Quilting Arts, Thanks to Martha and Sue

Martha Wolfe's article on one of Viewpoints9's Challenge

Coincidentally both Martha Wolfe's article about Viewpoints9's Challenge of Nine article and Sue Bleiweiss' about writing an artist statement appeared in the same issue.  Someone is a lucky girl ;^)

Alicia Merritt's  and my contributions

Sue Bleiweiss' article on writing an Artist Statement

SAQA -Norcal Matting Party

Those Pixeladies know how to party...just sayin' ;^)  I tagged along with my buddy Martha Wolfe to a matting party hosted by Deb Cashett and Kris Suzaki.  The group matted and slipped into cellophane envelopes 50+ gorgeous 4"x 6" art quilts donated for the SAQA Conference in Santa Fe April 25-28.  It was quite a pleasure for several reasons.  First, seeing Deb and Kris again was great.  Second, meeting other members of the SAQA-Norcal group, including one of their new co-reps was a great pleasure.  Third, working with the art work up close and personal was a real treat.

Hard at work: Gayle Simpson and Martha Wolfe, standing.  Noelle Olson, Dee Danley-Brown,  Kris and Jenny Lyon

Feasting:  Gayle, Deb, Noelle, Dee, Chris, Jenny and Martha

And, fourth, Deb and Kris supplied a very yummy and colorful lunch.  Convivial company, lovely weather, gorgeous art work AND food!?   It doesn't get better than that.

I know where I will be Friday night, April 26 7-9pm, cash in hand:  at the Santa Fe Spotlight and Dessert Reception Silent Auction.  Art and food?  Are we seeing a pattern here?

So, if you are going to be in Santa Fe, plan on bidding!  You will be in for a treat.

Albany Bulb

The 'Bulb' is a peninsula owned by the town of Albany, adjacent to Berkeley CA.  It has been created over the decades with debris from construction...it's filled with concrete and rebar and wild flowers, invasive 'weeds' blooming, interesting rusted bits and volunteer flowers from goodness knows where. Martha Wolfe took us for a visit yesterday.

Dumping was suspended in 1987 in an effort to save the bay from pollution.  Subsequently it has become a walking trail and dog walk, filled with sculptures and urban art.

 Here's, in part, what wikipedia has to say about the Sculptures.

 Sculptor and activist lawyer Osha Neumann has created some of the largest works. He often collaborates with Jason DeAntonis. Sniff, a group of artists composed of Scott Hewitt, Scott Meadows and David Ryan, painted large, highly imaginative "murals" on wood and erected more sculptures on the northwest corner of The Bulb. Another Bulb landmark, referred to as "The Castle," is a large concrete, rebar and plaster shelter which sits on the south west corner of the Bulb, directly opposite the Golden Gate Bridge. The Bulb has been used for informal concerts and even a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest presented by We Players, a Bay Area site-specific theatre company.

You might be interested in what else the wiki has to say  The weather was seasonal: cool (we wore several layers) and very windy (several kite and wind surfers).  AND, a lively, friendly shanty town of homeless.  

Sample of graffiti

Martha Wolfe photographing The Castle

Fog rolling into Berkeley in background

Settling in

We have arrived at our final destination.  Well, semi-final.  In the here and now, not metaphysical sense.

Ray and Martha

We drove just 45 minutes to Davis yesterday to meet old Guilford friend and art quilter extraordinaire Martha Wolfe and her family. Fortunately she saved seeing the Ray Eames show at The California Museum in Sacramento until we were there to attend with her.  It was wonderful!!  Thank you, Martha!

The other wonderfully fun thing we have been doing is antiquing/thrifting.  It is usually very profitable...again, not in any real physical way...;^) actually quite the opposite.  However, I only act on the really good finds.  Witness this last pic...Russel Wright, Nambe, Brook Park and some Dansk.  (Okay, if one of my kids reads this she's going to say "Brook Park?! Don't we have enough?"  But, I'm thinking about the future when little people or person un-named goes to college and needs to have her stuff with her.  You'll see)

We are not planning far in the future (except for that kid going to college).  We will be doing day trips.  Stay tuned.

Home Again, Home Again.....

I almost lost hope in making it to Houston's International Quilt Festival this year.  Hurricane Sandy had other plans for the day I had chosen to fly.  After several canceled flights, I finally, at 2am (!), arrived at my accommodations that I was sharing with my buddy Martha Wolfe whose gorgeous piece Stockholm Winter was included in the Seasonal Palette exhibit. (check out her blog to see it)

It was SO worth the harried hassle and worry to travel there!!  Friends...new and old!  Quilts!  Art! Vendors!  Photo Ops!  Food! ;^)  Oh, my, we had fun!

I have to say the SAQA exhibits were WONDERFUL!  Understandably, we couldn't take pics...even better there are catalogues....beautiful catalogues too.  (be sure to order yours from SAQA) I especially liked the added feature of the artists' process journals available to peruse at the Seasonal Palette exhibit.  Unfortunately two or three of the participating artists' journals had gone missing and were, therefore, unavailable...but those that were there were a REAL plus.

I took hundreds of photos and it's hard to choose which to post as favorites.  These three happened to get photographed more than once on subsequent meanderings in the exhibits.  That must mean something.

Next time I'll post the SAQA Benefit Auction 12" Square Art Quilts (yes, that's plural) that I 'won'.  I told you I had fun.

Amsterdam Alley by Leslie Tucker Jenison from San Antonio TX

Cold Winds by Takako Ishinami from Yamaguchi Japan

Moon Sisters by Stacy Hunt from Orange CA

DOUBLE TAKE: Photo and Fiber/Reinstalled (AGAIN!)

My art quilt group, Sisters in Cloth, has been very fortunate with our collaborative exhibit with photographer Rosemary DeLucco-Alpert.

Our first invitation to exhibit at Haskins Labs at Yale University coincided with the development of our collaboration...... using a selection of Rosemary's flower photographs as inspiration. While it was there, Rosemary had the opportunity to exhibit at the Guilford Free Library in its new gallery space. She asked us to share the opportunity and move the collection when it came down in June. Then, providentially, Rosemary went out to a local restaurant after the Library opening, ran into the Art Director of Connecticut Hospice in nearby Branford and was invited to "travel" the exhibit there for Nov-Jan.

With all of Rosemary's other teaching gigs and photography work, I stepped up to liaision with CT Hospice. Because of that freaky snowstorm mentioned in my last post, we could not hang the 43 (!) pieces as my excellent hanging team had planned. Instead brave "Sister" Barb Adams and I partnered to hang it two days later.

In the top photo Linda Zimmerman and I interpret Rosemary's Three Roses. Next is Yvette Howard's Blue Hydrangea. The second photo (L-R) includes Martha Wolfe's Asian Lily, Linda Zimmerman's Pink Hydrangeas, and Debbie Bento's Sunflower.

CT Hospice is situated on a gorgeous campus, formerly a country club...oops, I've been corrected by my buddy Barb Adams,...actually it was formerly a corporate headquarters, overlooking Long Island Sound. The exhibition space is open to all. It's a meeting space with gently curving walls, a wide vista of the Sound and devoted to art exhibits. Actually, the curved walls helped Barb and me decide not to be fussy about hanging the frames in any uniform way. We chose to create visual pairings. It might be fortunate that the hanging team wasn't involved after all. They are all much more fastidious about details and exactness and we'd probably still be there hanging the last frames.

This last photo was shot by just turning around from the exhibit and shooting through the windows. That's a bit of the view. It's a very beautiful.

Double Take: Photo and Fiber

Our most recent project is up! Crack hanging crew (Barb and Roger Adams, Yvette Howard, Linda Zimmerman, Dave and Diane Wright) got it up in three hours yesterday.

The theme of the exhibit is a pairing of the work of professional photographer Rosemary DeLucco-Alpert with Sisters in Cloth's interpretations in fabric of her flower photos.

After we had taken on this project, one of our members, Janine Anderson-Bays, developed an invitation to exhibit at the Gallery @ Haskins, Yale University. When we suggested this pairing of media to the staff at Haskins they were very keen on hosting it.

March 3, 5-7pm the Gallery is hosting an artists' reception. The exhibit will be up through June.

The two pieces in the lobby are Purple and White Iris by Ruth Anne Olson and Rose Alpert and Asian Lily by Martha Wolfe and Rose Alpert. Incidentally this is the combination on the gorgeous postcard created for the event by the Gallery.

The second pic shows the section exhibiting Carol Ludington and Rose Alpert's White Jamaica Bougainvillea and Evelyn Judson and Rose Alpert's Coleus.

And, hot off the press....the count is in. We were invited to travel this exhibit to the gallery space at The Guilford Free Library in July and the ayes have it (with no nays).

Where's Waldo?

Actually, the cat's name is Tate.

We travelled to Florida to visit our grandchildren/south. We're no fools: we plan our visits in the winter. This year we missed two snow storms.

We meandered down attending a fiftieth wedding anniversary in Cumberland MD, an Aboriginal Art exhibit in Charlottesville VA (www.virginia.edu/kluge-ruhe), and friends and rels along the way.

One of our favorite stops is with my friend Martha Wolfe (http://thepinkganeshji.blogspot.com). I got lucky this year and was able to meet some of her art quilt buddies. Show and tell is always a treat. I shot this pic of some of her stash...the cat's cubby is about five feet off the floor.

We're on our way home tomorrow...weather permitting. Weather here is nice but north of us more snow is predicted. Unfortunately we can't linger longer. We're braving the elements and heading home.