This is part of the Check Her Out! series. Today I review Lyric's book. We are both Interweave authors, and we originally met through our contributions to Quilting Arts TV. I have come to know Lyric as an individual and am in awe of what she applies herself to and how much she accomplishes. Her writing style is gentle, encouraging, almost an embrace but like a good friend she also knows when to push and when to nudge. There are no excuses! And this makes for an even better creative ride.

Lyric Kinard's book Art + Quilt, Design Principles and Creativity Exercises is an absolute treasure. If you haven't added this book to your library already, here are a few reasons why you should.

Lyric's style is permissive and encouraging. She reminds us that we are all creative whether organizing our household or daring to embrace our own artistic selves, the basics are all within our grasp and ready to be shared with the world. Lyric breaks down the key aspects of art into 5 categories, Texture, Shape, Line, Color and Value and provides prompts to explore each idea.

Once these ideas are integrated into your repertoire, Lyric expands on these ideas by discussing some basic artistic principles; focal point, depth and space, motion and rhythm, to name just a few. She does all of this while peppering the text with ideas taken from major works of art, reminding you to place one foot in front of the next in order to become an artist in your own right, inspired by your very own experiences, armed with the basic concepts and ideas to keep you motivated, one piece of art at a time.

One of the best things about this book is the design game on pages 88 and 89. Just take your copy to a decent copy shop, ask them to print these two pages off onto card stock, cut them down to playing card size and play! Another great thing is that Interweave published this book with a perfect binding that conceals a spiral, this book will open and stay flat as you work your way through Lyric's exercises. It is a true workbook.

So. If you need to learn basic principles of design and composition or need a refresher course, this book will help you on your path, encourage and support your explorations and inspire you with the art contained on each page. And don't get me started on the quotes and essays by other artists!

You might consider purchasing a book directly from Lyric! She will sign in and (it seems) she will even tuck a little something special into it.

And as I said last week, Lyric and I will be making a postcard to give away at the end of the four week Check Her Out! spotlight. If you leave a comment on either of our Monday posts, you will be entered to win a postcard. Without knowing it Lyric and I sent one another a printed fabric featuring Gingko leaves! Please go check out the fabric I sent her! This is quite a coinkydink~

Practice really does make perfect. I like reminding myself that art is a practice, artists practice art, in a continuum, one idea leads to the next. You question, seek answers and ask what if and why not. It doesn't just come to you, you have to ask it to come. I haven't begun to paint the Evening Grosbeak because I am unsure how to go about it. realistic, quilterly, playful, painterly?

I am unsure how to paint the bird, so I practice. I do not like my samples yet. I like the top most bird better than the bottom because the eye is not so round. Birds eyes are fairly round, but are affected by eyelids just like us. Their eyelids create a slight bit of squared off shape. The first trial painting captured this best (not sure the photo really captures this). It is these fine details that really affect the outcome of a piece.

I like the big photos I am able to use with this new blogging software. I wish I could get the Assets to work though. Oh well. Please excuse me while I spiff things up around here.

Hello all. I am excited about my new approach in creating challenges related to my book, Inspired To Quilt. I am not going to talk you through the process, or teach it, rather I will show you how I work and reference the pertinent pages in the book.
I will have a few links to supplies here on the blog and ask you to upload photos of your samples to the Inspired to Quilt FanPage, where we can also start a discussion and talk among ourselves about technique and approach.

Bear with me as I figure out how to use all of the technology effectively. You may like to subscribe to the Inspired To Quilt youtube channel, they will update you each time I upload a video (not too often-you won't be bombarded)

Supplies you might use:
Faux painting rubber comb
Tsukineko Sponge Daubers
Advantus TAPE CLEANING SWABS

I have gathered together a group of women whose work I admire and think will be an inspiration to you too. I am going to spotlight one artist for 4 Mondays in a row with Interviews, book reviews and more. I hope you enjoy the art and ideas that will be presented in these, 'Check Her Out!' Monday posts. In addition Lyric and I will be making a small work together, at the end of the 4 week spotlight everyone who has posted to any of the Monday posts will be entered to win. You must come back to see if you are the lucky winner.

The first time I met Lyric Kinard was on the set at Quilting Arts TV, and from the start I knew I would really like her. Lyric is honest, engaging and good. Last year we both taught and roomed together at Quilt Fest in Houston, I am happy to say I consider Lyric to be a friend, and that is a wonderful thing.

Lyrics' art is expressive, joyful and varies from photorealistic to abstract, she has a real sense of color and value. Lyric also has a great relationship to 'hand work', watching her sit and bead is a meditation in itself. And so, I would like to give you the chance to get to know Lyric through a question and answer session we've had.

Here you go:
Melly: What is your story, how did you become an artist? Was it something you wanted to do from a young age or did you take a more circuitous path?

Lyric: Circuitous. Surprising. I never imagined I'd be a visual artist. I wanted to be a musician. I did everything I could to be a musician right up to the point that I realized I wanted children and that symphony musicians were always gone when the kids were home. I have a degree in English Lit, took all the pre-reqs to get into graduate architecture, still spent most of my time in the music department. Then after college, when I chose to have children, I gave it all up. There were a few lost years there.

A friend introduced me to quilting and I learned the traditional skills. It was something creative I could do being interrupted every five minutes. It was the only thing I did all day that didn't need to be redone. When I saw my first art quilt it was a revelation. Who knew quilts could do that!? I took every class I could and learned any technique that I thought would help me express my vision.

Melly: Name a work of art you wish you had created, and tell us why?
Lyric: I wish I could remember its name but the piece is still haunting me. Life sized figure, barely showing until you stand farther away. It was a grey/white, torn strips of horizontal fabric... something about the mystery. It was like an impressionist painting - soft and brooding and full of light. Monet is one of my favorite artists but not for the lilies that other people adore. I like his cathedrals - and there was another winter scene - the values barely contrasting enough to be seen. I want to be able to express mystery and light that way.

Melly: What do you do when you are feeling creatively dull?
Lyric: Make jewelry. Go outside. Pull out my camera or play with digital editing. Go back through my sketchbooks. Take a nap.

Melly: I know that you have children and a husband, how do you also juggle being an artist and a teacher on top of that?
Lyric: One thing at a time. And these days when I'm doing one thing - something else is left undone. There are many times that the art is put aside because the family must be taken care of and I am at peace with that. What I do with my children now will be far more long lasting than any art I create, and far more important. There will be time to be productive in the studio later. When I had my fifth baby I took two years completely off - calling it my baby sabbatical. Now the children are on their feet and I'm able to spend more time in the studio. I teach because I love being with the students. I'm lucky to control my schedule and only take limited teaching engagements trying to balance it all.

Melly: What is your favorite part of teaching?
Lyric: Seeing the light come on in a students mind. To see that spark of joy when they realize that they have it within them to be creative - to be able to visually express themselves.

Melly: What are you working on right now?
Lyric: As always - discipline. I don't have a lot of studio time and yet I am terrible at forcing myself off the computer and to the cloth. Once I pick up the cloth it's difficult to tear myself away. It is a constant struggle to find the balance. The work I'm following right now is a series of whole cloth pieces mounted on stretched canvas. I love the layered imagery where dye is taken out of the cloth and color and image is added back.

Next week I an going to review her book, Art + Quilt: Design Principles and Creativity Exercises. I can already tell you that I think it is a great compositional and creative primer! Her writing style is really permissive and encouraging. So stay tuned.

A package came in the mail yesterday and when I saw it came from Jeannie and felt that it was soft, I had an inkling and knew it was an exciting package. So I didn't open it (somewhat counter intuitive, I know). Instead, I waited until it would have my full focus. When I went ahead and opened it, I was ready to enjoy. It brought tears. Of course.

Foam shapes to use as stamps. Lots of arrows, a favorite motif of mine, which I don't think I have shared, excepting of course that my cat's name is Arrow.

And kimono scrap. Amen. Can we all say, 'kid in a candy shop'? Thank you Jeannie. You will also be getting a private thanks, but the swag imagery was too good to keep to myself.

I recently wandered the web and by way of Jude Hill's site, found Danielle Barlow's blog, Notes from the Rookery. With a name like that, I had to go. Can you believe I won this print? She is newly jazzed by sewing and she loves to draw and paint. Please go say hello.

When I was at Notes from the Rookery, I stumbled on a link to Janet Bolton's book Patchwork Folk Art which I promptly purchased. I have fallen in love with this little book. And so I have put thread to the needle and am studying her approach.

This will be a self portrait.

Beside all this, my retreat was fantastic. I was able to shed light on a spot of depression and had a chance to cry. I danced, did yoga, ate well and went to the whirlpool. All this and I came home to new blogging software (expect some changes as I get to know how to use it!).

So, retreat, awesome mail, learning opportunities, what more can be better?

I am doing some Top Secret art making for a proposed magazine article. And Top Sectret means...well? hm.

Instead I give you this:

Cuteness.

So this weekend I am going away for three nights and four days to a Yoga Retreat. A yoga dance retreat, no less. I will be without Internet connection, gasp! Hooray! This is the Hoot!

Now for the Toot(s):

So now, I have a facebook fan page set up and what to do with it? I am going to start talking snippets of inspiration and daily thoughts on art making. They will be quick, they will have lots of links and will encourage you to expand. I hope you will book mark it and follow me there too. When I get back from my...YOGA RETREAT!!! I am going to post a creative challenge over there. I am not going to talk up the fan page much here. Now and again but this will be the last of it for a while.

And I would like to let folks know of upcoming classes that I will be teaching. I would love to meet you and have the opportunity to work together creatively. I love to teach and am passionate about enabling you to learn.

International Quilt Festival Chicago
April 16-18, 2010
Lecture and Pretty Purses and Small Works, Big Impact

I cannot link directly to these classes (bummer) because you need to create an account and look at the catalog. But this event is fast approaching and I would love to FILL these classes.

Art and Soul
May 20-24, 2010
Soy Wax with Paint and Inspired Journaling, every-single-day!

I am excited about this event because I will be embracing the mixed media side of my creative approach and teaching a class on journaling and Soy Wax with paints! yum.

So, while I am away, know that I will miss you but that I will be having fun and hope you will too.

And, well, if I am going to toot my own horn perhaps I will also give a shout for Alma Stoller's Paynes Grey Portraits online workshop. I really like Alma and her style. Her use of layering is right up my alley.

Give away alerts?

Head over to Lyric Kinards blog and help her to name her newsletter. She will be giving away some notecards.

Jane LaFazio is giving away one of her DVD's! Check her out.

When you click over there, please say hello for me.

It was a bumpy start, but a start none the less. I say this because I started reading about the birds on the list.

I opened two internet windows, one for Audubon Common Birds In Decline site and the other for the Cornell Ornithology Lab site. And the Cornell Ornithology Lab cites the Evening Grosbeak as a bird of Least Concern, backed by a site called the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

Now, I am no researcher.

What I know so far is that Audubon has based it's research on many years of citizen science. They have tabulated numbers from 40 years of bird counts and those numbers show that these birds are in decline.

What I didn't understand is the difference between these two highly regarded sources. This is the first time I have come across the IUCN Red List and I will assume they are firmly grounded in the scientific community. But I would like to understand. I have written to the Audubon site. I have written to David Sibley and posted to the Birder's World web site.

And then I started anyway.

Yesterday I got the background of both the cotton and the organza layers finished. I stamped, monoprinted and layered the day away.

Here are the two layers loosely placed, one atop the other.

Now comes the hard part; how to depict the bird. So, true to form, I have set myself up to practice on scrap. The awesome thing about practicing on scrap is that as a result, I have all these random pieces of interesting cloth. Enter the word, Random...

And... I got a response from one of my birdie queries... It is good news (in a manner of speaking) but will have to wait! I am off to have a day.

Still wanting everyone to sign on to my fan page! You could win some of my cloth for doing so!

I really do think it is important to keep a scrap of fabric near by your work table. When you have scrap at the ready you can try things out without going straight to your 'good' work. You don't know how many times I just went right into my good piece, then had to compensate for my exuberance.
So this scrap was made as a result of wanting to check out my deconstructed screen print.

But once I had that scrap hanging around my work space, I had to keep working it. I call these my rags. Pretty rags indeed.

I am giving away my own hand printed cloth if you become a facebook fan of Inspired to Quilt, please do! I am going to be hosting a challenge through the site soon.

I now have an Inspired to Quilt Fan Page on facebook. If you become a fan, you may win one of 5 scrap bags of my own hand dyed and printed cloth. Each bag contains about a fat quarter of printed, color coordinated scraps!

Become a fan and win!

I am going to be hosting some challenges from there and would love to see you there.

Because I would like you to join over there, commenting on this will be closed here.

It is a snow day! My man is home, we are supposed to get 12 to 16". The subways are sluggish, the streets are quiet. This is the view out my kitchen window. I tried to get a photo of my beggar squirrel, but he took the peanut butter on rice cracker and ran! Doing my duty to keep the little guy warm.

Thank you for all of the encouragement. There are some commenters to the last post that I have not heard from before, and I love comments, don't we all? I was hesitant to post my hopes and dreams of making 20 pieces of art, for a cause I believe in, can I do it? If I post and fail, what of it?

So today I started The 20, for lack of a better name. And I started in spite of my fears and self doubt.

I don't want to start with the Northern Bobwhite, because I have never seen this bird before and it is a land based bird. Do I get all photo realistic with grass or go for my own interpretation. So, I move forward and will approach that little guy when I am further into the project.

I went to the next bird, the Evening Grosbeak.

This is a photo of the map. My general outline for the piece.

I love to understand my subject matter and get an idea for the lay of the artistic land. I want to know what the bird eats, why it's habitat in threatened, what can be done to help preserve what is left of it. I think it would be best to collect as much positive information as I possibly can so that when I am done with the project, my viewer will be able to say, I love Evening Grosbeak and I would like to pick up the fight! I have a Box Elder in my yard and I vow to keep it healthy so the Evening Grosbeak can feed here, if it chooses to. I want to provide answers, not just display a problem.

So I prepare my resists, in this case outlines of Boxelder Maple leaves.

With some resists in place I begin to print the cotton layer.

I don't yet know how I will print the organza layer, maybe plants that attract evening Grosbeak, the outline of the Boxelder Maple? Its a free for all as far as that is concerned.

Off topic, I bought a copy of Janet Bolton's Patchwork Folk Art: Using Appliqu� and Quilting Techniques, and LOVE it. It isn't really a technique book, although it is. It is a verbal journey, a flowing bunch of ideas. I like it a lot.

And thank you! Thank you for commenting and encouraging me to follow my heart. I have taken a first step.