Hi all!

It's been a while. I've been busy taking on-line art courses from Jane Dunnewold, "Creative Strength Training" and "Dye Mastery: From White to Wow," as well as keeping up with my day job. In case you might be interested, as part of my day job at ForHealth Consulting at the UMass Chan Medical School, I co-wrote a Perspectives blog with Michael Grenier on "Is Your State Ready for the Proposed CMS Nursing Home Staffing Standards Rule?"  It's about a proposed Federal regulation related to nurse staffing at nursing homes. It's nice to be listed as a lead author, but it was definitely a "team effort."

Jane's dyeing class was great fun! I learned A LOT and made some gorgeous fabrics! Now I have to figure out what to do with them all.

I have more dye color mixing experiments planned and I'm still compiling all my dye experiment photos and documentation. I got sidetracked by holiday plans and a respiratory bug making the rounds in my hubby's and son's school system. I'm cataloguing some of my experiments on the website here. Check out my new Dye Color Experiments galleries. I have plans to add more, too.

."...and I just can't hide it."  This is what I have been singing lately. It's a song from the '80s by The Pointer Sisters which I had mostly forgotten about until recently.  It captures how I have been feeling lately. I keep expecting someone to pinch me and I'm going to wake up from this dream.

The first happy part is that I started a new job this week doing the type of healthcare policy and analytics work that I love doing with great people and the ability to telework full time!

I was also able to finish an art piece in time to submit to Jane Dunnewold's virtual exhibit and catalogue:
Inspired by Archetypes: Work from the 2022 Creative Strength Training Members

And then the part that got me singing again is that my artwork is on the cover of the art catalogue!

I agonized about how to make this piece and then how to photograph it. Mom helped me cast my face in paper-mache to use to make a face mold several years ago.  I've been pondering the idea for this piece off and on ever since. The opportunity to submit a piece to the "Inspired by Archetypes" exhibit gave me the deadline that I needed to get to work. Initially I tried shaping polyester around the face mold with steam heat. For whatever reason, it wasn't working so then I tried Powertex, a fabric stiffener, on a sheer chiffon silk. Thankfully that worked after a few tries trying to figure out how to do it best.

Once the piece was finished, I realized that I had no idea how to photograph it. The background is a mirror covered in the sheer chiffon silk. Somehow I had to capture how a person looking at the piece in person would see their reflection in it. My son, Tyler was bribed with something for Nintendo to be in the photo. Trying to get a wiggly model to pose the way you want him to when he just wants to get back to his Nintendo game is tricky. When we were done with taking photos, he asked me if he was going to be famous. He also asked if I am famous. Go figure.

Please check out the amazing virtual exhibit here: https://issuu.com/janedunnewold/docs/cst_archetype_issuue_2022
My piece is on pages 114-115. You can even buy a copy on Amazon should you want to have a copy in-print!

...and if you need some "creative strength training" check out Jane Dunnewold's online program: ​www.janedunnewold.com/cstonline

Sonja here. Recently I decided that I missed having the Friends Fabric Art website as a place to share artwork, write about making stuff, and connect with friends.

This February I started taking Jane Dunnewold's Creative Strength Training (CST) 10-month program. It has helped me to get making stuff regularly again. My son, Tyler (now 7 years old) sometimes joins in. One exercise from CST was on line. I played with lines in a circle and Tyler decided to add a drawing of Elmo with labels.

Another fun thing I've tried recently is neurographic art with pen and watercolor. Zenna Duke did a great video demonstrating it on Jane Dunnewold's uTube site: Drawing as an Embodied Practice: Neurographic Art

More to come making stuff!