The Healing Art of Pathology

Thrilled to share the news that 'Mermaid's Tale' was chosen as the cover art for a new book published by the College of American Pathologists titled The Healing Art of Pathology.

This link will allow you to see the cover and order it if you wish.

The Healing Art of Pathology features the artwork of patients and pathologists and celebrates the creative process as a connection for the well-being of mind and body.  Artwork includes painting, prose, poetry and fabric art.

'Pesce Pesce' (below) is also included in the book as well as 'Water Spout'.

Pesce Pesce by Mary Lachman
Copyright 2016

Live a Splendid Creative Life

~Mary

Follow me on Facebook:    Mary Lachman Design

Website http://www.MaryLachman.com

Author Website http://www.MothAtTheWindow.com

What's New in the Studio

I am working on several quilt tops.

Inspiration at Dia Beacon

Dia Beacon is an amazing modern art museum in Beacon, NY that I visited last Saturday.
The sheer size of the massive installations was breath taking. An the unusual display of one-of-a-kind ideas was awe inspiring. 
Here are a few pictures.

Flower Power to a Friend

Karen Belsky Loprete died two weeks ago, on August 1st. She was a creative woman with an incredible zest and flair for art. I cannot believe she is gone.

To all who knew her, let us embrace her spirit and joy. Let us sing higher, quilt vividly and stitch with abandon. Rest in peace dear friend.

Shake and Shuffle

New at the Arts Council of New Haven is the exhibit "Shake and Shuffle" which continues through September 8th.

My artworks are there for the remainder of this week so there is still time to stop by.

Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery
70 Audubon Street
Second Floor
New Haven,  CT 06510
Monday through Friday 9am to 5pm

Working in Series

Lazy Sunday morning in the stugdio playing with fabric. These little gems are destined to become greeting cards!:

Healing Art of Pathology

I have been offline for a bit. Sorry about that. Unexpected happenings sometimes hit and we have to deal with them. Glad you are still checking on me my friend!

Work in Progress

Although I have not been blogging I have been making art. Here are three updates about my studio:

• My fabric collage "Water Spout" is going to be the cover image for a book, The Healing Art of Pathology, to be published later this year by the American College of Pathologists.

• Several other pieces were chosen for an online exhibit by Midwest Fiber Arts Trail  and Fiber Art Almanac. More details on this to follow. 

• And I am thrilled to be chosen at random to be one of the participating artists for the Shuffle and Shake exhibit at the Arts Council in New Haven July 7-August 4.  The opening reception is Thursday July 14th from 5-7 p.m.

All the best,

~Mary

Art Website: www.MaryLachman.com

Book Website: www.MothAtTheWindow.com
Facebook: Mary Lachman Design and Moth at the Window
To Order: Moth at the Window: Poetry of Grover W. Clayton and Recollections of Indiana 

Quilt Me a River: Farmington River Quilt

I worked on Section 2. Rosalind Spann made Section 1. Both shown here left to right.

There was a good crowd of quilt lovers who came out to the Winchester Congregational Church last month to see 50 feet of the Farmington River created in fabric and thread.

Additional exhibit venues are being planned as well as a book to benefit river preservation!

Fondly Remembering Textiles

Have you ever considered what are your earliest memories of a favorite textile? I began thinking about this after a prompt from an online class that I am taking.

As a kid, one of my favorite fabric items was my bedspread. I know that might seem odd, but it was soft and textured, likely years old even when I was only 5. It was a nubby creamy cotton onto which were horizontal, machine stitched designs that created shapes in colored threads. I would trace the shapes over and over. Maybe I even traced them to fall asleep at night, this I don't really remember.

The designs includes a stylized "X", a person with hands raised in the air, and something else that was less well defined. I never knew if it a dragon or dinosaur or what it was. Looking at it now I think it might be a person in a yoga pose. What do you think?

Oddly enough, when I had the task of sorting through the farmstead after Mother died (it will be 10 years ago in a few weeks) I saved this bedspread. It is threadbare in some spots. It is patched in others. I know that patches to be sewn with my mother's carefully stitches. It survives folded in the closet of my studio. And every now and again a pull it off the shelf to trace the designs with my index finger.

What fabric item have you held onto from childhood?  Can you explain why or is it just something that you had to save?  I would love to have you share your thoughts.

Back from Philly

Last week I had a chance to attend the SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) national meeting in Philadelphia.

I had been to Philadelphia several time in the past but had never explored the streets around Center City and any art galleries.  This time I did a bit of both.

I was completely thrilled with Barnes Museum with its collection of Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Pendergrast and Native African Art all hung together in vignettes through the galleries. Oh yes there were also metal door knockers, knobs and hinges that echoed shapes in the adjacent paintings. Everything was hung symmetrically and in strict dedication to the wishes of Dr. Barnes who amassed this amazing collection.

Dr. Albert C. Barnes (1872-1951) grew up poor and tough in Philadelphia but showed intellectual promise and went to one of the best high schools in the area. He earned a medical degree and then set up a pharmaceutical manufacturing partnership with a frien. They manufactured an antiseptic silver compound they called, Argyrol.

Barnes became a very wealthy man and was clever enough to sell his company before the stock market crash in 1929, so he retained his wealth when others lost everything.

Barnes began collecting art in 1912. He wanted to educate people about art. He collected what he loved and amassed a huge collection of paintings, sculpture, jewelry and textiles from the Mediterranean, Asia, Africa, Europe and America. He displayed the collection in an idiosyncratic way that was not well appreciated at that time. The "ensembles" as he called them combined all the different objects in symmetrical arrangements throughout the galleries.

Learn more at barnesfoundation.org

Windsor Art Center hosts a new exhibit "Soulful Journey"

It is hard to believe that The Connecticut Fiber Arts Collective (CTFAC), of which I am a founding member,  is celebrating a 5-year anniversary with a new exhibit that just opened March 12th at the Windsor Art Center.

The exhibit, Soulful Journey, continues through April 23, 2016.
Here's the link:  Windsor Art Center - Soulful Journey

One section of the exhibit that received a lot of attention last Saturday evening was the 20"x20" challenge. The members of CTFAC were asked to respond to the following quote by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, author of Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype (Ballantine Books, 1992):

"Tears are a river that take you somewhere. 

Weeping creates a river around the boat that carries your soul-life. 

Tears lift your boat off the rocks, off dry ground, 

carrying it downriver to someplace new, someplace better."

We had a great turnout for the opening reception on March 12

Antonia Torres with friends Barb and Diane

Our SELF pieces in fabric - finally displayed!

Windsor Art Center
40 Mechanic Street
Windsor, CT 06095
(Please check the website for hours.)

Fabric Collage Step-by-Step: The Making of "Pesce Pesce"

I started Pesce Pesce (aka Fishy Fishy) by cutting interesting shapes from fabrics and glueing them to a muslin base. I used Aleene's Tacky Glue.  I chose cotton batiks for the interesting colors and cut the fins from other fabrics that looked like branches and leaves. 

Some synthetic commercial fabrics were added for little extra glitz.

 The assembled Pesce (which means 'fish' in Italian) was cut out of the muslin base and then I tested different background fabrics to mount it on. Below is a hand dyed cotton that was chosen as the background.

To add a little more depth to Pesce I created a small fabric collage using fabrics texturized using Paintstiks and rubbing plates. I added a few bubbles and underwater plants before free-motion quilting the entire project.  

Pesce Pesce - 2016 - Mary Lachman
All Rights Reserved

Making Art Every Day (Weeks 9-17)

I am making art every day. 

But I have gotten behind on the posting and blogging. Sometimes something has to give!

 So, in this lightening round let me bring you up to speed on some of the things I have been doing.

Stamping fabric paint on my artwork using a found object. (Maybe it needs a little more.)

Making a hat (a modified MaggiKnits pattern and yarn)

Presenting the hat to a friend!

Stamping and fusing and painting on linen just because

Knitting a topper for a sleeveless dress from scraps!

Trying my hand at carving stamps from Artsy printing blocks

Playing with food 

Playing with food and paint and cloth

Words to Inspire

Whenever you find yourself doubting how far you can go, 

just remember how far you have come.

Remember eveything you faced, 

all the battles you have won, 

and all the fears you have overcome.

     ~Unknown

Creative in the Kitchen

During the week my DH makes dinner. (Yes I do realize how fortunate I am!)

But if we make plans with friends on the weekend I do the shopping and cooking. Last Saturday was such a day.

And since it is said that the only thing guests remember about a meal is the dessert, I decided to try something new with ingredients I had on hand.

This is the Apple Cake I made using a recipe from The New York Times (link below). I did not have apple brandy, but since only a 1/4 tsp was needed, I substituted rum flavoring.

Here is a link to the recipe:      Babette Friedman's Apple Cake 

You can also sign up for a free New York Times Recipe app and save your favorite recipes to your mobile device!

I hope you try it!

Live a Splendid Creative Life

~Mary

Follow me on Facebook:    Mary Lachman Design and Moth at the Window

Website http://www.MaryLachman.com

Author Website http://www.MothAtTheWindow.com

Link to order the book on Amazon: Moth at the Window: Poetry of Grover W. Clayton and Recollections of Indiana 

Quilting the Farmington River

This is my completed "Canal Pool - Section 2 of 25" for the Farmington River Quilt Project that will be on display this spring in Winchester, Connecticut. Along with 24 other quilted sections it will become the property of the Farmington River Coordination Committee to promote conservation.

Canal Pool by Mary Lachman
All Rights Reserved - Copyright 2016

You may remember I started this project during the summer. The project specified parameters for the width of the river at the left and right edges. The fabrics for the river were provided.

I developed my section as a fabric collage, using small sections of fabric that were initially glued in place and then stitched.

Beginning the river layout on muslin background.

Here it is as progress continued. 

All 25 pieces (made by 25 Connecticut fabric artists) will be on display for the first time at the

Winchester Center Congregation Church
9th Annual Quilt and Needle Arts Show
Winchester Center, Connecticut
Saturday, April 23, 2016  10:00-5:00
Sunday, April 24, 2016  12:00-5:00

All 25 pieces are being donated to the Farmington River Coordination Committee, the headquarters of which are the Squire's Tavern in Barkhamsted, CT. The RIVER will to be used to raise awareness for the environmental protection of the Farmington River.

Live a Splendid Creative Life

~Mary

Follow me on Facebook:    Mary Lachman Design

Website http://www.MaryLachman.com

Author Website http://www.MothAtTheWindow.com

Simplify Your Studio (and Life) in 2016

My creative urges go in many different directions. Anyone who has sat beside me a quilting retreat knows this because I typically wheel in several large bins of fabric strips and blocks to play with over a weekend. I enjoy this devil-may-care, wildly productive approach, but this year I want to focus on simplifying. I want more quality than quantity in my artwork and life.

My DH and I spent New Year’s Eve at the very large home of friends who chose to upsize rather than downsize as their children left home. I don’t want to do that, EVER.

I want to create a smaller carbon footprint. I want to use what I have, donate to others what I cannot use, and live with the mantra of reduce, reuse and recycle. To that end, on New Year’s Day I donated a trunk-load of clothes and shoes to a local thrift shop.  

By working on the MAED Project (Make Art Every Day) I am exploring (and discovering) just what I like to do and use in my art. I know I love vintage linens and wool, tags and ephemera of all types. Even so there are items I no longer have a use for. I will share those things with my art group over the next few months.

Candy Shop by Mary Lachman
All rights reserved. Copyright 2016.

And later this month I am going to a quilt retreat and my plan today is to just bring two projects. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Live a Splendid Creative Life

~Mary

Follow me on Facebook:    Mary Lachman Design

Website http://www.MaryLachman.com

Author Website http://www.MothAtTheWindow.com