Textile Exhibition

The Victoria College Of Art - Textile Exhibition by Articulation


NARRATIVE ARTICULATIONS is a show of cross-Canada work by nine Canadian contemporary textile artists, all City and Guilds of London Institute trained. Each year the group, Articulation, goes to a special place in Canada to do a study together, then they return to their respective studios across Canada to produce a body of work based on the study. The next year they exhibit the work. Articulation has had two residencies at the Banff Center, Banff, Alberta. They are currently working on a body of work to be exhibited in the Whyte Museum, Banff, in September 2011.

Curated by Lesley Turner, the Victoria College of Art - Fine Art Textiles instructor, the free exhibition will fill the walls at the college with over 50 textile-based works. The artists will be in attendance during the opening reception, tours, demonstrations and workshops throughout the course of the show, which will run from August 27th to September 10th.

Opening reception will be held Friday, Aug 27th at 6:30 pm at the Victoria College of Art, at 1625 Bank Street.

On Saturday 28th & Sunday 29th August and Saturday 4th & Sunday 5th September there will be artist-led tours at 1 pm and 3 pm and demonstrations/workshops from 2 to 3 pm.

All events are free.

For more information, email info@vca.ca or call the school at 250-598-5422.

http://www.vca.ca/

NARRATIVE ARTICULATIONS

Friday, August 27, 2010 at 6:30pm

1625 Bank Street, Victoria BC

One Word Wednesday

Timeless

Exhibition Photos

Last night was the opeing reception for Current Threads, the Vancouver Island Surface Design Association's first show. 15 artists exhibited their work, including embroiderers, quilters, weavers, wearable artists and more. It was my first art exhibtion and I was thrilled to be there and see so many people admiring our work. Fortunately the weather had cooled off and the venue was quite comfortable.
Here I am with friends Alison Kobylnyk, a quilter (http://www.alicrafts.com/), and Linda Wallace (http://www.americantapestryalliance.org/AP/ArtistBio/WallaceL.html), a tapestry weaver.

A view of the the Gallery, check it out at: http://www.ladysmithwaterfrontgallery.com/lwagblog/

and my smiling face with two of my pieces: 

An exciting day!

One Word Wednesday

Slumbering

More Exhibition Work

Time ran away with me and I'm back at the computer to update the rest of my Exhibition work. One aspect of my course in Art and Design was to make an Artist Study. A couple of months again I asked friends on the QuiltArt list for their recommendations and had so many options! Thanks everyone!
The object of the study wasn't to copy their work but rather to examine the artist's use of imagery, their colour palette and style. The artist could be our own choice but Gail recommended choosing someone who wasn't heavily stylized, or limited in their palette. So Pollock wasn't an option or William Morris.
I had thought that Dale Chihuly and his glass work might be a good choice but really couldn't determine how I would interpret 3 dimensional work at 2-D art. I'd like to study his work some other time as I think it could be quite inspiring.
I finally decided that Freiderich Hundertwasser was a great choice. Lots of colour, strong lines, a wide range of work and a variety of imagery. I made a small thumbnails of parts of his art that spoke to me. I looked at the colours in his palette (nothing wimpy about his choices!) and created a sketch book.

From that book I worked on two larger pieces. The first one had a painted ground in softer colours and then collage of windows and doors in the blues. The green circles formed trees. If you look for his painting entitled Loewengasse-the Third Skin you might see how I was inspired.

The second piece was so much fun, I really enjoyed working on the entire process. Hundertwasser used spirals in much of his work, they were a very important image in so many of his painting and its common to see them scattered thoughout in many shapes and forms. The spiral was my inspiration for this piece of painted and collaged papers. I am simply itching to create it in fabric and masses of stitch! If you'd like to see more of Hundertwasser's work, check out this website: http://www.hundertwasser.at/index_en.php

So what did I learn from this artist study?  .....so much about looking and observation, taking elements of their work and determining their palette, making colour studies of a few paintings. Learning about their life, what inspired them to create, their impact on the art world and much more. I'll continue to do artist studies on my own, I think it helps my work and stretches me to work better. I've chosen Klimt as my next one....

Comments and thoughts?

Design Notes Newsletter

The latest issue of my newsletter is hot off the press! Check it out here: http://tinyurl.com/24gdqev
Or email me and ask to be added to my distribution list.
Thanks for reading..................

Graduation Exhibition

I'm home now and catching up on studio and quilt work, plus a bit of sleep. The Exhibition was a great success, lots of people visiting including family and friends. We began on Tuesday, the 13th ,to prepare our displays, finish all the little bits of painting and preparation....actually that took 4 days! I learned so much about how to display my work, how important it is to view work from a distance and what looks best when placed side by side.....
The Exhibition opened on Saturday and was part of the Whidbey Island Studio Tour, so we had people interested in all different art forms.
Here's my work space while I was finishing some bits and pieces, along with the very bare wall:

then, magically its transformed into a gallery!

My main design theme was paisley and I arranged some pages of my sketchbook to show different design ideas I had using stamped images. Here it is as a rough mock-up, feet included!

And here is the final piece on the wall.

I created a collage piece using lots of texture with acrylic gels, paper and stamps. I loved doing this type of work and found it was a meditative process of going back into the work again and again, building up layers and layers of colour.....

Another exercise in texture with four small pieces, again mediums, and layers and layers of colour....

I teach Shiva sticks a lot in my classes and use them extensively on fabric. Here is an exercise about blending colours on paper and working texture into the colour. I'm preferring the matte colours on paper now, rather than the iridescent. Did you know that there are recommended papers to use with Shiva?

This little piece is all about texture, paper rolls adhered onto the background and then lots of paint and mediums, so much fun! The light spot in the centre is a camera issue...

so that's a quick little tour of some of the work. Tomorrow I'll post some more.....

My Art and Design Exhibition

Please consider joining me at my graduation exhibition on July 17th and 18th in Oak Harbour, WA. for further information you can email me at info@susanpm.com

I'll be posting picutres of some of my work over the next few days but there's nothing like seeing it in person!

A Visit with Nine Patch Media

Today Daphne and I took a drive up to Comox, here on Vancouver Island to visit the studio of Nine Patch Media http://ninepatchmedia.com/. Nine Patch Media is a Canadian company specializing in instructional DVDs. Technical Director Chris Manuel, a former Disney producer, brings 20 years in media production. Five-time published author Sharon Pederson is an internationally renowned quilting instructor. Elizabeth Phillips brings 25 years in marketing, from consumer electronics to tourism.
Daphne and I have known Sharon and Elizabeth for a number of years and thought it was time to see what actaully happens behind the "scenes" in their beautifully bright and spacious studio.

Here Sharon and Elizabeth discuss some of the process for creating the DVDs.

Three smiling faces, Daphne is on the right.

I'll keep you posted!

Nature at its Best

Last week my DH and I spent a week on Pender Island. After rebuilding the deck we got the kayaks out and have a couple of wonderful paddles around the island, exploring some areas. On the last morning of our holiday we paddled out to Razor Point and passed some interesting spots.

We see lots of colour when we're out, the starfish are often wonderfully surprising purples and oranges. Mr. Seal is dappled greys and browns.

The water was so calm the reflections were almost perfect. We kept on paddling and saw an eagle in the distance. I paddled closer.......

and closer, kept taking pictures and paddling closer. Until I got within 25 feet, he just kept staring at me. I took this last picture and paddled away. He eventually flew off after I had left. Life is full of wonderful memories, especially when we can get off the roads and sidewalks..................