Happy Christmas!

Three Christmas photos from the low country. South Carolina has the longest deer season in the country. It starts in August and continues through New Year's. Of course you might opt for duck hunting instead. Either way, it's refreshing to have a pimento cheese sandwhich after you've cleaned up.

Autumn in Vermont

Nice Kirby family with Halloween decorations.

emotional baggage

I made this bag for my grandmother. After she died my brother ended up snagging it. It came back last summer in a huge bag of discards and hand me downs that his wife sent to me.

autumnal images

Fall in Vermont is fleeting. Here are two pictures that I shot for the quilt only about a month ago. Now it is so cold that I can't stand outside with a camera for long without thinking that I'm going to get frostbite. These women are some of Kirby's movers and shakers. Longtime (perhaps lifelong) residents.

An endless ode to type 55!

As I mentioned, I'm still going through a mourning process. This one was shot at an elementary school's Valentine's Day dance. Jonesville, South Carolina. I now live in a place where you could never photograph outside on V.D..

Fairly Fantastic!

Still involved in the stages of grief associated with mourning. Here are photos from the 2006 Caledonia County Fair. It was just expensive then, not endangered. This family sells to Organic Valley.

mud hollow

Even after leaving the south I can still hang out in places with names like Mud Hollow. There are three geographic areas in my small town of Kirby, VT. North Kirby, South Kirby, and Mud Hollow. North and South Kirby are separated by a mountain. Mud Hollow is just kind of off to the side. From my conversations with certain (somewhat sensationalistic) long time residents, I gather that it used to be considered taboo for North and South Kirby people to intermarry. And although it now houses lawyers, teachers, nurses, and other "respectable" individuals, Mud Hollow has long had a REPUTATION. Although the girl who terrorized Walker on the schoolbus (calling him a butthead with frequency) is from Mud Hollow, I consider it to be a lovely place. It truly is a hollow, and people are very warm and friendly (for Vermonters!) Pictured in this block are two Mud Hollow families.

**This project is supported in part by the Vermont Arts Council which is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

nepotism?

My children will appear on a disproportionate number of squares on the GREAT KIRBY DOCUMENTARY quilt. Sammy is on her square twice along with her fantastic friend. This past summer I dragged them with me to many protarit sessions. They were of course very helpful AND carry much crowd appeal with them. ("What lovely, well behaved girls!") I let them have a sheet of film and use of the Wista; they photographed a sunflower together. Walker is in three incarnations on his square.

**This project is supported in part by the Vermont Arts Council which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts!

letting go of type 55

Deep down, I'm a square, color person. Then I happened on some grant money, bought a wista, tried type 55, and was hooked. With my Mamiya and a borrowed backdrop from Lenny Wayne (that's a whole nother story), I had already set up a "photobooth" at a church bazaar. I charged $1- for a portrait, then mailed the large color prints a week later. With the polaroid, the gratification and exchange became immediate and big. These are images that I shot at "photobooths" in rural South Carolina.

many textures

The great Kirby Documentary Quilt! Here are two more completed squares. I decided to have the really important matriarchs (and patriarchs) of my town of Kirby stand alone AND be framed in opulent fabric. I asked Lucy (pictured in the grid) to choose the fabric for her square. Of course she choose the leopard velour. Like mother, like daughter.

***This project is supported in part by the Vermont Arts Council which is funded in part by the National Endowment of the Arts!

tumbling bratz (happy late birthday Thatch!)

This is a bag for Thatcher's birthday. Cyanotyped plastic dolls, red satin border, leopard velour lining, quilted. It is delicious. Lucy models. It IS a little big for her.

priorities? priorities!

It's hard to be a blogger when you also have to be a soccer mom, gardener, cook, employee, spelling coach, etc. Here is the first one, Walker, 13 years ago. It was so much easier back then. I even had time to tie dye!

a wonderful pattern

I've been experimenting with cyanotyping on different types of fabric. This will help me both break up the overwhelming blue, and hide the many imperfections that are a natural and unavoidable part of the blueprinting process. Laura Blacklow gave me this idea, and I've been having Linda at Blueprints on Fabric custom coat various calicos and solids. I had tried this on my last quilt in a limited but very successful manner. Now my coating days are over due to a limit of time and space. So anyway, Linda does a great job.

***This project is supported in part by the Vermont Arts Council which receieves funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Vermont Legislature!!!

married three days

A second awesome couple. When I took this photograph, in Snider's Crossroads, SC, they'd been married for only three days. The bride is a fantastic singer. The I shot the image at a monthly "Pickin' Parlor".

a perfect autumn day

It was a beauiful fall Sunday in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom. This couple stopped by the Kirby Town Hall in order to have their photo taken. They had dressed for the occasion and were starting a Sunday drive. They've been married for over fifty years.

I decided to make a few images stand alone on the Kirby Quilt (as opposed to being placed in a four square or nine square). Jean and Melvin seemed important enough to frame in red satin.

****This project is supported in part by the Vermont Arts Council which is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts****

silver cows

Here's a piece of the great Kirby Documentary Quilt in process. After realizing that my original idea of photographing everyone in my small town of Kirby, Vermont was not going to work, I had the idea that I should aim to photograph every cow in town. These cows are printed on the almost luminous cotton sateen sheeting made by Blueprints on Fabric. It fairly glows. I bordered this image with silver velour from an old shirt worn by my son. The quilts of Gee's Bend were a revelation to me; they gave me the idea of using non-traditional quilting fabrics- corduroys, work clothes, old clothes, etc.


****This project is supported in part by the Vermont Arts Council which is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts!****

quiltstravaganza- girl art to the max

This is my first photo quilt. I made it as a documentary tribute to Colleton County, South Carolina. It was made with funding from the South Carolina Arts Commission and with an Alternate Roots Grant. My husband, Bill Storz helped to do the massive amounts of technical work that creating this quilt involved. I worked on it through two pregnancies.
When I moved from urban New England to the rural South Carolina Low Country in 1991 (to begin life as a schoolteacher) I felt that I was in another world. I began to explore my new home with my camera in hand. I printed these images on fabric and then made a quilt. This work was completed in 1998. It is 100" x 100".

warm and fuzzy

The first kid's quilt that I made was for Sammy. She was one and we had just moved to Colorado. I always go running in the early morning before anyone wakes up. That didn't work with Sammy though. She'd wake up if I wasn't there. I had to take her with me. Even in the frigid winter. So I made her a very warm quilt. Wool blanket on the inside and backed with fleece. It had many personal images printed either with cyanotype or van dyke brown.
Well now I live in a colder place and also have lucy. So I made another warm quilt. This one has all kinds of pictures- her favorite doll, me w/ my mother and grandmother, her sonogram, a snakeskin, her favorite flowers, etc. I also used pieces of the sling I carried her in and the maternity dress I wore when I was pregnant.

It's a fair day!

A rare hot and sunny day here in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. I spent the day today at the Caledonia County Fair. I photographed many people along with the animals that they had brought to the fair to show. Kids with cows, a woman with her various rabbits, a man with baby pigs and pygmy goats. The CCF brings rare Kingdom weather and special generosity of friendliness. People enjoy talking about their animals and sharing.
I had to shoot with my medium format camera today as I am running out of the polaroid film that I'm using with the 4 x 5. These images were made about 4 years ago with my wista. It was the first year I shot at the fair. I printed the negs on cloth and made this bag- "Fairpiece". I use it to keep my lupe in and hang it on my tripod for handy help when focusing the 4 x 5. I've been showing it to my Kirby subjects as an example of how the photos on the Kirby Quilt will look.

saying no to velvet

When I made this quilt square, I was experimenting with formats for the great Kirby Documentary Quilt. I took this photo of Walker and Sammy, (children 1 & 2) a few years ago. I printed the image on cotton, bordered it with velvet, then had their names monogrammed on the velvet. I was planning on doing the whole kirby quilt like this, giving each Kirbyite their own velvet frame, monogramming each name. I've since decided that this idea is pretty dull and heavy. Plus there are so many grumpy vermonters who don't want their portrait made, so the idea of all residents being represented has also gone away.