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.

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.

Soft Sculpture

Recently I've been researching soft sculpture. Searching the internet I found the work of Yuko Takada Keller a Japanese artist working in tracing paper. You can see more on her website.

I can't imagine how she hangs these sculptures, but they're beautiful. I love how light and airy they are.

She writes "Prismatic"is the second work that I installed 3-dimensionally. It is one of my favorite works. It is composed of 7,500 pyramids. The theme of "Prismatic" is a shower of light that I felt in nature. "Prismatic" was traveling in U.K. in 1991 and in Canada from 1993 to 1995."

"Reflection" 1990

I recently stumbled upon the work of Joan Livingstone. Here are some of her pieces in industrial felt and epoxy resin. I love her forms because they relate to nature, even though they're abstract. You can see more on her website.

Sometimes I'm scared to venture into new territory in my own work but then I say what's life like if you're not a little scared? Boring!