SACRED MUSE by Mary-Ellen Latino

As part of the Westies group, which is a subgroup of Art cloth Network and comprised of artists mostly from California and Canada, I have created a piece from a call entitled, “One Long Earth Song”. Each artist was prompted to read “Benedicto” by Edward Abbey for inspiration and create a piece 36” (W) and 18” (H) by 2/29/24.

I decided to create a piece to highlight such wonders of Mother Earth in the Petrified National Forest in Arizona. While visiting there, I was captivated by fossilized logs and stumps that had metamorphosed from trees over a period spanning 200 million years. Bursting with magical color, texture and glimmer, they exemplify powerful strength and perseverance in the face of adversity. These petrified beauties are gifts we will treasure forever.

I digitally developed a photo I had taken in the forest, commercially printed, machine stitched and fused (gilded) the log with multiple layers of metallic foil.

Here is the piece in progress as I apply foil with heat to develop surface design.

After several days of applying the foil in many layers using Misty fuse and heat, the piece is done!                 

                                                                     SACRED MUSE

Here are  3 detail views of SACRED MUSE:

SACRED MUSE, detail 1

SACRED MUSE, detail 2

SACRED MUSE, detail 3

One of my favorite poet and authors is John O'Donohue (1/1/1956-1/4/2008) who was an Irish poet, author, priest and philosopher. His writing also speaks to me about this piece.

“THE BEAUTY OF THE EARTH IS THE FIRST BEAUTY. MILLIONS OF years before us the earth lived in wild elegance. Landscape is the first-born of creation. Sculpted with huge patience over millennia, landscape has enormous diversity of shape, presence and memory."

SACRED MUSE is the second piece in the Petrified Log series. I plan on creating more pieces in this series.

PETRIFIED LOGS (diptych) was juried into the ACN exhibition LAYERS in 2022 by juror Lasse Antonsen.

 

                                                                     PETRIFIED LOGS 

“The tree is more than first a seed, then a stem, then a living trunk, and then dead timber. The tree is a slow, enduring force straining to win the sky.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery

by Mary-Ellen Latino

A Preview Of My Work In The Harmony Exhibit by Mary-Ellen Latino

HARMONY is a juried quilt exhibit that will take place at the Broadway Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia 6/1/22-8/31/22. https://broadwaygalleries.net

Curators for the exhibit are Lisa Ellis and Barbara Hollinger.

When I read the call for entry, I was excited by both the theme and size limitations.

The theme was chosen in a time when the world was chaotic and we all needed to look for harmony in our lives.

All pieces entered had to conform to 12x12, 24x24, 36x36 or 48x48 finished sizing. The square format of various sizes would make such a unique patchwork installation on the walls of the gallery. 

I was totally motivated to enter my work!

As a mixed media fiber artist, I work digitally with photographs, scanned dyed cloth and surface design to express my visual voice.

For this exhibit I was inspired to work with a photo of a rustic old farm truck I had taken in Harmony, CA. – a central coast destination for artists and those seeking peace.

The abandoned relic was proudly basking among the thick grass and trees behind the glass-blowing building. It conjured up sweet memories of the past, bringing me joy and harmony.

I digitally developed the photo intuitively until the elements flowed together, commercially printed on cotton broadcloth, free-motion quilted on eco-felt, painted with Inktense pencils, applied foil and attached it to a 24” square canvas. 

I had left 3 inches all around the quilted piece for attachment to the canvas with a heavy-duty stapler.  Since it was a bit tricky to do for the first time, I reached out to a member of our group for advise and she recommended videos to watch to guide me.  It worked!  

LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL! was juried in.

‘She loved the smell of old truck, thick cotton and vinyl seat covers, old gasoline and oil, the smell of country, decades of farmers, workers and families taking trips back and forth to town, up back roads to swimming holes, over fields, through all the weather.  She imagined what this truck would have seen if it had eyes and a memory.’ Quote by Glenda Love

The other artwork that will be shown in the exhibit was made a year earlier. 

I was inspired to create RHYTHM AND JOY! while admiring the beauty and magical lure of aloe. Music and nature fill my soul inspiring me to create art to depict the changing visual language of our natural world, the seasons of our life. Aloe is resilient, grows slowly and like music survives for generations and can fill you up with happiness.

While listening to Handel’s ‘Water Music’ I digitally developed a photo and scanned dyed shibori cloth until the elements harmoniously flowed together, commercially printed on cotton broadcloth, painted with Inktense pencils, and quilted. Can you feel the Rhythm?

Mary-Ellen Latino

melsrun2000@gmail.com

www.highinfiberart.com