Monday I mailed a 19x19x24" cardboard box with 8 of my most important artwork of the past 10 years in it. It cannot be insured for its true value. It is heading for Boston via The US Postal Service. From my bird's eye view, I can see the snow blowing and the wind gusting as it gets transported in a white truck with red and blue trim. If it gets lost, I want it to be lost in the semi-socialist service of this part of the United States government, and not lost by a private company such as UPS or FedEx. That is my way of being patriotic. I am trusting this government regulated agency with my textile heart. The work is not mediocre. It is quite inventive. It should be going to a museum, but I am happy to have my work shown by a fiber gallery run by fiber-hearted women in a major United States harbor city. When I get home from my house sitting job (I cannot yet make a living with my art), I will post some of this work. You won't be able to see the richness and depth of my work from these photos. So if you are in Boston anytime from March 5th to April 23rd, please see my show,"Stitched into Reality".
The name of the shop/gallery is Bead + Fiber on Harrison Blvd. in South Boston.
Please check out their website:www.beadandfiber.net. My work has not arrived yet, but there will be images on this site soon.
Many thanks to Barbara Poole, a fellow artist-in-residency who I met at the Jentel Foundation in Banner, Wyoming in 2006, for inviting me to do this show. She is a wonderful painter and felt-maker and inspired me to begin a hooping journey that is still in progress. She gave me a photo myself when I first picked up the hula hoop at Jentel. She added a rainbow and the quote from the Wizard of Oz. "Never give up. You don't know how it will end." And I haven't given up. I am just beginning.
http://www.blogger.com/www.beadand%20fiber.net
http://www.peggydebell.com

This is a composite of 2 images...Lake Santeelah in Western NC and the Sandhill Cranes in Hawassee Preserve in Tennesee.

This is the largest tote bag made from recycled woven polyester sunflower seed bags. It is quilted with hand embroidery. The interior is shown in the next post. It is in the collection of Rick and Liz Lindsay.

Interior of largest tote bag..vinyl, with 4 pockets

Birdbag Tote

Another recycled bird seed bag...this time a tote..(quilted, hand embroidered, lined)

Bird Bags

My daughter -in- law wanted a photo of her Pug on a bag. I recycled a sunflower birdseed bag made out of woven polyester by cutting out parts of the seed bag and then quilting them. The photo of her pet was printed directly onto a heavy cotton with my inkjet printer and used as a flap.

"Lullaby of Birdland"

The last art work I did was entitled, "Lullaby of Birdland". It is made of woven polyester that I printed with my inkjet printer after coating the surface with a product called INKAID. The images were scanned from sunflower seed bags and altered. Then I printed several large sheets using Epson Ultrachrome K3 inks as they are both archival and colorfast. I cut the sheets into many smaller shapes and rearranged them into a kaleidoscope, pieced them on my sewing machine, then used hand quilting, embroidery, and all kinds of embellishments. Some but not all of the embellishments include: beads, pipe cleaners, paper clips, rickrack, springs, rolled plastic beads, glass...

It is about 38" in diameter.

I picked the title for my blog, Bird's Eye View, because it came to me and just as I started typing I saw a red-tailed hawk perching on a tree. This is unusual and I am hoping that it is a good sign for the beginning of my blog!