Sunday Snapshots

Our show is up in Melfort now until the end of May.  I headed there Thursday and taught some classes in the Kerry Vickar Centre.  Melfort was a very easy drive and the people were all so terrific!  Ken Came up on Friday with his part of the show and we put it all together.  It was so great working with him and I think both of us want to try a little more collaboration.  For now, it is my art with hs.  The colours work so well together.  His pieces have a lot of grass motifs on them, and a local woman named Judy supplied our exhibit with pussy willow branches.  THAT totally made the show so much more interesting.  Thank you Judy!

I brought my Prairie Dress that was in Quilt Canada, and Ken included a feature ceramic glass-top table!  : )

Ken was really great at arranging things.  Hanging art from wall chains was a challenge for me but I think it ended up looking pretty great.  There was a huge conference at the centre and we got a lot of visitors. from all over.

pottery by Ken Wilkinson

That's one one of my favourite photos, above.  : )

Our show will be in the Melfort newspaper on Tuesday.  We were interviewed by a journalist who took some photos as well.  When I arrived on Friday morning to wait for her to arrive, a large school group came in for a tour.  That was great timing!  I had several pieces of pottery in place with my work so the children did a question and answer about the pieces and the art forms.  It was really fun!

Embroidery by Monika Kinner-Whalen / Pottery bu Ken Wilkinson

Meeting some quilters and artists for classes was great.  Postcards was particularly fun because it was so playful.  The theme was, 'My Favourite Season' and YES, two people picked 'winter'.  : )  By the time I taught my Threadpainting Class on Saturday, I had come down with such a cold and lost my voice.  So - I taught by whispering.  I feel really bad about that, but at least no one can say I talked too much!  : )  It was a small group in a quiet room so it was manageable.

between here and Melfort

The drive home last night was gorgeous.  The spring clouds were all over the place, making us on the earth seem so small.  It is a big, big sky indeed.

Thank you to my friend Peggy (coincidentally, Melfort's Citizen of the Year) for having me stay with you and your husband over the weekend.  Thank you to the women who came to the workshops!  That was so fun.  Thank you to the centre for being so accommodating.  Most of all, THANK YOU to Ken Wilkinson for joining me for this exhibition.

: )

Happy Sunday!

Productivity

Productivity...

I've been having a lot of creative fun in my studio - probably in retaliation to having a deadline for a new batch of threapaintings for the exhibit in Melfort.  The good news is that some of my creations are working out great.  The other good news is that I still managed to create a good sized batch of new threadpaintings anyhow!  They also turned out great.  : )  I'll have some of my Crewel prairie embroidery in the show as well as several surprises.

I am not sure if this will make it into the Melfort show, but I sure like it!  I did some paint - stamp - stitch with opaque metallic paint and gold thread on batiks.  I really like stitching with this gold thread.  I have a lot of it but haven't really used it much.  It's the metallic line from Wonderfil.  So far, so awesome!

I've also prepared a new stack of 2015 Wish You Were Here prairie postcards.  These are ready for stitching, though I might not get to completing them until May.

There are still a good amount for sale at the SK Craft Council (Saskatoon) and a new batch at the Mackenzie Art Gallery Shop (Regina).  Both locations have new threadpaintings as well for a total of 3 each.

I'm about to add the finishing touches so that they will be ready for framing and available in Melfort at my show with ceramic artist Ken Wilkinson.

I'm excited about that show, as I said.  I'm off to his studio this week to see what he's done regarding collaborated pieces.  I made him some cloth, and he used it when making pieces for me to be able to add fibre to once more.  Aaaah... mmore creativity.

If you look at the colours and motifs in his work, you can probably see why I thought our art would make a good pair.  I took this photo at his studio.  It's a cropped portion of a HUGE wall full of pottery.  When I was on the lookout for a pottery partner last summer, and I spied these grasses and landscape colours, I knew this was what I was looking for!

creations of Ken Wilkinson, Saskatoon

There's my little update, and a very minimal sneak peak of the 'Ceramics & Stitchery' show.  I'm so excited that this will be up for May.  Embroidery and Teapots sound just fitting for a show that will be on display for Mother's Day.  : )

Have a good week and enjoy the sun and the pops of green out there!

Spreading My Wings

The good thing about blogging half as often is that I'm creative twice as much.  I have such a full year.  I've been enjoying the new body of work I'm creating through the Sask Arts Board grant.  It's a whole project of larger pieces, all hand done.  This one is nearing completion.

The Earth & Heather piece I showed you earlier happens to be rolled up on the same frame, so as soon as I am finished this, I can scroll to the other piece and add the silk ribbon I planned on.  I didn't want it to crush it when rolling it again to move to this piece.  I won't be taking it off the frame until both are all done.  I did it that way, thinking I would save time by not having to set up the whole thing with a new background cloth.  Silly me.

I took an afternoon off to run some errands and stopped in at Prairie Lily Knitting.  I FOUND THIS.

SWOOOOOOON.  I don't know why but these colours are completely knocking my socks off.  I think it's the hot orange in there!  Charlene asked, "What are you going to do with that?"  I smiled, "Art."  In fact, I have just the piece that I'm going to work on.  Hopefully it will be a little more impressionistic again.  Oooh I just love this.  And there is even some sparkle in it!!!

my photo from the first year of this blog.  xo

I have several moody photos like the one above with all the colours of that delicious yarn.  Most are around sloughs or flooded ditches lined with autumn bullrushes.  Sweet Sweet Sweet.  ***Just a reminder that I use my photos as a basis for my art, so please do not print them out for your own use.

Since I'm on the topic of experimentation, I have a show booked in Melfort at the Shervin Smith Gallery with Ken Wilkinson, a ceramic artist.  I met him when I had my show at Handmade House.  I had been on the lookout for prairie themed pottery that I could have an exhibit with. He said yes.  Since then, we've been more interested in collaborating, so it's not just 'my art here, his art there'. Isn't that cool?  Ceramic and stitch.  I think that's a perfect fit for the 2015 Year of Craft.

It's fun to meet with him and watch as all these ideas pop into our heads.  If it were a retro cartoon, you'd see POOF!  SHAZAM!  and EUREEKA! showing up in bright colours all over the room.  I don't know if we will pull the collaborated part off, but it's amazing to be flooded with new ideas. On the creation end, I'd say I'm failing miserably at incorporating his work into mine.  I'll keep at 'er!  Here, I have tried my hand at creating a vessel.  I made the rope by combining yarns and stitching them to construct metres of rope. Then I did the coil thing by machine.  It was really enjoyable, but I think the next one will be hand woven.

We will have my art, his art, and then some collaborative pieces as well.  The show has been booked for the month of May 2015. That's coming up!   I have a LONG long way to go. Wish us luck!