Sky

point to watch the lightning  show during Monsoons. We love to sit on our deck and watch the lightning as it crosses the sky. It is so beautiful and so powerful. I have always wondered what is happening on the desert floor during these storms.”

“I belong to the Tucson Art Quilt Group and we came up with the idea of an Arizona Panel Project to celebrate the Arizona Centennial in 2012. Fourteen individual artists each created their own panel quilt of what they loved most about Arizona. For me it had to be Monsoon lightning. What would be revealed in that moment when lightning strikes and illuminates a desert wash? In my panel is a jackrabbit who suddenly notices he is surrounded by predators!

In creating my art, fiber is my palette. Nothing is off limits. The wider the variety of texture and color, the more dimension is created. I hand dye, paint and add other embellishments to create effects to bring in the viewer.

Raised in the historic New England city of New Bedford, MA, I trained for my artist’s avocation by majoring in graphic arts and photography at Southeastern MA University. After receiving my Bachelor of Fine and Applied Arts, I worked in the studio of a professional Boston photographer, and then spent many years working for a cable television company. After many years I realized how much I missed being creative, so I returned to creating unique art through fabric.

For me, fabric brings both color and texture to a piece of artwork. When you combine fabric with other fiber materials, you have created something that both pleases the eye and invites the viewer to touch as well.

My most recent work is a mixture of photography and fiber art. For three years, I traveled around the country with my husband John obtaining inspiration from the Southwest, the Rocky Mountains and my native New England seashore.

I have displayed my work at many juried fine arts shows around the country. In 2005, John and I settled down here in Tucson. My studio and gallery is located in the Three Points area west of Tucson, AZ.”

To learn more about Trish Hastings-Sargent and her work, visit http://www.ths-studio.com/

winter, cold snow can be seen up in the mountains while hot, summer-like temperatures can occur down in the valley.

I am very interested in the landscape around Tucson with its man-made structures, marks, and stories left behind. I’m equally interested in the atmosphere that surrounds these places and the moods they evoke.”

To learn more about Erinn and her work, visit http://www.erinnkennedy.com/

encouraging Hopi potters to create flat and portable pieces knowing that they would appeal to tourists. A great number were sold in the Fred Harvey shops in the 1920s.

with the clear structure of geometry. A major aspect of my quilts is the use of bright and brilliant colors. Most of the ideas for my work have been derived from the surrounding environment: the four seasons in New England, the rock formations in Arizona, and the beauty of the Sonoran Desert. Working with the different fabrics gives me a creative freedom and allows me to transfer what I see into a picture or abstract design.”

A native of Germany, fiber artist Margit Kagerer was introduced to the world of quilting and fiber art when she relocated to the United States. Margit and her husband came to Massachusetts from Munich, Germany in 1992 and she found herself with time on her hands and a desire to do something creative. She had been a math teacher to 11th and 12th graders. Her interest in geometry naturally led her to admire the patterns found in traditional quilts. The couple moved to Arizona in 1997 and Margit started designing quilts with desert themes. She became a member of the Mavericks, a contemporary art quilt group

To learn more about Margit and her work, visit http://www.margit.artrageousfibers.net/

they promise long-awaited rain.

I was introduced to the world of quilting and fiber art when I relocated from Germany to the United States. As a math teacher, I have been attracted to the geometric patterns in traditional quilt making. Right from the beginning, I created my own contemporary designs. My education in mathematics still figures throughout my work. The way I arrange the blocks and shapes has to do with the clear structure of geometry. A major aspect of my quilts is the use of bright and brilliant colors. Most of the ideas for my work have been derived from the surrounding environment: the four seasons in New England, the rock formations in Arizona, and the beauty of the Sonoran Desert. Working with the different fabrics gives me a creative freedom and allows me to transfer what I see into a picture or abstract design.”

A native of Germany, fiber artist Margit Kagerer was introduced to the world of quilting and fiber art when she relocated to the United States. Margit and her husband came to Massachusetts from Munich, Germany in 1992 and she found herself with time on her hands and a desire to do something creative. She had been a math teacher to 11th and 12th graders. Her interest in geometry naturally led her to admire the patterns found in traditional quilts. The couple moved to Arizona in 1997 and Margit started designing quilts with desert themes. She became a member of the Mavericks, a contemporary art quilt group.

To learn more about Margit and her work, visit http://www.margit.artrageousfibers.net/

Stardust and Mysterial are envisagements of such nighttime daydreams. Mysterial is dark and chaotic. A cacophony of confusion. Passionate paroxysms. Stardust is positives and possibilities. A world surrounded by beauty and potential. Lucky falling stars and fireballs of promise.

These miniature artworks begin as photographs of earthly objects that are then transformed (with the use of pencils and paints) into make-believe otherworlds. Visual plays of perception. Dreamlands of the mind.”

to learn more about Patricia Katchur go to: https://www.patikatchur.com/

dust from catastrophic astronomical events —stars imploding and ejecting energy, as light and matter. The events that produce most of the gold in the universe are called ‘Gamma Ray Bursts’. This occurs when a double star consisting of two neutron stars collapses under the force of gravity. Neutron stars are the cores of dead stars. They are only a few miles in diameter; so dense that every last bit of matter has been compressed down to the density of the atomic nucleus. The two dead, dark stars spin around each other for millions of years at millions of miles per hour, constantly pulling each other closer. Then finally they touch. At that moment more energy is released than the rest of the universe combined. Much of their mass collapses into a black hole and leaves our universe forever, but the rest is released in an enormous explosion of gamma rays and newly-formed elements. Some of that star-dust flung into space is gold. The gold in the Earth’s crust was carried here on asteroids that hit the earth, during the ‘Late Heavy Bombardment’ 3.8 billion years ago when the Earth gained most of its mass. The Ancient Egyptians believed that gold was the flesh of their Sun god ‘Ra’. I was struck by the beauty and brightness, the depth of Orotones, which were first made in the early 20th century by, among others, Pillsbury and Edward Curtis. My work is a contemporary version of an Orotone. The image a digitally printed on UV Art glass with 24kt gold leaf applied to the back.”

to learn more about Kate Breakey go to: http://www.katebreakey.com/

For most of my career as a nature photographer I have concentrated on land forms often excluding the sky altogether. Slowly skies began to appear in my landscapes mostly when a cloudy sky echoed the land forms. I found my eye being drawn upward more and more. I became entranced by the rapidly changing shapes and colors so unlike the rocks I had been photographing.

From this new perspective a series of cloud photographs emerged. In one sense clouds are easy to shoot. I don’t have to drive anywhere. All I have to do is walk outside camera in hand and there they are. However, I have discovered the more I photograph clouds the more I realize that there is no way to capture the essence of “cloudness”. Each photograph is of a unique, never to be repeated moment that must stand on its own.

That’s why I love photographing clouds. They are always there hanging over my head. They are never boring because they are never the same. Each new image is an expression of hope that my intention to capture a moment of beauty will be apparent to the viewer. If any one of my cloud photographs grabs your attention and lingers in your mind, then I have succeeded.”

to learn more about James Cowlin go to: https://www.jamescowlin.com/index

I like staring out at the mid-day sky. In Arizona, the mid-day sky will often delight you by creating its own art work for you to admire.  At times, it’s as if the Arizona sky wants to tell you a story about its own place in the American Southwest.

to learn more about Nicholas Bernard go to: https://nbernard.com/

patterns and navigated the skies from their observatories, in particular there are records indicating they could predict the cycles of the solar and lunar eclipses, but why was this important to them…..what happened in these rare occurrences when sun, earth and moon would alien? What did they experience that we have forgotten? What was their ritual that we no longer celebrate? This year we will experience a total solar eclipse in North America, August 21, and a partial lunar eclipse on August 7.  Perhaps this year we will experience these events in a different way, offering us a time of reflection and perhaps offering us a portal into another realm.”

one of the most important rivers in the United States. The concept of water quality in the Southwestern United States, and the inherent alchemy that occurs as a result of it, are the foundation of my current work. The Colorado River is a direct water source of my most recent work. To make the images I go into the water, long after dark, and submerge color photographic paper. At the right moment, the paper is briefly exposed to a light source while underwater, to create a photogram of the water contents and movement. The alchemy of photographic emulsion combined with the minerals, salts, pollutants, and other elements in the water create a unique documentation of water contents. This rare perspective of under the surface of water creates beautiful and poetic meditations on water, as the force of life.”

to learn more about Kathleen Velo go to: https://kathleenvelo.com/home.html

“The cool, crisp and clear winter skies do not hold the colors of sunset for long.  As twilight fades to dusk, the lingering glow of the sunset on the horizon also fades to the deep blue of the desert night skies.  It is that moment of transition, when the planets and the brightest of stars became visible, a solitary cloud appeared high in the western sky, reflecting the deep red of the distant sunset.  Soon the light faded, the cloud dissipated, and the quiet desert night sky was filled with countless stars.”

was trying to do too much all at once. My favorite day of each week was when I got to steal away and drive across the river to Tarrytown to spend Sunday afternoons as a tour guide for groups and individuals who had travelled from all over the world to see the stained glass paintings by Marc Chagall, and the last work ever designed by Henri Matisse: the rosette window at the Union Church of Pontico Hills, which had been founded by the Rockefeller family for the local community. Between visitors, there would be quiet time, when just the two or three of us guides would have the private luxury of sitting quietly, chatting and admiring these transcendent windows. I was often transfixed and calmed by the balance of ethereal and earthly qualities in Chagall’s abstracted forms; I admit that I did not understand how he arrived at those shapes and colors that seemed to come from a mix of the outside world and some internal dreamlike vision. I had loved Chagall’s paintings since the day my fourth grade art teacher held up a book of his work and flipped through the pages for us to see. If Chagall’s window had a deep complexity, Matisse’s rosette window was, conversely, light and simple: like speaking volumes with just a few words.

After living in Arizona for a few years, in a world that is shaped by the strength of the sunlight, I have come closer to finding a duality of depiction and abstraction. When the intensity of the sun and dry air are so powerful, and the contrasts of shade and night so dramatic, if I depict the world as it looks, I cannot always capture how it feels to move about in this strangely intense landscape. I have searched for ways to express the delightful confusion of perspective and dreamy refractions of hue; these have allowed me to explore my two favorite basic elements of painting — light and color — in these watercolors.”

to learn more about Kate Stamps go to: http://kspaintings.com/index.html

in a kettle or individually, they are always fascinating to observe and photograph. This image was taken near Inspiration Rock, high in the Santa Catalina Mountains. This vulture was catching thermal updrafts early in the morning. It would descend into a canyon then rise flying directly over me, passing so close that I could hear the whistling sound of air rushing over its wings.”

“I heard this raven croaking long before I could see it. The sound of its wings slowly beating against the warm monsoonal air seemed to drown out all other sounds as it effortlessly glided past me.”

to learn more about Kate Breakey go to: http://www.katebreakey.com/

Birds’ and always fill the skies as the go off and return daily. Like many a Snow Bird they are here for a short time until it gets too hot and then they are off to cooler climes.

However, with a 20-second exposure, the clouds lit up with the warm glow of the city lights, and seemed to literally come to life. Their slowly drifting motion was captured in the exposure; and it evokes a dancer in mid-leap in Cloud Dancer, and a volcanic plume in March of the Stars, through which a cast of mythological characters carry out their nightly parade.”

About the Stars:
“In Cloud Dancer, the brightest object (mid-left) is the planet Jupiter – also seen are the constellations Orion (lower right), Canis Major (lower middle), and Canis Minor (mid-image); the Hunter and his two dogs. Canis Major contains the star Sirius, the brightest star in our night sky, while Canis Major, above it, has only two stars, the brightest one that can be seen in this image is Procyon. There is a great nebula in Orion’s sword, which is easily visible with a small telescope. Orion’s two brightest stars are Betelgeuse (upper left of Orion) and Rigel (lower right of Orion), a red and blue-white supergiant, respectively. The bright star Capella in the constellation of Auriga, rounds out the group in the upper-right of the image.

In March of the Stars, Jupiter is still the brightest object, and appears slightly stretched due to the wide-angle of my camera lens. In addition to the constellations in Cloud Dancer, here we also see the closest star cluster to Earth, the Hyades (to the right of Orion), which is part of the constellation of Taurus the Bull. The Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters, is another open star cluster, which is technically in the constellation of Taurus as well (seen to the upper right of the Hyades).”

may choose to place either the waves or the grasses at the bottom or top. (For purposes of display, one or the other had to be chosen!)

This image is a continuation of a body of work that explores the grandest connection of all—the relation of humans to the universe. Carl Sagan wrote in Cosmos, “The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff.” It seems we are connected to the universe through our very beings. We are all part of the whole and it is a part of us. We are connected through space and time. This simple fact is awe-inspiring and, as we look into the night sky depths, we can also feel a part of the greater whole.”

to learn more about Kathryn Maxwell go to: http://www.kmaxwell.net/

lines leave pale areas between areas of dyed fabric. The stitches were then removed, and the work was layered over eco-felt (made from recycled soda bottles) and machine stitched.”

to learn more about Mary Vaneeke go to: https://maryvaneecke.com/