Carol Larson - textile artist

Today hubs and I took a field trip to see Earth Stories at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles. The stars aligned with a dry forecast, moderate weekend traffic as opposed to heavier weekday traffic and best of all no Super Bowl festivities! We returned through San Francisco on a gorgeous clear, sunny winter’s day. It was well worth the trip and a fun date!

All the work juried into this exhibit dealt with an environmental issue. My work Torn Earth celebrates the work of Architecture for Humanity, a non-profit firm dedicated to building a more sustainable future through the power of professional design. The organization’s projects focus on post-disaster development, design and reconstruction of seismic resistant housing.

I had perused the exhibit catalog but there is nothing like seeing the work up close and personal. It was really intriguing to see how each artist dealt with their own particular cause. I was really pleased that my work was installed correctly and that the journal of my work was holding up well despite lots of travel and handling. Several of the journals were falling apart; some were detailed and interesting while others left me wondering about the artist’s process.

The pieces I most wanted to see did not disappoint, like Dutch artist, Mirjam Pet-Jacobs’ Light Towers about energy saving lightbulbs. The piece was silk organza with lights wired within the layers. The engineering feat alone was impressive, and made an impact; yet it had to be flexible enough to pack and ship abroad.

Another that had caught my eye was Alternative vs. Fossil Fuels by Cynthia St. Charles. Her extensively screen-printed background was stunning and engaging using different texts, in varied fonts but in similar color paint.

Kathy Nida’s Wise Choice was a piece was one that could be examined for hours. There was so much intricate detail. Just beautiful and intriguing work!

Both Kathy York’s Crowded House

and Paula Kovarik’s Stream of Consequences were chock full of surprise. Kathy decided to count the stuff in her house which took her six months. She then wrote all the 56344 items on the work. After the exhibit will she have 56345?

One could’ve breezed by Paula’s and think, oh, pretty work, until stepping closer to examine the stitching which was remarkable. The story lie in the details!

Mary Pal’s cheesecloth image of Dr. George Archibald in Hope is the Thing With Feathers was really gorgeous.

While Valya’s He Knew That She Knew That I Know was stunning on a bright red wall. The detail was as interesting as the entire piece.

I also loved Marion Coleman’s Tender Gardens about community gardens in San Francisco’s Tenderloin where there are no grocery stores.

And Leni Levenson Wiener’s It’s A Shell of a Problem about the endangered turtle and tortoise species worldwide

Lynn Krawczyk’s Latte Landfill was about 40% of stuff in the landfill being paper products and coffee cups.

And Noriko Endo’s Woodland, another intricate and stunning piece from her woods series

The exhibit is up until February 28. You might want to go see it!