10/20/09

October has been a great month for me so far! At the very beginning of the month, I received my copy of "Quilting Art: Inspiration, Ideas & Innovative Works from 20 Contemporary Quilters" in the mail. I was interviewed for this book in August of 2008 by the writer Spike Gillespie, and she gathered several jpegs from me of various pieces. It's a gorgeous hardcover book, filled with really stunning work by some incredibly talented artists, and several pages are devoted to my work. (Also, two painfully unflattering photos of me-- sigh. I never said I was photogenic.) They even used a detail shot of one of my pieces on the cover! It was published by Voyager Press, and hit the shelves this month. It's already available on Amazon.

A day or two later, I got some more great news in the mail. Two of my pieces were accepted into a new coffee table book that's coming out next spring called "500 Art Quilts: An Inspiring Collection of Contemporary Work". It's being published by Lark Books; they produce beautiful books that highlight the very best work in the worlds of fine craft and art. I'm thrilled to be a part of this new publication, as well. It won't be out until March, I believe, but it already has an Amazon page reserved for it.

Toward the middle of the month, I did my first paid public speaking engagement ever. I have never been very comfortable with the idea of public speaking, but then again, the issue hasn't come up that much in my life. When I was invited to do this presentation for the Contemporary QuiltArt Association, I said yes, wincingly, and then spent several months panicking over the idea of having to speak in front of an audience. But I poured my panic into working on my presentation, and came up with something that was very warmly received and appreciated. I was speaking about my art, and the personal and artistic influences that have lead me to make what I make, and about the evolution of my technique. I was so relieved that the presentation went very smoothly, and I got some extremely positive feedback from it. I have already gone back to work on the presentation a little, making a few changes that will make it better still, for the next time I am invited to give it.

Over the summer, I photographed a couple of models so I'm looking forward to getting to work on some new pieces. So far they are still in the "sketching and ruminating" phase of the process, but I'm hoping to get started in fabric soon.

Thanks for checking out my website. If you like the work you see here, please tell a friend about it or forward them the link. Feel free to post your thoughts in the guestbook, or hit contact to send me a personal message.

Enjoy the beautiful colors of the season, and thank you, as always, for your support!

This website was created by Kevin McKeever, without whom i would still be doing everything with a spiral bound notebook and pencil. Many, many thanks to Kevin! Please check out his amazing site too!
www.kevinmckeever.com.