Art on Exhibit!

I spent the morning hanging my solo show. I have been working all summer to get ready for this exhibit -- making new work, and matting, framing and mounting existing work. It was fantastic to see it all hanging together on big white walls!

The opening reception is tomorrow night, Thursday September 23rd from 7 - 8:30 pm. The exhibition is held at the Edward J Duffy Art Gallery at the Canterbury School in New Milford CT. The show runs through October 14 and the gallery is open to the public weekdays from 8 -3 and Saturdays from 8-12 or by appt (860-210-3800).


On exhibit are over 50 pieces, including the first public showing of the first half of the Loteria series and many other new works. I've discovered one drawback to working on a small scale - it takes a LOT of work to fill a gallery!

Many of the Loteria series are on display, as well as an assortment of gyotaku fiber and paper collages, insect work in a variety of formats, some new pieces inspired by cell phone photography and a few three-dimensional fiber houses.

I hope you can stop by!

Bricolages

One of the online collage groups that I belong to had been discussing the various terms that describe what we do and the word bricolage came up. I love this word!

Bricolage: [bree-kuh‑lahzh] a construction made of whatever materials are at hand; something created from a variety of available things.

I just happened to have three small IKEA shadowbox frames lying around the studio. I buy frames "on spec" when they're pretty and interesing (and inexpensive!) The frame opening is only 5 1/2" square and is about 1 1/4" deep. I've been wanting to work on three-dimensional assemblages (Joseph Cornell's work has inspired me) and layering colors and textures. So, cool new word in hand, I jumped in.



I had scraps of illustration board leftover from making collagraph plates, so I cut those down to fit the frames. I painted layers of washes of paint on the illustration board (and forgot to take a picture) and then tore and glued down pieces from an Italian newspaper.



After the glue was dry, I painted a wash of cream acrylic paint over each board and then stamped designs over everything with more of the same diluted paint.



The cream wash toned everything down and the stamps added visual texture and interest. Next I glued on a few paper mesh squares and strips, and found object papers and letters.



Right now I'm waiting for the paint to dry on the little shelf supports that I cut to fit in each frame. I'll take more pictures when the shelves are attached to the boards and I start auditioning found objects to place on them.

Oh, and a person who makes bricolages is a bricoleur - wouldn't that look great on a business card?

Quilting Arts Gifts

The new 2008 issue of Quilting Arts Gifts arrived in the shop today. I contributed two articles to it, one is my take on a gingerbread house and the other is a cool idea for using fiber postcards to present gift cards to the special people in your life.

It's a gorgeous issue, jam-packed with all sorts of neat projects. I have to get busy making some decorations to replace the ones we lost in the basement flood after hurricane Wilma a couple of years ago and this magazine is giving me tons of ideas.

Fiber Book in Denver

Do you remember the fiber house I built back in May? Well, I took it apart and turned it into a fiber book and entered into the Interweavings show at the Abecedarian Gallery in Denver, Colorado.



I had intended to assemble the book accordion-style so that it could still be assembled as a four-square house, but discovered that the sides and the front and back needed to have been exactly the same width for that to have worked. Another lesson learned. I am really pleased with it as a book however.



The artists reception is tonight, to coincide with the beginning of the Democratic National Convention. Hopefully the conventioneers will be out wandering the arts district during the week and get a chance to see all of the great exhibits in Denver.



INTERWEAVINGS
August 1 - September 13, 2008

Abecedarian Gallery
910 Santa Fe Drive • Unit #101 • Denver, CO • 80204 • 303.534.1038

It Takes a Village

As promised, here is the rest of the village of fabric houses.

Julie's is a treehouse with a cup of tea in every room.
2 Petit Treeanon, Julie Saviano



Mary Gay's house celebrates her family and pets.
99 Keeler Lane, Mary Gay Leahy



Nancy's depicts her second home on the coast of Maine.
545 Blueberry Hill, Nancy Mirman



My sister, Linda, was inspired by the words of her favorite authors.
1821 Textual Way, Linda Oehler-Marx



I love this interior wall in Linda's house. There are pictures of our mom and grandma and an appropriate sentiment about knitting (both Linda and our mom are knit-fiends and our grandma used to be) plus a warning that I'm next to learn to knit. I told her that when I'm 82 and we're in adjoining rooms in an old folks' home then, and only then, can she teach me to knit.


If you'd like to try a fiber house of your own here are some things to think about:

The opportunity exists for a very allegorical approach to a theme of home. While you can create a literal interpretation of “home” and your memories of it, you can also use the inside/outside aspect of the construcion as a chance to explore:

a vision of what home can be
an interpretation of self
a memory, fantasy, dream or imaginary home
hidden/revealed thoughts using symbolism and personal imagery
a specific room: a studio, a kitchen, a garden room, a library
a journal or story house
a tribute to an artist or writer
a chronology of family
a house as a character in a story

Again, the inspiration for our challenge was the book, In This House by Angela Cartwright & Sarah Fishburn, Quarry Books, July 2007

A cool preview of the houses in the book can be found on Angela's website.

13 Nightingale Lane

Ta da! Here's the completed house. Every year I issue the women who work in our shop a challenge. We've had some interesting ones -- collaborative journals, based on art movements, using found objects, etc. This year the challenge was inspired by Angela Cartwright's book In This House. We each made a house out of fabric with either batting or Fast2Fuse inside the walls. There are five houses on display at the Country Quilter during the Northern Star Quilter's show this weekend. They are all different and all wonderful.








13 Nightingale Lane

I plan to disassemble the house after the show and make it into a fiber book, probably with grommets at the sides. That way I can store it flat and still open it up into a 3D house. Now I have to think of something for a new challenge.