Branding

I was in the final preparation phase today for the Art Stroll tomorrow. I talked to my friend, Cheryl Jones Evans http://www.cherylevans.net/and we seemed to be all set with my table, her display boards etc. etc. As I was chatting with her, it dawned on me that I needed a sign for my display with my name! Duh. Of course, the sign would have to be a quilted hanging--what else. So here is what I put together.


Here's the whole thing. I used several colors of permanent markers to write out the "Celestial Textiles" and the "Elizabeth-Harris.com". I was shooting for several things: #1. my name (!)-- I wanted that to be seen and recognized first and foremost. #2. The fact that my name is actually spelled out as a URL lets people know they can go to there and see more of my works. #3. The title "Celestial Textiles", if googled, will lead to my 2 celestial textiles sites: this blog and my etsy store. So the sign is a sign for the show, some branding of celestial textiles, and references to my websites all in one!


A detail shows the quilting, drawing and gold bias strip for trimming.

And yet another blue strip...

Today I completed another blue strip. That makes 6 down and 4 to go. I really can't wait to sew all of these strips together and make that damn background already. Cut out some more of the seaweed leaflets also. But I am still in a quandary about what animal form to include with the seaweed in my underwater scene. Realistic fish (or other sea life) is not grabbing me as a concept and mermaids are too cutsey-poo. Some other fantastical undersea creature?? I will have to quickly cogitate upon this and come up with a plan.

I also did some work on The Blade Garden. I need to finish that off as I am considering submitting that in some sort of venue.

Its all about plants

I don't have any new work to post today but I thought I'd collect all of my botanical themed pieces and present them here. My alter ego is a botanist and I actually had a double major as an undergraduate in art and biology. I went on to pursue botany for a higher degree but, of course, the art came along for the ride.

This still life features a bunch of realistic flowers, fruits and veggies. I just love the tulips--they got me started on this piece. i thought they looked like the very traditional old fashioned dutch varieties that caused so much avarice and turmoil.


Here is an entirely fanciful flower--straight from a dream image that I had one night. I had a smirk on my face the whole time I was putting this one together. Very satisfying. This piece is from my "Inner Landscape" series which are all metaphorical. A unifying theme is the black frame.





This is my very first flower piece. Its roughly based on a very botanical scheme of a generic flower that clearly demonstrates all of the parts. I draw this sort of diagram for my students all the time. Fittingly, it hangs in my office in the Biology Department at UCF. Its official name is "Wallflower renaissance" but I think of it as my inside-out flower. As in: live your life from the inside out rather than the outside in.


This passionflower is not totally anatomically correct but I felt moved to add in some extra parts for aesthetic balance. I'm guessing that if you're not a botanist, you likely can't tell what is incorrect. I love the appearance and symbolism of passionflowers--I've used them as design elements in another piece too.


These beauties are pretty correct and are based on some night blooming Brugmansias, or Angel's Trumpets, blooming in my yard here in Florida. I posted about them before but in the interest of thoroughness, I've got them up here again.

Postcard strike

Just couldn't face more frickin' postcards today. So I made another blue strip. Tedious but it has to be done. That makes 5 strips down and 5 to go. sigh.

Upcycled T-shirts

Been pretty busy with my day job so I haven't had time to get in the studio as much as I'd like to. But I am trying to get ready for a little sidewalk Art Stroll next week in Baldwin Park. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=99819432058&ref=ts So I'm bustling away making postcards to fill up my cool new postcard rack (I showed it here a few posts back) which I will be using in the show. But, DAMN, that rack holds a lot of cards. I have been making cards like there's no tomorrow and its still not full. Close, though. Today I completed sixteen T-shirt post cards. Since I'm a pack-rat from way back, I naturally saved some of my kids' cutest t-shirts from when they were just little guys. Couldn't bear to toss them or pass them on to good-will. Thought I might someday make a quilt out of them but that idea has since palled. Hmmm, but post cards! Now there's an idea! I did have to iron on some stabilizing interfacing to the back of the t-shirts and then I just trimmed out the images and did some simple contour quilting around them. A matching or contrasting color for the blanket-stitch that goes around the edge completed these fast and easy postcards. Check them out!


Here's the whole batch all piled up. Can you tell we have 2 boys and a girl who all like critters of all sorts, especially bugs? They still do, too even though they're not so little any more.


My favorite is this froggy one. I love the whimsical aspect of the drawings. I got 2 cards out of this particular shirt.


There are also a lot of realistic image shirts in my stash, including these spiders. I sure hope someone else like spiders as much as we do and buys one or more of these!


It occurred to me that I've never shown the back of one of my post cards. As you can see, I use some vintage style letter stamps to write "POST CARD" and delimit the address side from the message side. The plain white fabric takes writing from a sharpie or other permanent pen no problem.

Oh, the horror

Its been rough going for me lately so I'm seeking a creative outlet to help me process it all. I'm currently brainstorming on a piece that centers around Humpty Dumpty and what REALLY happened to him. It looks like the finished piece will actually consist of 3 separate components, one that has a poem on it (there's my written word I mentioned in the last post!). The 2 image components will depict Humpty far away and very close up. For it to be effective, I decided I needed a really strong expression of horror on Humpty's face. So I did a little googling to come up with something that hits home for me. It was actually not too easy to come up with these; there are a lot of unsavory horror movie images (yuck) out there if you search on "horror", "look of horror" and the like. But these images fit the bill so I will continue sketching out layout and templates with them in front of me.

Of course, Edvard Munch's "The Scream" is the grandaddy of all looks of horror. Must consider this one. Of course, a lot of the feelings of horror and despair derive from the painting style and background. But, of course, its still successful and a source to keep in mind.












This is an interesting one. The mouth really fascinated me. The eyes and forehead seem a little "fakey" to me but overall, pretty intense. I can hear a high-pitched shriek when I look at this woman, can't you?












This one is my favorite. This is Peter Stackpole's photo of TV actress Nancy Berg taken in 1953. You don't even see her whole face but what evocative eyes! Notice that they are wide open and how the eyebrows and forehead wrinkle contribute to the total feel of this image. Wow. very psychicly powerful. I hope I can capture this!

The written word and textile art

Its been an ongoing theme for me lately to use words in my textile art in some way. I am intrigued by the juxtaposition of a visual image and an associated or contrasting written word(s). Here are some of my works that have included writing in some way. Obviously I am still exploring the possibilities.

Here is my first written word quilt--9 blocks (one shown), each with its own fortune cookie fortune. I sealed in the fortune with a layer of vinyl that I then quilted right down onto the plain white block.

Here's my latest effort. I used a Sharpie pen to write in the white space around each bug. I wrote in a spiral so that really added to the design element.

Here I added some text to each of the 16 blocks of this quilt. I did this by first adhering the white fabric to freezer paper by ironing and then inserting it into a typewriter and typing on it.

Frida Kahlo often included some text in her paintings. Here is one where she painted a little fluttering penant at the bottom. I've been inspired by that and done this a couple of times in fabric form by writing on some lightweight fabric and then cutting it into a strip and tacking it down.

I'm considering some new allegorical pieces--about 4 of them, I think. They are very much in the embryonic phase right now so I won't mention any of the subject matter just yet. But I am planning on pairing them with an associated poem/prose. I know I want to try something different. Not sure how I want to do this--any ideas anyone?