Happy 100th Birthday, Newport Art Museum

As part of the festivities, the Newport Art Museum is hosting a very special  “Members’ Juried Exhibition.”

For just this year, because it’s the Centennial, all 329 works submitted were accepted for exhibition!

The three jurors have each chosen a group of awards, which are being announced on 3 different dates.

I attended the gallery talk yesterday, where award winners and any other artists in attendance were invited to talk about their work.

I told the group that my mission in life is to make sure everyone knows that Tapestry, despite the New York Times’ description of it as a dead art form, is very much alive.

Here is my small tapestry, “Turning from Chaos,”  on the left.

This is the one that was chosen for Small Tapestry International: Passages, and traveled to Taos, NM, Tacoma, WA and Glen Ellen, VA  in 2011.

 

The other works in the show include many in the traditional media: painting, watercolor, printmaking, photography, and drawing.

In addition there is one punch hooked rug, and works made of ceramic, tin, wood, steel, bronze, glass, a log, salvaged graffiti, dolls, bark, alabaster, rose stems with thorns, found objects, concrete, electronics, steel cabling, “fiber,” cast paper, copper, gold leaf, crystal,  insulation foam, marble, horse tail, and even “Marine Algae harvested from Rhode Island coastal waters!”

 

Wow! Two galleries, plus the entryway, are completely covered with art work, quite an accomplishment by the museum staff who put it all together.

Visitors were encouraged to vote for their favorite piece, kind of overwhelming….but the one that really spoke to me was a small oil painting by Libby Manchester Gilpatric, “Beets and Beds.” I wrote it down on the ballot, then when I got home I found it in my pocket. Oops! Forgot to put it in the box and forgot to photograph it, but you can see it here.

 

Federico Santi’s color changing crystal and electronic “Urchin,”  was a lot of fun to watch.

It appeals to my inner child who loves everything colorful and sparkly.

 

Here are just three of the many colors this urchin wears…..don’t you love the reflections in the black pedestal?

 

If you’re in the area, come to the Museum on March 30, 5-7, for the announcement of the third round of awards. 

Where’s the Weather?

When I started my 2012 Tapestry Diary, I decided that in February, I would weave the weather. I planned to use white as the background, then weave whatever the weather was doing each day, be it snowflakes, freezing rain or a blizzard.

Unfortunately for the Diary, weather seems to have deserted us. Every day is either sunny or overcast, but hardly a drop of rain or a flake of snow. There was one windy day, but I didn’t think about weaving the wind.

When there’s no snow on the ground, February in New England is very brown. I know, the winter colors can be beautiful, so many soft and quiet shades of green, yellow and peach; but right now all I’m seeing is brown, and I’m tired of it…..

I am more cheerful and energetic in the winter if there is snow, I think because it reflects so much light. Perhaps I have SAD.

I shouldn’t complain, as it’s been much more comfortable, and pleasant for outdoor activities, than the typical February. I have been able to walk almost every day.

Perhaps the reason I was expecting weather, and a white back-ground, is that last year we had a record breaking amount of snow in January and February.  81 inches if I remember correctly. It was very inconvenient, but SO beautiful!

So I’ve had to be creative, mostly just keeping it simple and weaving stripes, spots, or color blends.

 

One day I wove stars, as I was weaving at night. Another day, I wove rays of sun, white winter sun. 

Here is the one brief snow shower. 

The previous day I wove the full moon rising.

Now that the month is half over, I’m looking forward to March. I haven’t decided what I will do in March, but I know I will NOT be weaving the weather!

Such an Honor…

…to have my tapestry accepted in the American Tapestry Biennial 9. The exhibit will run from October 19 – December 16, 2012, at the Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio. The Dairy Barn is host to the renowned Quilt National.

I hope to attend the opening reception, but it’s a little too soon to make definite plans.

I like to think that visitors to ATB9 will be seeing my tapestry for the first time, so I will only show you this little detail. Enough to see that there is text, cursive text….remind me not to do that again!

It’s part of the Chaos series, and the title is “On the Edge of Chaos.” You can see the rest of the series on a previous blog post here.

For a list of all the artists, and a few images, check the American Tapestry Alliance website.

One Week Down only 51 to Go!

Here’s the first week of my 2012 tapestry diary. For the first month I plan to keep it simple, play around with colors, yarns, patterns etc.

I’ve been thinking about making bluish halos around the black and white images in my tapestries, so I’ll explore how that might work.

 

Technorati Tags: Tapestry Weaving,Contemporary Tapestry

Tapestry Diary Links

Since so many people have been asking me  about the Tapestry Diary, here are some links from previous blog posts.

There are some other short mentions of the diary in other blog posts from 2010, but these are the ones with the most information.

Basic Plan: 14 inches wide, the finished piece is more than close to 5 feet long. I wove a small parallelogram every day, about 1 inch tall and 1.5-2inches wide. They started out abstract but soon I began including text and sometimes small images for special days. I used the diary to experiment with techniques, textures, colors and shapes. Every month had a color scheme.

If I was away made up the days when I got home, sometimes weaving an entire week as one entry.

I kept it spontaneous, and rarely thought about what I would do until I was sitting at the loom. I kept a small sketchbook next to the loom and occasionally I did a small sketch first.

January 2010 – Starting to weave the days

February 2010 – 7 weeks in

November 2010 – Nice photos of the fall months

January 2011 – The finished 2010 tapestry diary

September, October, November 2010

Technorati Tags: Tapestry Weaving,Contemporary Tapestry,Tapestry Diary