Artelicious: 5/8/11

13 May 2011

Blogger's Quilt Festival: "Wrapped in The Kiss" wedding quilt

My entry for this spring's Blogger's Quilt Festival is a Blooming Nine-patch quilt called "Wrapped in The Kiss."

My former yoga teacher Sean traded Andy and me surfing lessons for a king-sized quilt he could give to his sister on her wedding day. I based it on colors from Gustav Klimt's famous painting, "The Kiss."

"Wrapped in The Kiss," by Tina Rathbone, June 2004

Somehow, this very large quilt looks more vibrant in this view on my living room floor:

Floor view gives a more realistic sense of the color play.

I used a combination of gold and white African fabric, an Asian crane print, and some shiny spandex/lycra fancy stuff for the center:

Center of this Blooming Nine-Patch quilt, "Wrapped in The Kiss"

Here's the label, which I printed with an Art-Nouveau typeface:

Label to commerate the wedding quilt

And last, but not least, two detail shots give a better view of the rather eclectic fabric combinations:

Detail, from center pinks out to greys

Detail 2, from florals, greys, golds and greens to binding, R

Thank you, Amy, for hosting yet another fabulous "Blogger's Quilt Festival," and thanks to all the participants for providing another round of endless entertainment, friendship and inspiration.

11 May 2011

Sketching, with Resist

The May Sketchbook Challenge theme is "Can't Resist This." I've already done a pile of garlic heads, something I can't resist adding Way More than a given recipe calls for. Rick Moore, my boss when I worked as a grad student in the Communications Office at San Diego State University, once called my pesto "Liquid Garlic."

Yesterday's sketch used a more literal interpretation of the theme: a physical resist applied to the sketchpad, and then painted over.

I used an empty sheet of Visions Art Museum stickers to create a resist. Fast and fun!

I volunteer at Visions Art Museum from time to time, working the desk and enjoying the visitors. We charge a $5 dollar admission fee to non-members, and when members show up or visitors pay the fee, we give them a round Visions sticker to wear. During my last desk duty, I noticed what a great resist the empty sticker sheet would make, and asked Sheila, the board member on duty, for permission to take it home. Major score! I'm going to try painting on fabric through it next.

I'm grateful for encouragement from websites like The Sketchbook Challenge; I'd forgotten how much fun it is to lose yourself in the moment of seeing. Whatever your particular art form, enjoy yourself during the creative process. And please, tell me all about your creations in your comments.

10 May 2011

I'm a Featured Quilter on Amy's Creative Side website

A few months ago, Amy of Amy's Creative Side, host of the Blogger's Quilt Festival, sent me some interview questions. I filled them in, and promptly forgot all about it.
Click here to see more of my quilts and get to know me a little better.
Thanks, Amy!!!

Oh, and get ready to photograph your latest or most favorite quilt: A new Blogger's Quilt Festival starts May 13th.

Recent Reads

Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species, by Sean B. Carrol. Auditing this one while completing my current quilt, I marveled at the author's bravado and ability to simplify complex histories while enflaming interest. Darwin, Leaky, Linus Pauling and others recieve enough treatment without bogging down; obviously this serves as an exploration into the spark that kept these adventurers going through hard times and good. I was disappointed to see that the author left out Lucy and her fellow paleo-hominids altogether. Maybe he didn't want to wade into the deep morass that was the relationship between the Leakys and Donald Johanson, who discovered Lucy. Highly recommended. A plus if you audit the book: the narrator's voice is pleasant and enthusiastic.
The Crystal Desert: Summers in Antarctica, by David G. Campbell. I found this on the bookshelf here at home and thought it'd be a nice read for summer. Aside from the predictable chapters on the almost total wiping out of seals and of whales in the mid-19th century, this book was a joy to experience. I moped when it was over. I read, not audited, it; pure poetry. The author is an ecologist, and returns for three summers to study parasites in pelagic animals at a research center in the South Shetland Islands, at Admiratly Bay. He shares as much about himself through his observations as he does about the scant flora and fauna. A must:.
George Washington: A Life, by Ron Chernow. This one took weeks to audit, my having downloaded the audio book (for free, from our SD Public Library). Not being an Early American scholar ... even my literature studies covered 18th Century English and Post-Modern American ... So no real familarity with place and time ... I can say that Chernow's book seems balanced, very detailed, and not stinting on Washington's weirdly hypocritical stance towards slavery and his own (not collenge educated, so self-lacking) education. To my fellow audio book fans, I recommend it. Beware, it's long.
Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel, by Jeannette Walls. One of the "woman of true grit" novels; well-written and, if you have a connection to the American Southwest, as I do, wonderfully evocative of time and place.
Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook, by Anthony Bourdain. I'm listening to the audio book as I quilt Night Star, and for the first time, wish I were reading it, instead. Bourdain reads it himself, and is great when he blames his heroin addiction on the childhood films "Old Yeller" and "The Red Balloon." But when he gets into the current state of beef production in the US, or dishes on detested figures in the food world, he gets this high-pitched, ranting tone to his voice. If you like Bourdain, though, and/or the world of food, read the book.
Bitter is the New Black, by Jen Lancaster. The audio book version was a Godsend when working on my Blazing Star quilt, Night Star. The lead character goes from dot-com goddess to selling her designer bags on Ebay during the bust. Funny, irreverent; Jen reminds me of my friend Ariane, although A. is not as consumerist and also God forbid she goes through the economic havoc that Jen did.
Life, by Keith Richards. The Stones were the most influential band on my life and musical tastes. Through them I learned about R&B, the Blues, and kick-ass rock and roll. Keith's my favorite Stone. Here, he's best when talking about music; worst when bragging about being indestructable (oh, and dishing about Mick's member's small size. How does he know??). Worth it.
13 Things That Don't Make Sense: The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time. Have I mentioned that audio books are free to download for 21 days from our library system? This one wasn't always within my grasp; hey, I was counting seam allowances while following the chemical reactions behind the Big Bang. Highly recommended! My favorite mystery? The absence of what we think of as "Free Will." Scary!
The Girl Who Played With Fire, by Stieg Larsson. Yes, I'm hooked and loving these books. Whine: the third and final book in the Trilogy isn't out in paperback yet.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson: The prose of this who-dunnit is not on the order of a Nabokov; nevertheless, it stands up to all the best-seller hoopla. Now I want to read the second in this "Millenium Trilogy," The Girl Who Played With Fire."