The opening reception for Art Quilts XIV:  Significant Stitching is Friday, November 20, from 7-9 p.m. at the Chandler Center for the Arts, 250 N. Arizona Ave., Chandler, Arizona . Music will be provided by jazz musician Pete Pancrazi.  The exhibit runs November 20, 2009 – January 2, 2010.  Here is a list of all the artists in the exhibit.

Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and Saturday, noon-4 p.m. In addition, Chandler Center for the Arts patrons enjoy the works before shows and during intermissions.  Call 480.917.6859 for holiday hours.

My artwork subverts the theme as all the stitching, by hand, can only be seen on the back.  The stitching can’t be seen on the front due to layers and layers of screen printing, mainly in metallic paint.  The artwork is my commentary on over-consumerism and waste:

How can we sustain an environment in which Tyvek lab jackets are worn once in a sterile environment and then discarded?  Squares cut from just such a jacket were painted in delicate earth colors, hand-quilted to hand-dyed cotton and then buried beneath layers upon layers of screenprinted paint. Consider all that time spent in hand-stitching which will never be seen except from the back. It’s a small sacrifice made to call attention how the glittery surface of our consumer society hides an ugly truth: our failure to embrace a time-consuming commitment to reduce, reuse, recycle.

You can see the hand stitching on the underlayer in progress of this artwork (when I thought it would be called Discarded) here.

This artwork is 35.5″ x 32,” but I prefer not to show the entire artwork until closer to its exhibition debut at Art Quilts XIV:  Significant Stitching at the Chandler Center for the Arts, Chandler, AZ.

The prospectus for this exhibit stated, This year’s theme encourages you to explore what makes your work significant. Is it the statement your piece makes? Is it quilting lines made meaningful by placement? Surface design which speaks to the soul? Amazing quilting or appliqué?

I very much wanted to play against the exhibit title. The quilting on this artwork can only be seen on the back.   Here’s my artist statement,

How can we sustain an environment in which Tyvek lab jackets are worn once in a sterile environment and then discarded?  Squares cut from just such a jacket were painted in delicate earth colors, hand-quilted to hand-dyed cotton and then buried beneath layers upon layers of screenprinted paint. Consider all that time spent in hand-stitching which will never be seen except from the back. It’s a small sacrifice made to call attention how the glittery surface of our consumer society hides an ugly truth: our failure to embrace a time-consuming commitment to reduce, reuse, recycle.

The exhibit runs November 20, 2009 – January 2, 2010.

I am thrilled to be joining a list of stellar artists in the upcoming Art Quilt XIII: Lucky Break exhibit at the Chandler Center for the Arts.  The exhibit will run November 7 – December 31.   Diane Howell, curator, along with Eric Faulhaber and the staff of Vision Gallery always showcase the artwork beautifully in a gorgeous gallery.

Boundary Waters 32 is 21″h x 66″w.  It is like the other work in the Boundary Waters series in that it is constructed of white cotton fabric, acrylic textile paint, and thread, but different in that it is stitched to within an inch of its life.

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is known for its cliffs and rocky outcroppings, worked in endless layers by erosion, volcanic activity, and glaciers. Huge sheet of granite were broken, tilted and folded beginning over 2.7 billion years ago.  The end result is the wonderful landscape my sister and I are privileged to enjoy as we paddle along:  long narrow lakes, jagged shorelines and towering cliffs.