"Artist In The Kitchen" Opening Night

Hanna with, "Portrait of a Chef "(food angel) in the background. I think she liked it:)

Hundreds of people attended!!! It was hard to get pictures of the work with the crowd, I managed a few. 

Jenniffer Davis partnered with Arwyn Birch & Teresa Fox, of Glamdoll Donut

Kristin Hoelscher-Schacker partnered with Katie Myhre of RED Market

Susan Leschke partnered with Golnaz Yamoutpor of Eat.Drink.Dish

There is a lot of gold thread work that doesn't show in this picture.

Portrait Of A Chef/ Hanna Benti

I am so honored to be a part of this:

'Beginning December 27, 2017, 50 all-women artist/chef-restaurateur teams met to join forces in an innovative partnership whereby chefs are inspiring the artists to produce new artworks, culminating in the exhibition. ]To honor the mission of Textile Center, each of the artists is incorporating a textile process, material, or sensibility in their completed work. Recognizing the abundance of local culinary and visual art talent of Twin Cities-area women, “this invitational exhibition forges a new partnership that celebrates the work of women artists in both the art studio and culinary worlds.”— Artists in the Kitchen Organizers.

Artists in the Kitchen premieres in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of Women Chefs & Restaurateurs (WCR) national conference, Women Speak: Curating the Future of Food from April 21-23."

 I was partnered with Hanna Yemesrach Benti
who just opened a cafe on Hennepin Ave, and has been running Brava Food Truck for many years.

 Spending some time with Hanna, I learned about her journey that took her to being a Chef and Restrurateur. She walked me through a typical day in the food truck business  a world unto it's own, which was fascinating. Several
 things really stood out for me, she loved cooking , loved her family, was passionate about making nutritious, healthy, colorful food for people.

 I got to enjoy her cooking, the Red Curry was my favorite!

 After meeting with Hanna I spend several weeks thinking , remembering, listening to the recording of our interview. I thought about how to could use this information to make a piece of art work. My process is usually intuitive, I start with something and let the piece take me where it wants to go, so it was a strain to come up with a imagine first. I started several, very intellectual ideas of what I thought would be a summary of our interview. All the while this image of Hanna with her head tilled slightly to the right lingered in my mind. Finally I drew it out, cut it out from the fabric I had rusted and continued with my intuitive process. Once I let go of the contrived ideas it flowed....I guess that is just the way I roll.

I used old rust kitchen tools for the rusted fabric, including a heat diffuser for the stove, a trivet, fish scaler, and a baking tin.

Bookshelf Quilt

 I have the best daughter-in-law every! She is a writer ,inspiring to write a novel around being a awesome person with a lot of good community work and raising 3 wonderful children. For her birthday I made this bookshelf quilt. It looks deceivingly simple, however it was a challenge. Good thing I like challenges! Actually it was  great fun for someone who loves fabric as I do. So many fabrics to play with! 

Lua came with me to pick out fabrics which was a joy!  She spotted a fabric with newspaper print on it which work well for the books laying with insides showing. This was the most difficult part for me to sew but I love the illusion.

I used some left over fabric for the backing.

Libby beautifully hung the quilt in her office. I think it looks smashing!

After the Show/ Whats in the basket/bowl?

So since the show and completion of my grant period life has been filled with catching up on everything! I have treated myself to some fun, antiquing road trips, visits to museums and gallery shows , things I didn't do while working on the grant project. You could say I have been filling my cup. I wish I could be more moderate and do both work and play and responsibility at the same time but I can't seem to manage that. When I am working on a project it is all out and I don't want to do anything else. Which makes life and all it stuff harder then it has to be.

When I am not doing "art" I still feel the need to be productive and to keep my hands busy. This winter it has been knitting. I have done many hats ,scarves, boot toppers, leg warmers , a Blanket(above). 

Jasmine, my cute niece,she has room to grow in that hat:)

Working on tea cozies now.