Sketchbook Lessons

February 11, 2024

I spent some time this week looking through several years of sketchbooks. I was just looking for inspiration for compositions and reviewing ideas I have worked through over the years.

I am so very glad I keep records of sketches and ideas in these books.

I know that everybody does not have a sketchbook or journal practice, and I know that those who do use them in very different ways. For me, my sketchbooks are quick references of what I’ve been thinking about creating.

What interested me as a discovery this week was about the actual process of coming up with complete compositions to fill a picture plane through fast, loose sketches.

Sometimes, thinking about compositions can start from the outside edge and work in. It’s more methodical. If you want to make a square artwork, draw a square. Then draw the shape or thing you want to depict and place it someplace in the square. Try making it larger or smaller; move it around in the square.

This works. I’ve done this lots of times. It’s a way to explore.

But that’s not what I discovered this week. Instead, I rediscovered the process of starting from the inside – with the shape or thing — and then just loosely adding to it to see where it goes.

I had a few pages of sketches I did in a coffee shop, depicting the simple objects on the table, to show the process.

Here’s a salt shaker and a glass:

Not interesting yet, but a start. Maybe they need some friends:

Now I have four shapes in my picture plane. This is the point that I think is often challenging for artmakers. How do I make them relate to each other? How do I make the whole thing a unified composition, not just random things. For that, I played quickly with some connecting shapes:

Even as a loose rendering, I can already see how this might make an interesting large artwork. I’ve begun to look for variations in shape as well as variations in light and dark.

Here’s another one that was fun. Beginning with a single loosely drawn coffee cup:

Again, I’ve added some friends. (These were not really on the table. At this point I was making up characters.)

I liked the playful feel of this, and decided to experiment with additions of silverware, in addition to connecting linear and shape elements:

I can envision this as a large work, with lots of possibilities for how to depict these simple elements.

A few learning takeaways:

Simple subject matter can make great art. I’m not all that interested in cups and salt shakers. But, used creatively, I think they could be great subjects for artwork. So could a stick. Or a table. Or a shoe. Or some bugs. Or circles and rectangles. Sometimes artmakers get the visual-artist version of writer’s block, seeking for fascinating subject matter. It’s probably more important to find subject matter that you like, then make it interesting through composition and how it’s created.

The value of a skeleton. I do understand that different artists go about creating work in different ways. But, for me, even a loose framework or skeleton sketched out to begin is invaluable to give a piece direction.

Save your ideas! I like bound books. Maybe you prefer scraps of paper tossed into a shoebox. OK. Just save them somewhere, somehow. Words, sketches, photos, digital mockups. Hold on to them and review them now and then. There are probably some great ideas in there.

. . . .

Follow-up from last week’s blog: I was writing last week about color, and about some fabrics I had created for a quilt I was re-working. I got it finished. Here it is:

This is “Remembering The Way II.” If you’d like to see more about it, please visit the work on my website HERE.

. . . . . .

Countdown continues: The DeLand-Area Studio Tour is March 2-3. You are cordially invited to visit my studio. Please visit the tour website or contact me if you need information.

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

Theme and Variation – Color

February 4, 2024

A studio project this week has involved re-working a medium sized quilt I made about a year ago.

There is a lot in it I like.

And a lot that disappointed me.

Time for re-do and a new life!

In the process, I needed to mix up some new colors to make fabric to go with what I had created before. It did not need to match identically, but I wanted the new stuff to be compatible.

This is when I am grateful that I work with a limited palette of base colors, and that I have learned what color mixes I like.

This week’s project took me into the realm of tealish-blues.

So. We need to begin by talking about brown. Brown is a great mixing color. It can magically transform a plain old boring out-of-the-jar color into one with a little more interest. One of my favorites is Cerulean ( a basic lovely but not-very-interesting blue) mixed with Raw Umber.

This is my set-up. A few disposable mixing trays. (Which I actually use multiple times before discarding.) My paints. Some water. A mixing brush. And a sponge for applying.

Cerulean Blue + Raw Umber I am calling the base color. (Even these two colors alone mixed in varying percentages yield a nice family of hues.) But my goal was to create the base color teal-blue, then use it to create two variations: base color + yellow for greenish and base-color + white for a lighter teal blue.

Here are the two pieces I painted.

I applied the color with a wet sponge dipped into the mixed color and painted loose and fast. It’s not absolutely constant across the yard or so of fabric I created. I’m fine with that for this application. But, If you want a good solid with no variation, painting with a brush or a foam roller and controlling the percentage of water-to-paint by more thorough mixing before application would help accomplish that.

In the quilt re-do project, the colors I painted were mixed in with some of the original colors from the first version, and also overprinted with new patterns. Here’s a look at a detail of the work-in-progress.

I’m not done . . . but I’m happy with the color conversations that are developing.

. . . . . . . .

STUDIO TOUR COUNTDOWN: 4 WEEKS
To readers who are near Central Florida, I hope you will put DeLand’s Art Studio Tour on your calendar. It’s a great way to meet artists and see where the art is created. I am proud to be on the tour and will welcome visitors to my studio.

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

Light in the Attic Window

January 28, 2024

(To write this morning, I stand beside a well of deep shadows, where I will dip in and let things spill out as they will.)

It is like a beacon, that yellow light.

I am pulled towards it. Perhaps it is providing guidance.

I know it is alone in its warmth in a place of deep blues.

There, in that attic room, is it the place the girl retreats to? Is it her light I am seeing? Or another? Like her I am outside. Somebody else has the light on in the night. Writing? Reading? Are there sounds of a keyboard – an old fashioned clicking typewriter – or the softer sounds of paper and pen?

Perhaps there is a child who could not sleep. And the switching on of the light is accompanied by a hand to the brow, a rub of the back, gentle song.

Outside the house the sounds are soft. Branches rub against one another. There is a light mist of almost rain.

And I am in this place and not in this place. Under the trees and also creating them in memory. I am looking through a detached window and on the other side of it.

It was long ago.

It was never. It is a dream. It is not a scrapbook.

I want to enter this space to discover its secrets.

This is just the beginning. To be there. The secret-discovery will require scuffed shoes or a stick to dig and stir the leaves – all that there is within the blue shadows.

. . . . .

I am discovering, through experience and the reality of being older than I was, that creating art, both writing and physical objects that you can touch and feel, is a serious business. And a wonderful process: a process filled with wonder, in which discoveries occur right alongside the things that were planned. For those who are art-makers, I hope for you a path that opens up your heart to possibilities. Don’t be afraid to reach down into the well. For those who are art-lovers, I hope that your relationships (no, friendships) with works created by artists connect you to even a part of what we hoped and experienced while creating, and that your life is richer for it.

Happy creating.

Happy art-loving.

(The work that is the basis for this week’s writing, “Living in the House of Blue Shadows,” is just completed. If you would like to learn more about it, please visit my website HERE.)

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

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

The box on the porch. And other surprises.

January 21, 2024

This was a weekend of interesting surprises.

THE BOX-ON-THE-PORCH SURPRISE I was out for the morning and returned to a long skinny box delivered by Fed-Ex. The labeling told me it contained a quilt returned to me from Studio Art Quilt Associates.

This quilt has been a world traveler as part of SAQA’s global exhibit “Opposites Attract.” Like Christmas morning, I had the pleasure of unwrapping and rediscovering the work. (It has been traveling as part of the exhibit approximately two years.)

My quilt from “Opposites Attract” is Rust Happens.

Looking at it again helped me to remember all the parts that went into this work, and what I enjoyed about it.

My art quilt “Rust Happens” when I was creating the parts

My art quilt “Rust Happens” - detail - photographic images next to other kinds of surface design

. . . . . . . .

THE OH-NO!-WHAT WAS I THINKING SURPRISE! This is a follow-up to last week’s post, in which I was experimenting with color relationships in a composition of two pieces each about 12” square.

Here’s where I was at the end of last week’s blog.

I like the elements, I like the overall palette, but I wanted it to have a little more “pop.” Some warm yellow seemed like a good idea. I added a yellow circle to the section with the bird and to the background of the section with the fish. It turned out like this:

I hated this! Too garish. Even though I had mixed the yellow with matte medium for transparency, the primary color combination now looked to me like a circus clown. The learning experience (which I should have known, having made this same error before) is that the paint does not look the same when you roll it on as it does when it dries. When it’s wet, the white matte medium makes the paint look more pale. It is a hue mixed with white. But, when it drIes, the matte medium is clear and all the hue shows full intensity.

So I worked on saving this project and – ANOTHER SURPRISE! I feel like it was successful. I painted over the yellow sections with a very transparent layer of matte medium with white. (White is opaque, so just a little bit makes a big difference.) Then I finished adding the collage elements and added surface stitching. Finally, a bit of all-over black spatter. Here’s the result:

Life’s an adventure!

. . . . . .

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:

Color in Context

January 14, 2024

A little color and composition project I am working on this week is causing me to remember a friend from high school.

He was smart and funny. And a bit of a smart- apple. And I remember that when somebody would express a fondness for something (I love hamburgers! I like the Beatles!) he would reply: “As compared to what?”

The artful takeaway from this is the importance of context: a color or a design element is not usually worthy of affection all on its own. “I love blue!” As compared to what? Alongside what? Used as a layer over what? As compared to what other choice?

My project involves two small pieces, just under 12” x 12”, which are to display together, one above the other, as a diptych. (I am creating this for a call-to-entry with those specifications.)

So far, I have a top section with a blue background and a bottom section with a green background, unified by a pattern of bubble-like shapes.

I have already printed the bubbles sections. (I created the shape edge with torn paper as a stencil then wheat paste resist for the circle shapes.) The halves are compatible, but don’t have much “pop.”

My plan is to add the complement of blue — orange — to each section to get the color to be more alive. This is an abstract depiction of above and below water. Above the water is a wading bird. Below the water are fish.

In the top section, I’ll add orange to the background and the bird will reveal as blue. On the bottom section, I’ll use orange as the foreground on the fish shapes. In each case, I’m keeping my orange transparent (pigment mixed with a good deal of matte medium) so it will be transparent.

Here’s my set-up: colors in the mixing tray, foam roller ready for application.

Now to paint. On the top half, the bird shown in the picture is a card stock stencil. It is blocking out the paint in the shape of the bird, and I have used masking tape for the edge. On the bottom half, I’ve cut card stock fish shapes to fill in.

Here is the side-by-side result at this point.

A subtle thing that occurs with transparent paints, working in complements, is the interplay of the underneath color with the over printed transparent color. Here is a close-up of the fish.

The hints of the green below with the orange on top is much more interesting than it would be as an opaque color.

I’ve experimented and played with colors and transparencies a lot in my work. I do not use fixed formulas for color partnerships or color mixing or degrees of transparency. A feel for what works with your particular working materials comes with time spent using them. (And allowing yourself to make mistakes. I’ve made a bunch!) Along the way I’ve learned what I like, and what combinations usually work out well.

This little project has some more collaged additions and stitching in its future. I’ll share it again when it’s done.

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:

Through What’s-Between to the Memory.

January 7, 2024

The thing about memories is that we seldom see them clearly.

Looking back is not like a straight shot of vision.

We are seeing through time. We are seeing through whatever haze our perceptions and emotions may create. We are seeing a memory that has been formed and changed by its interaction with dreams—even pictures from a scrapbook. Are we remembering the event or re-seeing it as it appeared in the photo?

As an artmaker interested in depicting remembered images, I think about how to recreate this experience. My hope is not so much to create a realistic scene but a real scene – one that touches on the truth of experience.

How can the simple “stuff” of textile art do that?

I am continuing to work through that decision-making in the work-in-progress about a house with shadows of tree limbs. (I wrote about this same work last week. At that point I was working on individual parts, and the process of putting them together as the background.)

Here’s where I am so far. This is the quilt in pieces on my easel. I will be putting the two halves together, but not yet. (It helps me to do the stitching on smaller sections.)

There are things I like. I like the palette. I like the figure of the girl. (Based on a scrapbook image of my mother as a young girl.) I like the house. It’s an actual old house here in DeLand, which I photographed from a number of angles. I like the way it evokes nostalgia of a grandmother-farmhouse-place, even if no such place really exists in our personal histories.

I like the superimposed tree limbs on both the house and behind the window. The sense of layers has a start.

It feels like a good beginning. But the emotional component isn’t there yet.

I have had this on my easel for a few days looking at it. And I came upon the idea of adding a new layer in front of what’s there now. Something to look through to get to the memory.

Trees. A new layer of trees.

Now comes the translation of this emotion into the working “stuff” of my medium.

I have painted a large section of sheer polyester with deep blue. I am tracing out forms of trees to be applied in several places across the composition.

I believe this will add more depth to the work. Here, where the limb will overlap the window, the foreground of the new limb is in front of the window, which is in front of the photographic limbs seen through the panes.

I also think this new layer will add contrast and unity. The simple shapes as a top layer will contrast with the intricate textured images below. And, the new trees crossing from one section of the work to the next should tie them together.

At this point in the creation, I need to give myself time to look and feel. I’ll put the trees in place with masking tape and hang it up to look at for a while. Having worked in this way before, I know the technical side – how to put them together. I need to focus on the story and the emotional side.

Because that’s the whole point of making the work.

. . . . . .

For readers in Florida: Please accept this invitation to see group exhibits by fiber artists. In my hometown of DeLand, I will be exhibiting as part of a Water-themed exhibit in City Hall. In Venice, Florida, I will be exhibiting in the juried SAQA Regional show, “Awakening.” Both are a way to experience the variety of artmaking possible with textiles.

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 Parts Come Together

December 31, 2023

New year. New project. Here we go.

This in-between-holidays week has provided some good studio time. I am beginning on a new large quilt, continuing the series of the journey of the little girl, with a dream-inspired vision of a house in blue shadows.

At the beginning of the week I had parts. And a vision.

Now it’s time to use the parts to fulfill the vision.

Here’s a computer mockup of where I’m headed.

It helps me to do a little computer composing so I get a guide for what I need to create and how to size it. It’s a test of the parts next to one another, and determines the final quilt size. (This work will be approx. 47” x 50”. The photographic images—house and window—are my original photos, already transferred to fabric.)

I have a scratchy-line section on the right that’s dark. And a scratchy-line section on the left that’s light. My work this week has been to turn those shorthand notes to myself into printed/painted sections that accomplish their role in the overall story and composition.

(Note to myself about the process of surface design on fabric. This is the “so-what.” I’ve created some fabric by varying means that’s interesting to look at it, but so what? How will it be useful? How will it accomplish an artistic purpose?)

First the dark for the right-hand stripe.

I began with the fabric shown top left. It’s a random relief print of some crescent-shapes. My plan is to overprint it with a dark blue-black in tree limb patterns. That’s what’s shown in the bottom part of the photo.

And here how it is evolving in the constructed quilt, with dark stitching to accentuate the limbs.

Next the light section for the left side.

I actually started with a printed tree pattern in medium value blue against a dark background, here:

My plan is to overprint it with a mixed color that includes white – to make a lighter value, and to make the paint opaque.

Here’s the printed result. (I have not stitched this section yet. But I will)

Along the way I have been creating some other tree-inspired fabrics to fill in those undefined rectangles in my original mockup, and the splashes of burnt orange.

As I look at this work-in-progress on my easel, I realize what a wonderful and amazing experience this is. To have an idea. To translate it into a composition concept. To create the parts. To watch it all come together. A joy-filled, meaning-filled way to spend my hours.

. . . . .

I also love the opportunity to come out of the studio to meet with and exhibit with other artists. Here are a few opportunities to see textile exhibits. I am pleased to have work included in these upcoming events. You are invited!

If you live near Venice, Florida I hope you’ll visit this exhibit. Thirty works be Florida textile artists, all of whom responded to the theme “Awakening.”

If you live near DeLand, Florida (my hometown) I hope you’ll visit this exhibit by members of ArtsEtc. This group of diverse artists has been meeting together for a long time—some as long as twenty five years. We have exhibited in DeLand City Hall for about six years. The work is displayed in the City Commission chambers. It’s available for viewing during the regular business hours for City Hall and when the chamber are used for other public meetings. The work will be up through March, 2024.

. . . . .

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

Unexpected Studio Visitor

December 24, 2023

My studio mascot, a beautiful one-of-a-kind flying pig, attracted a few festive travelers this Christmas season.

They have brought me some smiles, and I am happy to share them here.

Enjoy the holiday.

Peace to all

---Bobbi

The Good of Simple

December 17, 2023

In this past week I have found myself in several conversations that revolve around simplicity.

I heard nobody disparage simplicity. I heard a number of people long for simplicity.

A group of artmakers shared their working methods and their hopes for where their art might go. Several expressed a desire for working more simply — less material choices, less supplies, working with a limited palette. In conversations about the holidays, I’ve heard people with deep frustrations about gift-buying and gift-giving and guilt-induced over-the-top holiday expectations.

Enough! Less!

I’m not a scrooge. I enjoy the pleasure of giving and sharing. And I never intend to judge any artmaker who chooses ways of working that are different from mine. (There are, after all, LOTS of choices!)

I just find deep pleasure and artistic satisfaction in making work that is interesting, and (I hope!) compelling and with something to communicate and to do that by using simple methods and materials.

(I grew up in a family with constant financial pressures. Even as a kid I learned an aversion and fear of spending money unnecessarily. Perhaps I am now drawn to working methods that are simple and inexpensive as the positive lesson from that negative experience.)

So here’s a bit of simplicity: a cardboard shape

I cut out a simplified leaf shape of heavy cardboard, then wrapped it with a thin piece of chipboard (thin cardboard, like a paper towel tube) to serve as the printing edge. It is all held together with masking tape. This tool will not last forever. But it will last long enough to create some interesting work.

My first project this week using the cardboard printing tool is a wheat paste resist. (Wheat paste is just flour + water stirred to make a batter. Simple.)

Here I’ve got my yardage taped down to a working board. (I was creating several different kinds of fabric in compatible colors. And in this picture, they are side-by-side on the board.) What appears white is the paste. It will serve to block out the underneath fabric when it is over-painted. Whatever is the underneath fabric color will show through.

After the wheat paste is completely dry (generally overnight) I over-paint the fabric with a contrasting color. The background is light, so the over-paint should be dark. (This foam roller is a favorite tool in my studio. Find them in any hardware paint department – rollers for painting trim.)

Here’s some of the finished fabric:

I’ve used it in a sewing project for a Christmas gift. I’ve contrasted the wheat paste section with a color complement – the apricot color – made into a pattern using strips of masking tape as a resist.

Amazingly, my little cardboard shape held up to the stamping of wheat paste and being cleaned off in the garden hose. So I decided to use it more to do some relief printing. (Used together, the fabrics will speak to one annother. Same shape. One positive. One negative.)

I dip the cardboard edge in the paint and then stamp, creating a thin linear outline.

Here’s a bit of the finished yardage, also in the process of being stitched into a Christmas sewing project.

Positive and negative shapes.

Strong contrasts in values.

Using the power of complementary colors.

Simple strategies, put into use with simple methods.

I find this way of working joyful.

I hope you also find pleasing ways of working, in artmaking or whatever your life work is. Maybe there are opportunities to simplify and eliminate what you don’t need. And maybe these choices will be pleasing.

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:

Home is Where…

December 10, 2023

The world is filled with little houses this time of year. They are everywhere.

Christmas decorations and cards feature scenes of little houses in a village. You can purchase houses as decorations made of balsa, or metal, or plaster, some arriving already finished, some as projects to paint and embellish.

I get this. There is hardly any image as deeply a part of our emotional lives as our image of home. Good or bad. Longed for or escaped from. The structure itself has a powerful emotional pull.

Houses, especially child-like images of houses, have been a part of my artmaking since I began working in textiles.

I love the basic form: a rectangle with a triangle on top to connote a roof.

*So It Will Not Break In Tw*o - Textile Collage - Art Quilt

Houses in a row

*Sing the Songs That We Learned There* - Textile Collage - Art Quilt

Houses in a fairytale forest

*Float Away in Dreams* - Textile Collage - Art Quilt

Houses that are deeply attached to their past

*And All That’s Gone Before* - Textile Collage - Art Quilt

Houses that fly away

*Sometimes They Fly Away* - Textile Collage - Art Quilt

Houses that partially reveal what’s inside

*Sometimes you Can’t See In* - Textile Collage - Art Quilt

Houses that are solid, with the stories inside hidden

*Every One Hass a Different Story* - Textile Collage - Art Quilt

As an artmaker, I return to this image because it speaks to me of ideas that are important to me – home, memories and journey.

And I know that in this season, images of houses are presented under a veneer of sentiment that gives the images a ramped-up power to stir emotions of all kinds. Who would expect to be filled with nostalgia and wistful longing by looking at an array of little wooden shapes arranged as a village?

As your senses — and mine — are filled with images of homes this season, I send to you my hopes:

That the home where you are is the one where you want to be.

That the home that you came from is a memory that warms and strengthens you.

That, if your present and memories are filled with difficult emotions, you may find ways to bring peace and meaning into each day.

From my home to you… my best wishes.

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 Making of the Bread

December 3, 2023

As I work in the studio I generally have NPR on in the background. Lately I’ve heard a LOT of stories about spices, family traditions, recipes, and pie dos-and-don’ts. (Apparently this has to do with the baking part. Once it’s baked, the only “do” is Eat and enjoy!)

In the midst of thinking abut baking and eating, I received a note from SAQA that the global exhibit “Gastronomy” has an opening this month in Odessa, Texas. I am always honored to be part of a global exhibition. In this one, the work I’m exhibiting is “More than Bread.”

SAQA does a wonderful job of traveling and promoting its Global Exhibits. Here’s where “Gastronomy” has been and will exhibit:

Premiere - International Quilt Festival, Houston, Texas: November 1 - 5, 2022

Ellen Noël Art Museum, Odessa, Texas: December 7, 2023 - March 10, 2024

Sauder Village, Archbold, Ohio: May 1 - May 4 2024

The Historical & Cultural Society of Clay County, Moorhead, Minnesota: October 4 - December 31, 2025

I remember creating this work and how much I enjoyed it, so I thought I’d share some of the process this week. There were a lot of learning experiences in this work.

THE JOY OF DRAWING I love to draw. Every time I write that, I realize that I don’t do it enough, and how much I would like to improve my drawing skills. (Note to self: Bobbi, draw more!) This work gave me a chance to practice. I drew the woman freehand on the fabric that would become the quilt. I used a grid enlargement method mixing up some reference photos from online sources with a drawing of myself as the baker. I have learned how much I need a real model to draw people correctly. The angles and the relationship between body parts are never the same visually as what I think they will be. I never would have believed the angle of the glasses on the woman’s nose was the way I drew it till I actually modeled myself and then drew what was there.

THE POSSIBILITIES OF SIMPLE METHODS I really struggled with keeping it simple in the rendering of the woman. I had hoped to have no shading at all, but was not satisfied with line only. But I used as little as possible to build her up. This light acrylic wash over the drawing became the basis of her form.

I also wanted to challenge myself to have an interesting work that was created whole cloth. So, this work is created as one large piece. The fabric is a bed sheet.

THE IMOPRTANCE OF CONTRASTS While this composition is intentionally simple, it is filled with little details. That’s one contrast: the intricate in the large, simple spaces. And I worked to achieve strong value contrasts, with an overall contrast of colors: the yellow-purple palette built on the contrasting properties of color complements.

THE INVALUABLE, WONDERFUL, IRREPLACEABLE VALUE OF ASKING FOR HELP: Half way through this work, I was stuck on how to finish up the body, and how much to add or not add. I photographed it as it was, and then did a few Photoshop rough renderings of things I might do. I sent those to two trusted SAQA colleague/friends and asked for advice. They were gracious and helpful. My work was better because of their critiques. The take-aways here are: 1. Yes, ask for help, 2. Don’t wait till it’s DONE to ask for critique. At that point, you may not be able to make changes. Showing your work to artists you know and trust while it is still in its unfinished — or even in the ugly stage — is a good practice.

FINALLY: E V E R Y T H I N G IS INTERESTING! Frequenty artists beat themselves up looking for just the right scene or subject matter to be worthy of artmaking. It’s the artmaking version of writer’s block. Everything can be interesting! The salt shaker. Your cups. Lettuce. A table. A book on a table. Just look at the wonderful images created by artists for this exhibit.

(This snip was from the exhibit description on the SAQA website. you can see and enjoy the whole exhibit, along with details, here:)
https://www.saqa.com/art/exhibitions/gastronomy-saqa-global-exhibition

In the weeks ahead, as most of us will be fortunate enough to enjoy smells and tastes of good food, I hope you enjoy it all deeply. And maybe it will inspire your artmaking too.

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

The deep longing for Art

November 26, 2023

This will be will like the annual, much-maligned school report: “What I did on my summer vacation.”

Only this one is called, “What I learned in my weekend at the art festival.”

Like family vacations, this weekend had a mix of observable moments, lighthearted events, and other things going on underneath.

The fun easy events first:

I had a wonderful weekend!

Morning set-up almost done - before the Festival begins on Saturday

Early morning set-up in the cool air went just as it should be. (I had not forgotten anything we needed!) I was pleased with how the display looked. I was proud of the work I took. I talked and talked about art all weekend with festival go-ers. I had good sales.

And I won a big ol’ award!!

Recognition is always a nice affirmation. As a textile artist, in particular, I am always especially pleased when my quilts are judged well against painting, clay art, printmaking and other mediums that may be more familiar to the judges. (At this festival, each artist has ONE MINUTE with each judge to show and explain the work!) A well-judged show is a testament to competent, thoughtful judges. I was grateful that this festival had very good judges; it showed in their insightful awards across all mediums.

So what else was going on?

*They Built Their House of Twigs II* - one of the works I exhibited at the Fall Festival in DeLand

As I talked to people all weekend, sometimes in the booth, and sometimes when attendees would come over to my chair to chat, I was touched by the very deep, emotional longings stirred up in people by looking at the artwork.

Some were just folks who like to look at art. And when they see work that touches or inspires them, they FEEL it. There is something about looking at the work of an artist’s hands that stirs their soul. What a great experience to share.

Being moved by art takes people beyond the shopping experience. I took mostly large works with me to exhibit. They would be a major presence in a home, and are beyond the size and price that many art-appreciators could acquire. Once the festival-goer established that with me, almost apologetically, then we could just talk about art. It opened up a freedom to experience color and texture and story and how it makes one feel. As a creator, I find these conversations deeply meaningful.

*Stepping On the Cracks* - another work I exhibited at the Festival

I also had a number of conversations with people who are art-makers, at varying stages of their artmaking story.

Fellow artists and exhibitors looked at the quilts and talked about the process, how it is alike and different from their own medium. These thoughtful conversations with other artists are a great part of exhibiting.

And artmakers who are just beginning, or less experienced, shared a lot with me about their desires to create, and their struggles. Sometimes I could refer them to the work of another artist that might help them. Sometimes they just needed to spend uninterrupted time looking, processing whatever was stirring their creativity.

And then. The students. The young people. I’m just a sucker for a student who is interested in art.

One meaningful conversation stayed with me. I wrote a poem about it, and I will end this post with those thoughts.

A STUDENT FULFILLING AN ASSIGNMENT
FOR HIGH SCHOOL ART CLASS

Asks me questions. Barely.
Barely audible. Barely there.
Used to hiding behind loose hair
And loose clothing.
The softness of their voice.

(Matched by the softness
of their hand — my firm handshake an interjection
that caught them by surprise.
How does one do this?)

“How did you decide on this medium?”
“How do you create this work?”
“What artists have influenced you?”
The answers written in a clumsy journal
so softly. Grey pencil barely visible.
The student feels barely visible.

Go ahead, my young friend.
Ask the real questions.
How do I —
Could I —
What will I be?

Who would notice?

. . . . . . . . .

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:

Bringing Things Along

November 19, 2023

Friday morning I introduced some new friends to my studio environment.

I do this regularly. This morning was especially nice.

After a day of steady, steady steady rain, some containers I had outside my studio had filled with rainwater. So I pulled up a new batch of perennial peanuts from their place along our stone path and put the cuttings in bottles of new rainwater to grow some roots.

There was just something wonderful about having new rainwater to use. I was outside in my bare feet, feeling the rainwater on the concrete, thinking how good that felt.

In two places in our yard, we now have thick, healthy beds of these peanuts, which are a lovely low ground cover that produces little yellow flowers.

After trying other methods of transplanting that had very low success rates, I have now settled on bringing them into the studio a few at a time to root for a while before putting them in a new place.

Turns out, things just need a little time to be ready. They need to progress at their own speed. My job is just to help bring them along.

(You are, of course, realizing by now that the plants are plants – but also metaphors for all kinds of other things that grow.)

In the kindergarten class where I volunteer, some little brains are still trying to get that every letter has a name and every letter has a sound. So we bring them along to the next level.

Now there are some who can see the letter, know the sound, and figure out the word.

And now a few are putting words together to make sentences.

Ideas need time. Emotions need time. Insights need time. Using a technique well needs time.

Artmaking needs time.

And, as artmakers, all these things are happening on the inside. We are both the ones in whom things are coming along, and the ones to provide the nourishment so it happens.

What pleasing work!

…

By the time this blog post goes out Sunday evening, I will have had a weekend of exhibiting in downtown DeLand at the Fall Festival of the Arts – DeLand. I’m probably exhausted by now. It is also my hope that I’ve had some exhilaration and some learning and many good conversations. See ya next week.

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:

Getting a do-over. To get it right.

November 12, 2023

From my morning place of coffee and reading on our porch, today I looked out on the lawn at a loquat tree that we recently moved.

We moved a tree. Those words don’t nearly convey the effort of this foolish act: We. Moved. A. TREE! The two of us performing this act have an average age of 72-and-a-half years. It involved digging a hole. Digging up a root ball. Attacking roots (ouch!) with a shovel. Pulling. Yanking. Rolling the root ball up the hill to the lawn. Rolling it across the grass. (We had moved the tree about six feet. Too close to the house and an underground concrete structure.) Getting the tree down in the new hole. And then lots of babying and watering to get it established.

But we did it. And it was the right move. That tree was never going to be just right in its old place.

Inspired by this, we have since moved three daisy bushes from a way-too-hot spot of the garden to the place previously occupied by the loquat. Already they are beaming with gratefulness, greener leaves and lots of buds.

In the old place, they were never going to be just right.

A final affirmation: this morning the loquat was filled with a bunch of chirping wrens.

Sometimes, I have created work in the studio that Inspired me and pleased me at the time, but which, in retrospect, fell short of what I had envisioned. They weren’t quite right.

I worked on a project like that this week, giving myself the opportunity for a do-over

(This is the project for which I was screen printing stick shapes in last week’s post.)

Like the tree, this do-over required some destruction of what was. I ripped. I cut apart what was. (Some grunting involved.) I collaged. I printed new. I reassembled.

And I’m so glad I made myself do it. On top of the nagging sense that the previous construction wasn’t quite right, I added a deadline. I wanted something new and big to take to DeLand’s Fall Festival of the Arts next week where I will exhibit. So I was motivated.

Now it’s almost done. Here are a few details of what I liked about this artwork, what motivated me to get the construction redone. (As well as on new element – the ladderback chair, one of my favorite and recurring images.)

If you are a creator, I hope you apply the vision of getting-it-just-right to the projects you are working on now.

If you are an art appreciator, I hope you will look at completed works and see the effort, trial and error and vision that guide artists on their way.

. . . . . .

And now my last opportunity this year to invite folks to downtown DeLand for the Fall Festival of the Arts, DeLand, Saturday and Sunday November 18-19. Downtown Deland is a great destination to explore. This juried art show will feature a lot of wonderful, interesting artists and their work. From any place within a few hours drive to Central Florida, this is an event well worth discovering. And I’ll be there! I hope you’ll drop by booth #133 (right at the heart – near intersection of New York Ave and Woodland Blvd.) to say hi.

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:

Screen Printing Stick Patterns

November 5, 2023

I’ve just got to say it’s a good thing I was wearing my apron. This printing session turned out to be fast and furious.

I had several variables: fabric that was solid color before I screen printed it, fabric that had some other patterns before I screen printed it, and image variation of a positive and negative.

(A positive image means that you will be printing the shape of the thing you are depicting with the ink through your screen. A negative image means that you are printing the background and the shape of the thing you are depicting shows through from the background.)

There are lots of kinds of screens for printing. Traditionally screen printing was called silkscreening, because a piece of silk was stretched over a frame and the ink forced through the holes. Screens can actually be made out of any kind of mesh that will allow the ink to go through the holes. The mesh is blocked out in some way so that ink goes through some holes and not through others. If you block out the holes in simple, manual methods, for example with torn strips of paper, you get simple shapes. If you use a photographic method to get the image on the screen, you can print very detailed images.

The projects I worked on in this session used a screen created by a thermofax machine. I supplied a photo I took of some tree limbs and ordered two versions: one to print the positive of the limb and one to print the background.

Her’s the screen to print the positive.

Here’s the screen to print the negative.

And here’s how it goes:

Mix up some color that you want to print. (I am working with acrylic paints. I am printing black. (The olive green you see in the tray is just some left over paint that has dried.)

Then load some of the paint onto your screen along one edge.

Then pull the ink across the screen surface, forcing it down into the holes to the substrate you are printing, which is below the screen. I am using a plastic scraper as my squeegee. I have actual screen printing squeegees, but I like this scraper because the handle makes it easy to manipulate.

Now lift off the screen and look at what was printed.

My decision-making for this session was guided by the quilt I am creating. These colors are already in use in the work. I wanted to get some visual variety but keep it harmonious.

The fabric shown across the top is printed as a positive image. The two below are printed as the negative. By limiting the palette, these will all work well together.

Some other interesting things occurred when I printed on fabrics that had other patterns on them below the screen printing.

My apron got some paint on it, and my hands and fingernails needed a good scrub. Otherwise, All-OK. This fast and furious bit of printing yielded pieces I like and look forward to incorporating into a work-in-progress.

…..

Just a reminder – On Saturday and Sunday, November 18-19, I will be exhibiting in the Fall Festival of the Arts DeLand. DeLand is my hometown and I always look forward to this event. Great downtown and great art! If you are near central Florida, I hope you will visit. Festival information can be found at fallfestivaloftheartsdeland.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:

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

Surface Design and going INTO the story

October 29, 2023

This week I have been back into the studio. After traveling last week and working on other non-studio projects in the weeks before, it feels great. The large quilt I have been thinking about for several months is getting close to completion.

And the stage I’m in now is interesting and challenging.

This is the heart of what interests me about working in textiles as an art medium: the intersection of the surface and the meaning or the story. I spend a lot of time and energy on the quilt surface: this one has been printed and painted and stitched. I printed and painted the fabric as raw yardage to create the work and THEN I printed and painted some more after it is assembled, on the composed surface. So, I enjoy that process.

But the surface is not what the work is actually about. The work is about whatever the work is about: in this case, part of a girl’s journey, and a way to look inside her experience of the world.

My challenge, what will make me think I’ve created a successful work, is if the work I’ve done creating these surfaces leads one inside the work – beyond the surface – and into the story.

Now. Where were we? (For those of you who like to keep track of the whole process, I’ve written about this work in blog posts on August 27 and September 24.) At the beginning of this week I had a basic composition, every part of the surface had been quilted, and I’m thinking about how to go deeper. Here’s a screen shot of one of my PhotoShop mockups

The dark shadow of the arched form did not exist on the quilt yet. That’s what I was trying out in the digital file. (The rest of it I photographed as-it-was on my easel.) I decided to add it this week, in place of some other ideas I had considered earlier.

I like it because it gives me a dark value contrast, and because it unifies different parts of the quilt, and because it suggests another architectural form beyond the gate photo. And it adds depth.

Making the arch:

First I had to correct some surface elements that did not please me. An area where the arch will be had gotten muddy and some shapes in the tree limb weren’t just right. So I collaged fabric over them.

Collaging fabric is a matter of matte medium over the substrate, under the fabric being collaged, and then maybe some more matte medium over the piece being collaged to soak it well. I work it in with a brush.

Drying flat is very important! Collaged fabric wants to wrinkle. Some heavy books while drying make a big difference. (Wax paper under the books so they don’t stick to the quilt.)

Now my surface is corrected and it’s time to add the painted arch. I cut the shape out of freezer paper and laid it down to get the positioning.

Then I matched up the freezer paper shape with the part I had cut away to make the pattern. (Freezer paper, waxy down facing the quilt, sticks when ironed to make a nice clean-edge stencil.) This will block out the background of the quilt and expose the area I want to show as the darker value arch shape. I rolled the paint ono the quilt surface with a sponge roller.

Ahead for me this week: More depth. The addition of some characters to the story. And, of course, the finishing of edges and backing.

Stay tuned.

THANKS so much for following along. The discipline of writing about my work regularly is helpful to me, and it means the world to have folks interested in reading.

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:

Near DeLand or Central Florida? I invite you to my favorite art festival, the Fall Festival of the Arts DeLand. Always the weekend before Thanksgiving: this year, November 18-19. I’ll be exhibiting. All info at FallFestivaloftheartsDeLand.com See you downtown!

On the Road

October 22, 2023

Hello, art friends

My one project in the studio this week involved paper towel tubes, yarn and hot glue.

And some fabric strips.

We were preparing for a long-awaited visit this weekend with my daughter and her family… and my wonderful 18-month old grandson.

So we made... well, I don’t know what they are. Tube people? Things with yarn? Alien space invaders? Stuff to go in a basket? Whatever they are, we look forward to playing with them with him.

I wrote this short note before leaving for South Carolina. As it is posted, I will be in the car probably somewhere along I-75 and getting pretty cranky and weary and looking forward to home.

Also while I was away…

The Artburst “Poetry in Motion” online exhibit opened this morning, 10-22 at 10:22 Denver time.

I’ve written about this show a few times. I’ll be anxious to learn how it turns out.

If you want to take a look at the art and artists, there’s still time. The online exhibit runs through 10-25 22. Just go the Artburststudios.com and enjoy some art browsing.

See you next week.

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:

Entering Sacred Spaces

October 15, 2023

Enter through the doorway. Pause. Take a breath.

Proceed up the path.

While walking absorb what is around you.

Large vistas – mountains. Distant skies.

Details – Leaves. Bits of snow. The shape of branches.

Now journeying. Where will this path lead?

I was honored this summer to receive a commission to create an artwork for a church in Plymouth, NH to create these experiences through the connections of visual artwork. The work shown is the completed piece, measuring 48” x 48”, “Sacred Spaces.”

I am pleased with the final artwork, and I learned a lot from the process. If you are an artmaker, or if you are one who might at some time commission a work for yourself or a group, here are some takeaways.

Building trust into the process is EVERYTHING. This project came into being because one of the church members had seen one of my quilts several years ago at an exhibit at the Whistler House Museum in Massachusetts. (Side take-away: you never know what may result when you exhibit your work!) The others on the committee did not know me or my work. And we had to have a group decision-making.

Over zoom meetings, we got to know one another. I asked questions about their vision for this work. It became important to all of us that this that it was to be different from a liturgical banner and different from signage. It was to be art. To invite visitors to the church to prepare to enter their worship together by a visual experience.

Teamwork: Everybody has a role to play. Before I even began, it was important to me to ask a lot of questions. Were there specific images they wanted to include? Were there specific architectural features of their church they would like to incorporate? I had to ask and listen. The committee had to provide input.

Process counts: Having heard horror stories from artists and customers about unsuccessful commissions, I did not want our venture to be one of them. I wanted us all to have some skin in the game, and to have that investment be part of the trust. My first investment was time. I created mockups in PhotoShop, several variations of the theme, and provided them digitally. I took suggestions. I made revisions. Finally, there was a concept agreed upon by all of us.

At that point, it was time to say “go.” I asked for a non-refundable deposit of 50% of the agreed-upon cost. This became the church’s investment. They understood that now we had a business contract. I would do my part and this was how they did their part.

Details matter My design incorporates some photographs. I licensed them from istock and paid the licensing cost and kept those receipts. It’s imperative not to use images that you do not have the right to use. As for the image of the completed work, I spelled out in the final invoice what is and is not permitted. The church can, for example, reproduce the image on note cards or church bulletins without restriction or further compensation. They may not, for example, reproduce it large giclees to sell.

In short, as the artist, I own the copyright to the image of the work. I grant them limited rights to use it. They are the owners of the actual work itself and may do anything they like with it without asking or notifying me.

One more deep breath.

All of that is important, but behind-the-scenes. I now know that my artwork hangs in their church home as an invitation to their sacred space.

It is a great honor.

………………..

Last chance for me to tell you about the Artburst Studios Exhibit “Poetry in Motion.” It happens NEXT WEEKEND!! I hope you’ll 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:

Gut-Punch Art

October 8, 2023

It is important to remember that art is very powerful.

Pretty – yes. Soothing – yes. Inspiring- yes. Thought-provoking- yes. All of those things sometimes.

And, sometimes, just a simple visual image can cut right to the core of an idea. It can communicate in a powerful, visceral way.

No words needed. The image goes straight to the brain.

I’ve certainly experienced this standing before, breathing in, works created by other artists.

And this week in the studio, I’ve encountered that same experience in simple snippets of unfinished pieces of my own work. I want to share them, because I think it’s important to listen to your own work and your own artmaking, and pay attention when something is communicating to you.

The first image is a pair of hands. Bound. As behind one’s back. I created these hands as part of a large artwork I cam creating for an upcoming exhibit sponsored by Studio Art Quilt Associates called “Bearing Witness.” Created in conjunction with a Holocaust Museum and study center, this is going to be a serious, deep look into difficult topics. My work is a large quilt depicting a lynching, seen from several points of view, and including both the victim and the people on the ground looking up at the victim. So, this is not a light-hearted piece.

I have worked on this over several months, and I am glad I have given myself time to do that. Being involved in this subject matter is not something I want to rush or do lightly. I am near the end, finishing and photographing the work.

In depicting the victim, I needed to draw hands accurately. I asked my partner, John, to model his hands for me. We bound his wrists behind his back and I photographed. During the photo session, I was able to block any emotion out, I was intent on getting the angle and the lighting right.

Later, at my computer, I pulled the photo up to examine it and size it. Gut-punch! There were the hands of someone I know and care about it, filling my computer screen, bound as if hanged. It was a terrible sight.

Later, as I worked on stitching the piece, I depicted the hands differently in two panels, each representing a different view of this event.

To be a real person, on the ground, witnessing a real hanging, would be – I am sure I do not have adequate words. Terrible, frightening. My hope is that the power of the visual image will work for those who experience this work and the others in the exhibit. Once the power of an image pierces one’s consciousness, thinking can deepen and change.

(Just a note: I am submitting my work for jurying. I will not know till January whether or not it will be accepted as part of the exhibit.)

A second gut-punch experience happened this week that was very different.

I made a postcard for a project being organized by my friend and fellow artist Karol Kusmaul. As a final project for her MFA in art, Karol is seeking contributions of 4” x 6” post cards – as many as she can get – on the subjects of gun violence or the war in Ukraine, or both. I chose to create one addressing gun violence.

After I created the transfer of text onto the fabric, I took a large brush loaded with red paint and – just like that!—the card was paint-spattered. Just like that. So fast. So unchangeable. That was the gut-punch I experienced as I spattered paint-as blood across a surface. It happened just like that. Everything changed in an instant.

That’s a powerful message. I can imagine a number of postcards with similarly powerful messages all arranged together into one strong work.

This art will give voice to people whose lives are changed in an instant, just like that!

(If you would like to help Karol by making a post card, (Please do!) you can find out the information you need HERE. The deadline for her to receive them is November 1.)

For each of these projects, I will feel honored if some image from work I create becomes even a tiny step in deepening thought or conviction in someone who sees it. That’s a good reason to be in the studio.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

One last thought – last week I wrote about the behind-the scenes process of being in the upcoming Artburst “Poetry in Motion” online exhibit opening October 22. THANK YOU to everyone who showed interest and support. I goofed in some of my facts. I still encourage you to visit Artburststudios.com and find out more. The corrected information about who-gets-what is below. I’m excited about this event. I hope to see ya there.

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:

A peek behind the scenes

October 1, 2023

One morning at a street festival, a bit before the show was officially opened, I engaged in some conversation with an early art browser. Looking at all the artist displays set up, he asked, ”Wow. Does the festival provide all these tents and walls for you?”

Overhearing, the artist next to me looked at him with dagger eyes.

I took this to be a teachable moment. People who are not artists frequently do not know the nuts and bolts of how art life works. It was a well-intended question.

(Short answer: No. The festival just provides the space, which artists pay for. Hours before that stroller arrived, starting at about 5:30, the street looked and sounded more like the circus elephants putting up the tent. Metal poles clanging. Lots of grunting. A little swearing. And some friendly camaraderie among the artists. It’s a fun process if you have ample helping hands and it’s not raining. But it is always hard work.)

This was my booth set-up last year at Fall Festival of the Arts DeLand

More frequently, as shopping online has become something consumers are used to, and frequently prefer, the behind-the-scenes setup involves creating a virtual exhibit.

I am participating in such an on-line event this month. This is an all-new adventure for me and I am as intrigued and inspired by it as I was when I entered my first street Festival. So, I thought I would share the behind-the-scenes with you.

Here’s the event.

(Throughout the rest of this post, I’ll intersperse images of some of the works I’ll be exhibiting so this is not all dry, dull text.)

Who is Artburst? It’s a group of artists based in Denver. I’ve enjoyed meeting them and forming new friendships. They have worked street festivals for years, and hoped to find a good online event they could participate in as well. Not finding one that was just right, they decided to create their own.

What artists are in it? There are 25 artists participating. So, it’s more like a boutique gallery than a big street Festival. More personal. More targeted. Easier to digest. And what an interesting mix! In addition to me, there are painters, jewelers, sculptors and mixed media artists.

Detail art quilt - “Emergence Into Light”

How did I become a part of this? I’m happy to say they found me online and recruited me. Being a skeptical soul, I thought at first it was some sort of scam marketing come-on. I soon learned that these are real artists who have organized a real event and I agreed (with a spirit of adventure!) to give it a try.

What did I have to do? First I had to create twelve all new works. They quickly explained this was not a place to get rid of the old un-sold stuff. So I have created four new wall quilts and eight new larger-than-usual paper collages. And, I agreed that between now and the time of the show, I will sell those twelve pieces only through the Artburst event.

Detail Paper/Fabric Collage “Awakening to What Was”

What did Artburst supply? All the marketing. The website. A secure way to take payments from customers. They will prepare a digital catalog of all the work for all the artists that buyers can browse through before the show opens. (Sunday, October 22 – 10:22am MST) They have a funky, upbeat graphics style I like and are working like crazy online to spread the word about this show. Each participating artist is also supposed to help tell people about the show.

Learning Take-aways?

ALL methods that artists use to present their work to the world take hard work. Sometimes, making the work is the easiest part!

It’s good to try new things. I have worked for a number of years at introducing myself and selling my work online by myself. Being part of a team effort has been a great experience.

Deadlines matter! (I remember being grateful that my daughter landed her first post-grad school job BECAUSE she was a studio artist, not in spite of it. Her first employer understood that a working studio artist has to be a problem-solver and also one who can meet deadlines.) I agree.

Detail Paper/Fabric Collage “Remembering As It Was”

And now—an invitation

I would be honored to have you visit the Artburst website and then to check out the event on October 22. No cost. No obligation. You can just browse. (Looking at art is always fun!)

BUT… if you know yourself to be an art-lover who also from time to time enjoys purchasing artwork, I encourage you to either 1. SUBSCRIBE at the Artburst website. At the bottom of the homepage. (That puts you on the list to get a preview 24 hours before the show opens. Plus a few email teasers between now and then.) or 2. JOIN at the Artburst website. Also free. Also no obligation. This just makes you a subscriber AND sets up your information as an account in advance so that, when the show opens on 10-22, you are ready to jump in. ARTBURSTSTUDIOS.COM

OR - If you REALLY like to see things in advance, to make decisions leisurely, you could sign up to be a collector plus. Your special benefit is a full digital catalog of the show a full week before it opens. All details are at ARTBURSTSTUDIOS.COM

By the way – this is NOT a bidding event. It’s just shopping and – if you find something you love – purchasing.

Thanks so much for taking this peek behind the scenes with me. I sincerely appreciate those who follow my posts and are nice enough to respond and share. Art is good!

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: