paid scant attention until yesterday. I started unrolling the stack to re-roll each wall hanging for storage.

Hum. . . . Why on earth did she use a piece of bamboo to hang one of The Blues on. Shaking head. I kept working. Then I spied a construction sign yellow with hand stamped burnt umber. I've never seen that fabric before. I really began digging. Behold: Café Olé. I get to enjoy it while someone looks around for a missing slat. Not quite an even trade but this lovely goes home.

An Artist's Trip

to the dentist. Every so often I have to go to the dentist. For me, living in the Sonoran desert between Tucson, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, the dentist means drive south about thirty miles to Nogales, Arizona. Find a parking place on the street and walk across the border. It is always a feast for the eyes
and fodder for an artist's mind.



Walk in the early morning, while the vendors are sweeping and washing their sidewalks and setting up their merchandise for the day. Since I always dress in almost the same clothes day in and day out, the merchants rarely treat me like a tourist. They look at my hair clip, my earrings, and the fact that I wear old, comfortable, black leather shoes that have been polished many times. The shoes say to them, "Is this woman a mexican of european decent or is she an tourist?"

I am neither so I wander merrily along saying, "No, gracias." to any entreaties to inspect the wares. I was a bit early yesterday so I went a ways down both Campillo and Obregon. Teen aged boys were sitting on their haunches in front of restaurants without one word of taunt. I took pictures of some of the older buildings with abandon. I do love old Nogales. I always go alone.

Yesterday was very sad. Although some of the business have invested in gorgeously gaudy paint, many others have not survived the depredations of the works of Homeland Insanity. About thirty percent of the tourist businesses are now Se Renta - vacant storefronts for rent. Most Americans have been scared away. The threat of invisible terrorists is only outdone by the imagination of nasty drug lords. So, good, kind, decent, working people have less and less income to support their families.

The only beggars you see are the truly severely handicapped. The local people who give change to the beggars may give one or two centavos. It's an amazing thing to see the poor giving to those even more desparate than themselves. You never see the hectoring of big city panhandlers; just the stoic acceptance of a person's plight.

Again, it's food for thought and stirs up many ideas. How does one integrate the idea of having enough into art work. These kind, gracious people have enough; enough to give a few centavos. It makes me think.

Grant Writing & Glossy Magazines

Just a look at a grant application - tied with a bow - going to my regional Arts Council. It's been placed on the kitchen counter so I remember to deliver it to their office tomorrow morning on my trip to Tucson for other errands.

This particular organization asks for one original and twelve copies. Makes for heavy paper and ink usage. It takes a lot of ink to reprint glossy magazine reviews with good photos. The rewards are there.

However, volunteers who sit on grant review committees are as busy, every day, as the rest of us. They may just skim the text paperwork. Good, national magazine reprints with good images catch their attention and cause them to really read the entire grant application.

I guess I'm telling you all this so that you can start looking for your own grants. It's part of the business of doing the business end of being an artist. Almost every decent sized city, region, and state has a tax supported organization that exists to encourage the arts within their locality. It is well worth your while to seek out those organizations. You have already paid for their services through your property taxes or through your rent.

Many have good tutorials - sometime they are free - sometimes they are $10. I know that my regional Arts Council really helped me learn about computers before I owned one. They taught me about copyright law. They provided a good, in city, exhibition venue as well as rural traveling venues. They gave approval and encouragement in the days when I did not know if I really was an artist.

Now, about that national magazine reprint business. Keep your eyes and ears open. There are always good writers around. Some of them may be found under the radar writing freelance articles for local newspapers. The ones who ask good questions and listen well to an artist's answers are the writers who know how to query national magazines. If you have a good story to tell, they can find a publication that will pay them a pittance to write it. If they ask you for 300 dpi digital images - usually eight for the editor to choose from - say, "Yes, sir!" smartly and get them to him in twenty four hours. It will pay you big dividends.

It not only gives you a good resume line it gives you good publicity for your portfolio. It also gives you a scan for a printable copy that you can keep on your computer and print out for any inquiry or grant application.

European Meeting Patchwork

Marion Curry, of Queensland, Australia, will be one of the exhibitors at the European Edition of Changing the World One Thread at a Time. Her work, Paddock X: Cecil Plains is one of the invitational works added to the portion of last winter's exhibition that is easily transportable. Forty-two works will be shown.

The European Meeting Patchwork is more commonly known as Carrefour or Val d'Argent. The valley, with four villages and every public building in every village hosting exhibitions, will have jitney service during the meeting. More information is available at patchwork We hope to see you there between September the 14th and 17th.

In the meantime, the catalog from last winter's exhibition is still available at thelmasmith.com

Also, please check the Summer 2006 edition of Surface Design Journal. D Wood has written a review of the original exhibition.

\0/ \0/ \0/ Website Additions

This is Left Turn Lane #8. It always gets the reaction of Aaawwwww. Everyone wants to touch and pet the Newfoundland.

Thought this might get you to go take a look at all the good, new, scans of the Left Turn Lane.

You can go from there to either of the series. You will get a page of thumbnails. Click on one to get the full page. Next or back links are at the tops and bottoms of the pages; you can click through and see the whole of each series.

We are in the process of re-scanning - with a newer and more accurate scanner - all the images from the Sonoran Desert Landscape Commissions.

I am of mixed feelings about posting works made prior to the year 2000. They are cluttering up my storage system. Most of them are either bed size quilts or sofa throws; some of them are prize winners. If you have a need for a gift and an interest in these new, old stock, quilts, please contact me. The pricing is set at the year the work was made.

The Issue

Opposing sides with no grey area must live side by side when the issue is closed. © Barbara Brandel, Tucson, Arizona

Diane Howell - Many Thanks ! !

The Issue, by Barbara Brandel of Tucson, Arizona. The apparent 'filthy lucre' is a collection of buttons standing independently on wires over a base of hardware cloth. Neatly lettered on the front edge top and bottom are the words the other side. I don't have the other images easily at hand; I hope I quoted correctly. The interesting thing is the issue, the money, close it up and lock it away. End of story.

I've been talking to a few writer friends; we all have stories. Much as we like being published in glossy paper with binding, there are times when we want everything that we wrote down available to the reader unedited with every one of the images we speak about.

It's difficult. Magazines have to charge subscription fees and sell advertizing. Here all I have to do is pay the cable bill and keep the machine behaving. So, this marks my independence day. The Changing the World One Thread at a Time review written by Diane Howell has been placed on the website.

Go to Articles and see what you think. Lots and lots of pictures embedded in good writing. I hope that as time goes on that I can print the complete manuscripts of articles that get truncated in the magazines.