Tag Tuesday--Happy Valentines!

I'm kind of killing many birds with one stone this week. Tag Tuesdays' last two themes were hearts, then Valentines. I made this Valentine for my art group Valentine swap, so I'll just check off my whole list.

This was inspired by Jude's cloth weavings, using some of my hand-painted fabrics for a bit of a graphic touch and both machine and hand stitching. I copied some of my painted fabrics on paper and used it for the background.

Happy Valentines Day!

And the winner is....

Following the very scientific process of putting numbers in a bowl,

I drew out the number "3" for my blog giveaway:

That means Hermila is the winner of the heart giveaway and will receive the polka dot heart. Carolyn from Loves Stitching Red won the drawing on the Portland Art Collective blog and will be getting the rust heart. If you would both email me your mailing addresses, I will get those off to you. rolsen222@yahoo.com

Thank you to everyone who left a comment about the hearts--I really appreciate hearing from readers and finding out what you like!

I have been busily playing with Photoshop as I finish up DJ Pettitt's online class. It's easy to become addicted to it. The class was very challenging, but worth it. I ended up learning a lot about masking, layer adjustments, and making my own brushes. I recommend it for anyone who has a little Photoshop background.

This is a composite of about 4 photos I took on my Sunday morning walk downtown:

And this is from the Japanese Garden, blended with several other photos from my archive:

I don't have a clue what I'll do with it, but it is fun.

And at the risk of becoming an online class junkie, I just signed up for Pamela Allen's "Finding your own Style" fiber class. I have been a fan of her work for quite a while, so I couldn't resist when I heard about this one. We are on our first lesson and I'm already in love. More about it later.

More Hearts

After the show and the holidays, I've been looking forward to Jan. as a time for pure experimentation and stitching just for the sake of the stitch. But due to the timeliness of the subject, I've been invited to put my hearts in two more shows for Feb.

I am very honored to be the feature artist for Feb. at the Portland Central Library. Some of my work will be on display in the lobby and then hearts for sale in the gift shop. I am also very happy to be in the "Heart of the Matter" show at Guardino Gallery, my favorite gallery in Portland.

I made this heart for my friend Maggie. Maggie is remodeling a historic mansion and has decorated her bedroom in pale silver blue. When I found this old blue velvet, I knew it was meant for her. It turned out to have some stretch to it, which gave this one a few more bumps than most. Some of the bits come from her decorating scraps, and they unravelled when I looked at them, giving this one an extra shabby look.

Hearts and Soul

This weekend was my art group's spring art retreat. Some of my friends are able to produce all kinds of things during the weekend, but I've come to accept that I like to create in solitude. The weekend is fun and full of laughs, but never very productive for me. I try to have some projects that don't require much thought and did get started making a few hearts.

I've never been a heart person, usually finding them too sweet for my taste, but I did enjoy experimenting with a few earlier in the year. You can see them here and here. These led me to imagine a whole wall of oddball hearts so here is the beginning of a few. They'll all be stuffed and on hangers when I'm done.



One thing I really do enjoy working on while at art retreats are my Soul Collage cards. If you are not familiar with them, they are basically intuitive collages of images that you put together without consciously understanding what they all mean. Later they are read almost like personal Tarot cards. Some might be pretty and peaceful:
Others disturbing:
It's perfect to work on them in a roomful of people when you are only half paying attention to what you are doing and don't have the chance to overthink them. If interested, you can sign up for a great newsletter that gives ideas for reading them here.

After my trip to CA and then the art retreat, the introvert in me is now screaming for lots of solitary time in my studio. And I'm looking forward to leisurely catching up on all the blogs I've been missing.