Cindy Grisdela ~ art quilter

I’m pleased to announce I’ll be the guest speaker at the Textile Museum’s Rug and Textile Appreciation morning this Saturday, July 24, 2010 from 10:30 AM-12 PM. I’ll bring lots of quilts to show and talk about how I use color and fabric to create eye-catching designs, like Playing With Crayons at right. I always enjoy giving these talks and sharing my work with a new audience. The museum is located at 2320 S. St., NW in Washington, DC and the program is free and open to the public. For more information about the museum, click on the link above. If you’re in the area on Saturday morning, please stop by, I’d love to see you!

Playing With Crayons is one of my favorite pieces, because it is a great example of my fascination with colors and the way they interact. I had the idea to create diagonal bands of color across the surface of the quilt, so I pulled out as many different fabrics as I could in each of the color families and started making wonky log cabin blocks and putting them up on the design wall. It was so much fun to see the design emerge and  the fabrics “talk” to one another. There must be over 100 different fabrics in this piece and it’s quilted in an allover spiral design, which you can see better if you double-click on the image. Crayons is a bright, cheerful design that makes me smile every time I see it. I hope to be able to revisit this design soon in a more muted color scheme to see how it translates in earth tones. What do you think?

I was in Richmond earlier this week taking my son to his college orientation, and visited the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for an inspiration day.  I’d never been there before, and it was just what I needed to jumpstart my creativity. I  started with the special exhibit “Tiffany: Color and Light,” which was a visual treat, and then moved through the museum to see the other offerings. There were some fine examples of modern painting that really spoke to me, including work by Mark Rothko and Morris Louis. I had my sketchbook with me and whenever an idea struck, I jotted it down so I would have a record for future reference. I have four or five ideas for new work just from this one visit!

I’ve been just showing up in my studio every day this summer and working on several projects, including the color study detail at right, which is my latest. These pieces are great fun, but the progress doesn’t move in a straight line. Often I need to leave the piece for a few days to let the idea percolate in my brain, so I have more than one project in the works and I can switch off between them. For a while, nothing was coming together and I was frustrated, more so because I have a number of shows coming up in the fall and I want to have a good portfolio of new work. But last week, the stars aligned and the inspiration began flowing again–Yippee! I do think that it’s a direct result of persevering and showing up every day that did it–along with a dose of artistic inspiration from the museum.

I’ll be showing my work at the Great Falls Farmer’s Market on Saturday, July 17, from 9 AM – 1 PM. I always enjoy these events–it’s a great opportunity to see old friends and meet new ones, so please stop by and say hello if you’re in the area!

I’m also excited to report that my quilt “Amber Harvest” was chosen as one of two pieces that were put on the Brush Gallery website to advertise the “Art Quilts Lowell 2010″ exhibit. Click on the link and scroll down to the exhibit information for August 11-September 11, 2010.

In honor of summer, I’m working on a new beach scene—tentatively titled “Afternoon at the Beach.” This one has an appliqued adirondack chair in it and I tried a new process to get the image. Although I don’t normally do much applique, I like these beach pieces and they seem to need applique and beads. For this image, I took a picture of an adirondack chair on my back porch and printed it out so I could use it as a guide to draw the simplified image onto interfacing. Then it was a matter of choosing the fabric and using the needle turn method to applique the pieces onto the interfacing. You can see a little bit of the interfacing still showing in the space under the arm on the left. I know it would have been quicker to use a fusible web and eliminate the hand sewing part, but I actually like hand sewing and I don’t care for the stiffness the fusible sometimes adds to the piece. I admire the artistry others get using fusible techniques, but it just doesn’t seem right for my work. I also did a little bit of thread sketching on the back and seat of the chair to add texture. The whole piece is created separately and then appliqued in place onto the design after it’s quilted. That gives me flexibility to move the applique around on the background to find the best place for it to go.

I know you’re thinking that sounds a lot like work and you would be right. That’s one reason I don’t do a lot of applique. But my work is rooted in the traditions of the past, since that’s how I learned my craft–even the contemporary abstract pieces. Fiber art appeals to me because of its tactile nature. I want the work to be dimensional–that’s why I spend so much time on the quilting part. The stitching sinks down into the batting and creates wonderful ridges and lines and shapes in the unstitched areas. Applying the applique and beading to these pieces by hand is all part of the process.

For some reason this photo isn’t as crisp as I would like, but I wanted to share these thoughts and the piece is at the framer’s being mounted onto stretcher bars. When it’s all finished, I’ll show it again.

You can see last year’s beach piece here–it’s called “Sunrise on the Beach” and it has been sold and gone to a new home.

I’ve just been notified that I’ve been juried in as a participating artist in the 2010 Artfest put on by the McLean Project for the Arts. The event will be held Sunday, October 3, 2010 from 10:30 AM – 4:30 PM. I’m very gratified that this is the third year I’ve been accepted to this show. At right is my booth from last year’s Artfest, taken just after I set up before the show opened.  The majority of the pieces shown in this photograph have sold, so I’ll be spending the rest of the summer creating new work!

This event is incredibly well managed by the McLean Project for the Arts and it’s a fun day full of art, artists, music and food. It’s a fine art show, so you’ll find top quality painting, photography and sculpture, in addition to fine artists in ceramics, jewelry and of course, fiber.

Mark your calendars–I hope to see you there in October!

The green fabric is here, my son is graduated from high school and I’m ready to get back to work on this piece. I took a break from the studio for about a week while the graduation festivities went on and we had family in for the celebration, and I think that was a good thing. I have more energy to do the design work now.

Creating these pieces is intriguing for me, because it’s all about the process. There’s no pattern to follow, no instructions to guide me. I have to get with the flow of the process and let the color and design choices I make dictate what comes next. It’s exhausting sometimes and I’m full of doubts about whether I’m on the right track. But ultimately I think this is the path I want to explore right now.

I don’t have a name for this one yet and obviously it’s in the very early stage of design–the green chunks of fabric are just pinned in place and the blocks probably aren’t finished. I really like the curved piece in the central block and I think I need to repeat that shape somewhere else. I got a little stuck on this one before I took my break because I started thinking about how I would quilt it and nothing came to me. While it’s important to think about the quilting while the piece is in progress, it shouldn’t overtake the design. So I’m not going to worry about that until the piecing is finished. I also like the idea of using several different greens in the background to liven up the plain areas–the quilting will be important here. My thought was to expand on the idea I used for Amber Harvest and put three improvisational blocks in the design instead of just one. Perhaps there will be another small block in one of the lower corners as well.

The lesson learned here is important to take breaks every now and again to let the ideas percolate in my head without forcing them. Stay tuned!

I was thrilled to get a “thick email” last night notifying me that two of my quilts, Amber Harvest and Beach House, have been juried into Art Quilts Lowell 2010 in Lowell, Mass. The show runs from August 7 through September 11, 2010 at the Brush Art Gallery and Studios at 256 Lowell St., with an artist reception on Saturday, August 14 from 1-3 PM.

Amber Harvest, at right, is part of my Color Block series exploring improvisational piecing and solid colors. This was the first piece I used only one large improv block set onto an asymmetrical background. I really like the combination of warm colors with clear cool accents. I also tried a new quilting idea on this one. I quilted echoing curved lines over most of the piece, then offset them with a round pebble motif in the upper right corner. Right click on the image to get a better view of the quilting.

Beach House is also part of my Color Block series. I created a horizontal band of improv piecing in this one, sort of like a landscape. The name came from the small house shape in the center and I quilted waves and pebbles in the lower section and a cloudlike motif in the upper portion.

I’m really enjoying the process on these pieces and I’m excited that they are going to this show. There’s more to explore with this idea and I have a couple of more pieces in the works. Creating the compositions is intriguing–almost like putting together a puzzle–only I don’t have the completed picture to guide me! It’s also interesting to come up with quilting motifs to complement the design. For each piece I challenge myself to come up with at least two or three different motifs that work well together and add interest to the whole.

I hope I’ll be able to get up there to see it!

This piece, just begun and as yet unnamed, has been in the idea stage for months. I had the idea, I knew what I wanted to do, yet I couldn’t seem to get started on it. Then I read a blog post from a site I visit regularly about productivity. Here’s the link: http://fineartviews.com/blog/19916/how-to-be-more-productive-part-2

Basically the point is that it’s OK to switch between multiple tasks in your life as an artist, because the artist is usually wearing many hats, from creating art, to marketing, to preparing exhibit submissions, to photography or framing, to writing a blog post, and so on–you get the idea. I always felt it was somehow cheating if you didn’t start one task and finish it before starting another, but I’ve discovered that’s not the way I work best.

In order to get started on this piece, I began cutting strips for something completely different. That’s important work to get done, but it’s fairly mindless, so I was free to think about my other project. After being in the studio cutting for a few hours, the idea I really wanted to work on began to crystallize and I was able to put the other work aside to start putting it together. I made the initial improvisational block and it went well, but then something happened.  For a piece like this one, I have a basic idea of what I want to convey, but once I start working a dialogue starts between me and the design that sometimes ends up going off in another direction from my initial plan. When that happens, I need to walk away from it a bit and do something else–like write a blog post, maybe. I realized that I need to make two or three additional improv blocks and that I want to use the green solid as a background, but I don’t have enough of it, so it must be ordered and I’ll have to wait until it arrives to proceed. That’s a good time to take a couple of recently finished small pieces to the framer’s to be mounted on stretcher bars.

So I’ve gotten a start on two new pieces, I’ve written a blog post, and I’ve taken two pieces to the framer’s, all because I was procrastinating on getting started on the first idea.  That’s not a bad set of accomplishments. Thanks to Luann Udell and FineArtViews.com for the inspiration!

What do you do when you’re stuck?

“Beach House” is another new piece I’ve finished just in time for summer. I tried something different with the improvisational piecing for this one, creating just one band of color set against a yellow and orange background. When it was finished, a small house shape appeared almost in the center–a blue body with a green roof. So I quilted a pebble and wave motif in the lower portion which reminded me of sand and ocean, and a wind or cloud motif in the upper portion. The whole composition reminded me of a great day at the beach–thus the name. If you double-click on the image at right you will be able to see the quilting details.

This piece was actually inspired by my previous work with Color Blocks–see Amber Harvest and Jazz Rhythms on my website. “Jazz” was the first piece and it is designed with a very busy combination of seemingly random improvisational blocks tied together with wonky stripes.  “Harvest” was next and explored the idea of using just one larger improv block set in an asymmetrical style with strong quilting lines. “Beach House” looks at the improv piece as a band, rather than a block. I’m intrigued with the concept of using solid fabrics and experimenting with various quilting lines to give the work character. Looking back at my body of work, my strengths appear to be bold color combinations and an interesting quilting line, so I’ve decided to concentrate on those two areas and see where the road takes me.

If you visit my website at www.cindygrisdela.com I’ve added some new work to the galleries and done some rearranging so the newest work is at the top of the page. Stop by and take a look!

I’ll be displaying my work at the Great Falls Studios booth at the Great Falls Farmer’s Market in the Village Center tomorrow, Saturday May 29, from 9 AM – 1 PM. I’ll have several new pieces that I haven’t shown here before, including “Impressions of Paynes Prairie,” at right. In addition, I’ll have other contemporary quilted wall art, colorful pillows and journal covers, and note cards for sale.

I created “Impressions” specifically for a show in my hometown, Gainesville, Florida, that ran earlier this year. The theme was quilts depicting natural Florida, so I created this impressionistic landscape of a local hiking area near where I grew up. If you click on the image, you’ll be able to see the dense free form quilting in this piece, including stylized flowers, pebbles, cloud formations, walkways and waves. I had a lot of fun drawing with my needle and thread on this piece.

If you’re in the Great Falls area tomorrow, stop by and say hello–I’d love to see you!

Thanks to all who commented on my last post about creativity and chaos. I think the secret is to just show up in the studio and put something together, even if it’s just “therapy sewing” of random pieces. That’s what I did in the piece at right–its temporary name is Wonky Square.  For the interior, I put together random bits and pieces, some left over from other projects, until I had something I liked. Then I bordered it with black and white triangles. It didn’t seem finished, so I unearthed this great black and white fabric that looks like leafy stripes and put that on the edges. I didn’t have quite enough length for all the borders, which meant I needed to find some corner squares. I spent a very enjoyable, creative day auditioning different fabrics for this piece. It’s such a wonderful feeling when I put a piece up on the wall and it just fits. Of course there are many pieces that don’t survive the trial and error process, but that’s part of the fun and it reminds me why I love doing this so much.

I’m going to quilt this piece and show it at the Great Falls Farmers Market next Saturday. This will be a busy week getting ready for that, but I’m looking forward to it. Today’s a soft, rainy day–perfect for spending hours in the studio.