Happy New Year

I wanted to share a few memories from December 2009,

The first two pictures are of Raspy (my youngest cat) he thought stealing the treat bag would be a good idea. In the second one, Bratley was thinking he could join in the fun. The growl that came out of Raspy was not very welcoming. It was very funny watching him run around the house with the treat bag hanging out of his mouth. It certainly isn’t the first or last thing that he will steal. One of the other cute incidents involved cherries, Raspy would go over to the bowl they were in and grab the stem, then he would run off, hide the cherry and came back for more.

The snow pictures are from our storm early in December. We received over a meter of of the white stuff. The first time I shovelled the deck there was 37cm on it and the picture with the measuring stick shows how much was there the second time. In total I measured 99cm but I did not measure after that, I was to sick of snow, but I would estimate that we had another 20cm or so. In total over 4ft fell in less than three days. I remember a snow fall as a child that was over my head. This is the first snow fall of this magnitude that I have experienced since then. It was a winter wonderland and very beautiful.

On the art work front, I am settling into the studio for a good winters work. I have plenty of sunshine streaming through my front window and many ideas to play with. One of the major pieces that is on the table is for a show at the Agnes Jamieson Gallery in Minden, it will be held in the early spring. The show is called Around the Frayed Edges and will showcase the work of many textile artists. I have taken on my largest piece to date for this show.

For the beginning of 2010, I wish everyone good cheer, much laughter, and plenty of friends around to bring it in with Joy.

Studio Tour

Wow! What a weekend. Thanks to everyone who came by. I enjoyed your visits and the chance to demonstrate my needle felting. A really huge thanks to my mother who came up both weekends to help me, I could not have done it without her. The weather was nicer the second weekend and the cats finally came out to play. The two adults on Saturday and all three of them on Sunday.
Raspy playing with some coloured yarns.
Princess on the studio steps

Brat posing for the camera

Brat and Princess

They really do spend considerable amounts of time with me in the studio. Brat is here right now, getting into things.

Visit to World of Threads Festival

A little after the fact but I still wanted to express my appreciation for all of the hard work that went into The World of Threads Festival.
I am pleased to have been able to paricipate in the juried exhibition again. One of the very first show openings I attended was The Common Thread 2007. It was so exciting then to see my jacket Fall on display.
This year my piece Awakening was accepted into The Common Thread 2009.
Mom and I made the trip down to Oakville for the opening.
We planned a weekend to take in all the venues and we certainly needed it.
We arrived on Friday quite a bit later than we had originally planned, but we made it.
Saturday morning we had breakfast and planned our day.
We started by driving to downtown Oakville and finding a parking spot. Then we walked down to venue 9 and took in The Modern Pricilla, very nice work. We continued on to venue 7 and saw the "nine lives" exhibit. Not surprisingly I enjoyed the show, It might have had something to do with the theme, but it also had to do with the great work featured. We then headed over to venue 8. This exhibition contained one of my favorite pieces in the whole exhibition. A beautful rendition of a forest by Penny Milton. At this point it was time to head over for the opening at The Towne Square Gallery, Common Thread. Again great work. Repetition is really not my thing but there was so much wonderful work at this Festival. On to venues 12 and 11. That was when we went out behind the museum and started taking pictures of the trees. There were so many lovely old ones that I could not get enough. Until I looked at my watch and realized that we were more than a few minutes past our time at the parking lot. OOPS we tried to go quickly but again the trees kept catching us as we went by. Oakville you do have some wonderful specimens. Fortunately the car was still where we had left it and it did not even have a ticket. I was really relieved.
Very full of textiles and trees we headed back to the hotel.
The next day we attended the openings for the other Common Thread venues. Fortunately we only planned the two. There was so much to look at. What wonderful works from such a diverse group of people.
On Monday we managed all of the other venues that were open. Venue 4 was one of my favorite stops.
It was a very busy and full weekend which both Mom and I enjoyed. I am looking forward to the show in 2011.
Thanks to the Festival organizers. You do know how to put on a great show.

Come visit the World of Threads Festival, Sept. 18 - Oct. 4

"Awakening" has been accepted into the Common Thread International Exhibition at World of Threads Festival in Oakville, Ontario. This piece combines needle felting with thread painting to create a landscape.

Awakening will be on display at the first Venue (Venue 1). I am planning on attending the festival opening.

FESTIVAL GRAND OPENING
Date: Sunday - September 20, 2009
Time: 2.00 pm – 4.00 pm

Venue #1: Joshua Creek Heritage Art Centre
1086 Burnhamthorpe Road East, Oakville
Artists: Various: Provincial, National and International
Dates: From: Friday, September 18, 2009
To: Sunday, October 4, 2009
Times: Monday to Thursday 10.00 am to 5.00 pm
Friday and Saturday: 10.00 am to 8.00 pm
Sunday: 10.00 am to 5.00 pm