Outside/Inside the Box

Continuing comments on the weekend in Philadelphia. The show at the Crane Building, Outside/Inside the Box, was most impressive and quite an expansion on the idea of fiber. Very few of the works would fit the definition of  "quilt". Materials used included aluminum mesh, wires, grommets, hemp, ropes, printed cloth, words written on vellum, leaves, fruit peels, ostrich shell beads, oxygen tubing, cable ties, florist card holders, plus things that immediately come to mind as fiber - linen, cotton, wool, thread, etc. I loved the knitted sock monkey suit, which you can see in the slide show, along with most of the other works. 

And I was thrilled to see my friend Linda Colsh's work hanging in this prestigious show. She is one of only a few artists who has 2 pieces in the show. Linda flew in from her home in Belgium for the conference, since she in on the SAQA Board of Directors. Since her family lives sort of near to me, we rode up together to Philly, and had a wonderful time gossiping talking about people we know, shows, her move back to the US in 2 years, and so on.

Defiant

©2011 Linda Colsh

Almost There

©2011 Linda Colsh

So now it's back home and time to get serious work done. It was truly inspiring to see all that artwork. And it was also very exciting to see 13 students from East Carolina University, where they are enrolled in the Textiles Program. It was inspiring to listen to them talk about their work and their enthusiasm was contagious. They are not the least bit constricted by the old traditions of quilts, and are pushing the boundaries in ways the rest of us haven't even thought of.

And for all the people who gave me grief about not posting, behold, 3 posts in one day.

Fantastic weekend

I spent last weekend in Philadelphia at the SAQA / SDA conference and it was terrific. Got re-acquainted with lots of people and was able to put faces to names I know from the SAQA email list and also from Facebook. Was chastised for neglecting my blog. Spent a day trying to see as much of FiberPhiladelphia as my poor brain (and feet) could handle. Just had a plain old good time.

Friday night was the opening of Art Quilt Elements at the Wayne Art Center. This is the 10th exhibition of this show and it has become one of the premier art quilt shows in this country. The venue is fantastic and the show committee pulls out all the stops and puts on a great show. I bought the catalog to help me remember what is in the show. It's a great record of the show, but unfortunately, the color is off. This seems to be a common problem in the printed renditions of art, and I guess AQE is no exception. But don't let that stop you from getting the catalog; use your imagination! I tried to find a place on their website where you can order the catalog, but it seems to be quite well hidden. I guess you will have to contact the Wayne Art Center directly if you want one. It's $20 plus shipping.

Saturday was the day that we spent touring FiberPhiladelphia. What a fantastic accomplishment this is. More than 20 exhibits, all related to fiber, is almost too much to handle. Actually, it is too much for just one day so it was necessary to pick and choose. First we hit the Snyderman/Works Gallery for the 8th International Fiber Biennial. I took some pictures but the ones on their website are far better. We also went to Bluestone Gallery, where Lisa Call is having a solo exhibit. While we were there, several of her small pieces were purchased. Let's hope that one of the big ones goes out the door, also.

The Highwire Gallery was another stop on our tour. More great fiber art, much of it by people I know personally. Must be coming up in the world. The highlight of the tour was the exhibit at the Crane Building gallery Outside/Inside the Box. I applied to this show and wasn't accepted and after seeing what was, I wasn't surprised. There were actually very few actual quilts in this show. It was fiber in all its manifestations and there are some very cool things hanging there.

Philadelphia has some old, worn out areas with buildings that are neglected and falling down. This, of course, makes them extraordinary photo ops.

Whaddya know! Stikman is here, too.

The Painted Bride Art Center is a piece of art in itself. Totally covered in tiles on three sides (the fourth side is a wall shared with the adjacent building). Can't even imagine how long that took. Wonder where they got all the tiles.

This post is long enough so I will continue in the next one. 

SAQA Auction 2009

I shipped off my donation to the SAQA Benefit Auction for 2009 the other day. I'm hoping it's one of the early bird donations and will be displayed at the IQF show in Chicago next month. The first 32 will have that honor and on the SAQA Auction page, mine is number 29, so chances are pretty good, I think.

Ventanas #17 ©2009

I am really taken by how the thread color can change the color of the fabric beneath it and have been playing with that on this one and the other 5 I did.

And I've been painting some cotton duck fabric to make purses these past few days and it's not quite as successful as I would have liked. First off, the paint on the duck is resulting in some very stiff fabric, which I don't like. Also, the pattern I used turns out to have a shape that isn't pleasing to me - it's too wide for its length. Picky, I know, but purses are very personal. I'll finish the stitching on the first one and then wash it to see if it softens up some. Then I might take some tucks in the side to decrease the width. It needs a big button for the closure and I'm thinking I'll get out the Fimo clay and make one.

Thanks, Gerrie!

My donation to the SAQA auction was purchased by Gerrie Congdon. Thanks very much!



The first set of quilts are still up for auction on the SAQA site through tomorrow. The second set to be auctioned begins on November 18 at 2PM EST. Pieces begin at $750 and each day the price drops $100. The auction of the third set of pieces will begin on November 28, the day after Thanksgiving. It's a great opportunity to not only support SAQA but also to purchase a wonderful Christmas gift (for yourself or for someone else!)

I recently purchased Gloria Hansen's new book "Digital Essentials". I wasn't sure I would find this book useful because I'm pretty comfortable with editing digital photographs already. But I was wrong - there are tons of useful tips and tricks and I've already made some changes in the way I work with digital images. I highly recommend this book - there is something in it for everybody.



I noticed it's been a long time since I've posted but I can assure I have been busy. One of the things I've been working on is a journal of our African adventure, with text and pictures. It's nearly 60 pages long. I found a POD (Print on Demand) website called LuLu that allows you to upload your files and then order a printed copy. I did that and it turned out pretty good, but needs a bit of revision here and there. Once I make those revisions, I will make it available for all to read. It comes as a PDF file and is rather large - 30+ megs so it's not for the dial-up group.

SAQA Auction

In a few weeks the Studio Art Quilt Association's Online Benefit Auction will begin. There are 244 12" square quilts made and donated by members of SAQA. This is a reverse auction which means on the first day the artwork is shown, it will have its highest price of $750. Each day thereafter the price decreases by $100 until the piece is sold. The auction begins on November 10th at 2PM Eastern time; no bids will be accepted before that time. There will be 3 stages to this auction, and approximately 80 quilts will be auctioned in each stage. You can find my donation on this page, second row from the bottom, right side.

This is SAQA's major fundraiser. Money raised from the auction will go to support all of SAQA's exhibits, catalogs, and outreach programs during 2009. So bookmark your favorites and bid early - many people were disappointed last year when they waited an extra day and were beat to the click on the pieces that they really wanted. I hope that you find something that appeals to you!

And I've been tagged, so here's the info. Teri Springer tagged me.

The rules are as follows:
1. Link to the person who tagged you. That's Teri.
2. Post the rules on your blog. Here they are.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
1. I can't resist Edy's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream and it has to have chocolate sauce on it.
2. I hate going to the gym but I go 3 times per week or else I will turn into a blimp.
3. I have all seven of the Harry Potter series on either tape or CD. I also have all 5 movies. I only have books 5,6, and 7. I would much rather listen to Jim Dale do the books than read them myself. Actually when I read them I hear his voice in my head.
4. I hate shopping for clothes, nothing ever looks good on me. I hate trying things on because those dressing room mirrors are dreadful. They would sell alot more clothes if they had skinny mirrors.
5. I don't drink coffee but I have a huge selection of teas. My favorites are the Tazo teas, especially Green Ginger. No Lipton Tea is allowed in my house.
6. I'm perfectly content to stay home all day long and work in my studio.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
I'm going to select 6 people who are on the SAQA Artists Web Ring who (whom?) I don't know, or at least not very well. In the process I will need to read some of their postings. I hope you take the time also.
Cynthia St. Charles
Rachel Cochran
Liz Berg
Jill Werner
Sandra Hankins
Kim Hambric

5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Done

6. Let the tagger know your entry is up.
And done.

I've been busy

Today, July 15, is the last day of The Artful Home's Studio Sale. Take this link directly to my page to see what's on sale. Quilts in the sale are marked Studio Sale and they're on the second page. I've sold one piece so far. It's not too late to get one for your very own.

I received word yesterday that my quilt Moss Gold was accepted into ThreadLines to be held at the Missouri State University Art & Design Gallery in September. I'm pleased because the juror was Jason Pollen, who is the Chairman of the fiber department at Kansas City Art Institute and serves as the President of the Surface Design Association.



I've actually been quilting the one foot squares that I did at QSDS and only have one left to do. It's my least favorite of the bunch and it might not get done. One of the lot has been donated to the SAQA One Foot Square Auction to be held in November.



I seem to have contracted a nasty summer cold that is wiping me out. I can do something for a little while but then I have to rest. This is the 4th day and I'm ready to be over it.

It's May already

I feel as if I haven't posted in months, but it's only been 2 weeks. That's bad enough. Yesterday I finally got back onto my sewing machine and I know I haven't done that for a month. Trying to account for my time I come up with a weekend retreat, the SDA/SAQA Conference and Workshop, a trip to Chicago, a fair amount of time trying to solve a technical problem for my current quilt, and an inordinate amount of time working on my web page. I have changed the look but the major work was in cleaning up the underlying code. There was a lot of useless and conflicting junk in there. I know enough about programming to make myself eternally frustrated.

Anyhow, in the course of my time in Chicago, where I spent several hours volunteering in the SAQA booth at the IQA show, I volunteered to become the SAQA area co-rep for my area. I know I have had some less than complimentary works about SAQA in the past, but in the past few years they have really gotten their act together. And I think that it's not right to continually complain about something and not do anything about it. So I could quit or I could volunteer. One of my complaints has been that in my area we never heard from our rep. So my goal is to be the kind of rep that I would have liked to have had.

I solved the technical problem on my current work, got it sandwiched and pinned, and started quilting on it yesterday. Ouch, my shoulders hurt today. I guess that month off was enough to get out of quilting shape.

Tomorrow is the Public Forum for the Critics' Residency Program that I'm in at the Maryland Art Place. You can see several of my pieces in the picture of the gallery. I received a list of discussion questions so that I can think about what to respond.

A few of the questions: "What is the role of titles in your work? Are they a necessary evil or do they anchor and frame your work in essential ways?" For me, titles are usually an afterthought. Since my work is abstract, the title may or may not impart a meaning. I tried numbering the series for a (short) while, but discovered that I needed actual names in order to keep track of what was what in my head. I have a database in which I keep all the pertinent information about a piece, but there isn't a picture attached. Even so, when I look at my list of quilts and try to figure out what's available to enter and what might be appropriate, a list of numbers just doesn't work very well.

The moderator wants to ask about the issue of figuration vs abstraction. The actual question: "is there an opposition between figuration and abstraction in terms of the philosophy each implies or do you see that as an old and irrelevant argument?" Somebody is going to have to first interpret the question for me, I think. Why do I do abstract work? I've never been really taken with people, especially faces, done in fabric. (Although I can't make that a hard and fast observation, because I have seen fabricated figures that I really like.) It seems that many fiber artists who do that strive for an exactness that is difficult to achieve with discrete pieces of fabric. The goal seems to be how close to a photographic image can they get. Doing that doesn't appeal to me at all and so perhaps my involvement with abstraction is partially the result of the medium in which I'm working. And also the fact that I don't draw very well.

And the last question: "Do you feel any loyalty to a particular esthetic, lineage, or medium?" Yup. My medium is fabric and thread.

Something old, new again

Thought I would give garment sewing another try. Frustrated with the style of pants available these days - I mean, hip huggers and lower are okay for some, but not me - and not able to buy pants in the length I need them, I decided to make a pair. I bought the fabric and pattern several weeks ago, washed the fabric, and stored the pattern in a Safe Place. Which, of course, I couldn't remember when I went to find it. I cleaned off my entire work table, which needed it. I looked in drawers, and found the manual for my sewing machine that I had misplaced and so ordered another one. Finally found the stupid thing after about 2 hours of searching.

So, the body attributes that make it difficult for me to find ready-to-wear pants that fit also make for problems when sewing them myself. Threads Magazine is always printing articles about how to make clothes fit, so I dug out the ones about pants. It's a little difficult to do this fitting by yourself, but I didn't have anybody around to help. I don't think my husband would be interested.

Followed the directions, made alterations in the pattern, cut out the pants and sewed them up. Results are less than spectular. I still need more alterations. And I don't know when this happened, but somewhere along the line ready-to-wear and the pattern industry parted ways in size labeling. It's very disconcerting to discover how much bigger the pattern industry thinks I am vs Lands End.

On an art related note: I have had a sort of love/hate feeling about SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates). In years past I felt I got nothing out of my membership even though I was a Professional Artist Member. I dropped back to an Associate, just as SAQA began to reinvent itself. Things seemed to be improving, what with new leadership and renewed energy. I decided to re-up as a PAM, but now you need to prove that you are at a professional level. Which I could and did.

SAQA still has some bumps and needs improvement but I think it's an organization that could be extremely useful to fiber artists. And today is the start of the Online Auction for the One Foot Squares. SAQA had put out a request for donations of small quilts to be auctioned at the conference in May, along with the Art in a Box Auction. The response was so overwhelming they had to come up with a different strategy so as not to be practically giving away the artwork. I hope this is a success. And I hope somebody bids on my piece (it's in this first grouping)....

There was discussion recently on the SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) Yahoo List about a blog ring for SAQA artists. I volunteered to set it up and spent the weekend trying to figure out RingSurf. I'm pretty computer literate but it took several attempts to get it right. I sent out invitations to a bunch of people who had responded to the SAQA request and have been getting them set up. For some it's gone pretty well, but others have had a few frustrating problems. I understand their pain.

On the side bar to the right is the link to the SAQA Artists Ring. I'm number 1 in the queue (one of the privileges of being the ring owner) and so far there are nearly 15 people in the ring. If you are a member of SAQA and want to have your blog part of the ring, click on the Join link. It will take you to the page where you submit your site.