St. Louis or Bust! by Mary Vaneecke

I am so excited to be bringing TheMourningProject.com to the Gallery at the Kranzberg in St. Louis this summer!  This huge community art project of 20,000 pairs of handmade baby booties seeks raise awareness and improve health care for American infants.  The US loses 20,000 babies before their first birthday each year.  

The exhibition will run from June 22 (with the opening from 5:00-7:00 pm) through August 8.  Gallery hours are Saturdays from noon-4:00 pm and by appointment.  

I'll be highlighting local efforts to improve the lives of parents and babies in St. Louis.   

After the exhibition at the Gallery at the Kranzberg, I'll take the booties to St. Charles on August 10 for the 17th Annual Strides Steps of Remembrance event to support Infant Loss Resources.  

Hope to see you there.  

#artcloth

#ArtClothNetwork

#20000BabyBooties

#UnitedAgainstInfantMortality

#BlanketChange

LAYERS exhibition travels to Noyes Cultural Arts Center in Evanston, IL

See our traveling art cloth exhibition Layers, May 29-September 3, 2024.  Opening reception is May 31, at Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes St., Evanston, IL.  

Artist talk with Elise Findlay in Canmore - by Regina Marzlin

  While we met in Canmore, Alberta, for our annual in-person meeting we had the opportunity to listen to an artist talk by emerging fibre artist Elise Lavallee Findlay. We convened at the Arts Place in Canmore where her exhibition "Another Life" was on display. Elise is located in Banff, Alberta, just a short drive away from our meeting location. She is a visual artist known for her versatile, process-driven practice. Her work is centering around the themes of community, place, identity, and the intricacies of human interaction with the world. 

The exhibition we saw was motivated by Elise's experience as a wood worker and cabinet maker. The series of pieces was started during the pandemic and Elise used some materials she had at hand during the lockdown. She pulled threads from drop cloth canvas material and stiffened it with cornstarch after shaping it around objects. The objects she depicts are woodworking tools that she used in her former job.

This is her artist statement about the series:

"This body of work began with an examination and a sculptural expression of my past experiences, and by extension, the challenges faced by women working in the construction trades. Through material and process I explored memories of my previous life, resulting in a series of fibre sculptures, which, while referencing woodworking tools, have become strange canvas shells. Each sculpture is a duplication that is and is not. The installation represents a place that no longer exits for me, yet it also is a starting point. Something here goes beyond the original idea and the process. It is a beginning, a way to explore transformation, and how, while I used to be a cabinetmaker, like the sculptures themselves, I am now something new."

Larger sheets were produced in the same way and then stitched into 3D models of woodworking tools like a band saw or a work bench. The pulled threads are part of the installation, they are scattered on the floor to resemble saw dust.

 I was impressed with the concept of using the humble material to convey her thoughts about a male dominated workplace. Deconstruction, reconstruction and transformation are key processes of Elise's art making. She also brought with her a body of work that is going to be shown at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Ontario. The exhibition is "Outside the Lines - Women Artists and War" and her pieces were made in response to some of the artifacts shown in this exhibition. It was thought provoking to see a gas mask (see photo above) or shells made from the light and transparent fibre material. 

She also showed us a birch bark piece that was stitched.

Elise was a great and inspiring speaker and we had lots of questions for her. It was wonderful to connect with a fellow fibre artist. Please look up her website at elisefindlay.ca if you're interested to see more of her work.

A Box of Good Fortune - Barbara Schneider

Last year I signed up for the Fiber Arts Take Two online course with Sally Tyrie called Visual Narratives. This was the second FATT course that I took. The course description reads:

Your training will begin with researching and examining areas of interest, before revealing ways of reimagining mark-making and collage from Sally’s considered and painterly approach. Use various print techniques without a press, including gelli plate, photo litho and collograph printing whilst learning to abstract visual narratives from any source of inspiration to create an ambitious body of work.

I was intrigued and looking, as always, for a way to expand my mark making.  She taught many different approaches and we were encouraged to make lots of samples.  I was familiar with some techniques, learned some new things, and discarded a lot of them as not being something I wanted to explore further. One of the best things about the course is that FATT provides and opportunity to submit a piece of work done during the class and then they create an online catalog (which you can also get in print through Blurb).

I had been working quite a bit on printing and copying (with my Epson printer) on pages from a vintage Japanese account book.  I built up layers of imagery on the page and pushed my printer to do things it was not meant to do.  I thought creating some small themed books (Japanese style) would be a way to create my catalog piece. But I felt like something was missing to bring the project together.

While out one day I saw an old box at a thrift store. It may have been an old painters box but any inserts were missing and it had no paint marks. I thought the box might make a great container for all of my book samples. Now all I had to do was clean it up, decide how to use the interior space, create it, finish the books, make a cover!  Step by step I worked my way through. It was really great to work on something totally different. I had done quite a bit of bookmaking and box making loooooong ago and this project brought me back to doing that kind of work again and how I like the precision of it and the play of images across pages.

 

I created a Kanji signature for my name to use on the back of the box.

 

This is the  statement that is inside of the box explaining the process, naming and techniques.

Daifuku-cho

A Box of Good Fortune

 

I was inspired to make this artwork by two disparate things- finding an old

artist’s box and a Japanese ledger titled Daifuku-cho (Good Fortune),

that I have long wanted to use in my work. Although a mundane object in Edo Japan,

the calligraphy and paper in the ledger are beautiful.  Ledgers were used to

record a merchant’s debts and payments. The box and ledger are the elements I

used to build a collection of samplers that explore the various techniques from

the Visual Narratives course.

 I used pages from the old ledger as the base to explore printing, overprinting,

painting and collaging with a variety of imagery. The samplers developed in

different directions under these themes.

Meditation

Contemplation

Introspection     

Rumination 

                        

The box was stained, and refitted with section dividers to hold the samplers.

 

I am now moving on to the other FATT workshop that I signed up for last year which is with Claire Benn using pigments and soy.  And then, someday, I will get to the 3rd one which is Sensing Place with Debbie Lyddon.  For these two I have watched all the video lessons and even if I never make a particular project I have learned something new, had time to think about it in relationship to my own work and know that I can go back to it at any time to review and try again. They fulfill my need to learn but at the same time to focus on my own work.  

 

 

 

 

Looking Around

2024 is my year of exploring and learning. It’s also a time for revisiting some of my early ideas. One of the lessons in a basic photography class is to look up, look down, and look all around as you’re making photographs. This is one exercise used to develop an artist’s observational skills and I always loved it. I continue to look all around as I walk in nature, in the neighborhood, or around town with an intention to observe and be inspired by what’s around me. In the last few years I’ve been looking down a lot. I’m four months into my year and I’m embracing the joy and calm these “exercises in seeing” give me.

Example of some my iPhone photos of "Looking Down."

As I drove through my neighborhood, I was inspired by the gestural tar lines used to repair the asphalt, so one morning I got out of the car and started photographing the street—framing the lines to create lyrical, gestural compositions.

 

A few of my Tar Lines

Once these tar-gestures were printed on fabric I started having fun exploring how to enhance them by adding color, stitch and collage. Here are a few process photos and you’ll be seeing more of my progress in the next few months.

 

Tar Lines collage

 

Sampler testing out stitching on the tar lines,
including french knots, free-motion machine stitching,
hand stitching, and machine couching.

Art in Cuba by Connie Tiegel

 On a January 2024 trip to Cuba I met an artist named Yudit Vidal Faife. You are in for a treat when you checkout her website: www.yuditvidal.cult.cu 

Touring her house/studio in Trinidad, Cuba was a dip of the toe into the cultural waters of the embroidery tradition in Cuba.

In addition to making her own art she also teaches community classes to pass on the embroidery tradition to younger women.

In a country as poor as Cuba she has a great need for donated supplies of fabric, thread and needles.

Please contact Yudit Vidal Fiefe at: vidal.yudit@gmail.com if you would like to contribute supplies to her community projects.

by Connie Tiegel 

2024 Meeting in the Mountains by Barbara Matthews

My Snip-its and photos from the Meeting in the Mountains

MOUNTAINS: Magnificent mountains cradle Canmore and the surrounding area.

Weather and outdoors: cold and brisk (19-40 degrees F), but not uncomfortable.

Outdoor activities: Banff and Bow River Falls, magpies, some snow-covered sidewalks.

Coast Canmore Hotel: Excellent amenities, friendly staff, walkable location.

Meal highlights: The Table at the hotel, The Blake, Crazyweed Kitchen

Member Art: Excellent and inspiring work shared…loved the hands on

Artist talk: Elise Lavallee Findlay emerging artist, unique, deconstructed canvas covered woodshop tools

Ideas: Stiffen fabric—Stiffy, Terial Magic; Dorland’s Cold Wax; sorbello stitching; potato, vinegar, salt soak of non-galvanized steel; green tea painted turns black; Yupo paper

Westies: One Long Earth Song; Edward Abbey Benedicto

Meeting planning and membership discussions: will be shared in an email to membership

Conversations: catching up during breaks and walks to venues, plus longer opportunities to chat.

Public transit: Sherri, Mary Ann and I navigated successfully to Banff!

Other art inspiration: Ilana Manolson acrylic on yupo paper, plus more at Whyte Museum

Edible past memories: ketchup potato chips (don’t ask), aero bars, and maple sugar leaves—plus friendly postal workers.

Cudos: Lorraine Ross, Lynda Williamson, Regina Marzlin, Sherri McCauley and all who planned the meeting—grand success!

The power of curiosity and "What if...?"

by Russ Little

For years I've been curious about weaving and spinning, but I've intentionally kept those things at arm's length because I regarded them as distractions. Lately I've been embracing my curiosity more fully and seeing where it might lead. What new ideas might come from new experiences? 

One place that curiosity has led me is learning to spin. I never understood what all of the fuss was about handspun yarn. Now I'm starting to get it.

I've written about this topic curiosity at length in a new post on my website.

https://russlittlefiberartist.com/blog/2024/4/16/spinning-off-in-new-directions 

Natural Dye Club by Dianne Hricko

 Please check out the link below for the amazing group show from the Dyers Club that my daughter, LauraVHricko linktr.ee/Lauravhricko is part of. These artists are from a wide variety of fields. They meet once a month to study and promote natural dyeing and working with fabric. 

The show is so beautiful and also educational. The link has lots of photos and useful information. 

It's open now if you are in Philadelphia. 

https://davinciartalliance.org/a-shared-table-eff

Dianne

Displaying Daily Practice Art by Barbara James

Like many textile artists, my daily art practice is comprised of making small 4”x 4” compositions out of my hand dyed and printed scraps of fabric. I do not try to make these perfect, but just play with my fabric and the composition. Each piece has raw edges and the elements are hand stitched in place.  By making these little art works I keep the creative juices going between making larger works. 

These little treasures stack up in my studio and I often wish that they could be displayed. While browsing my local hardware store I thought of a solution-window screening. 

 

Here is what I did to make a larger piece. Window screening comes in convenient rolls. I cut a piece of screening to measure 22”X 44” and turned the top back 1.5” to form a pocket for hanging on a plexiglass rod.

 

I mounted each small composition on a 4.5” piece of black felt to form a mini frame. It was fun to hang the screen on my design wall and move the pieces around to determine the best placement for each piece. 

Once I was satisfied  with the composition I hand stitched the small pieces in place using invisible thread. Here is a photo of the back of the piece.

 To help to provide connection between elements I cut small bits of fabric and screening and sewed these in place.

 

The finished work is whimsical and a creative way to journal my work.

For more art by Barbara James visit my website at <barbarajamesart.com>.