Working in a Series, Lisa Call

 

If you've been reading me regularly, you'll know my word for the year is COMMIT (even if I haven't written it out loud!) I try each day to commit to what is most important, at the top of the list, and I put making art on that list (and at the top) as often as possible. Now in mid-February, it is remarkable to note how quickly the calendars fill up, how loud the competing voices for attention become, and how the realities of money, time and space make themselves known. 

But, just as I get a bit discouraged a lagnaippe appears (you know lagnaippe, right -- the free, unexpected, pat-on-the-back bonus, extra-cookie-in-the- box kind of surprise). Lisa Call featured four of my current series on her blog post today, and paid me great compliments, too.

Head over and take a look; http: at Lisa's blog -- //blog.lisacall.com/2012/02/the-secret-to-committing-to-a-series/

Therapy Strips, Thanks to Rayna

Rayna Gillman's new(ish) book, Create your own Free-Form Quilts, has inspired me to try my very first all-pieced art quilt. Yay, Rayna. For an art quilter who has come to textile work from the art not the quilt world, this is a big and scary step for me.

But, thanks to Rayna, I now know: The 1/4" seam rule is not so set in stone. Sometimes crooked is good. A piece is a piece is a piece and it can always be cut and pieced again. 

That's just the start. Here are my "therapy strips" waiting to become something else. I also actually have a nice set of pomegranite "blocks" put together and am trying to decide if they are done or need to become my own version of a 9-patch. (And, they are very therapeutic, just the thing for me to do when I need studio time, but don't know exactly what to work on next -- or ever again).

 

Hurray for writers who take us out of our fears. Thanks, Rayna.

Textile/Art/Intensity/Focus

Trolling around, I found some wonderful textile art on the Internet today. I'm teaching a course at the Southwest School of Art the next couple of months -- Finding Your Path as an Artist -- and it's keeping me on my toes, looking for resources, finding interesting examples of artists' styles and series, and working with artists who work in a variety of media. However, these two (three) are working in cloth, in different ways, but with clarity, focus and commitment -- just what I am trying for in the studio.

First, A Bee, a collaboration - or collective, as they call themselves -- of two artists who work large, bold and beautifully: http://www.abeecd.com/index.html

And the artist who took me to them (a post on her blog about their exhibit at the San Jose Museum): Terry Jarrard-Dimond. Terry's is a name I had heard before -- I think we've even met here and there-- but somehow I had never before focused in on her stunning, disciplined, structural work. http://www.terryjarrarddimond.com/

Fiberart for a Cause, coming 2/15

FYI and fabulous art, too.

Foto/Fiber 2012
90 Photos AND 90 Fiber BONUSES 

Gold Donor Day - February 15, 2012
Make a minimum donation of $100, choose a photo by 
Virginia A. Spiegel, Karen Stiehl Osborn, or Cynthia Wenslow
and choose a Fiber BONUS by a specific artist
from the following list of fiber artists.

Regular Foto/Fiber - February 16, 2012
Make a minimum donation of $50 and choose a photo by 
Virginia A. Spiegel, Karen Stiehl Osborn, or Cynthia Wenslow.
Your Fiber BONUS will be chosen at random for you
from the following list of generous fiber artists.

Artists donating Fiber BONUS include: Natalya Aikens, 
Frances Holliday Alford, Pamela Allen, Liz Berg, Sue Bleiweiss, Nancy G. Cook, Jane Davila, Vivika DeNegre, Diane Rusin Doran, Jane Dunnewold, Jamie Fingal, 
Leonie Hartley Hoover, Leslie Tucker Jenison, Lyric Kinard, Susan Brubaker Knapp, Lynn Krawzcyk, Jane LaFazio, Susan Lenz, Jeanelle McCall
Linda Teddlie Minton, Karen Musgrave, Gail Myrhorodsky
Karen Stiehl Osborn, BJ Parady, Cate Coulacos Prato, Yvonne Porcella
Wen Redmond, Sue Reno, Lesley Riley, Cynthia St. Charles,
Susan Schrott, Suzanne Silk, Lura Schwarz Smith (with Kerby C. Smith),
Sarah Ann Smith, and Terri Stegmiller

Drawings for Fiber Art throughout the event.
All patrons of Foto/Fiber 2012 will also have multiple chances throughout Foto/Fiber to win fiber art donated by:

Leonie Hartley Hoover
Lyric Kinard
Lynn Krawczyk
Yvonne Porcella
Susan Schrott
Mary Ann Van Soest

More information on how Foto/Fiber 2012 works:
http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/FotoFiberHowItWorks.html

Our goal – Raise $7,000 for the American Cancer Society

Fiberart For A Cause has already donated over $215,000 to the American Cancer Society through the generosity of fiber artists and their patrons.
Contact
Virginia(at)VirginiaSpiegel.com
for more information.