The Art of the Portrait

I spent much of last week in Reston, VA (just outside DC) working at the Portrait Society of America's annual "Art of the Portrait" conference, where I had the great fortune to be painted (and drawn) by some of the finest artists around.

I didn't take many pictures, on accounta I was workin', but here are a few. These are from the face off - 15 artists painting simultaneously (3 artists per model) for 2 1/2 hours. I was painted by Clayton Beck, Tony Ryder and Robert Liberace.

[Tony at work]


[Clayton Beck]


[Tony Ryder]


[Robert Liberace]


[sadly, this was not a legitimate bid...]


The image at the top of the entry is a 15 minute(ish) sketch/demo that Rob did in one of his drawing workshops.

Many thanks to all the peeps at PSoA for the incredible event. Click here for more info and images (including all 15 face off paintings).

rock on

some rock 'n roll posters, for your viewing pleasure...

QCN

Read about my quirky artistic habits (and other fun stuff) on Quilter's Choice Network.

you’re the deepest well I’ve ever fallen into

You and I
We might be strangers
However close we get sometimes
It’s like we never met

outta mind (outta sight)

outtasite (outta mind)

[Friday night]

[Saturday night]

They have a very strict no photography policy :(

let the whiskey take the reins

Rhett Miller | City Winery | 3.20.10

click me for video of Rhett's cover of Alex Chilton's O, Dana.

snowpocalypse ...

part 4 or 5 - I've lost count.

Snoverdose.

strange birds v 2.0

A ridiculously long time ago, I started working on a new batch of art*o*mat birdies. I have finally finished them. Chances are there will only be 50 of these guys evah ('cause I think I'll do something different for the next batch), so get 'em while you can.

Mi Corazón (again)

The preview for tomorrow's "Tote Tuesday" is viewable on Virginia Spiegel's site. Here's what Virgina has to say about it...

"Warm up that charge card for the good cause that also lets you have a great time shopping. There will be 13 themed totes (art quilts, custom totes, fiber collages, gift certificates, books, yarn, buttons, hand-dyed fabrics, custom-made journals, more, more, more) AND three very special individual artworks by Gerrie Congdon, Terri Stegmiller, and Elin Waterston.

Go to the preview for ToteTuesday 3 here to see it all:

http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/ToteTuesdayFeb16.html

Bookmark that webpage as it will also be the site of the auction beginning at 11 a.m. CST tomorrow, Tuesday, February 16.

Thank you in advance for your generous support of this Fiberart For A Cause fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. Our goal is $10,000 with $5675 already raised."

update: SOLD!
A generous donation was made by Judi Eichler in memory of Sylvia Ezor (her grandmother) and in honor of her daughter, Lauren, who has a congenital heart defect.

NCQS

Alright, alright boys and girls... registration is now open for the North Carolina Quilt Symposium (June 3 - 6, 2010, Charlotte, NC). I'll be teaching 2 - count 'em - 2 workshops (Fabric Collage and Fabric Journals) and giving 1 - um, count it - 1 lecture. All the pertinent information can be found here. And I'm a lot of fun, so you should register.

IF ... focused

This is old, but it fits the Illo Friday theme so Im'ma use it.

Mi Corazón

Tote Tuesday, a Fiberart For A Cause fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, organized by Virginia Spiegel, will open Tuesday, February 2 and continue through March. Mi Corazón (above) is my donation piece for Peggy Schroder's "Have a Heart" tote. See Virginia's website for details. I have also donated copies of The Art Quilt Workbook, Art Quilts at Play and the dvd Jane Davila & Elin Waterston Teach You Art Quilting Basics, but I'm not sure which tote they'll end up in.

A little 411 on Mi Corazón ... I printed the heart (one of my print a day blocks) on a new material, developed for the Italian fashion industry, which is made of recycled paper and plant fibers. This stuff was sent to me by my friend Alex of Aurifil and, as I told Alex, I'm diggin' it! (He's Italian and I like to teach him Americanisms). More to come about this product as I play with it more.

beach yoga (in the dead of winter)

This was actually right after Christmas - the windchill was something below zero. brrrrr.

art is ...

Yo. I've been suspiciously absent from the internets so far in twentyten. That's 'cause I've been working on samples for my Art is...you Art Retreat workshops. More info, pictures and official web linkage coming soon, but just to tempt you a little - Art is...you, an annual art retreat now in it's fourth year, will take place October 7th - 11th, in Danbury, CT. Registration begins February 1st.



peace

let's be jolly

for a higher res version, click here

Peace y'all.

thanksgiving

Cool Cat

Hey animal lovers - I just listed an art quilt (above) on ebay to benefit A Place to Bark, a no kill foster and adoption rescue dedicated to the welfare of animals founded by the lovely and talented Bernie Berlin. Check it! And even if you don't buy my piece, look around at the other items for sale that benefit A Place to Bark or consider making a donation. Thanks y'all.

click me to see the ebay listing

update: SOLD!

screen printing workshop

@ KAC

birthdays

...thinking about my beautiful boy child and missing my mama on this, their shared birthday.

[cutest. boy. ever.]


[San Francisco]


[his high school yearbook picture - taken in the photo booth at the Andy Warhol Museum]


[Italy]


[my mama and her dog Rags]

reconnecting

I love social networking. Although nobody ever talks to me on myspace any more and I only ever go there to change my playlist. Poor myspace. But I digress. Several months ago I reconnected (via facebook) with some high school friends that I haven't seen since, well, since high school. Many, many years ago. I have to say that not all of my reconnects have been good ones, but these were. I had the opportunity to spend some time with them (in Boston) last month and it was wicked. The picture above is us in 2009. I won't show you any from high school, but trust me, we've aged beautifully.

Liquitexalicious

Remember a couple weeks ago I said I had gotten a box of goodies from C&T Publishing? Well, here's the dealio. C&T has a new product - the Liquitex® Surface Design Center - a line of surface design materials meant to appeal to artists interested in fabric painting or art quilting. So I got some samples to play with. I'm already a Liquitex user (now I guess I'm a pusher too), because I like their Basics line of acrylic primary colors and use them in my color mixing workshops. But some of these products were new to me and me likey. Here's the scoop ...

For the piece above (and detail below): I block printed the Jizo, squares and double happiness character using Liquitex Soft Body acrylics, which have a very yummy texture and a nice hand. For the lotus flowers, I used the Basics acrylic paint. When the printed images were dry, I did an ink wash over the whole piece (with the ink!s from my original post about this). Very cool - really deep saturated colors with a super liquidy viscosity.



For the Cherry Blossom piece (below): I screen printed the background and stem using the Soft Body acrylics mixed with Fabric Medium and painted the blossoms with the acrylic inks.







[Luckily, I like the imperfect prints]






Sweet. Thank you Liquitex and C&T!