Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, Sunset on the Pacific Coast

...sunset at the Oregon coast...

The setting sun, and music at the close,

As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last,

Writ in remembrance more than things long past.

~William Shakespeare

Personal Symbols. Mixed Media Monday. Nature Inspired Art

This is my entry for this week's challenge, Personal Symbols, at Mixed Media Monday.  This is a 6x6 inch art quilt. The base is an image of some of my handmade paper, scanned and manipulated in the computer then transferred to fabric.  I've added scraps of the original handmade paper, mica, net ribbon, a transparency with a poem, all stitched, and finally some local shells added as an embellishment. 

We were asked to reflect on the images, colors and/or themes that recur in our art.  For me it is nature, hands down.  When I look at my art, I see lots of flowers, trees, forest themes and of course the sea.  I often bring home bits and pieces of the place I have walked, be it beach or forest, to use in my art, or just to keep close (see this studio snapshot).  I feel at my best when outdoors and close to the elements, and I often use the ocean as a theme in my work.  There is a timelessness to the ocean, a sense of eternity and peace that I derive from being near it.  It helps me see myself, like ee cummings eludes to in the poem I use in this piece (see below).

In addition to images, words are also really important to me, words are powerful and evocative.  I often use them in my art, whether they can be seen by the viewer or not.

maggie and milly and molly and may

went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang

so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star

whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing

which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone

as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)

it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

~ee cummings

Look What I Found. Mixed Media Monday

Oh my. All you have to do is go to Bumbershoot Supplies to see "what I found" :)

But for this week's Mixed Media Monday challenge, I focused on one of the most special places in the world to me, the ocean. We are blessed  in Seattle to be very close to water everywhere, including salt water in the form of Puget Sound. And the Pacific Ocean is not too far away.

This is a 6x6 inch art quilt using my hand dyed cloth as a base and featuring some of the treasures I have collected in my trips to the beach.

One of my favorite poets, ee cummings, captures my feelings about the sea so well:

maggie and milly and molly and may

went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang

so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star

whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing

which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone

as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)

it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

Three Muses. Maps.

"Maps" is the challenge this week at the Three Muses challenge blog - Incorporate maps into your piece.  Here is a book I have made - the base of the book cover is a map of one of our favorite vacation destinations, Seaside Oregon. Over the map I have collaged bits of paper and hand dyed thin papers and metallic threads, so the base map peeks through the layers. 

Then I stitched, stamped and embellished in an ocean theme, with starfish stamps and vintage beads that remind me of iridescent bubbles. 

 Inside this book is an eclectic collection of my handmade papers and paper experiments. I've sewn a seam down the center of the book to hold all the pages together.

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week.

(tidepooling, minus tide, Carkeek Park)

...it's always ourselves we find in the sea.

~ee cummings

Natural

I find the natural world very inspiring.

I like to keep shells and stones from the beach in my studio.

Inspiration at the beach

I took these photos at Carkeek Park, Seattle, at a recent minus tide in June.

Eric loves to see the tiny crabs.


There is all kinds of wild life under the rocks. It's like visiting another planet.

The colors are typical of what you see in Seattle in June. Still lots of grey, but beginning to lighten.

Except sometimes you get a lovely surprise jolt of color, like this wild rose...

...which looks just like these flowers at Bumbershoot Supplies. Amazing...