Linda Gass: Seeing Green

My friend Linda Gass combines two passions in her career arc: fiber art and sustainability. Gass paints complex "birds' eye" view silk art quilts that explore themes of land use and policy.

Gass recently sent several announcements of interest: "Three of my new quilted paintings on silk are included in Seeing Green: Visions of a Changing Planet at the Visions Gallery, San Diego through August 16, 2009. Inspired by work I did with my local environmental organization, I decided to get personal and dirty in these new artworks. Seeing Green is an environmentally inspired exhibition, curated by Quilt Visions, featuring artwork by 10 different artists that comment about the current state of our natural environment. The work includes reflections about water quality, the impact of urban sprawl on landscape and wildlife, biodiversity, and nature. For more information, visit the Visions Gallery website.

Refined?, 30x30" (Above) and Sanitary? 30 x 30" (top)

In addition, if you're in the San Diego area, she includes information about her special presentation there, Saturday July 18, 2009 from 7 - 8 pm. "If you're in the San Diego area, please join me for this special event featuring presentations by yours truly and San Diego Coastkeeper followed by a reception in the Visions Gallery where you can view the "Seeing Green" exhibit. I'll be giving an entertaining and educational presentation on how I use my artwork to raise awareness about water issues in California and the American West. Representatives from San Diego Coastkeepers will present about local clean water issues and activities. The event is on July 18, 2009 from 7-8 pm at the NTC Command Center in Liberty Station, right next to the gallery at 2825 Dewey Road, CA. $15 general admission, $10 for Quilt Visions and Coastkeeper members. There is plenty of free parking across the street at the corner of Dewey and Historic Decator Road.

Painting & screenprinting at Home Ec Workshop

In May, I started introducing fiber reactive dyes to our local fabric enthusiasts here in Iowa City. The venue where I've been teaching is Home Ec Workshop, a charming fabric & yarn shop/knitting circle/coffee shop and space for classes and equipment rentals, owned and operated tirelessly by two young women, Alissa Weinstein and Codi Josephson. Alissa is shown in the second picture below- she's the one with the fabulous fiber-ous hair. In the second group of pictures, Codi and I team teach screenprinting and handpainting, with screenprinting one session and handpainting the screenprinted fabrics a second session. Codi has extensive experience teaching all age groups, having worked at UAY (United Action for Youth) here in Iowa City for a number of years. In watching Codi and Alissa, I recall the intense, never-ending amount of energy that running a new business entails. They seem to have the magic formula. Their clientele is a marketers' dream, with many young people, families, and a host of us older ones, all attending knitting breakfasts or buying lively printed fabrics or taking classes. If stores are magical because they give us an environment to immerse ourselves in, then they have found that magic.

But back to classes: I will continue teaching basic dyeing and printing classes one or two times a month. And I'll also be doing powerpoint presentations on my work to quilt guilds in the coming year.

Codi setting up a screen for exposure.

Washing out (above) and printing. We're using fabric pigments, which do not drip and are very forgiving for novices.

Another Kind of Surface Design

Sometimes you just have to visit the beach.

The Iowa River's treacherous flooding from one year ago caused water to cross over the Coralville Dam's spillway for only the second time in its history. (The first time was during the floods of 1993.) Before that first flooding, this hillside was like any other in the area- tree covered ravines with plenty of deer and poison ivy. In just a few days, that first flood exposed a swath of Devonian-era limestone that seemingly should have taken decades to accomplish. Scientists were fascinated to see the array of sea life (crinoids, coral, shells and fish) from several epochs, all in fossil form.looking towards the dam

On this beautiful day following a spell of muggy, intense heat, we ventured to the Fossil Gorge, as it's become known, to view the interpretative display designed by Will Thomson of Armadillo Arts and commissioned by the Army Corps of Engineers and local volunteers, . Will is joined by visitor George Stanley, a paleontologist at the University of Montana, and family members Michael Burt and Nancy Westvig, owners of our local Fired Up! paint your own ceramics place. What's really wonderful about this site is its open-air museum quality, where families and hikers can touch the strata of rock formations, experiencing it first hand in an outdoor setting.

This coral fossil was found in the ledge outcropping shown in the photo above.

George Stanley photographing crinoids. These are just the stems of a long "sea flower" with a wide base, like a kelp bed, only these are from the animal kingdom.