Fantastic to see retrospective exhibition of the stunning artist Faith Ringgold, at the De Young Museum.
Fiber Art
Inspired by the Story Quilts of Faith Ringgold
Keeping the FAITH through “Story Quilting”!
I am thrilled to be teaching MAKING ART INSPIRED BY GREAT ARTISTS at Grant and McKinley Elementary Schools in the Santa Monica Public School System through the CREST Enrichment program.
After a span of two years, teaching live and in-person is exciting and energizing. The students are enthusiastic, helpful and creative and IMAGINATIVE and the parents and staff supportive and engaged.
Everyone is working together to make in-person teaching a safe and rewarding experience. Despite the challenges and great energy required, what fun to see these young artists exercise their imaginations, play, learn and create!
Students responded positively to our “Story Quilt” project, inspired by the Great Artist, Faith Ringgold.
Put cloth in their hands, and away they go!
Joyous play and exploration of fabric, cloth scrap, felt (actually made of acrylic- durable!) and tacky glue!
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
Material III at the D’Art Center
I am thrilled to be showing in MATERIAL III at the D’Art Center, “an exhibition of original fiber artworks from across the country highlighting the quality and variety of artworks utilizing fiber as a major component, including non-functional, 2D, 3D, fine art, and fine craft in fiber including mixed media works, in a variety of styles, co-curated by gallery manager Amanda Bradley and exhibition juror, Ryan Lytle.”
Kudos to Amanda for hanging my piece, “Before the Fall” in such a great way!
I am honored to be honorably mentioned!
Congratulations to our award winners:
Honorable Mentions
Debra Disman from Los Angeles, CA for her fiber art sculptural book, Before the Fall.
Statement: Inspired by the book, my work has evolved into a focused material exploration driven by a visceral relationship with cloth, thread, cord and string. I engage the actions of folding, stitching, tearing, cutting and gluing in a continual effort to build and create, tear and break down, heal and repair, as a way of navigating the tension of opposites. While referencing the book as structure, the work has moved progressively into other conceptual realms where devotion to material labor and a passion for the haptic become powerful motivators and themes.
Debra Disman from Los Angeles, CA for her fiber art sculptural book, Before the Fall.
Statement: Inspired by the book, my work has evolved into a focused material exploration driven by a visceral relationship with cloth, thread, cord and string. I engage the actions of folding, stitching, tearing, cutting and gluing in a continual effort to build and create, tear and break down, heal and repair, as a way of navigating the tension of opposites. While referencing the book as structure, the work has moved progressively into other conceptual realms where devotion to material labor and a passion for the haptic become powerful motivators and themes.
See the Live, In-Person AWARDS EVENT HERE!
Tricksters and Transformation…What could be better?
There’s a cool new show in town, transforming not through trickery, but with an Open Heart, and wondrous “soft” materials.
“Textiles have the universally demonstrated capacity for holding meaning, establishing connections, and creating healing. As we emerge, on many levels, from the darkness into the light of awareness of isolation and injustice we have an opportunity and obligation to examine the status quo. This exhibition will allow the artist to step into the now and make work that opens doors within themselves, thereby acting as a portal to a collective resurgence into a renewed relationship with the world. This awakening inspires transformation.
There is a deep potential for the artist to act as trickster, agent of change, or boundary crosser. After the pandemic and the social upheaval of the past eighteen months, the artist has gained renewed agency for creating more enlightened definitions of meaning and new ways of seeing.
The pandemic can be a portal, serving as a provocation to transformation.”
I am honored to be showing “Torrent and Tangle: Keep Your House In Order”, in a new, open configuration!
This work begs the question: with all the torrent and inevitable tangle, how DO we “keep our house in order” or keep our house at all?
Also a play on “keeping house” a sort of 1950’s housewifery term to my mind, , which eerily reverbs with the growing rate of homelessness across LA Counbty, the US and the globe.
In the words of revered and beloved LA-based artist Kim Abeles:
“I followed the thread like a stream to find balance.
Textile Arts Los Angeles has presented a rich exhibit juried by Carol Shaw-Sutton at the Helms Bakery space in Culver City. “Tricksters & Transformation” is the show, an artist-in-residency with Carmen Mardonez, and a zoom presentation with Beverly Naidus who provided an inspiring history of some of her many audience-engaged artworks.
It was tempting to photograph every piece because the exhibition is divine with art that offers detail and a tactile emotion. Speaking with hands and care. The title comes in part because of the multiple ways that the artists transform the materials, including post-production remnants and those that would have gone overlooked except for the poetics of art.
And here is a link to the show details: https://textileartsla.org/tricksters-exhibit-1”
Join us for the
ARTISTS’ RECEPTION: TRICKSTERS & TRANSFORMATION
Helms Design Center
8745 Washington Blvd. Studio E
Culver City, CA 90232 United States + Google Map
Website:https://textileartsla.org/tricksters-exhibit-1