Indra's Net

Indra's Net, inspired by the verse below from the Vedas in ancient India:

There is an endless net of threads throughout the universe.
The horizontal threads are in space.
The vertical threads in time.
At every crossing of threads there is an individual.
And every individual is a crystal bead.
The great light of absolute being illuminates and penetrates every crystal being.
And every crystal being reflects not only the light from every other crystal in the net,
But also every reflection of every reflection throughout the universe.

What better place to use those Swarovski crystals, golden thread,tiny watch parts, as well as texture stamped in heavy body gloss gel medium and colored with acrylics gold calligraphy ink. Loved doing this one! The visionary in me was delighted!

Art and images copyright 2009 Suzie Wolfer- all rights reserve

Best Laid Plans - Elements UPDATE

FINISHED!

To say this theme, for me, was the most difficult, thought provoking, and time consuming is an understatement. I thrashed about struggling with how to best represent the concept of Elements for several months.

I considered a number of paths, all of which lead me to unsatisfactory conclusions. In the end, I decided to tackle the idea in an abstract manner, which also allowed me to incorporate my exploration of patterning. I am pleased with the final result and proud to have been a part of this challenge.

Art and images copyright 2009 Tracie Lyn Huskamp - all rights reserve

"When You WISH......."

After pondering the theme "Heavens" I realized that I must include a star. As far back as I can remember I was always wishing on the first star of the evening.

Then, the phrase, "When you wish upon a star" kept playing in my head.

I had this beautiful star fabric so I embroidered the phrase and created a milky way using Angelina and crystal stars. The moon was created from another fabric and fused to the star fabric.

Completing the 12 themes has given me challenges and new experiences in mediums that I may not have otherwise attempted to use. Thanks to Jan and Tracie I have had the opportunity to participate in a project with a very talented group of artists.

I am excited about the show at the gallery and now must begin gathering my pieces to send to Jan.

Art and images copyright 2009 Marylin Huskamp - all rights reserve

Stairway to Heaven

Here's another art quilt for my 'Stairway to Heaven'. I've enjoyed all of the twelve challenges during the year and seeing every one's interpretation of our themes. It's stretched me to try new techniques and mediums. I'm eager to see all of our artwork hung in the gallery. A whole year's work and it's hard to believe it's ending. Thanks to everyone and especially Tracie Lyn and Jan for keeping us on track.

Art and images copyright 2009 Paula McNamee - all rights reserved

The Last Two Pieces

I almost forgot to get these posted on the blog. Like Tracie Lyn, life has gotten in the way of my plans for the summer. But....I did remember and here are my "Elements" and "The Heavens".

The Elements is an interactive piece. In continuing my mountain theme, I used four pictures from Hokusai's 32 Visions of Mount Fuji to represent each element. The individual element cards can be flipped up to display the next. This was a challenging and fun piece.

The Heavens came together in about two days. I had been thinking of how to do this one for about a month, not really getting anywhere and being stumped about it. Last Friday I had a vision and in one day I had the fabric and half the work done. The fabric is creatively quilted, the nebula is printed on inkjet canvas and the mountain, continuing again with the mountain theme, is printed on cardstock and everything is glued to the fabric covered canvasboard.

This has been a wonderful and challenging journey. I've played with techniques that I've never done before and stepped further out of my box than I thought I'd ever get. Thank you to everyone for pushing me out of my comfort zone.

Z'anne

Art and images copyright 2009 Z'anne Bakke - all rights reserved

Best Laid Plans - Elements

This blank canvas represents the current condition of my final artwork due in this year long art challenge.

Since today is the deadline for posting any outstanding pieces to the blog, I thought I would share a glimpse of my... um... work-in-progress.

After revealing my Heavens artwork, I had a full week to complete my interpretation of Elements, and fully intended to have the painting ready by today, however, life quickly stepped-in with other ideas.

I still plan to finish the work, and hope I can update this post with happy news, very soon.

Every Matter Under Heaven

"For everything there is a season...
And a time for every matter under heaven.
He hath made everything beautiful in his time,
from the beginning to end."

This posting is a bit out of order as I still need to complete my artwork for the Elements theme. But since this is something I am still struggling to find inspiration for, I decided to turn my attention to the final theme in our year long challenge.

This final theme, the Heavens, mean so many things to me... but the idea that kept reoccurring in my mind was the concept of time, and how there is never enough when you seem to need it and yet in some instances the hours, minutes, seconds drag by. However, among the Heavens does time exist? Is there really a beginning and an end?

My family owned a grandfather clock when I was growing up. Although our clock never had the elaborate details like some I have seen, I was always fascinated by it's rhythmic tick-tock, the deep chimes ringing every hour. This precise measure of "forever" somehow made me feel safe and comforted with it's sounds. Most of the grandfather clocks that have captured my attention over the years have been equipped with a rotating scene that was shown through a small odd shaped window usually located above the clock face. Various pictures of a moon and stars, a sun, and ships sailing the ocean blue were enchanting to watch pass, just like a fairy tale.

So June's artwork is a combination of many thoughts, and ideas. The sun, moon, and stars represent the sky, and there are no hands on this particular clock face I have created to symbolize no beginnings, or endings, no hours, minutes, or seconds.... there is just life and the living of it.

Art and image copyright 2009 by Tracie Lyn Huskamp- all rights reserved.

Heavens

Everyone should play with molding paste and acrylics-what fun!

Art and image copyright 2009 by Traci Donahue- all rights reserved.

Heavens

I have hundreds of photos of clouds from over the years, but I never tire of looking at them, especially at sunset after a storm. This is a composite of several photos in watercolor on Arches 140 pound hot press paper.

Art and image copyright 2009 by Jan Harris - all rights reserved.

This Moon is Shining Bright!

One early evening, as I was standing on the driveway, I was looking up and noticed the full moon shining brightly. I immediately went inside of a house and grabbed a camera. I then took a shot of the moon with the tall spruce tree on the left, and I thought it was perfect for this month's theme. I made it black and white in the photo editing software, and painted with purple and black acrylics mixed with glaze medium. When I was a kid, I remembered daydreaming about traveling to the moon in the future.



Art and image copyright 2009 by Andrew Borloz - all rights reserved.

Orion Nebula

This painting draws its inspiration from a Hubble telescope picture of the Orion Nebula. While I was painting it I was listening to some tapes of essays and speeches by Steven Hawking. I added word and phrases from the tapes with gold ink. Although I don't understand a lot of physics and mathematics, I am so thankful for the people who do. They have made it possible for me to see farther into the universe as I search for that place where science, religion and art all come together.

Art and image copyright 2009 by Judi Stack - all rights reserved.