where in we discuss "is it my work"

work has moved right along on this piece this week (actually last night I pinned in that last piece on the bottom right, so it will be done today)

I like the way this has come out -- at least to me the reflection of the sunset sky in the river is clear

now the there are two challenges to be handled -- how to do the quilting on this one (I have some ideas already) and where the cuts will be made -- this piece must be a specific finished size to enter in the show I want to enter it in, and I deliberately made it a bit bigger so no matter how much it draws up with the stitching, I will still have a piece that is big enough -- a whole new approach for my work

and I think I want to use a layer of gray tulle over the entire river under the silk to mute the colors of the reflections -- or not

it's still a work in progress here

this piece is moving along nicely

I have to say I haven't worked with this much pink fabric since I made a baby quilt for my great grand daughter a couple of years ago

and I'm glad I keep all those pieces of fabric that were left over from that project!

after "auditioning" several colors of fabric for the background of this piece, I decided that I like this combination

and I really like the whole look of this piece

so now it's ready to be sandwiched and stitched

Yeah!

and then there is this piece

if you've been following me here or on FaceBook, you've seen the step by step as I created this piece

this is the photo I took of a real dog that this piece of work is based on -- my idea was to stylize the dog, fiddle with the colors a bit (clearly this is a black and white dog -- no blue involved) and create a sort of impressionist style piece

I had (as I often do) a specific show in mind to enter this piece in -- it is titled "Going to the Dogs", which means I needed to do a dog as the subject of the piece (I was invited by the gallery owner to apply to this show based on a landscape piece of mine that hung in her gallery last year)

entering shows is what I do -- I want to have my work seen -- basically believing that if I'm just going to make stuff that no one ever sees I could go back to cranking out charity quilts and stop working so hard on making each one of the pieces a work of art

this week I had an experience with this piece that was a bit disturbing when I was told I needed to "confront the ethics issue" of this piece

and while you're saying "WHAT?!", let me explain -- I have a friend that does animal portraits -- she is very, VERY good at it -- she has done hundreds of them as commission pieces, and she encouraged me to try it for myself and I give her total credit for encouraging me in that direction and for sharing her knowledge and ideas

the "ethics issue" of this piece seem to be that I did an animal as the subject matter of a piece

did I set out to have my piece look like my friend's work? Absolutely not -- in fact, since I do know how she does her pieces, I went out of my way to do things differently in the original design phases of this piece -- her pieces are very literal, she's doing portraits of animals, many that are "memorial" pieces (the first dog I did was exactly that, and it was never shown or for sale because it was, in my mind, too close to her approach) -- I was more looking for the impression of a dog

and does no one else in the fiber art world get to make dogs? 

I talked with my friend after the discussion about the ethics issue -- I have her full encouragement and permission -- she doesn't think we're in competition -- she isn't doing shows -- she's too busy  doing commissions

I still feel a bit put off by the idea that someone thinks I'm not "making my own work"

I'll be thinking about this some more I'm sure, but in the meantime I'm going to finish the edges of this piece and enter it in that show.

no post is complete without an update on how Mr Benson is doing

this week's picture was caught one afternoon as the DH was finishing up his lunch and Mr Benson felt sure he needed a bite of that cookie -- he's doing his very best begging!