New Flickr Photos in Slideshow - Pathways

Yesterday I added a new set to my flickr slideshow with pictures of my 'Pathways' exhibit.   I still have a few more to enter but most are there.  Where has the time gone?    I had planned to spotlight some of the pieces on my blog over the summer.   I think I talked about one so far....And my exhibit ends on Saturday, August 18.  The eight weeks went by very quickly. I was happy to see that it has been very well attended.   When I visited with a friend on Tuesday I took the time to read the comments that visitors had written.   We can learn a lot about our work by knowing what people like about it (or dislike).   There were some very thoughtful  and valuable comments - definitely my exhibit had many fibre artist visitors.
It made me gasp when one visitor wrote about a piece she fancied, "Is this piece for sale?"    Yes, yes, and yes!  Most of the pieces were for sale except for a couple that are part of my own personal collection.  But I guess it wasn't obvious to visitors.   I got to thinking about how uncomfortable we seem to be about announcing that we are marketing our work as well as showing it.  Galleries tend to be rather subtle about it too.   In this case, the museum had price lists available at the show but at another group show I took part in, I remember that a major complaint of visitors was that they didn't know if items were for sale, how to find out the prices of things or how to make a purchase. 
We each have our own ways of promoting our work - some sellers are more direct than others.  Many of us shy away from self-promotion.   I do enjoy being present at shows to discuss the work, sometimes just for the pure joy of having someone who is interested in hearing about it (rather than boring my friends).  As a customer I shy away from the 'hard sell' technique so I am careful not to be forceful or annoying (at least I hope I am).  Since I would not buy a piece of art unless it spoke to me in some way,  I do like to be able to connect with people to see if they understand what I am trying to say with my work and maybe to share some of the stories behind the art work.   I guess as an artist I want to be understood as well.   So, it's not enough just to sell a piece of work, I want people to know what they are getting.  I guess I'd never make a good car salesperson

Blogging is a great way to hear from others about our work.  I try to make comments on other people's posts if I have something to say and I love receiving comments.  At first, I only made comments on blogs if I had some previous connection to the blogger (a shared group, a follower etc).  Soon I was commenting wherever I saw something that interested me.   It's great!
But just for the record, if there are potential buyers out there in cyber space, I would be thrilled to hear from you too:-)

An Autumn Walk in the Greenbelt

I need to thank Neville Hamilton for the inspiration for this hand stitched piece.   Before Christmas he purchased one of my pieces as a gift for his partner after they saw it at my open house in November.   At the open house we had discussed my upcoming exhibition called 'Pathways' .  It just so happens that he is an excellent photographer.   When he came to pick up the artwork he brought me three photos for inspiration.  I immediately had an idea for one of them and he gave permission for me to use it as a photo transfer.   It was an autumn scene of his partner walking their dog in the greenbelt forest.   So here is what I did with it.  First I scanned the photo into my computer and printed it on fabric.  See original photo below.   My scanned version would not upload because it was in the wrong format so I had to take a picture of the picture for this post.

I surrounded it with rectangles of autumn colours, adding stitches and paint to the photo transfer.   Then I appliqued trees in the foreground and hand cut many tiny maple leaves and fused them in the foreground as well, stitching their veins with some lovely variegated threads I purchased from Laura Wasilowski at Artfabrik.

Laura's threads

  I covered it all with a fine yellowy netting and prepared a stretched canvas by turning it over and covering the frame with fabric.

I mounted the artwork inside the stretched canvas and, as a final touch I fused and stitched a few leaves drifting over the frame.

closeup of stitched leaves

spilling over onto the frame

                                                  

An Autumn Walk in the Greenbelt

It took a lot of hand stitching but once I started, I worked on it steadily until it was finished.  Today we are living in a winter wonderland in Ontario and this bright burst of autumn (and a steaming latte) is just what I needed.  I seem to find myself working on autumn scenes every winter.    This piece will definitely be part of my 'Pathways' exhibit.  I'm still thinking about the final naming of this piece.