"Mom and Apple Pie / The Sun: Card #19 in The Kitchen Tarot," aka "Mama Sun" or "Madame Soleil."Detail view and statement.
by Susan Shie Contact me
back to 2007 Gallery page ////// Full view.
"Mom and Apple Pie / The Sun: Card #19 in The Kitchen Tarot," aka "Mama Sun" or "Madame Soleil." Detail view. 2007. 91 "h x 70 "w.
Begun March 28, 2007. Finished April 28, 2007. #337 Full view.
#15 in the Peace Cozy series. Dedicated to Bennie and Lulu, my new Arrowmont friends.
Whole cloth painting on white cotton fabric from Test Fabrics. Beginning drawing made with airbrush; then colors painted in with airbrush; then small, diary writing made with airpen and black fabric paint. Then more roses and apples hand brush painted over writing with hand brush and fabric paint. Machine crazy grid quilted. One row of hand sewing inside edge of border. One Green Temple Buddha Boy bead. One Peace Cozy appliqué. The diary writing is from April 1 through April 27, 2007.
The Sun card in the traditional Tarot deck is about happiness, new beginnings, clarity, and promise Since I’m following the traditional order of the cards in making my Kitchen Tarot deck as art quilts, this one is just after the Moon (Calendar) and before the Judgement (not sure what that will be, since I decide these things while I’m starting to work on each card!) There are 22 major tarot cards, with this being the 19th, but the full deck includes 78 cards, with the 56 minor ones. I hope to make them all, and I’m loving making them very large now, with the airbrush painting, airpen writing, and machine grid sewing, which I’ve been using for my main processes since early 2005.
I did a few drawings to warm up, before putting them aside and just drawing on the big piece of white fabric with my airbrush this time. I had toyed with several kitchen objects to be the Sun card, including a big Sunbeam Mixmaster, a dehydrater, and sunny-side-up eggs, breakfast, and a picnic. Then I thought about how the deck needs a cook, and how the mom in the family is usually the cook. That would be St Quilta the Comforter in my Kitchen Tarot deck, since she’s modeled after Mom, and since she’s the star of my artwork. Then I thought about Pies as the Sun symbol, since I often put pies in my work, Pie in the Sky, the big goal or big promise – how Sun-card-like!
Then I was off, thinking about my 1998-99 project, the Dishtowel Show, in which I gave 36 artists the same 1998 calendar dishtowel, which said “Mom’s Kitchen” on it, and had a huge apple pie drawn on it. What a great success that show was, with a wonderful exhibit at the Mansfield Art Center in 1999, which you can still see on my site.
Anyhow, working toward my Sun card symbolism, I now knew I had to use Mom and Apple Pie as my title, with that crazy calendar pie as the big dessert St Q would be offering up for us all to enjoy, her creative gift, as brilliant as the sunlight we all enjoy!
I made one huge St Q, with me nestled in the crook of her arm, drawing. In front of us is a big Cosmic Peace Pie Safe, full of pie blessings, such as Love, Good Health, a Balanced Earth, and the biggest pie: Peace. In front of the pie safe are GEM (Gretchen, Eva, and Mike, our kids) as buddhas. Eva has a cupcake, and it’s got a little green “e” on it, since her half birthday is Earth Day, April 22, which just happened, when she turned two and a half.
Jimmy’s bringing a big cowboy coffee pot to the kitchen, and our dog Hattie’s sniffing at those tasty pies. Our various cats are running around the kitchen, and there are two windows: sunrise with a rooster, over one kitchen table on the left, and sunset with an owl, over another kitchen table on the right.
There are three yellow teapots of joy floating around the top of the room, and the Sun face is shining down merrily. Everyone has big third and fourth eyes, for extra insight and outsight, and St Q has a stylin’ apple tart on her head for a fancy little hat. (In the Textile tArts group, I am Apple tart.)
Some of the topics I wrote about in this piece are:
Teaching at Arrowmont again this year, and how I worked on my Fridge/Emperor Kitchen Tarot piece there in 1999. (I have no idea how many times we’ve taught at Arrowmont, but it’s a lot, since 1995); the 15 British soldiers held and then released by Iran; another big Wooster power out; Jimmy goes to Jerry Ott’s funeral; we too Marigold to stay with Peach while we taught at Arrowmont; seeing Eva’s school for the first time with Gretchen and Eva; my first tArts real meeting in a year; Alberto Gonzales testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee; Shawn Quinlan sent the video Stephanie and I made of my solo show – all edited and ready to burn copies of; off to Arrowmont; teaching there, but I didn’t get a chance to work on La Soleil there, tho she was up on the wall in the class all week; Jimmy fished the Smoky Mtn Nat Park all week; our class Tree of Life block for the Arrowmont Fiber Totem Pole; my wonderful Arrowmont students and new friends; 33 dead at Virginia Tech mass murder; cell phones killing off the honeybees???; Wooster’s mayor Jamie Howie died; YaYa party at Riter’s Beauty Parlor for Pat’s BD; Imus mess; Step It Up protests against global warming; Jimmy Wales from Wikipedia (my fave source for finding out about people, etc) was on NPR; Steve got a new dog named Odie, since Snickers died last month; gaining weight at Arrowmont; Johnny and Judy’s wedding; hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and how I think it’s bad for you; Madame Soleil was a French astrologer on the radio, Benedicte told me; Vermont votes to start impeachment on Bush and Cheney; seeing Edith Mitchell and Walter at Arrowmont; Michael played the Beachland Ballroom; Debi and John finally found a new little beagle dog: Missy; Peach and Cherry went to the Maiden Massacre of Cleveland's roller derby teams, to root for the Burning River Roller Girls; Boris Yeltsin, first President of Russia, died on Apr 23 at 76; I went to my first OASIS meeting in a long time, on Apr 25.
The colors in this piece are yellows , oranges, peaches, and reds, against a nice, soft celadon green background. I put in some of my Peace Roses and sprinkled apples around the kitchen. This is one of my favorite pieces, but I still like Wilma the best!
Blessings to all the world, and peace to us all. Susan, April 30, 2007.
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