Exploring

October has been a celebration of a long journey. Last March I was juried into the regional SAQA exhibit Explorations, which required that I create a 50 x 30" piece in my hand-stitched heavily textured technique, the largest piece I had ever attempted in that technique. By the end of May, the date of my last blog post, I was completely immersing myself in stitching in order to finish the piece by the August 1 deadline. I made it! and then managed to put together a lightning talk (another first for me) for the opening reception in October.

Explorations is now hanging at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA, and I am honored that "From the Stillness" is part of this very strong show.

And I could sing the praises of the show for many a paragraph but I would like to spend my brief blog time praising the art behind the show. The main curators of the exhibit, Nancy Turbitt and Allison Wilbur of SAQA, along with Pam Weeks, the curator of the NEQM, were the masterminds and the master artists, designing and organizing and then encouraging and reminding all the artists as the months passed and enabling each artist's space on the wall and in the extensive catalog to be consistent so the exhibit became a coherent whole and yet allowing the information about each artist to reflect her own unique style and contribution.

A panel outlining the highlights of each artist's process accompanies each piece. Dixie Walker and Jeanne Holtzman volunteered hours of their time, as did several other SAQA members, to make this show the success it is. The exhibit is as much a product of their creativity as their own fiber art is.

Twelve fiber artists comprise the current show that runs until December 30 and the works of twelve more will be exhibited in April. If you can't make it to the show itself, the 150 page catalog is available from Amazon under Explorations: Journeys in Creativity

And now on with the rest of my life.

Linking with Off the Wall Friday.

New Work

My latest piece, titled Enigma, is done!

Another in my appreciating uncertainty series, it draws inspiration from the endless paths and nonpaths traceable in tree bark. The black silk is a commercial fabric but all the other cottons and silks are my own hand-dyes.

This is also another in my heavily textured series that is handstitched with perle cotton. It is 22 x 24".

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A Day

I awoke yesterday morning feeling punky in the stomach and punkier in the spirit. I have felt that the days are slipping through my fingers with little of substance getting done. This day looked to be another scattered collection of moments, betraying the scattered aspects of my mind. And so I began to record:

Brief strength training

Rinsed silk that I had dyed yesterday and put it in wash

Grabbed breakfast as I read the local paper

Rinsed silk final time and hung out to dry

Printed out a few Clarks Pond Watershed Association flyers to hang from doorknobs of new home                owners

Went to Newburyport Literary Festival: lecture by Stephen Greenblatt on newest book on the           

              Adam/Eve story

Watched Tom take part in Tai chi saber demonstration on waterfront

Ate less than spectacular lunch ( not good for the punky stomach) and spectacular scones from  

              bakery in Tannery

Listened to Ramie Targoff talk at Newburyport Art Association about her new biography of Vittoria                Colonna, an unknown to us but influential Renaissance woman, and saw Lit, a beautiful 

               exhibit by Sue Charles

Took silk off line and evaluated color

Discovered hostas coming up

Checked on peach tree with its first year of blossoms

Walked to town to sale at health food store

On way home met new owners of house around corner that we had been wanting to invite to join our                pond association

Talked to another neighbor who is going through a tough time

Helped Tom carry kayak down to pond

Walked Terra and met and talked for a while with owner of house around another corner who is

              usually walking unfriendly dogs so we don’t talk

Put out hummingbird feeder

Wished daughter and son-in-law a happy anniversary

Stitched on monster project while spaghetti cooked

Ate dinner

Answered emails while Tom did dishes

Stitched while watching The Post

Typed this list up

And the plan is to meditate, shower, read more of Ordinary Grace and then to sleep. . .  .

The list does not mention all the meaningful/meaningless exchanges that Tom and I shared nor does it mention the Great Heron on the pond that distracted me as I set up to do strength training and sent me searching for my camera so there are many unrecorded moments woven into this list. But perspective counts and laying out a day like this, observing this day changes perspective. Even though many things I planned to do did not happen, like raking the leaves off the bed in the side yard or clearing part of the pile of papers on my desk, the scattered aspects began to take on the look of a Christmas tree not filled with matching ornaments but full of a multiplicity of different ornaments each with its own story that made up a glittering, colorful whole. It was a day I lived not a day I wasted. My stomach and my spirit were much less punky at the end of it. And now let's see what this day brings.

Opening

Works of Art

One of the highlights of the past couple of years for me was my joining a new fiber arts critique group. There are seven of us (Betsy Abbott, Tarja Cockell, Sue Colozzi, Janis Doucette, Anne Kimball, Alanna Nelson, and me), who all live north of Boston about a half hour at most from each other, allowing us to meet once a month to talk about work we have brought and generally cheer each other on in our endeavors.

This month we took our very different styles and techniques and put them into a group exhibit, Art of the Stitch, at the Memorial Hall Library in Andover,  a beautiful old building that poses its own set of challenges for hanging artwork. Usually the artwork they hang is framed paintings by one artist, but after bringing in stacks of quilts and spending an afternoon trying to get the right balance and color flow we thought we had something that would work weaving between computer screens and exit signs--on a strong green wall. And after the library staff got the work up on the walls we were pleased. We had created another work of art from all our disparate pieces!

The photos I include require some imaginative connecting on the part of the viewer since there were few good vantage points to shoot from.

We also were able to fill a glass cabinet with smaller works and were surprised again with how well the works fit together:

On Tuesday we celebrate our work and our compatibility with an Artists Meet and Greet at the library. Seeing this exhibit in person (like seeing fiber art) is definitely preferable to seeing it in photos:

Linking with Off the Wall Friday!

Of Photos and Life

I found myself in the midst of a number of art-filled events this week but, since I forgot to take pictures, did they really happen? I have never been good at recording memorable events with a camera and this seems to have carried over into my art life, where artists are expected to record (and post) details of their work and accomplishments. And I too often fail at this.

On Thursday the fiber art critique group I belong to got together to lay out a show we will be having in April at the Memorial Hall Library in Andover, MA. Trying to coordinate the work of seven very different artists and fit it the space we had was a challenge but we managed to come up with what looks like a great show in less than three hours. It won't actually be hung until Mar. 3 so we'll see how our vision transfers into real life. But I took no photos so you will just have to imagine the many, many quilted pieces that ranged from the quiet tones of eco prints to the bright purples and oranges on an octopus laid out at various points in the library as we shifted pieces and suggested changes and gradually reached consensus.

Thursday evening I saw many of the same people at the artists reception at a new gallery in Malden, MA, called appropriately The Gallery. The show, curated by Janice Doucette, was an invitational called Land & Nature Scapes that brought together the work of 12 fiber artists in a beautiful new space. I, of course, took no pictures. But here is a photo of the piece I entered in the show, Forest Geometry.

I did get some support for my lack of photo-taking from an article published recently that suggests that we do not remember the events we take photos of as well as unphotographed events. So I can tell myself I was immersed in the experience  and photos would have changed that. And I did indeed enjoy catching up with fellow artists I had not seen in many months, meeting some new people, and looking at the inspiring work on the gallery walls. And, since good art attracts more good art, we were treated to a surprise concert by Northbound, an a capella group who sing Scandinavian music in amazingly tight harmonies. Top that off with a memorable meal at a local Ethiopian restaurant and that was one good day!

Hope your week has been good whether you photograph it or not!

I am linking (a bit late) with Off the Wall Fridays.

Tree Love

Yesterday morning I woke up to this scene outside my studio window:

After four years of living in New England, I now know what many of the varied weather events are that the term nor'easter covers. This one involved lots of very wet snow that broke tree branches and pulled down power lines. The branches of that elm tree in the middle of this picture are dangerously drooping but the fates were with us. We lost a good-sized magnolia in the front yard but no major limbs from our big trees and our power didn't even flicker. 

All this tree focus is a good introduction to my annual Valentine project. This year Tom received a little 10 x 9" quilt from me, inspired by the crossing limbs of a Norway maple and a slippery elm in our backyard. 

I have learned from experience that I need to plan these out so that they are small enough that I can get them done in a brief slice of time borrowed from the other projects I am working on but they have to be in a semi-finished state by Feb. 14.  This one still does not have the facing sewed down in the back and needs a sleeve and label but I was pleased with myself for getting it as far along as it is this year.

If you are still reading, thanks for the company and I hope winter is dealing kindly with you.

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Bugs Again

As soon as I made a definite decision to put my insect project (see this post for details) on hold for a while, this critter walked across my windowsill.

It's a Western Conifer Seed Bug and has become a common sight in our houses in the wintertime. As its name implies, its home should be in the western US but since the nineties it has been making itself at home in the eastern states, where I live. It is just looking for a warm place to be, as we all are doing, but this is a bug (and he is a true bug) I find very hard to like. Its revenge on anyone trying to crush it--or even move it outside--is an unforgettable smell. And it makes little difference that it didn't make it into the Stink Bug family but is classed with the Coreidae or leaf-footed bugs.   

Because insects are few in number in February, I carefully moved this guy into a magnifying jar without setting off a stink bomb and for the first time really looked at it. And there on its back was a beautiful glyph-like marking on its brown wing covers. So I took some time out from my bigger project to capture it in fabric, a simple reminder of the value of looking closely. 

And now back to this--

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