"The View (out our Kitchen Window): 7 of Potholders in the Kitchen Tarot."
by Susan Shie Contact me
"The View (out our Kitchen Window): 7 of Potholders in the Kitchen Tarot."
©Susan Shie 2012. 35"h x 35"w. inventory #433. Peace Cozy #48.
Began 9-1-12. Finished 9-23-12.
Materials: White kona cotton, airbrush paint, fabric paint. Aurifil cotton machine thread, Artfabrik perle cotton embroidery thread, one Green Temple Buddha Boy bead. Nature-fil bamboo and organic cotton batting. Backing fabrics include Lunn Fabrics batiks.
Techniques: Whole cloth painting. Freehand black line drawing and color areas painting made with Aztek double action airbrush and Createx airbrush paint. Small, black writing made with Silkpaint.com’s basic Airpen and Jacquard Textile Colors fabric paint. Writing in color done with markers. Crazy grid machine quilting and one row of hand stitching (just on the border edge.)
Statement: On September 1, 2012 I randomly drew the minor tarot card the 7 of Coins from the Sakki-Sakki Tarot deck (which is my favorite, besides the Kitchen Tarot.) In my deck, coins are potholders, and in any Tarot deck, this suit is the Earth suit of money, shelter, food, anything relating to how we survive physically. This 7 card is about taking stock and doing necessary chores, after a time of sustained hard work. We have reached a result, a harvest, and we are to now reflect on what happens next. Thinking about the natural order of the cycles of life and nature in particular is recommended.
What would this card become for my Kitchen Tarot deck's card. I put out my antennae and looked for signs!
Then I was asked to consider making a piece to enter into a SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) regional exhibition competition for The View from Here: Quilts of the Ohio River Valley, and will include SAQA members from Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio. The prospectus asks that artists make work that relates to your local environment or what you see from where you live, your home, backyard or your city or town.
I thought about the card about chores and harvest, and about what's my favorite view at my house, here at Turlte Moon Studios in Wooster, Ohio. And then I looked out my kitchen window, like I do so often each day. I saw Jimmy out there in the yard with Libby next to our Rainbow Garden. And between them and me, I saw the 35 pation owl lights that we turn on every night! Far out, sez I! I can use 7 of those patio owls as the 7 potholders!
About the 7 of Coins, the site Biddy Tarot says, "The Seven of Pentacles (also called Coins or Disks) portrays a young man taking a rest from the difficult work of harvesting his abundant crop. He has been labouring long and hard in his garden. The foliage is full and the blossoms are out. It seems that his work has paid off. He gazes meditatively at the pentacles hanging from the rich greenery of the thicket in which he works and seems to be contemplating the value of his efforts. He is finally taking a break to admire his handiwork and the benefits of his labour." Seems like our garden makes a ton of sense with this card!
The show entry has a size limit of between 14" and 35" on a side, so right away I knew this piece would be 35" x 35", the maximum size allowed, and I also knew I had to get busy, as the deadline to enter this SAQA show competition is Sept 30. Yikes!
So I airbrushed my piece, the process of which you can see on my Facebook page, whether or not you're on FB. Then I wrote on it, quilted it, and finished it up yesterday! I still have to enter that show, but it's an online entry, so I know I'll make it.
In the foreground are Eva and me at the kitchen sink. I'm washing dishes (Fiesta Ware dishes), and she's drawing the whole view out the window on a little green table. The three cats are around us, and on the counter are the coffee maker, a bag of coffee, the compsot bucket, the dish drainer, the colander, and some mugs, including one of the little animal mugs, the Elephant, that Eva sometimes still uses. Oh, and there's a big bowl of big fat tomatoes from the garden, echoing the big fat wheelbarrow full of tomatoes out in the garden.
On the walls are a 2012 campaign poster for President Obama and a wedding photo of Eva's parents.
Outside are Jimmy and LIbby, both in the garden, so I'm yelling "Libby, get out of the garden!" Jimmy and I are waving at each other, but Libby is on point, staring frozen at a baby bunny, who's also frozen, in fear. It doesn't know that Libby would just love to play with it. AND behind the garden is a big ugly ground hog, sitting contentedly beside the Have-a-Heart live trap that hasn't caught it.
I wrote a litle bit of political stuff and current events info on this piece, but it's mostly about us. It talks about Romeny's statement about 47% of Americans being victims who will vote for Obama, no matter what and don't pay taxes. It also talks about the video on You Tube made to upset Muslims, and how unfortunate that whole situation is all around.
It tells about books I've been reading lately: ones my mother read when I was young: Silent Spring and Captains and the Kings, and now Michener's Hawaii, which I read when I was 18, and Rushde's works, which I've never read before. I had read my friend Kathryn Arango's book Jungle, Solitude, and Dreams this year, too, finishing it up right before she had a solo show reception at our arts center on Sept 13. But that book I had to actually read in print, rather than listen to. It's so well written, but it really made me appreciate how I can listen to digital books, while I do dishes, sew, and do other easy chores.
I guess I could have drawn a digital player or my iPad on the kitchen counter! I did mention how Eva and I have around 4 drawing and painting apps on my iPad, Sweet Jane, now.
I had to consider how the image for the actual card in my Kitchen Tarot deck will be a long rectangle, not a square. So the central image is what will end up in that physical deck one day, in 2022 or later, when all 78 card quilts are done! This one went really fast, being so small, but they are all different sizes. The magic of Photoshop is where I can make them all the exact same size eventually, virtually.
Time to draw a card at random again, for the next piece! And then thinking up what it will be about, besides that card's meaning.
Stay tuned! Lucky, Susan, ready to go take a good peek out that kitchen window again!
Turtle Moon Studios: Outsider Art
Quilts and Paintings
Susan Shie
| Home | | Classes | | Gallery | | Green Quilts | |Links |
| Resume | | Stuff to Buy | |Turtle Trax |
| Visit Jimmy's Leather Studio
Web site design © Susan Shie and Jan Cabral 1997. All subsequent web site work, ©Susan Shie 1997-2012.
This page updated by Susan Shie, September 25, 2012.
Web site hosting by Key to the Web, Ltd. ©2012.