The Duck Colorization Project

In a departure from rabbits, I've signed up to decorate a fiberglass duck for our community beautification fund-raising project. Our town, Greenville, New York, is doing ducks because our town park pond is know for its two white ducks! I was actually one of the people who suggested painting ducks. Other local towns have done cats (Catskill), dogs (Hudson), and Bears (Cairo).

The painted ducks will be on display all around town throughout the summer and will then be auctioned in the Fall. My duck will be on display in front of our inn because we are also a duck sponsor.

I'm planning to collage my duck with fabric to recreate a farm scene based on a local farm that I had previously made as an art quilt. I want to thank Laura Cater-Woods for providing me with detailed instructions on how to college a fiberglass animal with fabric. She has decorated 5 fiberglass horses!

Anyway, here is my duck. He has just gotten two coats of a mix of Golden GAC 200 and Gesso.




I start to apply fabric next week.

Rabbit Round Up

"Rabbits! Why rabbits?" I'm always asked when I turn up with yet another fiber art rabbit . Well, I like rabbits. They are very expressive in their quiet way.

Maybe it is because my first experience of artistic acclaim came about when at the age of 5 I won an Easter Bunny coloring contest. Or maybe it was from reading Watership Down in high school. Or maybe I've been inspired by several rabbit pets.

The first rabbit quilt I made was Angry Rabbit. He wasn't angry until I was working on the eyes as one of the last pieces and I was looking for a way to make the eyes stand out in this large grey and black rabbit on a green and brown background, surrounded by bright pink flowers. When I tried out the color red I knew I had found a color that I'd use for all my rabbits from then on! My rabbits are angry rabbits! Just because an animal is quiet and shy doesn't mean it doesn't have strong feelings!

In any case, in honor of Spring, here is a round up of all my rabbits made to date.

Angry Rabbit

Rabbits in the Grass

This piece recently won an award at the La Connor Quilt Museum Festival in Washington. The space between the elements of this piece are open.

Rabbit Squared

This small 12" x 12" piece was made for the Studio Art Quilt Association's annual fund-raising auction several years ago.

Hear the Music

This rabbit departed from my more abstract rabbits and is based off of a photograph. I created this when I was teaching my process to a group at an art retreat. The background of guitars was collaged from leftover scraps from making my "Crazy Ties."






All of the rabbits below were completed in 2014 when I really went on a rabbit binge.

Rabbit on the Run

Outta Here

Creative Sprit

Between

Non-Conformist

More to come, of course, in the coming years.