Inspired by our January felting & looming workshop at Leola’s Studio, Renaissance Woman Sheila challenged the rest of us to commit to creating art every day for a month.
We thought it was a great idea, and each signed up for a few days in February. (Not coincidentally, the shortest month of the year …)
As a result, 28 pieces of art were created by our collective of members. On March 2 we came together at Teafarm to celebrate Art Month and “show and tell” our work.
Here are our creations:
February 1
Love is in the Air, by Sheila Ie:
(graphite, chalk pastel, oil pastel on Canson Art Paper)
February 2
A homemade-from-scratch Thai dinner, by Cindy J:
February 3
A springtime necklace, by Patti Talbot:
February 4
Some subversive cross stitch, by me:
February 5
A soother clip, made by Kim K:
February 6
Daffodils by Kim K — one of our photographers:
February 7
“Morning Cupcake, Any Way I like It,” by Sheila Ie:
February 8
Tessa says: “I gave myself a one hour time limit and the task of creating a thank-you card for a friend.”
February 9
Brenda says: “I like to create small spaces for special things in my home and office. This is my Wild Woman corner that I have had in every office for a decade – my ‘wild woman’ does not like sitting in front of a computer all day, so I give her things to play with while I am working. I just made this one yesterday in my new office – I change it up from time to time just to keep things fun.”
February 10
Maeve says: Acrylic on canvas paper. First time painting with something other than children’s washable paints. I call it “What my heart looks like on the inside when I watch my daughters dance an Irish jig in their pyjamas.”
February 11
Cindy J’s art: “It is wet felted and finished with needle felting. My inspiration was drawn from the amazing new energy and growth being brought forth by spring, so appropriately titled Spiralling Energy.”
February 12
My 2nd art day! I gave myself an art moment by attending one of the Writers on Campus poetry readings. It was WONDERFUL to hear poetry in Duncan. Here are some of my favourite lines from Patrick Friesen tonight:
“I felt like I was walking over a plowed field.”
“You come home with stones from the beach and then you wonder why you bothered.”
” . . . naked in your green dress . . .”
“I don’t like long cars. They hold a human like a tiny seed.”
Also, the word “anaphora.”
February 13
Preschooler Valentines by Sheila Ie, made with construction paper, tissue, glue:
construction paper, tissue, glue
February 14
Patti says: Meet “Florencia,” my beautiful piece of turquoise seaglass found at Florencia Beach, Tofino. I made a lovely cage for her out of copper.
February 15
“Tofino Dream Catcher,” by Patti:
February 16
Linda’s poem:
To the mountains! we declared.
A roaring midnight fever
silenced our call.
This rare February day
so bathed in sunshine,
now spent indoors
snuggled on a couch
with books tottering
piled high on blanket folds.
We took council by the fire
with chicken soup
and stories of camping
years past and those to come.
And tonight I sit in gratitude
for tottering books
and this messy life
with her gifts
of unexpected pauses
and so full of fevered blessings.
February 17
Maeve playing “Chariots of Fire” on the piano with video footage of her amazing daughters:
February 18
For my 3rd art day I experimented with hand-quilting designs, using some drawn designs and some freehand. I usually just stitch the seams of my quilts (straight lines), but after seeing Angie’s designs on one of her quilts I was inspired to try this. This quilt has been my “play” quilt — I used it to learn how to hand-stitch curved pieces.
Front of quilt (look carefully to see the yellow thread …):
February 19
Katie made fridge magnets featuring Bruce Springsteen. She says: “The picture of him in the toque is from 1975, the year Born to Run came out.”
February 20
Angie says this about her quilt: “I’ve been working on it since November, with a fabric line called Botany. It’s my first full quilt, and a whole lot more work than I had anticipated (I thought it would be done for Christmas, which is so comical they could make a movie about it). I used a shot glass for the circle patterns, a ruler for the lines and a leaf template for the, well, the leaves 🙂 Today, to make sure I was doing something arty and specific to to our goal of trying something new, I changed up my pattern for the edge (gasp!), which I was going to leave plain, and did some crazy freestyle.”
February 21
“When the dog bites, when the bee stings,” by Heather K. (mixed media collage)
February 22
Sheila Z. calls this ”The Art of Thrifting.” She says: “a roll of salvaged vintage upholstery webbing, a thrifted hanger, and a creation to chart your little bundle of love’s growth.”
February 23
Pressed flowers from last summer made into tiny fairy cards made Linda D:
February 24
Heather K says: “This is what happens when the dog wakes the baby from his nap, the one you were counting on to make some art! This was co-created by myself and daughter Sami after a family hike down to the water where we found the driftwood. It’s called “fairy seahorse”. Her vision; I merely followed instructions.”
February 25
Cindy J says:
Yoga! I feel an hour and a half practice is most definitely an artistic expression. And since I cannot share this visually with you (thank goodness), here are some of my feelings, emotional and physical, during yesterday’s art of the practice of yoga:
breathe
open
focus
calm
grow
holy moly I can’t hold this any longer
free
moonlight
still
strong
revive
alive
Namaste, my Renaissance sisters.
February 26
When one of our members was unable to art it up, Sheila Z. came to rescue with this snazzy magazine holder. She made it using burlap from the same roll she turned into her February 22 art, plus a thrift shop-ed frame (shown on the top left). Final product is on the right!
February 27
“Jewelry Graveyard Resurrection,” by Tessa.
She says: “My art tonight was taking a few broken necklaces, and mending and mixing them together to make a new one! Many of my ‘art’ projects are often more creative repair projects.”
February 28
“Quick trip on a Rocket Ship,” by Sheila Ie (Oil Pastel, Chalk Pastel, Black Ink Pen, Illustration Marker, Paper 2013)
