Chickens on Ice 2022
59″ L x 32″ H
Watching the long-delayed 2022 Winter Olympics (ice skating in particular), learning of the fad to knit sweaters for chickens, and watching my neighbors’ actual chickens all came together in my brain to imagine ice skating chickens receiving their kudos of tossed roses from a cheering crowd. Of course, they are sweatered and coordinated and blinged out, as any self-respecting ice skating chicken should be. Springville Museum of Art “98th Statewide Spring Salon” 2022.
Last Wild View
Quadriptych (2022)
Storm Sunrise
Snow Smog
For many years I’ve been gifted with a glorious view out my back windows, what I think of as my private vista. Nothing impeded my eyes as far north or west as I was able to see. I spent hours sitting on my back steps watching light and shadow move across the land–thrilling to sunrises, clouds, and seasons flowing across the expanse, even trembling a bit as unbelievably powerful storms blew in, all in a rage. Looking back, I guess it was inevitable that one day bulldozers would arrive to subdivide the fields around me and turn the virgin ground into a shiny, new subdivision. The city has finally grown out to encompass me. My new neighbors planted twigs of trees—not a bad thing; but they are growing tall and broad. Soon they will completely obscure my vista. Soon I will see my last wild view. I already mourn.
Individual 11″x15″ vignettes began as white cotton. Images were drawn in pencil then quilted with rayon threads on a domestic machine. Painted with Tsukineko inks and acrylics. Mounted on commercial fabric fused onto heavy felt. Raw edge exterior border made with commercial fabric. Friends of Great Salt Lake “Lamborne Prize” Exhibit 2022.
Girl in Tree 21″ H x 24″ W
Materials: Whole cloth cotton and rayon, rayon thread, fabric inks, and beads.
Techniques: Original art sketched on whole cloth cotton, quilted, then painted with Tsukineko inks. Leaves painted with inks and hand cut, then attached with fusible and beading. Raw edge shibori indigo vat dyed rayon binding.
Statement: Those glorious, halcyon childhood days – was there magic in your life back then? A special place you could go to dream your future? 4 Common Corners exhibit, “The Way We Were.”
Pond Pals (Diptych)
18” x 42”
Drought is much on my mind. Utah’s Salt Creek Waterfowl Management Area and the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge have long provided a stopping over point for migrating swans which winter in California and fly north to nest in Canada/Alaska. Both Tundra and Trumpeter Swans, along with myriad other water fowl, have always found respite here each migration season. Since droughts have been monitored, January 2021 was the most intense period on record, affecting almost 70% of land in the state and especially impacting our migrating bird populations.
Painted with Tsukineko fabric inks and acrylic on cotton. Stitched with domestic Bernina. 4 Common Corners “Oasis” show.
Deep Water Dreaming
15” x 20”
I am dreaming of deep waters being restored to Utah. Please let storms find us this winter and fill our mountains with snow, fill our reservoirs, and fill our lakes. I envision myself in the back of this boat, just kicking back. I feel the wind in my hair and the smooth, beautiful glide of the boat across the water, dazzling light bouncing off the dark rippling surface.
Hand dyed fabric painted with acrylics and Tsukineko fabric inks. Stitched on domestic Bernina.
Sacred Woman of Plenty
35″ H x 41.5″ W
For most of human history, it’s been by women’s hands that food was prepared and gifted. Traditionally men cared for a farm and livestock, indeed “brought home the bacon.” But it was women who grew, tended, watered, weeded, harvested, cleaned, preserved, cooked, served, and chose with whom to share bounty from their kitchen gardens. Here is portrayed a sacred feminine archetype “infuse(ing) her cooking, her thinking, (and) her dance on this earth with exquisite feminine grace and wisdom” (Gabrielle Roth). Women are not only behind foods that sustained life, but they also form life inside their bellies, bear it, give their hearts to it, then provide the milk to grow and nurture it. My Woman has become gloriously, richly fat in the making of life and the sharing of food. Woman–the sacred giver of plenty, dancing upon the earth.
Painted with Tsukineko inks on whole cloth. Springville Museum of Art “36th Annual Spiritual and Religious Art of Utah” Show 2022.
Sow the Wind,
Reap The Whirwind
15″ x 30″
Created from white satin and white cotton lawn using textile inks and markers, watercolors, textile paints, beads, and burning with matches. Hand painted and quilted with rayon threads on domestic Bernina.
From the Old Testament, Hosea 8:7 states that those who insist on planting (sowing) the wind (something worthless or foolish) will harvest the whirlwind (storm). It’s a way of saying there are consequences to actions, and even a multiplication of consequences. Just as a farmer can plant one seed and harvest a bushel, we can sow foolishness and down the line harvest way more than we bargained for.
SAQA Special Exhibit Intersect Chicago (SOFA) 2022. Bountiful Davis Art Center Statewide Competition 2022.
Onaqui Roan–On The Run
30” W x 35”H
In vast open plains, wild horses have roamed free for hundreds of years. These majestic animals graze in small and large herd groups and include bays, blacks, sorrels, roans, buckskins, grays and black and whites. Many controversial issues face wild horses in the west, including limiting herd size while maintaining genetic viability, and managing resources, including water, which is especially critical during an ongoing drought. Sparse spring rains brought a rapid growing season for desert vegetation. Now with the worst drought season ever looming, green plants will soon turn brown, the land will dry out, watering holes will dry up, and an extreme fire season awaits. Onaqui Roan is based (with permission) on photos by Kent Keller, a local wild horse photographer.
Disperse dyes painted on papers and heat transferred to whole cloth satin, along with disperse dyes painted directly onto satin fabric, inks stamped on cottons, and specialty fabric markers. Raw edge applique and machine quilting on domestic Bernina sewing machine.
SAQA “Fur Fangs Feathers ands Fins” exhibit.
Rosanna Lynne Welter 