If you are a Florida artist, check out this opportunity:
http://artcompetitionslist.blogspot.com/2009/06/call-for-florida-artists-july-28-2009.html

What do I see?

I went to an art gallery recently and all I could see was the colors in one huge painting of faces. I studied it more closely and saw orange, chartreuse, vivid greens. I don't think there was any skin toned paint in the whole piece.

I find myself separating my immense fabric stashes by colors, and I see that rust in 10 shades makes a more vibrant quilt.

I was asked again recently to teach my style of contemporary applique quilting and thread sketching & three-dimensional illusions. I might. It takes an eye to see, before tackling a technique, but I can teach the technique.

What makes me do it?

I don't think I ever thought about what makes me experiment with color, design, subject matter, and materials. I've always tried new ways of using fabrics, like layering burnt sheers over ravelly tapestries, or unravelling edges of silk and seeing how it looks laid on top of wool, or taking apart a sock and using bits of it with twigs. But drawing? People? I was scared to try. It meant learning about facial features, proportion, shading under the nose or chin, wrinkles, hair. I had to adapt sewing techniques to make hair look real (or unreal, depending upon the look I was trying to achieve).

But my fears held me back. An artist friend (I didn't think of myself of an artist) helped me a lot when she suggested I take classes at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, where I live. So I took anatomy. That was ten years ago, at least. I've use that ever since, but I am a neophyte when it comes to artistic drawing of realistic-appearing features. I prefer a more stylistic look. In items like tote bags, though, I have to consider the business angle -- how long will it take me to produce a bag, if I reinvent the design for every bag, and do elaborate applique and detailed features? So I strip those down to minimal designs that have impact, almost a hybrid of commercialism and art. That's the dilemma I face -- how to stay creative and still produce a viable product that people will want to buy.

Figurative art

Before I found out I could draw after all, I was awestruck by people who could show emotions when they drew a person's features. I mostly sew, and I never made the connection that I could show people and people's emotions, and their journeys, in fabric and thread.

I do a lot of experimenting now, mostly with figurative art -- faces, bodies -- either outlined or filled in with thread sketching of facial features. Sometimes I add paint or paint washes to highlight features. Here are some charicatures I sketched with thread, highlighted with color washes, and appliqued.

My allegorical outlook

I looked up the definition of "allegory" today:

"The expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and actions of truths or generalizations about human existence."

So much of my work is allegorical. It is very hard, getting into that mental place that melds emotional impressions and physical expression.

This is a sketch of "Boxed In", one of a series. She's in, she's considering getting out, she's limited within her box.