The Opening

We had the opening reception Friday evening for the start of the "Whole" exhibit. It will be up May and June and will continue to evolve.

As you can see, it's not complete (see my sketch) but I do like the way it looks.

My artist friends and I put together a colorful table of goodies.  I was so pleased with how it turned out!  I made cupcakes and a lime mint punch.

Trio Jazz joined us, love their sound!

It was a delightful evening.  The live music, candles and flowers were a nice touch.  It was lovely to see my friends and family come out.  We also had a lot of guests through that I didn't know.  It was fun to meet people and enjoy their reaction to my work.

The exhibit is up two months, I still have a chance to complete the vision I set out with.  If you'd like to help me reach that goal, please pledge today at Kickstarter.com.  Just go to the kickstarter.com website and enter "whole" and my sketch should pop right up.  I've heard from one person that their pledge didn't go through. So if you pledged but didn't enter your information on Amazon to pay, and if your name is not on the "backers" tab, then your pledge didn't go through.  There are only these last 10 days left.  Please join with others around the country to make this dream a reality and take home a piece of the whole.  And thank you.

Here's to music, candles, flowers and.... COLOR!  (of course!)

Whole, a broken heart, a vibrant hope.

Happy Creating,

-Carmen Rose

Hurry Up!

The previous display in the gallery came down ahead of schedule and I was scrambling to get SOMETHING up. So... the "Whole" exhibit will begin with just these pieces.

And plus, my lovely camera doesn't always open it's eye all the way and so my friend snapped this cool shot. I love it!

The display isn't at all what I planned, but this part of the exhibit is in place for now until I can get the rest finished. And it's a good thing because it looks so different in a sketch than it does in person. I think I will need to spread it all out a bit more, it is a lot of color in a space that feels smaller than I remember... even though I had the measurements. So I suppose I'll tweak the plan to fit the space a bit better.

In the mean time... there is lots of work to do and I feel like I'm coming down with the plague. So... a bit of rest and hopefully I can get back at it tomorrow.

Only 14 days to go, are you the sort of person who helps make miracles happen? If so, check out my kickstarter.com project. Your pledge would be greatly appreciated.

Happy Creating
-Carmen Rose

Pieces of the "Whole" Exhibit

Once more I have been too busy to blog, so tonight (this morning) I'm playing catch up.  I heard the news online and looked around until I found streaming video online so that I could hear President Obama's address.  The top news story tonight is that Osama Bin Laden has been killed.  And while the story played out I sewed the final details on this collection.  Then I photographed this series of 17 canvases.  I take no pleasure in this man's death, life is sacred.  Death and life, revenge, forgiveness... all are fitting themes tonight as I look forward to putting this art exhibit together.

Each canvas represents a piece of my journey of the last year.  Each one is created with hand dyed fabrics, commercial batiks and in some cases hand marbled fabric and hand dyed white on whites.  I used a variety of methods in getting the color into the fiber.  All pieces are machine pieced and machine quilted.  I then put them through the laundry for the crinkly texture.  Then I frame them on canvas stretchers and embellish them with found objects.

 "Discarded 3"

A gasket I found in the parking lot, a washer from the junk yard and a new washer from Lowe's.

* * *

 "Potential"

An antique skeleton key.

* * *

"Faith in Fire"

An old key, I added enamels to it and fired it in the kiln.  I love how it turned out.

* * *

"Neglect"

Scrabble Tiles.

 * * *

"Set Aside"

 These are little circles of felt with a layer of leather on top.  They are about 1/2 inch thick, give or take.  Pieces like this are used inside pipe organs, these just happened not to fit and were set aside.

* * *

 "Storm Tossed 1"

This old weathered shell has really been through it, 

I love the swirls of color that result from a strange wear pattern.

* * *

 "Hope"

Another antique key, a personal symbol of possibility, hope and opportunity.

* * *

 "Buttoned"

A button.  Nope, it's not old or anything, it's just a button that came with the rest of a package of buttons that I have around here.  Leftovers from some project.

* * *

 "Broken"

A bit of broken china I found on a walk in the woods.  

I was intrigued with it and brought it home.
SOLD

* * *

 "Pieces"

Puzzle pieces.  

* * *

 "Solitary"

I love this old sea shell, it's shaped a bit like an artist's palette.  

 "Thoughtful"

These lovely little shells were a thoughtful gift from a friend who came home from an exotic 

place and brought me these tiny treasures.  

* * *

 "Lost"

An unknown bit that was at one point useful.  I found it in the junk yard.

* * *

 "Possibility"

Another kiln fired key, this one is green.  Love it!

* * *

 "Forgotten"

(Lower left)  This is an earring that I just discovered in my jewelry box.  

I had forgotten I had them. 

* * *

 "Storm Tossed 5"

More sea shells from a trip to the beach.

* * *

"Discarded 2"

A rusty old ring and a washer from the junk yard or somewhere.

* * *
These are some of the 12x12's in the exhibit coming up.  

More photos coming up as I continue to prepare for this exhibit.

I'm really looking forward to seeing my broken and discarded pieces come together in this exhibit.  

I believe the "Whole" will be beautiful.

* * * 

Help me put this exhibit together? 

They are $100 each, shipping included.

* * *
Happy Creating,

-Carmen Rose

More pieces of the Whole

Here's a fun one, I haven't finished the quilting on this one yet but I like it so far.

And what about this one?  Another cheerful little confection!

 Here are some of them on the design wall together:

I've finished up a pair of purple 12x12's.  This pair has hand dyed white on whites, hand marbled fabric, and some commercial batiks.  Machine pieced, machine quilted.

And after they go through the laundry they are nicely crinkled up, then framed on 12x12 canvas stretchers.

And the second one in the pair:

I added some storm tossed pieces to these, the purple in the shells seems to go nicely with the purples in the pair.

A particularly interesting shell for this one:

And a row of five shells for this one:

It's all about the details in this series.  I am having so much fun making these, does it show?

Like these?  Then pledge here.

Happy Creating,

-Carmen Rose

Dragonfly

I wanted to post another of the series before I go and bury myself in the studio again this afternoon.  This one is a 9x9 piece in pink, purple and a sagey green.  The main square is hand marbled fabric and the rest are hand dyed white on white, hand dyeds or commercial batik.  The color is a little off on this first image.

I quilted it and set it through the laundry, framed it up to 9x9 and added a lovely little forgotten dragonfly from my jewelry box.  I'm really enjoying adding an expressive little detail to each quilt.  The dragonfly has a little sparkle and the tail moves. 

My heart goes out to those in storm flattened areas.  I was there after Katrina, I remember what that was like.  Then to see such amazing damage again, it simply blows my mind.  My love to all of you in the South East today, I hope you and yours are safe and sound.

I'm working on this series of quilts for an exhibit called "Whole."  Each quilt has a found object piece included representing different aspects of my life in the last year.  Some pieces have included items from the junk yard, puzzle pieces, scrabble tiles, broken china and now a forgotten dragonfly from my jewelry box.  These bits and pieces are a little unexpected in my work but express my broken and discarded condition as my divorce nears completion. 

I was shaken by images of the storm torn parts of my homeland, as we all are.  Here the power went off and on a few times during the night and a tree nearby was down this morning.  We had no tornadoes in this area, just high winds.  The images of great loss that I saw this morning on the news reverberated with my own losses of the last year.  My home on the golf course, my dogs, my sense of security, my losses were by my own choice, theirs were not.  So as I continue to incorporate broken and discarded images into my work, I'll do so with a prayer for those who lost everything in the storm last night. 

I just updated the Kickstarter.com project with this note

"Dear friends, in light of the brokenness caused by the storms last night, I will be donating 10% of the project total to a disaster relief charity at the successful close of this project.  Please pray with me for peace, protection and provision for our friends in the South-East United States today.  Thank you, -Carmen Rose"

Another piece of the "Whole" exhibit.

I was going to try to spread these out some over the next few days, but I couldn't resist showing more photos today!

Here is one of the 9x9's of the exhibit.  It started with a very drippy piece of hand dyed fabric from ages ago.  I'm really dipping into the stash these days, never know what you'll find in there!

I quilted it up, threw it in the laundry.  When it came out I framed it up and added the little key, and this is how it looks now. 

These silly little elements of this exhibit are SO FUN TO MAKE!  For some reason it looks downright edible to me, I think I'm  hungry for Popsicles and cupcakes now! 

Want it?

A $75 pledge and it's yours.

Kickstart me!

Happy Creating,

-Carmen Rose

Update on the pieces

I've been in the studio creating all kinds of fun stuff, having the time of my life!  I have REALLY been neglecting my blog, I struggle to find the time between my three jobs and trying to get ready for my featured artist exhibit.  However, I do love sharing the joy in the journey with you folks, so here goes.  I can't wait to show you some of the pieces coming out!  Here is one of the first sets I created:

This shows the pieces just after they were pieced:  First this one,

 And then the matching one.  This one has some of my favorite hand marbled fabric in it that I created ages ago.  It was so fun, I need to do that again!  These pieces include some hand dyed commercial white on white, hand dyed fabrics and batiks.  And the hand marbled fabrics as well.

 I quilted them on the machine and then tossed them in the laundry. 

 I love that washed crinkle texture!!  Then I framed them up on 12x12 canvas stretchers.

I added some details, this one has a pair of rings.  One says "316" on it, so I've titled it "316."

This one has a gasket that I found in the parking lot, a washer from a trip to the junk yard and a lovely new washer from a trip to the hardware store.  These little details please me very much!

And finally, here they are, the pair of them!  I can't tell you how much I love my job!

I'm doing exactly what I love the most!

My kickstarter project was stuck at 21% funding for a few days.  Today it bumped up to 22% and that made me very happy!  Learn the story behind the series and give me a good SWIFT KICK.

Very Happy Creating to you and yours,

-Carmen Rose