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Happy New Year!

Reflections 1 © 2019 Natalya Khorover Aikens

Happy 2019!

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art - write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you will surprise yourself."

~Neil Gaiman

Thank you for being a part of my artistic journey!

~Natalya

thoughtfully repurposed

If my solo exhibit had a title, it would be Thoughtfully Repurposed.

But it doesn't have an official title, and as it's coming down on Friday, I thought it was time to share a few photos. Those of you who were able to see it, I sincerely appreciate that you came, your kind words mean so much to me! Those of you who are too far to come, I appreciate all your well wishes also. Thank you.

art and seed pods at the entrance

Iron Spine 6XL makes it's debut surrounded by older relatives

Rhetoric with Iron Vessels: Reclaim Love and Iron Vessel: Enough

The top portion of Iron Spine/Urban Edge installation

another view of Iron Spine/Urban Edge installation

a small portion of the bottom of Iron Spine/Urban Edge installation

Full view: Iron Spine/Urban Edge

a visitor from the insect kingdom

food matching art/art matching food

viewer matching art

artist with art (Iron Spine/Urban Edge)

What a whirlwind summer!

Quilt National visit redux

It's nearly a month since I have returned from a whirlwind trip to Athens, Ohio for the opening weekend of Quilt National 2017. What a fun weekend it was! My friend Gail was my copilot as we let Waze guide us along the roads of NJ, PA, MD, WV and OH. The routes were all very scenic, but we had no time to stop for pictures, we had a destination to get to!

I have to say that as much as it was a thrill to see my art hanging in this prestigious exhibit, it was even more of a thrill to commune with all the artists who were there!

There's nothing better than hanging out with fellow creative souls. Sharing ideas, techniques, trials and tribulations and just basking in each others company. I was delighted to meet all the artists that I could, and wished every single one could have attended!

Here's the gallery view with my piece, Iron Spine 5XL hanging between work by Paula Kovarik and Kit Vincent, and then followed by Amy Meissner and Kerri Green

Here's moi talking about my work.... apparently I talk with my hands....

The powers that be took videos of the two minute talks that each artist gave about their work and when those videos become available I will gladly share where they can be seen. I always find public speaking rather nerve-wracking, but I was told that I spoke well and made sense. What more could I ask for?

Upon my return home, there was a lovely surprise in the mail - SDA magazine wrote a bit about the exhibit and used my art to illustrate it! So cool!

I'm still reliving bits and pieces of conversations that took place. So much to consider and enjoy remembering!

a conversation

As I prepare to share some of my art with you, please enjoy this interview recently recorded with Nathalie Kalbach. It's really more of a conversation than an interview, Nat is lovely to talk to! And you'll love her new book Artful Adventures in Mixed Media! So grab your favorite beverage and settle in...

click for the interview!

gratitude

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the US. I have many people to be grateful for this year... but here I thank all the readers of this blog! Thank you for clicking, scrolling, reading and commenting! I appreciate that you take the time out of your busy day to stop by... I appreciate the thoughtful and kind comments and suggestions that you leave here!

Thank you!! and happy Thanksgiving to all!

leap day

How can I resist making sure that there is a blog post here on leap day? I can't!

So a little overview of what's been brewing lately:

steadily stitching away on my extra large project

mending my favorite jeans boro style

embroidering a chinchilla for a friend

paint therapy happened (an old collage got thoroughly reworked many times) (just for the fun of it) 

I got the fieriest little doily in the mail from Amy Meissner

I rediscovered the lichen rock in my back yard... in the sunshine...

All these pictures are from my Instagram feed. Take a peek! Happy leap year!

so much to do!

Autumn is such a busy season in so many ways. School activities are in full swing, holiday prep is in full swing. This year I had the opportunity to be in many exhibitions, so that means packing and printing labels and gallery sitting. I've been hard at work on my latest home portrait, it's almost done and I'll be sharing it in my newsletter very soon.

And now another annual tradition has crept up on me... Costumes for my daughters annual Russian School Christmas play! So among the finishing stitches on the home portrait, I have been sketching costumes, making lists of children and dreaming of how to bring my ideas to life. And I do mean dreaming. I been having costume construction dreams quite literally.... now I have to start stitching in real life though.

This years play is "The Little Hump Backed Horse". I gleefully ran to my kids home library and dug up the book from my childhood, I have always loved the illustrations in it. We watched the cartoon version just get up to speed! We have yet to watch the ballet, but that I'd want to see in real life...

So I thought I'd share a few of my sketches here. They are of the more fantastical costumes that will be a challenge to construct...

the Little Humpbacked Horse and the three beautiful horses

the Moon and the Sun and the Firebird

the Fishes

the Tzar and the Tzar Princess

I'll be back with in-progress pictures of this motley crew in a week or so... You can also follow my progress on Instagram.

saturday snapshot

...or several... This spring I indulged in something slightly different from my usual oeuvre.

In our Russian scouting tradition we have a wonderful little quirk that everyone loves. During the second summer in the older kids camp, they receive their forest name. It could be anything from an animal to a force of nature. Everyone awaits in anticipation and speculates what name they will wind up with. It's a tradition to embroider the name on your neckerchief, or stitch a patch on. I indulged my daughter and her friends and stitched a few names for them.

an arctic fox

a cherry blossom

a lyre bird

a waterfall

a white rose

The hole you see in each one is made with a hot stick from the campfire. It's burned into the neckerchief as they get their name. And looks like I'll have a few more to embroider in the near future...

magic monday

I haven't been in my studio since I finished Spruce Street. Life got in the way. But I haven't stopped thinking about what I want to do once I got to the studio.... Here are a few things that caught my eye during the thinking stage.

beautiful bouquet

sunset lighting up newly minted leaves

a fabulous chandelier

And today I did get into the studio. For just a little bit....

a start of something new.....

Now full steam ahead! There is much to be accomplished....

Merry Christmas!!!

Yep. It's not over! Today my family and all my Russian Orthodox friends are celebrating Russian Orthodox Christmas! Ded Moroz came in the middle of the night and there are presents under the tree!

I'll be back soon after all the celebrating with regular posts... Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!!

and the winner is....

Me! Thank you everyone for taking a look through my art and choosing your favorites! And thank you for the lovely birthday wishes too!
First I'd like to feature a few of your favorites, because they are my favorites too:

Dormition Cupola © Natalya Aikens

The City © Natalya Aikens

Walls Between Neighbors © Natalya Aikens

Sunset © Natalya Aikens

And the lucky recipient of my birthday gift is Anastaija! Thank you so much for your kind words to all of you! and thank you for playing, you have all made this a most lovely day....

instafun

I know that some of my blog readers don't belong to social media sites, so I thought I'd share somethings I've been posting on Instagram here. Instagram is an app and a social media platform on the smart phone that lets you apply filters to photographs and post them for your followers to see.

I think of it as rather fun and post not only my artwork related photos, but also nature stuff and general life stuff that comes my way. Here's just a few of photos I posted in last two weeks.

I made a flower out of fallen leaves and propped it up on a log.

A weekend later I was impressed that it was still on the log and dried beautifully.

Fun with mirrors and filters while watching a ballet class.

Sheep in a meadow and a watercolor app? How can I resist?

I've been stitching tiny pieces while in a waiting room and shared.

And this is the view on the worktable in my studio this morning as seen on Instagram and Facebook.

Hope you enjoyed my little social media tour. Instafun!

back to school!

Are you tired yet at looking at only Wordless Wednesdays here? I am! Summer is very busy around these parts with kid excursions, camps, travel and all other things that summer with children entails... But now it's back to the school routine, the after-school routine and back-to-the-studio routine. Woo hooo!!! As much as I enjoy planned and not, spur-of-a-moment and crazy activities of summer, I also love the dependability of routine.

So back to our regularly scheduled programming here, aside from WW. I have a few blog posts planned to share some delightful sights that I saw over the summer and I'll also fill you in on the goings on in my studio.

If you are ever in upstate NY, north of Albany, I highly recommend a visit to this little gem of a museum. Located on the grounds of the Russian Orthodox Holy Trinity Monastery, (which makes you feel as though you are in the Russian countryside) it's actually geared toward the non-Russian speaking visitor. The museum contains wonderful artifacts of representing four centuries of books and art in Russia. I thought I'd share with you the few that really captured my attention.

a detail from the Book of Gospels circa 1575...handwritten....

Book of the Twelve Great Feasts from 1825, also handwritten...

Gold-work detail from a Regimental Standard 1875

more gold-work from the Standard

Gorgeous cover of a book titled The Tzar's Hunt 1896

detail of gold-work from an Epigonation from the late 20th century

exquisite gold-work on a Shroud from the late 19th century

Hope you enjoyed this little tour of Russian history..