Anticipation

With the swing of the weathervane, the recent winds have been coming from the North, which means cooler temperatures. These refreshing temperatures have fired up my energy for tackling the laundry list of ideas I have been accumulating all summer. I’ve completed a series of small works and will post them another day.

Today, however, I am very excited anticipating the International Quilt Festival in Houston next month. I have received the magic phone call telling me that Firestorm has received an award, but I won’t know the details until October 13th.

End of Summer Road Trips

Lately, I have been on the road providing lectures and workshops to quilting guilds. It’s an activity I truly enjoy because I get to connect with quilters of all age groups, level of expertise, and favored style of quiltmaking. It never fails to inspire me to associate with people who love to play with fabric to create wonderful textile art and are willing to share most everything with one another. I always learn so much from other quilters and am grateful for being able to meet each and every one.

As a reward for getting through this summer heat, I’ll jump in my car again and drive to Santa Fe for my annual renewal of creative zing that only the rarefied air of New Mexico’s capital can provide. I always find great subject matter for my quilted art, such as, Santa Fe, #304.

Garden Influences

There’s a full moon now but like the summer days it will soon begin to wane, although the high heat remains unrelenting. I don’t believe I can fault the full moon for my lack of energetic activity in my studio, but I am able to blame my inertia to the depressing heat, 101° F. today.

It doesn’t really matter for there will be a ‘dance of the moonflowers’ in my garden tonight. I noticed the two bushes are once more loaded with buds that are promising to pop open after dark to fill the air with wonderful scent. The full moon will spotlight the blooms. It’s always a fun little festival when this occurs.

I understand why this flower was among Georgia O’Keeffe’s favorites. It’s just a wild weed, but the plants provide endless pleasure and have inspired one of my favorite wall hangings.

Moonflowers at Midnight

42" × 35 " ©Carol Ann Sinnreich

Dog Days Dominate

In the last posting I wrote about the spectacular thunderstorms, which added wonderful shades of lively spring colors to the visual appeal of the prairie. It was incredibly exciting to drive over a hilltop and witness rolling greenness under a brilliant blue canopy. The open sky is what I love about this part of the USA.

In all fairness, the summer in SW Oklahoma as well as in Texas has been brutal with weeks of triple-digit temperatures and little rain. The ranchers are taking another hit with dried up pastures and low water levels in ponds for their livestock. The temperatures have forced me to hide indoors embracing the air conditioning vents and thanking Willis Carrier for being so clever. The dog days of summer trigger sympathy for the polar bears as they wait for the returning ice floes to provide relief.

During the last brutal blast of summer heat in 1998, I designed a landscape to acknowledge what was happening out there on the prairie day and night, and in church on Sunday mornings.

The scenario is repeated this year as

in Summer Prayers,

©Carol Ann Sinnreich.

Springtime on the Prairie

Recently, waves of bold thunderstorms have crossed the Oklahoma’s prairie anointing the winter parched earth with much needed rains. Unfortunately, the timing of these spring storms have been either too late for the ranchers, or in time to disturb the wheat harvesting. And yet, happily the lakes are now brimming, the waving prairie grasses are green, the brightly colored wildflowers are abundant and, for the time being, the prairie and its animals are no longer thirsting for water. All is verdant and lush, the birds are singing and new animal babies are frolicking for the fun of it. It’s a great deal more appealing than anticipating the prairie fires, which may occur in the drier months ahead.

Visually for the artist in me, this new season is a joy to witness particularly since I spent much of the late winter finishing my newest work, Firestorm. I have been focused on the power, the heat, and total devastation of a forest fire, its impact on frantic animals seeking refuge in a lake, and trying to recreate with fabric a pictorial representation of it all.

Firestorm, 51" w × 61" l

©Carol Ann Sinnreich, 2009

Backbone of My Work

I am frequently inspired by my Oklahoma environment as well as by the histories I read. Today as I walked with my dog down a dirt road around an isolated reservoir I was enchanted by the wispy white clouds in the cerulean sky, the bright sunshine, the bold breezes swirling the dried grasses and the tree thickets spouting green lace in their crowns. I love my time on the prairie because the structure of the earth is so obvious and appealing for me. My dog thinks it’s great, too.

On these walks it is not unusual to flush wildlife. Today it was a covey of quail. Yesterday it was white tail deer. Sometimes it’s a flock of wild turkeys. We’ve even caused rooting wild pigs to scatter and that was a bit exciting. I never know what I’ll see and am always delighted because these sightings enter my imagination, stay there and begin to formulate images to incorporate into my pictorials.

The one thing I can do well is draw. I believe that drawing is the backbone of good artwork. I make many sketches as I work out an idea. As I focus on the one that will produce a final composition, I will work harder on capturing the details. It’s not wasted time because these drawings familiarize me with my subject and helps me anticipate where I will have challenges when translating the composition into a fabric representation.

That deer from the other day has been added to my current work. I have a knack for being able to turn an animal around and draw it from any direction. The deer was leaping away from me, but in this piece, the doe is running at the viewer. Here is the master drawing I am using to assemble the deer.

Photo Morgue

During the development of a new design, I rely upon my drawing skills and art experiences to establish the integrity of an idea, a new design. Accuracy of details is important to me. I maintain a variety of reference materials to assist the effort: anatomy books, historical photos as well as a wealth of digital images I have taken, plus postcards, and clippings from magazines and newspapers.

Many artists keep a photo morgue, which is a collection of ephemera. My collection is carefully filed in four file boxes. My computer organizes my digital images and I do make CD copies of my photos. And lastly, books, I buy lots of reference books.

I can’t possibly have instant recall about body movement of people or animals, nor remember what period clothing looks like. I rely upon my photo morgue and other references to assist me with details. However, I do not copy directly from any source. That would be an infringement upon another person’s copyrighted creative effort. I am emphatically diligent about respecting Copyrights.