Commissioned Artwork – Teton Tranquility

Last year, I was chosen to create Teton Tranquility, a commissioned artwork for Sage Living, a new assisted living facility that was being built in Jackson, WY. Specific themes were selected for different areas of the facility. My design is an abstracted landscape of the local Teton mountains. Once the design was approved, I started work on the piece.

Beginning the Process

I enlarged my concept drawing and made it into a pattern. Some of the fabrics needed to be hand-dyed specifically for this work.

Most of the pieces were stitched together using my machine. But I did some hand-appliqué stitching, as well. I put together the individual mountains on the machine, turned the outside edges and then hand stitched them to each other and onto the sky background. This is what I call my “hybrid” technique. A video on my Instagram account shows the mountains as they were being attached.

Finishing

Once everything was together, I machine stitched on top. The area of the river area was free-motion stitched, which is like drawing with the sewing machine. I am hand-maneuvering it as I go. Below you can see some of the stitching from the back of the artwork.

When the artwork was completed, I took it to be framed by a local shop, Van Dyck Frame Design. It is quite a large piece with the frame size at 30″ x 60″. It is framed with plexiglas and mounted with spacers so it does not touch the art.

Once I received the go-ahead, my husband and I drove the commissioned artwork, Teton Tranquility, to Jackson, Wyoming and dropped it off. The facility is now open and the public is welcome to see the inside and view the artwork today, August 11, from 4-6 p.m. Unfortunately, I will not be there to attend and see all the other artworks that were commissioned.

(If you would like to see more of my nature-inspired works, I invite you to look at my Portfolio.)