"Vetruvian Man" Awarded Prize

30" x 50" "Body Map in Honor of DaVinci's Vetruvian Man"

Am very happy to learn today that my work which pays homage to DaVinci's Vetruvian Man has been awarded second prize in mixed media at the Sorensen Gallery in Fresno, California.  This work was juried into the 7th Annual Art Scientifique month long exhibit at the Sorensen Gallery in the heart of Fresno.  Yearly the Departments of Science and Mathematics at California State University, Fresno put out a national call for art entries which deal with some area of science and/or mathematics.  Because many of the submissions are from scientists and mathematicians, I have been exceptionally thrilled that my works have been accepted for two years in a row.

This was my work that was juried into the last years' 6th Annual Art Scientifique exhibit.

36" x 36" "Gray Matter Unveiled"

Always remember, never fear to experiment.  

Sometimes wonderful things happen.

© Linda Friedman 2017.  All rights reserved

"A Forever Changed World" in Palm Springs, CA

 

I'm thrilled to announce that my quilt, "A Forever Changed World" will be on exhibit with the Beyond the Edge Fiber Artists exhibit at Mancuso's Quiltfest Oasis from October 6 - October 8, 2016.

Our group of invited fiber artists has created an exhibit of works based upon a theme of "Infinite Connections".  It reflects each artist's translation of that theme with fabric and a variety of techniques.  My 30" x 50" quilt reflects the infinite connections that became possible with the advent of radio waves. We often take communication for granted but without it, societies would stand still.  May our information portals never be hacked and closed.

Hope you can set aside a day between October 6th and 8th to visit Quiltfest Oasis which promises to be an outstanding show.

Quiltfest Oasis – October 6 – 8, 2016

Palm Springs Convention Center

277 North Avenida Caballeros

Palm Springs, CA

Always remember, never fear to experiment.  

Sometimes wonderful things happen.

© Linda Friedman 2016.  All rights reserved

"Speaking Out" in Fuller Lodge Art Center, "Pulse" exhibit

"Speaking Out" © Linda Friedman 2016

I'm tickled pink to report that my quilted art work, "Speaking Out," has been juried into the Los Alamos, New Mexico, Fuller Lodge Art Center exhibit, "Pulse".    Here is an invitation to the opening reception that is scheduled for this evening.

Invitation to Opening Receiption

If any followers happen to be in New Mexico during the remainder of June through July 30th, I hope you will visit the Fuller Lodge Art Center to take in the exhibit.  The address of the center is:

2131 Central Avenue

Los Alamos, NM  37544

The call for art outlined what the jurors were looking for, as follows:

"Examine the concept of rhythm and take time 

to tune into the cadence of the world around you..."

My work, "Speaking Out" was inspired by Pharrell Williams' song, "Freedom" that was released in 2015.  This quilted work was composed upon white and red cotton and cotton blend fabrics, screen printed and stenciled using my original designs with acrylic paints mixed with fabric medium, and free motion quilted.

Sure wish that my schedule would allow traveling to the reception.  The variety of art promises to be stimulating.

Always remember, never fear to experiment.  

Sometimes wonderful things happen.

© Linda Friedman 2016.  All rights reserved

Birds on a Tin Tile Print

Through a Garden Fence

After attending a fantastic plein aire class on tin tile printing given by Teresa Shippy, I came right home and used a tin tile to make four prints using Setacolor fabric paint.  At another time I will post the process for this printing.  I then sashed each printed square with hand dyed purple fabric, backed each of the four center squares with batting so that I could make them dimensional, and then applied batting to the back of the entire top.  On the center stashing pieces I machine appliqued free form leaf shapes and auditioned petals for a middle medallion shape.

Life and other quilting deadlines intervened and almost 3 years passed before I revisited this creation.

While straightening up my studio in anticipation of a friend who will be visiting to quilt with me for a week, I came upon the Through a Garden Fence that I had started a few years back.  I had always envisioned putting birds on this quilt, so I dug out some white cotton fabric and painted birds on it.  After the painting was complete I pulled out tear away stabilizer and embroidery hoop and set about free motion machine "painting" a few birds.  I'm not certain exactly where they will be placed yet, but I may place one at each of the points where the four leaf shapes converge upon the center of the quilt.  Here are the birds...

There are a few deadlines that I need to meet in the next few months so I don't know when I will have the time to return to this work to actually quilt the work and to applique the birds, but I'm hoping to have it completed this year.  

Always remember, never fear to experiment.  

Sometimes wonderful things happen.

© Linda Friedman 2016.  All rights reserved

Water, Bird and Fish in Fiber Art

Life is Full of Surprises

It was great fun to see these three of my works in the Shaped by Fiber II exhibit at the Mission Viejo Library as the lead in to the great video that Laura and Luke Bisagna created.

3 of My Works in the Beyond the Edge Fiber Artists Exhibit

Always remember, never fear to experiment.  

Sometimes wonderful things happen.

© Linda Friedman 2016.  All rights reserved

"Eye of the Artist" - Beyond the Edge

Beyond the Edge Fiber Artists, a group.in which I am a member, has just installed two tremendous exhibits, the first of which is titled, "Eye of the Artist" and can be seen at::

 Mission Viejo Library 

100 Civic Center Drive

Mission Viejo, CA 92692

949-830-7100

August 1 - 30, 2015

A description of the exhibit is:

"An artistic eye is unique to each individual artist.  The subject matter is created from the artist's life experiences, their artistic style, and how they see the world.  the fiber art in this exhibition shows the diversity of each artist, as seen through each artist's eye."

Four of My Works in the Exhibit

Below are close-ups of each of these works.

"Undersea Rhapsody"

"Girl of the Northern Lights"

"Ceremony and Pleasure"

"Dancing Iris"

Tomorrow I will post a second exhibit that was installed at the magnificent Cerritos Library.  It's been a great past couple of weeks.  Working with such talented and genuine people in Beyond the Edge Fiber Artists has been pure joy.

Always remember, never fear to experiment.  

Sometimes wonderful things happen.

© Linda Friedman 2015.  All rights reserved

Birth of a Royal Guardian - Peacock Art (continuation)

I find myself incredulous that my post of yesterday was cut off.  When I looked at it today, the final part was gone.  Drats!  Let's see if I can't re-create it now.  Yesterday's post seems to have ended with sewing the peacock's crown.  Here we go with a continuation...

After the crown was sewn onto the backing, the body and tail of the peacock were pinned to the backing and then machine appliqued to the backing, starting with the head and stopping where the tail hangs off the canvas.

Machine Appliqueing the Body to the Backing.

After the machine appliqueing was complete, I randomly added claw shapes made from glass beads across the background and finished the work by adding heat sensitive rhinestones, also in a random manner.

Beaded Claw Shapes and Heat Set Rhinestones

Once the work was complete, I wrapped the quilt around the stretched canvas, stapled it to the wooden stretcher bars, glued black mat board to the back and finished it with D-rings and wire for hanging.

Waalaa, the work was complete and ready to hang on a wall.

Ruminations on Why I Chose to Use a Peacock to Express the "Boundless" Theme

The occurrence of multicolored iridescence in nature has always captivated my interest and stimulated my imagination.  To me, the male peacock is the king of radiant iridescence. After studying this bird extensively, I clearly understand why in Japanese culture the peacock was historically considered a guard to the royal palace.  To me, it is, indeed a “Royal Guardian”.

Exhibit Information

"Royal Guardian" will be on exhibit at the Cerritos Library for the months of August and September, 2015, along with other quilted and mounted art works by members of Beyond the Edge Fiber Artists.  If you happen to be in the area, I hope you will stop by the library to visit the exhibit.  The address of the library is: 

18025 Bloomfield Ave

Cerritos, CA 90703

Thanks for visiting and...

Always remember, never fear to experiment.  

Sometimes wonderful things happen.

© Linda Friedman 2015.  All rights reserved

 

From Small Block Print to Large Stencil - A How-to Guide

I am presently developing a quilted art work in which I am using one image in a variety of orientations, sizes and colors.  It started with a very large bird image that will appear on the front of the quilt but I also wanted it to appear on the reverse side. 

                                 From this                                  to this...

First I cut a block,

Soft Kut Printing Block

I printed the block in my sketchbook,

I cropped the top image and printed it in 2x2 

poster format and taped the pages together.

Next I cut enough freezer paper to cover the image

 

Here is the freezer paper laid over the image 

with the shiny side down.

 I traced around the image with a 

fine tip permanent marker.

A stencil is now ready to be cut with a craft knife,

BUT,.,

Before beginning to cut, I removed the posterized

 image from under the freezer paper.

Here is the beginning of the stencil cutout.

Here is what the partially cut stencil looked like.  

The remainder of the shapes were ultimately cut out.

I ironed the the fully cut out freezer paper stencil to

 the fabric on which I wanted the image to appear.

I used a plate as a makeshift palette, foam brush

and Setacolor opaque white fabric paint to paint

the stencil.

And here is the finished stenciled image that I believe

 successfully suggests a very large block print.

 

Always remember, never fear to experiment.  

Sometimes wonderful things happen.

 

 © Linda Friedman 2014.  All rights reserved.

"Between Heaven and Earth" - An art quilt comes home

Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims attended the Road to California quilt show and produced a slideshow of the "Bridges" exhibit from the Quilts on the Wall group.  My quilt, "Between Heaven and Earth", was juried into the exhibit and I believe it is the 7th in the slideshow series.  After having traveled the United States with the "Bridges" exhibit for the past year, the quilt is finally coming home in March.

"Between Heaven and Earth"

Detail of Bird and Stitching

Detail of Printing with Foliage and Stitching

Tea Bags, Checkerboards and Birds - The Final

The blue jay is finally finished.  Because the bird became somewhat lost on the busy background of squares, I drafted a circle around it and then filled it in with Jacquard luminescent textile paints to provide a contrast that would make the bird stand out.  Satin stitching around both the circle and the tea bag was done to provide a unified focal image.  The borders and reverse are made from a hand dyed fabric.  Since there was only a little of the hand dyed fabric left after the borders and backing were done, the hanging sleeve needed to be pieced.

Now, it's on to working on a piece with some writing on it...

Finished Tea Bags, Checkerboards and Birds

Close-up of Bird and Circle

 

 Reverse

Label

Reverse - Close-up of Quilting

Sleeve

Close-up of Stitching around the Jay