Mud Volcano Yellowstone

Sneak Peek at the first vessel from my Yellowstone series.
Based on GPS tracking that I was a pain in the neck collecting on holiday.... "Can you charge these batteries Aliya?"  "Is the GPS on?"  "Where is the GPS?" and so on...
Anyway here is Mud Volcano 1.  I say 1 because there may well be a '2'.

And with great pleasure I invite you to the Contextural Show in Calgary, Alberta.  Do come along if you can make it, and see Mud Volcano in full 3D and Technicolor with sound effects - if you see me there and I have my Iphone on me.

Do you know of Les Graff?

Today I got an invitation to an art exhibition opening... (Virinia Christopher Fine Art) well I didn't, it was sent to someone who used to live here (we rent). But the outcome is the same, I have seen some recent work by Les Graff and looked him up on the web and found I like I like....  Some of his works look very textile-ish so I guess that is what drew me in initially.
I suppose I can't grab an image of the art and put it in here... it is artwork and the property of the artist.... So you will have to make an effort yourself if you want to see some... Try this artwork selector. or better still go to the gallery in Calgary...
Mr Graff used to work as director of Arts and Crafts for the province of Alberta  - here is a quote from the article linked above....

"The one figure I’ve always found interesting, you can take the number of dollars you spend within the visual arts, track them through and show that just about all of those dollars spin right back into the community.  And for every dollar we spend there is this and this and this benefit.  And you go wow that’s impressive.  

In spite of being able to prove that over and over and over again, nobody bites the bullet.  They just say, to play with the arts is too controversial for the public.  We’ll do something, let’s not say too much about it and let’s just leave it there. "

Marion Nicholle Exhibition "Out of Context" with Contextural

Congratulations to all members of Contextural who took part in the ACAD Summer Residency and special mention  to Melinda who curated the exhibition at the Marion Nicholle Gallery in Calgary that was the culmination of the workshops.

In no particular order:-

Lindsay Joy 

These jewel-like cameo pieces are hand-stitched and very meaningful to Lindsay as they relate to her Grandmother who passed away in the summer.  

Siri McCormick

A patchwork piece that incorporates digital printing on cotton and has a kaleidoscopic feel as the pieces appear to float against each other, rather than being held rigidly as is more typical for patchwork pieced work.

Julie Baratta

A stunning piece of silk screen work - very tasteful - love the detail in the silhouette.

Tara Griffiths

A column of Acanthus leaves was created from a beautiful silk screened piece of silk.

Karin Millson (me!)

Demonstration of the diversity of textures one sees on tree bark.  Hand made paper worked with potassium permanganate, bleach and shibori.

Anne Fetterly

Stunning fabrics on which natural dye methods have captured exciting colour and pattern.  Beautifully stitched garments displayed in a very imaginative and stylish way.

Kyle Nylund 

Very different style of garments from the world of gay fashion.

Cathy Checora 

Cathy is a maker of books and screen prints their fabric covers.

Rosanne Visser

In your face, comical, shocking take on linen for table ware... I especially love the seemingly smiling skull cushions, Rosanne.

Charis Birchall

Screen-printed fabrics for soft furnishing.  Excellent use of ancient motifs within original repeat patterns.

Melinda Topilko

Hand worked portraiture on antique cotton.  The minimalistic use of stitch belies the passion behind the works, believe me, I know - my son is also leaving home this summer.

More images of some of these pieces can be seen here (Thanks Arlee for taking such great detailed shots)

"And you couldn't draw it on in pen, because...."

The GPS routes have been downloaded.  The routes have been transferred to an image editing programme.  One image has been made ready for the machine's digitizing programme.  I have had the laptop re-segmented to give me more memory. well, not 'me' exactly... but we now have the mac running windows (spit spit), and I have 3D suite running a treat.  And 4D upgrade ready to update.
For the first time in many years (after trying to get the thing working in Oman) I now have a connection from Mac to Pfaff every time.
And the blue outlines on the right are what it is all for.
Not bad for a few days struggle and whole day with my software engineer!  Thanks Dan.
Next week should really be a lot of fun if I can do some work in between the shopping for the son-goes-away-to-college needs.  He is currently making a list... and it is impressive.