"Key West 25: 8 of Paring Knives in the Kitchen Tarot."
by Susan Shie Contact me
"Key West 25: 8 of Paring Knives in the Kitchen Tarot."
©Susan Shie 2013. 32"h x 33"w. inventory #450. Peace Cozy #54.
Began 2-10-13. Finished 5-18-13.
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 mostly hand dyed by Anne Warren.
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 black fabric paint. Crazy grid machine quilting and one row of hand stitching with perle cotton thread (just on the border edge.)
Statement: This piece was made especially for my cousin Candice Watson, in trade for the beautiful antique rolltop desk she gave my husband Jimmy Acord last September.
I chose the 8 of Swords from my Sakki-Sakki deck for this piece, and swords are paring knives in my deck. I often use them in palm tree trunks, to show their positive trait of mental strength. This time I only drew a couple of palm trees in the picture, and have a bunch of banyon tree trunks, so that's where they ended up.
Monicka Sakki assigns Jupiter in Gemini to this card. And to me, the Swords have been given a bum rap! Swords are communication, ideas, intelligence, words, not doom and gloom! To me Jupiter in Gemini means thinking expansive, positive thoughts, and that is definitely what Candice and David were doing in Key West. Gemini is the sign of doing things together, light heartedly, and there they were in Florida, whooping it up for a wonderful long weekend of romantic celebration!
Candice settled on having me make a piece about her and her husband David's 25th wedding anniversary trip to Key West, in mid January. After a lot of ideas for the title, she came up with "Key West to the 25th Power," so the 25 is meant to be an exponent, to represent the number of years they've been married. They've been to Key West many times, but wanted this piece to only be about the great adventures they had on this anniversary trip. So that's what we did. Candy would send my photos and stories, and I worked with the images in about 4 sketches, before settling on this composition, which actually evolved some more, after the last sketch. I guess my paintings always change from the sketches, but the skteches lead to the painting. I just like to keep working freehand, using the sketches as my springboard. The stories here are all from Candice's emails and phone talks with me, all about the trip she and David took Jan 11 to 14, 2013, to Key West.
Oh, there's a little story about how Candice gave Jimmy the great rolltop desk last September, and how this piece is the barter for the desk. But otherwise it's about the place they stayed at: the Banyon Resort, with their apartment way up high in the trees, and how this was the first time they stayed right in the middle of Old Town Key West, and how great it was to bop down the streets, checking out the food and the music, and being able to walk so easily back to their little pad in the treetops, to regroup.
They had a blast, and I hope I caught it well for them. Now they partly wish they lived on a houseboat in Key West! It's really good to have playful dreams. May you have lots and lots more Happy Anniversaries, Cuzzie Pies!
You can see an album of photos of me making this piece on my Facebook page, even if you're not on Facebook.
Susan, Wooster, Ohio 5-21-13
Turtle Moon Studios: Outsider Art
Quilts and Paintings
Susan Shie
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