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Welcome!

Welcome!

First of all, however you got here, thanks for reading. 

I thought I might start this adventure with an introduction. 

I am a Chicago area artist.   Well, almost Wisconsin.  I live up near the border, and I work primarily in fiber. 

I began my rambling artistic journey in music.  I studied vocal techniques for ages and ages.  It took years, but I finally got the nerve to sing in front of actual people and had a couple year stint singing blues in a bar band.  Yes, ironically, we were an all whitebread suburban  band singing blues in Chicago.   It’s a wonder we got booked. 

band

God Bless the early 90′s!  I still have pretty big hair. 

I think I could get about one leg into that dress now. 
‘
I moved on to the visual arts by working in metals and ceramics.  Questioning the wisdom and social attractiveness of being dirty all the time from throwing clay (ceramics) and lighting noxious chemicals on fire and breathing them in (metalwork), I decided to fall in  love with fiber.   Besides, I liked all the pretty colors.  
I actually went back to school around that time for a couple of completely unrelated degrees in speech pathology and started working with people with autism and behavior disorders.   I fit in art when I could at home and tortured my students with lots of craft projects at school.  Clearly, I needed more art time. 
With the much appreciated support of my darling spouse, I started doing all this full time.  As an aside, he wants all my pieces to have a little “SBK” (sponsored by Ken) logo on them.  (I hope he is not holding his breath on that one.) 
Whatever medium I have worked in, my work has always centered on aspects of the natural and historical world: plants, animals, maps. ancient drawings and languages.  I went through a big “seed pod” phase in ceramics-there are lots of big nut-like objects around the house now (see below)   
Ceramic nut thing

Ceramic nut thing

I occasionally pine for my past media and break out the nasty chemicals or the blow torch to combine other techniques with my fiber pieces.

 

Lascaux series III-Horses

Lascaux series III-Horses

Those are etched copper panels below depicting horses from French cave paintings. Viola!

And here is a completely unrelated plug of my latest work that I wasn’t sure how to tie in:

Herons

Herons

Well, that was a rather ungainly transition in to the present.  I know I kind of fizzled out there, but I suddenly ran out of personal art  history.  I am sure my future posts about my current art escapades will be much more fascinating.

This blog journey will focus mostly on artistic inspiration and techniques.  This means you will probably get a scary glimpse into my brain through the pictures I take.   I also have an as yet unnamed fiber art working group starting that I plan to exploit for material and photos to post.  It’s sure to be a thrilling adventure.   I hope you’ll come along.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 9:19 pm and is filed under Inspiration, Metal etching, Mixed Media, Newest Work, Shameless Self Promotion, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

22 Responses to “Welcome!”

  1. Leah says:
    February 25, 2009 at 11:02 am

    Congrats on taking the plunge Tracy….an official BLOG! I look forward to reading all about your art adventures….even the ones that we take part in.

    Reply
  2. Tracy McCabe Stewart says:
    February 25, 2009 at 11:32 am

    Thanks, Leah! I look forward to exploiting you for future blog content!

    Reply
  3. Nina says:
    February 25, 2009 at 2:09 pm

    Clearly, there is a lot going on under the wild hair! so many ideas popping out. Keep it up.

    Reply
  4. Jeanne Beck says:
    February 25, 2009 at 2:52 pm

    Tracy, a very nice splash for your first leap into the blog pond — river? — ocean?! I’ll look forward to being a regular reader.

    Reply
  5. Pam De Vos says:
    February 25, 2009 at 4:55 pm

    Hi Tracy–
    Love your blog! It feels so official, and artsy. Pretty cool!

    Reply
  6. Shelley Brucar says:
    February 25, 2009 at 5:04 pm

    Awesome start, Ms Tracy! Like that singer-in-a-bar photo too. Anxiously awaiting your next post.
    Shelley

    Reply
  7. Tracy McCabe Stewart says:
    February 25, 2009 at 5:31 pm

    Thanks all. That email I sent this morning begging you to comments really worked! I feel very popular :-)

    Reply
  8. Cindy says:
    February 25, 2009 at 6:10 pm

    I LOVE your heron piece! I really wish I had been able to get to your exhibit to see it in person. Welcome to the blog world. I have already added you to my RSS feeds.

    Reply
  9. Pam C says:
    February 25, 2009 at 8:21 pm

    Awesome Tracy!!!

    Make the herons the lead art piece – please! It is so beautiful

    Reply
  10. Karen White says:
    February 26, 2009 at 8:20 am

    The blog rocks, Tracy!
    I’m fascinated by the amazing & beautiful things that emerge from that huge machine in your front window…

    Reply
  11. Maureen says:
    February 26, 2009 at 11:24 am

    Tracy,

    A wonderful start to a great idea. I look forward to getting an up front scary glimpse into your brain through the pictures you take. You have the artistic eye and for me that is refreshing

    Reply
  12. Plum Tree Studio says:
    February 26, 2009 at 7:07 pm

    Love that hair and that photo! You all look like a rock group ready to crash into the main stream! Meow!

    Cheers,

    Agnes
    Plum Tree Studio Photography
    http://www.plumtreestudio.com/

    Reply
  13. Plum Tree Studio says:
    February 26, 2009 at 7:07 pm

    hello

    Reply
  14. Laurie says:
    February 26, 2009 at 7:37 pm

    Wow Tracy!! You are amazing!! Popular, beautiful great personality and FAMOUS!!! I am proud of you! What a great job on the blog!

    Reply
  15. Laurie says:
    February 26, 2009 at 7:45 pm

    PS… You have come so far since your road-kill quilts from 2005! LOL For those of you who have never hiked with Tracy, she teaches her amazingly smart dogs to dig up subjects-of-interest for her quilts!

    Reply
  16. Tracy McCabe Stewart says:
    February 27, 2009 at 6:12 am

    Thanks, everyone,

    I didn’t think I would start getting hazed on my own blog :-)

    I am sure I will have a lot more fodder in the future for you to make fun of!

    Truly, thanks to you all for looking. 111 hits in 2 days makes me ecstatic., I didn’t think I knew that many people. I really appreciate it.-Tracy

    Reply
  17. Deb Baldwin says:
    February 27, 2009 at 11:43 am

    CONGRATULATIONS! i’VE RECENTLY BECAME A BLOGGER TOO! Now I just have to find the time. I really like your latest piece of the herons.

    Reply
  18. Linda B. Laird says:
    February 27, 2009 at 12:23 pm

    Dear Tracy,
    Really enjoyed your background story–it’s amazing all the ways people take to get where they are today, and who knows how we’ll get to where we’re going!
    Beautiful work, esp.the herons and the cave horses. I look forward to seeing more.

    Linda

    Reply
  19. Norma says:
    February 27, 2009 at 2:29 pm

    I love your work, Tracy! May I suggest that you make each picture “clickable” so that we can see a bigger view. I’d really like to see a close up of the herons.

    Reply
  20. Shelley Brucar says:
    February 27, 2009 at 3:52 pm

    Hey Girl, What a wonderful experiment. I really like the stenciled organza you did. This is why I follow you wherever you go – that creative mind! My first stencil looked like a……………stencil!
    Shelley

    Reply

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