First, the show. This is becoming one of the premier art quilt events in this country, imho. The quality of entries is reflected in what is selected for the show itself. Fifty quilts were selected from the 600 entries by the jurors Jason Pollen, Deborah Warner, and Robin Schwalb. All have eminent qualifications for their roles as jurors and spoke at the conference. They reiterated things we artists have heard numerous times: have excellent photography, make sure the detail shot relates to the whole piece (in some examples shown, the detail could have come from an entirely different piece), composition and the elements of design are critical, and so on. I could have listened to them for way more than their alloted time. The keynote speaker was Sue Benner and it is always a joy to listen to her speak. Her topic was "Building an Artist Community" and she talked about the importance of having communities, not only for your art, but for your life.
Lisa Chipetine and Sandra Sider spoke about critique and technology and the importance of networking. The last session was small group meetings with AQE artists who were present at the conference. We could learn about their careers, their creative processes, and the particular piece that was in the show. Since there were quite a few of the artists present, it was an opportunity to absorb significant amounts of information. I also was able to put faces to names I had only seen online, always an interesting exercise, since nobody ever looks like what you think they might look like. I met several people who are regular readers of this blog and who gently chastised me for neglecting it, hence this post.
There is a catalog of the show available from the AQE web site for $30 (includes tax, shipping, and handling). It is a well designed catalog and worth getting (I bought 5*) even though catalogs never do justice to the work. You just have to use your imagination to visualize the vibrant colors and beautiful textural qualities in the work.
(* Four of the catalogs are for friends, but you probably guessed that.)
The "more" part of this post involves a new publication 1000 Artisan Textiles by Sandra Salamony and Gina Brown in which I have at least one piece. I haven't received my copy yet and I've changed computers since the original email so I don't remember which piece or pieces were selected for publication. I'll just have to wait and see. It's not just quilts, it's all kinds of fiber related works and it's available from Amazon.
The second "more" part of this post is about my solo show which starts on May 1 at the Delaplaine Visual Arts Education Center in Frederick, Maryland. My work will hang in the Kline Gallery and I plan to have between 15 and 20 works. The opening is Saturday, May 1, 3-5pm and the show extends through Sunday, May 30. Everybody is invited! Hope you can come.
Hidden Agendas ©2008
35" x 42"
