2008 – Page 3 – Deidre Adams

The unbearable lightness of show rejections

Composition VIII, 39 x 39, ©2008 Deidre Adams

Ahh, Quilt National. The Holy Grail of art quilting excellence. The Nirvana to which all we faithful makers of quilted textile art aspire! Its fickle clarion call, beckoning faithfully once every two years, cannot be ignored nor disdained. Each time it comes around, I faithfully put together my entry, being careful to follow all of the rules lest I end up that most pitiable of creatures, the person who gets summarily kicked out in disgrace — what fate could be worse than that? Each time then, I hold my breath, hoping, waiting…

And all but one of those times for the past 5 shows, has come the rejection. No, they say, you are not worthy. Go back and do not darken our door again until you have sweated and slaved and produced a masterpiece from which we do not recoil in horror.

All kidding aside, though, I did receive my rejection notice from QN a couple of weeks ago. And it’s true what they say: the more rejections you get, the easier it becomes to shake it off and move on. Plus, since the initial notice came by e-mail, it really did seem inconsequential to me this time. None of that anticipation as when you pull the envelope out of the mailbox, fingering it carefully, trying to figure out if all the slides you sent them have come back to you.

The piece above, Composition VIII, is one of the works I had entered this year. I feel in my heart that it is without doubt the finest work I have ever made. It expresses precisely and without fuss exactly what it is I am trying to say with my work. (Does that sound amazingly conceited? I was told by someone yesterday that I self-censor way too much, so perhaps that statement is a bit of a passive-aggressive reaction to that idea.) So I say to you, Quilt National, your loss!

Other people that I’ve shown this piece to have had lukewarm reactions to it also, so it’s yet another example of a paradox that I often find in making art. The work that I think is positively my best doesn’t seem so to others, and the things I get the best reactions to are often those that I feel weren’t particularly strong. Does this mean I’m not a good judge of my own work? Perhaps yes, perhaps no. In either case, it’s proof once again that you really need to make work for yourself and not be trying to guess what others might like or what might be sellable.

Possibly another reason why the QN rejection didn’t bother me too much is that during the months of October and November this year, I will be having a solo show at Translations Gallery. This is very exciting news for me, and I’m certainly honored to have this opportunity. The gallery owner and manager have a lot of great ideas for promoting the show, including hiring a professional production company to make a video about my art. There have been two sessions of taping so far, a nerve-wracking experience for me, but they were great at working with me to get through my fears. I can’t wait to see the final result.

I’m busily making some new pieces to go in this show, and I am also getting some of my photography together to include with the exhibit. It’s a lot to pull together in the couple of weeks I have left, but I have some good ideas and lots of energy right now. Fall is always a good time for me.

October 10th, 2008|Career and focus, Exhibitions|18 Comments

Christo & Jeanne-Claude, 12 Voices opening

Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of attending a lecture by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who were here in conjunction with their Prints and Objects exhibition currently on view at the Center for the Visual Arts in Denver. Christo and Jeanne-Claude are legendary for their environmental works done on a massive scale, the most recent of which was the Gates project in New York’s Central Park. I had also gone to the exhibition the day before as part of a class field trip, wondering beforehand what kind of things they did that could possibly be small enough to fit in this venue. It turns out that the items on exhibit are not standalone works of art, but they are preparatory sketches, limited-edition prints, and photographs all relating to their large-scale works.

The lecture consisted of a short screen presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. They showed images of several projects from the research stage, through drawings and sketches of the proposed project, and photos of meetings with local residents and officials in the vicinity of the proposed project. The scope of planning and logistics of these projects is simply mind-boggling. The time frame for a single project can span many years from initial concept to finished work. For example, the web page for The Gates lists the years as 1979-2005, a span of 26 years!

By far the most interesting part of the event was at the end when they took questions from the audience. Jeanne-Claude did most of the talking, and she stressed that everything they do is done from the heart, for the sheer joy and beauty that it gives them personally. The work is not done for others, but if others enjoy it, that’s a bonus. (Something many of us know intuitively that we should also strive for, but it’s often a struggle.)

12 Voices opening

12 Voices exhibition at the Dennos Museum Center

On Sept. 13, I attended the opening reception for 12 Voices, at the Dennos Museum Center in Traverse City, Michigan. The Museum Center is a beautiful venue, and the show was hung with good attention to flow and with plenty of room for each piece to be appreciated on its own as well as in context with its neighbors. Seven of the twelves artists were able to attend: Judith Content (the current SAQA president), Joan Schulze, Ginny Smith, Merle Axelrad Serlin, Kathy Weaver, and Teresa Barkley, and me. (I got to be roommates with Joan and Teresa, and getting to know them was a definite highlight of the trip. More on that later.)

Penny McMorris, the 12 Voices curator, gave a marvelous lecture on the artists and the work in the show. It was wonderful to hear the inside story on these artists (even though I knew a lot of it from working on the catalog) as well as Penny’s own interpretation on the work. I was fascinated to hear what she had to say about my own work, as it provided some insights that I hadn’t thought about but realized were absolutely true.

Nelson Armour, Kathy Weaver’s husband, took some great photos at the opening (thanks, Nelson!). Above is a photo he took of me next to my piece, Composition IV. To the left is Linda Colsh’s Cold Shoulder.

This is Teresa Barkley with me at the reception (photo also by Nelson Armour). The Dennos put on a great spread, with wonderful food and wine, before the lecture. All in all, it was a great trip. I spent a couple extra days there exploring the area; more on that later.

September 24th, 2008|Exhibitions|1 Comment

Where does the time go?

Good intentions out the window. Distractions abound. So many things needing to get done, paralysis sets in. My goal of doing at least one post per week is woefully unfulfilled, but does anyone besides me care? I promised myself I would not use the blog to whine or to navel-gaze, though, so no excuses.

One of the things we try to do every summer is go on a photographic scouting road trip. Due to me taking a summer class, though, and fall semester starting way early this year, a road trip just didn’t happen. But the good news is, I have lots of photos from past trips that I need to do something with. So I’ll start posting some of these on a regular basis.

The above was taken on last year’s trip. The location is in eastern Wyoming, on a 2-lane highway, slightly north of a town called Douglas. The clouds were looking quite photogenic that day. The above image is enhanced in my very favorite toy, Photoshop Lightroom. I recently upgraded to version 2.0; still need to figure out all the great new stuff it does. But in the meantime, you can do some very amazing things to your images, all non-destructively and completely reversible.

Below is the original image:

It’s not horrible, but the clouds look rather flat and the whole thing needs some punch. A few quick tweaks in Lightroom, and the added contrast results in the top image — much more interesting. I love Photoshop, but it does have a steep learning curve and simple editing tasks take a lot longer. For quick editing and amazing organizational capabilities, Lightroom is the way to go.

And you can push it a lot further to get some very creative effects. Here’s an experiment with the parameters taken well beyond “normal” limits:

Other fun activities this week included getting my Quilt National entry in just under the wire (due date Sept. 5), and shipping my work for the 12 Voices show, which opens next week at the Dennos Museum Center in Traverse City. Also, tomorrow is the opening for Threadlines 2008, an exhibit sponsored by Uncommon Threads at the Missouri State University Art & Design Gallery, September 5-29, 2008, co-organized by Pam RuBert and Emmie Seaman. My piece, Chroma Study #2: Blue and Red, will be a part of the exhibition.

September 4th, 2008|Photography|7 Comments