A Day at an Artist's Studio

It's been awhile since I have updated anything but will have some pictures to post hopefully with this blog entry.

We had a wonderful family Thanksgiving with daughters LJ and Zanne and Zanne's husband Justin, Warren and I. The weather got a little chilly but it was perfect for a Thanksgiving day. The kittens were exhausted by this time as Justin played with them almost continuously for the former two days!! They just wanted to sleep by that day.

This is Zanne and LJ in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on the garlic mashed potatoes.

Warren and LJ spent the weekend putting up molding in LJ's living room and hallway and got pretty good at it by the end of Sunday. We all went out to eat after that day.

I have the good fortune of having a very old friend (Janice Mueller) lives here in Charlotte and we got together for the whole day today. She is a "later in life" artist who finished her BFA and MFA in her 40's and early 50's. She has been teaching design , painting and drawing classes at Winthrop College in Rock Hill SC for the past 10 years or so. Her early work was very representational but she is totally abstract now. She said she was probably most influenced by Mark Rothko . I really like her work and just love some of the pieces. I will have to ask her how much she wants for a couple of them as I would love to have them. She most often works in 5 x 5 foot planks of wood and layers tons of colors and then scrapes away and reapplies more color. We talked for a good two hours about her work and her process which I was most interested in.
This was one of the canvases in her studio.


This was one of two large paintings in her family room. The room is huge and handles these large canvases wonderfully.,


These two canvases sit side by side in her formal living rooms where the cats were
making themselves quite at home. My photos do not do her paintings justice. She works primarily in oils so they are very luminescent and difficult to photo with any light in the room. I will download her cd at some point and post her better pictures. She is an incredible photographer as well

She says she works primarily with things for which there is no representation -- ideas and thoughts. She is very interested in mythology so that influences her as well. She starts with a blank canvas and a thought about some colors she wants to work with and then the canvas starts talking to her. I certainly understand that process as many times my quilts tell me what they want done and I have no control. Her color that creeps into almost everything she does is blue -- mine is yellow. I must say that an awful lot of her pieces were primarily warm colors though -- might be because she sells more of her blue pieces -- I don't know. She allowed me to go through her house and studio and take lots of pictures so I may put up a Picasa album and certainly will put some on the blog. Of course, I will forget the names for each of the pieces however!! She also gave me a cd of many of her works.

Following the Fall Foliage!

Well, I am sitting in here in Charlotte, NC now at my eldest daughter's house! It was a beautiful drive yesterday down from Rochester. It was dark when we started but snowing by Williamsport. The trees were all glistening and silver but the snow wasn't sticking and wasn't a problem at all. It then turned to rain and then sunshine. It was just beautiful going through the mountains in the western part of Virgina and North Carolina. The trees were at peak. It would have been even prettier if we weren't driving south into the sun. The trees are out here despite a fierce drought (I am sure you all have heard about Atlanta and it is just as bad here.)

I am just posting a couple of pictures here of my daughter's cats and the wonderful sun porch where I spent my morning lazing about!

This is a picture of Lisa's two kitties out on the sunporch where it is in the mid 70's today!

This is the first of two posters or flyers that my daughter did for her band called Dance Music for Depressed People. It is some sort of fusion music which the younger might understand. She writes the music and lyrics with the help of band members and then designs the posters and writes the press releases. The first is a small handout that announces a concert.

The second is a poster which she did entirely by hand and then her husband inverted the image in Photoshop. (The other is all by hand as well.) I am truly amazed by her lettering and the way she does things. She just draws lines, never sketches loosely like I do. She also has done cartoons and that is the way she draws. She literally has had no art training at all except for a bit of a class at school probably in 7th grade.

Second Day of RAFA Opening

These two pictures give you some perspective of how the exhibit was laid out.

Well, we did not have as brisk an attendance as we did last night but we had a steady stream of visitors, many from GVQC so that was nice. We got to chat a bit more than last night. Our official figure for our opening night was 151 attendees which was excellent attendance according to the ladies at the Art Council. Besides our invitees, we had people who were members of the Arts Council come. The food was gone quickly!

It will be a few days before I update again as we are heading to Fla tomorrow very early. I will include a few additional pieces from the show though. I may not get the names of the pieces though!

This was one of Caren Betlinski's pictures. She does wonderful landscapes and incredible threadwork. Unfortunately, some of her even nicer pieces were in a trunk show she is giving tomorrow at Schweinfurth in Auburn NY She is one of my best customers for dyed fabrics.



This is one of three of Janet's pieces that were in the exhibit. One woman from the club today commented that she didn't know that Janet did art pieces -- she always thought of her as traditional!



The top one of these is another Nancy Hicks piece that she stamped using an actual fish that she got at the Public Market here in Rochester. She got this idea from some things she had seen the Japanese do, I believe. Carolyn Dahl talks about this in her book, the name of which escapes me right now. The bottom one is a piece called Study in Blue by Barb Seils. Barb is an active dyer as well and three of her scarves were in the exhibit.

RAFA Opening Reception ! WOW!!

WOW is all I can say about the turn out for the opening night reception. It was so crowded at times that it was impossible to take pictures! I did take a few and will post a couple here. It was exciting to me to see a few of the pieces (besides my own Yellowstone piece) that had my hand dyed fabric in them. It made me feel like I had a bigger piece of the action, so to speak!

I am in the final throes of trying to get ready to leave for almost two months tomorrow so it has been more than a little hectic! Things look relatively under control though. We woke up to snow on the ground (just a scattering) but this is the first time this winter.

This one of the fox by Anne Fischer got a lot of attention because of the wonderful thread work. She is one of several artists in the group who does terrific threadwork. It drew your eye from across the room.


I just loved this piece by Caris Burton. It is probably the colors which pulled me in as they are my favorites!



This one is by my friend Marcia DeCamp. She called it Slashed but may have to change the name!! One of my friends was really admiring it but said that the name scared her! She was thinking of blood and the slasher movies. I don't think that is what Marcia had in mind when she named it! I think it was named more after the technique she used!


This is a self portrait done by our own Nancy Hicks. She was the driver behind joining the Arts organization and setting up a show. We can't thank her enough for all her efforts and push. She and Pat Pauly are our spiritual leaders if not our actual leaders!


This stands out as my husband's very favorite in the show! He is definitely not into fiber at all and yet was sincerely very impressed with the show. His reaction this morning is that the ones that were the most interesting were the ones that looked good from a distance and yet were much more complex when you looked closer. He said I have to get more complex! I agree (for once)!! I think that is why I like my newer version better!

More Recipes

Well, I am taking several of my recipes down on our long trip ahead so thought I would post them as well so I will never forget them! I have most of my recipes stored on my old outdated computer which is upstairs and takes forever to load up!

Anyway, here is my sweet yeast bread recipe. I have substituted soy milk for real milk (for someone lactose intolerant) in this recipe and it was just fine.

Sweet Rolls

1/2 cup warm (NOT HOT) water and 2 pkgs yeast. Dissolve for 5 minutes
1 1/2 cups warm milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup shortening (melted and cooled down)
7 - 7/12 cups flour (bread flour is even better)

Mix all the above, adding the flour little by little. It should completely come away from the side of the bowl at the end. Knead for a bit and then place in a greased bowl and cover with a piece of plastic (you might spread some shortening on the top so it won't stick). Let rise in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours. Punch down the mixture. There is enough to make about 3 dozen rolls. I split it into 3 bunches about the same and one I roll out flat as I can and spread on light layer of margarine or butter and sprinkle a cinnamon/sugar mixture and then roll up. I then cut and make pinwheels. I also roll out, butter and cut into 1 1/2 inch wide strips which I then stack and then place sideways into muffin pans -- you get these great pull apart rolls. I also roll the dough out into a big circle and cut into 12 sections, butter, and then roll up to make crousants.  Then let rise for another half an hour and then bake.There are a million variations here!

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until nicely browned on top.  I usually check after about 10 minutes to see how they are doing.Cool before storing.


Oatmeal Crisps (or Oatmeal cookies) Farm Journal Cookie Cookbook

2 cups butter (1 lb)
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs

3 cups flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda

6 cups quick oats
1 1/2 cups raisins

Combine first four ingredients and beat until fluffy. Mix together the next three and slowly add to the mixture. Slowly beat in the oats and then add in the raisins last. This makes a lot of cookies (14 dozen)!! This dough keeps nicely in a plastic container in the refrigerator so you can make a dozen at a time.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Banana Bread

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

Cream together butter and sugar and then add eggs and beat. Combine the flour, salt and baking soda. Alternate adding in the flour mixture and the mashed bananas until all added. Stir in the walnuts. Spray or grease loaf pans (medium sized) and then flour. Pour in the batter which should come up about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 - 60 minutes. Test by inserting a straw which should come out reasonably clean.

I usually double this recipe and make four loaves.

Pictures from Schweinfurth!

Well, I bet you thought there might be quilt pictures. Well, jokes on us. They no longer alow you to take pictures of the quilts at Schweinfurth as some people published them and didn't properly attribute them or took poor pictures so some artists complained. Well, that ends that. It just is not as much fun if you can't take pictures to look at later or to share with far away friends, or even the artists themselves, many of whom don't get to see their work in the exhibit. Well, too bad. I will get slammed, if I say what I really think, so I won't! It has been part of my fall ritual for years but may no longer be! I got not using flashes, but no pictures....

The Amish Royal Cross

Well, it's done! I have decided to go with the green in the cornerstones as the fuchsia and turquoise were just too stark. Also decided that it looks "artier" if I do no traditional borders or binding. Again, it will have to wait until I return from the Fla trip. There will be plenty of cold days then to finish up quilts and maybe do a little dyeing.



I couldn't help myself yesterday as the weather was beautiful and I went out just in the yard to take pictures of the trees against the beautiful dark blue sky. This has been such an unusual autumn so I just had to take advantage of it! Of course our nasty neighbor in the back interrupted my pleasant picture taking by demanding that I cut away the undergrowth from his fence on our side! I don't think so. He then screamed that he would call his lawyer which was just fine with me. I still have the pictures showing the tree he killed when he trespassed on our property while we were in Alaska. Our next door neighbor even called the police as he knew we wouldn't want this done. This guy has been a problem since before we moved in. We like our heavily wooded lot and he likes pristine grass. He came on to our property last summer and chopped away at all the trees blocking the view of his house. He managed to kill one of them by taking all the branches off. We have such lovely neighbors on both sides of our house as well as the other neighbor whose back yard backs up to ours. Why is there always one in a neighborhood?