Hi All-

I am just home form my wonderful experience in Philadelphia.  I am sorry if you checked in last week and there was no post.  I did the work on Wed and tried to post from the hotel on Thur eve- but I had no success.  Sometimes the technology is beyond me.

I did enjoy the drive down to as the trees are starting to open and things are greening up the father south one ventures.  When I went for walks along the river next to the hotel I saw Dog Tooth Violets and Blue Bells.   The Van Goth Up Close Show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art was my first stop.  It was amazing!  I had only seen to of the works presented before so my eyes where hungerly looking at each work.   I have always enjoyed his use of heavy paint- but I was not prepared for the use of the  color red.  There where paintings of grasses and fields in large numbers of green tons and shades and then Van Goth would throw in one ore two thin little dashes of red!   It would wake up my eye and make me look for more surprises.  I saw lots of red by the end of the show in all sorts of unusual  places like the weave in a basked of fruit or in a shadow.   I was jazzed by the end of the show and even though I tried to look at other exhibits  in the museum- that process was useless- I was viewing  brain full.  As my friend Barbara would say of the students when we would take them to the Museum of Modern Art- I had”museum feet”- and was overwhelmed and needed processing time to absorb it all.

The Identity:Context and Reflection conference sponsored jointly  by the Studio Art Quilt Association and Surface Design Association started on Friday morning.   There was a great lecture by Bruce Pepich titled ” Museums and Contemporary  Fiber Art: Where Are We Today?”.  He held up lots of hope for a strong growing interest in fiber works as a growing field for museums.  He also noted the changing complexion of fiber/weaving departments  in art schools curriculum’s as further proof of  the change in attitude toward this art.   The rest of the day continued with more information in the form of a slide show and two panel discussions about fibers.   The evening  included a trip to the Wayne Art Center where we participated in the opening and awards ceremony of the Art Quilt Elements 2012  Show.    What a visual feast that was too.  It was great to see and talk with so many of the artists about their work and have them explain about specific parts.   I purchased the catalogue and although is does not  have the impact of the actual event- I still find I am drooling over the images.   Perhaps I was sensitized to red by the Van Goth experience- but it seemed like there was a lot of red and orange in this show too.     Saturday morning we boarded buses and started touring Fibers Philadelphia.   There where nine spots on the tour with at least two galleries in each area and  five in several.   I took lots of photos for my own enjoyment- but because I did not get permission form the artists I will not post any of them.  I was amazed at the variety of images and materials from knitted  wire jewelry to the fanciful use pin tucks for building surfaces in a fine quilt.  For the second time I went back to the hotel with “museum feet” and  image fulled head.   The Sunday morning session was a good as Fridays had been.  Sandra Snider did an especially fun bit of roll playing to the theme ” And What do You Do?”   She helped us all see how we as Artist can approach this point at the beginning of conversations and present ourselves in a more positive light.   It was great.     I then hooked up with a three other gals, one from Texas and two from Oklahoma and we went back and visited three galleries we had missed the day before.   Our last top was the studio of one of Dianne Koppisch Hricko  who’s studio is housed in the same building as the  “In the Box out of the Box”  fiber show.    It is great to see another artists studio space.

   Dianne is primarily a fabric dyer who works a lot in silk.  She is the gal in the middle of the photo.  Michelle   Lasker  is far left, Janice Filler second,   Dianne,  Sharon Hedges is forth and I am on the far right.  For a second time I went to bed with lots of new fiber images in my head.

 

I was glad to get up on Monday and go to a workshop where I would be focusing on one thing.     Cameron Mason was my teacher and the class was Beyond the Surface:Sculptural Explorations with Soft Materials.   What fun for me!    She did a great little power o point to start us off . Them we did a little sketching and she demoed some ways of working and we  all went to work.  Our first markets where in paper and tape.  It was fun to see how things would fit together.   I settled on a open pyramid type form.   I continued my exploration of openings with this project too.   After the paper was worked out we moved onto cutting the forms in  Pentex.  She made us sew them together before we went forward even though we cut them apart.  This step allowed for design changes before the fabric was added.  The fabric made for a whole new set to design decisions.

 

                                                                                                                                                                     This is one of the units half way assembled.  I stopped and fray checked all the thread ends before I sewed the last side by hand.   I think now that I used too may fabrics in the three units- but this is a beginning project and not for a serious piece.

 

This shot shows all three finished units.  The wholes where the most fun.   I sure like the shadows and  sense they are not connected to one another yet I keep playing with new set ups.  They might even make a very nice mobile too.

 

 

 

There were as many different directions to the use of the materials as there were folks in the class. Only the Kathleen, who was setting across the table and I did geometric shapes.   You can sort of see the yellow box within the gray one from this photo. It was cool.   The others were wonderful too.  I want to keep playing with this idea and I hope to do some more natural forms in the future.

                                                                                                                                                                             Several of us did not get things at all completed( note the clips and the books inside the one on the far right.    It sure was a growth experience and something we all strive for when it comes to learning.

I am sure I will be playing catch up with myself for several days before I get back into the studio- but I am anxious to do so.

 

Keep Creating

Hugs

Carol