ArtGirl's Art Blog

Fresh Paint!

2009-08-20T22:58:00.003+02:00

The Fresh paint show in Everett last weekend was fantastic! So good to be back to doing what I love!
We moved back to Seattle in late July, so I had about 4 weeks to prepare for the show...that's when I wasn't getting a bank account, buying a car, gettin a home loan and a million other little things you have to do when you move back from being out of the country for 3 years.

Copenhagen was a great experience and we got to see so much of Europe! I will miss my time there and the connections that I made with folks both locals and ex-pats. I must say, though, that it's good to be home and the biggest thing I learned from living abroad...everything here seems so easy now! I know where things are, I understand all that I see and read, and I know where to get a good cupcake! :-)

New show!! August 15-16

2009-08-04T20:05:00.001+02:00

We are back in Seattle and I have my first show of the year at Fresh Paint in Everett. I'll be in booth 94 with lots of new work...including cupcakes!!

The Cupcake Sewing Factory

2009-05-13T13:32:00.002+02:00

Baker's Dozen - the first cupcakes fresh from the Cupcake Sewing Factory!

The Cupcake Sewing Factory presents... Baker's Dozen! The first 13 cupcakes fresh off the sewing machine! As with any recipe, there are variations in the end product as we perfect our technique. These cupcakes are available "as is", but we will also soon be offering custom cupcakes. These measure between 7 and 8 1/2" square and come with a hanging loop on the back.

You can have a cupcake of your own from the first batch for 25.00 USD, plus shipping. #1 and #7 have been sold as of May 13th. Please contact me at sharonleebenton at gmail.com (please copy and paste the email address, replacing the word "at" with the @ sign.)

March Madness

2009-03-09T09:52:00.003+01:00

March Madness has a whole new meaning for me now. The days are getting longer now, but the weather is still crap. So that means more daylight so you can see more crappy weather. Absolutely no sign of spring yet and probably not for two more months. Yeah, I am kind of bitter. The only thing keeping me going is the sun lamp and re-runs of "My Name is Earl".

However, there have been spurts of creativity here and there. Art-o-mat pieces are fullfilling because I can create so many of them in so little time. Here's the latest batch:

And I've also been busy formatting photos for art show submission. I submitted to two shows -Art in the Pearl and Inland Craft. I should hear back in April if I am accepted.

Here it is at home

2008-12-04T14:13:00.004+01:00

Here is Let's Hyggelize at home. A nice bright accent for Dark Danish December Days.

Project Blehm becomes "Let's Hyggelize!"

2008-11-23T12:17:00.005+01:00

Project Blehm was delivered 21 November, just in time to be hung for CPH Thanksgiving! Heidi held a naming contest and the finished piece is called "Let's Hyggeilze!"

Nanda came up with the winning name - very appropriate considering the very Hyggelig** time we had celebrating an early Thanksgiving with our CPH friends.

**Hyggelig is a Danish term that loosely translated means cozy, comfortable, friendly.

The Tale of Two Backings

2008-11-21T12:00:00.006+01:00

Tuesday: The plan for hanging this quilt was to add a second backing into which I could slip a piece of foamcore, then add a hanging wire. Well. For many reasons that did not work out. Tuesday eveing I put the quilt down. I knew what I had to do, but was not prepared to do it until Thursday.

At this point, I was rolling the quilt into a tube and hefting it over my shoulder to stitch the back and binding on:

Adding the velcro strip that was to be used to secure the backing after the foamcore was inserted:

Wednesday: Uncovered the quilt, looked at it, covered it back up. Considered my options.

Thursday: I knew I had to remove the existing back and binding and opt for a traditional hanging sleeve instead. I worked on this for about 3 hours, then took break to meet Heidi, Nanda, and Karine at a La Glace for the world's best hot chocolate. (Mmm) Back in the studio late afternoon to continue the work.

Friday: Finishing touches - added the last binding strip and finished hand-stitching the hanging sleeve. I made a sandwich of two pieces of foamcore with the quilt in between and wrapped it all in two layers of plastic and taped it securely. It has begun to snow - the first snow of the year - and I was delivering PB by train to Any and Heidi's. Probably a 5 minute train ride and 15 minute walk and man were my arms tired by the time I arrived!

Project Blehm. Completed November 21, 2008. Tomorrow I will take pictures of the artwork in it's new home!

Sharon in the studio

2008-11-16T20:42:00.005+01:00

Here I am hard at work in the studio! I should wrap up PB on Monday, Nov 17th. Now just need a dry day to deliver it!! Guess that's what those giant garbage bags were made for...

The Finishing Toches!

2008-11-11T16:49:00.003+01:00

Whew! This part always takes longer that I imagine. And I am just a little anal about it. Here's the process of the last two days, which has taken about 7 hours thus far:

Square the quilt: This involves trimming off excess binding and making sure all the sides are straight. In this case, I also have to make sure the two small pieces are the same length and width and they are the same length as the large center piece.

Attach the backing: Cut white muslin and fusible web for each of the three pieces. Iron the muslin to remove wrinkles. Iron the fusible to the quilt, then layer the muslin on top of the fusible and iron to attach.

Make binding strips: Iron fusible to the binding material, then cut one inch strips. This will be added to the quilt by stitching 1/4" from the edge, then folding over and ironing to the back.

Attach top binding: Attach binding strip to the top of each piece only.

Add the second backing: This quilt has an additional backing sewn on three sides and left open on the top. The top of the second backing is not stitched, as I will slide a piece of foam ore into this opening and then close with Velcro closures. The foamcore will help the quilt hang nice and straight.

Add binding to the other three sides.

Insert foamcore and add hanging wire for each of the three pieces.

Project Blehm is ready to bind!

2008-11-06T17:17:00.006+01:00

Well, here it is stitched and squared and ready to be backed and bound. And a few more details just beacuse I like details. :-)

Continuing on Project Blehm - Hand Stitching!

2008-11-04T12:21:00.004+01:00

After a fabulous week in France and Italy I am back in the studio working on P.B. Doing more detail stitching and also added some hand-work today!

Taking shape, adding more detail

2008-10-09T13:27:00.005+02:00

My goal is to spend at least one hour a day on Project Blehm so I can finish it up! I know they are anxious to have some color on the wall during the dark danish december. I am making progress and adding more and more quilted detail, including some couched yarn (see the big red stripe).

Now I'm having fun! This is like icing and decorating the cake - the foundation is done and now it's all creativity and sweetness! Mmmmmm......

Two more shots of Project Blehm

2008-09-30T16:34:00.003+02:00

Two images - one quilted, one before quilting. Contrast and compare.

The Blehm Project Continues!

2008-09-30T11:45:00.004+02:00

Back in the saddle for a couple of days between vacations! (Tough life, huh?) I do miss working on this, though, while I am away. All of the background in quilted and now I am filling in the details.

Vacation Inspiration

2008-09-22T09:09:00.002+02:00

I love the the play of light, texture of rocks, the patina of old paint. All inspiration for the next project

3 week vacation

2008-09-10T23:45:00.004+02:00

Wow. Three weeks of vacation. More than we've ever done before. France and Italy. Fantastic. More later. Here's just a few photos...

Let the Quilting Begin!

2008-08-27T17:52:00.007+02:00

I started quilting on Monday. Here are some details.

Final Design

2008-08-24T15:14:00.005+02:00

Well, here it is! The top is pretty much fused. I realized I needed larger elements in the center to balance it (the yellow and purple circles). The colors aren't totally accurate in the photo - at least not on my monitor. The background is really more turquoise than blue and the little row of squares in the center look white, but they are really yellow. But, you get the idea.

Now to start quilting...after I clean off the sewing table.....

Have I gone too far?? Now What??

2008-08-19T17:13:00.004+02:00

Is this too much?

I'm stuck. This is what we artist call being blocked. But you don't sit around saying "Oh dear. I'm a little blocked today. No worries! I'll just get on with life, pay the bills, clean up, buy groceries, trim the cat's claws, then I'm sure in a couple of hours I'll have a brilliant idea!!"

Crap - that's not right either!!

No your thought process is something along the lines of "Oh, god! Why did I agree to do this job? I'm a total hack! I'll never have a good/artistic/original/creative thought again! Can I back out? Can I pretend I forgot I agreed to do it? can I leave the country? Can I say the dog ate it?!"

It seems to be part of the process. I work with out a net, so to speak. I have and idea and just start. It builds and I get excited and I'm lovin' it! The piece practically designs itself..for a time. Then I manage to create myself into a corner and can't figure out how to get our of it. So I panic, I curse my empty mind, I curse the artwork, and why did I ever staqrt doing this 12 years ago anyway....

But then I breathe, let it sit for a few days and resume. Thing perculate, I stop obsessing, then it gets fun again. So now I am breathing and cleaning and otherwise distracting myself.

Evolution

2008-08-15T17:38:00.003+02:00

Here's what I did today...it may change tomorrow! :-)

2008-08-13T20:34:00.004+02:00

We're working on the floor now - no flat surfaces big enough. Lilah is helping.

Lilah takes a break - she's worked hard!
And this is what I've got at the end of the day.

The Process Continues...

2008-08-12T18:24:00.003+02:00

Indecision. It happens. What if both colors work - how do you choose? Better than nothing working, I suppose. I'm going to let it rest and make a decision after acupuncture and massage tomorrow.

From Fabric to Work-in-progress

2008-08-10T19:22:00.006+02:00

So this is how I work. Get the main colors and basic "bones" of the peice laid down, then audition lots of fabrics.

Once I have my stash of fabrics, I start adding the elements at random. When I add one element, my instinct is to balance it by placing a similar sized element or color else where in the piece.

I don't want to have any large unbroken blocks of color, because a large unbroken block attracts too much attention and unbalances the piece, so I added some dark blue blocks to the big swatch of yellow. Compare this pic to the one above - it's getting much more interesting!
This is probably the most time-consuming part. But once I have my main elements nailed down (or ironed, as it were...) then the rest of it usually falls into place easily.

Final Fabric - I love it!

2008-08-10T12:20:00.007+02:00

Painted, stamped, scrunched, dried, painted some more, then over dyed, dried, rinsed and ironed. Here is the final background fabric for Heidi and Andy's quilt. The top should be completed this week, then comes the quilting. Oh - check the last photo for the design prototype. Colors will be different, but this is the basic design. It will be a triptych with the main design flowing across all three pieces.

Painting fabric

2008-08-07T15:32:00.003+02:00

I painted some fabric this afternoon for Heidi and Andy's artpeice.

Where the heck have I been???

2008-08-06T05:41:00.007+02:00

Hmm - sort of lost track of time for six months. Here are some photos from my latest Art-o-mat series.

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-14T12:59:00.009+01:00

I was inspired by Valentine's Day to create two cards - mirror images of eachother and sort of a Yin Yang style. I represents two hearts creating one love while retaining individuality. I was even inpired to write a poem. May your day be filled with love...

The heart has a rhythm, much like a rhyme,
Two hearts joined beat together over time.
While two hearts together should beat the same,
Their individual rhythms should remain.

creating for love

2008-02-13T10:37:00.003+01:00

We spent 10 days in Seattle at the end of January, so it's taken me some time to get going inthte studio again!
This past weekend, I created this 15 x 15" piece as a Valentine's Day gift for my husband. It will be framed in a 20" x 20" shadowbox frame.

Creating Organization

2008-01-16T22:32:00.001+01:00

I organized fabric today with the help of my friend Heidi. A fellow quilter who is highly logical and organized, we make a great pair of opposites! We started by folding fabric. She showed me a neat trick of folding over an Omnigrid ruler so that all pieces are the same size and can stack neatly.
What a difference it already makes! The Qi can now flow freely. I feel more creative already!

Back to the basics

2008-01-15T16:06:00.000+01:00

I am frantically creating pieces for Art-o-Mat this week so I can take them with us to Seattle next week to mail them to North Carolina. Sounds convoluted? Well, postage from Denmark is very expensive. And slow.

I'm still working on the A-Z series and I have not been happy with the pieces I've produced. I was stuck on Q. What art movement begins with Q? And this morning in that twilight space between awake and asleep I realized the answer was always right there in my own back yard. Q is for Quilt. (Big DOH!)

So, here is my little quiltlet in the Amish style:

Here is our view of Rosenborg Castle across the street. And look - I see a shadow! And the manic birds returned this afternoon but I was not quick enough to capture them.

More Art-o-Mat and a Little Bit of Sun

2008-01-13T20:05:00.000+01:00

Here are some more pieces I finished today. I basically put on a binding and sttached the charm. I feel the need to finish up what I've got before starting something new. That counts as a-thing-a-day, doesn't it? The important think is I am creating again!

There was a little blue sky today! We had brunch with Microsoft folk from 1-3. We left the restaurant about the time the sun was beginning to set. This shot was taken at about 11:00 AM.

New Art-o-Mat Series and Birds Attack!

2008-01-12T17:58:00.000+01:00

I completed three more art-o-mat pieces today. This is a new series...which does not have a name yet. I randonly quilt each little 2 1/8 x 3 1/4" piece and then attach a carved bone pendant.

And Bruce was busy creating in the kitchen - a beautiful Apple PanDowdy

A Hitcockesque view from the studio today....

2008-01-11T16:24:00.000+01:00

What did I do today? Finished more small peices. 8 in all. Here's 6 of them...

This view form the studio was taken at 4:00 PM. It's 4:30 now and pretty much dark. And the days have been getting longer since 12/22.

Unfinished Business

2008-01-10T11:28:00.001+01:00

Look at all these almosrt finished pieces! All they need is binding. What am I waiting for??

My goal for the year is make A-Thing-a-Day (Note: 13/02/2008: Thing-a-Day has aready fallen by the wayside...thank god! The whole process was just not working for me. It became a burden above a creative exercise.) Here's one I finished today - it took all of 6 minutes. It might be all I do today as I am leaving the house at noon and won't return till late.

And here is the view from the studio today...

Art-o-mat

2008-01-09T09:54:00.000+01:00

I worked on Art-o-mat pieces today. "What is Art-o-Mat?" you ask... The short answer is art from a vending machine. Small art, about 2 x 3 1/4". For the long answer, check out the Art-o-mat web site: http://www.artomat.org/history.html

These cards were inspired by the pop art of Peter Max. The Art-O-Mat card was just for fun..

Maggie joined me in the studio and took her favortire spot...on the radiator!

And this is the view from the studio today at 8:30 AM. Yesterday we actually had blue skies for a while!

First Monday of the New Year

2008-01-07T21:53:00.000+01:00

Today I went to the bank to get a new ATM card and then to the Kommune to get my CPR (national insurance) card replaced. My wallet was stolen the Saturday before Christmas along with my entire identity and credit worthiness. It was easy enough to cancel everything, but then getting them replaced was only a slight hassle, not having access to my credit or bank account is a real pain. I curse whoever took my wallet - may you be constantly annoyed and get the run-around when you have to interact with a banking or government institution. I also hope your dick falls off.

After the bank I played around with free-form blocks. These triangles were left over from the quilt I finished on Sunday:

It snowed a bit today, but then, alas, it turned to rain...

It only took 4 years...

2008-01-06T12:21:00.000+01:00

I started this quilt for my nephew Colin just before he was born... almost 4 years ago! Since this is the year for cleaning out and organizing and tending to unfinished business, I finished it today.
View from the studio today:Oops - forgot to take a photo. See Saturday's photo...it was about the same! :-)

A Quilted Shoe and Some Snow

2008-01-05T23:10:00.000+01:00

I created this post card - 4"x6" - for a challenge entitled "Fashion". I did a web search for Manolo Blahnik shoes and found this from his 2008 collection "Brutal Shoes". Is this for real?
See for yourself at http://www.manoloblahnik.com/

View from the studio tonight. First snow of the year.

some organizing, some sewing, mostly trying to stay warm

2008-01-04T23:01:00.000+01:00

It's windy again today. Here's me on the (sun) deck.

And here's the view from the studio

First Thing I made, 2008, Day Two. Working title: Cranky and Barfy (a homage to New Year's Day 2008)

First Post January 3, 2008

2008-01-03T14:32:00.000+01:00

It's January 3, 2008. It's snowing and the wind is blowing about 25 MPH. Why do you think I'm indoors blogging?
This is me there trying to show you how windy it is.

This is the first thng I've made this year. I'm trying to organize the studio and I got overwhelmed and sat down to sew. I grabbed a box of scraps and started sewing manically. This is what happened.

This is the view from the studio today....