A lovely little gift arrived today

File-May-23-6-18-39-PMCheck out this awesomeness that arrived in today’s mail. This is a catalog of the work currently at the American Embassy in Tirana, Albania. That’s my piece Detour on the cover!

Ambassador Donald Lu & Dr. Ariel Ahart wrote an introduction saying,

[We] are delighted both to welcome you our home but also to introduce you to some of the best of contemporary art from the United States. … In our exhibition you will find the works of American artists that echo some of the themes and materials found in the works of Albanian artists and craftspeople, including modern adaptations of the ancient forms of quilting, embroidery, and glass blowing.

I’m proud to be in the company of these other artists: Lucy Arai, Linda Beach, Lanny Bergner, Karen Kamenetzky, and Matt Seasholtz. I don’t know if the Art In Embassies program produces one of these books for every exhibition, but it was certainly a wonderful surprise!

May 23rd, 2016|Art, Fiber / mixed media|Comments Off on A lovely little gift arrived today

2015 SAQA Benefit Auction starts today!

Adams-_MG_5254-
freedom from the usual authority

12 x 12 inches, ©2015 Deidre Adams. Stitched textile, found papers, acrylic paint.
Hand and machine stitched, hand painted. Mounted on stretched canvas.

The Benefit Auction is the most important annual fundraising event for Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA).  Your purchases help increase the recognition for art quilts and the artists who make them while supporting SAQA’s exhibitions, publications, and education outreach.

View the Quilts

The Auction is run in three sections for 6 days each, with a special section accompanying the International Quilt Festival in Houston.
HOW THE AUCTION WORKS

DIAMOND DAY: ALL Benefit Auction quilts will be available for $1,000 each on September 18 as part of a Diamond Day promotion. This early bidding window will remain in effect until September 21 at 1:30pm EDT.

Each week after Diamond Day, a different set of Auction quilts is available for bidding. The bid price is reduced each day (at 2pm EDT) as follows:

Screen Shot 2015-09-18 at 7.58.49 AM

For more information and to bid, go to the SAQA Benefit Auction site.

With more than 350 artworks to choose from, it’s an embarrassment of riches. You can be sure to find something to delight your senses. Here’s a very tiny selection of the artwork available:

firthOchre Stones 2, ©2015 Dianne Firth
KoolishString Theory, ©2015 Lynn Koolish
landauTrail Ride, ©2015 Jennifer Landau

September 18th, 2015|Art|Comments Off on 2015 SAQA Benefit Auction starts today!

disruption

Adams-Disruption-adisruption, ©2014 Deidre Adams. 55 x 98 inches. Stitched textile, acrylic paint, found papers.

Quilt National 2015 is now officially open! If I have any readers who aren’t familiar with QN, this is the most prestigious exhibition of art quilts in North America (and possibly the world). From the Quilt National website:

Quilt National was intended to demonstrate the transformations taking place in the world of quilting. Its purpose was then, and still is, to carry the definition of quilting far beyond its traditional parameters and to promote quiltmaking as what it always has been — an art form.

The works in a Quilt National exhibit display a reverence for the lessons taught by the makers of the heritage quilts. Many of the works hold fast to the traditional methods of piecing and patching. At the same time, however, the Quilt National artist is intrigued by the challenge of expanding the boundaries of traditional quiltmaking by utilizing the newest materials and technologies. These innovative works generate strong emotional responses in the viewer while at the same time fulfilling the creative need of the artist to make a totally individual statement.

Read more about the history of Quilt National here.

Out of nearly 1,000 entries, only 84 pieces made the cut this year. I’m honored to be among those chosen by jurors Rosalie Dace, Anne Johnston, and Judy Schwender. Because it’s very important that Quilt National be the first to show these innovative new works, they have a very strict rule that no accepted piece can have been published anywhere in print or on the web prior to the show opening. So in order to avoid the heartbreak of disqualification, most of us keep our work under wraps until the opening.

But now it’s safe to do the reveal, so above is my entry, disruption. (Yes, the lack of capitalization is intentional.) Here’s a detail shot:

Adams-Disruption-detail13-disruption, detail

Coming soon: Scenes from the opening reception at the Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio.

May 24th, 2015|Exhibitions|16 Comments