citings

New Website, new blog, new exhibit, same Astrid Hilger Bennett!

2011-10-18T14:34:00.001-05:00

Hello friends,

I invite you to read my blog on my new Wordpress website. Here is the direct link to my blog, where I just posted about my exhibit at ICON Gallery in Fairfield.

In a way, I will miss posting on Blogger as there have been new design changes that could be useful. I've tried them and like them on my Iowa Artisans Gallery blog postings. But then there's also the issue of Blogger having lost most of my posts prior to June of 2009, and there were some meaningful ones in that bunch.

Keep in touch. I will see about adding a followers' widget on the new blog- I'll post on here when I do.

Best wishes to all of you,
Astrid Hilger Bennett

SDA Confluence Conference, part one

2011-07-07T22:27:00.000-05:00

Tim Harding's Exhibit at the Nash Gallery

In June, I had the opportunity to attend Confluence, the biennial International Conference of the Surface Design Association. As an SDA Board member, I knew that my tasks at the Conference went beyond mere participation, —I am in charge of all the "state" or Area Representatives — but I had a wonderful time. What I've always appreciated about the SDA Conferences is that they provide not only a forum for networking and sharing of technical information, but they are also a rich snapshot of what's currently interesting in fiber art. Not all fiber art gets covered, of course, but participants on all levels of expertise return home with food for thought on many levels.


one third of the Members' Show, Merge & Flow, sandwiched between other stellar exhibits at the Nash Gallery

Add to that, participants have the opportunity to see more than thirty exhibitions of contemporary fiber art, which alone would make the conference worth attending. Other events included a stellar fashion show of members' work, dynamic speakers and demonstrations, a members' trunk show, a vendor fair, regional members' meetings, and special interest gatherings, for example, for educators or batik artists. The beginning of the light rail expansion directly in front of the hotel caused some traffic complications in being able to see all the exhibitions, but most participants did go with the "merge and flow" and used the time to get to know one another.


members' meet & greet started our day of Gallery hopping

Now in its 36th year, SDA came to pass in the time when local and national craft organizations were encouraged to add the work "design" or "designer" to their names in order to distinguish the kinds of work their artists did from folk and hobby craft. The Surface Design Association was born. Despite its longevity and history, the phrase "surface design" still causes some confusion. Here's how it is defined on SDA's new website:

Surface Design refers to any process that gives structure, pattern, or color to fiber & fabric. These include spinning, felting, papermaking, weaving, knotting, netting, looping, dyeing, painting, stitching, cutting, piecing, printing, quilting, & embellishing.

And here's something about the organization:
The Surface Design Association is an international community engaged in the creative exploration of fiber & fabric. Our mission is to promote awareness & appreciation of the textile arts. Through member-supported publications, exhibitions & conferences, we inspire creativity, encourage innovation, & advocate excellence.

Confluence is co-sponsored by the Textile Center of Minnesota. Director Margaret Miller tells us that the Center is comprised of 900 members in 35 member organizations. Now located in what was once a car dealership, the Center contains meeting rooms, gallery areas, a sales shop, a 23,000 volume library, and a well-equipped dye kitchen.

What follows is literally a snapshot my own personal view on the conference. It is not complete, but it reflects my experience and available photos. The exhibits appear in the next post. Bodies of Water Fashion Show, Trunk Show, workshop photos and member pictures appear here. What's missing? All of the provocative speakers, like India Flint, Pat Hickman, Barbara Lee Smith, Stephen Fraser, Faythe Levine, Natalie Chanin and Jane Dunnewold, plus a wide array of panels and demos. And, all that camaradie, hard to capture. You just had to be there...

Awards Judges Leesa Hubbell and Lynne Pollard examine Penny Collins' Gown for Great Pacific Garbage Patch Ball, made of recycled plastic bags and winner of the SDA Award of Excellence

examining the Fashion Show entries


talking with Fashion Show Coordinator Anna Lee

Chunghie Lee's Pojagi-making demonstration

At the DIY fair: altering a T-shirt, fundraiser for the Textile Center of MN (above), TCM lacemaking demo, plus impromptu "fashion show parade" by 17 year-old fashion designer, shown in black suit & glasses (below)

Trunk show & Vendors' Fair, above and below

Faythe Levine discusses Handmade Nation, which was also shown


international conferees viewing a beaded piece while waiting for Conference buses


one conferee on her way to the Fashion Show finishes the crocheted embellishment on her altered SDA T-shirt

SDA President Candace Edgerly with new American Crafts Council Executive Director Chris Admundsen. The ACC recently moved to Minneapolis from New York City,

Anni Holm & the NetWorking Project

2011-06-21T21:43:00.001-05:00

Iowa City's celebrated Iowa Arts Festival took place June 3-5, inaugurated by a Gallery Walk at 17 downtown locations including Iowa Artisans Gallery, the gallery that I am associated with. On my rounds to check out artists at the art fair the next day, I discovered a tent with a knitting installation in progress. The red knitted labyrinth resembled a large unruly octopus and represents the work of many knitters over time. Curious, I asked artist and founder Anni Holm to tell me more about her project.

Anni, who lives in Chicago but is a native of Denmark, and fellow knitter Nyok-Mei Wong of Malaysia, started this knitting installation/performance art piece in 2006. Entitled "The NetWorking Project," it involves members of the public stopping by to knit from one of the many ends. No experience is necessary. From her promotional materials, Anni tells us, "The NetWorking project is an attempt to physically demonstrate how a network is constructed and constantly changing. The viewers are invited to sit down and knit with the artist, and through dialogue develop their own networks beyond the boundaries of the piece." To see more images from other locations, visit The NetWorking Project's website.

Anni Holm is pictured above, at left. She told Festival organizers that about 100 knitters participated in the project over two days, not bad for a first time appearance.

Bumping into The Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia

2011-03-09T22:02:00.001-06:00

In mid-February, I attended the Buyers' Market of American Craft as a buyer for Iowa Artisans Gallery. As we prepared to leave, we discovered our flight was canceled and rescheduled for late in the day. What to do in this lovely city? Our answer was to meander, walking the streets in ways we'd been unable to do prior to this point. Next thing I knew, I was literally bumping into The Fabric Workshop and Museum, a stone's throw away from the Convention Center, where I'd attended the show for 15 years.

The Fabric Workshop! I've been reading about this venerable institution for more than twenty years. Articles have always pinpointed the Workshop's focus on screen printing, and I've been an enthusiastic screen printer for years. Naturally, I've always wanted to visit.

The Fabric Workshop was founded by Marian Stroud in 1977, both as a place to train apprentices in the field of textile design and to work with mature artists interested in fabric and unconventional materials. A Decade of Fabric and Art celebrates the 10th Anniversary of the Center. This publication points out the 1960s connections of major artists like Alexander Calder, with the making of fiber art pieces, tapestries in Calder's case. This precedent led Stroud to invite artists like Louise Nevelson, Robert Morris, Robert Kushner, Jun Kaneko and Ned Smyth into the Workshop early on. 150 artists in all were served during the first decade.

As a screen printer, I gasped with pleasure at the long tables and deep space of this printing studio.

The Fabric Workshop refined its mission in 1996, adding Museum to its name. Artists are still offered the chance to work as Artists-in-Residence with unconventional materials, not all of them fabric or textile-related. The screen printing areas serve at-risk youth in Philadelphia schools, as well as high school-, college- and postgraduate-level apprenticeships. Current artists in residence at the Workshop are profiled on the website. The Workshop is housed on several floors of a building, with exhibition halls, screen printing production studios, administrative offices, and conservation facilities for its 5500 objects made by 400 participating artists. It also houses a museum shop where screen printed items are sold in addition to books and other goodies.

During my visit, I viewed New American Voices II, an exhibition of contemporary sculpture, installation and wall works by Robert Pruitt, Jim Drain, Jiha Moon and Bill Smith. Vastly different in concept and execution, these works will challenge anyone looking for a more traditional approach to fiber art. I was especially drawn to the work of Robert Pruitt. His website does not do his contemporary work justice, so I won't cite it here. I am not able to share images of those exhibits with you.

By becoming a contemporary art center, the Fabric Workshop has invested in its future by insuring two grant-funding streams: contemporary art, plus under-served populations. I hope that it continues to capitalize on its roots in fiber art in its appeal to artists, providing them a truly unique opportunity to make works not otherwise easily made. If you're in Philadelphia, don't do what I did and wait 15 years to visit this inspiring and provocative place.

interesting way of preserving samples

a wall display shows images from early years

Screen, test piece and drop cloth

The Fabric Workshop & Museum is located at 1214 Arch St in Philadelphia

the front window of the building showcases items fabricated from FW&M fabrics, for sale in the Museum Shop

My $12 purchase, a bag with two interesting sides, a difficult choice with so many patterns to pick from

The Fabric Workshop and Museum is located at 124 Arch Street in downtown Philadelphia. For contact and membership information, please visit this link.

Clouds, Sky, Mountains

2011-01-15T19:32:00.000-06:00

Flying to Santiago, Chile via Dallas, where we had an overnight flight delay due to airplane mechanical difficulties. The surprising benefit: we flew over South America during daylight- I got to actually see land over Nicaragua, Ecuador, Peru, and the spectacular Andes in waning light of day. That was pretty darn cool. Most of the time we flew over the Pacific. 9.5 hours from Dallas, almost 9 miles per minute, we flew at 38,000 feet high, breathtaking...

Nicaragua & Costa Rica, all through the airplane window

the coast of northern Peru, vast desert

cloud patterns & shadow

along the coast of Northern Chile

towards sunset, the coastal mountains of Chile

The Andes start to pop up

the giant one, Mt Aconcagua , on the Chilean border with Argentina, 22,821 feet high

the sketchbook project- DONE!

2010-12-28T21:31:00.002-06:00

My new years' gift to myself: do the one studio thing I had the greatest need and drive for, starting to draw on a more regular basis. Along came The Sketchbook Project (see my October 18 post on drawing) with just enough deadline and incentive to make me finally commit. The result is not brilliant, but it's done, and it's opened my inner eye.

Here's what I wrote about my experience:
Most artists I know wish they would draw more. I started drawing in college and for two years, it was all I wanted to do. Then I took up printmaking (markmaking!) and eventually, textiles.

In my textile work, I do a lot of printing and monoprinting- I love color and music and spontaneous expression. Drawing is the act of listening to the world around you, of being an observer as opposed to a participant. Damn it, it requires a lot of patience and concentration. It is meditative.

So, now that I have time to be more of an observer, it is time to draw again, to relearn, to connect hand, eye and head. I also wanted to learn to use sumi ink wash techniques; the world is not all black and white- there’s lots of grey. The sketchbook project gave me the kick in the pants to get this rolling. Being intimidated by the first page, I decided to start in the middle. I also did my drawing in 3 separate sketchbooks each session, to loosen me up and let me try varying papers and approaches. Sometimes I included those other drawings in the Official Sketchbook.

the last of the garden tomatoes

ah, the self-portrait. An excellent way to learn to draw. At my age, it's like an exercise in geography, with mountains, valleys, rivers, desert, certainly more interesting topography, an exercise in humility rather than vanity. Oh, and those GLASSES! And no, not sad, just concentrating.

those birds, so hard to draw, one second and then they move again...I actually had much better examples in the sketchbook.

what's this, you ask? a 15-year old strip of newspaper used to mask wet areas when I do screenprinting. Scanned a few. All about drawing.

Sketchbook cover, inside and out, printed with my screenprint of artist hands and "tabbed" with a monoprinted fabric scrap, covered with matte medium.

Fun with mirrors...

Bird talk...

2010-12-05T21:31:00.000-06:00

Friday during a conference call, heard a fuss on the back porch, --looked out and saw a hawk clawing the screen to get out. Tried to shoo her to the door- she got sidetracked behind a table area. Me, afraid of big talons and unknown "Hawkish" behavior. Downy feathers swirling. Called my buddy Will, the Bird Man. Came over and carefully approached the bird, clucking, a Coopers' Hawk, caught her. Held her for a bit, then thrust her to freedom. She flew to a branch on the dogwood, looked back a bit, then flew on to the high trees. Quite an experience. Meanwhile the conference call continued on speaker phone, unaware...

Potatoes + linocut tools = potato printing fun!

2010-11-30T22:02:00.001-06:00

Reading several vintage books on printing from the 1960s and earlier, I kept thinking about exploring the versatile potato when teaching some simple printing classes. As a youngster, I never got to make potato prints, because carving the designs involved sharp tools.

For my current explorations, I discovered linocut tools, which any adult or almost-adult with good hand-eye coordination will find easy to use. The surface of the potato is easy to carve and happily accepts fabric paints applied with a brayer or brush. (I use ProFab fabric paints from ProChemical & Dye. These paints can be applied over fabric with existing patterns, or with your own custom-dyed and -printed fabrics.)

I found the whole process to be delightful. Note: my designs are fairly crude. I'm sure that a skillful, patient approach could result in finer lines. Sides of the potatoes can be cut to designated shapes. Don't forget: this is a one-shot deal, one potato, one printing session. Then watch them shrivel into interesting sculptural objects, finally disposed of in a compost pile.

These images are from printed napkins or hankies from students in various teaching situations. Red star above was made using cross-sliced apple. Images below show the negative-space effect of filling a field with printed images, and with two printings from one inked potato.

Line by Line series in the New York Times: hone your drawing skills!

2010-11-26T08:56:00.001-06:00

One of the wonders of the current digital media scene is being able to mix print and video information in the same article. I am intrigued by The New York Times' Line by Line series ("about rediscovering the lost skill and singular pleasure of drawing") and can't resist posting about it here, though it's Black Friday and I have to head to Iowa Artisans Gallery for work.

Today, James McMullan's contribution centers on drawing the figure- understanding the relationship with face and hands, among other things. His contributions are today's #11 in the series: "Strategies to Get You There" , which follows an earlier one, #10 The Chain of Energy.

Chicago road trip: Lillstreet Art Center + SOFA

2010-11-10T22:56:00.000-06:00

Here's an introduction to the textiles studios at Lillstreet Art Center, which is now located on Ravenswood Avenue in a former 3-story "gear shop." It's a lot like a re-purposed 1930s junior high school space. Lillstreet started out about thirty years ago, strictly as a ceramics facility on Lill Street, featuring teaching space and studios for ceramists. The move to Ravenswood coincided with an expansion to a facility with metalsmithing, lampworked glass, printmaking, painting, textiles and kids' art classes. Ceramics is still the main focus. The facility also includes a sales and exhibition area, plus First Slice, a great cafe with great food and profits going to support homeless youth meals. I have been eagerly following Lillstreet Blog for some time, enamored with its focus on screen printing. Here you'll find pictures of this facility, introduced by head of textile area Camille Canales.

SOFA is the Sculptural Objects Fine Art Exposition, this year paired with INTUIT, the outsider art museum plus galleries. Major collector galleries exhibit at SOFA, and one has the opportunity to look at work commonly found in American Craft and other magazines. I hadn't been in several years, and the level of creativity is always astonishing. I also sat at the Surface Design Association information table, which was located in front of the Corning Glassblowing Demo booth, very informative, very impressive and great theater.

Below: the sewing workshop at Lillstreet- Camille is my guide.

Camille is using pins to secure a runner to a table, in preparation for later screenprinting. I encouraged her to work as she answered questions- this was a time free of students in the dye and print studio.

Screenprinted curtains (above) and clothing (below)

It's rare to have a workshop with so many fabric screens. I was in heaven!

Below, Camille's screenprinted embroidery sampler, upon which students then practice certain embroidery stitches

above: pattern pieces.

below: menu at the Cafe Slice. It's time now to order pies for Thanksgiving! I purchased various pieces of pie plus their squash soup to take to my overnight host and good friend, and everything was super tasty.

Above: re-arranging jewelry displays in the Lillstreet Studio gallery.

Below: I followed the many bike routes on my way back to Oak Park, through Wrigleyville.

Historic stained glass from Chicago producers, stunning examples of old and new, inside the corridor on Navy Pier. Very worth seeing.

Above: I had seen so much art at SOFA, that when I stepped outside, I was struck by the materials, color and textural contrast of this light post base.

Below: SDA Area Representatives Linda and Darcy

Above: SDA President Candy and friend and fellow volunteer Ann attending tothe SDA informational table at SOFA, with the swatch collection

Above: a fantastic grouping of photos of Utah plus oversized ceramic sculpture by fellow Iowa City resident Gerry Eskin. Below: stepping out towards my car, surface design is everywhere...

drawing...

2010-10-18T22:17:00.001-05:00

For years, when my kids were around, I thought that the way to really make summers creatively productive would be to aim for a drawing a day. It was always hard to actually get to more substantive studio work during that time. Intentions then, and later for other regular drawing "devotions" always gave less than satisfying results. Only an occasional drawing, but when I did them, how revealing.

dog sitting, Sam: my own dog Tuck moves around too much

Two Surface Design Association (SDA) Conferences ago, and looking at the course offerings of Penland School of Crafts, I realized that although the array of techniques and workshops was stunning, what I really want most is to draw. To expand my visual vocabulary. For my hand to be more in touch with what I see and what I want to express. A drawing a day would do it.

Still, it's hard to fit that in, hard to be the observer instead of the doer.

This year, I learned about The Sketchbook Project, where you sign up to participate by receiving and filling a blank "moleskine" type of sketchbook, which then goes to sketchbook library in Brooklyn, and potentially on display. Yes, it costs a bit to join and needs to be done by a certain date. Hey, we pay tuition for classes. Since this seemed like a good way to force myself into a habit, I gladly signed up.

Receiving the sketchbook was a bit of a disappointment. Such thin cardboard covers. There's no reason why participants can't deconstruct the book, and insert new pages, as long as the size conforms to the guidelines.

I spent time being intimidated by the empty pages. How to start with a bang, not a wimper. Most of us who draw at all know that only 1 of 10 drawings is any good though all have something to teach or can jog our memories as to place and locations. Starting a new sketchbook meant for others was definitely intimidating. My solution? start in the middle. Add pages randomly, numbered as Page 1, Page 2, etc. That seems to be working. Other solution? Use three sketchbooks- my regular journal one, my larger pad, and the Sketchbook Project one. Start my day in one, and migrate to the others. Copy and collage when needed. It's starting to happen.

I'm also adopting some techniques about holding a brush and using washes that I learned in a Chinese Painting class, with a teacher from China who spoke no English and his interpreter, who was hard to understand. We sat in a basement and drew symbolic landscape on a beautiful spring day. Ironic, but the techniques have truly been useful.

Along the way, I've also found some interesting web communities of sketchers, like Urban Sketchers. Like Life Sketcher, Stan Fellows, and others.

I haven't done enough yet to really have an effect on my paintings and prints on fabrics, but that should come. For now, it's a rich time of year to draw outside, to see potential in any view. For really, anything can be made into a drawing, and the most mundane subject matter can be the most interesting. My sketchbook will not be glamorous, but it will be a step in the right direction, for me, made fun by sitting outside - and - simply - drawing.

what happens with modular repeats: dried Roma tomato

Iowa SDA-SAQA-IA Artquilters Meeting

2010-10-16T22:19:00.001-05:00

Iowa is a big state with a small population, smaller than the Twin Cities in Minnesota. Our Surface Design Association (SDA) and Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) are small enough that it makes sense to pool our resources and meet together in different locations in central and eastern Iowa. I held an earlier meeting last February at my home, and this time Carol Coohey shared her home and inspiring studio with us. Nineteen women attended from the Des Moines area, Elkader, Grinnell, Guernsey, Oskaloosa, Fairfield, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City/Coralville.

Karin Gundlach explored the issue of what kind of finishing presentation is most appropriate to art quilts and fiber art in general, especially smaller pieces. She posed several questions in an online SAQA forum and received a wealth of technical responses, from mounting on a protruding cloth-covered or painted "frame," to shadow box framing, to armatures. In general the consensus was that framing or mounting of some kind helps to set these pieces off and relate them to their environment. Some participants shared pieces in which presentation was discussed.

Kris Grover shares her ideas for studio design (above), with Amanda Murphy discussing lighting (below)

Kris Grover, former University of Iowa space planner and mixed media artist then shared her Studio Design Challenge, where she converts a small 10 x 10' bedroom-type space into a functional studio. She shared drafts of this presentation, done on her laptop with many images included. This was a very interesting presentation that we could have spent more time on; Kris had many ideas for finding simple storage units at janitor supply shops and places like Cabellas. One idea was installing a simple overhead bike rack to hang three dimensional works from while they're in progress. Then
Amanda Murphy, a lighting consultant for Light Expressions and a mixed media artist working three dimensionally with concrete and felt, shared ideas and answered questions for adequate lighting.

Lastly, we had a tour of Carol Coohey's impressive studio space. Not grungy like mine, but airy and clean. She does deconstructed screen printing in the way that Kerr Grabowski does, but adds her own spin and has recently started doing regular screen printing. One look at her extensive wall of fabrics, all hanging from a cork strip rail, and one can't help but admire her grasp of this process.

Carol Coohey with her wall of deconstructed screen printed fabrics

After the meeting, participants split up, some attending Dianne Day's show at Arbor Gallery, some going to central Iowa City to visit Home Ec Workshop, Prairie Lights Books and Iowa Artisans Gallery, and some home. An interesting, enlightening time.

Out and about: meetings & presentations

2010-10-16T21:39:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday evening I had the pleasure of speaking to the Jewel Box Quilt Guild in Grinnell, Iowa, so named because of one of Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Jewel Box Bank Building in that community. This year I've given my powerpoint presentation four times: at the IQS Quilt Show in Chicago (April); a morning and evening session at Northeast Iowa Quilt Guild, and the most recent one in Grinnell. Previous presentations included guilds in Iowa City (130 attendees) and Waverly, Iowa.

My presentations usually start with an introduction and a few questions to gauge my audience. How many have tried dyeing? printing? I show some actual art quilts, explaining that I use only my own fabrics and that all my pieces start out as white fabrics. After explaining a few technical things about dyes, silk screens and monoprint vinyl, I launch into my power point, which is a visual tour of the part of my art career devoted to art quilts. I start with a few recent pieces, move to images of techniques, then launch into a chronology of how I came to make these and what has been influential over the years. When the chronology is done, I show some studio shots. Then I have a series of "mark making" photographs gleaned from travels and changes in landscape. I finish with a series of teaching images taken during workshops. Usually I bring books, magazines, Surface Design Association materials (yes, I am on the Board), tools and a big basket of sample fabrics which I circulate among the audience early on. Always there are questions, which I encourage and answer as needed. It's really a lot of fun. And yes, I do charge for these presentations. There is this thing, needing to earn a living.

I also teach workshops and find that most participants enjoy starting with basics. I pack in a lot of information, hopefully not too much, but my aim is to give participants a rich immersion into the wonders of painting and printing with dyes and fabric paints. What do I enjoy the most? Watching participants slide into the pure joy of process, of expression, color and creation. I always tell them, don't focus on the end product- you will need to practice! But enjoy the ride...

Necessities Vests!

2010-10-06T22:05:00.000-05:00

My friend Connie Roberts is a professional artist who makes carved wooden whistle sculptures. She and I have collaborated for some time on thematic vests containing appropriate whistles. Our most popular has always been the Necessities Vest, made to order for male or female wearers, a piece that occupies a display stand during times not worn as a conversational art theater piece. Connie usually makes dozens of whistles that are visible and hidden on these vests.

My contribution is to dye and print the cotton fabrics for vest and lining, plus pockets and trim. I designed the pockets and patterns and construct and sew the vests. When they're sewn, Connie and I get together to trouble-shoot placement, drill a few holes etc. Her whistles are by far the most entertaining part of these Vests, but what follows are photos of how the vests themselves come into being.

hand-dyed, monoprinted & screenprinted cotton fabrics using procion fiber reactive dyes

flaps, and lots of notes

the old workhorse Janome sewing machine

It helps that it's still porch weather

Connie's buttons are a hoot. They do not whistle.

OK, so my part is finished...

Connie and her drill. Trying to keep the sawdust off of the fabric. Placing whistles.

Whistles similar to what we have in our vests.

more doodle pillows!

2010-09-25T22:04:00.000-05:00

Artquilt finished and on display, leftover fabrics, need color = doodle pillows!

the colors of summer: who can resist?

2010-08-02T12:08:00.000-05:00

Time to toss subtlety out the window in favor of old fashioned exuberance...
(of course, blogger distorts the colors a bit and is trying its darnedest to make subtlety more apparent. You can see that these are oversize and based on geranium petals. Fiber reactive dyes from our friends at Pro Chemical & Dye, on cotton broadcloth from Testfabrics.

Artquilts at the MacNider Art Museum

2010-07-22T22:30:00.000-05:00

Summer is the perfect time for a road trip. If you're in the neighborhood, check out the Charles MacNider Art Museum in Mason City (home to Meredith Wilson, creator of the Music Man). The MacNider is a charming regional museum with a nice collection of American art as well as Bill Baird's puppets. Baird was the creator of the marionettes in The Sound of Music. You'll also see an exhibit of my work, on view until September 4. The exhibit is the result of being awarded Best in Show in the Iowa Craft exhibition last November. Here are some photos from the installation.

Fellow artist Connie Roberts (above), a wooden whistle sculptor, accompanied me

a lovely modern addition to the MacNider houses a special exhibition space plus this area for contemporary ceramics

We also visited Clear Lake, 11 miles west of Mason City. It was also the day for a Bicycle, Blues & Barbecue Festival, looked and smelled great...

a heckuva time!

2010-07-22T21:58:00.000-05:00

It's been a very long time indeed since I last wrote. Life intercedes, and here are some of the reasons why...

First and foremost- family! this is the first time we've all been together (along with daughter-in-law, the photographer) since November 2008, and the first time the Chilean contingent has seen Iowa City since the passing of their father in September of that year.

Plus all the other distractions: Ian Bennett returning from 11 months in the Philippines and China, doing video editing and production. Badly needed maintenance on a 1918 home, and incumbent life-sorting. DowntownBeat, a rival for my blogging attention. Curiosities and show-stoppers in the garden, travels to give talks on art quilting, and more...

Curiosities & show-stoppers in the garden

Finally, time for studio work again.

Wanna learn to knit?

2010-06-09T21:36:00.000-05:00

Here's a novel idea. Home Ec Workshop reports the following tidbit on their Facebook page:

"the Iowa City Farmer's Market is hosting a Knit in Public Day event this Saturday, June 12, from 7:30 - 12pm. There will be volunteers teaching people to knit, spinners and hopefully, a whole bunch of knitters!"

Home Ec Workshop is a fun little shop in the near Northside Neighborhood. Owners Codi and Alissa sell yarns and fabrics, have a "Knitting nurse," offer classes and workshop rental (sewing machines, etc.) and I've taught classes there.

Yarns of many kinds...

2010-05-19T22:05:00.002-05:00

Thirty-two years of living in the same place, and twenty years since I've woven on my loom. I sold the loom several years ago because I knew that when I "retire" (ha!) I will probably play music or draw, not weave. There were two trash cans full of yarn, and today I decided to open them and spread the yarns out on the porch hammock. Why do this? Well that's a story I'll tell in a minute, but first, an observation: no wonder we have a hard time parting with our possessions. They tell the stories of our lives!

Here are linens (upper left), ikat windings (blue and orange) and assorted wools. My color sense was neutral in those days, as was common

As I look at these, the old familiar smell of wool and lanolin, or linen and flax is still evident despite the mothball smell. It's the moth ball odor that I want to get rid of here on my hammock in the perfect sun of late spring. And why moth balls? Once upon a time I had a Puli dog named Alfie. He was a Hungarian Sheep Dog and I inherited him along with my husband. Alfie had marvelous fur that completely covered his eyes when fully grown. My husband took pity and decided that he should give Alfie a haircut when summer came. Always, he'd comment on how much happier Alfie seemed, and certainly we were more responsive when we could see his eyes and his bouncy countenance.

From the now-defunct Weaving Workshop in Chicago. Yummy colors and textures.

Having learned to spin not just wool but short staple cotton, one summer I decided to keep Alfie's fur and try to spin it. Noble gesture, stored in a plastic bag, but my days were busy with an infant. My studio walls, in the studio I mention in my post from last January, were lined with wool and weaving books. At one point, I noticed the occasional wool moth, and this gradually gave way to an infestation. Because I found a number of my Berber wools were targets of the wool moths, I decided to sequester them in garbage cans with moth balls. This was the prevailing treatment in 1980. The whole concept of non-toxic alternatives was not known to me or I would have chosen chunks of cedar. Now the story gets more interesting. When I looked through this picture-perfect studio of yarns, I found the bag of Alfie's fur. Opened it. And found it empty. No fur, just masses of wool moth detritus. Ugh.

Most commercial yarn is pH treated to a level that wool moths do not like. That's why those beloved handspun sweaters from Guatemala or Nepal are sometimes the gates of heaven for wool moths. No pH treatment there. Ditto for dog hair.

Later on, my studio became a TV room, then a bedroom. My yarns went into garbage cans, and here I am, cleaning them out. I was tempted just to throw them all away, but they are beautiful! The smell of wool and lanolin is seductive. I think I will ask my local weavers' guild if they want to offer it to members, who can in turn donate to the guild. I really don't think I want to weave again. Or do I?

Above: thin cottons replaced the bulky wools in later years. Right: sample book of weavings, stitched to canvas "pages." I'd forgotten I'd made this, but remembered all the projects referenced here when I saw them once again.

Dye Basics at Home Ec

2010-04-12T21:01:00.006-05:00

Had a great class at Home Ec Workshop on Saturday. (And no, that's not Home Ec for sale in the picture above. It was a beautiful day, and this shaded bench was in front of the adjacent building.) I covered all those basics that are sometimes missing in the short sessions that are more project-based. The emphasis was on knowledge, not on final products. We discussed all the introductory information on Procion fiber reactive dyes, auxiliary chemicals, fabrics, whether to prewash or scour, etc. Everyone had a chance to mix up one batch of thickened dyes and then add mixed-alkali activator (which is how I like to do things rather than doing a soda-soak of the fabric before beginning.) Students painted, we ate lunch, then we steamed the first batch of painted fabrics. During steaming, they painted a second batch of fabrics. After steaming, I showed them how to rinse and wash out fabrics. They took the second batch home to cure or batch in regular household conditions, then rinse and wash out at home.

Home Ec is a smallish space. I was to have 7 students but ended up with 5- one cancelled, and one was sick. The others showed a really interesting mix of fiber inclinations. One was a retired ESL teacher who now makes art quilts and does some teaching of small scale digital image printing on fabrics. One is a student I had at the university in the early 1990s. An avid knitter, she would like to return to more fiber involvement and has a good eye for it. Another student is a younger seamstress and wearables creator. She has a successful Etsy shop with a partner. They design their own clothes, custom, according to actual customer measurements. She wondered about dyeing the cotton interlock they often use. Another student was once a weaver and is now an avid knitter, a mother of school age children. And the last student is an avid quilter who dislikes straight lines and is interested in a more creative approach. She is also a member of the Surface Design Association and the mother of three school-age boys. This mix of interests really worked well for this class- we all had fun.

Reinvention, Return…

2010-03-27T15:59:00.018-05:00

Studio tours in Emeryville

“Reinvention” Conference at San Francisco State University, March 17-19, 2010. Sponsored by the Surface Design Association (SDA) and Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA). This regional conference attracted primarily California artists, but also SDA and SAQA Board members, state representatives and members from adjoining and other states. A blog is a poor substitute for active participation and listening, but it is a start.

Months ago, when I first read through the lineup of conference presenters, I thought, hmm, a very academic approach. But no, this was something more. Unlike most conferences involving textile artists, this one did not have much in the way of hands-on and technique-oriented sessions. I’m sure that this aggravated some attendees. Instead, this was a textiles homecoming, a conference that took a detailed look at the handmade textile scene— now, then and future. It dealt with legacy. With long-running artist careers still fired up and ongoing. With younger, collaborative and socially-conscious work. With the interface between hand made art and museums. With the current explorations by two prominent magazines, Fiber Arts and American Craft.

California is the state with the most Surface Design Association members. Northern California alone has 363 members, more than some of the multi-state regions. Southern California, 160 members. Contemporary fiber art got its foothold in the Bay Area, with the now-defunct, once-thriving Fiberworks that trained so many. It still has a depth of talent and long-term career commitment unparalleled elsewhere. And we got a taste of some of this.

Day 1: The contemporary scene
Keynote speaker Marci McDade, Editor of Fiberar ts M agazin e pointed out a number of innovative fiber artists in her talk Reinvention: Transforming the Face of Fiber. McDade mentioned the trend in museums to invite artists into their collections, from which they might make works based on that experience, where both the museum piece and the contemporary interpretation would be hung side by side. Other notes: the Design Center at Philadelphia University had a 150’ long chain link fence patterned after the traditional lace housed in their collection. Lace motifs were also used to stencil found metal in some of the Center’s garden settings. McDade also mentioned other innovative fiber projects, including Slash: Paper under the Knife at the Museum of Arts + Design in NYC; Anne Wilson’s Wind/Rewind/Weave community weaving project at the Knoxvill e Museum of Art. In this, Anne invited 60 weavers to do an “exquisite corpse” type of weaving, one day for each weaver. Each segment was divided by black thread. McDade also mentioned Craftweek 2.0’s New Household Tactics, a conceptual show where a paper towel dispenser was filled with handmade papers, etc. (McDade admitted to not really understanding fashion. —since many of our artists do wearables, this seemed an unfortunate slip in what was otherwise a great lineup of information.)

Jane Przybysz, Executive Director of the San Jose Museum of Quil ts and Textiles, discussed What Makes Fiber Art? plus the challenges of running a nonprofit museum focused on textile arts, with the “emotional logic” versus the “financial logic” of an organizational mission statement. She said, “those who identify with media rather than the art or idea are not artists.” Not all agree with this. She mentioned the provocative book, String, Felt, Thread: The Hierarchy of Art & Craft in American Art by Elissa Auther. Przybysz noted three communities where fiber art has currency: #1 the fiber art community; #2 Post-Conceptualist artists (Rauschenberg, Eva Hess), who used fiber as “non-art” to contest the hierarchy of art and craft; and #3 the feminist art community.

Stefan Catalani of the Bellevue Arts Museum showcased interesting examples of crossover art/textile artists. The Bellevue has no collections of its own, just organizes rotating exhibitions. Truly notable are works by Dinh Q. Le, and Ed Pien’s papercuttings, as well as Mandy Greer.

Jill D’Alessandro discussed exhibitions of historic and ethnic textiles at the de Young Museum. All of these presenters appeared on a panel exploring the issue of what kind of work gets promoted in their institutions.

Primarily, the emphasis with all of these presenters was on exceptional work, regardless of art or craft moniker. The challenges of funding when identifying only as a craft institution where brought up. Some attendees were focused on the “Q” word- whether or not to push the term “quilt”. This of course, also brought up conversations about gender-based work. We ended our day with joint openings of exhibits in the SFS textile studios, galleries and other locations.

Day 2: Artists
We started with a panel of emerging artists moderated by Vic de la Rosa, of San Francisco State University. Lacy Jane Roberts (“messy craft” rather than mastery, plastic knitting machines and academic discussions of contemporary craft and gender) and Bren Ahearn (embroidery) discussed their own work plus other issues such as the challenges of living as gay or queer (not identifying as either female or male) artists. Mung Lar Lam had a solid powerpoint of work called “ironings,” ironed, pleated installed works in which she appears in the installation and irons the pieces. Vic de la Rosa commented that as far as the “craft police” are concerned, it’s good to know the rules in order to break them.

The second presentation, Can Art Make a Difference? moderated and curated by Linda Gass focused on four exceptional artists working with environmental issues (Linda McDonald uses humor and fine draftsmanship to focus on forestation issues), Lea Redmond (very interesting conceptual work), Judith Selby Lange (who makes wearables using discarded plastic bags found on a particular beach), and Gass (silk art quilts highlighting mapping and land use concerns).

We then heard from “The Voices of Experience,” four artists with 152 combined years of studio practice between them and who are still actively engaged with their work. This fact-paced, poignant presentation inspired many of us and included work by Michael Rohde (weaver), Carol Westfall (mixed media) and Consuelo Underwood (weaver and political-conceptual artist, #11 of 12 children born into a migrant family) with Joan Schulze moderating. Any of these could have filled an hour-long segment, not just their 20 minutes allotted time.

For the closing remarks, we listened to Janet Koplos’ survey 60+ years of American Craft magazine and how it reflected the thinking and trends of the day. Koplos is a former Acting Editor of the magazine. She showed an image of work by a younger artist named Kathryn Pannepacker, whose murals in Philadelphia echo traditional textiles from around the world. Kathryn was sitting right next to us. And that’s how it went throughout the conference- you never knew who might have something original to contribute.

Karen Livingstone's dye studio

Day 3: Studio Tours, for those who’d made arrangements
This was the day where everything came together for me. Our group started at Ana Lisa Hedstrom’s shibori studio, with work by Yoshiko Wada and Jeanne Caciedo also on display. These three titans of the fiber arts community were generous with their time and knowledge. We were seduced by Ana Lisa’s clothing. Yoshiko Wada explained that shibori (Japanese resist dyeing using pleating, clamping and tying, are only 150 years old. She has worked to promote the field and preserve knowledge by current Japanese shirbori masters. Then Richard Elliott, head of textiles at CCA, showed pieces incorporating digital printing. Susan Taber Avila is creating wonderful, large-scale layered work using dyeing and machine embroidery. Her studio mate Candace Kling comes from a historic costuming background and had manipulated trims and historic examples throughout her studio. We visited Karen Livingstone’s studio in a former corner grocery, where she does custom dyeing and once did Marian Clayden’s dyeing. And an inspiring tour of the home and gardens of Paul and Robin Cowley, landscape architect and art quilter.

Cameras out: the beautiful landscaping of Paul and Robin Cowley.

That night, some of us went to a fiber artist potluck way up high in the hills of Berkeley. Stunning sunset overlooking the entire Bay area. As I looked around at attendees, I was struck yet again by the sheer concentration of talent in this part of California, and the generosity and dedication of our host.

In addition, the SDA Board met before the conference, spending time on the topic of reinvention. Established in 1976, SDA is doing what any organization of similar age does- reviewing goals, strategy, mission and communications. Things are cooking up well, and we are positioning ourselves for the present and future cyber age.

What else? Trails around the hotel followed the bay, had shorebirds, and smelled of salt water. I visited with my high school friend and fellow yearbook co-editor, whom I hadn’t seen since I was 21. On my last day, I checked my bags earlier and headed to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The building alone is worth the visit, —I especially enjoyed the abstract expressionist galleries. I was surprising to see how large the Diebenkorn paintings are- I had assumed they were half the size. The collection of San Francisco-based artists was excellent quality, with fresh ideas and excellent quality of execution. I also stopped by the exhibit of textiles from Mali at the Museum of International Craft & Folk Art. I was familiar with much of what was presented but found the videos of a contemporary wedding fascinating. And then, on this stunningly beautiful day that even the locals were relishing, I headed back on my friend BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to the airport and flew home over snow-capped mountains and pink-tipped clouds.

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Our hotel in South San Francisco, taken from the extensive trails around the bay. My morning walks included the smell of salt water during low tide, with shore birds and blooming succulents, a far cry from the snow banks I'd left behind the week before. When I see this picture, I reminded of the California hills
Wallace Stegner describes in one of my favorite books, Angle of Repose.

Flatlanders and Sandhill Cranes

2010-03-10T21:15:00.010-06:00

I'll get to something arty soon, but here are two things that captivated me. As a sequel to my last Chilean post, check out my son Colin's thoughtful blog post, Flatland Reflections on a Chilean Quake. In it, you'll find some interesting bits that we don't hear about here in our own media.

And SPECTACULAR is the only word I can use to describe the experience I had today.

digital camera set on zoom, one tiny bit...

I went outside about 1:45pm and saw thousands and thousands of sandhill cranes flying WAY up high. Two eagles flying below them looked puny and were flying only half as high. Undulating patterns as if liquid, all over the sky, flying west, for about 20 minutes. Lots of squawking, even at that distance. I've never seen this before in my 32 years here. It was unforgettable.

I poked around online and found that the Rowe Sanctuary in Gibbon, Nebraska has a "crane cam" that's focused on the birds during arrival and nesting, from March 6 - April 10, 2010. It's dark now as I write, though you can hear the birds. I look forward to checking it out during daylight hours.

my love affair with Chile...

2010-03-01T22:38:00.010-06:00

Preoccupied with the earthquake in recent days,
more than happy that my son and daughter-in-law in Santiago (and her wonderful family scattered throughout) are all OK.

It's clear the visceral experience will not subside quickly.
I send a valentine to our friends and neighbors below...

Colin and Carolina operate two stores called Boutique de Campo-
fresh fruits, juices, organic ingredients, adding more things

The kids and I: our visit to Valparaiso in 2008, the very old port city that dates to the 1500's

More Valparaiso: fascinating, murals, colors

Bella Vista, part of Santiago where Pablo Neruda lived,
now home to a lively music scene and lapis luzuli vendors

Having fun in the Museo de las Bellas Artes, damaged by the quake

on the way to Pucon, a stunning landscape. Those are mountains, not just clouds.

Diem Chau: Sojourn

2010-02-25T20:18:00.006-06:00

Two days ago, I received an email from the Friends of Fiber Art pointing out the exhibit of Diem Chau's embroidered objects in the Packer Schopf Gallery in Chicago. I am completely taken by this work- the surprise of it, the well-drawn embroideries, the considered placement, the mix of ordinary objects and narrative moments. It made me stop and take note. You really need to see the range of work shown on the Gallery's website to have the full effect.

Diem Chau and her family came to the United States as refugees from Viet Nam in 1986. She received her BFA from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle and has exhibited her work in New York, Chicago, Miami, Seattle and Los Angeles. Her website and blog show that she lives in Seattle, does the things that many emerging artists do: make "plushies" for her Etsy shop, do commission and exhibition pieces and run a new gelato shop. Take a peek and see for yourself.

If you'd like to attend the show, it's on view through March 27. Packer Schopf Gallery is located at 942 W. Lake St in Chicago. Telephone: 312-226-8984. Gallery hours are 11am-5:30pm.

mark-making

2010-02-08T20:56:00.012-06:00

In the new year, I've come to think a lot about mark-making. I define that as the kind of gesture left behind after a stroke of painting or drawing. Marvin Lowe, my printmaking professor at Indiana University, drilled it into me. No, you are not allowed to make "chicken scratches" on your metal etching plate. Mine etching plates were zinc or copper. Every mark must be considered, should have presence, weight, character.

We've now had over 60 days of consecutive snow on the ground here in Iowa. Winter in general, and snow in particular, tends to isolate the visual effect of a tree's bare branch, or whithered vegetation against the snow. I'm seeing "marks" all over the place, and were it not for the sometimes dangerous cold, I'd show many more images. Here are a few.

A screenprint, or a monoprint is a type of mark. Usually I overlay them.

snow shadows

A Profile in Quilting Arts Magazine

2010-01-22T08:54:00.006-06:00

Quilting Arts Magazine's February-March issue has arrived, and I am honored to be the featured artist in a really nice 6-page spread with glorious photos. Also included is a piece on what to do with leftover dye (make pillows!) which was based on a blog post I did earlier. Thanks to everyone who's made this possible. OK, Astrid, before complacency sets in, time to get back to work... I'm enjoying the journey, though.

A New Year: scraps & art cloth

2010-01-18T22:03:00.013-06:00

Time to return to painting and printing, but first, taking advantage of opportunities the new year provides: completing partially finished pieces. Shown above: works on cotton broadcloth (left) and a cotton-hemp mix (right). Hemp dyes beautifully; the effect is a bit like linen, which screenprints nicely.

Then, art cloth. I am screenprinting using dyes instead of fabric paints. Procion fiber reactive dyes bond at the molecular level with the natural fibers they are applied to. This results in a soft "hand" to the fabric and good wash-fastness. Dyes are transparent and create wonderful effects when layered. Even the best fabric paints (I use Pro-Chem's Pro Fab fabric paints) leave a stiffened fabric, and it's difficult to achieve the transparency I like. My last real burst of screenprinting involved fabric paints to make functional items like tea cozies, table cloths, napkins, and yes, wall hangings. Predating my art quilts, this was 15 years ago. Now I'm eager to try some of my three dozen screens with thickened dye. What follows is a sequence of printing over two days, 2.5 yards.

This is really an interesting combination of colors, but the white will look untended when finished, so I move on with more monoprinting over the screenprinting

the finished fabric, heat set, washed and dried

SAQA featured artist time...

2010-01-07T14:04:00.003-06:00

SAQA, the Studio Art Quilts Associates, features two "professional artist members" on their website monthly, and this time the focus is on Alison Muir and myself. Here's the blurb from SAQA:

"Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc., the non-profit organization that promotes the art quilt world-wide, announced the SAQA.com Featured Artists for the month of January 2010. Selected from among SAQA’s 450+ Professional Artist Members, Astrid Hilger Bennett of Iowa City, Iowa, and Alison Muir of Neutral Bay, New South Wales, Australia are the latest artists to be profiled.

Alison Muir writes 'In 2000 water became the driving force in my world, and I needed to be near it to smell and see the sea, to be happy.' The SAQA Web site is featuring three additional works by Muir that beautifully showcase the depth of her connection to water. Astrid Hilger Bennett finds a rich source of inspiration in the events of daily life. She balances complex and quiet forms on a visually abstract canvas to create art quilts that interpret her perception of the world.

The Featured Artists Program, updated monthly on SAQA’s Web site, offers SAQA an opportunity to shine the spotlight on a few of their Professional Artist Members. Visitors to the site will see selections of the artist’s work not previously shown on SAQA.com, and find a bit more information on each artist. The SAQA Web site also features a Gallery where visitors can review many other works by Professional Artist Members.

Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc., is an international non-profit organization dedicated to informing the public about the continuing achievements of the art quilt movement. SAQA’s 2,500 members span 31 countries and include artists, collectors, curators, art dealers and corporate sponsors. Since its founding 20 years ago, SAQA has mounted juried exhibitions featuring the works of artist members at museums and galleries throughout the world."

A New Year's Story: Embracing Creativity

2009-12-30T10:47:00.003-06:00

Reading Lisa Call’s blog entry on completion and finally finishing her studio space reminds me of my own studio metaphor. Studios are not about spending a lot of money- they are about creating even just a tabletop as a designated thinking zone. My workspace has always had a major influence on the scope and size of my work. But first, some background.

My husband John was diagnosed with advanced, aggressive prostate cancer in 2005. We knew from that first doctors’ visit that the outcome would not be good, and in September 2008, he passed away. (Don’t let anyone ever convince you that prostate cancer is not serious; the aggressive forms are debilitating and lethal.)

A few months later, in January 2009, I found myself having posture problems when doing my computer marketing work for Iowa Artisans Gallery, and I decided that John’s desk/table would be the solution to my needs. His desk area was in our bedroom. This was not as simple as switching out a chair or adding a cushion. Adopting his desk was essentially about tackling his most intimate corner, the place where he went to write, to dream, to wrestle with his demons and to organize his day. It was filled with small mementos of the children, of his previous life in California, and of many projects unfulfilled. Not to mention, dust and clutter.

Was this really necessary, now? I asked myself, feeling the intense emotional difficulty of this task. There was no doubt that I needed to be more comfortable doing my paid work, and funds for new purchases were limited. It would need doing soon anyway. So, I plunged ahead. I placed a hand-scrawled note by my telephone with the words “removing impediments,” the first of several. We’d always left messages there, —I’d see it multiple times a day.

I went through everything, throwing anything too difficult into the old leather briefcase that had 40 years of correspondence, and stashed it upstairs for another day. I took photos of the small vignettes- little found scrap metal sculptures, pictures of the kids tacked on the Navajo rugs of his childhood. I adopted his great little work table, which we had found and cleaned up at a local farm auction many years ago. I took down the window shade and had a surprise- this room has much more light than I thought! I cleaned out and moved my filing cabinets to a new space. I gave away the other library table that was too tall; my good friend would use it for photographing her sculptural work. And lastly, I took pictures to show the coziness of this new space. I was done.

Or was I? Suddenly, I realized that one of the benefits of forced change is embracing new options. This room was once my weaving studio, with pin-board “design walls” I made nearly 30 years earlier. We changed that when the family expanded to three kids. I’d worked all over my house and have a wet workspace in the basement for dyeing and painting. Why not re-adopt it as a studio? Why not move my bedroom upstairs? I couldn’t let go of this idea. I knew it would jumpstart my creativity.

Out came the cleaning tools, the storage boxes, the garbage bags once again. But first I had to clear out a space in the three small bedrooms upstairs. Over the past few years, three kids had deposited their stuff there while traveling the world, and John’s university office boxes were there as well. I gave myself a deadline of ASAP and went to work weeding through, saving, donating and discarding. It was January cold winter work. Removing impediments. Finally, I grabbed a couple of friends to help me dismantle my bed and move it upstairs, after first moving the other upstairs beds to new locations.

Or so I thought. In our 1918 home with a narrow stairway that does not meet code, the queen mattress would not fit. Parked the old one on the pool table until disposal (which John had always wanted to play pool and purchased when he learned of his cancer). Bought a new flexible mattress and had it delivered during a snowstorm. Moved the futon into the studio.

Suddenly, open air. Wood floor, new curtains, small area rug. This new studio setup jump-started my creativity at a particularly difficult time. It is wonderful, light-filled, room where I can contemplate pieces in progress, see colors, stash my teaching books. Change my clothes and house my family when needed. Allow the subconscious to process works in progress. Most importantly, it gave credence to a creative side that needs expression even in difficult times. It is simple, but empowering. “Removing Impediments” worked. I'm not going to post a picture of this studio of mine. Remember, it's all about the physical location that encompasses the more-important psychological space.

And now the task at hand: giving myself permission to choose creative work over the obsession with paid work. Yes, I do that too, but I try not to let it rule my life as it once did. John left this world with several regrets. He did not get to write his novel. I am learning from this. Happy New Year!

Time for a Handkerchief...handmade, of course!

2009-12-20T16:28:00.019-06:00

Being a regular dog-walker and outdoor person, there are many occasions when a good old fashioned handkerchief would be just the ticket. Launder once a week or sooner if you like. Took the quest to heart and searched for some women's handkerchiefs and found that they are simply unavailable in local stores. So, I decided to make some, — a great way to share a little eco-conscious gesture with friends, family, and those who want to make the purchase at Iowa Artisans Gallery or on its website.

The challenge: a handkerchief that is attractive enough but can withstand regular washing with ordinary clothes. The solution: use 100% cotton (batiste) handkerchiefs, available in lots of a dozen at Dharma Trading. Look at some of my 36 silk screens and use several to print using Pro-Chemical's pro-fab textile paint, heat set and wash. Avoid using dyes which complicate the laundering-in-all-temperatures and with-all-clothes mission. Labels printed on New Leaf's 100% recycled paper using banana fiber waste (available at Office Depot). Note: all images are based on my own drawings. Here are the results.

When I was ready to post this piece, I ran across the acceptance speech that Roumanian novelist Herta Muller recently gave at the ceremony honoring her Nobel Prize for Literature. Entitled, Every word knows something of a vicious circle, Herta begins this lecture, "DO YOU HAVE A HANDKERCHIEF was the question my mother asked me every morning, standing by the gate to our house, before I went out onto the street. I didn't have a handkerchief..." It's a touching and compelling piece detailing life in iron-curtain era Romania. Born in 1953, Muller and I are the same age - her young years are very different from mine.

By the way, my handkerchiefs are not ecologically perfect- they are hem-stitched in China and the cotton is not organic. I am on an organic cotton quest for my own art quilts- this is still carried on in conjunction with people like Harmony Susalla, but there are trade-offs in getting all of us to adopt new habits, and moderation in price and availability are a major incentives.

PS- the crow design came about from watching crows eat the discarded, old popcorn in the snow, —from my kids' Sesame Street-time snacks. The kids are gone. The silk screen lives on.

HEN: Needle Magazine & more

2009-12-15T21:56:00.007-06:00

I could just be inspired to try my hand at contemporary embroidery (read: hand stitching) after finding this interesting website. HEN is the Hand Embroidery Network, founded in the UK by Sarah Whittle. The network is an example of the way digital media affect a total concept; HEN started online and is only now flirting with print media. The HEN network includes online exhibits, online store, online book shop, online teaching resources. Members number around 750. Check out the HEN Blog. HEN has just published its first online magazine, Needle, and the HEN facebook discussion today asked about what price subscribers would be inclined to pay for a print version. The initial magazine is available as a PDF download.

Sarah writes on her website, "the idea for the Hand Embroidery Network came about one day, not long after having my second child Pippa Louise. I was feeling isolated and alone and thought how great it would be to connect with other people who did embroidery like me. I decided to start a local embroidery group but after posting leaflets here and there the idea fell flat as there didn't seem to be any embroiderers living near by. I re-joined the Embroiderers' Guild but there was no local branch I could easily get to with a 3 month old baby. So I had an idea why not create an online community and use the Internet skills that had paid my way through university. So I set up the HEN never dreaming that ten months later there would be over a 1,000 members."

She continues, " With the help of my husband Andrew, a talented graphic and website designer I have been able to turn the HEN into a Hub for hand embroidery. The HEN is a place where everyone whose passion is to stitch whether traditional or contemporary can come together and share this addiction. With this in mind and to cut a long story short, Andrew turned to me and said 'wouldn't it be great if we could create a magazine, a free magazine for everyone' and I said wow lets do it and the idea for NEEDLE was born! I truly hope that you enjoy reading this magazine as lots of blood, sweat and tears and a very understanding six year old boy called Oscar have gone into it and that you take it in the spirit it is offered, as a way for us all to share something in a world where disease, war and the credit crunch casts such a dark shadow on all our lives."

Well, we'll see if I actually do any embroidery (I'm more likely to tackle drawing) but I've certainly bookmarked this website.

Quilt World Tidbits...

2009-12-08T20:36:00.006-06:00

item 1:
Last summer during Iowa City's Iowa Arts Festival, the Old Capitol Quilt Guild held its biennial, two-day exhibit of quilts at the United Methodist Church. A non-traditional quilt show, the quilts were draped over the pews rather than displayed on walls. Well attended and showing a variety of approaches, techniques and skill levels, it made for a worthwhile visit. My own work is a little different from this intensively pieced approach, but I still appreciate the phenomenon that quilting has become.

item 2:
On a rainy day last fall, I was invited to speak at the Friendship Quilters Guild in Waverly, Iowa. Aside from mortifying myself by locking my key in the car for the first time in my life (it all ended well enough), I have fun at Guild meetings. Program Chair Cathy Busch has a great sense of humor and an adept manner of instruction. She spoke about the upcoming "Super Sew" to make quilts for the Cedar Valey Hospice. I didn't get all the details straight, but basically the "Sew" involves teams of players with rules not unlike football, their pre-game packet of fabric sewn as "Yardage." Different skill levels of quilt designs reflected different scoring levels. Teams with Team captain had been selected earlier and would be in competition with other Guild teams. A few "free agents" had also been identified. I appreciated the sense of purpose in this communal activity, which for those not familiar with Guild meetings, is pretty typical. Cathy has published articles about her various "game" strategies in Fons & Porter Love of Quilting. The "Super Sew for Charity" article appeared in Sept/Oct 2004. "Quilt Guild Bingo" was in the Sept/Oct 2006 edition and "3-6-9-12 Sew" was in the March/April 2003 edition.

item 3:
Look for an article on my artquilt work and doodle pillows in the February edition of Quilting Arts!

Olson-Larsen Gallery Exhibit & Quilt Walk

2009-10-22T20:38:00.006-05:00

Friends, I will be one of four contemporary fiber artists featured in an exhibit at Olson-Larsen Gallery in West Des Moines, Iowa. Probably Iowa's premier gallery for two dimensional works (paintings, original prints and mixed media), Olson-Larsen is participating in the Quilt Walk in conjunction with the AQS show in Des Moines. The Opening and Quilt Walk for this show takes place from 4-8pm on October 29. The show runs until November 28, 2009. Other fiber artists include Priscilla Sage, Linda Andeberg and Debra Smith. If you're in the area, stop by!

Book Review, 40 years late... and so new!

2009-09-24T21:15:00.009-05:00

Oh Yay, old textile printing books! Taught a class entitled Paint it! Stamp it!, which gave me the chance to delve into several books bequeathed to me after the University of Iowa's Fiber Art program was shut down in 1991. Fabric Printing by Lotti Lauterburg (Reinhold Publishing, New York, 1959) covers potatoes, rubber blocks, linocuts and batik, with various "projects" in a setting that looks like it could come from a current modernist shelter magazine. I haven't found this volume for sale, but you might find it deep in a library collection or fiber artists' yard sale.

My favorite is a small square shaped book by Nora Proud, Textile Printing and Dyeing, (BT Batsford, London 1965), still available used online. She does a lot of potato printing overlaid on tie-dyed cloth. Also explored: string relief blocks, linocuts, resists. Design considerations and discussions are useful. Interesting example of natural objects and the prints that resulted from drawings made from them. Extremely interesting discussion of printing projects for children and disabled young people, both individual and group projects. Stencils with screens, reduction stencils (print, tear away, print some more, tear more away etc.)

Block Printing on Textiles by Janet Erickson is by an artist with an interesting Wikipedia page. Her book is expensive, but a glance through it will give you views of the artist spreading out her fabric on the floor and using her feet to stamp the wood block prints. She uses a lot of relief print techniques.

And lastly, there's Richard M. Procter and Jennifer F. Lew's Surface Design for Fabric (University of Washington Press, 1984), also available used online. The newest of the four books, it nonetheless has variations on techniques we use a great deal now, but fresh approaches. Good design considerations. Lots of written resource information, including sewing techniques.

What to do with leftover dye...

2009-09-11T21:49:00.008-05:00

I like to mix thickened dyes and refrigerate them until ready for use. This eliminates some of the potential exposure to dry dye particles. Activator, which is used to make the dye react chemically with the fiber on the molecular level, is added just before use. Thickened dye that's been stored doesn't last forever, and sometimes I'm left with a batch and also a lack of focus on other painting possibilities. The solution: paint stripes! Paint doodle pillow fabrics! Don't underestimate the power of color-- endorphins awake! No need to discard...

empty dye containers, intense colors even when diluted by a pint of water.
In this expended form, there is little impact on water systems, according to various books I've read.

Doodle pillow fabrics

Karl Etoffe & Max Tessuti, a fine couture shop in lovely Freiburg

2009-09-04T21:13:00.007-05:00

Karl Etoffe & Max Tessuti is a clothing design shop featuring the work of Gudrun von Kalckreuth. This charming shop recently celebrated its 25th anniversary and has two locations. Freiburg, Germany, a truly lovely city, is where I discovered it. I was charmed by this shop: exquisite designs in layered silks and other fabrics, often with mixed patterns but oh, so well done. It's interesting to see the aesthetic taste of another country. Take a look at these pictures, and then visit the store website, where you'll find many kinds of fabrics by choosing the "Stoffe" button, and many kinds of designs, by choosing the "Modelle" button. If you're visiting Freiburg, stop by the shop at Marienstrasse 14 in the old part of the city.

bicycles are everywhere in this city, which is also home to a large university

The website asks if we love fabric. A rough translation:
"Our philosophy: outstanding quality, beautiful fabrics, interesting structures, fantasy-full designs, all put together in a color coordinated way, and as clothing designs that work together. We appeal to creative women but also men... Our model: (designs) for living.

Customers can look down a half flight, into the work space. Shown in back: patterns

One of the staff members looks through a sample book at the front desk.

This section of Freiburg contains many small boutique-type shops and is home to a number of museums. Gerberau and Fischerau are streets dating to the 1300s and are next to this channel of water from the Dreisam River; in earlier times, this water was used for leather tanning and fisheries.

Linda Gass: Seeing Green

2009-07-14T21:15:00.000-05:00

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

2009-07-01T22:20:00.001-05:00

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

2009-07-01T21:48:00.001-05:00

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.

Hammerpress Letterpress Studio, Kansas City

2009-06-16T22:10:00.001-05:00

Hammerpress Letterpress Studio is a charming, larger-scale letterpress shop that takes on the production of posters, cards and other projects. Finding it was one of the unexpected bonuses of attending the exhibition tour at the Surface Design Conference in Kansas City in late May. Established in 1994, it's been in this location for two years. I've included a variety of shots, both from the front sales area and the back room studio. At left is the helpful young woman in the cool t-shirt who rang up my purchase of notecards.

Who knew?

2009-06-14T08:15:00.000-05:00

My daughter just received her PhD from the University of Chicago (Go Math Women!) The cost to purchase this stunning ensemble is $800. Fellow fiber artists, don't you see an opportunity here? We're not talking haute couture dresses.

My seamstress-self estimates about one and a half hours sewing time once the long yardage has been cut out. And when you wearables artists encounter resistance at a $400 price tag, you can just mention that maybe your customers might be happy purchasing an $800 cap and tam. As for my daughter, she returned her gown at the UC bookstore along with many other fellow PhD's; the magic was dissipated but the bank account remained intact. We are enjoying the pictures, though, which also include faculty graduates from other institutions (below.)

Surface Design Conference, Day 4

2009-06-09T22:18:00.000-05:00

It was my job to introduce sculptor Jerry Bleem, who led us on an entertaining tour through the worlds of ten outsider artists in his talk, Off the Grid: Unconscious Advice for the Self-Conscious. A faculty member in the fiber and material studies program at the Art Institute of Chicago, Bleem is a gifted speaker and readily involves the audience in his exploration. His own work is provocative: organic sculptural forms made from found materials and staples; crocheted flags using found flag materials, and more. His bio for his show at the Leedy Volkous Art Center includes the following:

Jerry Bleem examines the significance of common, discarded materials while transforming the nonprecious through time-intensive accumulation. In his exhibit Repeated Gestures at the Leedy Voulkos Art Center, Bleem continues to use society’s detritus to consider cultural assumptions and standards, and the meaning found in human experience. Collages of canceled stamps, crocheted surfaces made of faded U. S. flags, and drawings on found paper will join his signature stapled sculptures. Simple acts of pasting, looping, drawing and stapling create works documenting both the artist’s constructive processes and his reflections about politics and identity, value and knowledge, prestige and hierarchy.

After that, I wanted to see a demonstration of "Soy Wax Three Ways" by Jane Dunnewald. Always interested in batik, I've been turned off by both the fumes and the drycleaning requirements of paraffin and beeswax, which I once used. Soy wax looks promising, and ironically, it's the brainchild of Michael Richards, a fellow Iowan (and former New Yorker) who I believe, invented it for candlemaking in a business in which he employed homeless workers. I remember the first articles in our local paper about his project. His current efforts have also committed to helping Cedar Rapids, where his business is located, recover from the devastating flooding of one year ago.

Our Northcentral Regional Lunch led us to discoveries of like minded individuals in several states, plus resources unknown to us. The well known Chicago ceramics enclave, Lill Street Studio, for example, now has a textile studio, and resources at the city's Columbia College make a collaboration between the two institutions a fertile resource for a future regional meeting. We also spoke of the Cleveland Museum of Art and its Textile Art Alliance. An Illinois sheep farmer, wool grower and spinner mentioned that 2009 is the International Year of Natural Fibers.

Off Which Grid, the closing remarks for the conference were made by Jessica Hemmings, whose summaries of the conference itself plus discussions about the arts, and fiber art in particular, in Europe, were particularly insightful.

In the time that remained, several of us visited the Nelson-Atkins Museum's New Wing, which was a wonderful experience and highly recommended. Two fiber favorites are Kerry James Marshall's Memento #5, and Kaiho Yusho's Japanese screen ( 1533-1615.) I always pay homage to this screen when I visit Kansas City. Austere, selective, --fog and mist: so large one just inhabits.

Post script: While most conferees left Kansas City on Sunday, a few stayed on for some of the marvelous pre- and post-conference workshops. In these images, Rebecca Ringquist gets ready to teach a machine embroidery workshop, and longtime fiber educator Jean Cacicedo shows her sketchbook as students gather their materials before starting their session. If all of this has you intrigued, consider joining us in two years for the Surface Design Association's biennial conference in a new location, Minneapolis, MN.

Surface Design Conference, Day 3

2009-06-06T21:58:00.000-05:00

I'm deep into over-stimulation by now and loving it. We can only attend one third of the concurrent sessions available, so this listing will not be complete as far as the conference as a whole is concerned.

Victoria Rivers shares a lighthearted, zany life of artmaking that soon profiles a dedicated, focused interest in Asian "mirrored" cloths and her own very complex wall pieces. The sheer number of research projects and studio work accomplished as well as teaching, was eyepopping. Her current research area: Russian ceramics that show the ikat patterns of central Asia.

Jane Dunnewald in Mining for Meaning: Intentional Content takes us on a different spin through the land of studio reinvention. Dunnewald mirrors what several have said and I too have thought, about the move towards a simpler way of imaging/imagining, and also of thoughtful ways to reinvigorate studio practice. She talked about Barbara Schneider's daily photograph, from which additional visualizations through Photoshop emerge.

Papermaker and University of Wisconsin faculty member Mary Hark led a small group through Material Poetry: Textiles in Ghana, West Africa, a stunning 500-image slideshow of her Fullbright textile research in Ghana. She lived with an extended family of adinkra cloth makers in Kumasi. The sheer variety of colorful market cloths, from Kente cloths (woven by younger boys), batik (made by families for grocery money), commercial "blockprinted" Ghanaian cloth, and adinkra cloth was wonderfully overwhelming. Adinkra is important for funerals. The dyers receive older clothing, often Kente or other, to overdye, then apply adinkra symbols. The materials used for the symbols is derived from a certain bark and later washes out, and the clothse are then re-stamped for future reuse. Local seamstresses sew these clothes to correct body measurements, altering after subsequent fittings. According to Hark, the city has the largest market in West Africa and the sheer number of fabrics is mind boggling.

Ironically, it's interesting to see Mary's photos. She was a student of Chris Roy's at the University of Iowa. Roy spent time in Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) in the Peace Corps in the late 1960s, teaching then unknown batik methods. In Iowa in the early 1990s, Miranda Akyea, a Ghanaian friend (and Queen Mother) also did batik. She said that the European donated clothes in the local markets became known as the "bend down boutique" and were disdained, as locals had a proud clothing tradition. They developed their own patterns and a more Africanesque cloth. At that time, packaged foam from appliances and TVs was ingeniously repurposed to make stamps for stamping batik wax. Miranda did this type of batik. I did a small piece on this for Fiberarts Magazine 15 years ago. Among other things, what interested me in Mary Hark's presentation was how far those batiks have come in their complexity of pattern and more skilled use of the technique.

Fellow Iowans: Rebecca Ringquist, now of Lill Street Studios, Ursula McCarty, who was Rebecca's teacher at Cornell College, Mt Vernon, IA; and Mary Hark, now of the University of Wisconsin.

Then it was time for fun. Kerr Grabowski led us through a demonstration of de-constructed screen printing, which she first taught at SDA ten years previously. Trained as a printmaker, she allows mark-making to guide the development of her designs. It's basically a blank screen, run over textured surfaces with a dye with squeegie, then allowed to dry. Then sodium alginate is squeegied over the surface, allowing the dye to release in patterns. Or perhaps the dye is direct painted on the screen, then charged once more with alginate. The result is playful and spontaneous. As Kerr says, "make a mess, then solve it!" She admits to being very loose in the image generation, and meticulous in the finishing (steaming, washing, etc.)

At 6pm, we attended the Off the Grid Fashion Show, a private viewing in the new wing of the Nelson-Atkins Museum. Starting with a performance by mixed media artist Sha Sha Higby, who presents mythic stories in elaborate almost tribal, almost Kabuki costumes, we progressed to a non-traditional runway show of non-traditional and all handmade clothing. They fell into two categories- the artrageous, art-as-theater style (ie shawl featuring plastic forks -see first image) and the awesomely-made elegant show pieces. I'm afraid I can't tell you the individual makers, but a variety of artists were represented.

the last two pieces shown are handmade felt by Jorie Johnson, now living in Japan.

Exhibit Day at the Surface Design Conference

2009-05-31T22:24:00.000-05:00

Exhibitions at the Belger
A wonderful warehouse space in itself, complete with old fashioned freight elevator and loading dock for trucks. Here's a list of all the shows I attended.

Stitches in Time: The Art of Ray Materson: narrative embroideries that reveal a poignant story of renewal through creative work. A fifteen year sentence for drug related armed robberies, unraveling socks for embroidery on new boxer short fabric, minute stitching. Creative work became a source of power within a prison community. Importance of support for prison art programs.

Surface Matters: SDA Members' Show featured 18" square format pieces by 200 members. This show included a wide array of member styles, competencies and techniques and allowed all members an opportunity to participate in a conference exhibition. (image at left and below. Shown: Stone Silence by Luanne Rimel, cotton flour sack cloth dishtowels; digitally printed, collaged, layered, stitched.)

El Anatsui, Three Pieces, 2009. This Ghanaian artist and teacher at the University of Nigeria, is now world known for large scale installation pieces using aluminum (from cans, etc) and wire. These are powerful, awe-inspiring pieces.

Jennifer Angus, Small Wonder, Secrets of a Collector, Nova Scota native now teaching at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, installations using dead insects from around the world, choosing those only in abundant supply. These mirror the beetle art of 19th century.

Alice Kettle, A Pause in the Rhythm of Time, from the UK: large-scale figurative machine embroideries, dyed backgrounds. Also collaged fabric portraits, very cubist, embroidered. Astonishing work.

Elsewhere in Kansas City:

Teresa Cole, Full Circle, another strong show at the Blue Gallery, relief & screen print on hand-dyed tarleton, BFK Rives paper. Trained as a fiber artist, now a professor of printmaking.

Teresa Cole's Full Circle, -she trained as a fiber artist and now teaches printmaking. Printed tarleton, below.

Also notable:

Jerry Bleem shows that provocative sculptural forms can involve materials of humble origins, such as the staple. Bleem gave a stunning performance in a lecture later in the conference.
Daniella Woolf, Away with Words, featured encaustic mixed media works of great interest to surface designers with more of a mixed media bent.
Memory Cloth, Leslee Nelson's embroidered vintage household linens, Lynda Barry-style.
Regina Benson, On the Curve, Dimensional Works from Nature's Studio, rusted and discharged fabric in sculptural format. (Byron C Cohen Gallery)
Landscape with Floating Biology, mixed media installation by weaver Wendy Weiss, & Jay Kramer, Cocoon Gallery at the Arts Incubator.
Evidently, the Dolphin Gallery's show of Anne Lindberg, Asiatica and others drew gasps of praise- I was unable to see it.
I would have liked to see the International Student Show, Points of Departure, at Pi Gallery but didn't make it.
Likewise, HEather Allen-Swarttouw's Transition in the Community Christian Church chose several themes executed in different media (fiber, clay, etc) and was said to be a strong show. When I tried to attend, the Church was closed.
In the trunk show later that evening, Mary Hark's indigo and walnut dyed papers.

my view from my piece of pie: can't escape the spool of thread!

Day One at the 2009 Surface Design Conference

2009-05-29T21:41:00.000-05:00

Regional Meet-and-Greet breakfasts highlight the many accomplished longtime members and new attendees at this event. Morning keynote speaker Harmony Susalla, gave a fascinating talk, "Organic Cotton: Beyond Oatmeal and Granola Colors." Susalla is a designer of colorful, interesting printed fabrics on organic cottons. She cites many reasons for choosing organic cotton: cotton production takes up 3% of farmland and 25% of insecticides used globally. Worker injuries are legion. In a nod to what consumers will actually buy, she uses synthetic dyes to develop fabric designs with striking color. Check out more statistics on her website. By the way, she mentioned that in the last four years, one in three textiles jobs has disappeared in this country.

After a tasty lunch with Iowa fiber sculptor Judy Bales in the inspiring surroundings of the Nelson-Atkins Museum courtyard restaurant (see picture at left), I attended "Creating & Printing Uncommon Surfaces" demonstration by Arizona artist and former art quilter Kathyanne White. This was basically a digital printing demonstration resulting in visually textured surfaces that worked well in books. Fabrics, spun polyester and cheesecloth surfaces were commonly used, all using Golden products. This demo and many of the presentations are being professionally videotaped into DVD format for purchase. This should be a boon for fiber arts groups around the country.

Then came keynote speaker Gerhard Knodel, longtime head of the fiber area and then the graduate program at Cranbrook. His talk focused on reinvention and was enlightening as always. The vendors exhibition opened in the evening following an outdoor picnic dinner; a highlight was handmade sumi-e painting brushes by a Chinese artist.

The Kansas City Art Institute is a lovely, creativity filled school sandwiched between the Kemper Museum of Contemporary American Art (shown below) and the Nelson Atkins Museum. It's a lot of fun to take in various sculptures around campus. Eyes are opened to textures, patterns in new ways.

sculptures and evening at the Kansas City Art Institute

Surface Design Conference, Kansas City

2009-05-27T21:50:00.001-05:00

Greetings from the Kansas City Art Institute, where the biennial International Surface Design Association Conference is about to begin. I've been here a number of times already, always with talented, accomplished artists whom I've watched grow and develop over the years. My first year, two of us were trying to wean infants while we came to the conference. Both of us are back for the first time, and those infants are now 24 years old. In the meantime, KCAI is a wonderful place for student creativity, and sculptures abound on the campus, as well as an outdoor walkway of lit up ground squares that change color at night as you walk over them. Cool! Dorm life is interesting- the first time we were not aware the bathrooms were coed. The two middle aged males on our floor moved up one.

The conference consists of multiple sessions on a variety of topics - theoretical, technical, artist-profile, new media, you name it. There's always a day of exhibit openings throughout the city, and this is one of the most stimulating elements for me personally. Look for updates in the coming days.

In the meantime, we also hope to visit the new wing of the Nelson Atkins Museum and its wonderful outdoor sculpture garden. One more view below shows one from the group of sculptures by Magdalena Abakanowicz, a Polish artist who made phenomenal weavings, then haunted sculptures in the 1970s and is now mostly known as a sculptor.

Time for a Road Trip

2009-05-25T21:25:00.000-05:00

The Wall Street Journal just posted a piece on traveling the summer "quilt circuit" with all definitions of the word included. That's right, you read it correctly, The Wall Street Journal. Stops Along the Summer Quilt Trail: Major shows highlight the latest work in a booming medium by Meg Cox profiles several types of quilt events across the country.

According an April, 2008 article by Julia Pfaff in Quilters' Newsletter, one in 12 Americans quilts. The most famous and prestigious American exhibition of contemporary art quilts, Quilt National '09 just opened at the Dairy Barn in Athens, Ohio. It's one of the exhibits profiled in The Wall Street Journal. (My work was not accepted this time, but I did participate in the last exhibition, and my piece "A Momentary Place" recently sold after touring.)

Art, airports and the long hours' wait

2009-05-25T14:12:00.000-05:00

Last March I passed through the Atlanta airport with several hours to spare. Lodged in the International Terminal, I discovered that each waiting area had permanent installations of work by different artists, many of them regional. All media were represented: artquilts , ceramic, sculpture, mixed media, photography, intaglio prints, drawings, paintings, and children's art. As time goes by and chairs and benches get rearranged by weary travelers, the art surrounding them looks less like an interior designed installation and more like a modestly organized haven for those who wait. Shown at right: Photography/etched metal art, possibly by Vicki Ragan. Apologies- my notes are not complete.

These were remarkable, large-scale portraits by Joni Mabe, combining photography and mixed media items like glitter. The gate "desk" gives a sense of scale. Mabe has made many handmade books and is obsessed with Elvis art, as this link for public broadcasting Atlanta shows.

monoprints and cut out figures by Larry Walker (above)
ceramics and sculptural totems below by a different artist.

Then, some large-scale intaglio cityscape prints (etchings). The installation included detailed descriptions of techniques as well as a framed original etching plate (right.)

And lastly, a grouping of various framed art quilts, the only waiting area devoted to multiple artists.