Mayhem at the Herndon Gallery

Seriously, I didn't know the jafagirls were

 going to be this involved in the Herndon Gallery Exhibit but honored and excited to be invited. I came back from a trip to Taiwan and Nancy said, "HIAY! here is the list of things we have to do by next week." PHEWflippingHECK!
 So in between jet lag, feeling crumpled, unpacking, crossed eyes, and jet lag, oh! did I mention that already, erm, I am stitching and bitching up a STORM.

Talitha has a painted panel from The Mills Park Fence Art Gallery Project included and Nancy and I are installing old and new street art pieces (yarn and textile) into "TAG!Territorial Negotiations". 

The Herndon Gallery opens "TAG! Territorial Negotiations"

I believe the DJ for the opening reception is going to be Shane Creepingbear YEA!

Mayhem at the Museum

Springfield Museum of Art

and the thought of doing an installation was intimidating, especially when I saw the pile of STUFF. We had no schematic drawings of how we were going to do it yikes, BUT as with a lot of things Nancy and I have done, we winged it.  After nearly 8 hours we 

painted three chalk trees for visitors to decorate, and Deb Housh (Museum Educator) attached 

the magnetic board for Mr.Plato. Meanwhile 

Nancy and I got Felt Man up. Visitors are welcome to attach pieces of felt to him ;)

More work to do today.

Meanwhile a big thanks to everyone at the Springfield Museum of Art

Kathy Moulton for the use of her bench

Talitha Greene for loaning us the fan for display.

cheers all

Remembering the Children

We have made white peace poppies before but it was this absolutely stunning installation in the UK that really pushed me to think why not create something for the children?

Royals 'plant' ceramic poppies 

We obviously can't do anything like the beautiful commemoration in the England, but we can do what jafagirls are known to do best, get crafty. 

I just wish there was an international day of mourning and remembrance for all the children around the world who have/or are dying due to war, gun violence, etc. 

We are inviting people to create white poppies and add them to ours in town or create a memorial installation in your town.

LINKS

Get involved - End Violence Against Children - UNICEF
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense In America

The Charity for Children affected by War | War Child

Public Art Project by the Jafagirls

Les G installed all the art panels, well except two (yet to be finished).

Nancy and I want to thank all the artists for contributing panels for this project. It is such a joy to see what everyone came up with.

Artists

Corrine Bayraktaroglu aka jafabrit

Nancy Mellon

Kathy Verner Moulton

Leah Grommon

Libby Rudolf

Cynthia McDonald

Talitha Greene

Liz Zaff

Sue Brezine

Alice Basora

Travis Hotaling

Theresa Mayer

Sandi Sharpe

Jennifer Float

Copyright Info

All images are copyright to the individual artists 2014

If you wish to use any images please contact us

thanks

Jafagirls For the Birds

For 5 hours Nancy and I prepared the Aviary

 while Talitha prepared her frames at the arts council gallery. It was a lot of fun, and exhausting BUT worth it.

I hope you can drop by and check out all the goodies for auction-auctioneer Terry Fox, 

some great nibbles by Meadowlark, drinks my Dino's and Emporium, and live music.

Public Art: Peeps in the Park

It actually started out being called the Pub Alley Project back in 2010. Nancy and I thought it would be cool to have a group of artists paint 2'x4' plywood panels and hang them on the side of the Gulch. 

Unfortunately by March 2011, there was a Glitch at the Gulch and even after we had gotten permission a year earlier we could no longer hang the art panels there.

Les Gilford to the rescue ♥ and he suggested across the street. Thanks to Les , and the owner of the building, we found a home for the 14 art panels on the side of Village Artisans Gallery.

  There they have hung for 3 years through wind, rain, cold and blistering heat.

ALAS after 3 years they are starting to look rather grotty and it is time to remove and replace them. So don't panic if you see some empty spaces during the month of May. The artists will be redoing their panels and  rehung at the beginning of June.

For my Birthday and a bit Craft bombing

Delish Breakfast with homemade scones by jafapal Nancy ♥

Sugar Skull cookie fail from jafa T and her beautiful daughter Evie

Despite their claim they were a cookie fail, I thought they were WONDERFUL and they tasted YUMMY!

it's was a gorgeous sunshiney day and I had to put up a little Textile Art to match the blue birds from last year. 

Alex walked by and SNAP!

Helping the Little Gallery that Could

So Nancy and I finished the video for the Arts Council and then Nancy did the write up and submitted the video for approval. 

It was approved, YEA!!!!!!

Project Detail | power2give

Nancy, you did a brilliant job :)
Yellow Springs Arts Council  

Back Alley Bird

Yes, the bird bombing in Yellow Springs continues, and yes I do like to hang out in some back alley's. Oh! BUT Keiths Alley is so cool and I always love seeing Rac and Vesh's graffiti.  Notice the qr code?  Since images tend to float around the net like lost little fish, no,  lost little birds,  I thought I would add a qr code. Now you can use your code reader on your phone and find the source of the image TA DA!

What have the jafagirls been up to?

We Made a Video

for the Yellow Springs Arts Council.

Thanks for dropping by

Have a Great Weekend

So Ready for Spring

and then the summer blossoms that compliment the bright buildings on Corry Street in Yellow Springs. This is one of my favourite photographs I took of our Mellow Yellow yarnbombing from a few years ago.  We rarely do yarnbombing nowadays, but we are still busy with new adventures.  Hum, let me take that back; I do have a couple of camo yarnbomb pieces ready to be hung somewhere, 

when the weather gets nicer.

We are both working on paintings for the  Fence Art Project.

We have also started a new website dedicated to photographing older women artists.

POWA!

Copyright: Jafagirls Images and Artwork

For the most part the Jafagirls have been fairly flexible with our images being shared for public viewing purposes only on social networks such as facebook, pinterest and personal blogs but increasingly we are seeing our images being exploited and offered for free or used for commercial purposes or by others claiming credit or copyright to them.

  Finding this banner online please don't presume it is free to use, it is NOT free.

I know it's lovely and you would love to use it but just ask us. We are more than happy to consider it, and in the bargain we get to promote YOUR project/blog/website or event too.

This is all over pinterest, no problem, but when it is not linked back to us 

we lose traffic to our site and people don't realize that it is for sale. So again, please understand that we love you sharing but linking and attribution is important and respectful.

♥

If you would like to buy this wonderful hat here is a link.

Village Artisans: Who is Topper?

Old Yarnbomb Photo of the Knit Knot Tree

Sometimes I'll be cruising the net and come across our first yarnbomb from 2007, the knit knot tree. Kind of funny really, been so many years ago, but fun too.

 The photo was posted on wikipedia by shrewdcat, although at the time I guess he/she didn't know it was called the Knit Knot Tree. Anyhoo, these are just a few out of the 249 links listed on google.

In Case You Missed It: Watch London Kaye Yarn-Bomb The L Train

Urban Fabric Softener
 Act Classy

Bloomin' at 60 with Nancy Mellon

Jafabrit is an artist who loves painting, embroidery, photographing, drawing, yarnbombing, blogging and hanging out with her jafapals. 

Jafa T it's time for Ha Ha

"Bloomin' at 60" Series 

Nancy and I were so inspired by Cynthia Korzekwa's blog post on art for housewives about the artist Lee Godie and her photo booth photographs and decided we wanted to do a series. Not the same of course, but the idea of transformation hit a nerve with Nancy.

" Lee Godie and the Need for Transformation" 

Just like Lee, I have a need for transformation. Of my thoughts. My body is transforming all on it's own. You think I would have expected it but it's been a surprise. I became 60 and wondered what am I becoming. Old? Dead? Is it "Bang! you're an old lady now"? Um, yes in some ways that is the way our society perceives a woman after she turns 60. So what does "old" mean to me? It is pretty spooky to me. My mom did not go gracefully into her old age. But if I look at some of the artists I know ....It's filled with creativity and when not creating, it still seems manageable. They laugh or cry and create and transform their struggles into art.  They aren't listening to society, they are listening to their inner voice. 

Part of this aging thing is that I am getting mucho wrinkles and I kind of like the wrinkles. They remind me of my grandmother.  She did aging well.  Her face was a beautifully wrinkled apple doll face. Grandma carved apples for years and dried them by hanging them up like a wash line of tiny shrunken heads. Then she created the homeliest dolls from them. She also kept playboys under a stack of magazines, she sang silly songs and told stories about the pleasure of not wearing a corset. She dressed up for Halloween, made maple syrup candy to give out and fit right in if she decided to go along with the neighborhood kids Trick or Treating. 

My fascination with the changes to my body make me, the artist me, interested in painting and drawing and describing the beauty of old bodies, how they bend and curve, how they are full of intricate lines.  

Lee chose to transform herself into others through her photo series. I found it fascinating and meaningful that she was able to find a way to make choices, to be in control over something in her difficult life.  And in those concentrated moments of choosing and creating another life, she must have felt alive and good. Like Lee using "art to give her madness meaning and direction" I think we can transform our aging selves into art that gives meaning and a chosen direction to go in."  

thanks for dropping by

Crafting: Felt Flower Bouquet

Nancy and I wanted to make a special bouquet to leave in town and out came the felt, the yarn, scissors, glue gun, and a few branches from the garden.

 

After wrapping the branches with yarn and gluing on hand stitched flowers we had our bouquet.

Tim we,like many, will miss your wisdom, kindness and joyful presence.

2003 Art Map of Yellow Springs, Ohio

Welcome to the jafagirls blog, and thank you for dropping by

This blog entry is by corrine aka jafabrit

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was cleaning out my studio and came across an art map that Talitha Greene and I created  2003 when we were members of the Village Artisans Gallery (located in Kings Yard at the time).  We were getting a lot of visitors asking about where they could see art and we decided to come up with this. Very basic but that was all the means we had available at the time.

We gave the template to several local shops who printed out copies for themselves and handed out to customers.