overdeying southern style

only the best for these fabrics....
here are the fabrics for the markings piece, happily soaking in their crystal vase...(it was the right size and right there....!) and since it's a most wonderful, almost fallish (for us) day they have course had to go outside to catch the low humidity and nice breeze! 79 in the daytime without rain is rare in august. and i'm heading back outside with them!

overdyeing 

blue sign 

tangled mess....MUCH erasing happened here. 

change 

finally.

the longest year is history (almost)
you can feel a very palpable sigh of relief as this milestone passes.
i've been watching the local goings on while stitching all day...
a very appropriate backdrop.
i overdyed a couple of the printed squares and think the result is a lot
closer to what i wanted....
will do the rest..

sandra asked about the screens...

here is a detail photo of the last scroll...

the dark brown image that fills most of the detail is a manipulated tree photograph. i have MANY many photos of uprooed,, snapped, leaning, etc. trees and was obsessed for a while editing the images down to their *bones*. i went through @ 10-12 versions of this image, continually erasing all but the structure. it's one of my favorite images. to me it reads as a relationship.. i *see* 2 individuals ...separate but connected.... anyway... the text: *change* across the bottom is from a photograph of a building in the french quarter....the word *change* etched in the stone facade...i thought it particularly apt. there's a fema headline above and to the right of change... which says *fema says katrina taught it a lesson...* (that remains to be seen!). above the fema print is a roulette wheel (clip art); in the space between the branches is the (green) text from a sign that was propped up on a ruined sofa in front of a house in the 9th ward and reads: *most costly disaster in history yet most of congress hasn't been here to see it in person. all who do say its much worse than one can imagine*. truer words were never spoken above that in blue is a gear (clip art). which is an apt metaphor for the response (or lack therof) to the hurricanes: it was definatly a case where the gears were anythign but well oiled adn funtional. nowhere did it mesh. and finally, above that in gray green is a recent newspaper headline: *sounding the alarm*

here are my original photos that change, the tree, and the sign came from:

well. for whatever reason those photos aren't uploading. i will try to re- post them.. (they're above this post)

scroll 3 top 

scroll 3 bottom 

the longest year scroll 3

i printed this friday before heading out of town. i'm very pleased with the results. i had washed all my screens out downstairs when i was done, so had them all in one place, and counted....i used 40...yes FORTY different screens on this one piece. with the last few days worth of newspapers, not to mention what will be coming in the next few days, i well could use up an entire roll of screening... (21 1/2 yards worth). will need to order more....

i am just very grateful that we don't have another storm breathing down our necks right now. hopefully ernesto will fizzle out.

back to the screening. there are many more where this came from

getting closer

to the end of the longest year. the anniversary tv shows, newspaper and magazine articles, weather re-broadcasts, etc., etc., etc., are piling up. as is the stack of headlines...
there will be much more fodder for artmaking soon. i've been making @ 5-6 screens a day.

and finally a quilt related post!
put these up on the wall yesterday.....



















they have potential but need somethign to set them off. the black seems to work so photoshop to the rescue adn i can get an idea of what it might look like...




closer. i'm still not convinced this will be the final layout....it needs a little more
???? impact... i think.....
stay tuned...
off to the gulf coast tomorrow for the ohr gallery opening...
will get back to work when we return.
it will be an interesting experience to be there this weekend in particular; i haven't
been there since the storm, and here we are with the anniversary just days away.
will have pictures later...

piles of paper

it doesn't look nearly as overwhelming in a photo as it does in reality. i feel like i've been buried in paper. somehow i am managing to get the really important stuff done. i did actually show up for jury duty this morning after unearthign the summons a few days ago...
not that it's high on my personal list of priorities but they do frown on people not showing up, and somethign makes me think *ooops i lost the paper on the bottom of a stack* probably doesn't hold much water.
actually i have been busily multi-tasking:

• working on new pieces requiring heavy (as in Time Consuming) hand embroidey
• de-foresting my backyard little bits at a time in order to avoid heat stroke
• actually taking care of the growing pile of paperwork
• helping to move my darling blonde daughter back to school
• working my way through some summer time reading
• and redoing the images on my website after accidentally wiping them out

pretty much everythign but blogging. i've taken a short *blog-cation* i guess. however in the meantime i have also sold a few pieces, gotten some work delivered to the mississippi gulf coast for the ohr rising exhibit, and am in the process of getting some work shipped to denver for the taking a stand: voices in fiber exhibit

and now, back to stitching. deadlines await

the river...on the other side of the levee... 

bananas 

some ot the outbuildings 

a view from the front looking towards the river 

the garden in the rain 

the house before 

the columns underneath 

laura plantation

there was an article yesterday in our local newspaper about the rebirth of laura plantation. laura is an old plantation that was bought by my grandpa's grandpa (a. florian waguespack) many years ago. (with the stipulation that the name did not change.) i had gone there
with a friend a couple of weeks before the fire in 04, and as a matter of fact, a piece i made from
one of the photographs i took will be in lesley riley's new book that will be coming out in a
couple of months. while i won't reveal that piece now, i will post some photos taken there.
the new owners have done an incredible job of restoring and re-creating the entire plantation site and it's place in history, including the fact that it was the birthplace of br'er rabbit.
there are alos great shots of the work in progress.
it's a source of much inspiration for me...