Simplicity versus Exuberance

I love looking at different fiber artist's work.  Even when it's very different from my personal style or taste, I generally find things I like about most pieces.  The couple I want to share with you tonight are also from the Whidbey Island Surface Design Association's recent exhibit up at the Schack Art Center in Everett, WA.

First, Janet Steadman displayed a stimulating series with bright stripes of color, even sweeps of quilting stitches, and a simplicity that made it all come together.  The series displayed together really works well... it makes me think of a library filled with books stacked to the ceiling. (I am a daughter of a librarian, so my house can look like this too!)

Janet Steadman's series "Keepers"
Fiber $375 each (set of six $2100)

Close-up of one of Janet Steadman's
"Keepers"

"Exuberance" by Fine Gelfand
Cotton & syntetic fabrics, fused & machine stitched $650

In contrast to Janet's style, Fine Gelfand's piece is a study in busy-ness.  The patterns and textures feel as though they are moving- spinning right off the piece.  Again, the colors are quite vivid and there is a sense of being somewhat like a traditional quilt, but you get a much different feel from this piece.    The name of this piece, "Exuberance" really says it all.

Detail of "Exuberance" by Fine Gelfand

Hope to have you join me for "Design Wall Weekend" blog linking party Friday-Sunday!

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Beginning to Exhibit- Tips to Manage Showing

I've been a bit over my head in preparing for the Salsa Exhibition that's coming up next month.  I'll be hosting the Contemporary QuiltArt Association jury at my house this coming weekend, to go through all the slides of entries and make decisions about the show.  Furthermore, I've been contacted by three other venues (two which I'd sent information to and one that was unsolicited) about potential shows for our group in the future.  More on these when I get them scheduled!

For those of you interested in showing, I have a bunch of management tools I've made to help me.  You might want to think about how you can incorporate similar tools to help yourself organize for exhibitions.

• I have a spreadsheet of all my quilts/art with their sizes, descriptions, the materials and techniques used on each, completion date, any awards or prizes it has won, the price, and whether there are dates that it is committed to be at an exhibition.
• I have a page of links to all the places I go to find potential exhibitions
• I have templates for the labels that I make for my quilts (which I print on fabric) so they have a consistent look.
• I have a list of the shows I am interested in showing at, have sent submissions to, and where I have work currently showing.  This includes links to the call to artists, the contact person and address, entry dates, when the quilt is due, the show run dates, and when the quilt is expected to be returned by.
• I even have a database of my library of fiber and art books (OK, this may be overboard, but I was raised by a librarian!)

"Rhapsody in Blue" by Ilene Rae Sorenson
Hard Core Kumihimo braiding, satin cord, mixed
yarns, wooden dowels, wire, wood frame $2400.

I think you probably get the drift.  I guess one of the challenges for me is to not get so caught up in making systems that I don't actually spend my time in the studio.  But, you can see that if you have multiple pieces going to various shows, making sure to track all this information can be critical.

Here's another wonderful piece from the Whidbey Island Surface Design Association's show.  This striking piece by Ilene Rae Sorenson is using a traditional Japanese braiding technique.  She collaborated with a local woodworker to design and build a specialized table for the braiding process.  

"Rhapsody in Blue" detail

I'm always thrilled to see a different type of fiber art... particularly those which mix the traditional with contemporary.  Although the monochromatic color scheme has very little light colors, there is enough differences in value and particularly texture to give a great deal of contrast, creating interest.  The long vertical cords create repetition and the curly ends crossing the columns breaks it up, creating movement.  I think this piece is very successful and beautiful.

I'm getting back to my 5 x 7 challenge this week... I'll have something to share soon.



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"Salsa" by Christina Fairley Erickson
Freehand Machine Embroidery, decorative stitching, freemotion quilting, trapunto

Fiber Art exhibit at the Schack Art Center

It's been a tough week.  Of course, completing my "Salsa" quilt and getting it entered in the Contemporary QuiltArt Association's (CQA) show (of the same name... Salsa), is a big achievement.  But perhaps it's a bit of a let-down too... I've put so much effort into this piece I'm not quite sure where to go from here.  I apologize for being offline this week- between taxes being due, having lots of work to get ready for the jury process for the Salsa show, and feeling a bit under the weather a couple days, I just didn't get much time at the computer.  I'll work at doing better over the next week.

"Pray for the Forest II" by Larkin J. Van Horn
Fabric, beads  $750.

I did get to a wonderful fiber art show of artists from the Whidbey Island branch of the Surface Design Association earlier this month at Schack Art Center in Everett.  Here are a couple of the wonderful pieces exhibited there.

"Compare and Contrast" by Liz Axford
3 layers silk organza- front and back layers
are screen-printed multiple times, hand-stitched
with cotton floss to reveal patterning $6500.

Design Wall Weekend #3 -- What do You Have on Your Design Wall?

What kind of blogs should link up?

I think that it's best to have content that matches the content and interests served with the blog that's hosting the party, so please only link up if your blog post is about any of the following:

• Quilting and fabrics 
• Fiber art of any kind
• Hand & machine stitch or embroidery
• Mixed media art
• Book-making, art journals, and sketchbooks
• Tutorials for any quilting, fiber, mixed media, sketchbook and other arts
• These can be works in progress or finishes

Rules for the blog linking party

• Mention Fiber Artist Journey in your post, either with a link or button-use the direct link to the specific post - not just your main blog website (this helps with your search engine position.)   If you have buttons on your sidebar that works great, please just at least mention something in your post, for example "I'm linking to Fiber Artist Journey, see my sidebar for their button."  An example of a link to a specific post would be: http://fiberartistjourney.blogspot.com/2013/04/red-hot-chili-peppers.html rather than http://fiberartistjourney.blogspot.com . If you need help on how to add your link, read this.

• If you follow my blog, I'll follow yours!  PLEASE make sure to comment and tell me you're following, and I'll visit and  follow yours too.)

• Please take the time to visit other links, everyone loves new visitors and comments!  Try to comment on at least two other blogs in the party.

If you would like to add a button to your blog you can copy the code which is below my buttons and add it as a gadget on the layout page of your blog. Here is a tutorial on how to do it.

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