Archive for March, 2016

and another one bites the dust…

Wednesday, March 30th, 2016

detail, Shadow Self

This month I finished Defining Moments #11. This piece is titled Shadow Self and hopefully is the last piece I ever do about being shortened. I wanted to make it simple yet impactful and know I accomplished that. I screen-printed text about mixed messages and body image onto both silk organza and commercial batiks. I took the 6″ slice from the current profile and embroidered it to the shadow. The most challenging aspect of this piece was the stitching as it is a whopping 76″ long. I keep pondering investing in a bigger machine, especially so when fighting with this much yardage plus batt.

I continue to love working on this series and soon will be halfway through it! Now I am ruminating on how to apply text most effectively for #12. One of the most remarkable things about completing this series so far is how many materials have come from my own stash and collection. I really have not purchased much cloth at all; although I did buy an entire roll of batting!

And coming up soon… the opening receptions and events of the Diaspora exhibit. I am honored to have my work included in this 5 month long exhibit at the renowned Textile Museum in Washington, DC . My daughter and I will go have a girls’ weekend and enjoy the festivities! Life is good.

Stories of Migration: Contemporary Artists Interpret Diaspora
April 16–September 4, 2016
In this juried and invitational exhibition, forty-four textile artists use the medium to comment on migration: historic events that scattered communities across continents; today’s accounts of refugees from Syria, Africa, and Latin America, and others adapting to new homes; and personal accounts of family members. Co-organized with Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) and with assistance from GW’s Diaspora Program in the Elliott School of International Affairs. Learn more at museum.gwu.edu/diaspora.

 

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reflections…

Friday, March 4th, 2016

I spent hours today looking for ‘new work’ to submit to two juried exhibits. It was a fruitless effort which brought up a major pet peeve on this subject. Dated work is something that happens predominantly in the quilt/art quilt world. It doesn’t happen so much, if ever in the fine art world. Galleries seldom, if ever, say no work made before 2013.

Since I have been engrossed in a three-year collaborative series since 2014 all my new work has been predominantly series work. I have taken time out to make a small piece for a fundraiser here or a members show there, but mostly nose to the grindstone on the collaboration. It galls me no end that entry prospectus writers/curators request work made since a particular date; and that said date is usually just one or two years prior to today.

Granted there are clueless people who will enter the first piece they ever made in 1990 but most professional artists do not enter work to (a) “get rid of it” or (b) that is not their best work. Why on Earth would I want to show work that does not speak to who I am as an artist? Besides if they did allow entries from 1990, these shows are juried so the old work can easily be found and plucked from the pile. Think of the money they could make from all these fees for old work submissions! Another subject for another day…

People might say, well just make a new piece that fits the parameters of the call. I could but some 7-8 years ago I vowed to never make work specifically for an entry call. Never say never but mostly I do not create work for someone else’s muse, only for my own. So that said I have nothing that fits the DATED call and so will not be entering my work. It is their loss really, as I see it. My work could add so much substance to their exhibit, were they not so rigid in their vision.

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