Fitting my Challenge with Showing

My first week's piece for
the 5 x 7 Challenge

For those of you just tuning in, I not only have the 5 x 7 Challenge going on this year, where I make one 5" x 7" artwork each week, but I also actively show my fiber art work.  As the Exhibitions Co-Chair (along with Carolyn Hitter) of the Contemporary QuiltArt Association, I do all the planning and production of setting up exhibitions for our 100+ member group.  Currently, we have 19 members with work that will be shown in the Patchwork and Design Festival in both Rio de Janiero and San Paulo, Brazil.  The quilts have arrived there safely and in plenty of time, so my work there is pretty well done until it's time for the quilts to come home.

Our next exhibition which I'm working on will be at Mighty Tieton, an artistic community in Eastern Washington.  Since the surrounding area is particularly known for their produce and fruit production (in fact the gallery is in an old fruit processing plant!) and the community has a large Hispanic population, they asked for our theme to reflect this if possible.  We've named the exhibit "Salsa!" and hope to get member entries that will reflect this theme in numerous ways.

I'm faced with the difficulty of  putting in lots of hours into setting up, doing logistics, getting entries, jurying the quilts and art cloth, etc. and wanting badly to also participate in showing my artwork.  But creating a piece takes time... a commodity that I'm a bit shy on these days!  So, here's my plan... I thought what I could do is a coordinating 5 x 7 piece each week for 9 weeks, then put these together into a quilt.  I'm planning to do a thread-painting of the following fruits and vegetables:

• tomato
• onion
• cilantro
• lime
• corn
• tomatillos
• peppers
• avocado
• chili peppers

Detail of quilt made from Guatemalan
fabric by artist Priscilla Bianchi

Then, each thread painting will be appliqued (probably with a bit of trapunto) to a quilted coordinating background.  I'm not sure about how they will all fit together yet, possibly with some of my hand-woven Guatemalan fabric, or even with machine-made lace.

What do you think?  I'd really love some comments on this idea... combining my 5 x 7 challenge with the Salsa exhibit seems to kill two birds with one stone, yet maintain the spirit of my challenge to create each week.

You might also be interested in:

Planning an Exhibition

Scope Creep

The Art of Organization