Fiber Art Philadelphia: “Mending = Art” at Borowsky Gallery

Guest curator and participating artist Diane Savona gathers together twelve artists in “Mending=Art” on display through May 6 at the Gershwin Y, Borowsky Gallery, 401 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA. Open Mon- Sun,  9 AM – 5PM,

Savona writes that mending has been historically viewed at the low end of craft, “merely a humble necessity.” The artists that she has selected for the show “invert that scale, using mending as an art process, as social activism and as a statement of personal identity.”

 Diane Savona, Repair Manual, silkscreen and sewing on fabric, bound in spiral notebook, 12” x 24”. Sections of text about mending are interspersed with line drawings and text about retinal surgery.

Selections from Erin Endicott’s “Healing Sutra” series. The artist stains and embroiders vintage family textiles, signifying the healing of old emotional wounds.

 

This traditional Japanese boro (heavily darned old garments) from the early 1900’s is an exquisite example of the care that once went into preserving personal possessions.

                                        Detail of the mended cloth on the pant leg.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dorothy Caldwell, Lake, wax resist, discharged cotton, stitching, earth, 13” x 13”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dorothy Caldwell, Bowl, wax resist, discharged cotton, stitching, earth, 13” x 13”

 Dorothy Caldwell shines in any exhibition with her powerful works. Ideas of darning, mending and sewing combine with observations of the rural landscape and its cycles of plowing, planting and harvesting. The small punctuations of color seem to signify homesteads on the vast surface of the landscape.

Libbie Soffer’s Journal from the Studio, 35 pieces approximately 14” x 14” each. Muslin, silks, rayon, silkscreen, embroidery, heat transfer, marker, cotton, sewn with red thread. Using fragments from garments and old textiles, the artist creates a visual journal of women’s lives.

The artists in “Mending=Art” are: Dorothy Caldwell, Erin Endicott, Janet Haigh, Amy Houghton, Ilaria Margutti, Wolfie E. Rawk, Diane Savona, Barbara Shapiro, Libbie Soffer, Sally Spinks, Michael Swaine, Jan Vormann.

Fiber Philadelphia 2012: Snyderman-Works

 

I drove to Philly for the SAQA/SDA conference last weekend and joined other attendees on Saturday trying to fit in as many gallery visits as possible offering Fiber Philadelphia exhibitions. Since there were over 40 scheduled exhibitions for this bi-annual event, time did not permit my visiting more than a small selection of the venues in one day. I’ll plan to spend more time there in 2014.

The 8th International Fiber Biennial at Snyderman-Works runs through April 28. It is a stunning show in an attractive, generous space that presents both large and small scale works beautifully. Dorothy Caldwell’s large-scale new piece, below on the right, had ample space to be viewed and appreciated.

 

My first introduction to Lanny Bergner’s work , above, was at a lecture he gave at the 2011 Surface Design Association Conference in Minneapolis. I loved the display of his mesh “containers” in heat-treated copper.

Equally exciting were Warren Seelig’s new steel and rock “weavings”. Above is a detail shot. The full work is easily 5 x 7 feet.

In addition to the gallery, there is also a wonderful gift shop adjacent to the downstairs gallery that offers unusual fine contemporary crafts for sale.

This year’s invitational artists at Snyderman Work’s Fiber Biennial are: Adela Akers, Kate Anderson, Lucy Arai, Dorothy Gill Barnes, Pamela Becker, Lanny Bergner, Mary Bero, Karin Birch, Yvonne Bobrowicz, Dorothy Caldwell, Kai Chan, Sonya Clark, Lia Cook, Virginia Davis, Carol Eckert, Katie Henry, Lissa Hunter, Susan Iverson, Michael James, Christine Joy, Nancy Koenigsberg, Lewis Knauss, Gyongy Laky, Ed Bing Lee, Jacqueline Rush Lee, Mi-Kyoung Lee, Pazia Manella, Margarita Cabrera, Shizuko Kimura, John McQueen, Nancy Merritt, Dorie Millerson, Norma Minkowitz, John Paul Morabito, Marilyn Pappas, Leslie Pontz, Jill Powers, Ann Coddington Rast, Joh Ricci, Jon Eric Riis, Betsabee Romero, Amanda Salm, Joyce Scott, Piper Shepard, Hisako Sekijima, Cynthia Schira, Tilleke Schwartz, Warren Seelig, Joseph Shuldiner, Hillary Steel, Wendeanne Ke`aka Stitt, Louise Strawbridge, Jo Stealey, Missy Stevens, Deborah Warner, Katherine Webb, Jeanne Williamson, and Grethe Wittrock.

 

 

Arena Art Group Reception at FLCC

 

The Arena Art Group’s  opening reception on Friday March 23 at Finger Lakes Community College’s Williams-Insalaco Gallery 34 showcased 15 of our members’ works beautifully. Above is one of a series of ceramic sculptures by Nancy Valle. My work is behind it on the left and Dan Neuberger’s photography piece behind it on the right. The gentleman talking with two visitors is Stu Chait, an architect who creates abstract compositions on canvas by pouring layers and layers of watercolors.

 

This intriguing oil painting by Wendy Menzie sold quickly.

Jeffery Young, left,  the group’s treasurer, is a photographer and yoga teacher.

FLCC hired professional photographer Rikki Van Camp to take images at the opening. She spent time with each exhibiting artist and took shots of them in front of their works. This is Zanne Brunner in front of one of her gouache paintings of a tree spirit.

This image shows a mask piece from a new ceramic series that Richard Harvey, a mixed media artist, has been exploring.

The Arena Art Group’s next exhibit together will be in June, a show called “Anything Goes” at the Black Radish Studio in Rochester.

Inspired by the Masters: An Atelier Class Experience

 

 

I am intrigued by figure drawing and try to attend a figure drawing session in my building several times a month. Drawing hands has been one area that has frustrated me. When my upstairs studio neighbor, talented portrait artist Suzi Zefting Kuhn, offered a one-day class in her studio recently to “demystify” and draw the human hand, I knew I wanted to attend.

We met in the Rochester Art Club gallery space on the fourth floor of the Hungerford Building, where I have my own studio on the third floor. Suzi offered the class the choice of working  from photographic images that she had selected or from a plaster cast. Since I had never tried drawing from a plaster cast and it is already three dimensional, I chose that for my reference.

 

My perspective on the plaster cast from where I sat.

 

Suzi, our teacher, is standing at the right. Pat Tribastone, left, who works in oil and pastel and creates beautiful still life oil paintings, has a studio two doors down from mine.

 

At the end of the day, the class members displayed their drawings. Each one of us gained greater understanding of the hand’s anatomy and how to simplify and draw its shapes. Can you guess which drawing is mine???

There will be more drawing classes in my future. It truly heightened my sense of observation as well as offered me the opportunity to appreciate and learn from a wide variety of drawing styles.

 

Here’s my first drawing of a plaster cast hand! I kept wondering why it seemed so stiff and expressionless and then I realized – it’s a plaster cast!! It doesn’t HAVE any expressiveness. Next time I’ll work from a real one or a photo!!

Rochester First Friday Hot Spot: Hungerford Open Studios

When I first rented a studio space 10 years ago at the Hungerford, a complex of three buildings at 1115 East Main Street in Rochester, NY ( a former fruit syrup factory) I found a few artist studios, lots of empty spaces and a revolving door of student and alternative lifestyle tenants. Situated “across the tracks” —literally, there’s a huge train yard directly behind the building –from the chic “neighborhood of the arts”, all the building seemed to have to offer was low rent and easy parking.

Slowly but surely, over the past decade more and more artisans of all ages and mediums have moved to this eclectic spot. Now the building boasts 100% occupancy with a waiting list for artists and makers eager to claim a studio space here. Young mix with old, craft with fine art, cast bronze figurative sculptures and oil paintings with miniature crochet sculptures and hand blown glass. From pottery to lamp work jewelry to three-dimensional felted fiber works, the building has a dynamic mix of personalities and mediums.

Once again, for the second year, a number of Hungerford artists participated in Thaw, a city-wide collaboration of small gallery exhibits that opened on First Friday, March 2.  Works in this years Thaw: Flux Annual exhibit at Hungerford ran the gamut from an undersea balloon art installation to photography and encaustic paintings.

 

 Eclectic was and is the best adjective to describe the mix in our building. Hungerford Urban Artisans, the tenant artists’ membership group, is now an official member of First Fridays, which publicizes openings in galleries and private studios all around the city. Hungerford now needs three security guards on First Fridays to keep the parking lots free from congestion and traffic flowing smoothly.

Our next First Friday event is Friday, April 6, 5 – 9 PM, just two weeks away. To entice you to visit, here are a few additional works from the Thaw exhibition for you to enjoy.

 

Artists above, top to bottom. Stacey Mrva, Coy Fish Lamp and Jennifer Buckley, Garden Tea Party.

Warning, one evening is just not enough time to visit all the Hungerford artist studios, unless you like to sprint! Take time to linger, talk with the artists and enjoy yourself – and come back again! We’re friendly, passionate about our work and love to share how we make it.

March Exhibitions & Openings

Finger Lakes Community College: Williams Insalaco Gallery 34

If you live in the Rochester area, please visit Finger Lakes Community College’s Williams-Insalaco Gallery 34 in Canandaigua to view “The Arena Art Group Exhibition”, March 22- April 20. Gallery hours are Monday-Thursday, 8:30 AM – 9:00 PM, Friday 8:30 AM – 5 PM and Saturday and Sunday 12-5 PM. I will be one a selection of fifteen Arena Group members whose work will be on display.

The opening reception will be Thursday, March 22, 1-3 PM with informal artist talks, 2 to 3 PM.

The FLCC Foundation is sponsoring an evening reception Friday, March 23,  from 4:00- 6:30 PM. Both receptions are free and open to the public.

The beautiful images on the poster and postcard belong to, from left to right: Dan Neuberger, Jeanne Beck, Richard Harvey, and Stu Chait. I was quite pleased that the college’s graphic design staff selected my painting for publicity.

Made in New York 2012, Schweinfurth Art Center

My “Pages 4” piece is heading off to Auburn, NY  this week for Made in New York 2012, a juried exhibition at Schweinfurth Art Center.  I’m delighted to be included in this exhibition, which is always a wonderful mix of mediums and ideas.

 

 

“Made in New York 2012” runs March 31- May 20, 2012. The reception and awards ceremony will be Saturday, March 31, 3-5 PM.

Communicating through Making

 

“Art is a very high, rarified form of communication,” John Frame says in these videos that I discovered at Daily Art Muse. 

John describes his creative system in the first video as a triangle that combines intellectual, technical elements and emotionally authentic experiences, which are “woven together by intuition, which rests at the center.”

His multi-faceted, slow process of bringing creative visions to life, so clearly articulated in these videos, is  both comforting and affirming for all of us who love the creative process. These are made all the richer by the addition of his own original musical score. Clearly a maker whose intuition guides his creative choices, I am touched by the stillness and concentration that brings his ideas into realization.

It does not matter what tools or medium we choose to use to create. It does matter that we seek clarity, focus and connection with what is true and meaningful to us. When we do that as artists, our work becomes infused with strength and emotional content.