Attack! for Lung Cancer

As many of you know, my best friend (and college roommate) was diagnosed with lung cancer in December 2009. While we're still waiting for those golden words "she's cancer-free", she is fighting an awesome battle.  It just so happens that a friend here in North Carolina is heading up a very fun Art Auction to be held on September 10, 2011 at Roxy Farms Antiques to raise funds for the local chapter of the NC Lung Cancer Partnership .  Of course, I was "in" as soon as she told me!  Below is my latest piece made just for the Art Auction and what I wrote about it.

Attack!

This piece is made with cotton and wool cloth, wool fibers, thread and yarn. The techniques are hand wet-felting and stitching. The frame is local wild cherry and made by my husband, Charles Minchew.

“Attack!” was inspired by my internet research into what is being used to fight cancer today.  I read over and over that the objective is to shrink, slow, limit, neutralize, or detonate “the bad guys”. “Attack!” is my expression of what it looks like in my mind to watch the good guys pushing the bad guy out of the picture.  Forever.

This is dedicated to Melyssa, my college roommate and best friend, who is attacking her lung cancer right now with gusto! 

All photos Copyright © 2011, Christie Minchew.

First Galaxy all stitched up!

Finally!  I posted about First Galaxy's start and its continuation, and now I can show you how it all turned out.  When I finished hand felting it, I was disappointed with it but couldn't figure out why.  After much contemplation, I realized that I needed a third dimension.  So I pinched up the black swirls and hand-stitched them and voilà!  I'm so happy with the result - yea!

Hi-o Silver!

It was a bright and chilly day.... I was busily stitching away in the waiting room of the car service station when up rode a cute little gal with a white hat (well, actually that was her hair) packing her own heat (more on that later).  She saw that I was fighting off the frays and arrows of an organza shape with my trusty running stitch. Without much ado, she dropped a button hole stitch into my arsenal.  And, as she rode off into the sunset, I began using a loose version of that.  Wow!  My enemy was defeated! Thank you to that (not) masked woman whose name I never learned.

The Reveal

(weathered plywood)

One advantage of winter is that I discover all sorts of interesting things that were always there but were obscured by foliage.

And, ohhh, the potential! The colors...

(lichens on a vine-covered rock)

the textures...

(vine on rock)

the dimensional effects.
Driving home on our rural roads today, I saw two places (a huge, painted rock and a broken down out-building) that I hadn't noticed before.  They just begged to be photographed.
I'm giddy with ideas!

Eeeeasing back into it... and loving it!

Yesterday, I had fun... 

I partially wet-felted three "Geods", two the size of tennis balls and one that was oblong.

I used the technique I learned from Sharron Parker and it was a joy.

Layer about 8 layers of roving, fold and roll into a ball, tuck it into a sock, 

vigorously squeeze it in hot, soapy water, slice it up,

and voila!

They will be incorporated into ... something.  I have a few ideas.

So fun to see the patterns in these.

Saxapahaw Artists' Coop Gallery

Last weekend, the Saxapahaw Artists' Coop had their second annual holiday show.  This was no small feat as we had to totally renovate an old textile mill building to make it gallery-worthy.  So, welcome!  There was textile art, acrylic paintings...

fiber art (mine on right: "Circular Logic" and "Jelly Roll", a mobile wall-hanging of felted and wired pieces), collage, acrylic, watercolor, photography, oil...

and more upstairs including metal art ...

pottery...

clay objects...

and in between in the stairway was even more art.

It was such a fun weekend and a very fun, very talented group of artists.  I was honored to be included. 

First Galaxy continued

Saturday, I finished laying out the wool roving and added bits of knitting yarn, burlap threads and silk caps (first experiment with those).

After an hour or so in the bathtub (the felt) getting an upper body workout (me)...

this emerged from its wrapping.  

Stay tuned for the finishing touches....