Amos the Famous

Banks of the Poudre River

2012-01-01T21:39:00.000-06:00

Stage 1

All done


All done and framed.

Christmas present for my sister. Acrylic on raw silk and embroidered. I started it the week before Christmas. Wish I'd had two more weeks.

Milo

2012-01-01T21:34:00.001-06:00

Because you aren't really an artist until you've done dog portraits.

Miles and Miles of Iowa

2011-12-13T11:05:00.000-06:00

The whole things

close-up

The clouds.

Back-side

My good husband--who has learned the art of framing for my sake.

Finished Product.

This is a commissioned piece for a family from the Ames, Iowa area. They have lived here many years and are moving away and wanted to take a piece of Iowa with them. It is a country church that they have loved.

Portrait of Molly

2011-12-13T10:46:00.001-06:00

This is the third portrait that I've done of my kids in the last year or so. It was done for the LDS Church Art competition. I guess I'll find out if it was accepted later this month. It is acrylics on lace, overstitched with embroidery. I love it. I included three picture of the process, in case anyone is interested.

This is what I wrote about the piece:

Last fall my oldest daughter, Molly, turned 12. She does not, in general, go easily into transition, and her move from Primary to Young Womens was no exception. She is tall, studious, a little gawky and almost always awkward in social situations. I ached a little each week watching her walk into that room full of beautiful, confident teenagers. One of her first activites was a Secret Grandmother Dinner. Each girl was assigned an older sister to visit with. I was there helping serve the food, and I watched from across the room as Molly’s “grandmother” would ask her questions and Molly would answer with two or three word and then retreat to herself. I felt a little frustrated with the situation, with Molly and with myself as her mother.
A little miracle happened for me then. As I walked back in the room with dessert, I saw Molly again and the words came into my mind that “Molly is your work.” I knew that the work Heavenly Father has given me to do with my life is to raise and teach my children. I felt so much gratitude that Heavenly Father would trust me with this work. I more easily saw Molly as a child of God and as a work in progress. I saw this short awkward time as a period of learning and growing for Molly and for me. And I saw a little more clearly how this is my work, but even more it is the work of my Heavenly Father.
I made this portrait of Molly to record my feelings from that night. Behind her are embroidered words that describe what she and I want her to become. I don’t care if she chooses to become an astronaut or a librarian or a gardener, but I do care that she chooses to be kind and righteous and good. This is my testimony of parenting and my testimony of the kind of parent that our Heavenly Father is.

Red Corn

2011-09-13T21:46:00.000-05:00

I did a whole lot of shows this summer. The last one this year ( I think) is in Fairfield, Iowa in October. I'd planned on using the Anti-Clematis piece I did earlier this year--recycling it from a show in Cedar Rapids. But it sold. That was great--but it meant I needed something new. I did this piece--it is about 9x10 inches of heavy embroidery in about a week. My right arm was SORE by Saturday. Sore from gripping a needle. I must be getting old.

Summer Corn

2011-06-01T21:34:00.002-05:00

I know you all wanted to see an extra large image of this one. It has a crazy lot of stitching on top of stitching. It is my first attempt to do a cornfield in full summer. Or a bunch of cornfields in full summer. I just scanned it in because I need to take it to be hung in a show tomorrow at the Grinnell Arts Center. One of three shows I have this month. A little crazy.

Capitola got Framed

2011-05-28T18:03:00.000-05:00

My Uncle sent me a picture of the Capitola piece after they had it framed. It turned out great, I think.

Capitola

2011-05-09T21:37:00.001-05:00

The whole banana. You may remember that my Aunt and Uncle asked me to do a picture of Capitola, CA. This is the finished product. I think you can click on it to see it bigger. At least I hope you can.

Detail.

Another Detail.

Smith. He just wanted to be in a picture.

Arch

2011-05-07T20:10:00.003-05:00

I've been experimenting with some different combinations of paint and stitching. This is small--about 4x6 inches. It is not of any particular arch, since I was busy with wet paint and didn't want to go look for a reference. I think this technique has some good possibilities.

Orangey Flowers

2011-05-07T20:08:00.003-05:00

#3 in Flower Series. This was shown at the Grinnell Artists show and sold. So, I never did take a decent picture of it.

Anti-Clematis

2011-05-07T20:05:00.003-05:00

This has been the year of starting and not finishing much of anything so far. I have four shows coming up in the next two months though, and need to have something to show. This is the latest in my flower series---#4 to be exact. It is a picture of the clematis in the backyard. Molly made a joke and said that if I did a copy of this picture in opposite colors I could call it "Anti-Clematis". I thought that was funny.

2011-02-20T20:52:00.002-06:00

These are the first few rounds of a picture I'm doing for my Aunt and Uncle of Capitola Beach in California. For anyone interested--here are the interesting points of this"
1. Didn't like any posted pictures of Capitola (angle wrong, too blurry, etc) and was not about to take a trip there for my own photos, so I used Google Earth street view, strolled along the road and was able to manipulate my own shot. Made me feel a little techie.
2. It is a busy picture and I wanted to collage it, but didn't want it to be too disconnected, so used the purplish background for the main piece and then painted patches of it to applique with. I think this helps with some continuity to the piece.
3. Used misty-fuse to glue down about three hundred little pieces of house. I seem to have misplaced the picture with all the windows (which, by the way, were made of a sheerish black ribbon. Guess I'll have to do another post. This last picture was taken a month ago and I have made lots of progress since then. Maybe I'll go take some pictures.

Celebrating Grinnell's Artists show

2011-01-29T18:06:00.006-06:00

View from Jacob Krumm Dam

2010-11-07T20:35:00.005-06:00

My Dad asked me to finish this cornfield piece for my Mom's birthday. It's nice to have patrons. Try to count the french knots. This is a record for me.

Grinnell Arts Center--Iowa Art Quilters

2010-11-04T20:40:00.003-05:00

Iowa Art Quilters Show opened here tonight in Grinnell. These pictures are not great, but you get the general idea. I have three pieces in it.One is the map quilt shown below, one is the picture of Amelia--shown above with the real Amelia and one is Sacred Grove which I've never posted here because of the lack of a quality picture. You can see it above, second picture down, on the lower left.

West Jordan Utah, 2010

2010-10-10T21:32:00.003-05:00

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In February of 2008 my Dad was made city manager of West Jordan, Utah. He moved into a big office with golden walls--which he didn't want to repaint for budget reasons. My mom mentioned to me that he needed artwork. I thought this might be a hint--so I did some research, trying to find landmarks in West Jordan to paint or stitch or whatever. Unfortunately, as much as West Jordan is a very nice place to live, it is sadly lacking in landmarks. It was mostly farms until the 70s--nothing historic of signifigance and while there are great mountain views--the mountains are not actually IN West Jordan. So, I did what anyone would do--I embroidered every street in West Jordan three times by hand. I made seventy some small quilts and then eventually attached them to a large background. This things is painted, layered, beaded, embroidered, woven--pretty much it is a sampler of my every technique. This will hang in a show at the Grinnell Arts Center for the month of November and then go on to Utah--to cover up some of those gold walls.

Another Cornfield

2010-09-28T13:21:00.004-05:00

Another cornfield--currently living at Catiri Art Oasis in Amana, IA

Corn Fields 2010

2010-09-28T13:18:00.003-05:00

2010-09-28T12:58:00.003-05:00

I am trying to post my summer work. I don't have another picture of this piece--so here is a lousy picture taken at the Grinnell Arts Festival. This cornfield currently resides at Catiri Art Oasis in Amana, Iowa.

Cornfield in Progress

2010-04-24T11:02:00.002-05:00

This is bigger than my past cornfields. Come back in a few weeks for a more completed view of this.

Iowa Corn Stubble--Wintertime

2010-04-24T10:59:00.003-05:00

Done. That's all I'll say. Paint, layered netting and tulle, lots of embroidery.

Amelia

2010-04-24T10:57:00.003-05:00

This is a work in progress. After doing the picture of Sandra (see below) I was unhappy with the overall outcome. So, I am trying another embroidered face. This is Amelia, my third daughter. I am still working on the eyes and the background.

Sandra

2010-04-24T10:52:00.003-05:00

I printed ginko leaves on a rough silk last fall, embroidered line detail on them and then needed a substantial image for the foreground, so I embroidered a picture of my daughter, Sandra.

Blue Mountain in Green

2010-04-24T10:38:00.002-05:00

This is Blue Mountain, in South Eastern Utah. On maps you can find it labeled as "Abajo Mountain", but the locals all call it Blue Mountain. My husband grew up right at the base of it. When I did this piece he said "It's way too green--it's the desert." I personally think there is plenty of desert color in this picture, but I called it Blue Mountain in green anyway.

View from the Race

2010-04-05T20:35:00.002-05:00

Last fall I volunteered at a 5k race fundraiser for our school's gifted and talented program. It was an out and back race with me at the end to tell people to turn around. The people didn't actually need my help. So, I took my sketchpad and did some drawings--and turned this one into an embroidery.

Blackbird of Happiness--finished

2009-07-10T20:03:00.002-05:00

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Here are the last few images. The background is made from a piece of old upholstery sample covered with the leftover gauze from Molly's tooth removal (the dentist office gave us enough gauze so that she could bleed for the next few years and not run out). The branch, blackbird and black parts of the tail are made from various parts of a grapefruit bag. The wing and tail are made from a little red leather moccasin.

Blackbird of Happiness

2009-07-10T19:52:00.004-05:00

I was looking at a mixed media/fiber arts website and saw a contest I wanted to enter because I wanted to win the free online class. You had to use trash/junk and you had to use a bird in your design. I used the obvious bird for Iowa in the summer--red winged blackbird. The entire project had to be done within the month of June. I mostly finished it the last night of June about 11:00. When I went to download the image to the contest site, I found that in order to be a member of the contest Flikr group, you had to have permission from the site administrator. I didn't have time to get permission, so I ended up not entering the contest.

I don't know how to rearrange pictures, and I obviously downloaded these backwards, but if you look from the bottom up you can see the trash I used--followed by one baby moccasin that we've lost the partner too--that was cut up to make the bird's wing and tail.

Then the next few pictures and of the background in progress.

Calliandra

2009-06-17T22:33:00.003-05:00

I went to visit my cousin a few weeks ago. She is having a baby girl soon and is naming it after one of her favorite flowers. So, I thought a picture of the flower in question would be a good baby gift. I like how it turned out. Now I just need to do a framing job of some kind and send it off.

Peter and Mary

2009-06-17T22:25:00.002-05:00

A few years ago I entered a fiber post card show in Arizona. The theme was a real or imagined trip to Arizona. Since I personally had no memories of Arizona, I did a picture of my mom roller skating in the 1950's in Mesa. I recently got an e-mail inviting me to enter again. Since the last show, I have been to Arizona--to my brother Peter's wedding. So, I did a portrait of Peter and Mary. It was hard going getting a good image because it is kind of light colored and very small. But, one of my memories of their wedding was walking around the Mesa temple and looking at the different types of cactus growing on the grounds. So, I gave Mary a cactus bouquet. I think she really had daisies, but I kind of like the cactus.

In the Curve of the Sand

2009-06-17T22:12:00.001-05:00

I finished this piece too. I needed some words for it and opened up a poem by Tennyson. The line reads "And the rainbow lives in the curve of the sand." I think it is greatly improved by the line.

Flowers in My Garden--all done

2009-06-17T22:09:00.002-05:00

You've seen this one before--in a more unfinished phase. I really like the green beads around the edge, I am not sure of the black beads on the flowers. They may get picked off and replaced by smaller french knots or something.

???

2009-04-08T10:08:00.002-05:00

You will have to just wait and see what this becomes.

Flowers in my Garden

2009-04-08T10:06:00.003-05:00

I needed an early spring this year, so I got out a picture of asters and sedum that I took in my yard last fall and embroidered it. It is still not done, as you can see. But it is, at least, bright.

A Wretched Cornfield

2009-04-08T10:02:00.003-05:00

This is the third on my list of current, unfinished projects. I had it almost all done in golds and decided it was way too boring. So, I unpicked the whole thing and redid it in browns, oranges and magenta. I may have gone too far. It is still not done, but when I was working on it in the middle of January I just couldn't take any more winter, so I am thinking that sometime in July or August when I am craving cold, maybe it will be more appealing. And maybe it will just never turn out. We will see.

Piano Bag

2009-04-08T09:31:00.003-05:00

A piano bag I made for my daughter Sandra for Christmas. It is to carry music in--not the piano. It is kind of heavy embroidery on corduroy. I meant it to be bachelor's buttons. My mom says it is chives.

At the Conference Center

2009-04-08T09:28:00.004-05:00

Another of my corn field pictures was juried into the LDS Church Art Competition show. The opening reception ended up being the same week as spring break, so we went. This is not a great view of me or my picture, but at least you can see that we were really there. It will be on display at the LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City through the middle of October.

Framed

2009-04-08T09:20:00.001-05:00

I had a bunch of things framed in January. Here is the corn field picture that I sold to my neighbor, Jon. I think the framing turned out rather nice.

Abby

2008-10-05T20:40:00.004-05:00

I painted and embroidered this picture for my brother's new baby. Ok, she's not so new anymore. It is from a picture on their blog. The style is quite different for me. I hope they like it. Now I just need to frame and mail it to Hawaii.

One more corn field

2008-10-05T20:31:00.003-05:00

This is the cornfield that I've done so far (it was the second one) that I don't really like. I think the colors are good, but the lines just don't work for me very well. I may need it someday though--the director of the art gallery at the college in town said that he was interested in doing a show of these pieces in the prairie studies department. In that case, I may need a bunch of them.

Start of a Family Portrait

2008-10-05T20:20:00.004-05:00

We started a family project this week. It is a family portrait. The girls drew pictures of everyone on paper and then I drew them onto a piece of black fabric with soap. Then we all painted it with metallic paint. I am in the process of doing machine stitching everywhere to add definition. I obviously am not very far along. Just so you know--this is large for me--about four by three feet. My plan is to hang this in the library where I needed something funky. I may end up only hanging it for Halloween, but maybe we'll like it a lot after its done. We shall see.

Iowa Corn Stubble--May 2008

2008-10-05T18:07:00.002-05:00

I haven't posted anything for months. Thats because my camera broke a few months ago and I had no pictures to post. I have made new stuff lately though. And now I have a camera to post it.

This is an image of corn fields (again) that I saw driving back from Des Moines last May after I'd dropped Eric at the airport. I've been working on it off and on ever since then, and here it is. I think this is as good as it is going to get.

Iowa Corn Stubble--2008

2008-05-01T21:09:00.004-05:00

I took my kids on a hike at Rock Creek State park in March--just as Winter was ending here. The hills on the way there were covered with corn stubble. This is my image of the road to the park. I was trying to do a picture in cool tones, but as usual, red and yellow just wouldn't stay out of it. I do think it feels a little bit chilly even with my warm colors.

By the way--I painted on linen and then layered with netting and embroidery.

Seashells by the Seashore

2008-05-01T21:05:00.003-05:00

One of the last assignments for my Fertile Earth class was to do a picture of shells or rocks--something hard I guess. It seems to me that I most often see pictures of shells hanging on the walls of bathrooms. I did not want a bathroom picture.

I have a box of shells that I picked up on the beach in San Fabian--in the Philippines when I was a missionary there. The beach was covered in large, beautiful shells, and that was just normal there--no one by me was excited. Anyway, I decided to do a picture of these shells in tutti-fruiti colors. I like my colors ok, but the composition is just not working yet. I will have to do something more for this picture. I will post it again someday if I finish it.

2008-04-14T21:10:00.002-05:00

Finished Trees. I used lots of layers of netting, tulle, beading, thread fabric, pellon, and embroidery to do it. Oh, and paint. I like it. Eric likes it better than the fungus that I made just for him. Says he'd rather hang this one in his office.

In the Forest

2008-04-06T14:31:00.002-05:00

This is the beginning of a piece based on trees from the Fertile Earth class. Check back later to see if it turned out ok.

Molly's Face

2008-04-06T14:16:00.002-05:00

One side effect of me spending six hours a day stitching away for Susan Sorrell's Fertile Earth class is that my kids want to join in too. Today while I was working on my trees, Molly made this portrait. She says it is definitely not a self portrait--she does not have purple hair or a bronze mouth.

Fungus

2008-04-06T14:09:00.002-05:00

Marian, you asked for fungus--here's your fungus. Eric listened to way too much Dr. Demento as a teenager and likes to sing the song about Roger Boom. One of the lines goes "He planned a trip to Venus when the Fungus was in Bloom." We looked up the song on-line and learned that his song came from the Laurence Welk show. How cool is that? So, I had to add this big, still unfinished border around it. If you look carefully you can see all the layers of stuff on this piece. There are about 8-10 layers of burnt edge tulle in each fungus bloom. Anyway, I am not sure if this is beautiful or professional, but it is definitely original.

2008-03-22T00:33:00.002-05:00

I finished the poppy embroidery. Lots of hours went into this. I stitched, unpicked, stitched, unpicked and stitched again. I had to look up diagrams of poppy leaves since the photograph I was working from didn't have great leaves. But, I am happy with it now that it is done. Well, almost happy. I will probably like it better tomorrow. I have been working on it all week and now it is 12:36 am and I am really tired. But, it is done.

Poppies

2008-03-17T08:31:00.003-05:00

This is my current Fertile Earth class project. It is poppies. Not mushrooms. It is the size of a Louis Lamour paperback book (I needed a good rectangle) and is being quite time consuming. Especially since I keep being dissatisfied with color choices and redoing it.

Onions In the Sun

2008-03-17T08:26:00.003-05:00

The final onion fiber picture--taken against the back window with sun pouring in. I think it looks quite oniony.

2008-03-09T17:28:00.000-05:00

My unfinished Onion picture from my Fertile Earth class.

2008-03-09T17:06:00.001-05:00

Hawk Outside the Wind--another image inspired by my Mother in Law.

2008-03-09T17:01:00.002-05:00

I did a series of twig when we lived in Olean, New York. It was winter and the world was devoid of color and I was trying to recreate the contrast of the dark branches against the dreary sky. I could not stand the finished dreary pieces and eventually added colorful borders. I like it a lot better now.

Old Road/New Road

2008-03-09T16:49:00.004-05:00

This is my last project, before starting the Fertile Earth class I am taking right now. It is an small embroidery based on an illustration of a poem (written by my mother in law) I did a number of years ago. It is almost finished, but I am still figuring out what to do in the borders.

2008-03-06T15:10:00.000-06:00

I signed up to take an on-line fiber arts class--my first one ever. It seems that most of the other students have blogs where they post progress on their artwork. So, I thought I'd do same.

This first bunch of pictures I am posting only because we are doing a fiber arts project based on fruits and/or vegetables. About seven years ago someone gave me the book by Diedre Scherer. See her website at http://www.dscherer.com/ She does amazing portraits using fabric, thread and her sewing machine. I was enamored of her thread painting technique for a few months before I realized that it really wasn't for me. I did a few large quilts and started on some smaller root vegetable quilts. But, as you can see, my root vegetables were not exactly amazing--and look worse close up-- (although I do kind of like the carrots) and I have never actually stuck them to a background and they've been sitting in my unfinished project drawer ever since.