My Critics

My first art review in, ummmm, a few years:
This was from a review titled "Art Quilts Lowell 2007: A National Juried Exhibition" in Artscope New England's Culture Magazine September/ October 2007 issue.
It's fun to see my name in print, even if they did spell it wrong! I'm putting the quilt in the mail to mom tomorrow morning. I'm having trouble letting go of it. I am proud of it and I don't have other Art. yet. so I guess I best get crackin'.

Recycling Center of my Universe!

Here's a quick tour of my trip to the recycling center today. I am trying out an idea. Here's the idea. I will take photos of things that attract me instead of bringing them all home. I'm sure Gary will like this idea.
In order to take these photos, i jumped out of the van and landed in a big puddle. All the while Hudson was screaming his head off. What did he want? He thought he saw a toy catalog in one of the recycling bins and he wanted me to get it for him.

He's only two years old and i've already taught him to dumpster dive! Awwwwww!

Cat Rescue

Sometimes i think that taming wild kittens and finding homes for them is a distraction from making art and making money, sometimes i resolve to stop doing it...but LOOK AT THEIR WIDDLE FACES!



This was the 13th kitten i have found a home for. His name is Oreo and I was getting attached to him, so i was very relieved to find him a good home!


I caught and neutered one male feral cat, but I am going to take a break for a little while on the cat wrangling. Maybe I will wait till spring. If i catch a cat now, I have to hold him or her for a few days and I don't want a feral cat in my house, so warmer weather may be better. We'll see which cats survive the winter and try to work quickly to prevent more kittens arriving.

I Pause for Directions

One more Direction Show successfully completed!
Here is Daisy in the city, ready to help me set up my booth.

and showing off our hard work!

I met a lot of interesting people, and have some serious follow up work to do.
I enjoyed spending time with the artist, N'Ketiah, and getting to know him a little better.

After the first day, I walked from the train to the town pool. I saw this dumpster on the way. Gary says I must really love trash if I take pictures of trash receptacles.My kids gave me a big welcome and went back to swimming.
It's really good for me to have a taste of Gary's commute into the city. On the way home on Tuesday, the train I was trying to catch wasn't announced until 10 minutes after it was supposed to be loaded. I ran with the herd and didn't get a seat. On Wednesday, the train was 20 minutes late due to the rain that flooded the city. I thought that was bad until I heard everyone else's stories about walking blocks and blocks with crowds of people or of being stuck on a bus in the Holland Tunnel for three hours. I walked a few blocks in my husband's shoes (and it was fun cuz it was different from my shoes)!

Old Dog Learning New Tricks

More photoshop efforts on my part as I try to get ready for the next Direction Show coming up August 7, 8, & 9! It's a lot easier to work with my dad's artwork than my own artwork. My work isn't scanning that great on my new scanner. Parts are in focus, and parts are not. Maybe I should stop working in 3D?



Today I drove for half an hour to Weehawken and picked up a quilt from the Company Store with my dad's kittens on it.

Make Holy Art!

Here's a quote from an interview with Howard Finster done in 1984: "One day – how I got started in art – when I was 60 years old, after I’d retired from pastoring, my shop was over in the garden that I have, my environment, I found out that when something got scratched, you do a touch up job on it. Well I’d put my finger in the paint like that – I could smooth it with my finger much better than with a brush. I’d learned to do that. I took my finger and dipped it in white paint, and I looked to do that. I took my finger and dipped it in white paint and I looked at it and this white paint was a human face on the ball of my finger there. And while I was looking at it, just a warm flash kinda went all over me all the way down and said, “Paint sacred art.” And I said to it, I said, “I cain’t do that.” I said, “I know professionals can, but not me.” And it come to me again and says, “How do you know?” Then I asked myself that question. I said, “how do I know that I can’t paint?” I took a dollar bill out of my wallet and I taped it on a piece of plyboard and went out in front of my shop. And I started drawing George Washington off that dollar bill. And the school kids got out along about three and they began to groom up behind me, you know, and watch me painting. That was a little exciting, and touching too, you know. I felt almost like an artist then. [Laughing] And then from that, then, I started painting. And my idea was, what I’ll do, I’ll paint ’em and I’ll hang ’em in my garden."

Why am I quoting Rev. Finster right now? I feel like I got my little face appearing in the paint telling me to make art! I entered the quilt for my mother in a nationally juried Art Quilt Show (www.thebrush.org -- I promise to learn how to do hyperlinks, soon, at least i learned the word for them!) and I got accepted into the show!
I am very excited!

I get by with a little help with my friends...

When my grandfather died almost 20 years ago, i took the vests from his very dapper 3 piece suits, out of his closet. I didn't tell my mother or ask my grandmother. I wore them (Annie Hall influence even though i hadn't seen the movie). Then i put them in boxes and carried them around with me, move after move. A couple of years ago i got the idea to make them into a quilt for my mom. every holiday i wrote it on my to do list, but never got around to it. Recently she told me she had finally gotten rid of my grandfather's suits. She had been driving around with them in her car for a couple of weeks.

I guess that lit a fire under me and i completed the top of the quilt, but then i got stuck with the backing and binding and it sat around for another 6 months or so! Mother's Day seemed the perfect goal to get it done, but when i got out my sewing machine, I discovered that my son had worked little bits and pieces off of the machine, and I can't find them all!

Discouraged, depressed, angry at myself, i finally admitted that I needed help. I had to humble myself and I needed to ask someone for help.

I am very lucky becus i have three friends who immediately said "yes" and set a date to help me! I arrived at Kathy Grady's house on a hot day at the end of May. She was sitting outside on her patio under an awning with Lisa Basile and Susan Brauner. They looked at the quilt and quickly sent me back to my house to get a different fabric for the backing than the one I had brought. They were right, of course, i was settling for the fabric i could easily find. After some frantic digging, I found the one i wanted and returned. Everyone was busy working, cutting and ironing the binding (made from the silk lining of the vests). Susan has a really simple elegant way of doing the binding and she showed me how it works.

I felt so much pleasure in having the quilt finished, (well, i still had to go home and do some hand sewing, but practically done), and so grateful to my friends for this gift that i wondered if someone had slipped me some Ecstasy! It reminded me of when i lived in New York City and my 18 year old roommate (i was 29), and her friend were doing ecstasy. They gave me a big hug and said, "We love you Kristen! We love the way you bring home junk from the street and fill up the whole apartment!"

Things I am doing instead of making art

1) walking the Surtex show with my friend Jo Bradney http://www.bradney.com/ (someone teach me how to just put her name so someone can click on it and connect, please)!

Mostly i talked with people i have met from the Art of Licensing eloop.

Here are some old friends i got to see:

Barbara Lanza http://barbaralanza.com/

Nina Edwards http://metropolitanmiss.com/

Susan Eaddy http://www.susaneaddy.com/

And new artists i met:

Andy Mathis http://andymathis.blogspot.com/

Phyllis Dobbs http://www.phyllisdobbs.com/

Doll Barnes http://www.dollbarnes.com/

2) potty training my 2 year old

3) with my daughter, Daisy, taming wild kittens she found and caught. She's quite a cat wrangler! Finding homes for them (3 so far)! trying to catch and neuter the mommy & daddy cats, but having bad luck with the trap not springing. "Yum, thanks for dinner!" say the cats.

4) playing freecell. I tried to go cold turkey and went 2 and 1/2 days without playing. I will take a vow right now that i won't play again until i get my website up. oh man, that was scary to type that. i'm not sure i can do it...

5) house work. blecchhh

6) hobbling around bent over like a neanderthal due to hurting my back twisting and bending over to catch son who was running around eluding my efforts to get him on the potty.

okay, that's all for now!

Blogspotting

Hey, i made it onto someone else's blog!

http://studio78notes.blogspot.com/

Rayna Gillman is a wonderful artist who creates her own fabrics for her art quilts.

I had a lot of fun seeing her studio space, and my daughter enjoyed collecting food from each artist till she had a heaping plateful. I aspire to have a blog as interesting as Rayna's one day, I think she really has the idea of how to network and show off her art. She lets you in on the process of making art.

oh poo!

when i enlarge it i can see the line where i put the two scans together. especially on the tractor. sigh. Here's another one.

Photoshop Phobia successfully fought!

today i photoshopped these paintings of my dad's. i had them scanned in two peices and put them together. i am very proud of myself!

I hear my dad (Charlie Cook) has done some great new paintings for the show. This is becoming a trend, doing art at the last minute and express mailing it up here to me. he had some excuses this time with empty apartments to fix up and rent out. I think he works best under pressure!

Direction Show

I'm getting read for the Direction Show April 24 & 25!
pre-register at www.directionshow.com if you want to visit me!