GoggleWorks Opening

A funny thing happened at the GoggleWorks opening on Friday night. My friend Marilyn and I decided to go to the opening since it might be our only chance to see the other work. Great turnout, great work.

I was really interested in meeting Lyn Godley, one of the jurors. She's an amazing artist and designer of interiors, product, furniture, lighting, and jewelry. She does work with fiber optic lights that you can see in the images from her show at the GoggleWorks here.

I was actually standing next to her and chatting her up about my piece when they started to announce the awards. She tapped me and said "Aren't you getting one of these?" When she saw I had no idea what she was talking about she back peddled and said "Well I put my vote in but I don't really know what they decided." 3rd place was announced, then 2nd, then 1st and I thought oh I guess I'm not getting an award. I saw that Lauralynn wasn't leaving the podium and there was one more award and she said something about this person is winning because of the 3 pieces she has in the show and then I knew. I won Best in Show and the award is a solo show, March 9 - April 14, 2013 in the Cohen Gallery which is a massive section of the first floor gallery space. I went up to get my award and turned around to find people snapping pictures of me. A reporter and photographer from the local paper the Reading Eagle were there and asked to interview me for an upcoming article. I really didn't see this coming and was in complete shock.

The funny part is I had some postcards of my paintings that I whipped out to show Lyn and Laralynn. They didn't even know I painted and said they can't wait to see my show. I can't wait to get to work.

Installing Sculpture

I installed my fiber sculpture, The Ocean's Whisper to Me at the GoggleWorks in Reading, Pa. I want to thank Lauralynn for her help and for allowing me to pick the very best spot in the gallery to hang my large piece. I was concerned that it would only look good from the front since that's how I had worked on it in my studio so I chose a spot in front of a wall.

I worked out a new hanging system with curtain rods and felted magnets with fishing line sewn to them. After I arranged and rearranged it in my studio I numbered and color coded the magnets and their placement on the rods. I'm so glad I did all this because I wasn't allowed to get up on a ladder in the gallery. I worked with a very patient gallery helper on the ladder. Handing each numbered magnet to him, he placed it to the corresponding number on the rod. It went up easily and quickly.

Lauralynn loved it and said let's see how it looks without the wall behind it. The walls in the gallery are moveable and viola. We liked it from every angle. This was an unexpected bonus so I took some pictures right before my camera battery went dead.

The opening is on Friday, May 4, 5:30 - 7:30. I can't wait to see the rest of the show. The show runs through June 3rd.

GoggleWorks Center for the Arts

I will have 3 silk sculptures at GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, in Reading PA
in the show VANITY FARE: Art inspired by Fashion.

May 4-June 3, 2012 | Cohen Gallery

Opening Reception: First Friday | May 4 | 5:30-7:30pm

Fashion has woven its way into the fabric of our culture. Following in the footsteps of Philadelphia Museum of Art´s Summer 2011 Roberto Capucci exhibit and the Metropolitan Museum of Art´s posthumous Alexander McQueen exhibit, GoggleWorks presents its 2012 juried exhibition VANITY FARE: ART Inspired by FASHION. This show features 80+ works by more than 40 artists and includes painting, sculpture, fiber art, couture, decor and installations.

Jurors: Lyn Godley, pioneer in transforming fine art
designs into everyday products, and Pam Ptak of
Season 7 of Project Runway.

My friend Marilyn Mitchell will be joining me with her beautiful sculptural piece pictured here.

Natural Rhythm

FiberPhiladelphia

FiberPhiladelphia 2012 is an international biennial and regional festival that celebrates textile and fiber arts. The opening was on Saturday and I was kicking myself that I didn't bring my camera. The show is outstanding. I was unsuccessful in grabbing photos from the website so you'll have to follow the link and see for yourself Outside/Inside the Box

My husband snapped this picture of my daughter and her friend standing next to my piece.

Sea Foam, silk and dye

If you're local it's worth seeing in person. Pictures can be deceiving some things I thought were large are actually small and others are surprisingly large and commanding. I think there's something for everyone to love in this show. Fiber art is alive and kicking and it's not your Grandma's knitting.


If you go don't miss stopping in on Warren and R.J. at bahdeebahdu a working studio for design and the development of art, sculpture and furnishings at 1522 N. American St. I featured on my blog here. You will find beautiful art, beautiful furnishings, and amazing trash to treasure light fixtures and sculptures. It's only a block away from the Crane Arts Building.

Raindrops

It's Spring which means rain, rain, rain. I've been working on my silk raindrops and have 8 finished.

I hope I can at least double the number of raindrops in time for my July show in the Mezzanine Gallery, Wilmington, DE. I still have to figure out the logistics of hanging them but I have some ideas.

Rain is good for the trees and this beautiful magnolia tree provided gorgeous spring color to brighten the past few days.

This tree is right in my front yard and smells good too.

Happy Spring!

My Opening in Arden

Thanks to everyone that made it out to my opening at the Buzz Ware Village Center in Arden this past Friday evening. It was nice to see so many neighbors and friends and meet some new people as well. It was a great turnout and I received really nice comments about the work. Here's how it looked minus one corner I didn't get a picture of.

I know it's not quite the same as seeing it in person.

My next show is in Wilmington at the Carvel State Office Building at 820 N. French Street in the Delaware Division of the Arts, Mezzanine Gallery for the month of July. The opening is July 8th, 5-8 p m. This is the second Friday due to the 4th of July weekend.

Art on the Town Opening

I will be at the Buzz Ware Village Center in Arden, DE for the April 1st, Art on the Town opening. If you're a local friend, you are invited to stop by. I am planning to show a sampling of works in different mediums. Here's what I wrote for the brochure, so now I must deliver.

"Linda Celestian’s work although abstract is unmistakably inspired by nature. She explores many mediums and has chosen to show works in colored inks, oil paint, encaustic and fiber next to each other the way you might find them in her studio. Come out to meet her and learn how working in more than one medium aids in her to ability to express her feelings about the beauty of nature."

The work I posted paired together for the Duets show application inspired the idea for this show. I might even get some of my photos printed to have on hand. The idea is to present some work together that I'll probably never show together in a gallery setting but will highlight how I work. A photograph taken on vacation might inspire a painting which in turn inspires a sculpture, which inspires me to photograph something I find in nature that reminds me of the painting and so on. In the end it's hard to tell what came first and doesn't even matter. It's easy to see that it all came from me or so I think.

Here's a video interview done by my friend David Nordheimer at the installation of my February show, I'm talking about my inspiration and my technique in oil paint. It's preceded by an infomercial about Wilmington's Art on the Town:

Silk Organza Soft Sculpture

Linda Hutchins is an artist that makes beautiful hand sewn organza sculptures.

Memory of the Dance

Cord

Egg, Cup, Hammer

Jade Plant

Here's an excerpt from her website: Over time, I have distilled my materials and methods to a spare, minimal aesthetic. I use hand-sewn organza to explore the effects of cumulative process in three dimensions. I use hand-drawn line as a basic element to reveal the nature of repetition itself. Dualities between full and empty, convex and concave, right and left, and sensual and cerebral have surfaced as a result. Line is the device that recurs throughout. It is a connector, a separator, a marker of boundaries, a spiraling circularity, and a thread that prevails.

Although her thought process is different from mine I admire the patience that goes into her work. This is a piece I made over a year ago that I'm in the process of trying to duplicate. Every step in the making of it has to be approached slowly and methodically. The process is very meditative, which is nice.

Rain Drop

There's one week left to catch my show Waterways at the DCCA in Wilmington.

Duets Dilemma

I've been trying to choose a duet for my application for the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, Annual Members' Juried Exhibition: Duets

The call for entry reads:
Artists are invited to submit paired works of art in order to create duets. The two works by each artist may be in any media. One work may be a video, and the other a painting—or a photo and an etching—or both may be sculptures, or textiles, or drawings, or whatever else is appropriate. The two works may be serial (think Monet’s haystacks) or completely unrelated. Here, the artist acts as a curator of his or her own work. By pairing works in duets, the artist has the opportunity to call greater attention to an aspect of his or her practice, or an element of the work, such as color, scale, subject, medium, and so on. The exhibition that will result from the submissions will be an exhibition of duets. Some works may harmonize, others may offer a radical or unexpected juxtaposition. In all instances, the hope is that the presentation of works in pairs by individual artists will offer the viewer a focused and dynamic engagement with the work. Please do not title the duet. Each work should have its own title and the viewer will make the connection between the two works visually.

I have a lot of options but found out I can only submit one. Here's a few I'm considering.

Duet #1

Bottom of the Ocean, oil on canvas, 48 x 46 inches, and Bubbles, 12 x 12 x 5 inches, silk, dye and nylon thread

Duet #2

Golden, Oil on canvas, 48 x 46 inches, and Sickening, Ink on Paper, 5 x 5 inches

Duet #3

Surf, Encaustic on Board, 9 x 12 inches, and Froth, Silk and dye, 7 x 12 inches

Duet #4

Feeling Blue, Ink on paper, 7 x 11 inches, and Go With the Flow, Silk, dye, wool and nylon thread, 15 x 17 inches

Duet #5.

Ocean View, Silk, wool, dye and nylon thread, 5 x 7 inches and Ocean, Ink on paper, 7 x 11 inches

These are only some of my choices, so you can see my dilemma. How am I suppose to chose just one? Comments welcome.

Crash, Hush... Exhibition

There's still time to see my new work in person at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts. The show continues through June 27th in the Elizabeth Denison Hatch Gallery. Here's an installation shot taken by my talented friend Carson Zullinger, an amazing photographer.

There's a favorable review of the show on The Hunt Magazine website.

I experienced the post show blues for a few days after the opening. This is a completely normal let down after the final push of installing a show and everything that goes into promoting it. Even though I should expect this mood swing, it was difficult especially with everything else I had going on with my kids. I cleaned my studio for the opening so I took a few photos before it inevitable returns to it's normal chaotic, working state. "Where did I put the hammer I was just using?"

Inspiration, fiber work and encaustic paintings.

Fiber pieces, encaustic paintings and silk remnants.

I've accomplished quite a bit since September and should feel proud of it but I'm never comfortable to sit back and relax. On Sunday I experienced some severe nerve pain in my neck that sent me to the urgent care medical center. I guess that was my body saying "slow down". I'm busy ordering supplies and planning projects for my summer job as an art director at a camp that starts on Saturday. Meanwhile I'm still plotting how to get one more painting finished before my summer deadlines. I guess "slow down" just isn't in my vocabulary.