Art Dates | Crazy for Fiber

May 2024
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31

Archive for the ‘Art Dates’ Category

Having an Arty Week

Thursday, July 18th, 2013

I have had a great couple of days out and about in Portland. The work above is by the uber talented Trish Hassler. She has had a very successful career blending steel which she cuts with fiber. It has always intrigued me. The turquoise piece is cut from an old Nash roadster that was donated to Trisha by a Columbia Fiberarts member.

Our local SAQA group was invited by Trisha to see her exhibit with a talk by her.

A mixed media artist, Kathy Haydon, shared the exhibit with her and many of the works played nicely together.

The two pieces with the ivory steel are Trisha’s and are from another car donated by Marie. The darker piece is by Kathy. I love this orange piece which uses steel from an old Allis Chalmer’s tractor. The farm girl in me couldn’t help it.

I really liked Trisha’s new sculptural work which you see in the first photo. It has no metal. She has Parkinson’s and finds it difficult to work with the metal. This show is the last one she will be doing with metal.

Trisha incorporates handstitching in much of her work. It was fun to add a few stitches to this community stitching piece which she will incorporate into a future work.

I enjoyed lunch with a couple of friends.

This morning, I went to see Kevin who did his magic and made my hair nice and red, again. It had gotten bleached from the sun and had a lot of gray showing. This afternoon, Mr C and I went on an art date to the Japanese Garden to see the Noguchi exhibit. I have long been a fan of his lighting fixtures, that are constructed from Washi paper and bamboo. They are so sculptural and etherial.

The exhibit had some of the light fixtures and tables and his landscape sculptures. I couldn’t photograph inside the pavilion, but these were in the garden outside the pavilion.

Then we wanderd around the garden. Here are some inspiration photos that I took.

I need to get down to business tomorrow. Have something I can’t talk about on the blog, yet. Deadline is looming. I want to get that top done – you know the fabric I bought and is now languishing on my sewing table. I am going to have a fantastic guest on Monday, you must wait to see who it is.

Life is still good.

Posted in Art Dates, Out and About in Portland, Quilting Friends, SAQA | 1 Comment »

SDA Gallery Day

Thursday, June 6th, 2013

Today is my favorite day of the SDA Conference — Gallery Day. Wherever the conference is, several venues have exhibits of fiber art. I love seeing the variety and creativity. I thought I was going to miss it as I was still at work at my registration desk when all the busses had left. Then, Jane Dunnewold walked up and asked what she could do for me. With my saddest face, I said help be get to the gallery tour. She drove me to the members show where I caught up with another local San Antonian and I rode along with her to most of the shows. When she had to take off, I was able to hop on one of the buses. This year, the member’s show was 12 x 12 on gallery frames. There was some amazing work. This grouping has my piece in the bottom left. I apologize for the quality – I had my camera on manual instead of auto.

Our next stop was to an exhibit with work of 4 artists. I loved this installation by Nathalie Miebach – she is going to be one of our speakers. I will share work of others at a later time.

Our next stop had an exhibit of two artists. This installation of paper cast busts was done by Janet Lasher. She was there and gave us a talk about her methods and her intention. I enjoyed meeting her.

Two more artists, who were friends at Arizona State when they got their Master’s, were at the next venue. It excites me so much to see these young artists embracing and then bending the rules of traditional fiber art.

This is one of the abstract landscapes by Elise Deringer. She does interesting things with silk, dye, sand, salt, glue, etc.

These stitched pieces by Kelsey Wiskirchin blew me away. She makes a grid with straight line stitching on water soluble solvey then free motion quilts the drawing. It hangs away from the wall so the shadow is an extra design element.

We then went to another group show. This piece was so beautiful in its details. It is pieced shibori by Sara Goodman. Here is a closer shot.

Another exciting exhibit is the student show. 30 pieces were juried from 160 students. I loved this piece from a student in

China.

Our last stop was at a special exhibit of new work my Jane Dunnewold. She is doing some exciting new work with molding paste and stitching and printing.

So there is an overview. I will share more images as time allows.

Yesterday was a really busy day for me. Meetings in the morning and then registration from 11:30 – 8 pm. Tonight was the opening of the vendor mall. Woo hoo! I will go back and spend some money for sure. We had a Tex Mex buffet and there was supposed to be a dessert buffet, but most of us never saw it. The silent auction opened, too. I would like to invite you all to look at the fantastic goods being offered and you can place a bid on line. You do not need to be a member of SDA. Here is the LINK.

I have to be at work at 7:30 – better get to sleep. If my dear friend Janet Shore is reading this, Kasuri Dye Works is here and they say Hi!!

Posted in Art Dates, Surface Design Association | Comments Off on SDA Gallery Day

Feeling Inspired

Saturday, March 9th, 2013

Today, I enticed Mr C to join me on an art date. I wanted to see the exhibit of prints by Japanese print maker, Toko Shinoda at the Japanese Garden. I was so engaged with these prints of simple geometric shapes and gestural marks. I have a love of lines moving through a piece of art. It occurs frequently in my work. The above piece is titled, Plenty, and costs $25,000 so it did not come home with me!! Here are some more examples of her work. She turns 100 this year.

This piece above, with the red square – gaaaa – I love it. I can see some pieces with organza done like this. So don’t be surprised if something like this shows up in my work.

It is always exciting to see Mt. Hood from the Japanese Garden. It was a beautiful sunny day with blue, blue skies so here is the view.

Here are some other sights from our day.

And these guys were everywhere. It was difficult not to trip over a tripod.

Posted in Art Dates, Inspiration | 2 Comments »

Some R and R in the California Desert

Sunday, February 17th, 2013

I have been having a wonderful respite in the California desert with Mr C and his brother, Mike, and his wife, Ann. The weather was sunny and warm. I was again mesmerized by the night sky out in the desert. We drove out to the observatory the first night to gaze up at the Milky Way, such an impressive sight.

We had an early departure from Portland and watched the sun rise as we flew to San Diego. We picked up our rental car and had a fun drive on back roads to Palm Desert. The horse sculptures above were so cool. There was one other horse across the road, landing on the bluff. I always love the landscape of California. It is so rugged and diverse.

Just before we drove down into Palm Desert, we stopped at a view point high over Palm Desert. You can see the road we would eventually take, snaking through the mountain side. Palm Desert is down below.

This is a photo of stately palms lining the street of Palm Desert, where we stopped for a bit and had lunch.

On the way out to Twentynine Palms, I always love seeing the giant wind mills.

We spent one day, hanging out in Palm Springs with Mike and Ann, visiting thrift shops, having lunch and checking out the location of events we were planning to attend on Saturday.

Saturday was devoted to attending the Modernism Expo. I so enjoyed the show and sale of Mid-century Modern furniture and art. Here are some photos I took.

This piece was not really Mid-century, but it was so unique. It is a hand chiseled wood vessel with folds and creases. So beautifully crafted.

Later, we attended an outdoor exhibit of modern furnishings and finishings and a display of pre-fab houses. The most incredible one was created from a junked temporary school trailer. No photos!!

We also did a quick tour of the Palm Springs Art Museum. The special exhibit was incredibly wonderful constructions from found stuff by the Campana Brothers from Brazil.

I also enjoyed getting up close and personal with one of Deborah Butterfields horse sculptures. This photo was taken from the floor above. She constructs the horses from old wood pieces. Then it is taken to a foundry where the wood pieces are disassembled and a bronze cast is made of each and the horse is reconstructed from the bronzes pieces. Quite amazing, really.

Today, we drove back to San Diego and met up with friends at the Visions Art Museum to see the current Quilt Visions juried show. It was so marvelous. Del Thomas met us there and gave us a wonderful docent tour. Here is a photo of Del with Karen Rips (another Twelve member) and me.

Now, we are ensconced in our hotel in San Diego, watching Downton Abbey. Tomorrow, we are going to the San Diego Zoo. Can’t wait to take photos of the animals!

Posted in Art Dates, Juried Shows, photography, Travels | 2 Comments »

Another Opening, Another Show

Sunday, November 11th, 2012

This morning, my High Fiber Diet friends, Mary Arnold and Bonnie Bucknam, picked me up for a drive to Tillamook to the Latimer Quilt and Textile Museum for the opening of our Rhythm and Hues show. First, we stopped in downtown Portland for brunch with Nelda Warkentin. She was in town from Maine to meet up with some old friends from Alaska before she and her husband head to Mexico for the winter.

The drive to Tillamook is very rural and woodsy. I always enjoy the scenery.