More goodies in the mail! Another old book I bought off ebay. This one is the Patent Office Report of 1868, Volume III. Hundreds of pages of gadgets, contraptions, dreams, plans, schemes, machines…

Saturday I hit the jackpot. I got 3, yes 3, really cool things in the mail all in one day and boy does that feel good! It reminded me of being at summer camp and the excitement from getting good mail…

The envelope and postcard are from Thailand and I’m the proud owner of Thai fisherman pants. The pants aren’t in the photo– I’m wearing them, they’re orange. You can see Thai fisherman pants at thaidreams.etsy.com.

I ordered the butterfly to photograph for some new collages. It’s an Idea blanchardi. Lovely!

And I got a check from Artspace (also not in the photo). One of my shibori scarves sold in the gift shop.

Life is good.

My show in Chapel Hill was hung today…. whew! A really big thanks goes out to Marni Goldshlag and Delores Hamilton for hooking me up with this opportunity!

unlikely + beautiful
digital & textile collages
by Tricia McKellar

at the Community Church of Chapel Hill, Unitarian Universalist
106 Purefoy Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27510
919-942-2050

September 15 - October 26, 2007

*** Artist’s Reception: Sunday, September 23, 1-3pm ***

It’s a quiet Friday night in the studio. I’m doing some last minute printing & framing for pieces that will be hung tomorrow in Chapel Hill.

I’ve been working on a new digital collage series– well, actually, several ideas for new series are stewing in my head at various stages, but I’m thinking of one in particular now. Each collage in the Plans & Diagrams series uses a photo of a linen sheet as the background image. I’m planning to do something similiar with this new series. The background images will be from a 19th century engineering book– here’s a tiny preview:

Just touching base– I’ve got a busy weekend in the studio ahead of me.

I’m getting ready to hang my exhibition at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Chapel Hill next weekend. More details on this coming soon! If you’re going to be in the Chapel Hill area, mark your calendar for the reception: Sunday, Sept 23, 1-3pm.

I’m also continuing work on some NEW series that I hope will be ready by November!

[Image above: detail from Five Birds with Nest print available from my etsy shop]

Yesterday, one of my luna moth prints, Insect Machine #7, was on the etsy front page with some other lovely moth inspired art!

Update:  I was thrilled to be in another treasury selected for the front page the same week:

Yippee! A three day weekend! I’ve been photographing shells and working on a new series… just a few images are ready. They’re on flickr now; when I get the series more fleshed out, I’ll start adding the prints to my etsy shop. Life is good!

I’m getting ready for a solo exhibition at the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Chapel Hill (North Carolina). They sent me a draft of the exhibition brochure and included an apropos quote:

“The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them.” - Saint-Exupery

Thanks so much to Liana of Mixed Plate for featuring my art on her blog of cool online finds!

I spent a week at the beach (Emerald Isle, NC) a week ago. One day was stormy and the ocean rough. That evening my sister-in-law Cathy and I went shelling and we hit the jackpot! I’ve never seen so many seashells.

I’ve been scanning and photographing and thinking of new series for these images (and those hundreds of photos from yosemite). My usual process is to pick a dozen or so favorite shells to work with right away. I’ll scan or photograph the shell, then spend a good bit of time isolating the image from the background– careful work at this stage really pays off in the long run. My favorite book on image selecting, isolating, compositing techniques in photoshop is Katrin Eismann’s _Photoshop Masking & Compositing_.

I just got an envelope of postcards and a poster(!) for the show at Morehead State University. I was totally surprised to find they picked an image of my work for the publicity! The image is a detail from Insect Machine #6.

Other artists in the exhibition: Rachel B. Abrams, Lauren Lipiniski Eisen, Tom Rice, Susan Maakestad, Michael McFalls, and Leisel Whitlock.

I’m thrilled to be invited to show in a special exhibition at the Greater Chicago Quilt Exhibition! From the Mancuso announcement:
Digital Shibori: Pattern & Stitch
Fiber Works by Tricia McKellar
Tricia McKellar presents a series of fiber works that explore pattern and stitch. McKellar hand-dyes shibori fabric. Her shibori is a modern adaptation of traditional Japanese hand-dye methods. Shibori techniques produce patterned fabric with subtle variations; the patterns are natural, organic, complex, and, somehow, simple. McKellar photographs her shibori, digitally alters the image and prints the digital collage to silk. The works wrestle with the theme: How do the natural and the man-made, the organic and the digital feed each other? Each work is an exploration of another permutation.
Greater Chicago Quilt Exposition
11/8/2007 - 11/11/2007
Schaumburg, IL

Shibori Building
digital prints of altered shibori imagery and photographs on silk, machine and hand stitched
18″h x 36″w, ©2006

I’m honored that my work Shibori Building is included in this exhibition:

Art Quilts Lowell 2007
Brush Art Gallery
256 Market St., Lowell, MA 01852
August 2 through October 28, 2007

Wow! Guy Kawasaki rocks! I had the pleasure of hearing Guy Kawasaki speak in Boston a couple of weeks ago. Guy talks about innovation, marketing, new business, and being open to new ideas. It was one of the most memorable talks I’ve ever attended. I’m sure my summary wouldn’t do Guy justice– please watch the talk at one of the links below and check out his blog. But, I will mention his first bullet, as a thought to reflect on today: make meaning

Guy’s blog: How to Change the World

Guy’s Art of Innovation presentation to another audience

google videos of Guy