Wild Faces: Postcard Salon at the Muskegon Museum of Art

"Wild Face 1" by Jennifer Gould
Fabric, printing, stitching

"Wild Face 2" by Jennifer Gould
Fabric, printing, stitching

"Wild Face 3" by Jennifer Gould
Fabric, printing, stitching

"Wild Face 4" by Jennifer Gould
Fabric, printing, stitching

I am so proud of myself that I got these finished--- it only took me 2 years!  I started in January 2014 by carving the face stamps out of black insulation foam (my favorite thing to make stamps out of), printed the faces in black (ProFab textile paint) on cream colored knit, and then didn't get any farther.  Needless to say with the deadline at the end of January, I didn't enter anything into the Postcard Salon that year.

This year the MMA has moved the deadline back a month to Feb. 22, so I did the rest of the work mostly last month (January 2015) and finished them today (2-10-15).

"Wild Face 5" by Jennifer Gould
Fabric, printing, stitching --- SO HAPPY
TO REPORT THAT THIS ONE SOLD
AT THE MMA SALE ON 3/12/15!

I love the red embroidery and how it energizes each face's expression.  Looking forward to the reception and sale of the postcards ($30/each with $15 to the MMA and $15 to the artist) on March 12 evening.  I didn't sell any in 2013 when I first entered and I'm not really expecting to sell any this year either; coming up with ideas, doing them and finishing them, and then entering them is plenty.  Here's the link to the MMA and the Postcard Salon:  Click here for pdf for Postcard Salon info

Fabric Collage: Newest Pieces at Celebration of the Arts

Water Series: 2 by Jennifer Gould

Detail of Water Series: 2 (stitching on knit fabric above
and printed fabric below).

My newest pieces aren't three dimensional but flat fabric collage pieces.  I wanted to work with 2-D (even though the stitching makes the surface ripple wonderfully) and with non-rectangular shapes.  I love the idea of irregular sides and odd shapes.

The Water Series was the opportunity to put pieces of handprinted and dyed fabric together in abstract shapes.  "Water Series: 1" uses commercial fabric and discharged fabric with stitching.  "Water Series: 2" uses stitched deconstructed screen printed knit fabric, hand printed stretch woven synthetic, and discharged decorator gauze.

Water Series: 1 by Jennifer Gould

Detail of stitching and discharged fabric
on Water Series: 1

Both of these pieces were accepted into the Celebration of the Arts held Feb. 6-8, 2015, at the First United Methodist Church in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan.  This is a show I do annually because it's attended by a huge array of GR area residents and artists and I always get a piece in.  In fact, I tied with winning the Second Prize in 2011 for "Mother & Child III."  It's always a fascinating show!