After Image I Color Theory short animation

Youtube short video created by combining an old watercolor painting, Boris FX Optics software, and some original music to illustrate an example of afterimage color theory.

Baby Isabelle Jackson's New Quilt

At the end of 2023, a new baby girl was welcomed to the extended family:  Baby Isabelle Jackson, daughter of my niece Rachel and her husband Court.  Happily, this gave me an excuse to create an original crib quilt measuring 49" wide by 53" high.  Some history:  In 2015, I went to India with two friends on a quest to discover fabric artists in the state of Gujarat.  Along the way we discovered the Rann of Kutch's wildlife santuary and stayed briefly at the Rann Riders Resort.  On a mini safari we saw many exotic (to me) birds including Painted Storks, a Snake Eagle, black-headed Ibis, Egrets and Greater Flamingos among others. I drew many of the birds once we got back from our trip, and created the bird fabric printed on the quilt back above.  Unfortunately I had only taken a little Canon Powershot G15 camera, which was not good enough for great bird photos. The beauty of applique is that I could use my photos as reference to create the stork image on the quilt front.  This was done by making an Adobe Illustrator image, which was then used as a template for the final fabric applique design.  Many of the quilt fabrics were purchased from Britex in San Francisco with a mix of soft whites, pastel pinks, cotton satins and more. The basic design was created with Electric Quilt's EQ8 software, then modified by accident, or intent, as the quilt was being built.   The memory of the trip, bird motif, and the quality of the different fabrics made working on the quilt another level of pleasure.

2023 Quilted Apparel Round-Up

 

A Day at Bondi Beach - video

Spent some quality time at Bondi Beach in Australia in October and spent the day taking photographs.  This one added a soundtrack of me playing Satie (not very well) with the addition of various other sound effects to tie in with the action onscreen.  I've done another one uploaded to Vimeo (vimeo.com/user1980254/)

which has a different soundtrack.  Let me know which you prefer.

Science Cowboy Digital Art

 

Daughter Amber Taylor wanted a digital painting of her Grandfather E.A. Autrey as a cowboy.  It was true he lived many years in Texas and owned and wore a Stetson but that was as close to a cowboy as he ever got.  He was a chemist, photographer, artist, rocket scientist and unique individual.  The top image is the final work.  It includes a photo of his face with mustache after the end of WWII when he got out of the army.  The body is from a photo of E.A. with friends after climbing Mt. Whitney.  The cowboy hat is from another Texas relative.  After the war, on the GI bill, E.A. got a law degree but when he moved the family to California he practiced chemistry professionally.  I've included a camera icon, various science icons and a few elements (Hydrogen, Oxygen and Californium) along with some drawings of violets.  I had so much fun cobbling the cowboy together I created a few other backgrounds including a fill pattern of a self portrait done by E.A. as an older man; an AI Generative fill pattern of black and white cows in a field (I wonder whose art got ripped off?) and a pattern I created as my latest fabric design.  More fabric designs are at Lucy Autrey Wilson Art Fabric, Wallpaper and Home Decor | Spoonflower

Photographing the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns and Port Douglas, Queen...

A great vacation with friends and family in Australia (despite the 15 hour flight to get there).  Highlights include two snorkel trips about 90 minutes out on boat to the Great Barrier Reef, one from Cairns and another from Port Douglas in Queensland.  

How I Discovered the World of Fabric Design

 

        I first discovered art quilts on a trip to the Dairy Barn in Athens, Ohio in 2013 for the Annual National Quilt exhibit that year.  Much impressed by this new (to me) art form, I started quilting.  At first, I was interested in building my fabric stash with fabric designers I was discovering, including some favorites such as Luella Doss and many of the Westminster Fabrics artists (Amy Butler, Martha Negley, Dan Bennett, Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably).  Some fabric designs I like are on Pinterest. (link)  I wanted to make my quilts more personal, however, so I started adding original pieces printed 8 ½ x 11 on cotton and silk fabrics with an Epson inkjet printer.  This was soon too limiting, so I learned to upload digital image files to Spoonflower.com (link) which enabled me to print my own designs on as much fabric as needed.  Now I could generate enough fabric to sew my own designs into custom T shirts, and quilted jackets,  as well as print more yardage for quilt backs. My first forays into T shirt design used a drawing done in art class of noses, mouths, eyes and ears, and some pen, and ink drawings I had done over the years of a variety of reptiles.