Jane Dunnewold Exhibition - San Antonio

While attending the SDA conference in San Antonio this year, a group of us got to see a collection of Jane Dunnewold's more recent work.

And, no, it wasn't whole cloth work.
Jane had given herself the challenge of working with plaster, sand and twigs.

A real departure from the work she is so well known for.

She has published a small book on this body of work.

 

 

 

Mark Makers at Victoria College of Art

Victoria College of Art - where the Mark Makers are presently having their first public exhibition. 

In the Drafting Studio, first on the right.
I will be taking my turn sitting the exhibition tomorrow.
Lots of people have been visiting so it will be busy.

This is the first time 'Hemoglobin: Chlorophyll II' has been out of my studio.
The artist statement:

How many breaths has this well-worn, opened-out pillow case absorbed?

Capillaries, veins and arteries make up the lungs of our planet. The sister molecules, hemoglobin and chlorophyll, the red and green, are responsible for the rhythm of our lives.

Familiar, used domestic linens allow me to communicate without the need for translation, to reach across time, and to honour the often anonymous original makers.

Domestic linens were dyed red or green, strip pieced, then the motifs free-motion machine stitched.

Mark Makers at Victoria College of Art

Mark Makers is a group of fibre artists who took classes at Victoria College of Art and wanted to continue getting together after the courses finished.
Yesterday they installed their first public exhibition of work.
This is what the Victoria College of Art studio looked like before they began - a blank canvas....

....filled.
This is just a teaser of how the 82 works have transformed the space.
We do hope you are able to make it to the exhibition.
It is runs August 11th to 17th, everyday, from 10 to 4pm.
There will be a closing reception on August 17th from 1 pm to 3pm, with most of the artists in attendance.
We do hope you can come and celebrate their achievements with them.

SDA Conference - UTSA Graduates

With the conference being held in June we were in time to see a graduates' exhibition at The University of Texas at San Antonio, in the Downtown Art Gallery.

I liked William Billy George's work. He studied at the Appalachian Centre for Crafts.
I looked closely at the folded paper and saw stitched letters.

I read the label. He called it 'Secret', so I looked at the work again, this time trying to find more.
This is just what the title of a work should do for the viewer - give a clue to take them deeper into the work and make them look at the work again.

First place went to a work installed high on the wall, above other works, with only just enough light on it to see some detail.
Julie Shipman cut up and cut out sections of a weathered door and added what looked like corrugated cardboard. The label said Paverpol was used, probably to stiffen the cardboard.
It certainly was a strangely intriguing work - to see something so familiar looking so not right. A door on its side, stuck high on the wall, cut up and its insides showing. Hmmm...

SDA Conference Exhibition at the International Centre

The artists

The labels were intriguing.

Jay Rich, 'Indigo Butterflies'

'Indigo Butterflies', detail - side view

Lisa Grey, 'After the Fall' series, 22" h x 15" w, leaf prints

Lisa Grey, 'After the Fall' series, 22" h x 15" w, leaf print

Lisa Grey, 'Morphology I-XII', 10" x 10", mixed media collage

Lisa Grey, 'Morphology IX'
oops, this work is standing on its side and I can't rotate an image while posting.
But don't you think it still reads well and looks great?

..and another in the series.

There were so many other appealing works in this exhibition but I didn't have time to photograph any more before it was time to get back onto the bus and head out to the next gallery.

SDA are to be congratulated on their exceptional organization of Gallery Day.
All members visited all of the exhibitions without any stress or overheating - quite an accomplishment in San Antonio summer heat!

Another SDA Conference Exhibition - Elise Deringer & Kelsey Wiskirchen

'Looking Through: New Work from Elise Deringer (right) & Kelsey Viola Wiskirchen' (left) at the AnArte Gallery, San Antonio.

A close up of  'Olivia Wade and Lizzie' shows Kelsey's signature technique - free motion stitch over net.

This work is huge, 100" w x 53" h.
The gallery was barely wide enough to get back far enough to view the work.

The lighting added another dimension to Kelsey's works, creating repeated lines on the white walls.

Here is a low quality image of another large work where Kelsey drew with her machine a page from her journal.

'Residue #9 (Why I Wake Early)', 3 pieces, each 40" x 13"
Elise Dereinger's work is very different - opaque where Kelsey's is transparent.
Here Elise has run ink and sand inside silk, dyed pillow-case forms. Her spontaneity and lines-left-to-chance contrast with Kelsey's intense pre-planning.
I was sorry I couldn't get more images of Elise's work.

'Memory, poetry, and landscape come together in this two-person exhibition that examines internal self, the external world , and the space between.'

Maria Shell - SDA Conference Exhibition, San Antonio

Another stunning exhibition at the SDA conference was a collection of Maria Shell's quilts, at Gallery Nord.

"Color Grids"

Every quilt was made using the same quilt block.

But Maria played with 'line, shape, print, and color' to produce a collection of technically exquisite and very different quilts.

The quilts were installed in a 3-sided booth, which made viewers move in a complex dance back and forward between the walls as they looked, compared, and looked again as discoveries were made.

2013 SDA Exhibition - Kathryn Clark

Foreclosure Quilts
This is the intro members got before viewing Kathryn Clark's work:
"Clark's life as an architect and urban planner influences her work as an artist. As the foreclosure crisis spiraled out of control, this exhibit took its form from foreclosure maps that marked the disintegration of neighborhoods in major U.S. cities."
Many of us had also previously read articles about her work.

'Detroit Foreclosure Quilt' 

But I wasn't prepared for the impact of her work.
The fabric was torn and roughly cut away. Each exposed, raw, red shape documented the upheaval of family homes or businesses.

We had all heard the statistics but Kathryn's quilted cloth mapped out the reality of the situation.

She translated the collected numbers into a story the viewer could relate to.

Back to the SDA conference

Portia Roy's work was captivating - obviously very personal although her artist statement tells of universal trauma to the human body.

I found her series of small works repulsed me while at the same time they drew me in.
I've never experienced that before, while standing in front of art.

In another way I was captivated by the simplicity and complexity of work by Dawn Scent (Wei Sun).
She has used the essential design elements to show atmospheric perspective in a classical Chinese landscape scene - Xia Gao?

By using the simplest of techniques -burning silk to give a brown edge - she singed the fabric using burning incense - a strong and, at the same time, subtle reference to the sense of place and to her inherited culture.
Masterful!

Mark Makers Exhibition

Mark Makers is a group of fibre artists who all met up in the Lower Studio of the Victoria College of Art, Victoria BC.
They studied mark making by hand with the threaded needle and mark making with the sewing machine,  and some went on to study the design of repeating patterns.
They enjoyed being together as a group so much they have continued to meet regularly to share, support and inspire, to have workshops, go to exhibitions together, and movies, and go on a retreat for the weekend.
These mark makers have decided it is time to show what they have been creating.
They are having their first exhibition of fine arts textiles in the college where they got together.
The exhibition opens on Sunday August 11 and closes on Saturday August 17 with a closing reception from 1 to 3 pm.
The rest of the week the exhibition will be open from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm with artists in attendance at all times.
Groups can phone Eileen, 250 592 9404,  to arrange a tour led by attending artists.

If you are in town I do hope you can get to the college to see this exhibition of fine arts textiles.