We’ve been vacationing in wonderful South Padre Island, TX and just loving this weather! You know I’m not missing the snow…for sure!

Wherever we go, I find and create art.  We’ve come to SPI for a few years now, where there is a great group of local artists.

Here, I’ve been working on a corporate re-purposing project.  I look forward to telling you more about it, but that information will have to wait until I’m finished. I can tell you, mixing alternative materials with fiber is a blast! It’s a whole ‘nother world to work with!

Cultural Cloth is doing well with four upcoming Cultural Cloth: Exploring and Expressing Our Cultural Histories workshops. Three of the dates are listed below, with the fourth to be added very soon. I hope you can join us for this fun, artistic exploration of America’s many cultures.

February 15, 2011: I’ll be at South Padre Island Artspace from 10 – 4 pm. I’m so excited to share this workshop with so many of my Winter Texan pals. Contact BPParis@gmail.com.

March 26, 2011: Central Carolina Community College, Pittsboro, NC will be hosting Cultural Cloth. Teachers take note: This class qualifies for CEU’s. Join us as we combine art and the many stories of how we came to be American in this unique workshop. Call 919-545-8044 for registration information.

October 30 – November 6, 2011: Join me for Creative Cruisin’ with Cultural Cloth as we sail the Southern Caribbean aboard Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas. Contact michelle@quiltretreatatsea.com for further information. Book by February 15, 2011 and receive a $50 discount.

To learn more about Cultural Cloth and my hopes to encourage the best in ALL Americans, please visit www.culturalcloth.wordpress.com.

Lastly, be sure to check out the current call from PAQA-South for ARTQUILTSmovements. The deadline is March 19, 2011. Visit www.artquiltersouth.org for an entry form and further information. Past exhibits from PAQA-South were visited by thousands in the Raleigh – Durham – Cary, NC area.

I’ll be checking back soon with images of current work.  Until then, enjoy wherever you are!

An Artful Weekend

Tunde and Ann at ART of the CAROLINAS

Its been an artful weekend! In the company of fellow artists creativity has been flowing.

Saturday was a great day at Art of the Carolinas! As a volunteer, I manned the Visual Art Exchange (VAE) table for four hours along with Tunde Afolayan Famous and Victoria Carpenter. Both talented artists whose work explodes with color, I enjoyed learning about their work and Raleigh’s art scene. I am inspired!

It was a pleasure to share information about VAE.  A great organization, VAE’s mission is to support emerging artists.  Located in downtown Raleigh, VAE is perfectly placed to show your work to the public.  Monthly group exhibits in the main gallery, along with four new feature artists in the front gallery, keep fresh work available to patrons.  Regular events, lectures and workshops provide business knowledge, skills and support to artists.  VAE is the one group that every artist should belong to.

We met so many nice people at the event.  The table next to us was staffed by my old friends from Carolina Mixed Media Artist Guild.  A few years ago, members of the group comprised a test group for my workshop Cultural Cloth.   Their work continues to inspire other students at the workshop blog. It was so nice to see Roberta, Michelle and the other talented mixed media artists again, and to talk about the fabulous art they are making.

The show also provided a great opportunity to share my work and publicize Cultural Cloth and the upcoming Creative Cruisin’ with Cultural Cloth cruise to the Southern Caribbean.  It was a lot of fun discussing technique and process with the variety of people attending Art of the Carolinas.

Josie Girl

 

During the event, I demonstrated stitching and beading this small art quilt:  Josie Girl.  Recently, I took this photo of my granddaughter that begged to become art.  She needs a bit more stitching and beading, but I couldn’t wait to share.  I think I’ll make a larger piece from the same image.   Josie has infinite possibilities.  What do you think?

As always, please leave your comments below.

To learn more about Cultural Cloth or Creative Cruisin’ with Cultural Cloth, please email culturalcloth@gmail.com.

Thanks for visiting,

Ann Flaherty

Come Cruise With Me

Cultural Cloth is taking to the seas!

You are invited to join Ann Flaherty and Quilt Retreat at Sea for

Creative Cruisin’ with Cultural Cloth.

St Kitts

October 30 – November 6, 2011

Join me as Cultural Cloth: Exploring and Expressing Our Cultural Histories travels to the Southern Caribbean. Aboard Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas, this 7 night cruise  departs from San Juan, Puerto Rico taking us to the ports of St. Kitts, St. Thomas, Aruba, and Curaçao.

With two full days at sea, Cultural Cloth workshop will be taught on board, providing ample time to make your own cultural explorations in an artistic fiber collage.

A portion of the proceeds from this cruise will go to Operation Kid Comfort. Founded on Make-A-Difference Day2003 by Ann Flaherty, Operation Kid Comfort provides FREE photo-transfer quilt to thousands of America’s Littlest Heroes, the children of our deployed service men and women. We have even set aside time for those who wish to participate in making these quilts for some of our very special ‘OpKids’.

Balcony Rooms – pricing begins at $1560 per quilter/$1330 per non-quilter

An expedition full of history, fun and fiber, Creative Cruisin’ with Cultural Cloth offers opportunities for everyone!

Book now to reserve your room here.

Email michelle@quiltretreatatsea.com with questions about the cruise.

Coffee & Crepes & Art

Aah . . . the ideal venue:  Great coffee . . . to die for crepes . . . and bright colorful art!  What’s not to like!

Join me as I share my art work at  Coffee & Crepes at Crossroads Plaza in Cary, NC on Friday, September 24th from 6 -9.  Rhythmicity will play on the patio, while the good food will be cooking up inside.

And to my Gluten Free friends, almost all the crepes are available Gluten Free!!! I think I’ve found Heaven!

The works I’ve chosen to show at Coffee & Crepes cover a variety of techniques:  photo-transfer, distressed, story telling, thread painting, embellished, and more.   Got questions on how I did that?  Come on out on Friday and I’ll be happy to answer them.  Or you can leave a question in the comment section below.

If you can’t make it on Friday, my work will display at Coffee & Crepes through October 26th.  Stop by and take a look!

Stitching Silk Paper

Making silk paper has intrigued me for a while.  I finally dove into this week.

The process was simple.  I combined strands of silk from some messy unusable silk batting with a mixture of water and Elmer’s glue, flattening it between layers of tulle.

Once it was the desired thickness and smoothness, and while still wet, I brushed with fabric paints.  I removed the tulle and allowed it to dry.

I then added some stitching and thread painting.  Lastly, a bit of shiva stick highlights and stitching around the edges were added.

What do you think?  Not bad for an experiment…huh?  Fiber water color?

I’ve got another that hasn’t been stitched yet.  It’s very different from this piece.  Some works take time to speak to me…time to tell what the next step is.

As always, leave a comment.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for visiting.

9/11: Respect and Remembrance

Liberty Still Endures, Ann Flaherty 2002

For now, let’s put aside the hate to respect and remember.

Respect and remember the thousands who lost their lives.

Respect and remember the brave souls who gave their lives.

Respect and remember the millions who came together in the aftermath.

We  determine the significance of 9/11.

Liberty Still Endures.

Butterflies are always welcome

This butterfly has been hanging out in my yard for a few days.

A pretty sign that summer is ending.

I’m Lichen It

Here’s a couple of postcards (well, almost I haven’t added the card stock backing and stitched the edges). I painted, stitched and heat distressed synthetic papers on fabric.  They remind me of lichen.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.  Please leave comments.  Click the images to enlarge in a new window.

Sharing and Showing

Through VAE Window

Getting the work out there and getting noticed…that’s the challenge of being an artist in the current economy.  

If people don’t see your work, then how will they recognize your talent?  What can you do to bring more attention to your work? Invest in membership with active arts organizations, highlight current community concerns and combine your charitable passions with showing your work. Utilizing these three points, I had two great opportunities to share my work this month, and a lot of fun showing it.  

As a Feature Artist at the Visual Art Exchange Gallery (VAE) in Raleigh, NC, three new works are now showing in the front gallery, viewable through the window.  And with two new exhibits opening at the gallery, on First Friday, hundreds attended the reception.  The work will show at the gallery through July 29, 2010. 

In my conversations with patrons, I highlighted that these works use re-purposed light weight synthetic papers.  With a bit of paint, lots of stitching, and my trusty heat gun, I created these scroll-like works using materials that would be thrown out otherwise.  

2nd Saturday at Brunswick Town Historic Site was also a lot of fun.  This month, the site highlighted textile arts.  I really enjoyed explaining my process of creating fiber art, or should I say processes.  

Along with re-purposing materials, I’ve used a variety of techniques, from photo-transfer to mixed media in my work.  It is hard to limit the description to fiber art.  

I also demonstrated how easy it is to make an Operation Kid Comfort quilt, completing the quilt top for a little American hero during the four-hour event.  Operation Kid Comfort can always use volunteers, and with so many deployments now, we are in need of cotton fabrics suitable for juvenile quilts.  Brightly colored solids and cute prints for boys and girls would be wonderful!  Sending fabric in 4 1/2″ strips would be even better! 

Operation Kid Comfort

Armed Services YMCA

208 Thorncliff Drive

Fayetteville, NC  28303

Here’s the quilt top that I later finished at home after the show.  An experienced quilter can put together an Operation Kid Comfort quilt in 4-6 hours, and all by machine! 

Think about joining and volunteering at a local arts organization, incorporating social concerns into your work, and  including a charitable organization when showing your work.  It’s a win-win on for all!

New Re-Purposed Paper

There’s nothing like the whir of a heat gun . . . well, the whir of a sewing machine is  just as great, but I love that heat gun!

A bit of paint, some synthetic paper, stitch it all up and zap it with the heat gun.  What fun!

I finished a third in the series today and delivered them all to The Exchange Gallery before I could get some good photos.  But here’s a f not so detail shot.  More to come after the exhibit is hung.

And YOU ARE INVITED!  July 2nd, 6-9 pm at the Visual Art Exchange gallery, downtown Raleigh, North Carolina.  It’s also First Friday, so there’ll be lots of fun cultural stuff going on.

See you there!