Linda Edkins Wyatt

SubLIME ATCs

2012-02-15T19:10:00.000-08:00

Lime is the theme for Arts in the Cards for March. Limes are delicious and refreshing, and lime is one of my favorite colors. I use it so much that I think of it as a neutral...when I don't know what to do with a piece of art, I use lime thread to stitch it, or dab on lime paint.

For these ATCs, I started with some hand carved block prints that I had printed with lime paint on white paper. They are part of my edzellinni fabric line that I did for my SAQA visioning project. I combined the blockprints in photoshop, and then added the word lime and the mirror image of the word. I arranged the words at the top and bottom, but cut off part of each to make the words less obvious.

I liked what I had, but then I decided to take another angle. I used some Graphics Fairy royalty free antique clipart--a dress form, some antique shoes, a lilly of the valley plant in a pot, an Marie Antoinette style woman, and a hand holding a rose. I changed the color to be limey on all the clipart except the hand holding the rose. It looked okay, but seemed not quite finished, so I put the blockprints and words behind the photoshop woman that I had constructed. After I printed the ATCs on cardstock,the design still needed something, so I decided to embellish it with lime stitching--a straight stitch and a zig zag.

These small pieces combines many things that I love--mixed media,photoshop, antique clipart, fashion design, flowers (especially roses), fabric design, typography and carving/printing my own designs.

From Doodle to Art Quilt

2012-02-09T15:20:00.000-08:00

I’m a doodler. I can sketch, I can paint, but what I really love to do is doodle. I can’t sit still in a meeting—I doodle as I take notes. So, I am trying to embrace what I do naturally and expand on that to create artwork, rather than trying to do what is popular, or what other people do, or what other people want me to do, so that my work will be unique and really express what is inside me. I doodle flowers, faces, letters and numbers, and abstract designs. I am also trying to stop being a perfectionist, and not feel like a failure when something is a little sloppy or lopsided.

This 8.5” x 11” artquilt started with a little doodle using an orange marker on ATC sized watercolor paper. I scanned that and played with it in Photoshop, creating my ‘red’ themed ATCs for our Arts in the Cards February exchange.

The theme for our very first Arts in the Cards REvisioned art quilts is ‘rebirth’…so I chose to try a different interpretation of the orange doodle. In photoshop, I changed it from orange to black, enlarged it, then did a positive/negative and flipped and repeated it. It was the same process I used for the red ATCs, but larger and in black and white. I ironed freezer paper [shiny side down] to white cotton, then cut the fabric/paper to 8.5x11 and printed it out of my computer.

The question was…what do I do around the edge? I designed a black and white checkerboard border in QuarkXpress, which looked cool. But then it seemed too puttery to cut little pieces out of fabric and piece them together, and too time-consuming to paint them on fabric. So, I tried a white border with big red buttons, a black border with big red buttons, an abstract b/w border of painted recycled tyvek, and a black felt border with smaller white buttons—which was the one I decided to use.

It was fun doing this just for me for a change—no jury committee or magazine editor to worry about, no concerns about mailing it, no duplication so that everyone could have one. I enjoyed the therapy of hand-sewing the buttons. There were a few mistakes; I didn’t have my rotary cutter and had to hand-cut the felt edging, so one of the sides is not quite the right width, and I miscounted on the buttons…the top row has a different number than the bottom. Also, I am not a super skillful quilter technically, so my machine quilting lines are wobbly. Rather than re-doing the edge, the machine stitching and the buttons, I finished it anyway, allowing myself to be imperfect…not an easy thing for a Virgo perfectionist!

Art x 4: Red ATCs

2012-01-30T19:58:00.000-08:00

One day a few months ago I was home sick in bed, so I decided to entertain myself by drawing. I drew some ATC sized boxes and started doodling. In my day job, I am a writer and graphic artist, so naturally I love letters, fonts and design. So, I played with the word ART. One of the designs I came up with was the start of this card for my ATC group Arts in the Cards.

I scanned the design, tweaked it in photoshop, made it a nice cherry red, and did a positive/negative, then flipped them around so there would be a mirror effect. I added some solid orange and pink accent. I am also a textile designer, so I couldn't resist adding a scaled down version of a pink monoprint that is one of my fabric designs [available on spoonflower, listed under edzellinni]. The orange design under the red letters is from my lunchtime mandala group, a series of circular stream-of-consciousness doodles that I did a couple years ago. The original design of my swirly, doodly word ART is visible in the top left corner of the card.

We have also started, thanks to Marie Z. Johansen, a spinoff of the group. We will be doing 8.5" x 11" art quilts related to the ATCs every other month. I am doing a variation on this design for my first art quilt for the new group.

Be on the lookout for our new projects at: http://artsinthecardsrevisioned.blogspot.com/

MADD About Annie

2012-01-29T08:27:00.000-08:00

My sister-in-law commissioned me to do this 8" x 11" art quilt of her daughter, Annie. She gave me a tiny photo, about 2" x 3" to work from. I scanned the photo, played with the color in photoshop, adjusting the lights and darks and adding a sepia tone, then output it on Avery printable cotton.

I knew it needed some soft lace at the edges, but didn't have anything on hand that was quite right. I love lace, but the wrong one can be either tacky or garish, and cheapen a piece. The right one can be magic. So, I paid a visit to M&J Trim after work to see what they might have. I hadn't been in the store in a few years--I remembered that it was wonderful, but had forgotten just how wonderful. I nearly cried when I saw the incredible trims and laces in there, one more beautiful than the next. I bought 4 or 5 and took them home to try out. I also got little rosettes for the corners. Possibly schmaltzy, but still--so sweet.

I was a little afraid of the actual quilting. I am not a super skillful quilter, and don't have a high-tech machine. So, I pretty much left the face alone and accentuated the dress and curtains with stitch. I added chalk pastels and watercolor pencils to enhance some of the details and set it with fixative.

So why am I MADD about Annie? Well, she was killed by a drunk driver in 1993, just after her 12th birthday. She was on her way to a small birthday celebration with a couple of good friends when the drunk driver blew through a red light. My brother and sister-in-law worked to get the laws changed in Maryland to get stiffer punishment for drunk drivers. Not much has changed. The driver only served a few months in jail, and Annie's remaining family is sentenced to a lifetime of sadness and loss.

Steampunk Paper Dolls

2012-01-11T19:29:00.000-08:00

I can't believe how happy I am puttering with paper dolls. I did love them as a kid, so its not a huge surprise. But I really didn't realize that making art paperdolls would combine the art therapy of collage with my inner fashion designer wannabe and my love of drawing crazy faces.

Here is what I did for the Roses On My Table group's January exchange with a theme of Steampunk. The one on the top right is the face from my piece "Broken Chakra Girl." She has gone all sci-fi punk, cut her hair and is living on the edge. The one on the bottom with a large head and square eye is a face I doodled one day when a very old friend of my husband's called from Australia. The woman, who I have never met and is a psychic, talked on and on and on. When she hung up, this is the face that emerged.

Photoshop Addiction

2012-01-09T17:13:00.000-08:00

I had three art exchanges in January, and I used Photoshop for all of them. I must be addicted...at least it has no calories, and really doesn't cost anything once you buy the program.

For Roses On My Table's January ATCs, the theme was "Cowboy's Sweetheart" so I chose my personal favorite, Miss Kitty from Gunsmoke (Amanda Blake). I used a vintage TV guide cover and took out the background leaving only Kitty. Next, I manipulated the Kitty image, adding a photoshop image filter to make it more graphic, and making the color more in the purple family. I then mixed it up with some Graphics Fairy vintage clipart textures in the backgroud and a cowboy silhouette. I used chalk pastels to enhance and accent the card after it was printed.

There is a new group on Roses, a postcard exchange group. With the theme of Valentine's Day, I went romantic with some Graphics Fairy vintage clipart of teacups, roses and French vintage advertising graphics.

The Roses Tag trade had a crazy theme..."I see London, I see France" so I again used Graphics Fairy images of English tea and roses and French chocolate and advertising written in French.

Last, but certainly not least, were the ATCS for Arts in the Cards, my own ATC trade group, that is celebrating its 2 year anniversary. Our theme was, naturally, TWO, so I chose my two hands. I traced my hand on paper, then filled in the hand shape with a turquoise doodle and used a deep purple for the background. I scanned the design, reduced it in Photoshop, duplicated and flipped, the arranged the hands to be on top of each other.

Two Years of Arts in the Cards and My First Art Journal

2011-12-28T17:22:00.000-08:00

It occurred to me recently that my ATC group, Arts in the Cards, has been together for two years. I started it with Suzan Morgan; we had been in some quilted postcard exchanges together, then we discovered that we were both fabric designers, and both making small fiber art pieces for Art O Mat. We decided to trade ATCs similar to our Art O Mat works. That was fun, so we asked a few friends to join us in trading ATCs and the group was born. The other mainstay of the group is Janice Paine-Dawes, who runs our Yahoo group and the AIC blog. [Thank you Janice!] Suzan is no longer part of the group since she wanted to focus on larger works.

We are now branching out into doing 8.5" x 11" art quilts based on the ATC themes, and Marie Johansen is spearheading that project. With New Year's nearly upon us, I was puttering around in my electronic and actual archives looking for inspiration. I came upon a design that I think will nicely fit our next AIC theme--Two--in honor of our two years of ATCs.

While I was puttering, I found an old favorite design, the cover of an old journal that I had painted with oil pastels and acrylics. It was the first art journal I made, and I still love it. It has gold paint on it, which looks brown in the scan, so the photo isn't as magical as the actual journal cover. The color was also a little off, so I monkeyed with the colors in photoshop.

It reminds me of where I was about 10 years ago when I made the journal--super anxiety ridden, unable to work, a nervous wreck. I could barely eat, couldn't sleep, tried a bunch of meds that didn't really help, and was practically skin and bones. The art journaling and mixed media work helped me work through my panic. My artwork is mainly therapeutic. Even when other people don't like my work, it is significant to me. It is also really interesting to look back at older pieces and remember what was going on in my life at the time I made it.

Flat Santa Wants to Know: Have You Been Naughty or Nice?

2011-12-05T18:53:00.000-08:00

Our ATC group, Arts in the Cards, is doing a flat santa trade. Janice Paine-Dawes introduced me to Flat Stanley, who we based the flat santas on. Apparently kids write stories to go with Flat Stanley and he travels around the globe...just like santa, but without a sleigh.

My santa is kind of half elf; his pointy gold slippers and harlequin pants are a testament to his elfenness, and he is so interested in who has been naughty and who has been nice that it is written on his shirt. Somehow I think elf-santa prefers the naughty people...because he sure looks like he wants to dance and party all night.

Vitamin Water Zero Paper Doll

2011-11-28T20:26:00.000-08:00

After hours of cooking on Thanksgiving, I needed a break, so I pulled out my scrap bins, paints and glue, and did some doll therapy. This doll is 1960s inspired, with an a-line mini dress made of a Vitamin Water Zero label. I love the graphics and the colors, but I especially love the drink. It is the only diet drink that I can have that doesn't have me doubled over with stomach pains, plus, it tastes pretty good.

Her tights are made of aluminum foil, recycled from our holiday pie-making. The red go-go boots are cut from a scrap of watercolor paper, and adorned with silver sequins. Earrings, made of seed beads and pony beads, were sewn on. The doll's cap is made of the inner wrapper of a peanut butter cup. I expect I will soon make a doll friend for Ms. Zero out of the orange outer peanut butter cup wrapper, left over from Halloween. It was my ONLY Halloween treat. Really, I only ate one!

Art O Mat Blocks and My Canine Assistant

2011-11-22T17:58:00.000-08:00

Whenever I hit a dry patch in my creative life, I remind myself to make more Art O Mat blocks. Making them is fun...but a pretty lengthy process. I print my original artwork on either Avery printable cotton sheets, or on t-shirt transfer sheets (with the image flipped), then iron them to cotton. I cut then, add some pellon or felt backing, quilt them and edge them. Some models get beads and sequins added, some get touches of paint for embellishment. Then I glue them to the art o mat blocks, glue a label on the back that tells all about me, and wrap the finished blocks with strips of cellophane so they can slide out the art o mat vending machines easily.

I feel good about the blocks because they are all mine. All my orginal artwork, no clip art, nobody else's ideas. They remind me that I do indeed have some creative, sucessful work--small, but successful still. It reminds me that I don't have to make a masterpiece every time, that I don't have to create huge murals, that I don't have to be avant garde.

And every once in a while I get a nice little check from art o mat, and a green card that tells me if they are running low on my block supply. Interestingly, they seem to love me in Vegas! Quite a few sold at the Cosmopolitan. And I even had my "Time Warp" pieces in the Smithsonian and some at the Whitney. (In the art o mat machines in the gift store, not actually hanging on the museum walls!)

If I calculated how much time I spent on each one, I probably don't actually make any money. But, the checks pay do for more art supplies! And of course it makes my canine assistant, Coconut Jenkins Wyatt, feel very useful. He guards them with his life and makes sure leaves don't blow on them and keeps insects off them as they are drying in the sun.

Reiki Prayer Quilt with the North Pole Grid

2011-11-14T20:54:00.000-08:00

I made this little 12" x 12" quilt a while back, and posted photos of it as I was designing it, but never posted the final photo. Lately I have started working on some more reiki inspired pieces, but this little one remains a favorite.

To start, I printed a photo (with permission of William Lee Rand) of the North Pole Grid on avery printable cotton. It looked dull when it came out of the printer, so I overpainted it with gold acrylic. [go to http://www.reiki.org/GlobalHealing/northp.html if you want to read more about the NP Grid.] It is a beautiful and fascinating story.

The little sequins on the tips indicate the major world religions. The actual NP Grid is made of gold and crystals, and has different symbols for each religion.

I cut out the gold NP Grid, and stitched it to a painted background of icy blues and white, which I created using watersoluble oil pastels [which aren't really oil, they are more like a gel stick] to simulate the snow and ice of the north pole for the background.

Each corner has the reiki healing symbol. The sides have the reiki morning prayer, combined with my own purple soy batik. It is edged with purple corduroy that was left over from a jumper I made my daughter, Amanda, many years ago. Purple is the healing color, and also her favorite color.

Alice, Camelot and a Glamorous Harvest

2011-10-29T15:09:00.000-07:00

I have been doing a lot of trades with my Roses on my Table groups. For the tag theme Ancient Cities, I blanked out, but finally decided on the fictitious city of Camelot since somehow my family has gotten addicted to the show Merlin.

For the Statues tag theme, I really was at a loss. So, I did a search of NYC statues and hit on the Alice in Wonderland statues in Central Park. My daughter loved climbing on them when she was little, so that seemed like fun. I combined it with an image of the Imagine mosaic tribute to John Lennon.

The ATC theme harvest seemed a little dull, since I first thought of the same old Thanksgiving feast images. Thanks to some Graphics Fairy vintage clipart, I made a photoshop collage of antique seed packets. They were particularly interesting to me because they are marked Oneida County, which I where I grew up. The art needed some pepping up, so I added in glamorous 1940s model Georgia Carroll, who is the grandmother of my daughter's best friend, which kind of went with the antique seed packets and made me think of beautiful women squashing grapes at harvest time.

Machine Quilting Unlimited and Eye of Panic

2011-10-24T19:12:00.000-07:00

What a great surprise I had this weekend! I opened my mailbox and found an envelope addressed to me from some place in Florida. I opened it, and found a copy of the November/December issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited. I thought it was a free, trial copy, but then I noticed that there was an article on the Sacred Threads Exhibit that was held in DC this past summer. Since I had been a participant, with two pieces in the show, I turned right to that article. Imagine my surprise and delight when I saw my own eye staring back at me from page 28!

The author and magazine's managing editor, Kit Robinson, had chosen an assortment of images and stories from the exhibit for her seven page article. I am thrilled and honored to have my work included.

This is a detail shot of the piece. It will also be included in a book by Karen Musgrave called Quilts in the Attic: Uncovering the Hidden Stories of the Quilts We Love, which will be out in February 2012. (Karen's book is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com)

Duct Tape Hardware ATCs: Unchain My Heart? or Heart of Gold?

2011-10-09T07:23:00.000-07:00

Hardware. It sounded like a really fun ATC theme. So, I dug around the house looking for mechanical bits and pieces and found nothing. Not one bolt, nut, or screw that would work. No little washers, no gear pieces. Well, we aren't the handiest, do-it-yourself family, so I shouldn't have been surprised. I was stuck and frustrated and had to rethink my whole idea because I didn't have time, or $, to run out to the hardware store to look for inspiration. I settled on good old silver duct tape, and went back to my tried and true favorite base, painted, recycled coffee sleeves. I painted the sleeves gold to contrast the silver duct tape and angeled the tape on the base. I had some chain link left from my Eye Of Panic art quilt [that I really did buy at the hardware store--and yes, they thought I was a crazy artist buying so much chain], so I punched holes in the cards, set grommets in them, and threaded the chain thru, closing it with a little silvery end cap. I added a little gold cardboard lopsided heart on the chain for softness. It looked naked, so I added gold brads in each corner to mimic nailheads.

I couldn't decide on the title: Heart of Gold [strains of Neil Young running through my head bring me back quite a few years] or Unchain My Heart? Isn't that a country song? or am I mixing Unbreak My Heart with Unchained Melody? Any votes on the title?

Halloween Witch Dolls

2011-09-18T10:46:00.000-07:00

I belong to three groups at Roses On My Table, and they are all great fun. A tag group, an atc group and a paper doll group. The doll making is amazingly fun, creative and therapeutic. Here's what I did for our Halloween doll exchange--one scary and one pretty. I used the template available on the groups site, then added some vintage faces I found online. The clothing is made of paper towels, distressed Lumiere-painted tyvek, felt, ribbon, a painted recycled facial cleansing cloth and gold netting. Capes are removable, so whoever gets them in the exchange can really play with them. Little girls dont' always grow up, do they? At least I'm in touch with my inner child...

Balancing My Chakras In a Hurricane

2011-08-30T18:52:00.000-07:00

In the aftermath of Irene, the recent hurricane turned tropical depression, I sat in my boarded up house, listening to the wind, with just a sliver of daylight peeking in. I decided to cope by making some art. With a flashlight, I bumbled down to my studio, grabbed some good rag watercolor paper, watercolors, watersoluble oil pastels and took it upstairs. I painted two big pieces of undulating curves in rainbow colors that blended into each other; I later cut one of the pieces down to ATC size.

As I was falling asleep that night, I realized the balance connection: I use meditation and visualization of chakra colors to calm myself, especially during a panic attack. So, I added watercolor dots [which I cut with a hole punch] in the reiki chakra colors to the little undulating curvy backgrounds. The ATC reminds me that I need to meditate on a daily basis to keep my crazy life in balance.

23 and 3

2011-08-22T19:30:00.000-07:00

My daughter celebrated her 23rd birthday over the weekend. I happened to snap a photo of her wearing some new earrings, and she was standing in front of a fiber piece based on a photo of her at 3, when she was in the Nutcracker at the local Y. (The pieces of the 'fractured photo' were done by me and 7 other members of an art exchange group, and I stitched them all together.)

Also included is her birthday card, with pictures of the family photoshopped into a Graphics Fairy royalty free clipart of 4 French old-fashioned ladies.

Little Stuff, and the Smithsonian!

2011-08-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

My small labor of love is making art-o-mat blocks which are sold in vending machines around the country. Today, along with a check, I received the listing of where the blocks had been sold. How cool that there was a bunch in the machine in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC! Fortunately, I am devoting much of my art time this week (that is, my stay-cation)to doing art and making more mini quilted pieces for art-o-mat. Last time I got a check and a sales listing, there were a gazillion sold in the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Vegas. So, here is a picture of the different blocks I make. The most popular one seems to be my yellow self portrait. (This is it unquilted. I add some beads and sequins to jazz it up.)

And it is a good day for small things...SAQA just announced a new show, "A Sense of Scale" that will contrast big pieces with small ones. So, I can do a series of pieces as small as 12" x 12". I have felt alternately annoyed, sad, and mad that I can't enter most art quilt shows since I like to work small. Maybe someday when I retire and can devote all day to art I can go big, and get a giant longarm sewing machine, but with my crazy, busy work schedule, small is all I can comfortably do right now.

Retro...Me

2011-08-08T18:05:00.000-07:00

I just joined a group within a group, Le Papier Dolls, part of Roses On My Table, where I already exchange ATCs and tag art. Who knew Le Papier Dolls would be so much fun? This month's theme was "Back to School" so I went back to my childhood and did some 'Little Linnie 1967' girls. I used a template available to the group, but added an A-line dress that I sketched from a vintage 1967 Simplicity pattern. I cut pieces of my own fabric designs (printed on paper) for the dresses. Of course, I was compelled to have textured stockings, because the key to my whole late 60s wardrobe was colored fishnets in every shade of the rainbow. The face is me at 10 (well, it was taken from a group shot of my family at a reunion in 1965, but close enough.) I printed the b/w pix, spritzed with fixative, and added a tiny bit of watercolor.

I had more fun (artistically) than I have had in years making my paper dolls (I did about 10), I think because it combined the freedom of collage with the pure joy of being a child again playing with paper dolls. It also brought me back to a simple time, before jobs, mortgages, child, husband, and before school work actually got hard.

Left Brain, Right Brain

2011-08-01T19:09:00.000-07:00

I go back and forth between my left brain and my right. Sometimes I take comfort in mathematical, repetitive designs; sometimes I just want to paint and make a mess and hopefully end up with something beautiful. My left brain wants to be neat and logical, my right brain wants to let out emotion and be a messy 7 year old.

Recently I had two ATC challenges. One was divas, and I made a pretty right brained homage to Chrissie Hynde. The other was opposites, and I felt the need to do a precise expanded square with clean lines and sharply defined blacks and whites. Both designs are very "me" but from different parts of me.

Pretenders

2011-07-20T18:36:00.000-07:00

Divas is the theme for the next Roses on my Table ATC trade. I wasn't sure what to do, because I really don't have a lot of respect for famous people who think they are uber special and act like divas. Many of the music divas really don't sing/play the kind of music I like, so I went a little outside the diva box, and thought about favorite female singers. My inner rocker chick came up with a few ideas, but if I could be anyone, singing wise (and no, I can't carry a tune) it would be Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders.

So, I played with Chrissie in photoshop, plunked her face and guitar down on a Graphics Fairy royalty free clipart of a fairy riding a butterfly, then added one of my own monoprints for a background, bigger wings from a Graphics Fairy butterfly, and some sexy high red boots. I softly colored Chrissie's face in photoshop. This is the result, to which I will soon print, add gloss and glitzy accent.

Photoshop Madness

2011-06-28T18:30:00.000-07:00

After many years of puttering, I was fortunate to be able to take a course in Photoshop that was offered at work. I came out of the course with a big handbook and my mind overloaded, but have been working diligently on my lunch hour trying to get the hang of using layers, brushes, filters and other photoshop aspects. I am finally getting the hang of it. Here is a little piece that I did for Betty, from the Roses on my Table ning group. Betty has been sick, so everyone made her a page for a book as a gift.

The floral background is one of my own paintings, softened in photoshop. I combined it with royalty free vintage clipart from the Graphics Fairy [on blogspot, an wonderful resource, check it out!]

Wet Spiral Leaf Postcards

2011-06-28T18:08:00.000-07:00

Right after I took a photo of these 3 postcards, I sprayed them with fixative. They have to travel to Hawaii and Texas, so I didn't want them to get wrecked in the mail. The fixative is very pungent...smells like a cross between skunk and turpentine, so I sprayed way out in the backyard, then left them on the fence to air out. In the early evening, I remembered them, and discovered that they had gotten sprayed from the sprinklers. They were all wet and puffed up, but the paint had not run. I ironed them until they were almost dry, and tucked them under a cast iron pot overnight to deflate them. They are almost as good as new, fortunately, and ready to be put in the mailbox.

The background paper is a nice Japanese rag that I collaged with recycled coffee filters, then enhanced with watercolor and watersoluble oil pastels. The center is the same paper, with aged with coffee and watercolors, and stamped with my own hand carved leaf in a brown distress ink, and stitched to the background.

Reiki Healing: SAQA Auction Donation

2011-06-28T17:54:00.000-07:00

My donation for this year's SAQA Auction is called Reiki Healing. I used the Beryl Taylor reverse applique/slice and dice technique. Instead of Beryl's circles, I used square shapes, and put an antahkarana--the ancient healing symbol used in reiki--in the center. I added a few accent beads and hand appliqued the center patch.

The piece is very soft, a little off kilter--the squares, although I measured and cut ever so carefully, had a mind of their own. I used an old wool blanket as the batting, and an old sheet as the backing, so it incorporated a lot of recycled materials. The antahkarana is belived to heal whether you believe in it or not, just looking at is can be healing--no prayers or meditation is necessary to make it work.

Indigo ATC Tray

2011-05-29T12:29:00.000-07:00

Thanks to artist Lisa Fulmer, I learned about the 7 Gypsies display cases for ATCs and other small art pieces. The first group I chose to display was my indigo collection, from a recent Arts in the Cards ATC trade. I added a few blueish pieces from other trades to make it an even dozen. Soooooo much better to have them out for viewing, instead of sticking them in binders and putting them on a shelf.

Squares within Squares

2011-05-11T18:05:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed making my circle cutout 12" x 12" quilt so much, I decided to try it again. But this time, I decided to try using a square theme rather than circles...easier to sew, easier to cut, I hoped. Well, easier to sew, since doing little circles is pretty tricky. Easier to cut...not really.

Again I used about half fabric that I designed and printed myself through Spoonflower.com, and half commercial fabrics. I discovered that finely woven, lightweight fabric worked better than heavier and/or coarsely woven fabrics. I also made a few extra pieces, and I am glad I did. I had to take away some pieces that were too orange, and some that were too lime. Although they are colors I love, they looked garish and Halloweeny together.

Here is the quilt pinned together, ready to be sewn. I am also posting the finished circular patch quilt.

Truth is a Whisper

2011-05-04T16:54:00.001-07:00

I had a great time today playing with some royalty free antique images in Photoshop. I have admired collagey mixed media work and asked a woman from my Roses on My Table group where in the world she got her images. I thought she spent all her free time scouring antique and flea markets...but no, she steered me to the blog called Graphics Fairy.

This design shows my softer, romantic side, which might surprise quite a few people. The words say Truth is a Whisper, which come from the lyrics of a Goo Goo Dolls song of the same name from the Gutterflower album, one of my all time favorite CDs.

Mixed Media Tags

2011-05-02T18:41:00.000-07:00

I greatly admire the mixed media work I see in publications like Somerset Studio. I have been trying to figure out how to get my work to look casually elegant, and incorporate calligraphy, aging techniques, vintage photos and torn bits of lace. It is waaaay harder than it looks. But at least it is therapeutic to try. This weekend all I managed to do was prepare some backgrounds for future tags with bits of painted tyvek, old maps and dried teabags.

Right now, I'm working on music themed tags for Roses On My Table. I can't decide whether to go soft and romantic or bring out my inner rocker chick. I am also puttering with ideas for Fabulous Fakes for my Arts in the Cards ATC group.

Southern Rosebud Tree

2011-04-24T15:09:00.001-07:00

I just went on a little spring break adventure to DC with my daughter Amanda. While wandering around the city, I spotted this amazing tree, called a Southern Rosebud Tree. It had flowers growing all over the branches. Not branches with flowers on the tips like most trees, right out of the wood! Gorgeous colors. I imagine it is a rare find...will have to look up more information on it. And yes, that really is me...I usually only put up abstract paintings of myself, so now everyone can see what I really look like. Shockingly normal, right?

Spring=Mud

2011-04-17T19:28:00.001-07:00

The ee cummings poem that was our starting point for this month's Arts in the Cards ATC exchange had me baffled. I couldn't think about charming children of yesteryear shooting marbles and playing hopscotch in the sun when all around me all I could see was mud. Inside, outside, mud everywhere. So, I decided to go with the flow and let the muddy footprints on the carpet and dormant lawn and garden inspire me.

I used some paper fabric that I made from recycled, dried tea bags and coffee filters. I stamped them with handcarved floral and leaf stamps, as well as a commercial face stamp, using brown distress ink. A piece of hand-dyed green cotton that a friend in Norway made, placed at the edges reminded me of grass just beginning to grow, and I added a strip of mesh tape, painted with green Lumiere acrylic, across the middle to give the idea of a garden fence that needs a little repair after a long, cold, hard winter.

The face, while not mine, felt like me looking at a cold, wet, muddy mess and wondering where the heck the pretty spring weather that cummings referred to was.

Earth Day 2011

2011-04-11T10:39:00.000-07:00

For the LisaLisaLou ATC trade [on facebook] this month, the theme is our planet. Since April 22 is Earth Day, what better way to honor the earth than use recycled materials? The background for my cards was made from a discarded tyvek FedEx mailing envelope. I slit it open, painted the inside with Lumiere acrylic paint and heat distressed it by ironing the painted surface. It crinkled up nicely and gave an irregular bumpy surface that reminded me of a topigraphical map of the earth. I couldn't resist my inner 70s hippie, so I cut a peace sign out of a recycled coffee sleeve, threaded a strip of sewable, woven copper fabric [real copper...my only non-recycled item, leftover from a previous project] and added a strip of sheer copper ribbon and machine zig-zag stitched it all together. The symbolic wrapping of the peace sign around the painted earth is a statement on how badly the planet needs healing.

The LisaLisaLou trades, run by artist Lisa Fulmer, are open to anyone, beginners or experts. We send one card with a self-addressed stamped envelope, and get one in return. No big committment, no hassle, lots of fun.

Slicing and Dicing My Circle Quilt

2011-04-06T18:34:00.000-07:00

The circle quilt, using my original fabric (along with a few commercial prints and checks) is about half done. I haven't done the final stitching yet, but have it pinned together and am pretty happy with the results. I would like to try one on a larger scale (this has nine 4" squares) and maybe one with squares rather than circles.

The photos show my "watercolor butterfly" fabric before and after I sliced into the layers to reveal the fabric underneath, the 10 layered and reverse appliqued blocks[I made one extra just in case I needed it], and the 36 little pieces rearranged and ready to be stitched. All in all, I am pretty happy with this new technique, and relieved to find a use for my fabrics. [the fabrics are available at spoonflower.com. Just sign in, then do a search for Edzellinni to see my line]

Beryl Taylor, Spoonflower and Me

2011-04-04T19:32:00.000-07:00

I have been stalling for months, trying to think of what to do with the original fabrics that I designed for my SAQA visioning project. I was leafing through a Quilting Arts, and saw a photo of Beryl Taylor's reverse applique sampler. I found the back issue that had the directions in it and decided to give her technique a try. Many of my own fabrics were too busy to use, so I made 9 stacks of assorted 4" squares of fabric using some of my designs mixed with commercial prints, solids and checks. Tonight I experimented with stitching a few lopsided circular lines and snipping out pieces to reveal the layered fabric.

So far, so good. I like the technique: it is planned, yet unplanned. Geometric, yet random. I also like the raggedness and irregularity of the circles. I have 5 more circles to go, then I will split each one into 4 pieces and reassemble it.

Ups and Downs

2011-03-30T20:12:00.000-07:00

Today I had my heart set on seeing the red and white quilt show at the NY Armory after work. I scooted out the door at 5 sharp, having checked online for the hours of the exhibit, which was scheduled to be open until 7 pm. Well, apparently the online hours and the real hours were not the same; it closed at 5. I was allowed to peek in the door but not enter the exhibit room. It looked just like the photos I saw online, but darker. I did see a surprise exhibit: giant tulip sculptures up and down the center strip of park avenue. Here is the one right near the armory.

Organic Cave Hunters

2011-03-20T15:33:00.001-07:00

For Lisa Lisa Lou's March ATC swap on Facebook, the theme was 'organic.' That covers a lot of bases, so I couldn't decide what to do...natural fabrics? earthy colors? collect wrappers from organic food and collage them? use flowing, gentle organic shapes? paint with natural dye, like beet juice?

Finally I decided to go the earth theme, earth route: I took an old fabric design that I made years ago of cave hunters and cattle. I printed it from my computer on a homespun type ecru rough-hewn cotton [I ironed freezer paper to the back of the fabric and cut it 8.5 x 11], added hand needlefelting in earth/rust colors at the top and bottom, and a small feather. I left the side edges rough [seemed more rustic] and did the stitching by hand.

Deco Blues

2011-03-16T20:08:00.000-07:00

I made ATCs using one of the photos I snapped in the graybar building last week. I used a filter in photoshop to change the color, bumped up the contrast, and viola, an indigo deco image. I used torn strips of cotton indigo colors, arranged from light to dark, then put a little snippet of the indigo deco in the center.

Check out my group blog, artsinthecards.blogspot.com, for more indigo ATCs from a really great group of creative women.

Deco Bumblings

2011-03-14T19:12:00.000-07:00

The other day I took a wrong turn coming out of the Grand Central subway station. I ended up in the basement corridors of some nearby building. I think it was the Graybar building, but am not entirely sure. I stood mesmerized by the deco artwork, snapping photos like a tourist with my iPhone. I haven't decided how to work these designs into my own artwork, but I am sure I will.

Little Bunny Artist

2011-03-14T17:55:00.000-07:00

I cut up the needlefelting that I posted last week; here are the ATCs for my spring themed Roses on my Table groups trade. I hand blanket-stitched the edges and tacked the bunny on with tiny aqua seed beed. The center design is a vintage image...Mr. Bunny is busy painting his egg if you look closely.

Pretty Pretty Pretty

2011-03-07T20:07:00.000-08:00

Maybe its that I am anxious for spring. Maybe I'm feeling my girly side. Whatever the reason, I've been using lots of pink lately. My two latest projects are for the groups Roses On My Table. I made a pinkish hand needlefelted piece, about 9"x12", then stitched over it in springy shades of lilac, aqua, pink and lime. I later cut it up into atcs and added a small vintage illustration of a bunny painting an egg. Really cute and sweet; I embellished it with little turquoise beads and hand blanket stitched the edges.

The pink floral pieces are art tags. The theme was floral for this trade, and what could be better for a textile designer than flowers? I used some of my own fabric, New York Roses. I underprinted a floral on cardstock, then modge-podged sections of my own rose print (available at spoonflower.com under edzellinni). I accented the floral with squiggles of gold dimensional paint, punched in pink grommets, and added pink satin ribbon and fuzzy fiber. I finished it with my own hand-rolled tyvek beads. [made from used fedex envelopes]

Weekend ATC Work

2011-02-21T18:19:00.000-08:00

ATCs were on the agenda this weekend. I made three batches: first, I altered a Ralph Lauren cologne ad, along with a Marc Jacobs cologne ad, and made a dozen ATCs for my ArtsInTheCards group. Next, I made some ATCs about love for Lisa Fulmer's facebook ATC trade using coffee-dyed waxed rice paper embedded with Hawaiian floral matter [thanks Sonja]. Last, but surely not least, I made some reiki healing ATCs. I incorporated the antahkarana (probably spelling it wrong...I should know by now but still mess it up) and the healing color purple. I used 3 purple fabrics: a)a piece of soft purple corduroy from my daughter Amanda's old favorite shirt b)some purple soy batik I made a few years ago that I was saving for a special project and c)purple fabric that I printed at spoonflower as part of my Visioning project. I designed the fabric using 12 major world religious symbols in a circle around my personal symbol, a leaf, an image that I constantly doodle and shows up in much of my work.

Sweet ATC Valentine Triptych

2011-02-04T18:19:00.000-08:00

A while back I posted a photo of a Bloomingdale's Christmas catalogue that I distressed in places using NevrDull. I cut shapes out of removable floppy diskette labels and removed them after I distressed the paper...some of the shapes were hearts, and the artwork was red, orange and pink, so I decided to cut it into pieces that were ATC sized for one of my Valentine's trades. The ATCs were a little dull, so I decided to put 3 together into a triptych. That was not bad, but still dull, so I added stitching and a couple of grommets that I threaded pink satin ribbon through. Now it definitely says sweetness, love and romance to me. They are going to a small trade group, and should arrive just in time for Valentine's Day.

Sweet and Feminine ATCs

2011-01-31T18:17:00.000-08:00

I recently joined a few new ATC trade groups that are more mixed-media than fabricky, which is a direction I want to go in. I kind of walk with one leg in the painting world and one in the sewing/quilting one; I have been missing the smell and texture of paint and the feel of good paper. These ATCs might be surprising to people who are used to seeing bold, bright stuff from me, especially my self portraits. These are from my soft side.

I started with a doodle from my journal. Back in the fall there was a terrible storm in NY, and it took me about 5 hours to get [via bus] from the city to the tip of Long Island. I was in my world of iPod and journal, so it wasn't so bad [until the power ran out on my iPod!]. I did the doodle for these cards somewhere in Queens, surrounded by uprooted trees and downed power lines.

I scanned the doodle, reduced it and printed it on Japanese rag paper that I cut down to 8.5x11. I dyed the paper with coffee after printing--should have done it first since it made the ink run a little, but it added a softness so it was okay. I painted each a little differently, using watercolors, watersoluble oil pastels, touches of marker and edged it with pink acrylic.

Mad White Dog Blogs!

2011-01-23T19:29:00.000-08:00

Please visit my new favorite blogsite, madwhitedog.blogspot.com to read all about the crazy adventures of Coconut J. Wyatt. He doesn't really quilt, can't be trusted with a pair of scissors or with glue, but he sure can write.

Hearts in Space

2011-01-17T20:38:00.001-08:00

I can't stop playing with NevrDull. This time I took a National Geographic photo of outer space that had red tones, and cut some heart shapes from old removable floppy diskette labels. I had visions of doing something Valentine's-ish with it, but am not sure whether to chop it up for ATCs or reprint the scanned art and work from that. Or maybe I should make it into a giant card for my husband...but then, he would probably think it smells funny, which it does. Seems the best art supplies have the worst fumes.

Thinking Small in 2011

2011-01-09T15:26:00.000-08:00

For 2011 I decided to embrace my love of small works. Not everyone is meant to do huge murals and giant artquilts that take up a whole wall. And I certainly don't have the time or patience for that anyway. So, I am going forward with my ATC addiction and will maybe do some small art quilts and even look for shows and/or galleries that specialize in small work. And of course keep up with my art-o-mat work.

At the end of 2010 I got some new thermofax screens from Lynn K. aka Fibraartysta. I had an ATC group challenge that involved felt and gold paint, so I printed them of several shades of felt and also on some purple crushed velvet. These are the early results. The multicolored ATCs are from some painting on fabric that I did with markers and alcohol, and for another ATC challenge involving markers and cotton.

Country French Trash

2010-12-26T10:24:00.000-08:00

Country French Trash...now doesn't that sound like an oxymoron? Well, I had a catalogue from Pottery Barn that I had been saving for a while. It was full of a line of Pierre Deux-inspired country french prints on towels, sheets, beach umbrellas and bedspreads. I am crazy about that particular style of fabric design, so I saved the catalogue.

When I was cleaning, I discovered the catalogue that I had squirreled away a few summers ago, and decided to take the prettiest items and cut them into strips. I glued the strips to heavy paper. [The whole collage process was verrrry therapuetic.] It looked boring, and not at all country french any more, so I printed one of my hand-carved stamps in black on it. Still boring, so I painted gold in the middle of the flower leaves. Not so boring any more, but I added touches of green, white and gold squeeze on dimensional paint for some extra zip.

Even though I always think I am more a mixed-media artist than an art quilter, the ATCs looked naked without some stitiching, so I added some simple criss-cross lines and machine blanket stitched the edges. They remind me of poinsettas a little, but maybe that's just because I finished them Christmas eve after all the presents were wrapped.

Christmas Cleverness

2010-12-20T19:45:00.000-08:00

Feeling terribly clever tonight--I managed to make beach-inspired ornaments for my friend Jeanne who is having a mini-holiday gathering around her tree tomorrow night. She looooves the beach, so I bought some starfish from a Hamptons shop and managed to turn them into ornaments. I gently hammered a sewing machine needle through one of the five points, wiggled it around to enlarge the hole, and squished a gossamer silky wire-edged aqua ribbon through the wee hole. I tied it in a bow, nipped the ends, attached an ornament hanging gizmo, put some faux turquoise beads on the hanger, and viola, instant beach ornament. But then I had no box, no wrapping paper. I grabbed an old shoe box and covered the top of it with a sheet of heat-distressed painted tyvek. Funny, when I was a kid and throwing together homemade gifts, it was because I couldn't afford to buy them. Now handmade is in...lucky for me!

So, I don't have a photo of the ornaments and fancy box, but look what I did with the Bloomingdale's holiday catalogue I got in the mail: I cut hearts and Matisse inspired shapes out of old removable floppy disc labels, rubbed some NevrDull on the whole thing, peeled off the labels, and the look went from Christmas to Valentine's Day in a very short period of time.

Goofing Off

2010-12-13T17:51:00.001-08:00

I have been working nonstop lately, scarfing down a quick lunch while I work at my paying job, staying up late and working weekends for my husband for my non-paying job.

So, I finally have time to rest, maybe do some artwork, putter around. And how do I spend my time? Changing my facebook photo. I changed it 4 times...tried different self-portrats. And no, I am not going to use a real photo. They don't look any more like me than the self-portraits. Well, maybe a little more.

Anyway, I settled on this picture, a self portrait that I did from a photo at my niece's wedding a few years ago. I printed the photo [enlarged and kind of blurry] that my brother Kenny took and printed it on fabric, then overpainted it with water soluble oil pastels. I am wearing a black velvet coat that my mother made in the 1940s that has a really cool high collar [in the back] and my dangly old favorite fancy pearl earrings from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's gift shop.

NevrDull Moment

2010-12-03T15:03:00.000-08:00

I'm really never going to have a dull moment any more...I just discovered a new art technique (thank you, Karen Musgrave)! I took some random photos from a magazine, blocked off sections with removable floppy diskette labels [dating myself that I even have a stash of these ancient things] and rubbed them with a cleaning product called NevrDull. It removed much of the ink from the page and made it soft and magical. I peeled away the labels to reveal the untouched portions. Verrrry cool results!

Crazy?

2010-12-01T20:36:00.000-08:00

Have I gone crazy? I spent about an hour tonight hand needlefelting the beginnings of a winter coat for my dog. Well, it was my daughter's idea. After all, I spend hours needlefelting pieces for ATCs and postcards and bracelets, so she thought, in the vernacular of my mother, that it would be keeno if I did a soft, wooly felting for the skinny, badly behaved but adorable four legged member of the family. Since he is so pretty and strangers think he is a girl, I did it in earth tones with a little indigo blue thrown in...hopefully it will say: "I am a macho boy dog, and I protect my family and home; I am the official Wyatt guard dog." Of course I don't have a working scanner handy or a digital camera nearby, so you have to wait to see a picture of it. With any luck, Coco will pose wearing it. But you can see my latest self portrait sketch, me at 55, looking crazy indeed.

Tradition, for a change

2010-11-27T14:30:00.000-08:00

I have made a lot of samples of my own fabric designs and printed them through Spoonflower....the question is: what the heck should I do with them? Not enough to make something to wear, they don't work together for an art quilt. I matched them up to some solids and solidish batiks. My orange/pink/yellow paisley worked well with an orange batik, and also with a thermofax screenprint of a tulip, orange on yellow. Here are pix of my recent experiments. (color is a little off, thanks to my tempermental scanner and lack of finess in photoshop)

Typography, Calligraphy and Fonts

2010-11-20T13:46:00.000-08:00

I chose the theme of Typography for my atc group exchange this month since I love fonts, calligraphy and graphic design. I used famous signatures/symbols (John Hancock, Ben Franklin, Gandhi and Vermeer) along with part of the font from Tazo Tea. I created an aged look with watercolor in shades of ochre and brown, then added gold paint and Pearlex Powder, with a gloss finish.

Thermofax Prints and Marker Watercolor

2010-11-08T19:06:00.000-08:00

My last few art days have been experimental: testing the colors and designs on my newly arrived thermofax screens (designed by me and made by FibraArtysta at Esty)Screens worked well, any problems were due to me being sloppy and rushing or being stingy with the paint.

I plan to try printing on gingham and maybe stripes...something more interesting than white broadcloth, but they came out pretty well for a first try.

My second experiment was with Sharpie Markers directly on cotton. I drew flowers and abstract shapes, then added alcohol and let it bleed. Kind of like doing watercolor, but the bleeding takes longer. Colors dried nice and bright though, unlike watercolor which usually dries softer. And thank you to Janice Paine-Dawes who introduced me to this technique!

Painted Peltex Experiments

2010-11-02T13:46:00.000-07:00

This is a piece I have been puttering with...I finally got sick of it and decided to call it done. I painted directly on Peltex with water soluble oil pastels, a very wet and messy process that took forever to dry. I decided to enhance some of the lines with stitching, but my rotator cuff gave out, so I couldn't do the needlework I envisioned. It was drawn freehand, with no plan, just a random design that came out of my head. Pretty much typical of what I doodle, but bigger and in color. It is about 20" wide x 10" high.

About to Thermofax!

2010-10-31T11:23:00.000-07:00

I have been dying to try thermofax printing on fabric ever since I read about it a couple years ago. I bumbled onto a woman who makes and sells the screens, thanks to a facebook post by Patty VanHuis Cox. Through the Esty shops, FibraArtysta sells affordable screens and paints. I just sent a few of my designs, and can't wait to see how they print.

These are the black & white images that the screens will be created from. I ordered some bright, punchy colors to try them in.

October Puttering

2010-10-18T18:27:00.000-07:00

I have been puttering around, finishing little projects, using up scraps and basically goofing off. I made another scrappy bracelet, this time I tried a different closure...well, it was too short to use velcro, so I improvised with a colorful eyelet, a loop of round elastic thread and a vintage button. I also lined this one with purple satin. I discovered that mine itched a little, so this should cure that problem.

I have also become fascinated with manholes and utility markings in and around the city. On my block there is one that always catches my eye: a white cover with a black cross next to an orange cover. I am going to play with the design and see if I can come up with either a quilt pattern or a fabric design.

Oh, I also made some postcards out of leftover needlefelting. I put them together in a kind of Mondrian-inspired design.

Halloween ATCs

2010-09-27T07:29:00.000-07:00

I seem to be becoming addicted to hand needlefelting. I drew a complete blank on the Halloween theme for my ATC group's October exchange, so I puttered with fall-colored roving (unspun wool) until the lightbulb of inspiration went off in my brain. After sewing over the felted piece with various colors and styles of stitch, I chopped it up into little 2.5" x3.5" pieces. I found a vintage illustration and made tiny reproductions of it, which I hand-sewed to the center.

Scrappy & Tyvek Bracelets

2010-09-12T08:53:00.000-07:00

I love to putter with recycled elements. Two of my favorite therapies are making scrappy fabric from bits of leftover cloth, yarn and ribbon. Another favorite thing is making beads from old USPS and FedEx tyvek mailers. So, I put the two together for a recent art challenge and made bracelets for my Kokoma group.

I sewed a little piece of velcro onto them for the closure, edged them with a contrasting blanket stitch, and decorated with tyvek beads. The four pieces are scattered around the globe: NY (me), Greece (Jo), Hawaii (Sonja) and Texas (Kate).

A group called Threads of Sanity spun out of Art for Mail 17, then we lost members and four of us formed Kokoma. [Kokoma stands for keep on keeping on making art...after the old 60s expression keep on keeping on]. The three other Kokoma women taught me much of what I know and helped me grow tremendously as a fiber artist, and the bracelets are my way of saying thank you.

Tyvek Beaded Necklaces

2010-09-08T16:36:00.000-07:00

Last week I took a 'stay-cation' and stayed home to putter with my art supplies, sleep late and go to the beach. I finished 4 artquilts that I had started before I started my no longer 'new' job, almost two years ago.

I also finished up some jewelry I had half done. I tried to use up my abundance of tyvek beads (see my tutorial on artsinthecards.blogspot.com if you don't know how to make tyvek beads) and my odd assortment of semi-precious gem chips and mismatched silver findings.

I also discovered that I could make some really delicate necklaces with silk cord and little crystals...my husband got my daughter Amanda a gorgeous necklace for her recent birthday. (I loved it and was tempted to keep it for myself.)After inspecting it, I discovered that it was not gemstones floating on a delicate silver chain, but grey silk cording with the gems, along with tiny glass beads. So, I have been puttering and tying tiny knot after tiny knot. I think I have finally gotten the hang of it. I inherited a bunch of crystal beads from my sister in law, Carol (thanks Carol!)and didn't quite know what to do with them, but I do now.

Eye of Panic

2010-09-04T14:40:00.000-07:00

I have been working on this piece, Eye of Panic, for months, and finally finished it.

There was a steep learning curve on this one: the concept was good, and I did all the math...it should have been all square and level and even. However, fabric wiggles and moves, and rotary cutters slip, and I guess I am not as precise as I would like to be.

I had trouble getting the grommets even, and although I measured the chain link, it just didn't hang right. So...I had to put clear vinyl in between the pieces to make it hang better, which was less than a joy to sew through. And the sleeve was a challenge; I pieced fabric and vinyl for that also.

The border is made of two panic designs: the yellow one was scribbled during a big attack and I printed it on fabric later. The other was a big piece of pellon that I drew on with crayon during an attack, which, sadly, ruined my rotator cuff.

The center eye is my own eye, done from a photo and overpainted and stitched.

Tiny Dancer Fractured Photo

2010-09-04T14:30:00.001-07:00

A few years ago, I took part in a fractured photo fiber art project. My old group, Threads of Sanity (which has since disbanded) exchanged black and white pieces of photos. No one knew what each other was working on, we only got a little snippet of a photo and had to translate it into fiber any way we wanted, and add color.

I chose a photo of my daughter Amanda (who is now 22) when she, at age 3, was in a production the Nutcracker at the local Y.

I finally put the pieces together and finished the piece.

Your Work is to Discover Your Work

2010-08-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

My ATC group recently had a theme of favorite quotes. It was hard to choose my favorite quote, but finally I settled on a Buddha quote. Not that I am a Buddhist...but it spoke to me and my new-agey hippie-wannabe leanings. And it speaks of the fact that I have always loved art, but other people and things kept detouring me from that path because it wasn't a practical choice. Art is indeed the thing that makes me happiest and what I run to whenever I have a free minute, what I lie in bed thinking about at night--planning designs in my head, visualizing colors and textures and remembering the intoxicating smell of art supplies.

August: Rediscovering Journaling

2010-08-28T11:56:00.000-07:00

Somehow I got really busy and forgot about journaling...when some of my friends started talking about the journal project, where you get a moleskin journal, pick a theme, and then send the finished journal off to be part of a traveling show, it sparked my interest. No, not to be part of the project--I just couldn't part with my work, museum show or not. But I did make some new journals. Okay, I didn't really make them, I just cover the front with scrappy fabric to make them my own.

Sometimes I write, sometimes I sketch, sometimes I paint, sometimes I design. and not every day. It is a place with no rules, no pressure, no perfection.

Here's what I have been up to lately...A is for Amanda, a tribute to my daughter Amanda and her 22nd (!) birthday; D is for darvocet, which I took for really bad bursitis in my hip and got a nasty allergic reaction to; some of my latest fabric designs and the sketche I made the paisley from; pink eyes and rainbow lips, a two piece face I did one night with some leftover children's watercolors and cheap brush and a snippet of a quote idea for an ATC trade [I ended up using another quote, but I do love this one "The mind is like a drunken monkey, reeling from place to place with no rhyme or reason." Isn't that the truth?

I am having a 'stay-cation' this week, so I hope to spend the week sunning myself and doing art, possibly at the same time.

2010-08-02T18:51:00.000-07:00

I finally finished the reiki healing quilt. Took me a while to get around to edging it. I used a commercial batik that seemed to go with the fabric, and patches of my own purple soy batik in the corners. I have been using it when I meditate (well, I don't meditate often enough of course, but having the quilt on my bed inspires me to take more quiet time for myself) and used it when I gave my daughter a reiki treatment recently. I am thinking of putting a sleeve on it so it can hang on a wall, but I like being able to use it as a mini blanket, so I can't decide.

My next plan is to make a healing quilt using my own fabrics. Oh, and I have also designed some reiki healing fabric using the 12 symbols of the world's major religions. It is enroute from spoonflower, the company that prints custom fabric. I made it in purple and white, and tried to get the shade to match my posters of the reiki healing symbol.

July Fabrics

2010-08-02T18:38:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of new fabric designs I have been working on. I am not entirely happy with the purple ones...the pansy layout looks kind of stiff and is smaller than I planned, and the purple batik came out really dark...but one of my SAQA Visioning Project cohorts looooves pansies and wants to [maybe] buy some, so I guess I shouldn't be too hard on myself.

I redid the batik...lightened the color and made the repeat larger...just ordered new samples from spoonflower.com, so I'll see how it turns out.

Red ATCs

2010-07-13T17:43:00.000-07:00

These little ATCs bring out the country girl in me. Yes, occasionally I DO do cute...kind of therapeutic to work on these...tearing the reddish cotton fabrics into strips, lining them up light to dark. It was soothing and tactile to work with soft cottons, fuzzy felt and sew on little seed beads. Kind of cliche with the red heart, but hey, you can't be avant garde every minute, can you? too exhausting. sometimes you just need fiber therapy, and need to return to your roots.

Reiki & Scrappy Quilt

2010-06-27T19:01:00.000-07:00

This quilt is almost done, just needs some kind of edging. I took apart the design that is in a previous post and put in blocks of "scrappy" fabric, which I make by plopping a pile of very small leftover fabric pieces, yarn and thread onto clear, watersoluble stabilizer, making a sandwich of it, and stitching over it every which way. You wash out the stabilizer in cold water, and usually something attractive results. The quilt is made from commercial fabrics, combined with my own soy batiks, as well as the scrappy. It has the reiki healing symbol...I haven't decided if I should use it on a wall or as a small blanket or giant pillow during a reiki session. And yes, I know it is a little lopsided and my stitiching is seriously in need of help, but it is my first time trying this design...maybe I need to collaborate with someone with techincal expertise and a longarm quilting machine...and more patience than me. Any takers?

Reiki-Inspired ArtQuilts

2010-06-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

I often try to incorporate reiki healing images into my work. These pieces are unfinished. I will post the finished photos eventually. I worked with two reiki images--the Antahkarana, which is the purple cube-like symbol, which is the symbol of healing. The shade of purple is the color of healing.

The gold star shaped design is the North Pole Grid. I painted gold acrylic over a photo of the actual piece, which was placed at the North Pole by William Lee Rand. (you can read more about it at reiki.org)

The words around the gold star are the reiki prayer, that I try to start every morning and end every day with. The purple fabric is my own soy batik.

Humpty Dumpty ATC

2010-06-26T14:52:00.001-07:00

My ATC group recently had a theme of "cracked." I chose Humpty Dumpty, who was famously cracked, and worked from a vintage children's book illustration. Check out the others on artsinthecards.blogspot.com.

New Fabrics, June 2010

2010-06-07T17:26:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much time to work on my fabrics lately...May went by in a blur, with busy workdays and no time for art on my lunch hour, plus physical therapy after work for my rotator cuff. But, I did manage to work on a few new designs...all in the orange/yellow/red family for some reason.

For the Crane Dairy design, I scanned a cream...or maybe cottage cheese...bottle from my small collection of vintage bottles. (My mother's family's business many years ago). The clear bottle has an orange logo, but I flipped the darks and lights in photoshop, then step and repeated it in QuarkXpress.

The floral is my "Yellow New York Roses" that is a companion to my "Pink New York Roses" that is actually selling (!!!) on spoonflower.com. The red and orange is a blockprint I carved that I monkeyed around with in photoshop and Quark.

Painted Peltex

2010-05-18T18:58:00.000-07:00

I puttered the other day with some watersoluble oil pastels and crayola slick stix on Peltex. It worked best when the Peltex was really saturated with water. The colors stayed bright and it was fun to smudge and blend them. The end result looks kind of like wool, or needle felting. I am working on a larger piece with the same technique. Here are a couple ATCs I did, just for me...not to trade as I usually do.

Metal Madness

2010-05-08T15:27:00.000-07:00

My ATC group is doing a rust/metal theme. Here's how I made these ATCs:
1)I painted a layer of copper Lumiere acrylic paint on recycled tyvek.(I use USPS and FedEx shipping bags...the ones that are lightweight and hard to open unless you have scissors)
2)I put woven copper mesh fabric over the painted tyvek (yes, REAL copper that is woven into fabric! I got mine at Michael's Arts and Crafts)
3)I painted, freehand, swirly leaf shapes on Lutradur with gold acrylic, then burned away the unpainted area with a heat gun, which left a lacey effect on the edges
4) I layered it all together on a base of Peltex, then basted it by hand
5) I machine stitched the gold leaf with gold thread
6) I machine zigzagged the edges with copper thread and did a minimal quilt across the little pieces
7) I embellished the edges with gold dimensional fabric paint dots, which I like to think gives a metal studded effect
80 I accented the center vein of the leaf with copper dimensional fabric paint.

Just a Little Bit Warped

2010-04-23T15:36:00.000-07:00

Inspired by artist Wanda Stivison, a group of us recently exchanged "warped" ATCs. I did a warped self-portrait by taking a self-portrait that I painted a few years ago and giving it a twist filter in photoshop. The second one was a postcard sized painted piece that I did for another artist, Heather Simpson, a few years ago when she had a 'time' theme. The twisted clock hands, melty puddle and Alice in Wonderland inspired checkerboard said 'warped' to me, so I reproduced in in a few little ATCs.

Printmaking Mixed Media

2010-04-13T18:16:00.001-07:00

I've been doing a lot of printmaking lately, using them in fabric designs, and these ATCs and postcards I did a few days ago.

The blue postcard has strips of cotton, ripped to have a rustic look, and gradated. On top, I stamped one of my handcarved designs onto a coffee sleeve, and stitched it on with buttons on the corner.

The ATC was made from Yogi Tea KavaKava tea wrappers, which have a lovely shade of lavender. I collaged them together on cotton with watered down glue, stitched randomly with two shades of purple thread, and stamped over it randomly with several of my hand carved stamps.

Doodles to Fabrics

2010-03-15T17:49:00.000-07:00

I doodle constantly. I sit in business meetings, taking notes, but doodling in the margins, or on the back page. Don't get me wrong...I do my work, pay attention at the meetings, and am pretty efficient and productive. But my hands just can't stay still. I often doodle (as many people do) the same things over and over and over. If the doodles come out decent, I rip them out and tuck them into a journal. Sometimes I refer back to them, sometimes they just stay in the journal.

I took one of my leafy, amoeba, paisley doodles and decided to play around with it on my lunch hour. I had already scanned it, so I took the jpeg, opened it in Photoshop, and added color. I saved the new design, then brought it into QuarkXpress, where I flipped and repeated it and shrunk it, and then flipped and repeated the smaller design.

I ended up with a 1960s, Liberty of London-inspired paisley that would really look hot made into a shirt, and draped on the ever so handsome torso of Austin Powers. I printed the design on a t-shirt transfer sheet, ironed it to cotton, and viola!...my latest design for the fabric line I am doing as part of my SAQA Visioning Project.

Voice...SAQA Auction Donation

2010-02-23T15:38:00.000-08:00

This is my 12" x 12" donation for the SAQA 2010 fundraiser.

The background is done in acrylic paint, on the inside of a recycled tyvek mailing envelope. The center section was designed on the computer using QuarkXPress, and printed on Avery printable cotton.

The message is both personal and universal. It is about me, finding the courage to speak up and voice my opinions (though many people who know me now might not believe it, I was a verrry shy child, and I have been fighting anxiety issues and panic disorder for years).

It is also a general idea about saying what you think, using your voice to vote and work for change rather than grumble and complain about life. Additionally, it is a comment on and for women, who often smile and keep their mouth shut to keep harmony in their personal and/or professional life.

I am planning to make a series of 12" x 12" art quilts with the VOICE theme.

Up-cycling

2010-02-15T14:03:00.000-08:00

Cousin of recycling, up-cycling is taking something most people would throw away and using it again, but making something better than what it was to begin with. In that thought, I have been collecting cardboard coffee sleeves that have a cool design embossed in them, really pretty gum/candy wrappers and used coffee filters/tea bags (minus the grounds/tea).

I made some ATCs (artist trading cards, 2.5" x 3.5") this weekend out of my upcycled materials. I painted coffee filters and coffee sleeves with Lumiere acryllic paints and cut them into off-kilter strips. I did a random, abstract multicolored painting on the coffee filter, and cut it into wedges. After pieceing them together, I added little pieces of gum wrapper and stitched.

I liked the effect so much that I started cutting bigger pieces for a larger up-cycled work.

And Yet More Fabric Designs

2010-01-31T10:58:00.000-08:00

I never seem to tire of making fabric designs, and it is SOOOOO cool to get samples in the mail from Spoonflower, which, for a not so small fee, will print my designs on fabric. Usable fabric. Not rubbery heat transfer sheets, not stuff on wimpy printable cotton that has faded, dull colors. Bright, crip cloth with a soft hand that you can really use, and wash, and wear and enjoy. I am only in the design phase, but will eventually order enough of my favorites to makes some clothes, or something for my house or maybe a little doggie jacket for my maltese baby, Coco.

These are the latest samples. On the left, a design I did on paper with pencil and left over beet juice (from dinner, fresh beets!)In the middle, a patchwork from two old favorite designs that were step and repeated in photoshop and on the right, a design I did with printmaking techniques: I used a styrofoam meat tray and 'carved' a design into it with an inkless pen, then painted watersoluble pastels on top and printed on paper. The scanned design was put into a mirror repeat, which gives it a bandana effect.

January Spoonflower Samples

2010-01-10T09:11:00.000-08:00

I just got a package in the mail with more Spoonflower samples of my fabric designs for the SAQA Visioning Project. Can anyone guess my favorite color?

Happy Dancing the Embroidery Dance

2009-12-26T13:17:00.000-08:00

Santa brought me an extra sewing machine! One with a gazillion embroidery stitches. Now I have to view the video and study the manual. Very excited because I can bring my old one to ny and keep the new one in my studio. Any tips on machine embroidery are welcome since I know nothing about it.

Two feet under and shoveling fast

2009-12-20T18:42:00.001-08:00

Eastern Long Island got dumped with snow last night. Here's a few pix I snapped around the yard.

2009 Breast Cancer Strength and Memory Quilt

2009-12-09T18:59:00.001-08:00

This is the quilt I made for work as a breast cancer fundraiser during the November breast cancer awareness month. I took orders from anyone in the hospital who wanted to buy a square (well, donate $ to the American Cancer Society and get a quilt square as a bonus.) I scanned in the pretty pink floral that they were using on all their fundraising materials and used it as a backgroud on some of the squares. I ironed cotton to freezer paper, cut it to 8.5 x 11, and fed it thru the inkjet printer and, viola!, instant quilt squares. My challenge was that I could NOT sew it, I had to use wonder under and glue and a hot glue gun and some nasty glue backed felt left over from last year that someone else ordered. The carpentry shop made a nice wood and glass case for it so it won't get wrecked by time, NY soot and dirty hands. (Picture is kind of blurry because of the glass case.)

A Lot On My Mind

2009-12-02T15:39:00.000-08:00

This is a little piece I did one day when I was feeling kind of overwhelmed and pulled in 1000 directions at the same time. I called it "A Lot On My Mind" for obvious reasons. And it, for a change, is NOT a self portrait, just a generic woman of no particular age...but I AM working on a self portrait for the QA InnerAnimal Challenge. Want to guess what my inner animal is?

Mirror Image Fabric

2009-11-10T12:16:00.000-08:00

These are the samples of my own designs that I ordered from Spoonflower. I chose the mirror repeat because you don't have to fiddle with putting it in repeat and repainting the whole thing to step and repeat it. It gave the pink one a kind of William Morris effect, the abstract one a kind of psychadelic feeling and the pink roses floral a bit of a tie-dyed effect. It is soooo cool to have some yardage on my own designs instead of little swatches printed from the computer.

Art Deco

2009-11-04T13:23:00.000-08:00

I work in a hospital that was built in the 1930s.(No, I'm not a medical professional. I write and design their monthly newsletter, quarterly magazine and do any other creative things that need doing.)

The entrance is surrounded by imposing pillars with really great art deco details, so I snapped a few shots of them; I love the geometry. I tried taking some rubbings recently...I took a yard of white cotton and a black paintstik out into the parking lot/driveway/entrance on my lunch hour. I wasn't too successful..the pillars were kind of high and it was hard to get a good rubbing without a ladder, so I will try and work up a design from these photos.

Many people think the pillars are merely a bench to hang out on while they take a smoke break or wait for the shuttle bus. I felt kind of ridiculous and touristy taking my rubbings and photos but since I had on my official ID, the hospital police did't arrest me.

Spoonflower Samples

2009-11-01T07:51:00.000-08:00

Here are the samples I sent for from Spoonflower. Tried to post them on my SAQA Visioning page but as usual had technical problems. They are 8x8", washable, usable soft cotton, and I am happy with their quality.

Mandalas at Lunch

2009-10-21T16:43:00.001-07:00

My art time has shrunk since I started my new job (when is a new job no longer new? hmmmm...) so I have been sneaking in some small drawings at lunch. In my little sketchbook, I trace around a CD with pencil, and randomly draw what ever flows out. Since I mostly have on hand yellow highlighters and pencils, many of the mandalas (circular designs) are yellow. After a while I broke down and bought some markers in other colors that I tucked into my drawer. Unsurprisingly, textiley designs emerged.

The drawing process calms me down and is very meditative (check into Jung and his mandala work...very cool) so these are pretty much the opposite of what I usually do. I printed a few out on fabric, and made this triptych with woven brass and copper mesh (with an underlay of colored fabric--pink under the copper and olive under the brass.) I stitched it all to peltex so it would be firm and be able to stand.

Lately I have been so busy that I don't even have time for my full lunch hour because I am working on a "Strength and Memory" Quilt as a breast cancer fundraiser. I have taken orders for different size pieces and printed the messages out on pink or white cotton with calligraphy fonts, then fused it to some glue-backed felt (nasty stuff, but I was required to use up the supplies that were left over from last year). Unbelievably, I was forbidden to SEW it (my boss once made a quilt, so she knows how long it takes.) So, I'm almost done...just waiting for a few last minute orders from the nursing department. Then I can have my lunch hour back!

grrrr...RGB and CMYK are driving me crazy

2009-10-14T16:12:00.000-07:00

Well, hopefully this is the turning square in the colors I want. I saved it as CMYK, but it is showing up on the blog all ugly and blueish.

Spoonflower...have I died and gone to Heaven?

2009-10-14T15:54:00.000-07:00

Someone from my SAQA visioning group pointed me to Spoonflower, a site where you can send them a design and they will print your fabric. It seems a little expensive, about $18/yard, but when you consider that it costs thousands to commercially print a design, its pretty cheap.

So, now I have to decide: out of my gazillion paintings, drawings and textile designs, what do I start with? Will they put it in repeat right? so there are no "track marks" running up and down the fabric where it repeats? Can they do watercolor effects, color traps or will it be just flat color?

Well, these are a couple old designs I am toying with sending. My question is...how can they do this for only $18 a yard? What kind of equipment do they have? and where can I get some so I can do it myself?

Oh, GRRRRR, got my CMYK and RGB color mixed up. Hopefully the turning square will have the right colors now!

Random Design

2009-10-08T17:40:00.000-07:00

When I first discovered that there were markers made just for drawing directly onto fabric, I could hardly contain my excitement. I was skeptical, so I left Sam Flax, went out into the streets of NY, and purchased an "I love NY" t-shirt from a sidewalk vendor. I scooted back into Flax, and tested the markers on it.

Sure enough, it worked, with no bleeding or smearing. I spent the evening doodling on the fabric, and this design flowed out. I haven't decided what to do with it. Any suggestions? (well, I did cut a little bit off and make postcards...and one was in Cloth Paper Scissors back when I wrote my article "Painting Out the Panic"...but I still have a couple big hunks of the design left over.)

More Visioning Samples

2009-10-05T18:26:00.000-07:00

I stumbled on some old designs as I was looking for something else on my bookshelf. I was putting some recent graphic work in a binder and, while looking for more clear plastic sleeves to go in my binder, pulled out an old binder full of designs. I step and repeated this red design and printed it on fabric, which can be seen on my SAQA visioning page. Here is the original design and a possible colorway. I did them from a couple of little doodles that I scanned and arranged in a fuillard (traditional set, uniform layout, like in a man's tie) pattern.

SAQA Visioning Project

2009-09-13T14:53:00.000-07:00

I recently signed up for the SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) Visioning Project. It will be a year-long project, and each participant can set their own goal, pursue any fibery dream, big or small.

I have always wanted to have my very own fabric line, an idea that is just tooooo expensive to do on a big scale. Thanks to modern technology, I can print my own designs, directly from my computer, right onto fabric. I decided to do small pieces (about 8.5" x 11") and present them as a salesperson from a big textile manufacturer would: on headers (basically a printed cardboard piece with the company's name, logo, address, along with the pattern name/number.) I may also make a swatch book, with smaller pieces of the cloth in different colorways, like the books they have in decorating stores.

You can find out more information by going to SAQA.com. You have to be a member to sign up though, but it is only $50 per year.

These are two designs I did a while back for the Dixie "Art of the Plate" contest (which I did not win, but it was fun anyway.) I may translate them into fabric for my new line, called, unsurprisingly, Edzellinni Fabrics. Both of these designs started as doodles, which I developed into circular designs for a plate. It was fun and challenging working with a circular design, after years and years of square or rectangular formats.

Angelina Experiments

2009-09-06T11:26:00.000-07:00

Inspired by the book Angelina, Between the Sheets, I tried my hand at working with the glimmery fiber. I started by trying to emboss my hand cut stamp designs into angelina fibers. It worked, but wasn't anything that wowed me. Next I tried cutting pieces of fused Angelina sheets, and ended up creating a checkerboard effect on black felt. Instead of sewing them on, I outlined them with squeezable gold fabric paint. I had some of my hand-rolled, recycled tyvek beads hanging around, and they just matched. The piece is unfinished, and it is temporarily pinned to a background of torn tissue fabric.

Postmark d'Art: black and white

2009-09-06T11:13:00.000-07:00

After months of puttering, delays and interruptions, I finally finished my black and white postcards for my postmark d'Art group exchange. I made three styles: one with my own fabric design, done from a doodle, that was printed on cotton directly from my inkjet printer. It has a center print of one of my small, handcarved stamps, printed on cotton with black acrylic. The other two are done from expanded squares, and printed onto either Avery cotton or t-shirt transfer sheets. I kept the stitching minimal on all of them. If you look closely, one of the expanded squares has my daughter's initials (AKW) along with the number 2 for one of her birthday digits.

Exquisite Corpse Dolls

2009-08-26T17:03:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, my daughter came home from school talking about a project they had done in art class...exquisite corpse drawings. As she explained the concept, I realized that I had done it years ago. We gave it a try, folding paper up, drawing part of a body, then switching and drawing the next section to connect with the unseen portions of the other's drawing. We came up with some pretty wild stuff!

Periodically we remember the art game, and give it a try again. Over the years I have amassed quite a collection of strangely charming little creatures. I decided recently to scan some of my favorites and print them on fabric, and then I stitched the edges and stuffed them to make little dolls. Amanda likes to draw animals, so the kitty, monkey or dog faces are hers. Mine are usually humanoid but some show my fascination with space aliens. We both like bright colors, crazy boots and textured tights...I guess it is my inner 60s child coming out and Amanda's secret desire to have been born in a different era (one with better music and fashions) showing through.

It is a great art game for people of all ages and abilities...give it a try!

1960s Revisited

2009-08-17T17:18:00.000-07:00

I was pretty much a little kid in the 60s, but I still coveted the Carnaby Street fashions. This allover altered square pattern reflects my inner go-go girl.

Expanded Squares, Altered Squares

2009-08-17T16:43:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been returning to my textile design roots. I have been playing with altered squares. You take a black paper square, divide it (with a pencil) into 4 equal parts, and cut out shapes. Then you flip the cutout negative space out of the black section and glue it all on white paper so there are mirror images of the cutout.

The black and white image is my square. The turquoise one is the image reduced and stepped and repeated in photoshop. I flipped the second row 180 degrees.

Thrinchies

2009-08-05T19:05:00.000-07:00

A while back one of my art exchange groups did a valentine trade. We made a variation on inchies, which we called "thrinchies" because they were 3" x 3". Using six, I made this little quilted treasure box. My contribution, made with thin layers of torn cottons and a cut-out gold heart that I stamped on fabric (using my own hand-cut stamp) makes up the top. The left side is from Sonja in Hawaii, and has her hand-painted flowers. The right (with the heart and soul stamp) is from Kate in Texas. The sides of the thrinchies were sewn together and I added the beading. Oddly, I don't actually keep any treasures in the box...anyone have any ideas on what should go inside?

Testing, Testing 1-2-3

2009-07-30T14:55:00.000-07:00

Last night I posted a photoshopped self portrait. It should have had a lot of bright colors on a yellow background. Instead, it came up blue with muddy colors. I asked my teckie guru at work why it happened, and he said maybe I should change the colors from CMYK to RGB. Let's see if it works.

Saved by Jose, master of photoshop and all things technical in cyber-space! Here it is, my yellow self-portrait, painted without any paint, thanks to the wonders of photoshop!

Painting Without Paint

2009-07-29T19:38:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I took a course in Photoshop. Of course, I only learned about 1/10 of what I wanted, and needed, to learn. I puttered around tonight with my usual subject matter—me. Well, maybe I take after Frida; she painted herself because she was the only subject she had readily available. I guess I don't mind if I make myself weird or ugly, but other people seem to get offended if they come out odd-looking.

So, here is my non-painted self-portrait painting. Time permitting, I will print it on fabric and stitch it up and see how it looks with with some real paint splashed on top.

OMG: This is so strange, it is not what I have on my desktop. Mine has a yellow background; this is blue. The blue is yellow, the red is blue, there is no brown, no olive, purple turned to red, orange turned to purple. What is going on in cyber space?