My life has been a whirlwind the last few weeks. Lots of things going on between making new art, teaching classes, entering exhibits, and working on other special projects. That’s the way things go sometimes.
This shouldn’t be a surprise, because I had some hand in it all that I’ve been doing. However, I had no idea that my art would be on display in two different local art exhibits at the same time. Now that was an extra bonus.
I took a chance and entered 2 different exhibits. One is a Fine Arts Festival (FAF) at our local Arts Council. Everyone who enters gets their work displayed. Some crazy talented people enter. You can see my “self-portrait” in red over the fireplace mantle. I had the stitchwork on this piece completed a while back, but never finished it (photo on right: portrait over the fireplace in red with the hat on). This opportunity encouraged me to finally complete the work and enter it into the show.
The second opportunity was for a textile exhibit at the Arts Council of a nearby town. I entered the “spigot” into the juried call for entries (photo on left: me standing in front of my art quilt). I had no idea how this piece would be viewed. When there’s a jury selection process, your odds for being accepted has a lot to do with who else entered work (how good is the competition?). You just have to have hope that the jurors like what you submit. And!…be willing to graciously accept if they don’t. Art is subjective that way. Yet, this one totally surprised me. I entered on a whim.
It has reminded me to submit my work into more exhibits, because no one will ever see it, if it always stays in the closet. 
How did you do the self-portrait? Did you transfer a photograph to fabric and then thread paint it?
I’ve been playing around with a Japanese apron sewing pattern. I think you have to be a student of oragami in order to figure out how to put it on!!! 🙂
Hi Jan,
Basically, I print the photo on paper, put it on lightbox and then trace it to make a paper pattern. Japanese apron sewing sounds interesting, but oragami is hard to comprehend. Do share what you’re doing.