I’ve been keeping myself quite busy for the past few weeks with preparations for Artomatic, and now the show is finally upon us!  Walls have been painted, lettering has been added, postcards printed, paint touched-up and, most importantly, art has been made and HUNG!  Even though I completed my installation on Sunday, there is still a nagging voice in my head saying “What on Earth did I get myself in for?” and “Isn’t there more that I can do?” I can’t wait until 10pm tonight—the last minute of installation.  After that, the building will be “hermetically sealed” for staff to clean and finish prepping things like lounges, bars, and classrooms.  So as of 10 pm, I can’t do any more, even if I wanted to.  The show opening is this Friday, May 29th—I will be there as soon as I can be after work.

My Artomatic Wall, from the side
Originally uploaded by alyson_olander

I’m showing two different sets of work—4 pieces of each series.  The Full Moon series that I started at the beginning of the year includes Wolf Moon, Quickening Moon: Seedling Ambition, Storm Moon, and Wind Moon.  I realize that I haven’t made blog posts about any but Wolf Moon; I am going to try to get them together and post this week or in the first week of the show, in case folks come here wanting to know more.  The second is a series that I began over a year ago which I’m calling Water & Stones. I pieced the large quilt many moons ago as a study of patterns and lines and colors and just got stuck.  I pulled it back out and quilted it just recently in time for Artomatic.  The small quilts that run along side it were fun little variations on the theme.  There is a fourth, but 3 is a better number for display purposes.  My current description of them starts out with “if Andy Goldsworthy were a quilter…”  Once again, I realize that I haven’t made a blog post about any of these.  Just like with the full moon series, I am planning to post something descriptive up this week or next.  If you want to see more pictures and details of the quilts, check out my set of Artomatic pictures on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alyson_olander/sets/72157618608512307/ .  Once Artomatic opens, I will be posting (almost) all of the pieces on etsy for purchase: http://wonderlandquilts.etsy.com .

Me & my wall
Originally uploaded by alyson_olander

Here’s the oh-so-important plug and show information:

55 M Street, SE (Navy Yard Metro, Nationals Stadium Exit)
Washington, DC 20003
My work be found on the 4th floor, near the education area

May 29-July 5, 2009
Fri-Sat: Noon-1 am
Sun, Wed, Thu: Noon-10 pm
Meet the artists night: June 13th (I’ll be there!)

More Information: http://www.artomatic.org/

It’s been a while since I posted. I’m so out of practice. I worked on this piece today. I know you can’t see much of it here, but it will be in Artomatic between May 29th-July 5th, so iffin you want to see it, you should come for a visit. Or, I will probably post a full pic when it’s done, so you could take that route as well.

Also, we made a pilgrimage to Ikea for Artomatic lighting and a myriad of other fun things. I want everything. In particular, a new kitchen; but also, everything.

The NIH Juried Art Show Starts tomorrow. My purple swirly quilt that’s already been everywhere is in that show. While I am very excited to be accepted to a juried art show, I have to admit to feeling disappointed that the other submissions were overlooked in favor of the purple swirly one. I think it’s getting retired after this show, I’m tired of looking at it.

Off to go work on some more stuff for Artomatic. I think it is possibly a bad idea for me to leave all of the hand-sewing till last…