Thursday Shuffle

Today I was hurrying to get my entry form together for Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum's Spirit of the West Show. Let me tell you, I think that I spend 80% of my time filling out forms to enter these shows and less and less time doing artwork. And every form is different and they all want different amounts of information - ok, that's the end of my rant on entering art shows, necessary evil of the artist's career.
So, for those of you wondering why I am entering a western art show when my art really isn't all that western. It's art that's in the "spirit" of the west. Basically, my pal Georgia Rowswell (fantastic paper/mixed media artist that just moved here to Cheyenne) alerted me to the fact that they were looking for work that wasn't the traditional cowboy and pony stuff. I had seen the advertisement on the Wyoming Arts Blog but I didn't think that I had anything western at all.
I'm entering my bodice made out of the aerial photographs of Wyoming. Most of them are from the late 1940's. Wyoming was just so barren back then, I have very few photos with settlements. I thought that they were just beautiful because they show so much texture and character of the Wyoming plains.They also come is so many beautiful shades of grey, and even have markings in red, blue, and green on them (from before I got a hold of them. I also like looking at the different bodies of water and how they contrast to the land.


They were printed on this really heavy paper so they hold a stitch really well. The only thing I regret is that I don't have a sewing machine with a larger hole because then I could sew larger sections together. The paper isn't as pliable as fabric so I ran into all kinds of troubles bending it through the machine. I compromised by hand sewing the front and back pieces together by hand since sewing in the round and turning it inside out is impossible.


The back turned out really crooked. I prefer hanging it so that you don't see the back. It's a little embarrassing. I've tried making more but the first one is the only one that nips in at the waist like I really want. All the others are too heavy in the top without enough hips. Someday I'll perfect it.
Anyways, wish me luck that I'll get into the show, and that I'll actually sell it.