Daylily

Yesterday, I sold this piece, Daylily. It's 16 x 16, and framed, though not in this photo. I've had my work exhibited in a retirement community's gallery, and one of the residents, Mrs. H, bought it. When I went over there yesterday to take the work down, she was there checking her mail. She said "Are you Martha?!" and proceeded to tell me how lovely the piece is, and how happy she is to have bought it. Mrs. H and her daughter were looking at the work, and when they saw it, they both started to cry.

It turns out that Mrs. H's best friend, now deceased, was also the daughter's godmother, and grew daylilies the same shade as the fabric in the piece. When she died, Mrs. H and her daughter took some of her bulbs and planted them in their gardens to remind them of their friend.

Today, the daughter is bringing her husband home from the hospital to die. He's 48, and has been struggling with a brain tumor for 5 years, and there's nothing left to do for him. Mrs. H will hang it so that it's the first thing they see every morning. I am so honored.

I made Daylily in 2003, using commercial and artist-dyed fabrics, embellished with machine embroidery, oil pastels, and beads. It has been exhibited locally and in Cergy/Pontoise, France.

Spring has arrived!

Well, even though we were wearing coats, it seemed like spring to us. My sister and I took our cousin from South Dakota sightseeing in Virginia this week. Monday was Monticello and the University of Virginia. Here we are in front of the Rotunda. I wonder how many photos like this have been taken!

This next photo is of a piece I finished recently, and hung in an exhibit at the Columbia Art Center. I wanted to go back to the tree idea I was working on last spring. It too has a lot of paint on the surface. I used Shiva Paint Sticks among other paints, and I like the effect they give. It's called Blue Marsh, and it's 23 x 17.

And it sold, too!

Art Consulting

I met with an art consultant this morning. She has owned a successful gallery for 35 years. The goal of this morning's meeting was to get started thinking about what I want to do, what my goals are, and how to achieve them. She is very enthusiastic about my work, although it doesn't fit in her gallery.

So I came home all jazzed up and ready to work. I painted 10 pieces of fabric when I got back, but they are still curing so I can't show photos of them. Instead, here is a piece I did recently:

I collaged fabric and painted it with Lumiere, Setacolor, and Shiva sticks. Then I cut it up and collaged it again, and painted it one more time. I used the grids because I wanted to create a sense of looking through a window.