Unfinished Business.

After John and I were married in July of 2005 we moved 'back home' for a year.  It was during that year that we planned a trip 'out west' in the fall, we flew into Albuquerque, NM and rented a car, then made our way through New Mexico, Nevada and California.  San Diego was the last stop on the list and we loved it so much that we moved there a year later.  Its funny looking back on the pictures now, SO MANY memories, would definitely do it all over again.

Something else I took pictures of on the trip- TEXTURES.  I really started noticing all of these textures around me so I started taking photos of them with the intention of doing SOMETHING with them.  I wasn't sure what...just...something.

Fast forward to the fall of 2007.  We had moved back from CA to Greenville, NC to go back to school.  I was pursuing my MAEd and John was working towards his MBA at our undergrad alma mater, East Carolina University.  We moved back so we could have the benefit of taking our classes face to face.  For me, this meant that I had access to the Jenkins Fine Art Building...to the textiles studio...and to my favorite professor, Christine Zoller.  

I wasn't sure where to start with my graduate work...so I thought about something that has always inspired me- texture...and luckily I had some photo references that I could work from- my pics from our trip our west!  (Yay, me!)  I printed my images on fabric and then fused them to some batting to give the pieces a little more firmness...then started doing what I love- embellishing.

The first piece (far left) ...okay, so I went a little crazy beading.  I totally forgot about my image underneath, that became secondary to beading...and beading...and beading some more.  The new texture focus became the beads.  In the second and third piece I tried to take a more refined approach, less beading, the tiniest stitches...it was all I could do to put down the needle and thread...which leads me to the piece on the far right,  a return to absolute bead craziness.  Business as usual.

(My later works in grad school would be a little closer to the last piece, but with my paintings on paper layered as a part of the piece, a concept I would like to revisit this month)

Here's the 'UNFINISHED BUSINESS' part of this whole diatribe...when I was looking for threads for my daily art yesterday I came across an envelope that had my digital images already printed on fabric, fused to batting and ready to go.

Dare I?

I also found THESE unfinished pieces...hand-dyed fabrics, fused...some partially beaded...some not even close...