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

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

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

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

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

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!

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...