Monday, August 23, 2010

what really matters...on Monday and everyday




Ultimately what really matters is a courageous spirit...and a generous heart. I received this little note from a teacher friend today and it makes me smile with the joy that I am of doing what I truly love. I am going to finish the final touches on putting the little wall hangings for Abby and Zoe. I went to the bank to sign another form for the business and made a deposit to cover my rent...two classes and two more books!!! WooHoo! I am paying the rent. We hung Hayley's paintings on the brick wall and the studio is alive with her youth and colorful, intriguing assemblages and paintings. The postcards arrived to day but her name was misspelled so we immediately ordered new ones hopefully for Friday's opening. I am ordering the cheeses and wine and pop and Hayley's Mother and Aunt have ordered cookies and will be baking for the Friday night celebration. I want her to be excited and feel how much we appreciate her new adventures in making her way in the world of Art.

I went to Michaels and picked up some clearance letters...metal this time...make art for a future assemblage with my name and focus. I need to deliver the press to have a piece that is broken welded by my biker boys around the corner...I would like to get some small printing workshops going but in totally non-toxic inks and affordable papers. Eventually I want to create some "junk mail" hand made papers and work with some layering effects to enhance the designs and textures. I discovered a new ...2009 book on making transfers with just about everything you can possibly imagine. Image Transfer Workshop by Darlene Olivia McElroy and Sandra Duran Wilson. The second treasure to read this week is Ruth Rae's Layered,Tattered and Stitched... another wealth of intimate exercises...cards, dolls, assemblages and aprons. The finishing touches are photographed and explained very clearly for even the novices wanting to add textural design elements. Cas Holmes 's The Found Object in Textile Art is a new publication infused with knowledge and techniques from a well known and renowned textile artist. Cas uses found objects to combine a mixed media approach to making her artful marks. She encourages a well recorded sketch book with rubbings, found objects, compositional proposals for transforming her works daily...she is always evolving and shares her experiences generously with her readers.

Well I need to get upstairs to in home studio with my home...yes I am still relocating and reorganizing to move down to the Whispers studio. I hope you will look into some of what I have shared tonight...I need to research an artist from the early part of the 1900's for a visitor...has anyone heard of Tanner Fox? It is a long shot but this gentleman is elderly and not familiar with the powers of the Internet...but neither am I. Imagine and Live in Peace, Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart

The lady is black and white is my friend Nancy from Melbourne , Australia stopping by to catch up on what I have been up to. She came in special to see my quilts but I hinted she would see a lovely printmaker's work in the exhibit at the Art Works Gallery.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Mary - nice to see your friend here. She comes from a long way away indeed! Great also to hear that you are making progress through the everyday. Afterall, it is the day to day stuff that actually makes a difference, when it's done :-)

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