Embroidered Collage

Sunday was definitely a productive meeting of The Fiber Alliance, with seven of us there.  Unfortunately Terri couldn't make it to remind us all to send updated pictures for the website.  I know I'm guilty there...  But it's not the online aspect of the group that's important, but rather the in person part.

I showed my autumnal piece and asked specifically about where the viewers eyes went, since I'd had those doubts about the lighter area.  A couple ladies did look at the trees first, but the rest, who looked at the lighter area first, said that even though they entered the image there, then their eyes moved over to the trees and around the picture.  The spot that disturbed me is actually helping with eye movement!  That came as a pleasant and interesting surprise.

I loved hearing about Sue Andrus's beginnings of success with selling her art full time and how it was shifting her perspective when she didn't have another job to go to and Tina Marie Rey had news of a number of pieces accepted into national quilt shows.  Carol showed us a whole binder full of abstraction drawings for a new project, growing into a series, that she was very excited about and Sue K. brought in a work in progress piece, her fourth following a geometric idea that she had really gotten into.

It's just an encouraging and inspiring group all around and I'm always glad when I go, even though it usually involves a two hour drive. 

The artist directories that I've seen online are global, but Deb Hoeffner also introduced me to a local art web directory called Art Chatter.  It's a neat idea and it looks like it has the structure in place to be a good resource, with artist and gallery listings and areas for articles, news, and even blog-like entries.  I uploaded a couple works and a general introduction.  Since they're sorting artists by first name at the moment, I'm near the top of the list, which is an entertaining novelty!

The web design strikes me as odd.  The top part of the page makes it look like the site is wide-ranging and assisting many art communities.   Unless the designer is planning on this being the first of a network of sites...  I would have thought it would be more effective to put the locality at the beginning.  I'm also not sure the site has been updated much since late fall, based on the calendar items and articles available.  So that's not a good sign, but I'll wait and see how they continue to approach their goal of providing "an artist or gallery with their best online promotion possible."

On Monday night I went to a party to launch the first art directory put together by the Arts and Cultural Council of Bucks County.  I took a business class with them last year and am glad to be a member to support the opportunities in my area.  It was a nice event with appetizers and live music, but it was a little claustrophobic.  If some of us, myself included, had realized there was a third room back there then it would not have been so tight.

I attended with the goal of picking up my directory and meeting some new people in the local arts community.  It was pretty cool to see myself listed as an artist in black and white.  Pushing myself to approach a stranger to start a conversation is still work for me, but I think I did a pretty good job.  I received a few brush-offs, a few short exchanges, and a few longer ones.  Everyone I talked to was related to the visual arts, but there were sponsors and people involved in the performing arts there as well.

I chatted with Robert Seufert, a recognized artist who's been creating oil paintings for forty years.  He and his wife, a watercolor artist, teach and exhibit.  I mentioned how I had been doing this a short time and was still experimenting and he replied with how he was comfortable in his skills and just enjoyed his process. 

Carla Klouda and I exchanged comments about our work and I learned something new - that infrared photography on trees makes interesting white against black designs.  When she used the term I was thinking about the scientific images used for information analysis from college.  She is an art photographer who is also part of a nearby collective gallery.

My most involved conversation of the evening was with Deb Hoeffner, who primarily does illustration in a "soft realism" style.  I was amused when I told her that I had to get over the idea that I had to draw well to be an artists and she replied by sharing that when she was studying art drawing realistically was not considered part of art.

She's only been in the area a few years and asked me if I belonged to any local organizations.  I told her about GNAL and that I'd been to a couple of the Doylestown Art League meetings but that the lack of timely information on their web page just turned me off of that idea.  I just spend so much time online...  She had had the same experience and it was one of the reasons she joined Artsbridge, across the river in New Jersey.  Apparently Deb conducts a great deal of her business and comissions through online channels, but many of the artists she has met are not connected in any way, which still boggles my mind.  She also gave me some information about a site I'll share with you in a few days, when I'm set up on it.

It's nifty to be remembered!  I went down to Conshohocken today and dropped off Snowfall and Kite-Flying in Zandvoort to be shown in the upcoming non-juried exhibit.  Sharon and Karen were taking the pieces in, the same two ladies I met at drop off for last year's Mixed Media Show.  I remembered them and they remembered me.  Both my art and especially that I'd mentioned them in my blog.  That was fun.  :)  And Karen mentioned they'd be having the Mixed Media Show again this year.   I had seen that on McGOPA's website, and I intend to have two new pieces ready to enter into it.

I came in at the same time as a couple other artists.  One guy had two huge painted canvases and the wind kept trying to push them away as we entered the building.  I was afraid he'd lose his balance and drop one!  The artwork already there was mostly paintings, more canvases than frames, and primarily representational or realistic, but I could only see some of what was laid out on the tables.  It will be interesting to see what happens when the show is hung.

I had actually become aware of the Surface Design Association last year, when one of my friends at The Fiber Alliance passed on an issue of their magazine focused on wearable art.  But it didn't click.  This time, we were wandering through Tower Records for their going out of business sale and I grabbed the magazine along with some others. 

I flipped through the issue at home, enjoying the feel of the paper.  The articles were very well done and more in depth than the ones in Fiber Arts.  A book review pointed me towards Diana Springall's Inspired to Stitch: 21 Artists, which I'd like to buy once it travels across the ocean.  I then started again at the beginning of the issue, looking more closely, and I noticed the mission statement on the front page.  And then it clicked.

In their own words, "Surface Design encompasses the coloring, patterning, and structuring of fiber and fabric."  So stitching is included and the art shown on the website even includes some mixed media works.  This is a national fiber arts organization that my work would fit in.  Not perfectly, but close enough to be worthwhile.  EGA (Embroiderer's Guild of America) does support the art side of embroidery, but puts much more effort into the tradition and the craft, as it should.  SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) is for art quilts, and most of the time I just don't make quilts.  I think I'll pull together the money and see where SDA can take me.

The last few days I've been feeling relieved and relaxed.  I actually watched a whole movie on tv without anything in my hands or moving much and I'm not even sick any longer.  Although I have future projects spinning in my head I've been enjoying the respite.  I'm going to be gone for work Tuesday through Friday, without internet access, and I'm taking my sketchbook, a couple atcs to draw on, and someone else's cross-stitch pattern and that's it.  When I get back I have prints to embellish and a small scales to complete and ... and ... and...  I'm looking forward to all those ands but am glad I don't have to do them right now.

I took Dragon Scales to the March meeting of The Fiber Alliance yesterday and it was well received.  I was really glad I'd completed it in time.  The meeting overall was of the "Share and Inspire" plus business.  In April we'll be trying to give critiques instead of ooooos for our element themed pieces and it will be a neat exercise.  I intend to have at least sketches and some exercises of four mini-element pieces plus a large sky piece.  I can't think of one particular highlight of this particular meeting, but it was good, as always, to get together with likeminded friends with art related goals.