Virginia Greaves
textile paintings
It’s All In The Cards 2013
012 years ago
by Virginia Greaves
in Exhibition
A couple of years ago, I started helping my friend Rebecca Reasons Edwards curate an annual show at The Art Place in Marietta, GA. This year’s show opened last Thursday night.
We asked the artists to make a piece 24″ x 36″ using a playing card as inspiration. Our artists came from the group Fiber Art Fusion and some invitational artists.
Curating is a funny thing. When a show isn’t juried, not all of the artists follow the rules — in fact, most of them don’t. Sadly, some artists hold the curators responsible. In the end, we had a responsibility to fill the gallery walls. Not everything fit the theme and not everyone followed the size restrictions. In the end, I still think that the show hangs well and shows how fiber art is progressing in North Atlanta.
Here is my co-curator Rebecca in front of her wonderful Cubist piece.
Love Song
by Rebecca Reasons Edwards
$900
Sharon, on the left, made this wonderful piece, thread-painted and mounted on paper and canvas. Diane Shultheiss stands to her right.
Fairy Queen
by Sharon Ahmed
$1200
This is my piece, Jacks are Wild, next to Susan Big’s piece I Felt Happy.
I Felt Happy by Susan Big
$350
Jacks Are Wild by Virginia Greaves
$1200
Debbie Smith made this whimsical piece.
Venus Midnight Bloom
by Debbie Smith
$450
Maggie Gershon from SEFAA joined us for the show and created this silk piece based on the Joker’s Wild card.
Joker’s Wild
by Maggie Gershon
NFS
We managed to convince our old friend Heidi Miracle to make this marvelous (and HUGE) piece for the Queen of Hearts. She looked lovely in the center of our back wall. Heidi used to make more textile pieces but now concentrates mostly on paintings.
Queen of Hearts
by Heidi Miracle
NFS
She also made this smaller piece we put in one of our niches.
Hellenne contributed this luminous piece created from silk. The colors in this are truly amazing — I don’t know that my camera was up to the task of truly capturing its magical sense of light.
Tree With Moon
by Hellenne Vermillion
$500
And finally, Hellenne also contributed this silk piece with trapunto and hand stitching.
Koi Fish With Plants
by Hellenne Vermillion
$600
This is only a sampling of the wonderful pieces hanging. The exhibit will be available to the public at The Art Place through October 3rd. Then the majority of the collection will be available for viewing at the SEFAA Center October 8 – 26 with a reception October 10 10am-2pm.
Golden
012 years ago
As I’ve mentioned before, I was lucky enough to have two pieces in the recent Sacred Threads show in Herndon, VA — Beach Guardians and The Bowl Judgments. It’s a biannual show and I haven’t participated in about four years — so I was delighted to find that the show published a book with all of the pieces from the show. Not having the ability to see the show in person, it gave me the chance to enjoy the exhibit from home and read all of the artist’s statements with time to study them alongside the work. You can order a copy of the book here.
Then a couple of weeks ago, I received a manila envelope in the mail. Inside was this new copy of Machine Quilting Unlimited and nothing else. I don’t have a subscription (although I might have to get one now — it’s really well done) — so I was confused until I saw the little strip at the top that said “Sacred Threads 2013.” I flipped to the article for the exhibit — and Beach Guardians was one of the highlighted pieces.
I was really stunned. I have never had my work included in a magazine before. I felt like I had reached a milestone. My 15 minutes anyway.
I have not been writing much on the blog lately. Part of me thinks that to have a blog, you need to write at least weekly. Another part of me really despises blog writers that fall off subject or write about nothing just to get a post out. I try to prepare something interesting and present it in a large enough piece that you can see progress. If I just showed you one day at a time, the blog would show everything in reverse order and it wouldn’t be nearly as interesting — to me anyway.
Once I had the girls back in school in August, I started thinking about my next piece. I really had no idea what I wanted to do. I started sifting through pics I took in the Spring and came across one that I really liked of a golden retriever. She is looking over her shoulder at her owner and has such a look of love in her eyes. If I found it captivating, maybe someone else would too.
I spent about a week drafting her. I typically bring the pic into Photoshop and reduce it to values only, adding lines of separation between differing objects — like the dog from her harness — or even her eyes and her nose from her fur. Then I spend a lot of time drawing in Photoshop using my Wacom tablet pen. Not only do I clean up the light scatter, I deepen shadows, add shadows to create definition, redraw the eyes, and simplify shapes.
From there, I continue the drafting process by pulling the final pattern into PosteRazor as a BMP file & scaling it to what I wanted. In this program, I can then tile print. Then I take the puzzle pieces, cut off the margins, and tape it back together. Now my pattern is back together — but larger.
Then I outline everything with an ultra thin black Sharpie. It bleeds through to the back giving me the reverse image that I’ll need for WonderUnder templates. I’ll have to go back & re-draw the lines on paper overlap — but it’s otherwise done. And FINALLY, I place a layer of see-through vinyl over the top of the pattern, tape it down, and trace it. I can then sew the vinyl to a piece of muslin (using a teflon foot that won’t stick) to use as my guide when I fuse the pieces down — or I can work on a very large fusing sheet and tape the vinyl pattern over that.
This is the beginning showing the first & second value. The first value is almost impossible to see as it’s white like the muslin background.
The third value gives you a better idea of the face.
The fourth value shows the outline of the entire dog.
The fifth value begins to give shadows and therefore definition to shapes.
The sixth value goes into an orange. There is only so far you can go with yellow — even cream. The color that shows for this value will depend largely on what is placed next to it. In the pic, it looks a lot more orange than it actually is.
The seventh value gives more depth and tones down the orange.
I debated having an eighth value — I though about just making it black — but between yellow and orange, I had room to move into a dark brown cinnamon. There isn’t a lot of it anyway.
Now the eyes. The pic normally gives me useless information here. I’ve found it best to draw them myself. The pupils are wide — and the irises are brown but has more gray in it than the brown tones in her fur. The outline of her eyes is black. You have to have a deep contrast here to feel the depth of the eye and most dogs can easily take the rich black for that function.
The nose is an experiment — although I’m leaning towards keeping it. You would think that all the fur around the mouth would match her other fur — but it doesn’t. It’s shades of back and gray.
Seeing a full picture of her, I think the nose makes sense. The gray and the black have to work together to give the impression of a snout — which I think they do.
The open patches around her shoulder are for a harness — which I’ll work on today.
I ripped off the orange under her left eye — I found it distracting.
I’m not sure about the light gray at the bottom of the mouth — I’m still considering it.
I made the entire piece without extra around the edges — which I should have done since I put her right on the muslin. Making her this way, I should have fused her to a fusing sheet where I could detach her & place her on a background. I wasn’t thinking through it — I was too excited to get to my favorite part — the cutting! I love the meditative process of fusing the shapes, cutting them out, and layering them until I start to see recognizable shapes.
I’ll have to think around what to do to correct this.
Shipping Demystified
012 years ago
At some point along the way, I started entering exhibitions far away. My quilts have always traveled better than I have. I always have some trepidation when I drop them at a shipper, but I have know that shipping them is the best way to show them to large numbers of people.
At home, I either store my pieces on the wall or rolled up and placed in a pillowcase. At one time, I only wanted to ship my pieces rolled, but not only were round shipping containers hard to find at the time, the shipping charges were MUCH higher. My more conservative nature took over and I learned how to ship my work folded. Even though I quilt my pieces tightly, 1/4″ apart or less, folding them for a couple of days in this way does not cause drastic wrinkles.
This week I was shipping Lincoln and The White Raven to IQF: Houston. I have small boxes for one quilt, but for two, there is a great box at Staples that is 14″ x 14″ x 14″. The depth is too high — but I can cut the sides of the box down to 10″ — and this particular box all ready has crease marks at 10″ — so it’s a very easy adjustment to make and I don’t have to fill the box with extraneous materials to keep the pieces from floating around in a box that is too big.
The goal is to fold the piece into a square that is 14″ x 14″. For Lincoln, I laid it out on the floor and crumpled up some tissue paper on the top.
And then I made my first fold — from the top to the middle. I then put more tissue paper in the middle.
And then made my second fold. This is now just under 14″ wide.
For this piece, I’ll need to make one more fold in the middle so I crumple up more tissue paper in the middle. It doesn’t have to be a lot. The tissue paper gives enough volume that the crease isn’t too small and won’t cause a nasty wrinkle on the top.
And this is what I looks like when it’s done. I then folded my second quilt in the same way so that I had two squares just under 14″. Some shows ask that you place the work inside a pillowcase with your name and other information written on it and then place it in a clear plastic bag. IQF does not want the pillowcase or muslin — they only want your work in a clear plastic bag.
I keep the plastic bags I get back from shows and re-use them, but if you’re just starting out, you can buy XXL Ziploc bags in the grocery store.
I stacked them one on top of the other and folded the remainder of the plastic bag around the work. They fit perfectly into the box.
For any show, I always have an envelope. At the minimum, the envelope should have your name on it. Inside I put an index card with my name and other contact information. For IQF, they also have some paperwork that they want included. Since there are two quilts in this box, I have included two separate envelopes. I tape the tops of the envelopes to the bag.
If I close the box as it is, I would have extra room, so I merely cut down the four corners with some scissors.
Then I fold the sides over and tape them with clear packing tape — once on the top, then the two sides, then across the top again. (By the way, this is exactly how I tape the bottom of the box as well.)
I don’t reuse boxes. They can be reused to be sent home — but I don’t keep them beyond a round trip. It’s the least I can do for the safety of my work.
I have one more piece going to Houston to be in a special exhibit — Firecracker — but I won’t send that one for a few weeks.
I have had Amelia Earhart accepted into the La Conner Quilt Show — so I’ll be shipping that one out soon as well.
And finally, I have Jacks Are Wild and It’s All Relative (which I’m finishing now) to be included in a local show that Rebecca Reasons Edwards and I are curating. Those two will show in It’s All In The Cards at The Art Place in September and at the SEFAA Center in October.
Just the Basics
012 years ago
by Virginia Greaves
in Design
My mother is an impressionist oil painter, and when I was young and she went back to college to receive another degree in art, I remember her talking about the bias against realism in the art world. Abstract work was more highly valued — and for a very long time, I’ve disagreed with that opinion. I do like some abstract work, but I tend to be more engaged with realistic work. In fact, I’ve always felt that realism was harder to achieve than many pieces I’ve seen. That’s a huge generalization obviously — but I thought that abstract art was more about serendipitous exploration than intentional exploration.
At this point, I realize that that isn’t true — at least it isn’t true of good abstract art. It’s based on a deep understanding of color theory and how to make it work for you. I also understand why some consider it more difficult than realism. With realism, you have a point of reference from which to work. (It may not be a good point of reference, but that’s a different issue.) With abstract work, you are working entirely with theories and attempting to turn them into something engaging.
I have respect for both points of view. I work primarily in realism because that is what I like to do — but occasionally, I challenge myself to do something different — and that is what I have started here. As part of my art group’s annual exhibit, we were given playing cards to interpret. I had all ready made Jacks Are Wild — but I was given another card that I thought I could play with in a more abstract way — the six of Diamonds.
Using my color wheel, I chose six colors — starting with cyan — and then every other color around the wheel: blue, magenta, red, yellow, and green. I then picked out a light and a dark in each of these colors. Below are six 6 1/2″ squares of the dark. I know the yellow screams a little. It has a tight black pattern on it. It will make more sense when it is seen smaller and in the context of the entire piece.
Then I made six diamonds from the light values and placed them on opposite sides of the color wheel — for example, the blue background got the yellow diamond.
Of course, at this point, I know I have to make the piece longer. The challenge requires it to be 36″ long, so I decide to add squares in the light values.
They look awful blank so I decide to add a common shape — a circle — in the dark values — to place on the light colored squares. I used a round container I had in the studio for a template. It was just the right size to fill the space in the squares I had cut.
I am, by the way, appliqueing all of these shapes. I had considered piecing the diamonds onto their backgrounds — but I wasn’t going to attempt to piece a circle — so I decided I would stick with machine appliqué. This is a Wonder Under template you see below.
I have two rows of blocks. This is how they were originally laid out on the design wall, but I decided it was too predictable. I left diamonds next to diamonds and circles next to circles, but I changed the color placements so that each color wasn’t clustered with its cousins.
This was very straightforward playing with color theory. Below you can see the two strips of shapes. Not exciting enough on its own though.
I turned to my old pal deconstruction for the next part. I made a background with black, white, and a couple of grays.
Then I cut the strips of shapes into 1/2″ sections and fused them onto the background.
I’m still working on the appliqué. Even though it’s just shapes and color, does it sing? I definitely think it has a sense of movement.
I don’t know that I’ll ever work exclusively in abstract, but it’s good to dust off my skills and try something new once in a while.
Artsy Shark and Promotion
312 years ago
by Virginia Greaves
in Exhibition
As an artist, one of the hardest things to do is promote yourself. Really, marketing and creativity are separate pursuits and it’s difficult to come out of the studio to show your work — and yet if you don’t, you’re creating work that goes directly into your closet. Part of the joy in creating is in sharing — and today is an awesome day because I’m featured on Artsy Shark, an online network for helping artists build their business. You can find my article here.
I’m also sending two of my pieces off today to Sacred Threads in Herndon, VA– The Bowl Judgments and Beach Guardians. I’m going to fold them up with tissue paper, tuck them into a pillowcase and a plastic bag, drop them into a box, and send them off with prayers to FedEx. I was lucky enough to also have them both included in the extension of selected pieces to Omaha, NE so it will be a while before I see them again. One day I hope to travel as well as my work does.
I completed my latest piece, Jacks Are Wild, over a week ago — but it’s summer, the girls are home, and there isn’t a lot of studio time to be had. I’m hoping to make pictures today & post a new page — but I’m not making any promises. It’s part of the Fiber Art Fusion show in September and the members want us to not show our pieces until the show — but there isn’t technically a virgin rule — and I don’t enter shows that have them — so I plan to share. That is why my blog exists — I share.
There are still a few more shows to enter this year — but I’ll have to choose carefully. The deadlines are all about the same time — end of August, beginning of September. I have a few pieces not entered and not promised — but I can’t have them overlap and entered in two places at the same time — so I’m going to have to choose. I like to stretch myself and try to enter a show I haven’t been in before — but the other part of me is more practical and thinks I should enter the shows I’m more likely to be accepted into. It’s always a shame to have a piece sit at home when it could have been somewhere else.
Silk To Dye For Exhibit
212 years ago
by Virginia Greaves
in Exhibition
The Silk Painter’s of Atlanta are exhibiting right now at the South East Fiber Arts Alliance space downtown. My friend Hellenne Vermillion had several pieces in the show so I took one of my daughters with me to see it today.
Many people think of wearables when they think of silk, and this piece called Luna by Margaret Agner is a wonderful example. (It’s also laid out on the exhibit card above where you can see how it fans out beautifully at the ends.)
Luna
by Margaret Agner
$150
There were also many pieces by Martha Andreatos. I loved the colors of the silk in this piece and how they are tiled together like a roof.
Colors
by Martha Andreatos
$225
This is another stunning piece from Martha.
Double Pears
by Martha Andreatos
$450
And this is a piece from Hellenne Vermillion. She has added a lot of hand stitching in this piece. I fear that the reflectiveness of the silk combined with the broad value range were too much for the camera on my iPhone — it doesn’t do the piece justice.
Koi Fish and Lotus Leaves
by Hellenne Vermillion
$450
This is one of Hellenne’s silk masks. She forms a clay mask and covers it with silk. This was my daughter’s favorite piece.
Tattoo Mask
by Hellenne Vermillion
$350
This is another one of Hellenne’s pieces displayed on a canvas. I just love the heat coming off this one.
Fertility
by Hellenne Vermillion
$350
This is another piece by Martha, also painted silk on a canvas. It has a very luminous feel to it.
Contemplative Figure
by Martha Andreatos
$450
And finally, another piece from Margaret. I love the playfulness of this one. It is a silk wrap hung vertically on the wall with pins. It would be stunning draped on someone’s shoulders.
Octopus Smiles
by Margaret Agner
$150
All of the work included in the exhibit was beautiful. Silk is such a vibrant medium and holds the color so well.
Please contact the artist individually if you are interested in their work.
Entering Shows
012 years ago
by Virginia Greaves
in Exhibition
This week I’ve been appliquéing my rabbit onto my background. It’s almost done. There isn’t a lot to show in that process. It’s been hard for me to concentrate as the routine of my girls is already starting to change. I fear I may be a victim of Spring fever.
I did think I would take a few minutes and talk about entering shows. Why do I enter shows? Well, why do I make art? I make art as a form of self expression. I enter shows so that people can see what I do. It is more satisfying for me to have my work in shows than for my work to collect dust in the closet. In fact, I have a growing collection in my closet — it makes me sad. Art is meant to be seen.
My first show ever was back when I lived in Alabama. The fabric store advertised for the Alabama Quilt Symposium to be held (that year anyway) in Birmingham. I thought it would be fun to enter and take a few classes. It was my first time. When I walked into the hall, I was enthralled by all the pieces. I had been working with textiles for a couple of years. I turned a corner — and saw my piece Childhood hanging — with a blue ribbon beside it! Best of Show & 1st place in its division. (That was, by the way, the only time I’ve won a Best of Show.) It was shocking — and thrilling!
I took that piece and Dalmatian Downs and entered them in the AQS Quilt Show in Paducah in 2004 — and what a surprise I had when they were both accepted. No ribbons, but I did visit the show and get to see them hanging. There was row after row after row of the most incredible quilts I had ever seen in my life. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t process how a judge could pick a best in show.
I also entered one of the Mancuso shows — Pacific International (PIQF)– and the International Quilt Festival (IQF) in Houston. I had several quilts accepted over the years into PIQF — but I was not lucky enough to be accepted to IQF. I stopped entering AQS-Paducah as my work became artistic and fell outside of their size restrictions. (At one time, they wouldn’t accept a quilt whose width was between 24″ and 40″ — although I don’t know if they’ve since changed that rule or not.) I told myself year after year that if I didn’t enter IQF, I’d never get in — so I kept entering.
Several years went by and I started to lose hope. We all do at one point or another — but then one year, I thought “one last time.” That was 2006, and my first monochromatic portrait Faces in Cloth I was accepted.
I have since entered Quilt National, Quilt Visions, and Quilts=Art=Quilts — but have not been accepted. I do admit that I haven’t been as diligent about entering as I had been with IQF. Sometimes it is because of the expense — and sometimes it’s easy to see from the other work accepted why mine was not.
I have also been accepted at some other wonderful shows — Art Quilts (at the Chandler), Sacred Threads, and the La Conner Quilt Festival — as well as some local Atlanta shows — Georgia Artists, Fiber Art Fusion (which I now co-curate with Rebecca Reasons-Edwards), SEFAA’s ARTlanta, and East Cobb Quilt Guild.
Right now, my desk is littered with folders — for quilts and for shows — as I try to decide shows to enter, how much it will cost, which quilts to send, how long they’ll be gone if they’re accepted, and how to enter pieces in such a way that I don’t enter a piece in more than one show at a time (because that’s just bad business). Decisions, decisions. I tend to enter & support the same shows that I have in previous years — but throw in a new one here and there to see if I get in — to expand my horizons.
I have had one piece juried into the East Cobb Quilt Guild Show this June — Beach Guardians. In July, both Beach Guardians and The Bowl Judgments will travel to Sacred Threads in DC. They have both also been chosen for an extended travel exhibit of Sacred Threads in Omaha, NE.
I also have been working on entries this week — but I think it’s bad luck to mention an entry before the jurying process is complete.
Sometimes I help Lyric Kinard with her list of Shows to Enter. At one point years ago, she thought about not keeping up the list and I offered to help. It was the only resource of its kind at the time and I wanted to see it continue. It’s a great way to look at the landscape and see what venues are available. Although many of the more local shows have not survived the current economy, there are still a lot of opportunities available.
Jacks Are Wild
012 years ago
I am currently working on a piece for an invitational show — my third animal portrait in a row. It’s not that I’m done making portraits of people, but I’m acknowledging the marketability of an animal piece over one of a specific person. People typically see one of my portraits and say “I’d love to have you make one of my grandchildren” — which is great, but moving people from the inspiration of a commission to the commitment of one is much more difficult than them finding inspiration in a piece you’ve already made and then committing to buying it. I’ve found that if I make a piece centered around a particular breed, everyone that has had that breed as a pet can see their cute little snuggly in it.
What I’m considering here is an antelope jackrabbit. This is a very large and muscular rabbit with huge ears. This pic shows the highlights — the beginning.
I’m using my new large pressing sheet — but it still wasn’t big enough to capture the tip of the ear — so I have taped my old pressing sheet behind it to catch the space at the top.
This pic shows the second value.
This shows the third value.
Once I cut the pieces small, I realized there wasn’t as much contrast between the second and third values as I saw in the comparison of larger pieces of fabric — but that’s ok. It happens sometimes. There isn’t enough of two or three to matter much.
The fourth value definitely shows the creature emerging.
The fifth value is a fun brown I found with creatures leaping across it — rabbits as well as deer. It’s a fun detail for someone that looks close enough to find it.
Then I finished with the sixth value of brown and then black. I completed him with an orange eyeball. This is him on my black design wall. I brightened up the pic so you could see the prints better.
He looks at home there.
Tomorrow I’ll start thinking about where he’s going to live.
2013 Georgia Artists Reception
012 years ago
by Virginia Greaves
in Exhibition
Last Friday was the Georgia Artists reception at the Abernathy Arts Center in Sandy Springs. I was excited to go. This is my 3rd year to be included in this exhibit and it’s always a great way to meet other Atlanta artists.
So this year, I prepared myself. I designed business cards & had them rush printed. I even went so far as to buy a new dress — something I never do. I came prepared as the professional artist.
I’m still glad that I did that — I should always do that — but this year was different. The artists didn’t mingle. I didn’t have the opportunity to meet one other artist other than the one that I already knew — and I pushed my card on her so I could at least have given one away. In retrospect, we didn’t have name tags like we have in previous years. Maybe that made the difference. Also, there was only one artist in the show that had been included previously. I wonder what damage the economy has inflicted on its community of artists.
Lincoln was beautifully hung. I always love to see my work hanging in a professional gallery.
This is me with my Lincoln.
And this is SPLAT! created by Leisa Rich. I’ve known her for a few years although we have mostly conversed on Facebook. I was blown away by this piece. It looks more like sculpture than fiber given the way it undulates from the wall. It’s mostly stitching on a vinyl material but there are holes filled with what I think is fine silk.
SPLAT! by Leisa Rich
And here is Leisa with an Honorable Mention! Well deserved. Probably my favorite piece in the show.
SPLAT! with creator Leisa Rich
Designing Business Cards for Artists
112 years ago
by Virginia Greaves
in Marketing
As I’ve mentioned, I have a couple of openings coming up soon, and one of the goals that I listed for this year was to produce new business cards. I had made some a couple of years ago — printed them on my inkjet printer using tear-able sheets — and comparing them to the professional ones that several artists have given me & I’ve saved for posterity — they are truly tear-able / terrible.
With literally a week to go, I needed to come up with something fast. I had been toying with the idea of using a non-standard size. I googled best cards for artists and came up with oodles of original ideas. The biggest take away from that was that one of the easiest ways to make your card stand out was to either make it a different size from a standard card — or make it out of non-standard materials. Knowing the enormous amount of time that could go into making cards out of fabric — like mini Artist Trading Cards — I decided that the mini-moo’s were probably the best way to go with my limited time table.
The mini moo’s are from moo.com — they are half the size of a typical business card (in length). I debated using someone local — but in the end, I was able to design a card using their template in a short amount of time, upload it, and still get them back quickly.
I knew that one side would have my information. I debated adding a QR code — I had actually convinced someone else to use one recently & researched how to make one — but it just didn’t make sense in terms of size on the mini-moo.
The other side would essentially be part of my brand — so I had to think carefully about what I would use. It would stand for my work as a whole — but it had to be small enough to look good on a mini-moo.
In the end, I went with a small closeup shot from a piece I made a few months ago — an eyeball. I am fairly proud of this eyeball — I love the color and it gives you an idea of the depth that I put into my pieces while still being small enough to fit on the card. I did end up trimming the sides with black to even it up with the template and help make the picture pop.
I’ll concede that I also used an eyeball on my last business cards. The majority of my work in the last few years has been portraits so it makes sense to me to use an eyeball. A full portrait would not have stood out on a mini-moo — the eyeball seems just right.
I used rush printing but regular shipping. I was ordering on a Thursday & moo.com printed them on Friday & shipped them out. I received them, surprisingly, on Monday.
The picture is dark — but I expected that. Monitors use the RGB (red green blue) color model — and printers use CMYK (cyan magenta yellow key or black) — and my Photoshop Elements isn’t advanced enough for me to use professional printing standards. I still think it looks fine.
It is also matte. I wanted gloss — but that isn’t available with rush printing. C’est la vie. I still think they look professional.
Notice I used different fonts. I think that mixing fonts can be an effective way to draw the eye. The font for “textile paintings” is more drawn out than the one above it. My name at the top is in bold & in a larger font. The combination draws the eye to the name.
The email address & website are variations on the name so they’re in the same font as the name at the top. The phone number is in the same font as the subtitle “textile paintings” — I think it makes the numbers easier to read.
For a long time, I had “Fiber Artist” as my subtitle — both on my cards and on my website — but I’ve come to see that that is not as accurate a description as I should have. I work in fiber as a medium — and I am an artist — but my pieces have a strong relation to paintings and I think it’s important to acknowledge that. I am often told by people that glance at my pieces that they think that they ARE paintings. “Textile Paintings” describes my work better.