"Making Noyes" Collaborative Mural Installed by Maggie Weiss

In the summer of 2019, I began collaborating with students in various camps in my studio building. Over 90 local children ages 6 - 16 years eventually contributed to the recently installed artwork at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center here in Evanston, IL.  

Young artists created their self portraits with hugely diverse approaches, using fabrics prepared in advance. See if you can find the two with a side view; there's also a pirate, a skull, several minions and emojis as well as a cat among the many wonderful faces. With these in hand, I developed a collage design that showcased their unique work on a 6' x 4' canvas. Some of the students also created collaged houses or mono-printed background fabrics, depending upon how much time we had together. Using all of the components, I then added hand cut silk lettering on the surface of the Sun and the Moon describing the many activities for individuals, families and children that are available here. After several tries I was able to accurately depict the building itself. Evanston Quilter Amy Parker quilted an  undulating grid and I later bound the edges. I used Robbi Eklow's binding/facing method which creates corner flaps on the back of the work.  These add stability to the hanging mechanism and cover the hanging bar as well. Before installation, I Scotch-guarded the surface. 

On 25 March, 2022, the completed mural was hung and revealed to the public for the first time. The work radiates with the spirit and energy of all the young makers who participated and they can come and see their work any time. What a pleasure it was to facilitate bringing their work and voices to the public! 

- Maggie Weiss, Evanston, IL

 

                                              

I created a class in collaboration with Fleisher Art Memorial and the Philadelphia Ballet called "Fiber Art: Inspired by Dance " By Dianne Koppisch Hricko

 

This past January, I was invited by Fleisher Art Memorial to create and lead a class in collaboration with the Philadelphia Ballet and internationally renowned costume designer Holly Hynes, as part of their community outreach program. This was a free workshop that took place over three sessions where students created textiles made with fiber reactive dyes. The first session of the class, the students were introduced to Holly Hines who spoke to them about her design process and her inspiration.   Each student was provided two fabric pieces to work with , one silk habotai and one viscose rayon and silk, both measuring 75" long. 

Many of the students in the class had never worked with dye medium prior to the class. They were invited to use a piece of music as an entry point for inspiration. I made sure to have sample pieces for the students to experiment with the dyes to see how they responded to the fabrics.

Here are some examples of the students finished pieces. 

By Amy Orr

By Caren Friedman

By Elisabeth Nickles

The next step of the process was to send the completed pieces over to the Philadelphia Ballet where dancers would be photographed while interacting and dancing with the fabrics. This allowed the dancers to explore and help inform “Behind the Stage Door,” an upcoming series of live performances by Philadelphia Ballet II. “Behind the Stage Door” is an interactive multimedia performance that explores the invisible forces that bring the ballet to life. Through a soundscape of diverse voices, original musical composition, dance, film, sculpture, and stage design, the piece illuminates the many personalities and experiences that underlie and make possible the transcendent art form that is the ballet.

Piece by Dianne Koppisch Photographed by Vikki Sloviter 

The photographs of student works will be featured at an exhibit at Cherry Street Pier in Philadelphia running from April 29th through May 24th. 

I really enjoyed the partnership between myself, Fleisher, and The Philadelphia Ballet and hope to have the opportunity for more collaborations in the future.

"It Helps Sometimes To Take the Long View" by Joan Diamond

  “It Helps Sometimes To Take the Long View” is my piece that has been juried into Studio Montclair’s upcoming exhibit called ViewPoints.   The show runs April 23-May 27, 2022. You’re in luck:  the opening is today! 3:00-5:00 p.m.  And if you come you will be treated to the talents of 51 participating artists.   In case you live far from NJ, below I’ve included the artist statement which  accompanies this piece and will explain more to you about the work.

2021. Wool, Silk Noil, Silk Organza, Acid Dyes, Single Use Plastic Bags, Thread. 52"H x 48"W

Like tectonic plates shifting earth’s features, lockdown imposed a paradigm shift in the ordinariness of reality.  Globally, collectively, our nests of normalcy shape shifted, morphed by deadly contagion, violent storms effacing landscapes born centuries ago, and twenty six million refugees seeking shelter in other lands.  Science drew its blood along political fronts.

This backdrop of chaos, isolation, and uncertainty caused me to reconsider my own complacency, my ideas about things precious, and, of loss: of loved ones, but also loss of culture and landscape. The title of this piece references a healing prayer by Shamanistic teacher don Oscar Milo-Quesada.  

Shibori is a technique with which dye records the shape and pressure placed upon a cloth that has been manipulated-crumpled, squeezed, folded, etc.  It is a process akin to the recording of forming geology in that the agents of change are memorialized. Shibori seems an appropriate visual metaphor for the thing that is bigger than our lifetimes:  the passage of time.  Working with what was on hand in the studio, mountain ranges, plastic, and timeless Shibori mix to ask:  are we mindful enough of what we hold dear? 

Detail

The Mourning Project Nears #23000BabyBooties Milestone by Mary Vaneecke

I am so pleased to be able to announce that The Mourning Project, a huge community art project to collect 23,000 pairs of handmade baby booties, is near the end of the collection phase of the project! 

Hand-stitched booties for The Mourning Project.

Hundreds of makers are creating The Mourning Project to witness the grief of parents who mourn the loss of an infant, to raise awareness about the problem of infant mortality in the United States (which has the worst infant mortality rate in the developed world), and to begin a discussion about how we can give American infants the best chance at life.

The Mourning Project is gathering a little handmade elegy, a pair of baby booties, for each American baby lost before their first birthday. The project will call attention to the infant mortality rate in the US and educate the public about science-based solutions to this problem. Our goal is to raise awareness and literally save lives. We have the worst IM rate in the developed world and lose 23,000 babies every year. Other countries have practiced cost-effective treatments for years, so we know what works. We must call attention to this problem to create change.

As one maker wrote, It was a very cathartic project for me and I appreciated the opportunity to make booties to honor our Grandson Maxwell. …I can't thank you enough for heading up such an important project for awareness of infant mortality and for loved ones to make peace with their loss.

Or as another maker, Merle Eintracht put it, My love is in every stitch.

The booties will become part of a 38' by 38' art installation. As of April 2022, we are nearing the collection phase of the project, with only 5 kits of 100 pairs of booties left to be stitched. Partial installations have been viewed at guilds and art centers throughout the country, including Hyde Park in Chicago and Visions Art Museum in San Diego. See a virtual exhibition at TheMourningProject.com. We hope to document the first complete installation of the project with time-lapse drone photography or an animated short documentary to preserve this huge community art project in perpetuity.

Your financial gifts will support creation and exhibition of the booties, video documentation, shipping crates, etc. When exhibitions end, booties will be donated to organizations, like the March of Dimes, that serve infants and loss parents. Click here for a link to our fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas, to make an online gift.  

Check out our exhibition schedule and learn more about the issue at TheMourningProject.com. There are still a few kits of 100 pre-cut, embellished booties left to stitch.  Contact me at mary@maryvaneecke.com if you can hand or machine stitch a kit.  Be a part of this compelling project and help save little lives.

detail, The Mourning Project

PIX of the ACN Exhibit at Austin Airport

 

Advocacy Project Quilt by Deborah Weir

  I was invited to make a quilt from 10 embroideries made about the Covid pandemic.  These came from an embroidery training program for women in Bangladesh to provide them with skills they can market.  The final quilt will be auctioned in North America as a fund raiser for the project.  It was fun to find a way to combine these unique pieces with one of my ice dyed fabrics and also with a fabric I designed of a playful fish. The embroideries included references to a fishing dependent culture!  The long arm quilting was done by Carolyn Reno and a donation for that was made by Bunnie Mauldin.  

Austin Meeting 2022 by Sherri Lipman McCauley

 The  meeting in Austin, Texas was a blast!

We met for drinks, dinner and conversation in the hotel lobby on the first night.

The Art Cloth Network attendees in Austin, wearing name tags fashioned by 

Mary Tyler.

We stayed at the Carpenter Hotel in Austin, Texas.

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We held our meetings a short walk away at Casa de Luz.

Sharing our artwork, talking, visiting and eating were a big part of our good times!

Merill in action- Touchdown!!!

Judy and her 3D wire work.

Malka Dubrawsky, @StitchInDye, joined us on Wednesday to share her journey. 

She shared some great information and tips.

 

 

Pleased to share that two of my pieces were accepted into

Celebrating the Figure!

by Jeanne Sisson

Girl on a Red Cushion, 18.5 x 29.5”

Inktense pencil drawing on silk, Chopped fibers sandwiched with fine tulle netting then hand stitched. Quilted background Fuji silk broadcloth, printed with thickened dyes and hand stitched.

Detail below.

Lily, 18x18”

Inktense pencil drawing on silk, fused screen-printed silk overlay, hand stitched with DMC embroidery thread, stitched onto painted 1 3/8” canvas.

Detail below.