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ARTIST BOOKS
Fantastical….2022!
I am honored to be participating in FANTASTIC FIBERS, (2022), an international juried exhibition that seeks to showcase a wide range of outstanding works related to the fiber medium. It was a wonderful experience to be a part of FANTASTIC FIBERS 2021, and i very much look forward to seeing (albeit online) all the works in this year’s show!
One of Yeiser Art Center’s most engaging, innovative & colorful international exhibits, Fantastic Fibers is an inspirational must-see for fine artists, quilters and textile art enthusiasts across the globe. The exhibition is comprised of contemporary and innovative works created with fiber as the primary medium or concept
The show began in 1987 as a wearable art show but has evolved over the years to include a compelling mix of traditional and non-traditional works created from natural or synthetic fibers, and work that addresses the subject or medium of fiber.
View a video of the show here!
JUROR: Matt Collinsworth
Matt Collinsworth became the new CEO of the National Quilt Museum during the summer of 2021. Matt attended Georgetown College in central Kentucky and received his MFA from Ohio State. He has been directing nonprofit organizations since 1998 and museum’s and other cultural organizations since 2003. Matt has served as Director of the Kentucky Folk Art Center, Senior Director of Cultural Outreach at Morehead State University, Interim Director of the Lexington Art League, and Director of the National Music Museum. Matt has curated and co-curated dozens of exhibitions that have appeared at museums and galleries across the country, including national and international traveling shows. He also produced numerous major exhibition catalogs, overseen large cultural events, and led several facility renovation projects. Matt lives in Paducah’s Lowertown Arts District with his wife, Kelly, his son, Eli, and (when she’s home from college) his daughter, Brynn.
I am especially thrilled to be showing “Excavation of the Interior”, a work completed in 2021, made of wood, mulberry paper, watercolor paper, muslin, canvas, hemp cord and linen thread.
Artist Amy Usdin photographs the show!
Exterior/Closed
Interior/Open
Interior/Detail
Exterior/Closed
Exterior/Spine-Back
2021 Los Angeles Open at TAG
TAG Gallery Proudly Presented
The 2021 Los Angeles Open,
May 11 — June 5
This year, TAG celebrated local area artists with a dedicated showcase from May 11-June 5 in our Sky Gallery in the upstairs loft at TAG.
I was honored to be included.
Participating artists included:
Mariko Bird, Milan DelVecchio, L. Aviva Diamond, Debra Disman, David Emmett, Taz Essa, Pat Shafer Falkner, Tony Gangitano, Daniela Garcia, Kyoung Han, Andy Hann, Gina Herrera, Tom Lasley, Nancy Goodman Lawrence, Monica Marks, J.D. Mathes, Nelson Munares, Vojislav Radovanovic, Brian Reynolds, Emily Sunez, & Michael Usher.
Each artist had 48 inches of linear wall space to highlight their work. In a novel concept, artists collaborate with TAG’s in-house team of artist curators and staff to build each display.
Textile, fiber, zipper string
“Steppin'”, “Facing Darkness”, “White Zip” on wall, and “BedTime Story” (on pedestal).
“Ellipse” with the work of L. Aviva Diamond.
Making Journals at the Granada Hills Branch Library
It was a pleasure to lead a “journal-making” workshop/program at the Granada Hills Branch Library as part of my Artist Residency there, supported by the wonderful Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
Who knew creating a journal, traditionally a place to record daily thoughts, ideas, activities, fears, concerns, dreams and wishes would be so salient?
Families joined together to learn how to fold a “signature” (gathering of folded pages),
glue cover and spine boards to white-prepped canvas to create the book structure and “house” the pages,
then sew the signature into the book through the spine using durable, earthy hemp cord.
Having exerted this labor to create their book structure, participants had the glorious pleasure of developing and embellishing their journals with decorative papers, washi tape, markers, beads, and other collage materials. The canvas book covering, functioning as a book cloth is a wonderful surface for painting, stamping, printmaking, stenciling and any other wet or dry media.
May journaling help all and any through this very difficult time we are in.
Journal on!
Feeding our Souls: Making Recipe Books at the Granada Hills Branch Library
From the Outside In: Artist Residency Culmination at the Sunland-Tujunga Library
I have been honored to be an Artist-in-Residence at the Sunland-Tujunga Library, supported by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, conducting a series of bookmaking workshops for the community. As part of this Residency, I conducted two workshops at Verdugo Hills High School, for Freshman VAPA (Visual and Performing Arts Magnet) students.
I taught the fun and fascinating flag book structure, and the stellar English VAPA teacher Mrs. Leserman worked with the students in class between the workshops to develop their books.
To connect the project with her VAPA English Curriculum which included the study of J.D. Salinger‘s Catcher in the Rye, she had the students develop the outsides of their books to reflect the ways they felt they were being seen, and how they wanted to be seen by the outside world, and then directed them to develop the inside flag pages to express how they actually felt on the inside.
On February 15th, we held a Residency Culmination event at the Library, featuring the VAPA students OUTSIDE-INSIDE flag books. Viewers were intrigued and moved to see these revelatory books, which shared so much about their makers. Expressive, brave, unique,m beautiful, these works offer a glimpse into what it is to be a freshman in High School today.
Bravo.
Indeed.