The premier issue of Fiber Art Now is out and features a two-page spread about Sightlines. Featured artists includes Pat Owoc, Sue Dennis, and Leni Levenson Wiener.  The Sightlines exhibit is sponsored by Studio Art Quilt Associates.

I’m always happy to see Sightlines in the news as I chose the artists for this exhibit. Fourteen artists were invited to create an installation of artworks featuring a sightline linking all the artwork in the exhibit.  Each artist chose her own themes and created five to eight artworks, including four 8×8″ linking pieces, covering a ten foot wide space. Perhaps the required continuous line provided provocation, both conscious and unconscious, to the artists to focus on time, personal history, and memory.

Sightlines is available for booking and is currently scheduled as follows:
Alexandria Museum of Art, Alexandria, Louisiana, Dec. 2, 2011 – Feb. 25, 2012
Morris Museum, Morristown, New Jersey, April 26 – August 12, 2012
Everhart Museum, Scranton, Pennsylvania, September 27 – December 31, 2012
Grants Pass Museum of Art, Grants Pass, Oregon, May 28 – July 26, 2013

More information and the catalog (beautiful and unique) are here.

Remember my The Garbage Day Project?  I have wanted for some time to re-visit the hundreds of photos I have on file from that project.  So when a call went out from SAQA challenging artists “to venture into uncharted territories of creative expression by turning away from the comfort zones of their established body of work,” I knew where I wanted to start.

Above is a very small detail of Garbage, a new work in a new vein.  I’m becoming a little superstitious about showing new work before sending it to its first jury, so I will show the entire piece in the future.

New avenues I’m exploring in this artwork: Bigger use of my own manipulated photos, a pieced background!, a more subtle color palette, and hand-stitching along with extensive machine stitching,
What’s the same: It’s still all about the message as well as layers of texture and meaning.  And I hope I have kept some of the ironic nature of the original Garbage Day Project:  I’m making you look at garbage and think it’s beautiful, but there is nothing more insidious and wasteful in the world.

Just to keep us up to date, here is a garbage photo I took this week.  Our garbage guys are still coming in the dark, but some people are putting their garbage out early the day before.  I can tell you that the waste and quantity hasn’t diminished a bit.

Twisted

The Opening Reception for ArtQuilt Elements is this Saturday, April 17, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.  The exhibit continues through May 19 at the Wayne Art Center in Wayne, PA.

ArtQuilt Elements is considered one of the top three art quilt exhibitions in the U.S.   A full color catalog is available.

Boundary Waters 48 is one of seven artwork in a mini-series within the Boundary Waters series. The artworks explore Nature’s ability to construct complexity from simplicity while referencing in an abstract manner this specific scene from the Boundary Waters. Note from the photo that I have had this concept on my mind for almost a year now.

The International Quilt Festival- Chicago opens tonight from 5:00 – 9:00 p.m. and continues through Sunday.  My artwork will be in two exhibits:

Boundary Waters 25
SAQA@20: Art & Excellence, a juried exhibit celebrating Studio Art Quilt Associates’ 20th Anniversary curated by Patricia Bolton, contains 35 art quilts. This is the main SAQA exhibit for the IQFs.  View all the artwork, purchase a catalog or an artwork on the SAQA site.

Eye of the Quilter, a photography exhibition featuring two of my photos.  More information here.

I am pleased to announce the invited SAQA artists for A Sense of Direction: Sightlines.  It was a difficult decision with 166 Requests For Consideration received, but it was also a complete joy to spend time with so much remarkable artwork.

The fourteen artists are:

Britta Ankenbauer
Regina Benson
Shelley Brenner Baird
Yael David- Cohen
Linda Colsh
Sue Dennis
Anne Helmericks-Louder
Fulvia Luciano
Wendy Lugg
Kathy Nida
Pat Owoc
Mirjam Pet-Jacobs
Jayne Willoughby Scott
Leni Wiener

The most important task of a curator, I believe, is to have a vision for a particular exhibit.  My vision for Sightlines is an exhibit that transcends any thoughts of the continuous sightline as a “gimmick” and instead focuses on the sightline as a unique invitation to a conversation between and among the artists.  The conversation will also include viewers who will engage with each artwork in turn and then follow the thread of conversation through the exhibit.

I looked at every jpeg, blog and website three times before making any decisions.  I took a quick glance upon submission, then studied all Requests twice with several days between each complete survey.  I then made a shortlist of 40 artists I wanted to consider for invitation.  I looked at their Requests and artwork two additional times, leaving several days between surveys so my eye would be fresh.

The Sightlines artwork will be created without me or, probably at this point, the artist knowing what it will look like.  I wanted art that would undoubtedly be powerful at its premier in the distant date of November 2011 and continue to be so as it toured.  This requires art that is About Something.  Not necessarily something momentous or earthshaking, but it has to be about something that motivates the artist to create artwork that is of the highest standards both in its materiality and its meaning.

The best conversationalists bring to the table knowledge, wit, passion, maturity, and a point of view. So, too, do the invited artists to the Sightlines exhibition. It should be quite a conversation.

It was an extremely strong pool of artists and I thank each artist who submitted a Request.  I also thank Peg Keeney for her mentorship and the exhibition committee for the opportunity to serve SAQA as curator for this unique exhibit.

Note about Sightlines:  This innovative exhibit will feature 14 invited artists who will create five to eight artworks on the theme of their choice. There are specific specs for some of the artworks, but each artist will have a ten foot wide by 7 foot high panel for his/her artwork. It is an innovative concept inspired by this exhibition by tACTile, an Australian group of textile artists.

The exhibition premiers at International Quilt Festival in Houston in 2011 and travels to the International Quilt Festivals in Chicago and Long Beach. A Sense of Direction: Sightlines will also be available for travel; visit the SAQA website for more information if you would like this innovative exhibit to be shown at your venue.

The  Meet SAQA’s Artists:  20th Anniversary Trunk Show, including my artwork above, will be traveling by request to Studio Art Quilt Associate’s regions throughout SAQA’s 20th Anniversary celebration.  Each artist was asked to create a piece of artwork that showcased a process, technique, or style that represents her/his artistic voice. Of course, I wanted to show my layering of materials, use of typography, and the Boundary Waters as subject matter.

Each small artwork was placed in under 12″ square mat with an 8″ square opening.   Vou Best brought many of the artworks to my residency Open Studio in February in Texas and you can see the presentation of each artwork in the photo below:

I’m holding Jamie Fingal’s artwork with Vou Best, 20th Anniversary Trunk Show Curator
Photo by Jamie Fingal

A portion of Meet SAQA’s Artists will be selected to become a study collection at the International Quilt Study Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. IQSC is devoted to the preservation, study and exhibition of quilts and to sharing its resources with the public. The donation of the selected works from the “Meet SAQA’s Artists” project will create an important archive representing both SAQA and the artists who are working in the studio art quilt medium in 2009 – a historical benchmark to assist future historians, academics, writers and others tracking the art quilt movement.