Powerful storytelling.

September 28, 2025

This will be a week for storytelling.

I experienced powerful storytelling this week, and I want to share it.

Recently when I wrote about the quilt I’m creating based on an image of my mom when she was young, standing next to her dad, and the incorporation of my Grandfather’s family home into the work, I was touched and overwhelmed at readers’ responses. Artists (and thoughtful people, generally) understand the importance of personal reflection and stories. I received some very meaningful insights.

Stories outside of ourselves are important, too. Here’s one I experienced this week in my hometown.

Standing with dozens people under a tree near Rich Avenue in downtown DeLand, a man shared something he had been doing for years. Living near that space, he walks by it regularly on his way downtown. As he nears the tree, he stops, whispering, “Lee Bailey.”

On his way home, he stops again near the tree and whispers it again, “Lee Bailey.”

This man, and most of the folks gathered, have worked for several years with the Equal Justice Initiative, the organizers of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. The goal of this local group has been to install historical markers in Volusia, my hometown county, remembering the four documented cases of lynching between 1865 and 1950. (6500 documented lynching deaths nationwide, mostly in the south.)

Right there, on that ground where we stood, one hundred thirty four years ago on September 27, 1891 a mob of some 100 angry white people pulled Lee Bailey (who had been accused of “assault” by the white wife of his employer), out of the jail and took him to a tree on Rich Avenue and tortured and hanged him then shot his body at least thirty times. These events were corroborated and reported in several newspapers at the time.

Now, on that spot, a historical marker records the event, with information about the decades of racial violence and terror that occurred in the US, including those further outside the edges of my hometown.

Why do this?

Another wonderful storyteller in the group, a beautiful and wise matriarch of the black community, explained it simply. When we remember, unafraid to look at the reality of past events, we can begin to heal. Black people are damaged by carrying secrets. White people are damaged by carrying secrets.

Speaking with as much love and insight as I have ever heard, she stated that we’re not here to dump guilt on ourselves. If one of our grand-daddies did evil, that does not mean that we are also evil. But we can face that it happened. And vow now to be different.

Here are the markers that are now in my hometown. I like to believe that knowledge of our past will become more widely known.

One side of the plaque tells the story of Lee Bailey’s murder

The second side of the plaque provides a broader historical context

I like to believe we have done one small thing for a man who did not deserve mob vengeance without having a fair trial, who did not deserve a terrible, gruesome death.

I like to believe that when my friend walks home from downtown in the evenings now, as he pauses by this tree, he might hear a word from Lee Bailey. “Thank You.”

. . . . .

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

BLOG POSTS - once a week: Mostly about what I am creating in the studio. If you would enjoy receiving blog posts by e-mail, please subscribe here: I post and send by e-mail each Sunday evening. BLOGS-BY-EMAIL

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: Mostly news of exhibits and my way of introducing new work. You’ll get FIRST LOOKS at new artwork and members-only discounts. You’ll hear from me about once a month. NEWSLETTER

Lessons from Paper Collage

September 21, 2025

This weekend I got to pull down from my shelves two framed paper pieces that I’ll be showing at a gallery in St. Augustine next month. (I’ll be a guest artist, and I had to work with my host artist to find a mix of works that look nice together and that fit in a fairly small wall space.)

Doing this reminded me of a great life truth: I love paper collages.

They are pleasurable to make and can be delightful to look at. I began creating paper collages a few years ago as simple, smaller projects in between large quilted works. Paper collages can teach good lessons.

These two, at first glance. Have a lot in common. Similar palette. Same size. Water-inspired images.

But, in putting them together, I used two quite different composition approaches. That’s what I’m thinking about this evening.

Here’s one of the works I’ll be exhibiting: And Then the Storm Was Over.

The lesson: Intentional Slicing Up a Background

I remember when I created this work that I had a lot of individual pieces I liked very much that were not very big. Dividing up the space into a grid gave me a way to use them. I wasn’t trying to disguise the slicing up. It became the organizing compositional device.

Some interesting things evolve. You can put two unlike images next to each other. You can slice up a larger image into segments so that its parts speak to one another across the grid.

Here’s a work from my website that uses a similar technique. This is Beside the Quiet Morning.

This collage does not have as many segments as And Then the Storm Was Over. But, to me, the clearly visible horizontal and vertical diving lines provide interesting contrast to all the organic elements of the work.

This is another work I’ll be showing in St. Augustine; In the Very Same Breath.

The lesson: Invading a Space – Across a Divide

The background has clearly defined sections: the sky above, the sea below. I took the big section with the circle patterns and inserted it into the sea below, crossing the horizon line and connecting the sea and the sky.

Here are a few pieces from my website that use that same compositional principle.

This is Within the Quiet Light.

It’s very similar to the first water bird collage in this blog post. But, instead of showing space between the design elements, they overlap. The printed circles in the top left invade the space of the water below. The water section overlaps and invades the space of the vertical blue section on the right.

This is Deep Convergence.

There are several space invasions. The half-circle at the top left invades the rectangle of the darker patterned fabric. The 3 aqua rectangles invade that same space from the right. And at the bottom, the olive rectangle with branches invades the space of the upside-down half-circle.

Last example: This is Trying to Fit In.

More than any of the other examples in this post, this work has one large, commanding composition element, contrasted with a number of smaller ones. And that large element, the pitcher, crosses the divide between the dark at the bottom and the space above. It invades that top portion, uniting the two sections.

As you create, it’s good to think about what design principles are at work in your artwork. If you are not a creator but love to look at artwork, seeing the design principles at work can deepen your enjoyment and appreciation

. . . . .

An invitation: Here are in-person exhibits I have coming up soon:.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Tip-Toeing on the Volcano Edge

September 14, 2025

This week I’ve painted some fabrics in simple patterns and worked at arranging them and rearranging them on a quilt-in-progress.

But I am feeling a lot going on in this project.

In addition to the patterned fabrics, I am incorporating into the surface images recreated from family scrapbooks. This will be a storytelling work, and the story is about my Mom and our family history.

Do you begin to feel bubbling underground heat, here, the feeling of powerful events buried, unseen, underneath layers of many years, but making their effect known?

That’s how family stories can be.

Just to add to the complexity, the palette for this work will be the palette of Americana – red, white and blue, with the suggestion of flag images in the composition.

So, I am treading carefully, I’m doing a lot of putting the work-in-progress up on my easel and just looking at it, allowing myself to react to how it feels.

Here are a few bits:

Living inside my head, alongside my explorations of my own family history, is the daily reality of America as it is now. My parents, I understand, were believers in the 1950’s white family American Dream. Dad came back from the war. They married. They dreamed of a family and a house and a white picket fence, and an ordered reality that reflected the patterns they had inhabited all their lives. I was born into those patterns and they are part of me.

America now is much more complicated. Daily, I think about where we are and where we might be going. It is unsettled. I feel unsettled.

This work will not solve unresolved issues in my family history and it will not cure the hurts and misdirections of our current events. But, it touches on the things I am thinking about, and – in as artful way as I am able – it will provide me a way to explore the story.

More to come .

. . . . . .

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: Mostly news of exhibits and my way of introducing new work. You’ll get FIRST LOOKS at new artwork and members-only discounts. You’ll hear from me about once a month. NEWSLETTER

Full of Life; Beautiful; Clipped

September 7, 2025

I hear fascinating conversations when I swim laps in our nearby natural spring.

People lounging in floats, or standing in groups in the waist-deep water, converse and I catch snippets each time I come near.

This week it was the grackles.

These curious birds were on the walk-in-steps, in water that was about bird-ankle deep, chattering over food scraps they’d found. Posturing and posing with one another.

I always enjoy birds, especially ones like these so full of character. Interesting leg angles. Expressive splayed toes.

Not having my camera with me while I swam, I was inspired to come home and look up images of grackles to incorporate into upcoming artwork. I love these characters, here as black and white printouts on my worktable. (I will create stencils of their shapes.)

A different kind of bird came into my thinking this week too. I attended the unveiling of the poster design for the annual Fall Festival of the Arts DeLand. This is the work of a local artist, Jorge Fernandini, who has perfected his style of watercolor over decades of interest in and devotion to nature.

I love this image. The bird and the foliage are beautifully connected to one another in a thoughtful, well-constructed composition. I’m proud to share Jorge’s work with the world.

A final thought about winged creatures. . . This one also from my hometown. I want to share it, too, but not because I am proud. I am saddened and infuriated.

For those not in Florida, you might not know that our governor, Ron DeSantis, has become enraged at colorful crosswalks in rainbow colors intended to engage the LGBTQ community. One particular crosswalk in Orlando was near the site of the terrible Pulse Nightclub Massacre in June of 2016, a killing spree that killed 49 people.

Painting himself into a corner over the decision to black over the crosswalk, the governor and the DOT are now promoting the ridiculous story (complete disproved my actual traffic data) that colorful street art endangers people and must all be painted black.

As a result, here’s what occurred in DeLand.

“A mural of the metamorphosis of a butterfly near the corner of Adelle and Beresford in Spring Hill in southwest DeLand was painted overnight Sept. 3. The crosswalk mural was approved by the Florida Department of Transportation and the City of DeLand in 2023.

The mural was created under leadership of professor Asal Johnson, who brought together members of the Volusia/Flagler Boys & Girls Club, the Dr. Joyce M. Cusack Spring Hill Resource Center, Stetson students, and muralists Kelly and Courtney Canova.

Boys & Girls Club children, mentored by Stetson students, painted the mural on April 22, Earth Day. The design was created by the Canovas and sponsored by Stetson University.”

(Photos courtesy Shilretha Dixon and Canovas Photography.
Photo and text printed the DeLand/West Volusia Beacon)

I do not have sufficient words to describe my reaction. I think of the beautiful little children, given the chance to spread their wings as young artists, only to have a politically motivated, meanspirited, unwarranted clipping of those wings. It is unconscionable. And stupid.

In spite of this. BECAUSE of this — art must go on.

. . . . . .

I look forward to upcoming in person exhibition of my work. If you ar near any of these places, I hope you will take the chance to take a look.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Storytelling Doors

August 31, 2025

These three doors tell a story.

I began the quilt, Three Yellow Doors, in January of this year. (I posted a number of blogs about the early stages in January and February.) Then I set it aside as blog subject matter because I planned to enter it in the SAQA regional exhibit, TRIO.

I submitted the quilt; it was accepted by the juror, and now I am happy to show the completed work and talk about it more.

Right from the beginning I had a strong emotional attachment to this work. (That’s part of why it took a long time, as I struggled with getting the surface to communicate the emotional content I had in mind.) Here’s how I described it in my artist statement for the TRIO exhibit:

Three Yellow Doors is a visual autobiography built in the language of memory and dream. Near the end of the sidewalk, from a safe landing place, I can reconstruct my life through dwellings: the household of my childhood, the household of my married life, the household where I am now. I have placed them in the suggestion of a fairytale forest. Early in constructing this quilt, the building renderings were significantly more realistic, as I gave attention to accuracy in perspective and proportions. Only as I began to skew those elements, also adding transparent layers to push the homes further into the background, did the story begin to feel real. My friends the birds are with me in the foreground: faithful observers and messengers.

My experience creating this work involved creating a lot of images that ended up being largely obscured in the end. The background:

The houses were built as the sum of many individual collaged pieces.

As I suggested in my statement, it just didn’t feel right. (There were actually days in this work where I didn’t like it at all.) The emotional “Aha!” occurred when I started adding more elements and textures on top of the houses I had built:

I kept adding transparent shapes. Then a whitewash over most of the buildings. Then some grid lines. Then additional trees in the foreground.

Slowly, it began to feel right.

I am so pleased to know this work will travel to museums and galleries in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina for two years in the TRIO exhibit. That’s how stories fulfill their purpose: having an audience to hear/see them and think about their meaning.

. . .

One last invitation/reminder to visit the Artburst Boutique before the work changes out later this week. My quilts and works by Jennifer Steckare on display through September 3.

Visit Artburst.com

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Sun Experiments: What Worked. What Didn’t

August 24, 2025

Last week I mentioned a learning experience with sun printing, a lesson presented in my local art group. This week I’ll describe more of what I‘m learning.

WARNING – If you are hoping for words based on expertise. . . uh oh! This will not be that kind of post. This is a new process to me, and I am muddling through, learning what’s possible and what’s not.

I think a curiosity-based approach is useful for artmaking, both in the conceptual stage and in the materials/methods stage. Start at the beginning. Give it a try. Ask some questions: (Hmmm, I wonder what would happen if . . .”) Try to take it further.

My beginning with sun printing was having no idea how the process works. I am familiar with methods of photographic printing by exposure to light; cyanotype and similar methods work because of a chemical reaction between what is put on the fabric and the UV rays of the sun. But the sun printing I am learning is different. It uses acrylic paint. This is especially interesting to me because I like using all acrylics; it allows me to explore variety in image-making without introducing new chemistry or equipment to my studio.

Through my limited hands-on experiments and a bit of research, I’ve learned that sun printing with acrylics is NOT a photographic process. It works because of the varying drying times of the exposed fabric vs the areas covered up. The exposed areas dry faster, wicking the moisture (and, with it, the pigments that are part of the liquid) away from the covered up areas.

What’s amazing to me is the edge crispness and the details possible.

Fabric Experiment #1: FISH. BEGINNING. Here was my first printed piece.

I had rolled my acrylic paint onto the muslin loose, wet and fast. I placed small card stock and paper fish on the paint and put it out to dry. On a hot Florida day in the summer it took about thirty-five minutes.

Next: FISH – ASKING QUESTIONS. When I got my sample printed piece home, I was very pleased at the clarity of the shapes. I wondered if I could make it more interesting by sun-printing a second layer. Would that work?

I mixed up some teal paint close to my original color but with a bit more yellow. (By the way: many of the artists in our group used high flow acrylics that are ultra-thin, ink-like and heavily pigmented, such as Golden Fluid Acrylics. That’s another variable to try. I’m just sticking with my regular paints.)

I realized right away that I would either have to cover up my original fish before applying the new color overprint (so they don’t disappear) or keep my overprint transparent and liquid so the original fish would still show through. I did a bit of both.

And the results: Not at all what I had hoped.

I can experiment more with varying degrees of wetness in the overpaint. But, what I see is that the wicking property of the fabric works far less well once there is already paint on the fabric.

Good news: The fabric above is now more interesting than the original, with more depth. I can print more fish or other things on top with other methods. Plus, the back of the fabric is also interesting and usable. Here’s the back:

Fabric Experiment #2: STENCILS AND GEARS. BEGINNING. Here was my first printed piece.

Again, I wondered if I could sun print another layer. I decided to try a complementary color for more punch. I rolled it on, applied some new stencils, and put it out on the sidewalk: (Below, you can see the already-printed images with the new orange overpaint and card stock stencils sitting on top.)

Results: Almost nuthin. No new images appeared.

BUT. . . I decided just to overprint with acrylic paint through the stencils to get more depth. I think this is a pretty interesting piece.

(Note: In the picture above, the C F A 5 6 7 were sun printed. All the other images are the layers I just painted on top, directly through the stencils.)

I was going to try more experiments this weekend. Alas – cloudy and rainy all-day Saturday. No new sun printing for me. I’ll have to put off more experiments for the future.

. . . . . .

A reminder invitation: Eight of my quilts, as well as a delightful assortment of animal-inspired artwork by Jennifer Steck, are available for viewing through September 3 at Artburst.com in the BOUTIQUE. I’m enjoying this chance to introduce my work to new people.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Artists Sticking Together

August 17, 2025

I’m inspired this week to write about artists supporting each other.

Saturday I attended the monthly meeting of my local arts group, ArtsEtc. Some in this group have been meeting together 20+ years. I’ve been in about twelve years.

As a group, we’ve been through ups and downs. Right now our group and our camaraderie are strong. We’ve planned programs for a year to give members the opportunity to learn from each other.

So, this morning, I experienced sun printing with acrylic paints in a lesson led by Dale. I’m hooked! Here’s just a little detail of my first attempt.

I think I’ll write more about this process next week when I’ve done some more experimenting. Easy and versatile!

We all also experimented with making clay embellishments, thanks to the expertise and kiln availability of Rheid.

How cool is that?

More artists-supporting-each-other:

Later this week, beginning Wednesday, August 20, I’ll be part of a two-person online art event in the Artburst Boutique. My work will be featured along with new work by the driving force behind Artburst Studios, artist Jennifer Steck. After working together a few times, I’m happy that Jennifer is now also my friend.

Here’s are a few samples of her work:

I love these!

And I love that an artist could have a passion and turn it into a reality. A few years ago Jennifer and a few of her artist friends were looking for good online selling opportunities and couldn’t find one that was just right, so they started their own: Artburst Studios. From the beginning it has been a project by and for artists.

Several times a year, they put together curated shows and advertise them like crazy. It’s such a good opportunity for artists. And it’s a great place for artlovers to discover new works to adopt.

This year, they’ve added the Artburst Boutique. The Boutique is smaller, limited to just a few artists at a time, whose work will be featured for two weeks. It’s not a bidding platform. Shoppers just browse and shop.

So I’m happy to share with you that Jennifer and I will be showing our work together August 20 – September 3.

If you just enjoy looking at artwork, please visit. Artburst.com

If you are a working artist and you think your art might be a good fit for this selling platform, browse the site more to get a feel for it and feel free to contact Artburst Studios to apply for future shows.

AND – just in case you like bargains – I’ll mention that the work I’m showing is a curated collection of some of my favorite storytelling quilts, all discounted from their usual website prices.

Here’s a little video with sneak peeks of our work, which will actually be LIVE at artburst.com on August 20. Enjoy.

Artists gotta stick together!

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

The Pull of Storytelling

August 10, 2025

Today my head is full of stories.

Saturday, I experienced powerful storytelling –- with words then with images –- and today I am still processing.

That’s the thing about strong stories. They stay with you.

Stories with words: Yesterday we went to the Winter Park Library (near Orlando) to see an exhibit co-sponsored with the National Holocaust Museum. It was an interesting slice of the big Holocaust story: it covered about a decade leading up to and including WWII, focusing on what Americans knew about what was happening to Jews in Europe and when they knew it. And how they felt about it. There was a great mix of text and historical documents, as well as graphs (gauging public opinion at various times.) With the full scope of the Nazi plans now part of our historical understanding, it was quite sobering to learn how strongly the sentiment was against being involved in the war. The sentiment against helping the Nazi’s victims, those who escaped and became immigrants, was equally as strong.

Lots to think about.

Stories with images: We then visited the Orlando Museum of Art to see the Florida Prize artists. All are storytellers with a strong narrative component to their work. They give voice to personal stories. Theu give voice to the stories of communities. They give voice to the earth, our environment, itself.

Lots to feel and remember.

Now, back in the studio, I am working to create a narrative work that will incorporate this image.

I confess that I am sometimes hesitant and held in place by self-doubt.

What am I thinking? How can my images of trees and houses be as important as earth-shaking world events? Who (other than me) is interested in my story or my understanding of reality?

Actually, the two experiences are not separate.

If I heighten my understanding of other people’s lives and stories, I increase my capacity to analyze, and to feel deeply as a human being. I can then also better understand and explore my personal journey.

If I deepen my understanding of my personal journey, it should deepen my ability to understand and to care about other people and circumstances.

We draw on all we know and all we learn.

But MY story is the only one I have to tell.

And I am the only one who can tell it.

Every artist has their own story and experience, and those are the ones they need to explore. And to tell through their art.

It is among the most meaningful experiences there can be.

Here’s where my thinking has taken me so far:

It’s a beginning. More to come.

. . . . . .
Coming Event: I will be showing some of my favorite storytelling works in the ArtBurst Studios Boutique August 20 – September 3. This is an online art gallery – no biddng required. It’s run by a wonderful group of dedicated artists and allows you to casually browse from your home and discover new artists. You can visit now – artburststudios.com – and see the artists currently in the Boutique. Then watch for BOBBI BAUGH and JENNIFER STECK with works to discover August 20 – September 3. Bargain Bonus: My works will be offered at LOWER prices than their usual website price. Oh boy!

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Thinking of Water

August 3, 2025

The quilt I’ve been working on this past week is a good fit with my summertime longings.

There is a section depicting a young girl, dipping her toe into water, the water functioning as a respite, or a place of dreaming.

In the I-can’t-believe-it’s-this-hot-and-we’re-still-alive days of Florida summer, by most mid-afternoons I am dreaming of water. The wonderful cool springs about ten minutes from my home beckon me for a cool swim.

Here’s a detail of the water in the quilt as it exists so far:

Both halves of this water scene are transfers of photos onto fabric. The lower section is a photo I took near the edge of a small lake nearby. It captures the quality of water to reflect light. And I love the contrast created by the bits of plant life.

The top section — bubbles, specs of light, fantasy — are also a photo transfer. But I did not photograph actual water. This is a close-up shot of the surface of one of my plywood painting boards, which had absorbed splashes and spatters and spills over time. I just love it.

Water is varied. Water is all about light.
Water is all about contrasts in lights and dark.
Water is all about movement.
Water is about unpredictability.

Just as I was about to sit down and write this weekend, I was moving a few things around in my studio. I snapped a few images of water created in other ways.

This is also a photo transfer. I remember going out in a canoe with the specific purpose of finding water patterns to photograph. I took a lot of images. Then, bringing the canoe up to the beach, in a bit of water barely six inches deep I discovered this wonderful water and threw in some pebbles to create ripples. Perfect!

It’s also an enjoyable challenge to create the sense of water without a photographic start. This is a section of a quilt I created for an above-below composition, The Ways of Sunlight. This panel depicts the sunlight and shadows below the water.

This composition was created by building up layers of stencil-painted images with acrylic paints on fabric. In this panel I see the things that interest me about water: light, contrasts, movement, variety., unpredictability.

Back to my first photo, now cropped to reveal the girl next to the water;

I hope you want to feel the water with your toes too. And to dream dreams.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Conclusions and Beginnings

July 27, 2025

When I first jumped into my current series of tree-based artworks, I had sketches and ideas of how I might use these printed pieces in different ways.

One way: Explore my interest in the tree images as tree images. Their complexity. Depicting them in layers.

Just this week I have completed the large quilt I’ve been working on and writing about recently. Here it is.

*Writing Using Very Few Words 51.5"H x 59"W* More info my website **HERE**

Now I have that nice sense of accomplishment that comes from completing a large project. And, as often happens, as I was in the finishing stages of this work, ideas for a new work began to cook. I have been inspired to begin a quilt using the trees differently.

Second Way: Explore the trees as components of storytelling works.

Here’s how some of that has progressed this week.

At the core of this storytelling work will be an image of a home remembered, layered in the printed fabric of the tree limbs. I created the house as a photo transfer, with tree limbs superimposed and made transparent. It worked. But it was not enough. I realized I’d actually have to do some manual overlapping as well.

I love the panel of trees I printed, so I was very careful before cutting it up. With paper printouts of both the house and the tree panel, I worked out exactly how to overlap them, and how to get the best use out of the tree section.

I cut the trees and the house print and arranged them left to right: strip of trees, house in the middle, another strip of trees. To attached them to each other, at this stage I just glued the edges.

Here are the three pieces on my worktable, under weights, with the glue drying. When you glue fabric, wrinkles are your enemy. I put wax paper on top of the artwork so the weights won’t stick to the quilt. For this application, I used my plastic cutting rulers to disperse the weight. Long and skinny, and just the size of the area being glued. I weighted them with jars of paint.

After about an hour, I took it apart and pulled off the wax paper.

The pieces are joined, and nice and flat. I’ll work this as a section quilting it onto a felt backing.

Here are various fabric pieces I have created (or gathered from my stash) that I think will go together well as elements in the quilt. I have them pinned up to a Styrofoam sheet on my easel.

The character in the quilt will be a young girl, viewed from above as she sits by water dangling her toes. I enlarged a reference photo, traced it onto muslin, and have begun the process of collaging this section.

Next up: I’ll be developing and deepening the depiction of the girl, and then incorporating her and all the elements into a new story.

When I create quilts inspired by memories and life experiences, the early stages are like the work I’ve done this week. I’m just beginning. I’m thinking about how to compose the picture plane, how to attach the pieces onto one another. The deeper communication between me and the characters and me and the memory will evolve as the piece progresses. There will, I hope, be much to think about.

. . . . . .

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Placing the objects. Placing the viewer.

July 20, 2025

What should go where?

Why does it matter?

I spend a lot of time in my studio working out answers to these questions. Moving things around. Considering options. And I spent time this week – in a more analytical way – thinking and talking about concepts of composition.

In a workshop I taught via zoom (THANK YOU for the invitation, Art Quilt Association of Grand Junction, CO) and in leading some exercises with my local arts group (THANK YOU for the great day we had together, Arts Etc.) Drawing on the methods I experienced in hours as a student in Art History classes, we learned by looking at the works of other artists. Some local. Some famous masters.

Some works are successful. Some are not.

A strong composition is a make-or-break component of artwork. It’s not the end in itself. It’s the major tool artists use to communicate whatever it was that inspired them to create artwork in the first place. Composition counts.

This is one of the most recognizable works in modern art:

Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World is a masterpiece for many reasons. It is beautifully rendered. It is intriguing. It has a compelling story.

Part of the emotional punch is created by the artist’s composition choices: Wyeth’s masterful use of a high horizon line to draw the viewer into the picture. There is only one place where one could be to see what we see in Christina’s World. We are down the hill, standing slightly higher than the figure, where we can look down and see the top of her head and the top of her shoulders. But we are well below the buildings, having to look up to see them at the angle they are depicted.

So, Wyeth has placed us in the scene too. That’s why it’s so compelling. We feel like we are right there.

Any time a composition depicts depth, the horizon line plays a part. It’s an element that tells the viewer where he is.

I thought this week of one of the first quilts I created that used perspective to place the viewer.

Flight of the Magical Lawnchair: I used two different perspectives in the same space in this quilt.

First is the angle used to take the photo I used as the basis for the silhouette of the two girls. (It is an old photo from my family scrapbook. The girls are myself and my sister. I am on the left.) The photographer had to be right in front of the chair, looking straight on, and crouched down slightly.

But, in the quilt composition, I have placed these girls up in the night sky, looking down at houses below as they take their imaginary, flying journey.

So . . . Where is the viewer? The viewer has to be up in the sky looking straight ahead at the girls, flying through the night with them while looking down at the houses.

The effect, I hope, is that the viewer feels drawn into this dream experience.

As you create your own works, or as you learn to deepen your appreciation of art as a viewer, pay attention to composition, especially the manipulations of depth and perspective that draw you in as part of the story.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Edging toward the finish line

July 13, 2025

The finish line is almost in sight . . . I can actually see it from here!

Here, on my worktable, is the large tree-pattern quilt I’ve been working on and writing about for a while now.

As you can see, this is an example of the artistic vision winning out over practicality. The work is finishing up at about 52” x 58” – just a tad too big to fit on my worktable. Through most of the process I was working in sections. Now that it’s constructed I just have to figure out ways to deal with it.

(I have a few plywood pieces I can slide under the cutting mat that’s on the worktable surface; they function like leaves in the dining room table for Thanksgiving when all the cousins arrive.)

This weekend I’ve been working on binding and backing.

I bind my quilt edges in different ways. Lately, I have been drawn to a simple fabric strip binding that’s sewn on right sides together and turned so it is visible about ¼” on the front. I like the architecture this provides.

While it serves a finishing function, I want it to be part of the visual communication of the quilt too.

In most compositions, there will be an entry way into the image, some point where the viewer’s eye begins its journey through the work. In this quilt, I’ve added a single splash of burnt orange on the left edge to do that. The orange section leads to an energetic patch of bubbly circles.

I would not want the binding edge there to be a dark blue or teal to match the rest of the quilt. It would chop into the entry of the burnt orange. So, I pieced the binding strip with a section of burnt orange. This will allow that little splash of color to go off the edge without interruption. I change the color of the binding as it butts up next to different colors in the quilt.

Here’s a look at the right side. I’ve used a lighter ochre spattered with dark blue. (I painted this to match the background of the tree section it’s next to.) The dark teal binding on the left will merge into this lighter binding about halfway around the quilt.

I use these small touches to contribute to a progression from deeper to more light-filled printed sections as the viewer’s eye progresses through the quilt.

Also shown above is the quilt being weighted down for the glue on the back side to dry without buckling the quilt. (Acrylic glue is how I attach the felt backing to the finished quilt.)

And now for a scene never-before-revealed-on-my-blog: Here’s my scenic laundry room and ironing board. It’s right next to my studio.

I’m pressing the binding in place after stitching it on. What I wanted share about this is a bit of insight into pressing fabric that’s been painted with acrylics. No problem. Works fine. Just be sure to use a Teflon pressing sheet so the paint doesn’t stick to your iron.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

July 4 Reflections

July 6, 2025

The neighborhood of my early childhood, which I honored with Every One Has a Different Story , was one characterized by an innocence of things outside the neighborhood. Every family had their own stories, some harder than others.

On the evening of July 4, as we sat on our front porch in the dark listening to the sounds of fireworks and watching them decorate the sky, I thought of that time and that kind of neighborhood. The neighborhood where I live now is not a rowhouse neighborhood like the one in which I was a child. But it has a similar simplicity. It’s not fancy. There are families of all kinds.

And our neighborhood has families who enjoy the all-American pastime of setting off fireworks on the fourth of July. There is an innocence to this. (Despite the inevitable accident to someone who handles the explosives wrong, and the terror inflicted on pets and birds.)

Boom!

As I sat in the dark, enjoying the light show, I could not keep from thinking about the other things I had witnessed this week that could not in any way be described as innocent.

In the children’s section of our local library, I meet with a young woman who I am working with through our local adult literacy program. While we are there, the librarians have cartons of milk and fruit and some packaged baked snacks for kids who show up — part of our County’s program to provide breakfasts for children when school is not in session. The librarians do this with cheerful kindness, making it a nice experience for the families.

When I asked a librarian about the funding for this program, she said it’s through the County, backed by USDA money. The very kind of programs just slashed in the tax bill that our elected leaders just passed.

Boom

And I talked to my adult student, who is an American citizen married to an American citizen, both Hispanic, about needing to carry her birth certificate with her at all times, fearful of raids that are now increasing in Central Florida.

Boom.

Am I paranoid? I don’t think so.

The new law will pour $170.7 billion into immigration enforcement—more than the military budgets of all but fifteen countries. The law provides $51.6 billion to build a wall on the border, more than three times what Trump spent on the wall in his first term. It provides $45 billion for detention facilities for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an increase of 265% in ICE’s annual detention budget. It provides $29.9 billion for ICE enforcement, a threefold increase in ICE’s annual budget.

According to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council, the law gives ICE more funding than the Federal Bureau of Investigations; Drug Enforcement Administration; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; U.S. Marshals Service; and Bureau of Prisons combined. In fact, Reichlin-Melnick told Democracy Now!, the law will make ICE the largest federal law enforcement agency “in the history of the nation.” (Italicized text copied from July 6 report from Heather Cox Richardson, American historian)

Boom

In Florida, our governor is bragging about our new detention center in the Everglade, which they have laughingly called Alligator Alcatraz, as if the cute alliteration can disguise that it is a state-funded internment Camp. This week it received its first 500 detainee. Who are they? Brought there on what charges? Those facts so far are not forthcoming. Also still hidden are facts behind the funding and state contracting of this huge facility created start-to-finish in eight weeks.

Boom

So. Why write about this in my art blog?

First, I just need to share that I’ve been having a hard time lately feeling spontaneous and creative. I am working in my studio largely as an act of will. It’s like pushing through a dark cloud.

And because artists, I believe, have the ability to help people see things they otherwise would not see. Art can make people think about things they otherwise not think about. To feel things they otherwise would not feel.

We each choose our subject matter. But we should not forget how important this job is. Even now. Especially now.

I send my best wishes to all.

And one final thought… While I work at being understanding, compassionate, striving toward the good and thoughtful. . . sometimes I just GET ANGRY! This is a quilt that allowed me to do that: “Interchangeable.”

Moving in Circles

June 29, 2025

I found myself thinking about circles this week.

I hadn’t planned on using circles in the large tree-based quilt I’m working on now. But, as I put together panels of intricate limb shapes, with a LOT of pattern, I just felt the need for a resting place from all that activity. Circles do just that.

And these are big circles. I created them informally with a little loose randomness by pouring the paint.

While that paint was drying I took a look at some of my smaller collaged works to get some insight into circles. (This is one of the many things I enjoy about creating the small collages, alongside larger quilts. They are a chance to work out patterns and ideas.)

Circles work well together. In Beside the Quiet Morning, the pattern begins with the circular pattern in the photo of water. I picked that up with the large circle top left, printed as a relief print. (I think I used a wooden embroidery hoop for that print image.) Then, the few smaller circles are like bits of light energy. I enjoy having them just pop up here and there in a work.

In Taking a Deep Breath I’ve mixed up sizes again. And in this composition the large circle plays a connecting function. Imagine this same work without the large transparent circle. It’s just disjointed parts. But the circle works to hold the parts together. Circles are natural connectors.

In The Pull of Water, the circles are not linear but solid. Circular solids are very pleasing shapes to me. They connote lots of natural elements. The earth. A water drop. The moon. A moon reflected. I enjoyed slicing the circle shapes and interspersing other patterns into them.

While I’ve been writing, the paint has dried. Here’s part of the poured paint panel with stitching:

May you find ways of holding things together and creating shapes and images that please you.

. . . . . .

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Conversations between paper and fabric

June 22, 2025

Fun experiments this week with paper and fabric.

I’ll get there in a few paragraphs. But, first, a few morning thoughts

I frequently write my blog earlier in the week, maybe Friday evening or Saturday. This week I am writing on Sunday morning. I am still in morning mode.

I’m an early riser. Generally I am on our front porch for coffee and poetry reading by about seven am. This morning I spent time just soaking it in. The sun coming through the leaves of the shrubs. The birdsong. The neighborhood quiet. Our hibiscus opening to the day. It is good.

And it is essential. If you are an artmaker, you absolutely must allow some time for yourself. Alone. To observe. To restore. Even if the time alone takes you inward to difficult decisions and memories. You have to have time alone to process life. There’s no making art without this time.

AND – yesterday I spent the morning with my local artmaking group, Arts Etc. The camaraderie, learning from each other and mutual encouragement in a group like this is irreplaceable. Also essential. However or wherever you do it, if you are an artmaker find a group – a tribe. It also feeds what you need to create.

Now to some paper and fabric thoughts:

Our program leader demo’d a number of different kinds of paper, not-paper, synthetic and other fibrous materials. It was interesting to see the array of materials available. Being a simple soul, I brought just my scrap box (A large, flat plastic storage box with a lid) of printed rice paper and tissue paper and did some collaging after the demo.

Some basic guidelines: If you are going to collage paper to fabric, it will be most successful if the papers are thin and the fabric is somewhat heavier. I always begin by taping or pinning my substrate fabric to a rigid board of some sort. (This piece is about 10”H x 28”W) Here I used styrofoam because it’s light and was easy to transport to the meeting. In my studio, I generally use a plywood board. (Covered in vinyl so I don’t glue the collage to the plywood.)

Tape down the substrate. Using a big brush, slather on a good coat of matte medium. Place your papers into the medium. Press in place with the brush or a brayer. It’s fine if medium squooshes out the sides of the papers – that means you are getting a good contact. Layer some more. Slather on more medium. Brush over the whole thing.

The medium is accomplishing two things: First, it is a good glue. Second, it is an archival painting material. By getting a good coat of matte medium under, over, and seeped down into the paper, you are encasing it in a material that will overcome the inherent fragility and instability of paper. Don’t be afraid. It will dry. And it will dry clear. You will be able to cut your paper-fabric pieces to sewable pieces and stitch through them.

Here’s a larger section I collaged. (This is about 24”H x 30”W)

And a close-up

I snapped a photo of a work-in-progress in my studio that also incorporates paper with fabric so you can envision how you might use paper-fabric pieces.

This kind of work encourages experimenting and quick response. And uses up your accumulation of printed paper scraps! Enjoy the process.

. . . . . .

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

BLOG POSTS - once a week: Mostly about what I am creating in the studio. If you would enjoy receiving blog posts by e-mail, please subscribe here: I post and send by e-mail each Sunday evening. BLOGS-BY-EMAIL

A learning and wondering smorgasbord

June 15, 2025

Lots of little things going on this week.

FIRST – FOLLOW-UP LEARNING ABOUT STENCILS

I had a number of interesting and helpful responses to my discussion last week about cutting plastic stencils. Thank you readers who sent ideas.

Material: The most preferred material seems to be mylar. (I have learned Mylar is a brand name of material made by DuPont. The generic name is polyester film.) There are lots of options on Amazon; search “Mylar sheets.”

You can also look for brand name Duralar film, which I found on Jerry’s Artarama in a roll 20” x 25ft for about $25. It’s .005” thick.

(Thickness notes: A normal bumper sticker that you would buy to put on your car is .002” - .003” thick. So this film would be just a little thicker than that. You don’t want anything thicker than .005”. Too hard to cut.)

Cutter: When I cut my big tree stencil, I used a box cutter like this:

It’s a great tool. Nice heavy handle to lean into. The razor blades that you insert just break off when you need to change to a new blade for sharpness. (Some people just push the blade onto a table surface till it breaks off. This terrifies me. I snap off the blade with pliers.)

And now some wondering: I am still in the middle of my project of printing panels with the tree limb images. I like the images a lot, but I admit I am now quite flummoxed.

The photo above is a tree limb panel and some accompanying fabric I laid out on my worktable to try out some combinations. (This whole unit of fabrics is abut 36” x 36”.) I can see possibilities for an attractive composition.

But—what is this about? Why does this interest me? To be wondering this at this stage of the game is backwards for me. I almost always start with a plan, then create the fabrics to fulfill that plan. Here, I have created panels I think are interesting and going backwards to find a compelling purpose. This is much harder!

I think I need to go back to my original interest – these limbs being part of the complex pattern of a single tree. Now I have reproduced them. But what am I trying to communicate?

More about communication. . . I have been thinking and wondering more about communication in another context this week.

I was thrilled to join in the “No Kings” protests on the streets of DeLand Saturday morning. My little ol’ town had about 1500 people communicating a wide range of ideas in their protests. Some signs were about science. Some signs were about fascism. Some signs were about climate change. Some about vaccines and health. Some were hopeful – expressing a longing for democracy that seems to be slipping away. Many expressed love for America.

And, yes, some were angry. A few signs read F---K Trump. I get it. People are angry.

But, I noticed that on the opposing team, the few large, loud pickup trucks that moved back and forth waving Trump signs, listening to what they yelled, there was only a single message: obstinate anger. The words they yelled were only ugly and angry. It seemed to me they just didn’t have much else to say. There was no offer of a compelling counter-vision of what good or important things they stand for. They just angrily defended their guy.

I’m still processing what all this means. But, at first thought, it seems to me that truth is often complicated, rich and varied. Communicating worthy ideas will not be simple or formulaic.

In art as in life.

. . . .

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Adding a Layer – In reverse

June 8, 2025

As I’ve been surrounding myself with tree limb images in the studio, I’ve spent time looking at them. I’m enjoying the project and the experiments and like a lot of results.

Just as a reminder of how I’ve been proceeding, here’s a snapshot:

I invested time last month drawing and cutting a large cardstock stencil. I’ve printed several variations in different palettes.

What I realized this week, as I looked at the section shown above, is that I wanted some of these to have one or maybe two more layers.

What I want is a layer of dark trees in the foreground of the green-and-yellow-pattern. How to do this?

Option 1 – cut a stencil that’s the opposite, where the tree shapes are the open areas. Then when I print it, I’d be printing the final shape I want to see. I’ve done this many times before with other patterns. But the complexity of these limbs really makes them unsuitable for a stencil with a lot of little bridge pieces holding together floating parts.

Option 2: Use the existing stencil but use it to print a resist material like wheat paste. That way, I’ll be covering up the background and revealing the trees, ready for dark foreground painting. Great idea.

BUT – I created my stencil from card stock. Under its normal use for rolling on acrylic paint, it will hold up well for a long time. But wheat paste has to be washed off the stencil after printing. (Imagine pancake batter never washed off. It would just get gross.) I can’t hose off a card stock stencil. It would fall apart.

So this week I committed to cutting acompletely new limb stencil, identical to the first one, but made out of plastic. It took a few hours to trace it and cut it, but it will be a good time investment. Now I can create all kinds of layers. Here’s my new plastic stencil ready to lay down on the fabric:

Keep focused on the end product: printing dark trees in the foreground of a previously printed forest. (Printing resists involves multiple steps, so it’s easy to get lost. The end goal is important.)

Step 1: Putting down the resist. Here’s the new stencil getting put to use:

Above: I mixed up the wheat paste (flour + water) and poured it into a disposable tray; then I used a foam roller to spread the paste over the whole stencil.

After the whole piece was covered with wheat paste, while it was still wet, I pulled off the stencil, revealing the pattern.

I left it to dry on my worktable overnight.

Step 2: Overpainting Remember: the paste resist is covering up the background. So, I’ll now be painting the actual tree shapes.

Above center is the painted fabric outside drying in the sun.

Step 3: Take off the resist After the acrylic paint dried, I dunked the whole fabric piece in a bucket of water and went inside for a nap. When I came out, the wheat paste had softened up and I scraped it off with a spoon to get rid of most of it. (At this point it’s gloppy and messy.) Then I finished cleaning the fabric outdoors with the garden hose.

Step 4: Look at that! Here’s the result:

Things you might wonder:

Why cut the plastic stencil by hand? Couldn’t I use a Cricut (or similar) cutter or send it out for laser cutting. I could. But I actually like the tactile involvement this provides as I interact with the pattern. Further, this is also a pretty big stencil, possibly too big for higher-tech cutting methods.

Why not just paint the trees by hand, instead of creating a stencil? Two reasons. First, Painting on fabric with a brush does not yield the same appearance as rolling with a foam roller. Second, every time I wanted to use this pattern again, I’d have to draw it and paint it again. Now, I’ve invested in a stencil that will allow me to create the image quickly each time I want it.

What kind of plastic did I use? I’d be happy to share if I knew the answer. In my professional career years ago I worked in a printing company that produced nameplate products, and this was a sheet of material we used in the plant. It’s about .003 - .005” thick and not brittle. It may be Lexan. It is possible that something similar would be available by the sheet at home supply stores, but I don’t know what to recommend. If any readers use a similar plastic available in big sheets or rolls and want to share its name and source, I’ll be happy to tell readers next week.

. . .

For readers near Central Florida: I invite you to the opening of the Exhibit for 22 DeLand-area artists whose work was featured in the 2025 DeLand Area Off the Beaten Path Studio Tour. Information below. I’m proud to have two quilts included in the exhibit, which runs through July 5.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

NEWSLETTER – about once a month: Mostly news of exhibits and my way of introducing new work. You’ll get FIRST LOOKS at new artwork and members-only discounts.You’ll hear from me about once a month. NEWSLETTER

Possibilities Unfolding

June 1, 2025

Full studio syndrome. This week I have a lot going on.

No things finished. Lots of things cooking.

Lots of things interesting me. Here’s what I have hanging on my easel:

Tree limb variations. Light on dark, dark on light. Varied palettes.

Last week I wrote about one of the experiments I thought I really did not like. That must have kicked off a competitive spirit in me, because I decided I really wanted to make it into something I do like.

And I’ve been working on it this week. In parts, on my worktable, almost there:

I started with one of the PhotoShop mockups I shared last week, the one I felt was most successful.

What I discovered is that these very hot, intense sections needed some places of rest and calm beside them. And, as I put it together, some things evolved. I changed the top right to red. The sections that were just a solid color, I added some pattern, though I kept it subtle.

I’m pleased with where it’s headed Still to do: playing with some transparent squares to create more depth and a sense of looking through a layer. And, of course, I need to do the binding and finishing.

. . . .

Meanwhile, I am looking forward to an exhibiting opportunity here in DeLand. For those readers who live in or near DeLand, hope you will be able to see this exhibit.

I delivered my selected pieces today.

The Hand Art Museum is on the campus of Stetson University, my alma mater. This beautiful space will be exhibiting works juried from DeLand-area artists who were part of the 2025 Studio Tour.

. . .

Last week I shared some thoughts from my heart, sharing my despair and anger about the US government’s current direction. I was overwhelmed by responses from readers of like mind. Thank you for your encouragement. Thank you for taking time to write to me. Let us continue to stick together and to fight, each in our own ways and with our own abilities.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Seeing Possibilities

May 25, 2025

I’ve been experimenting this week with seeing possibilities. It involves a painted fabric panel I created that I really don’t like very much.

This is part of my on-going project, which will probably stretch through the summer, of working out possibilities and variations using patterns of tree limbs.

A few weeks ago I painted a batch of fabrics. I like these colors and I like them together. Now I’m experimenting.

One of the basic questions about the patterns I’m developing: Do they work better light-on-dark or dark-on-light? I’m doing some of each.

Here’s a panel I created this week using light-on-dark, and next to it a contrasting pattern.

How do I feel about this?

I like the section at the bottom created in yellow-ochre and black.

I think the limbs of the top section work, in the sense that they show up against the dark background and I can tell what they are. (This was not the case at first. I had such strong color patterns in the limbs that the eye just couldn’t make out the tree limbs.) I cured that issue with a wash of burnt sienna inside the limbs, and a little watercolor wash shading on the limb edges.

But this palette just does not appeal to me. It’s too hot.

To see if there might be life in this project, I decided to play with it in PhotoShop: to cut it up and mix it with other things. (Note to artmakers without graphics software or know-how: you can do this exact same process by printing out a picture of your fabric, then cutting out squares and rectangles of construction paper or fabric and moving them all around. It works just fine as a way to experiment.)

I enjoyed creating some larger compositions using what I made:

The new blocks I added to my painted panel could be solids, or they could be subtle patterns that function as solids. And stitched patterns might go through these new blocks to connect them with the patterns in the painted panel.

If you create something that just doesn’t appeal to you, don’t give up. You may end up chucking it. Or you may be able to use it as a jumping off point for something completely unexpected.

Lots of possibilities.

….

I am going to digress from artmaking for a bit now. Forgive me. I have been grieving this week and have thoughts I just need to share.

From my heart this Memorial Day weekend:

Tomorrow is the day set aside to remember American soldiers who have died in war. As I deal with feeling both despondent and angry about the current US President, I find myself becoming increasingly patriotic. It takes the form of longing for, and mourning the loss of, ideals I have always believed to be the foundation of my country.

And then this week the loss became personal. In the kindergarten class where I volunteer, I was told one of the students would not be back to finish the school year. He is a sweet, hard-working boy. He writes his letters beautifully. He loves to draw. Though he speaks very little English, he has learned almost all of the eighty sight words kindergarteners are supposed to learn by year’s end.

He is gone because his family is afraid. They were afraid to show up at school anymore to bring him, fearing deportation. They told my classroom teacher they were leaving the state. They would not say more. They are living in fear. And this sweet, wonderful boy whom I have hugged and laughed with is who-knows-where, living in fear.

There is no possible vision of our country that makes us better by doing this. This is not what soldiers have died to protect.

It’s going to get worse. In the budget bill passed by Congress this week:

“The measure roughly doubles the current annual budgets of Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in what Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council notes is “the single biggest increase in funding to immigration enforcement in the history of the United States.” It increases ICE’s detention budget from $3.4 billion a year to $45 billion through September 2029, a staggering 365% increase on an annual basis that would permit ICE to detain at least 100,000 people at a time.

It increases ICE’s budget for transportation and removal operations by 500%, from the current $721 million to $14.4 billion. It also calls for $46.5 billion for construction of barriers at the border, including completing 701 miles of wall, 900 miles of river barriers, and 629 miles of secondary barriers, and replacement of 141 miles of vehicle and pedestrian barriers.” It calls for $45 billion for adult and family detention, enough to detain at least 100,000 people at a time.”

It is tempting to hide in my studio. While that helps me to stay sane, it won’t help my little kindergarten friend.

Thank you for listening.

(quoted text is from the May 23 “letters from an American” by historian Heather Cox Richardson. Her daily emails are carefully documented, footnoted to her primary sources of information and data.)

Pattern Practicing

May 18, 2025

This turned out to be a week with some time dedicated to practicing pattern creation.

We drove home from our time in Greenville, SC on Thursday and Friday I was still feeling a bit zombie-like. But I had promised to lead an exercise in pattern printing for my local art group on Saturday. This easy exercise was just the right amount of not-too-hard to get my brain back in gear.

I tricked the group a bit by calling the exercise “almost-Escher” patterns. Escher’s works are now widely known and admired, especially his intriguing patterns in which one shape morphs into another.

*Sky and Water I* woodcut 1938 M.C.Escher

We did not plan to tackle anything near that complexity. But a useable take-away from his patterns is the creation of all-over shapes that tuck into one another neatly. There are lots of design possibilities.

I prepped some samples in which the shape was symmetrical about a center axis and characterized by a thin-to-wide-back-to-thin shape. Think leaf forms. Or fish. Or stylized stalks of grass.

And I wanted our group to experiment with two printing methods: 1. A simple relief print (stamp) cut from a styrofoam tray and 2. Stencil printing using a see-through vinyl .

Here is my set-up for the stamps.

I find it helpful to add a block or something to hold onto when stamping with thin material. I tried gel super glue, but it only stuck minimally. (Styrofoam is very tricky to glue. Some glues eat right through it. And I needed something to set up on the spot so we could adhere backs right after creating the stamp.) I ended up using double-faced tape, which worked pretty well.

I made a few sample prints to test the cut-outs. The Styrofoam yields a slightly spongey texture, which I found interesting.

For the second print test I lightly brushed paint through my vinyl stencil. (In the photo below, the orange leaf just to the left of the vinyl cut-out is the one I printed this way.) Clear material for a stencil is great because you can see through it and place the printing spot visually.

After our time together Saturday, I realized a slightly more rigid vinyl material would have been better. A clear shower curtain liner would work. Or a rigid plastic piece like the top of a take-out salad tray. (This, though, is harder to cut.)

Here are some of my practice pieces from the afternoon’s session.

In the samples above, each image is created by a single stencil. I picked it up and moved it to the next spot to make the second image, and so forth to fill the space. The clear material allowed for easy visual placement.

A day of practice and thinking about pattern seems to be just what my brain needed to re-focus. This week I’ll be back to working on the next phase of my tree limb experiments. Stay tuned!

. . . .

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

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