Story Telling

 

It's been a long held ambition of mine to write a children's story book & since my work is becoming more and more illustrative perhaps now is the time!  The heron I think will be called Harriet, I just need a name for the little duck, any ideas?

 

 

On the sewing machine today.....

Part of the 'Mapping the River Trail' project - first of a series of works inspired by my walks along the Sammamish River Trail.  Still alot of stitching to do but the background has been painted and basic applique shapes applied.  I'm using my old Bernina, Betsy, for the free machining - she's old but fast!  Plus I find all the new machines have too many safe guards in place such as stitch regulators which I don't like. I want the irregularity, the skipped stitch, the odd 'mistake' - I don't want the maker's hand 'regulated' in any way thanks!

 

 

Mapping Redmond

A couple of weeks ago I organised an artists' tour around the landmark buildings of my local town of Redmond.  Led by our amazing local historian, Tom, nine artists were walked around the few historical buildings which have managed to survive fire, earthquake and the steady onslaught of new construction.  It was a wonderful tour & I gained so much knowledge about the pioneers who first settled here, it must have been so exciting.

 

This building in particular holds a wealth of stories:

 

Now a bar, originally it was Bill Brown's Building which had a dance hall upstairs, saloon downstairs and an undertakers next door!  You can imagine some cowboy having too much to drink, going upstairs to find a girl, breaking into a fight and ending up in the undertakers!  This is the only photograph of the inside of the saloon known to exist:

 

 

Bill Brown used to organise sight seeing tours of Redmond, I wonder what these folks would think of the place now?!

There is so much construction going on that the historical properties are really being overwhelmed...

 



...but these buildings do offer some interesting juxtapositions of old & new which is the angle I'm going to take with my work.  Apart from my normal illustrative treatment of the subject I'm trying a more digital approach too, manipulating my photographs & then having them printed on cloth to then work on.  I've just sent this design to Spoonflower, I'm looking forward to seeing how it comes out:

 

 

Popping Up

My pop-up studio....

It won't be this neat for long.  I 'styled' it for the gallery opening so everything is carefully placed, it's a shame I have to work in it!