You Are Invited To Apply to ACN

 

Partly Sunny by Barbara Matthews

 

Partly Sunny by Barbara Matthews

          

                          

Partly Sunny at the Eastlake P-Patch Garden

An art piece designed for the Eastlake P-Patch in Seattle, WA finally makes its debut in the garden over ten years after its creation. Its genesis was a University of Washington art school project.

The community garden concept with cooperative growing by neighbors was first documented in 1890 with immigrants growing potatoes for sustenance. They continued on through the Great Depression and in the Victory gardens of WWII. Seattle was one of the earliest cities to resurrect community gardens in 1974 with the purchase by the City of a 2 acre plot of the Picardo farm, which lends name to the P in P-Patch.¹

Laying a transition from a lifelong analytical career into an artistic one, I decided to take the year-long Fiber Certificate program at the University of Washington. The coursework was delightfully all-consuming. The assignment for the final project entailed creating a site-specific installation. I had studied the P-Patch community for a prior epidemiology course by gathering data and interviewing gardeners. (At the time there were 46 P-Patches in Seattle, now that number has doubled.)  I had grown to appreciate the P-Patch concept, community, and creativity of the members. Picking a P-Patch for this installation seemed natural.

I visited the Eastlake P-Patch that is situated on the East side of Lake Union on a sunny slope.  Scoping it for potential, I saw an arbor placed on the hillside facing the afternoon sun. The concept of ‘Partly Sunny’ was born, a positive spin on the cloudy/rainy meme that typically labels Seattle.

I used an outdoor nylon fabric and scraps of an analogous color scheme of yellow-green to orange quilting and commercial fabrics to depict the rays of the sun, all machine stitched to the base nylon. Once the 4 by 4 foot banner was complete, I then took a deep breath and cut the banner into six strips. I wanted the piece to better catch the breeze from the water. I designed the strips to hang on three cross bars to hang two strips per crossbar and further add space to support the concept. The piece was temporarily installed in the arbor for photos.

Because the installation was somewhat makeshift, I wanted to leave the P-Patch with a more substantial way to hang the piece. Well life intervened, my art endeavors moved in another direction and I was drawn away from that project. Fast forward 10 years and a pandemic that afforded more free time, and I was able to construct a better way to install Partly Sunny. Of course throughout the 10 years what I did not expect was that nature did not stand still and the wisteria vines grew over the arbor further complicating installation. The garden community members being creative in their own right came up with a solution.  The piece on a removable structure now will be brought out on special occasions for work parties and socials at the P-Patch.

¹ Matthews, Udo, and Kaseba-Sata, “Seattle P-Patch Community Gardening”, June 8, 2003

 

Hiking Carizzo Canyon by Connie Tiegel

 Carizzo Canyon Hike 

A very special hike was my first attempt at a cloth and nature series. I carried about 20 silk hand dyed scarves in my back pack along with my iPhone and water. I stealthily took photos of my scarves next to places I found inspiring: old trees, rock formations, individual rocks with fascinating cracks or colors. 

Carizzo Canyon is a special place because it is a breeding ground for bighorn sheep. The area is closed to hikers from January to October. For just 3 months of the year we can hike the area and watch for bighorn sheep, which we see almost every hike we enjoy there.

Lingering to photograph my scarves with some trees we were delighted to have 6 or 7 bighorn cross the alluvial plain about 50 yards from us. 

I hope you enjoy these photos that became my first book in my Nature and Art series.

How an ACN Meeting Lead to Support for Ukraine by Maria Billings

 

Art Cloth Network members meeting in Texas, 2022

From April 3 to 6, 2022, I met Art Cloth Network (ACN) members for the first time in person at our annual conference in Austin, TX. Besides seeing wonderful art cloth, we also heard about additional group activities, some of them were new to me and I decided to join the “Art Installation” group which meets online roughly every two months.

As Connie Tiegel, a founding ACN member, writes: “Art Installations are not new. Artists have been leaving them for others to find since cave paintings expressed the joy of being alive or the beauty surrounding the artist. Art Installations' job is to bring awareness to certain objects or ideas.”

So, in April 2022 at the ACN conference, I hand-stitched this abstracted Chamomile (National flower of Russia) and Sunflower (national flower of Ukraine). Then, I temporarily installed them and photographed them as proof that this temporary art installation really existed. Travel in the US and Europe provided many opportunities for photos of other installations and they are collected in my book Chamomile-Sunflower Friendship.

Hand-stitching the flowers

First temporary installation, Austin, TX, 2022

Why? - When the Russian army invaded Ukraine, I felt almost paralyzed by the events but I do not want to give any dictator so much power over me. So I asked myself: What can I do? - This book is the answer. Due to traveling and visiting both Russia and Ukraine, I have friends in both countries. I want to resist the political polarization and emphasize the need to support our friendships. They deserve to be nurtured. This book contains many quotes about friendship and shows the Sunflower and Chamomile art quilts in the US, the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy. The book concludes with a "How to" page on the technical details of painting and stitching.

If Amazon sells 50 copies or more in two weeks, then they promote the book and it can reach more interested buyers. To support this, I’ll send or give little gifts to the first 50 buyers who purchase the book on Amazon within two weeks. 

ALL profits will go to those who suffer from this war.  Click here for a link to Amazon to purchase the book for $19.50.

Chamomile-Sunflower Friendship is available on Amazon for $19.50.  

Hiking at Wunderlich Park by Connie Tiegel

 Hiking at Wunderlich Park

 

 

Today I went hiking in Wunderlich Park. As usual I took along my iPhone to take photos of things that catch my eye. I also brought three different silk braided balls that I have been hiking with for a couple of years. I am in an ACN group studying textile installation art and have been inspired by what I have seen. This group is constantly on the lookout for installation art of all kinds and shares photos by email so we can discuss them when we meet by zoom.

 

I have hiked Wunderlich Park many times in all seasons. The last couple of years I have brought along silk hand dyed scarves and photographed them with interesting trees, scenery, etc. Today the silk braids/balls made me see other exciting ideas for nature and art together.

 

I hope you enjoy the following photos. 

Tips and tricks for finishing art quilts with a faced edge

I've just posted a new how-to video on faced edge finishing for art quilts in the resources section on my website. Check it out.

https://russlittlefiberartist.com/how-to/2022/7/28/how-to-finish-an-art-quilt-with-a-facing

Fond Memories of Good Company by Merill Comeau

A combination of recovering from an overwhelming schedule and living in the isolation of the pandemic has caused a shift in my impulse to make -- my conceptual underpinnings and the imagery I employ reflect my current sense of absence and presence.  Missing from my days is a consistent active engagement with others; present in my days is an increased awareness of my immediate environment.  The continuity in my practice is my love of working with repurposed fabrics, needles, and thread.  My interest in using traditional techniques in a new ways also endures.

In my ongoing project Fond Memories of Good Company textiles once used in my dining room and kitchen bearing the marks of food preparation and consumption are deconstructed then reconstructed into a patchwork ‘tablecloth’ which is then embroidered with outlines of tableware.  Infill stitches surround forks, spoons, and plates in a variety of styles evoke a possible record documenting the countless numbers of meals prepared and served.  

Hopefully, as we manage CoVid infections, we will return to shared meals with good company!                                                             Merill Comeau

In process: Fond Memories of Good Company by Merill Comeau

 Nick Cave Exhibit by Barbara Schneider

I recently had the opportunity to see the Nick Cave installations at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Nick cave exhibit MCA.

From the website: Chicagoan Nick Cave (American, b. 1959), an artist celebrated for projects that blend community building with vibrant works of art across disciplines, including immersive installations, textural sculptures, impeccably crafted fashion, and dynamic videos and performances. Highlights of the exhibition include never-before-seen works, including a continuation of the artist’s popular Soundsuits series with the premiere of Soundsuits 9:29 and a mesmerizing, site-specific installation, Spinner Forest, comprised of thousands of kinetic spinners that will hang in the museum’s two-story atrium and fourth-floor lobby.

Cave came to prominence as a visual artist almost twenty years ago with his dazzling, sculptural Soundsuits, and works in Chicago as an activist, educator, designer, and performer. Nick Cave: Forothermore gathers all of these aspects of Cave’s work into the artist’s largest museum survey to date. This immersive journey through Cave’s distinct bodies of work is accompanied by an exhibition catalogue designed with Cave’s partner, Bob Faust.

Nick Cave: Forothermore is an ode to those who, whether due to racism, homophobia, or other forms of bigotry, live their lives as the “other”—and a celebration of the way art, music, fashion, and performance can help us envision a more just future.

It was a fascinating look at many aspects of his textile/installation work. More is definitely more in his work. Several of the sound suits were on display and you can find a million interesting details in each one.

The entire surface of this piece is made of silvery buttons.

I was not as familiar with his work with found objects but they are quite lyrical and beautiful and then the more you look the more the underlying message comes through. (Sorry the photo is not as good as it could be)

 

This photo is taken looking out over the lobby where a million twisting, turning metal pieces are all moving at once.  When you look closely you see that the design is of guns. 

There are several video segments about Nick Cave on Art 21. (link here). They give you a sense of the artist and how he creates his work and what influences him. 

The exhibit at the MCA is there until October 20, 2022 just in case you get to Chicago and want to see it.  It was wonderful to get to an exhibit and be inspired anew.

Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Art by Lorraine Ross

 Summer Exhibition

The Royal Academy of Art, located in Piccadilly, in the heart of London, has championed art and artists for the past 250 years. It has been and remains to be a home of world class exhibits from around the world.

Since 1767, the Academy has hosted an annual summer exhibition, the world's largest open submission exhibitions. The Summer Exhibition represents what is happening in the art world right now. It features work created by well known artists to emerging artists, including "wannabe" artists like myself.

This year the theme was Climate. I began to think of all the devestating climate effects and changes that are being reported around the world. In Western Canada we have been plagued by forest fires which have been exceptionally destructive. Towns have been razed and mountain sides have been stripped of vegetation. The secondary effects are that areas directly hit by the fires have then been subjected to flooding and mudslides. The winds have carried smoke and toxic pollutants from constructions in an easterly direction, resulting in air pollution and health concerns.

When the call was posted, I had a canvas dropcloth on my table that showed me a smokey sky with clear patches. Perfect start! I bumped up the blues and added a base colour of orange and red at the bottom for the fires. The fire was completed with stacked sorbello stitch.

I received notification that my piece Forest Fire was accepted into the short round ( 4000 pieces) and I hand delivered it in May. In June I was notified that it was selected as a final piece for hanging (1500 pieces). 

I am still in shock and disbelief that I have a piece hanging in this exhibition and that it will be viewed by thousands of people.  It is such an honour and I am truly humbled by this opportunity. 

The Summer Exhibition can be viewed online.   se.royalacademy.org.uk.

Please check it out, there is much to see.

Lorraine Ross

Held Harmless

Held Harmless is a series of smallish pieces (18"-28") I developed during the Pandemic. Each started as a paper collage I photographed, tweaked in Photoshop, and had printed onto cotton.  Once I received them, I spent weeks hand stitching each one. The stitches are used to draw the eye towards certain areas, emphasize portions, connect, play with color and create continuity between elements.

These have been terrifying, infuriating and deeply saddening times.  The tiny movement of my fingers with the floss was a meditation which grounded me and fed me.   The pieces capture all of these emotions and more.

Here are #2, 6 and 7  (See more at https://www.DeborahWeir.net)