Thinking Pieces

These are my three thinking pieces that I add a little stitch here a shift in fabric there. The small landscape in the lower right is a small piece that may be added to a larger project.  I love painting and I love fabric!

Thinking

I'm on holiday break from teaching, and had big plans to be creative.  This is my little pile I have been working on. (I have a big pile that I am not working on, but not showing it at this time.) Well my big plans to create have not been so big.  Mostly I am thinking.  Looking and thinking.  I had a student a few years ago that would sit staring into space for 45 minutes or more after I gave him an assignment.  When I asked him if he needed help he would say, "No, I am thinking."  I thought he would never finish his classes, but he did.  Now I am the one who is thinking. 

I Love Sunsets!

Sunset Santa Monica December 15,2013 by Vicki Fisher-Lerer

Almost everyday I take a walk at the beach.  I try to schedule my teaching so I can walk at sunset.  It calms me an gives me creative inspiration. 

In memory of Bob.

Feeling Sad

This is a picture of me as a child that fascinates me.  It seems to capture my pain of growing up, my fear of change.  I remember the day...my Dad was leaving, he lived in Florida and would visit periodically.  I was crying but he still took the picture.  The strange thing is that I wasn't so sad about his leaving, but about the change he caused when he would visit.  Today I am feeling sad because I found out that a friend of mine is in his last days of life.  For him, I am very, very sad he is leaving.  I am sad for the loss of a friend.

Three wishing stars

I added three wishing stars to my moon for Jude at Spirit Cloth. http://spiritcloth.typepad.com/  Jude is such a great inspiration...check her out.  Everyone at Jude's place is an inspiration.  Thank you.

Slow Stitchin'

Lately, at night I sit down and stitch a little on this moon.  
I added blueberry dyed silk to the moon and keep stitching. Not sure you can tell any difference from the earlier post, but there are more purple stitches. What I like about stitching is...it is slow, I like touching and feeling the cloth, and it gives my mind wandering time...time to think.  It is a different space from the space I go to when I paint. When I paint I am not thinking as much as I am feeling the paint.
 I like going to both places.

Okay, I know I said I would post the next layer of my mom painting...but I haven't worked on it.  I have been stitching and touching fabric.  This is one of the pieces I have been working on.  More to come.

Mom3x Layer 2

Late last night I worked on the second layer, not sure I like this but it is very therapeutic. I came to realize something that was unsettling, I keep painting this scene of my mom on the stairs.  I kept wondering what is it about this photo? Eighteen years ago today my mom passed away from a fall involving stairs. I did not put it together until last night when working on this.  I think this piece will be the last of this series.  I will post next layer tomorrow.

In Memory of Mom

Vicki Fisher-Lerer      copyright 2013 

Moon stitching

I started stitching this moon a few months ago in Jude Hill's Spirit Cloth http://spiritcloth.typepad.com/ online class, Whispering Sun, Moon and Stars. I first used bleach discharge for the moon shape then started stitching.  I did not have a plan...just improved each stitch.  I posted earlier the moon before I added fabric to the moon and many more stitches.  I am auditioning fabrics and paper waiting to see where it takes me. This the moon with beginning stitches.  

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Thanksgiving vacation and new mom series

I started a new piece tonight.  Thanksgiving vacation starts and I have four days off from teaching. That means: stay up late and create, sleep in late, spend a little time with family, maybe do a little cleaning around the house.  I said maybe. 
This is my first layer of collage, tomorrow I will add color. Not sure what I like about this picture.  The first thing is that it is a picture of my Mom.  The figure of my Mom reminds me of the paper dolls I used to cut out when I was little.  I loved sitting for hours cutting paper...guess I still do.  I also am attracted to the stairs. They remind me of a path.
My goals for the next four days:  work on this piece, post picture of my hand stitched fiber moon I have been working on, work on my hand stitched fiber moon piece, dye some silk fabric, paint some paper lace, work on landscape quilt  and work on two functional quilts!  I love lists... let's see what I goals I complete.

Where is the fourth layer?

I am stewing.  That's what I call it when I am not ready to move forward with a piece.  I keep looking at the painting I started and am stuck after the 3rd layer...or am I?  Is it finished?  I thought it would be like some of my other mixed media pieces but it isn't.  It is personal and I like where it is at right now, but there is something...can't put my finger on it yet.  A friend looked at it and said, "It is ethereal."  The definition of ethereal-light, airy, or tenuous: an ethereal world created through the poetic imagination; heavenly or celestial: gone to his ethereal home.  That is where my Mom is at.

Now I am stewing on a new piece, looking at my Mom's images. 

Yesterday After the Rain

I try most days of the week to take a walk at the beach to end my work day and look at the beauty.  It amazes me how every day the sky and beach are a different painting. Oh, to capture a piece of this in my artwork...

Layer 3

Tonight when I started working on this painting, I thought I would lighten the whole painting and push everything back.  It did not exactly happen, but I like where it is going.  I did some writing on the painting that may get covered or not.  I should write in my journal what it says, because I will forget, maybe that is the process of the 18th year with my mom not here.

"My Mom"-Second layer

While you were sleeping last night I added the second layer.  I am using Golden Liquid Acrylic paint, my favorite. (At least for this week.)  Tonight or tomorrow night I will add another layer.  Many more layers to come.  Check back to see my progress.  

My mom piece-the first layer

On November 30, it will be 18 years since my mom passed away.  So long ago... yet it seems like yesterday.  I have been thinking about this picture and my mom for a long time.  Saturday night I started this piece and thought I would share the steps I go through when I create.  This is the first layer, not sure where it will go, but this is how I start my multimedia pieces.  

Pacific Palisades Art Association 65th Anniversary Show

My "On the Wall Series#1" won first place for the mixed media category.  Thank you PPAA. It was a very nice surprise.

 My "Last Day" won honorable mention in the mixed media category. Thank you again PPAA. 

November 16, 2013 Pacific Palisades 65th Anniversary Show

Beginnings

I have started many beginnings in fabric, stitching, and painting fabric.  Now I am contemplating what little pieces might live together and start stitching on them. Not sure about this... will have to ponder for awhile. I have stitched on the landscape painting a little with gold thread.  Maybe the landscape needs to live on its own?  What do you think?

On the Wall Series PPAA SHOW IS UP UNTIL JAN 4, 2014

This weekend I have two mixed media paintings in the Pacific Palisades Art Association 65th Anniversary show.  This piece is from my "On the Wall Series."  It combines my love of painting and fabric.  It has acrylic paint, papers, and painted silk cloth. 

Here is the second piece.
I had to post it from the flyer, as I am not very organized and couldn't find the original picture of the painting.  What can I say, I just spent the day teaching.

This painting was done in response to the campus shooting at SMC.  It has a special meaning because my son was there that day taking his last final.  

My next post will be of some of my fiber work!  I want to post what I have been creating from Jude's classes...many beginnings:)

My Fascination with Moons
I have always been fascinated with the moon since childhood.  Only this past year has the moon started appearing in my artwork.  The top painting is part of my "Night Series"acrylic/mixed media work.  Night Series started last winter late at night, my favorite time to work.  It has continued in my paintings on and off this past year.

This summer I discovered online a wonderful teacher and artist, Jude Hill http://spiritcloth.typepad.com/ (hope I linked this right, I'm new)
I signed up for several of her classes and she started me on my hand stitching fiber journey.  Thus the bottom moon.  Check out Jude's moons they are wonderful.  My moon stitching has melded into my love of the ocean and I have many pieces I am working on and will post at a later time.

My first post!  Starting a blog has been running through my mind the past year.  Like all things if I don't get it down on canvas, paper, fiber or fabric it is gone for another time; floating in and out of my brain.  

So today, November 10, 2013 I am starting my blog.

Today on my daily sunset walk I was listening to my music, mind a million miles away, when this elderly woman grabbed my arm and stopped me.  I wasn't sure what she wanted so I took out my ear buds.  She asked, "What color is the sun?"  Now I wasn't sure why she asked this question, but I proceeded to describe it in colors I would use to paint it.  Once I did the woman's face lit up.  She asked me if I saw blue in the sun.  I first said no but as I stared at it the center  it did look blue.  She explained to me she has glaucoma and it is hard for her to see.  We talked, I told her I would see her again and describe the next sunset, as they are never the same.  This time instead of a visual painting I created a verbal painting for her to see.