This week my primary goal was submitting work for some local juried art shows. Well, local-ish. One of them is actually in Hilo, so if any of my pieces are selected, I'll have to mail them. But what a great excuse to visit one of our neighbor islands, right!?

I'm still pretty new to juried art shows, with my first one only being just last year. You can read about my experience being a part of Fiber Hawaii 2024 here.

The first of the two shows I submitted work for will also be held at the Downtown Art Center in Honolulu, same as the other one I was in. It's hosted by the Hawai’i Handweavers’ Hui and the theme is Wondrous Light: Aurora Borealis.

This felt like a perfect invitation to reflect on color and light, even though neither of the pieces I chose to submit were originally created with the aurora in mind! Once I placed them side by side, though (and flipped the purple one upside down, ha ha), something clicked: they shimmered with a quiet sense of magic and wonder. One is mounted on a gold painted panel, the other will be mounted on a silver panel (I hope!) and together, they reflect two different yet harmonious kinds of light.

Here are the two pieces I selected for this show:

I'm still nervously awaiting the arrival of my custom sized wood panel to mount the purple tapestry on before artwork intake on Sunday. Fingers crossed it arrives in time! (I also want to paint it silver, as I mentioned above, in addition to hammering in all the nails....) Wish me luck!

The other show I submitted to is specifically for abstract works. The exhibition will be at the Wailoa Art Center on the big island but there is also going to be an exchange with the Shanghai Abstract Artists' Association, so that could be pretty cool! (You can read more about that here.)

Here's a mediocre picture taken on my dining room floor, lol, of all six tapestries:

Most of the work I chose to submit for the abstract show is seascape inspired (I mean, I DO live on an island right now) but I also had to consider which pieces could be mailed most easily. SAND and SEA and SKY doesn't really fit that description! (Don't worry, it'll be getting submitted to another juried show here in Oahu later this year, alongside the Seaside and Mountainside tapestries from my time in Molokai—I just need to figure out how to connect them together as a single hanging piece.)

There is the one RED one, though. I just couldn't resist including it! Somehow it's both bold and calming. Fire and quiet. A soft twinkling of joy. I would like to create more pieces like it!

It feels like the essence of a feeling you almost remember. Does that even make sense?? It's the kind of color that hums a familiar song, inviting you to fall into a memory...

I do spin my own yarn for my tapestries, but you could easily reinterpret this concept with any yarn of your own choosing. Your favorite color(s) would be a cool piece of wall art (ever heard of power colors??) or you could even save all of your leftover bits of yarn from the year and then do an abstract color study that commemorates the projects that you worked on! I think that would be a lot of fun to do. Imagine a whole line of them from several years of projects in a row! That would be... incredibly satisfying, I think! Especially for all you sock yarn lovers, ha ha, since all your yarn would play nicely together.

You can read more about how I make my tapestries in this article from Spin Off magazine. My Freyja Tapestry, featured in the Summer 2021 issue, made for a friend, was one of my favorite projects EVER!

And that fabulous woven-look fabric? It's just the linen stitch!

Here's a video, in case you haven't tried it yet:

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What do you think? Are you feeling inspired to create your own "tapestry" to display some of your favorite colors or yarns?

Or if I were to create a Connie-made handspun one just for you, what would it be like? Hit reply and let me know what your colorful art dreams would be! (I'm also open to discussing commissioned pieces, but this is really just for fun!)

I hope you've been enjoying your summer so far, break or no. I'm not sure it actually feels like much of a break here! But we're certainly making memories. The kiddo even took his grandma boogie boarding last weekend!

She's totally a rock star. I hope I'm half as cool as she is when I'm a grandma!

For now, though, I reckon I'll stick to my crocheting.

Cheers!

-Connie

P.S. Check out this fluffy neckless baby chicken, ha ha! Dipper is down to just two kiddos now, it looks like, but that seems to be about how it goes. We still get a kick out of their visits!