Faculty Art Exhibition

I am an art teacher at a middle school in Missouri City, TX.  The district that I work in put on an art exhibition strictly for faculty art work!  I still have most of my art packed away from the move, or it is traveling on exhibition right now, so I decided to make something new.  I love to do birds!  I am considering doing a series with "things with wings".  In any event, here is my artwork that I did for the show!  "Ramphastos Sulfuratus" (Keel-Billed Toucan)  The crazy thing is that I drew this out like three years ago, and just hadn't gotten around to painting and quilting it.  Yay, I can scratch one UFO off the list!

OURstory!

I responded for another call for entry entitled "OURstory" which will tell the stories of disenfranchised people and their fights for equal rights.  I created a 25" X 40" quilt inspired by Rosa Parks.  I chose to base my art quilt on the iconic mugshot photo of her, but I changed it up a little, by putting equal on the sign she was holding up, and in the background, I used an original thermofax screen, to "inscribe" common words and phrases from that time on the brick wall behind her.  I included words like, "colored, segregation, whites only and back of the bus" to name a few.  I am REALLY proud of the job I did quilting her face.  But, I can't post pictures of the finished product just yet.  Here is a photo my daughter took of me while I was working on it, and a small shot of the back!  More to come.......

Herstory News!

A while ago, I posted that I had gotten accepted/juried into the HERstory book and possible exhibition.  Well, not only did I get into the book, but my Hattie McDaniels quilt was featured in Quilting Arts October/November issue, and my Misty Copeland quilt was on exhibit at the International Quilt Festival and in the Houston Chronicle!!!  I am so excited! 

Quilting Arts:

Houston Chronicle:

IQF-Houston:

Juried!

As I said in an earlier post, I created three quilts for the Herstory book and exhibit, and two of them got in!  Here is the one that did not get in!  It is in honor of Oprah Winfrey and the work she did with her Angel Network and with Hurricane Katrina victims.   I drew it first to make the pattern, and hand painted the background with textile paints as well as the likeness of Ms. Winfrey.  The houses and clouds, etc. were made with fused applique.   I really liked this one, but you never know what the jurors have in mind.  Plus, I am almost certain that someone else also did an Oprah quilt, too.

Accepted

The same person who brought us the "Fly Me To the Moon" quilt challenge, came up with another opportunity entitled "HERStory", which was about women who have made great contributions to society and the world in general.  I was approved to make quilts in honor of Oprah Winfrey, Misty Copeland and Hattie McDaniel.  Talk about a learning experience....Whew!  I would say I really loved the way the Oprah quilt came out, but I was most proud to make the quilt of Hattie McDaniel. The Misty quilt, called "Misty in the making" was in honor of her, but it was based on a photo taken of three little ballerinas that I happened to run across of a classmate's daughter. There were other people who submitted quilts about Oprah, and mine was not accepted, but both my Misty Copeland and Hattie McDaniel quilts were accepted!  I can't show photos at this time.....(I know, I know!)

It's been a minute!

I have not posted in almost a year.....but I have been busy!  I entered and was accepted into the Cherrywood Fabrics Lion King Challenge!  I was so inspired by the Wicked Challenge quilts I saw at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, that I couldn't wait to be a part of their next one.  I can't post any pictures of it, but I enjoyed making it.  Each time I enter any type of challenge, it really helps me to grow as an artist.

Trying Something New

As an artist, I feel like I should continually be improving and honing in on my craft.  I know if I had to pick only one medium to use it would be fibers, but I still consider myself a mixed-media artist.  After all, a considerable amount of my quilts start off as paintings on cotton.  So, I decided to venture into using watercolors and Prisma for an artwork for a friend and to honor a couple of our school district board members.  I like the way they turned out, but I would definitely put more effort into the colored pencil accents and values next time.  I wonder how this would be if I printed it onto fabric and quilted it?!?

Accepted and Completed

Back in April of last year I applied to have the opportunity to create a quilt for the theme "Fly Me to the Moon" in honor of the 50 year anniversary of landing on the moon.  There were a lot of different categories to choose from--including specific missions and astronauts, but I chose to go in a familiar direction: Romantic Moon.  Anything that has to do with "amore", is alright with me!  My specific inspiration was the song, "That's Amore" by Frank Sinatra.  You know..."When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie....." 

I was accepted!  So I initially thought of a couple strolling together under the moonlight. I wanted to take it a step further, so I thought about a younger couple, and I had some of my middle school students pose for a picture in our courtyard.  I based my quilt on the notion of new love and the images of my teenage students.   Once I created the quilt, I had to send pics and wait to see if my piece would be accepted........

YES!  I was accepted and my quilt will be included in a book to come as well as a traveling exhibit!  I can't show any pictures of the piece itself, but it was based in part on this photo:

IQF Houston 2015 Recap

So the quilt show has come and gone, and it was an amazing experience!  I not only had two quilts in the show, but "Daddy's Little Girl"  also was featured in the International Quilt Festival: Quilt Scene magazine, and I got to record two mini videos about both of the quilts for "Go Tell It At The Quilt Show"!

 

 

My "Daddy's Little Girl" quilt in the IQF-Quilt Scene 2015-2016 Magazine

"Daddy's Little Girl", part of the Quilts: A World of Beauty exhibit (Digital Art Category) at the IQF-Houston 2015

"I Believed! You Achieved!", part of the Celebrations Exhibit at the International Quilt Festival-Houston 2015

Yippee!!

One of my favorite sources of inspiration for my art is my photographs.  I chose these two photos to base two new works upon with the sole purpose of entering them in the International Quilt Festival. From the moment I took the picture of my husband and daughter, I knew it was going to be turned into a quilt.  It is from three years ago.  The other is of my cousin at his graduation.  The theme for the exhibit for that one is celebrations.  I just remember how proud my aunt was of him, and immediately thought of this moment when I saw the theme. 

 

This is the biggest quilt show in the world, and it is so inspiring just to walk through the George R. Brown Convention Center every fall to view all the latest art in the form of the quilt.  I am so excited right now because I just got word that one of the quilts, "Daddy's Little Girl", got accepted into the show!  I won't hear about the other one for a few weeks, but just to get in with one is like the best honor ever!  I can't show the quilts right now, (show rules), but believe me, I will be a "postin' fool" when that show gets here Halloween week!

The Sisters Quilt

I have been wanting to do something with my mother and her sisters for a long time.  I finally was able to take my own picture of them together, to make some art with them as the subject.  They just weren't cooperating with my requests for pictures.....

So anyhoo, I drew their likenesses in a cartoon style and painted and quilted it.  I also added my grandmother and one sister who weren't present.  They are no longer with us, but I still wanted to include them in "The Whitfield Girls"!

It's About Time!

I can't believe it has been so long since I last posted! Wrangling two little ones under the age of five certainly occupies a considerable amount of my time.  We have also been preparing for a big move to a new city for the past few months.  But I have managed to work a little "thread meditation" into the rotation.  I started making t-shirt quilts last year, and that has helped me to support my addiction---to fiber art. (A few old, a few new)

 

These were fun to put together.  I have definitely started saving my kids t-shirts for their quilt---15 years from now. :-)

No Greater Inspiration....

There is no greater inspiration than L-O-V-E!  Recently I had the opportunity to witness and participate in the union of one of my best friends. 

 

 

See that's me on the right, then the left! (By the way, Martin Johnson is a gifted photographer, and he took that photo.  Looks like a postcard doesn't it?!)  Anyway, I was so inspired by the beautiful scenery and atmosphere, I needed only to pick the right moment to base a new artwork on.  I chose this moment:

Can't you feel the love?

With that said, here is the final product, as well as it displayed at the reception.

It is 20" x 20" big. I hope they love it!

SAQA Benefit Auction 2014

For the 4th year in a row, I am participating in the SAQA Benefit Auction.  My pieces have sold every year, so I am hoping I can keep the streak going!  If you get a chance, go to www.saqa.com to check out all of the wonderful pieces up for auction.  It begins Sept. 15th.  In the meantime, here is my work in progress:

And the finished product:

I created this 12"X12" piece by starting with a glue gel resist.  I then hand painted it, let it dry and hand stitched it in the resist areas.  Finally I accented the image with beads and sequins. What do you think?

Published and Featured!

I submitted an entry to Quilting Arts Magazine's Friendship and Devotion challenge and I was chosen as a finalist.  This meant I would either be in the magazine or shown on the website.  How exciting.  Well, low and behold, I received several e-mails congratulating me on being published in the February/March issue before I had a chance to pick up my magazine from my P. O. Box.  What a great surprise!

As an added bonus, Quilting Daily, (Quilting Arts' Blog) used my artwork as the example in their article on hand quilting! (click below)  Can you say AWESOME!


http://www.quiltingdaily.com/blogs/quilting-daily/archive/2014/01/28/how-to-quilt-by-hand-tips-for-success.aspx

Modernizing the T-shirt Quilt

So, I am really into the t-shirt quilt thing now, but I am on a mission to modernize it.  Yes, the traditional ones are nice!  But frankly, as an artist, they can be a little boring.  I decided to tilt the blocks this time.

 

I also added a "Mondrian-like" border.  I will definitely make my borders wider next time so the "tilt" can be even greater.  Also I may try alternating blocks as opposed to columns to make it more apparent.  But overall, I like it a lot.  I have so many sorority tees that I actually have three works in progress, and I still have some to wear!

Something New

I had wanted to do this for a long time, but finally got around to it.  What inspired me to go ahead and do it?  I teach art at a middle school, and as we all know, there is simply not enough money in the education system in general. Did you know there are some school systems that value the arts so little that they don't even offer art to their students?  I have digressed---my apologies....I wanted to raise some money for my department, so I had my students/fellow staff members donate their gently used spirit t-shirts, and I made t-shirt quilts that were auctioned off. 

 

We were able to raise some money, and I am looking forward to doing it again next year.  Can you say HUGE learning opportunity! Since then, I have made some more, and am looking forward to making more quilted memories! 

Black and White

Although I haven't posted in a couple months, I have been busy.  This is my first commission in a while. For the most part, most of my art has been gifts to others.  However, I was approached by someone who wanted something original for his fiancé for Christmas.  Although I had done plenty of photo inspired fiber art, I had yet to just do some in black and white and have it remain that way.  That presents its own set of challenges, but I think it came out nice.

Here is the painting I did on fabric based on the photo:

Here it is once I did the quilting:

Finally, here it is as it was presented to the client, framed:

One thing I really like about it was that in the background, although it looks like random stitching, it spells DREAM.  I didn't want it to smack you in the face....I wanted a little subtlety.  (You see it now, huh?) The client said that my rough draft drawing reminded him of a dream.  I was also really inspired by a quote I found by Dr. Seuss: "You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams".  They are such a cute couple anyway, and so is their love story.  No details on that from me though!

Quilt Festival!

The International Quilt Festival in Houston has come and gone.  There were four great things that transpired:

 

1) I had the pleasure of attending for two days, and I took classes from two fiber artists that I greatly admire: Hollis Chatelain (www.hollisart.com) and Frieda Anderson (www.friestyle.com) .  Overall, I was able to get some good ideas on how to approach my quilting in terms of design, and I got some more practice with free motion quilting motifs. 

 

2) I had the opportunity to do some shopping, and I actually only (mostly) bought the things on my list.  I was not wooed by all those tempting deals that always seem to be coming at you from every turn. This very well could have been because I had no spare time to wander.  Hmmmm, we'll never know!

 

3) I was so inspired by all of the spectacular artworks, both traditional and contemporary, and

 

4) I myself had my own fiber art exhibited there.  It was such an honor!  I cannot wait until next year when I plan to enter numerous works in several categories.  I am getting started now.  (But more about that later!)

 

 

 

Here I am in front of my "Jumping The Broom" quilt.

It was juried into the Traditions exhibit.  It was very interesting to see what traditions were interpreted in fiber.

 

This quilt is based on my favorite wedding photo of my husband and I jumping the broom.  Jumping the broom is an old tradition in African-American culture which dates back to slavery.  During this time, slaves were not permitted to legally marry.  It became a tradition to "jump the broom", to symbolize sweeping the past behind you and starting afresh together.  This display showed a couples love and commitment to one another. 

I also had another piece in the "What's for Dinner" exhibit.  My "dinner" was Pizza and Green Salad.  Back when my husband and I had the time and moolah to go out to eat regularly, we would eat pizza every week at our favorite pizza joint.  While we were waiting on the pizza to be served, we would always get a salad first so that we wouldn't feel like we were eating too badly. 

"Pepperoni, Please!"

The exhibit was set up really nicely!  Each entry had to be a placemat of the same size, 15"L X "24"W, and they had an extra long, decorated table set up with each of the entries placed along the perimeter. 

 

I especially loved the entries with the crawfish boil, the sushi, and the placemat with the spilled milk, mac and cheese and French fries with the title "I Do It!, I'm Two!" because my two year old daughter says that all the time!

Artsy Shoes.....Finished!

It took about two weeks to finally finish them, but I got them done!  Now I just have to spray and protect them.  Overall, I am pleased!  Check 'em out.....

From this........

To this...



The outside



The inside



The back



The front



Laced up



On my Feet