Arrowmont

Some of you are most likely familiar with Arrowmont. For those of you who are not, Arrowmont is a wonderful craft and art learning center in Gatlinburg, Eastern Tennessee. You can find out a bit more about their programs by visiting the website: http://www.arrowmont.org/.
It seems that at this point the existence of the school is threatened by commercial developments of the land it now occupies. Please read the following message and visit the links included in that message. If you can, sign the on-line petition. I understand that nothing has been decided yet but I think it is never too early for us to show our support. I should also mention that Arrowcraft, which is one of the galleries representing artists of the Southern Highland Craft Guild and situated next to Arrowmont, is also directly concerned.

"Arrowmont Needs Saving!
Many of you may already have heard that Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts needs our support and help. The Pi Beta Phi Fraternity, specifically the seven person Grand Council, has started negotiations to sell and develop the property they have owned and used for education since 1912. It has been home to the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts since 1968. The developers have a nondisclosure agreement, but it is suspected that they are planning on building some kind of amusement park.
Please sign this petition in support of Arrowmont!
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savearrowmont
Since this news became public in an article in Knoxville News Sentinel on August 16th, many people have come together to organize and do what they can to help Arrowmont and share information. Many outspoken supporters of Arrowmont are Pi Phi members who only learned of this sale through the article in the paper! This blog has a lot of information, links for articles, and posts comments http://savearrowmont.wordpress.com/
The original article in Knoxville News Sentinel with many comments after the article is : http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/aug/16/pi-beta-phi-fraternity-sell-arrowmont-land/
Please go to the blog or articles to read more. There really is too much to say here. This is a very crucial time for Arrowmont and all of its supporters need to come together. "

Trip to England, part 3

Life really gets crazy sometimes and it has taken me this long to finally post part 3 about my trip to England. I taught several workshops at the Festival and had a wonderful time with my students and I hope they did too. I did have a little time to take in a few lectures myself and I listened to Susan Brandeis from the University of North Carolina (strange that I had to go all that way to meet someone from my own state, whose name was quite familiar to me) and I also had a chance to listen to Maggie Gray's talk. I was excited to have the opportunity because I have admired her work for so long and own so many of her books. Both of these speakers were truly excellent and very inspirational. It seems that the use of digital imagery in art, and particularly in fiber art, is really the hot topic of the day. Even though I like designing the old fashion way with a pencil and paper, I think the technology available to us is incredible and well-worth the time and effort it takes to learn how to use it (or at least some of it!). The creative possibilities that scanners, computers and photo editing programs offer are huge and I am fully intending to keep learning and see how what I can create with digital technology will fit into my work.

In the meantime, I purchased Maggie Gray's newest book "From image to stitch". It is filled with ideas and possibilities and very inspirational.

Trip to England, part two

My second stop in England was the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. I was teaching there 2 years ago and decided to go back again because it is really a fabulous show. I had 2 days of visiting before my 2 days of teaching so I had time to look at the quilts and… of course at the vendors. The general exhibit is so well hung, with wide rows on very light carpeting and black backdrop. It really sets off the quilts beautifully particularly since the lighting is quite good. One thing I found rather odd and did not like: each quilt was labeled with its title and its entry number but not the name of the maker. I assume that the goal was to “encourage” visitors to buy the catalogue but I thought it really was stealing each entrant of her/his moment of fame. In my opinion, the name of the maker should be displayed with the quilt even if the statement is kept to the catalogue.
I took a number of photos of my favorite quilts but I will not post them here since I could not request permission from their makers.

The merchants were numerous and very varied. It was possible to purchase just about anything related to quilting, either traditional or contemporary and surface design. I had the surprise to meet again with my friends Margrit and Josef from Hungary. Their business is called Foltvilág KFT. Margrit, a fiber artist and teacher herself, dyes the fabrics and some threads that they sell at shows and they also sell the brand of dye powder they use. Her fabric is cotton but feels like silk. Quite beautiful! You can find them in some major European shows, their next one being the European Patchwork Meeting in Sainte Marie aux Mines (Eastern part of France, close to Germany) in September.

But I think the best feature of the Festival is the group of the galleries showcasing individual artists or special exhibits by various groups. The “galleries” actually have solid walls (probably plywood) painted a very light grey. The signage and lighting are very professional so the quilts really look as if they hung in separate “real” galleries. It is quite impressive. Many of these exhibits were beautiful and very exciting but there is one, which really blew me away: the work of a Swiss artist, Jacqueline Heinz, who now lives in Germany. Her panels are “simple” in composition, usually two or three large areas of fairly solid color (mostly light hand-dyed colors) separated by a thin meandering line of small designs made of wool roving attached to the surface with different quilting than on the rest of the quilt. The large fields of light colors are covered with extremely dense and very interesting and unusual machine quilting, which creates amazing textures. The textures are very obvious because the fabrics are solid. Her elegant quilts brought me a strong sense of balance and peace. It is of course impossible to convey the beauty of these pieces with words and I hope that Jacqueline will soon have a website, where we can see her work.

Trip to England, part one

I am finally getting over jetlag and able to think back about what I saw in England. When I arrived, I went to Wolverhampton, not far from Birmingham, where my friend Janet had arranged for me to talk to her embroidery and quilting groups. The next day Janet took me and another friend to Wightwick Manor. The house, built at the end of the 1800 was meant to look much older.

As you can see from these few pictures, the building itself from outside is an incredible experience as far as lines, textures and proportions are concerned. Inside, the house is decorated in the style of Arts & Crafts Movement and many of the well-known artists from area are represented: wall-papers, rugs and textiles by William Morris, tiles by William de Morgan, stained-glass windows by Charles Kempe. I could go on and on. There are also a number of paintings by members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood such as Gabriel Rosetti, Edward Burne-Jones just to name only these two.

"Love among the ruins" by Edward Burne-Jones

It was such a treat because I am so partial to the Arts & Craft style and seeing the artwork in person was really something else! On any given day, selected rooms are opened to the public and they alternate to preserve them better. The rooms we could see that day had so much history, so much to see that I really wanted to be able to come back and see all the other rooms.
The gardens are also in the Arts& Craft style and very beautiful. The weather was on the cool side and somewhat rainy (which I really enjoyed after the heat-wave and drought that we’ve had in North Carolina this summer) and there again, there was so much color and textures all around that it was difficult to know where to look.

So I am just sharing a few images with you. If you are ever in the Birmingham area in England, make sure you stop by the Wightwick Manor, which is situated 3 miles west of Wolverhampton and part of the National Trust.
And I hope that one of my future pieces will have been inspired by what I saw there.

Musings

I have spent the last few days getting ready for my teaching trip to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England. I am really looking forward to this, both because of the teaching and visiting. I am going first to a town close-by to present a lecture and this will allow me to meet again with a student I had first encountered in France. I hope to see the piece that she started in my class , which had really impressed me. It will also be so nice to see her again and discover what her group does.
The Festival of Quilts is a fabulous event. The exhibits are truly inspirational, there is a huge merchant's mall. But what had most impressed me when I taught there 2 years ago was the personal displays of individual artists or groups: their booths were build with hard walls (plywood) painted a light grey color, so when you entered the booth, you really had the feeling of entering a real gallery. Both signage and lighting were excellent and it did so much to showcase the qualities and originality of each artist and the mission of each group. I can't wait to see the work of artists featured this year.

Of course, because of all that preparation, my work on the new piece has not progressed very much. The piece is in my mind all the time, I think about it, try to solve problems and find creative solutions for them and design the parts that still need to be created. Of course, since this is all in my mind, who knows if it will work when I physically try to implement these ideas. However, that stage, when thoughts become reality, is what I love even though it can also be a very uncomfortable time.

I did take the time to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympic games. All political and economic considerations apart, I was really blown away by the artistry and the combination of art and technology. I thought it was quite magical and almost made me feel that I was entering another world and dimension. One thing though that is at the edge of my consciousness and that I am not sure I can put into words: some of the elements of this production were so powerful because of the sheer number of participants. So where does that leave the individual participant? Doesn't the "person" disappear? Again, I am not sure that I can explain my feelings but there is something here that bothers me slightly.

Back in the studio

It has been a while since I have worked in the studio or been able to post anything but for a few days now, I have been working on a new piece. Once I decide on what style I am going to base a piece, it is so much fun and so interesting to do a bit more research about that particular style: lines, colors, symbols...Not that I am trying to remain perfectly faithful to the elements of that style but they serve as a basis for me to go on and create my own design. For this one, the Taj Mahal is such an incredible building and provides inspiration on so many levels that I decided to base my new "Offerings" piece on art from India. I searched on the Internet and also have been reading Sheila Paine's book "Embroidered Textiles" (I had mentioned it in an earlier post). I have found so much valuable and interesting information, for example on symbolism of colors (red background and the various colors used for the embroidery), of shapes (tree of life, carnation, pomegranate, birds...), all symbols that are relevant to the thoughts I want to express in my piece (and which I will talk about when the piece is further along or finished). So, I dyed the silk/coton fabric and some of the threads (the other threads were hand-dyed by my friend Nancy) and I have embroidered the first little panel (10" x 4 1/2"). And yes, it did take a number of hours. But I am quite pleased so far...except for one detail I am not sure I like: I don't know if the lines symbolizing the tree should remain black (black is one of the colors in my palette) because I feel as they are, they add too much weight to the rest of the embroidery. I will try other colors in the next panel (I don't know which yet). Any idea?