Redefined

The mystery is solved!

We have our final winner! Terry Grant correctly guessed that the two words at the top of the bulletin board say "Art Department". I started making the sign for it today and you can see it in the picture, but it isn't finished yet.

The whole project looks pretty boring right now because the only colorful thing on the board is the scarf in the Lost and Found section. It should only get better from now on, as everything else that I plan to attach is going to pop with color. It's better to use "boring" as a backdrop if you plan to have a lot of color in the artwork.

Congratulations to Karen Stiehl Osborn, Jeri Riggs and Terry Grant, the winners of my contest, and thanks to all of you for participating!

The rest of the story

In my last post, I wrote about an antique wool quilt that was given to me by Roger Shimomura, the painter. Yesterday, Sara Farley, a quilt historian who lives here in Wichita, came to my house and examined the quilt. She felt the it dated back to at least the early 20th Century and maybe even the late 1800s, but wasn't sure because wool quilts are difficult to date. I gave her the quilt and she is planning to show it to Barbara Brackman, probably the top quilt historian in the U.S., for her opinion.

I wrote to Roger today to tell him this information. In a very interesting twist, both Roger and Barbara live in Lawrence, KS just a couple of miles apart and he even knows her. I don't know what will happen to this quilt, but Roger and I agree that it's now in the right hands.

Old quilts never die, they just get passed around

Last week, when I attended the Kansas Art Commission artist fellowships reception, I met Roger Shimomura, the world-reknowned painter who received the Master Fellowship in Fine Arts. He told me that he was going to send me an old quilt that he purchased at an auction 25 years ago in Lawrence, KS when he was teaching at the University of Kansas. The quilt had been in a box ever since and I think he wanted to find it a good home. I haven't done anything with traditional quilts in about ten years, but I knew more people in the field than he did, so I told him to send it along and I'd figure out what to do with it.

I received the quilt today and discovered it was made from wool fabric and hand pieced. Lines of herringbone embroidery stitches highlight the stitching lines and the outside edge. The blocks are 10" square. However, you can also see that the quilt is in poor condition and the insides are showing. Blue ticking fabric is peeping through the biggest holes, so I suspect that the quiltmaker used an old coverlet inside as batting. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this quilt dates back to the 1800s.

Since I am not an expert on old wool quilts, I called Sara Reimer Farley, a well-known quilt historian who lives here in Wichita. She will be coming over on Thursday to see it in person. If she wants the quilt, she can take it home with her. A quilt like this is a little piece of history and belongs in the right hands.

Evolved - Part 6

The Earth, as it is today, appears in the center. The other human accomplishments shown here include a beautiful vase (representing the Asian cultures), clocks and the telescope. The navy blue area represents the formation of the United States. The bottom picture shows the Old West. The cowboy on the right is telling a tall tale about the future, when a middle-aged woman puts their picture on a quilt and writes about them on her blog. Unbeknownst to him, the other cowboys are taking the opportunity to sneak off and short sheet his bedroll, because they think he is so full of baloney.

In the last picture, you see the end of the timeline. Yes, we've finally gotten to the present. Agriculture and farms are at the bottom and to the right of that, Neil Armstrong is walking on the Moon. The fabric above the Mount Rushmore heads is some I purchased during the year 2000, which is probably why it has the number "2000" printed all over it. In the lower right, you have computers, the Internet and modern cities.

This brings an end to our little tour of history. If you want to know what happens next, you'll have to stick around and see for yourself.

This quilt has been a work in progress for ten years. I finally finished quilting it and trimmed it to size. I also attached a black facing strip to the top and bottom edges, to stabilize them. I am currently embellishing the Big Bang with lots of shiny stuff. By the time I'm done, it'll be renamed the Big Beautiful Bang.

Evolved - Part 5

Here's the Ice Age as it looked about 75,000 years ago (Greenwich Mean Time). I drew the caveman and cave paintings freehand and was afraid that they wouldn't look right after I quilted them, but they do. Notice that the caveman is sitting outside on the frozen ground without any clothes on and he's banging a couple of rocks together. A wolf is right behind him and he doesn't seem to notice that, either. He wasn't exactly the smartest guy in his clan, which is probably why everyone else is selling their ice cave and moving to a more upscale forest further south.

The Ice Age ends, as do sabertoothed tigers, wooly mammoths and people who sit naked on the ground in the dead of winter. They are replaced by smarter, better-clothed people and other types of animals, such as poodles and potbellied pigs.

This takes us into the final section of the quilt, which covers the wide range of human accomplishments, although I completely forgot to include a reference to the Ronco Pocket Fisherman. Maybe next time.

The third picture shows the domestication of grain, the wheel, ocean-going vessels (the mast will be applied later), the Egyptian civilization and money. Somewhere along the line, as I was transferring the image to fabric, the coins lost their faces, so I'll have to draw them in myself. As you've seen, I'm not very good at drawing, so they may end up looking like smiley faces instead of the Emperor Nero.

The flying monk with the homemade wings is Eilmer, also known as Oliver of Malmesbury. In 1010 C.E., he jumped off of a building and successfully flew to the ground. Other men had tried to fly before, but Eilmer attached the wings to his ankles and was the trick that worked. Unlike the other so-called "tower jumpers", he lived to tell people his name. I'm not making this up.

Evolved - Part 4

Back at the palm trees again. I just discovered that palm trees didn't actually appear until 80 million years ago (mya), even though I placed them here around 250 mya. Big oops, but it's far too late to fix the problem. You'll just have to imagine that some scientist from the future discovered time travel. When he tested his machine and went back to the beginning of the Triassic Period, he happened to have a coconut stuck on the sole of his shoe, where it inadvertently fell off and was left behind when he traveled back to the future. The coconut sprouted and this little stand of trees was the result. Thankfully, it was wiped out when a tornado happened to touch down in that very spot 249,999,997 mya and the proper timeline for palm tree evolution was restored.

Finally, the dinosaurs appear and frogs try very hard to stay out from underfoot. The pterosaur is easy to see, but there's also a little white bird to the right, midway between the orange and green dinosaur heads. I plan to add another bird or two later.

Flowering plants appear and the T-Rex is happy that they do. If you notice, he is stalking the orange dinosaur. The T-Rex, named Chad, intends to pick a few flowers and offer them to the orange dinosaur, Dave, thus confusing Dave and throwing him off-guard long enough for Chad to make his move. Little do they know that their one-on-one is about to go horribly awry, as a gigantic asteroid (the red ball) streaks through the sky and hits the Yucatan Peninsula. I will add the asteroid's fiery tail later.

On left side of the third picture, you can see the scorched earth and darkened skies that were the collision's aftermath. Sadly, Chad and Dave did not survive, but Chad's bones were dug up a just few years ago and they are now on display in a museum labelled with the name of "Sue". I guess that finally explains why he wanted to pick flowers for Dave.

Just to the right of the dark clouds, you can see Earth. Pangaea has split up and the continents are now drifting apart.

Once things settled down a bit, it was a time of mountain building. Horses and other mammals started to look like modern types. These two are going for a pleasant romp in the moonlight.

Fellowship awards ceremony

You are getting two long posts today because yesterday, I traveled to Topeka to receive my Mid-Career Artists Fellowship (Fine Art) from the Kansas Arts Commission. They held a wonderful reception for the recipients and I want to tell you about some of the interesting people who I talked to. There were many others and I hope that I don't hurt their feelings by not including them, but I have to stop the list somewhere before everyone falls asleep, like in a college class right after lunch.

- One of my State Senators, Les Donovan, was there with his wife, Cissy, to hand me my award. I was honored that they took the time to be there for me, as I was the only fellowship winner from the Wichita area. I was so impressed by their graciousness and intelligence.

- Pauline Verbeek-Cowart, who received the Masters Fellowship in Fine Craft, is a tremendously talented weaver who teaches at the Kansas City Art Institute. Many people know her from the Surface Design Association. Talking to her came at a good time for me, because of a question I had regarding SDA and the fiber art exhibits associated with their biennial conference. She was the perfect person to ask and I had an opportunity to get to know her at the same time. That was almost worth the trip all by itself.

- Melissa Gregory, who works in the office of Governor Kathleen Sebelius. I have a quilt hanging on the wall in the governor's office right now and Melissa knew exactly which one it was. Coincidentally, she "long distance" commutes from Wichita and her Wichita house is one that my husband and I had looked at when we were buying a home almost 20 years ago. We distinctly remember that house and have even talked about it a few times since.

- Barbara Nelson, who co-owns the Strecker-Nelson Gallery in Manhattan (Kansas), probably the most respected contemporary art gallery in the state. Her husband and gallery co-owner, Jay, was on the selection panel for the awards. Barbara and I first met in 2001, when she was kind enough to host a meeting of Kansas Art Quilters. I was president of KAQ at the time. I'd love to get to know Barbara better, as I remember her gallery/home as being jaw-droppingly amazing, which says a lot about the insides of a person.

- John Divine, a commissioner on the KAC board. He chaired the selection panel for the visual arts awards this year, which is the first time I'd seen him in about 25 years. We used to work for the same branch office for IBM, but he was based in a city 90 minutes drive from me and I only saw him occasionally during that time. In fact, I was surprised he remembered me at all, but I guess Jill Rumoshosky isn't a name you hear every day.

- Roger Shimomura, who received the Masters Fellowship in Fine Art, is a world renowned painter. In 2000, when I received a Mini-Fellowship from the KAC, I attended the selection meeting and one of the panel members made a comment that changed the course of my art tremendously. It took me years to figure out what that comment meant, but I eventually did. When I told Roger about this, he did not recall whether he had served on that panel because he's served on so many over the years, but thought the comment was something he would be likely to say. Whether he has any memory of that moment in time, I do remember it and that's what counts. You never know the impact that your life has on other people, do you?

Evolved - Part 3

I actually finished quilting Evolved this weekend, but these pictures were taken before everything was done.

The first picture shows the part that comes right after the volcanoes and rains. Notice that you can see the cooled land under the wave on the left.

Now we are under the ocean. Fred (the fat one) and his one-celled friends, Wilma, Barney and Betty, are swimming around in the primordial algae. This is a picture of Wilma from when she was very pregnant and about to divide, spawning cute little Pebbles. Later, a couple of happy little trilobytes, the Barbie Twins, play tag around the plants. Finally, right around 570 million years ago and fashionably late, the shellfish and sponges join the party. They love making an entrance and they never bring a hostess gift. Can you imagine?

In the second picture, you can see a couple of jawless fishes and more advanced marine plantlife. The first land plants appear and the arthropods climb up out of the water. You can't see my arthopod yet because he's going to be created by embellishment later, so you'll have to use your imagination for now. He'll be on the left edge of the black rock. The lungfish is next and more sophisticated land plants appear, like ferns. Up in the sky are gigantic dragonflies. Right now the dragonflies have no bodies, but they'll get them soon. I just couldn't figure out how to applique anything that narrow. Sitting on top of the waterfall is the first amphibian and sunning himself on a rock in the bottom right corner is the first reptile. This is a time of insects, trees and swamps. I'm sure insect repellents would have sold well back in those days. If there were people and convenience stores, that is.

The third picture pans over a little more and you can see the butterfly. I'd name it after my Russian grandmother, Agatha, but then I'd feel obligated to name every single animal that appears after this and there are quite a few yet to come. In the background are coniferous trees and I'll be adding vegetation around the swamp at some point.

At the far right are palm trees. You are now located about halfway across the quilt and 300 million years ago in time.

Evolved - Part 2

I posted this picture before, but wanted to put it in sequence with the rest of Evolved. Here. you can see the galaxies forming on the left and the planets forming on the right. There are places on this quilt where I show the state of the Earth at that time and you can see it in the upper right of the picture, portrayed as a hot, molten ball. This section, like many others, will be embellished with metallic trims, beads and anything else I can think of.

Since I had posted this picture before, here are two new ones.

In the second picture, you can see the molten Earth in the top left. The Earth's surface begins forming because of exploding volcanoes and lava flows. There is one big volcanic cone in the middle, plus two in the background, on either side of it. I will add the explosions on the smaller cones later with embellishment. Clouds of smoke and water vapor emerge from the main volcano and form storm clouds. The clouds begin raining and cool the land.

The third picture shows the clouds, the rain and the oceans forming (see the waves?). Right above the waves, a brand new and much more serene Earth is shown, surrounded by clouds and water.

To the right, you can see one-celled life forming in the oceans. Surprisingly, the atom I mentioned in the last post can also be seen here. If you look at the largest of the one-celled animals, Fred, it's part of his elbow, too.

This takes us up through about four billion years ago. However, you will need to take Daylight Savings Time into account.

Posted and Evolved

Wow, I thought it would be easy to guess the words at the top of the board. Some of the commenters are on the right track with one word or the other, but no one has put it all together yet. Here is the next big clue: most art quilters have never have been around a board like this on a regular basis. Even fewer traditional quilters have been around one.

It may seem like I'm giving up on this project because I've dragged Evolved out of the unfinished project pile again, but that is not the case. It dawned on me that the bulletin board needed to grow over time. It won't go on display until August and  I'm sure that I'll think of many items to post on it before then. Rather than forcing the idea, I'm going to tack items to the board as I think of them. The contest will be wide open until the third question, "What are the two words at the top of the bulletin board?" is answered.

In the meantime, I will post pictures of Evolved to show you how it stands right now. The machine quilting is almost completed, but I will still need to trim and bind the edges, then heavily embellish the pictures. Please remember this is a work in progress.

Here is the Big Bang, the first part of the timeline. It's located on the left end of the 18 foot long quilt. I plan to bead and decorate the surface even more after the binding is on. As with all these pictures, the quilt is 12" high.

Here's the next section to the right. It shows the formation of the galaxies and the beginning of the planets. I'll continue to post pictures two at a time until I've covered the entire quilt. Remember that you can click on the images to see a larger version.

By the way, a small atom portrayed as part of the planet at the lower right corner of this picture is now part of my elbow. I thought you might notice the resemblance.

General update on various and sundry things

I'm surprised that no one has guessed the two words that will be at the top of the board. I can tell you right now that it has nothing to do with zoos or animals, other than their mention in the last bulletin board item I posted on my blog (which is something of a pun, considering the artwork's name). I suggest reading the last two bulletin board items again. They have major clues in them. If these two flyers are found together on the same board, where would it likely be located? It would be read by people with similar interestes and I acually passed by two boards just like them on Friday evening. No, they weren't in grocery stores, because I'm far too lazy to shop that much, even for food.

Mea culpa, but I don't have another "clue" bulletin item to show you this time. I promise to have one in my next blog entry.

I spent several days this past week putting together an exhibit proposal. The Surface Design Association has a textile conference every two years in Kansas City, Missouri and many of the galleries there host fiber art exhibits in conjunction with it. KC is only about a 3-1/2 hour drive from me, which is practically next door by Midwest terms, or spitting distance if you're a really good spitter. I know that many talented artists from all over the world will be throwing their hats into the ring for exhibits too, but it's always worth trying. You never know when the Magic Exhibit Fairy is going to bless you and I figured I would get the experience of applying, at the very least.

Sigh, I was hoping for a repeat, but I didn't get into Quilt Visions this year. I had entered Laced, Dispensed and Prepackaged. Maybe that bodes well for getting into Quilt National in some finely-tuned karmic balance. As it turns out, I was recently invited to exhibit a piece or two in a show in Texas, and it must be part of that Twilight Zone karmic thing. This was the third invitational exhibit that contacted me within three weeks. I normally get about one every couple of years.

I had a short discussion with the Steckline Gallery director about a piece I wanted to put in my solo show. It might be considered a controversial work in Kansas, so I wanted to clear it with her first. I started this project ten years ago and haven't finished it yet, but I think this is going to be the proper time. It is an 18-foot long by 12 inches high timeline of the universe, from the Big Bang to current times. It is named Evolved and if I don't finish it in the near future, I am going to have to add a foot or two onto the end to compensate for all the extra time I took to make it. Of course, I have friends who predict the end of the world will happen if I ever finish this, because it's been a work in progress for such a long time.

What you are seeing in the picture is the section right after the Big Bang, where galaxies and planets are forming. Right now, this is quilted, but I still need to bind the edges and then embellish the surface. My experience with making Portable Picnic made me realize that my old "picture quilt" skills were worthy of resurrection, if not on a fulltime basis.

Speaking of Portable Picnic, it will be coming home in the next week or so and I will need to do something with it since the tableware will be going home to my collaborators. My current plan is to make some new table items myself and rename the work Picnicked. Yes, it's spelled with a "k". I looked it up.