Sun Weaving
Monday, September 16, 2024
Every Inch Makes New Art
Sun Weaving
Monday, September 9, 2024
We Are Currently Accepting Applications for Membership
Art Cloth Network is currently accepting applications for membership. If you are looking for camaraderie, a chance to promote your unique work, and the medium of art cloth, check out the link here.
We are a diverse group of artists who work collaboratively to promote and exhibit our art. Applications are due SEPTEMBER 30.
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Os Textile Residency in Iceland by Barbara Matthews
Os Textile Residency in Iceland by Barbara Matthews
Rolling hills covered in purple lupine provided my first
impression of Iceland from the bus. Purple. Literally. Everywhere! Next was the
horses, smaller than normal, but at every turn. Where were the sheep? It was not
until later that I found them nestled 2 and 3 at a time among the folds of the
terrain.
Icelandic horses can do five gaits. |
I spent the month of July at the Os Textile Residency in Blonduos, Iceland, about 4 hours north of Reykjavik.
The population of Iceland numbers a little over 350,000,
half living in Reykjavik. The sparseness throughout the rest of the country gives
a colloquial feel and simpler life. Although reserved, the people are friendly and
easy-going. Given the violent Viking history, this is somewhat surprising.
The sheep number at least twice that of people, but it seems
the vastness of open land could accommodate many, many more. The sheep provide
both wool and delicious lamb (including lamb hot dogs!).
The Os Textile Residency, housed in a large historic 3 story
building, served as secondary education and housing for women students in the
earlier years. The school formed nearly 100 years ago to fill a gap in secondary
education for women. Students lived on-sight and were taught all subjects
including aspects of textile construction.
Across the river from the Residency (three story red roof). |
The residency living quarters in the main building consist of single rooms, shared bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, and laundry room. The facility can house about 12 people, 9 participated along with 5 more who lived in two adjoining cottages. A large studio with sink, tables, sewing machines, and small looms gave handy access at the facility along with six 8 treadle looms in another room. Each work room contains drop-dead views of the river and sea. Other buildings house dye lab, bio lab, spinning, and technical equipment—think electric carder and digital weaving, embroidery and knitting.
Shared studio space. |
Weaving room. |
My goal in attending the residency was to simply explore the materials and process. I wanted to release myself from the responsibility of producing completed art. The felting loom was my raison d'etre at the residency. This large but simple machine houses hundreds of barbed needles in four rows along a four-foot-wide table. Roving is fed through the machine multiple times to pre felt the wool thus cutting or eliminating the wet felting phase. I produced 12-20 pre-felted pieces, some samples, some larger ready for the next step.
Roving laid out and ready to be pre-felted through the loom. |
The day began with chats around coffee, then onto our
separate ways to work coming together for a shared evening meal, often
retreating to knit, write, or relax. The days were sprinkled with walks along
the river and visits to the famed, local spa (swimming pool and hot tubs).
July and August are the most habitable months in Iceland,
still rain, wind and temps in the 50s prevailed and highlighted the seaside
beauty of the area on sunny days. In July, the sun set at about midnight and
rose around 3:30AM adding to the otherworldliness of the country.
Finally, that which must be said--the phenomenal geologic
formations from years of volcanic activity that characterize Iceland should not
be missed. Features include extraordinary waterfalls, green covered mountains, varied
rock formations, and geothermal areas. All adds to the specialness that makes
Iceland easy to fall in love with.
Monday, August 5, 2024
Lively Conversation
2024 is my year for exploring and learning. My explorations center around finding beauty in the everyday. While driving, I noticed the playful, gestural lines of tar used to repair my street. Something about their expressive, hand-made form caught my eye and one day I pulled over and began photographing the street. I brought my street compositions into my digital studio and played with transforming the grey and black of the street to bright color, which brought out the texture and gesture. The photos were printed on 100% cotton fabric, enhancing the tactile experience.
To keep the fun going, I added my own colorful lines on top of the fabric/photo using Golden's tar gel medium, colored with acrylic ink--something I didn't even know existed--creating a lively conversation between the original tar lines and my own gestural lines. It's a coincidence that I'm using "tar gel" to enhance my photo of "tar lines." The grittiness of the street and the texture of the fabric contrasts nicely with the smooth, shiny tar gel lines.
It’s like having a visual chat with the municipal road worker who fixed my street. The transforms a mundane street repair into a vibrant artwork, shows that there’s artistry in the most unexpected places. It’s an invitation to see the beauty and creativity in our everyday surroundings.
Do you have a suggestion of a title for this work? I'm settled on "Lively Conversation" right now. Any other ideas?
Saturday, July 20, 2024
Tips for applying quilt facing
by Russ Little
It's that time of year when there seems to be an abundance of quilt exhibition jury deadlines. For me that means that I need to finish the edges on my back log of "finished" art quilts--quilts that are languishing at the all-but-facing stage. I've been taking a critical look at the way that I've been doing facing, making some changes, and discovering a few things along the way.
One of the biggest challenges has always been getting good, square corners and managing the seam bulk in those corners. I've shared a few tips in the video below. Who knew that we all need a hammer next to the pressing table?!
John Michael Kohler Art Center Exhibits - Barbara Schneider
I recently visited the Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, WI. I wanted to see the exhibit celebrating their 50th Anniversary of the Arts/Industry internship program that they run. This program now has 12 interns per year that come and work for between 1 and 3 months with the staff at Kohler Pottery to create artwork outside their own field of expertise. It was amazing to see the variety of ways people used the techniques from ceramics in new and innovative ways. Some of those art experiments end up getting incorporated into new ideas for Kohler products. The link below takes you to a description of the program and to see some of the work in progress.
https://www.jmkac.org/arts-industry/
As part of the 50th Anniversary Celebration they took an entire part of the building and recreated what it is like to work in the foundry complete with molds for sinks, forms, tools, etc. This space is being used during the exhibit to have by a resident artist to work with the public on an installation while they are there.
Another of the exhibits I saw was by Willie Cole. Below is a description of that exhibit. I was very taken with all the ways an iron can be used to create imagery. Many of us who have managed to burn cloth will enjoy the images created! The sculptures made of old shoes are also quite fascinating. Until you get up close you have no idea that these angular pieces are shoes.
This solo exhibition of work by Willie Cole, who was an Arts/Industry resident in the Kohler Co. Pottery in 2000, features newly commissioned sculptures alongside a selection of works spanning over three decades.
Cole visualizes the reality that domestic spaces are often tangled with histories of enslaved labor. He uses the visual vocabulary of the domestic sphere—shoes, tools, furniture, for example—to bring forward the grief and intimacy that linger within private spaces.
Home Assembly highlights Cole’s refiguring of familiar and
frequently discarded objects to confront and demand attention from his
audience. His assemblages and prints convey intricate histories and
messages, demonstrating the complexities and the commonalities shared in
the cultivation of homes and the lives they shelter. Cole frequently
uses the iron —burn marks, the ironing board, and the iron itself—as
parts of human figures, as protective shields, as the shape of ships
that transported enslaved Africans to the Americas, and to commemorate
the work of women. Each of the ironing boards are named after the woman who owned them.
Home Assembly honors Cole’s impact on the fields of labor and methodical craft, which are at the core of the Arts/ Industry program.
Although it is a long drive I am never disappointed with the exhibits at Kohler. They are wide ranging and often they devote whole areas of the building to installations of one person's work. They have now built a second location named the Art Preserve that features all of the Outsider Art that they have collected over the years so that it can remain on permanent display.
More about some of the other art on display in another upcoming blog!
Saturday, July 13, 2024
Renewal: Inside a National Fibre Art Exhibition by Sue Sherman
- Art Cloth Network defines art cloth as “cloth transformed by adding or subtracting color, line, shape, texture, value, or fiber to create a compelling surface”. It may or may not be stitched.
- SAQA defines an art quilt as “a creative work that is layered and stitched or references this form of stitched layered structure.” Art quilts are usually made at least partially from cloth, but could equally be made from paper or sheet metal; stitching could be done with a sewing machine, a staple gun, twist ties, cufflinks – anything that will hold layers together.
- rekindling, looking to a new future, finding hope
- resuming an activity after an interruption
- repair or recycle of something worn and used
- recovering strength
- renewed cycles of life
Saturday, July 6, 2024
HOLES: a new technique by Deborah Weir
I wanted to write a bit about holes. I’m a big fan of openings as they break up the surrounding space and provide a window to what might lie below. They give both visual and literal texture. I’ve burned, drilled, punched, ripped, used the multi-needled felting machine, and applied a heat tool to make openings. Recently, in a course I took with Debbie Lyddon, I’ve added rings (metal, plastic, etc.) to cleanly outline the holes. This is a different look from my previous methods. These openings are stronger, demand to be noticed and appear more intentional.
The first example is a quilt called CONCRETION. The righthand upper 2/3 has a flap through which I made the holes. Each window has a different element visible below. Concrete is a compound of many materials, and I liked the idea of showing some of these in the layer normally not visible. This piece also has images of holes which are printed and sewn but not actually open as contrast to the literal ones.
HOLEY (H)AIRPLANT is another recent piece that uses holes. I was thrilled with the piece of canvas I had dyed for the layer below the Lutrador and wanted to make sure that viewers would be able to see it. So I have stitched the hoops on, cut away the Lutrador and burned any remaining material inside the opening. I also burned a lot of smaller holes with the heat tool. I spray painted these outside panels so the hooped holes blend visually to their substrate; then I sewed each panel onto the underlying (dyed) fabric.
So many simple ways of adding depth and interest!
Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Our Small Local Art Centers Bring Big Fibre/Fiber Excitement and Joy! by Ileana Soto
Saturday, June 29, 2024
The Mourning Project Arrives in Arch City by Mary Vaneecke
It was an incredible weekend in St. Louis as we created the first installation of TheMourningProject.com in the Midwest at The Gallery at the Kranzberg. All 20,000 little elegies--pairs of handmade baby booties--are on display in the gallery to remember each child lost before their first birthday in the US. We have the worst infant mortality rate in the developed world, and makers seek to honor loss families, raise awareness of the issue, and begin a conversation on how we can improve little lives.
The state of Missouri had the worst infant mortality rate in the country 10 years ago. With the leadership of the Missouri Foundation for Health, and agencies like Generate Health and March of Dimes aiming for systemic change, the state now ranks 45th. Progress is possible!
The installation will remain at The Gallery through August 8, when we will de-install to move the booties to the STRIDES event in St. Charles to benefit Infant Loss Resources on Saturday, August 10. In July, we'll hold a panel discussion on how the community can support loss families at the Studio at the Kranzberg from 10-11 am on July 24.
Installation view from the street |
The Mourning Project, detail, altar |
detail, the Missouri flag with the state's portion of 20,000 baby booties |
Viewers at the opening reception |
The Makers table |
Carla and Gary Duncan with me at the installation |
Carla Duncan helps installs the 'Mother Booties,' made in memory of the 700+ American mothers who die from childbirth-related conditions. |
the Mourning Project, detail |
The butterflies await their release |
Mary Vaneecke with Kendra Copanas of Generate Health and Erin Coppenbarger of March of Dimes |
Installation view with the 'Thrive' Wall, which highlights the work of some of the agencies combatting infant mortality across the state |
A pair of booties made in honor of the thousands of infants born into homelessness each year. |
The Mourning Project, detail |
Art Cloth Network members created over 100 pairs to contribute to the project. My thanks to all those who helped make this possible. 💜
For more information about the issue and the Project, go to www.MaryVaneecke.com
#20000BabyBooties #UnitedAgainstInfantMortality #BlanketChange