2010 – Page 3 – Deidre Adams

Ups and downs

Mining Chaos, 36 x 36 inches, acrylic on panel, ©2010 Deidre Adams

The past week has been a crazy emotional roller coaster, with extreme highs and lows. Briefly, one high was that I received notice that my textile piece Façade VII has been accepted into Quilt National 2011. This is just about the most prestigious juried show there is for art quilters, and it’s a great honor and achievement to be accepted. Readers who’ve been with me for a while will recall that I complained bitterly about being rejected from QN’09.

(Update 10/6/10: Note that the image above isn’t my QN piece. They have a rule that accepted works cannot have been published or shown on a web site other than the artist’s prior to May 2011. So even though this is my web site, I’m not taking any chances of being disqualified. The image shown here is a painting that will be part of the “Urban Beauty” show, details below.)

One very low was learning over the weekend that one of my favorite professors at Metro had passed away most unexpectedly. Eldon (“E.C.”) Cunningham was Professor and Printmaking Coordinator at Metro for many years; he was mostly responsible for building the shop and the department into a respected force in the printmaking world. He ruled the shop with a velvet-gloved iron fist, and while I can still hear him admonishing all of us to do our “shop jobs,” I also learned a great deal from him about being an artist, about developing intent and a strong work ethic. He didn’t suffer fools lightly, but he could find the good in all of his students and their work. He was incredibly generous with his time and knowledge, and he never hesitated to offer individual assistance. Critiques with him were an educational experience in which I learned some things not only about how to talk about art, but also how to deal with egos both overblown and fragile. Dear E.C., you will be missed!

Finally, I have good news about an exhibition. I will be participating in a group show called Urban Beauty at the CWCC Art Gallery. Details:

Oct. 20, 2010 – Jan. 5, 2011

Fall Art Show: Urban Beauty
Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce Art Gallery
1624 Market Street, Denver
Mon-Fri, 8-5

October 5th, 2010|Exhibitions, Painting|3 Comments

“Where I Come From” by Linda Sharp

Where I Come From, 8 x 10 inches, ©2010 Linda Sharp

Yesterday I received this marvelous jewel of an artwork in the mail. It’s my purchase from the SAQA Benefit Auction. I’d had my eye on it from the beginning, and now I’m so thrilled to have it. The photograph doesn’t do it justice; I wish you could see it in person. The spheres are brilliant little half-globes of felt, and the quilting is exquisite, bringing to mind ocean currents or shipping routes. The circular globe shape is dimensional, a raised area surrounded by a narrow strip of felt. Even the back is meticulously finished, with the title done in beautiful lettering, and some intriguingly deconstructed printing hinting at the narrative.

Where I Come From, reverse, ©2010 Linda Sharp

I wanted to know more about the story behind the quilt, so I contacted the artist, Linda Sharp, to ask her about it. Here’s what she said:

“Where I Come From” is a theme that has intrigued me for years.

Being an adoptive child made me wonder about my biological origins and what secrets may be encoded in my DNA waiting to surprise me.
I am reasonably certain now that I am not a lost princess, as childhood dreams dictated. But this is just as well, since it is probably too late for me to learn how to eat at a place setting with six forks and I suspect that even a tiara won’t really help a bad hair day.

As the daughter in an air force family, and the wife of an engineer specializing in rural telecommunications, I have lived in many parts of the world.
Landscapes spoke to me, friendships were made and sometimes wisped away, foods were remembered, but no one place held all the good things.
I could never really answer the question “Where do you Come From?”

The heavy metallic stitching on the quilt represents the complexity of where we belong – the currents of time and travel change us and our needs.
The button is a whimsical ‘belly button’ hinting at the secrets of my birth.
The felted spheres speak to me of many things, molecules, our cells, map markers and planets.
The target is focused on the Oldavai Gorge.

I suppose that the answer is “I have come from everywhere I have been.”

—-

I was especially drawn to this quilt because of the felting, which touched a spark of synchronicity for me. I’ve been interested in the idea of working with felt for several months, and I’ve been doing some research into how to do it, plus I bought some wool this past summer (a story in itself!). Linda has generously shared some of her knowledge with me – did you know that you can use Kool-Aid to dye wool? I certainly didn’t. But I’m going to try it, because really, what could be easier?

I highly recommend a visit to Linda’s web site, Rock, Paper, Stitches. Perusing her categories, you will find that not only does she make quilts and felted art, but it turns out she’s also an accomplished jeweler, teacher, and even a cartoonist! And be sure to look at the Workshops tab, where she shares some of her methods.

There are still some beautiful art quilts available in the auction. Up for bid through Sat., Oct. 2, are the pieces in the 2nd group on pages 2a and 2b. Starting Monday, Oct. 4, bidding starts for the last group, which you can see on pages 3a and 3b.

September 30th, 2010|Interesting Artists|7 Comments

Façade No. VIII

I’ve just finished a new piece in my Façade series. (I’ve posted a couple of others here and here.) This piece was started well over a year ago, but it took me a long time to finish it. Sometimes this happens; I get stuck. I don’t try to force it, I just work on a particular piece until I realize I’m not getting anywhere with it and then I put it away. I bring it out later after I haven’t seen it for awhile, and by then I can see it with fresh eyes and I’m ready to try some new things.

Façade VIII, detail

It took me a while to realize that I am not a linear thinker. I used to try to work on one piece from start to finish, but I found it frustrating and self-defeating. Once I discovered the idea of working on multiple things concurrently, my productivity increased exponentially. When I get stuck on one thing, I just move to the next. I have many textile pieces and paintings all in various stages of completion at any given time, and with things always out on the wall or on the table, I can take advantage of any tiny sliver of time to get a bit of work in. It’s especially handy since a lot of my work involves waiting for paint to dry before I can go further on something. It also seems to suit the way my brain works, which admittedly has changed in the last several years. I blame the Internet.

Façade VIII will be shown in CELEBRATE!, an invitational exhibition curated by Linda Colsh for the National Quilt Museum’s 20th Anniversary next year, along with Façade II.

My first Façade piece was made in 2006. Since then, my thinking about the series has been refined somewhat, and I decided that my artist statement about this work needed to be updated. I view all of my statements as works in progress. Here’s my latest:

In this series, I explore ideas of time and transformation, inspired by the structural elements and seductive surfaces of old buildings and walls. An old wall tells a story, like a canvas upon which both nature and human beings play and leave their marks. Over the course of many years, layers of paint and graffiti are applied, only to be eroded by sun, rain, and wind. The result is a surface rich with texture and color.

I use the textile medium of fabric and stitch to impart a unique texture, both visual and literal, to my work. I want the work to carry a physical reminder of the artist’s presence, a visual diary of sorts. Patterning and design from the base fabrics interact with the stitching and my personal system of painting and mark-making to create a richly layered surface that captures the essence of my original inspiration.

September 28th, 2010|Fiber / mixed media|5 Comments