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.

Whistle, 48 x 48 inches, oil on canvas, ©2010 Amy Metier.

Palimpsest

Amy Metier at William Havu Gallery through April 10, 2010

1040 Cherokee St.
Denver, Colorado

In her third solo exhibition at the William Havu Gallery, Metier fills the space with exuberant abstractions of objects from her studio, other artist’s studios and recent travels. These shapes are drawn with fluid, gestural lines, wiped away or partially painted over, and redrawn again, inviting the viewer to engage in the painting.¹

I was excited to see this show last week, because Amy is a professor at Metro, and she was the instructor for 3 out of the 5 painting classes I took there. She’s been exhibiting her work nationally and internationally since the mid-1980s, but is especially well known and loved in the Denver area. This is her third solo at Havu. I had seen some of her work in person, and more of it online and in Colorado Abstract, a book by local art critics Michael Paglia and Mary Voelz Chandler published last year. So I was interested to see the new work, some of which is done in new, more muted color palettes. I admire Amy’s fearless approach to painting, with free-spirited brushstrokes which give each piece a lively energy and a sense of rhythm. Placement of colors and shapes seems random, yet logical in the sense that balance is achieved in an organic way. Expressive linework animates the compositions and ties them together.

On Saturday, 60 x 60 inches, oil on canvas, ©2010 Amy Metier

Amy sometimes uses a photo as a starting point, but it’s difficult or impossible to tell what the subject was originally, leaving the viewer free to make a personal interpretation and connection with the work. As many abstract painters do, she maintains a balance between chaos and harmony, and the unexpected color combinations keep the work fresh and exciting.

In the Studio, 72 x 48 inches, oil on canvas, ©2010 Amy Metier

Metier is fully engaged in the push and pull between the representational and the way in which a shape informs abstraction. Her paintings, studies, and works on paper demonstrate an ease in resolving what she has called “that tension between wanting to create an image and not wanting to create an image.”²

The William Havu Gallery is a beautiful space, especially in the late afternoon with the warm golden glow of the sun illuminating the paintings.

Amy also does lovely monotypes and linocuts. I wasn’t able to get any good photos because of the reflections from the glass, but here’s an overall shot of selections from her Harrison Suite, linocut with chine collé.

You can see more of Amy Metier’s work here and here.

¹from William Havu Gallery’s literature

²Colorado Abstract (214)